THE SOURCE OF EVERY BLESSING (Eph 1:3)

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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Go ahead and start making your way in here. We'll go ahead and start with some announcements today.

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I know sometimes announcements can just become white noise and you hear them every week and you shut them out.

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But everyone pay very close attention to me. Now I got your attention, right?

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All right, so today we actually have another new member class.

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So we did this two weeks ago and we had a full class two weeks ago and then we introduced some people last week as new members.

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And today we actually have another one because we've had a couple other people step up and say, we couldn't make that one, we wanna come to a new member class, so we went ahead and scheduled it.

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That does not mean that we don't have sermon Q &A after lunch today. It just means I'm not going to be doing the sermon

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Q &A. So I get to preach the sermon and then just leave. And Pastor Jeremiah has to stay and pick up the pieces.

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So if there's any heresy that I preach, call him out on it and really get on him, okay?

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But we're gonna do that. If you want to come to that new member class, everyone is welcome to be able to come to it.

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We're gonna meet over in the house and it's a good chance for you to really kind of get to know what it is, why do we believe what we believe?

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What is the distinguishing beliefs and ministry philosophy of 12 .5

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and what does it mean to be a part of that? So you can come and be a part of that. I encourage you to get in the line for lunch first, if you could let anybody that's going to the class get their food so they can eat and then we can get that thing started so they don't end up here all day today with my long -windedness.

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And so that leads me to the second thing. Of course, we have Koinonia Feast, fellowship feast that we do every single

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Sunday. If you're here for worship, I encourage you to stay for that.

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We have plenty of food. I know Erica has ordered a bunch of pizzas also so we have ample food and you can stay and spend some time fellowshipping with us.

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Men, thank you for the table situation. You can see it's a little different in there. Miss Brenda came yesterday and kind of rearranged.

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So what we want to do is we want to bring all the tables into this room. So as a matter of fact, to help us, if men, if we could bring all the tables in here right after service, set up about six to eight chairs at every table and then if you could fold the rest of the chairs and stack them against the walls.

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That way we kind of have some room. It's not such chaos and we can fit everybody in here. Does that make sense? So thank you all for doing that.

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Wednesday nights, we're back to normal. We've just finished that eschatology overview series that was going to be five weeks, ended up being six weeks because of the ice storm.

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But now we start back in June. This Wednesday night is the adults in here.

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It's a very dialogue type of Bible study and the youth get back into 1 John and they're over at the house.

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We also meet every single Tuesday morning. This building is open from the hour of seven to eight o 'clock in the morning.

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And this building is open for the purpose of prayer. We want to be a praying people. We want to go to the source.

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We want to seek God and his wisdom and his guidance as a people.

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We want to pray for each other. We want to pray for this community. We want to pray for the world. And so we picked that time.

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Some of you can come in before work and pray. Some of you can squeeze in for five or six minutes and that's what it's designed for.

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Come on by, pray with us. Let's just spend some time in prayer. So every Tuesday morning, this building is open from seven to eight.

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Which by the way, if you have prayer requests, please let us know so that people can be praying for you on that time.

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Greeter schedule, thank you. Thank you for serving. Everyone that is a member is on the greeter's schedule.

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Just be sure to look at the calendar on band and mark your dates. As you can see too, we have a parking issue.

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And so we have the front house up there that a few cars have agreed to park at. And we're working through the shuttle thing.

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I literally found out as I'm standing at the door that Blake and Miriam walked with their hands full of food from the front house to the back.

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That's not what it's meant for. We want to send somebody up to get you. But it allows for some more parking.

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One last announcement. Our friends at Grace, Baptist, and Paragould, there are some members that have the

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Arkansas Equal Protection. And they have a meeting. And they're part of End Abortion Now from Apologia Church or studios or whatever ministry that is.

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But they have some bills in for the state of Arkansas to end abortion. A very good program.

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And they have a meeting. If you want to be involved in that ministry, you want to know more about it, Thursday, February 16th at 6 p .m.

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And so if you want that information, come see us. We'll give you the link for that and you can go be a part of that.

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All right, that's the end of our announcements. So what's next? Pray for another church.

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We have brother, brothers, and sisters that are gathering this morning all over town, all over the community, all over the world.

