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Satan wants to erect a wall in your mind so that you can think yourself spiritual while

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you pursue an unchanged life and Curt says, don’t think I’m listening to your prayers

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under these circumstances.

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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith.

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I’m David Pick and Colin, that’s a sobering thought.

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That if we want God to answer our prayers, we need to deal with the sin in our lives.

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That’s right.

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The scripture makes very clear that it is the prayer of a righteous man that is powerful

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and effective.

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The Apostle James states that very, very clearly.

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Now, of course, none of us is ever in a position to come to God and to pray on a basis that

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we’ve got all righteousness sorted out.

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We have to come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ but what we can’t do is come and expect

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that God will hear and answer our prayers when we’re holding on to a known sin that

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we refuse to give up and that’s why the scripture says in Psalm 66 and verse 18 that if I had

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cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

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So, there’s an important motive here for the pursuit of righteousness.

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We want to be in a position that nothing will hinder our prayers.

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So, if you can, join us in Micah in chapter 3 as we continue our message the God who holds

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leaders accountable.

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Here’s Colin.

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The reason that we come to God in the name of Jesus is that none of us can come with

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completely clean hands or completely pure hearts.

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But, what the scriptures teach us clearly is that if there is sin in your life,

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that you continue to pursue and that you refuse to face,

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you cherish it, you walk in it and you will not turn from it,

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then very simply, God has an issue with you.

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He really does.

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And what he says is, look, if you will not deal with your sins,

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I will not listen to your prayers.

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It would be a farce for you to suggest that you’re drawing close to me when,

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actually, you’re pursuing a path that’s far from me.

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It’s hypocrisy.

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And God says, I won’t play any part in that.

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Now, you see, that is why self-examination and confession of our sins

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is so important when we come to God.

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Because God has made an unbreakable connection

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between your relationship with Him and your relationship with others.

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Your responsibility towards Him, and your responsibility towards others.

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Satan wants to erect a wall in your mind

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so that you can think yourself spiritual

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while you pursue an unchanged life,

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and God says, don’t think I’m listening

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to your prayers under these circumstances.

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Effective praying depends on right living.

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That’s why prayer is such a powerful thing.

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When I come to seek the face of God, there more than any other time,

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I have to search my heart.

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Search me and know me.

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See if there is any wicked way in me.

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Now you see what’s happening in Micah chapter 3?

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Here are people who are ripping others off,

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chewing others up,

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and then coming on Sunday to the temple

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and saying their prayers

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and thinking that they’re spiritual.

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But they did not listen to the cries of the poor

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and God says as long as that’s the case,

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he will not listen to their cries either

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because God holds his people accountable.

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And that’s what Micah chapter 3 is all about.

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And the rest of the chapter,

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if you look through it there,

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simply spells out this principle.

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The Prophet verse 5,

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who was obviously the one trusted with the word of God.

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Here we find the abuse of that trust.

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The Prophet finds there is more money in another message

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and so he leads the people astray.

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He feeds, if someone feeds them,

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if someone gives them money,

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in other words, he proclaims the message

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that that person wants to hear.

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So, these prophets will go with any message that sells.

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They no longer speak for God

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and so God says I will no longer speak therefore to them.

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In fact money really is at the root

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of all the great evils in Micah’s day.

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Verse nine, the leaders and rulers despised justice

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and they distort what is right.

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Verse 11, the leaders judges for a bribe,

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there’s the money,

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priests teach for a price,

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there’s the money,

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prophets tell fortunes for money.

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Money spoke louder than God

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and when money speaks louder than God

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in the church or in your business

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or in any sphere of life,

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you’re really only one step from disaster.

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God holds leaders accountable.

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What are you accountable for?

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Now I mentioned earlier that this story

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has a surprising and a rather wonderful ending

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and at this point, especially if you have your Bible open,

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you will be wondering where in all the world

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that is going to come from

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because you’ll have noticed

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that the chapter ends on a pretty desperate note.

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Therefore, because of you,

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that is because of the teachers and the leaders

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who betrayed their trust,

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Zion will be plowed like a field.

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Jerusalem will become like a heap of rubble

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and the Temple Hill will be a mound overgrown with thickets.

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And not much encouragement there.

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Jerusalem of course was their city.

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The temple was their place of worship.

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So can you imagine the despair

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that must have come to the people

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when Micah spoke these words in chapter three, verse 12?

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Zion plowed like a field.

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Jerusalem, a heap of rubble,

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and the Temple Hill, a mound overgrown with thickets.

