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Understanding the spirit led life part VI · Near East Christian Fellowship Sermons

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Welcome to NECF sermons.
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Each message here is designed to uplift and strengthen you in your walk with God.
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Don't miss out, stay with us until the end for our rewarding experience.
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Let's dive right in.
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Romans chapter 8 verse 14.
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Welcome to church this morning.
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Turn to your neighbor and say you're welcome to church.
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Say it's time to learn the word of God.
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It's time to learn from the word of God.
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Romans chapter 4, verse 8 rather, from verse 14.
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We're reading from verse 14 down to verse 17.
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Just look at your neighbor.
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If your neighbor doesn't have a Bible, a hard copy Bible, not in the phone, a hard copy
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Bible and you have share with your neighbor.
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And if your neighbor does not have a hard copy Bible, ask the neighbor why didn't you
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come with a Bible?
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Ask the person why didn't you come with a Bible?
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What's the person's reply?
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Now move further and say brother or sister, next week I want to see with your hard copy
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Bible.
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I can hear many voices, it means that many people don't have their hard copy Bibles with
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them.
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Hallelujah.
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For as many as are led, see if you are led by the spirit of God, you carry your hard
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copy Bible to church.
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And if you didn't carry your hard copy Bible to church and you're usual in this place,
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you may announce that you are living in disobedience.
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Amen.
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Because God speaks through men, right?
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He speaks through men and often times we say bring your hard copy Bible.
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It's very important for the study.
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So I want to encourage you to do as we've been instructed.
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For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
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For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit
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of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father.
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The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
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And if children then hear us, heirs of God and join us with Christ, even did we suffer
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with him that we may also be glorified with him.
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Hallelujah.
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So in Christ we are coheirs with him.
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And what this means is that all that belongs to God belongs to Christ and all that belongs
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to Christ belongs to you that are in Christ because you have been brought into this union
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that is everlasting.
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So God has brought you into his family through Christ Jesus.
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We said the last time that God was never referred to as Father in the Old Testament.
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God was never referred to as Father in the Old Testament part of the scriptures.
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And it was abnormal actually for anyone to say that God is his Father.
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Even up to today there are people that don't believe that God can be Father.
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And even when we saw Jesus Christ in scriptures, Jesus who came under the Old Testament system
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had troubles with the people of his day because he was referring to God as his Father.
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After seeing him as a human, they see him, they know his supposedly biological family,
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they know his siblings, they know his occupation is a carpenter that often comes to maybe fix
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their furnitures.
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And lo and behold one day he just rise up and say that God is his Father.
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So it put him in trouble.
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John chapter 5 verse 16.
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John chapter 5 verse 16 says, for this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill
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him.
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It was up to this extent that they wanted to kill him for identifying God as his Father
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because he had done these things on the Sabbath.
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Now he had performed a miracle, right?
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John chapter 5 verse 16 verse 17.
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But Jesus answered them, my Father has been working until now and I've been working.
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Verse 18, therefore the Jewish sought all the more, their anger intensify, their rage
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intensify to kill him because he not only broke their tradition, their Sabbath, Sabbath,
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you know performing miracle on a Saturday was him working according to them, but also
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said that God was what?
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God was his Father.
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So in saying God is his Father, what has he done?
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He has made himself equal with God.
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He has made not equal, he has made himself of the same nature with God.
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What he has said is that he has made himself divine.
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He has made himself of a divine nature.
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He's not a human but he's a divine nature by the virtue of identifying as the Son of
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God.
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So it was abnormal and they sought to kill him.
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So Jesus himself in scriptures prior to his death, his burial and resurrection, Jesus
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himself never faced God as the Father to any man except himself.
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Why?
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Why was it that?
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Because the family of God is the product of Christ's redemptive work and at this point
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Jesus had not yet died.
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He had not yet died and resurrected.
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So never in scriptures do we see Jesus making mention of God being the Father of men.
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We see clearly even in the altar seminar it was prophetic.
