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You're listening to City Church Manchester. We are a church that invites

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everyone to enjoy Christ for the glory of God. If we can serve you in any way

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then visit our website at citychurchmanchester.org to find out more.

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If you could open your Bibles up to Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 1 to 9.

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Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 1 to 9. If you've got one of the blue Bibles it's

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page 789. If you've got a phone I can't tell you what page it is or it's up on

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screen behind me. Jeremiah 29 1 to 9. This is the text of the letter that the

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Prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles

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and to the priests the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had

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carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jehoiakim

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and the Queen Mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and

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Jerusalem and the skilled workers and the craftsmen had gone into exile from

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Jerusalem. He entrusted the letter to Elisha son of Shafan and to

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Jemima son of Hilki whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in

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Babylon. It said this is what the Lord Almighty the God of Israel says to all

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those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon build houses and

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settle down plant gardens and eat what they produce marry and have sons and

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daughters find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so they

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too may have sons and daughters increase in numbers there do not decrease also

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seek the peace and prosperity of the city of which I have carried you into

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exile pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers you too will prosper yes

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this is what the Lord Almighty the God of Israel says do not let the prophets

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and divine as among you deceive you do not listen to the dreams you encourage

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them to have they are prophesying lies to you in my name I have not sent them

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declares the Lord thanks very much Chris well do keep your Bibles open if you

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have one we are looking currently at a series called reformed which is focusing

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on just a number of key things that we believe is a church that shapes the way

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that we do think shapes the way that we operate shapes what we say yes to shapes

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what we what we say no to and so actually if you are new at City Church

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this is a great Sunday for you to come not only for the baptisms but also

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because it'll give you a little bit of a window of what this church is really

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like if you've been here for a long time then this is going to be a good

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refresher to remind us about actually what's our heartbeat here as a community

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let me pray and then we'll dive in heavenly Father we do thank you for all

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that we've enjoyed so far in the service we do thank you for the baptisms of

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Melissa and Charlotte and the testimony of your goodness and your grace to them

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and to us as a community Father as we come here to hear this passage unpacked

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for us we remember that you are a God who is not distant but one who speaks to

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every single one of us and we ask by the power of your spirit that none of us

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would leave this place this afternoon unchanged amen let me begin with a

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question for some of you who are new it might seem rather intrusive but here's

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the question what's the vision for your life what's the vision for your life the

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pastor and writer Mark Sayers recently said that in his opinion one of the

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biggest problems with current Western culture with people's vision for their

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lives revolved around what he called as optimization optimization optimization

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is the idea that you are pursuing like a quest just improving a little bit of

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this and a little bit of that optimization is when you say to yourself

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actually I just want a little bit more control over my inbox I just want a few

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less calories I just want a little bit more salary I just want to pay a little

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bit less rent now these things are not bad in themselves are they little bits

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of self optimization where we just improve things a little bit a little bit

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a little bit a little bit a little bit more of this a little less of that

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nothing wrong with that per se but what this passage is gonna tell us this

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afternoon is if that's optimization is actually the vision of your life a

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vision that you turn as a quest that you will pursue at any cost across the world

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actually the reward for a life like that a life that pursues only just slight

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marginal gains well your reward will be what is known as a wasted life these are

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strong words aren't they from this passage that was written so many years

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ago but let me tell you a little bit about this passage that Chris just read

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it's a letter that was written many years ago to a community like us that

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lived in a city look with me at verse 2 we're told that actually the Israelites

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who were once living in the southern kingdom of Judah had been conquered by

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the great and massive Babylonian Empire and all of their key workers had been

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taken captured dragged a thousand miles from Jerusalem all the way to this city

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of Babylon the capital of the Babylonian Empire think about it it's a thousand

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miles from home you've been dragged and you find yourself living on the fringes

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of perhaps the great city of the ancient Near East probably in some sort of

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ramshackle shanty town equivalent to I don't know the refugee camp outside of

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Calais and this is where you are told by the Babylonian authorities that you need

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to be based because if you were one of the Jews who had been taken all the way

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from Judah to Babylon you would have found that Babylon would have been a

