Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Dragon, he threw into earth.
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There was no one like Jesus
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Mikael, not even the beast, Mika.
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So
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the dragon's plan executed by the beast appears to kind of be a two step process.
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So first we see in verses five and six, it says,
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and the beast was given a mouth, uttering haughty and blasphemous words.
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And it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months.
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It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against
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God blasphemy in his name and his dwelling.
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That is those who dwell in heaven.
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So step one
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arrogant haughty words and blasphemies.
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This also matches up with Daniel seven who
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speaks arrogantly against God and his people.
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Blasphemy is slander against God, but it can be directed against the name of God,
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his dwelling place or
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the Tabernacle, or even those who dwell or Tabernacle in heaven, the saints.
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Once this has taken its effect,
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then it's on to step two of the plan for the beast and the dragon
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verse seven and eight,
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it says also he was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them
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and authority was given it over every tribe and people and language. And nation
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and all who dwell on earth will worship it.
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Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the
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world in the book of Life of the lamb who was slain.
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So step two violence,
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the sea beast is given authority to act for 42 months.
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This is the same time period that we saw that was given the two witnesses to prophesy.
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And I don't necessarily believe that this 42 months is literal in
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its overall meeting
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meaning.
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But this period of time where the beast fully turns and persecutes the
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saints for 42 months does seem to line up very closely this time with
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Nero.
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Nero went crazy and he really per
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persecuted the church after Rome was burned up in 8064 all the way until
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his suicide in 8068 which was a period of you guessed it 42 months,
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42 months in the bible points to times of trouble when the enemies of God
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are in power and God's people are waiting for the kingdom of God to come.
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The dragon. We saw this a few weeks ago. He oppressed the Old Testament Saints.
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We talked about the number 42 there as well.
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Remember the generations that were given by Matthew and Matthew one from Abraham
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all the way when he gets the promise all the way to Jesus,
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the fulfillment of that promise, the Savior coming
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is 42 generations.
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So it's this time of trouble. And I think that
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that's a general idea.
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But then I think there are specific instances in
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history like with neural where that does match up,
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um pretty perfectly as well.
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So those who resist beast worship,
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they worship God and take encouragement from the assurance that God avenges
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because he says in Romans 12, repay no one evil for evil,
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but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all if possible.
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So far as it depends on you live peaceably with all beloved,
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never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written.
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Vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord,
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the beast and the dragon think that they are
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winning by persecuting and even killing the saints.
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But it's actually
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the proof that's needed for the lawsuit.
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God is bringing against the nations and against the beasts,
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their words, their lives and especially their death seal.
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God's case against both the Jews and the gentiles.
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Their choice has been made.
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Jesus warns us about this choice that we're seeing here, Matthew 12.
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He says,
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whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
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There's no middle ground,
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there is no safe neutral in this world.
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There's no Switzerland that play in God's in God's world.
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You are with Jesus
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or you're with the dragon.
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Verse nine says, if anyone has an ear, let him hear
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this phrase goes back to the boring open of the slave's ear,
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representing covenant death and resurrection
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and renewed obedience and love to the word of their master.
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Josh talked about this years ago now.
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But opening up your ear to your master was an
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important thing that was allowed back in Exodus 21.
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It says,
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but if the slave plainly says, I love my master, my wife and my Children,
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I will not go out free,
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then his master shall bring him to God and he
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shall bring him to the door or the door post,
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and his master shall pour his ear through with
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an owl and he shall be his slave forever.
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That's a willing slave. He doesn't have to do this.
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He chooses because he loves his master. I wanna be your slave forever.
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I want your marking on me.
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We're to give our ear over to Jesus because we
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love him and we want to be his slaves forever.
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Verse 10.
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If anyone is to be taken captive to captivity, he goes,
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if anyone is to be slain with a sword with a sword, must he be slain?
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So God is a just God.
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Those who send the saints to captivity
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will go to captivity themselves.
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Those who slay the saints with the sword, the sword will themselves,
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they will themselves be put to the sword.
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God is an eye for eye God, a tooth for tooth, God
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and he will vindicate and he will avenge his church.
