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Good morning. If you have your Bibles, we'll be in Ephesians chapter 2 this morning.

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This morning we'll be looking at a familiar passage.

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A passage I feel many of you probably already have memorized, so this week in our memorization should be pretty easy.

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This text is one of the foundational passages that define our doctrine and separates Christianity from every other religion.

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My concern this morning though is that many of you, because this is such a familiar passage, you might be tempted to tune me out because you already know what I'm about to say.

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I hope that won't be the case for you this morning.

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My wife, Sena, and I have been married for 16 years, and in that time we have lived in 10 different homes.

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Some of the homes we have had were fixer-uppers.

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Sina would walk into a house that to me looked like a dump, but she could see the potential of what it could be like for us.

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It was just going to take some work on our part to get it that way.

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Some of the times we have lived in homes that were in great shape, and she just wanted to personalize a little bit more, maybe with some paint or things like that.

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For a period of time, she was into stripes.

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Now, there's a couple problems with stripes.

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They involve math, levels, painter's tape, and usually light-colored carpet with dark paint.

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You also need to have quite a bit of patience, which I tend to lack when we are doing projects like this.

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Did you know that before HGTV came out, people just lived in their homes with nothing to do?

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I grew up in a house and for almost 20 years, we just lived with it, and we survived.

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Now, anytime we do a project like painting stripes on a wall, what we tend to do is we move the furniture just enough to be able to walk behind it.

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It's a pretty big pain when you have to get a paint roller back there or a ladder back there, but we seem to think it's going to be easier than just clearing out the room in order to remodel it.

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Because it exposes the space for what it is, every show that I've ever watched with my wife on HGTV, they take everything out of the room so that space can be exposed for what it is.

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And it allows the redesign to happen more smoothly and quickly.

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In other words, you get the junk out so that you can put the good stuff in.

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The same concept is true for us spiritually.

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In Christianity, when we talk about salvation, we use terms like saved or redeemed.

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But what do those words mean?

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When someone asks, are you saved, what are they asking?

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When you tell somebody I was saved when I was 11, what exactly does that mean?

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We are saying that was when we were forgiven.

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Spiritually, clearing the room is all about forgiveness.

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In order to understand this text, we need to understand some things about what forgiveness is.

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Because this will be the second time in this chapter that Paul has used the phrase, by grace you have been saved.

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Saved from eternal punishment.

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And that only happens when you are forgiven.

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So let's read Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 9.

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For by grace you have been saved through faith.

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And this not of your own doing, it is the gift of God.

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Not a result of works so that no one may boast.

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Number one, we have to understand forgiveness is needed.

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You and I were created to love God and to take on his character.

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But since we have messed up along the way, we need to allow him to clear the room of our lives.

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This isn't to say that we were all bad, but before change can happen, there has to be work done in that room.

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The Bible is very clear about our inability to clear the room on our own.

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For instance, if you were to take this blank page of paper,

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and imagine that this is what God's standard is.

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This is the standard. I'll tape it up here so you can look at it.

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I hope I don't mess anything up on this finish.

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I'm not going to turn the podium so there's a blank paper right there.

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But since we have messed up along the way, our standard has failed.

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We need to allow him to clear the room.

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Alright? And so let's take another piece of paper.

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Here I go.

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And let's let this one represent our life.

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The original intent was for us to be clean.

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But what happens when you mess up?

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Well, let's use the Ten Commandments as our standard.

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Let's say you lie to your parents. I know this doesn't happen in this room.

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But let's say you've lied to your parents that your room was clean when it wasn't.

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Yeah, I'm looking at you.

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We write the word lie on the paper.

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Let's say that you steal a pen from work because it just fits so perfectly in your hand.

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Anybody done that?

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We'll write steal.

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Let's say your neighbor or coworker gets a new Lexus.

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And you like that Lexus.

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And that's all you can think about.

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I want a Lexus. What do I need to do to get me a Lexus?

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No, that's called coveting.

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So you covet that Lexus.

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How does the standard look now compared to God's?

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Not good. Yeah.

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But what do we try to do?

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Well, let's just cover that stuff up. Which one's worse?

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We'll say lion's worse so we fold it.

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See, I'm not that bad. I just stolen a few things and I've coveted other things.

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Or we cover it all up.

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Right? Still there.

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But we cover it up. Or what do we do?

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What do we do? Let's erase it.

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But it's still there, isn't it?

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Because you can't erase Sharpie Marker.

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You know, sometimes we try to hide our sin.

