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Debits and Credits · The Holy Pause

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  [music]
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  SPEAKER_01: A reading from scripture, Romans chapter 3, verses 13 to 24.
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  SPEAKER_01: It was not through the law that Abraham in his offering received the promise
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  SPEAKER_01: that he would be heir of the world.
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  SPEAKER_01: For if those who depend on the laws are heirs,
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  SPEAKER_00: faith means nothing.
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  SPEAKER_01: The promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath.
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  SPEAKER_01: And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
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  SPEAKER_01: Therefore the promise comes by faith,
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  SPEAKER_01: so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring,
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  SPEAKER_01: not only to those who are of the law,
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  SPEAKER_01: but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, for he is the father of us all.
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  SPEAKER_01: As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations.
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  SPEAKER_01: Abraham is our father in the sight of God, in
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  SPEAKER_01: whom he believed.
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  SPEAKER_01: The God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
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  SPEAKER_01: Against all hope,
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  SPEAKER_01: Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations just
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  SPEAKER_01: as it had been said to him.
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  SPEAKER_01: So shall your offspring be.
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  SPEAKER_01: Without weakening in his faith,
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  SPEAKER_01: he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about
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  SPEAKER_01: a hundred years old and that Sarah's womb was also dead.
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  SPEAKER_01: Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God,
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  SPEAKER_01: but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,
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  SPEAKER_01: being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what God had promised.
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  SPEAKER_01: This is why it was credited to him as righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_01: The words credited to him were not written for him alone,
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  SPEAKER_01: but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_01: For us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
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  SPEAKER_01: for he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life
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  SPEAKER_00: for our justification.
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  SPEAKER_01: There is this belief in American society that we get what we deserve.
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  SPEAKER_01: That if you work hard enough, you get ahead.
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  SPEAKER_01: That if you do the right things, good things will happen to you.
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  SPEAKER_01: And if you do bad things, that bad things will happen to you.
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  SPEAKER_01: We believe that we get the fruits of our own workings.
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  SPEAKER_01: And that in the end, we get our just desserts.
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  SPEAKER_01: Think about how many phrases and cliches we have that basically end up meaning
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  SPEAKER_01: that we get the fruits of our labor, that the results are equal to the input.
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  SPEAKER_01: But that's not actually how it works.
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  SPEAKER_01: I have a really good friend whose son loves basketball.
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  SPEAKER_01: He loves basketball.
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  SPEAKER_01: He plays basketball like All day.
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  SPEAKER_01: He comes home from school and he plays basketball.
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  SPEAKER_01: He plays basketball video games.
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  SPEAKER_01: He reads basketball books.
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  SPEAKER_01: He knows every team in the NBA.
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  SPEAKER_01: He knows most of the major stars in the NBA.
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  SPEAKER_01: And he can tell you he won the last 10 years of NBA championships.
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  SPEAKER_01: That boy loves basketball.
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  SPEAKER_01: That boy is also short.
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  SPEAKER_01: I mean, short.
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  SPEAKER_01: Not like Tiny, but you know, not the tallest kid in this class.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I have bad news for him, but his parents are not that tall either.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's unlikely that he is going to grow to the height that you need to play
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  SPEAKER_01: at any level of competitive basketball.
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  SPEAKER_01: Is that fair?
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  SPEAKER_01: Did he get what he deserved?
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  SPEAKER_01: Are the results equal to the amount of labor that he has put in?
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  SPEAKER_01: The truth is that most of us are the products of gifts and skills,
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  SPEAKER_01: talents and work,
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  SPEAKER_00: or not work,
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  SPEAKER_00: or anger, or abuse.
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  SPEAKER_01: Most of us are the products of other people's work.
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  SPEAKER_01: Most of us are the products of our genetics and our circumstances.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are who we are because of where we were born, who our parents were.
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  SPEAKER_00: What culture did we live in?
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  SPEAKER_00: Did we have more money or less?
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  SPEAKER_01: As much as we like to think that it's possible for every person
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  SPEAKER_01: to chart their own destiny,
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  SPEAKER_01: the truth is we are always going
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  SPEAKER_00: to be held captive to somebody else's destiny.
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  SPEAKER_00: Which sounds awful.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you're thinking about it in the American context,
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  SPEAKER_00: Paul here offers us a different way to view that.
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  SPEAKER_00: He says here that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness,
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  SPEAKER_00: but not only him, his children also.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the same way, Jesus' sacrificial death, one that he did nothing to earn or deserve,
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  SPEAKER_00: It's credited to us.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are the privileged recipients of Jesus' act of salvation and justification.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then we don't get what we deserve.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is so often a good thing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because if we got what we deserved, would we really want it?
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  SPEAKER_00: Instead, we are credited with righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_01: We are credited with other people's hard work.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are credited with who God sees us to be.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so despite our strengths and our weaknesses, we are given grace upon grace.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are given so much more than we deserve.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that right there is the good news of the gospel,
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  SPEAKER_00: even on the days when it doesn't be like that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now I invite you to put that into practice today.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look around.
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  SPEAKER_00: How many things and people that you see around us are the product of your hard work?
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  SPEAKER_00: And how many of them were gifts?
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  SPEAKER_00: Something you earned through nothing else but somebody else's righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_01: How many of the things and people who surround you are gifts given to you through
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  SPEAKER_01: the grace of God?
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  SPEAKER_00: And how many times do you find yourself in places of gratitude and joy and freedom
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  SPEAKER_00: for somebody else's sacrifice?
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  SPEAKER_00: Join me in prayer.
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  SPEAKER_00: God of righteousness,
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  SPEAKER_00: we are thankful that who we are is a
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  SPEAKER_01: gift from you and that our salvation,
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  SPEAKER_01: our being made righteousness with you and with one another,
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not through our own making, but through the acts of Abraham and of Jesus.
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  SPEAKER_00: Help us to be grateful and thankful for the work that others have done on our behalf.
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  SPEAKER_00: In God's name we pray.
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  [music]