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Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim

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truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Hey, is your life described by a

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hyphen? What about all of these hyphens? We live in a hyphenated culture, people

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seem to be absolutely obsessed with the hyphen part more than the reality. Let's dive

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into what I'm talking about as we open up the Bible. Let's do a little examination. Is

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your life hyphenated?

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You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today,

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if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ,

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then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying

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amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now, open your hearts to

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what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.

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Well, hey, everybody. Welcome to the Jack Hibbs show. And we are delighted to be with you

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guys. As always, please share our content with others. That's the greatest thing that

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you could do for us is get the word out. And we want to bring you the word always. I

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think I hope you've caught on by now that we just want to get away from the fluff and

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get to the stuff that makes life matter. Causes our faith to make a difference. And talking

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about faith, making a difference, we, I think we really need as a culture to take a really,

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and I mean, Christian culture, take a deep breath and take a deep dive into what does

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it mean to be a Christian? And I know that today, with what we're going to be talking

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about, there's going to be some tremendous input and comments. We would love to get those

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from you. What we do is that we'll look at your comments. And when we do come around to

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doing our answering questions, we will hopefully get to your comment or your question. And today

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is going to be one of those days because we're going to be talking about something that

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is absolutely socially, both accepted and unaccepted. I'll have to explain it to you,

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accepted in the sense that we live in a hyphenated world. I'm going to ask you to just write

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that down in your heart, your mind on a piece of paper, a hyphenated world. You see, what

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do you mean hyphenated? All of a sudden, it seems as though things in life, even in Christianity,

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which this has no bearing. It has no place whatsoever. And that is to be a hyphenated

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Christian. So let me back up by saying this. There was a guy by the name of Patrick Henry.

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For some Americans, they might remember their ancient history. And Patrick Henry was

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one of the remarkable fire brands. They would call him Patrick Henry had and was known

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for having one of the greatest voices and ability to articulate. When he spoke, people

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stopped and listened to what he was saying. He could stop a crowd. And Patrick Henry was

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a remarkable orator in light of all of that. When it was being debated and talked about

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and the birthing of the United States, which they did not have in their mind at that time,

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they didn't know what you and I have come to become really acquainted with or even bored

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with. And that is there was no United States in their mind. They were practicing, hoping

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to put into practice, a miracle in human government, which had never happened before. And

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when Patrick Henry understood the direction that the colonies were headed, remember each

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colony, 13 of them were greatly divided. Imagine 13 colonies actually being 13 different

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countries. They all shared the same language, which was extremely unique, but they were

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as good as 13 different countries. When the vision of the revolution was clearly made,

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visible and articulated by a guy by the name of Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry said this.

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He said, I am no longer a Virginian. I'm an American. Isn't that great? Because people

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were saying, I'm a Massachusetts American. I'm a Virginian American. I am a North Carolina

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American. And Patrick Henry laid that down and the hyphen went away. No longer did people

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talk about being a Virginian American. And how many times do we tragically, in the Christian

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Church, discuss or introduce ourselves with hyphens? I'm a Baptist Christian. What in the

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world is that? I'm a Methodist Christian. I'm a non-denominational Christian. I am a progressive

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Christian. I am a liberal Christian. I'm a conservative Christian. I'm an evangelical Christian.

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All of these things, we're going to call them for what they are hyphenated, hyphenated life.

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And I want to read something to you from the Scriptures and then we'll get deeper into this.

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In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10, this is what Paul said to the Corinthians. He said,

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now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same

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thing. And that there'll be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together

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in the same mind and in the same judgment. I find that fascinating, the same mind,

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with the same conclusion, same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you,

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my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you, hyphens.

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Now, I say this, that each of you says, I'm of Paul, or another says, I'm of a Paulus,

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or one might say, I'm of Cephas, or some say, I'm of Christ, is Christ divided? Was Paul

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crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of

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you except Christmas and Gaius, unless anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes,

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I also baptized the household of Staphonus. And besides, I do not know whether I baptized any

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other, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of wisdom.

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But listen, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. Galatians 3, verse 26,

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for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized

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into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free.

