Sunday Morning, October 4, 2020, AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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Some of you may know the Boydstons. Pastor Boydston was a longtime pastor here at Sunnyside, but he passed away a few years ago, but we found out that his wife

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Corinne passed away this weekend after a long battle with Alzheimer's.

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She was surrounded by family. And although we're sad at her passing, we are rejoicing that she is now whole in body and mind, reunited with her savior and with her husband.

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So we're thankful for that. Corinne Boydston. Any other announcements this morning?

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Yes, ma 'am. Yeah, well, if there's no other announcements, we're going to have a short video on Operation Christmas Child, the

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Christmas boxes that we participate in here every year before Christmas.

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And then after that, we're going to prepare our hearts for worship, and Dwight will close us in prayer as we start our service.

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Oh, I'm sorry, Lori. Just for TAG workers.

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So if you help in TAG on Wednesday nights, there'll be a brief meeting in here after the service.

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Okay. So we're going to have that video and then have just a time of prayer and preparation.

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People need God in this village. They need the word. When I walk around this community, children were much rejected and neglected, deserted by the parents.

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My name is Batusi Ruth Tonoko. We are in Srinani Village. This is the place

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I started the church with the children. In the beginning, people from this village, they were hard -hearted to receive the gospel.

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There is lack of jobs and too much of usage of alcohol, and that's oppressing too much and giving me some challenges.

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The turning point was when we distributed gift boxes. After that,

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I saw a great impact. I've seen

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Jesus putting hope upon my children. After the distribution, many of the children gave their life to Jesus and started with the greatest vision.

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The greatest journey is so impactful because it's the word of God.

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It opens their minds and it opens their hearts.

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The greatest journey is when God is doing a great work.

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He is helping me, supporting me in the ministry. Through the greatest journey,

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God is doing a great work. Operation Christmas Child is helping me, supporting me in the ministry.

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Jehovah, we thank you, O King of Glory. As we glorify your name even today,

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King of Kings, because you are God, Almighty God. And Father, we worship you. We give you all the honor.

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We give you all the glory, Jehovah. My hope for this community in the months coming is that I see saved people who will be saving

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God wholeheartedly. We want to thank

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God for the opportunity to see a new generation of women.

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We want to thank God for the opportunity We want to thank God for his blessing. Because of the impact of the

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Jehovah's, thank you so much Samaritan's Purse. Thank you so much, Operation Christmas Child.

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Father, we have come to worship, to worship you, to sing your praises, to fellowship together in the name of your

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Son, the Lord Jesus, to pray.

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Father, in all that we do, may it be for your glory and your honor.

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Help us to focus on Christ, our Savior, your

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Son. Help us to put away the thoughts of this world and any distractions, and help us to focus on Christ, our

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Savior. And as our brother comes to preach, may he preach in the power of your spirit with simplicity and clarity, that we might understand your word, that we might see more of your

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Son, the Lord Jesus, and how much you love us. Help us to worship in spirit and in truth.

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And may our worship be a sweet -smelling savor to you.

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May you be pleased with what we do here this morning. May your people be a blessing to you, a delight.

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Help us to love you more, to serve you with more diligence, to build a kingdom, to spread the word, the gospel of your

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Son, the Lord Jesus. In his name I pray. Amen. Would you stand with me for our call to worship?

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Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 48. We'll be reading verses 9 through 11.

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Read with me together. Excuse me, let me put my glasses on.

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OK, read with me together. We have thought on your steadfast love,

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O God, in the midst of your temple. As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.

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Your right hand is filled with righteousness. Let Mount Zion be glad.

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Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments. Our first song this morning is

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Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms.

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What a blessedness, what a peace divine, leaning on the everlasting arms.

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Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms.

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Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

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Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting arms.

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Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms.

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Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms.

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Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

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What have I to dread? What have I to fear?

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Leaning on the everlasting arms. I have blessed peace with my

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Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms.

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Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms.

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Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

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Our scripture reading this morning comes from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy chapter 21.

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Start in verse 1 and go to the end of the chapter. So this is perhaps one of the more unfamiliar sections of Deuteronomy.

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There are parts of Deuteronomy that we know quite well, but this is one perhaps that we aren't nearly as familiar with.

