"Why Is It Hard to Repent?" RESCUE RADIO with Marjorie Cole

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I have an emergency. What is your location?

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Rescue Radio.

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'Cause there's a war for your soul. Yes, Father God,

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we thank you, Lord, for the deliverance, the healing, the revelation,

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the restoration, and your return. We thank you, Jesus, that your

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kingdom come, your will be done in and through us indeed,

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even as it's being done and declared in heaven, that you've chosen to use

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us as your method, your instruments of righteousness

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to bring the kingdom back to the earth. And Lord God, bring righteousness

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and truth. So God, give us wisdom, give us eyes to see, ears to hear,

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all of us today that are listening, hearts to walk in

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the fullness of the power to which you have appointed and anointed us.

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I thank you, Jesus, for being so willing to lay

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down your life and do the hard thing, give your blood,

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your sacrifice for our blood, for exchanging your

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life for ours in that wonderful act of love

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and sacrifice on the cross. And we thank you, Lord, that if there's

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anyone listening today that doesn't have and accepted that free gift of

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salvation and are still trying to buy your way into heaven,

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Give your heart to Jesus right now and settle it and

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go forward with life eternal instead of

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just temporary life. And Father, I thank you also that you've given

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us power over all the power of the enemy, that nothing shall by any means

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hurt us. We bind the powers of darkness today, those that would interfere

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with this beautiful day that you've given us to accomplish your work. We declare your

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kingdom come in the lives of others and that the protections of

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the Holy Spirit be upon all of your people, Father God.

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Give us your wisdom. Now you said, if any man likes wisdom, let him ask

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of God. We need wisdom for everything, Lord. We can't figure anything

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out without you. And we pray now that you'd cover us and keep us in

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the promise of your blood covenant over us, that no weapon

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formed against us will prosper. No word said, deed done, or action taken

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against us will be used by the enemy, will be able to be used by

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the enemy, that he cannot move forward with his agenda,

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his plans against us or our families. Or those who work for us, pray for

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us, love us, or come to us for help, that they will all be filled

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with your revelation, your truth, and your wisdom, your repentance

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and your goodness. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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Amen. Well, so, you know, one of the things that's always been a question in

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my mind is when you work with people, is it— why is it so hard

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for them to repent? Why was it so hard for us to repent? I think

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it's a process, obviously, of coming into the place of revelation

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and, oh, you know, I can't do this on my own. Oh, there's something missing.

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Oh, you know, my great and grand and wonderful

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and young life is getting older. So what's going to be the end of

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all of this? And so at some point people begin to maybe ask those questions,

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but why is it so hard for us to admit even in the present moment

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that we're wrong? Say for example, Jerry, when some people are confronted

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with their their sin or with the scripture. Um, they,

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they hold to their own kind of— they

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stiffen, they stubborn stiffen their neck. They kind of dig in their heels

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and they don't want to, um, give into the fact

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that we could actually have been being lied to all these days

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or years, not only by our churches, but by our government, by everything.

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We could have been lied to. This whole thing, this whole thing that we've been

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believing is the truth, could have been truly a setup, and we've been—

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but why is it so hard to surrender to the truth?

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Well, God, he's frustrated with that

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situation. I don't know if he gets frustrated, but he does get angry about things.

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I think so. In the Old Testament, we see that constantly

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over and over and over and over again. The truth was brought and people

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didn't want to accept the truth. And God said in Jeremiah

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3:13, only acknowledge your iniquity. That you

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have transgressed against the Lord your God and have scattered your charms

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to alien deities under every green tree,

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and that you have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord.

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And it's— what does that mean? Every green tree,

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scattered your charms. What, what is God referring

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to there? Idolatry. They had idols,

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you know. They were not worshiping the Lord their God. They were submitting

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to pagan idols. Now, we have our idols here. We don't necessarily

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bow down to statues, but we have images of people,

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people that we worship, things that we worship, fear that we worship.

