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Morning Devotion from Ephesians: God Chose You! · The BLAZE (Bible Study)

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  Speaker 1: Good morning, family. Good morning. God bless. Welcome back to
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  Speaker 1: the Morning Devos. Your bro, Sam Lopez, a.k.a. DJ Sam Rock.
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  Speaker 1: So winners with a Z.org. Live. So winners with a Z.org.
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  Speaker 1: Those are my two favorite places to go to get
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  Speaker 1: these Morning Devos in because it's less distractions. So the
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  Speaker 1: less distractions we have, I'm believing, right? The more opportunity
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  Speaker 1: we have to focus on the final word, the final revelation,
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  Speaker 1: which is God's word. Amen. through the Lord Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: by way of his Holy Spirit, and what the Father
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  Speaker 1: shows us with his love, his tremendous love, his everlasting love,
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  Speaker 1: the Father shows us. So we are chosen, and because
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  Speaker 1: I know we're chosen by God, right? Many are called,
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  Speaker 1: the Bible says, few are chosen. I'm declaring you're the
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  Speaker 1: chosen one. You're one of the chosen few, right? And listen,
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  Speaker 1: that brought me to the realization that we should go
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  Speaker 1: into Ephesians, Amen to the book of Ephesians. And we'll
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  Speaker 1: be in the book of Ephesians for some time, right?
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  Speaker 1: Every chapter, we're going to extract some verses out of
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  Speaker 1: the book of Ephesians just to wet your appetite, right?
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  Speaker 1: To kind of like get you encouraged to read more
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  Speaker 1: of the scriptures. So we're going to be in the
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  Speaker 1: book of Ephesians. So we're switching gears. We did the
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  Speaker 1: book of John. Thank you so much for hanging out
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  Speaker 1: with us as we went through chapter one. through chapter
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  Speaker 1: of the book of John. Now we're going to go
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  Speaker 1: into the book of Ephesians, chapter one, verse number four.
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  Speaker 1: I'm calling this one, God chose you. Go ahead and
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  Speaker 1: look in the mirror and say that all day today.
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  Speaker 1: God chose me, right? Many are called, few are chosen.
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  Speaker 1: And if you know you're chosen, man, that's a blessing.
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  Speaker 1: You are on your way, amen, to an everlasting, eternal relationship, amen,
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  Speaker 1: with the Lord Jesus Christ. But There's more to it.
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  Speaker 1: Let's pray. After we pray, you can literally share this
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  Speaker 1: out during any time of the morning, even if you're
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  Speaker 1: not with us right now, right? If you didn't have
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  Speaker 1: an opportunity to wake up and be with us, you
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  Speaker 1: can share this out at any time. Amen. So thank
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  Speaker 1: you for sharing. So thank you, Lord God, for today.
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  Speaker 1: I pray, Lord God, that you continue to be glorified
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  Speaker 1: in the way we live, the way we act, how
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  Speaker 1: we respond towards others. And most importantly, how we love
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  Speaker 1: one another. Just like you said, to love each other.
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  Speaker 1: So that way the world will know that we belong
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  Speaker 1: to you. Thank you, Lord God, for your hedge of protection.
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  Speaker 1: I feel, Lord God, your protection daily, Lord Jesus. Your
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  Speaker 1: arquean angel that's encamped around all those who love you,
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  Speaker 1: Lord God. And that is the assignment of that arquean
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  Speaker 1: angel to protect and to really make the path straight.
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  Speaker 1: And to do your will, Lord God, in our hearts
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  Speaker 1: and in our lives. physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So I
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  Speaker 1: speak life over everything and everyone living right now in
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  Speaker 1: the powerful name of Jesus. And I speak death to
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  Speaker 1: those things that are trying to take our lives. Witchcraft,
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  Speaker 1: demonic influences, slanderers, gossipers, every person that tries to thwart
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  Speaker 1: the plan of God over my life and over your life.
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  Speaker 1: We cancel those things right now in the name of Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: And I thank you, Lord God, for the power of prayer.
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  Speaker 1: which is literally speaking to you because you are our
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  Speaker 1: father who loves us. And you sent the son who
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  Speaker 1: saves us, who saves us. And the son sent the
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  Speaker 1: spirit who leads us. So we are in your plan.