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So Deuteronomy chapter 21. If in the land that the

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Lord your God is giving you to possess, someone is found slain lying in the open country and it is not known who killed him, then your elders and your judges shall come out and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities.

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And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that is not pulled in a yoke.

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And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.

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Then the priests, the sons of Levi shall come forward for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the

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Lord. And by their word, every dispute and every assault shall be settled. And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley and they shall testify, our hands did not shed this blood nor did our eyes see it shed.

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Accept atonement, oh Lord, for your people Israel whom you have redeemed and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people

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Israel so that their blood guilt be atoned for. So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst when you do what is right in the sight of the

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Lord. When you go out to war against your enemies and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and you desire to take her to be your wife and you shall bring her home to your house.

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She shall shave her head and pair her nails and she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month.

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After that, you may go into her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants but you shall not sell her for money nor shall you treat her as a slave since you have humiliated her.

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If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved and both the loved and the unloved have born him children and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the unloved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved who is the firstborn.

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But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved by giving him a double portion of all that he has for he is the firstfruits of his strength.

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The right of the firstborn is his. If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives and they shall say to the elders of his city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious.

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He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones.

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So you shall purge the evil from your midst and all Israel shall hear and fear.

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And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree but you shall bury him the same day for a hanged man is cursed by God.

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You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

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This is the word of the Lord. Would you pray with me? Lord, as we read this passage of scripture this morning, it reminds us that you are a holy

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God and that we are a sinful people and as such, we need your grace and your mercy.

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Lord, we pray that indeed you would hear our prayers, that you would heal our land, that you would forgive our sin and Lord, our only hope of forgiveness is in the one who was hanged on a tree, who became a curse for us, who bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might be cleansed and forgiven and that his righteousness, the righteousness of the perfect son of God would be credited to our account, would be imputed to us.

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Lord, our only hope is in Christ and so we look to you and we give you thanks for your mercy in Jesus.

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Lord, help us today to worship you and to glorify your name and give you thanks for Christ our

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Savior. We give you glory, honor and blessing.

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In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. We rejoice with the

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Gathright and Barcelo families today that another sister in the

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Lord coming into the family of God and so Lisa's out witnessing her baptism of her niece and mom is still in Southwest Mansion with her back.

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So we're thankful that Brother Red is playing our piano this morning. Thank you, Brother Red. And so our next, we're gonna continue our song service.

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If you would turn to page 527 and five, well, five.

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Yes, 527 and then after we sing glory to his name, then we'll go across the page to 526.

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So, and also we're gonna be singing a couple of verses together. So just watch for that.

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I'll tell us when we get to that point. ♪

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Cross where my Savior died ♪ ♪ Down where for cleansing from sin

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I cried ♪ ♪ There to my heart was the blood applied ♪ ♪

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Glory to his name, glory to his name ♪ ♪

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Glory to his name, glory to his name ♪ ♪ There to my heart was the blood applied ♪ ♪

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Glory to his name, glory to his name ♪ ♪ I am so wondrously saved from sin ♪ ♪

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Jesus so sweetly abides within ♪ ♪ There at the cross where he took me in ♪ ♪

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Glory to his name, glory to his name ♪ ♪

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Glory to his name, glory to his name ♪ ♪ There to my heart was the blood applied ♪ ♪

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Glory to his name, glory to his name ♪ ♪ Oh precious fountain that saves from sin ♪ ♪

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I am so glad I have been to him ♪ There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean ♪

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Glory to his name This is verse four, the count.

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♪ His name ♪ Glory to him ♪

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Rich and sweet ♪ Cast your poor soul at the Savior's feet ♪

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Plunged into day of be made complete ♪ Glory to his name ♪

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Glory to his name ♪ Glory to his name ♪

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There to my heart was the blood applied ♪ Glory to his name

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And then all that thrills my soul, and we'll sing, when we get down to verse four and five, we'll sing them together.