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And let's pray for one of them specifically, that God will work in them. And as we speak of Grace, Baptist, we've chosen to pray for Grace, Baptist this morning.

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These are brothers and sisters over in Paragould, very like -minded. And God is doing some neat things over there.

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That church has been in existence for a few years now. And they've had some ups and downs.

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But the pastor there, Michael Selesky, he has been diligent to preach the word over the past year or so.

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And they're seeing growth. People are coming in. People are growing spiritually. So I've asked them what we should be praying for.

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And one of the first things that they said was they diverted the prayer. And they asked for prayer for their missionaries in Ecuador.

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And so we wanna pray for their missionaries there in Ecuador. But also, he said, hey, with this church growth, please pray for us that we would be able to shepherd our people well, that people wouldn't fall between the cracks and kinda get lost in the mix, and that we could shepherd them and guide them and be diligent with them.

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So let's now bow our heads and pray for those things for Grace, Baptist. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you this morning.

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We thank you for your provision in our lives. We thank you for your purposes that will stand.

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Yeah, we thank you for other brothers and sisters that are gathering to worship you this morning all over town, all over the community and the world.

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And Lord, we just wanna lift them up. And specifically, our brothers and sisters at Grace Baptist in Periguld.

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Lord, I pray for them. I know a number of those people there that are dear saints that love you, care for your church, and wanna serve each other, serve others, and ultimately serve you.

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So God, I pray that you give them strength and wisdom and discernment. God, I pray that Pastor Michael, that as he prepares to preach this morning, that you would give him boldness and clarity of thought.

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Lord, I pray you open the ears of the hearers, that they would hear that truth clearly. God, I pray that you would be worshiped in spirit and truth in their midst this morning.

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God, as they grow, as you bring other saints into their midst, I pray that they would be able to be good stewards of what you bring to them, that they would be able to shepherd the people well, that they would be diligent to pour into the lives of other believers and equip the saints for the good work.

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God, I pray for their heart, for their missionaries in Ecuador. I don't know these missionaries myself, but you do.

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You've called them, you've placed them on a mission. God, I just lift them up to you.

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Whatever needs they have at the moment that you would fill them. Whatever circumstances they're in, that you would grant them peace and that you would grant them strength.

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I pray that their ministry efforts would be fruitful. We know that they will, because your word does not return void.

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It may not look like they want it to look, God, but it's gonna look exactly how you want it to look. So God, I pray that you would use them, bless them, guard them, and grow them.

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In Christ's name, amen, amen. Well, let's start our worship this morning. Let's stand for a call to worship as we prepare our hearts and minds to praise our

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Heavenly Father. Our call to worship this morning comes from Psalm 138, and it's the first five verses, and a read and response as we always do.

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But the psalmist says, we give you thanks, O Lord, with our whole heart.

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We sing your praise. We bow down towards your holy temple and give thanks to your name.

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For your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

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For on this day we called and you answered us.

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Our strength of soul you increased. For they have heard the words of your mouth and they shall sing of the ways of the

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Lord. And all God's people said, amen, amen.

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Let's pray our prayer of adoration this morning. God we thank you Lord. Thank you for bringing us here to worship and honor your name.

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God we thank you for your goodness, your protection, your provision throughout this week Lord. God we just praise you for being so good to us

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God. We thank you Lord. God as we come here this morning to worship you I just pray that you open open our eyes to hear the word to open our ears to hear the word and and I just pray that your spirit would would change this

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Father God from the inside out that we would be more like you. We thank you Lord God for this time together in your name we pray.

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You will lead the way. We have found the way. Only you can see.

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Sing for joy now. Our God is with us.

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Your Father's love is a strong mighty fortress. Raise your voice now.

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The world is praying. You can stand against us. Our God is with us.

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Sing for joy now. Our God is with us.

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Your Father's love is a strong mighty fortress. Raise your voice now.

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The world is praying. You can stand against us. Our God is with us.

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You can stand against us.

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Our God is with us. Sing for joy now.

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Our God is with us. Your Father's love is a strong mighty fortress. Raise your voice now.

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You can stand against us. Our God is with us. Raise your voice now. Our God is with us. Sing for joy now.

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Our God is with us. Our God is with us. Your Father's love is a strong mighty fortress.

