00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:05 Question Wednesday: Praying Together as a Couple

00:47 Practical Tips for Praying Together

03:25 Encouragement for Spiritual Leadership

07:12 Bible Reading and Parables

11:14 Discussion on Demons and Jesus' Authority

14:32 Closing Prayer and Farewell

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Hey everybody.

2

Welcome back to another edition

of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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Good morning and welcome back.

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And we're gonna start off

with a question Wednesday.

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It's Wednesday the 15th, and we're gonna

start off with a question for Wednesday.

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We're gonna start off a

question for Wednesday.

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Here's what it says.

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Okay dear.

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Well, it doesn't say dear, actually

says this, prosper Podcast Pastors.

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It's a triple P.

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I like the alliteration.

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Do you re.

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That husbands and wives

pray together regularly.

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And if so, what does that

prayer time look like?

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Nuts and bolts.

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And it goes on to say like they want

to do it, they're thinking about

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how to approach it, not best or not

sure how best to structure that yet.

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So how do you do that?

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How is it different

than individual prayer?

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Whatever tips and tricks you can provide.

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Life hacks, shortcuts, power plays.

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One ups, anything at all?

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I'm adding some things that he

didn't say, but that's what he meant.

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Short answer is yes.

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I think it's good for husbands

and wives to pray together.

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And the key there is

the question regularly.

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And I think if you're like the

majority of people who are married,

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and especially once you add kids to

the mix, you, your schedule, your

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routine gets pretty crazy, pretty fast.

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Kids have different.

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Times that they're getting up,

getting out, out for school, and

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maybe you've gotta be out and at

the office at a different time than

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she does, or she has to be awake.

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And so it's hard to necessarily

schedule that devoted time together.

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Can you do it?

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Yeah, you can do it.

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But to make a hard and fast rule

to say it has to be scheduled

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at this time each and every day.

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And I know that's not the intent of

the question or what it's asking, but

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that regularly, I think is, more of.

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You should be cultivating a marriage

where prayer is a regular part of the

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response that the two of you have to life.

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That as it happens it doesn't take much

of living together as husband and wife

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to find occasions and needs to pray.

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And so praying together

is a good thing to do.

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And I don't think, this is something that

a lot of couples probably do really well.

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I think it's easy for this to

fall by the wayside and become an

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afterthought, and we can think,

well, we're doing it individually

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and we're doing our one-on-one

time with the Lord individually.

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So then corporately or

together we're okay.

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And I would just say I think it's an

area to, that we could all stand to

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grow in and all stand to excel more in.

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But it's a good thing.

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Marriage is.

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A sanctified relationship.

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Marriage is for the Lord.

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And so as such, I think it's good for

a husband and wife to be approaching

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the Lord together and praying together,

and that's gonna change what that looks

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like and what you're praying for is

gonna change as you grow older together.

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But even a.

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For a couple, that's a newlywed couple.

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You can be meeting together.

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You can be praying for

your future children.

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Should the Lord give you children,

you can be praying for their

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salvation, praying for their wives,

praying for their husbands, praying

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for things along those lines.

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You can pray for your marriage

to be in keeping with.

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Ephesians chapter five, the roles

that God has for a husband and

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wife you can be praying for.

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Just the first Corinthians 13 love

that we're supposed to have, even

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just for one another within the

church to be shown in your marriage.

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You can be praying for patience with one

another, praying for each other's needs.

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Just like you would ask your brother in

Christ or your sister in Christ and now

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Women's Bible Study or Men's Bible stay.

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How can I be praying for you?

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We should be asking that of our spouses

saying, Hey, how can I be praying for you?

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And be praying for them that

way together and individually.

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So, I guess it's different

than individual prayer because.

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I feel like it's more rhythmic and

in the flow of life versus individual

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prayer is probably you're gonna be

waking up in the morning, you're gonna

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be doing your daily Bible reading, and

then maybe you're praying afterwards

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or you're gonna carve out that specific

prayer time throughout the day.

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I've found this in my marriage at least,

to be more in keeping with the rhythmic

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flow of life that it just naturally

happens to where there's times for us

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to set aside time to pray together.

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Thoughts.

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I would offer something related, not so

much to the specific practice of praying

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with your spouse, but more along the

lines of doing anything in the Christian

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life that you sense, God wants me to do

this thing, whatever it happens to be.

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And the first thing I would say to you

or anybody who's trying to implement

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some new thing in their walk with

Christ is to don't overthink it.

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Don't overthink it, just do it.

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I did it.

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That makes a lot more sense.

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I say that because I know that

lots of people get hung up on the

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particulars about, well, how many

and how long and what's the actual

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format that you should use, what's

the most helpful way to approach this?

