Ephesians 3 (Part 2)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Before I get into the sermon today, dear congregation, just a request, it doesn't have to be done immediately, but if you would think about what you would like said at your funeral, that would be a good process to work through.

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We have had, I think, five funerals in the last six months here at Bethlehem Bible Church, three in the last four weeks, and I've talked to many people, mainly senior saints, that when they get older, they say,

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I want these songs, I want these people to speak, I'd like this passage preached, and it makes it easier for me, but I think it's good for you as well.

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Yesterday, I officiated Ray Johnson's funeral, and I found a letter that he wrote me in February of 2010, and he said,

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Dear Mike, pursuant to our discussion, please let this letter serve as a confirmation of my wishes for my funeral.

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I'm so happy to find that. I won't read every one, but I'll read a few. He said, Please let my family know how much

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I love them. Two, I would like Jared Nevins and Dave Silva to have an opportunity to speak, and they both must, capital letters, present the gospel.

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Number three, raise words. We'd like you to preach a hardcore Calvinistic sermon where no one can leave without knowing they will spend eternity in hell if they do not repent and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

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Four, please remind everyone that if they wish to see me again, they better get saved because I will be in heaven.

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And he has another one, and I'll read this last one. Please let my family know one more time how much

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I love them. So I think that'd be a good process if I had some of yours. I'm going to do mine with Kim in the next couple weeks.

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What songs, who do you want to preach, et cetera, et cetera, and by the way, those were my points yesterday during my sermon because they were what

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Ray's wishes were. If they would have been unbiblical wishes, I would have changed them. He wouldn't have known, but they were biblical wishes.

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So just as a pastor, I'd request that you would sit down and work through that. It's not morbid at all.

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It's true. Every one of us will face eternity. We are facing eternity, and we don't know how long we're going to live.

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And so I think that'd be a healthy thing for you to do. It would help. And it's all, it's just wonderful if I stand up and say, these are the favorite songs of the family.

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This is, Pastor Mike wanted that Isaac Watts song to be sung, and therefore we're going to sing it, et cetera.

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Well now let's get to the message. I have a question first. In the midst of fad Christianity, where we love bracelets with WWJD, where we think to ourselves, we need 40 days of purpose, there was a fad years ago called the

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Prayer of Jabez. Remember that? Prayer of Jabez. If you don't know about the fad, you are blessed.

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But if you remember the fad, back in 2000, Bruce Wilkinson wrote a book called the Prayer of Jabez. And there is a

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Prayer of Jabez in First Chronicles chapter four, but he wanted you to pray this every day for 30 days.

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It became a bestseller, New York Times, nine million copies sold, won awards, and it was really just a gimmick.

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It wasn't really good and proper. So today I'm going to teach you not the Prayer of Jabez, I want to teach you the

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Prayer of Samuel. What do I mean, the Prayer of Samuel? Well, let's turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter three, as we're back in the book of Ephesians.

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Chapter by chapter, two sermons per chapter, we're going to finish today, Ephesians chapter three, and I'm going to teach you the

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Prayer of Samuel. Now before we get into the passage in chapter three, verses 14 through 21, we could just probably have a good review of Ephesians.

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If I just ask you questions, you don't even have to answer out loud. Who wrote Ephesians? You know that.

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How many chapters did Paul write? You know that. From when did he, from where did he write?

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You know that. To whom did he write? You understand that. Why did he write? I think you understand that.

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Paul's got six chapters here as he's writing from prison to this church at Ephesus and other churches, because chapter six says he wants to encourage them.

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He wants them to know who the triune God is, and every time you think about God the Father, if you're thinking in a

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Trinitarian way, which you should, which I should, you also think about the Son. You also think about the Spirit.

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You don't think about one without the other, and in the first chapter, that's Paul. Paul praises the Father, remember, for electing him unconditionally.

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Sinclair Ferguson would say, election isn't an afterthought, it's a beforethought.

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And that's what he does. He chooses us in him before the foundation of the world. And if he has chosen us in eternity past, then in time at Calvary, we have the

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Son dying for our sins, first chapter of Ephesians, verse seven, redeeming us.

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We were slaves, now we're redeemed. And then how do we receive what the Father has sent and the

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Son has accomplished? We receive by the Spirit of God as he regenerates us, he convicts us, and in particular in chapter one, he seals us.

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Paul praises God, and then he prays at the rest of chapter one. And he prays that we just might understand the measurable greatness of his power toward us who believe in verse 19.