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highly intimidating place to be it was a place of advanced technology it was a

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place of temple and palace skyscrapers the way it worked in Babylon was the

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higher you built your temples the more your gods would be pleased with you and

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say Beetham Tower one of Manchester's largest skyscrapers a homage to the

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worship of wealth and commerce would not have been out of place here in the

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ancient city of Babylon and so if you were a Jew who'd been taken from your

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homeland a thousand miles to Babylon if you found yourself in this unknown and

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very strange city well here's the question what would God want them to do

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what would God want them to do well I've got two points this afternoon and the

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first one's this don't bunker don't bunker you see the first instinct for a

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believer who has been relocated to this brand new intimidating city is to

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cultivate in their mind a warlike bunker mentality that is when you are so

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fearful that the culture around you is gonna squeeze the life out of your faith

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that you operate in your head as if there is a two meter concrete wall all

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around you between yourself perhaps your family your friendship groups and the

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rest of the culture out there you build a massive wall in your mind you hide away

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that's a bunker mentality and this is most likely what Jeremiah who wrote this

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letter is warning against in verses 8 & 9 look at me at verses 8 & 9 he was warning

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against what was most likely a very very popular opinion amongst the Jewish

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exiles that they didn't have to wait very long before God would take them

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back home it was the type of thing that in the ancient Near Eastern equivalent

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of tick-tock reels the message constantly going around that's trending

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high would have been hashtag going home soon that's what they would have been

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about and you can see the attraction can't you communities often underestimate

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in a time of crisis how long it's gonna take to move through it for example do

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you remember in 2019 when the government called the first lockdown where we all

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had to stay at home and businesses and schools and universities shut the word

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going around back in the very first lockdown is we were only gonna be in it

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for two weeks we're gonna be in two weeks you remember that apparently it

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turned out a little bit different see communities tend to underestimate and

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most likely the Jews in exile were saying to themselves look we're only

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here for a short time guys look pull up the drawbridge don't unpack your bags

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because we're only temporary let Babylon be Babylon and let us be us and look at

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what God's response to this war bunker mentality is in verse 9 do you see it

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she says lies absolute lies you see this letter could have easily been written to

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us today it's this mentality it's like you know I don't think I'll be in

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Manchester very long I'm on a short course I've got a short contract

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therefore I will just withdraw and I'll do me or it's the idea that you know I

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just don't feel very connected in Manchester and so I'll just withdraw and

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I'll just do me or it's even saying look I don't really like Manchester it's

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nothing like my hometown and so I'll just withdraw and I'll just do me I

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wonder if you feel like that the the writer Malcolm Gladwell explores in in

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his book the tipping point a phenomenon known as the bystander effect the

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bystander effect you see he recounts that back in 1964 in the great city of

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New York there was a tragic murder of a lady called Kitty Genovese and the

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problem with this murder as tragic as it was is Kitty was screaming asking for

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help from her assailant for a long time she pleaded with people to help her the

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people would call the police that she was being attacked do you know how many

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people heard her cries the report say 38 people heard Genovese is cries for help

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but each person assumed that someone else was gonna call the police someone

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else would do it someone else's problem and so no one called the police and she

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was horrifically murdered the bystander effect you see your attempt to be a good

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person by keeping away from the city will actually lead you to become the

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very version of yourself that you're trying to get away from the headline

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challenge here in our passage from Jeremiah is that in God's world there is

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no such phrase as it's someone else's problem no such phrase you see you might

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not be the person who's called to fix it but the problem still belongs to you

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but let me put it like this when you're leaving City Church Manchester this

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afternoon and you go out onto the streets of this city there's a good

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chance you may well bump into a homeless person and look you may choose not to

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give them money because for various reasons you might think that is not the

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best way to help them however this stranger's situation their plight their

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distress is still a problem that belongs to you why because you are a citizen of

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this city and it doesn't matter whether you were born here or you arrived last

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week which makes us think doesn't it how should the believers who were taken to

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Babylon how should they treat Babylon it makes us think here we are in Manchester

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how should we hear this afternoon treat Manchester well come with me to our