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And those are fine

questions in and of them.

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So I'm not poo-pooing your parade here,

and I'm not a little bit, I'm not telling

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you that you shouldn't have emailed.

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That's a great email.

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I'm saying for most people what we

need to hear is not, here's a strategy

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to do this, three steps, those

kinds of things, but more so just.

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Just do the thing and trust that

you'll figure it out as you go along.

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There's something sweet about just

saying, look, this is so delicate.

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Right now we're not in the

pattern of doing a thing.

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I haven't gotten to the place where it's

almost guaranteed that I'm gonna do this

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particular habit or discipline of grace.

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And so it's important just to get rolling

and just trust that the Lord will get you

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through it and that you'll learn things

about it as you go through the process.

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But on that note, if the first thing

is don't overthink it, just do it.

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The second thing I would add to

this would be at some point, as

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you make progress in this to add.

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Small but maybe regular

steps to improve it.

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And that doesn't have to be any

major jump or major progress in

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your faith or in your prayer life.

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It's just a matter of saying,

okay, what can we do better?

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And you'll notice this as you go along,

like if you're reading your Bible.

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One of the challenges that I

had as a young Christian is that

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I never knew where to start.

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I never knew where to open my Bible.

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I did the thing that most

people do probably, and I have

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a devotional which take me.

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To would take me through all the Bible,

different parts of the Bible that is, or

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I would just open up my Bible and randomly

read where I felt like I needed to read,

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but that meant that I was leaving a lot

on the table that I wasn't touching.

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And so.

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Introduction to a Bible reading

program where I now have a plan

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where I'm gonna read this amount of

scripture every day and I'm gonna

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complete the whole Bible in a year.

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And that happened over the

course of time, and I got better

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at that as the years went on.

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So you can add complexity and layers

to the disciplines that you're trying

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to grow in your life by baby steps.

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Don't overthink it.

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Don't try to do too much too soon.

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Add things to your

schedule as time allows.

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And again don't overthink it.

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Just do it.

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Have a good time with it, enjoy it.

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But.

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Just like anything, it takes time

to grow these things, especially

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when they're in the delicate stages.

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It does.

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Yeah.

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Yep.

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I'd agree.

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Yeah.

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Kinda an adjacent thought on this too,

just for the men out there listening.

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I know a lot of times men,

we can hear messages on being

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spiritual leaders of our home.

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And we talked even on Sunday about

the priesthood of all believers

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and men should lead their homes.

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And I you heard me say,

yeah I agree with that.

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I think they should.

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And there can be a lot of shame that

comes if maybe we haven't been doing

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that very well, or you haven't been

doing that very well or whatever.

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And you can sit there and think, man.

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I want that, but I, it feels

hypocritical for me to start just

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doing that because I've spent so

long, or it's been so long since we

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have, or we've never done that before.

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And I feel like my wife is gonna look

at me like I'm some sort of fraud.

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If I say, Hey, we're gonna do family

devotions now, or We're gonna pray

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together, now we're gonna, do this now.

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And that's where I would come

back to what you're saying.

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I, it's better to say let's do

the thing, even if it's gonna at

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first feel a little bit awkward.

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Push through the awkward and force

your way through the awkward then to

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sit there and think, I feel like I

should do this and I'm not doing it.

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And so don't let shame, or the fact

that you haven't done it to this point,

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or the fact that you have started and

stopped in the past, keep you back

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from saying, man, if I feel like God is

putting this on my heart, I should do it.

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We should.

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We should be doing this.

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It's a good thing to do.

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Amen to that.

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I think there's a lot of starts

and stops in the Christian life.

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Yeah, and I think God is gracious with us.

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He continues to be patient with us

and hopefully we can pass it along

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even as we try to do the same when we

start, stop, start, stop, start again.

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At some point we're trusting it'll

stick and often that is the case

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if you're willing to stay with it.

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Great.

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I agree with everything that,

I say the Bible says period.

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No, just say that again, but this time.

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Say this.

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I agree with everything Pastor Rod

says all the time, mark four through

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five is what our DBR is today.

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That's what I'm saying.

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Mm.

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Mark four through five.

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We're back in with the gospel

of Mark in, in chapter four.

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We're dealing with the parables again,

and so we've read the parable that.

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Leads us off here, the

parable of the sower.

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And again, remember these parables were

a form of passive judgment and mercy, as

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you pointed out last time from Jesus in

that he was hiding things from the people

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that were there listening, because in, in

part the mercy is he didn't want them to

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be held to account for more information

than they had already been exposed to.

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So this is both a mercy but

also a judgment because he is.