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Yeah, fear, big one. Uh, you know,

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rebellion, all that. And it's interesting here too,

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I want to just read this from Hosea, uh,

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the book of Hosea. Chapter 5, verse 15,

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God says, I will return again to my place till

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they acknowledge their offense. Then they will

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seek my face. In their affliction, they will earnestly

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seek me. So the affliction is what brings us back into that place of earnest,

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sincere seeking of God. You know, in Deuteronomy 28:32,

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he— Moses is giving his final discourse, his final farewell

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to the people because after that he speaks 32. He goes, he's been told

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to go up onto the mountain and die. Interesting. Well, you just go up there

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and lay down and die. That's what God said. But anyway, in Jeshurun, in 32:15,

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it says, but Jeshurun,

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that's referring to the children of Israel. Israel, yes. Grew fat

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and kicked. They grew fat. They grew thick.

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Grew thick. You have covered— you are covered with fat.

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Then he forsook God who made him and scornfully

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esteemed the rock of his salvation. They provoked him,

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God, to jealousy with foreign gods. With abominations they provoked

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him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to

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God, to gods they did not know, new gods,

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new arrivals that your fathers did not know.

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In other words, they're forsaking the God, the traditions, the commandments

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God had given them. And so they

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have all forgotten the God who fathered

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you. So this is kind of a position where I think all human beings

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and every individual kind of comes to. You either don't know about God in the

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beginning, or you find him and then forsake him. This seems to be kind

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of the pattern. So he was— these children

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who were perverse. They were a perverse generation,

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children in whom is no faith. They have provoked me to jealousy by what

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is not God. They have moved me to anger by their foolish idols.

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Yeah, and God again, and Hosea chapter 5,

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verse 15, God says, okay, really, I'm not gonna do much.

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I'm gonna return to my place. I'm just gonna,

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I can't really do much for you until you acknowledge

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your offense. Yeah, until you recognize it, exactly. And that's really true.

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Until, you know, adversity brings us to that place

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a lot of times of recognizing. And sometimes, you know, we just have to stew

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in our own juice, so to speak, for a while until we realize, man,

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this is not working. It's like the prodigal son, you know.

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He came to the place of acknowledging his sin. He said

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he was so— yeah, he was empty, he uncomfortable, he was

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pain— in pain, he was abandoned, he was lost, starving.

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And he came to the place, he— it says he came to himself,

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which means like, oh my, what am I doing here in

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the pigpen? I'm, I'm eating stuff that

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the pigs won't even eat just to survive. So many people

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are just— all they're trying to do is survive. It seems like the world

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is just kind of in an ebb and flow of evil, prosperity,

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repentance. Idolatry kind of go— it's like a cycle, you know.

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When you, when you mentioned about Jeshurun growing,

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becoming fat and kicked, rebellion came in,

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their blessings turned to curses. They were so blessed

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they thought, oh man, you know, we're okay, we can do what we want to

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do, and, and it's not gonna, you know, affect us. Now it's not

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really gonna— well, it's like, it's where we kind of sometimes feel like we've arrived,

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we're comfortable, we're satisfied in our own strength,

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we're confident. In our own achievements.

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We have found the good life of our hand and do not

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realize that we're poor, wretched, blind, and naked. We've become deceived by

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our own achievements and blessings. Isn't that crazy that we can

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actually be deceived by our own, by the blessings that God has given us

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rather than giving God the glory and being

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thankful? You know, Romans chapter 1, it talks about the

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downfall of mankind was that they knew God,

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but they were not thankful. You know what? This piece on thankfulness is really

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important because I think it's an antidote to becoming lethargic

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and fat and lazy. Because, you know, when you, when you don't thank God,

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you're not acknowledging the source of your blessings. Then it's,

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you're tempted to become tricked into believing it's mine. I did, I deserved

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it. I earned it. It's mine. You know? And so we hold,

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We don't, we are not thankful. So I'm going to tell you something. Here's a

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key to your long life. Here's a key to a good day.

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Here's the key to a better relationship with your wife or husband or

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your child is to be thankful out loud in acknowledging,

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not in a sarcastic way, but in a way of, God, you've got

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this. God, I am thankful. God, thank you. Because when you're doing that,

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you're reconnecting. Like you said in Romans 1, they were not thankful.

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But they, they, they lost their connection with God and they became vain in

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their imaginations and they were in their foolish hearts were darkened.