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♪ Who can cheer the heart like Jesus ♪

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By his presence so divine ♪

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True and tender, pure and precious ♪

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Oh, how blessed to call him mine ♪

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All that thrills my soul is Jesus ♪

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He is more than life to me ♪

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And the fairest of 10 ,000 ♪

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In my blessed heart I sing ♪

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Love of Christ so freely given ♪

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Grace of God beyond degree ♪

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Mercy higher than the heaven ♪

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Deeper than the deepest sea ♪

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All that thrills my soul is Jesus ♪

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He is more than life to me ♪

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And the fairest of 10 ,000 ♪ In my blessed heart

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I sing ♪ What a wonderful shine ♪

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Never my sin, though red like crimson ♪

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Can be whiter than the snow ♪

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All that thrills my soul is Jesus ♪ He is more than life to me ♪

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And the fairest of 10 ,000 ♪

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In my blessed heart I sing ♪

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His hands supplying ♪ And I sing ♪

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His strength divine relying ♪

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He is all in all to me Verse five.

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♪ Crystal flowing river ♪

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Ransomed I will sing ♪ And forever and for ever ♪

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Praise and glorify the King ♪ My soul is

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Jesus ♪ He is more than life to me ♪

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And the fairest of 10 ,000 ♪

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In my blessed heart I sing This morning, it's been a few years since Julie and I were at college together in the

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Department of Electrical Engineering at OU. But Julian was a pastor down in Norman for several years, and now he's gonna be preaching the word with us today, so thank you.

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It's good to be with you this morning. I'm very much honored and appreciative of the invite to be here, and appreciate

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Michael's ministry so deeply, and so thankful to you for your warm reception of me and my family.

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We've felt very much at home here, and it's quite a joy to be in your midst.

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This morning, I'd like to speak about a matter that meets us all in different ways and to various degrees, but it is under the heading of the fact that God gives more grace than our disappointments can exhaust.

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God gives more grace than our disappointments can exhaust. And as we contemplate that, let's turn to the

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Lord in prayer. Precious Father, we come to you in the name of your blessed and living

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Son. He is the one who thrills our souls.

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More than anything else in this world, Christ is all and all to us. And we praise you for such a high priest, such a sufficient

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Savior, one who has entered behind the veil to prepare a way for us.

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And we praise you, Lord, that he has successfully entered there, and he will successfully bring each and every one of us who have believed on his name home to your presence forever.

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And Lord, we come to this hour to contemplate difficult things, and yet rich and marvelous things, because your grace is always so super abounding.

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And we pray that as we launch on this hour together, that you would constrain our hearts and our minds to be engaged in your word, to draw near to your

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Son, that you would enable me and constrain my lips and even my manner to not detract from your glory, but to set it forth in a way that is faithful and true.

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And so, Lord, we ask these things for the sake of your great and glorious name, for the good of your people, for the honor of your

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Son. And we ask them, believing in Christ's name. Amen.

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A daughter that is a senior this year at OBU, and thankfully she has been there for the last couple of years on a track and field scholarship.

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I say thankfully. You probably know what I mean. And also thankfully, as I contemplate the disappointment that the tuition bill brings,

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I also have the blessing that she is participating in sports and carries some of the weight of that bill.

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And then what she doesn't carry goes to OBU, and my other daughter, Heather, gets a salary out of that.

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So, I'm thankful for those blessings. Well, this daughter has been striving over a track career, field career for the last several years.

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This is her senior year, and she has done very well. She's driven and been diligent and faithful in trying to give her all for Christ and His glory, for the good of her school, and just for the personal satisfaction that comes with knowing she gave her all as she was challenged and encouraged to do, as she agreed to do when she took this scholarship.

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And it's been further made difficult because she suffered an injury that she's had to overcome in meeting her track responsibilities, but she's excelled in it.

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And she has set a school record and was coming up on this, her last year of eligibility, in hopefulness that she might better that record.

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She might have some glimmer of hope at a Nationals event. And then

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COVID hit, and the announcement came that the 2020 track and field season is canceled.

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Now, for me, things like that I just tend to roll with, and I just roll on.

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And it's difficult for me to appreciate how deeply that affected her because there had been so much investment leading up to it.

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So many hours in the gym and in the field, so much pain, so much sacrifice.

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And in the moment that she had opportunity, hopefully, to shine, it all vanished.

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What would it have been like for Moses when he's standing there on Mount Pisgah, having led the people of Israel all these years with such sacrifice, with such diligence, with such care, with so many wrestlings with God over these people that God had given him charge to care for.

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And then in those moments on Mount Pisgah, to look over the land and all that that land means in terms of what would have been a successful ministry.