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So we fold it up. Or we cover it up.

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Yeah, I'm a liar but I go to church.

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So everybody else around me doesn't know that I'm a liar.

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Yes, I covet other things but nobody else knows that

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because I've never said it out loud.

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Jesus' sacrifice on the cross gives us a clean slate.

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Where our standard doesn't compare to his.

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But because of Jesus, we now get the clean standard.

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We cannot expect real life change to happen until we,

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when we're trying to control our lives.

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When we're trying to cover up our sin.

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When we're trying to do things to cover up the bad things that we do.

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We have to come clean before God.

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And acknowledge that his sacrifice is what saves us.

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Not coming to church. Not giving money in a plate.

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We have to allow ourselves to be made right with God.

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To allow our spiritual rooms to be cleaned.

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This isn't about remodeling. This is about eternal survival.

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There are so many of us who try to earn salvation on our own.

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But we're never going to cut it.

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So we sacrificed salvation for good enough.

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I can cover that up. And we hope for the best.

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It doesn't work that way. Why?

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I mean how good is good enough?

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There's a story in Luke chapter 18. You'll know the story.

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Verse 18 starts in a young ruler asked him,

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Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

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And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?

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No one is good except God alone.

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You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery.

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Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness.

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Honor your father and mother.

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And he said, all these I have kept from my youth.

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When Jesus heard this, he said to him, one thing you still lack.

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So all you have and distribute to the poor.

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And you will have treasure in heaven.

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And come, follow me.

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But when he heard these things, he became very sad

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for he was extremely rich.

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Notice the commands that Jesus rattles off to this young ruler.

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Do not commit adultery.

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Do not murder. Do not steal.

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Do not bear false witness.

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Honor your father and mother.

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Most of you would score probably pretty high.

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But did you notice anything about Jesus' list of commandments?

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He only mentioned five.

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Think about this conversation in a historical context.

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A Jewish ruler asking a Jewish rabbi how to inherit eternal life.

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Jesus said it plainly, you know the commandments.

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But he failed to mention the other five.

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The first of which the guy struggled with the most.

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Exodus 20 tells us, you shall have no other gods before me.

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Jesus knew exactly what was holding this guy up.

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Ten big commandments and this dude couldn't get past number one.

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How true is that for us?

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I can say on great authority that all of us have put other things before God.

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So that blows this whole idea up that we can do enough on our own.

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Max Lucado, one of my favorite quotes from him that said this.

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If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator.

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If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent a scientist.

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If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.

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But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a savior.

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So we need forgiveness.

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The kind of forgiveness that cannot come from ourselves.

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In other words, we need to recognize the need to clear the room.

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Number two, God forgave me because of his grace.

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God chooses to save us.

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Not because we deserve it, but because of his grace.

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And the sentence structure here makes it clear that this is not a reference to just general grace.

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But to the kind of grace that Paul has just described in the preceding verses.

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It's the kind of grace that gives us a new character when we are made alive.

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The kind of grace that gives us a new environment when we are raised up.

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And the kind of grace that gives us a new intimacy when we are seated with Christ.

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And as we've previously seen, the entire concept of grace means that God gives us something we don't earn or deserve.

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Think about how this chapter started.

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We were helpless.

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We were hopeless to do anything on our own.

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Charles Spurgeon tells a story of a widow that he intended to help.

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He had the money ready to give to her.

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But when he knocked on the door of her home, she didn't answer.

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Later he found out why.

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She thought he was the landlord there to collect rent.

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Spurgeon said, it is my desire to be heard.

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And therefore I want to say that I am not calling for the rent.

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But to tell you that like grace, this is free.

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It costs you nothing.

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We shouldn't run from grace, but we do.

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With God, when you are in Christ, there is no one to hide from.

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He isn't coming to collect anything from you.

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He isn't coming to punish you.

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He isn't coming to make you feel bad.

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He's coming to offer you grace.

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Now God has saved me because of his grace through faith.

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Biblical faith requires three steps.

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Since our salvation is totally God's idea and God's work,

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he also gets to decide how that salvation is made operational in our life.

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And God has ordained that we accept the salvation.

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He makes available to us through our faith.

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That's another one of those words that we toss around a lot

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without really thinking about what it means.

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In a general sense, faith just means belief or trust.

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But the kind of faith that Paul and the other Biblical writers describe

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is a process that requires three distinct steps.

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The first one being knowledge.