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He wants us to know this power of the resurrected Jesus, verse 20, is for us.

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And then he goes to chapter two. Chapter two, really, if you want to summarize chapter two, it's got but God, verse four, and but now, verse 13.

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The but God is, we were dead in trespasses and sins, and God could have judged us, rightly so, like he did the angels, right?

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There was no escape plan for the angels. But he has decided because of his mercy, his grace, his kindness to rescue us by sending the

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Lord Jesus as representative and substitute. Well, there's not just a relationship between us and God that's fixed.

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When that's fixed, there is a relationship between us and other people that's fixed. And that's what he talks about in verse 13 and following.

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But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off, that is the Gentiles, they literally were far off from the temple, spiritually far off as well, had been brought near by the blood of Christ.

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For he himself is our peace, 214, who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh, the dividing wall of hostility.

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What Paul is saying is simple. We have a relationship with God now individually. And now since that's fixed, it's fixed between Jews and Gentiles.

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Remember, God in his wisdom early on had had all kinds of ceremonial laws, including circumcision, to separate

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Jews and Gentiles, food laws, ceremony laws. Well, Jesus on the cross, he didn't do away with the

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Ten Commandments, the moral law, love God, love neighbor, but he did fulfill everything that was pointing to him because he's there.

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We don't need circumcision anymore. We don't need to become a Jew anymore. If someone says, they were at the funeral yesterday, they weren't a believer.

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They emailed me and said, Mike, I now think I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm convinced of my sins. I think he's been raised from the dead and I want to believe in him.

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Do I have to get circumcised in order to be saved? Do I have to be baptized in order to be saved?

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Do I have to keep the feast of booths in order to be saved? The answer is no, no, and no. You might respond with baptism now that you're a believer, but all that has been taken care of because Jesus fulfilled that,

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Ephesians chapter two. Chapter three, he, he wants to pray and the spirit of God has diverted him.

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The spirit of God has given him what one man called a thrilling tangent, Paul.

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Think about it. A Jew. Remember I read in Philippians chapter three today as to the law of what

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Pharisee, he was a law keeper. You can imagine the Jews. I mean, what, what, what happened to Peter for him to love

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Gentiles? It took a divine dream in the book of Acts to make him think, oh, people are the same and they come to Christ the same way through faith and through faith alone.

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Not any kind of ceremonial laws at all. And what's happening for Paul, this Jewish man, he now has been called to give the gospel to the

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Gentiles. And I, I like that. Sometimes I think that's so, that's so something that the

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Lord would do. Here's this Gentile hater and then God saves Paul and says, by the way, where do you want to go?

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Well, I'm sending you to the Gentiles. That's back in the seminary days. You're graduating and you say, Lord, I'll go anywhere except the

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Cayman Islands. Because then you think, you know, then the Lord will send you to the Cayman Islands. I didn't have many job opportunities in 1997 when

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I came here. One was in Texas along the border. One was at a

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Grange in Ohio. And then there was New England. And so New England, it was, I was very thankful for that.

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Paul starts to pray because his, his MO so far in Ephesians is praise then prayer.

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That's chapter one. He's praising God in chapter two, essentially, and now he's going to pray again in chapter three. But he's on this tangent.

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I mean, he, he's just kind of caught up because he thinks the powers of Satan and death and hell and the animosity between Jew and Gentile and Jew and Gentile before God, it's all been dealt with.

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And then he says in chapter three, verse one, for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you

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Gentiles, then you see the dash there. And he, he begins to talk about how God graciously gave him to the

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Gentiles to talk about the love of Christ because God loves Gentiles. That's the analogy there.

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That's the analog. If Paul loves Gentiles, who gave the love of Paul for Gentiles?

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What's the point? God loves Gentiles. I'm going to read verses one through 13, and then we're going to go to chapter 14 for the prayer.

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Not chapter 14. If anybody tells you there's 14 chapters in Ephesians, you tell them that's right after second assumptions, right?

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Ephesians one for this reason, I, Paul prisoner on for Jesus Christ on behalf of you

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Gentiles, assuming that you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given me to you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, the mystery that Jews and Gentiles would be equal in the church.

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As I have written briefly, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations.

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David didn't know this, angels didn't know this, but it'd been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.

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This mystery, here it is. The mystery isn't the church. The mystery is Jews and Gentiles in the church equal, and you don't have to become a

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Jew to be in the church. The mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members, literally, of the same body, fellow partakers, literally, of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel preached, through the good news about Jesus, the resurrected

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Savior. Of this good news or gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace.

