Dev Ramcharan – Hosea – When Israel was a Child, I Loved Him – Class 3 (Exhort) – When Israel was a Child, I Loved Him

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Good morning, my beloved
brothers and sisters, and the

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Lord Jesus Christ.
This morning we’re going to

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begin in Ezekiel chapter 16.
Again the word of the Lord came

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unto me, saying, Son of man,
’cause Jerusalem to know her

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abominations, and say Thus saith
the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy

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birth and thy nativity is of the
land of Canaan.

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Thy father was an Amorite, and
thy mother and Hittite.

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And As for thy Nativity and the
day thou was born, thy navel was

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not cut, neither was thou washed
in water.

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To supperly thou was not salted
at all, nor swaddled at all.

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You know, in these ancient
Gentile times, brothers and

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sisters, it was a very common
thing among Gentile nations, all

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the way up to the Romans, to
take a child, a newborn baby

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that you didn’t want, and to
expose them naked somewhere out

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in a rubbish dump area.
Little babies cast out because

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they were considered to be
repugnant to the parents, to the

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mother of that child.
It might be a child born out of

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wedlock.
It might be a child that was

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diseased and could not live a
normal life.

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There were many reasons that one
might not want that child.

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And God.
God walks by this child in this

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beautiful parable, this analogy,
this metaphor.

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And he sees that little baby.
There’s nothing attractive about

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that baby, covered in blood with
its umbilical cord, not even cut

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out there in the open, kicking
around in her blood, in the

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dust.
What would you do if you saw

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something like that?
He sees this little baby, he

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says.
None I pitied thee to do any of

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these things unto thee, to have
compassion upon thee.

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But thou wast cast out in the
open field to the loathing of

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thy person in the day that thou
wast born from the 2nd, that

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Israel was born apart from God,
she was doomed to death with no

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hope, nothing, nothing that she
could pull upon as any recourse

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to save her.
Outside of God, she was nothing.

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But that’s not just a picture of
Israel, is it?

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It’s a picture of you and me.
It is exceedingly hard for

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people in the Western world,
with all of the opulence of our

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material affluence, our wealth,
to imagine ourselves to be of no

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value, incapable of doing
anything that could save us.

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When we do so much with this
little arm of ours, this, this

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flawed and faulty hard drive in
our skulls that fitfully,

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sporadically delivers out of
trouble, it’s hard for us to see

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what we truly are.
And that is what we are.

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We are that baby.
We are that little helpless one

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with no eye pitying us, doomed
to death because of sin and our

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nature that we carry inside of
us that internal leprosy that is

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ours, that that manifests itself
in the wrong things that we do

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and think and say.
And yet God looked at all of

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that.
God looked at you with

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everything that you are and
said, I love you and I’m going

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to take care of you.
And and that is exactly what he

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did.
That is exactly what he did.

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When I passed by thee, and saw
thee polluted in thine own

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blood.
I said unto thee, When thou wast

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in thy blood, live, Yeah, I said
unto thee, When thou wast in thy

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blood, live.
God gave Jerusalem life.

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God gave Israel life.
God gave Judah life.

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God gave you life.
He gave you life.

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Remember when you were learning
about the truth as a kid or

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someone coming in from the
outside in to the community?

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Remember that time just before
you were baptized, where you

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almost felt this sense of
desperation.

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You want to be baptized right
away, even before the lessons

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had concluded, because you were
afraid God would send his son

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before you’d been baptized.
And and what would your

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condition be then?
There was a a fervent desire to

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be associated with him through
baptism, because God had said to

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you, live, I want you to live,
and you wanted that life.

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And then it says in verse seven,
I caused thee to multiply as the

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butt of the field, and thou hast
increased and wax, and great

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thou art come to excellent
ornaments.

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Thy breasts are fashioned, and
thine hair is grown, whereas

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thou wast naked and bare.
Now when I passed by thee and

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looked upon the Behold, thy time
was the time of love.

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And I took, I took my skirt and
I I covered it.

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I covered you with it, I married
you.

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You became my wife.
And we know that that we came

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into the truth like little
babies, and were washed by God

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in the waters of baptism, And in
that those waters of baptism we

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died to a king to whom we were
slaves.

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King’s sin, who worked us to
death with nothing after no

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reward, no hope, a life of sin
outside of God’s truth, with

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nothing in the end, not even a
handful of dust.

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King’s sin giving us the wages
of sin, death.

