WWUTT 501 Destined for This?

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Do you worship Jesus Christ as God and Savior? Do you know why?

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Because you were destined to, and you had nothing to do with it. God set forth that you would worship

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Him from the foundation of the world when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text studying

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God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Find all our videos online at www .wutt

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.com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Here's your teacher,

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky, and greetings everyone. Happy Eclipse Day for those of you who are in North America.

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This is the day of the great North American solar eclipse, with the shadow of the moon tracking from Oregon all the way down to the

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Carolinas. So with such a significant event happening today, we're going to preempt our usual Bible study and talk about eclipses, because boy, these things are important.

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Eclipses are a sign of judgment. The Bible says so. Actually no, that's not true at all, and I hope

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I didn't lose anybody in the last ten seconds that I've been sarcastic. Eclipses are not a sign of anything.

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They are naturally occurring phenomenon. We can track decades in advance when the next lunar or solar eclipse is going to be just by following cycles of the moon.

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In fact, you can find out when the next solar eclipse is going to be in North America after today.

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Type it into Google. Click, click, click. When's it going to be? Oh, it's going to be in 2024. It'll even tell you the next or the exact day.

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And you can find a map that will show you how the moon's shadow is going to track. We can even predict that.

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So it has no significance to any kind of prophecy or judgment.

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And I've been hearing this the last several weeks that a lunar eclipse is a sign of a judgment on Israel and a solar eclipse is a sign of judgment on the

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Gentiles. No, they're not. They're not signs of anything. You can go outside and you can look up in the sky and you can behold the beauty of God's creation where I protection, though, don't just look at the sun today, but you can you can say, wow, how beautiful it is, how marvelous

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God's design that he created the moon just the right size. So when it passes in front of the sun like that, blocking out the sun's direct rays and you can see that the atmosphere, the outer atmosphere of the sun and that Corona effect with the naked eye, you can look at those things or you can appreciate a lunar eclipse when the moon passes into the earth's shadow and it has that red rust color to it.

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But it is not a blood moon. It is not a sign of some sort of judgment coming upon anybody.

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It's just the beauty of nature, the way that God created it. And that's how we can appreciate it.

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As the latest what video illustrates the sign from heaven that we've been given is

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Jesus Christ, who said in John six, I have come down from heaven to to do the will of my father.

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So if we want to look to any sign from God, look to Jesus Christ, who is coming back again in judgment.

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Those who believe in him and do the things that Jesus did will be saved from the wrath of God.

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And those who did not know him, who did not look on the sun, who did not worship him as Christ, who did not live the life as Jesus lived, growing in holiness and righteousness and sanctification.

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But they persisted in sin. They pursued the passions of their flesh.

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They blasphemed God and instead committed with their bodies to do that, which was unnatural for those who lived in that way.

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That day will be a day of wrath and God's judgment will come upon them and they will be sent to a place of eternal torment.

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But those who are in Christ will be delivered into his heavenly kingdom, prepared for them from the foundation of the world.

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So turn from sin, believe in Jesus Christ as savior. And whether today is the day of judgment or not, you will be ready because the blood of Christ has cleansed you from your sin.

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We who are in Christ, we're destined to hear his gospel, turn from sin, believe it and proclaim the gospel to the world.

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And that's exactly what the apostle Paul illustrates to us today as we study the next part of first Thessalonians three.

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Yes, we are still doing our Bible study today. Enjoy the clip at the eclipse. Those of you who can see it and and thank you for joining me for today's

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Bible study. First Thessalonians chapter three, and I'll be reading the whole chapter. Therefore, when we could bear it no longer,

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Paul says, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone. And we sent

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Timothy, our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ to establish and exhort you in your faith that no one be moved by these afflictions for you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

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For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction just as it has come to pass.

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And just as you know, for this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

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But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us as we long to see you.

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For this reason, brothers in all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith.

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For now we live if you are standing fast in the Lord, for what

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Thanksgiving can we return to God for you for all the glory that we feel for your sake before our

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God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith.

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Now may our God and father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.

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And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we do for you so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our

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God and father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all of his saints.

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Back to verse one. Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, Paul said, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone.

