WEBVTT

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 Okay, we're reading from John chapter 6, verse 35 to 51.

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 Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

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 Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

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 But I say to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe.

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 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

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 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

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 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me,

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 but raise it up on the last day.

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 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.

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 And I will raise him up on the last day.

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 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven.

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 They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

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 How does he now say, I have come down from heaven?

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 How does he now say, I have come down from heaven?

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 He has seen the father, except he who is from God.

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 He has seen the father.

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 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

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 I am the bread of life.

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 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

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 this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die i am the living

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 bread that came down from heaven if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever and the bread

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 that i will give for the life of the world is my flesh folks we're exploring started this in this

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 teaching series exploring how we experience god's sovereignty and grace in our salvation and we're

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 thinking we know we experience it we're trying to dig into some of the practicalities the process

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 last sunday we established our starting point in ephesians chapter 2 and there was two simple

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 points come out of ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 to 10 the first one is that by nature people are in a

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 state of spiritual deadness

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 when they're born in in our natural born state our spiritual dna if you wanted to call it that

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 has us hardwired to rebel against god

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 it's pretty pretty confronting sort of teaching isn't it from the bible

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 and then we saw the state of sin that we're born in inevitably gives rise to acts of sin or rebellion

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 rebellion because we're born in a state of sin and rebellion then we give expression to that in acts of

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 sin and rebellion and though a person may not realize it by nature says the bible we're so radically affected

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 by sin at every point of their being that we're totally unwilling and unable to respond to god as he intends us to

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 a terrible plight

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 but then we also saw last week into that very plight

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 god acts severally

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 ephesians 2 4 says and god made you alive

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 that's what god does with spiritually dead people in the act of salvation

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 he makes them alive

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 purely and completely as an act of his grace nobody deserves it nobody can earn it nobody can command it

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 it is purely and completely as an act of god's grace that god takes dead spiritual people

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 spiritually dead people and makes them alive

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 in other words he does for people what they could never ever do for themselves

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 changes their spiritual dna creating new desire new ability to be the image bearers

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 he created us to be and intended us to be

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 this morning i want to dig into how this process of being made alive actually works

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 in in our experience so here's a question and a scenario to get you thinking about how this

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 process of being made alive actually works

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 the question is this why does any given person become a christian

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 why does any given person become a christian well you might say well that's that's an easy question

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 they make they become a christian because they hear the message of salvation in jesus

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 and against that they decide they want to be a christian they make a decision in response to what they hear

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 so here's the scenario then at two friends fred and barney

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 they get go to hear a talk about jesus as a guest of another friend so fred and barney are there

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 each hears the same message each hears that they are rebels before god and without hope and without god in this world

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 each hear that christ's death was to rescue them was to save them from the the the guilt and the consequence of their sin

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 and each hears the urgent plea of the preacher to turn to jesus and find life

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 and each of fred and barney responds

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 fred becomes a christian he recognizes suddenly his desperate need for christ

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 his plight before god and his desperate need of salvation that could only come from god

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 and he expresses a sudden new determination to give up autonomy and to live life under the lordship of jesus christ

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 and in the same instant barney also makes a decision he thinks that's the biggest lot of rubbish he'd ever

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 heard and he was really annoyed at his friend for wasting a whole evening

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 now clearly each response involves a real choice driven by conscious desires

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 but here's the question behind the question where did fred get his desire from

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 why did he recognize his desperate need while his long-time friend barney standing beside him

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 simply got offended

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 it seems to me there's only two real alternatives to explain it either fred's desire came from within

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 himself that is fred was more intelligent fred listened better fred understood better and so

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 he used his native native abilities better and come to a better conclusion than barney

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 at first glance you might think well that that's that's obviously what did happen but

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 when you dig into that and look at barney then you think well actually no it doesn't work because

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 barney also heard barney also understood enough to be offended

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 to reject

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 so barney's response was equally as strong

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 but totally different

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 barney's rejection was also on the basis of intelligent understanding

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 barney barney

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 barney wouldn't accept that god had a problem with him nor would he accept that he had a problem with god

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 the only other alternative my friends is

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 at least i believe the only other alternative is what the bible teachers the bible's answer that is

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 is fred's desire the thing that made fred a christian brought him to be in a christian was