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So no man has clearly in scriptures identified as the Son of God or has been of the same
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kind with God except Jesus.
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But at the resurrection we see a change.
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We see God as Father to mankind, John 20 verse 11 to 18.
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We see a change that Jesus is not only the Son of God but Jesus becomes the firstborn
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among many sons.
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But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping and as she wept she stood down and looked
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into the tomb and she saw two angels in the white seat in one at the head and the other
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at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain.
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Then they said to her, woman why are you weeping?
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She said to them because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have
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laid him.
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Now when she had said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know
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that it was Jesus.
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Jesus said to her, woman why are you weeping?
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Whom are you seeking?
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She supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, sir if you have carried him away tell
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me where you have laid him and I will take him away.
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Jesus said to her, Mary.
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She turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say teacher.
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Jesus said to her, do not clench to me for I have not yet ascended to my father but go
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to my brethren that I say to them and say to them I am ascending to my father and your
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father and to my God and to your God.
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Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had
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spoken these things unto her.
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So we see here the first instance where there was a change in the way Jesus was referring
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to God as his father.
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God does not only become at this point in time the father to Jesus but also to men.
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God is referred to as a father to men.
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So the believer now calls God father.
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We can call God father, Romans 8 verse 15, we can call God father because of the redemptive
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work of Christ.
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We receive adoption by whom we cry out word we cry out father.
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So the idea of God being referred to as father was not an invention by Jesus in the New Testament.
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Jesus didn't invent that idea of God becoming a father to men.
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Jesus only came to fulfill the prophecies of what?
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Of the Old Testament.
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Jesus only came to do what?
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To bring to completion or to bring to manifestation all the things that were prophesied by the
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prophets in the Old Testament part of the scriptures.
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Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 and 18 we'll see where Jesus was speaking about what he was
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here to do.
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He says do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.
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That is Jesus did not come to nullify the writings of Moses and also the writings of
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the prophets.
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I did not come to destroy but to what?
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But to fulfill.
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But to fulfill.
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For assuredly I say to you till heaven and earth pass away one jot or one title will
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know by no means passed from the law.
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Meaning you know will be ignored or will not come to manifestation till all is what is
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fulfilled.
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Till all is fulfilled.
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Look 24 verse 44 we see Jesus emphasizing his role in this.
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Then he said to them after resurrection these are the words which I spoke to you while I
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was still with you.
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That all things must be fulfilled.
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That is all the things that the prophets have said must be fulfilled.
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Which were written in the Lord of Moses and the prophets and the psalms concerning me,
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concerning Jesus.
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And then he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures so they
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can see visibly the fulfillment of all the things that have been said by the prophets,
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by the mouth of the prophets.
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So the concept also of God's being father to men was not all also it wasn't an invention
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of or creation of the apostles.
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You know the apostles didn't just wake up one day and they found it to be a nice idea
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since they are forming a new religion, a new movement, a new sect.
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It will be a nice idea for us to sound different from the Pharisees and the scribes.
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Please call God our father.
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No.
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It wasn't a new idea.
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They also follow in the same way Jesus explained the scriptures.
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All that the apostle would teach in scriptures or practice must find its roots from the Old
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Testament.
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For example, now Paul explained the gospel.
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The idea of Jesus being the Messiah, you know, as explained in scriptures by the apostles,
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we see it in scriptures.
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For example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we see how Paul explained the idea of salvation.
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1 Corinthians 15 from verse 1.
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To see that the apostle never invented something new.
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Paul said, moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you, which
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also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved if you hold fast
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that word which I preach to you only unless you believed in vain.
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For I deliver to you first, what did he deliver?
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The gospel message, right?
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For I deliver to you first of all that which I also word, I also received.
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So Paul never created something of himself.
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It is that which he received that he word, that is presented to them.
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For I deliver to you first of all that which I also received.
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What did he receive?
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That Christ died for our sins.
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Where did he get that from?
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According to the scriptures which means that he may have gone through the scriptures.