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And for a moment of public unfaithfulness and rashness, he's not going to lead them in.

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How about Joseph? Having been given the prophetic word that he would be raised up to a seat of leadership and power.

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And then, ever since then, everything has gone wrong. Time and time again, in those pivotal moments when he needed someone to stand for him, someone to care for him, someone to just tell the truth about him, it was never there.

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And then he rots in a prison for years. Maybe not rot so much because he is a believer in Christ and Christ sustained him there.

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Maybe our disappointments are not quite so great as these. Maybe they're not as humongous as Moses and Joseph's were.

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But are our disappointments not much like my daughter's? Still real and still painful.

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So what is it in your life? Are there major aspects of life in this world for you that you often feel disappointed and unfulfilled in?

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Even if you are a Christian and you have found ultimate fulfillment in Christ, are there still areas in life that burden and trouble you because certain limitations prevent you from realizing and experiencing the things that God himself declares are valuable and worthy?

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Maybe you lack fulfillment in your career. You believe that you were made for so much more than what you're doing right now.

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But you haven't found the connections that you need to get into that area of work or you lack the degree that is required or you faithfully apply again and again and every time it comes back rejection.

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It seems there is a wall between you and the career you dreamt of and you long for the whole new level of fulfillment it would bring if you could just be granted the opportunity to prove yourself.

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Maybe you lack fulfillment in the area of being able to do the things that you would like to do.

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You would like to get up and go about serving Christ and helping his people, witnessing to the lost, going places, being active and experiencing the grandeur of his creation.

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But you're limited by injury or mobility or by health conditions.

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It's not that you long to be able to be free and active for evil purposes. You would just like to be involved in the possibilities that are before you and would use your freedoms for Christ's glory.

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But they are out of reach for you. Maybe you sometimes wonder how you can do anything beneficial anymore.

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You can't do what you used to do and the things that so prominently measured your success in the past are no longer practical given your current limitations.

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Maybe you lack fulfillment in marriage or having children, things Christ has certainly ordained and are often preached about and magnified as the highest picture of Christ's love for his church.

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You're told there are ways of seeing Christ and his love that come through marriage and children that don't come other ways.

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But you have no spouse or even a prospective spouse.

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How then are you supposed to deal with all the exaltation of marriage when it is beyond your reach?

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Or maybe you are married and you cannot have children. Though you long to enter into this experience of knowing

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Christ in ways that come through raising children, it is beyond your reach and you can't touch it.

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Or it could be the lack of fulfillment that comes from being in a bad marriage where a marriage was intended to be and laid out as being in the scriptures and what it is exalted to be there is not what your spouse is willing to embrace.

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And for all your efforts, you can't make them change. What are we supposed to do with these disappointments that strike us so deeply and have such profound effect upon our lives?

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Let's turn to the scriptures. I'm reading from 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 1 through 10 if you would follow me there.

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Paul says, I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it.

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I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven.

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Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise.

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Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

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On behalf of this man, I will boast. But on my own behalf, I will not boast except of my weaknesses.

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Though if I should boast, if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool for I would be speaking the truth, but I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

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So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

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Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me,

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My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

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Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

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For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

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For when I am weak, then I am strong. You see,

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Paul is telling us that God has this way about him, such a faithful and a generous and a gracious way that he has of making up for our limitations in other areas.

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God makes up for our limitations in other areas. Have you ever noticed how children afflicted with Down syndrome or other debilitating conditions always seem to have other areas of special ability?

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Maybe they are especially loving and affectionate, or they are amazing in their desire to be helpful and to serve people.

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Those born blind, or some are often gifted with acute hearing ability. Those born without a limb may have amazing dexterity with their other limbs, even able to drink from a cup with their toes.

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The same is true in your life as a believer. Wherever your limitations are,

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God has given you an abundance in other areas. When God withholds in one area,

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He gives extra in others. We find here something interesting about Paul's condition.

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Clearly, he had a significant limitation in his life. He calls it a thorn in the flesh.

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The scriptures don't go into detail about this condition, but it could have been a problem with his eyes, because he mentions in Galatians that it was because of physical infirmity that he preached the gospel to them, and goes on to mention how deep their care was for him, that if they could have, they would have gouged out their own eyes and given them to him.