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And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ to establish and exhort you in your faith.

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So remember, this was in Acts chapter 17. This was after Paul had been to Thessalonica and Berea and he came to Athens and he was teaching there.

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And he sent Timothy and Silas to go back up into Macedonia and report whether the work that was done there was effective.

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Go back to those cities where we shared the gospel. Did churches begin? Are there still is there still a body of believers that could be found?

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So remember this particular section that we're in right here. First Thessalonians chapter two, starting in verse 17 and into chapter three through about oh, verse 10 or so.

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Paul is giving a defense for why he could not come to them. He was prevented by Satan, as we read about at the end of chapter two.

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But they still wanted to know what were the were the churches there? Were they still there?

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Had they been led astray by the tempter or were they steadfast in the faith by the transformation that has occurred in their hearts by the

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Holy Spirit of God? So he says in verse one, we couldn't bear it any longer. So we decided to be separated from our missionary brothers.

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So very valuable to us wherever we are and are sharing the gospel. We let Timothy and Silas go so they would come to you and encourage you and strengthen you.

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The Lord will take care of us where we are. But we wanted to be sure that when you heard the gospel, you had indeed repented and believed it.

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And so we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith.

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So they believed Timothy was there to preach further, to establish them, meaning that they would be planted, grounded, steadfast, rooted in good soil, growing and producing fruit, exhorting you in your faith, continuing to teach some of the things that the

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Thessalonians may not have known yet because Paul's visit there was so terribly brief that no one be moved by these afflictions.

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Verse three, for you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

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Those who have turned from sin and believe in Christ and are steadfast in their faith to the end have been destined for this from the foundation of the world.

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We have been predestined to turn from sin and follow Jesus Christ.

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Not everybody, but those who have turned from sin and remain steadfast to the end. This is the destiny that was set forth for them by God, by his mercy, by his grace in Jesus Christ, our

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Lord, before the foundation of the world. Ephesians chapter one, starting in verse three, blessed be the

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God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

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He not only predestined our salvation, but our sanctification, because you cannot be saved if you're not also going to be sanctified in love.

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He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

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So it was before the beginning of time that God had predestined those he was going to save and those who would be the objects of his wrath.

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Let's go to Revelation chapter 13, verse five, where John sees the vision of the beast.

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And starting in verse five, he says, the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words and it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months.

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It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling.

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That is those who dwell in heaven. Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.

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And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation. And all who dwell on earth will worship it.

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Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who was slain.

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If anyone has an ear, let him hear those who were predestined from the foundation of the world were written in the

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Lamb's book of life. Those who were not predestined in the sense that they were not written in that book.

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Became followers of the beast. So they were predestined to worship the beast rather than destined for salvation in Christ.

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Now, how can you know if you have been predestined for salvation and not predestined for destruction?

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Worship Christ. You have a responsibility now to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and turn from your sin and believe it.

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So do that. And if you don't, and if you persist in sin and all the way to the end, you remained a rebellious, wretched, evil, blasphemous man against God, then you were not predestined for salvation, but were destined for the wrath of God.

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There are those that God has appointed for mercy and those that God has appointed for wrath, which we read about in Romans chapter nine.

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Those who are in Christ have received his mercy and those who perish under his wrath have received judgment.

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All of us will receive either mercy or justice. Nobody will receive injustice.

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All of us deserve justice. None of us deserve mercy, but it is

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God by his grace who has elected for himself a people and purified them by the blood of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins.

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It was an effective atonement. It did the work that God specifically meant for it to do, and that was to cleanse the sins of his people, those who lived before the cross and after it, all those whom

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God had predestined for eternal life with him in his eternal kingdom.

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That's whose sins have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. So again,

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I say to you, if you are asking yourself, am I forgiven my sins or not, turn from your sin and worship

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Christ. Do you believe that Christ is savior, that he died for you, that he rose again from the grave, that he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, that he is interceding for you before the father, and that when he comes again to judge the living and the dead, all those who are in Christ will be, will be resurrected to be with him forever in glory.

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Do you believe that? Then why wonder whether or not you will be partakers with the saints on that day.

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If you are a worshiper of Christ and you know him as God, then he has called you from darkness to his light.

