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"Understanding God’s Grace" by Hiram Kemp · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

• 0:00
  The man went into a restaurant and sat down to eat his meal.
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  At the conclusion of the meal, he went to the waiter and he asked for the check, to
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  which the waiter responded, there's no check.
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  His response was, but I didn't pay anything, surely there's a check, she said.
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  There is no check, he says, how can I get a free meal?
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  She said, oh, it's not free.
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  The man that was before you paid the ticket in your place, to which you responded, I don't
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  know that man.
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  She said, that's not the point, he paid anyway.
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  He responded, I didn't ask him to pay.
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  She says, I know, but he wasn't forced to, he did it simply because he wanted to.
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  What do you call that?
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  You call that grace.
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  According to the Bible, one day you and I will stand before the throne of God, Romans
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  14 and verse 12, second Corinthians five and verse 10, and there'll be a sense in which
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  we may think to ourselves and even say to God, God, where's the check?
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  To which at that moment, he'll respond, there is no check, and maybe your mind will start
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  wondering, surely there's a check.
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  I know I lived, I know how I lived, I know I wasn't perfect.
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  Surely there's something to pay, to which you'll respond, the man that went before you
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  paid in your place.
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  John 1 29, John the Baptist pointed at Jesus and said, behold, the lamb of God who takes
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  away the sin of the world.
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  And you might be thinking in that moment, but there was a time in my life when I didn't
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  even know this man.
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  I didn't even ask him to pay, to which heaven will respond, I know, he chose to.
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  Jesus says, no man takes my life from me, I lay it down of my own accord, I have the
• 1:34
  power to lay it down and to take it up again.
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  He didn't have to, he chose to, it's called grace.
• 1:41
  Tonight, all of the songs in the service have been driven toward this idea of grace in one
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  way, shape, or form.
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  And grace, though we sing about it and read about it in scripture, it's kind of hard to
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  put it into human words.
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  John says that Jesus is grace.
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  The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
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  John 1 and verse 17, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
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  And we bailed his glory, glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and
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  truth tonight, briefly in our devotional time together.
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  I just want to say three things about what the grace of God means for us as we launch
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  out into our week.
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  And then we'll extend the invitation.
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  Three simple realities.
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  You've already sung these tonight and heard them in song.
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  But three realities from scripture about the grace of God that should change us as
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  people as we go out and live this week.
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  Number one, the grace of God means no bragging.
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  Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, Charles read it for us a moment ago, but Paul says in Ephesians
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  2 and verse 8, for by grace have you been saved through faith and it's not your own
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  doing, it's the gift of God.
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  It's not a result of works so that no one may boast.
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  The grace of God means there is no bragging.
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  There is nobody that gets to stand before God and say, ultimately, I've earned it.
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  When you think about your salvation in relation to the grace of God, it's because of what
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  God has chosen to do for us in and through the person of Christ.
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  So what does that mean?
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  It means you're not so special.
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  He's so special.
• 3:00
  First Timothy 6, 15 and 16.
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  It means you're not so smart.
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  He's the wise and smart one.
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  Romans 16 and verse 27.
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  It means you're not so good, but he's so good.
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  Psalm 25 and verse 8 says good and upright is the Lord.
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  The grace of God removes this idea of bragging from our mindset as it relates to salvation
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  and causes us to look upward to God and say, it's only because of what he's chosen to do
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  in his kindness and goodness that we can ultimately be saved.
• 3:27
  General Mills ran into a crisis in 1947 with their Betty Crocker cakes.
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  They had been on a roll and all of a sudden out of nowhere, they saw sales begin to plummet.
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  They called in a Freudian psychologist who evaluated things and he told them, the women
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  are no longer buying the cakes because they're having a little bit of guilt.
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  He did a survey of various people, the psychologist did, and he brought them backward and said,
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  basically, the women are saying it's kind of hard for them to say to their family and
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  friends that this is homemade when all they're doing is adding water to it.
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  They feel like they're robbing people.
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  And General Mills went back to the drawing board and they said, we've got a new idea.
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  And they wrote back out their advertisement plan and it was simply under this banner,
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  add an egg.
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  And the sales skyrocketed.
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  We are dying to contribute something.
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  We really want to do our part.
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  We really want to say to God, you know, I contributed, I added something, I left a tip.
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  But grace says no bragging at all.
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  God brings everything to the table.
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  And as it relates to your salvation and mine, if you come into the throne room of God with
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  your resume, you're disqualified because the very thing that qualifies you is his record
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  and not your own.
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  Hebrews 7 and verse 26.
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  Here's number two tonight about grace.
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  The grace of God means no borrowing.
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  The grace of God not only means no bragging, but it also means you don't borrow anything.
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  In second Corinthians eight and verse nine, Paul says, you know, the grace of our Lord
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  Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet for your sake, he became poor, that you through
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  his poverty might be made rich.