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There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ,

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then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise, oneness, unity. It may be that the

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church is more divided than ever before. And it's been that way for a very long time because

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knowingly or unknowingly, we have swallowed some sort of carnal, carnal mode, very subtle, but I think

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very powerful mode of division. We've actually welcomed it in. And here I go, I'm just going to lay it

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out there and including myself, we're going to have to cope with this stuff. Do you see anywhere

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in the Bible where there was a gathering of believers that were only those from the region

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of Bethania, for example, it's a real place. Or there was the church from and only those from

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Thessalonica. Or there was the church only of Rome or Galatia. You name it in the New Testament.

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Would they say, hi, nice to meet you. I'm a Galatian Christian. Oh, really? Well, I'm a

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Bethinian Christian. None of them did that. Nobody did that. They didn't hyphenate their Christian

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identity because they had died. They had died to their old life. And they were no longer walking

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around saying those from, for example, Italy, hey, I'm an Italian Christian. Or those from

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Western Europe, which would have been Tarsius or the region of Spain, maybe even the Isles

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of Great Britain today. Oh, hey, I'm a, I'm a Macedonian Christian or I am a Tarsius Christian.

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Nobody did that. It's nowhere found in the Bible. And you know why? I think it was because

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their identity. They clearly understood that their identity had been swept away by the blood of

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Christ. And they had come into a brand new relationship with Jesus Christ and all of their earthly

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tags, markings and identities had been removed from the real source of who they were. Did they say,

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hey, I'm a Christian and I'm from the area of Asia Minor. I know exactly what you're talking about.

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I'm sure they talked like that. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm a Christian. I'm from Southern

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California, but I'm not a Southern California Christian or dialed it down more. I'm Portuguese,

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half Portuguese, 50%. So I don't walk around saying, I'm a Portuguese Christian.

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That divides the body of Christ. I don't walk around saying, I'm a white Christian.

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What is that? I'm a black Christian. Oh, I'm an Asian Christian. There's no such thing.

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A hyphenated life in the church, that's insane. That just divides people up. It draws lines and

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it divides us when we ought to be working hard to unify us, of course, all always around the truth.

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But let me go a little bit more so. And let's let the reality be dealt with. Can you be a Christian

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with a hyphen? What do you mean by that? Can you be a gay Christian? A gay Christian?

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I didn't say, can you be a Christian who struggles with gay temptation? I'm not talking about that.

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Are you a bank robber Christian? I'm a thief Christian. I'm a thieving Christian.

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Are you tempted to steal? Okay, that's different than being a thieving Christian.

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You can go down the list and I wrote a very small list and then I'll read one from the Bible.

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But if you think for a moment that any one of us are going to enter the Kingdom of Heaven with a

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hyphen, we've deceived ourselves. That is not going to happen. What we're trying to do when we

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hyphenate our Christianity is that we are bringing in the old and trying to weld it to the new.

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And that's about as successful as iron being mixed with clay. It's not going to work. It's impossible.

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Have you ever seen something when you don't read the recipe instructions on the box?

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Well, and not only well, but I didn't realize this until too late in my life.

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That even when you follow a recipe, you know how it says first take a bowl and then add an egg and

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mix it and then add the powder and mix that and then do a teaspoon of oil and mix that. Did you

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know? I didn't know. Did you know that even the order matters? When you reverse the order,

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you make pancakes that my pancakes looked like a cluster of grapes. It was insane. It was just all

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all the bunch of stuff balled up and chunked up because I had all the right ingredients,

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but I didn't do it in the right order. Listen, everything regarding Jesus Christ,

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the new recipe is this. We are in Christ. We've died to ourselves in the past life. We are a new

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creation in Jesus. And so I have to tell you, I'm not a fan of all white churches. I'm not a fan

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of all Asian churches. All Chinese churches are all Korean churches. I'm not a fan of all black

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churches. I'm not a fan of dividing up the body of Christ. I think that when God is moving and

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his word is being presented and the Holy Spirit is doing what he does, I think you're going to look

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across a congregation and you're going to see what looks like a montage of color and of people

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from various countries. The church is not divided. I don't know why we do this.

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Look, if you live in an all white community, that's just the way it is. But if a black man or a

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black woman comes into that church, that person is the same color to God as anybody else. God

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doesn't look at a congregation and say, you know what, you guys can be the gay Christian community.

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That's impossible. And by the way, I just made one of the fundamental mistakes that our culture

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does. Don't ever mix pigmentation with life choices. None of us have the choice of our pigmentation.

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But everyone has the choice about gainess. Can you be a gay Christian?

