Who Is Jehovah? | The God Who Is | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Kathy Thomas
Who Is Jehovah? | The God Who Is | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Kathy Thomas
Transcript
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Hey, everyone. Pastor Sean here, and I wanna thank you for subscribing to our podcast. I'm excited to get into today's message. And remember this, God is a good God. He loves you, and he wants to bless you.
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You know, when we talk about magnifying the Lord, you know what we're doing?
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When we magnify the Lord, we are actually praising his name for three things. For his being, for his character, and for all of his attributes.
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You see, in John chapter 17 and verse six and twenty six, Jesus prayed a high priestly prayer.
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And he said, father, I have manifested.
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I have manifested and I have revealed your name to all the men that you have given to me in the world. Who is he talking about? He was talking about the 12 disciples that were with him during the three year period that he started his ministry.
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He says, and I have declared unto them your name and I will continue to make your name known so that the love that you have given to me might be in them and I will be in them.
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You see Jesus in the New Testament, what did he do?
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He demonstrated to his disciples the true dimensions of all the names of God.
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He actually put to flesh the names of God. Why?
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Because he wanted them to see that God actually was represented in the flesh by himself, the Christ.
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And, he manifested those names everywhere he went. The disciples saw it by all the signs and wonders that he did in their midst.
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And that's what he's doing to us today.
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That's what you heard in the Jehovah song they sang, the different names of God.
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I wanna talk to you about the names of God.
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You see, in the old testament, God was referred to as several names.
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The first name was Yahweh or Jehovah, which speaks of God's life. It speaks of his eternal existence.
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His being.
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It's a name for three things. It's a name of relationship.
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It's a name of covenant.
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How many you know he made covenant in the old testament with the saints?
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And, it's a name of promise.
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And, the Old Testament basically is a book about the nature and the work of God.
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So, you see we have the first name, Yahweh or Jehovah.
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Then there's another name in the Old Testament and that's Elohim.
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You see the very first word in scripture was in the beginning,
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God Elohim, created the heavens and the earth.
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Elohim expresses the idea of greatness and glory.
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It contains the idea of God's creative power, his governing power.
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So that's what Elohim is. Come on, say with me. Elohim. Elohim.
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I'm gonna have you speak and help me out today. You're in class in your hospital room.
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There will be a test at the end.
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Just kidding. Well, maybe not.
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The third name in the Old Testament is this.
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Is, and you've heard this many times, El Shaddai.
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El Shaddai.
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What is El Shaddai?
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Well, this word is translated as almighty, and it refers to the all powerful nature of God.
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Shaddai is a Hebrew word for the word breast.
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You see, it signifies one who is mighty to do three things.
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He nourishes, he satisfies, and he supplies.
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Can you say, El Shaddai? Shaddai.
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Nourishes.
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Nourishes. Satisfies.
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Satisfies. And supplies.
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All my needs.
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My needs. That's what He does. Just like, you know, when a woman has a baby and God created her that once that child was born, that she could nurse or nourish that child and give that child everything that they needed.
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So, she would supply and satisfy that baby. That's what our God does. He satisfies all of our needs.
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Then, we have another name.
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The fourth name of God in the Old Testament.
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Adonai.
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Adonai.
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Or the word Adon, a d o n.
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Now, this name has a plurality of meaning in it.
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And, you can get this concept when David in Psalm 110 in verse one, he said this. He said, the Lord Yahweh, so that's Father God. The Lord Yahweh said unto my Lord Adon.
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He said, sit here in my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.
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Oh, wow. That's pretty powerful.
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My Lord said, the Lord said unto my Lord Adon, sit here until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet. How many you know the enemy today is under our feet?
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Because when you've got Christ in your life, you have an almighty power to rebuke the enemy in every attack that he makes upon you, upon your family, upon your body.
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You have that authority and right to put him underneath your feet and not put up with all his nonsense that he tries to give you every day.
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Amen?
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You know what I'm talking about?
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Amen. So, say, Adonai.
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Adonai.
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That's who he is. Now, in the New Testament, we have eight names.
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Oh, some of you need to take notes.
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How many of you never heard the teaching about all the names of God, Jehovah?
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You've never heard it? Never heard it? I know. Some of you are new. Some of you never heard it. How many of you never heard me?
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Woah, a few of you. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm sorry.
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But I'm so grateful to be here.
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I'm so grateful to be alive.
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To be able to declare who my Jehovah God is.
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So, what I wanna do is I wanna give you eight redemptive names. You might say, what does that mean?
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Redemption means the act to save someone from their error or their evil. Has anybody ever made errors?
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Anybody ever done evil?
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I didn't see all those hands go up. Come on. You're in the house of God, remember?
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How many of you have ever done evil?
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How many of ever made an error? Well, was most of you. Okay. Some of you still.