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This is a comfort to those whose has his name on their foreheads,
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who's chosen to give his their ear to him.
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And those are the ones he loves and protects
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to his enemies who choose the beast and put the beast name on them.
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That is terrifying.
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John is recalling these verses here in verse 10, back from Jeremiah 15, it says,
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and when they ask you, where shall we go, you shall say to them thus says, the Lord,
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those who are for pestilence, pestilence and those who are for the sword to the sword
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and those who are for famine, to famine and those who are for captivity to captivity.
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Jeremiah goes on to describe the coming destruction of
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the land just like we're seeing in revelation.
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Those who are on the same side as the beast are going to endure coming judgment,
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the wicked cannot escape their horn is going to be torn down.
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We're not to worry though
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the saints were not to worry back then in the first century.
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Even when things weren't looking good,
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we are to place our trust, not in man,
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not in the evil machinations of beasts and of the dragon controlling it,
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but in God who is ruling the world for his glory, his judgment will come.
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The patient expectation of this is what's called for next in our verses.
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It says here is a call for the endurance and faith
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of the saints.
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So the message today is a little bit shorter.
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But the next section of chapter 13, if I kept going, it's a whole new thing.
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So I don't wanna keep going.
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When we talk about the land beast,
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we saw a lot last week how much of the sea beast and the land beast parallel each other.
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But as much as it parallels itself themselves, they are also very different.
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And we're gonna introduce another large pattern
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that we see throughout the Bible that I
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think will help us understand the lamb beast and who it is representing better.
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We'll do that next week.
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So the Roman Empire was a powerful beast that was called to protect God's people,
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but ultimately failed in that calling.
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We all have this chance to be a person who calls on the beast name
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or one who calls on the name of the Lord.
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It doesn't mean here when we read this that every Roman
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or even the emperors worship Satan or the beast in some,
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you know, weird satanic ceremony
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in the Bible.
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There's two different types of worship in a way,
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there's official worship like we see in a
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worship service like what we're doing here.
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And then there's everyday practical allegiance and obedience.
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And that in its own way is worship.
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So I don't know if the Jews or the Romans had
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big official worship ceremonies to the beasts or the dragon,
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but they for sure chose to give their everyday alliance to the beast they viewed
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his power in political ways in their own daily lives as greater than gods.
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They worshiped the beast, the creature rather than the creator.
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We must make this choice every day as well.
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Do we pick up the banner of Christ
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or do we fall into worldly lust?
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Do we do the things of the world? Do we care about the things of the world?
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More jobs, money, power, sex, material possessions.
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Do those mean more to us than Christ? Are we choosing the Roman Empire Empire?
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We might have the right answer here in a worship setting.
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It's easy in a church kind of to do and say the right things.
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But are we saying we have no king but Caesar in our everyday lives,
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we must choose creature or creator, Mia
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ha ha
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or Micael
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Roman beast
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or the Christ, the lamb
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Joshua 24.
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Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.
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Put away the gods that your father served beyond
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the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord.
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And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day, whom you will serve.
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Whether the gods your father served in the region beyond the river,
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the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwelt.
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But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
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Let's pray
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gently, father. We thank you for your word.
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We thank you for
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uh the revelation that you've given us and what
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we're learning in revelation 13 about the beast,
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Lord.
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And
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I believe that this happened in a specific point in history and
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um correlates with your son dying and
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being resurrected and ascending to the father.
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But Lord, it also applies to our lives every day.
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I think I pray Lord that we will not choose the beast.
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We know that
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we're not out sacrificing goats to Satan or something like that.
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But Lord help us to examine our lives and see if
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we are worshiping the beast just in our everyday lives,
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giving more credence to celebrities or sports figures or
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our jobs or work whatever it might be Lord rather than Mikael
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who is like God. There is no one like you.
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I pray Lord that we will put our full trust in you, that we will claim your name as ours.
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Lord,
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that we will place it on our foreheads and act
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accordingly in everything that we do in our lives.
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We give you all the glory.
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We thank you for this time together.
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Bless us as we go out, help us to be bold and proclaim your word to the whole world.
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Your name. Amen.