So... who does God say I am?
- I WAS SEPARATED from God (Col 1:21)
- Separated
- Hateful
- Rebellious
- I AM NOW PERFECT in Jesus Christ (Col 1:22)
- Holy
- Blameless
- Above reproach
- I WILL see PROOF of my faith (Col 1:23)
Five things that are NOT evidences of salvation:
- I HAVE MORALS
- I KNOW HOW TO GET SAVED
- I GO TO CHURCH
- I WORK IN THE CHURCH !
- I FEEL BAD WHEN I SIN
Two evidences of true salvation:
- FRUIT
- PERSEVERANCE
Decision time:
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:01
You have your Bible with you?
00:04-00:08
Alright, well let's open those up to Colossians chapter 1.
00:11-00:14
As we continue our series through the book of Colossians.
00:15-00:19
We're going to pick up in verse 21, but as you're turning there, let me ask you when...
00:21-00:27
Excuse me, when people say, "Who are you?" How do you typically respond to that?
00:28-00:30
Usually with your name, right?
00:31-00:35
"Hi, I'm Jeff." "Nice to meet you, Jeffrey." Except nobody calls me Jeffrey.
00:36-00:39
But beyond that, what about beyond that?
00:41-00:45
People say, "Well, no, who are you?" It's interesting how people respond to that.
00:46-00:51
Some people will identify themselves by a category of their choosing.
00:52-00:56
Right? Like, "Who are you?" A lot of people, it's just by what they do.
00:57-02:12
I'm the manager of so-and-so or you know, I work at this place or I'm you know Doctor this some people identify themselves by what they do for some people. It's their family It's like well, I'm a part of this family right, well Some people may even be where they're from I'm from Shakora. I mean if you know where Shakora is, quick geography test. Okay grow up. Like Shakur, they're like, "Where's that?" It's a little, those stuff like town of the butler. But some people identify themselves by that. Or here's what I typically do. A lot of times I find myself identifying myself based on circumstance. You know what I mean by that? Like for example, when I go to visit somebody at the hospital, I hardly ever even use my name because of the whole HIPAA laws and stuff like that. I'm like, "Oh, I'm here to see, you know, so-and-so." "Who are you? I'm Obama's pastor." "Oh, okay, they roll out the red carpet when I say that." Or down in West Virginia, when we took the trip down with the family, where Aaron's dad has a hunting camp, I don't think I used my name there either.
02:13-02:23
They're like, "Who are you?" I would say, "Well, I'm Joe's son-in-law." When I go up to... there's a couple times I've had to go up to Michael's restaurant where my wife works.
02:23-02:41
They're like, "Who are you?" and I say, "I'm Aaron's husband." Growing up, it was always, "I'm Darren's brother." Or they would just ask if my brother's here, in case she couldn't tell that I'm my brother, or an identical stranger.
02:41-02:49
But sometimes I didn't even have to introduce myself. They're like, "Oh, you must be Darren's brother." So who are you?
02:51-02:56
I was also thinking about this. What do you think other people say when asked about you?
02:58-03:00
You ever wonder that? I try not to wonder that.
03:00-03:11
That if your name comes up in a conversation, like, "Hey, do you know Jay Nauert?" "No, who's Jay Nauert?" "Oh, he's..." Do you wonder what they say next, Jay? Do you ever wonder that?
03:11-03:11
Sure.
03:12-03:13
Well, I'm not going to tell you.
03:13-03:14
But, uh...
03:19-03:25
Well, in the previous section we looked at Colossians 1, verses 15-20.
03:26-03:29
Last week we saw all about who Jesus is, right?
03:29-03:30
Remember that last week?
03:30-03:36
It's all about "Here's who Jesus is." Well, look at verse 21 here.
03:37-03:49
Now Paul says, "And you." He's like, "Okay, we understand about the divinity of Christ and who He is, the head, the firstborn, the preeminent one over all things, the creator, the sustainer.
03:50-03:51
That's who Jesus is.
03:53-03:55
He says, and you.