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But God brings redemption.
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That means he's he's trying to save you from your errors or your evil.
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And so, he has different sides of him.
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Eight different sides that we're gonna talk about that we're gonna magnify today and teach on. The first one is Jehovah Jireh.
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Oh, what does that mean?
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You can talk back. God will
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Provide.
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Say it loud, provide.
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Provide.
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I don't know what you came here for but maybe you need some provision today. I want you to know that your Abba Father, your daddy God, your Jehovah Jireh will provide for your needs if you'll trust him.
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You know, in the Old Testament,
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God spoke to Abraham and told him that he was gonna give him the promise of a son.
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He said, come outside.
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I want you to look at the stars. Count all the stars. You're gonna be a father of many nations.
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Wow.
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Can you imagine what Abraham thought when he went out there and looked at all the stars?
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You couldn't even count them.
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And so he had this promise and God kept reminding him of the promise.
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And years went by and years went by and now here he is, his wife's 90 years old.
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She's past the age of bearing a child, of getting pregnant.
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He's a 100 years old.
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And God yeah.
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But one night,
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you know, and the funny thing was, just like you did, they laughed at God.
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Sarah laughed. Yeah, right.
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You know. And Abraham laughed but he still believed the promise.
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So, one night, she got pregnant.
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And guess what? That next year, guess who got the last laugh? It was God. And you know what they named Isaac?
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Laughter.
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Isaac means laughter.
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I don't know if that was out of their sarcasm to God or whether he was just a funny kid or laughing and happy all the time. I don't know. But they named him Isaac which means laughter.
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Well, Isaac began to grow up and then God said this.
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He was going to test Abraham.
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And so, he says, I want you to take your son, and I want you to go up to this mountain.
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Walk up the mountain. Can you imagine? He was probably 110, 115 years old. Who knows? He's got to walk up this mountain with his son.
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He says, And I want you to offer up your son to me.
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So, walk up the mountain, they get there.
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And Isaac is going, well dad, where's the sacrifice?
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Where's the sacrifice?
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Don't worry Isaac, God will provide.
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So they put the fire together and the wood and everything, but then he told told his son, come over here.
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He lays him down on the wood.
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Lays him down and takes the knife. Can you imagine the fright in that kid? What are you doing, dad? You said God would provide. What? Am I the sacrifice?
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Can you imagine what was going through that kid's mind?
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And he's got his hand up and all of a sudden, because of his obedience, the angel of the Lord came and stopped his hand from slaying his own son.
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But all of a sudden, he takes his son off the altar and guess what was right there?
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A ram was caught in the thicket. So they went and got it and they put it on and they made their altar there before the Lord and worshiped him there.
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Out of obedience.
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Oh, it's better to be obedient.
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Than to pay the price of disobedience.
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And so, we see that God did provide. Come on say, Jehovah Jireh. Means God will provide. God will provide.
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Amen. Number two, Jehovah Nissi.
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Oh, they sang about it today.
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Jehovah Nissi, he means he's my banner.
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My banner.
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This refers to the banner of redemption.
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You see in the old testament, when they use banners, it wasn't the flags that we we do, but they they had poles.
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And they'd hold up the poles and it and it was for victory. You remember Charlton Hester up in the mountain?
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10 Commandments.
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How many of you seen that movie?
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I've probably seen it a 100 times.
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Every year at Easter.
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He's up there in the mountain. As long as he had Aaron and Hurd holding up his arms, he was able to they had the Red Sea that parted and all the millions of the Jewish people and the Israelites could cross through the Red Sea with all their animals and their wives and their children.
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But if he got weak, then what would happen?
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So they had Aaron and Hur holding him up until they all passed through the other side.
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That was a banner of victory that day for all the Israelites.
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Jehovah Nissi.
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But you see, in the New Testament, Jesus was crucified.
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He was crucified by being raised up on a cross as our banner.
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And his crucifixion is a sign of our victory. Come on say, my victory. My victory. It's found through the cross. That's right. And it's a sign of the that the authority God has given to every believer that you can have victory in your life.
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You see, Jehovah Nissi represents this victory.
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So, say with me, Jehovah Nissi is my banner.
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He's my victor. And, today I'm gonna have victory.
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Amen. You kids learn anything today?
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Yeah, my grandkids are here. All my kids are here. I love them.
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Oh, they're having a school lesson.
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Number three, Jehovah Macadesh. Say Jehovah Macadesh.
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This name is found in Leviticus chapter 20 verse eight.
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And it means Jehovah who sanctifies.
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What does it mean to sanctify?
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It means to dedicate, it means to consecrate, it means to make holy, to set apart or even to separate.
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You see, holiness is probably the most important characteristic that you will find in Jehovah God.
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The most important, the fact that he is holy.