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Hiding these truths from

them at the same time.

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And so this is a parable that we've

talked about, the four different soils.

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He goes into the purpose why he's teaching

in parables and what this is all about.

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But if you'll jump down to verses 26

through 29, we do find a parable that is

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unique here to Mark and or at least to,

to what we've read so far in the gospels.

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And that is the parable

of the growing seed.

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And here you read about.

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Who really is behind the growth.

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And so this is one thing to note here.

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Jesus was a master at what he did because

he's speaking all of these parables.

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And you might be thinking,

man, there seems to be a theme.

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There's the parable of the

weeds, the parable of the sower.

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There's now the parable

of the seed growing.

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Jesus was speaking into

an agrarian culture.

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That is a culture that was largely

based on agriculture, on farming.

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And so these would've been.

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Illustrations that would've

been very relevant and easily

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understandable by his audience.

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If he was preaching today

into, downtown Dallas.

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He's not gonna be using these

illustrations because it's

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not an agrarian culture.

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And so Jesus is going after the hearts of

his people by appealing to their context

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and what they're facing and the situations

that they would've easily understood.

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Here he talks about sowing.

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And yet he says, then

the farmer goes to sleep.

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And what happens is that seed grows

even while that farmer is sleeping.

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And so this is a reminder to us of

who it is that causes the growth.

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And this is an encouragement to us as we

share the gospel, as we as we pray for the

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lost in our lives, that it's ultimately

God is the one that is behind the growth

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of these seeds that are being planted.

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And so here's a parable that we don't

find in Matthew 13 that does show up here

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in Mark's gospel in Mark chapter four.

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That's a good word.

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From here you've got the mustard seed,

which is a testimony to the fact that

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the kingdom is gonna start small.

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And you think about the fact that here's

Jesus in his band of followers right

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now, but before too long he's gonna go

to the cross, he's gonna rise again.

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And then in the Book of Acts, there's

gonna be thousands that are being added.

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To the church every day.

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So the seed is gonna expand,

the kingdom is gonna expand

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and it's still expanding today.

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And then he has the calming of

the storm included for us at

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the end of chapter four as well.

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And I think the calming of the storm

is one of the few miracles that's

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recorded in all of the different

gospels, the Synoptics and John as well.

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And so we see in mark 4 35 through 41.

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Or maybe it's not.

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Is it not?

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Maybe it's not in John.

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I think you're right.

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I should know that it's

not in John, is it?

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I think it is.

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Is it?

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Yeah.

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Wait, walking on the water?

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Yeah, walking on water is, yes.

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Mm-hmm.

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Okay.

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Yeah, they are separate accounts calling.

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Yeah.

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I don't believe it is.

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You're It's not.

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It's only in the, it's only the three.

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You can put your email away.

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Synoptics, you were about to correct us.

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That's my bad.

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Anyways.

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Yeah.

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Chapter five, democ in the Pigs.

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We have hit this one a couple times

before in other ones, but here

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again, the pigs are 2000 of them sent

over the cliff and into the water.

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And then you've got the faith

of Jairus and the faith of this

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woman with the discharge that Mark

is gonna give us this account.

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And remember Mark's account is via Peter.

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This is Peter's eyewitness

account of what's happening.

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And so we read earlier that.

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Jesus is gonna take Peter, James

and John with him into this

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room where this little girl is.

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And so here we get the added detail

that Mark provides of the words to Letha

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Kumi which means little girl arise.

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And so he's giving us what Jesus said

to this girl who had died at the time,

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to bring her back, to resuscitate

her, to bring her back to life.

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And that would've been a detail that

Peter would've known 'cause Peter

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was there with Jesus at the time.

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Whereas the other, the rest of the 12,

aside from James and John were on the

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outside with the rest of the people.

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I have a question about one of the

parables that you skipped back on.

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Can I go backward a little bit?

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Yeah.

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No, please.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Verse eight of chapter five.

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Mm-hmm.

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The demon called Legion.

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There's many of them.

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It says here that Jesus said to

them, he said verse eight, for

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he was saying to him, come out

of the man you unclean spirit.

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So it looks like in verse eight,

Jesus was repeatedly telling them

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to get out of the man or the men.

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Why is it that in verse eight, it looks

like the demons resist Jesus successfully?

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I think there's a teaching opportunity

that Jesus is carrying out with those

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that are there and with his disciples.

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And I don't think it's a, an inability

of Christ to be able to do this.

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I think Jesus.

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'cause the demons plead, the

demons are at the mercy of Jesus.

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Later on, they're gonna say,

please send us into the pigs.

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Right?

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And so, they're not.