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 something that came from outside of himself as the bible says it came as a sovereign work of god

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 in fred's life

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 and that's what the bible teaches the bible teaches that a person

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 becomes a christian when god acts decisively in them creating both desire and ability

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 to respond to the message of jesus

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 now the biblical terminology for this in terms of classic theology terms is the effectual call of god

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 and if you're following through on the notes you'll see that term written down there the word

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 effectual is something we don't use much these days but it's the same word as effective so you

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 could just read the effect of call of god in other words when god calls people it's always effective

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 it always works it's irresistible in terms of historic theology the effective or irresistible

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 call of god and it's another key aspect of god's absolute sovereignty and salvation

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 and ultimately explains why and how a person becomes a christian and that's what i want to

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 jump into a little bit this morning making two points firstly is the bible teaches that both the fact

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 and necessity of god's effectual call in short the bible teaches that god saves sinners

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 now the fact of god's powerful calling is established throughout the bible

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 and every time you see god's calling or it's described or you or you or you see it in action

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 in somebody's life it's a practical display of god's intervention in a person's life in an absolutely

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 sovereign way and it results every time in renewing renewing and reorientating a person's life and

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 relationship with god and so if you track through the old testament you can see it in lots of places

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 abraham was called by god while he was just away off in the distance getting on with his own life

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 man in his own business he was called by god uh disciples were called by god while they were um

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 ill-educated uneducated illiterate fishermen and they were transformed as a result of that call

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 paul was particularly called by god when he was actively rebelling against jesus and trying to

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 destroy anything to do with jesus in the church he was called by god radically renewed and reoriented

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 to the things of god into relationship with god so each of those was a display of god's sovereign

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 creative power love and purpose

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 god intervenes in the lives of individuals he establishes new relationship with them

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 and he radically changes their orientation of these individuals towards himself

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 how does he do that because he renews their hearts he renews their attitudes he renews their desires

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 he gives them both the ability and the desire

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 from the inside out that's the fact of god's effect of call the necessity of god's effective call

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 is all we also taught in john chapter 6 so we're going to jump into a few verses and i'm not going

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 to spend lots of time in these uh this passage i just want to lift out some verses uh that's that say

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 the things i want i want you to hear this morning so the context of john chapter 6 and we're picking

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 the story up at the verse 35 is that jesus has fed miraculously this huge crowd

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 and he's speaking to the crowd afterwards and what he does is he bluntly jesus bluntly accuses

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 the crowd of being interested in him but not true disciples

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 he says effectively he says you guys are following me for opportunistic reasons

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 you're not really following me because you see who i am and you see your need to be engaged with me

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 as god and savior they didn't see him as the source of spiritual life

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 and if you look at verse 36 and verse 37 jesus responds fairly harshly to them but i said to you

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 that you have seen me and yet you do not believe in other words you can see me physically with your eyes

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 but you can't really see me spiritually with through your hearts you can't see my significance

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 all that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me i will never cast out

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 the fact that this whole crowd are is not really believing him is not really seeing him as he truly

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 is doesn't faze jesus at all in fact in these verses he responds quite positively he said there will be some

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 who believe this crowd the vast majority aren't those people but there will be some who believe

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 and they are guaranteed life and salvation

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 how are they described here how is this group who will believe they're described as all that the father gives me

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 will believe

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 now the story continues and jesus response initially offends the crowd even further

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 there are religious people and they're deeply offended

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 but jesus would suggest they don't have a living vibrant relationship with god

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 and so jesus speaks even more bluntly to them in response verse 43 and 44

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 so the idea of the verse 41 the jews grumbling about and that's the idea of being really deeply

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 offended and angry how dare jesus speak to us like that we are religious people we are jews

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 and that's the idea of being the truth verse 43 jesus answered them do not grumble among yourselves no one can

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 come to me unless the father who sent me draws him that word is also calls me calls him and i will raise him up at the last day

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 no one is able to says jesus no one has within themselves the power to

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 come to jesus or respond to jesus as god and savior unless

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 jesus powerfully and sovereignly in their lives give them that ability give them that desire

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 drawing them or calling them to himself

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 now romans 8 28 to 30 makes the same point and we're told there those who are first loved by god

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 and called according to his purpose and salvation

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 there you go that word call again god's work of salvation from start to finish

