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If I’d been there, I’m sure I’d want to have raised my hand an …
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Excuse me, Moses. Excuse me. Why are you saying this to us?
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I was only 12 when these things that you’re talking about happened and most
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of the rest of us weren’t even born. It was our parents who did these things,
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not us.
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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick.
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Colin, I can imagine people gathered around Moses listening to him saying
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hang on. Why are you having a go at us?
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This was stuff our parents did.
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Yeah, the place we’re at in the Bible story is the beginning of the book of
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Deuteronomy. God’s people have been wandering in the desert for 40 years.
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A whole generation has died in the desert.
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Moses is now addressing the younger generation who will go on to enter the
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promised land, and he says to them, now you have been here too long.
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Well, it was the older generation that had all died off, really, that were
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responsible for not having the faith to go into the promised land earlier.
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Of course, the point here is what’s in our parents is in us as well.
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We all have to fight the battle against the impulse to unbelief that lurks
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within every human life.
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And how we can overcome that?
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Well, that’s what we’re going to look at in the scriptures together today.
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So join us if you can today in Deuteronomy Chapter One, near the end of the chapter,
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as we begin our message Change the Future by Owning the Past.
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Here’s Colin.
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I hope you have your Bible open at Deuteronomy.
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Last week, we really answered the question.
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What does this book have to do with us today?
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And we saw that the book of Deuteronomy is really about how people with a faith
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become people with a mission.
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This is the word that God spoke through Moses to his people on the very verge of the land of Canaan.
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God is telling them, giving them what it takes to break free from the habits
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of the past and to enter into something that is new.
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And that is why we have called this series Take To The Power Of A Fresh Start.
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Now, if you have your Bible open at the first chapter, you may recall from verse six
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that the book begins with a flashback.
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Picture this, Moses is with the people, camped on the verge of the River Jordan.
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They’re about to go into the land of Canaan.
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And from verse six of chapter one, Moses goes back and tells the story
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of what has happened in the last forty years.
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The Lord, our God said to us at Horeb
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that was 40 years before, you have stayed long enough at this mountain.
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And then he tells the story
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as we saw last time, of how the people rebelled against God.
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They refused to trust in him.
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They declined to go into the land of Canaan.
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And there, for 40 years were wasted wandering in the desert.
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After 40 years, we saw last time
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that all the men who were of fighting age,
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all the men, what’s fighting age?
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I’m going to call that 18 years and older.
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OK, let’s just use that as a figure.
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All the men, 18 years and older, all the men of fighting
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age at the time of the Exodus, the time of Mount Sinai,
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all of them died in the desert
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during the next 40 years.
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So I want you to get the picture.
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Because it’s very important for us to understand the message
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from God’s word today.
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Let’s assume that fighting age is 18 and work this out.
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If everybody over 18
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is dead after 40 years.
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Then nobody over
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the age of 58 is alive,
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are you with me?
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OK, let’s just think about this.
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Think about the implications of this with me.
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Everyone aged 18 and older at Mt.
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Sinai, I all the folks 18 and older at the time of the exodus.
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When they came out of Egypt, they’ve all died after 40 years.
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The 18 year old.
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That’s the youngest of them would be 58.
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So 58 is the oldest person in the nation.
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You’re 58. You’re a geriatric.
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As far as this generation is concerned,
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all the adults that came out of Egypt,
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all the adults who were standing there at Mount Sinai when God gave his law,
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all of them died in the desert.
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None of them entered into the promised land.
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And we saw that last week in chapter 2 and verse 15.
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What that means is that the children at the time of the Exodus,
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those who were just young,
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all those who were in the age of 18 at the time of Mount Sinai,
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they’re going to have moved up.
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And they’re going to be between the ages of 40 and 58.
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Imagine that.
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A nation where the oldest is
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58 years of age.
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And the 40 to 58 year olds, they can think, 40 years ago,
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what is that? That’s 1970. What do you remember about 1970?
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Is it vivid for you? You know,
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those are 40 years old and over,
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they only have vague memories of these events According to the stage
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that they were at in life, 40 years ago,
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the vast majority of the people thirdly,
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third observation were obviously under the age of 40.
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They were born to parents who then died fairly young in the
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desert. So this is a young nation.
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Yeah,
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no one really over 60 with the
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exception of Moses who’s now over a hundred
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and Caleb and Joshua,
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these guys must have been having a major experience of a generation
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gap. Can you imagine being Moses over 100 and the next guys are 58
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huge cap.