03:57-04:01
So this morning we're going to answer, who am I?
04:02-04:05
A lot of times when I preach, I give you a little statement that I want you to leave.
04:07-04:11
And if you're new or visiting with us today, I'm gonna let you know how this game works.
04:12-04:16
Typically, I get everybody to say at the beginning of the sermon, and it's said with no conviction.
04:17-04:18
Like, I want you to say this.
04:20-04:23
Remember when we were talking about God's will for the church.
04:23-04:26
What's your will for the church?
04:26-04:28
And I want what God wants.
04:29-04:31
By the end of the sermon, everybody's like, I want what God wants!
04:32-04:33
So we're gonna try that again today, okay?
04:34-04:36
So if I asked you, who are you?
04:37-04:42
Your answer is, I am who God says I am.
04:42-04:43
Okay, so we're going to try that.
04:44-04:47
I want you to muster up as much conviction as you can at this point in the sermon.
04:49-04:52
Because some of you, as usual, don't believe me yet.
04:53-04:54
It usually takes you a half hour.
04:54-04:58
I'm like, "Oh, okay, he didn't just make that up. That was in the Bible." Okay, so who are you?
04:59-05:01
I am a messiah.
05:02-05:04
Not bad. Not bad.
05:05-05:06
Let's see if we're still saying that in a few.
05:07-05:08
Much more conviction.
05:08-05:09
But let me ask you this.
05:09-05:10
Is that a fair statement?
05:12-05:13
It doesn't really matter what I say you are.
05:14-05:16
It really doesn't even matter who you think you are.
05:17-05:23
Can we put that on the table to say what really matters is who your Creator says you are.
05:23-05:23
Can we say that?
05:24-05:25
You think that's fair?
05:26-05:28
What do you think, Abby, is that fair?
05:29-05:30
Okay, Abby says it's fair. I'm going with Abby.
05:31-05:31
I think it's fair.
05:33-05:35
Are you ready to accept what God says about you? That's the issue.
05:36-05:44
You know, we can say, "Well, I don't even know what God says about you." Some of you are going to have a hard time accepting that.
05:46-05:47
For the negative and for the positive.
05:48-05:53
But, again, it's what God says, right?
05:53-05:58
So the question is, if you have your outline in front of you, so who does God say I am?
06:00-06:03
Well, first of all, let's look at the verses, then we'll go back through.
06:04-06:06
We're going to see kind of a past, present, and future thing going here.
06:09-06:29
He says, "And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
06:31-06:48
If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I Paul became a minister.
06:50-06:51
So who are you?
06:54-06:56
Wow, you guys are so much better the first time around.
06:56-06:56
What do you think?
06:57-06:58
You can say another go of it.
06:58-06:59
All right, who are you?
06:59-07:01
I am who God says I am.
07:01-07:04
Okay, well let's see who God says you are.
07:04-07:05
Are you ready? Number one.
07:05-07:13
I was, I was, this is past tense, I was separated from God.
07:14-07:18
Take note there in verse 21, he says who once were.
07:20-07:22
Okay, so he's obviously talking to Christians.
07:24-07:26
We're going to pick this concept up here in a second.
07:26-07:44
But understand that if you have not given your life to Jesus, Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you're not born again, He's not talking about you when He says the "once were" parts. But when He makes the description of what a Christian once was, if you haven't given your life to Christ yet, He's describing you. Right?
07:45-08:01
Everybody follow that? Okay, if you're not a follower of Christ, this is who God says you are. And if you are following Christ, He says this is who you were. So who are we apart from Jesus Christ, well, three things here.
08:01-08:04
I kind of put synonyms in here, but you can see it right in the text.
08:05-08:09
First of all, separated.
08:12-08:21
You know, my Bible says, "who once were alienated." What's he talking about? He's talking about separated from God by sin.
08:24-08:31
Perhaps you've heard me say this before on one of my pet peeves, but people talk about God in a way too familiar way.
08:33-08:35
I call another God as my frat buddy, I think.