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He is holy and it shows his fullness and his perfection.
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And that's why the spirit of God is called what?
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The holy spirit. Yeah.
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And God wants us to be holy, he said, even as I, the Lord your God, am holy.
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So there's days when God wants to sanctify us.
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He wants to fill us with his spirit. He wants to set us apart because he's called us to do something great. Did you know you were called for greatness?
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I don't care what you do in life, you are called for greatness. And God wants to make you and separate you from the world so that you can fulfill what you've been called to do. So Jehovah Macedesh is the one who sanctifies.
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Then we have number four, Jehovah Shalom.
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This name means Jehovah is I didn't hear that. He's my peace.
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You know where that's found?
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First time in the Old Testament.
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It was found in Judges. I get to reading in Judges. It was so interesting this week.
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And, it seemed like ever since, Charlton Heston was up there holding that rod up and the people, the children of Israel got delivered.
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I'm kidding. It's Moses. Okay?
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But I love that man. He got saved. He was a good Christian.
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He loved the Lord.
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But ever since the day that Moses led the children of Israel out, it seemed like generation after generation, every time you read the scriptures it says, and then the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord. They were always doing something evil and God's trying to spare them and God's trying to save them. Well, here we have the Israelites once again. They're in the land of the Amorites and the Midianites.
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And those people are taking and eating all the food of the of the Israelites.
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Lot of ites.
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But they're eating the food, killing their animals, and taking them for their selves. So the the Israelites had been turning their back on God and because they were in the land of the Amorites, they started worshiping the gods of the Amorites instead of the one true God who had delivered them years before.
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So now, they're crying out because everything's gone. Woe is me and look at all these things that are happening. It was because they were disobedient.
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They had turned their backs on God.
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So now, we see in Judges six that they were crying out to God, we're so oppressed, we're so oppressed. So God sent, he sent a prophet to him.
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And this prophet came down and he's reminded him, did you forget what God did for you?
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When Moses led you out of the wilderness and and and and he led you out away from the Egyptians and he spared your life? He says, I am your God, not these other gods. I am your God.
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Well, then after then he disappeared.
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Then an angel came down and sat by a tree.
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The tree where Joash was. And Joash was the father of Gideon.
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And we see that he sat there and all of a sudden, as Gideon was, he was doing he was with the wine press and he was threshing the wheat. He was trying to keep it away from the Midianites so they wouldn't steal his food.
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So, all of a sudden, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in Judges six and he he said, the Lord's with you, mighty warrior.
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Pardon me, my Lord, but if the Lord is with me, why has all this happened to me?
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How many of you have said that? God, I prayed to you, why is all this happening to me? Anybody ever been there? You start blaming God.
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Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?
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But now, the Lord has abandoned us.
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And, he's given us into the hand of Midian.
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And, the Lord turned to him and he said, you go in the strength that you have and you save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I, the Lord, sending you?
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He said, pardon me, my Lord?
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But, how can I save Israel? Now, here comes the excuses.
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How many times do we make excuses to not do what God calls us to do?
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Been there and done that.
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He says this, how can I go and save Israel? You see my my little clan of people, we're small and I am the least in my family.
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And, the Lord answered him and he said, I will be with you and you will strike down all the Midianites, every one of them.
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None will be left alive. So, Gideon said, well, if I found favor in your eyes, then give me a sign.
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Oh, how many times have we asked God to give us a sign?
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Give me a sign that it's really you talking to me.
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But then he went, this got me. He says, but please don't go away. I'm I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna I'm gonna get an offering and I'm gonna bring it back here.
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So he went home and he got a lamb and he killed the lamb and he roasted the lamb and he got some broth and then he made some unleavened cakes with the flour.
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And he brought them back and the Lord said, okay, go put them on the rock.
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He was gonna show him who was God.
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So he laid it there and then the Lord took the tip of the rod that he had and he struck that and it immediately consumed everything that he had just made.
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Woah.
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I mean, was like, I can't believe this.
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And, the Lord instantly disappeared and he's standing like, man, was that the Lord?
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But, you know what he did?
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He came back because he realized that it was the angel of the Lord.
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And he said, oh sovereign Lord, I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.
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And so, it was right there that God said, Peace.
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Have peace.
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Don't be afraid.
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You're not going to die.
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So, that's when Gideon built an altar to the Lord.
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And he called it, The Lord is Peace.
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And today, that altar still stands in that city where he was.
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I'm not gonna tell you the rest of the story of Gideon because most of you know that one, about the 300 men and how he did it, how he brought the victory through Jehovah Nissi.
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But this is where you first saw the word peace was with Gideon.
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Then, have number five.
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Say this with me, Jehovah Tsidkenu.
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Jehovah Tsidkenu.
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Means the Lord is my righteousness.