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And when that king lost his
servant in the water of baptism,

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be arose as sons and daughters,
as servants of the living God, a

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new master, someone who didn’t
just rule over us with rigor the

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way the Egyptians did with
Israel, but with love and looks

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at us as his children.
Now for wealthy people like you

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and me, these words may sound
very commonplace and work a day

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and not that rich in meaning and
substance.

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But when you are a poor African
brother making an average of

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$100 a month in the Congo trying
to raise 10 kids, and you hear

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words like that, they mean
everything to you.

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And when you are a 90 year old
sister and your hips give way

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every time you try to stand up,
you can’t lift your arms above

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your head.
When you step down in the

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morning, you feel pain all the
way through your lower leg, up

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into your thigh and up through
your lower back.

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When you turn suddenly because
of a loud noise beside you, you

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feel intense pain in your neck.
When you’re in that condition,

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these words mean everything.
It’s only the in between bit of

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illusory strength and the
ability to do things for

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ourselves that puts us into that
dream state of everything is all

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right.
And I’m happy with my life as it

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is.
I have what I need and I can do

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for myself, and all of that is a
period of illusion.

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It’s gone so quickly.
You were 20 yesterday.

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You’re 60 today.
You’re 80 or 90 tomorrow.

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And you realize that all of what
you thought you could do for

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yourself, you really couldn’t do
for yourself.

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And so this, this, this woman
becomes beautiful.

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And look what God says.
Verse 9 then washed I thee with

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water.
Yeah, yeah, I truly washed away

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thy blood from thee.
Now she’s all grown up.

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But what God is saying to her is
this.

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Whatever uncleanness I found you
in when you were a baby is still

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with you, and I still love you.
I had to wash you and care for

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you then, and I’ve had to wash
you and care for you all the way

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through to the day you are my
bride.

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Now if we just take that then
and and overlay on top of it our

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marriage to the Lord Jesus
Christ, which happens at the

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return of the Lord right now, we
are His betrothed.

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We’re engaged.
Does that washing not happen

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regularly?
Are we not here this morning for

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a washing through the Word,
through the the bread and the

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wine, and the memory of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and what he did

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for us?
I clothed the also with the

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broided work that reminds us of
the King’s daughter, all

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glorious within, and all the
needlework and brocade she has

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on her in Psalm 45.
It also pitches our minds

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forward to Revelation 19 and the
bride clothed in linen that she

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has been given, that she’s also
prepared for herself, the two

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working together, a life she
lived and a garment given to her

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by the Lord.
The righteous acts of the

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Saints, the revised version
says, And that passage And so

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God washes us, God clothes us.
But it doesn’t just end,

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spiritually speaking.
Every one of us in this room is

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sitting in clothing that belongs
to God and was given us by him.

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And you might think, well, what?
I worked hard.

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I bought this for myself.
This is mine.

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I bought it for me.
But you see, that’s what Israel

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said about the wine and the
cloth and the grain in Hosea.

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And God corrected that and said,
no, no, no, it’s my wine, it’s

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my grain, it’s my wool that I
gave to you.

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And so Israel lost all those
things.

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And it wasn’t till then that she
would realized, realize those

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things did not belong to her.
They were not hers.

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God had given them to him and to
her.

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Now, brothers and sisters, this
woman begins then to become

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renowned for her beauty,
Speaking of Israel, Speaking of

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Judah, renowned in her beauty,
wealthy, prosperous, a place of

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great trade and trade agreements
with foreign nations.

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And as they entered more and
more into these agreements, they

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became more and more tied into
the world and its worship and

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its cultural norms and
behaviours.

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So that it says in verse 15
without its trust in thine own

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beauty.
And whose beauty should she have

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trusted?
In the beauty of the Lord.

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The beauty of his word, the
beauty of his sacrifices, the

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beauty of his temple, the beauty
of the privilege of priesthood,

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of service, of all the things
that honoured God, all the

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beautiful things that he had
given to her.

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Now what do you and I have then
that is like that?

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Well, there’s the word of God
and rejoicing in it and daily

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engagement with it.
But then there is ecclesial

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life, and that’s not a thing
that we can give or take, be

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involved in or not.
That too is a part.

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That too is a part of what God
has given us to be continuously

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engaged in.
It’s a part of our waiting, this

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life of waiting for people in
the West.

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You just need to go on to Amazon
or eBay and click a couple of

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clicks on their keyboard and
then get what they want tomorrow

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or today.
Waiting is not something we’re

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wired for, is it?
But we are waiting.

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We’re waiting for our Lord to
return.