08:36-08:37
"He's the big man upstairs.
08:38-08:44
"There, big man upstairs looking out for me." Do you know who you're talking about when you say that?
08:45-08:48
You're talking about holy, sovereign God.
08:48-08:50
He's not your frat buddy, okay?
08:51-08:57
And especially in part for Christ, actually the Bible doesn't say that He's your friend at all.
08:58-09:12
Isaiah 59 verse 2 says, "Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God." The Bible tells us that Adam, because of his transgression, brought sin into the world.
09:12-09:16
Romans chapter 5 says that sin nature is passed down from generation to generation.
09:17-09:23
We're born with a nature separated from God because of sin.
09:25-09:29
The Bible also tells us that the wages of sin is death.
09:32-09:34
So we're alienated from God. We're separated from God.
09:34-09:39
Ephesians chapter 4 actually says we're alienated from the life of God.
09:39-09:40
That's our real problem.
09:41-09:46
It's not like we're separated in the sense that there's a geographical boundary.
09:46-09:51
It's that God is the giver and author of life, and we are dead in our sins.
09:51-09:52
That's the real issue.
09:55-09:57
Separated, alienated from the life of God.
09:58-10:00
I had a friend who used to go to prison with me.
10:02-10:04
For prison ministry, he talked to the guys, and he'd tell a story.
10:05-10:06
I heard it so many times.
10:06-10:15
He talked about how there was a day that he was wanted by the police, and he talked about his life, always on the run, always hiding from the police.
10:16-10:18
Why was he always running and hiding?
10:20-10:21
Well, because he committed a crime.
10:22-10:26
He knew he was guilty. He knew restitution needed to be made.
10:26-10:29
If he knew that he needed to be judged for what he did.
10:31-10:33
That's why he didn't run up and hug every cop that he saw.
10:34-10:35
He could run the other way.
10:36-10:41
Now on a cosmic holy scale, this is how it is between you and God.
10:42-10:43
If you've done good to Jesus Christ.
10:44-10:47
You are guilty. And you do try to avoid it.
10:49-10:51
Because you know you should rightly be judged.
10:53-11:06
And if you remain separated from God, you leave the earth to a place where you're separated from God for eternity.
11:07-11:08
And that's a place called Hell.
11:12-11:15
If there was anything in the Bible that I could wish away, it would be that.
11:16-11:18
But it's just as true as heaven.
11:19-11:22
In fact, Jesus talked about hell twice as much as he talks about heaven.
11:27-11:36
See, some people have been trying to, we're seeing a lot of evangelicals, quote unquote, trying to dismiss the whole doctrine of hell.
11:37-11:40
Like, "Oh, that's just, that's old school thing.
11:40-11:47
God's not really like that." But we're seeing a big resurgence of that in recent years.
11:49-11:51
People struggle with the concept of hell.
11:54-11:56
But I want you to think about it this way.
11:56-12:07
Do you realize in a sense when it comes to our eternal destination, do you realize there's a sense in which It's an act of God's grace by giving you exactly what you want.
12:08-12:09
Let me think about that.
12:10-12:21
If you're a person who wants God's truth, you love God, you love God's people, you love worshipping God, you know God has an eternal place in that. It's called Heaven. You know what's going on in Heaven?
12:22-12:27
Eternally in the presence of God, worshipping God, God's truth, God's people.
12:28-12:40
Now let me ask you, if you're somebody that doesn't want anything to do with God, you know what, I'm not really into the whole truth, the Bible as truth thing, and I really don't like God's people, this worship thing, I totally don't get it.
12:41-12:45
If you're not into any of that stuff, Heaven is going to stick for you.
12:45-12:47
Don't you think? Because that's what it is.
12:49-12:58
But you see, if you're a person that says, "You know what, I don't want anything to do with God's truth, If there's people who worship any of that, God has a place for them.
12:59-13:01
That's a place of eternal separation.
13:02-13:05
And in a sense, you can say God's given you exactly what you want.