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So thankfulness is a way to stay connected,

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but there's also other things that go on, I believe, in our

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lives that we don't realize something there that, that it's

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making it hard for us to admit or repent or confess or admit

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we're wrong or apologize, um, or, or lay

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down our weapons, so to speak. There's something, inside that

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actually people don't realize they're being set up. They're being

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imitated. There's a set of spirits inside that

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impersonate us and they match us. They make us

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think that what we're thinking is our own thoughts, but they're actually tempting us to

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agree with what they have put in our mind. For example,

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I am sad. I am depressed. I'm never going to make it.

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I'm left out. No one loves me. All of these thoughts that go into your

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mind, aren't coming from the Holy Spirit.

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They're not coming from the Word of God. They're coming from a set

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of spirits that are designed to take you

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out. These are the deceivers. Um, for we do not— the Bible says

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we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities.

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These entities that do not want you to discover

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who you really are, they set up their activities

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within our minds, within our hearts to block the work of the Holy Spirit,

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to block our consciences, to try

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to persuade us to stay stiffened and stubborn and self-indulgent

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or self-supplying

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our own things. They don't want us to soften or

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repent or turn and be saved. Jeremiah 8:5,

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the question is asked, Why has this people slidden back?

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Jerusalem, that may be the people of God, the city of God, a perpetual—

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in a perpetual backsliding. They keep going the wrong direction.

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They keep going backwards. Why is it? And the answer is there,

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given in that verse. They hold fast to deceit.

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Deceit. Yeah, they refuse to return.

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They refuse to admit that they're wrong. They refuse to admit they're going the wrong

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way or that they've been deceived. In verse 6,

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it says, no man repented of his wickedness saying, what have I done?

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Everyone has turned to his own course as

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the horse rushes into the battle. Right. And,

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and you know, the thing is we don't realize we're running into a battle.

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We don't realize that we've taken the bit into our own teeth

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and that we're doing our own thing and driving our own lives.

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And ultimately driving your own life

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by another force other than God is going to end up in

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a crash somewhere, some type of thing. But that's

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the mercy of God. Because if God would let you just go headlong into your

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destruction with no barriers, no resistance

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to that, no way to turn around, then we would be completely

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lost. So the deceitfulness of sin hardens us.

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It actually makes us bullheaded. It makes us stubborn. It makes

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us unwilling to hear what God is saying.

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3:13 warns us that any one of us would be hardened

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through the deceitfulness of sin. The deceitfulness

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of sin hardens our hearts. And it's interesting, uh,

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in Jeremiah again, chapter 9, verse 6— well,

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verses 5 and 6— everyone will deceive his neighbor and

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will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies.

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They weary themselves to commit iniquity. And verse 6,

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your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit.

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Right. Through deceit they refuse to know

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me, says the Lord. God in Deuteronomy

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is very graphic about this. In 32:33, he says, their wine is

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the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of cobras. What we're drinking

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is the, the poison of the lies of the serpents

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who have turned— the serpent who has turned against God and is

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trying to turn us against God. It's like we have to— we've been poisoned.

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We've been tranquilized. We have been in

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this trance. We need to wake up from this enchantment,

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this trance. So until— unless we

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get fully taken over, given over to the

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thoughts and the plans of evil, You know, we are

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by nature children and naive. We are by nature dull

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and deceived and uninterested in

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the pursuit of anything other than our own selves. This is where

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self becomes God, where your plan, your empire, your goal,

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or your drug, or your fear, or your whatever becomes the

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motivating force in your life. And I think for some people,

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It's hard to admit you're wrong because here's, I always say this,

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if you admit you're wrong, then you're not right. And if you're not right,

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then you're wrong. And we don't want to be wrong. So we want to push

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our agenda, our interpretation

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of what is going on out there, that we have got

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it. We've got it all figured out. We know that we're the foundation of truth

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in our own selves. And we refuse to take the correction. We refuse to take

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the instruction. Of the Word of God, or even as the Word

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of God is sent to us through the prophets, through the Holy Spirit, through other

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faithful servants of the Lord. And so many of us think,

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nobody's gonna tell me what to do. Nobody's gonna, not even

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God. I'm just gonna do my own deal. And it's basically,

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it's what we just read here. It's about deception.