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Again, if you're tempted, you can be a Christian that's tempted in these areas, but you don't

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follow through with that. Can you be a pot smoking drug-taking Christian? You can be tempted,

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but you can't live that life. You can't practice that life. You cannot hyphenate that into your

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Christianity. Well, can you be an alcoholic Christian? Can you hyphenate that into your

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Christianity? My argument is you can't. You may be tempted to drink, but that's no longer

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in control of your life. That's not what you live for. Can you be a pornographic Christian? How

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about that one? Can you be a porn Christian? What is your hyphen? I would suggest that you and I

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take whatever hyphen we think we're entertaining and we nail it to the cross because it's an

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offense to God. We cannot be hyphenated people. What about greedy? And we doctor that one up. Well,

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I just have a knack for making money. We will spin all kinds of things. Well, I give a lot of it

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away, you know? But you know, down deep inside that you've justified it where you know what,

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I'm an entrepreneur Christian. That's a fancy way of making it go down a little bit better. It's

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nothing wrong with being an entrepreneur, but if you're greedy, can you be a greedy Christian?

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Can you be a greedy new creation? Can you be a gay new creation? Can you be a drugged up new creation?

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Can you be an alcoholic new creation? Can you be a porn new creation? How about this? Can you be a

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choice Christian? Well, hi, you know, I'm a Christian. I'm pro-choice. No, you're not. That's not

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how can you do that? But that's one of the most ridiculous hyphens of all. I'm a pro-choice

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Christian. That's impossible. Unless you understand what pro-choice really means, pro-choice means

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that you have the ability to choose. Once you make your choice, you're responsible for your

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choice because after you choose a choice has been made. So if I be in a Christian, choose to get

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a burrito that has got habanero turbo hot sauce on it, and I eat it because I chose to eat it,

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and then later I have consequences from that. I can't blame anybody. I made the wrong choice

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when I had the time, and now I got sick from eating that burrito. People who say that they're pro-choice

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Christians regarding babies and pregnancy, they're playing mind games with themselves because

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you make a choice when it comes to reproduction. You make the choice to act out how people are

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reproduced, how humans are made. But then when you make a human, then you want to exercise choice.

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You already exercise choice. This is the consequences from your choice. You chose to have sex,

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and the result is a baby. You chose to have a turbo-spiced habanero burrito,

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and because of your choice, your stomach is sick. You see, well, you pro-choice. You know what?

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I guess I am pro-choice, but I'm also pro-results, pro-consequences. You hear what I'm saying?

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I am pro-choice because I'm going to eat lunch today. I don't know what I'm going to eat.

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I'm going to choose, but we don't like to deal with the consequences. So when somebody says,

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I'm a pro-choice Christian, can you have sex with somebody? Of course, biology is real. Of course,

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you can. Can you abort that child after you're pregnant and hyphenate your Christianity?

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I'm a pro-choice Christian. You cannot be that. Just like you cannot be a pro-porn Christian.

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It's impossible. You're lying to yourself. What about this? This is a big one. If

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the Democrats will not allow God to be in their platform, if Democrats try to silence Christians,

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by the way, let's be honest, Democrats try to silence Christians. They'll sometimes tolerate Jews.

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They will never criticize Muslims. Ever. Democrats are always talking about separation of

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church and state, which where is that? I'd like you to put that in the comments section, please.

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Show me where that is in our founding documents. Where is that in the Constitution?

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Where is that in the Bill of Rights? Where is that in the Declaration of Independence?

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Where is that in our nation's birth certificates? I'd love to see it. But I tell you what,

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while the Democrat Party attacks Christianity and gives Islam a free pass,

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you got to make your bed and sleep in it with somebody. And I find it amazing to me that Democrats

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have no problem sleeping with Muslims. I don't mean sleeping with them. Talking about

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a Democrat will never criticize Islam or Muslims. But boy, they'll go after the Christians.

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You want to know why? Christians don't fight back. That's why. A Muslim will cut your head off.

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Christians were easy because you guys can do whatever you want to us because we believe that

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God's going to take care of it in the end. And he does, he does a way better job. Listen to this

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from the Bible. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Again, remember, we're talking about

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there are no such thing. There isn't such thing as a hyphenated life.