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This missing generation,
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those who have died in the desert.
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I just want to make really sure we’ve all got this and that we’re all together
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before we move on, because it’s,
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it’s key to understanding this part of the scripture. I believe.
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How many of you here today are under the age of
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40. Let’s have a show of hands. All the under forties. Okay.
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Everyone under 40.
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Now you are the ones who were born in the desert.
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You went into life at the time of the Exodus,
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you were born in the desert.
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Let’s have the 40 to 58 year olds. I’m in that group.
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All the ones who are 40 to 50 you come on a hands up.
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Very good. There’s a good number of us here. Okay.
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We were there at Mount Sinai, but most of us were very young,
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40 years ago I was 12.
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So I’m trying to put myself in the shoes of these guys.
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What would I remember from all of these events?
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And those of you who are over 58,
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thank God today that you are not in the generation that was in the desert,
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the generation that came out of Egypt,
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because you wouldn’t be alive if you were in that generation.
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Thank God for his gift of life.
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To you. Now we’ve got it. Clear in our minds. Look at chapter one. Verse six,
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please. When Moses says the Lord, our God said to us,
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you have stayed long enough at this mountain.
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And he’s talking about what happened 40 years ago when most of the people
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weren’t even born.
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And many of the rest were too young to remember.
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Now I want you to look at verse 26,
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which is the beginning of our passage for today,
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and I want to see if you notice something that is obviously very strange.
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Verse 26,
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you were unwilling to go up.
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Verse 26,
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you rebelled against the Lord.
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Verse 27,
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you grumbled in your tents and said,
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the Lord hates us.
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Verse 32.
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You did not trust in the Lord your God.
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Now you see what, I’m going with this.
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The obvious question is why in the world is Moses saying this to them.
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If I’d been there, I’m sure I’d want to have raised my hand at it.
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Excuse me, Moses, excuse me.
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Why are you saying this to us?
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I was only 12 when these things that you’re talking about happened,
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and most of the rest of us weren’t even born.
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It was our parents who did these things, not us.
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How can you say, Moses, we refuse to go up?
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Why are you saying, Moses, that we were the ones who grumbled?
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It wasn’t us who did these things, it was our parents.
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That’s what I want to say to him. Wouldn’t you?
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So why is Moses saying this?
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Is he blaming the children
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for the sins of the parents?
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No, God never does that.
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He is teaching the children
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to learn from the parents.
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The message here is very simple, and Moses is making it plain.
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Understand this, folks, that what was in your parents
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is also in you.
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You will face the same temptations, the same struggles that they did.
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What defeated them, you now have to overcome
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in your time, in your life, and in your experience.
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You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith,
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and the message today Change the Future by Owning the Past.
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We’ve been compiling a list of the most requested messages
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from recent times and that makes up our current series
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Listener Favorites.
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If you ever miss one of these series or if you want to go back and listen again,
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don’t forget, you can always do that by coming online to our website
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Openthebible.org.uk or by finding us as a podcast.
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Go to your favorite podcast
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site, search for Open the Bible UK in and subscribe to receive regular updates.
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Back to the message now, here’s Colin.
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Understand this folks,
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that what was in your parents is also in you.
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You will face the same temptations, the same struggles that they did.
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What defeated them, you now have to overcome
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in your time, in your life and in your experience.
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And that is why I’ve called the message
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from Deuteronomy today, changing the future by owning the past.
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What is this past that they must own?
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What is it that’s in these people
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that also was in their parents
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and also is in us that we must overcome?
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I want you to see that from the passage that’s in front of me.
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So let me offer to you from the scriptures here six impulses
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that are in you, as they are in me by nature.
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Six impulses that are in you, as they are in me by nature.
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They’re all right here in front of you in the scripture.
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Number one, verse 26.
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By nature, I rebel against God.
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Now, I mean me and I mean you.
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By nature, I rebel against God.
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You were unwilling to go up,
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he says, to this younger generation.
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You rebelled, rebelled against the command of the Lord,
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you’re God.
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So what this means is that our corruption,
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the effect of sin in you and the effect of sin in me
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is deeper than a few sins and a few mistakes.
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By nature, I resent God.
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By nature, I resist his authority over my life.
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By nature, it is my nature,
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my old nature to want to assert my independence from God.
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I want by nature to be my own savior.
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I want by nature to be my own Lord.
