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 So, we're going to think about these words for a few minutes, and especially the words that

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! We're thinking this evening about the gospel both displayed and declared, but we're going to begin

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! with an opinion piece that I came across by the novelist

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! Limeo, and I'm going to begin with an opinion piece that I came across by the novelist Limeo.

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 Limeo Shriver. Considering the question, why is it that we often find political opinion polls

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 are wrong in their predictions? You may be interested in that, you may not. Her answer

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 is they're often wrong because of shy conservatives with a small c.

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 That's a global thing, not just in the UK. She was making the observation left-leaning people tend to

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 be political extroverts. They will literally wear the cause on their t-shirt, happy to share their

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 identity and values with anyone that will listen. But social conservatives tend to be more shy,

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 because there's that feeling that if we express our beliefs, well, that might spoil the nice, polite,

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 dinner party mood. And so, the argument goes that until it's election time, those beliefs will be kept

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 a quiet secret, because they know, shy conservatives, that sharing what they believe might lead to

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 arguments or exclusion. And thinking about that opinion piece, I wonder, do we ever as God's people feel like

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 shy Christians? In that sense that we have that appreciation that our values and our beliefs often

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 lead us to be on the outside or reckoned to be on the wrong side of a debate or a discussion, maybe in our

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 family or in our workplace or around the dinner table. Our identity can make us unpopular. Peter, as he writes

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 his letter, is speaking directly to that kind of situation. The first churches that he writes to,

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 he describes them as exiles. Many of them have been literally exiled from Jerusalem. They didn't want

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 Christians in Jerusalem. Christians were also feeling that they were exiles because they don't fit in the

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 Roman Empire. So, they are saying Jesus is Lord, when the empire is saying Caesar is Lord. They're not

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 offering sacrifices to the pagan gods, but the cities believe that offering those sacrifices was the key

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 to prosperity and security. They are living with a different set of moral ethics and practicing a very

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 different form of worship. And by the time that Peter writes, the Christians are becoming both known

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 and becoming increasingly unpopular. It was becoming dangerous to be a Christian. So, this was written

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 at the time of the beginning of social exclusion, people losing their jobs, being treated with suspicion

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 by their families, sometimes mocked and abused in the public square. Fast forward to the 21st century,

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 we can probably sense some parallels, and maybe we have experienced some of that ourselves.

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 So, thinking about that context, what does Peter do for us in this text, especially if we find that we

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 are tempted to keep our faith private, to operate as shy Christians? Well, he does two things, I think.

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 He reminds followers of Jesus about our identity, and that's hugely important, and then he'll speak to us

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 about our mission. And these are both so important for helping us to live by faith as exiles where we don't

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 fit, where heaven is our true home. So, just think for a few moments about the identity question. You know,

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 who are we as a church? Who are we as the people of God? So, the Christians here have been hearing one

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 message in society. We get hints of it. Chapter 2, verse 12, we read it, live such good lives among the

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 pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, so they're being falsely accused in public. Chapter 3,

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 verse 9, Peter encourages the Christians, do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.

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 They're being treated badly. They're being insulted publicly. Chapter 3, verse 14,

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 but even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Because they are following Jesus,

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 life is getting hard for them. They're the kid that the others are picking on. They're the colleague

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 who is uninvited or who gets the sack. They're the black sheep of the family. And again, maybe we connect

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 with that. And what Peter understands is that people in that situation, what we need to hear is a better

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 word, a word that reminds us of who we truly are and whose we are if we belong to Jesus. And so,

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 he packs these verses full of gospel privilege because of our identity. So, look with me at chapter 2,

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 in verse 4, see where it all begins, as you come to him, the living stone. So, this is where it begins.

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 It begins with coming to Jesus. And Jesus is described as two things. He's described, first of

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 all, as the living stone and then the chosen and precious cornerstone. In a building in the first

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 century, the cornerstone was key for a number of reasons. It was key to the strength of the building.

