The God Who Sends Out Subpoenas, Part 2

Micah 6:1-16
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In Part 2 of “The God Who Sends out Subpoenas,” Pastor Colin delves into the topic of guilt and how to seek God’s forgiveness. If you’re feeling the weight of guilt and don’t know how to handle it, this episode is a beacon of hope.

We begin with a person wrestling with their conscience, considering dramatic life changes to atone for their guilt. Pastor Colin takes us through Biblical wisdom to show that our salvation and redemption lie not in our deeds but in the mercy and justice offered through Jesus Christ.

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Jonah Basan

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Maybe I should sell my cabin in the country.

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Maybe I should become a priest or a missionary.

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Maybe I should just start up my life all over again

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I don’t know, God.

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How do I deal with this guilt?

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How do I settle this case?

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What’s enough?

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What do you want of me?

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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith.

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I’m David Pick.

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I’m glad you’re with us today.

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Colin, I know some are listening who feel like this,

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they feel guilty,

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they just want to say to God what shouldn’t I do to get rid of this.

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Yeah.

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You know the great truth of the gospel is that God in his mercy has provided for our

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guilt to be lifted and taken away.

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It is a great truth that God does not intend us to go around burdened by guilt.

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But here’s the issue that we’re looking at today.

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Once we become aware of our own guilt, the natural human reaction is to say,

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I’ve got to do something to make up for it.

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So how can I get back in God’s good books?

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How can I do to outweigh the particular failing, the particular sin that is upon my conscience

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and my mind and my heart?

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We’re going to see an example from the Bible where Gods people are actually attempting

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to do that.

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And it can never be done.

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The only solution to the guilt that we carry because of our sins is in the blood of Jesus

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Christ cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

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And so we’re going to look at that together today.

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And then we’re able to respond to the call of God which is that we’re to do justly

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and we’re to love mercy and we’re to walk humbly with our God.

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So join us if you can in Micah chapter 6 as we continue the message,

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The God Who Sends out Subpoenas.

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Here’s Colin.

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Now let’s summarise then what we’ve learned here.

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God’s people have been grumbling and complaining about the burdens of their lives.

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God’s failed us, they say.

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God’s listened to this long enough and he says,

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now wait, the time has come for me to bring my own case against the people and he calls

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the mountains, the earth and the heavens as witnesses.

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He lays out the evidence, now look, I made covenant promises to you and I’ve been

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faithful to them.

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You made covenant promises to me.

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And you’ve broken them.

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So while the people have been going around moaning and complaining saying the lords failed

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us, the reality is actually completely the reverse.

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The truth of the situation is we have failed the lord, so the prosecution rests its case.

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Now what about the defence?

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Well, you can read Micah chapter six a few dozen times, you won’t find any.

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There is no defense.

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What is it?

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What is the case for the defence?

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There is none.

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What defense could we possibly bring?

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I mean, is there anyone here who wants to make the case that the business world in Chicago

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is a shining model of integrity for the world?

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Well, you see, no one was ready to make that case in Jerusalem, either.

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There is no defense.

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So what do you do if you’re facing a court can then there is no defense that you can offer?

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Plea bargain.

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Right?

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PLEA bargain.

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Now that’s exactly what happens in verses 6 and 7.

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It’s all about plea bargaining.

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Notice this this is very significant, there is an awareness of guilt here.

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Folks are coming to the point of saying, OK, you know, I know that everything in my life

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isn’t what it should be.

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I’m going to concede that.

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Well, now, let me find, how can I get my way out of this situation.

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Let’s negotiate.

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Let’s just plea bargain.

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Notice that here we’re talking about offerings and sacrifices for my transgressions, for

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the sin of my soul.

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There is an admission of guilt here.

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An acceptance of responsibility.

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So these words in verses 6 and 7 are really the words of someone who can a hold out of

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their hand before God and says, OK, you’ve got me, you’ve got me.

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I’m guilty.

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OK.

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I’ve not been straight.

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I’ve dodged.

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I’ve weaved as I’ve made my money.

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And sometimes it’s on my conscience.

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OK, you got me.

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I’m guilty now what do you want me to do?

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With what should I come before the Lord?

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Should I come before Him with burnt offerings and calves a year old?

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Isn’t it interesting that when we feel guilty there is an impulse within us to become religious.

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You notice that?

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A bad conscience will make a man religious.

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Very often.

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Burnt offerings.

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Sacrifices.

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I made a lot of money.

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I don’t really feel at peace about all of it so maybe I could give something to the

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church.

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Or maybe I should do some work in the church.

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Maybe I should do some work in the community.

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Maybe some voluntary service in the community I can give something back that way I’ll feel

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better about what I’ve taken out.