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  Speaker 1: We are here on purpose and we are God's chosen.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Lord, for what you're doing, what
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  Speaker 1: you continue to do. Myself, my family, my whole entire bloodline.
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  Speaker 1: I pray protection and love, grace and mercy over every
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  Speaker 1: single person that's watching or listening right now. them and
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  Speaker 1: their whole entire family and their whole entire bloodline right
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  Speaker 1: now in the powerful name of Jesus. I pray this
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  Speaker 1: by faith and all those who agree, we say amen
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  Speaker 1: to the amen. Let's go for it, man. I'm excited.
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  Speaker 1: Another book, a new book, amen, for us to study
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  Speaker 1: and to devote some time in. Amen. And like I said,
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  Speaker 1: this is just to get you going, encourage you to
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  Speaker 1: read more of the scriptures daily. Amen. But we're going
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  Speaker 1: to be in Ephesians chapter one, verse number four, God
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  Speaker 1: chose you. Amen. How many people are excited about that?
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  Speaker 1: I know I am. Knowing that God chose me, I'm like, wait,
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  Speaker 1: this is amazing. You know what I mean? And wow,
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  Speaker 1: an amazing opportunity to see how. So in the book
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  Speaker 1: of Ephesians, this is written by the Apostle Paul. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: The letters to the church. I think there's 13 letters, right? Amen.
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  Speaker 1: You can check it out for yourself. Remember, this is
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  Speaker 1: just to devote some time. Amen. And to get you
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  Speaker 1: encouraged to read the word for yourself. And he's talking
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  Speaker 1: and writing to the church in Ephesus. And he goes,
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  Speaker 1: for he chose us in him before the foundation of
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  Speaker 1: the world to be holy and blameless in his presence.
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  Speaker 1: So this is something that I didn't create. You didn't create.
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  Speaker 1: We can't really comprehend how God chose us before even
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  Speaker 1: the foundation of the world, but that's what Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 1: inspired the apostle to write down to let us know
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  Speaker 1: today that for he, God, chose us in him, Christ,
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  Speaker 1: before the foundation of the world to be what? Holy,
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  Speaker 1: set apart. That means set apart, righteous, made right with
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  Speaker 1: God because of Jesus and blameless in his presence. So
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  Speaker 1: we shouldn't be getting the blame for anybody falling into
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  Speaker 1: all kind of sin, debauchery and all kind of stuff. No,
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  Speaker 1: we should be what God says to be. Amen. He
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  Speaker 1: says to be holy and blameless in his presence because
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  Speaker 1: without his presence, you know, and I know that's impossible.
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  Speaker 1: There is no way we could be holy, right? That
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  Speaker 1: we could be blameless on our own strength. Impossible, right?
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  Speaker 1: I met good people, moral people, I should say, because
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  Speaker 1: not one of us is good according to the scriptures.
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  Speaker 1: But I met people who are morally good. You know
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  Speaker 1: what I mean? In the standard of the world system.
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  Speaker 1: They don't trust God. They don't believe God. But they
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  Speaker 1: have good morality. But there's no way they could be
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  Speaker 1: holy on their own. And there's no way they could
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  Speaker 1: be blameless. They're striving to be. Trying to do the
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  Speaker 1: right thing. They're showing acts of kindness. You see that
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  Speaker 1: on social media a lot. People showing acts of kindness.
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  Speaker 1: That's great. That's an amazing thing to do. But what
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  Speaker 1: happens when your doing runs out, right? What happens when
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  Speaker 1: you don't feel like sharing with someone else or you
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  Speaker 1: don't want to do an act of kindness for a stranger?
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  Speaker 1: What happens then? Then it runs out. But when you're
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  Speaker 1: in Christ, in the presence of the Lord, amen, we
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  Speaker 1: are holy and we are blameless. That's a work of
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  Speaker 1: God that he does through us. So if you ever
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  Speaker 1: look back at your life, amen, you know that there's
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  Speaker 1: been times in your life, I know there's been times
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  Speaker 1: in my life that I haven't been this, holy and blameless.