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  The grace of God fully supplies everything we need.
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  Paul says our sufficiency is not from ourselves.
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  It's from God.
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  Second Corinthians three and verse five.
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  And so the grace of God is God saying to you, this is everything that you need.
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  If the Christian life and if Christian theology was a storehouse or an edifice, and if it
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  was burning down, grace would be the first thing that I would run into grab because without
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  grace, there really is no hope of salvation.
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  But with grace, it means we have everything we need.
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  Psalm 34 and verse 10 says we lack no good thing.
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  Ephesians one and verse three, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
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  Second Peter one and verse three, we have all things that pertain to life and godliness.
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  The grace of God means no borrowing.
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  Now, how does this play out in your life and mine?
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  It means according to Paul, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
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  he was rich yet for your sake, he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made
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  rich.
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  You're rich with everything you need.
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  It changes how you move in the world.
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  If the grace of God means no borrowing, it means when you go into relationships, you
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  already have everything you need and you're not expecting this relationship to make you
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  somebody because you already came in fully rich in Jesus Christ.
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  You want to do your part.
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  You want to be a good person, but you're not expecting this relationship to make you who
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  you are.
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  It changes you.
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  You go to work.
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  I'm not expecting this job to make me who I am.
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  I'm already fully rich.
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  Whatever happens on this job, whatever happens as I'm employed here, it doesn't make me or
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  break me because grace means no borrowing.
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  I don't borrow significance from all of these relationships and from these various circumstances
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  in my life.
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  I don't borrow it from what other people think about me.
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  Grace means I have everything I need and I'm fully supplied in Jesus.
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  And finally tonight, here's the third thing.
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  The grace of God for us means nobody has to be left behind.
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  In Hebrews chapter two and verse nine, the Bible says, but we see Jesus who was made
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  a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
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  He was crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God should taste of death
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  for every man.
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  The grace of God means we've got nothing to brag about.
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  It means we don't borrow significance or meaning from anybody else or anything else is fully
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  supplied for us in Jesus.
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  But the third thing it means is nobody has to be left behind because Hebrews two and
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  verse nine says Jesus tasted of death for every man.
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  If you can imagine yourself being deathly ill, maybe there are some times you've been
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  sick and you felt that way.
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  And now imagine the tallest and nastiest cup of medicine you've ever seen before.
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  Not only does the medicine look nasty, but the cup itself does.
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  And then all of a sudden the person that's administering it, whether a spouse or a parent
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  or a doctor who's perfectly healthy, just about the time you're scrunching up your face
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  and thinking, I really don't want to down this.
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  They take it in your place.
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  And at first you're confused because they're perfectly healthy.
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  And then all of a sudden through them taking the medicine that should have been yours as
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  disgusting and vile as it appeared, you start to get better.
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  Your fever leaves, your cough vanishes, you can breathe again, you feel well.
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  The Bible says Jesus took the medicine that should have been ours.
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  He by the grace of God tasted death for every man.
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  The cup of death really was heinous and vile and disgusting.
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  And when Jesus takes it in your place, a mysterious thing happens.
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  Though he tasted death, we receive life and everybody that trusts in him, all of a sudden
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  through that faith, trust and belief, we're made well.
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  The Hebrew writer says it this way in chapter five, verses eight and nine, though he were
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  a son yet he learned obedience by the things he suffered and being made perfect, he became
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  the author of eternal salvation to everyone who obeys him.
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  Because of Jesus, absolutely nobody has to be left behind because our spiritual medicine,
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  which should have been ours, death, he's taken in our place.
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  What I want to say before we extend the invitation as you go out through this week is just remember
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  the grace of God.
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  It really does change everything.
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  And one day when you stand before the throne of God, don't look for a check, look for the
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  Christ and follow his feet and give him thanks for what he's done in our place.
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  It means you've got nothing to brag about.
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  But if you must boast, boast in the Lord, all glory to God.
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  First Corinthians one and verse 31, you don't have to borrow.
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  There's nothing that's going to happen this week that's going to make you any more than
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  you already are.
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  That's not bad news.
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  That's great news.
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  You're already rich.
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  Nobody can upgrade you.
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  The grace of God has made you everything you need to be and nobody has to be left behind.
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  He's already taken your medicine.
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  And because of that in Christ, there's a sense in which you're perfectly healthy.
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  The grace of God toward humanity is what ignites the plan of salvation.
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  But grace always means no earning, but it never means no effort.
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  There is a response.
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  And tonight, if you want to lay hold of that, believe in that Jesus is the Christ, the son
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  of God, you can turn from sin.
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  And based on your confession, be immersed in water, have your sins forgiven.
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  You won't owe a bill because the man that went before you has already paid.
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  He didn't have to, but he chose to.
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  If you need to respond to the invitation, if we can pray with you and pray for you,
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  we'd love to do it as together we stand and sing.