Book of Romans - Ch. 12, Vs. 1-6 (12/12/2004)

Park Meadows Church

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Romans the 12th chapter and the first verse. We're coming down from the mountaintop and a train's going by.

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All right we're going to leave the mountaintop of Romans 11 33 through 36.

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We're now plunging down to the plane, the plane of duty.

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And it is plane duty. This is where we all live.

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We have our being. The first verse,

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I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto

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God which is your reasonable service. John what does the word beseech mean?

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Literally means to beg. Therefore because you're justified, sanctified, glorified, present unto the

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Lord to place a person or thing at one's disposal.

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Bodies. Dennis give me a description of the body.

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All right. That which casts a shadow as distinguished from the shadow itself.

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Then the word living, to be fresh, strong, efficient, active, powerful, effective.

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Sacrifice, a sacrifice offered daily as long as life lasts.

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The eye to not look at evil. The tongue to utter nothing evil.

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The hand work no evil. The ear listen to no evil.

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Now that's the no side. What is the positive side of the hand,

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Joy? To give alms.

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What is the positive side of the tongue, Greg? All right.

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Dennis, our ears, the positive side would be what?

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All right. An eye is to look at God. Then it says reasonable service, rational worship.

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Now where does this start and where where is it expressed,

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Greg? All right.

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Reasonable service, rational worship which springs from the divine soul.

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Verse two, and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

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Dennis give me a definition of conformed. All right.

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That's a good example. Is it passive or active? Compressed by the world system.

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You belong to that which you are conformed.

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All right.

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That's the word transformed. The world system.

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You don't be conformed to the world system but be ye transformed.

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Now comes the transforming which is the other side of conforming and the

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Greek word is metamorpho. Greg, what

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English word do we get from metamorpho? That's right.

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All right. Metamorpho, to change into another form, to transfigure.

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This change comes from within. Now when it comes from within, what am

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I speaking of David? Yes.

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All right. And Dennis, where did we have an example of this?

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In the Bible. All right, that's true, but we had a physical example someplace in the

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Bible. That's right. He was resplendent, flashing, luxurious, breathtaking with divine brightness on the

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Mount of Transfiguration. Renewing done by the indwelling

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Holy Spirit as we yield to him. He controls our movement.

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He controls our mental process. And then begin, we begin to take on the metamorphi as his, as this happens.

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Yes, that's right.

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You do not stand still. Yes, that's right.

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Yes. All right.

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Yes, that's right. That's right.

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And to who is it being proved?

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All right, you prove to yourself. You don't have to prove it to God.

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God knows. Now as we, as all of this happens, and it happens slowly, we'll stop doing that which we should not do.

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How do we do that, Dennis? All right, in Galatians 5 16, somebody turn over to that.

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Yes. Walk in the

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Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

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The flesh is always lustful. Sometimes, sometimes you just don't know exactly what to do.

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What is it you do know, John? Well, that's true and you know you shouldn't do it.

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But what is given to you that you do know, Russell?

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Well, every day you go tomorrow and you know you shouldn't do that.

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Well, I told you the answer then. You know what not to do.

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It never fails you know what not to do. Now if you're in a quandary about it and you don't know which way or the other, leave it alone until you do know.

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So if you stop doing that which you know you shouldn't do, then you begin doing that which you should do.

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Is that right? And you will, by the process of elimination, begin to do that which you are to do.

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Just stop doing what you should not do. You're doing something all the time anyhow.

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Is that true, David? You're doing something all the time? Absolutely. I want to stop here a minute since David has arrived and ask

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Dennis a question left over from last week. You thought he was going to escape.

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Do you have to repent to be saved, Dennis? That's not what

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I asked. Yes, that's true.

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That's true. That's true.

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No. We're having more fun out here than the rest of the class.

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You do not have to repent to be saved. That'd be you doing something.

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You see that? He's not saved.

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All right. Next question.

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Let me ask David this. Does God hear sinners?

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Does God hear sinners? For any reason?

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That's right. In John 9 31, we know that God heareth not sinners.

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John 9 31. We know that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshiper of God and do his will, him he hereth.

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That's right. That's right.

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Until you're officially his. That's right.

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Born from above. Because the devil has done a wonderful job.

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Yes. The only way they could rationalize that is,

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God, I've got them ready. Now you save them. Yes.

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Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

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Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

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Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

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Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

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Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes you all don't anymore.

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Many many people pray 15 sent

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Many many people pray 14 sent Many many people pray 14 sent salvation. or if they act like they are.