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Say the Lord is my righteousness.
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Praise God. There are days when we need righteousness, right?
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His name reveals two things to us.
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That Jehovah is our righteousness but that our righteousness is as filthy rags.
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Right?
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Romans three twenty tells us that there's none righteous. No, not one of us.
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And, in order for us to be righteousness, we have to have the righteousness of God given or imputed to us.
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This is what happened through Jesus Christ when God made Him to be sin for us, when He knew no sin, When we knew no sin that he might be made the righteousness of God in him.
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You see, when he gives us his righteousness, guess what? It's a free gift.
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Thank God for the free gift. Amen? Amen.
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I like things that are free. Don't you? Yeah.
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But, He gives us His righteousness as a free gift through our faith in who He is. So, that's Jehovah Siddiquanu.
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Say Jehovah Siddiquanu. Jehovah is my righteousness.
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Then, we see number six.
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Jehovah Rohi.
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Say Jehovah Rohi. This means what? The Lord is my shepherd.
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Oh, which is found in Psalm 23.
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Oh, Psalm 23. I love that Psalm.
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David knew what he was talking about when he wrote that Psalm because he himself was a shepherd, took care of the sheep every day. Those smelly old sheep. I've been out there in Israel
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when we took tours.
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And we were out there and we saw these shepherds and then my husband decided to let them come on the bus.
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And then he made a run for the back of the bus.
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These guys must not had a bath in weeks and left me sitting in the front. Bless his heart.
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But, David knew who the Lord was. He says, He's my shepherd and I shall not want.
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He leads me. Oh, he makes me lie down first in green pastures.
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Oh, he makes me lay down in green pastures and what does he do?
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He leads me beside the quieter still waters.
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He refreshes my soul.
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And then, guides me along the right paths.
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That's what God wants to do. He wants to lead you around the right path, not the wrong path. He's trying to keep you from your error. Remember? His redemptive name is to keep you from error and evil.
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So he wants to guide you along the paths.
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And then it says, yes, even though I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because you are with me.
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And, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. When somebody wanders from the fold, a shepherd takes that rod and that staff and he gets that one that has left the fold and brings him back in.
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That's how much our God loves us. When you wander away, he finds a way to get you back.
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He got you here today, didn't he?
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You know, I've learned that when I'm going through situations and I feel like I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death or darkness, I've learned to do one thing.
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Years ago, I was invited to speak for a women's conference up in Maryland, big church.
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They had a lot of great speakers there.
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Even T. D. Jakes was there and some other great speakers, and then there was me.
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And I was asked to teach a couple classes on praise and worship, and then I was going to minister at night.
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And
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I went to the first night's meeting.
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Everything was great.
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I got back to my room. I had taken associate minister's wife with me. I got back to my room, and all of a sudden, got violently ill.
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I thought, what did I get, food poisoning or something?
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Or what is this? And it was like the most horrendous flu came upon me immediately after that service.
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And I was really upset. I mean, all night long I'm hugging John.
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Not
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nothing stayed down. I mean, was sick all night long.
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Not the other guy. I love my husband.
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Oh, wow. I'm I'm crazy today.
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But,
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I was so sick. And, the next morning, I said to her, I said, what am I gonna do? I'm supposed to speak this morning.
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I am so sick. I can't.
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So I called up the pastor's wife and explained, and she said, that's fine. Just teach one class the next day, and you can minister that night.
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So I was so mad at the devil.
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I couldn't sit I I just didn't wanna speak out loud, but this is what I started doing.
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When you walk through the valley valley of the shadow of death, Bishop has taught this this church that you don't camp out in the middle.
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Woe is me. Oh, God. And I wasn't sitting there going, God, I'm so sick.
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Oh, God. What am I gonna do? How am I gonna make it? No. You know what I did?
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Our associate minister's wife went on to the meeting that day. She was gone seven hours. So, for seven hours, I did this.
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I'm going to pray.
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I'm going to praise.
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I'm going to preach.
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And, when I get to that church, I'm going to present my offering.
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I'm going to pray. I'm going to praise. I'm going to preach. I'm going to present my offering. I'm going to pray. I'm going to praise. I'm going to preach. I'm going to present my offering. And, I began to do that in my head for seven hours. I didn't feel like speaking out loud but God had He heard every word in my head. And, let me tell you something.
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By the next morning when I had to get up to go teach that class, normally when you would just want a day to chill out after going through that, I got up and I had the strength of a lion. I had the strength of a lion. And I went and taught my class.
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And then, that night I went to sing and I said devil, I'm gonna rat you out. I'm gonna tell them what you tried to pull so that I couldn't fulfill my purpose in being here. But, I'm here and I did my class and I'm gonna rat you out tonight and then I'm gonna minister the word in song.
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And, that's exactly what I did.