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And part of our waiting is a
quiet trust and believe that God

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is going to do everything he
said he’s going to do with us

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and with his people, Israel.
But the waiting is an active and

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busy waiting too, active and
ecclesial life and in our

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families.
If we think that we can wait and

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not be involved with our
ecclesias, then there’s a whole

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realm of what that waiting
involves, that we are denying

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ourselves and denying ourselves
too, in service to our brothers

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and our sisters.
Now, you might think to

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yourself, look, I’m 85 years
old.

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I can barely get up out of this
chair.

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What can I do to help my
brothers and sisters?

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You can do the most powerful
thing a human being can do.

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Now you might think that’s
building their house for them,

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fixing their car for them,
taking them in your car to the

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hospital or to the doctor’s
office, taking a brother and

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sister and being with them as
they journey through their long

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term chronic disease.
But none of that is the greatest

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thing you can do for your
brothers and sisters.

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The greatest thing that you can
do for them is to pray for them.

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Just think what you’re doing
when you’re praying.

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You are engaging the attention
of Almighty God Yahweh Elohim,

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the great and holy God of
Israel, the Father of our Lord.

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You are connecting with him
above all the kings and Queens,

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Princess and princesses of this
world, directly to ask His help

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and involvement the life of
somebody in the Ecclesia.

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Old brother, old sister.
All you need to do is listen to

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what’s going on in the ecclesia
to know what to pray for.

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You can be lying in your bed,
immobile and still doing the

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most powerful thing you can do
for your ecclesia.

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There’s nothing that God cannot
do in answer to prayer according

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to His will.
And when you think you are most

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helpless and of no value to the
ecclesia, you’re wrong.

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And when you wake up in the
morning and you think, why am I

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still here?
Why didn’t I die last night?

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It’s because God’s not done with
you yet, and you still have work

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to do.
You still have people to pray

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for and love to express to your
brothers and sisters.

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An old brother hugged me
yesterday.

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I will never forget that for the
rest of my life.

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That’s the impact, old brother,
old sister that you have on the

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Ecclesia.
Do not underestimate the value,

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00:18:51,560 –> 00:18:58,120
the wisdom, the power that God
has given you in your old age.

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This woman trusted in her
beauty, in her own strength, and

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then she ran with the
abominations and the worship of

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the world.
And think of what a short period

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of time she enjoyed that before
she lost everything.

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Everything.
But God loved her, this wayward

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00:19:22,880 –> 00:19:29,560
woman, this Gomer of Judah and
of Israel, all the way through

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her life.
You ask yourself, how can God

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love me with all my sin, all my
brokenness?

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If my brothers and sisters could
peel back the layers of my brain

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and look inside, they’d be
horrified.

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They’d never talk to me again
for the rest of my life.

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And if that’s you, that is also
me.

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And if we were to be honest with
ourselves, that is every one of

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us in this room.
And yet God looks at us with the

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00:20:05,240 –> 00:20:10,320
blood, the gore, the frailty,
the weakness, the gaps, the

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deficiencies, the defects in
every one of us.

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And he says, I know you,
Ephraim.

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And I still love you and I still
gave my son for you.

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We talk about that Greek word
agape, Agape.

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We say we say it means self
sacrificing love and we’re

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wrong.
That’s not the right definition

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00:20:40,600 –> 00:20:46,120
of that word.
The Greek word means this love

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00:20:46,120 –> 00:20:52,920
that chooses its object with
decision of will and is devoted

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00:20:52,920 –> 00:20:55,160
to it.
Now what does that mean?

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When your teenaged boy mum is
shaking his fist in your face

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00:21:01,840 –> 00:21:06,440
and swearing at you with the
most gutturally foul language

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00:21:06,600 –> 00:21:11,600
imaginable and you look at that
child and you say to yourself,

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I’m still going to love you?
That’s agape love.

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That’s a love where you choose
to love him in his utterly

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00:21:23,160 –> 00:21:25,960
unlovable state.
That’s what it means.

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And when Christ looked at every
one of us, look down, look down

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00:21:32,000 –> 00:21:38,320
at that surging, raging crowd of
people and all of the poisonous,

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00:21:38,880 –> 00:21:43,240
extravagant, horrific language
that was hurled at him.

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When he saw his mother, his
aunt, and his disciple at the

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00:21:49,400 –> 00:21:55,440
foot of the cross, when he
looked at all of that mess, he

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chose to love all of those
people, Not not just the ones

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00:22:00,480 –> 00:22:04,720
that were in him, but the one
for the ones for whom he prayed

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and said, Father, forgive them.
They don’t know what they’re

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doing.
And so God looks at every one of

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us in all of our palpable
ugliness, and he says, I love

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you in spite of it all.
I love you so much.