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There's a deception. We think that we've got it

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together. You know, we think we're our own people. We're— we

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have— we're our own. We have our own lips, our own tongue. We're going to

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say what we're going to say. We're going to do what we're going to do.

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And, and we're not going to turn away from that. And, and it's, it's a,

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it's a stubbornness. It's a rebellion

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that we just keep pushing, pushing, pushing in the wrong

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way. We've been lied to so much by the enemy.

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And we get so bullheaded in pushing forward

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with our ways. Yeah. But the thing is, you know, and sometimes when we're

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pushing like that, um, it is really, we're pushing against God's remedy

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for our, for our liberation. You know, people are struggling in,

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um, you know, their calamities and their troubles and their conundrums

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and their difficulties, their health issues, their child situations,

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their, their every, you know, everything seems to be difficult and hard.

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And, and, The more it gets, the worse it gets, the more

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we seem to tighten our grip on the lie instead

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of saying, what can I, what is going on here? Why is this happening?

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What is the Lord trying to get to me and say to me? And can,

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where is humility? Where is the gift of

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revelation and repentance that causes us

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to have that aha moment? Oh, wait a minute here.

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Sometimes it's a gradual revelation. Like the sun rising

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up in the morning. And sometimes it's like a sudden burst. But the

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thing is, you know, if your life is not going well,

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if everything seems to be so hard, too hard, and you're running out of your

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own strength to make it work or to figure it out or to fix it,

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the best thing you can do, the wisest thing you can do is actually

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stop trying to fix your life and surrender

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it and say, Lord, what do I need to know here? Something is not working.

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You know, it's like an old car that you keep trying to drive. And every

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time you try to start it, it just doesn't work or kills on the way

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to wherever. And you just, you just don't say, well, what's wrong here?

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You just kind of keep driving that old car. Let's ask the

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Lord, what is going on in my life? Why is my life so hard?

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Why is it that everybody else seems to be doing well and I get beat

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up all the time with all these bad things, this bad luck, this misfortune,

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this injustice, whatever. That's not God's plan for your life,

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that you should be so struck down. God's plan is to bless

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you with abundance. But many of us, the bullhead, he has to allow the

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calamity and the trouble. And that's what the whole history of mankind has been,

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is it's an ebb and flow. They love God, they serve God, they follow God,

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and then boom, they're going, then they're good on their top of the mountain.

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And so then they begin to take matters into their own hands. And then we

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sink down back into that idolatry. And Satan is just there to,

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to manipulate all of these seasons and cause us to

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drift away from God so that he can take over.

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So, you know, the best thing you can do for yourself is

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stop and say, ask a question. What's going on here? Why is my

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life like this? Why is it so difficult? Or why is it

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that I have no joy? I've got all these things. I'm fat and well-supplied,

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and yet I have no joy. I have no motivation. Nothing is

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enough. I always got to go get something else to be happy for a moment.

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These two, opposites are the same thing.

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You don't have the thankfulness. You don't have the gratitude. You don't have the wisdom.

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You don't have the revelation of God. So it can be,

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you know, we just don't want to hear the word. And then the other thing

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is I'm afraid if I listen to someone, I'm going to be deceived. They're going

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to lie to me. They're going to trick me. They're going to pull me into

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their religion. They're going to pull me into their position. And I don't want

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anybody else's position. I want my own. But the thing is that

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the, irony is most of us are not even, don't even know who we are

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to begin with. And so we're not even listening to ourselves when we think we

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are actually listening to those impersonators of us, as Paul said, the ones,

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something inside of me that's causing me to do what I don't want to do.

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And yet he's believing, deceiving you into believing that's what you want to do.

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Do you want to drink yourself to death? Do you want to die of overdose?

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Do you want to, do you want to, um, you know, have your children leave

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and never talk to you again? Do you want these things? No. But, but we

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have to say, okay, wait a minute, then something is not working here because with

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God, when we're going God's way, there is blessing. Thing. The blessings

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come through thanksgiving. They come through health.

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They come through opportunities. They come through knowing that you are loved.

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And I want to just read out of the book of Proverbs for a minute.

