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Speaker 1: How do you And good morning, faithful listeners. This is

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Speaker 1: Jen with the Bible Explain podcasts and we're finally finishing

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Speaker 1: up First Thessalonians today. I think I've been telling you

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Speaker 1: guys that this is the last episode of First Thessalonians

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Speaker 1: for like three weeks now, but today it's finally the

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Speaker 1: day that we're going to finish it up. We'll be

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Speaker 1: talking about Paul's closing notes for the Thessalonians and the

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Speaker 1: things that they should be doing in order to become

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Speaker 1: closer to God, and how we should be doing those

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Speaker 1: exact same things. Stay tuned for that, all righty, faithful listeners.

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Speaker 1: So if you've been listening to me since the Book

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Speaker 1: of Matthew, after today, after this episode, you will have

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Speaker 1: listened to thirteen books of the New Testament, and that

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Speaker 1: is such an exciting accomplishment, so good for you. And

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Speaker 1: then of course on Thursday, we'll be moving into Second Thessalonians,

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Speaker 1: talking more about Jesus's second Coming, because that is with

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Speaker 1: these letters really get down to, because the Thessalonians had

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Speaker 1: a lot of questions about Jesus's second Coming, but we've

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Speaker 1: already pretty much covered that topic in First Thessalonians so far.

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Speaker 1: So now we're going to talk about Paul's closing words

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Speaker 1: to the Thessalonian Church and some of the things that they

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Speaker 1: should be doing, and also we should be doing as Christians,

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Speaker 1: things that are really going to help us in our

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Speaker 1: walk with God and our walk with other people as well.

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Speaker 1: So let's read first Tessonians five sixteen to the end

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Speaker 1: of the chapter. I'll be reading as the usual from

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Speaker 1: the web. Always rejoice, pray without ceasing in everything, Give

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Speaker 1: thanks for this is the will of God in Christ

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Speaker 1: Jesus towards you. Don't quench the spirit, don't despise prophecies,

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Speaker 1: Test all things, and hold firmly to that which is good.

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Speaker 1: Abstain from every form of evil. May the God of

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Speaker 1: Peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul

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Speaker 1: and body be preserved blameless. That the coming of our

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Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ, he who calls you is faithful, who

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Speaker 1: will also do it. Brothers, pray for us, greet all

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Speaker 1: the brothers with a holy kiss. I solemnly command you

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Speaker 1: by the Lord that this letter be read to all

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Speaker 1: the holy brothers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

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Speaker 1: be with you amen. So Paul has one of these

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Speaker 1: in every single letter that he writes. This is like

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Speaker 1: a list of things to do, like basic things that

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Speaker 1: each Christian should do. And so he says right here

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Speaker 1: in verse sixteen, always rejoice, and that is the entire verse,

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Speaker 1: very short little verse, but straight to the point, always rejoice.

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Speaker 1: Now that is very tempting to look at this verse

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Speaker 1: and be like, oh, that means that Christians always have

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Speaker 1: to be happy. If we are not rejoicing, If we

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Speaker 1: are not happy, that means we are sinning. Because Paul

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Speaker 1: says we always have to rejoice. But if you look

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Speaker 1: at what the word rejoice means, it's a deep, heartfelt joy.

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Speaker 1: It's a joy that is rooted in spiritual realities and

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Speaker 1: divine truths. So, in other words, we're supposed to be

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Speaker 1: rejoicing in God, rejoicing in Yahweh, meaning having a sense

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Speaker 1: of delight in God. So we can be sad over

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Speaker 1: our circumstances but still have a joy and a delight

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Speaker 1: in God. And how do we do that. We have

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Speaker 1: to trust in God that He's got our back, that

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Speaker 1: He's going to take care of us. That's how we

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Speaker 1: have that delight in God, that no matter what we're

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Speaker 1: going through, God is taking care of us. Actually, God

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Speaker 1: himself describes this very thing in Jeremiah chapter seventeen. Here's

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Speaker 1: what God says in verse five of that chapter. Yahweh says,

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Speaker 1: Cursed is the man who trusts in man who relies

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Speaker 1: on the strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from Yahweh,

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Speaker 1: for he will be like a bush in the desert

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Speaker 1: and will not see when good comes, but will inhabit

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Speaker 1: the parched places in the wilderness and uninhabited salt land.

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Speaker 1: Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh and whose

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Speaker 1: confidence is in Yahweh, For he will be like a

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Speaker 1: tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots

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Speaker 1: by the river and will not fear when the heat comes.

