Sermon
The Most Influential People in the World
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Good morning folks, great to see you. Let me encourage you to have Romans chapter 5 open in front of you.
Romans 5 chapter mention
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And we're going to be dipping in and out of these verses this morning.
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But just to get us thinking, maybe read those verses and you think, why on earth are we going back to Genesis?
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What does Romans mean? To get us on the right track this morning, I want you to turn to your neighbour for 30 seconds.
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And I want you to ask them who, in their opinion, is the most influential person who exists today.
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Okay, not powerful, influential. Who is the most influential person in our world today?
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And see what you come up with, okay? Go for it.
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Excellent. I'd love to hear the variety of answers that people said, but in the interest of time we'll move on.
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I don't know if you've ever read Time Magazine. Time Magazine is one of the most influential publications of our day.
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And every year Time Magazine publishes a thing which they call the Time 100.
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And the Time 100 is a list of the hundred people who, in their opinion, are the greatest influencers in our world today.
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So let me just give you some names that have cropped up over the last few years in the Time 100.
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And see if these, I don't know whether they will or not, but see whether these names are some of the names that you said.
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So, we've got names like this. We've got Michelle Obama. Anyone say Michelle?
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No? One? Yeah, Michelle Obama. Here's the next one. Tiger Woods.
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Tiger Woods. It's been a good year for Tiger, hasn't it? Who saw that coming? I didn't.
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Tiger Woods. We also have Kate Middleton. Yeah? No? No sticking Kate.
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Okay. Here else we've got. We've got Mark Zuckerberg. Influential. No?
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Clearly we don't read Time Magazine, do we? There we go.
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Give me a few more. We have George Clooney.
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These are influencers, remember? People who are influencing people in our culture.
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People who are looking to. We've got Oprah.
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They said Oprah.
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Let's see who else we've got. Queen Bee. There she is.
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Beyoncé.
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And another one that we have. Well, we've got two more. Actually, let me give you this one.
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Mo Salah. Okay?
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Good week for Mo Salah, let me tell you.
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Last one that we have, and believe it or not, this individual has made it to the list.
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We'll see how this goes down. We have. We have Taylor Swift.
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So, these are the people that Time Magazine have identified
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as being some of the greatest influencers in our world today.
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So, these are the people, according to them, are the people that influence people
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and who people look to and who people take their cue off.
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And here's what I want to say to you about Romans chapter 5 as we head into it this morning,
Romans 5 chapter mention
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is that in Romans chapter 5, we're going to meet two of the most influential people in the world.
Romans 5 chapter mention
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The two most influential people in the world.
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This is Romans chapter 5. Let me introduce you to them.
Romans 5 chapter mention
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In the one corner, we've got Adam, the very first human being, as we'll come on to see,
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that God made in his image.
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In the other corner, we've got Jesus.
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The two most influential people our world has ever seen.
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And so influential are these two individuals that every single human being
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who has ever lived or who will ever live,
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finds themselves in one of these two teams,
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finds themselves living the whole of their lives under the influence of one of these two individuals.
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Now, it was Puritan Thomas Goodwin who said this.
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This was his observation of Romans 5.
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In God's sight, there are only two men, Adam and Jesus Christ.
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And these two men have all other men hanging at their girdle strings.
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So he's identifying the fact that the whole of humanity finds themselves in one of these two teams.
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And what we're going to do today is we're going to think about these two men.
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And we're going to think about what they did.
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We're going to think about the influence that they have.
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We're going to think about the difference that each of them makes to us.
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And what we'll see is that these two individuals, Adam and Jesus Christ,
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are the greatest influencers our world will ever know.
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And if you've got Romans 5 there, verse 19, put it on the screen for us.
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This is kind of where the money is, right?
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This is the memory verse.
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If you're into memory verses, it's a dying art, but I love it.
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This is the one that's going to take us right to the heart of this message.
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So let me tell you about Adam.
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And particularly, let me tell you about Team Adam's problem.
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And someone pointed out to me this week, and I heard my little girl singing it this morning,
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Adam's story, if you think about it, is a lot like Humpty Dumpty's.
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Okay, I've not lost the plot, stick with me.
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Adam's song is a lot like Humpty Dumpty.
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So if you just take Humpty Dumpty and you replace it with the original Adam,
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you'll begin to see what I mean.