13:06-13:11
If I don't want you God, God says I have a place for that.
13:14-13:17
So we're alienated from the life of God.
13:20-13:21
21.
13:50-13:54
like sets you off immediately, like angers you instantly.
13:55-14:00
Or for Christ, we have a hostility in mind to God.
14:02-14:03
Like really, is it that bad?
14:05-14:08
Go find somebody that you're sure is an unbeliever.
14:09-14:11
Sit down with them and say, I'd like to tell you the good news.
14:12-14:17
Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose you from the dead, and he's the only way to heaven.
14:17-14:20
Go tell them that, and see how they respond.
14:22-14:30
Because you see some people, if you've ever done that, you see some people instantly, they're here in the back of the next room standing up, and they don't want to hear it.
14:30-14:31
They get angry right away.
14:32-14:33
Why?
14:34-14:35
Because they're hostile in mind.
14:36-14:39
The true things of God are repulsive.
14:42-14:43
The true things of God are repulsive.
14:46-14:52
I've even seen that, perhaps even more so among non-Christian churchgoers.
14:53-14:58
You know, I've known people that have sat in churches for years, and when you sit down to share the gospel, it's awful.
14:59-15:02
I think the real deal is what we're having to talk about is Jesus talking to them.
15:03-15:13
And it's, some people, maybe even sitting here today, are hostile in mind towards God.
15:14-15:23
Even hearing what I'm saying now, talking about the truth of hell, talking about the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, some of you might not be tuning out.
15:23-15:26
I know that you're dealing with this ultra conservative Bible stuff again.
15:27-15:28
You're hostile to God?
15:31-15:40
And then he says, "Doing evil deeds, I have in your outlines rebellions." You see, that's evidence of having a hostile mind.
15:42-15:47
We live in a day where more and more the garbage is getting poured into our minds, on TV, on the internet.
15:49-15:59
More and more we're exposed to just constant garbage, sinful images, sinful suggestions, and costly, but what's so bad about that?
16:00-16:05
The problem with that is thoughts lead to actions every time.
16:07-16:08
Thoughts lead to actions.
16:09-16:18
Nobody accidentally does something without thinking it through first.
16:20-16:30
It's not like anybody rolled out of bed one morning and said, "I cheated on my wife today. I have no idea how that happened. I was just like on my way to the store and BAM! I got all treated." Nobody does that.
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You see, it's rebelliousness.
16:36-16:37
Thoughts lead to action.
16:38-16:38
Don't believe me?
16:40-16:41
Here's some categories.
16:41-16:42
What about finances?
16:42-16:44
What you think about money determines how you spend money, right?
16:45-16:46
Is that true?
16:47-16:50
What you think about money determines how you spend money.
16:52-16:55
Your thoughts about it lead to your actions with it.
16:56-16:57
What about diet?
16:59-17:04
What you think about diet affects how you eat, or what you eat, or how much you eat.
17:07-17:08
Thoughts lead to actions.
17:09-17:10
What about sexuality?
17:12-17:21
What you think about God's design for sex leads to how you conduct yourself as a person.
17:24-17:28
He says, "Where we're going is the path of Christ." Doing evil deeds.
17:29-17:41
Interestingly, this Greek word for "evil deeds" literally means "hurtful." Do you realize how twisted this is?
17:42-17:45
This world we live in. Do you realize how twisted it is?
17:46-17:48
Satan is called the God of this world.
17:50-17:54
We live in a world decayed because of the effects of sin.
17:56-17:57
And yet we have a craving.
17:58-18:00
Our sin nature has a craving for sin.
18:03-18:04
And here's the punchline.
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Sin is always destruction.
18:11-18:11
Right?
18:12-18:17
Can anybody come up and give testimony this morning to a time when you've sinned and it really improved things in your life?
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Anybody want to come up and give a testimony?
18:20-18:22
Like this one time, I really sinned.
18:23-18:25
And my life has just been so great since then.
18:25-18:27
And it really was to my advantage.
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I knew that I shouldn't have done it, but I did it anyways.