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I gave my son for you, and I
want you to love your ugly

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00:22:35,360 –> 00:22:42,560
brother and sister with their
brokenness the way I love you.

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And that’s what I want you to be
like.

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And so we go then, brothers and
sisters, to Hosea, Chapter 11.

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And the nature of the study is
such that we can’t go through

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every chapter and every verse.
That would take 20 weeks of

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00:22:59,640 –> 00:23:03,320
effort.
We can only pick out themes.

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Hosea 11 When Israel was a
child.

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When Israel was that baby in her
blood, in the dust, cast out as

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refuse with no value assigned to
her.

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When Israel was a child, then I
loved him, called my son out of

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Egypt.
And so God would take that child

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that was under the domination of
King Sin in Egypt and bring his

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child out into the wilderness.
God would look at his beloved

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Son, who would fulfill all of
the potential of Israel and do

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00:24:03,200 –> 00:24:06,880
it perfectly and call him out of
Egypt.

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But God would look at you and me
and call us out of the the Egypt

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of flesh and all the hope that
it has, which is nothing at all,

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and ask us to be his kids, to be
his beloved children, he says.

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You know, the more I call them,
the more they went away from me.

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00:24:38,280 –> 00:24:43,760
They burned incense to things
that didn’t exist, but I’d taken

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00:24:43,760 –> 00:24:49,280
them and had not only brought
them out of Egypt as babies, I

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00:24:49,280 –> 00:24:55,840
taught them to walk.
I had them hold on to my hands

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00:24:55,840 –> 00:24:58,480
as they walked, like the
beautiful picture that is on

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00:24:58,480 –> 00:25:01,800
screen.
I put little cords around their

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00:25:01,800 –> 00:25:05,680
arms, near their shoulders, so
that they would learn to walk

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00:25:06,120 –> 00:25:10,960
step by step in the truth.
I did all of that for them.

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00:25:12,120 –> 00:25:25,000
I drew them with cords of a man,
with bands of love, love,

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00:25:26,680 –> 00:25:36,760
perfect love, Love that made a
choice to love the unlovable and

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00:25:36,760 –> 00:25:45,400
has stayed loyal and faithful
and at your side every day of

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00:25:45,920 –> 00:25:52,920
your life, every day you’ve been
in the truth has been with you

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00:25:53,600 –> 00:25:56,760
as you’ve struggled and had your
trials.

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00:25:57,800 –> 00:26:00,160
Has never, ever walked away from
you.

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00:26:00,440 –> 00:26:02,560
Even when anyone else would walk
away from you.

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00:26:02,560 –> 00:26:09,360
Has had moments when you have
walked away from that love or

296
00:26:09,360 –> 00:26:12,800
not realize the way that that
love applies to you and how you

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00:26:13,240 –> 00:26:20,320
love one another.
And that love, that drawing, the

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00:26:20,320 –> 00:26:28,800
drawing of all men unto God
through Christ, continues even

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00:26:28,800 –> 00:26:34,920
today as we preach God’s truth
and as we remember the things

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00:26:34,920 –> 00:26:37,760
that we do today with the bread
and the wine.

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00:26:39,400 –> 00:26:43,720
And then we see the heart of God
open up like a flower.

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00:26:43,720 –> 00:26:49,440
We see it in its fullness.
And he says, How shall I give

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00:26:49,440 –> 00:26:56,640
thee up, Ephraim, with all of
your behaviour, with all the

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00:26:56,680 –> 00:27:01,800
vadnais of your life, with all
of your disloyalty, with all of

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00:27:01,800 –> 00:27:04,680
your forgetfulness, of
everything I’ve done for you all

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00:27:04,680 –> 00:27:09,080
through your lives?
Psalm 78 says to you, old

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00:27:09,080 –> 00:27:15,200
brothers and sisters, give
testimony to the generations of

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00:27:15,200 –> 00:27:18,880
what God has done for you in
your life.

309
00:27:20,120 –> 00:27:22,920
Tell them how God got you
through problems.

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00:27:23,560 –> 00:27:28,040
How God saved your marriage or
saved you when it fell apart.

311
00:27:29,000 –> 00:27:33,680
How God saved your children.
How God got your ecclesia

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00:27:34,640 –> 00:27:38,560
through a tunnel of fire.
Tell them those stories.

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00:27:40,440 –> 00:27:42,160
How shall I give thee up,
Ephraim?

314
00:27:43,240 –> 00:27:47,600
How shall I deliver thee?
How shall I make thee as Admah?

