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You know the problem is, we make God out to be
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a very small god when we say we can
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lose our salvation.
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(in response to a comment)
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Yeah, He's not strong enough to keep us.
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But...
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He's not only strong enough to keep us,
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He's strong enough to keep us doing good to the end.
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He's strong enough to keep us persevering,
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all the way.
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You see, you make God weak either way.
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If you say, God can't keep us, you make Him weak.
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And if you say, we're going to make it,
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but we're not going to make it doing good works,
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you make Him weak too.
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Because you're saying basically, He's going to drop the ball.
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Those who bear fruit are the true deal.
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Those who don't bring forth fruit,
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aren't the real deal.
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And they fall out.
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Why do people fall out?
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We know it.
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This has been true of Christianity for 2000 years.
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People start the race and they fall out. Why?
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You've got Demas. What type of soil was he?
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I'd say he was a pretty good indicator of the third type.
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What happened? Cares and riches.
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What'd he do? He loved the world. He fell out.
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Paul talks about others that made shipwreck of the faith.
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Why do people make shipwreck?
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What about Judas?
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He made shipwreck.
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People right in Paul's own company made shipwreck.
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Brethren, it's been that way throughout history.
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People don't make it to the end.
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Christ says if you don't endure...
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So you have it from both standpoints.
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You have the truths that God gives to us
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that are meant to encourage us.
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Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ.
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My faith sinks its teeth in that.
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But you know what, there are some people
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that when the allurements of the world come along,
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they look at that, and they look at the world,
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and they'd rather have the world.
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It doesn't mean anything to them that the Bible says,
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nothing can separate them from the love of Christ.
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They don't care.
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They don't have faith to even lay hold on that.
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They're looking at the worldly things over here,
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and they weigh it out, and they go.
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You know why the true Christian doesn't bail out
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when the trails come?
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Because he wants Christ more than anything else.
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He wants Christ. He loves Christ.
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And when trial comes, He doesn't like the trial,
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any better than the other guy.
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But he wants Christ more than he wants ease.
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He wants Christ more than he wants money.
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He wants Christ more than he wants anything else.
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And so no matter how hard the trial gets,
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even Paul getting beat by the rods,
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and scourged, and in the sea, and false brethren,
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and all that came upon him,
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he never bailed out of the race, why?
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For him to live was Christ,
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and to die was gain to be with Christ.
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Be absent from the body and present with the Lord.
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Folks, when Christ is your all, you'll hold the line.
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No matter what comes, no matter what riches
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you're tempted with, no matter what trials come,
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no matter what persecutions come,
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no matter what pain, suffering, sorrows...
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you'll toe the line. Why?
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Because, it comes back to faith.
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Faith believes in a Christ we have never seen.
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Bottom line: the only way people will hang on to Christ
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at the expense of everything else
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is if they have a faith that really believes
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if somehow in their faith, they've seen in their mind's eye
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the beauties, and the glory, and the preciousness of Christ.
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That in their estimation outweighs everything.
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We love Him, folks, not having seen Him.
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We believe in an unseen Christ.
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You and I haven't seen Him.
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There was Thomas,
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"My Lord and my God."
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And Jesus said to him, "you believe - you've seen,
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blessed are those who believe and they haven't seen."
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Right?
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The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit.
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And if you read you see where that love's coming from;
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it's coming out of the cross.
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And I would say this, that bottom line,
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if somebody is truly saved,
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they love Christ,
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they believe Christ, they trust Christ,
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they look to the cross and they find hope in Christ,
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and the Spirit of God energizes that look to the cross
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and floods that person from one degree to another
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with assurance.
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And that Spirit is the Spirit of adoption that is
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bearing witness.
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And it's that Spirit of adoption that brings
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an inner compulsion now to look at God
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not as a far and a distant God,
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but as a God who is very close
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and who's a Father. We cry, "Abba, Father."
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And so, bottom line is, the Christian feeds
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and finds his strength in Christ.
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The Spirit of God - Christ said that He was
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going to send a Helper or a Comforter.
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And He said that "He's going to glorify Me."
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I guarantee this, no matter what operation
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the Spirit is involved with, Christ is the focus,
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Christ is always the focus, not the Spirit.
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Christ is the focus.
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The man doesn't exist who has true assurance
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from the Spirit and no works.
