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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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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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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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we’d like to thank you by sending you a copy of
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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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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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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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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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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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in the amount of five pounds per month or more.
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That offer runs all this month
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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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I’m David Pick and I hope you’ll be able
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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.