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It's the handiwork of the Lord, which was given to me by the working of his power. To me, the

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Christian killer, though I'm the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the

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Gentiles the unsearchable or unfathomable or untraceable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the mystery of the, what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.

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So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, the church is on display to show the wisdom of God.

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Is this an afterthought? Is this plan B? No. Verse 11, this was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our

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Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

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So I ask you not to lose heart over what I'm suffering for you, which is your glory.

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Well, now we come to chapter three, verse 14 through 21. Our outline today is

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Samuel, the acronym Samuel, and I'm going to call it the prayer of Samuel because Samuel prayed, and I'm trying to remember how to pray this prayer other times, and this is a good way to do it with the acronym

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Samuel. I think after today, not because I'm clever, not because I'm anything, but it's just an easy way to remember this prayer so that you can say to yourself, oh,

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I remember the ax acronym. What's the ax acronym? A, C, T, S.

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Good. You are well taught. Bob Bowman did a good job. Well, this is going to be

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Samuel, S -A -M -U -E -L, and just as if you can remember ax, you can remember

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Samuel. I love this passage for lots of reasons. It's Trinitarian.

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When we go through the passage, I want you to notice Father, Son, Spirit. I like this passage because it is important for us in our prayer lives not just to say,

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God, I want this, and God, I want that, or God, please help so -and -so that's sick. Those are fine to do, but not the only thing to do.

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I like this passage because Paul is very, very passionate in this passage. One writer,

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Lloyd -Jones, said it is undoubtedly one of the great mountain peaks in Scripture. I like this passage because Paul might be in prison and he might be away from people, but he's not far away from the

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God to whom he can pray at any, any time. Before the outline Samuel, let's have a little introduction, verse 14.

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For this reason, see, he picks up from chapter 3, verse 1, right? Chapter 3, verse 1.

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For this reason, I, Paul, now he picks it up, he's gone on his diversion, his divinely inspired diversion, and now he says, for this reason,

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I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

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I understand who the Father is, and I'm approaching Him, and how does he approach the

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Father? The text there is clear. This is not a way you always have to pray, but he says, for this reason, for this mystery, for this love of Christ for people,

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I bow my knees. If you were a Jew, you know you normally stand to pray. And here, because of reverence, because of intensity, because of solemnity, because of homage, it's just the reaction, down he goes,

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I'm bowing, I'm on my knee. I wonder if a Roman guard was watching him, what must he have thought?

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I'm bowing, my neck goes down low. I remember when I was in, if memory serves, because it was 37 years ago,

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I was in Paris, and I went to see Napoleon's tomb. And I believe, if memory serves, he's in the basement, this big open room, and you have to go up to like the third floor to look down, because he's on the first floor in the basement in his tomb, and he had designed it allegedly because he wanted everyone to bow before him to put their heads down to see the great

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Napoleon. Well, this is not some contrived building or something, this is just like Ezra.

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Even with my garment and my robe torn, Ezra 9 -5, I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the

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Lord my God. You don't have to pray this, but it's like his heart tells his body what to do.

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He just gets down on his face to pray. Reminds me of Isaiah 45, to me every knee will bow, every tongue shall confess and swear allegiance.

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It reminds me of the Psalms, come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the

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Lord our God, our maker. Daniel said, you can throw me in jail if you want, but when the time comes, the text says, he continued kneeling on his knees.

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And on a practical level, if you ever do want to get down on your knees, it helps you think, okay, I am bowing before this great

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God, and I want to make sure I'm eager and solemn and in awe and submissive.

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Who's this God, verse 15, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

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This has nothing to do with the fatherhood of God universally and the brotherhood of man universally. This is, we're no longer having the devil as our father.

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We get to call God our father, and every family in heaven and on earth, every person that's ever been born, every

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Jew, every Gentile who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ has God as father.

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That's all it means. Now we come to the prayer, SAMUEL. It's an acronym, and I'm going to give you five guidelines to help you pray in response to who

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Jesus is, even though there are six letters in SAMUEL. How can there be five if there's six letters in SAMUEL?

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You'll see how I rescue it at the end, all right? SAMUEL is the acronym, the outline to help us remember.

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And matter of fact, these days, I don't know if it's COVID fog, it's age, it's whatever, I don't know, I can't remember things well.

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This acronym SAMUEL will help you. When you pray, you'll say, oh, I remember what I'm supposed to pray for.

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The prayer acronym SAMUEL. Now the first three, the

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S and the A and the M, come from verse 16, 17, and 19.