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Exercising any power over Jesus here,

but I think this is Jesus probably

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teaching his disciples and showing

his disciples the gravity and the

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seriousness of what's happening.

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, if there's 2000 of these demonic

beings, think about that.

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There's 2000, well, no, there's 2000 pigs.

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At least there is.

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Somehow they.

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Are able to over overcome 2000 pigs.

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But if they're able to overcome

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name is Legion for we are many.

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I think he's distressing the gravity of

the situation, the seriousness of it for

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those that are watching and nearby him.

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Yeah, I would agree with that.

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Clearly Jesus has authority over them.

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In fact, let me just point out to

your attention here in chapter five,

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the word begged, B-E-G-G-E-D, begged,

there's lots of begging happening and

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you'll see that the spirits the demon

demonic spirits at his legion, they're

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begging him earnestly not to do what.

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What Jesus is telling them to do.

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So it's not that Jesus doesn't have

the power, clearly Jesus is allowing

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them to resist in some small way,

but not because he doesn't have the

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ultimate authority to do with them

what he pleases when he chooses, but

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they beg him not to send them out.

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And so then the, which is also

interesting, the demons inhabit.

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The animals.

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Yeah.

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Isn't that fascinating?

336

Yeah.

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It seems to me that demons

desire to inhabit something Yeah.

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Whether it's a person or whether

it's an a person would be ideal.

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'cause then they can

defame the image of God.

340

Mm-hmm.

341

But they can inhabit an animal,

which is interesting to me.

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I don't know when you know that for

sure, but certainly it's possible

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here and you see that and beyond that.

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Okay.

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So they, the demons beg, and

then the great herd of pigs was

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feeding there on a hillside.

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They begged him saying,

send us to the pigs.

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And then the people begged

him down in verse 17.

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They began to beg Jesus to

depart from their region.

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And verse 18, the man who was

delivered, the one who's focused on

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begged that he might be with him.

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Mm-hmm.

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So there's lots of begging happening.

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Mm-hmm.

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I think the point is Jesus

is the one in control.

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Mm-hmm.

357

He's orchestrating great

all of these things.

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And you see that even in the demonic

the Demon Act who's previously released.

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You see that in the demons themselves.

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You see that in the people of the town.

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Everyone's begging Jesus

because he holds all the cards.

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Yeah.

363

That's a great observation.

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That word begged is the same word in

the Greek where we get the word exort.

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We're gonna see it even, I was

thinking about it 'cause we're gonna

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see it on Sunday when Peter says, I

urge you, it's the same word there.

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Urge be, plead, exhort.

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That sounds the same.

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Which sometimes we can think of.

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It doesn't, the reason I bring that up

is when somebody is saying, I'm exhorting

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someone, we can kinda be like, oh, okay.

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Whatever.

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Yeah.

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But when, if they were

saying, I'm begging you.

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To do this I, yeah.

376

Begging.

377

It's from Pero to come

alongside of, right.

378

Yeah.

379

Which the demons are pleading and

begging and Peter's pleading and

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begging with us as we're gonna see in

one Peter to live in a certain way in

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response to what Christ has done for us.

382

Mm.

383

So strong, strong words.

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Strong language.

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Yeah.

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Let's pray and then we'll be done with

this episode of the Daily Rebel podcast.

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God, we thank you for your mercy that

you've shown us as we at one point had to

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cast ourselves on that mercy and beg and

plead that you would forgive us our sins

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as we repent from our sins and put our

trust in Christ as our Lord and Savior

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and you mercifully acquiesce to us and.

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Allowed us to become your sons and your

daughters as you caused us to be born

392

again and brought into your family.

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And so we're so thankful for that.

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We're thankful for the the

health that we have in you.

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Even as we look at this woman who had

been suffering under the discharge

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and that the doctor's not able to help

her and everything else and until she

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finally turned to you and we see such.

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Encouragement there too, as we think about

our own spiritual conditions and our need

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to turn to you in faith and repentance.

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And so I pray that you'd lead more

to faith and repentance and use us as

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your ambassadors to call them to that,

and we pray this all on Jesus' name.

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Amen.

403

Amen.

404

Keep in your Bibles tuning again

tomorrow for another edition

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of the Daily Bible Podcast.

406

See you.

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Bye.

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Bernard: Well, thank you for

listening to another episode of

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the Daily Bible Podcast, folks!

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We're honored to have you join us.

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This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

412

You can find out more information

about our Church at compassntx.org.

413

We would love for you to leave a

review, to rate, or to share this

414

podcast on whatever platform you're

listening on, and we hope to see

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you again tomorrow for another

episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

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PJ: Yeah.

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I would agree with

everything that you said