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Raise your voice now. The world is praying. You can stand against us, one more time, sing for joy

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Sing for joy now, our God is great

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The Father's love is all that you need Raise your voice now, your love is great

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You can stand against us, our God is great Sing for joy now, your love is great

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We begin here in Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 31 Where Paul says, what then shall we say to these things?

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If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all

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How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

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Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies Who is to condemn?

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Christ Jesus is the one who died More than that, who was raised Who is at the right hand of God Who indeed is interceding for us

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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

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As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered

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No, in all these things we are more than conquerors Through him who loved us

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For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come

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Nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation

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Will be able to separate us from the love of God In Christ Jesus our

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Lord Amen Amen What a great truth for us to hold to God is for us

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God we praise you father that your word is true That you are true in what you say That you are for us not against us

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We praise you God When the enemy surrounds

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And my heart goes faint within And the darkness overviews

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And my fears are pressing in I will trust in you my

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Lord And the silence I will hear

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I will stand upon your Word You're my solid rock

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My salvation My steadfast hope That won't be shaken

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My soul will wait My soul will wait for you

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You're my stronghold and my shield

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In the midst of every threat

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You're the wicked weapon That will vanish like a breath

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Yes I know the outcome sure Satan's evil plan will fail

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In your power I'm secure

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You're my comfort when I fear for safety

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My refuge and my sure foundation My soul will wait

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My soul will wait for you This is love

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I can't explain This is mercy unreserved

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Through your sacrifice I have received what

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I deserve For the battle has been won

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And I fear no shameful loss

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Now the strength of death is gone

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You're my solid rock And my salvation

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My steadfast hope That won't be shaken

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My soul will wait My soul will wait for you

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My solid rock You're my solid rock

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And my salvation My steadfast hope

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That won't be shaken My soul will wait My soul will wait for you

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There's a pleasure I see He hideth my soul

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In the cleft above His shadows on a dry thirsty land

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He hideth my life In the depths of His love

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And covers me there with His love And covers me there with His love

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Manifest Jesus Jesus my Lord He taketh my burdens off He holdeth me

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And I shall not be moved He bearth me

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Straight through night He hideth my soul

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In the cleft above His shadows on a dry thirsty land

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He hideth my life In the depths of His love

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And covers me there with His love And covers me there with His love

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He clothed His brightness Transported our eyes

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To meet Him in the clouds of the sky

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His perfect salvation His wonderful love

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I shall put my wings on high

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He hideth my soul In the cleft above His shadows on a dry thirsty land

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He hideth my life In the depths of His love

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And covers me there with His love And covers me there with His love

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There is a fountain filled with blood

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Drawn from Emmanuel's heart

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When the sinner's purged beneath that fire

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Lose all their guilty stains

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Lose all their guilty stains

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Lose all their guilty stains

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When the sinner's purged beneath that fire

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Lose all their guilty stains

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Time rejoices in the fountain in His heart

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And in the open fire lies

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Him Wash all my sins away

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Wash all my sins away

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Wash all my sins away

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Oh, while I sing Wash all my sins away

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Wash all my sins away Since by faith I saw the strength

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That He will support me

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Jesus has been my fruit

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And shall be till my last day

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And shall be till my last day

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And shall be till my last day

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God has been my fruit And shall be till my last day

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He hideth my soul In the cleft of the rock

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That shadows have tried to seal He hideth the depths of His love

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We glorify You with what we have With the gifts that You've given us The provisions You've blessed us with Help us,

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Father God, to see that kingdom work that You're doing We thank You, Lord In Your name we pray

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Go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to Ephesians chapter 1

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We have finally made it out of the greeting Today is week 5

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And we are starting in verse 3 today But here's what

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I'd like for us to do I want us to read a whole big section So let's start in verse 3

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Ephesians chapter 1 The Apostle Paul says Blessed be the God and Father of our

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Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us in Christ With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

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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 In love

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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 and the beloved In Him we have redemption through His blood

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The forgiveness of our trespasses According to the riches of His grace Which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight

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Making known to us the mystery of His will According to the purpose which He set forth in Christ As a plan for the fullness of time

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To unite all things in Him Things in heaven and things on earth In Him we have obtained an inheritance

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Having been predestined according to the purpose of Him Who works all things according to the counsel of His will

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So that we who were the first to hope in Christ Might be to the praise of His glory

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In Him you also When you heard the word of truth The gospel of your salvation And believed in Him Were sealed with the promised

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Holy Spirit Who is the guarantee of our inheritance Until we acquire possession of it

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To the praise of His glory Phew!

