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A Throne of Mercy and Grace · Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons

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  chapter 4 I'm reading it the last verse verse 16
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  let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace
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  that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need
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  now we know that some of the greatest new testament writings came from defending the faith
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  against those who were wanting to attack the christian faith and while that was true
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  certainly of in the new testament it's also true throughout the history of the church that some of
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  the best writings that we will find have come about from those who are trying to defend or who
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  are defending the faith against attack from without and within you think of people like augustine and
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  luther and calvin and right down to the likes of dr martin lloyd jones and to tim killer and there's a
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  huge list of people who have written great things but some of the best writings have come about
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  as they are seeking to defend the faith from attack and that's what we have very much in this chapter
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  because the writer here is writing to christian jews and they are under attack from non-christian jews
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  who are telling them that they're lacking that the faith they have the beliefs they have that they're
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  not the real thing because they're missing out on so much these non-believing jews or jews who haven't
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  embraced the christian faith they're saying listen you don't have sacrifices you don't have altars you
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  don't have a priesthood and above all you don't have a high priest so they're saying you're you're you're
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  really missing out so the the apostle here is writing in a way in which he's saying that isn't true
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  that that we have that's what it says in verse 14 since then we have a great high priest who has
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  passed through the heavens jesus the son of god let us hold fast our confession and when he writes that
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  since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens you can almost picture as you
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  remember back in the in the in the old testament times there was only one day in the year when the
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  high priest was allowed into the most holy place or the holy of holies that was in the great day of
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  atonement and just this one time in the year he passed through the curtain in there
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  now jesus of course is the great high priest and he has passed through and he has passed through
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  everything and he has arisen from death and he has passed into the heavens and you remember when
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  jesus cried on the cross it is finished and when he gave up his spirit that there were various
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  phenomena that occurred and one of the things that happened was at the veil in the temple that veil which
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  separated to the most holy place where the presence of god was most most found that that veil was torn from top to bottom
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  and god was showing at that moment that the old was gone and that there was an immediate access through christ
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  into his presence and that there was now no need for the altar and the sacrifices and the priesthood and the high
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  priesthood that these were types these were ceremonies these were rituals that were all pointing to jesus christ
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  and had been fulfilled in jesus christ and just as the high priest passed through the curtain
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  into the most holy place so jesus passed through into the presence of the father and he had achieved and he had
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  he had made this this way possible so that's what the the the writer is he here saying not only do we not have we have the greatest of all
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  and then in verse 15 he tells us that our high priest although he is the god man although he is all majestic and powerful and mighty and wonderful
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  he is also one with us he knows every single thing about us not only as god but he understands us
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  because he has actually gone through everything with us as well because our god is not a god who is distant
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  and remote and far removed he is a god who is with us a god who is in us he is emmanuel god with us
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  and so this is a wonderful thing that we have that our high priest our lord he knows he knows everything
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  about us not just as god but also by way of experience because he understands what this world is like
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  that is a cruel that is a a painful place it's a place of hurt a place of betrayal a place of disappointment
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  jesus christ was touched that's what we're told in he's with all our our weaknesses and he was he was
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  touched in every area apart of course from from from in temptation apart from sin and you and i know the one of
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  the the great things of supposing you go through some very difficult trying experience something that's
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  heartbreaking and heart-rending and people will come to see you and people will sympathize with you
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  and it's one of the things and any minister will say the same as you deal with or try to deal with people
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  in their sorrows and you sympathize with them and while your heart genuinely goes out and you really
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  feel for them there are often many situations where you are sympathizing with and praying with and
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  listening to and you have to say well my heart goes out i don't completely understand because i've never
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  been there and sometimes you say thankfully i haven't been there because as some people go through very
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  hard and difficult experiences you're you as we say your heart goes out but you can't properly understand
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  because you haven't you yourself experienced but if somebody who has experienced exactly the same thing
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  as you comes to see you that makes a difference in the sense that you know that they know exactly
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  what you're feeling well that's a wonderful thing about the high priest that we have jesus he understands
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  exactly he's been touched with the feeling of our weaknesses he knows our pains he knows our
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  sorrows he knows when we what it's like to be let down he knows what it's like to be betrayed he knows
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  what just in all the difficult different situations he knows what it is to be lied about and where false
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  accusations are leveled against knows all these things and he knows the force and the power of temptation