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The other thing that’s interesting here is the ascending scale in the plea bargain.

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What can I do in the light of the guilt that I feel?

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And it starts with—you know you start bidding low here.

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What about a few year old calves?

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But that doesn’t feel like enough.

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Well what about a few thousand rams then?

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Well if that doesn’t cut it, what else can I offer?

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And now, there’s a note of exasperation that comes in here.

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I mean, come on God, how much is enough?

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What do you want from me?

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You want me to offer my firstborn for the transgression of my soul?

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I mean, we’re into the world of the grandiose gesture now.

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Hey maybe I should sell my cabin in the country.

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Maybe I should become a priest or a missionary.

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Maybe I should just start up my life all over again.

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I don’t know, God, how do I deal with this guilt?

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How do I settle this case?

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What’s enough?

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What do you want of me?

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Have you been there?

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Now you see, that is where we come to this marvelous answer that’s so well known.

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Here it is, verse 8.

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He has showed you, O man, what is good.

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What does the Lord require of you?

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Three things, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

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Now you see what God is saying?

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Here’s what I want you to do.

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I want you to separate yourself from the sins of the city, not by coming out of the business

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world, but by doing business in a different way.

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In a way that honors me because it’s marked by justice, mercy, and faithfulness to your

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word.

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Now, of course these verses apply to more than business but it’s important, I think,

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for us to see that that is actually the first context in which they are set.

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If you belong to Jesus Christ, your calling is to a life that is marked by justice, mercy,

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and faithfulness.

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Now, I’m of course not looking for you to be religious.

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In fact, putting a veneer of religion over an unchanged life merely adds to your offense

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before God.

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It certainly won’t impress other people and it certainly won’t impress God.

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Now there is an absolutely fascinating cross-reference to this in the New Testament, I’m just going

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to give one today and it really is worth turning to and worth knowing.

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If you look over in Matthew’s Gospel and chapter 23, you’ll find that Jesus takes up

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this message of Micah and as it were underscores it with his own unique authority.

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And it’s very interesting that he does this in the context of talking to the most religious

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people in the history of the world, the Pharisees.

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Matthew 23 and verse 23, an easy one to remember.

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Matthew 23, 23.

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Now look at what Jesus says here.

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Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees you hypocrites.

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You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill, and cumin, but you have neglected the more

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important matters of the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

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See what he’s saying?

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These folks are so religious.

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I mean it’s almost unbelievable.

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They have taken tithing to the nth degree.

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They don’t just tithe their money, they tithe their salt and their pepper.

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Right, dill, cumin, mint.

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You are so punctilious about doing this.

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You know the problem, he says to the Pharisees?

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For all that religious discipline in your life, you’ve completely ignored the more important

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matters of the law.

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Now what are the more important, the weightier matters of the law?

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What are the things of substance to which God is calling us?

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And Jesus says there’s just three, justice, mercy, faithfulness.

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Micah 6a.

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Now notice Jesus says you should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former,

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in other words, Jesus is not saying, hey, don’t worry about tithing.

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It’s not a big deal.

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What he is saying is, look, God is calling you to much more than tithing.

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It’s not just discipline in the way that you handle your money its integrity in how you

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make it.

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Justice, mercy, faithfulness to your Word.

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You want to know what really matters to God?

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It’s right here.

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You do justly, you love mercy, and you walk humbly with your God.

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You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and our message, The God

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Who Sends out Subpoenas.

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And if you tuned in late, or if you ever missed one of the series, don’t forget you can always

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come online to hear any of the messages already gone out on air.

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That’s at our website, openthebible.org.uk.

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Or find us a podcast.

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For details on all the regular podcasting sites, search for Open the Bible UK.

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And subscribe to receive regular updates.

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Back to the message where we are in Micah in chapter six.

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Right here.

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You do justly, you love mercy, and you walk humbly with your God.

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Let’s then just focus on these things for a few moments in the time that remains as

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we ponder what they actually mean by way of application for us.

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Acting justly.

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That means that you do right even when it’s costly.

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That you pursue integrity rather than convenience.

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It means that I ask the question how can I give full value rather than wondering all

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the time what I can get away with.

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As I approach my work, as I approach all of my responsibilities as a husband, as a father.

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It means refusing to take advantage of someone who’s vulnerable.

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It means treating someone who’s weak in the same way as you treat someone who is strong.

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It may mean standing up for a person who’s bullied at school, the believer who’s persecuted.

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It means showing proper respect to every person as someone made in the image of God.

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To act justly towards your kids means that your kids would say, in a moment of honesty —

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they might not say this all the time — but when they reflect and they look over the long

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haul, they’ll say this, you know, Dad wasn’t the kind who flew off the handle.