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Right, if you don't believe me, let's go and we'll see how this works.
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Here's how Adam's story goes.
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Original Adam sat on a wall, right?
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So things started so well for Adam, the very first human being that God made in his image.
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God takes him, God creates him in the Garden of Eden,
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sets him there to develop, to care for the world which God made.
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And in the Garden of Eden, we have this glorious, harmonious relationship between creator and creation,
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between God and man.
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Glorious harmony.
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And so God creates Eve, the very first woman, who together with Adam,
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forming this complementary team, God declares this is very good.
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This is brilliant.
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This brings me glory.
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And it was, it was glorious.
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Yes.
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And as we heard earlier, there's one stipulation from God.
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God said, out of all the beautiful trees in the garden,
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there's one tree which I don't want you to eat from.
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It's called the knowledge of good and evil.
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That's why I've called this tree.
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And I don't want you to eat from it.
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Don't want you to touch it.
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And here, as it were, was God saying to his dream team, Adam and Eve,
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here he is saying, I want you to show me that you love me.
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I want you to show me that you trust me because I want you to obey what I'm telling you to do.
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Because then I'll know.
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Right?
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And this is the heart of true biblical obedience.
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It stems from a true love for God, a deep love of God that's just got all of us.
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And it flows from this new desire that God has given us with these new hearts that beat for him,
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that wants to do his will.
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So God says, that's how I want you to show me that you love me.
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Just obey what I'm saying.
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And of course, along comes Satan who sows that seed of doubt in Eve's mind.
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And he says, did God really say that?
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Did God really say that?
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I mean, no matter where you put the emphasis on in that verse,
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he's got that feeling of somebody trying to sow the seed of doubt in Eve's mind.
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Did God really say that?
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Did God really say that?
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Did God really say that?
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Did God really say that?
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Did God really say that?
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And we see what he's doing.
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Can you really trust him?
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Is he not giving you a raw deal?
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Who is this God?
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Do you think you really know him?
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Because if he did, surely he wouldn't put this stipulation in your path.
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So here's the choice that Adam faces at this point in the story.
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It's the one task with taking the lead here.
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Will it be God's way or will it be my way?
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That's the choice.
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Will it be God's way or will it be my way?
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And of course, Adam goes for my way.
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And original Adam had a great fall.
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The two of them, they're banished from the garden.
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And that's what Paul means.
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Have you got the text there, verse 12, when he says,
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Through Adam and because of his disobedience, sin entered the world.
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It's funny because after this point in the Bible story,
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As you read on after Genesis 3, we start to get words like shame,
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And guilt, and murder, and envy, and rage.
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It's the entire world.
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This is what the author is trying to tell us.
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The entire world, not just Adam and Eve,
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The entire world feels the effect of this brokenness.
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All stemming from that broken relationship with its creator.
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And when you put it like that, all of a sudden,
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You begin to see that we're entering our world now.
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This is the world in which we live.
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And Adam's mindset, do you see it in verse 12?
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It's spread to all people.
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This is a biblical theologians call original sin.
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It's spread to all people.
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Now, if you needed proof of that,
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Let me tell you about a tweet that I read this week.
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From the co-op funeral directors.
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And apparently in 2018, for the first time ever,
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According to them,
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A hymn wasn't the most requested song to be played at a funeral.
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Do you know what it was?
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The winner?
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Frank Sinatra song,
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I Did It My Way.
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That is the most played song, according to them, at their funerals.
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This is what their clients want.
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I Did It My Way.
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And how tragically ironic is that?
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Because what this passage tells us
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Is that the reason death so painfully exists in the first place
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Is because we wanted it our way.
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And our world, doesn't it,
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It dresses up death in phrases like
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They're now sleeping with the angels.
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Or they are in a better place.
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Or aren't they looking down on us from the stars.
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All the while trying to dress up death as if it's natural.
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And God would tell us in His Word,
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How loving of Him to give us His Word,
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That we could know this,
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That death is anything but natural.
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But you see, friends,
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By very nature, we're all in this team.
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By very nature, we are all in this team.
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The consequences, look at it here.
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Verse 16.
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Condemnation.
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Guilty before our Creator God.
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Hopeless.
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Deserving of His judgment.
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That's what it says.
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And as a result, the destination for all of us,
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Verse 12, by nature,
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Is death.