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The scriptures here will refer to the Old Testament text.
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That he has gone through the scriptures and the scriptures have confirmed that the Christ,
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the Christ is an individual, is an office, is someone that will come and die for the
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sins of men and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to what?
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According to the scriptures.
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So the explanation of the dead and the burial of Jesus Christ is found in the text of the
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Old Testament scriptures.
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Verse 5.
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And that he was seen by Cephas then by the 12th.
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After that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remained
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to the present or some have fallen asleep.
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After that he was seen by James then by all the apostles.
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Then last of all he was seen by me also as by one born out of due time.
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Hallelujah.
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So he received something and then he is passing on to.
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So consistently we see in the writings of the apostles, in the teachings of doctrines
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of the apostles is that they never invented something new.
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So also the idea of God being the father is not something that they themselves came up
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with it as a beautiful idea but that they have to find its roots from the scriptures.
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So if God is referred to as father in the New Testament we can also as a matter of importance
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trace the origin of this concept from the Old Testament scriptures.
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And we say that from Genesis to Malachi which is what we are referring to in the context
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of this teaching the Old Testament scriptures is the collection of books that contains types
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and shadows, promises and mysteries.
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Hallelujah.
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So when you read through the text what will you find?
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You find symbolisms.
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You find a mood of communication, a way of writing that there are symbols, there are
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symbolisms, there are types, there are shadows, there are promises made in the text and there
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are what there is what we call mystery contained in it which means that whatever is mystery
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will need to be unraveled.
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Hallelujah.
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We need to be unraveled in mystery.
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We need to be unraveled.
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What was spoken by God through the prophets are promises wrapped up in shadows and figures
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of speech what we call mysteries.
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And when we say mysteries or types and shadows or promises is actually what was fulfilled
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in Christ Jesus.
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So mystery here means something that requires an explanation.
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We are not talking about something that is full of magic and spookiness.
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When we say mystery here we mean something that requires what?
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Requires an explanation.
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Hallelujah.
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It means that it requires an explanation which means that the writings of the Old Testament
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text requires what?
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Requires an explanation.
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There is a specific explanation for the writings of the Old Testament text.
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There are not many explanations to the writing of the Old Testament text because the writer
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has an intention for writing a particular text.
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Therefore, for you to come to a conclusion of what the writer was intending to communicate
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you must seek the writer's interpretation of his writing.
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Hallelujah.
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So there are not many other explanations but there is only one explanation.
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So mystery here refers to what?
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Something that requires an explanation.
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So when Jesus died and rose again we see him giving explanation to the mysteries.
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Luke 24 verse 25.
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Luke 24, 25, 27.
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Then he said to them, All foolish ones and slow of heart, believe in all that the prophets
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have spoken.
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Out not the Christ who hath suffered these things and entered into his glory.
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And beginning at Moses and all the prophets he what?
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He explained, he gave an explanation to them all the scriptures.
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The things concerning himself.
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So there was a need for an explanation.
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And even when he rose again from the dead, 40 days he spent with them, what was he doing?
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He was explaining to them the scriptures.
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Explaining to them the things that were written in the text.
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Expounding and expanding, interpreting to them the parables.
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Explaining to them the symbolisms.
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Only the things that concern him.
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In the same light the epistles, the writings of the apostles, the New Testament part of
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the scriptures by the early apostles are an explanation of the things concerning Christ
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as promised through the prophecies in the Old Testament scriptures.
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So the apostles themselves have to explain as Christ has explained to them the Old Testament
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text.
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So in our understanding of God as Father, it is important that we go in the same way.
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Now we will see a prophecy about this in Isaiah 53.
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Now let's go to Isaiah 53, particularly verse 10, but let's begin from verse 1.
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Isaiah 53.
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Who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
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For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground.
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He has no form or comeliness.
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And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
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He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
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And we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised and we did not esteem him.
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Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteem him stricken, smitten
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by God and afflicted.
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But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement
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for our peace was upon him and by his tribes we are healed.