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Speaker 1: But its leaf will be green and will not be

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Speaker 1: concerned in the year of drought. It won't cease from

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Speaker 1: yielding fruit. So that's an analogy that if somebody trusts

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Speaker 1: in God, he's going to be like this beautiful tree.

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Speaker 1: This tree is planted by waters. So whenever heat comes,

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Speaker 1: whenever drought comes, when all these terrible things in life comes,

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Speaker 1: that tree that has roots going deep down is not

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Speaker 1: going to fear when all these problems come, because those

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Speaker 1: roots grew so deep that they're touching the water. And

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Speaker 1: that is anybody who trusts in God, who has rooted

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Speaker 1: themselves in Christ. Though a bunch of problems come, their

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Speaker 1: faith in God sustains them. They have joy and delight

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Speaker 1: in God. And yes, those troubles are not going to

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Speaker 1: pass them by. God does not prom us an easy

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Speaker 1: life for Christians, but when those problems come, they won't

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Speaker 1: overtake us in the same way as other people who

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Speaker 1: don't have their faith foundation in God. So that's what

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Speaker 1: it means to rejoice in God's to take the light

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Speaker 1: in Him, to basically have faith that no matter what

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Speaker 1: we go through, He's got our backs and he is

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Speaker 1: taking care of us. And then Paul says in verse seventeen,

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Speaker 1: going back to our passage for today, pray without ceasing.

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Speaker 1: Now once again, this does not mean that we have

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Speaker 1: to literally never stop praying, like we cannot say anything

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Speaker 1: other than a prayer. That's not what Paul's talking about here,

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Speaker 1: But he's saying, I think two things. Firstly, not to

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Speaker 1: give up on prayer. You know, there are so many

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Speaker 1: times when I've felt it myself when I'm praying and

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Speaker 1: I feel like God is not answering me, or I

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Speaker 1: get really irritated because I'm like, God, you know, I

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Speaker 1: want to have a conversation with you, but it doesn't

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Speaker 1: seem like you're listening or answering me. And it's possible

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Speaker 1: you felt that way too. It's those times where we

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Speaker 1: almost feel like we want to give up on praying,

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Speaker 1: where we're like, oh, prayer doesn't even work. You know,

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Speaker 1: God isn't really listening to us, or even if he

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Speaker 1: is listening, he never answers my prayer. He just gives

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Speaker 1: me something else that I didn't ask for. And I

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Speaker 1: don't really know that I want to pray, or what's

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Speaker 1: even the point of praying? Because God knows everything anyway,

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Speaker 1: so why should I even ask him for anything? Well,

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Speaker 1: of course God knows everything, But the entire point of

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Speaker 1: prayer is to talk to God, to engage in a

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Speaker 1: conversation and a relationship with him. God is never going

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Speaker 1: to force himself on us. That is the one thing

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Speaker 1: we see about God pretty consistently in scripture is that

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Speaker 1: he very rarely forces himself on people. He gives people

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Speaker 1: a choice to engage in conversation with him, to believe

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Speaker 1: in him, to reject him. He gives people those choices.

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Speaker 1: So when it comes to prayer, that is us taking

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Speaker 1: the initiative to have a relationship with God, even if

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Speaker 1: we might not feel like God is hearing us or

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Speaker 1: God is answering us. Paul says, don't give up on praying,

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Speaker 1: because prayer actually produces amazing results. That's another verse in

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Speaker 1: Scripture James five sixteen says, confess your sins to one

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Speaker 1: another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

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Speaker 1: The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.

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Speaker 1: You know, God himself says that his ways are not

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Speaker 1: our ways, that his ways are actually above our ways.

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Speaker 1: We often expect God to respond and to act the

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Speaker 1: way another human being would, but God often will not

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Speaker 1: do that. He answers us in different ways. He talks

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Speaker 1: to us through his word, and sometimes he uses other

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Speaker 1: people to talk to us as well. He uses a

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Speaker 1: lot of things to talk to us, but very rarely

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Speaker 1: will he answer us directly. Maybe it's because we couldn't,

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Speaker 1: Like we literally physically could not handle hearing God's voice audibly,

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Speaker 1: because anytime anybody did in the Bible, they like fell

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Speaker 1: down as dead and they're like, please kill me now

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Speaker 1: because I am so sinful. I can't handle this. I

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Speaker 1: cannot hear God's voice actually in the wilderness. This is

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Speaker 1: such a funny story to me. God audibly talked to

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Speaker 1: his people. He gave them the Ten Commandments, straight from

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Speaker 1: his own mouth, and the people were so freaked out

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Speaker 1: that they told Moses, They're like, if you don't get

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Speaker 1: God to stop talking to us right now, we are

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Speaker 1: going to die. We cannot handle this. So Moses, you

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Speaker 1: go talk to God and just tell us what he said,

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Speaker 1: because we can't hear his voice. So maybe that's why

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Speaker 1: God does not directly with his own mouth answer yes,

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Speaker 1: is because we just couldn't handle it. But he does

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Speaker 1: answer us. He does talk to us, just not in

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Speaker 1: the way that we want him to sometimes or expect

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Speaker 1: him to. But he hears every single prayer that you're

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Speaker 1: praying to him. And so that's why Paul says, don't

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Speaker 1: give up on praying. Pray without ceasing, don't stop praying.