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By nature, I rebel against God.
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Second, by nature, I treat God with contempt.
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Verse 27.
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You grumbled in your tents and you said,
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the Lord hates us, isn’t that striking?
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So that’s why he brought us out of Egypt
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to deliver us into the hands of the Ammonites.
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He was just out to destroy us.
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Now, think about this.
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The deliverance from Egypt is this miracle of God’s grace.
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And these people are treating the miracle of God’s grace
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by which they’ve been brought out of slavery
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with absolute contempt.
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They’re so twisted that they have the idea
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that God’s miraculous deliverance
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is some kind of plot to do them harm.
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And this is me.
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This is me by nature.
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I treat God with contempt.
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By nature, what I do, by nature what we do
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is that we hold back praise to God for his goodness
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and we apportion blame to God whenever we experience evil.
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By nature I say, here I am in the desert
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and it’s all God’s fault.
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You recognize that?
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By nature, I insult God.
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By nature I treat the abundant goodness of God
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with contempt.
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Number three, by nature I blame others.
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Verse 28, notice what they say.
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Our brothers have made us lose heart.
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It’s always the brother’s fault, isn’t it?
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They say that the people are stronger
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and taller than we are.
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The reference here of course is to the spies coming back
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and the spies who brought this negative report
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and brought discouragement to the people.
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And now the people are saying
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well it’s all the spy’s fault.
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They’re the ones that discouraged us.
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It’s not my fault it’s the spy’s.
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By nature, you recognize this?
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I blame others for all my problems.
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By nature, what’s wrong is always everyone else’s fault.
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By nature, in the words of the Lord Jesus,
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I see a speck of dust in the eye of my neighbor
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when I cannot see a plank of wood.
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In my own eye.
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I blame others.
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Number four, by nature, I resist the truth.
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Look at verse 29.
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Here’s Moses speaking to the people.
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They’re afraid and he says,
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now don’t be terrified, don’t be afraid of them.
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That’s the Canaanites.
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The Lord your God who is going before you
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will fight for you just as he did in Egypt
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and in the desert.
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Haven’t you seen how God bears you up
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as a father carries his own son?
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And Moses is pleading with the people here.
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They’re full of fear.
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And so, what does Moses do as a prophet?
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He pours the Word of God into their lives,
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but it makes no difference.
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These folks hear the Word of God
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and it’s just like water off a duck’s back.
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It never goes in.
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It doesn’t change them.
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In spite of this, verse 32,
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you did not trust the Lord your God,
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but by nature I am always hearing the Word of God,
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but never really understanding.
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I’m always seeing God at work, but I never perceive it.
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I resist the truth by nature.
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00:16:28,179 –> 00:16:32,340
Number five, by nature, I refuse to believe, verse 32,
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you did not trust in the Lord your God
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who went ahead of you.
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This is the reality of our sinful nature.
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This is the reality of our fallen condition.
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By nature I am suspicious of God.
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00:16:50,739 –> 00:16:55,059
By nature I hold back from full devotion to him.
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00:16:55,059 –> 00:16:57,580
By nature I do not trust him.
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And here’s God, he is beside these people.
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He’s walking with them in the pillar of cloud
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and in the pillar of fire.
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And yet they refuse to believe.
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Now you see what this is telling us?
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Folks, none of us is neutral.
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When it comes to this matter of faith.
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You’re not neutral when it comes to the matter of faith.
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No one is.
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By nature I am antagonistic towards God and so are you.
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By nature we are unwilling to believe.
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And that leads to the sixth thing here,
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by nature I am under the wrath of God.
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Verse 34, it’s so clear.
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When the Lord heard what you said,
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he was angry and solemnly swore
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not a man of this evil generation
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will see the good land that I swore to your forefathers
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and none of them did.
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What this is telling me is that by nature
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I am alienated from God
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and by nature I am justly under his wrath.
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There is a heaven,
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but folks, by nature it’s not for me
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and by nature it’s not for you either.
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By nature I have no basis on which to enter
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into the land of promise
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that is full of God’s good things.
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00:18:40,060 –> 00:18:43,160
And Moses is saying so clearly here now folks,
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understand this, all of this was in your parents,
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but don’t think it’s stopped there
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because all of it’s in you, that’s the message.
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Makes you wanna weep doesn’t it?
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But folks, this is the human condition,
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this is by nature my condition.
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This is by nature your condition.
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This is who we are.
