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I wonder this,
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whether I'm speaking just now
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to any perhaps young person,
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anybody that's got parents
that are Christians here.
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Maybe you're an adult.
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Do you have thoughts -
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this is the question -
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especially you young people,
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do any of you have thoughts in your heart
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that are exactly like the ones
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that Eve had right before she ate?
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"God's holding out."
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You've got some idea God
is some sort of monster.
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He's against you.
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"He's against me!"
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"It just feels like He's against me."
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It feels like I can never do right.
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It feels like He's always
trying to take away the fun.
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He's always trying to
take away the fulfillment.
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He's always trying to spoil
the enjoyment of life.
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Do you think to yourself:
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you know what, I'm going to give up
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this Christianity stuff.
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I don't like this.
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I don't like it that my
parents bring me here.
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I've got to get away.
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Do you feel like it's holding you down?
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It's so restrictive.
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It's so inconvenient.
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It's robbed you of so much.
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It's so narrow.
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Perhaps you dream about life out there.
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"Oh, I'm missing it!"
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You can watch the movies
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or you can watch the commercials.
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Young people and all the glory, right?
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The beautiful cars and
they go to the beach
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and they climb the mountains
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and they're skiing.
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You watch all this and it's like wow,
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I'm being robbed of something!
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I've got to go to that church on Sunday
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with my parents. Ugh!
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Christians look so miserable.
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People out there look like
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they're having such fun
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and they're at the bars.
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They've got all these women
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and all these men
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and everybody's beautiful.
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And I come here.
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It's on the East side
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and it looks like an old warehouse.
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We go in there and we hear this
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and all it is is rules, rules, rules!
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And you see, the devil:
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"Eve, it's just rules."
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"He won't let you eat of
any tree in the garden."
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And you know that's
how he put it at first.
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"Has God said you can't eat
of any tree in the garden?"
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He just tried to put
that thought in there.
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"It's just so restrictive!
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See how restrictive He is?
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He won't let you eat
any tree in the garden."
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But she messed up.
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You don't start dialoging with him.
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"Well, no, that's not
exactly what He said..."
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Any of you young people,
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you're waiting,
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eager.
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Just waiting to really start living.
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By the way, you wouldn't be
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the first one to feel that way.
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David's over here nodding.
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You know what?
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I was 16 one time.
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I was 18 one time.
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I was 21 one time.
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The sound of the word "Gospel" -
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it's like, that just sounds
kind of religious.
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And I don't know what all that means,
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but it doesn't sound
like good news in my ears.
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It sounds narrow.
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It sounds like it's going
to cramp my style.
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I want the kind of religion
where there's a God,
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He smiles on me,
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when I die I'm going to go to heaven,
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but let me have my sin.
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Let me live it up.
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That's what I wanted.
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All that stuff?
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That sounds like rattling chains
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that you're going to tie me up with.
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And seriously, I mean I would have been.
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You put me in a church on a Sunday,
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I would have been like a caged animal.
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Like let me out of here!
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So you wouldn't be the first
one that's felt that way.
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Lots of us have felt that way.
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We know.
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Do you imagine somehow God
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and this Christian way of life -
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it's against you?
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"God is against me."
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See, that's what Satan wanted her to feel,
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that God is against you.
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God's an enemy. God's a monster.
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God's jealous. God's small. God's selfish.
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The real issue isn't
how shiny the fruit is.
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The real issue is:
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This is a God you've got to get away from,
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break free from.
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This is a God who is opposed
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to your best interests,
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opposed to your joy, opposed to your fun,
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opposed to your happiness.
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God's unfair.
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He wants you to doubt His goodness.
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You see this for what it is.
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It's the same old thing
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that Adam and Eve did then,
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and it just gets repeated today.
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You say what do you mean?
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Do you know what God did for them?
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There's a peach tree.
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No worms.
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Try that.
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I don't know how it was,
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but can you imagine the
Lord walking with them
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in the cool of the garden.
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He takes them over to the peach tree
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and He says, "Adam, Eve, try this one."
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"I designed this one and it's good."
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"Try this one."
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Like, "wow! That's really good!"
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"Have you ever had a strawberry?"
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"What's that?"
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"Come over here!"
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"Try that!"
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In spite of all that God had done for them
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they believed the lie.
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And that's what people
go on believing today.
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People look at family.
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I have family.
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I get together with them
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at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
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I have family. (incomplete thought)
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A man gets married - God created sex.
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The devil didn't create that.
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Intimacy, warmth.
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A home.
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A place you go in when
it's cold and it's warm,
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or you go in when it's hot and it's cool.
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And there's food.
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We can walk into an HEB or a Costco today
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and the food!
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Look what God has given to us.
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And see, you young people,
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you've got clothing on.
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I remember one time
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we were down at the homeless shelter
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and we had a Korean family with us.
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And the husband looked.
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Do you know what a lot
of the homeless people do?
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Clothes are so abundant
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that they get brand new clothes,
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they wear them, and when they're dirty,
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they just throw them away.
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That's what a lot of homeless people do
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because clothing is so abundant.
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And this Korean man looked at a shirt
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that a homeless person
just cast on the ground.
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He said in Korea, you'd never see that.
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We have so much.
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God has given you so much
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and you say God's against me.
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The sunset, the pleasures of this world,
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the beauties, the comforts.
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"But God's against me!"
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Look at Golgotha!
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Hear the Son of God:
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"My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me?"
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God sent His Son into this world
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to die for sinners.
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"But God's against me!"
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"God's against me!"
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You need to wake up to the facts!
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That's insanity!
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He's not against you!
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God's kindness is meant
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to lead you to repentance.
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It's the lie of the devil.
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He's not against you.
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And His commandments
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are meant for your safety.
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Repent - change your mind
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about the way you're running to hell.
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Is that so bad?
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Is that so offensive to you?
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Change your mind.
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Change your mind about this.
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Change! Turn!
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Turn from running over the cliff.
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It's so perilous.
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It's leading to your destruction.
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Embrace My Son.
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He'll take you to paradise.
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He'll be a Husband to you.
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Oh, there are joys and
pleasures forevermore
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at His right hand.
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The devil told our first parents:
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"Don't believe it.
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Don't trust God.
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He can't be trusted.
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Trust me.
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I'll tell you the truth."
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But it wasn't the truth.
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He murdered them.
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And he's been a murderer
from the beginning.
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And they did die.
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He said, "eat it."
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"Eat as much as you like."
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"You won't die."
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But they did die.
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And you see God is bidding you:
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Life. Life. Eternal life.
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I offer it to you.
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An abundance of life.
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A paradise of life.
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This excerpt was taken
from the full sermon:
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The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil
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by Tim Conway from Genesis 2.