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 first loved then called ultimately saved

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 so the fact of god's call is

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 simply and easily discerned in scripture

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 how do we respond to it well can i suggest you this morning that this is a wonderful truth to discover

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 there's nothing to fear

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 in understanding and discovering how god works in a person's life how god has worked in your life if

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 you're a christian

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 see because what it means is that god speaks of god's character and that god pursues

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 is sinless

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 is sinless lifeless people

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 by definition if you're dead in your sins you you can't do a thing you're just lying there you're just

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 immobile that's the whole picture of a corpse

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 well against that bleakness we have a picture of god pursuing

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 his sin his um

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 spiritually deadened people

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 pursuing them until

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 he's made them alive

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 it's a wonderful picture

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 he knows god knows that unless he moved towards us

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 we would never of our own abilities have moved towards him

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 by definition we're dead we're corpses spiritually unresponsive

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 we would not move towards god we could not move towards god because we're not

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 we were by nature spiritually dead towards him

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 and so likewise

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 god knew that it would never be enough simply to send jesus into this world to atone to pay for

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 the penalty for our sin to redeem us from the power of sin it would never

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 be enough for jesus just to do that and as it were set up on the table and say okay it's over

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 here guys come and come and help yourselves when you want to

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 god knew it would never be enough why because we wouldn't want to help ourselves we wouldn't be

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 able to help ourselves no god knew that he had to bring salvation to us and not only that but he had

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 to make it effective in us

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 by his sovereign power he brings jesus to us and he calls us to jesus

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 what a beautiful picture what a beautiful picture

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 god actually and effectively applies the benefits of the death of christ

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 the individuals like you and me by working powerfully inside us

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 this is not a truth to fear my friends

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 this is a truth that should prompt us to say all glory be to god

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 all glory be to god

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 what's manner of love is this that god should move towards us pursue us even while we're so busy rejecting him

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 second point i want to make this morning is is the mechanics or the process of god's effective call

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 that is how does god make people alive

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 well put simply god's call in its entirety is the process that we call conversion

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 and the bible uses various terms in this

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 zone of conversion terms like the new birth

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 regeneration

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 adoption

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 adoption

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 conversion or union with christ now there's a number of terms and others

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 that are inseparably linked but not altogether identical realities

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 there are shades of difference between each of those terms but essentially

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 they come together to describe what we would call conversion

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 each describes a spiritual fresh start each describes a radical new creation a resurrection from

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 spiritual deadness to spiritual liveness

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 new relationship with god

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 and each of those things is a one-off event that we experience in our innermost being

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 this is something god does and as a result of these one-off things we are new in christ

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 and together they deliver us into this new life which is an ongoing reality so one-off events there

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 ongoing reality which is the life we live as christians and that life is expressed in another

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 conglomerate of terms that we come across in in the bible at repentance faith being sanctified or growing

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 more like jesus as we continue in the life of of service discipleship loving the brethren and so on and so forth

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 there's a whole heap of terms there that come together to describe the struggle of living as christians

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 having been once off made alive

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 so focusing on this part how does god's call actually work or happen in a person's life

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 well to that to do that i just want to illustrate through john chapter 3 remember that famous

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 interaction between nicodemus and jesus and you remember the context jesus came nicodemus came to jesus

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 by night nicodemus came as a religious professor he was a guy who taught others about the detail of god's

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 word and god's salvation plan in history he came as a very educated man he came as a man who was deeply

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 religious and deeply interested in jesus

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 he came to learn more about jesus

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 he loved god and he assumed that because of all the religious things he had been doing over his lifetime

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 that god would love him

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 but jesus king hits him not just once but twice

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 in verse 3 and verse 6 i'm not going to get into the text you can look at it for yourself later

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 jesus king hits him by saying this and this is a man who spent his whole life serving god

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 jesus says nicodemus

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 you need to be born again you need to be reborn you need to be regenerated if you're to be saved

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 his religious life spent teaching about god and serving him did not mean acceptance

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 before god or by god he needed as jesus said to be born of water and the spirit now there's lots

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 could be said about that i'm just going to give a very quick summary water and spirit you know

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 they're both pictures from the old testament of renewal and purity purification

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 nicodemus this is what you're like on the outside a religious man but on the inside you still need

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 something a refreshment you need a renewal you need something reborn you need regenerated on the inside