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All we like sheep have gone astray, we have torn everyone to his own way and the Lord
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has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
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He was led at a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is silent,
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so he opened not his mouth.
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He was taken from the prison and from judgment and who will declare his generation for he
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was caught up from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people he was
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stricken.
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And they made his grave with the wicked but with the rich at his death because he had
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done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth.
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Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he has put into him grief.
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He has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his
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seat, he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
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He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge my righteous servant
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shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities.
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Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide a spoil with
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a strong because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors
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and he bore the sin of many and made intercessions for the transgressors.
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Hallelujah.
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Now with your understanding of the New Testament when you read this definitely you will see
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Christ painted in this part of the text.
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But imagine in those days even before the coming of Christ the prophet Isaiah have prophesied
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he has foretold what God will do in Christ and for us we can see vividly this promise
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being fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
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Now let's focus on verse 10 particularly verse 10 we see in it a profound prophecy about
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Jesus Christ the Messiah capturing his redemptive work, his suffering, his death and his resurrection
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in that verse and the result will come from that which he will suffer.
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In this verse let's see it again it says yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him so God was
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entrusted in afflicting Christ.
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It pleased the Lord to bruise him.
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He was put he has put him rather to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin
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he shall see his seed and we try to explain what this seed is from the last week.
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He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall do what shall prosper.
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Shall prolong his days.
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The word prolong is the Hebrew word araq and we see another word zira that is for seed
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or descendants seed or descendants.
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This holds deep significance in understanding God's promise for a family.
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These two concepts araq and zira that is prolonging his days and the seed which will come as a
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result of what he will do holds a significant importance for us in understanding God's promise
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for a family to arise through Jesus Christ.
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It speaks to the continuity of Jesus's influence and life beyond just his death that through
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the seed or through descendants that will come forth as a result of his sacrifice.
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So here we see there's an explanation that the Christ will be put to death and then out
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of it we see that a seed shall come from that experience.
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Now the word zira symbolizes not only fiscal lineage but spiritual descendants that is
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a new creation that will birth from the resurrection of Christ.
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This is essential, this is very important for us to understand and this aligns with
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other texts that speaks about you know the anguish and the pain that the Messiah will
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go through.
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Isaiah 7 verse 14, Isaiah 9 verse 6 for telling the Messiah who will be God with us and also
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establish it an internal kingdom.
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Now the promise to prolong his days implies that his life and mission will extend beyond
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his earthly life through the life of those who will believe.
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Him prolonging his days means that what?
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That the effect of what will happen is not only in his earthly days but even after he
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has left the earth.
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This is one of the scriptures we see in the Old Testament that seems or that gives us
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a hint about gospel and concerning you know a family, the idea of seed that is there of
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descendants, the idea of God having descendants and these descendants will come from what?
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From the redemptive work of Christ.
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Now let's look at some few.
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Let's look at one in Hosea.
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Let's look at Romans, Romans 9 verse 25 and 26.
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Romans 9 verse 25 and 26.
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And it says also in Hosea, now the writer of Romans 9 is making reference to which book?
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To the book of Hosea and Hosea is found where?
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In the Old Testament, right?
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So and he says also in Hosea, I will call them who?
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My people.
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So in the book of Hosea we're going to make look at the cross reference.
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I will call them my people.
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Not that I am calling them my people but I will what?
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I will call them my people who were not my people and her beloved who was not beloved.
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And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people.
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There they shall be called sons of the living God.
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These two verses are two different places in the book of Hosea.
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Now for Hosea, verse 25, give me verse 25, verse 25, let's read verse 25.
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And it says also in Hosea, I will call them my people who were not my people and her beloved
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who was not beloved.
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We will see that in Hosea chapter 2, verse 23.
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Hosea chapter 2, verse 23.
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Then I will sow her for myself in the earth.
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Now what we saw in Romans is the interpretation of this verse, explanation of this verse.
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Then I will sow her for myself in the earth.
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And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy.