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Spiritual death.
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Because we are separated from our God,
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From our Creator because of our sin.
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Which leads ultimately to physical death.
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And it's the thing that will happen to 100% of us here today.
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And 100% of the people who live,
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We rub shoulders with every day in our world.
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And it's the thing that causes so much pain,
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Tears and heartache.
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I remember when I worked at a law firm down south,
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Every month, the entire staff team,
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We were sent this email,
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And we had to vote on a charity of the month
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Who we wanted to support.
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So they gave us a short list of five or six,
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And we had to vote for the one that we wanted to choose.
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And nine times out of ten,
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The charity of the month was a medical charity.
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Nine times out of ten,
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Always a medical charity.
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So, Cancer Research UK,
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Marie Curie,
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Bristol Children's Hospital,
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Wonderful organisations,
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Doing wonderful work.
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But it's,
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I remember looking at it and thinking,
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That is so telling to me,
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That death is something that we feel the effects of every day,
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And it's a thing that we would love a cure to.
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But the thing is,
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That left to ourselves,
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We have,
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Try as we might,
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And by God's common grace,
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We pray that there are advances in medicine,
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But left to ourselves,
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There's no answer to that question.
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I was speaking to a friend of mine recently,
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Who works in medical research,
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And he was telling me that,
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How at the minute,
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He's feeling greatly unenthused,
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About what he does.
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And the reason was,
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Because no lack of funding,
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Or no lack of opportunities,
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According to him,
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As he can view it,
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That no one's coming up,
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With any significant breakthroughs.
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Now let's,
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Don't hear me wrong,
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I'm not talking about medical research,
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Being a bad thing,
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It's a great thing,
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And we pray by God's common grace,
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That we would,
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Make advances in that field.
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But friends,
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If that's where your hope is,
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If that's what it is,
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In medical research,
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Making a breakthrough,
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Then this passage would tell you,
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That you're looking in the wrong place.
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That is Team Adam's problem,
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That all the king's horses,
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And all the king's men,
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Couldn't put original Adam,
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Together again.
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And so as we reach this point,
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In the passage,
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The passage screams at us,
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Is there anyone,
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Who can put us back together again?
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Is there a cure,
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To sin and to death,
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And to heartache?
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Is there a place?
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For there are no tears,
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There are no,
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There are no more pain,
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Because sin has been dealt with,
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And it's a banished memory.
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Well the wonderful news,
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Of these verses,
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Is that God has provided a cure,
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Because he's provided a person,
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He's provided his son,
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And so let me tell you about Jesus,
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And in particular,
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Let me tell you about,
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Team Jesus's privilege,
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Because follow with me,
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At verse 19,
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If Paul's drawn attention,
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To Adam's one act of disobedience,
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Do you see it?
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He also draws attention,
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To Jesus's one act of obedience,
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And although his whole life,
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Was one of obedience,
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Joyful obedience to the Father,
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The one act,
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That Paul's talking about here,
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The pinnacle of Jesus's obedience,
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Was his decision,
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His choice,
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As we've been singing earlier,
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To go to the cross,
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The place where he shed his blood,
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He counted the cost,
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He paid the penalty,
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He took the death,
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That our disobedience deserved,
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Why?
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To deal with the problem,
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To deal with our condemnation,
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To deal with the judgment,
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That he deserved,
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And to win a people for himself,
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And here's the key difference,
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Between these two men,
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Do you see it?
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If Adam's mindset was,
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My way God,
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Not your way God,
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Do you see what the difference is,
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In terms of the mindset?
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Because Jesus's mindset,
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Is not my way God,
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Is your way God,
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Verse 17,
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Who's in team Jesus?
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All those who would receive him by faith,
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Do you see that word receive?
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Take,
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It's mine,
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Grasping it with both hands,
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This is who this is for,
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This is who is in team Jesus,
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Those who would live by faith,
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And trust in him,
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Those who would take Jesus,
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As their saviour and their king,
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And what is that?
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Word in the passage,
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Beginning with G,
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Two G's are going to take us,
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To the heart of this,
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Okay,
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Here's the first one,
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It's a gift,
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Do you see that word?
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Four times we get it,
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In verses 15 to 17,
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It's a gift,
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Right?