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That crosses all the economic differences between us,
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all the cultural and racial differences between us.
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This is who we are by nature.
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This is what sin has done to us
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and this is what we need saving from.
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The gospel will always be like
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00:19:33,699 –> 00:19:35,979
water off a duck’s back to you
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until you grasp the extent of what you need saving from.
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00:19:42,739 –> 00:19:44,599
Now, this raises an obvious question.
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If everything, think about it.
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If everything that kept your parents out of Canaan
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is also in you,
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if everything that kept them out is also in you,
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00:20:01,140 –> 00:20:03,920
then what hope is there of you
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ever getting into the promised land?
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That’s the question, isn’t it?
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If all that kept them out now is also in me,
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what hope is there of me ever getting in?
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00:20:20,619 –> 00:20:22,300
When you see the human condition,
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when you see yourself before God
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as you really are, by nature, that is the question.
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00:20:30,459 –> 00:20:31,739
Do you see yourself here?
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See, maybe you would say with me right now,
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00:20:37,160 –> 00:20:40,500
yeah, I see myself here.
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00:20:42,160 –> 00:20:47,160
I see that in my very nature I am totally messed up.
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00:20:47,439 –> 00:20:49,599
I see that I’m a rebel against God.
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I see that I treat his mercy with contempt.
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00:20:53,719 –> 00:20:56,599
I see how I live blaming others
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for everything that’s wrong in my life.
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00:20:58,420 –> 00:21:01,800
I see how much I resist the truth, however much I hear it.
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00:21:01,800 –> 00:21:05,540
I see how I’m a person who for all the professions
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00:21:05,540 –> 00:21:07,839
of faith that have been made actually true,
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refuses to trust God in the reality of life.
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I see that I am under the wrath of God.
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So now what hope is there for me?
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That’s the question, isn’t it?
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And we have to pause there,
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but we’ll continue to look
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at that question in our next broadcast.
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You’ve been listening to Pastor Colin Smith
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00:21:27,140 –> 00:21:29,839
on Open The Bible and the message today
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00:21:29,839 –> 00:21:32,959
called Change The Future By Owning The Past.
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It’s part of our series Listener Favorites,
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00:21:35,579 –> 00:21:37,599
and that’s a list of messages
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00:21:37,599 –> 00:21:40,020
which we’ve compiled from the most requested
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00:21:40,020 –> 00:21:44,680
and downloaded messages of the last 12 months.
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00:21:44,680 –> 00:21:46,839
Don’t forget if you ever miss one of our messages,
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you can always catch up or go back
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00:21:48,780 –> 00:21:50,239
or you can listen again online,
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00:21:50,239 –> 00:21:54,199
at our website, openthebible.org.uk,
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00:21:54,199 –> 00:21:56,339
or by finding us as a podcast
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00:21:56,339 –> 00:21:57,760
on your favorite podcast site
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00:21:57,760 –> 00:22:00,540
or by following the link from our website.
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00:22:00,540 –> 00:22:02,060
And the podcasts are available
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00:22:02,060 –> 00:22:05,640
by searching a podcast site for Open The Bible UK.
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00:22:06,500 –> 00:22:09,040
On our website and also available as a podcast
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00:22:09,040 –> 00:22:10,760
is Open The Bible Daily,
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00:22:10,760 –> 00:22:12,400
and that’s a series of short
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00:22:12,400 –> 00:22:14,760
two to three minute reflective pieces,
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00:22:14,760 –> 00:22:15,839
a new one every day,
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00:22:15,839 –> 00:22:17,839
based on Pastor Colin Smith’s teaching
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00:22:17,839 –> 00:22:20,239
and read in the UK by Sue MacLeish.
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00:22:21,160 –> 00:22:24,319
At Open The Bible, we welcome contact with our listeners.
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00:22:24,319 –> 00:22:27,520
If you’ve been blessed by Pastor Colin Smith’s teaching
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00:22:27,520 –> 00:22:29,380
and you’d like to reach out to us,
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00:22:29,380 –> 00:22:31,239
there are several ways you can do that.
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00:22:31,239 –> 00:22:34,079
You can write to us at Open The Bible,
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00:22:34,079 –> 00:22:38,579
P.O. Box 1420, Cheltenham, GL50, 9pg.
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00:22:40,959 –> 00:22:42,280
Or you can phone us
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00:22:42,280 –> 00:22:47,280
on 0330 335 8015.