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Speaker 1: Even if you feel like God is not listening to you,

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Speaker 1: don't stop praying. That's the first thing I think that

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Speaker 1: verse means. But the second thing is to just pray

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Speaker 1: throughout your day, you know, constantly have God on your mind,

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Speaker 1: you know, just like how my husband and you know,

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Speaker 1: not thinking about him every hour of the day, but

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Speaker 1: he's always on my mind. Does that make sense. I'm

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Speaker 1: always sort of thinking about him, like what he needs,

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Speaker 1: even if he's not around me. Like right now, I'm

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Speaker 1: recording this podcast episode, but only a few minutes ago

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Speaker 1: before I started it, I went and started dinner in

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Speaker 1: the crock pot because I was thinking about my husband

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Speaker 1: what he was gonna need when he came home. So

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Speaker 1: he's always on my mind in a sense. And in

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Speaker 1: the same way, God should always be on our minds

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Speaker 1: as well. He should be our first line of defense.

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Speaker 1: When something bad happens to us, we take it to God.

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Speaker 1: When something good happens to us, we take it to God.

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Speaker 1: That is what our prayer life should look like as Christians.

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Speaker 1: And I get it if your prayer life doesn't look

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Speaker 1: like that right now, but it is something to strive for.

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Speaker 1: And I can tell you guys honestly that prayer is

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Speaker 1: a very weak point in my life and that's something

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Speaker 1: that I am actively trying to fix these past few months,

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Speaker 1: is my prayer life. So this is a verse that

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Speaker 1: resonates with me for sure. And then Paul continues in

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Speaker 1: verse eighteen, in everything give thanks for this is the

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Speaker 1: will of God in Christ Jesus towards you. So have

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Speaker 1: a thankful heart, even if bad things come your way.

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Speaker 1: A spirit of things. Fulness is so beneficial to oneself.

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Speaker 1: But also God just wants to hear you be thankful.

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Speaker 1: You know I've said this on the podcast before, but

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Speaker 1: if you had a friend and all they did was

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Speaker 1: come to you with complaints, irritations, or asking you for something,

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Speaker 1: you'd be like, why am I even friends with you?

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Speaker 1: You're a toxic human being. I don't want to be

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Speaker 1: friends with you anymore. That's what we do to God

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Speaker 1: a lot of times. We just take irritations and complaints

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Speaker 1: and unthankfulness to him all the time begging for more things.

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Speaker 1: You know, how does God feel when we never say

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Speaker 1: thank you for the good stuff that he gives us.

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Speaker 1: Now that's not to say that when bad things happen

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Speaker 1: that you can't pray to him. Obviously you can, and

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Speaker 1: he does want you to take those concerns to him.

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Speaker 1: But even look at the Psalms. You know, David had

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Speaker 1: so many problems in his life, and he'd write about

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Speaker 1: them in the Psalms. But then halfway through he'd be like,

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Speaker 1: but praise be to God for this, this, and this,

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Speaker 1: all these fantastic things that He has done in my

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Speaker 1: life and is going to do again. So David understood, Yes,

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Speaker 1: we take problems to God, but we give thanks in

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Speaker 1: the process as well. Then in verse nineteen, here's an

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Speaker 1: interesting verse. It says, don't quench the spirit. Now, I

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Speaker 1: really like this verse because there's a lot of times

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Speaker 1: when Christians actually will quench the spirit. And what do

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Speaker 1: I mean by that? A lot of times the spirit

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Speaker 1: in the Bible is depicted as a flame of fire,

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Speaker 1: and you don't want to quench that flame of fire.