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second and final point get your hands dirty get your hands dirty in the 1950s

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there was a very clever guy called Reinhold Niebuhr and he wrote a very

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famous book that outlined different positions that believers had towards

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engaging with the culture around them and his definition of culture let's get

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a bit nerdy on this shall we it's gonna be nerdy his definition of culture was

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it is the social life of humanity it is the environment created by human beings

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in areas of language or habits ideas beliefs customs social organization

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inherited artifacts and technical processes and values and what Niebuhr

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did is he labeled the reforms position this is the reformed series we're

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looking at that's why I'm saying this he labeled the reformed position that was

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exhibited by people theologians like John Calvin who you might have heard of he

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labeled it as the Christ transforming culture position what is that well

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number one it emphasized the goodness of creation that God actually made a really

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good creation and number two believers affirm what can be affirmed in the

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culture and they seek to transform all that is corrupted by sin and self-destruction

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and selfishness in the culture you see that's that's the Christ transforming

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culture position you look at culture is a good thing gifted by God you like to

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celebrate the stuff that you can say no that is true that reflects the God of

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creation this revealed in the Bible but anywhere you see the consequences of sin

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of brokenness in the world actually you as a believer choose to do something

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about it an example of that would be on July the 31st 1562 in a church a little

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bit like this and a pulpit a little bit like this John Calvin I haven't got a

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picture of him but you need to imagine a man whose beard would have been as

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luxuriant as someone who would fit into any northern quarter kind of micro

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brewery that's John Calvin you're not going to hear that definition from Ralph

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but you'll hear it from me John Calvin preached in a pulpit just like this to

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his community in response to the powerful princes of his day who ruled

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with selfishness and ruthlessness and greed and abuse of power he said this

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justice and judgment is a universal rule which applies to everyone it means

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governing oneself so as to treat everyone fairly and properly and it means

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standing against and resisting evil whenever it is necessary to relieve the

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poor the afflicted people in other words this is God's world this is God's world

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and until he returns to make all things right and all bad things untrue until

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then until that moment our role as believers is to repair the areas of our

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culture that are broken or distorted by sin that is our rebellion against God in

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other words the Christians duty is to get their hands dirty what does that

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mean it means that they the Christian they leave the bunker it means that they

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identify which aspects of the culture they can enjoy and they celebrate those

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things because they are a wonderful things that tell us something of the

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very goodness of God and then they identify areas of their city where

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things are wrong and broken and not consistent with the way that God has

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asked us to live and they seek to do something about it that's what that

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means the writer Whitney Hopler says this and I like this quote it kind of

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gets me kind of excited which is why I want to share it with you this this if

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you want to make a powerful and lasting impact on the culture you've got to do

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more than just consume it critique it condemn it or copy it the only way to

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truly change the culture is to create something new for it something that will

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inspire people enough to start to reshape their world it's not good like

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it well this is the reformed understanding of how we should engage

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with the culture this is what verse 7 means in our Bible look at verse 7 seek

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the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile pray

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to the Lord for it because if it prospers you too will prosper flowing out

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of that verse out of that verse is the idea the belief that justice should be

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for all the belief in the goodness of social action the belief in the value of

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volunteering or the charity sector they're all rooted these things that

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many of us just take for granted they're all rooted in past Christians who walked

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out of the bunker and decided that they were gonna get their hands dirty in

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their city where God had placed them well here's the question right does that

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mean that all of us need to become political activists or social reformers

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or social entrepreneurs well here's the thing perhaps some of us that is

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absolutely true and that is exactly what you should be seeking to do with your

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life but look at the really really surprising instructions God gives to the

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exiles in verses 5 and 6 this is how God wants them to particularly the majority

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to transform the megapolis of Babylon look at me verses 5 and 6 this is

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remarkable I read to you build houses and settle down plant gardens eat what

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they produce marry and have sons and daughters find wives for your sons and

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give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters

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increase in number there do not decrease that's the instruction for

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transforming your city but you might be thinking yeah Matt but that just sounds

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like normal stuff it's hardly up there with Emmeline Pankhurst's war cry do you