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  although he didn't have sin within him yet he he was battered by satan so this is a
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  high priest that we have one who sympathizes with us and his sympathizing wasn't just when he was here
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  in this world because we know that when he was here in this world as for these 33 years it often
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  says that he was moved with compassion his sympathy didn't stop when he left this world he's the
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  unchanging jesus and he is as sympathetic tonight as he has ever been at any stage so that's a wonderful
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  thing that we have is that we have this wonderful sympathetic high priest and that's why we're then
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  told let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace and how thankful tonight that it is
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  a throne of grace that it's speaking about imagine if it was a throne of judgment because one day it's
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  going to be one day jesus christ won't be on the throne of grace as we have here he'll be on the throne
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  of judgment the judgment seat of christ where everyone will have to appear and i know that on that day
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  there'll be many people and they'll wish that they had gone to the throne of grace many people who
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  didn't believe many people who didn't want to go many people who couldn't be bothered going but on that
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  day that that throne this throne the throne of grace won't be available in the way that it is now
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  although grace doesn't end there will always be grace and grace will be complete in glory but the thing is
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  that tonight it's a throne of grace that we that we have here before us and there was grace of course in
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  the establishing of it this grace was this throne was established by god's grace as we know grace
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  is a is an undeserved favor and so god established this throne and it was purely of grace that he did so
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  because we didn't deserve it god would have been completely right to have said i will do no such thing as
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  establish a throne of grace this people deserves nothing because of what they have done
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  but he has made he has set out this throne of grace for us and it's something we should always remember
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  that it is it was established by grace and this grace that is given this throne of grace we must always
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  remember has come at a great cost you know sometimes we just take it for granted and we think oh well
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  we have this throne of grace we have this throne of grace and we can go anytime let's always remember
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  what it cost cost the death of the lord jesus christ without the death of jesus christ there would be no
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  throne of grace we wouldn't be meeting in this kind of way we wouldn't be enjoying the benefits that we do
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  were it not for the death of the lord jesus christ so we must always remember that
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  that tonight this privilege that we have cost heaven's greatest treasure where god gave his son
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  where jesus christ gave himself so we must always remember that so we have this great invitation to
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  come and this invitation let's say is to everyone some people think that this invitation is purely
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  for the christian it's not it's for everyone how did we come to faith was it not by coming as sinners
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  to the throne of grace this is where it began and the invitation we've always got to remember although
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  it's a christian that uses the throne of grace most of the time that throne of grace is available
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  to everyone and that's where we begin that's where our journey began by calling out to the lord
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  calling out to him to to hear us to pardon us to forgive us our sin that's where a sinner first finds
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  pardon from all their sins is at the throne of grace so it is as we say it's a throne that is there
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  for everyone so how do we come we're told we come with confidence or boldness it's the idea of somebody
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  coming to a higher rank and that doesn't mean that we come brazenly or come with a super confidence
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  but it means that we come with an assurance that god is not going to deal with us according to our
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  everybody serving because we could easily be inhibited and think you know i i can't come
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  but the lord is saying no you can't come you have a sympathetic high priest who wants you to come who's
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  available all the time and i often think that we should in fact it was just mentioned in the prayer
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  and it's very very difficult to prepare properly midweek when people have been have a busy a busy schedule
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  and to come and was just highlighted there of how and quite often when we come to a prayer meeting
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  we become very conscious of maybe how we didn't prepare before we came now i know that it is often
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  in the hurried rushed pressurized life that we live today very difficult or impossible to prepare as we would
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  want to but i believe that when we have our set times of private prayer we should seek to prepare for it
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  because if you and i were going to meet king charles are going to meet some dignitary we would prepare
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  and so we should prepare as we come to meet with the lord at his throne and always as we said remember
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  the privilege what a what a wonderful thing it is that the creator of heaven and earth the god who
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  holds this world in the hollow of his hand the god who counts the number of the stars and he names them
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  one by one has said you come tonight you come today you come anytime to me tell me what you need tell me
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  what you want i'm listening i'm sympathetic it's the most amazing privilege that we have
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  which far too often we take for granted now as i said often we don't have the time to prepare because
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  often when we come to the throne of grace it's spontaneous we all of a sudden we cry to the lord
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  we're in a time of need and we cry for help we ask lord lord help me here i don't know what to do
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  i don't know what to say lord put a guard over my mouth in case i say the wrong thing we're so often
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  asking the lord like that or it's a a sigh of confession lord forgive me forgive me my sin
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  so that a lot of our coming to the throne of grace is like that it's it's spontaneous
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  but also there are times that we should come and we should be more prepared in our coming
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  and so we we need to we need to come and be persuaded that the lord will hear us satan will