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 what's on the outside won't get in in the way that you need it you need something new on the inside

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 which will flow out in a new way

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 and so the new birth is a picture or metaphor

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 in nicodemus's life for the radical renewal that god must effect if a spiritually dead person is to be

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 saved

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 they don't come any more pure and religious from a human point of view than did nicodemus

00:25:19.720 --> 00:25:23.960
 but jesus said no on the inside you need renewing

00:25:23.960 --> 00:25:27.160
 desires attitude and heart

00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:37.000
 in verse 8 jesus declares that to be the work of the holy spirit and again uses picture language

00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:41.960
 the work of the holy spirit says jesus in verse 8 of john chapter 3 it's a bit like the wind

00:25:43.400 --> 00:25:47.880
 you know the wind is real but you can't actually see it

00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:57.400
 jesus saying when i'm talking to you nicodemus about this need for a rebirth this something on the

00:25:57.400 --> 00:26:04.520
 inside refreshment purification on the inside then it's the work of the holy spirit which like the

00:26:04.519 --> 00:26:07.480
 wind is real but unseen

00:26:10.680 --> 00:26:16.839
 so in summary then how does it all work well firstly there's an outward call of the gospel

00:26:16.839 --> 00:26:23.879
 that is what you and i experience we hear somebody speak or we read about the work of jesus we're

00:26:23.879 --> 00:26:29.720
 confronted at some point in some form or other by the work of jesus by the fact that we need to be

00:26:29.720 --> 00:26:35.160
 saved by the fact that we're up in a spiritually desperate situation before god by the fact that

00:26:35.160 --> 00:26:40.440
 jesus came into the world particularly to solve the problem to rescue us to give us new life

00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:45.319
 if only we will trust in him that's the outward call of the gospel

00:26:50.839 --> 00:26:53.799
 fred and barney heard the outward call of the gospel

00:26:53.799 --> 00:27:04.680
 but there's also an inward call of god it also is real but unseen because it happens in our

00:27:04.680 --> 00:27:09.960
 innermost being and historically this has been called the quickening of the spirit now the quickening

00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:16.200
 is an old-fashioned word again it was the word it used to be used to describe the moment a mom felt

00:27:16.200 --> 00:27:22.599
 her baby kicking in the womb it was the first signs of life in those days when they didn't have

00:27:22.599 --> 00:27:26.039
 um all the scans and stuff they they now have

00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:36.599
 the quickening of the spirit used to describe the first time we sense that god has touched our lives

00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:42.359
 and brought life to us previously spiritually dead people

00:27:45.559 --> 00:27:52.519
 in other words it's the time when god acts sovereignly to change our heart to change our

00:27:52.519 --> 00:28:00.920
 attitudes to change our desires to change a person giving them what they need to engage with jesus

00:28:01.480 --> 00:28:05.879
 and to embrace jesus as a savior he says he is

00:28:09.319 --> 00:28:13.559
 so the quickening of the spirit is god's sovereign activity in the life of a person

00:28:14.440 --> 00:28:20.119
 giving them a level of understanding a spiritual living level of understanding that previously they

00:28:20.119 --> 00:28:25.319
 they'd heard the words but they didn't grasp the deep significance for them personally

00:28:27.959 --> 00:28:33.479
 and when they grasped that deep significance then suddenly all the pieces of the jigsaw fall into place

00:28:33.479 --> 00:28:40.839
 and fred collapses in tears on the one hand so aware of his plight before god on the other hand tears of

00:28:40.839 --> 00:28:49.000
 joy that god would would presume to save him and lift him out of that and barney he's just what an idiot

00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:58.839
 both heard the outward call of the gospel only fred experienced the inward call of the spirit

00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:07.240
 giving them eyes to see and ears to hear in a way it hadn't previously done

00:29:07.240 --> 00:29:20.839
 and when god's spirit acts in this way in this real internal unseen way then the result is always life

00:29:22.200 --> 00:29:24.039
 always renewal in the person

00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:33.240
 the bible is clear that god's effect of calling by definition is effective god's spirit cannot

00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:37.720
 and will not be rejected or resisted

00:29:42.519 --> 00:29:48.359
 why can he because he's affecting the purpose and command of god

