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Speaker 1: Well, how do you en? Good morning, friends and faith listeners,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the Book of Colossians. We're going to

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Speaker 1: be talking about a list of dows and don'ts today

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Speaker 1: that the Christian should follow. Stay tuned for that. Well,

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Speaker 1: I hope you guys had an absolutely wonderful weekend. I

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Speaker 1: certainly did. And let's just go ahead and jump right

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Speaker 1: into Colossians Chapter three, verses one through thirteen. We'll be

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Speaker 1: talking about a list of dos and don'ts, and also

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Speaker 1: how we crucify the old self and put on the

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Speaker 1: new man. I'll be reading this as usual from the web.

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Speaker 1: If then you are raised together with Christ, seek the

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Speaker 1: things that are above, where Christ is seated on the

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Speaker 1: right hand of God. Set your mind on the things

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Speaker 1: that are above, not on the things that are on

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Speaker 1: the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden

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Speaker 1: with Christ in God. When Christ our life is revealed,

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Speaker 1: then you will be also revealed with Him in glory.

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Speaker 1: Put to death. Therefore, your members which are on the earth, sexual, immorality, uncleanness,

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Speaker 1: depraved passion, evil desire, and coveteousness, which is idolatry. For

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Speaker 1: these things sake, the wrath of God comes on the

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Speaker 1: children of disobedience. You also once walked in those when

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Speaker 1: you lived in them, but now you must put them

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Speaker 1: away anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of

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Speaker 1: your mouth. Don't lie to one another, seeing that you

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Speaker 1: have put off the old man with his doings, and

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Speaker 1: have put on the new man, who is being renewed

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Speaker 1: in knowledge after the image of his Creator. Where there

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Speaker 1: can't be Greek and jew circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian,

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Speaker 1: bondservant or free person. But Christ is all and in all.

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Speaker 1: Put on therefore as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,

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Speaker 1: a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance, bearing

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Speaker 1: with one another and forgiving each other. If any man

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Speaker 1: has a complaint against any even as Christ forgave you,

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Speaker 1: so you also do. Starting in verse one, it says,

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Speaker 1: if then you were raised together with Christ, seek the

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Speaker 1: things that are above, where Christ is seated on the

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Speaker 1: right hand of God. And then he says, set your

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Speaker 1: mind on the things that are above, not the things

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Speaker 1: that are on the earth, For you died and your

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Speaker 1: life is hidden with Christ in God. Notice there that

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Speaker 1: Paul says, set your mind on the things above twice

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Speaker 1: in these two verses, and it's a good rule to

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Speaker 1: live by. Jesus said something very similar in the Sermon

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Speaker 1: on the Mount. Matthew chapter six, verses nineteen through twenty

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Speaker 1: one says this, don't lay up treasures for yourselves on

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Speaker 1: the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves

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Speaker 1: break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures

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Speaker 1: in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where

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Speaker 1: thieves don't break through and steal. For where your treasure

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Speaker 1: is there, your heart will be also. So in other words,

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Speaker 1: if you find your value with the things that are

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Speaker 1: here on earth, that's where your heart is going to be.

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Speaker 1: But if you find your value in Jesus, that is

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Speaker 1: where your heart is going to be. So Jesus says,

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Speaker 1: lay up your treasures in heaven, not here on earth,

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Speaker 1: because the treasures here on earth decay and fade away,

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Speaker 1: and people steal them, and entropy happens and all sorts

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Speaker 1: of stuff takes place. But the treasures in heaven, those

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Speaker 1: things will never be taken from you, they will never decay.

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Speaker 1: So that is where your treasure should be. And Paul's

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Speaker 1: kind of repeating this to the Colossians, especially thinking about

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Speaker 1: the Colossian Church where they were very focused on angelic

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Speaker 1: beings and worship of angels and visions and wisdom and

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Speaker 1: all this like other worldly stuff. Paul tells them, your

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Speaker 1: mind is almost in the right place. You're thinking about

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Speaker 1: things that are above, but you're not thinking about them

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Speaker 1: the right way. And that's why he says here in

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Speaker 1: Colossians three, verse one, seek the things that are above,

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Speaker 1: where Christ is seated on the right hand of God.