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Then I will say to those who were not my people, you are what?
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You are my people.
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And they shall say, you are my God.
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Hallelujah.
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And then the verse 26 of Romans 9 can be found in Hosea chapter 1, verse 10.
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Hosea chapter 1, verse 10.
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Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as a son of the sea.
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Amen.
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Is it literally true that the children of Israel are as a son of the sea?
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If you are smart enough and you put simple logic, you discover that this is not exactly
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what he's saying.
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Hallelujah.
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But it's a way of communication, right?
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Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the son of the sea, which cannot be
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measured or numbered.
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And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people.
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There it shall be said to them, you are not just my people.
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But you are what?
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You are sons of who?
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Of the living God.
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So this is another place where there was a prophetic declaration of the plan of God having
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a family of sons.
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Hallelujah.
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We also see 2 Corinthians.
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2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 18.
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Paul said, it was caught in here.
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It's a quotation from the Old Testament.
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It says, I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord
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Almighty.
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We can find this from 2 Samuel chapter 7, verse 14.
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I will be his father, and he shall be my son.
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If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the wrath of men and with the blows of
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the sons of men.
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And we can see also other texts, Isaiah 43, verse 6, Jeremiah 31, verse 9.
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Paul uses, you know, this 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 18.
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He rather uses these scriptures to explain or to emphasize what Christ will do.
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Now let's go back to Romans 8.
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Romans 8, verse 29.
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For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that
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he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
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Hallelujah.
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The he is talking about here, the be the firstborn among many brethren is who?
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Is Jesus Christ.
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So through Jesus, we have come into the family of God.
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We that believe have come into the family of God.
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So in this text, we will see the plan of God.
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The word foreknew prognosco, P-R-O-G-I-N-O-S-K-O, means to have knowledge beforehand, which
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means that God right beforehand has predestined, which means that he preplanned, which means
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that God in his knowledge has planned before the foundation of the world.
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Which means that we coming into the family of God is not something that just shows up
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in history, but right from the foundation of the world, the intention of God for you
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and I is that we become part of his family, that we become a family.
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From here is a Greek word that is spelled, let me spell it for you, S-Y-M-M-O-R-P-H-O-S,
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sumophores.
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It means having the same form as another.
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The plan of God is that we might be what we will have, we will be conformed, that is that
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we will have the same image as who, as Jesus, similar to him, just like he is, and essential
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identity just as Jesus Christ.
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We see this word also used in Philippians 3 verse 21.
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Philippians 3 verse 21, the word sumophores was used to explain how we will be when we
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see him.
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Give me yes.
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Who will transform our lowly bodies that he may be conformed to his glorious body according
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to the walking by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself.
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So the confirmation here is that the same body that Jesus Christ will have, right, at
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the resurrection, at his appearing, is the same body that the believer will have.
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So the same word is what was used in verse 29 of Romans 8, meaning that as Jesus is,
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so we have come to be as a result of what, of his redemptive work.
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We are fashioned in similar nature as he is.
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We have the same nature as Christ.
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Now the word conformed here is different from the one used in Romans 12 verse 2 because
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sometimes the English dictionary or the English word, the English language uses the word conformed
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and, yes, let's look at Romans 12 verse 2.
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The conform in Romans 12 verse 2 is the words su, let me spell it, C-Y-S-C-H-E-M-A-T-I-Z-O,
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su schematizo, su schematizo, the Y there is double O in the pronunciation, su schematizo,
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which is to conform oneself, that is one's mind or character to another pattern.
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Now the way it is used here, you know, we usually tell you that in the context of a
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text we find the interpretation, right, and do not be conformed to this world, but be
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what, be metamorphosized, the word transformed here, there is a word conformed and there
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is a word metamorphosis by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good
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and acceptable and perfect will of God, all right.
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So in this text here it says do not be conformed, which means that you have an image already,
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okay, because for you to transform, for a lover to transform into a purple in biology,
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it means that he has, he is not transforming into an outside identity, isn't it?