00:29:50.599 --> 00:29:55.240
 to bring his dead people to life to bring them into the kingdom so they might be safe with them forever

00:29:56.120 --> 00:30:02.359
 now when we talk about this effect you'll call this sovereign work in of the spirit in a person's life

00:30:02.359 --> 00:30:07.799
 we shouldn't think of a a brutality like the work of a rapist

00:30:10.039 --> 00:30:15.639
 now that's not what the bible describes it it's the gentle wooing it's the drawing of a lover

00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:25.000
 that so changes the attitudes and desires that when a person becomes a christian at that particular moment

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.960
 in their in their outside form that's precisely what they want to do in fact there's nothing else

00:30:29.960 --> 00:30:35.960
 they can think of they would like to do and i know that many of you out there have experienced that moment in your own lives

00:30:35.960 --> 00:30:46.840
 that's how it was for lydia in acts chapter 16 verse 14 i've always well not always but for the last

00:30:46.840 --> 00:30:53.079
 30 40 years i've always loved this little phrase when that when the lord describes how lydia was converted

00:30:53.079 --> 00:31:01.960
 converted it it says the lord opened her heart to believe that which you'd heard lord opened her heart

00:31:01.960 --> 00:31:06.119
 it's such a beautiful tender yet strong concept

00:31:09.799 --> 00:31:16.119
 the first desiring the first stirring of desire to find salvation in jesus for lydia

00:31:16.679 --> 00:31:23.319
 was the result of the spirit's work unseen work within her she also was part of a crowd

00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:32.759
 and that stirring the spirit that quickening of the spirit resulted in her external response of trust

00:31:33.479 --> 00:31:34.759
 repentance and faith

00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:46.519
 and we can see the contrast in lydia's life go go and read it for yourself in acts chapter 16

00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:54.599
 just as when dead in sin her natural choice would have been to hear god's word and reject it

00:31:56.039 --> 00:31:56.839
 a la barney

00:31:56.839 --> 00:32:07.240
 so now for lydia with the gentle powerful work of the spirit she acts on a new desire she finds within

00:32:07.240 --> 00:32:07.639
 herself

00:32:09.240 --> 00:32:15.240
 a desire to respond a desire to love and serve jesus a desire to go to him for the forgiveness she now

00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:16.359
 realizes she needs

00:32:16.359 --> 00:32:23.000
 and this new orientation

00:32:24.439 --> 00:32:27.799
 this new orientation to jesus these new desires these new attitudes

00:32:28.679 --> 00:32:30.439
 are foolproof evidence

00:32:31.719 --> 00:32:34.839
 of the new birth by the power of the holy spirit at work within her

00:32:36.519 --> 00:32:38.919
 and with fred and with

00:32:40.519 --> 00:32:41.639
 so many here this morning

00:32:41.640 --> 00:32:48.520
 now friends the last couple of minutes let me let me just mention three

00:32:49.240 --> 00:32:53.960
 wonderful assurances which come which flow from this truth

00:32:55.960 --> 00:32:56.680
 first one is this

00:32:58.759 --> 00:33:04.759
 in our personal daily struggle to serve jesus now when you become a christian you realize

00:33:04.759 --> 00:33:06.680
 that life actually gets a whole lot harder

00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:09.799
 before you're a christian you didn't really care

00:33:11.240 --> 00:33:15.960
 about what you did and the consequence of what you did unless you might think well i'll try and not

00:33:16.519 --> 00:33:17.480
 not run file of the law

00:33:20.680 --> 00:33:26.600
 but wherever you see a person responding to the word of god that is trusting jesus for the new life

00:33:26.600 --> 00:33:32.519
 they desperately need we see them struggling to master their sin and trust in god where they become more

00:33:32.519 --> 00:33:41.639
 and more aware of their sin and more and more desperate to be free from sin and live the life of obedience and purity that they want to live under the lord jesus

00:33:46.119 --> 00:33:47.000
 when you say that

00:33:48.680 --> 00:33:53.879
 then you can be sure that you're saying and experiencing

00:33:53.880 --> 00:33:57.960
 a person who's been regenerated

00:33:58.920 --> 00:34:00.120
 by the work of the holy spirit

00:34:01.480 --> 00:34:02.520
 because those desires

00:34:03.160 --> 00:34:04.840
 are the reflection of the evidence of

00:34:05.480 --> 00:34:06.920
 the spirit's work within you

00:34:06.920 --> 00:34:15.960
 we often get it the other way around we often think that because we struggle in the christian life that that's evidence that we're not