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Do you not know, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9. Do you not know that the unrighteous

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will not inherit the kingdom of God. So he's going to give us a list of those who are not going to

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heaven. Do not be deceived near the neither fornicators, nor adulterers, or idolaters, nor

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adulterers, nor homosexuals, or sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor

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revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were

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washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the

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spirit of our God. Do you see any hyphens in there? No hyphens. No dual existence. In this world today,

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and in the age of a very, very weakened Christian witness, it's no wonder that the cults,

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it's no wonder that the Marxist, the communists, the socialists, it's no wonder why the

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progressives, the liberals smell or taste blood in the water, because the church on the surface

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anyway, the bulk of the church air quotes is all of these things hyphenated. And we wonder why the

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church has no power and we wonder why the church has made fun of and mocked and the world doesn't

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respect nor have a reverential awe like the church used to have in the culture. The Bible says

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that the church is the ground in the pillar of all truth. But when was the last time you saw a

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church make such a difference in the culture that it was the ground in pillar of all truth,

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and people either loved that church or hated that church dependent upon their hyphenated life?

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Isn't it interesting? There are those who may hate the truth, but they fear it because down deep

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inside they know it's true. There may be those who have no regard for the truth whatsoever,

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because they're going to do what they want to do no matter what, because they've misunderstood

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the truth. How does that happen? Where does that come from? From entertaining the hyphenated life,

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friends listen, be aware of this. What I'm speaking to you about is so dangerously common

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that we probably all deal with it in some way, shape or form. And we need to get back to the

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Bible purely, so carefully. We need to slow down and we need to realize, is Christ divided?

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Is there the church of Paul the Apostle or a church of Peter the Apostle? That's insane.

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And look, church denominations in Christianity. Look, cults can be cults. There can be the cult of

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this, the cult of that, the cult of all of the above. I don't care what they do. In fact, Walter Martin,

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most of you do not know who that is. That's okay, but you ought to buy his book Kingdom of the

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cults. It's a Christian classic by Dr. Walter Martin, the Kingdom of the cults. It's a great book.

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I actually, what I'm about to tell you, I actually heard him say it in person. I get to see this

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in person. Walter Martin said, you should thank God for the cult that's down the street from your

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church. And everybody thought, what is crazy? What is he saying? Walter Martin said, those

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people that attend that cult, they have a real hunger for religion, but they don't have a hunger for

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the truth. And so they gravitate toward a cult because that's where they feel at home. That's where

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they belong because they do not want Jesus. They want something else. And Walter Martin said,

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if those people were not at that cult, they would be messing up your church. They would be in your

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church messing things up. Isn't that a wild way of thinking about it? But live at Dr. Walter Martin,

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I think you might be able to go to YouTube and check them out from the 60s and 70s, maybe even the

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early 80s. That said, I want to, I want to, I want to invoke my pastoral position as a pastor and

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say, I'm asking all of us who named the name of Jesus to examine our lives and to ask ourselves,

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are we tempted in the area of stupid Democrat decisions? Are we tempted in the area of

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choosing to take life and abortion? Are we dealing with the temptation of being greedy?

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Are we dealing with the temptation of porn? Are we dealing with the temptation of alcohol,

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the temptation of drugs or pot? Are we dealing with the temptation of immorality, homosexuality,

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you name it? That is called the Christian battle. That is normal. You fight, you fight, you fight,

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you do not give in and you crucify the flesh. The scripture says that these these temptations,

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these lusts are no longer in control of us. And we have victory through the Word of God.

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We open up the Bible and all that stuff that might be your stuff is pushed back down and held back

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at bay. That's why you read the scriptures daily to slay the old you. You have to reckon the old

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man dead on a daily basis. The Bible says in Galatians 2 20, I've been crucified with Christ,

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nevertheless I live. Yet it is not I that live it, but it's Christ that lives in me in the life

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that I now live. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. You have

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a new life. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 says, we're new creations in Christ. The old us have

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gone. But if you think you can bring the old you and put a dash hyphen and then staple on Christian,

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you're deceiving yourselves. Galatians chapter 6 verse 7 says, God will not be mocked. Do not

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be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man does, that Shelley also reap. Wow. So no more hyphens.

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No more hyphens. I'm very, very happy and blessed that the church that I have the honor of past

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strain. We just teach the Bible. Some people think it's too simple. They can't they don't want it.

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That's fine. Some people come because we just teach the Bible. And when you look across the

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congregation like I get to do, especially in Southern California where there's a heavily

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populated Asian culture, Asian. So there's Japanese, Chinese. There's liotians, Cambodians,

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Vietnamese, Filipinos. There are those from Thailand. They're Taiwanese. They're Koreans.