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Well you see that that really is like us hearing

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because of you,

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Chicago will be a heap of rubble,

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the Loop will be plowed like a field,

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and Arlington Eye’s free church

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will be overgrown with thickets.

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Now if you and I had heard Micah back in those days

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speak this message about our own home place

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we would have felt completely hopeless.

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You would have thought

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I would have thought there is no hope for our city.

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The moral slide has gone too far,

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the day of God’s judgment is clearly now upon us.

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Now Micah said, this is what’s going to happen,

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and of course it did.

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But here’s the fascinating and wonderful thing.

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It didn’t happen for another 100,000 years.

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And if you want to know why?

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Please turn with me now to Jeremiah chapter 26

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and verse 18, absolutely fascinating.

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Jeremiah chapter 26 and verse 18,

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one of the very few places in the whole of the bible

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where one prophet quotes another.

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Jeremiah chapter 26 and verse 18.

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Now Jeremiah lived a hundred years

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after Micah and the fascinating thing is

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that in the time of Jeremiah

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the temple and Jerusalem were still standing.

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The great judgment on Jerusalem happened

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in the time of Jeremiah, not in the time of Micah

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and Jeremiah tells us specifically why.

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It is an amazing story.

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Jeremiah 26 and verse 18.

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Micah of Moresheth, hey that’s our Micah

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and Jeremiah’s talking about him a hundred years later.

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Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah,

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now we know that, he was in the days of Jotham,

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Ahaz and Hezekiah.

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Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah,

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king of Judah.

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He told all the people of Judah,

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this is what the Lord says.

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Zion will be ploughed like a field,

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Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble

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and the Temple hill, a mound overgrown with thickets.

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That’s Micah 312, right?

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That’s what we’ve just read.

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Jeremiah’s quoting it 100 years later.

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Now notice what happened.

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Jeremiah tells us with the hindsight of history,

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he tells us what happened when Micah preached this message

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in chapter three and verse 12.

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Did not Hezekiah fear the Lord and seek His favor?

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And did not the Lord relent so that he did not

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bring the disaster he pronounced against them?

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Now, remember that Micah had spoken

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the word of God through the reign of three kings.

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Jotham, Ahaz, and the last one was Hezekiah,

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the last of the three.

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And by the time Hezekiah came to the throne,

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Micah had been preaching the message of this book

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that we’re studying for more than 20 years, 20 years.

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He’d been preaching, and he’d been praying,

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and he’d been interceding

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all the way through the Ahaz years,

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and there was never a worse time

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in the history of Israel than these years.

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If ever there was a leader

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who abused the trust that was put in him, it was Ahaz.

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Can you imagine what that was like for Micah,

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20 years of utter darkness,

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20 years of teaching and preaching and praying

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and seeing not a scrap of movement in the country?

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And then Hezekiah comes to the throne.

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And God touches the new king’s heart with Micah’s message.

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Can you imagine Micah’s surprise

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after 20 years of zero response?

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Hezekiah feared the Lord

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and sought his favor.

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Who could have imagined that the son

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of the most notoriously wicked king

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in all of the history of God’s people

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should turn his heart to the Lord?

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But that’s what happened, Jeremiah says,

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a hundred years later.

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He says, look back a century ago

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and I’ll tell you what happened in the days of Micah.

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This man preached the word of God

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in chapter three and verse 12.

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He brought this message

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and God used it and it touched the king’s heart.

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The king turned

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and it began a whole new process

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of reformation in the country

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and the Lord relented.

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The Lord relented.

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And a whole generation was saved from disaster.

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The disaster that Micah spoke of here

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did not happen for another hundred years.

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Hezekiah reigned, just so you’ve got the dates,

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from the year 729 to 686

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and Jerusalem was destroyed

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in 586, exactly a hundred years after.

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The end of Hezekiah’s reign.

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So you see what we’re learning here

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and why I say the story ends on a marvelous note of hope

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that Micah’s preaching and teaching,

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his ministry made a difference.

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The disaster that was imminent

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was postponed in the grace and the mercy of God

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and a whole generation in large measure

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turned back to the Lord and to his ways.

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You’re listening to Open the Bible

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with Pastor Colin Smith and the message today,

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the God Who Holds Leaders Accountable.

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If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series,

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you can always catch up

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or go back and listen again online

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at our website openthebible.org.uk.

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Open the Bible is only able to stay

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on this station and on the internet

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as a result of generous gifts by our listeners.