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Speaker 1: You don't want to put it out. So this could

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Speaker 1: mean discouraging one of your fellow Christians, you know, just

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Speaker 1: like speaking poison to them when that is like the

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Speaker 1: last thing they needed, that is something that could potentially

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Speaker 1: quench the spirit. This could also look like putting stumbling

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Speaker 1: blocks in someone's way, somebody who is really working for

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Speaker 1: the spirit, but just doing something that causes them to

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Speaker 1: fall astray. And another thing I would say that Christians,

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Speaker 1: now myself included, at times are very bad at is

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Speaker 1: actually supporting other Christian media. It's like we have to

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Speaker 1: be so critical sometimes of what these other Christians are

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Speaker 1: doing that we don't support the good stuff. We look

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Speaker 1: for every little problem instead of supporting the overall mission

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Speaker 1: producing a lot of good fruit. That could be another

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Speaker 1: way that Christians quench the spirit, and generally quenching the

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Speaker 1: spirit would be despising the prophets as well. Now, of

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Speaker 1: course that comes with a caveat. These days, unfortunately, there's

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Speaker 1: a lot of very fake prophets out there, because anybody

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Speaker 1: can claim to be a prophet, right They can be like, oh,

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Speaker 1: you know, God told me this, or I had some

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Speaker 1: sort of dream that said this, or a revelation came

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Speaker 1: or I had an out of body experience. You know,

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Speaker 1: there's no end to the amount of fake profits that

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Speaker 1: constantly pop up on YouTube all the time, and that

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Speaker 1: gives us a lot of fatigue right to the point

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Speaker 1: where we might end up squelching the prophecy of a

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Speaker 1: real prophet. There's always going to be false prophets, always,

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Speaker 1: no matter what time period you live in. But there's

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Speaker 1: real prophets too. I don't believe that the gift of

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Speaker 1: prophecy is dead. In fact, Scripture says that in the

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Speaker 1: end days prophets are going to come back like crazy. Actually,

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Speaker 1: there's going to be old men dreaming dreams, young men

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Speaker 1: and young women telling prophecies. There's going to be a

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Speaker 1: lot of prophets in the end days because as Jesus

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Speaker 1: gets closer, the prophets, it seems like, are going to

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Speaker 1: reawaken to try to get as many people to follow

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Speaker 1: Jesus as is humanly possible, so that when Jesus comes again,

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Speaker 1: those people are not in the dark. So the gift

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Speaker 1: of prophecy is not dead, will not be dead in

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Speaker 1: the future. And I don't believe ever really was dead.

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Speaker 1: But false prophets are always going to exist. And even

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Speaker 1: if you've been burned by a false prophet, which many

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Speaker 1: people unfortunately have, even if you've been burned, don't quench

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Speaker 1: the spirit. If you hear a new prophecy, test it.

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Speaker 1: In fact, that's what Paul says in the next verse,

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Speaker 1: verse twenty. Don't despise prophecies. Test all things, and hold

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Speaker 1: firmly to that which is good. Test the prophets. Every

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Speaker 1: single prophecy you hear should be tested. And how you

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Speaker 1: test the prophets to know that they're real. Well, there's

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Speaker 1: only one way to know that somebody is a real prophet.

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Speaker 1: They have to have both their prophecy come true, and

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Speaker 1: they also have to believe in Jesus and teach what

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Speaker 1: Scripture has to say and teach repentance. That is how

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Speaker 1: you know somebody is a real prophet. If they are

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Speaker 1: a fake prophet, they either won't have their prophecy come

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Speaker 1: true even if they claim to believe in Jesus, or

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Speaker 1: even if their prophecy does come true, they end up

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Speaker 1: encouraging people to follow after a different God, such as themselves.

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Speaker 1: You know that prophet is a fake prophet. So that's

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Speaker 1: why Paul says in verses twenty one and twenty two.

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Speaker 1: Test all things and hold firmly to that which is good,

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Speaker 1: but abstain from every form of evil. And I do

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Speaker 1: believe Paul is primarily talking about the prophets at this

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Speaker 1: point in time. Hold to the good prophecies, don't despise them,

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Speaker 1: don't quench the spirit, but abstain get rid of all

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Speaker 1: forms of evil, every kind of evil that includes prophecies,

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Speaker 1: of course, but any other form of sin, because all

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Speaker 1: sin does is weigh us down and causes us to

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Speaker 1: not follow after God the way he designed us too,

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Speaker 1: And of course this is something to strive for. We

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Speaker 1: are never going to get any of these things perfect

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Speaker 1: every time. You know, if it was easy, Paul wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have to tell the Christians to do these things their commandments.

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Speaker 1: For a reason, it's because they aren't easy. It's easy

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Speaker 1: to always be sad as Christians, to be depressed as Christians.