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And it's interesting, isn't it, that it was as if scales were over his eyes at his conversion, and as he came to know

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Christ, those scales were dropped, and now he has a trouble with his physical eyes, quite possibly.

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And there's a gracious tie in that, if that's what it is he's speaking of. But whether this thorn in the flesh was an eyesight problem or something else, it was certainly a limitation that Paul very much wanted to be relieved of.

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He pleaded with God to remove it three times, and the Lord was unwilling to. Paul, the man who worked miracles to remove other people's limitations, could not work a miracle here to remove his own, because miracles are in the hands of God, not in the hands of the one through whom they come.

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And so it was God's good pleasure that this limitation remain.

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What then was the extra that was given to Paul? If indeed God gives extras in other areas, and abundant extras as such, what are those extras that we find in the passage?

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Well, they come at the beginning of the passage. As an apostle and a prophet through whom

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God would give us most of the New Testament, it was important that Paul should see the throne room of heaven, much in the same way that Isaiah needed to see the throne room of heaven in order to give a proper spirit to his inspiration and the means by which the word of God would come through these men.

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It was important that they see these things. And so Paul was caught up, not to the first heaven where the birds fly, or the second heaven where the stellar bodies are, but the third heaven where the

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Lord dwells. And there he saw the Lord, like Isaiah, high and lifted up, things unspeakable, things he could not share.

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And it was an incredible extra, a profound extra, like none of us will ever see in this life.

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But there is the extra for Paul. When God gives limitations, he also gives extras in other areas.

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For Paul, the extra was to be the author of most of the New Testament and to see the throne room of heaven.

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How many extras did God work in the life of Moses? How much of himself did he give to Moses?

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What was Moses known for? The man who goes into the presence of God and speaks with him.

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How about Joseph? How many extras were given to Joseph? How much richness came beforehand and how much richness came later?

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And how is it not true in your life also? If we could look at the book of your life and we could examine not only the limitations that you struggle with and you wrestle with, what if we went looking for the extras?

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What would we find? Would we not find plenty and many, constant and unfailing, because this is the

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God with whom we have to do? He's gracious always. He never leaves us short.

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He may short us in a particular area because that is needed, but he does not leave us short everywhere.

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He who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?

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Two things are significant about Paul's limitations. First is the reason for which the limitations were allowed in his life.

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Let us not forget the Lord graciously and lovingly superintends everything about our lives.

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He says not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from him, and the very hairs of our heads are numbered as his children.

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When limitations come, they always come with his loving purposes attached to them.

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They always come for good reason and never as a random matter of chance that is void of meaning and purpose.

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In Paul's case, the thorn in the flesh came to protect him against his own self -destruction and the blemishing of the gospel.

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As we read in verse 7, So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

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Can you see the loving and the kind purpose behind this limitation?

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How gracious and how wise it was of the Lord toward him.

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Now think for a moment about your limitations. Have you considered the gracious purposes that the

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Lord has behind them? What does the Lord intend to accomplish through them in your life?

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Or maybe it is a matter of what these limitations might be protecting you from. Maybe they are meant to direct you into other areas of activity or service that you would not choose otherwise.

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A man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps. Should we not look for the extra he has given us and give our hearts and energy there?

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Let us give him our love and attention in those areas where he has been so generous and we will have far less energy to bemoan our limitations.

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Maybe you can see God's purposes in the disappointments right away or maybe they are not so clear at the moment.

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But knowing the character of God, the unfailing magnitude of his love for each of his children, can you be sure that such kind purposes do exist behind your limitations whether you can recognize them or not because of who you know him to be.

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He is always faithful. He is always generous. He is always good. He is always gracious.

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Even when the limitations come, they are meant to give us more of himself.

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The second notable thing about Paul's limitation is the promise that comes with every limitation in a

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Christian's life. But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

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Here is the assurance that everything we need to prosper in relationship to Christ will be given to us no matter what the disappointment or limitation is.

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We may not have what others have. We may not even have what almost everyone else has.

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We may be missing some significant things and our limitations may be large.

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But where we are limited, God will supply us with everything we need in other areas and by other means.

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In this way, the abundant supply that he gives is clearly seen to be from his hand and not from our own.

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His power is therefore exalted rather than being credited to our own power.

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Paul may not have been able to get around so freely, whether it was his eyes or some other physical limitation.