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This is kind of interesting too. Wisdom, chapter 9,

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talking about wisdom has built her house and then goes down to verse

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9. And she says, come— and

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verse 4, whoever is simple, Let him turn in here. So she's

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offering this banquet. As for him who lacks

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understanding, she says to him, come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine

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which I have prepared or mixed. Forsake foolishness

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and live and go in the way of understanding.

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Then we have an interesting set of verses next. In verse 7,

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he who reproves a scoffer gets shame for himself.

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He who rebukes a wicked man gets himself a blemish.

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Okay. What's she saying there? You know, he who reproves, you who correct

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a scoffer, someone who thinks they know it all, someone who thinks they've got it

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all together. Um, that person that you're reproving

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or correcting is going to find fault with you, cast it

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back on you, accuse you of something, get shame. So he's going to put

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shame back on you because he doesn't want to hear what you're saying.

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And he who rebukes a wicked man gets a blemish himself.

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So rebuking a wicked man, they're going to retaliate.

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You deal with a witch and they're going to retaliate. You deal

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with people who don't want to hear the truth and they're going to find something

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wrong with you. So most of us then, we don't even say anything. We don't,

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we just, and it's okay sometimes not to say something, but when the Holy Spirit

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says to do it, then do it. Say it. He says, forsake foolishness

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and live, and go in the way of understanding.

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Next verse. Do not reprove a scoffer lest he hate

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you. Rebuke a wise man and he will, he will love you. So he's

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saying do and don't. He's saying, if you reprove a scoffer,

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he's going to find something wrong with you. If you rebuke a wicked

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man, he's going to point out your fault. And then it says in verse

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8, do not reprove a scoffer lest he hate you. So in other words,

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There's a time to say nothing. There's a time to say

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something. So when you have this place, this situation,

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the scoffer is not ready to hear, then be wise and

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don't say anything. But if you rebuke a wise man or correct a wise

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man or instruct a wise man, he will love you. He will say, thank you.

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So if you're teaching a wise man, he will appreciate

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what you're instructing him. To do. Give instruction to a wise man, he will be

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wiser still. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning.

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So wisdom and justice allow you

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to receive good instruction. So if you're seeking wisdom,

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the Bible says ask and you shall receive. Seek wisdom, then you're

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going to increase in learning. Then verse 10, the fear of the Lord is

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the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord, not,

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not fear of man. Not trying to please man.

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Um, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For by me,

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wisdom, your days will be multiplied and the years of your life

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will be added to you. If you are wise, you are wise for

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yourself. If you scoff, you alone will bear it. So if you don't receive correction,

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instruction, and wisdom, then you're going to bear the fruit of that scoffing

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and of that rebellion and that rejection. Yeah,

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exactly. And so there is a time— there's some of the other Proverbs that

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talk about you know, rebuke a scoffer lest

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he be wise in his own conceits.

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So, so there's two sides of a coin. There's time, there's time

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to rebuke a scoffer and there's times not

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to. Right. So we, we have to know what time

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it is, what time it is. But there's, there's something that just— there's

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something in the heart of man that just wants

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to rebel and resist the truth. And that is not you, because you're not built

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to resist the truth. You're built by God to love the truth. So if that

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resistance is in you and that, you know, you know, I understand

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many of us have been betrayed, tricked, lied to, and there is a, there's a

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sense of caution, but you also have the Holy Spirit inside of you who

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wants to lead you into all truth. So connect

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with him, consult the Holy Spirit inside of you and your conscience

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and the Holy Spirit and the word of God will always, you know,

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bear witness with the truth. Um, unless of course your conscience

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has been seared and that's a possibility, but the Holy Spirit is never hardened.

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He's never seared and the word of God does not change. So in

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all these things, we need to understand that God has a path for us and

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the path is wisdom and the path is truth and the path

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is freedom and the path is blessing. And trust the Holy Spirit.

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Don't resist the Holy Spirit. Lean not unto your own understandings.

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Stephen, before he was martyred in the book of Acts,

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We see that he said, you always— he was rebuking these hard

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religious people. He said, you always resist the Holy Spirit.