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16, 17, and 19. And if you see the English word that, there's three that's, and that's what it breaks down with grammatically.

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If you look at verse 16, first word ESV, that. If you look at verse 17, after the dash, that you.

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And then if you look at verse 19, the very end there, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

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The S and the A and the M, I'm not making up in terms of priority. There are three that's. These are the things that he wants you to pray, that, that, and that,

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S, A, and M. Let's look at the first one, S, strength. What does

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Paul pray for? He doesn't tell you to pray, but it's certainly a good model. Just like in chapter one, he doesn't say, oh, praise

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God like this, blessed be the God and father of the Lord Jesus Christ. But as you watch Paul praise him like that, you say, oh, that's what

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I should do as well. Similarly here too, he doesn't say you must pray this prayer, but as Paul prays, you'll say, oh, that's something that I should pray for as well, that God would give strength.

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Verse 16, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant to you to be strengthened.

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There's our word with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

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Stop there. In chapter one, he said, there's the power of God. I want you to know about it.

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Now he says, there's the power of God. I want you to experience it. Enlightenment chapter one, now enablement chapter three.

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I mean, if you're a pastor and you're an apostle and you're Paul and you know, you're suffering, you know, the people are suffering because of what the world is doing there at Ephesus and they're suffering on your behalf because you're in prison.

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He wants them to be strengthened inside. He knows they needed to be having a fortress in their heart.

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They need to be encouraged. I mean, rulers, powers, authorities, cosmic darkness.

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What does a Christian need? A Christian needs to be strengthened deep down, inwardly through the

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Holy Spirit, praying for strength. Paul's not saying, I want to get out of this. I need an escape hatch.

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What do they call it when a pilot's flying a plane and he's got to get out of that cockpit? Steve, what do they call that?

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Ejection seat. Have you ever pulled one? Do you know where they are? He's not praying for that.

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Strength. He said, I want strength. That's what we're praying for. The indwelling Holy Spirit.

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I just don't need to know about the strength, although that's good. Chapter one, I need to have that strength. What do we pray for?

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Strength. Now this is kind of fascinating. I learned this when I was a brand new Christian. Verse 16, that according to the riches, this is not out of riches.

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This is according to riches. This is according to the riches. I learned this week.

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I don't know if it's true or not. It could be apocryphal that Rockefeller, Mr. Rockenfeller, if I have to make a mistake, it might as well be about some rich guy, not the scriptures.

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I heard that Mr. Rockefeller would give his caddy a dime for his work.

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That's not according to. That's out of. If I had trillions of dollars, and I gave you 20 bucks,

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I'll tell you where my mind is today. I said to Maddie, I don't know if I turned off the cooktop. Would you go home?

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I'll give you 20 bucks to do it. She's like, I'll do it for free. But I said, here's 20. If I give you the 20, Maddie, because I have 10 million,

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I'm not giving according to. I'm giving out of. And so God has all this riches, and how does

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God give strength to the Christian? When they ask, when they pray, well, I'll just give a little dribble. I'll just give out of.

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I'll just give kind of proportionate to. No, no. The text says according to.

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Not portion, but proportion. No wonder Philippians 4 says, and my

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God will fully meet every need of yours in accordance with his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

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God can meet my need. I need strength. I'm tempted. I'm weak. I'm failing.

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I know that promises of God. I understand who Christ is. He's died for me. He's redeemed me.

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He's chosen me. I'm his to the end of till glory, but I need strength.

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And so Paul says, well, then pray for strength. In other words,

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Paul is not saying pray for something, but I'm not sure God can do it. Pray for something.

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But you know what? He might not be able to get this done. One, one writer said he estimated his own resources before he promised to bequeath such wealth for his children.

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God's budget has always been balanced and there need to be no fear of his program of spending for his salvation and sanctification of his believers in his son.

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King James version, Psalm 104, the trees of the Lord are full of SAP. In other words,

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God has everything you need. If you need to pray for power, he will provide that for you.

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It's a lot different than praying for. I need a new car. I need this or I need that. Certainly people need cars.

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You can pray for that. But what Paul wants is to understand that through his spirit, the

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Holy spirit, they'll have power strengthened, fully strong. This is the word where you can have brace.

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I still have a knee brace after my ACL injury. And so I need to have a brace to kind of fortify and to stabilize my knee.

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I'm living in a life with you and it's craziness in the world. Temptations on the inside and from the outside.