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  Speaker 1: But then God shows up, right? And he encourages us
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  Speaker 1: and he keeps us and he keeps us standing, keeps
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  Speaker 1: us moving forward, knowing that we have the victory in
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  Speaker 1: him because God chose you and he chose me before
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  Speaker 1: we even chose him. Before we ever chose God, he
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  Speaker 1: chose us. That shouldn't be even debatable. We know we
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  Speaker 1: were born into this world. A lot of people blame
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  Speaker 1: their parents and say, I didn't want to come here.
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  Speaker 1: You brought me into the world, right? Because this world
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  Speaker 1: is so rotten and broken and full of evil and
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  Speaker 1: dark and everything. You name it, it's anti-God. The system
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  Speaker 1: is anti-God. But when God comes into your life, when
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  Speaker 1: he came into my life, right, we started seeing things
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  Speaker 1: as they really were. And we said, wow, if it's
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  Speaker 1: not because of the grace of God, I would be
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  Speaker 1: wrapped up in all kind of stuff. And you would
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  Speaker 1: be wrapped up in all kind of stuff that is anti-Christ.
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  Speaker 1: But we're not. We're chosen by God. Amen. If you're
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  Speaker 1: not part of the kingdom of God, you're part of
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom of this world system, the kingdom of darkness
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  Speaker 1: and the kingdom of the devil. if you want to
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  Speaker 1: think of it like that. So we have a choice
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  Speaker 1: to make daily. This is not something that you just
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  Speaker 1: wake up and then you're automatically in the kingdom of God.
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  Speaker 1: We have to make a choice. And the choice is
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  Speaker 1: the most important choice I think you could ever make
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  Speaker 1: in your whole entire life and it lasts for all
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  Speaker 1: eternity is to put your hope, faith, and trust in
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  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ. No more excuses, right? I started
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  Speaker 1: running out of excuses right before I called on God
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  Speaker 1: because I did everything the world offered pretty much, right?
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  Speaker 1: And unfortunately, I was getting good at it. So I
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  Speaker 1: was like, I'm still not satisfied. So I knew, I
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  Speaker 1: just knew there had to be more. It's impossible for
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  Speaker 1: this world system to satisfy me. So I knew there
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  Speaker 1: had to be more. And you know, in your spirit
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  Speaker 1: and in your soul right now, if you're not serving
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  Speaker 1: the Lord, or maybe you were serving the Lord and
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  Speaker 1: you backslidden into some kind of old pattern, you know
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  Speaker 1: that you need to come back home. The kingdom of God,
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  Speaker 1: the doors are waiting for you. Amen. The angels are
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  Speaker 1: waiting for you at the door to open it right
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  Speaker 1: up to come back in. Amen. Holy Spirit is guiding
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  Speaker 1: you right back into the kingdom of God. Brother John,
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  Speaker 1: God bless you. Grand Rising and thanks for sharing the
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  Speaker 1: word with us. Amen. It's a privilege and an honor
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  Speaker 1: and I'm humbled that I'm able to do this. something
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  Speaker 1: in the kingdom of God and for the kingdom of God.
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  Speaker 1: So before we were born, right, let's keep on track.
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  Speaker 1: And before we were born, before we even made our
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  Speaker 1: first mistake, before anyone knew our names, including ourselves, right,
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  Speaker 1: God already had a purpose for our lives. God already
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  Speaker 1: wrote out the script. Now, because he's a loving, holy,
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  Speaker 1: righteous judge, God, right? Righteous judge, holy. He's all things
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  Speaker 1: that are good. He allows us to make our own decisions,
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  Speaker 1: even though he wrote it out already. But he just,
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  Speaker 1: I believe, steps back and watches. Amen? Because he knows
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  Speaker 1: all things. So people always try to, you know, pin
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  Speaker 1: me to the wall by saying, so if God knew
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  Speaker 1: everything about you and everything about me, why would he
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  Speaker 1: allow XYZ to happen? A valid question. We all ask it.
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  Speaker 1: If there's a God, why would he allow children to
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  Speaker 1: get abducted and all these bad things to happen to
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  Speaker 1: these children or to yourself? Or why did my father
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  Speaker 1: get diabetes and die? You know what I'm saying? It's
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  Speaker 1: all these questions that we have. Well, God is still God.