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But what did God grant him with the limitation? He granted him a deep and dependent relationship with himself.

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Paul's greatest strengths lay in his knowledge of Christ and his personal relationship with him.

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He was a man taught of God partially because he couldn't rely on his own brilliance now the way that he used to.

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And Paul was a brilliant man. Now he had to rely on someone to go with him, someone to help him around.

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This limitation and dependence sent him more constantly to Christ in communion for the relief of his frustrations, for wisdom and strength to carry out his calling.

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He was pressed to humility in communion with Christ. And in this communion, his strength was found and poured out in the power of the gospel going into all the world and so much of the

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New Testament being written. That is God's grace making up for his limitations.

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What about your limitations? What has God given you in other areas?

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In discouragement, we might say, I don't see that he has granted me anything that's particularly strong.

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However, that is not true. He always gives more.

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More than we deserve, even more than we need, we find in him. We may not have what we think we need in certain areas, but we have more than we need elsewhere if we have a personal relationship with him.

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He himself is always more than all we need. In our weaknesses, we are compelled to come to him and to find in him strength on our behalf.

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Able and willing to rescue us time and time again. Rescuing us from our pride, our self -confidence, our self -direction, our self -dependence, which in every case would ultimately lead to our self -destruction.

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Granting us hope in the midst of our hopelessness, grace in our emptiness, and strength in our weakness.

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And out of this communion with him, we find there are other things outside of our limitation that we can do.

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We may not be able to perform in the area of our limitations, but we can perform elsewhere.

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We cannot do everything others might do, but we can do something. And that thing is what he makes us strong and able to do, and we must do that with all our heart.

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Don't focus on what you can't do for Christ, but on the things you can do, and do them with all your heart for the glory of his name.

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Notice also the fullness of everything this life offers is found in heaven.

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The fullness of all this life, of all this life, has to offer will be fulfilled in heaven.

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God delights to give his children good things in Christ. When we think about our limitations, it's easy to come to the conclusion that we may just have to make peace with never being able to experience some of the good things

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God has given to his children in this life. You know what I'm talking about.

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There are certain things that I have to contemplate. Will I ever be able to go there or to have that or to experience that ever?

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I may never have it ever in this life. We tend to think there are good

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God -ordained things that my limitations prevent me from ever having hope of partaking of.

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However, such thoughts do not rightly credit the Lord with his true character.

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If you think about living this life as a believer in Christ and somehow in the end being cheated, you're not thinking rightly about Christ.

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That's not who he is. That's not what he does. These thoughts don't rightly credit the

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Lord with the true nature of his love and his character. The scriptures teach us that heaven will be the righting of every wrong and the making equal of every injustice.

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It will be the fullness of every blessing possible, all rightly enjoyed in relationship to the

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Lord. There will be no regrets in heaven, nothing seen of our past life that leaves a single saint feeling deficient, shorted, or left out.

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In heaven, there will be no marriage or giving in marriage, but all that marriage did on earth to help us experience being valued and cared for and treasured and even made to feel these things and the sensations of our bodies will be realized in heaven in its fullness.

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These are a picture. There is the fullness. Not in the form of marriage and sexual union, but in something even better.

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A union with Christ and his people that produces the highest and most pure forms of love, acceptance, care, and delight not just from a spouse, but from the whole of God's people.

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We won't lose a spouse in heaven. We will gain the same level and an even greater level of love and communion being united with all

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God's people. Not sexually, but in spiritual ways that are even more fulfilling.

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In feeling this love in our bodily or if, if feeling that kind of love in our bodily sensations is needed there in order to bring fulfillment, then we will feel it without uncleanness or impurity with it doing nothing to take us away from Christ or put us at a distance from him in our shame, but bringing us to him in love and glory and thankfulness.

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In the end, there is nothing this earth offers the Christian in terms of fulfillment which we might miss in this life that we will not realize in the next.

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In heaven our relationships will be perfect, full, and satisfying.

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Our bodies will work perfectly and take us everywhere we want to go without pain or physical limitation and we'll be able to perform everything we want to do.

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Now before you think, well, I want to be a superhero, in heaven you won't want to be one.

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You want to be like Christ the Lord and you will want to do his will so everything you want to do in heaven, your body will be able to perform without limitation.