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remember that the woman who brought women's suffrage to a national volume

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she said I'd rather be a rebel than a slave that's kind of pretty triumphant

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kind of yes raw gut-wrenching stuff what Jeremiah verses verses 5 and 6 seems to

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say is it just do normal life well actually for the believer these ordinary

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things are part of God's extraordinary plan let me explain let me ask you this

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question do you verses 5 and 6 which you read in your Bibles don't they remind

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you of something don't they feel a little bit familiar somewhere else in

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the Bible is there not a kind of slight sense of deja vu when you read verses 5

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and 6 well let me explain verses 5 and 6 take us right back to Genesis chapter 1

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verses 26 through 28 you see this letter isn't just a letter for those who were

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in Babylon all those years ago actually the principles of this letter are for

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us today because they were baked in to the very DNA of God's good creation look

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with me at Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 I think it'll come up on our screen it

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says this God's just made everything and then God said let us make mankind in our

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image and in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and

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the birds and the sky over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all

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the creatures that move along the ground do you see the job description of being

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a representative an image bearer of God in the world is to rule over all things

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or created things now we're slightly uncomfortable with that word rule aren't

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we but actually this word rule doesn't suggest being a tyrant that's not what

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this is about it's rather saying your role is to be a really careful steward

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of God's good gift of creation it's his world and he's given it to you to look

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after take care of what God has provided develop it nurture it cultivate it so

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that it flourishes in other words we are told that wherever we are placed in the

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world that we had to be culture makers that doesn't matter whether you are a

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cleaner or whether you are a Da Vinci esque painter you are a culture maker

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and this is what you're called to do represent God in the corner of the world

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that he's given you to look after and then he says that the way to do this

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extraordinary work of representing him in the world is in verse 28 of Genesis

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chapter 1 be fruitful and increase in number fill the earth and subdue it now

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that word subdue we're uncomfortable with that word subdue but really it's

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garden language it's like a gardener who prunes back the weeds in order for the

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garden to flourish or subdues the tree fungi say the fruits can bud blossom and

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provide that's what that word subdued me but note the phrase be fruitful and

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increase in number that is a shorthand phrase for do the normal things of life

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just do the normal things of life be fruitful in your work so that you can

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eat and that you can create an environment where a community made up of

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units of families and of friends can flourish that's what this is talking

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about well hang on Matt does that mean a few of us are gonna make our mark in the

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world and then for the rest of us the majority of this is just business as

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usual actually no did you notice the instructions come back with me to the

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Jeremiah letter did you notice the instructions from God in the letter

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emphasized that it's transformation over a long period of time did you see that

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it's growing gardens it's having children it's seeing them marry it's

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seeing grandchildren come forward even the very idea of changing systemic

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structures in our society all of those things take a very very long time right

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this is nosebleed application coming up okay so seatbelts on if you were asleep

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now's the time to kind of poke your friend meaning the application for the

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Jewish exiles who were longing to book an uber to Babylon Airport to go home

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the application is this put down roots and stay long enough to really make a

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difference as an image bearer of the God of the universe don't you see the

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messenger what might that mean for us okay what might that mean for us here in

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Manchester well it might mean it might mean Manchester okay I love this city

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it might mean Manchester but equally this could be applied somewhere else in

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the world could be applied somewhere else in the world but wherever it is the

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application for us here this afternoon is swim against the tide of culture

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that sees actually just a vision for self-improvement that means

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continually moving continually up routing continually living a superficial

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involvement wherever you are go against that tide don't do that don't do that

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rather find a place could be Manchester could be somewhere else find a place

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where you can make a deep difference to that location to that neighborhood to

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that community to that institutional culture find a place do you feel how

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radical this letter would have been to the Jews in exile because do you feel

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how radical it is for us in this room this afternoon this is utterly

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countercultural you see if you are sitting there thinking well if I'm in

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Manchester and I'm looking to build a garden of healthy culture in this city

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where do I go what do I do is I wait for Jesus to liberate me not from exile in

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Babylon but actually liberate me to the new creation where there'll be no more