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That's a lot, isn't it? That's a lot of good Let's stop now Let's go to the

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Lord again Let's go to the source Let's go to the author of this And let's ask that He would illuminate our hearts and minds

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To these truths Dear Heavenly Father We come to you once again

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And we humbly acknowledge our frailty

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Our finite mindset That has been corrupted by sin in this world

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Because your word is true It is clear It is precise

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But sometimes we have difficulty comprehending

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Sometimes we distort it Sometimes we misunderstand it

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Sometimes we just ignore it But God help us Help me

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Father, work in our hearts We, if we are in Christ today

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Have the indwelling Holy Spirit within us That is there to illuminate spiritual truths

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To our hearts and minds So I pray that we would see it Help me to speak only truth from your word today

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That it would be clear In Christ's name, Amen Well, we're obviously not going to get far

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Into what we have just read However, over the next few weeks

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We are going to seek And more than likely start off by reading

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This whole section Verses 3 through 14 And the reason for that is

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Is that despite what you see In your English translation of God's word These verses all the way from 3 to 14

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What we just read as a whole Is actually one sentence in the Greek It's the longest run -on sentence in all of Scripture It was as if Paul was so excited

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To share these great truths with other saints With the saints in Ephesus and all over in other churches

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And the saints here at 12 .5 He was so excited to share these truths That as soon as he finishes that greeting

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That we spent the last four weeks looking at Which was his common way of greeting And letting people know who he is

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And imparting grace and peace upon them As soon as he gets through with that He didn't even take a breath

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Until he could finish this thought He jumps right in And as you begin to study this

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This one massive sentence You begin to understand why this truth Was bursting out of the

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Apostle Paul Why he couldn't contain himself It was flowing out of him

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And because this is what Paul truly wanted to speak about And here's the thing

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I think if you're a believer This is what you truly want to think about This is what you want to speak about This is what should consume

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Our thoughts and our minds You know I mentioned last week That the Apostle Paul He often has to write to churches

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Dealing with issues So for example He has to deal with the sin

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That's in the church in Corinth And he needs to write Dealing with that sin Encouraging them theologically

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To address this sin He has to deal with the false gospel

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That's being spread When he writes the book of Galatians When he writes this letter

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He's having to deal with false teachers He's having to deal with circumstances He's having to deal with a broken world

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And praise God he's willing to do that And we should all be willing to do that We should all be willing to address

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The sinfulness and the brokenness That is within these walls And within the church

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But that, here's the thing That should not be our go -to This can't be our go -to

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Have you ever seen the type of Christians That are the heresy police? It's almost as if they're consumed

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With dealing with the issues And that's what drives them But that wasn't the Apostle Paul The Apostle Paul's willing to address these issues

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And he deals with them as he needs to But there's something else on Paul's mind

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That he really wants to deal with And I believe that's exactly what we're seeing

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Exemplified by him here in the book of Ephesians Yes, he deals with the issues as needed

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But he really wants to talk about this And it's similar to Jude Jesus' brother

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If you've been with us on Wednesday nights As we've gone through this letter from Jude What does he say near the beginning?

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Right there in verse 3 he says Hey beloved, although I was very eager

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To write to you about our common salvation This is what

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Jude wants to talk about He goes, I'm eager to write to you My longing, what I desire

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What I want most in this life Is to talk about salvation I want to talk about what unifies us

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But notice what he says right after that But he says, but I found it necessary To write to you appealing to you

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To contend for the faith that was once for all Delivered to the saints Because there were false teachers in that church

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And he had to address the issues Willing to, but that's not where Jude's heart was And here in this book in Ephesians In this one long sentence from the

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Apostle Paul We see the whole of God's redemptive plan We see the entire big picture just pouring out of him

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It's as if he doesn't even take a breath He doesn't even put a period in the sentence To break it up, to make it functional and chewable for us

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Now he's like, it just comes out of him He can't stop We see the past, we see the present

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We see the future of God's eternal plan Laid out right here in these few verses

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This plan for his people is clearly laid out By the Apostle Paul here And I want you to see kind of an overview

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Of this one sentence In the first few verses, in verses 3 through 6

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We see God's plan from eternity past His plan through election

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And then in the last part of verse 6 up through verse 11 We see the present redemption that is ours in Christ Jesus And then he closes out this sentence in verses 12 through 14

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And he's showing us our future inheritance That is ours in Christ Jesus And this is the very means that we

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Who were once enemies of God Have been brought into communion with God This is why

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Paul wants to talk about this, isn't it? This is what consumes him If you are in Christ, you have been saved, right?