00:34:15.960 --> 00:34:18.680
 we're not right with god that's quite the opposite

00:34:20.519 --> 00:34:29.159
 you go and look at your non-christian friends and tell me how many of them are actually so concerned about their state before god in the in the way they're living it just doesn't happen

00:34:30.440 --> 00:34:33.240
 yet christians are sometimes crippled by that concern

00:34:33.239 --> 00:34:42.359
 why such a profound awareness of their sin because of the spirit's renewing power

00:34:43.959 --> 00:34:46.679
 the things of the spirit rums it give rise

00:34:47.559 --> 00:34:49.799
 sorry the spirit gives rise to the things of the spirit

00:34:53.959 --> 00:35:00.039
 secondly we can be relaxed in in in terms of evangelism we can be relaxed and confident

00:35:00.039 --> 00:35:05.800
 as we speak about jesus and long to see them saved as we ourselves have been saved

00:35:08.039 --> 00:35:09.559
 very practical truth at this point

00:35:11.480 --> 00:35:15.000
 and here's how evangelism work god calls us to do

00:35:15.800 --> 00:35:19.880
 what we can do and that is issue the outward call of the gospel

00:35:20.519 --> 00:35:24.440
 god calls us to speak about jesus we don't have to make it up we just

00:35:25.960 --> 00:35:29.480
 transmit it we just we're the conduit of telling people about jesus

00:35:30.599 --> 00:35:33.880
 that's the outward call of the gospel and then we can relax

00:35:34.599 --> 00:35:39.559
 knowing that god will do what only he can do and that is issue the inward call of changing

00:35:39.559 --> 00:35:41.559
 somebody's hearts and desires and attitudes

00:35:42.759 --> 00:35:44.279
 i can't change somebody's attitudes

00:35:47.719 --> 00:35:51.239
 so i can in evangelism be confident to do what god asked me to do

00:35:52.119 --> 00:35:53.480
 simply speak about jesus

00:35:53.480 --> 00:36:00.519
 and relax and let god do what only he can do and that is take those words

00:36:01.639 --> 00:36:06.840
 with the power of the holy spirit and make them into life in a person's soul

00:36:08.760 --> 00:36:10.199
 boy that takes a lot of pressure off

00:36:12.280 --> 00:36:17.000
 it takes a lot of pressure off i just have to concentrate and tell on people and that's not hard to do

00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:21.079
 i'm excited about that and let god do what only he can do

00:36:24.679 --> 00:36:30.360
 and thirdly we can luxuriate in the sweetness of god's glory and grace

00:36:30.360 --> 00:36:34.920
 it's just lovely to know as we struggle with sin on a daily basis

00:36:36.360 --> 00:36:41.320
 that god's sovereign purpose will have the last word in our world and in our life not sin

00:36:41.320 --> 00:36:52.440
 when c.s lewis was converted he wrote of how he fought a tooth and nail against god and against any

00:36:53.000 --> 00:36:55.480
 idea of becoming a christian

00:36:57.720 --> 00:37:01.960
 he tried to be rid of all that god stuff but he says that all that god stuff just wouldn't go away

00:37:03.640 --> 00:37:08.200
 it just pestered him and in a sense he felt himself being worn down

00:37:08.199 --> 00:37:16.519
 until one night he says it all came to a crunch for him and he kneeled in prayer in his room at oxford

00:37:17.159 --> 00:37:23.879
 and simply confessed that god was god and in that moment he then wrote later that he thinks he might

00:37:23.879 --> 00:37:33.719
 have been the most reluctant christian in all of history not that he saying that god was in a sense

00:37:33.719 --> 00:37:39.239
 twisting his arm and dragging him in the kingdom against his will but just

00:37:39.879 --> 00:37:43.159
 expressed how much he fought against god's pursuit of him

00:37:47.559 --> 00:37:54.679
 and he writes the words he writes that the words of jesus and one of jesus well-known parables go out and compel them to come in

00:37:56.679 --> 00:38:02.599
 he meditated in those words compel them to come in and he said they were so sweet to him