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And if that’s something you’d like to do,

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we have an offer for you this month.

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If you’re able to set up a new donation

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to the work of Open the Bible

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in the amount of five pounds per month or more,

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we’d love to send you a book by Kevin D. Young

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entitled Impossible Christianity.

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The subtitle is,

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Why Following Jesus Does Not Mean

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You Have to Change the World,

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Be an Expert in Everything Except Spiritual Failure

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and Feel Miserable Pretty Much All the Time.

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This book is a thank you gift

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for your financial support this month.

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Back to the message now,

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we’re in mica 3,

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here’s Colin.

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Now, here’s the conclusion

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that I want to draw for us today.

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You can make a difference.

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You really can.

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You can make a difference.

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You may have been sat by God in a very dark place

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and you may have been ministering there

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as best you know how for 20 years

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and seen not a little bit of movement.

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You can make a difference.

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20 years, Michael’s praying,

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you prayed for anyone for 20 years?

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20 years he watched things move

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in the lives of people he cared about

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from bad to worse, from bad to worse, from bad to worse.

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But you know what?

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He was faithful in what God called him to do.

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That’s the secret.

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God called him to speak,

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God called him to pray and that is simply what he did.

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And he stuck at it for more than 20 years

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when it didn’t seem that he was seeing any fruit.

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He gave himself to the ministry

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that God had trusted into his hands

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and he did it in season and he did it out of season

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and he lived to see a miracle

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that for most of his life

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he must never have thought possible.

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Now, we’re not prophets.

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We don’t speak to nations here.

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But we do have a circle of influence.

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You have a circle of influence

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that God has trusted to you

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and for that he holds you accountable

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and in that he calls you to be faithful.

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You have the Scriptures and you’re called to pray.

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God’s trusted us together with ministry

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in our sphere of influence

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and he holds us accountable for it.

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Sometimes it seems like we’re ministering

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in great darkness and we’re encountering great resistance.

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Sometimes we wonder will there ever really be a break through

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you know I can’t think of anything better

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than simply to follow Micah’s model of ministry.

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I know some of us are gonna go this week into a dark office.

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A dark environment.

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You’ve been trusted by Christ with ministry

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of being a light in a very dark place

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and when you try and make some kind

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of indentation into that darkness,

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it doesn’t seem to yield.

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Listen, follow Micah’s model of ministry.

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You can make a difference.

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Tell the truth, that’s what Micah did, that’s his model.

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He just planted the living seed of God’s truth

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wherever he could.

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That’s what he does.

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And even when he doesn’t see fruit from it,

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he doesn’t get discouraged.

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He believes it’s the living seed

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so he just plants the truth anyway.

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That’s what God has called you to do.

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Plant the seeds, tell the truth.

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Do what’s right, that’s what Micah did.

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Verse eight, he says he’s filled

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with power and with the Spirit.

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Notice what else he says, he’s filled with justice.

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See, he doesn’t just speak the truth

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but he does what is right.

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There’s integrity in his living

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and it adds power to his message.

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Truth and integrity always belong together.

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He lives what he speaks.

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Tell the truth, do what’s right.

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See, these are really the first two parts

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of the spiritual armor that we need

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to put on if we’re going to stand

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against the darkness, the belt of truth,

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the breastplate of righteousness.

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Tell the truth, do what’s right.

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Pray with faith.

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There’s a wonderful promise in the Scriptures

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that many know well.

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If my people who are called by my name

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will humble themselves and pray and seek my face

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and turn from their wicked ways,

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then I will hear from heaven

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and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

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And you see, that is precisely what Hezekiah did.

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It’s wonderful.

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Here’s the last thing, persevere.

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Tell the truth.

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Do what’s right.

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Pray with faith.

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Persevere.

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The kings in those days

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had this thing called coregency

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which means that one king was brought in

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as a kind of apprentice to his father

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for a number of years

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and then when the father died, the son took over,

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they called it a coregency.

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Hezekiah had to be coregent to Ahaz for 15 years.

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Can you imagine what that was like?

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Working in the structure of a system

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that has so much darkness in it?

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Some of us live there in the world of business

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and it wasn’t easy for Hezekiah to be there for 15 years

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but God wanted him there,

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God wants his light sometimes in very dark places

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and then the day came when Hezekiah had this opportunity

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and God put this man in a position

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where he could actually change things

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and he seized the moment

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because that was what God trusted to his hand.