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And I was so glad I did it.
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Anybody?
18:34-18:35
Line corpse to the right.
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Sin is always destructive.
18:40-18:53
Napoleon, whether it's stealing, or adultery, or lying, he accomplishes this, and always, always, always is destroyed.
18:54-19:10
That's exactly what Paul's talking about here. He says, "This is how you were." Now the danger, Church, the danger is sometimes churches have a tendency to attack this last moment.
19:11-19:19
Like, "We need to confront culture head on, so what are we going to do? We're going to go after their evil deeds." There's a problem with that.
19:22-19:29
The problem is, this is just the fruit of the hostile mind.
19:31-20:05
So some Christians thinking they're gonna get ahead of the evil deeds say, "We're going to attack the hostile mind." You know, "We're gonna, you know, start a war on the battlefield of the mind." I think that was a book, "The Battlefield of the Mind." "That's where we're gonna attack things from." "The battle stopped the evil deeds." "There's a problem." "The hostile mind itself is a fruit." "What's at the root of the whole problem? Tell me, what's the root of all this?" The root is we are separated from God. That's the root.
20:06-20:09
So many times we go after the root thinking that's going to fix somebody.
20:09-20:11
Just start doing the right thing and you're okay.
20:13-20:15
That's not the issue. It's putting a bandaid on cancer.
20:18-20:23
See, we aren't sinners because we sin.
20:24-20:29
We sin because we're sinners. Do you understand the difference there?
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That's not, "Well, I committed a sin yesterday, therefore that made me a sinner." That's not how it works.
20:37-20:45
The reason you commit sins is because you're a sinner, alienating from the life of God.
20:49-20:59
So the real issue, the only thing that's going to deal with this hostile mind, the only thing that's going to deal with these evil deeds is reconciliation.
21:01-21:04
You understand that that has to be the starting point.
21:05-21:15
Once upon a time the church believed that as people drew in their walk with the Lord, the heat they abhorred in their lives straightened some of this other stuff out.
21:16-21:20
Sometimes it's just easier to go after the fruit, than not go after the root.
21:22-21:22
Right?
21:25-21:27
I'm going to talk to Brooke and AJ here for a second.
21:28-21:29
Just use them as an example.
21:29-21:32
You guys remember Brooke and AJ wrote a book here.
21:32-21:33
Or a daughter, a boyfriend.
21:34-21:34
Everybody say hi.
21:35-21:36
I don't want to embarrass them.
21:36-21:42
But now, the reason I'm picking on them, I've been in the family a long time.
21:43-21:45
AJ has four daughters.
21:45-21:46
Brooke is one of them.
21:46-21:50
And actually, Brooke is the perfect one of the daughters, right?
21:51-21:53
AJ, she's never given you any problems, right?
21:54-21:56
She's never mouthed back, just say right.
21:56-22:01
You know, she's always done everything exactly when you told her to do, how to say right.
22:02-22:04
He's not going to lie in church, so you can get out of the test.
22:06-22:07
Alright, let's pretend for a second.
22:08-22:12
Let's pretend that Brooke is being really, really, really rebellious.
22:12-22:17
And she's starting to do things that are very rebellious against her father.
22:17-22:34
And the question people are asking is, "Why is she doing these rebellious things towards her father?" Well, if you dig a little deeper, you find that the issue is, she's angry about something.
22:34-22:45
She doesn't like a rule, or, "I don't like the way Dad does this. I don't agree with Dad about this." See, that's the hostility of mine.
22:45-22:49
The reason I'm acting like this is because I don't like what you're doing here, Dad.
22:51-22:55
But see, that's not the real issue. The real issue is there's something going on with that relationship.
22:56-23:00
Does that make sense? There's something going on in that relationship.
23:01-23:05
The way you fix that is, the Father ought to be the head of the family.
23:06-23:08
And work on that relationship.
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That's how it is with the Lord.
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You're reconciled.
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That's the good news.
23:20-23:21
Look at verse 22.
