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The Song of Solomon is an allegory.
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It's about the love that Jesus Christ has
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for His bride, His church.
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That's us.
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There are some today who claim
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it's nothing more than a love
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a man has for a woman,
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but as Spurgeon and
Robert Murray McCheyne argued,
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those guys are not even saved.
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You know, this has become so beautiful.
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In chapter 2 verse 2,
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this is how God sees you, believer.
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"As the lily among thorns,
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so is my love among the daughters."
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As one beautiful lily among thorns,
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that is how Jesus looks at you.
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That is how God looks at the person
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who trusts in His Son.
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And then in verse 3,
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"As the apple tree
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among the trees of the wood,
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so is my beloved among the sons.
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I sat down under his shadow,
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and with great delight
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and his fruit was sweet to my taste."
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The picture here
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is you're walking through the woods
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on a hot day.
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It's sweaty, it's not a fine climate,
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it's stuffy.
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And you walk under a tree,
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and you get that refreshing shade.
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That is what it is like when you come
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into Jesus Christ.
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When you stop working;
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when you come under His tree
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of His salvation; the shade of Christ
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and His finished work on that cross.
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And we can taste His fruit.
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We can eat of Christ and know Him.
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But let me ask you this.
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You see, I can show you
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a photograph of an apple tree
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on a hot day.
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You're walking through the woods.
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You're so hot and sweaty.
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You're really burdened.
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And I can say,
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hey, look at this photograph
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of this apple tree over there
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with all the shade.
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That's no good.
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It's not going to shade you,
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just showing you a picture of it.
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It's no good just hearing these truths.
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And I could say,
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look at that tree over there
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from a distance.
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Look at the shade under there.
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It's no use me telling you these things
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if you do not go and sit under its shade.
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And taste of its fruit.
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It's no use you hearing these truths
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time and time again,
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precept upon precept,
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line upon line,
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if you don't go to Christ.
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You always stand back.
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You must feed upon Him.
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Now, if we go on.
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Verse 4
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"He brought me to the banqueting house,
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and His banner over me was love."
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I mean look at this.
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Jesus Christ brings us to Him.
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To eat with us, to dine with us,
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to know Him.
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And His banner over us is love.
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His desire is towards me, it says,
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in this book.
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All Christ's thoughts towards
you, the believer,
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are good.
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Everything He puts in your life
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is because He loves you.
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The other week when I was at
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Brother Leiter's church,
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I nearly preached on this text.
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"He brought me to the banqueting house
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and His banner over me was love."
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And I just stood there for half an hour
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or forty minutes,
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and all I could say was,
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He brought me to His banqueting house,
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and His banner over me was love.
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And I decided not to
preach the sermon on it
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in the end, because
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the whole sermon, I'd have
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probably just repeated it.
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You know, He brought me to His
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banqueting house,
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and His banner over me was love.
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He brought me to His banqueting house,
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and His banner over me was love.
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And then verse 8, look at this,
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this is one of my favorite texts
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in all the Bible.
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"The voice of my beloved,
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behold."
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When the Bible says "behold,"
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it's wise to underline that truth.
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What is the Holy Spirit
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through the inspired spokesman
here showing you?
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He's saying hold on to this.
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Hold on to this with your
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eyes and mind and your heart.
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Make sure you see this.
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"The voice of my beloved,
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behold, he cometh leaping
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upon the mountains,
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skipping upon the hills."
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If you're lost today,
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you want to come to Christ?
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He's not there with arms folded,
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waiting, with an angry look.
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If you rise up to follow Him,
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behold, He cometh leaping across
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the mountains to you.
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The idea is Christ running over the hills
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skipping with His arms wide open to you.
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If you're a believer struggling,
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and you have a coldness now of Christ;
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you've lost that freshness.
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What do you normally try to do?
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You try and work yourself back
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into His presence, don't you?
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Well, I must stay a little
bit out of His favor
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a bit longer because I've sinned.
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So I don't deserve to be put
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straight back into His presence.
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Like you really deserve to be
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in His presence in the first place,
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based on your own efforts.
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But this is what Christ says.
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Behold, He comes running to us.
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Leaping to us.
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This is salvation.