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Speaker 1: Set your mind on the things that are above, not

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Speaker 1: the things that are on the earth. So he corrects

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Speaker 1: their thinking a little bit. He's like, yes, you guys

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Speaker 1: do focus in a sense on the eternal, but you're

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Speaker 1: not thinking about Christ. You're worshiping all these other things

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Speaker 1: that are not Christ. Think about Christ and seek him.

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Speaker 1: He is seated on the right hand of God, and

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Speaker 1: that is who you should be worshiping. Then he says

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Speaker 1: in verse three, for you died and your life is

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Speaker 1: hidden with Christ in God. When Christ our life is revealed,

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Speaker 1: then you will also be revealed with Him in glory.

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Speaker 1: So Paul is bringing everything back to Christ. And this

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Speaker 1: is very important for a church that is kind of

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Speaker 1: confused about some of these ideas. Everything should be Christ focused.

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Speaker 1: That is the point of being a Christian. The word

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Speaker 1: Christian itself has the word Christ in it. We are

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Speaker 1: to be like Christ. We are to worship Christ alone,

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Speaker 1: not anything else. And he says here you died and

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Speaker 1: your life is hidden with Christ. And that's something Paul

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Speaker 1: is repeated actually quite a bit throughout his letters. For example,

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Speaker 1: in Galatians chapter two, verse twenty, here's what Paul says,

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Speaker 1: I have been crucified with Christ, and it is I

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Speaker 1: no longer who live, but Christ lives in me. And

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Speaker 1: then Romans six, starting in verse five, says something similar

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Speaker 1: as well. For if we have become united with him

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Speaker 1: in the likeness of his death, we will also be

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Speaker 1: part of his resurrection. Knowing this that our old man

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Speaker 1: was crucified with him, that the body of sin might

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Speaker 1: be done away with so that we would no longer

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Speaker 1: be in bondage to sin. So several times Paul's actually

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Speaker 1: said that we need to, in a sense, crucify our

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Speaker 1: old self, put it on the cross with Jesus, kill

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Speaker 1: it in a sense. That's why Paul says right here

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Speaker 1: in Colossians three that we have died, and Christ is

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Speaker 1: our new life. In fact, the entire picture of baptism

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Speaker 1: is this exact thing. When somebody becomes a Christian, they

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Speaker 1: are encouraged to become baptized because it is a picture

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Speaker 1: of what their salvation was like. When you go into

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Speaker 1: the water and you go underneath it, that's a symbolism

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Speaker 1: of being buried and dead to your old self, and

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Speaker 1: we need to come up out of that water. It's

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Speaker 1: a symbolism of having a new life and being washed clean,

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Speaker 1: basically of all the old stuff. The old self was

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Speaker 1: the sin nature. We are to get rid of that

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Speaker 1: and fight it with every bit of our being, basically,

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Speaker 1: And that's what Paul goes on to say here in

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Speaker 1: Colossians three, verse five, put to death there for your

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Speaker 1: members which are on the earth. So we're not supposed

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Speaker 1: to focus about the things that are on the earth,

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Speaker 1: but the things that are in heaven. Our old selves

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Speaker 1: are part of the earthly sin nature, and our new

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Speaker 1: selves are citizens of heaven. So we're supposed to be

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Speaker 1: living like citizens of heaven, not citizens of the earth.

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Speaker 1: So he says, put to death the man that lives

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Speaker 1: here on earth that practices sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion,

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Speaker 1: evil desire, and coveteousness, which is idolatry. For these things' sake,

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Speaker 1: the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.

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Speaker 1: You also once walked in those things when you lived

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Speaker 1: in them, but now you must put them all away.