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The reason why you believe, the reason why you see him as God and worship him is because the spirit has transformed your heart to do so.

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It is by the power of God that you know his power as God. And so rejoice that you have been given this salvation that was, it was predestined for you from before the foundation of the world.

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As Charles Spurgeon has said, I'm glad that God chose me from the foundation of the world because he certainly wouldn't have chosen me seeing me in my present state.

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The Lord foreknew us and predestined us to be shaped in the image of his son, as it says in Romans 8 30.

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So turn from sin and worship Christ the Lord. You were destined for this.

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If you know Christ as savior, if you worship him as God, you were destined for this.

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And that should cause you to worship God all the more, to praise him all the more for his glory and goodness, that he was merciful to you.

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And though you would have otherwise perished in your sins, he has saved you by his grace.

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We were destined for this, the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ, our

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Lord. Praise God, praise God. And by the sealing of the Holy Spirit that is upon our hearts, nothing, nothing can take it from you.

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No one can change the plan of God. He planned you, he destined you for salvation, for his glory.

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You can't turn it back. No one else can turn it back. You are safe and secure in his love, in Christ Jesus, who called you to himself.

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As Jesus said in John chapter 10, my sheep know my voice and they follow me and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

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My father who gives them to me is greater than all and no one can snatch them out of my father's hand.

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I and the father are one, safe and secure in the bonds of Christ.

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What else do you need to, what other reason do you need to give

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God praise? Verse four, for when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction.

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Just as it has come to pass and just as you know, for this reason, when I could bear it no longer,

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I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

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So just as we were destined for salvation, we are also destined to suffer ridicule, persecution, maybe even death for the cause of Jesus Christ.

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As Paul says, verse four, again, for when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction.

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So just as we can look into lunar cycles and see when the next eclipses are going to be, we know when the next lunar eclipse will be the next time the moon will pass behind the earth and be in the earth's shadow, which by the way, uh, the next, uh,

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North American lunar eclipse will happen next year. And I think there's only one, you know, it's not one of those tetrads again, like what

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John Hagee was talking about and Mark Blitz. But anyway, uh, false preachers, the lot of them, the, the, the next lunar eclipse will

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I think only be seen in its totality on the Western side of North America. But once again, we can predict those things just by tracking the moon.

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We know when the next eclipse is going to be. We know when the next solar eclipse is going to be.

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And so just as we can see these things in nature, so we can also know that those of us who are in Christ are destined to suffer affliction for the gospel that we believe in and teach and the godliness that we aspire to.

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The world is going to ridicule us for that and they will put us down. Paul told his brothers beforehand when we were with you, we kept telling you that we were to suffer affliction.

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So don't be surprised by this. Don't be surprised to hear that we're suffering affliction. Don't be surprised when you are suffering affliction.

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For as Paul said to Timothy, those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

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The Bible says that it is going to happen to us. So we should not be surprised when this fiery trial comes upon us as James talks about in James chapter one, instead, we are to rejoice in God, our savior, because even in the midst of this fiery trial, nothing can take our salvation from us.

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We're secure in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Our Lord God, we thank you for the word that you have given to us.

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It is by the power of this word that we turn from sin and worship Christ the Lord as holy.

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And so it is by the power of this word that we're also being sanctified, growing in holiness in the knowledge of Christ, maturing in praise to our

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God who saves us from sin and has promised us his eternal kingdom for those who endure steadfast to the end.

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But even this charge of steadfastness is not a work that we do. It is something that the spirit of God has promised to us to do in our hearts for us.

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And so Lord, as you promised in your word, if we seek, we will find, if we ask, it will be given to us.

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And so we seek you now and we ask for your presence and we ask for the steadfastness of your spirit upon our hearts, knowing that if we have asked these things in the name of Christ, you will give them to us because you said that you would.

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And we praise you for the glorious goodness that you showed to us before we were even born.

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And so in the reality of this truth that we read about in your word, how much more this should cause us to praise in any and all circumstances, good or bad, we praise the name of God for we are saved from the plight of this world and promised the eternal kingdom of Christ in whose name we pray.

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Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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And let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.