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There's a war going on, an invisible war, and I need something. What do I need? I need strength.

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And so do you. This is the same word in first Corinthians 16, be on alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, be strengthened by God.

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By the way, this isn't active. I have to strengthen myself. I have to do 25 more curls of spiritual workouts to try to get my muscles stronger.

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This is God doing the work. God, would you strengthen me? I wonder if a child went to a human father and said, could you give me something that he would be able to give and he'd say, no, it reminds me of that story that you put the kid up on top of the car when they're two and say, jump to daddy.

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You can trust daddy. You know, we're going to teach you about faith. I remember doing that with every one of my kids and you get a little farther back and they're jumping, they're jumping off the wind star, windbag van we had or jump.

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And I remember reading a story once where a dad said, jump, I'll catch you. And then he stood back and let the kid fall to the ground.

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And he said, the lesson son is don't trust anyone. I thought that dad needs a spank and that's what that dad needs.

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He says, strengthen, why look at the passage strengthened through his spirit.

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It is a fee, a fact, a theological fact. We don't want anything about God unmediated. We need the mediator,

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Jesus to receive everything. And we need the mediator, the Holy spirit to receive. Here we have the father, the son, and the spirit.

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The blessings come to you through the spirit of God. I'm suffering. God, give me strength. I'm tempted.

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God, give me strength. I'm evangelizing. God, give me strength. I've lost my mother. I've lost my father.

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I've lost my friend. God, give me strength through his spirit. This is not do.

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This is not bootstraps. This is not self -discipline. This is 2

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Corinthians 4, therefore we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed or strengthened day by day.

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The Lord knows you need strength. The Lord knows I'm weak. So what do we do? We pray for strength.

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And a parallel to that, something equal to that is verse 17. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

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And by the way, that's the language of not just to stay for a little while. Just come and make your home.

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Sometimes when I was sick the last few months, somebody would want to come and visit me, one of you would, and I would be glad for that. And I would tell

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Kim, I don't think I can talk for more than an hour. So tell them, please come over for an hour, and then, you know,

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I don't want to be rude and dismiss them after an hour, but I want you, Kim, to be rude and dismiss them. This isn't that.

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God, I need power so that you can just come and stay. Make your permanent abode. Just make it your home.

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Now lots of times we hear, you know, accept Jesus in your heart like initial salvation. This has nothing to do with that.

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These are Christian people. We want Jesus to dwell and settle down and to be at home in our hearts.

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My heart, your home, as one person wrote a book about. This is an explanation of how and why and an amplification of we need strength so that Christ may dwell in your hearts.

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How? You see the text? Through faith. Justification by faith alone, sanctification by faith alone,

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God the Son inhabits us, dwells in our hearts, is settled down in our hearts.

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We want Jesus in our heart. We don't preach to unbelievers, accept Jesus in your heart, but we should be praying to the

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Father that the Spirit might have the Son dwell in our hearts and settle down and feel at home.

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Jesus answered and said to them, John 14, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him.

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Because I need Christ in my heart. Because I need strength. I need comfort.

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I need to have a residence in my heart through faith. And when you pray, isn't this amazing?

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We don't have to pray like pagans. We don't have to slice our wrist, have some blood come out.

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Remember Elijah with Baal? God's not paying any attention. I need mercy from these great gods.

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Maybe if I cut myself, he might pay attention. That's not what's happening here. You go to a Father who's the name of every created family, as it were, and you say,

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Father, I need help. I need strength. I need Christ dwelling in my heart through faith.

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Well, he goes on, Paul does, and so that's the S of Samuel. Samuel has nothing to do with Samuel, except it's just an easy name to remember.

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And Samuel was a prayer warrior, but S is strength. A is found in the next section.

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See if you can spot it. It doesn't have exact word A, so we'll use a word that's close for the memory device.

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That U at the end of verse 17, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

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That word there, comprehension, we're going to talk about apprehension, appreciation.

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That's our A. Appreciation of Christ's love for them. An apprehension. You've got monkeys with a prehensile tail.

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Ever see a monkey and they can just take their tail and swing on things with their tail? It means to come around, to grasp, and both comprehend and apprehend are a little different, but they both have that prehensile tail in there to come around and grasp.

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So the first prayer request is, God, I need strength in my inner person by your spirit through faith so Christ might dwell in my heart.

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If you don't know how to pray that, just say, God, I need strength. And the second prayer is,

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I know you love me, chapter 1, but I need to appreciate and apprehend and comprehend that love more.