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tears no more death no more crying in pain what do I do as I wait for Jesus to

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come back well here's the thing why not look at the fact that this city has 50%

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of its children that live beneath the poverty line do you want to start there

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what about this fact that this city has a challenge with people who do not have

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a place to live but on the streets of this city in huge vulnerability and

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danger do you want to do something with that what about the fact that loneliness

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in this city is a bigger epidemic that is more dangerous than COVID ever was

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loneliness do you want to do something with that do you want to do something

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with the fact the next to London Manchester is the second fastest

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growing city in the UK do you want to do something with the fact that 97% of

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the 2.8 million people who live in our great city if Jesus was to come back

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today they would find that an absolute tragedy because they do not know him do

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you want to do something with that seek the peace and prosperity of the city to

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which I have carried you into exile the Christian cultural thinker very famous

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guy called Francis Schaeffer he also had a remarkable beard you should Google him

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this is a really good quote from Schaeffer I like this one he says this no

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work of art is more important than the Christian life and every Christian is

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called to be an artist in this sense the Christians life is to be a thing of

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truth and also a thing of beauty in the midst of a lost and despairing world so

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let's be practical for applications your relationships are more important than

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your career trajectory it's number one parents don't let your children's only

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connection contribution to this city be the fact that they're educated in it

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number three youth if you're a teenager you need to know that God has not given

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up on your year group so you don't give up on it either

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number four when you leave your job whenever that may be the priority is not

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to be remembered as you were the best or whatever you did the priority is to be

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remembered that you were the one who cared the most here's a bonus fifth if

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you use online dating where that other person lives is not an incidental detail

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it has the potential to be a deal-breaker for you now you might come

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back to me okay you might come back to me you might say yes Matt but look I

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would say yes but if I did all of those things if I lived like that then life

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would be hard and then I would turn to you and say yes it would be hard but why

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do you think it would be hard and then you might turn to me and say well it

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would be hard because it would mean that I might need to put others before myself

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yeah yeah you see in most cultures most cultures around the world the most

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powerful people drink champagne in the security of very lovely high-walled

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palaces whilst they send all of their minions to the front lines to risk their

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lives doing dangerous things getting their hands dirty for the sake of their

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country but not so with the God of Christianity he took on flesh to become

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one of us he refused to bunker in a palace but be born in a stable do you

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remember that to be born in a minimum wage family whereby school age he'd

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already been a refugee he had already touched the poverty of the most

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vulnerable of our world and as an adult he refused to bunker down and just be a

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celebrity he touched the leper he touched those who were sick and he

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touched those who were forgotten to welcome them by his 30s he refused to

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bunker down in power or prestige or just pleasure and he touched political

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injustice he himself was a victim of physical abuse he touched loneliness and

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ultimately he touched death but Jesus look Jesus is more than just a good

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example to us he came to give us the one thing the one thing we need in life more

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than anything else he came to give us a restored relationship with our Creator

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so that we would always know that we have ultimate value in life this is

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secondly he came to give us forgiveness from sin and shame meaning that we were

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given the ultimate freedom from the horrors of our past no longer had to

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have a grip on us and thirdly he came to he came to give us the promise of a

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place in the new creation it is the ultimate gift of security from the

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dangers of this world why did he do that and why does that make a difference to

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us here today because only when you have received the greatest gift that life

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can give you then you can be prepared to give away your life for others only

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when you can see where you belong in God's great big plan for the world can

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you pursue with unfailing resilience a vision that will transform whichever

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corner of the world our God has placed you in let me go back to that vision of

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optimization I wonder if you're living life to have a slightly better quality

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of skin slightly better social life play slightly less tax have a slightly bigger

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house a slightly faster car a slightly nicer holiday a slightly more educated

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family a slightly better romance life

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if that's you I wonder if your vision is too small let's pray

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heavenly father we do thank you that you are a good God and that Jesus became

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one of us became rooted gave his life away so that we would gain everything

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not so that we could hoard it in a bunker until you return but say to model

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the generosity that we have received that we might leave the bunker and go

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out in the city to get our hands dirty in order to transform it for your glory

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amen