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Christ,
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A gift,
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From God,
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Four times in verses 15 to 17,
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And you see how it's qualified,
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Just before it,
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With the word,
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Free,
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Free,
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I once heard somebody tell,
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A Englishman,
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Irishman,
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Scotsman joke,
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And the punchline,
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The question was,
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Why do you love grace?
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And the punchline was,
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The Scotsman said,
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I love it because it's free,
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But we have that saying,
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In our culture,
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Don't we?
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That there's no such thing,
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As a free lunch,
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And it's often the case,
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That it's true,
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Because our experience,
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Tells us that there's always a catch,
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When we read about a good deal,
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Right?
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I'll give you a couple of,
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I've encountered the last few months,
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One month's free subscription,
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For BT Sport,
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And I'm rubbing my hands,
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Thinking,
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Champions League,
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Here we come,
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What does it say?
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No,
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No,
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No,
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No,
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Only when you sign up,
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For 12 months,
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Do you get that month's free,
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Or I think about it,
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A free coffee,
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At Cafe Nero,
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And you're thinking,
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Give me some of that sweet,
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Sweet caffeine,
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And then you realise,
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No,
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But you have to collect 10 stamps,
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And then you get your free coffee,
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You think,
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Oh,
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What is the catch?
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Well,
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Do you see God's gift,
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Free gift to us,
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Comes in Christ,
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And do you see the gift,
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It's the gift of righteousness,
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That status we have in Jesus,
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Of being right,
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In God's sight,
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Now we thought about that word last week,
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As we found it in verse 1 of chapter 5,
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Justified,
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Treated not simply,
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As if we didn't sin,
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But in God's sight,
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Because of Christ,
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Treated,
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And get this,
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As if we were Jesus,
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In God's sight,
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Get that,
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Messy me,
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All my baggage,
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Me,
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All my faults,
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Me,
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All my failures,
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Me,
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Perfect in God's sight,
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How can that be?
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Well,
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The answer to this passage,
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Screams back at us,
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It can be true,
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And it is true in God's sight,
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Because we are in Christ,
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But how you say,
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Where's the catch?
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Where's the catch?
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What do I need to do?
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Do I need to read my Bible five times a day?
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Do I need to pray for ten minutes every hour?
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Do I need to do a hundred press-ups every day,
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And say Father,
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Son,
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And Spirit in between each one?
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What is the catch?
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Get this,
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There's no catch.
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There's no catch.
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How?
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Because of that other word,
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That other G,
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That appears five times in these verses,
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Follow with me,
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You've got to see this,
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Twice at verse 15,
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Verse 20,
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Verse 17,
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Verse 21,
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What's the word?
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It's grace.
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At its core,
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It is getting something that we,
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Definitely do not deserve.
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The undeserved favour that God shows us,
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And giving us Jesus,
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Who is the one who's described in John chapter 1,
John 1 chapter mention
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Is the one who's full of grace and truth.
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And the one who holds his arms wide open,
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And says,
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Come to me,
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Child,
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Come to me,
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And know life,
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And know forgiveness.
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Now,
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With me,
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Today,
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You'll know it,
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And gloriously,
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And supremely,
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And fully,
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That day,
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When I take you,
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With me,
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To my glorious kingdom.
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It's grace,
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This is the heart of this passage,
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It's grace.
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And it's why,
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I don't know if you've noticed it,
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So many of the hymns and songs,
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That we've sang down the years,
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As the church,
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Are all about grace.
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They're all about grace.
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Right?
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Here's a little challenge,
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Think about how many songs you can think of,
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Right now,
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Off the top of your head,
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That talk about grace.
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They talk about amazing grace,
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They talk about sufficient grace.
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It's all about grace.
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Because what God has done for us,
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In his son,
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It should leave us ever praising him,
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Ever praising him,
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Ever singing about him.
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And do you see in these verses,
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How God's grace,
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That he's shown to us in Christ,
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Do you see how,
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It's not just cancelled out our sin.
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Do you see him,
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Try and convey to us,
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That God's grace,
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Has not just matched our sin.
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God's grace in Christ,
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Has blown our sin out of the water.
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We are ever covered.
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Do you see him,
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Try and convey that,
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Verse 15 and 17.
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That this grace is what,
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Is overflowed to us.
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Verse 20,
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What has this grace done?
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It has abounded to us.