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  Speaker 1: I know it doesn't sound so compassionate what I'm saying,
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  Speaker 1: but the way I think about it is that God
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  Speaker 1: knows why. I don't, and I'm okay with that. Hopefully
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  Speaker 1: you'll start being okay with that too. So before anything,
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  Speaker 1: before we knew our name, before we were born, before
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  Speaker 1: we started making mistakes, God already had a purpose for us, right?
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  Speaker 1: Your past and my past It doesn't cancel his purpose.
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  Speaker 1: People have this thing like, oh, God can't save me
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  Speaker 1: because I've done too much in my past. Or people,
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  Speaker 1: you heard this, right? I can't go to church until
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  Speaker 1: I get things right. I don't want to be a hypocrite. Listen,
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  Speaker 1: if you could get things right in your life, you
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't need Jesus. You wouldn't need God. You wouldn't need
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  Speaker 1: the cross. You wouldn't need salvation. You wouldn't need Holy Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: You wouldn't need the kingdom of God if you could
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  Speaker 1: get things right on your own. That's the point. The
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  Speaker 1: point is we can't get things right. with God on
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  Speaker 1: our own. That's why Jesus says, I'm the only way
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  Speaker 1: to the Father, right? Because he's the way, the only way,
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  Speaker 1: the truth, the only truth, and the life, and the
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  Speaker 1: only life that's worth living. So he's worth finding out about, right?
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  Speaker 1: So your past doesn't cancel his purpose, and your failures
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  Speaker 1: and my failures don't surprise God. And he's not up
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  Speaker 1: there pointing out, oh, you made another mistake, so I'm
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  Speaker 1: out of here. You know, I'm going to take my
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  Speaker 1: spirit from you because you sinned and you made a
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  Speaker 1: mistake and you did that and you turned away. That's
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  Speaker 1: not the God that we serve. You know, if you
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  Speaker 1: think that's how God is, then just keep on studying
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  Speaker 1: his scriptures. Amen. Keep on studying the gospels. Keep on
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  Speaker 1: studying God's word. You'll see the love of the father
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  Speaker 1: all throughout the scriptures, the grace of God from Genesis
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  Speaker 1: to Revelation all throughout the scriptures. But you also see
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  Speaker 1: the messianic prophecy of Jesus all throughout the scriptures too.
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  Speaker 1: And when he shows up, he fulfills the prophecies. Right.
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  Speaker 1: So being chosen by God doesn't mean life is going
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  Speaker 1: to get so much easier and it's not going to
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  Speaker 1: be the perfect day every day. Right. No, it means
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  Speaker 1: our lives, your life and my life has meaning now. Right.
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  Speaker 1: Because we know where we came from. So now that
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  Speaker 1: we know where we came from, what does that mean?
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  Speaker 1: We have meaning. We have purpose. Right. And we have
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  Speaker 1: direction by way of Holy Spirit to move now in
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  Speaker 1: accordance to God's word. When you move outside of the
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  Speaker 1: will of God and you move outside of the word
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  Speaker 1: of God, we all know, we both know, right? There's
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  Speaker 1: going to be consequences that are going to come as
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  Speaker 1: a result of our rebellion. Knowing where we should go,
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  Speaker 1: how we should move, knowing the truth and doing something
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  Speaker 1: opposite of it, there's going to be consequences for me
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  Speaker 1: and for you, for all of us. No one is exempt. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: But God is still good. God is still purposeful. And
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  Speaker 1: he's telling the church that, He chose us. We didn't
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  Speaker 1: choose him. He chose us. Because when I first got saved,
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  Speaker 1: and a lot of people still say this, and it's okay.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, but this is how I realized it. I
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  Speaker 1: used to always say that I found God. I used
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  Speaker 1: to say that for years. And then I started reading
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  Speaker 1: scriptures and thinking about it. I said, wait, God wasn't lost.
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  Speaker 1: I was lost. So that means God found me and
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  Speaker 1: God found you. Amen. And so I started changing that. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Took a while, but then I realized, whoa, why am
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  Speaker 1: I saying I found God as if I had anything
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  Speaker 1: to do with the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ?