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The potential of that transformation is within, the metamorphosis happen from within.
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So the believer here in Romans chapter 12, right there, is not Stuart to copy the world
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because that is not his nature, are we together?
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But he is to be transformed from what, from the inside.
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So the conformed use in Romans 12 is not the same as used in Romans 8-29.
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Romans 8-29 is a nature that we have as Christ, the conformity is what happened at salvation,
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is what has already happened.
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You're not trying to become like Christ, you're not trying to become like the Son of God,
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you are already the Son of God by virtue of salvation.
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So we are conformed to the first begotten at salvation, he is the prototype, he is the
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firstborn and then we are his siblings.
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And obviously we can get this interpretation from where we read in Isaiah chapter 53 verse
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10, we bring the seed, a product of what, of his redemptive work.
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So we have been conformed, say I have been conformed, I have been conformed into the image
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of the Son.
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Hallelujah.
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So how did this confirmation happens?
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It happened when we believed, amen.
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It happened when we believe.
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We are given the right to become the children of God by what?
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By believing.
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By believing.
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So if someone believes today, he automatically becomes a Son of God.
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Automatically becomes a Son of God.
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In John chapter 1 verse 12 to 13 we see Jesus Christ making reference to that, he says,
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but as many as are, what?
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Not led though, look up, it's all Romans 820, it's all Romans 8 here, it's all Romans 814.
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But as many as received him, receiving him here will mean what?
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Believing in him.
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To them he gave the right to what? to become children of God to those who what?
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Who believe in his name.
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Who were born not of blood.
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This birth is not what?
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Is not natural birth.
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When I say you are the Son of God, what we are referring to is not natural.
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Amen?
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It's not natural.
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When we say Jesus is the Son of God, we are not referring to natural.
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Amen?
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Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh.
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I was telling my people in the ceremony, I say there are some certain things that happened.
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Jesus Christ decided to what?
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To appear in this world.
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Amen?
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His appearance in this world was his decision, as many as are following the teaching, the
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ceremony things.
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His appearance to this world was his decision.
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But you and I, a young man fell in love with a young damsel.
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They decided that they want to make this love a life long thing.
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They went to a court or to a registry or to a church and they saw an oath, right?
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That they are going to live together for the rest of their lives.
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And they sat down and they decided that they are going to give back to you.
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And they did some things that they are supposed to do and then you appeared.
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You never made a choice.
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Absolutely, there's no choice.
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You don't choose to come.
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But then you appeared.
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Amen?
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Therefore when we say Jesus is the son of God, we are not saying that Jesus became a
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son of God or he was born without his will.
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No.
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Jesus decided to manifest as son.
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Amen?
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And the scripture says that he didn't withhold, he didn't count it what?
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Equality with God.
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He stood so low to become a man like you and I.
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So here to be born again, let's read from the previous verse, verse 12.
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It says, but as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become a children of
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God to those who believe in his name.
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The next verse, who were born, how were we born?
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We were not born by what?
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By flesh and blood, nor of the will of the flesh.
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Of course this flesh is different, thinking about works, nor of the will of man, of course
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the will of man here, but who will that you be born again?
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It was an act of God.
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God himself, doing what?
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Effecting this new birth, bringing you.
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And how did you come into this?
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Is by believing.
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Hallelujah.
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So what makes you?
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Sometimes we think, oh, I'm a proud child of God.
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I feel like I'm a child of God today because I'm in my best conduct.
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And oftentimes we feel, no, today I don't feel like I'm a child of God.
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It's not a product of your will, but that you just believe and a new birth is what Christ
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has achieved for us.
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Hallelujah.
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Galatians of the three, verse 26.
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Galatians three, 26.
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For you are all what?
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Sons of God.
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Through what?
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Through your works?
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How did he become a son?
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Through faith in who?
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In Christ Jesus.
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Remember we explained Isaiah 53, verse 10, right?
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And we said that our sonship is a product of what?
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Of his redemptive work.