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I got up and did that and the Lord just touched me.
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Why?
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Because He's my shepherd.
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He's not only my shepherd, the one who's compassionate and cares about me.
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How many of know shepherds, they keep, they protect the sheep from the wolves who would attack the sheep. And they provide three things. He provides food, pasture, and water for them.
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That's how good your God is.
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So, I experienced that that day, him being my shepherd when I was walking through the valley, I kept walking.
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So, I'm encouraging to pray, to praise, read the word and preach the word back.
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And then come to church and give your offering to God and watch and see what he will do.
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Oh, come on.
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Hallelujah.
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Number seven, Jehovah Shammah.
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This name means what?
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Jehovah is there.
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We see in the old testament Ezekiel, he was a prophet and he was a priest and he was given many many visions from God throughout the whole book of Ezekiel.
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And God showed him what he want, how he wanted his temple to be built. He showed him every room, every wall and the size of it. I mean you read it every chapter and you're like, wow. This place was massive.
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But it was a place where God wanted his presence to dwell. He was gonna tabernacle there in the place that was going to be built.
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And so, the very last chapter of Ezekiel, in the very last verse, he said this. He said, the name of the city from this time on shall be called the Lord is there. How many of know the Lord is there for you today? Oh, yes he is. You see the same way Jesus in the New Testament, he became flesh and he brought the tabernacle among us.
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And, in the New Testament, his presence is now found in believers as the living temples of God.
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We are the temples of the Holy Spirit.
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And Revelation twenty one three says, behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell or tabernacle with them. Oh, how many know God's with you today?
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God wants to tabernacle and have his presence with you today. Doctor Jesus wants to be with you today. Hallelujah.
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Oh, and here's the last one.
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Number eight.
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Jehovah Rapha.
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Come on say Jehovah Rapha. He is the God who?
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He is. He is the God who? He is.
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Hallelujah.
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He is the God. How many times have I experienced that over and over and over?
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But you see, you first find that out in Exodus.
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Chapter 15 and verse 26, it says, I am the God that healeth thee.
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I am the Lord, your healer.
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I sent my word, and I healed all your disease.
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I am the Lord, your healer.
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You remember that song? Oh, sing with me. Am the Lord that healeth thee.
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I am the Lord, your healer.
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I sent my word, and I healed all your disease.
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I am the Lord, your healer.
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That's who he is.
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Oh, praise his name.
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You see Jehovah Rapha wanted to be the healer to his people in every way. Not just with their bodies, but in their spirit and their soul.
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He wants to heal your soul today.
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And, the Jehovah who healed in the Old Testament is the Jehovah who heals in the New Testament.
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Oh, hallelujah.
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In other words, Jesus was manifesting the name of God to his disciples everywhere he walked. Every time he healed the sick, they got to see another side of him. They got to see all the different parts of who God truly was.
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Now, when I think about who God is,
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he's awesome.
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And I think about that song.
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I'm going ask the team to come up and get ready.
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But who am I that you should keep me on your mind?
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Oh, God. I'm so grateful for you.
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Who am I?
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I'm the one.
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They're the ones you love so much that you gave up the son you had.
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You stopped Abraham's hand from slaying his son but you gave up your son. Why?
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So that you could die on a cross.
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So that whoever would believe
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would not perish but could have everlasting life.
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God didn't send his son to condemn the world.
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He sent his son so that the world could be saved.
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He wants you to be saved today.
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He wants you to be healed and whole. He wants you to have peace.
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He wants to be your provider, your sanctifier, your righteousness.
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In 2004, testimony one here.
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I got two to share.
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In 2004, it was a it was a great year. Started off to be.
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It was a year of our twenty fifth wedding anniversary.
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Yeah.
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Hey, we're going strong. We're at 47.
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Woah.
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Yeah.
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It's a lot of years to be together. We dated three, so that's 50. Wow.
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All my life.
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He rubbed the cradle.
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Oh my goodness. But
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in 2004, it was April.
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I had to put on I was the music director of this church, for those of you who didn't know, for twenty eight years. And back then, every Easter, I used to put on a massive drama. Some of you were in it.
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And or you were in the choir, whatever, but you were a part of it.
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And so we put on this massive drama.
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And then I had six weeks because we were gonna do a big wedding.
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And and in the old sanctuary, and that's when we had small seats before we bought the big seats. And in the small seats, we could seat about 900 people. So 900 people were coming to my second wedding. That was more than twice than what I had at the first wedding.
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And so, I had six weeks to do what a bride would take in a year to do, to put it together and make it very elegant. And the reception and the buy the dresses and my kids were teenagers and they were gonna be in it and be a part of it.
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Well, I started feeling something weird.
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I started feeling a lump on my breast.
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And but I was so busy. I didn't have time time to take care of it or go get a mammogram. We were busy.