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Don't resist the Holy Spirit. Resist the

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spirit of darkness. Recognize the enemy that's

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just lying to you and dragging you through the weeds.

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And acknowledge the Lord and acknowledge

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the Spirit of God. And the thing is too, is this whole deal about

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acknowledging, you know, what does it mean to acknowledge

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our sin? You know, David acknowledged

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his sin of adultery. Psalm 51, that's a good one

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to read. He said he humbled himself. He says, I have trespassed.

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He just fully admitted, didn't try to cover

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it up. He tried to cover it up at first, and then finally he came

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to a place of saying, you know what, I have sinned.

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Forgive me, cleanse me, and everything. So what— Can I say

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something about David? So because of that moment of repentance,

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the kingdom was kept. He kept the kingdom. He didn't lose the kingdom.

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Saul, his predecessor, when he was confronted with his sin,

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didn't repent and he lost the kingdom. So David,

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in that moment of vulnerability and penitent heart,

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Uh, confession actually saved

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the kingdom and saved God's plan. He said,

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um, he says in verse 3, he says,

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for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin

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is always before you. Against you, you only, have I sinned and

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done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just

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when you speak and blameless when you judge. And he goes on, he said,

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you desire truth in the inward parts. And in the hidden parts

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you make me to know wisdom. New wisdom.

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And basically what the acknowledgment is, is simply knowing and recognizing

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that, hey, I've missed it here, or I've been lied to. I've been lied

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to. And admit it. Yeah. And you don't have to, you know, you don't have

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to confess, right? And confess it. In other words, you come into an agreement.

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Yes, that's wrong. I agree that I messed up here.

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And then to turn from it and turn to God. So just sometimes people

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confess their sins all the time. They confess, confess,

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confess, but they don't repent or turn around. Yeah, so it's turning

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from that, confessing, admitting,

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confessing, turning from that. And you know what,

27:48.425 --> 27:52.128
it's like this too. When you repent, you know, you're actually

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betraying the betrayer. So Satan lied to you, said you could

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do it yourself, You got your own, you know, don't, don't trust in God,

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be your own man, whatever. So when you repent, you're actually

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moving from a position of defending the lie and the

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liar to rebuking him. So Father God,

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we thank you for the courage, the courage to stand and having

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done all to stand, to cry out for wisdom so that we

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will not be ashamed on that day of reckoning, that we will be

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mighty warriors and faithful. You said that you are faithful,

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but we are also called to be faithful to you. So Father,

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this is our opportunity. This is our wonderful life

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to give it back to you, to see what you can make of it when

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we've messed it all up. So Father, I thank you for giving us courage to

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repent and to be wise and to walk in the fullness of your

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freedom. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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Amen. Well, you've got a lot

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of tools, a lot of weapons that can help. And what about

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the original? Let's go back to the original book that

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you wrote, Taking the Devil to Court. Tell us about that. Oh yeah, that's many

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years ago. It's still true. Every bit of it's still true. I went to revise

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it, revise it, and there was nothing to revise. All I had to do is

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add some more stuff that I'd learned on the way. But Taking the Devil to

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Court came out of my, my first counseling Um,

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uh, experiences working with people who are very addicted,

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demonized, full of witchcraft. And so

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deliverance, inner healing. And so God was teaching me through those counseling

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sessions what was really going on in the people's lives.

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And it was tremendous revelations for me and I think

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very helpful for the people. So Taking the Devil to Court is like, I call

29:44.160 --> 29:47.338
it a primer, you know, there's the primer and then you start with your reading

29:47.371 --> 29:51.523
books. It's the beginning. It's the, it's the foundation for what

29:51.603 --> 29:54.938
all comes after it. So Taking the Devil to Court, you can find it on

29:55.226 --> 29:58.240
liferecovery.com or on Amazon. Amazon.

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Okay. So thank you guys for joining us today. Be blessed. And we pray that

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you would have victory over the darkness in your life

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this day and in the days to come in Jesus' name. Yes.

30:10.456 --> 30:13.469
Amen. Be encouraged in the Lord our God. Yes.

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I have an emergency. What is your location?

30:23.148 --> 30:40.161
Rescue Radio,

30:40.550 --> 30:42.221
'cause there's a war for your soul.