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And for us to become sons, we believe in our redemptive work.
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So for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
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28, 27.
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For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, put on Christ.
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There is neither Jew nor Greek.
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There's neither slave nor free.
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There's neither male nor female.
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For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
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And if you are Christ, then you are what?
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You are Abraham's descendants and as according to what?
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To the promise.
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Hallelujah.
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So we are John Ayers.
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John was brought into the context here because he believed himself.
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So we are coerced with Christ just as Abraham believed God and he obtained the promise.
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So you also believed in the promise that we see manifested through the redemptive work
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of Christ.
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Hallelujah.
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We are now members of the household of God.
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It's John chapter three, verse one to two.
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We are not going to be members of God's family.
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We are not waiting for a family to be formed.
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Beloved now we are what?
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We are now.
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We are the children of God.
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Even though it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.
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But we know that when he is revealed, when he is raptured, when he's revealed, when he's
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manifested, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.
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Ephesians chapter two, verse 19.
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Ephesians chapter two, verse 19.
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Now therefore you are no longer strangers.
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Now he's referring to the one that has believed.
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Amen.
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You are no longer what?
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You are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with who?
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With the saints and members of the household of God.
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Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
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What is the foundation of the apostles and the prophets?
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Jesus Christ himself being what?
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In the chief cornerstone.
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In whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
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I love this one.
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In whom you are what?
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Is it been built brethren?
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Is it been built or built?
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Pastor Victor will call this syntax error right?
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In whom you also are built, being means it is present continuousness.
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No.
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You are built together for a what?
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For a dwelling place of God in the spirit.
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What happened in the spirit is once and for all.
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So you are already been built into that.
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You have been, it is not physical building brethren.
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Don't think of architecture in explaining this verse.
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Alright?
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Think of family.
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Think of inclusion into a family.
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Think of being included in God's work.
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The fellowship that we have together.
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Hallelujah.
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So you have already partake.
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You have partook in what Christ has done.
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You have come into what Christ has established.
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Hallelujah.
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Hebrews 2 verse 10.
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No, no before that 1 Peter 2 verse 9 and 10.
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1 Peter 2 verse 9 and 10.
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But you are a chosen generation.
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A royal priesthood.
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A holy nation.
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His own peculiar.
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His own special people.
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And you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous
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light.
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Once you were not a people.
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Listen, this is like paraphrasing some text in the Old Testament that we just read earlier
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on.
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Once you were not a people, but now who are you?
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Now you are the people of God who have not obtained mercy, but now, now, now, now.
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We have obtained mercy.
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See, we have already obtained mercy.
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We have already obtained favor.
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You are the favored one.
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Amen.
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You are the one that the Lord has shown mercy.
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Amen.
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You are the one that God had loved.
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So your external doesn't define what he had done in the past in you when you believe.
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Hallelujah.
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Hebrews 2 verse 10.
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Hebrews 2 verse 10.
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Oh Lord.
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Hebrews 2 verse 10.
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For it was fitting for him, that is God, for whom all things and by whom all things in
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bringing many sons to glory, to do what?
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To make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
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For both he who sanctifies and those who are, remove that bin.
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For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of what?
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Of one.
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For which reason he is not ashamed to call them what?
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To call them brethren.
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Say, I have been sanctified.
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I have been sanctified.
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Sanctification is not in works.
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It's your product of faith.
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I have been sanctified.
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Hallelujah.
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He's not ashamed of you.
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He's not ashamed to identify with who you are.
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God in Christ is not ashamed to say you are my family.
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You know there are some people when they see their siblings, they don't want to identify
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with them, especially when they are not looking well kept.
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We are your friends, your friends in the town and then suddenly you see your brother with
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a torn clothes, dirty without shoes and he's calling you sister.
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Don't disgrace me.
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But listen, in your most unkept way, in your most, which word will I use now?
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Unwelcoming way.
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In your most devious behavior, in your most unlikely and the most disobedient status.
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I'm speaking to somebody here.