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He always got to what was true and what was right.

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He was fair with me.

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He was really fair.

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It would mean a kid saying, you know, Mum, she had a soft heart but when I went down

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the wrong track she called me on it.

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And that really helped me.

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It was justice.

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Perhaps the best guide for justice in life is to think of it this way, that I speak and

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act in private in a way that would not make me ashamed if it was known in public.

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And you see that is how every Christian should live, because one day we will all stand before

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the judgment seat of Christ and everything that we’ve done in secret will be brought

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out into the open before him.

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And since Jesus has told us that justice is among the weighty matters of the law, I reckon

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we can expect pretty clearly that on the last day issues of justice will be high on his

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list of questions for us.

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In other words, the first question on the list that he will be asking of you, and of

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me, will not in all probability be how many prayer meetings did you go to, or how many

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times were you in church or at communion or whatever.

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It’s much more likely to be, tell me about the way you dealt with that complaint.

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Tell me about the cunts you presented during the merger back in 1997, or whenever it was.

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Tell me about why you didn’t hire that person of colour, you said they weren’t qualified,

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was that really true?

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You say what can I do about these things now?

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Probably nothing.

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There are some situations in which you can make restoration and if you can you should.

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That’s what Zacchaeus did.

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He knew who he had taken money from and who he shouldn’t.

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And he didn’t just give it back he gave it back four times over.

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It was an expression of his real change in beginning to follow Jesus.

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But the truth is that most of what we have done wrong, most of the injury we have brought

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through our lives can’t be put right now.

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And God knows that.

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But what you can do is make a new commitment to justice today.

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That’s your calling.

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Not just doing justice, but loving mercy.

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See, this is the second dimension of our calling.

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To act justly, to love mercy.

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Not just to show mercy, but to love mercy.

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People who love mercy are always looking for another way to show it.

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We’ve talked about ways in which we might’ve wronged other people, but, boy, in the world

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of business, has there been anyone who hasn’t been wronged by someone else?

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Now, you see, if someone else has wronged you, it is very likely that at some point

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God will put you in a position where you have the opportunity to get your own back to settle

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the score.

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The great question that will reveal your character will be, what will you do when you’re in that

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position of power?

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There are lots of things that you can do when you’re wounded.

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You can embarrass.

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You can humiliate.

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You can cold shoulder.

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You can penalize.

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You can ruin.

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You can destroy.

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The options are endless and sometimes taste delicious.

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Right?

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Settling the score.

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Someone said to me recently, I had years of conflict with my father, so I punished him

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by not allowing him to see his grandchildren much.

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He died last month.

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I wish I hadn’t done that.

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What you do when God puts you in a position to get even will say a great deal about your

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character.

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When you have your day in court, will it become obvious that you love mercy?

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Mercy changes lives and changed lives bring changed communities.

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Do you love mercy?

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Do you love it?

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And then the third, that we walk humbly with our God.

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I’ve called that faithfulness.

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That’s really the word Jesus used to sum up that phrase in a single word, faithfulness.

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What God is calling us to hear is not a passing phase, a little bit of mercy here and not

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a justice here and there.

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What He’s calling us to is a way of life, an expression of character, that reflects

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the very character of God.

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Faithfulness means that we keep doing these things over a long period of time.

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It means walking in this way that is steady and sustained and constant, walking with God.

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Do you see?

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It is justice, mercy and faithfulness that are His character, this is how He is towards

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our calling is that this is how we, if we are His people, should be towards others.

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Now in these last moments, there’s one obvious question that has to come at the end and that

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is the question of the verdict.

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We have talked about a trial, we have seen the witnesses, the evidence, the lack of defence,

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the plea bargaining.

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What about the verdict?

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Well, you don’t get a verdict in this chapter, although if you read to the end of the Book

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of Micah, you will find there and we’ll come to it in two weeks time, that God speaks about

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treading our sins underfoot and hurling all our inequities into the depth of the sea.

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Beautiful.

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That sounds like God dropping all charges, that sounds like God throwing the case out

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of court, it sounds like God embracing us and being reconciled to us in a wonderful

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way, and that’s exactly what it is.

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But here’s the point.

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Before we get to the forgiveness of Micah Chapter 7, we have to face up to the calling

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of Micah Chapter 6.

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In other words, in the gospel, there is no forgiveness without, what?

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Repentance.

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No forgiveness without repentance.

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I remember as a teenager hearing time and again Dr. Alan Redpath using a phrase that

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got deeply into my mind, and I thank God for it.

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He used to put it this way, God has not promised to forgive one sin that you will not forsake.

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When Jesus came preaching the gospel, he said the kingdom of God is near so what are you

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to do?

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Repent and believe the good news.

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You know what we’ve done?