23:23-23:24
We go back to verse 21.
23:24-23:29
He says, "You once were this, so let's move on." Because God doesn't want you to remain in that state.
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That's who you were. Look at verse 22.
23:34-23:40
He says, "He has now..." Everybody say the next part. It's such a beautiful word.
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I'm going to give you a run at it here.
23:42-24:09
He has now records out of His body and flesh by His death in order to present you holy, He is the Lord, and He is the Savior.
24:33-24:37
You see, from our perspective, we would say it looks like God had a dilemma.
24:38-24:43
Because God is holy, and He does not tolerate sin, but at the same time, God is loving.
24:44-24:46
It wasn't a dilemma for God.
24:47-24:51
The way God solved that issue, He already had planned out for eternity past.
24:53-25:11
And Paul tells us here in verse 22, "Reconciled with his body and flesh by his death." Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, through his death on the cross, paid the price for your salvation.
25:15-25:33
Now this word for "reconciled" in the Greek is actually even more beautiful than "reconciled" Because there's amplifiers of the Greek word, which means, this word "reconciled" literally means in the Greek, "fully or totally reconciled." Fully or totally reconciled.
25:36-25:41
See, the beautiful thing is He doesn't just save us, He changes us.
25:43-25:52
Don't ask Him, "How's your faith working out for you?" Because if your faith hasn't changed you, your faith hasn't saved you.
25:53-26:01
The Bible makes a claim that when you give your life to Christ as Savior and Lord, God's Holy Spirit comes and dwells in you.
26:02-26:09
And don't tell me for a second that Almighty God of the universe who spoke the soul into existence comes and takes residence within you and you're no different.
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I've had people tell me that. Like yeah, I tried to receive Jesus but nothing happened.
26:14-26:17
I was a Christian for a while, nothing really changed.
26:17-26:18
Really!
26:19-26:21
God showed up in your heart and you were like, "No different.
26:22-26:23
I don't believe that.
26:24-26:37
I don't believe that." Because I've talked to a lot more people that have said, "I gave my life to Christ, and everything changed." Anybody have a testament like that this morning?
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Everything changed.
26:40-26:41
Everything changed!
26:42-26:43
Amen.
26:48-26:50
So, that's who we were.
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I am now perfect in Jesus Christ.
26:54-26:56
I am perfect in Jesus Christ.
26:58-27:00
How perfect? Well, look at how He describes.
27:02-27:04
In order to present you...
27:06-27:07
Isn't that great?
27:07-27:09
Jesus is like...
27:10-27:13
This is Sam. I'm putting him on display.
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There he is.
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Now it's just Sam.
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Ha ha, Jesus is like, no no no no no no.
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Who is he? Well look, what it says, first of all, holy.
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Holy, that means separated.
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You're like, did you just say separated?
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Well there's a difference now.
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We were separated from God.
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Therefore, now we are separated to God.
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The Bible tells us that God sees us as holy as His Son.
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Understand that.
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When you put your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God sees you as perfect as His Son.
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Jesus takes all of your sin on Himself and He gives you the righteousness of God.
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And I think there's a lot of people, Christians, that just don't get it.
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I've shared this with many Christians I've talked to.
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They're just like, "Well, someday, God's going to let me have it for all the simple things I've done." Do you believe in Christ? Yeah, I just feel like I messed up a lot of things.
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Also, God is going to punish his son and you.
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That's how bad your sin was.
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God's like, "Well, we got a walker here.
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Everybody else is going to get to the front of the line.
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Because this guy, I need to punish him and my son." Really?
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That's not biblical.
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How does Jesus present you?
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What does your Bible say?
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First of all, He presents you holy.
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I'm so not convinced, look what else it says.
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"I present you holy and blameless." That just means faultless.
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Holiness is the positive.
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That's pure.
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This is the negative, which means no faults.
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Jesus says, "I'm going to present someone to you." This is sick.
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I have pronounced him holy.
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What's wrong with Jesus?
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His answer is nothing.
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Nothing.
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He's faultless.