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That's the A of Samuel, strength now and appreciation.

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Verse 17, I like this, he uses some metaphors. He uses some language of great interest to me.

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See if you can tell the language being rooted. What kind of language is that? Horticulture, it's planting stuff.

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And then he uses architecture and grounded or fortified or put together some foundation that you, being rooted and grounded in love, you're fortified, you're built, you're on Christ the solid rock standing.

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You're not on other ground sinking. You're rooted and grounded. The waves might be crashing over, but you have a good foundation.

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And Paul wants you, the spirit of God wants you to have strength to, verse 18, comprehend, not just solo, but with all the saints.

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And he just starts going off. What's the breadth, length, height, and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

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I want you to grasp, I want you to get a hold of, how can God love me? I was a rebel and he loved me.

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He demonstrates his own love toward us while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. But now I want you to know, dear

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Christian, Jesus died for the sins of Christians too. I think sometimes we say to ourselves,

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I think God loved me a lot more when he saved me than now when I'm a Christian and I fail and I stumble and I sin.

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Maybe he doesn't love me like he did. And what Paul says is, you need to have strength, church, and you need to understand just how much

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God loves you. I want you to apprehend that. I want you to lay hold of that, seize that.

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I'm trying to think of an illustration, a Star Trek illustration or something. Phasers, there's a target there, and what do they do with those phasers?

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Phasers? Locked on. Who said that? TV world.

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Locked on target. I have to be locked on. Okay, does God really love me?

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Because we're thinking about ourselves, and if we're honest with ourselves, you could just become depressed. Who could love someone like me?

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I want you to apprehend that. Pray. That you would understand, oh, this is the

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God of the universe that loves me? Chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, for the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.

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And notice what Paul does, he starts using these spatial objects. How many dimensions are there in sight and sound?

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How many dimensions? Three dimensions. Well, what's he doing?

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Oh, well, he's got breadth, he's got length, he's got height, and now he includes depth?

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Why would he do that? Let me just give you a little teaser. I think what Paul is going to say as we work through this, the depth of condescension of the

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Lord Jesus, Philippians 2, that he would add human nature, assume human flesh, and become a man, the condescending love of who

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God is. That's a little teaser because I think that's where he's going. How can

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God love me? And this is with the saints. How can God love us? I don't think there's a calculator with enough significant figures to figure this out.

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I don't know if there's a slide rule long enough to figure this out. If I continue the analogy, I don't know if there's an abacus, how do you pronounce it?

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I'm glad Steve did all those names today in 2 Samuel with enough beads. How can

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God love Gentiles? How can he love sinners? If I was God and sinners rebelled like that, that'd be it.

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Four -dimensional love. Let's look at the first one, breadth. What might he be saying? To know the breadth of the love of Christ, that's what he's saying we should pray for.

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The breadth. Breadth like Jews and Gentiles saved? I think so. Breadth like any person who would ever come to faith in Christ Jesus?

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Breadth enough to save every elect person? How about length? What if God stops loving me?

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I think it's long enough to last forever. But what if he just gets tired of me?

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People are married 50 years and get divorced. What would that happen? The length of the love of Christ? Jeremiah 31,

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I've loved you with an everlasting love. What about the other one? What about height?

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Is his love high enough to take me to heaven? Is it high enough to take both Jews and Gentiles to heaven?

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Seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus? And then the depth. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

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And now here is the love of God. The depth of God.

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I was so dead in sins, but the depth of God's love. I was so blind in sins, but the depth of God's love.

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I was deaf. I mean, think about the depth of God's love. We always think sin is what we do.

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Steal. But what about all the times we're supposed to be working hard? What about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?

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Loving neighbor. If you committed one sin a day, 60 years old, and of course committing so many more sins, how can

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God save 10 billion people, however many he's going to save, and they've all sinned millions of times?

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Is his son's death enough? Ephesians 3 .18

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in the NIV translates or reads, May have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

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No wonder Archbishop Cramner, for communion, would see people who were enslaved to a

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Roman Catholic system of just do, do, do, do, do. And for communion, he had something called comfortable words.

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You're here for the communion table, and I offer you comfortable words. These are the comfortable words for Christians.

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Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. These are the comfortable words of Cramner.

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God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

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These are the comfortable words. This is a trustworthy saying, deserving of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

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And his fourth comfortable word, If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Christ Jesus, the righteous.

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He is the propitiation or assuage the wrath of God for our sins, and not only ours, but also for the sins of the world.