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Jesus told the parable
of the prodigal son.
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If you say I will arise,
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I will go to my Father,
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I will be as one of the hired servants.
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Again, God doesn't stand there.
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It says when he saw
him a great way off,
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he ran to him.
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That is what He does to you.
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It says in Isaiah,
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as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
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so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
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How much does Jesus Christ long
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for the day, believer,
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when you will be with Him?
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As the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride...
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The picture there is the bridegroom
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is waiting for the wedding.
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He longs for that day when his bride
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will be truly his and
they will have that first kiss.
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And belong.
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When God thinks of the day
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that you will come to Him,
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that is how He thinks, believer.
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That is how much He loves you
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and desires You to come to Him.
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And then verse 10,
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"My beloved spake and said unto me,
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'rise up, my love, my fair one,
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and come away.'"
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I think it says, "my darling,"
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in the New American Standard.
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This is how intimate Jesus loves you.
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One of the signs of conversion is praying.
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Not just corporate prayer,
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but wanting to be alone with God.
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And look how much Jesus Christ
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longs for you to be alone with Him.
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He says, 'rise up, my love, my fair one,
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and come away.'
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Come to Me.
Come to Me.
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Come away with Me.
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And look, verse 11,
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"For lo, the winter is past
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and the rain is over and gone,
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the flowers appear on the earth,
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and the time of singing,
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the birds come."
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The picture here is that life has come.
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And you know that.
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You know when you have your dry seasons,
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you go to Christ,
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and what happens?
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You are flooded with life.
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He that believeth on Me,
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out of his heart will flow trickles
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of living water.
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That's not what it says is it?
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Will flow rivers of living water.
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We go over to chapter 4:7.
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"Thou art all fair, my love,
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there is no spot in thee."
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Christ sees you, believer, as perfect.
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If you're lost this morning,
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do you not long for
God to see you as this?
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Well, you must come to Christ.
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From the moment you do,
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this is how God will see you.
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There is no spot in you.
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Perfect.
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Verse 9
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"Thou has ravished my heart,
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my sister, my spouse."
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I think in the New American Standard
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it says "my heart beats faster."
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"Thou has ravished my heart
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with one of thine eyes.
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With one look of thine eyes.
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With one chain of thy neck."
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When you pray to God,
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when you spend time alone with God,
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the heart of God beats faster.
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You ravish His heart.
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You know, when I first got saved,
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I heard a song with this.
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Using this verse,
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"Thou has ravished my heart."
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And I used to get it the wrong way around.
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I used to think this
was us speaking to God.
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Because I used to think,
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well, surely God can't love us this much.
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As if we could love God more
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than He loves us.
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Some of these texts here are
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just unbelievable.
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I mean, it says, in Zephaniah 3:17.
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In fact, quickly turn there,
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and we'll finish up.
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I want you to see it in the text
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in case anyone hasn't.
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Ok, Zephaniah 3:17 says,
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"The Lord thy God in the
midst of thee is mighty.
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He will save."
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Notice that.
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"He will rejoice over thee with joy."
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He's talking about you, believer.
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God will rejoice over you with joy.
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"He will rest in His love..."
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and look at this,
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unbelievable.
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"He will joy over thee with singing."
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Did you know God sings about you?
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I read this text -
the first time I noticed that,
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I read it several times
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because again, I was thinking,
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this is just too much.
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This is too much. Surely.
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You know like those times we
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sing about God and we're lifted up.
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We're just lifted up in praise to God,
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and we rejoice as we're singing about Him.
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That's how He sings about us.
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Because He's not look
at our righteousness.
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You know, God's in heaven today.
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This is what this text is saying.
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And He's singing from heaven.
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Brandon loves Me, this I know.
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Laura loves Me, this I know.
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James loves Me, this I know.
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I can't put all your names in there.
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But insert yourself if you're a believer.
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For My Jesus tells Me so.
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Little ones to Him belong.
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They are weak, but I am strong.
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In fact, just one more text,
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and then we're done.
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If we go to Genesis 2.
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I want to just leave you
with one last thought.
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Basically all of the Scripture
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is about the person of Jesus Christ.
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These are they which speak of Me, He said.