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Jesus said because he took the whole paper.
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He said.
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Well, exactly what the Bible says.
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Keep reading.
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Above the Christian culture, I'm making a point here.
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He could have said, "Jesus made us holy, period, next." But he's really making a point.
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Holy and blameless and above reproach.
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This is beyond blameless.
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This means...
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I'm going to throw a word at you here.
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I'm going to write this down because I'm not sure if it's a word.
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Unaccusable. Is that a word?
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Aaron says you have all the area.
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Unaccusable.
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That's literally what it means.
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Nobody can accuse you.
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You know, Satan is called the accuser of the robber.
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Satan would love you to walk around with your head down, you're so, you're nothing, you're a piece of dirt, nothing but a horrible sinner.
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Lies to Christians.
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Where Jesus says, "You can't accuse this person of anything, because I pronounce the holy." You really want to get into that argument where Jesus said, I say "same polling" when someone else comes along and says, "Why do I keep saying that?" Are you going to contradict Jesus Christ? It's not going to happen.
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I love reproach. Too many people say, "Jeff, you don't know the stuff that I've done. I've done some horrible things in my life. I've really blew it 30 times." I've been a pastor of ministry a long time. I've talked to people who have cheated on my wife or I killed someone. I've talked to people who have killed people.
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Literally and just through hatred of your heart.
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You know, I've stolen this much.
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People say, "Well, you don't know the stuff that I've done." And my response is always, "Well, which do you think is greater?
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Your sin, or the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?" He said, I don't know what you're saying, but I haven't been in that community with Jesus Christ.
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The Bible says that the first thing you need to do is repent.
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Repent literally means you change your mind. That's what it means.
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A lot of times we associate repent with changing your actions.
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But it literally means you change your mind.
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You change the way you think about your sin.
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Who God is. Who you are.
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The Bible uses the word "confess." If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, what does it mean to confess?
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It literally just means you're agreeing with God.
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It's, "Oh, this is what God says about me? Okay, I'm going to agree with that." That's what it means to confess.
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What do you do? You cry out to Jesus Christ.
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You don't, you don't make Jesus Lord, He already is Lord.
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You cry out that mistake and realize who I am.
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I realize I have been separated from you because of my sin, but now I understand what you've done for the cross and the resurrection.
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So if you haven't done that yet, we're going to give you an opportunity here in just a couple of minutes.
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I'll tell you the worst thing you can do as the April Pride.
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Say, well, not today.
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Maybe next year.
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Or maybe after Christmas.
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Or maybe I don't get my New Year's resolution.
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That's the worst decision you can make.
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The day of salvation is when?
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The Bible says today.
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The Bible says today.
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Today if you hear His voice, He says, "All who need Him, lose." Today if you hear His voice, if you do not, you are a sinner.
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Today's the day.
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Today.
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Don't look right now.
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All the other people here with me I'm not going to look down on you or judge you or think less of you.
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I'm going to pray a ministry for you.
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And finally, before we get to that, I will seek proof of my faith.
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I will seek proof of my faith.
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What's the proof?
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He says, "If indeed you continue in the faith, stay firm and steadfast, not shifty from the good gospel you have heard, Which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.
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Which I call the "Hell of Hell's Spirit." And you're like, "But you keep saying, you know, some of us are Christians, some of us are not. How do we know? How do we know? How do we know?" Well, real quick.
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These are five things that are not evidence of salvation.
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There are proofs, but I want to give you five things that are not proofs, because too many people think these things are, and I'm just going to go over them.
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So here they are.
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Number one, I have morals.
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Some people say, "Well, I guess I'm a good person." How do you know you're a Christian?
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I'm a good person.
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That's not evidence of salvation.
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One of the nicest human beings I've ever met was a Scotsman atheist.
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He was like ultra-atheist, high-octane atheist.
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One of the nicest guys I've ever met.
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So having morals doesn't mean that you can do it again.
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Secondly, I know how to get saved.
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You see, there's a difference there.