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Paul says, pray for strength, and also pray that you can appreciate the love of Christ. John Bunyan's Christiana was getting there when she said,

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True, methinks it makes my heart bleed to think that you should bleed for me. O thou loving one,

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O thou blessed one, thou deserves to have me, thou bought me, thou deserves to have me all.

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Thou has paid for me ten times, ten thousand times more than I'm worth.

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Paul says, I want you to understand that God loves you. The depth of God's love, you know the song,

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Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made? Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade?

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To write the love of God would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.

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Oh God, that you would die for me. That you would be my rescuer, my savior, my friend.

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And to experience it corporately. So many now just say, we don't need the local church.

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Here, Paul says, I want you to understand this with verse 18, Do you see it all the same?

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Well, I know what you're doing. You say we are 33 minutes in or 36 minutes in and we've only got two.

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Now is when we get going. Ready? Engage. Number three. The S is the strength.

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A is apprehension or comprehension. M, maturity. God, give me strength.

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God, give me an appreciation of your love. God, give me maturity. And that's what he's saying here at the end of verse 19. That you may be filled with the fullness of God.

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God, I'd like you to make me mature. I'd like you to make me all that you want me to be.

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I'd like to be spiritually mature. If you met somebody and you said, that person is full of themselves.

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Well, here, he wants you to be full of what God has for you. He wants you to be Romans 8 conformed to the image of his son.

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You'd like to be mature? It depends on the Almighty. Giving us power to grasp Christ's love.

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Chapter 4 says in Ephesians, Until we all attain the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man.

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I'd like to be more mature. It's that simple. God, strengthen me. Help me appreciate the love you have for me and other

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Christians. And I'd like to be mature. Now, who could ever answer these prayers?

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For all the Christians out in the world. When I try to get an idea of how many people that God must know.

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Because He knows everyone. I go to a football stadium and there's 80 ,000 people there. He knows everyone of their thoughts before they think it.

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He knows all about them. What if they're all Christians and they're all praying at the same time. God, give me strength.

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God, give me love. I have appreciation for your love. And God, make me mature. I don't know, maybe He's all tapped out when it comes to power.

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Maybe this is over the top. Maybe this is too much to ask for. God, just get me through another day. Maybe that's a better prayer.

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You need assurance so that when you pray, Give me strength, apprehension of Christ's love and maturity.

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That He can answer. And that's what the next section shows us. Strength, appreciation, maturity.

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And now the you of Samuel. Unlimited resources. Unthinkable resources.

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Unimaginable resources. Verse 20. Now to Him who is able. Now to Him who is able to do.

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Now to Him who is able to do far more. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond what we ask.

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Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think.

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According to the power at work within us. Felt like I was preaching there for a second.

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Do you get the point? God, I need strength. He's got the power to grant it.

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John Newton said, Thou art coming to a king in prayer. Large petitions with thee bring.

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For His grace and power are such. None can ever ask too much. That's too big of a request for God.

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Reminds me of my brother. He said, My brother is a pastor, a Christian pastor. And he said,

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He ran into a guy, This was 10 years ago. Who's in youth ministry now.

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And this man said to him, I'm so thankful you're a pastor. He said, You know, I was in high school, a youth group.

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And we were learning about prayer and God's power. And we were all told, Would you pick somebody to pray for them?

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Every day for a month. An unbeliever. And pick somebody that you think,

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Humanly speaking, Is impossible to save. Because they're so sinful. And that youth pastor said to my brother,

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The senior pastor, I prayed for you. He said,

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Well, you don't know my daughter. You don't know my spouse. I don't know. They're just hardened in sin. They don't care about the gospel.

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Okay, I look at this and I think, God's able to do. God's powerful. God has the strength.

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Is any prayer too hard for God? We know the answer.

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Paul loved to just go over the top. Asking for things that seemed too great. For any person.

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I even think of Genesis 22, About God's greatness. Indeed, I will greatly bless you.

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I will greatly multiply your seed, Abraham, As the stars of heaven. As the sand which is on the seashore.

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And your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. He's able to do with great power.

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And by the way, remember verse 14, He's your father. It'd be one thing if you had the power. But you didn't care.

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It'd be another thing to have fatherly strength and power to do it. Gladly do it. No wonder

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Exodus says, Who's like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you? Fearful in praises, doing wonders.

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If you then, Jesus said, being evil, Know how to give good gifts to your children, How much more shall your father, who is in heaven,

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Give you what is good to those who ask him? Psalm says,

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Psalm 81, Open your mouth wide and he will fill it. And then finally, what are we missing?