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Japanese. You feel it. They're all here. They all come to church here.

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And in no other situation would you get all of those different people groups together.

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They will not come together for a Tupperware party. They're not going to come together for Amway.

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They're not going to come together for anything else, but they come together for Jesus.

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And it's beautiful. They serve Christ together. And listen, we do not have a

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Korean Christian greeter's ministry. We do not have a white

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counseling ministry. We do not have a black Christian worship team.

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That would do nothing, but harm the very heart of Jesus.

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And so I wanted to point this out to you because the other day, I'll wrap this up right now.

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The other day, I was driving, listening to something I don't know, could have been a podcast,

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probably was, could have been talk radio. I don't know. But I was shocked at how many hyphens I was

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hearing in the conversation. And now we're going now, and we're speaking to Joe. He is a

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blank hyphen American. So this is a white, first of all, nobody says white American. How can we

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don't see that? We don't even say, I'm a, hi, I was born in California. I am a, I'm a European

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American. But why do we say I'm a black American? Why do we say I am a Korean American? Why do we

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say I am a Norwegian American? We don't say that. We joined in with Patrick Henry and we say,

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I'm no longer a virginian. I'm an American. Well, how about we apply that same simple logic to the

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truth to the church in our identification? What are you? Who are you? I'm a Christian.

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So I land this by, by telling you that this morning, Lisa and I were watching a,

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well, first of all, we were reading the newsletter from Voices of the Marders, VOM. Go to

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vom.org and support them. Give them your money. They do a great work. We do. They're amazing.

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Learn about the persecuted church and in the world. And Jesus is everything they have.

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And so we were reading amazing testimonies. And then there was a video and we clicked on that

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video. And there are people who get up in various parts of North Africa, for example,

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various parts of even Southeast Asia. And they literally get dressed to go to church. Listen to

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me. Listen to me. If I could grab you by the ears right now. Oh, I just lost, just lost Jesus.

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They literally put their shoes on or their sandals and they put on their most colorful clothing

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that they can wear and they go to church. They have, and they're telling you about it,

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they have no idea if they are going to survive church.

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While we in America and in the West, we lick our finger and test the wind to see if we should

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go outside to go to church. It might be too hot. It might be too cold. It could rain.

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So we're not going to worship God. We're going to stay home.

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They, it's never a question for them. They get their kids dressed. They get themselves dressed

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Sunday best. They walk. We read, we read today in the magazine because we get the magazine,

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we support them. Some people walk 20 miles to church one way. They go to church in the morning,

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they walk, they spend their whole day at church and then they walk back before it's dark.

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And you know what their big concern is? Their big concern is being ambushed by

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Islamists that have been just hacking Christians to pieces in Rwanda, in Nigeria, in

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and in various North African countries. Did you know that? And you know they're going to go to church.

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It's not even a question if they're going to go to church or not. And to them,

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to them hyphens are insane. They're Christians. They're Christ followers. How can you

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staple anything of the flesh onto that? Friend, listen, we need to examine who we really are.

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Have we gotten sucked into and allowed the social media world or our culture

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to get ourselves to label ourselves?

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It must never be ever said that we are a hyphenated Christian because that self-deception

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and it cannot happen. Listen, if this matters to you, I hope that you share this with other people.

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I know this is a strong cup of coffee right now, but it's needed. We'd love to know what your

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comments are. So give us a review. Let us know. Share us with others. But listen, be looking up.

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Be looking up because just like you can feel right now the change in the seasons.

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There seems to be a change going on in the atmosphere of this spiritual realm. And I pray that

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you're ready to meet Jesus. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is who he said he was?

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Jesus said of himself that he is the way the truth in the life and no one can come to the Father.

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But through me, do you believe that? Do you believe him? Jesus said, if you were to die, believe

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in me, yet shall you live. Jesus said, I'll be crucified, but on the third day I'll be resurrected

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from the dead. The Bible says, repent, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

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Jesus wants you and his family. He wants you to come and experience forgiveness of your sins.

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He is for real. He's coming back, but in the meantime, it is incumbent upon every human on the face

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of the earth who hears the gospel to repent of their sin and to come to Christ Jesus.

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You're not going to do that by becoming a Baptist or Calvary or Lutheran or Methodist

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or Presbyterian. There's none of that stuff in heaven. The only people in heaven are Christians.

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God bless you until next time.