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Our careers will be perfectly fitting for our gifting and we will be able to perform them without any limitation.

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This is part of what Peter had in mind when he says in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 13 1

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Peter 1 13 Therefore preparing your minds for action and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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Set your hope fully upon the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. When does that revelation occur?

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Either when Christ returns and we all are received into his glory in heaven or when we depart this life prior to that and our spirits make their flight to him in heaven.

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The fullness of the grace that is to be brought to us is realized in heaven and we are to set our hope there.

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Setting our hope there means it alleviates our disappointments here. That's its purpose.

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Don't think you'll be cheated on any level because of the things you did not experience in this life.

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Everything you need to experience to no fulfillment you will experience there.

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What is this grace that is given to us in that day? The wiping away of every tear of shame or sorrow.

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Being glorified together with Christ so that we share in the glory that belongs to him and being made to partake of his glory we will realize and feel what it means to be glorified.

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This will be our experience there. We will know and realize and feel what it means to be glorified.

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Not in a self -glorifying way by which we make ourselves idolaters but in the glorifying way that God gives to those he loves in his son and makes them partakers with him in his glory.

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You know, Peter says humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.

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This is the exaltation and it is incomparable and this life offers nothing that comes anywhere close to that.

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So let us look to the grace that is coming. Let us hope there.

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Let us pass over the limitations and the sense of pain and loss that may be real and painful but we have something more to look to that will satisfy us there and everything we seem shorted here will be met there to extra degree.

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The realization in heaven of perfect and complete fulfillment. We will have every right thing we ever desired and we will be satisfied then and there with those things when we enter and forever.

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Our satisfaction will never end. Our fulfillment will never end. Forever. Can you rest your hope on this grace?

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Can you set yourself to live out the time of your sojourning here in godly fear with hope and diligence knowing that all your legitimate unsatisfied longings that have been limited here will be satisfied there.

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Can you rest your hope upon that reality? You may remember the hymn

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Come ye disconsolate. Let me read you a few verses from that hymn.

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Come ye disconsolate where 'er you languish come to the mercy seat fervently kneel here bring your wounded hearts here tell your anguish earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal joy of the comfortless light of the straying hope of the penitent fadeless and pure here speaks the comforter tenderly saying earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot cure here see the bread of life see waters flowing forth from the throne of god pure from above come to the feast of love come ever knowing earth has no sorrow but heaven can remove.

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I'd like for us to bow our heads if you would and we'll have just a minute or two of reflection.

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This is the time to do business with Christ concerning these things that he declares to us.

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We need to bring our disappointments to his footstool. We need to bring the sense of our limitations before him and plead his love over them.

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We need to plead over our disappointments his faithfulness and his wisdom and his goodness to deliver us in so many ways from our own destruction and we need to find there we need to find there at his footstool and discover the abundance the extras that he has already given us and we need to avail ourselves of them.

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Precious Father we come to give ourselves to you afresh and anew with renewed zeal and vigor with renewed hope and thankfulness.

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Lord we want to thank you for the limitations that you have granted us because we know they come from your love.

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We know they come from your purposes that are always good and according to our need.

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The Lord does not afflict willingly he afflicts according to our need as 1st

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Peter says the fiery trial that is here to try you if necessary.

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And so Lord if we encounter trouble we know from your word that it must be necessary for us and we can therefore receive it with thanksgiving and give you praise and give you honor and look for the way of escape that you always give.

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We praise you Lord that you never fail us. You always come to us. You always bring us the help of heaven.

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The help of your infinite strength and your infinite love. And we praise you for it.

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In Christ's name. Would you stand with me for our song of addiction.

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I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God.

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I've been washed in the fountain cleansed by his blood.

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Joy tears with Jesus as we travel this side.

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For I'm part of the family the family of God.

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Let's sing that again. I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God.

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I've been washed in the fountain cleansed by his blood.

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Joy tears with Jesus as we travel this side.

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For I'm part of the family the family.

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I'm thankful for Julian preaching this morning and reminding us of God's faithfulness.

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And that he is near to the broken hearted. He provides grace in every moment and that we have an ultimate thing to look forward to.

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To heaven. To the presence of the Lord. So let me dismiss you with this benediction from the end of the book of Hebrews.

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Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with every good thing that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever.