GROWING STRONG IN FAITH by RECEIVING GODS ENCOURAGEMENT

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GROWING STRONGIN FAITHby RECEIVING
GODSENCOURAGEMENT
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• GOD ACCEPTS US
• WHEN WE ARE
• DISCOURAGED

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• GOD REASSURES US
• OF HIS PRESENCE
• AND ACCEPTANCE

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• GOD ENCOURAGES
• US BY HIS
• AMAZING PROMISES

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• WHERE DOES
• DISCOURAGEMENT
• COME FROM?

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• WHAT CAN I DO
• TO GROW
• STRONG IN FAITH?

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A Low Point in Israels History

• 587/586 B.C. -- Babylonians sack Jerusalem,
  burning the Temple, and destroying it down to its
  foundations. Most of the nation of Israel is
  taken into exile for 50 years.
• All surrounding nations have mocked the weakness
  of the Israelites after their downfall and
  captivity.

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But God

• 537 B.C. -- Cyrus the Persian conquers
  Babylon
• 538 B.C. God moves the heart of Cyrus the
  Persian to issue a decree allowing the Israelites
  to return to their homeland and rebuild the
  temple at Jerusalem, fulfilling the prophecies of
  Jeremiah.

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Discouragement Sets In

• After a brief attempt at beginning to build and
  encountering a lot of opposition of the
  surrounding peoples, they QUIT.
• Then, eighteen years passed by.

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Discouragement is No Fun
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• GOD ACCEPTS US
• WHEN WE ARE
• DISCOURAGED
• As a father has compassion on his children,
         so the Lord has compassion on those who
  fear Him
•   for He knows how we are formed,
         He remembers that we are dust.
• Psalm 10311-14

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Good News

• God knows and understands our discouragement and
  how we got to that place.

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In Compassion, God

• God sends the Tag Team prophets Haggai and
  Zechariah to encourage the leaders and the people
  to complete the task of rebuilding the temple.
• Haggais recorded prophecies are all given to him
  during the same year.

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God Responds to His Discouraged People through
Haggai (520 B.C.)

•  On the twenty-first day of the seventh month,
  the word of the Lord came through the prophet
  Haggai "Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,
  governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jehozadak,
  the high priest, and to the remnant of the
  people. Ask them, Who of you is left who saw
  this house in its former glory? How does it look
  to you now? Does it not seem to you like
  nothing? Haggai 21-3

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God Responds to His Discouraged People through
Haggai

• But now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the
  Lord. Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the
  high priest. Be strong, all you people of the
  land, declares the Lord, and work. For I am
  with you, declares the Lord Almighty. This is
  what I covenanted with you when you came out of
  Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do
  not fear. Haggai 24-5

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• GOD REASSURES US
• OF HIS PRESENCE
• AND ACCEPTANCE
• Be strong For I am with you
• My Spirit remains among you
• Do not fear.
• Haggai 24-5

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Gods Encouraging Promiseto His Discouraged
People

• The glory of this present house will be greater
  than the glory of the former house, says the
  Lord Almighty.
• And in this place I will grant peace, declares
  the Lord Almighty.
• Haggai 29

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Laying the Foundation of the Second Temple, by
C.F. Vos
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God Responds to His Discouraged People through
Zechariah

• Then the word of the Lord came to me "The
  hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of
  this temple his hands will also complete it.
  Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has
  sent me to you.
• Who despises the day of small things? Men
  will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the
  hand of Zerubbabel.

Zechariah 48-10
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• DISCOURAGEMENT
• COMES FROM
• WHAT I THINK ABOUT AND
• FROM SPIRITUAL ATTACK

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Remembering Comparing

• Solomons Temple was bigger better
• This temple is shabby in comparison
• No Ark of the Covenant
• No Covenant Tablets inside the Ark
• No beautiful gold overlaid walls and floors
• No fancy scrollwork

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Where do Emotions Come From?

• EMOTIONS DO NOT HAPPEN IN A VACUUM!
• THOUGHTS PRECEDE EMOTIONS

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What are you thinking about?

• Thinking about,
• hoping in, or hoping for
• the wrong things leads to
  discouragement!

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Hoping in the Wrong Things Leads to
Discouragement

• Dangerous to hope in our own resources
• Dangerous to Compare Now with Then
• Dangerous to Compare Us with Them

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YOU are under ATTACK!

• A final word Be strong in the Lord and in his
  mighty power.
• Put on all of Gods armor so that you will be
  able to stand firm against all strategies of the
  devil.

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YOU are under ATTACK!

• For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood
  enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities
  of the unseen world, against mighty powers in
  this dark world, and against evil spirits in the
  heavenly places.
• Ephesians 610-12 (NLT)

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Christian Apollyon
Justin Gerard
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YOU are under ATTACK!

• The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the
  ground he makes me dwell in darkness like those
  long dead. So my spirit grows faint within me
  my heart within me is dismayed.
• Psalm 1433-4

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The Enemys Attack Strategy

• 1 -- ALWAYS ATTACKING OUR
• FAITH IN GOD
• BY ENCOURAGING US TO
• GIVE UP

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The Enemys Attack Strategy

• 2 REMINDS US OF OUR SINS
• TO TRY TO CONVINCE US
• THAT GOD DOES NOT
• AND WILL NOT
• ACCEPT US

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The Enemys Attack Strategy

• 3 HE SUGGESTS TRIES
• TO DISTRACT US WITH
• DISCOURAGING THOUGHTS,
• LIES, FEARFUL SCENARIOS
• SO THAT OUR THINKING IS

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• ANXIETY- FILLED

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The Spiritual Battleground

• Your THOUGHTS
• Your EMOTIONS
• Your WILL

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Discouragement

• ...is an emotion that results from what we have
  been thinking.

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Source of All Discouragement

• We are responsible not to get depressed or
  discouraged for a moment by yielding to the
  temptations of the enemy to look away from
  God.
• You must settle it that all discouragement is
  from the enemy, and not under any circumstances
  yield or accept it.
• Jessie Penn-Lewis, The Conquest of Canaan, p. 10

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Responsible for Our Thoughts?

• Seek the Lord while He may be found
• call on Him while He is near.
• Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man
  his thoughts.
• Let him turn to the Lord, and He will have
  mercy on him, and to our God, for He will
  freely pardon.
• Isaiah 556-7

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The Battle is for Your Mind

• The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of
  the world. On the contrary, they have divine
  power to demolish strongholds. We demolish
  arguments and every pretension that sets itself
  up against the knowledge of God, and we take
  captive every thought to make it obedient to
  Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 104-5

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The Battle is for Your Mind

• Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's
  mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
  holy and pleasing to Godthis is your spiritual
  act of worship. Do not conform any longer to
  the pattern of this world, but be transformed by
  the renewing of your mind. Romans
  121-2a

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Gods Counter-Attack Strategy

• BUILD UP OUR FAITH IN HIM
• BY GIVING US THE
• ENCOURAGEMENT OF
• HIS PROMISES
• so that we can take captive every thought and
  fill our minds with His encouraging TRUTH

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• GOD ENCOURAGES US BY HIS
• AMAZING PROMISES

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2 Peter 23-4

• By His divine power, God has given us everything
  we need for living a godly life. We have
  received all of this by coming to know Him, the
  One who called us to Himself by means of His
  marvelous glory and excellence.

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2 Peter 23-4

• And because of His glory and excellence, He has
  given us great and precious promises.
• These are the promises that enable you to share
  His divine nature

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Where Do I Get More Faith?

• I DONT need a mountain of faith
• I need a mustard seed of faith in the GOD Who
  moves mountains.

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Only a TINY amount

• I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small
  as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain,
  Move from here to there and it will move.
• Nothing will be impossible for you.
• Matthew 1720-21

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From Unbelief to Mustard Seed

• But if you can do anything, take pity on us and
  help us.
• IF you can? said Jesus. Everything is
  possible for him who believes.
• Immediately, the boys father exclaimed, I do
  believe help me overcome my unbelief!
• Mark 922b-24

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OK, where do I get a mustard seed of
faith?

• A From Gods
  Promises!

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Brother Tom
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Where do I get a mustard seed of faith?

• A From Gods
  Promises!

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A KEY QUESTION

• Dont I need to have a lot of faith to access
  Gods promises and to believe that they
  apply to ME???

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Go to the Promise

• It is a weak plea for a man to say, I dare not
  look to the promise. I cannot believe it for
  if I could (and, oh, that I could), then I might
  expect some good fruit from it.

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Go to the Promise

• You shall never believe upon these terms. For
  you must not first have faith and then go to the
  promise, but must first go to the promise for the
  power of faith. From the promise you must
  receive power to believe.

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Go to the Promise

• To expect faith without a promise is as if a man
  should expect a crop of corn without seed for
  the promise is the immortal seed of Gods Word
  whereby the Spirit breeds this faith in the
  hearts of all who are His.

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Go to the Promise

• But go to the promise and say, Whatever
  frailties I find in myself, yet I will look
  to the Lord and to His promise.
• I must not bring faith to the promise,
  but receive faith from it to believe.
  
• The Poor Doubting Christian Drawn to
  Christ, pgs. 68-69

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How Powerful is God?

• Never measure the power of God by that shallow
  conceit of yours. All things are possible for
  God, though not for men. It is said that
  Abraham hoped above hope he looked to the Lord
  who was able to do what He had promised. He did
  not consider that he had a dead body, but that he
  had a living God to hope in.
• The Poor Doubting
  Christian Drawn to Christ, p. 21

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And therefore

• do not measure the riches of Gods love, and the
  sweetness of His saving grace, according to your
  own conceits nor should you think that because
  you cannot conceive it, therefore God will not do
  it

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Therefore

• Job 910 He performs wonders that cannot be
  fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. (NIV)
  
• And, therefore, do not judge either Gods power
  or His love by your narrow views.
• The Poor Doubting Christian Drawn to
  Christ, pgs. 38-39

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God Almighty

• For nothing is impossible with God. Luke
  126
• With man this is impossible, but with God all
  things are possible. Matthew 1926
• I know You can do all things no plan of Yours
  can be thwarted. Job 422

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God Does Far MORE

• Now to Him Who is able to do immeasurably more
  that all we ask or imagine, according to His
  power that is at work within us, to Him be the
  glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
  throughout all generations, for ever and ever!
  Amen.
• Ephesians 320-21

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Gods Question to You and Me

• Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah
  Jeremiah 3226
• I am the Lord,
• the God of all mankind.
• Is anything too hard for Me?

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Lets Get Personal

• Q What specific problems
• and issues in my life
• do I feel are
• too difficult
• for the Lord to help?

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Jesus Calls Peter
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Hes Out of the Boat!
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Wow, those waves are HUGE!Can Jesus sustain me
in storm?
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Sinking into Discouragement
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Do I Believe God Cannot Help Me?

• We limit the Holy One of Israel by remembering
  only what we have allowed Him to do for us in the
  past, and also by saying, Of course, I cannot
  expect God to do this particular thing.
• We impoverish His ministry the moment we forget
  He is Almighty. The impoverishment is in us,
  not in Him.

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Do I Believe God Cannot Help Me?

• Beware of sitting back and saying, It cant
  be done.
• The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but
  make the effort to look away from yourself and to
  look toward Him.
• Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest,
  reading for February 27

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God Guarantees the Promises

• He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him
  up for us allhow will He not also, along with
  Him, graciously give us all things?
• Romans 832

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• WE WILL GROW
• STRONG IN FAITH
• AS WE
• FEED OURSELVES
• ON GODS PROMISES

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Are You Spiritually Hungry?

• Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,
  so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
  now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
• I Peter 22-3 (NIV)

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The Strength of Faith

• Where do we find the secret strength of faith?
  
• It lies in the food on which it feeds.
• Charles Spurgeon

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Lay in a Supply of Promises!

• We must labor to get matter for our faith to work
  upon. Provide and lay in promises, in season
  and timely, as soon as you can.
• I would have a good Christian store up all the
  promises of God in all the good Word of God
  lay up spiritual provisions so that we may not
  want lack them when we have use for them. Lay
  in abundantly all the promises of all kinds
  better to be overstocked than in want.

The Poor Doubting Christian Drawn to Christ, pgs.
75-76
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Lay in a Supply of Promises!

• READ them
• WRITE them
• REVIEW them
• MEDITATE on them
• PRAY with them

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Meditate?