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One of my favourite songs,
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That we sing here,
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Is that song by Matt Redman,
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That says,
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You alone can rescue.
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And it,
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You know,
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Who the Lord could save themselves?
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I don't know if you ever,
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Ask yourself questions,
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As we sing songs,
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With a question mark at the end.
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Who the Lord could save ourselves?
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Well who?
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I couldn't.
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Their own soul could heal.
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I know it's a rhetorical question,
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But I'm always asking,
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Of course I couldn't do that.
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And the truth that our shame,
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Was deeper than the sea,
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And I feel that,
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I know that,
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As a Christian,
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As a husband,
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As a father,
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But thank you,
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Lord Jesus,
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That your grace is deeper still.
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Because nothing humbles us,
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More than grace,
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Does it?
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Nothing humbles us,
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More than grace,
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Knowing that we've,
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We've contributed nothing,
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To our salvation,
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Other than our sin.
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Presumably this is why,
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Paul wrote it,
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You know,
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If this is a background here,
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Of a church full of Jews,
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And Gentiles,
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Each with their own baggage,
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Each with their own traditions,
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And ways of doing things,
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Then surely,
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The answer to the friction,
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That they're feeling,
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In their congregation,
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Is for each of them,
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To know what grace is.
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Because we are all,
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Undone at the cross,
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If we are all,
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Coming to God,
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Because of his grace,
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Then none of us,
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Should be boasting,
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About a superiority complex.
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Surely that's the answer,
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To their humility.
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Nothing humbles us more,
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Than knowing that Jesus did it all.
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Nothing humbles us more,
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But do you understand,
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How nothing honours Jesus more,
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Than saying,
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It's all about him.
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It's all about him.
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It's all about his free gift of grace,
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That he loved me,
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When I wasn't looking for him.
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He pursued me,
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When I was his enemy.
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It's all about him.
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This is team Jesus' privilege.
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Now let me just make two comments,
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Just as we work towards a close this morning,
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As we leave chapter five,
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And speak pastorally just for a minute,
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Because we've called this series,
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The building blocks of the Christian life,
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Or the Christian life.
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An idea behind it,
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Is that because in these chapters,
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Five, six, seven, eight,
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What we get,
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Are some of the,
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Absolute foundations of our faith,
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That we can build upon.
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And the one that we get in chapter five,
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Is the one marked grace.
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Right?
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Grace.
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This is what this is saying to us.
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The building block of the Christian life,
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Grace.
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Look what Paul writes,
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At verse three.
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Looked at this last week,
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But this kind of holds it together.
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Do you see what he says?
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What do we do with this grace?
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What are we doing with this grace?
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We are standing on it.
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In other words,
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We're camping out here.
-
Right?
-
We're building our lives here.
-
This is the foundation,
-
Which we build upon.
-
And we never move on from here.
-
Grace.
-
You know the truth,
-
That we are saved by grace alone,
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Through faith alone,
-
And Christ alone.
-
We never move on from that.
-
And let me just ask you two questions,
-
When it comes to grasping grace.
-
Here we go.
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Firstly,
-
Have you grasped it?
-
Right?
-
That you are not right with God,
-
And you need to listen to what this passage is telling us.
-
We are not right with God,
-
Because of how we perform.
-
Right?
-
Where would you and I be,
-
If that were the case?
-
We're not right with God,
-
With how we perform.
-
We are right with him,
-
Solely because of grace.
-
You know,
-
Ben was telling us earlier,
-
And I was thinking of him this week,
-
About the changes,
-
That are happening in his life.
-
Right?
-
The new start,
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That he's working towards,
-
The new challenge.
-
And I wonder if he said that,
-
I wonder if many of us identified with that.
-
You know,
-
We're at crossroads places in our lives.
-
You're a student,
-
Student guys,
-
You're going home for the summer.
-
Maybe student guys,
-
You're leaving,
-
You're graduating,
-
You're going on to a new job.
-
Maybe you're,
-
You're a worker,
-
Who's starting a new job.
-
Maybe you're a worker,
-
At the other end of the thing,
-
You're thinking about retirement,
-
What am I going to do?
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Young folks,
-
Guys,
-
Maybe you guys are starting school,
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Or you're finishing school,
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You're going to college.
-
I don't know about you,
-
But I've always found those moments of change in my life.
-
Right?