315
00:27:47,680 –> 00:27:53,880
How shall I set thee as Zeboim?
How will I destroy you like

316
00:27:53,880 –> 00:27:58,400
those cities of the plain?
I can’t do that to you because

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00:27:58,400 –> 00:28:04,920
you’re still my wife and I still
love you, though you don’t love

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00:28:04,920 –> 00:28:10,880
me and have forgotten me, he
says.

319
00:28:11,400 –> 00:28:16,440
When I was angry, I turned
myself away from expressing that

320
00:28:16,440 –> 00:28:20,760
and feeling that my heart is
turned within me.

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00:28:22,360 –> 00:28:27,640
There’s an internal turmoil that
God feels because of his love

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00:28:27,640 –> 00:28:31,920
for her.
My compassions are kindled

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00:28:31,920 –> 00:28:35,080
together.
I will not execute the full

324
00:28:35,080 –> 00:28:38,520
fierceness of my anger towards
you, because then I would

325
00:28:38,520 –> 00:28:42,280
destroy you and I’m not going to
do that to you.

326
00:28:44,640 –> 00:28:53,240
This God did not destroy you in
your sin and has not destroyed

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00:28:53,240 –> 00:28:58,160
you in your failure sins.
He brought you out of flesh.

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00:29:00,280 –> 00:29:05,520
This God has continued to take
care of you and love you, but

329
00:29:05,520 –> 00:29:14,320
there is a place every one of us
has to go to that we do not want

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00:29:14,320 –> 00:29:18,600
to go to.
Chapter 12, verse three.

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00:29:21,360 –> 00:29:25,920
Speaking of Jacob the womb, he
took his brother by the heel,

332
00:29:26,440 –> 00:29:29,040
and in his manhood he had power
with God.

333
00:29:31,280 –> 00:29:38,200
And therein lies that split in
our hearts.

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00:29:39,360 –> 00:29:44,400
Because Jacob, through his wits,
through his arm, could do so

335
00:29:44,400 –> 00:29:49,800
much for himself.
But there had to come a moment

336
00:29:49,800 –> 00:29:55,520
in his life when Jacob couldn’t
use peeled steaks.

337
00:29:56,640 –> 00:30:01,280
He couldn’t do anything.
He was completely and utterly

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00:30:01,960 –> 00:30:05,960
helpless and Western man and
woman.

339
00:30:06,920 –> 00:30:10,400
If you haven’t had that day,
it’s coming for you.

340
00:30:13,160 –> 00:30:15,720
Because that’s when you meet
your God.

341
00:30:17,360 –> 00:30:24,000
That’s when you finally know who
he is, in a pool of tears,

342
00:30:24,600 –> 00:30:29,720
utterly and completely broken in
pieces, with no one else around

343
00:30:29,720 –> 00:30:35,360
you but you and God in that
darkness, wrestling with him as

344
00:30:35,360 –> 00:30:39,320
he puts your hip out, as he
breaks through and into your

345
00:30:39,320 –> 00:30:44,720
life, as you see everything fall
apart around you and you can’t

346
00:30:44,720 –> 00:30:47,040
do a thing.
Not one thing.

347
00:30:49,440 –> 00:30:53,360
And then none of your power,
none of your might, none of your

348
00:30:53,360 –> 00:30:56,080
money, none of your friends,
nothing.

349
00:30:56,080 –> 00:30:58,920
You drive No title you have in
this world.

350
00:30:58,920 –> 00:31:01,840
None of that does anything for
you.

351
00:31:03,840 –> 00:31:07,600
What becomes powerful for you is
what’s powerful for old brothers

352
00:31:07,600 –> 00:31:15,960
and sisters.
Your tears and your pain and

353
00:31:16,000 –> 00:31:20,440
your crying out to God with a
certain belief.

354
00:31:21,320 –> 00:31:26,480
He’s with me.
He can hear every word I say,

355
00:31:27,320 –> 00:31:36,200
and he gave his Son for me.
Many of you have been there.

356
00:31:38,480 –> 00:31:43,720
Some of you are there right now.
Know that in the middle of that

357
00:31:44,080 –> 00:31:50,880
pain, that loss, God is saving
you.

358
00:31:52,480 –> 00:31:55,400
In the middle of the
excruciation of the crucifixion,

359
00:31:57,080 –> 00:32:05,040
God was saving you and brothers
and sisters, as you eat this

360
00:32:05,040 –> 00:32:16,760
bread and drink this wine, God
is saving you and me even now.