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The first step in our journey towards faith

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is that we need to understand what it is that we need to believe.

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Paul certainly understood that principle in Romans 10.17.

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He says, consequently, faith comes from hearing the message

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and the message is heard through the Word of Christ.

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Now we've spent nearly four months now

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looking at Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

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And if you've been here for all of that

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or if you've been here for just part of that journey,

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you have been exposed enough to God's Word

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to provide you with the knowledge that you need to have faith.

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But knowledge alone is not faith.

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Once I have knowledge, I also need to have belief.

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Now everyone that hears the truth doesn't necessarily believe the truth.

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Newsweek conducted a poll a few years ago and it had one question.

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Can a good person who isn't of your religious faith

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go to heaven or attain salvation?

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That's the question.

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Can a good person who isn't of your religious faith

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go to heaven or attain salvation?

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Of the evangelical Protestants, which is us in this room,

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68% of that group believed that it is possible

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for a good person of another faith to attain salvation.

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I think it's fair to assume that most of the people in that poll

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who call themselves evangelical Protestants

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have at least been exposed to the truth

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that salvation is not a result of works.

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And yet 68% of them believe that a person can earn their way to salvation.

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The only logical conclusion is that they don't believe what they know intellectually.

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The writer of Hebrews wrote about the importance of belief in 11.6.

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And without faith, it is impossible to please God

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because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists

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and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

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But knowledge and belief still don't constitute biblical faith.

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There is one more crucial element, trust.

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True saving faith requires more than just knowledge and belief.

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It requires action.

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It means that we live our lives trusting that we know what we know

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and believe what is true.

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It's the kind of faith that James describes in his epistle

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when he writes that faith that is not accompanied by works is dead.

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Paul also describes this aspect of faith in Romans 4 and 5.

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However, to the man who does not work but trusts God,

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who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

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Did you catch the significance of what Paul is saying here?

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He makes it really clear that the person who continues to try to earn their salvation

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by his or her works is not exercising true biblical faith.

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Our faith is always demonstrated by our actions.

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Now, it's at this point that we are tempted again to claim

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that we do have in fact some part to do with the process of salvation.

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Even though it's dependent on God's grace,

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don't I have to have the faith in order to receive that salvation?

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And isn't the process of knowing and believing and trusting

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something that I must do? That's the temptation.

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That seems like a fair question and one that leads us to our last point.

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God has saved me because of his grace through faith.

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That is God's gift to me. Salvation is a gift.

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That's what Paul says. We need to ask one more question this morning.

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What does the word it refer to? It is the gift of God.

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There's really only three possibilities. The first one is God's grace.

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It refers to God's grace as a gift.

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There's no doubt that God's grace is a gift to us,

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but I'm not sure that that is what Paul had in mind here.

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The second option is our faith. Our faith is a gift from God.

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There are many commentators out there who try to make the case

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that Paul is referring to our faith here.

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After all, that is the noun that is in closest proximity to it.

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That makes sense. That's even true in the original language.

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And again, I think that is true. Our faith is a gift,

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but Paul has something more in mind here.

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The other option is the whole process of salvation.

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I'm convinced that that is what Paul means here.

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Now, without getting into Greek grammar lessons,

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the forms of the words and the sentence structure

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pretty well conclude connecting it with either grace or faith.

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Paul is saying that everything, everything he has written up about to this point,

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all of our spiritual blessings,

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what God has done in our lives to redeem us from our hopeless condition,

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it's all a gift from God.

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Now, it ought to be pretty apparent to all of us

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that a gift is not something you earn or deserve.

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By definition, when someone gives us a gift,

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it is not a result of anything that we have done.

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However, we do have to choose whether or not to accept that gift

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and put it to use.

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I'm sure we've all received gifts that we either didn't really like

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or couldn't use.

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And so when it ends up happening to those gifts,

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we ended up putting them in the back of the closet to forget about them

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or we re-gift those items to somebody else.

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And when we do that, we don't get any benefit out of the gift.

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We need to think of our salvation as a gift,

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and that gift should be used.

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Too many Christians receive the gift of salvation,

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but then we put it in the closet and we never use it.

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Your salvation is the greatest tool you have at your disposal.

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We need to be telling people about it.

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There's a story in Acts 19 that makes that point.

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In Acts chapter 19, starting in verse 18, it says this,

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Also, many of those who were believers came

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confessing and divulging their practices.

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And a number of those who had practiced magic arts

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had brought their books together and burned them inside of all.

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And they counted the value of them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver.