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00:22:48,839 –> 00:22:51,040
If we’re not available when you call,
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00:22:51,040 –> 00:22:53,859
leave a message for us and we’ll return your call
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00:22:53,859 –> 00:22:56,079
and you can find all those contact details
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00:22:56,079 –> 00:22:59,699
on our website, openthebible.org.uk.
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00:23:01,079 –> 00:23:03,439
Open The Bible is able to stay on this station
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00:23:03,439 –> 00:23:06,680
and on the internet because of your generosity.
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00:23:06,680 –> 00:23:09,040
Open The Bible is a listener supported ministry,
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00:23:09,040 –> 00:23:12,819
so thank you for giving and supporting Open The Bible.
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00:23:12,819 –> 00:23:15,359
If that’s something that you’re thinking about doing,
413
00:23:15,479 –> 00:23:16,520
if you’re able to set up
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00:23:16,520 –> 00:23:20,180
a new gift of five pounds per month or more this month,
415
00:23:20,180 –> 00:23:22,339
we’d like to thank you by sending you a copy
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00:23:22,339 –> 00:23:25,880
of pastor Colin’s new book, Flying Through the Bible.
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00:23:25,880 –> 00:23:29,680
And Colin, when you do this kind of high altitude flight
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00:23:29,680 –> 00:23:31,920
over the entire Bible story,
419
00:23:31,920 –> 00:23:34,439
there’s so much in there that you really have to focus in.
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00:23:34,439 –> 00:23:37,280
So what are the themes that you’ve focused on
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00:23:37,280 –> 00:23:38,719
in this new book?
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00:23:38,719 –> 00:23:42,079
Well, it really is a high altitude flight
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00:23:42,079 –> 00:23:43,520
over the Bible story.
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We’re talking about around a hundred pages,
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00:23:46,079 –> 00:23:49,160
so it’s covering at a great speed,
426
00:23:49,160 –> 00:23:53,560
but you can get an overview of the Bible very simply
427
00:23:53,560 –> 00:23:57,819
by thinking about five people in the Old Testament,
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00:23:57,819 –> 00:24:01,959
Adam and Abraham and Moses and David and Ezra.
429
00:24:01,959 –> 00:24:04,280
If you get the stories of these five people,
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00:24:04,280 –> 00:24:06,959
you’ve really got a broad outline
431
00:24:06,959 –> 00:24:08,880
of the Old Testament story.
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00:24:08,880 –> 00:24:10,780
Then when we come to the gospels,
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00:24:10,780 –> 00:24:14,880
we look at five events in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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00:24:14,880 –> 00:24:17,939
He was born, he was tempted, he was crucified,
435
00:24:17,939 –> 00:24:20,859
he is risen, and he has ascended.
436
00:24:20,859 –> 00:24:22,979
And grasp these five events,
437
00:24:22,979 –> 00:24:25,119
and you have a broad outline
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00:24:25,119 –> 00:24:27,979
of what you need to know about the Lord Jesus Christ.
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00:24:27,979 –> 00:24:30,040
And then in the New Testament letters,
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there are five marvelous gifts
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00:24:32,560 –> 00:24:34,540
that God gives to all who believe.
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00:24:34,540 –> 00:24:37,739
The gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of faith,
443
00:24:37,739 –> 00:24:40,540
the gift of forgiveness, the gift of the church,
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00:24:40,540 –> 00:24:42,699
and the gift of heaven itself.
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00:24:42,699 –> 00:24:45,619
So there’s a very quick fly through the Bible.
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00:24:45,619 –> 00:24:47,420
It’s cookies on the bottom shelf,
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00:24:47,420 –> 00:24:50,339
and I hope folks are going to find it really helpful.
448
00:24:50,339 –> 00:24:51,819
Well, we’d like to send you a copy
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00:24:51,819 –> 00:24:54,219
of Pastor Colin’s book, Flying Through the Bible,
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00:24:54,219 –> 00:24:57,579
to say thank you for supporting Open the Bible this month.
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00:24:57,579 –> 00:25:00,579
Full details of this offer are on our website.
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00:25:00,579 –> 00:25:04,619
That’s at openthebible.org.uk.
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00:25:04,619 –> 00:25:06,900
For Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick,
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00:25:06,900 –> 00:25:08,579
and I hope you’ll be able to join us again soon.
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00:25:09,140 –> 00:25:14,020
Turning over a new leaf won’t change what’s in you.
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Find out what will next time on Open the Bible.