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Now let me share something with you
for Christians who struggle
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with sadness and looking
at yourself
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and always really feeling down.
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The more you know God,
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the more you're going to see
His holiness.
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The more you see His holiness,
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the more you're going
to see your sin,
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which leads you to deeper
depths of conviction,
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contrition and mourning.
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But if that's all you see,
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you're in trouble.
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But with that greater
revelation of God's holiness,
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and that greater
revelation of your sin
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also comes a greater revelation
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of what God has done
for you in Christ,
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and that unconditional love,
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and that grace abounding
to the chief of sinners.
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So although, you're almost
like a paradox,
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the more you walk with Christ,
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the deeper is your contrition
and mourning over sin,
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and yet greater your joy,
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and there's a transmission
that goes on.
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No longer is your joy
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found in your own performance,
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but it's found in the
finished work of Christ.
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So, if the devil walks in
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and starts pointing out all
kinds of things about you,
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you yawn.
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And you go,
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you don't even know
the half of it.
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This has never been about me.
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Have I ever said this was about me?
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This is not about me.
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I don't hope in me.
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If I hope was in me,
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you could kill my hope with
a dagger right now;
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the smallest pin knife
would take down my hope.
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But my hope's not in me.
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It's in my older Brother,
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and if you don't leave,
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I'm going to call Him.
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You don't want me to call Him.
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Oh, believers, I want
you to know something.
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People sometimes - young men,
will come and they'll go,
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they look at guys who preach
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in a lot of places
around the world,
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and all these young guys think,
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man, this guy, he reached
some spiritual level,
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and because he reached
that spiritual level,
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God really uses him.
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No.
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No.
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The older you get, the more
needy you become of grace.
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And the more happy you
are in Christ alone.
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The older you get, the
more of your sin you see.
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And you trust not in the flesh,
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you glory in Christ Jesus.
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And when all your everything
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is based upon His perfect work,
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as weak as you might be,
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you're as solid as a rock.
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Because the devil can't touch Him.
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The devil can't touch Him.
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A young guy one time,
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he calls me up,
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he was a seminary student.
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He was just saying,
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Brother Paul, he wrote me,
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I'm so ungodly, I'm so unrighteous,
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I'm so this and that.
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I knew the young man.
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He was a fine, sincere Christian.
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And he was just so struggling.
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He said I'm just so ungodly and ignorant.
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And I wrote him back and I said,
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"Dear brother, you
are much more ungodly
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and much more ignorant
than you now know.
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Love, your brother, Paul."
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I have the gift of
mercy and encouragement.
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And so he calls me up on the phone,
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and he goes,
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"Thanks?"
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And I said, look, I've watched your life.
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In many ways
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you seem to have
made greater progress
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than I have.
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But I'm happier than you.
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And he said why?
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I've given up on trying to find hope
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in my performance.
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And all, everything for me, is in
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the unconditional love of my Savior.
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If you know anything about the ministry
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that the Lord's given me.
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If you've heard anything,
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you go, man, that
man just talks about sin,
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he nails people, he's
the meanest preacher
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that ever walked the planet.
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Let me tell you something.
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When it comes to unbelievers who
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are professing faith in Christ
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and they are
asleep in their sin
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and they are going
to die and go to hell,
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yes, I am going to rip, rip, rip,
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because it doesn't appear to me
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that hardly anyone else
is doing that.
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I am not going to let them go to hell
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except over my cries that they wake up
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and see their destruction.
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But,
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when I pastor,
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sometimes people come to church
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if I'm preaching and they go,
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are you the same guy on YouTube?
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Because all you do is talk about love,
love, love, love? Why?
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Here's the reason.
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If the person truly becomes converted,
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I don't have to do anything.
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They're sheep.
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They're going to follow Him.
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As a shepherd, you know
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what my greatest worry is,
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for the people who
are truly converted?
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I don't want them coming
under false condemnation.
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And I don't want them doubting
the love of God.
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You see, the whole deal
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depends on conversion.
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Do you see that?
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You get them converted,
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and you talk to them about
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the unconditional love of God,
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and you know what they'll do?
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I'll tell you what they won't do,
they won't stand there and go
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well, if it's like this,
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let's just sin.
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No, you tell a true sheep
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about the unconditional love of God
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and that it doesn't matter what they do
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or how far they fail,
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Christ loves them and
is going to restore them
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and work in them,
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and a bruised reed
He will not break
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and a smoldering wick He will
not put out.
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You tell them that,
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they say, well, if it be like that
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then I want to love Him more.
I want to serve Him more.
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I want to follow Him.
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If I'm really free,
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you see?
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So, all you have to do
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is get converted, and I'll be nice to you.
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But here's another thing,
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if I'm preaching on the streets
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in a place where everybody's
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just wild and wicked as
Sodom and Gomorrah,
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on this present day planet,
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I stand up and I preach the love of God.
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The time for preaching hard
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is when people have become deceived
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by religion.
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And when they think
they're something they're not.
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And when most of the religious authorities
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in the world are affirming them
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in their false conversion.
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And for self-preservation,
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those preachers are saying
"peace, peace,"
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when there is no peace.
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And people, they are building
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their huge churches on the bones
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of carnal, dead church members.