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So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

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Think about that.

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Think about that passage.

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People came to know the Lord,

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and because of the work that he had done,

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because of how he changed their life,

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they came together in a group and say,

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Look, this is what God saved me from.

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Now, Ephesus was an evil place, all sorts of religious belief systems.

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The Lord got ahold of them and they came together and say,

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Look, look how I am changed.

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Look at what he has done in me, which eventually leads to a riot in Ephesus.

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But in verse 20, I want you to notice that,

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once they did that, once they came and confessed,

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once they came and divulged, once they came and testified,

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this is what the Lord has saved me from.

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It says the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

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Do you think that's still true today?

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Think about what they're confessing.

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People who would try to communicate with demons

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and practice witchcraft and all sorts of other religious things stopped.

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Look at what the Lord has saved me from.

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Look at who I was.

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Look at what he's saved me from.

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People who would go into a temple and have relations with a certain type of woman

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as a way to worship their God, they come together and they say,

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Look, look at what God has saved me from.

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I'm not doing that anymore.

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That's not how I worship anymore.

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Look at what the Lord has saved me from.

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They confess those things.

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They confess those things as a way of using their gift of salvation

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and the Lord's word prevailed because the word of the Lord always prevails.

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They confess all of those things.

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Think about all those things they're confessing.

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And you can't tell others that the Lord saved your marriage.

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They're confessing that they used to have relations with unholy women.

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And you can't tell people, the Lord helped me overcome my addiction to drugs

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or alcohol or pornography.

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You can't say I used to be this way, but now I'm this way

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because the Lord changed my life.

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Because the Lord changed my life, I'm someone completely different.

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Those are the stories that might bring life change to someone else.

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When we begin to redefine God to match our own ideas or what we want salvation to be,

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we begin to worship our own preferences.

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And when we do that, we have in fact rejected that great gift of salvation that God gives us.

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In effect, we're saying to God, I don't want your gift.

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I don't need your gift. I'll do it my way instead.

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I just want to come to worship.

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I just want to stare at a screen.

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I want to collect more information that I'm not going to do anything with.

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And I want to go about my day, which brings us back to what we talked about last week.

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Are you tapping into the benefits that Jesus has to offer you?

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I love the fact. I love it that none of this is about me.

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I love the fact that it seems the Lord works the most on Sundays that I feel the least prepared.

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It is a humbling reminder that it is not about me at all.

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There have been countless times throughout my ministry that someone will come up to me or email me

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and say things like, you were talking directly to me.

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How did you know that I needed to hear that?

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I have had people come up to me upset because they thought that their spouse came and talked to me

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and I tailor-built a sermon for that person.

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That is a testament to how God works.

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This is all a gift so that no one can boast.

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My salvation is a gift from Him.

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My spiritual giftings are a gift from Him.

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All of that comes because of His grace.

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When I am using my gifts that God has given me and someone is impacted by that,

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I don't get any of the credit. I love that.

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It is all the Lord using me as a member of the body to build up the body of Christ.

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You can think I am talking to you. You can say things like, you look me directly in the eye when you said that.

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You can think that I know something that I shouldn't, but the reality is that is how God works.

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I don't want to put my gift in the closet.

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I want to use it to tell others, hey look, this is what the Lord has saved me from.

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This is who I would be if it wasn't for Him.

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So think about your salvation.

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Are you using your gift or is it put away in the closet?

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Have you taken everything out of your spiritual room and made way for God to do some remodeling?

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Or are you having trying to control your life so that you look good in front of others?

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This is the standard. This is what He is offering us.

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This is what you can have.

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But covering it up, folding it up, putting it away in the closet

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is not the way to allow the word of the Lord to prevail mightily.

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His salvation to you is a gift. You didn't earn it and you don't deserve it.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray, I pray God that you will...

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that you will move in this place.

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I pray God for our hearts.

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I pray that we will confess and divulge so that you can clear some space.

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My prayer is that we will not just be another religious institution.

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My prayer is that we will be a body of believers who will be open and honest

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so that your word will prevail mightily in this place.

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So God, I pray you speak.

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I pray God that there's not one ounce of doubt in us that knows that you're speaking to us.

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May you receive all the credit, all the glory for working in our life.

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We thank you for Jesus. We thank you that it's His sacrifice that makes us clean.

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So Father, I pray that we will take our gift out of the closet.

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I pray that we will use it.

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So Father, we pray for heart change today.

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I ask all these things in your name. Amen.