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Speaker 1: It's easy to stop praying when God it feels like,

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Speaker 1: isn't answering us. It's easy to complain to God all

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Speaker 1: the time, to never give thanks. It's easy to quench

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Speaker 1: the spirit. It's hard to encourage other believers. It's hard

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Speaker 1: to not criticize every single thing that we see that

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Speaker 1: is Christian media. And that's why Paul gives us these

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Speaker 1: commands to always rejoice, to pray without ceasing, to give

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Speaker 1: thanks in everything, and to let the Holy Spirit thrive

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Speaker 1: both in your own heart and in other people's hearts

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Speaker 1: as well. So we strive to do these things. Paul

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Speaker 1: understands that as well, which is why he concludes this

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Speaker 1: letter with a prayer for the Thessalonian Church. May the

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Speaker 1: God of peace himself, sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul,

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Speaker 1: and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our

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Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ. So there you go. Paul knew that

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Speaker 1: no matter what, we cannot be blameless on our own.

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Speaker 1: We will always fall back into sin. But Jesus gives

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Speaker 1: us the ability to say no. The Holy Spirit is

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Speaker 1: our counselor, he's our advisor, he's our conscience. He tells

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Speaker 1: us what is right and wrong. God gives us the

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Speaker 1: tools to say no to sin. But it's up to

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Speaker 1: us individually to use those tools rather than giving in

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Speaker 1: to sin. But he who calls you is faithful and

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Speaker 1: he will do it. That is what Verse twenty four says.

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Speaker 1: So even though we are unfaithful, God is faithful. It

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Speaker 1: says in scripture that nobody can pluck us out of

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Speaker 1: his hand, like once he's got us, he's got us.

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Speaker 1: And that's why I don't believe you can lose your

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Speaker 1: salvation personally, is because there's a lot in scripture that

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Speaker 1: says once people believe in Jesus, that is what is

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Speaker 1: necessary to get to heaven. There's no extra steps that

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Speaker 1: we have to take. It is through God's faithfulness to us,

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Speaker 1: his grace and his mercy to us. It is a

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Speaker 1: free gift that we just have to believe in that

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Speaker 1: we have to take hold of. Jesus died for our

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Speaker 1: sins so that we can have eternal security with the Father,

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Speaker 1: so that we don't have to die in our sins

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Speaker 1: with no eternal security. Jesus paid for our sins for

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Speaker 1: us so that we didn't have to Jesus was faithful

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Speaker 1: when we were faithless. And all we have to do

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Speaker 1: to gain salvation, to gain eternal security, is to believe

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Speaker 1: in the message to Jesus. That is all we have

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Speaker 1: to do. And once we do that, God's a love

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Speaker 1: and mercy saves us. We just have to believe. And

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Speaker 1: like I said, the other stuff it comes with time.

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Speaker 1: We learn more about the Bible, we learn more about

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Speaker 1: having a real relationship with God and what God wants

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Speaker 1: of his people. But those things that we do, they

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Speaker 1: don't save us. They give us a better relationship with God,

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Speaker 1: but they don't save us. The relationship comes first and

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Speaker 1: foremost with Jesus's sacrifice and our belief in that. So

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Speaker 1: Paul concludes his letter, brothers pray for us, greet all

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Speaker 1: the brothers with a holy kiss. I solemnly command you

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Speaker 1: by the Lord that this letter be read to all

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Speaker 1: the holy brothers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

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Speaker 1: be with you, Amen. It was debating whether or not

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Speaker 1: to talk about the holy kiss comment that Paul makes,

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Speaker 1: but I've talked about it before on the podcast, so

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Speaker 1: I thought it was not necessary to talk about that again.

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Speaker 1: But long story short, the Christian Church, way way back

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Speaker 1: in the day, like thousands of years ago, used to

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Speaker 1: do the holy kiss like almost like a handshake, but

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Speaker 1: then it got weird, and that's why churches now don't

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Speaker 1: have people kiss each other. Instead it's a handshake because

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Speaker 1: of course, you know, people get perverted and weird with

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Speaker 1: every single thing that we do, so we couldn't even

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Speaker 1: make the kiss holy, even though Paul told us to

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Speaker 1: greet each other with a holy kiss, not an unholy kiss. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: if you want to hear my research I did about that,

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Speaker 1: you can find that episode linked in the description below.

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Speaker 1: I have that one for you. But Faith listeners, have

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Speaker 1: a fantastic and wonderful rest of your Tuesday. I will

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Speaker 1: see you guys tomorrow bright and early, because we're gonna

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Speaker 1: start talking about the building of the Temple to God

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Speaker 1: in the Old Testament and some of the things that

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Speaker 1: saw Oloman does to build the temple. So hopefully you

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Speaker 1: tune in tomorrow for all of that, and then of

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Speaker 1: course on Thursday we'll be in a new book of

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Speaker 1: the New Testament. Faithful listeners, happy listening, and God bless