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And so we had the wedding, and and then we went off for a few days to Jamaica, Mon.
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Had a good time, came back.
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And I told my secretary, I said, you need to get me in. I gotta get a mammogram done. Something's going on here because now I'm feeling it spreading into my lymph nodes.
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So I went and got the mammogram done, and he had promised me we were going off on a cruise on our twenty fifth wedding anniversary.
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And he says, you don't have to do it right by our wedding because we had to come back that next week after Jamaica, and we had to do the wedding for pastor Reese and Genya.
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So he says, you know, you can book it in June or July.
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So I did.
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But when I came back, because this thing was spreading, I went in and got a mammogram, and I said to the pathologist, I said, Listen, I know you're not supposed to tell me, but I just need to know when I go off on my cruise, what's going on?
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He said, Yeah, I see a mass there. I went, Okay, thank you for telling me.
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I got off the cruise, we had a wonderful time together, celebrating our 20 fifth, went to Europe.
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Then I got home and the surgeon called me and I said, I need you in here now.
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She says, I got to do a biopsy on you because this thing is spreading and I think you've got cancer.
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So, I went in and they did the biopsy.
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And she told the pathologist, she says, I need this back in an hour. I need to know what it is because now it's starting to feel something on the other side. And we were going to do two biopsies.
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So I went in and
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that was probably the worst thing I've ever been through.
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She numbed me, but she didn't numb me enough.
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And I'm sitting there as she's pulling out lymph nodes.
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And I felt everything. I'm like, and tears are flowing down my face.
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I'm holding the nurse's hand and she also looks up at me and I'm like, I can't breathe because I'm like, you know, because it hurts so bad.
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And she says, what's wrong? I said, you didn't numb me enough.
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She says, I gave you some I said, it wasn't enough. I felt everything you just did, everything you took out of me.
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But they came back within the hour with a report, and it said that I was in stage two of cancer as it was spreading.
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And it turned out on the other side was fine.
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But I said, I I I just thought about my family. Different ones in my family had died of cancer, and I thought I'm not gonna die. I'm not gonna be another statistic.
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So, I looked up at my surgeon, as I'm still holding that nurse's hand and tears are flowing down my eyes and I says, I'm gonna live and not die.
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I'm gonna live to declare the works of the Lord just like David did.
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So, that's what we did.
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She called my husband in. She didn't think I believed that I had cancer. Maybe I was mumbling under my breath something like, I don't believe I have this. I don't believe it. She's like, where's your husband? I said, he's out there. So, they brought him in. She says, what's going on?
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She says, your wife doesn't believe me. He says, what did you say to her? I said, I said I'm gonna live and not die. Make that declaration again. He says, that's right. She's not gonna die. Well, I came home.
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I came home, and after they did surgery, did a lumpectomy on me, and they said, you're gonna have to do you're gonna have to go through chemo, you're gonna have to go through radiation.
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So that first night when I was home, I couldn't flip over in the bed, so I got up early in the morning, tiptoed down the stairs, and got in dad's big easy chair. You know, the one with the clicker?
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Thought I was gonna watch a little TV and just relax until the voice of the Lord said, go get your Bible.
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So, I went and got my bible.
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And, I start flipping around. I think, what what is he trying to tell me?
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All of sudden, I went over to second Samuel 22.
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Second Samuel?
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That's a strange place.
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But I started reading what was before it. And it's with David, the Philistines were after David. Now, you remember he had already killed one giant.
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But now, here it is later on and they're back fighting again and David is worn out And they were about to kill him and his little mighty man a light mighty band of men rescued him from the Philistines. And they said, you're not going in battle again. We wanna keep you alive.
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So David did this. This is what he said in second Samuel 22. And I I wished I had time to read you the whole chapter. I don't have time for that. But it said, David sang this song to the Lord. The words of this song when he delivered him out of hand of all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
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He started declaring, the Lord is my rock.
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He's my fortress.
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He's my deliverer.
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My God is my rock in whom I take refuge.
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He's my shield and he's the horn of my salvation.
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He's my stronghold, my refuge, my savior from violent people you save me.
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I call to the Lord who's worthy of praise and I have been saved from my enemies. The waves of death swirled about me. The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me and the snares of death death confronted me. And in my distress, well I was beginning to identify with all this in my reading this.
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David said, in my distress I called to the Lord. I called out to my God and from his temple he heard my voice.
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My cry came to his ears.
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Oh, the earth trembled and quaked. The foundations of the heavens shook. They trembled because he was angry.
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Smoke rose from his nostrils consuming fire from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and he came down.
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Dark clouds were under his feet.
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He mounted the cherubim and he flew and he soared on the wings of the wind. He made the darkness his canopy around him, the dark rain clouds of the sky And out of the brightness of his presence, bolts of lightning were blazed everywhere.