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We've got the strength, we've got the apprehension, We've got the maturity. You're praying to this unlimited God, Who can do great things.

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And now we've got the EL. Why would I pick EL? Well, because it finishes Samuel. And when you think of EL in the

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Old Testament, What do you think about? Elohim. God the Creator.

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God the Powerful One. You see L -O -R -D in caps? God is a personal covenant -keeping

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God. That's His name. You see EL, E -L -R, Elohim, Or other versions of that,

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It means He's got power and strength. Why do we pray? What's the ultimate reason we pray?

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For God to be glorified. I want strength, yes, but it's for the glory of God.

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I want to apprehend the love of Christ. It's for the glory of God. I'd like to be mature. It's for the glory of God. And here for the

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EL, Samuel, verse 21, To Him be glory in the church,

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And in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, Forever and ever. Amen. Paul prays for a goal.

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What's the goal? What's the ultimate goal? Paul prays that God might be glorified.

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I even heard someone say this week, Never pray if it's your will, God. That's the prayer of Satan.

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I thought, no, that's the prayer of Jesus. God, if it's your will,

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That's a good way to pray. And now Paul is saying not that, Although it's true, He's saying

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God wants you to pray in this way, To receive strength, Understand God's love, To be mature,

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So that God receives all the glory. This is solely Deo Gloria. It's not for our own good,

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Not to prop us up, Not to make us look good. And then how does Paul end? It's throughout all generations,

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Forever and ever, And then he says, Amen. So be it. Lots of times things in the

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Old Testament, You'd say, well, you know what? If you don't do this, There's a malediction, a curse. Not a benediction,

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But watch out, a curse, a warning. That's not what's happening here. So be it. That's true.

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Verily, verily. I guess Paul could have said, To Him be the glory in the church, Forever and ever,

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Throughout all generations, Forever, crossing my fingers. Instead, Paul gives a doxology,

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Just like this one. Praise to the Lord. Oh, let all that is in me adore Him. All that hath life and breath,

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Come now with praises before Him. Let the Amen, Sound from His people again. Gladly, for I, we adore

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Him. Dear congregation, We understand we're elect. Jesus died for us.

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He redeemed us. He's been raised from the dead. The Spirit seals us. Even though we were dead, He made us alive.

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We now are reconciled, Jew and Gentile, One to another. We don't have to become a Jew To become a Christian. God even takes men like Paul To come preach to us,

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Because God wants us to understand The mystery of the divine revelation. He wants to understand How much we are loved by God.

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And then He prays. And so when you pray for others, You pray for me. You pray for yourself.

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This is a good template. I mean, Jesus used a template. Pray then in this way. And I think

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Samuel can help us with that. And so the S stands for what? Strength. Good. Are you sure?

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The S stands for strength. The A stands for? Apprehension. Appreciation.

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M? Maturity. U? Unlimited. And EL? Elohim. The prayer of Samuel.

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And we're going to pray that right now. Bow with me please. Father we're not on our knees

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As we sit in our pew chairs And I stand here. But with reverence and awe

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We come before you. Not just the judge. Not just the creator.

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But Father. And every family, Every Jew, Every Gentile, Every person,

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Every elect one. Because you're their father. And we would ask

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Not just a little fraction of these things But according to your riches Would you give

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Bethlehem Bible Church I think even of some of the saints Even like Carol and the

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Johnsons Would you strengthen us and them With power.

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We need to be strengthened. We're weaker than we think. We need to have

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Christ dwelling in our hearts Through faith to help us. Would you also help us to understand

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How much you could love us. That you would love us. I mean that you love the good and beautiful.

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But we were sinners and you still loved us. And now we're Christians who sin And you still love us. Would you help us to appreciate and comprehend that.

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And Father lastly We would pray that you would mature us. We want to be who we're supposed to be.

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Glory will eventually reveal that But now we'd like to be mature. We praise you together corporately

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That these prayer requests are easy for you to do. You love to answer the prayers of your children. Ask and it will be given.

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And we know when we pray for these things Often and regularly We pray for strength we even get more than that.

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We pray for apprehension of love we get more than that. And we want to do this as a body And we also want to do it so that you get the glory.

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I think of Ray. I think of Ruth. I think of the dear saints

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Judy and Bob And others here at the church. They're giving you glory now face to face. And we want to give you glory now in this generation

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And forever and ever. Amen. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth Is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church Firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word

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Through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text. Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6.

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We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org