-
Those points where we hit crossroads,
-
And everything's up in the air,
-
Everything changes.
-
I've always found those points in life,
-
To be the ones that are the most emotionally,
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And spiritually difficult.
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Every time.
-
Every time.
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And what I mean by that,
-
Is that it is so easy for me to get distracted,
-
By all the changes going on,
-
That I take my eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And what happens is,
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When I fall,
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And I stumble,
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My inclination is to run towards me,
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Not to run towards him.
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And I drift,
-
Spiritually speaking,
-
I drift from him.
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And when I stumble and fall again,
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The more and more I drift,
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And I drift,
-
And I drift,
-
And I drift,
-
And because of the shame of my sin,
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Because of the guilt,
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Because I don't know what to do,
-
I run from Jesus,
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Rather than towards him.
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And listen friends,
-
You might be here today,
-
And that's exactly where you are.
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You're drifting,
-
And you're drifting,
-
And you're drifting.
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And each time it becomes harder,
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And harder,
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And harder.
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And you might come back,
-
Because Satan is sowing that lie.
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The same one he sowed in Genesis 3.
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Did God really say that?
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Did God really say it was free?
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Did God really say it was nothing to do with you?
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Who are you to come before him?
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And you hide in your shame,
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And you're weighed down by your guilt,
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And you're left thinking,
-
Maybe the devil is right.
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Who am I to represent God?
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Who am I to have Jesus as my saviour?
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Friends, that's why it's so important,
-
That we know the truth,
-
That we're saved by grace alone,
-
Through faith alone,
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In Christ alone.
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And it's so important that we know,
-
That this is the Jesus,
-
That we're dealing with here.
-
He's not like the parent,
-
With that teenager,
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Who goes out late at night,
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Sitting by the door,
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Before they come in,
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And say,
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Tapping or watching,
-
What time do you call this?
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Right?
-
What time do you call this?
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Where were you?
-
Care to explain yourself?
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What's going on?
-
This isn't the saviour that we have.
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We have one who,
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Says you're mine.
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I bought you with my precious blood,
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I paid for your sin.
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On you, Satan cannot make your sin stick.
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Because I paid for it all.
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And every time he does that,
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I am there at the right hand of the Father,
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Jumping to your defence.
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Do you see how Jesus is the best defence lawyer,
-
We can ever have?
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Objection my Lord,
-
Objection my Lord,
-
Objection my Lord,
-
Every time.
-
Why?
-
Because of my blood.
-
I paid for that sin,
-
I paid for that sin,
-
I paid for that sin,
-
In his past,
-
In his future,
-
And in his present.
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He's mine.
-
And we are right with God,
-
Friends,
-
Not because of what we do,
-
We are right because of him.
-
And he says,
-
Come to me,
-
And no forgiveness,
-
And no life,
-
And no grace abundant,
-
And get this,
-
The grace that is sufficient for you,
-
Every hour of every day.
-
Because we're ever dependent on the Lord Jesus,
-
And in his grace.
-
He's not like,
-
And this is what happened to me in the car recently,
-
The battery went dead,
-
What I had to do was call a man to come out,
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Because I didn't have the jump leads,
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And he jumped it,
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And went cheerio.
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Right?
-
We don't have a jump lead Jesus.
-
He doesn't come along,
-
Get our spiritual battery started again,
-
And now says,
-
Cheerio,
-
It's over to you to drive yourself home.
-
He is not the fourth emergency service.
-
Right?
-
He is there,
-
What is the song that we sing?
-
It's grace that has brought me safe thus far.
-
And it's grace that what?
-
Sees me through to 34,
-
Nope.
-
Sees me through to 64,
-
Nope.
-
It's the grace that will see me home.
-
It will see me home.
-
That there is never coming a day in our lives,
-
Where we don't desperately need the Lord Jesus.
-
And get this,
-
There's never coming a day in our lives,
-
Where we don't have the Lord Jesus.
-
Have you grasped it?
-
And secondly,
-
And there will be two more minutes,
-
I promise.
-
Secondly,
-
Have we grasped it?
-
Because do you see how understanding grace,
-
Grace,
-
It frees us,
-
As a church,
-
To take the masks off,
-
And stop pretending we have this life sussed.
-
Stop pretending we have it sorted.
