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Last week we entered into our spiritual basic training as we began to dig into our training manual,

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which is Paul's letter to the church in Ephesians.

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In the first three verses of that letter we discovered that God has set His followers apart for salvation,

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He set them apart for service, and He has set us apart for spiritual blessings.

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Now as a church we're trying to memorize the book of Ephesians together.

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I don't know how the first three verses went for you. I struggled with them.

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I finally got them down. There's a lot of interchanging between Christ Jesus and Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus and Jesus Christ.

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It was just kind of confusing to get all those in order, but we got it.

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But my son, River, nailed it like day one, and he's just, he got it.

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And so I've asked him to come on stage and recite Ephesians 1-1 through 3 for us.

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Come on, River. Yeah, he needs the encouragement.

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You got the song? Alright, River, it's all you.

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Paul and the Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the thanksgiving,

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Ephesus, and our faithful in Christ Jesus.

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Grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

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who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heaven and in places.

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Amen.

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Amen. Thank you, River.

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Y'all don't understand what a big deal that is. Number one, to have it memorized.

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Number two, to get up in front of people and actually do it.

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Alright, so you'll remember last week we said the verse 3 was the beginning of one long run on sentence that ends in verse 14.

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In those 12 verses, Paul is going to describe for us many of the spiritual blessings that God has provided to us through his son Jesus.

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This morning we're going to look at just three verses that describe those blessings.

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And so if you have your Bibles, we'll start in verse 4 of Ephesians 1.

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Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

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In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will,

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to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Amen.

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Alright, so there's no way to deal with this particular text this morning without coming face to face with a topic

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that has been the source of much debate between biblical scholars, pastors, Christians over the years.

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The relationship between God's election and predestination and man's free will.

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Or perhaps a more accurate description would be between the relationship between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.

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Over the years there's been two basic camps formed over this issue.

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On one side are the Calvinists, a group that is named after John Calvin,

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an early 16th century theologian who was instrumental in the Protestant Reformation.

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This set of beliefs is referred to as Reformed Theology.

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Calvin's followers organized this set of beliefs into what are known as the five points of Calvinism.

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Now, we don't have nearly enough time this morning to even begin to tackle such a theological system

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that generally takes a semester or two in seminary.

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Although it is great simplification for purposes of our time together this morning,

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we can look at Calvinism as having an emphasis on the doctrines of election and predestination.

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The emphasis is on the sovereignty of God in the process of salvation.

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That's camp number one.

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And the other camp are the Arminians who, as you might expect, get their name from their founder, Jacobus Arminius.

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Arminius was a Dutch pastor and theologian in the late 16th and early 17th century

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who disputed many of Calvin's beliefs.

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His most well-known follower was a man by the name of John Wesley

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who then became the leader of the Methodist movement.

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Again, we can't even begin to discuss the beliefs and the details of this theological system this morning.

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They still believe that salvation is by grace alone.

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But their chief difference with the Calvinists is that they believe God's election and predestination

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is conditional upon faith in Jesus.

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We also focus on man's will in the process of salvation.

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My purpose in bringing up these two camps this morning is not to promote one view over the other.

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And it is certainly not to create any sort of division or conflict in our church.

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I don't want us to become like the group of theologians who were discussing the tension

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between predestination and free will and things became so heated,

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things became so tense that the group broke into two opposing factors.

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But one man not knowing which to join stood for a moment trying to decide.

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At last he joined the predestination group.

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Who sent you here?

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They asked.

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No one sent me.

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He replied.

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I came by my own free will.

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Free will?

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They explained.

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You can't join us.

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You belong to the other group.

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So we followed their orders and went to the other clique.

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There someone asked us, when did you decide to join us?

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The young man replied, well, I didn't really decide.

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I was sent here.

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Sent here, they shouted.

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You can't join us unless you've come on your own free will.

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So what I want us to do this morning is just to look at the Scriptures themselves

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and develop our theology from the Bible itself.

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So let's continue our basic training this morning with a look at these three verses.

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Now I've got to be real honest with you this morning.

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I've really struggled with how to present this passage to you in a way that's both meaningful and useful.

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But as I wrestled with the text this week, it became really clear that this passage is all about what God has done for us.

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And in these three verses, there are three verbs that describe the actions that God has taken in the lives of His children

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in order to pour out for us spiritual blessings into our lives.

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So we use those three actions as an outline for our study of this passage this morning.

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Number one, God chose us to be holy and blameless.

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Verse four, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless be for Him.