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It's a strawman.
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The man who in the end falls out,
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was a man maybe who in self-righteousness
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was striving to please God in his own merits;
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he's a man who maybe was a Pharisee
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and he put up a good outer shell show;
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he had confidence in a lot of things,
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maybe in his church going, maybe in his efforts,
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but like Demas, he ends up falling out.
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But I guarantee you,
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whatever confidence he had was a vain confidence,
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and it wasn't a Spirit of God wrought thing.
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And so, no I would adamantly say that's not true.
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The true Christian doesn't all of a sudden
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find out at the end of the race that he's true.
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The true Christian had that Spirit of God indwelling,
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and there was true, living manifestations of His presence
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that gave the believer confidence.
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And where the Spirit gives confidence,
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the Spirit also works love and works the fruits of the Spirit
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and works these works in us, giving us the desires,
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giving us the compulsion, giving us a love for God
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that compels us and constrains us by the love of Christ
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to carry this out.
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And the two go hand in hand.
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Where men and women fall out of the race,
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they didn't have that.
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They had confidence and they believed certain things,
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but in the end it was a vain confidence.
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And I believe the truth is the flags were always there,
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because Jesus Christ says this in Matthew 7,
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"Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness."
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And bottom line, it was there.
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There was lawlessness.
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The Spirit of God was not communicating with them
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the way the Spirit of God does.
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Because they weren't children.
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And in the end, it wasn't true.
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We have a lot of people with vain confidence.
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A lot of people believing that everything is ok,
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but it's vain.
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The Bible never is going to give confidence
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to a person who's walking a wicked life
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to believe that the power of God has ever transformed them.
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They shouldn't expect to have any hope.
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Think about 1 John.
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What are the proofs in 1 John that we're true believers?
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We keep His commandments.
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We walk as He walked.
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We have answer to prayer.
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We love the brethren.
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Basically, you go through all these proofs,
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and you get to the last chapter and he says
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I write things things that you might have assurance.
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And there's no question about it.
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Folks, I don't know how it is with you...
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I look at the cross, and the Spirit of God assures me
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I am His child.
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Then I look at my life and I see,
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I'm not what I used to be,
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and that gives me assurance.
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And then I find out that when I stray,
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the Spirit of God - my Father comes for me.
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And He lays the rod on my back.
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And He brings me back.
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I have found that the corrections of God in my life
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they give me assurance like few other things do,
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that I see as faithfulness to me,
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that if ever I begin to stray, bang, He's there.
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He's on me, and He pulls me back.
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I mean, sometimes that has caused me to go to tears
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more than anything - He is so faithful.
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That gives me such confidence.
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He's not going to let me go.
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I'm in my Father's hand.
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I mean, if I start drifting, He puts the clamps down.
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This thing is real, it's living.
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I look at this thing and realize,
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I need to make it to the end.
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I pray, "God, get me to the end!"
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"Help me to the end!"
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Because I feel that if God let me go,
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I would run away.
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I mean, that's just prone to wander,
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Lord, I feel it. I feel it!
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If You let me go, I'm going.
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Not that I want to, but I feel that.
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I feel the battle.
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But at the same time, I feel this confidence.
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Do I expect that God's going to take me to the end?
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Yes, I don't feel like I have to wait to the end
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to figure out whether I'm truly saved.
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I believe with all my heart that God has truly saved me.
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And I've seen a massive transformation in my life.
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And I think that's exactly what the Bible tells us we should see.
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And on top of that, I've known repeatedly
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the floodings and the sheddings abroad
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of the love of God in my heart
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at sights of the cross.
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I know that He has caused me to will
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in a way that I never willed before.
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I have wills and I have a desire now to do things
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that I never had a desire for before.
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I know I don't love the brethren perfectly,
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but I love the brethren.
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I want to be around Christians.
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I want to be where they are. I want to talk with them.
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I love the same Christ they love.
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I love being at church with them.
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I love hearing preaching. I love hearing about Christ.
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I mean the simple Gospel still...
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there are times when I'm studying for a message
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and I'm looking at the old truths,
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and they flood over me again,
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and I find myself falling out of my chair on the floor.
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Can you guys relate to this?
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This is Christianity.
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This is the living reality.
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This is life in Christ.
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This isn't make-believe.