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There's other work they want to do. They want to build the church. All you can do is water and sow the seeds, and as soon as they bring the increase.

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My point to that whole long story is that there is an anger in their voice that they hear you say,

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God is sovereign. Part of that is because they gossip about the church. So if you bring up that one topic, it's likely to bring some problems to the church.

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We don't feel that way about them, but they do feel that way about us. They give their money to care homes, to the

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Catholic health thing, to give stuff away, and they'll do all that, but you just mention it.

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No need to worry about your church growing, God is sovereign. That's the position they always take.

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Let me ask you another question, since we're asking questions this morning.

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What is the difference between God saying amen, and when we say amen?

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Who wants to answer that? That's right.

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Absolutely right. When God says amen, he launches.

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Did I see a hand over here? When we say amen, we're in agreement.

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That's right. Several places, but we're in agreement with him when that happens.

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One more, and Dennis I pick on you this morning.

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Makes no difference where you sit. We talk a lot about eternity.

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When I get to eternity, when does eternity start?

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It starts now? Did you stick up a hand?

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I keep seeing a hand come up over here. That's right.

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That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right.

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That's right. That's right. That's right.

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That's right. That's right. That's right.

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That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right.

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That's right. It begins, as he said, it is as he said, and it will always be.

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Will there be any end to it, David? That's right.

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Now can you understand that? That's right.

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All right, verse 3. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

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You have the faith that you're supposed to have.

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You have the amount of faith that you're supposed to have. In Ephesians 4 and 7, but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

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Now, for I say, through the grace given unto me, to every one that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than you should, not to think of himself more highly than you should.

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John, in all of this world, whom do you love the most?

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That's the truth. We all love ourselves the most.

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Now, that doesn't mean that David wouldn't protect

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Charlotte with his life, but he loves his life the most.

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Now, let me read it again. For I say, through the grace given to me, every man that is among you should not think of himself more highly than he ought to think.

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You should think of others as much as you do yourself.

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Now, David, what will that do to your life? Then, if I love someone else as much as I do myself, there's nothing that I will not do for them.

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Is that right? For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, now your foot cannot see any more than your eye can walk.

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So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

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There are many, many bodies in this world.

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Many bodies with one soul. Is that true?

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Yes. There are many, many bodies walking around in this world.

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There are many bodies with one soul. One life.

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Yes. Yes. Yes. Picture yourself in Christ.

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You are but a member of his body. You're not the whole body.

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You're a member of his body. You are to exercise the gift you have as that member.

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Now, John, if you are, we'll use the analogy here, if you are an

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I, can you pick up something?

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You can try to pick it up, but you'll drop it. That leads me to say that we must absolutely work within the gift that I have, not something you have.

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Having then gifts different to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.

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If I am to please God, I must work within the boundaries of the gift and the abilities, whatever we have, we have received of God, not for ourself, but for the good of the church body.

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The best and most useful man in the world is no better and no worse than the spirit of God makes him each and every day.

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How do we determine the thing that we're better at than any of the others?

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How do you determine? Let's talk about this a moment. Dennis, how do you determine your gift, or have you got a gift?

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All right, David, should you like to do your gift?

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Little by little, you will slowly gravitate toward that which you like to do.

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You like to do it the very best. That's your gift. As you grow older, you'll find that you like to do certain things, and you'll finally find that you can do a certain thing.

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This is your gift. Prophecy is not foretelling.

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It is the declaring that which cannot be known by natural means.

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What do I mean by that, David? All right, we'll stop here on verse 7.

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Be sure and be here next week if you possibly can. Is there anything anyone would like to add or say?

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Yes. That's true.

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I think everybody has the Holy Spirit. So we all have the Holy Spirit, but I think everybody has the

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Holy Spirit the same, and how do you use that Spirit? You have to talk to God, and you can make the

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Spirit in a lot of things.

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You can study it, and maybe it's only logical, but it's what

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God expects of you. As it's all doable to do, it's by the nature of the Spirit. That's the only way you can do it.

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There's no other logic. Well, it's like Nancy, a student in our

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Monday night class, said a long time ago. She's in the

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Christian church, and she's saved, but it's not because of her church.

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And after class was over, she was talking to me, and I, she says, you know,

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I've always known that God was sovereign, but I didn't know how sovereign, and I'm discovering more ways every day in which

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He is sovereign. Just to say the word sovereign is one thing, but to understand it, and you only understand it little by little, well, been another good lesson.