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The first way that God gave us spiritual blessing is that He chose us.

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The verb chose is a reflexive verb.

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It means that God picked us for His own purposes for Himself.

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In other words, our salvation is totally and completely as a result of what God has already done for us.

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This morning, if you had made Jesus your Savior, it is only because God chose you before the creation of the world.

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That is what is known by theologians as the doctrine of election.

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My first reaction to seeing what God has done for me is to think of it in terms that I can understand, that maybe you can understand.

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It took me back to those days in school or in the neighborhood where we would pick teams in order to participate in any sort of sports competition.

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I'm sure many of you remember those days.

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For some of you, you don't remember those days very fondly, right?

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But a couple of kids would be designated as the captains, they would be designated as first picker and second picker,

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and they would proceed to pick the other kids that they wanted on their team.

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And for some of the kids waiting to be picked, it was a miserable time as they prayed against all hope that they wouldn't be the last ones chosen.

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Right?

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But that's not how God, the way God chooses.

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God doesn't look at us and pick and choose who's the brightest or the most athletic.

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In fact, His choice is not based on any of the qualities in our lives.

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They are very obvious from this verse.

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The first thing we see is that we are chosen in Him.

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The in Him is obviously a reference to Jesus Christ.

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God chooses us not based on our own good works, but based on the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

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The other thing we see is that we were chosen before the creation of the world.

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That means that God chose us before we ever had the opportunity to either do good or evil in our lives.

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I'm convinced that a lot of us aren't really comfortable with the whole idea that God chooses whatever He wants.

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In fact, I've read a whole lot of things this week from various people who would try to ignore or discount or disprove this truth.

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But that's impossible to do because this principle is consistent throughout the Bible.

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For instance, God chose Abraham.

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Now, why did God choose Abraham and not someone else?

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We don't know, but God chose.

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God chose Israel among all the nations of the earth to be His people.

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Why didn't He choose the Moabites?

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Why didn't He choose the Malachites or any of the other aides that are in the Old Testament?

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It certainly wasn't because Israel had earned the right.

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God just chose them.

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The same thing is true for us.

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God didn't choose us because we deserved it.

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He did it because He wanted to.

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But you might say, I did do something.

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I had to have faith in Jesus Christ.

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I've even seen a tract called the tie-breaking vote, which essentially says this,

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God has voted for you and Satan has voted against you and you decide the casting vote.

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Now, first of all, I'm not sure how Satan got in vote that's equal to God's.

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But even more importantly, Christianity is not a democracy.

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It's more like a monarchy.

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And God, the King, has absolute sovereignty over who gets into His kingdom.

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The Bible is really clear that unless God chooses us,

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we're not even capable of making the decision to place our faith in Jesus on our own.

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Here's what Jesus has to say about that in John 6.

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No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

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And I will raise him up at that day.

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He then goes on to say in verse 65,

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this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.

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Paul confirms this truth in another one of his letters in Romans chapter 3.

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There is no one righteous, not even one.

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There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

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As we'll see later in chapter 2, even our faith is a gift from God.

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Apart from God's choosing, there is not one person on the face of the earth

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who has the ability on his or her own to seek after God.

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He can only do that as God chooses, as God draws us to Himself.

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Now I'm sure many of you, like me, this whole doctrine of election raises some questions.

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Now obviously I can't answer all those questions this morning,

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so let me just deal with a couple of those questions that people have.

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The first question is, if God chooses some to be saved,

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does that mean that He creates others for the purpose of being sent to hell?

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That's what theologians call double predestination.

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While we've seen that God is 100% responsible for electing and choosing those who become believers,

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the Bible is equally clear that man is responsible for his own sin.

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Here are a couple of verses that make that point.

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The soul who sins is the one who will die, that's in Ezekiel 1820, Romans 6.23,

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for the wages of sin is death.

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The Bible also makes it clear that God is not the author or the source of sin,

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and that therefore he does not actively take a role in the life of unbelievers

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to cause them to sin and reject God.

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So what that ultimately means is that the Bible teaches both the sovereignty of God

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and the responsibility of man.

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God elects those who are saved and those who perish do so without any help from God.

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The problem is that our finite minds are just not able to understand,

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have a problem reconciling those two principles.

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To us, they seem contradictory, but in fact they are not.

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There are some things that only God understands, that's what makes him God,

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and that's okay with me.

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I'm fine with just accepting both these principles and allowing God to figure out how they fit together.

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I really like John MacArthur's comments on this subject.