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  Speaker 1: So I had to find my salvation. No, salvation found me. Amen?
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  Speaker 1: I was lost. I was in a dark place, and
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  Speaker 1: he brought the light of God into my life. He
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  Speaker 1: finds us where we are to take us to where
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  Speaker 1: he is. So in our darkest place, Jesus shows up
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  Speaker 1: with the light. Amen? Jesus shows up with victory jesus
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  Speaker 1: shows up with salvation jesus shows up with grace and
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  Speaker 1: mercy jesus shows up and in his presence he makes
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  Speaker 1: us holy and blameless right because we are the chosen
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  Speaker 1: i know it sounds very arrogant other religious people is
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  Speaker 1: going to be like you christians think you're the only
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  Speaker 1: ones that god can save or that god chose and
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  Speaker 1: this that and the third well you have a problem
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  Speaker 1: with the apostle paul talking to the church, because he's
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  Speaker 1: the one inspired by Holy Spirit who said, for he
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  Speaker 1: chose us in him before everything, before the foundation of
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  Speaker 1: the world to be holy and blameless in his presence.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's the point that he's trying to make,
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  Speaker 1: in his presence, because on our own, among each other,
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  Speaker 1: we're not going to match up or measure up to
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  Speaker 1: this holiness and to this blamelessness that the Lord inspired
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  Speaker 1: Apostle to write. So being chosen by God doesn't mean
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  Speaker 1: life will always be easy and it's not going to
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  Speaker 1: be peaches and cream all the time. We're going to
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  Speaker 1: experience some days that are blessed, right? Blessed days. Every
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  Speaker 1: day I think is a blessing, whether we're going through
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  Speaker 1: a good thing or a bad thing. But you know
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  Speaker 1: what I mean. You're going to have good days, of course.
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  Speaker 1: That's God's grace and his mercy and his love. And
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  Speaker 1: he wants to lavish his children with gifts. Amen. I
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  Speaker 1: praise God for every single good day. And I also
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  Speaker 1: praise God for every single day that doesn't look too good. right?
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  Speaker 1: Because I know he's still with us and he still
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  Speaker 1: has a plan and he still has a purpose and
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  Speaker 1: I'm still chosen and you're still chosen. If you're born again,
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  Speaker 1: if you believe and you put your hope, faith, and
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  Speaker 1: trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you admit that you're
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  Speaker 1: a sinner, but then you ask Jesus to forgive you
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  Speaker 1: for your sins, the Bible says you're on that path
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  Speaker 1: of righteousness after that. So right now, when I know
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  Speaker 1: some people are thinking about their past, I'm like, man,
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  Speaker 1: I got to I got to repent. Yeah, we all
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  Speaker 1: got to repent for things, right? But right now today,
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  Speaker 1: don't let anything from your past try to delete or
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  Speaker 1: try to stop the purpose of God. It's not going
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  Speaker 1: to work anyway. The purpose of God is going to
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  Speaker 1: be accomplished in your life and my life regardless. Because
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  Speaker 1: at the end, if you're rebelling right now, at the
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  Speaker 1: end of your life, every knee will bow and every
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  Speaker 1: tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. So either you
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  Speaker 1: do it willfully or We're going to do it later
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  Speaker 1: on because the prophecy and the power of God is
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  Speaker 1: going to compel everyone to finally realize that Jesus is Lord.
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  Speaker 1: So I know there's a lot of people thinking this,
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  Speaker 1: trying to think their way out of this truth. You
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  Speaker 1: could get him to do that, but you'd be wasting
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  Speaker 1: your time because the truth stands in all times, for
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  Speaker 1: all times, in all generations, everywhere you go. Even when
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  Speaker 1: there's smarter people than us saying, you guys are wrong.
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  Speaker 1: And there's contradictions and X, Y, Z. And it can't
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  Speaker 1: be a God because X, Y, Z. And then they
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  Speaker 1: go into the moral argument. Then they go into the
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  Speaker 1: creation argument. Then they go into the evolution. You know
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying? All that, I think, in my humble opinion,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: going against the word is a waste of time. But
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: some people look pretty doing it. And they're smart. And
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: they have a huge following. So it seems, yeah, you know,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: those people are right. Sam and all these Christians, they're wrong.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: It seems that way. But don't be deceived. God is
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: not mocked. For the man sows, he will reap. Right?