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The Lord thundered from heaven. The voice of the most high resounded.
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He shot arrows and scattered the enemy.
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With great bolts of lightning, he routed them.
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The valleys of the sea were exposed, the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the Lord. Hallelujah.
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At the blast of breath from his nostrils, he reached down from on high and he took a hold of me. Oh, bless the Lord and drew me out of the waters and rescued me from my powerful enemy.
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From my foes who were too strong for me. And, it goes on and on and on.
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As I was sitting there reading that and identifying that, I'm going man, stage two cancer, that's like to the world halfway dead, But, not to me. I don't listen to that report.
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Because God wanted a good report for me. If I had faith to believe it.
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So, as I'm sitting there in dad's big easy chair reading this, God said, now, I'm going to give you a song right now. Gave it to me about ten, fifteen minutes. I heard all the parts of the musicians and the singers.
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He says, this is what I want you to do.
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You're gonna be going in for chemo.
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And every week that you're not on chemo, I want you up ministering. Right, brother Martin? You were there with me. You were with me.
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Every week that you're not on chemo, I want you up praising the Lord.
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And I want you to teach this song not only to your group, you teach it to the congregation.
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And every week that you're not on chemo, you sing this song. And what the congregation is not gonna know that I never told you, he said, they're gonna be worshiping and singing this song to me about how God is my rock.
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He is my shield.
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As you sing this song, he says they're gonna be singing it to me. But, he says they're gonna be singing it on your behalf and I'm gonna heal you. I never told the congregation that, what he told me. So, I was obedient to God and that's what he did.
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He began to heal me. It wasn't easy. Chemo's not easy.
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It affected my feet. In fact, every week that I was up singing, I'd wear my little isotoner slippers and then I'd have my high heel slippers on right next to them. Nobody knew except the choir behind me. Right?
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And I and I would I would carefully take them off and put my high heels on, go sit in my seat. They never knew.
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Because one drug was so powerful, they had to give me a whole bag of Benadryl just to see if my heart could take it.
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Yeah.
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But you know what?
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The Lord showed me through that process.
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Through the blood of the lamb.
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I'd already had my word and my testimony but through the blood of the lamb, God showed me.
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That because it was on the door post of my heart, because He was in my heart, He was my Lord and Savior.
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He said I'm going to spare you. And and and the Lord showed me that how chemo when it goes in, it kills every cell in your body. It's it's not a respecter of cells.
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It kills the it kills the cancer, but it destroys the good cells.
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He said, but because you have my son in your life, his blood's been applied to your life, When they inject you with that potent, poisonous stuff, he says, I'm gonna spare your good cells. And, this is gonna be a testimony to your Jewish doctor.
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And guess what folks?
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God did it.
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Oh, hallelujah.
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Come on.
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Hallelujah.
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Then one day, I was going through the process I had to get I had to start radiation.
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31 radiations over a six week period in the same spot. Oh my gosh. I felt like an iron had been placed on my body. It wasn't easy.
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But I was trusting my God to totally heal me.
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And then my husband says, middle of December as I'm halfway through those radiation shots, he says, I'm leaving town and I need you to speak next week.
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Now, I was strong in my spirit but I was feeling weak in my body, you know, from going through all this. Some of you understand because you've been through cancer. You know what I'm talking about. I was feeling when God says, how am I gonna do that? We have two services in the morning. How am I gonna preach two services?
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And then our armor bearer, his armor bearer David Sika, he pipes up and he says, you know pastor Kathy, remember your five words that you used to preach?
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I can, therefore I will.
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I said, David, shut up and don't use my five words against me.
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He says, no, you need to do it. So I figured out a way. So I made a little living room set.
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Some of you were there, you remember. Made a little living room set and I had a swivel chair and I sat down.
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I had my high heels on and had my isotoners around just in case I needed them.
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But I sat there and I began to preach the word. Talking to them like today about who our God is And then who am I?
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I'm one that you so loved that you gave up your son for me.
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And that day, at the end of the service, I stood, we gave an altar call.
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People came down both services from everywhere.
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You know it pays to be obedient to God and it pays it pays to be obedient to the man of God. Because out of that not only were people saved but God touched my feet so I never had to put those slippers on again.
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That's testimony number one.
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Wanna hear number two? Do
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we got time? Yes,
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we do. Oh, good.
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Praise the Lord.
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Testimony two.
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Here we are last year.
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I started writing a little, a cute little song. I've written a lot of songs. Some of them you haven't heard yet. I even wrote one on Catch the Fire.
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Hope we get to sing that before the end of the year.
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So, can catch the fire together. Amen?
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Amen.
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But, I wrote a, I wrote this, I wrote this little song and I started singing it and didn't even know why God gave it to me.