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We cut it right in half, we’ve dropped repent and we’ve said, let’s just go with believe

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the good news.

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And so the result is believers who live their lives in the city are often indistinguishable

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in the way that they do business with others around them.

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God is not in the business of ferrying unchanged people into heaven.

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He is calling us to a different way of life that will bring change in a different kind

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of community, marked by justice and mercy and faithfulness.

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These are the marks of a person who walks with him, this is our calling.

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And the wonderful good news of the gospel is that God offers to deal with you, with

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me, on the basis of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

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This is why he offered his firstborn son for the sin of your soul.

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Christ bore the sentence on the cross.

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He got the justice so that you could have the mercy, and God is faithful to that.

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But you receive that mercy by entering a relationship with him, the Christ who says, follow me,

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and he invites you to walk humbly with him in every sphere of your life, to treat others

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in the same way as he has dealt with you, with justice, with mercy and with faithfulness.

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That is the Christian life summarized, isn’t it?

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To live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

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It’s easy to lose that fire of your spiritual life, to begin to get too comfortable, to

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stagnate.

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Maybe that’s where you are today.

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If so, this series is for you.

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The nation of Israel had grown complacent and spiritually cold.

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They faced a national crisis, and in the middle of that crisis, Micah brought God’s word

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with clarity and power, and it led the nation of Israel into a fresh encounter with God.

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We can do the same for you.

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If you need a spiritual boost, a fresh vision of God, then Close Encounters With The Living

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God can help you.

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You can listen to the whole series up-to-date by coming to our website on OpenTheBible.org.uk.

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And as the series progresses, we’ll be adding more of the messages onto the website.

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So by the end of the series, they’ll all be there, and you can go back and listen again

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at any time.

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Also on our website, you can find many of Pastor Colin Smith’s sermons, organised in

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four ways.

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By series, Colin preaches a whole series on a particular subject.

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By topic, with reference to individual scripture.

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And by date.

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This means that it is really easy to home in on any of the subject’s Rusia, topics or

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scriptural references that you may be looking for.

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Go to OpenTheBible.org.uk and click on the menu item Sermons.

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You will also find an online Bible Study course entitled, The Drive.

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This is a 30-session journey through the entire Bible

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and it will take you deep into the valleys of the Old Testament,

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the peaks of the glory of Jesus and the ups and downs of the Christian life.

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Again that’s the drive

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and you can find it under the menu item Resources

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00:22:44,739 –> 00:22:50,420

on the Open The Bible website, that’s OpenTheBible.org.uk.

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Also on out website and available as a podcast is Open The Bible Daily

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and that’s a series of short two to three minute reflections

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00:22:58,339 –> 00:23:02,739

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

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There’s a fresh one every day

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and many Christians find it’s a brilliant way to start the day.

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Open The Bible is supported entirely by our listeners

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

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00:23:14,699 –> 00:23:17,520

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

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00:23:17,520 –> 00:23:20,920

Kevin De Jong’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 flavour of what this book is about

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00:23:26,640 –> 00:23:30,819

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

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Why Following Jesus Does Not Mean

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That You Have To Change The World,

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00:23:37,180 –> 00:23:41,579

Be An Expert In Everything Accept Spiritual Failure

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and Feel Miserable Pretty Much All Of The Time

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00:23:44,540 –> 00:23:47,500

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,

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Impossible Christianity, we’ve put burdens on ourselves

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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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that it is possible to live a life

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that is pleasing to God

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and that this is the life into which

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the Lord Jesus Christ himself leads us.

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Well, we’d love to send you a copy

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00:24:21,839 –> 00:24:24,800

of Kevin De Young’s book, Impossible Christianity,

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00:24:24,800 –> 00:24:27,680

as a thank you gift for setting up a new payment

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00:24:27,680 –> 00:24:29,380

to the work of Open the Bible

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00:24:29,380 –> 00:24:32,719

in the amount of five pounds per month or more.

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00:24:32,719 –> 00:24:34,219

That offer runs all this month

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00:24:34,219 –> 00:24:36,319

and you can find details on our website

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00:24:36,319 –> 00:24:39,599

at openthebible.org.uk.

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You can also give online.

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For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith

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00:24:44,839 –> 00:24:46,520

I’m David Pick and I hope you’ll be able

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00:24:46,520 –> 00:24:50,260

to join us again next time on Open the Bible.

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You’re surrounded by trouble

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and you don’t know where God is.

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You can’t tell what he’s doing.

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Find out why next time on Open the Bible.

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Colin Smith

Trustee / Founder and Teaching Pastor

Colin Smith is the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near – So Far. Colin is the Founder and Teaching Pastor for Open the Bible. Follow him on X formerly Twitter.

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