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God is not ashamed to identify with you.
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Jesus is not ashamed to identify with you as a brother.
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That is comforting.
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He is not ashamed to identify with you as his because of his redemptive work.
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So you can come boldly, you can come with confidence that there is acceptance in the
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beloved.
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Hallelujah.
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You can come boldly that there is an acceptance in the beloved.
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Now what he did on the cross is important concerning everything that you've done.
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Hallelujah.
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First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12 and 13.
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For as the body is one has many members, but all the members of that one body, be many
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are what?
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Are one body.
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So also is Christ.
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For by one spirit we are all baptized into one body.
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See when we come to the next phase of this teaching, I'm going to be revealing to us
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how we should relate as a family because we are members of what?
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Of one family.
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Hallelujah.
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Now all this is to set us up to a place when we begin to say that we are brothers, you
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understand how we became brothers.
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How we became of one family and how we should relate to one another.
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How we should relate to those who are not of this family and who should be your friend
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and who shouldn't be your friend.
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For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body whether Jew, whether you are from
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Zimbabwe or you are from Kenya, from Mozambique, from Nigeria, whether you are a slave or you
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are free.
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So long as you believe in Jesus as a Messiah, you have all been made to drink into one spirit
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believing.
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All right?
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We are of the same family, we are of the same stock.
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Ephesians 1 verse 4 and 5.
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One Lord and one faith and one baptism.
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Ephesians 1 verse 4 and 5.
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Just as He chose us in Him, when did He choose you?
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When did God choose the believer?
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Just as He chose us in Him when before the foundation of the world that we should be
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holy and without blame, before Him in love.
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Verse 5.
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Having what?
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Predestined us toward to inclusion as sons.
55:50
How?
55:51
By Jesus Christ to Himself.
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According to what?
55:56
It pleases Him.
55:57
That is what He wanted from the beginning.
55:59
According to His good pleasure, according to what God has intended from the beginning.
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Hallelujah.
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So what should this understanding bring to you as you walk through your life, as you
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go through the week?
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Does that build confidence in you that you are a son of God?
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You are not unfortunate.
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You are not unfortunate.
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You are not an accident.
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Your status as a child of God is not a product of a man's will, but is what God has willed
56:36
by Himself.
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Just want you to begin to speak to God and say, Lord, let this revelation influence my
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living.
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Let this revelation influence my living.
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Let this revelation of my identity as a son influence my living.
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Colossians 1 verse 9.
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Please pray.
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Please pray this prayer and say, Lord, let the revelation of my identity stir up the
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way I live my life.
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Colossians 1 verse 9 says, for this reason, we also since the day we had it, do not cease
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to pray for you that and to ask, what is he praying?
57:37
That you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.
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Now the will of God, we've seen that is that you become part of his family.
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Is that you are a son, whether male or female, that you are a son regardless of your nationality,
57:53
Greek or Jew, slave or free, that you be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom
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and spiritual understanding.
58:05
Now this is the effect in verse 10.
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That you may work worthy of the Lord.
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The knowledge you have about your identity concerning the will of God, your identity
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in the will of God should influence the way you walk.
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That you will work worthy of the Lord.
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And in working worthy of the Lord, you are pleasing him.
58:32
And in pleasing him, we see you being fruitful.
58:34
And your fruitfulness is in good works.
58:37
And good works refers to what the work of ministry.
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That I live with the consciousness that I am a son.
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I am not a slave, I am a son.
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And I enjoy all the privileges of sonship in Christ.
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All that Christ has are mine.
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All that his redemptive work has brought is mine because I believe and I have been brought
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into this family so I enjoy the commonwealth of God.
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And this reality influences the way I live.
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My conduct, my life, I live as one who belongs to God.
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We appreciate you being here today.
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We hope you carry this word with you throughout your week.
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Don't forget to check the show notes for additional insights.
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Stay connected with us through our website or follow us on social media.
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If you are encouraged, share this message with someone you care about.
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Until next time, stay blessed.