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Speaker 1: And he lists several things here that we are to

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Speaker 1: put away, and all of them, well, the first four

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Speaker 1: rather have to do with sexual immorality. So the first

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Speaker 1: one is just sexual immorality, that means having sex with

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Speaker 1: anybody outside of the marriage relationship. Uncleanness also refers to

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Speaker 1: sexual immorality, but it's much more broad. This could be

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Speaker 1: talkedalking about lust, pornography, licentiousness, that kind of stuff, depraved passion.

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Speaker 1: Don't forget who Paul is talking to here. He's talking

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Speaker 1: to the Colossians, where their city was absolutely filled with prostitution.

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Speaker 1: That was a very common thing back in these days,

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Speaker 1: and honestly across the world it is still common to

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Speaker 1: this day. Evil desires once again referring to really anything

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Speaker 1: any desire that you have that is evil in nature.

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Speaker 1: Most people would assume that to be sexual things, but

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Speaker 1: it could go even more broad than that, and then

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Speaker 1: he also says, put away coveteousness, which is idolatry. And

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Speaker 1: you might be like, how is coveteousness idolatry? When you

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Speaker 1: covet or envy something, you are making it a god

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Speaker 1: in your mind. You almost become obsessive over that thing.

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Speaker 1: You want it so bad that it's an idol in

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Speaker 1: your mind. So Paul says, get rid of these idols

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Speaker 1: and this sexual immorality that is in your life. Put

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Speaker 1: these things to death. These are part of the old Man,

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Speaker 1: and you are to put on the new Man and

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Speaker 1: live as a citizen of heaven. And jumping down to

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Speaker 1: verse eight, Paul actually continues further with some other things

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Speaker 1: that are supposed to be put away with. He says,

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Speaker 1: but now you must also put away anger, wrath, malice, slander,

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Speaker 1: and shameful speaking out of your mouth, and don't lie

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Speaker 1: to one another. Seeing that you put off the old

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Speaker 1: man with his doings, and have put on the new man,

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Speaker 1: who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of

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Speaker 1: his creator. A lot of people reading this probably are like, oh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I haven't done those first things that Paul mentioned.

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Speaker 1: You know, I've never had sexual immorality you know, I've

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Speaker 1: been faithful to my husband or wife. I've never had

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Speaker 1: depraved passions or coveteousness, like I don't do that stuff.

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Speaker 1: But Paul says, these are just scratching the surface. Here's

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Speaker 1: the other things you're not supposed to do. You're also

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Speaker 1: not supposed to have any anger. I don't know about you,

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Speaker 1: but I was angry today, like not too long ago.

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Speaker 1: We're not supposed to have any wrath. That's just another

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Speaker 1: form of anger or malice or slander or shameful speaking

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Speaker 1: out of our mouths. Every single person struggles with these things.

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Speaker 1: So when Paul says we're supposed to get rid of

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Speaker 1: the old self, he's talking about any sinful deed that

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Speaker 1: we might do, no matter how small we might think

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Speaker 1: of it. You know, that little seed of bitterness or

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Speaker 1: anger that's in our heart that we think is just

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Speaker 1: okay to have. Paul says, get rid of that stuff

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Speaker 1: because that is part of the old man. You are

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Speaker 1: to be living as a citizen of heaven. And he

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Speaker 1: also says, don't lie to one another. Actually googled to

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Speaker 1: see how how often people lie every single day, and

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Speaker 1: apparently the average is between one one and four lies

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Speaker 1: per day. This also includes white lies intended to avoid

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Speaker 1: hurting feelings or to navigate social situations. But notice that

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Speaker 1: Paul does not qualify the type of lies that we

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Speaker 1: are doing. He doesn't say it's okay to lie in

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Speaker 1: some situations, it's okay to have little white lies on occasion. Now,

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Speaker 1: he says, get rid of all forms of lying to

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Speaker 1: one another, seeing that you've put off the old man

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Speaker 1: with his doings. Every single one of us struggles with

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Speaker 1: something on this list, whether it's sexual immorality, or lust,

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Speaker 1: or pornography or coveteousness. Paul also says, get rid of

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Speaker 1: anger and malice, and slander and gossip and shameful speaking,

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Speaker 1: and stop lying to one another, because all of these

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Speaker 1: things are part of the old Man. But here's the

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Speaker 1: caveat with all of this, and even Paul himself, we'll

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Speaker 1: say this that it is not possible to stop sinning.