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Like he’s trusted the values

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in your business into your hand

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and you’re accountable for them.

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Like he’s trusted the Gospel into our hands

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as a body and we’re accountable for our stewardship of it.

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Like he’s trusted the Great Commission into our hands

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and we’re accountable to him for the way we pursue it.

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And when the moment came where God put Hezekiah

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in a position where he was able to make a difference,

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the man seized it.

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He was found faithful.

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That changed the course of many, many, many people’s lives.

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God relented.

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God relented.

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And Micah, He just kept plugging away for 20 years

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when there was apparently no fruit.

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He just kept faithful to what had been trusted in His hand

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because He did not give up.

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God used Him.

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You can make a difference.

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Tell the truth.

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Do what’s right.

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Pray with faith.

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Persevere.

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And as God sends some of us out into some very, very dark

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places, your light will shine.

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And as you’re faithful, you will make a difference.

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Micah persevered for 20 years and God blessed his efforts.

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I hope that’s an encouragement for you today.

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You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith

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and a message called The God Who Holds Leaders Accountable.

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It’s part of our series Close Encounters with the Living God

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and if you’ve missed any of the series or if you want to go

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back and listen again you can do that by coming online to our

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00:22:37,859 –> 00:22:43,819

website openthebible.org.uk or find us as a podcast on your

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00:22:43,819 –> 00:22:47,500

favorite podcast site, search for Open the Bible UK or follow

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00:22:47,500 –> 00:22:51,180

the link on our website. Also on our website and available

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00:22:51,180 –> 00:22:55,099

as a podcast you can find Open the Bible Daily which is a

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00:22:55,099 –> 00:22:58,859

series of short two to three minute reflection pieces based

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00:22:58,859 –> 00:23:02,699

on Pastor Colin’s teaching and read in the UK by Sue MacLeish.

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00:23:02,699 –> 00:23:05,739

There’s a fresh one every day and many Christians find it’s

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00:23:05,739 –> 00:23:09,260

an excellent way to start the day. Pastor Colin has just

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00:23:09,260 –> 00:23:12,459

released a new book. It’s called Fly Through the Bible.

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00:23:12,459 –> 00:23:15,979

It’s a short simple journey through the Bible story and can

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00:23:16,060 –> 00:23:17,420

be enjoyed on your own,

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00:23:17,420 –> 00:23:19,180

with a friend, or as a group.

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00:23:19,739 –> 00:23:22,459

Full details on our website openthebible.org.uk

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Open the Bible is supported entirely by our listeners

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00:23:28,619 –> 00:23:31,500

and if that’s something you’re considering doing this month

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00:23:31,500 –> 00:23:34,459

we’d like to thank you by sending you a copy of

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00:23:34,459 –> 00:23:37,339

Kevin de Young’s book Impossible Christianity.

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Colin, who would you say this book is for?

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Well you get a flavor of what this book is about from its

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subtitle now it’s really long so are you ready?

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Why?

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Following Jesus does not mean that you have to change the world,

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be an expert in everything,

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accept spiritual failure,

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and feel miserable pretty much all of the time.

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And it really points to what the book is all about

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that sometimes we put burdens on ourselves

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that God never intended us to carry

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and that’s hence the reason for the title Impossible Christianity.

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We put burdens on ourselves that were never given to us by God.

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And one of the wonderful things about this,

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I find reading it was just liberating.

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It brought a sense of fresh peace to my soul

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00:24:27,739 –> 00:24:31,739

that it is possible to live a life that is pleasing to God

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and that this is the life into which the Lord Jesus Christ himself leads us.

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Well, we’d love to send you a copy of Kevin de Jong’s book,

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00:24:39,819 –> 00:24:41,500

Impossible Christianity,

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00:24:41,579 –> 00:24:46,219

as a thank-you gift for setting up a new payment to the work of Open the Bible

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00:24:46,219 –> 00:24:49,500

in the amount of £5 per month or more.

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00:24:49,500 –> 00:24:50,939

That offer runs all this month

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00:24:50,939 –> 00:24:56,380

and you can find details on our website at openthebible.org.uk

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You can also give online.

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00:24:59,260 –> 00:25:01,579

For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith,

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00:25:01,579 –> 00:25:06,859

I’m David Pick and I hope you’ll be able to join us again next time on Open the Bible.

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Many people dream of a world where there’s no killing,

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00:25:20,540 –> 00:25:25,579

no greed, and no hunger – isn’t that really just a dream?

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Find out next time on Open the Bible.