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 It was key for the alignment of the building. It was key to the design of the building. And so,

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 Peter says, remember, you're built on Jesus. Your strength, your design comes from Jesus. He is

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 the chosen and precious cornerstone. He is the rock. And it's interesting that Peter reminds us

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 that just like us, Jesus was rejected. Verse 4, he is the living stone rejected by humans, but

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 chosen by God and precious to him. And the same is true for us. So, Peter goes on to say,

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 in him, you too are like living stones. Believing in him, verse 6 and 7, we receive honor. The one who

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 trusts in him will never be put to shame. Built on him, Peter says, we will stand firm in our faith. We

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 will not be those who stumble over the claims and identity of Jesus. So, what Peter does for Christians

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 facing the temptation perhaps to hide their faith away because of persecution, he says, listen to God.

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 Remember what's true of you. You are chosen. You are precious. You are honored and you are loved.

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 Because Peter knows that when the gospel shapes our identity and how we think about ourselves,

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 that is what is going to help us in our gospel mission. To know Jesus and to make Jesus known

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 the Lord. The gospel of God's grace. The gospel of God's grace involves us building our lives,

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 finding strength and security in Christ. But Peter's not even done there. He wants these

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 Christians living as exiles on the margins of society to know more about who and what God has made them,

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 who and what God has made the church. So, again, to think about verse 5,

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 the church, the people of God are the true temple. You are being built into a spiritual house.

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 Now, they lived at the time when the temple in Jerusalem was probably still standing,

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 and they understood the significance of it. What Peter is saying, the God of glory now chooses to dwell

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 in the temple among us. God's physical address on the earth is no longer limited to that temple back there in Jerusalem.

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 It dwells in our hearts by faith. The place where God puts His glory on display in the world is now among His people.

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 What an honor that the king chooses to live here and with us. And connected to that idea, not only are Christians the new temple,

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 we're also a new priesthood. Verse 5 again, you're being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,

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 offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So, remember again, the work of the Old Testament

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 priests, they were set apart for God to represent Him in the world. They would teach His Word. They would

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 offer the sacrifices so that people could have their sins forgiven. They would act as mediators between God

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 and people. And now, Peter is saying, to the church belongs this highest calling, that we as believers are

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 called to speak the truth of the gospel to one another and to people outside. We too are called to be

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 mediators between God and people as we pray for them, as we stand in the gap for those who don't pray

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 for themselves. It's one of the reasons why we're going to give time to pray tonight, because there are

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 so many hundreds of thousands of people around us in our city who are not praying for themselves today, who are not

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 concerned for their spiritual needs. And so, Peter invites the church to live knowing that Jesus has

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 come and He has secured these privileges. And because that's true, you and I in Christ can have joy, we can

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 have security, and we can have humble confidence. And when that's our identity, that's where we then find the

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 strength to go on mission, because we find that solid, unshakable joy. Then we're ready to face shame and insult and

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 opposition. Okay, so that's the identity question. Well, let's think about what Peter says about the mission

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 question. What are we to do as the church? And that takes us to this idea of displaying and declaring God's praises in the

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 gospel. But maybe to help us with that, maybe some of us at least have been to or we're aware of the idea of

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 the 4D cinema. You know, 4D cinema, it's described on at least one cinema website as an extreme sensory

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 experience, because not only are you watching and not only are you hearing, but it also includes physical

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 effects. So, at the appropriate moment you might get spray or the seat might shake, there might be a

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 wind that blows through the cinema. So, you're seeing the story, you're hearing the story, and you're

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 feeling the story. So, it's an invitation into the story in a whole new way. And the theme of 1 Peter

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 is that the story of God's saving grace is to be experienced by His people and then given to the church in

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 4D. That we hear it and we see it and we feel its effects and we invite the world to know the same.