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Speaker 1: In the last letter that Paul wrote, he said in

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Speaker 1: Philippians that he has not achieved perfection, that none of

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Speaker 1: us can achieve perfection, but we strive for it. The

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Speaker 1: sin nature, even though we have chosen to put it

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Speaker 1: to death, it still pops up in our life all

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Speaker 1: the time. That is why Jesus says we have to

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Speaker 1: basically put it to death. Daily. We have to take

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Speaker 1: up our crosses and follow him on a day to

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Speaker 1: day basis. We have to constantly push down that sin

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Speaker 1: nature and choose Jesus. And some days it is harder

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Speaker 1: than others, especially if somebody offended you or mistreated you

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Speaker 1: that day and you just feel anger or bitterness because

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Speaker 1: of how they acted, or if a really pretty person

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Speaker 1: just walked past you and you want to look, or

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Speaker 1: if you're scrolling through social media and you see this

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Speaker 1: person that you're very covetous of, has something new that

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Speaker 1: you wanted, or has a platform that you wanted. Some

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Speaker 1: days are harder than other days. But every single day

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Speaker 1: we have to remember we choose Jesus. We have to say, God,

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Speaker 1: just help me today not to fall into these old

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Speaker 1: sins that I no longer want to commit. And here's

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Speaker 1: what Paul says, this is a really beautiful verse. In

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Speaker 1: verse eleven, we put on the new man who is

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Speaker 1: being renewed in knowledge after the image of his creator.

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Speaker 1: So even there, Paul says, we don't have it all

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Speaker 1: at one time. We are being renewed constantly in this

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Speaker 1: knowledge of our Creator, and God is going to help

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Speaker 1: us overcome certain sins that we may struggle with really

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Speaker 1: badly in five years, In one year, in six months,

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Speaker 1: we may not struggle with that sin the same way

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Speaker 1: that we did. God is constantly renewing our minds and

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Speaker 1: helping us along the way. We don't have it all

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Speaker 1: at once, but we do learn how to say no

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Speaker 1: to our sin nature a lot more often when we

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Speaker 1: are practicing it on a day to day basis. But

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Speaker 1: Paul says, we are being renewed in knowledge after the

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Speaker 1: image of our Creator, where there can't be Greek and Jew,

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Speaker 1: circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond servant or free person.

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Speaker 1: But Christ is all and in all, So when we

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Speaker 1: become Christians, we become unified with one another. Paul says,

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Speaker 1: there's no Greek and Jew, so there's no gentile, there

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Speaker 1: is no Jew any longer. There is no circumcision and uncircumcision.

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Speaker 1: That just means the same thing. There is no barbarian.

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Speaker 1: So the Greeks used to call anybody that was not

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Speaker 1: Greek barbarian. I learned and also a Scythian was a

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Speaker 1: particular type of barbarian that was especially terrible. I guess

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Speaker 1: the Scythians lived above the Black Sea, so that would

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Speaker 1: be like the area of Ukraine nowadays, or even into Russia.

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Speaker 1: That was who the Greeks considered to be Scythian. And

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Speaker 1: they believe the Scythians were the worst form of barbarians.