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But He knew why.
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And He knew I was gonna need it.
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And so,
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I started doing this little song
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in C. C minor. I feel joy in the morning, joy in the evening, joy when I'm praising the Lord.
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I feel joy in the morning, joy in the evening, joy who could ask for no.
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I
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go to bed at night singing that song.
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And when I sleep, I sleep on my stomach and hand on my pillow and up on top of his and I'd be ratty tatting on his pillow and he's like, what are you playing?
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I feel joy in the morning.
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Joy the morning.
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Joy when I'm facing the Lord.
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I feel joy in the morning.
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Joy in the evening. Joy you could ask for more.
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Now,
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we're gonna go out the service closing singing the song in a few minutes.
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I'm gonna teach it to you. Okay? Is that good? So, you can ratty cat you ladies on your husband's pillow.
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Yeah, I do it every night. I've been singing this song. It's driving me crazy. But there was a reason why he gave it to me.
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I started feeling another lump again.
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On the backside of where those lymph nodes were.
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Now this is strange. This is bothering me. I need to get in and see the doctor. So in the middle of December, I went back in.
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And so I had a sonogram and a mammogram.
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They said we don't see anything.
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I said well I feel something there. They said no but we see something over here. I said what? I don't feel anything there.
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So they brought me in again another sonogram and a mammogram.
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Didn't see anything on the other side. We see something here.
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Then I had to go in again for an MRI and then they finally brought me in for a biopsy and they said you have stage one cancer.
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I said what?
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I don't feel anything.
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So I ended up having to I didn't say anything to the congregation.
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I didn't even tell her staff when when this was all going on. Only a few friends and my family knew.
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I thought I don't want anybody around Christmas time going, oh poor pastor Kathy.
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No, she's not poor.
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No.
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She was angry this time.
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I said Jehovah Nissi, you're my banner victory.
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Jehovah Rapha, you're my healer.
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And what Satan's trying to do, he's underneath my feet.
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He tried this once before and he failed. He's going to fail again this time, because you're going to heal me this time again.
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And this is what I told him.
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This might not sound very churchy, but this is what I said. I said the big C inside of me devil is going to kick cancer's butt once again.
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I had to make my declaration to my God as to who He was.
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And I've been saying it every day, You're my healer. You're my healer.
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Doctor.
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Jesus has got me covered.
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So, is what happened.
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I haven't even told the team this. I wouldn't tell them. I said you got to wait till the end of the service to find out what happened.
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So,
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the doctor says in February we have to do surgery.
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So we went in.
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They're wheeling me into the room you know giving you all the stuff and you know you're about to doze off. Says okay God go to work. And this is what I'm asking.
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That when I go in and they give me, they do the surgery this time, that I don't feel a thing. I don't feel a thing.
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And that I I won't be hurting.
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So, I went in, had the surgery, came home, took a nap and wore the anesthesia off. And guess what folks? I didn't feel a thing.
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In fact, I didn't even feel like I'd had surgery.
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But then, I went to my radiologist.
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He says, well we're gonna be doing five shots of radiation this time. You're not gonna have those 31 shots, only five. Just to make sure that because this is a different kind of cancer. We want to make sure that it won't spread. I said that's fine. I can tolerate five.
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Then I went to the oncologist and he's looking at my report and he says woah, wait a minute.
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They didn't get all the cancer. I said, what do you mean they didn't get all the cancer?
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He says, no, we can't touch you. Me and the radiologist cannot touch you because they didn't get it all and you got to go back in and have another surgery.
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I said, what?
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Now this is going on. You not you didn't know it. I was back in church on Sundays.
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So, I went in and had a second surgery. I said, okay God, go to work again.
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And this time I don't want any more pain either.
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And guess what?
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No pain.
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I went in and did those five radiations.
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They put you in this mold.
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Hands behind your back and I just start doing.
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I feel joy in the morning.
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Joy in the evening.
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Joy when I'm radiating.
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I know God was sitting up there getting a kick out of this. I feel joy in the morning.
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Joy in the evening. Lord, I pray I don't feel a thing.
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Came through five radiations and didn't feel a thing. Glory to God. Oh,
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God's a good God.
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If He did it for me, He can do it for you. I am healed and I'm whole and I got more energy than you can imagine.
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Hallelujah.
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Oh, He's my healer. He's your healer. He's your peace.
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He's your deliverer. Come on, get on your feet.
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Get on your feet.
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Hallelujah.
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Hallelujah.
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You gotta know who your God is. You
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gotta know who doctor Jesus is because he wants to do something in you right now. He
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loves you today.
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He's a good God.
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Thanks again for listening to today's podcast. We trust that it has touched your heart and blessed your life. Listen to support the ministry. You can go to our website, abundantlife.tv.
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And remember, we are better together.