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  whisper into your ear and say lord's not going to listen to you you look at your life you look at
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  you look at the many ways you've let the lord down you look at all the things you've done and all the
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  things you've said lord's not going to listen to you we're told here that we are to come with this
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  confidence with this assurance and what are we to seek for very briefly that we may receive mercy
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  and you know that's where it where it all began so we sang this poor man cried god heard and saved him
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  from all his distresses and all your days you will be crying the first cry that you ever had
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  god be merciful to me a sinner that's how it began and you will never the christian will never ever stop
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  asking the lord lord be merciful to me and you know that that mercy that we have it we've said it
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  before that mercy is often we is that where there is a need on the part of the one requiring mercy
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  and there are resources sufficient on the part of the one bestowing mercy you've heard the story of
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  you know it well of the the man who was to be shot in the time of napoleon and the man's
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  mother came to napoleon and he said she pleaded for her son to be spared and napoleon said justice
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  demands he dies and the mother said it's not justice that i'm looking for it's mercy please be
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  merciful to him napoleon said woman he doesn't deserve mercy he deserves to die the mother said it wouldn't
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  be mercy if he deserved it and that's the wonder of it that's what mercy and she said just be
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  merciful and napoleon was struck by that and he said i will grant mercy you see it wouldn't be
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  mercy if we deserved it but it's this undeserving and as god is merciful to us and he is let us pray
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  constantly that we in turn will be merciful to others as we receive mercy and you know we can be harsh
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  with other people when god is so gracious and so merciful to us so we must seek always to be
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  merciful as we have received mercy and then again we see we ask for grace that's what it says let us
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  that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need when through mercy we've come
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  to know god's peace and we're through this journey through this wilderness through this world
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  every day we're looking for that grace and we're told in the bible that that grace is sufficient for us
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  now you and i know that there are times that we will very readily make our way to the lord and we'll
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  say to the lord oh lord help me i need your grace i'm struggling sometimes it might be physical sometimes
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  it might be mental it might be emotional might be spiritual might be a combination of all these things
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  because sometimes we can't separate all these things are so often intertwined
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  and we go to the lord and say lord i need your grace but you know there are there are times that
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  will rebellious and there are times we're in the huff dare i say it in the huff with god
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  and we won't go to him for grace and we'll say i'll see this myself i'll see i'll sort this myself
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  i'll put on as it were like the stiff upper lip i'll deal with this i'm not going to take the
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  christian attitude here you know that's so wrong and god will sometimes allow us to just like little
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  toddlers our little children to have their wee sort of moments of being sort of like this a wee strop
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  sadly we have our strops before god but you know the lord is gracious and he teaches us that it is by
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  grace that we have to go through this world leaning on him and relying on him irrespective of what the
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  situation may be whether it is whether their family difficulties whether their physical difficulties
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  whether their financial difficulties whether their relationship difficulties whether their sorrows
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  bereavements losses crosses doesn't matter what the grace is sufficient and it's through god's grace
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  through these trials that come into our lives that we learn so many things and i'm sure every one of
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  you tonight can echo in a different way to the way that paul did but remember how paul prayed to the
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  lord that he would remove this thorn in the flesh and he prayed and he prayed and he prayed about it
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  god said no i'm not going to remove it but i'm instead i'm going to give you my grace
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  and you know i'm sure the lord is doing that for every single one of us here in a different way
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  there's always going to be something you don't want in your life
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  and you wish that you were saying if only this could be removed i would be a better person
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  i would be a better christian my life would be so much better why is this here and the lord is
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  saying in order that you will discover my grace because it is by grace that we walk every step of
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  the way and the lord is saying there is a sufficiency at this throne please make it the habit of your life
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  to come to that throne so that we might all indeed every single one of us may receive
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  this mercy and this grace to help in time of need let us pray lord our god we give thanks for our time
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  together we give thanks for this word so often we're we're so familiar with this version indeed we so
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  often quote it but help us to remember more and more the the depth of truth that's in it of the amazing
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  mercy and grace that is to be found at your throne and we pray that you'll equip us as we
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  go through life at every turn and at every corner we pray that you'll help us and we pray that you'll
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  be with everybody here tonight according to their needs that they will discover your help your strength
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  your grace we pray lord that you'll do for us far and beyond what we may ask or think we pray that
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  you'll bless us in our homes and our families be with all whom we love with all who can't be here
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  tonight who would want to be be with those online lord we pray your blessing upon us do us good
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  cleanse us we pray and take us to our homes safely forgiving us all our sin in jesus name amen
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  we're going to
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  we're going to