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Speaker 1: And Paul says, there's no difference between a Jew and

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Speaker 1: the worst barbarian you can think of. Once those two

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Speaker 1: people accept Christ as their savior, they all become one

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Speaker 1: in the body of Christ. There is no bond servant

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Speaker 1: or free person. But Christ is all and in all,

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Speaker 1: so everybody becomes equal under Christ. And that is why

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Speaker 1: I absolutely can't stand when I hear people say that

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Speaker 1: Christianity is the white man's religion. First and foremost, Jesus

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Speaker 1: was not a white man, neither was Paul, and neither

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Speaker 1: were any of the authors of the Old or New Testaments,

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Speaker 1: with the possible exception of Luke. He may have been

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Speaker 1: white because he was a gentile. I don't know. But

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Speaker 1: Christianity is for everybody, and that is what Paul is

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Speaker 1: saying right here that Jewish people and Greek people when

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Speaker 1: they accept Jesus, they become one and the same. They

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Speaker 1: become part of the body of Christ. Same goes for

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Speaker 1: the Scythian and the Roman person, the circumcised and the uncircumcised,

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Speaker 1: the bond servant and the free person. All of these

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Speaker 1: people are now one under Christ. And that is why

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Speaker 1: Paul says, but Christ is all and in all. Christ

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Speaker 1: becomes the unifier with all of these people, who couldn't

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Speaker 1: be more different than one another. The message of Jesus

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Speaker 1: is unifying because we all worship the same God, who

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Speaker 1: loves each and every one of us, regardless of our race,

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Speaker 1: regardless of our backgrounds, regardless of our culture. And Jesus

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Speaker 1: loves all of us. He plays no favorites, and we

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Speaker 1: all become equal and unified under Christ when we finally

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Speaker 1: believe in Him. And then, to finish this idea, Paul

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Speaker 1: says in verse twelve, put on therefore, as God's chosen ones,

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Speaker 1: holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility,

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Speaker 1: and perseverance, bearing with one another and forgiving each other.

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Speaker 1: If any man has a complaint against any even as

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Speaker 1: Christ forgave you, so, you also do at the beginning

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Speaker 1: Paul gave this list of all of these sins that

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Speaker 1: we should avoid, and now Paul finishes with a list

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Speaker 1: of things that we should do as Christians. We should

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Speaker 1: have a heart of compassion. We should have a heart

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Speaker 1: of kindness, of lowliness and humility and perseverance, bearing with

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Speaker 1: one another and forgiving each other, even if we have

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Speaker 1: complaints against each other. Even if somebody offends us, we

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Speaker 1: are supp host to forgive them, and man, that is

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Speaker 1: so difficult, but we do it because Christ forgave us.

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Speaker 1: And if we are going to live like Jesus, we

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Speaker 1: must also learn to be forgiving. Because the one thing

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Speaker 1: that Jesus was, well, he was many things, but the

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Speaker 1: one thing he came to do was he came to forgive.

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Speaker 1: And as Jesus forgave us for our sins and our

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Speaker 1: great offenses against him, we should also forgive the people

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Speaker 1: who offend us, even if they don't ask for forgiveness.

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Speaker 1: Because notice that that is not qualified here. It says

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Speaker 1: if any of us have a complaint against any as

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Speaker 1: Christ forgave us, so we should also do for others.

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Speaker 1: So I really feel like God is trying to tell

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Speaker 1: me something because I've come across three different passages on

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Speaker 1: forgiveness today alone, and I do know that I'm actually

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Speaker 1: struggling with unforgiveness towards somebody right now, and so I

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Speaker 1: kind of think that God is trying to get through

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Speaker 1: with me somehow. Anyway, faithful listeners, I hope you enjoyed

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Speaker 1: today's episode, and I hope that it was convicting because

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Speaker 1: it was for me. And if it was convicting, tell

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Speaker 1: people that the Bible Explain podcast exists, and also go

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Speaker 1: over to Apple Podcasts and rate the podcast and write

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Speaker 1: a nice little review. And if I see your review

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Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening from, I may

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Speaker 1: in fact read it here on the podcast. But faithful listeners,

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Speaker 1: have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your day. I'll see

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Speaker 1: you guys tomorrow. Write in early six am or whenever

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Speaker 1: you choose to wake up and listen for an episode

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Speaker 1: from First Chronicles where we'll talk about the Ammonites offending

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Speaker 1: the Israelites so badly that David actually goes to war

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Speaker 1: with them. That will be the discussion for tomorrow. Until then,

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Speaker 1: happy listening, and God bless Indy bas