00:38:03.959 --> 00:38:06.439
 because that was how he experienced god's grace

00:38:09.159 --> 00:38:10.439
 he says there was a beautiful

00:38:12.119 --> 00:38:12.599
 gentle

00:38:13.639 --> 00:38:14.679
 irresistibility

00:38:15.639 --> 00:38:16.759
 about god's grace

00:38:18.199 --> 00:38:23.959
 that was quite necessary to bring him to life and repentance and faith and life

00:38:26.679 --> 00:38:30.679
 a life lived in service of the lord jesus christ from that point forward

00:38:30.679 --> 00:38:37.159
 he knows that had he been left to his own devices he would simply have rejected anything he heard

00:38:38.039 --> 00:38:43.000
 he even tried to do that but that gentle compelling irresistibility

00:38:44.199 --> 00:38:51.960
 were sweet words of grace in c.s lewis's mind that the lord pursued him all the way into the kingdom

00:38:51.960 --> 00:38:56.679
 he had to live in the kingdom of the kingdom of the kingdom of the kingdom of the kingdom of the kingdom

00:38:57.400 --> 00:39:02.039
 friends very very simply i'm just going to divide you now into two groups if you're not

00:39:02.039 --> 00:39:05.880
 yet a christian here this morning and i'm sad to say there's some here in that category

00:39:06.760 --> 00:39:09.880
 at least as far as i can discern humanly if you're not yet a believer

00:39:11.559 --> 00:39:17.880
 pray for this gentle irresistible experience of god's grace

00:39:17.880 --> 00:39:23.400
 god's pursuing you

00:39:25.720 --> 00:39:26.519
 god loves you

00:39:27.800 --> 00:39:31.720
 if you are a christian here this morning there's many of us thank thank thank the lord for that

00:39:32.599 --> 00:39:33.640
 then savor

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:37.000
 this sweetness

00:39:37.800 --> 00:39:38.840
 of god's grace

00:39:40.840 --> 00:39:41.400
 and glory

00:39:41.400 --> 00:39:45.639
 savor it daily

00:39:47.240 --> 00:39:48.360
 and from that point

00:39:49.320 --> 00:39:51.559
 ask the question how then do you want me to live

00:39:53.079 --> 00:39:59.320
 as one who shows deep and consistent appreciation for your love and your grace in my life

00:40:01.160 --> 00:40:01.720
 let me pray

00:40:01.719 --> 00:40:10.839
 lord it's a strange thing that sometimes

00:40:11.879 --> 00:40:14.359
 we fear studying your character

00:40:17.079 --> 00:40:26.359
 lest it be overwhelming and too confronting for us and yet on every page of your bible lord we see you

00:40:26.360 --> 00:40:31.960
 repeating over and over again that your first desire is to bless

00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:35.480
 your people your first desire to give life to your people

00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:40.360
 your last resort is to bring condemnation and judgment to people

00:40:40.760 --> 00:40:45.960
 lord i pray that we might see your character for all its positivity for all its love first grace

00:40:45.960 --> 00:40:49.639
 and that we might truly savor

00:40:50.599 --> 00:40:55.079
 that truth of your sovereign intervention in our lives that's sweet

00:40:55.720 --> 00:40:59.800
 but compelling and irresistible move of your spirit within us

00:41:00.760 --> 00:41:04.599
 to move us from death to life first of all and then move us from that new life

00:41:05.480 --> 00:41:08.679
 to a lifetime of growing

00:41:09.320 --> 00:41:10.679
 consistency and serving you

00:41:11.639 --> 00:41:15.320
 help us in our daily struggle lord because sometimes it doesn't feel like that

00:41:15.320 --> 00:41:18.039
 on a day-to-day basis help us to

00:41:19.160 --> 00:41:24.440
 be aware of our sin help us to lament our sin help us to be determined to move away from our sin

00:41:24.440 --> 00:41:31.000
 but lord help us also not to get caught up by our sin as though somehow or other an awareness for

00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:36.920
 sin and a sense of failing is evidence that we're not saved help us lord to see that that this also

00:41:37.480 --> 00:41:43.000
 is evidence of your spiritual renewal within us i pray these things in jesus name amen

00:41:45.320 --> 00:41:56.039
 it wasn't an early mark but hopefully it might have been profitable thank you