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It's all about Him.
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Now, I did a full sermon on this chapter
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at Kirksville last week.
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You can pick it up on the Internet.
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You see the Sabbath here.
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What's that a picture of?
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It's a picture of the rest of salvation
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in Jesus Christ.
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And there's one after another.
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The water in the ground here
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is a picture of Jesus watering our hearts.
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And of course, verse 18,
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"And the Lord God said,
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'it is not good that
man should be alone.'"
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What's that a picture of?
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Ultimately, the second Man.
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Jesus Christ on the cross.
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He has been in the bosom of God the Father
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for all eternity.
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It is not good that He be alone.
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But look at this.
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Verse 22.
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"And the rib which the Lord God
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had taken from the man
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made He a woman,
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and brought her unto the man."
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Now, notice, all that the
Father giveth Me,
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will come to Me.
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God brings the woman to the man.
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What's this a picture of?
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Ultimately, the second Adam, Jesus Christ
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and His bride is the woman, which is us.
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"And Adam said, 'this
is now bone of my bone
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and flesh of my flesh.
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She shall be called woman,
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because she was taken out of man.'"
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Again, this ultimately
is a picture of Christ.
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It's all about Christ.
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This is how God sees the believer.
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He says this is now bone of My bone
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and flesh of My flesh.
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You are of Me.
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And look at this, verse 24.
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"Therefore shall a man leave
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his father and his mother
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and shall cleave unto his wife
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and they shall become one flesh."
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What's this a picture of?
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God the Father
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Jesus leaving the Father in Heaven.
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Coming to His wife - that's us.
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And He cleaves to us.
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We become one flesh.
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Some of you are thinking
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you're allegorizing too much.
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But let me show you how Paul
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interpreted this verse.
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You don't have to turn there,
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but I'll turn quickly to
Ephesians 5:31-32.
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Paul quotes it, he says,
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"For this cause, shall a man leave
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his father and mother,
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and shall be joined unto his wife,
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and they too shall become one flesh."
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What's Paul's interpretation
of this verse?
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"This is a great mystery.
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But I speak concerning
Christ and the church."
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It's all about Christ.
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You see, so often in Genesis,
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it's turned into so much of
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a dispute over creation, evolution,
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and things like that.
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It's turned into an academic paper,
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and we miss Christ in there.
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Or there are many great sermons
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preached on marriage from this verse,
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and there's nothing wrong with that,
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but Christ is what you must
look for in Scripture.
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Because, as the disciples were on the
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Emmaus Road,
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why did their hearts burn within them?
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Because Christ was telling them
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from the Scriptures, about
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not eschatology or Calvinism,
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good things,
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but about Himself.
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Now just this last verse in Genesis 2.
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"And they were both naked,
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the man and his wife,
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and were not ashamed."
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Now this verse meant nothing to me
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for so long.
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I didn't get it all.
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"And they were both naked,
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the man and his wife,
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and were not ashamed."
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What's this all about?
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But you see, it was before I realized
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everything is about Christ.
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Who is the man here a picture of?
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Christ.
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Who's his wife here a picture of?
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Us, the believers.
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And they were both naked,
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the man and his wife,
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Christ and His bride,
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and were not ashamed.
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All my sin.
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Every wicked thought I have ever had
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is naked and open before God.
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And He is not ashamed
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to dwell with me?
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And I am not ashamed to be with Him.
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So, we'll close in prayer.
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Father,
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we thank You, Lord, for Your love.
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Oh Lord, I pray You
would take these words,
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and use them, Lord, for Your saints.
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Just to be elevated in the love of You.
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For anyone struggling,
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for anyone who does not know You, Lord,
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I pray, Lord, they would see now,
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behold, You cometh leaping across
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the mountains.
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They would see that You are
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altogether lovely.
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You have paid it all on that cross.
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Oh, regenerate Your people
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by Your Spirit.
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You are in this place, Lord.
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And I know it, Father.
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I know it, Lord.
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We pray, Lord,
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that You would reveal Yourself
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to people now.
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You who is mighty to save,
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as we just read there in Zephaniah,
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Father,
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we pray that You would save.
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We praise You,
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in Jesus' name,
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Amen.