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: So being chosen is an amazing opportunity. It's an amazing blessing.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: So don't let rejection, don't let disappointment, don't let the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: opinions of others about you define your worth. God defines
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: our worth. Right? Jesus saved us because the Father loved
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: us so much that he sent the Savior. son, which
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: is him again in the form of a man named Jesus,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: on a rescue mission, right? And the rescue mission was
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: to reconcile us back to God, but to pay the
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: sin debt that we owed, right? Me and you owed
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the sin debt that we know we couldn't afford. I
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: don't care if you're a multi-billionaire, ain't nothing you could
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: give to God, right, that's going to satisfy the sin debt.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: And God knew that, so he sent the only blameless, holy, pure,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: sinless man Jesus to satisfy that sin debt. He was
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: on a rescue mission and to tell us that it
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: is finished, Jesus says, sin debt is paid. Now, what
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: are we going to do? How are we going to
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: benefit from the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: first of all, one of the first things we should
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: realize is that we're chosen. God chose you before the
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: foundations of the world. He chose me before the foundations
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: of the world. and we move accordingly, right? So don't
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: let none of that stuff, rejection, disappointment, opinions, gossip, slandering,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: don't let none of that try to define your worth.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: God chose us to belong to him and to live differently.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Part of being blameless and holy is to live differently
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: for him, right? This is not about well, I got
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: to do this for my kids, right? Doesn't that sound noble?
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: I got to live right for my kids. It sounds noble.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Or I got to live right for my family. Or
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I got to live right when I see the pastor
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: or the bishop, right? It sounds noble, but it's anti-scripture.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: We're supposed to be doing that for God, right? We're
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: supposed to show up and let God use us and
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: show his glory, not our glory. If I start trying
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: to prop myself up In any high place, I know
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: God's going to, first of all, humble me. But you
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: should be like checking me too. Like, Sam, who do
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: you think you are? Why all of a sudden we
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: have to pay to watch your morning devos and to
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: get some prayer, you have to send me a check
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: of $ 1, 200? And I've seen that kind of nonsense in
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Christendom or in ministries that they feel like they have
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: such an annoying thing. Now you got paid for a prayer.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Now you got to pray for them to lay hands
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: on you. And now you got to pray for them
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: to jump on their live streams. I've seen it. It's
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: not cool, but it's there. So we have to be honest.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: I know I've seen it. I don't know about you, right?
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: So we walk today with boldness. We walk today with confidence,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: but in humility and love. Trust me. Don't go around
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: being arrogant. I'm the chosen one. Then you start wearing
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: hats and shirts. I'm chosen. Yes, you are chosen. Amen.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: But ain't nobody care about that. if you're not showing
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: them love, right? No one cares about you, you know,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: about what you know until they know that you care
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: about them. They don't care about all the knowledge that
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: we have about God. Ain't nobody care about that. I'm
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: saying with a weird kind of vernacular, but no one
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: really cares about that. They want to care about, do
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: you really love me? And if this God is truly
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: loving you, you should be showing me love. That's what
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the world already knows. You know, the world knows that
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: If you guys are Christians, you're supposed to be different.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: By default, they know we're supposed to be holy and blameless.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: The world knows that. The devil knows that. Amen? So
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: don't show up talking about, I'm born again, and you
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: start acting like the worst person in another person's life.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: It's not going to match up. That's why when I
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: see brothers and sisters in Christ saying they're born again,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: but then jumping on live streams and slandering, gossiping, and
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: hating on people, I'm not buying into that. Repent, right?
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: And a lot of people don't like that word, but repent, right?