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He says, quote, now let me tell you something.

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One of the greatest marks of the inspiration of the Scripture is the fact that I have those incomprehensible paradoxes,

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because if a man or a man had written that book, they never would have, number one, conceived them,

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number two, they never would have left them there.

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They would have resolved them.

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The fact that they are there and they stand all over the place in the Bible

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is one of the truest proofs that God of an infinite mind far beyond our own wrote those things.

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And the very fact that there are those, I can't read, I can't read this word.

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A parent paradox is, in Scripture, speaks of divine authorship.

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God understands how they harmonize.

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We don't.

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And that means God has a greater mind than we do.

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Aren't you glad about that?

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End quote.

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The fact that God chooses some, the second question,

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the fact that God chooses some and not others just seems unfair, right?

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What would be fair would be for God to condemn everyone to hell.

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That's what we all deserve.

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But out of his mercy, God has chosen some to be saved from the fate they deserved.

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Paul tells us in Romans 9, for he says to Moses,

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I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

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It therefore does not depend on man's desire or effort,

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but it depends on God's mercy.

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Because he is God, God gets to choose who he will have mercy on and who he will not.

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And that decision is completely, independently of anything that we can do.

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It's simply a function of God's sovereignty.

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Again, Paul confirms this truth in a second letter to Timothy.

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He says, God who has saved us and called us to a holy life,

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not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace.

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This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.

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So God has chosen us for himself.

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That's quite clear from the scripture.

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But the second part of this verse tells us what he has chosen us for.

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In Jesus, we have been chosen to be holy and blameless in his sight.

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Although there is an aspect of that choosing which calls for us to live lives that are holy and pleasing to God,

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you'll notice here that the main point is that our holiness and our blamelessness is in him.

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It is only through Jesus Christ that we can be holy and blameless before God and fulfill God's election.

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So before we leave this first blessing, let me just give you one more illustration.

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Let me ask you a question.

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Who lives out your Christian life?

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The Arminians out there would answer, I do.

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And the Calvinists out there would answer, God does.

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But the correct answer is that both are true.

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Let's look at one passage that confirms that.

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Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 says, dearest friends, you were always so careful to follow my instructions when I was with you.

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And now that I'm away, you must be even more careful to put into action God's saving work in your lives.

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Obeying God with deep reverence and fear, for God is working in you,

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giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.

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Paul commands his readers, he commands us to put into action.

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God's saving work in your lives.

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That's my human responsibility.

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That's your human responsibility.

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But in the very next verse, he says that it's God working in you that gives you the desire and it gives you the ability to do that.

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That's God's sovereignty.

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So which is true?

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God's election or his sovereignty or man's will or responsibility.

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Yes.

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Let's go to number two.

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God predestined us to be part of his family because it gives him pleasure.

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In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will.

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So in verse four, we look to the fact that of God's election.

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Here in verse five, we discover that the destiny that comes from that election.

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When God elects us, he predestines us.

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That word just means he determines.

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He determines in advance what our destiny will be.

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And the destiny of every person that is chosen is that they will become a member of his family.

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Later on in Ephesians, Paul is going to write about how all of us are initially born into this world separated from God.

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Okay?

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So all of us are naturally born into his family.

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Therefore, the only way we can enter into God's family is to be born again spiritually, as Jesus describes in John chapter three.

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On another picture that both Paul and John used to describe this process is that we have been adopted by God to be a part of his family.

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John describes our need for this adoption in his gospel.

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In John chapter one, it says,

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To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

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Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, but born of God.

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So since we are not naturally born into God's family, the only way that we can become part of God's family is through adoption.

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And everyone that God chooses, he adopts into his family.

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And one of the things that happens when we become a part of God's family is that as our Father, he works to make us more like his son, right?

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Like Father, like Son.

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In Romans 8.29, it says, For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

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So we've all heard the phrase, right, like Father, like Son, and that certainly applies to our destiny as a member of God's family.

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We've been predestined to be part of God's family, and predestined to be more and more like Jesus Christ, as we participate in that family.

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The fact that our destiny is to be part of God's family is exciting enough, that we are chosen, right?

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But look at the last part of this verse, we've been adopted into God's family in accordance with his pleasure and will.

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Do you understand what God is saying in this text?

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He has adopted us into his family because it gives him pleasure.

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I mean, can you believe that?

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It gives him pleasure.

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God chooses me apart from anything I can do on my own.

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Apart from anything you can do on your own.

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He gives me a destiny that includes me being a part of a family, and that gives him pleasure.