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You ever heard that phrase? I've been saved I'm being saved

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And I will be saved This is what Paul is... It's coming out of him

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And we know this because of what Paul said in Philippians, right? That he who began a good work in you

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Will see it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus He has done a good work God the

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Father has elected you And God the Holy Spirit will see it through In sanctification

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And it will be accomplished at the day of Christ Jesus Because of Christ Jesus But notice how

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Paul starts off speaking about this magnificent truth Look at our verse here, verse 3 It says, blessed be the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ There's much talk about salvation, isn't there?

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We hear it often From Christians and churches Many churches speak of the gospel every single week

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They're always trying to get people to come down the aisle and say a prayer They're constantly trying to close the deal

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And a lot of talk about salvation And we should

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Churches should, I'm glad that they did I'm glad they do We should Yet more often than not

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In our cultural context That talk has very little resemblance to this massive sentence by Paul Especially with how

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Paul begins When the subject of salvation arises It generally starts with the blessing

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The blessing of salvation And there is a blessing in salvation But that's where it starts usually in our conversation

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And even worst case scenarios It begins with the blessed

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Here's what I mean The recipient of that blessing is who?

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Me And when we talk about this great salvation today

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It typically starts with me Starts with me

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And you've heard it said before Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life That's a bold statement

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For one, how do you know Jesus loves them? And two, how do you know he has a wonderful plan for their life?

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Because what you're meaning by wonderful May not be what God's plan for them is

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Because his plan for them might be destruction But that's where we usually start

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Yet Paul starts with something totally different Where does Paul start? The source

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He starts with the source Paul starts out this amazing conversation

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This beautiful truth of this blessing of salvation He starts with praise

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ It all starts with God He grounds everything in this sentence

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All the way up through verse 14 Every bit of it The election, the predestination, the adoption

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Everything that you see up through verse 14 He grounds with the acknowledgement

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Fed from worship, flowing out of praise To the origin of this blessed hope

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This is where Paul starts Let's look in great detail at this

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This word blessing in the Greek Eulogia Is the word that's used here

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It's where we get our word Eulogy You can hear the connection there Maybe that'll spark some memory here

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It's where we get our word eulogy Which we use often in context of a funeral

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Where we honor someone We acknowledge them We praise them

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We put a spotlight on their accomplishments But unlike deceased loved ones

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This word is being attest to what? To God It's being attested to a living

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An active, all powerful, holy, perfect creator As we see in Romans chapter 11

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For from him And through him And to him are all things

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He's the source So if we're going to talk about salvation

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As a matter of fact, I'll take it even further If we're going to talk about creation If we 're gonna talk about marriage

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If we're gonna talk about preaching If we're gonna talk about mathematics If we're gonna talk about science

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If we're gonna talk about our vocation If we're gonna talk about logic If we're gonna talk about anything and everything

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Within all of creation It must start with the source God people think

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I'm crazy when I say something like along these lines you realize two plus two only equals four because God had a teacher look at me like that's the dumbest statement

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I've ever heard like why would I ever teach my students that math has a connection to God well there's a reason for that order and logic apart from him makes absolutely no sense there is there is no mathematics there is no science there is no logic there is no thinking there is nothing apart from the source and just for the simple fact of who he is makes him worthy of all blessing and praise as Paul starts this sentence off blessed be the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ all of creation even the pagan who will live out their life never hearing the name

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Jesus right let's take somebody that's in a foreign land who the missionaries have not made it there and that person lives out their life and dies and they never heard the name of Jesus they still owe him that adoration and worship they still owe it to him now here's the thing so how much more do you and I owe him praise so it has to start here it has to start with God it starts with praise to God because he is the source of it as we talk over the next few weeks of all of the things that Paul goes through in this one long sentence we're gonna see predestined