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Because if you're showing up and you're trying to represent
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the kingdom of God, we're supposed to be showing up
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: representing the glory, the love, the mercy, and the grace
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: of God as well. Not all of this stuff about
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: just pointing fingers at the, actually, at the obvious. Oh,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: this person is sinning and this, that, and the third. Well,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: so are you in certain areas. You're just not revealing it.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: So we all need to be humbled, right? And know
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: that we're chosen and be what God told us to be,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: to be holy and blameless in his presence. Remember, in
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: his presence, not in the presence of Sam, not in
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: the presence of your leaders, not in the presence of, no,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: in God's presence, because ultimately we're doing it because of
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: his power. We have meaning, purpose, and direction in him.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: So walk today in confidence and boldness, not because... We're perfect.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: It's obvious. We're being perfected. So if God is perfecting us,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: then it's obvious that we're not perfect yet, but he's
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: perfecting us. But because most importantly, we are his, right?
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: We are his. And who wouldn't want to belong to
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: a loving, holy, righteous God? God of the heaven and earth,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: a God who knows every single thing about us, the
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: hairs on our head or the lack of. He knows
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: every single thing about us, yet he loves us. incredibly
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: anyway if you know what i'm saying right because i
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: know i'm like wow god you still love me even
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: though my thoughts sometimes go crazy and my attitude sometimes
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: is not right and sometimes i say the wrong things
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: sometimes i act the wrong way and i'm like you
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: still love me and the lord is like yep right
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: because he's doing a work day by day in your
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: life and in my life and that's because of his
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: grace and his love and his mercy there's no i
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: don't have no other explanations Why would God love this person?
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Look what XYZ, he did XYZ and he hurt all
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: these people. And now because he turned his life to God,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: all of that's going to go away. No, all of
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: that pain and hurt that this person would do to
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: someone else is not going to all go away. There's
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: going to be consequences for that. But what's going to
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: happen is this person is going to become holy and
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: blameless at the point that this person gave their life
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: to the Lord Jesus Christ, whoever that person is. We
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: know the people, I was counted out, right? by a
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: lot of people. They said, there's no way Sam's going
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: to become a believer. There's no way. So I started
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: buying into that. I said, yeah, you know what? You're right.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: There's no way I could change. And that was true.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: So when I realized that's true, I couldn't change myself.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: I said, if this guy could really change me, I'm
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: going to settle the score. I'm going to find out
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: right now. All you have to do is ask him
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: to change you. And that's what I did. I said, well,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: if you're real, change me. Because you know and I
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: know That is the litmus test. That is the proof
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and evidence that if there's really a God, He will
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: actually change our lives and make us holy and blameless. Right?
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: So I wrote a reminder and I shared it all
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: through social media and the reminder was this. So sometimes
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: we always have to, sometimes we have to remind ourselves
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: who we really are in His presence, in Christ. So
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: your reminder and my reminder is you are not An accident.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: You are not an accident. It wasn't like, oh, wow.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like God was in heaven, like, oh, this
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: person was born into the world. I'm shocked. What am
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: I going to do now? No, it's no accidents. We
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: were here on purpose. We are here on purpose, right?
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: You are not an accident. Remind yourself you are chosen.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: I'm chosen. Remind yourself that. You're called. You're called. You're clean,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: you're close, and you're created with purpose. Man, people say,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I got to get close to the God. If you're
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: born again, you receive the Lord, right? The truth of
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: God's gospel. He opened our eyes, opened our ears to
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: his word and to his ways. You are already close.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: You're already clean. You're already called. And you are already chosen. Amen. Amen.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Before everything happened, our first mistakes, our first rebellion, right?
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Before all of that, God is telling us we're chosen.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: We were chosen before we chose him. Before we chose
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: the Lord, the Lord chose us. But because of his love,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: I know a lot of people are thinking, so if
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: he chose us, why am I not lining up to
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: what he's doing? Because he loves us so much and
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: love in one of his default forms allows us to choose, right?
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: And make our own choices. But stay encouraged. Choose Christ
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: in every situation you're going through and see how your
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: life turns for the better. So I'm out of time.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. We're going to be in the
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: book of Ephesians. We started off today, chapter one, verse
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: number four. But you know how it is. Read the
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: whole chapter for yourself so you can catch me out
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: there if I'm taking this out of context, right? I
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: would love correction. If I need correction, I'll take it.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Not a perfect one. But we're going to find the
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: perfect one all through the scriptures every single time. So
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: God bless you all. God keep you all. And remember
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: always that God is good. Peace.