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Some people are like, "Are you serious?" "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know how to get saved." That doesn't mean you are saved.
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Right? I know how to get to Cleveland, but I'm not in Cleveland there.
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I know how to get there, but I'm not there.
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Third thing, not an evidence of salvation.
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I go to church.
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I go to church.
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If you're a Christian, sometimes I see people in the wrong lives.
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If you're a Christian, I go to church.
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That wasn't the question.
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I almost got the answer.
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Oh, here's another one, number four.
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I work at the church.
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I work at the church.
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If you're a Christian, well, yeah, I like the...
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I work at the children's thing.
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Yeah.
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That's not an evidence of salvation.
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Number five, I feel bad when I sin.
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I feel bad when I sin. That's not an evidence of salvation.
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Not an evidence.
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Now, see, all these things can be true, Christians, but none of those things mean that you are a Christian. Does that make sense?
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So there are two evidences of true salvation.
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One is barry and kirk, that's a whole other story.
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But the one that Paul talks about here in this text is persevering.
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Persevering.
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Now there are many subjective truths, or subjective proofs rather, and private proofs.
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You know, I can talk to you about your prayer life and, you know, giving and things.
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We can talk about those things. Those are spiritual barometers, you could say.
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They're barometers, but those are private things.
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So, for me, for anybody around here, what's the objective external evidence?
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Well, he says it's perseverance.
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He says, "Stable, steadfast, and not shifting." I think that's pretty clear. It's holding the line.
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It's people that are resting in Christ.
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It's people that, you know, a year down the road, two years down the road, five years down the road, I will still trust the Lord.
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Life has been hard, but God has been good. I will not regret it.
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That's the text. That's the text.
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It seems like a full race.
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The Bible compares who walked with the Lord to a race.
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One of the analogies I can turn the book into.
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Races are easy to start.
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And it takes perseverance.
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If you truly belong to the Lord, He gives you that perseverance.
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Do you understand that?
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This isn't a pull yourself up on bootstraps, eye of the tiger, "I really ought to be a Christian." That's really not what it's about.
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It's if you really belong to Christ, He gives you the perseverance.
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He gives you the strength.
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I will seek forgiveness in my faith.
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It's decision time.
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As our worship team becomes more complete as it is solemn.
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I'm going to be hanging out down here after the service.
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For anybody that would like to come up and pray.
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Maybe it's for yourself.
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Maybe you say, you know what, I have not given my life to Jesus Christ.
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I know I've needed to.
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It's something I've been talking about, thinking about.
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Today's the day.
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Now, you don't have to come up front to do that. You can do that sitting right where you are.
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It doesn't matter where.
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What does matter is that you do it.
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Today's the day.
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Forsake your ways.
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I'm going to praise everything that Jesus Christ is.
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We only get one shot at life.
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So what are you doing with yours?
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If you want to come up, and maybe not even to yourself, maybe you have a family or a number of loved ones, a coworker, maybe there's somebody in your life that needs the Lord, maybe you want to come up and say, "Thank you God, I just want to pray for that person." You might just come up and say that as well.
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We are who you say we are.
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You are with everything that your word tells us.
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Everything that we've seen in Colossians so far about your character, your nature.
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We know these things to be true, Paul.
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As we've been talking today, Father, we're going to find our identity.
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And just now I pray for those here who don't know you.
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I pray, Father, that this would be the day.
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They would say, "I'm tired of living life my way.
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I'm tired of being separated from God.
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I'm tired of having no hope for the future.
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I'm tired of knowing what I need to do and not doing.
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And I'm tired of living life my way." I pray, Father, that is so true, that people are sick of themselves.
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And come to the living water.
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Father, maybe there's some here that need to rededicate their lives to that.
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I have been committed to follow Christ. I have been born again.
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But I'm going through a hard time right now.
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I'm making some bad choices.
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Father, maybe there's some people here that want to make a family member a loved one.
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A co-worker, whatever.
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We pray that you will continue to go forth.
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In Jesus name
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Colossians 1:21-23
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.