• Not an empty mind (Eastern Meditation)
• Review it and reflect on it
• Ask God to show you what He means by it Open my
  eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your
  law. Psalm 11918
• Ask God how it applies to you

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Meditate

• Within Your temple, O God, we meditate on Your
  unfailing love.
• Psalm 489

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Meditate

• My eyes stay open through the watches of the
  night, that I may meditate on Your promises.
• Psalm 119148

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Pleasing God with My Thoughts

• May my meditation
• be pleasing to Him
• as I rejoice in the Lord.
• Psalm 10434

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Two Pillars of Gods Nature are the Foundation of
Many of His Promises

• One thing God has spoken, two things
  have I heard
•    that you, O God, are strong,
•   and that you, O Lord,
• are loving.

Psalm 6211-12a
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ALL the Power and ALL the Love

And we know that in all things God works for the
good of those who love him, who have been
called according to his purpose. Romans 828
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Promise of Strength and Help

• So do not fear, for I am with you do not be
  dismayed, for I am your God.
• I will strengthen you and help you
• I will uphold you with My righteous right
  hand.
• Isaiah 4110

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Promise of True Rest

• Come to Me,
• all you who are weary and burdened, and I
  will give you rest.
• Matthew 1128

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Promise of Gods Forgiveness

• He who conceals his transgressions will not
  prosper,
• But he who
• confesses and forsakes them
• will find compassion.
• Proverbs 2813

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Promise of Hope for the Future

• For I know the plans I have for you, says the
  Lord.
• They are plans for good and not for disaster, to
  give you a future and a hope.
• Jeremiah 2911 (NLT)

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Promise of Hope for the Future

• Forget the former things        do not dwell
  on the past.
• See, I am doing a new thing!       
• Now it springs up do you not
  perceive it?       

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Promise of Hope for the Future

•        I am making a way in the desert       
  and streams in the wasteland.
• I provide water in the desert        and
  streams in the wasteland,        to give drink
  to my people, my chosen
• Isaiah 4318-19, 20b

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Promise of Daily Refreshment

• The Lords loving-kindnesses indeed never
  cease,         
• For His compassions never fail.     They are new
  every morning          Great is Your
  faithfulness.
• Lamentations 322-23 (NASB)

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Promise of New Mercies

• The faithful love of the Lord never
  ends!    His mercies never cease.
• Great is his faithfulness   his mercies
  begin afresh each morning.
• Lamentations 322-23 (NLT)

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Promise of Gods Provision

• I am the Lord your God who brought you up
  out of the land of Egypt.
• Open your mouth wide and
• I will fill it.
• Psalm 8110

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Promise of Gods Provision

• But seek first his kingdom and his
  righteousness, and all these things will be given
  to you as well.
• Matthew 633

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Promise of Receiving His Wisdom

• Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you
  great and unsearchable things you do
  not know.
• Jeremiah 333

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Promise of His Compassion

• For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
     so great is His love for those who fear Him
•   as far as the east is from the west,     so
  far has He removed our transgressions from us.
  
•   As a father has compassion on his children,
         so the Lord has compassion on those who
  fear Him
•   for He knows how we are formed,       
  He remembers that we are dust.
• Psalm 10311-14

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Promise of His Availability

• If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will
  find Me.
• I will be found by you, says the
  Lord.
• Jeremiah 2913-14a NLT

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Promise of His Presence

• Even though I walk through the valley of the
  shadow of death,   I will fear no evil,       
  for You are with me
• Psalm 234a

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Promise of His Presence

• God is our refuge and strength,        an
  ever-present help in trouble.
•  Therefore we will not fear,
• though the earth give way   and the mountains
  fall into the heart of the sea,
•   though its waters roar and foam        and
  the mountains quake with their surging.       
  
• Selah
• Psalm 461-3

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Promise of His Presence

• God has said, Never will I leave you
         never will I forsake you.
• So we say with confidence, The Lord is
  my helper I will not be afraid. What can
  man do to me?
• Hebrews 135b-6

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Promise of His Presence

• (End of the Great Commission)
• And surely I am with you always,
• to the very end of the age."
• Matthew 2820b

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There is ALWAYS Hope

• But as for me,
• I will always have hope
•   
• Psalm 7114a

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Hope in Gods Promises

• The faithful love of the Lord never
  ends!    His mercies never cease.
• Great is his faithfulness   His
  mercies begin afresh each morning.
• Lamentations 322-23 (NLT)

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Last Words of Brother Tom

I am going to receive MERCY!