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God he's the source chosen God he's the source adopted

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God he's the source in Christ God he's the source everything has to go back to him so praise

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God for that amazing tremendous blessing look back at our passage here we owe him praise because blessed be the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ we see this word blessed but in the

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Greek it's it's different we see the same word but it's essentially the same word in a different form in the

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Greek and that first one you like yeah right that's the way that's that way that Paul writes it in the

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Greek but here who has blessed us you like Gale it's essentially the same word in different form that first one is an adjective form meaning it's essentially attributing blessing to God but the second one is in the verb form it's describing an action now bear with me here for a moment some of you may have detached just now you're like I don't do well with English please don't talk about that stuff

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I'm lost now bear with me there's a reason for this we need we need to be students of this right if we would understand the the specifics of God's Word we need to be students of this we need to understand these distinctions because we're looking at the same word but it has different purpose we see to God it's being attributed do we see to us it's a it's an action word it's described as an action that is being done towards us meaning that we are not blessing

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God you that we're not blessing

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God by adding something or giving something to him we often think of praising

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God that we're bringing something to God we're bringing worship to God and and we are in the same way that my seven -year -old brings me my quarter that she found on the couch right we're not giving them something him something it belongs to him he already has all of the praise and all of the worship and all of the glory it all belongs to him and we're not adding anything to him we're simply participating in this we're acknowledging and pointing out what is already his and we do so because of what he has actively done for us he has blessed us in Christ again if all of creation owes him allegiance if all of creation owes him love and worship even the ones who are designated as vessels for dishonorable use then how much more do you and I the recipients of such blessing owe him our utmost praise now here's the beautiful part before Christ we were utterly incapable of blessing

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God weren't we that that person who's never heard the name of Jesus he owes

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God the praise and worship he's fully incapable of doing it he has no power to do so we're commanded to do so and you and I before before Christ were commanded to do so but our master separated us from him didn't he who was our master sin we're slaves to sin is what

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Paul says we were entrapped by it and we had to obey it and we could not worship

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God as commanded not only did it separate us from him it caused us to be at total enmity with him didn't it this is

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Romans 8 says for the mind that is set on the flesh is indifferent to God is that what it says and it's not what it says it says for the mind that is set on the is hostile towards God for it does not submit to God's law indeed it cannot that was the state that's the state of humanity that was the state of you and I before Christ but praise

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God for three verses later there in Romans 8 in verse 10 says but if Christ is in you right if you're in Christ if Christ is in you if you're in Christ if Christ is in you it's the same thing if Christ is in you you are in Christ you are one he's brought you in to unity with the triune

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God and you are in him if you are in Christ if Christ is in you although the body is dead because of sin the spirit is life because of righteousness the spirit is life because of righteousness what righteousness

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Christ righteousness an imputed righteousness a righteousness that wasn't mine that wasn't yours that we could not conjure up that we could not do we couldn't obey a law perfectly we couldn't obey the law at all even when we thought we could obey the law by by not coveting or not stealing from our brother we still had covetousness in our own heart right we still broke the law we can't keep it but that righteousness that's imputed from Christ who never broke the law that's what it means to be blessed in Christ it's a beautiful thing right this is why we of all people should bless our

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Heavenly Father to worship him to serve him to praise him and now because of that righteousness of Christ we can do so we were commanded to before we couldn't do it so God steps in says

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I choose you I call you my child and the Holy Spirit comes in and awakens you from death to life takes the heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh awakens you from death to life and now you see the beauty of what he has provided in Christ the third the second person of the

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Godhead right that Christ came and paid the penalty for you and now you have faith in what he's done and now you were brought into unity and you have been given righteousness and God says oh now you can praise me now you can worship me now you can commune with me now you can love me before you couldn't but now you can because of my sacrifice because of the great work of the triune

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God if this doesn't stir us up if that if that truth doesn't drive you to want to fall on your face and worship and praise towards our

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Heavenly Father something's wrong with your soul friend something's deeply wrong either you've never experienced that that imputed righteousness in your life at all or you have been you've been sit in an unrepentant sin and it out of communion with God because of your sin what has