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I mean, I understand how that gives me pleasure.

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It saves me from the pits of hell, but I'm totally blown away by the fact that it gives God pleasure.

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Now that's a spiritual blessing.

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Let's go to number three.

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God graced us so that he can receive glory.

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He graced us so that he can receive glory.

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To the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us and the one he loves.

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So we've seen that God has chosen us, and that he's predestined us to be part of his family.

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Verse six tells us how God does that.

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He does it through his grace.

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Again, we'll be examining this concept of grace in much more detail in weeks to come.

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But for right now, let's just look at two of the aspects of God's grace that Paul writes about in this verse.

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The means of God's grace is Jesus.

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We've now been through six verses together in chapter one.

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In just the first five verses, Paul has already used the phrase, in Christ, Jesus, in Christ, in him, through Jesus Christ.

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And here in verse six, Paul now uses the phrase, in the one he loves.

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Obviously, another reference to Jesus Christ.

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By now, it ought to be pretty obvious that the means of God's grace is his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his death and resurrection.

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That's how we get it.

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Once God decided before the creation of the world to choose us, he could have picked any means that he wanted.

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He could have done it any way he wanted to.

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He could have said, I'll choose everyone that has hair.

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In which case, I'd be in trouble.

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He could have said, I'll choose the most talented.

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I'll choose the most gifted.

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I'll choose the most righteous.

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But he didn't do that.

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He decided to choose those who would place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

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That's the only means by which God makes his grace available to you and to me.

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The measure of God's grace.

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When Paul wrote that God has freely given us his grace, he actually used a verb form of the word that has translated grace throughout the New Testament.

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Now, I like the translation.

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I think it's the NIV where it says, poured out.

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It gives us a sense that God didn't hold anything back when he gave us his grace.

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He poured it out on us.

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It's kind of like at the end of the Super Bowl.

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For you Bears fans, that's the championship game.

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After the Super Bowl, the winning team, and they take that Gatorade bucket and they pour it out all over their coach.

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They don't hold anything back.

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That's the picture here of how God pours out his grace.

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And why does he pour out his grace on us?

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So that he can get the glory.

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So that he can get the glory.

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That is really the essence of every spiritual blessing that we have in Jesus in the heavenly places.

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Yet, we get a blessing and a benefit out of all of them.

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But their ultimate purpose is to bring glory back to the giver of those blessings.

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That's because every one of those blessings is totally and completely dependent on God, not on our own efforts.

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We certainly don't earn them.

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We certainly don't deserve them.

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So when we get them, the only thing we can do is to give glory to God for them.

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In a sense, this message this morning is primarily for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.

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And we understand just how blessed we are to have been chosen by God to be holy and blameless through Jesus Christ.

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When we realize that our destiny is to be part of God's family and that God takes pleasure in that.

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When we comprehend all that God has poured out on us.

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When we comprehend that all the grace that has been poured out all over into our lives.

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How can we help but humble ourselves before Him and give Him praise and glory?

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When was the last time you did that?

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When you understand that you were chosen.

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When was the last time you just humbled yourself and gave Him praise and glory?

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But maybe potentially you're sitting here this morning and you've never made that decision.

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Maybe you're sitting here this morning and you're asking the question, am I one of God's chosen?

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Am I a part of the family?

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I believe that the very fact that you're asking that question is evidence that God has drawn you to Himself.

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That He's working something in your life.

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That's the case, please don't leave here today without talking to one of our pastors.

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Too many people wait until they're good enough.

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Until they get their life together.

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Listen to me.

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You will never be good enough.

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You can never earn it.

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There's nothing in you that feels that you are missing out on something.

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That something's missing.

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Put your trust in Jesus.

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Take that step.

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Let's pray.

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Father God, I pray.

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I pray God that as we respond and as we sing.

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Your sovereign presence will be in our midst.

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I'm asking you God to dwell with us.

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I'm asking you to speak to us.

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Salvation comes from you.

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So God, I'm asking you to save.

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God, I pray that you will tune our hearts, tune our ears to hear your voice in this next few minutes.

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The fact that you chose me with all of my baggage, with all of my screw ups and all of my mess ups, God should blow my mind.

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And when I really think about it, it does.

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So God, I thank you for Jesus. I thank you that because of him, you see me as righteous.

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Because of him, my penalty has been paid.

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And so we praise you for that.

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So God, I pray you pray. I pray you speak. And I pray you move.

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We ask all these things in your son's name. Amen.