-
And you see how this doctrine,
-
This truth,
-
This individual,
-
How it invites us to put our hands up,
-
And say,
-
I so desperately need Jesus.
-
I need him.
-
He outed me as a failure on the cross.
-
And I loved it how Zoe said at her baptism,
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You can remember that for you,
-
Whenever that was,
-
Is that September?
-
I don't know.
-
She said,
-
I can never out sin the cross.
-
Sam Albury,
-
Anglican minister down south,
-
Puts it like this,
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I don't need to look good,
-
So that Jesus can look good.
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I need to be honest,
-
About my colossal spiritual need,
-
So that he can look all sufficient.
-
Friends,
-
This is the kind of community,
-
That we want to be,
-
Isn't it?
-
It is.
-
A community of grace,
-
Where we're real with one another,
-
And we share life's burdens with one another.
-
You know,
-
I don't know about you,
-
But as I've reflected on it this week,
-
My fear for us as a church,
-
And my fear for myself as your pastor,
-
Is that,
-
We get to the finishing line of life,
-
And we find out,
-
From our obituaries,
-
That some of us were,
-
Bearing burdens,
-
And suffering from scars,
-
Our entire lives,
-
And we never knew,
-
Because we've shared a building together,
-
For tons of years,
-
Many years,
-
But we never shared life,
-
And this call this morning,
-
Is to come to Jesus,
-
And give him masks off,
-
All the glory,
-
And to walk side by side,
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With one another,
-
Carrying burdens,
-
Sharing life,
-
Rejoicing when we're rejoicing,
-
And weeping when we're weeping,
-
And to help each other walk home,
-
All the while,
-
Pointing one another to Jesus,
-
Every time,
-
Look at him,
-
Look at him,
-
Don't look at yourself,
-
Look at him,
-
Because he is the all loving,
-
All knowing,
-
All sufficient,
-
Shepherd of his sheep,
-
That is team Jesus,
-
His privilege,
-
We have him,
-
So friends,
-
Here are the two,
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Most individual,
-
Two most influential,
-
Individuals,
-
There's a tongue twister,
-
Influential individuals,
-
The world has ever known,
-
And that the world will ever know,
-
In one corner,
-
We've got team Adam,
-
Death,
-
Condemnation,
-
Judgment,
-
And on the other hand,
-
We have team Jesus,
-
Grace,
-
Gift,
-
Life,
-
And if you've not given your life,
-
To the Lord Jesus Christ,
-
This morning,
-
Then feel his hand,
-
Outstretched to you,
-
In these verses,
-
In Romans chapter 5,
Romans 5 chapter mention
-
And saying,
-
Come to me child,
-
Come to me,
-
And if you want to pray,
-
About anything friends,
-
Prayer should be,
-
The most natural thing,
-
We do as Christians,
-
This should be the atmosphere,
-
That we live in,
-
It's just prayer,
-
So maybe you want to do,
-
As we respond to this,
-
As you reflect in your own heart,
-
Maybe you just want to ask,
-
The person next to you,
-
Really simply,
-
How can I help?
-
How can I pray for you this week?
-
And be amazed,
-
The answers you'll get back,
-
Because this is the community,
-
We want to be,
-
Isn't it?
-
A community,
-
Of grace,
-
So friends,
-
Let me ask you,
-
Last line,
-
Promise,
-
Which team are you in?
-
Which team are you in?
-
So let's just have a minute of silence,
-
And then I'll pray,
-
And then we'll close our service.
-
Oh to grace,
-
How great a debtor,
-
Daily I'm constrained to be,
-
Let that grace now,
-
Like a fetter,
-
Bind my wand,
-
Wandering heart to thee,
-
Prone to wander,
-
Lord I feel it,
-
Prone to leave the God I love,
-
Here's my heart,
-
Oh take and seal it,
-
Seal it for thy courts above,
-
Lord Jesus,
-
We love you,
-
And Lord I pray that you would turn
-
Our wandering hearts back to you this morning,
-
And find in you
-
Our all in all,
-
Would you help us,
-
Heavenly Father,
-
To stand in this grace,
-
And help us to know you more,
-
And we ask this in the Lord Jesus'
-
Precious and worthy name,
-
Amen.
-
That's right,
-
Amen.
-
Good day.
-
K forgiveness,
-
I love you,
-
I love you.
-
Hello
-
You