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God the Father blessed us in Christ with look at our verse again says blessed be the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places well here's that word again bless blessed blessing again remember the first one is an adjective it's toward God the second one is a verb it's towards us lastly this third mention of this same word it's the same form of the word but it's in the form of a noun we have obtained blessing right however this blessing is not open -ended in the way that we would possibly distort it meaning if we're left to assume what these blessings are we would have a propensity to only see them within the physical realm right that's our nature anytime we think of blessing anytime we think of of God working in our lives it's usually only in ways that we can tangibly see that we can tangibly feel that we tangibly experience and they're usually material things and so our minds just have a propensity to go in that direction and he's he's obviously the source of material blessing and we know that God has not promised material blessing he's not promised physical blessing despite many false teachers claims he does not care whether you are financially successful or wealthy or not as a matter of fact he's the one that provides financial security and wealth but he also he also provides destitute brokenness you have some

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Christians that live with a lot of external blessings don't they but you have a lot of Christians that live in the gutter with nothing and die as a martyr and everything in between that's

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God's prerogative those are blessings but we have a propensity to see them one way we have our own perceived a perceived idea of what a blessing is but either way all those material things are still blessings from God well this word this word that we see spiritual in the

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Greek is pneumatic us it's another Greek word here bear with me if some of you may be familiar with the sound of that word if you have done any study on the topic of pneumatology which is the study of the

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Holy Spirit ok very similar word because it comes from the same source and this word spiritual is always used in Scripture in relation to the work of the

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Holy Spirit always so Paul is not identifying material or spiritual blessings he's not making that distinction is he

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Paul's not making a distinction he is pointing to the divine origin of the blessing you with me

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Paul's not saying material blessings or spiritual blessings and making a distinction between the two what he's doing is he's tying it to the work of the

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Holy Spirit we see the triune God all through this big long sentence of the Apostle Paul he's tying it to the work of the

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Holy Spirit John MacArthur says it like this he says spiritual refers to the source not the extent of the blessing and what does this mean for us what does this mean as we look at the

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Apostle Paul's words here and say who's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places it's because he has blessed us in Christ we have now big been given absolutely everything we need you hear that when you think that you have need if God is not filled that need it means it's not a need at least not right now because God has given us absolutely everything that we need we have the source of everything we know that God has promised that all things work together for the good of those that love him right that's a promise right we know it we know that that we have everything we need for life and godliness in the

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Word of God right we know this it's a promise we know that we have been given victory over the flesh and over sin right we know this we know this is a promise and oftentimes we think of these as abstract promises don't we we think of them as well yeah that's a promise but when do

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I receive them when do I see the evidence of them don't look at me like you're holy you know you've you felt that before and Paul says these are not mere promises but these for those that are in Christ these are already possessions we have them every blessing in the heavenly places every blessing we're not lacking anything because we have the source of all blessing

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Paul said in Colossians 2 10 and you have been filled in him you have everything you need you have absolutely everything with every spiritual blessing

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Peter says in 2nd Peter 1 3 says his divine power has granted to us some things so what he says his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness and how has he done so Peter says is through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence we don't need more of anything we have everything that we need we have the source of all blessing what would you rather have right now if God comes into this room

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Jesus comes into this room and he says you can either have all the things your hearts ever desired on this earth series listening to us you can have all the blessings on this earth or you can live in a mud hut with me which one are you gonna choose

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Adam said it right away I'm living in that mud hut now thankfully he's not giving us that option because what he said is he even told his disciples who got to live in the mud hut with him that hey

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I'm sending you something better not not God with you God in you you have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

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God is in you he lives with you he dwells with you he encourages you he challenges you he convicts you he gives you anything and everything you need when you don't know what to pray guess what he's doing it for you we have every spiritual blessing we have no need we have nothing we don't have anything that we need anymore we don't need a new revelation we don't need any new information we don't need

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God to show himself in any other way we have God within us and that's what

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Paul is saying and blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us every spiritual blessing now you might say pastor

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I get it I know all of these things you've said them before I've heard them a million times I know you give me a pep rally every week and I go home excited but guess what

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Monday comes and I can't gain victory over that sin in my life you just told me that I have everything

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I need and I can't win that victory over that sin that has hold of me some of you may say well pastor when

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I go home I get all excited on Sundays I go home on Monday morning I wake up and and my Bible reading is just dull and nothing really stands out to me boring some of you may say yeah and then

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I go to pray and it feels very one -sided and lifeless all right anyone ever felt one of those three or all three at the same time yeah yeah every single one of us feels those things at times and then you look at me and you say what and here you are telling me that I have everything that I could possibly need my answer is no

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I'm not God is I didn't tell you that because I can tell you from my perspective

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I would stand up here and go guess what guys we're in trouble I'm just waiting for myself to die so I can be holy

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I'm not the one telling you that but God's Word tells us that we have it right it's hard to get around this every spiritual blessing our problem is is that we don't always believe him we don't always believe and we don't always believe him because we can really only see this physical realm right now it's all we see it's all we can really tangibly lay our eyes on and get our minds wrapped around like how many of you can comprehend eternity no beginning no end like no we can't because we're within the construct of time like that's all we can see that's all we know and so sometimes we just don't believe him when he says something so seemingly outlandish that I have everything that I need but look at the last part of the verse there he says that it's every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places what does this mean does this mean that all of our blessings are in heaven and like we don't really get any blessings down here of course not that would contradict many other passages that we've even read this morning and countless others this heavenly places refers to God's complete

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Dominion it's absolute all -encompassing you know there are spiritual realities that you and I can't see right now we can't comprehend them but here's the beautiful part we can still rest and you know why we can rest because he's given us everything he's given us everything and he's revealed what's needed for us to know now he's revealed enough for us to know and to rest in his promises that we sometimes can't physically see and so don't trust as a matter of fact look look down in chapter 1 and Ephesians there look at verses 9 and 10 he says making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time his plan his purpose everything that he wants to accomplish he has he's revealed this mystery to us making it known to us to unite all things in him things in heaven and things on earth that's a promise that we can hold on to that he's given us he's revealed every mystery that he's gonna reveal to us now we individually might learn different mysteries from God's Word as we're being taught right but it's all there it's all given to us we may not be able to truly grasp spiritual realities but God has revealed to us everything that we need and what is it that we need what is it that you and I in our day -to -day life nothing that we don't already obtain in Christ because in Christ we have everything in the whole of God's dominion both spiritual and physical everything if you wanted to see to defeat sin in your life you know how to do it you know how to defeat that sin that just hangs on to you and it's gonna hit tomorrow and you're like you know how you how to defeat it you've already been given the power to defeat it you know defeat it rest in Christ sounds simple doesn't it rest in Christ you want you want

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God's Word to be real to you you want it to stand out and be meaningful to you look for Christ when you're reading it look look for your

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Savior find him act as though the

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Bible is a where's Waldo book look for Jesus look for your

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Savior you want your prayers to be powerful and potent pray them in the power in the name of Christ you may not feel it but it doesn't mean it's not powerful now

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I have to say this you don't do this in the name and the power of Christ by mere lip service for many have come to Jesus and said didn't

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I prophesy in your name didn't I do these things in your name and he says depart from me you workers of iniquity it's not lip service that has any any power in it you can't just go around and and blaspheme the name of Jesus for your own purposes that's not the purpose but when you when you go with boldness because of your position in Christ that's what it means to pray in the name of Christ when you go before God and you said

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God this is a perceived need from your child I'm coming to you because you told me

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I can because of the imputed righteousness of Christ and now my position allows me to come into the king's throne room at 3 in the morning to ask for a drink of water because of Christ because of my position because of the fact that I am in Christ because of the fact that Christ is in me and I share and God has adopted me as his child and light of that you want to bless

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God you want to praise God you want to bring honor and worship to God continually trust in the blessing of Christ you see a pattern here

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Christ he's the mediator he's the one he is he's the bridge between us and and and right -standing with the father it all starts with worship

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God is the one that sent the Sun God is the one that sends the

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Holy Spirit the triune God the three in one working in tandem and unity to accomplish his purposes and his will and we get to rest in that work don't we the father has chosen us the son has redeemed us and the

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Holy Spirit has sealed us and we have every spiritual blessing everything is yours the power over sin is yours in Christ power over flesh is yours in Christ and we can worship

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God and spirit and truth because of that amen blessed be the Godfather of our Lord Jesus Christ the beautiful truth so as we do every week in light of this great truth let's prepare ourselves to go to the