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 As we live as God's new society, known for offering eternal life in the place of death,

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 as we live as a community marked by unity and not division, where together we seek to pursue

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 righteousness and righteousness and not wickedness, where we give this living testimony that joy and

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 peace is found in Jesus, a joy and peace greater than anything else this world offers, then we are

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 giving people the chance to experience the gospel the way God intends it. Specifically in our verses, we've

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 got the idea of displaying the glory of God to the world. That's one of our callings as a church, to show the

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 world in the way that we live and the way that we live together what God is like. But we also declare

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 who God is and what He's done to save us in Jesus. So, look at verse 9, and we have those reminders,

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 those amazing titles. Remember, these guys are exiles, far from home, on the margins of society,

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 they don't really belong, but they're given these amazing titles that were used of Israel in the Old

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 Testament. So, in Exodus 19, you find here is God and He sent Moses to rescue the people from slavery

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 and He brings them across the Red Sea and through the wilderness and to Mount Sinai. And before they

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 get the law, they're reminded of grace and they're given their identity. And it's this language, a chosen

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 people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. Only now it's applied to the church of

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 the Lord Jesus. Again, to think about the purpose of God calling Israel, why did He call one nation among

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 many? Because He wanted to put His grace and glory on display. Here are image bearers and they're showing

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 what God is like in the way that they worship, which is so different from the nations around them,

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 in their ways of working and of resting, in the words that they were using, in the welcome they were

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 giving to the foreigner and to the weak. They were showing, this is what God is like, this is what makes

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 His community different. And Peter now says that mission belongs to us. Those who have been saved by Jesus,

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 who are filled with the Spirit of Jesus, are called to put His glory on display.

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 So, how do we do that? Well, think about the language here, He says, we live as God's chosen people.

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 God has chosen us and adopted us, so we love one another as family, the way God has first loved us.

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 He calls us to live as a royal priesthood. And what did the priests do? They brought God's Word to bear on the lives of

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 people. And they helped bring peace between God and people and with one another. And so, we bring that message

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 and we bring peace. And we live as a holy nation, not trying to blend in, as tempting as that is. We are

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 called to live differently, to live God's way under the rule of King Jesus. The others might be drawn in

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 because they see there is something distinctively good about the goodness of Jesus that they see in us.

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 And we bring that message to us. To think about that saying that actions speak louder than words,

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 we demonstrate the gospel through our lives as well as preaching it in our words.

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 So, we display God's glory. But we're also called here to declare God's glory in the gospel. Verse 9,

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 we declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.

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 And the story is told of a Boston preacher from the last century called A.J. Gordon.

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 And one, I don't know if it was a Sunday, it might have been a Sunday, he saw this young boy in front of

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 his church with an old rusty cage and some wild birds in the cage. He trapped them. And so, A.J. Gordon

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 asked him a question, what are you going to do with those birds? And he said, well, I'll play with them for a while.

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 And then when I'm bored, I'll feed them to my cat. A very thoughtful thing to do. So, the minister said,

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 well, can I buy them from you? To which the question was asked, well, why would you want to buy them?

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 You're just getting some wild birds from the field. They don't sing. They don't do anything. You're

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 getting a bad bargain. But nevertheless, A.J. Gordon paid his $2. The boy went away happy.

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 Gordon got the cage and he opened the door and he watched those birds fly away. And the next Sunday,

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 he took the cage into church to help to explain the gospel. And so, he's speaking to his congregation

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 about the reality that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, those who are trapped by sin.

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 And Jesus came and paid a far higher price. He purchased freedom for his people by his precious

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 blood. And then A.J. Gordon said to his church, that little boy told me that these birds had no

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 value and they weren't songbirds. But when I released them and they flew heavenward, he said,

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 it seemed to me they were singing, redeemed, redeemed, redeemed. And that really is the way of life for us

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 as the people of God. We are called to live with joy, singing and celebrating this joyful message of

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 redemption. How does Peter put it? He says, we declare the praises who called you out of darkness

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 into his wonderful light. He says, remember, once you were not a people, you were separated from God,

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 far away from God, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, you were

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 helpless and hopeless, but now in Christ you have received mercy. Trapped in sin, but now the cage door

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 is open and we are free. And as we are free, we sing the song of the redeemed. It's a natural response

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 to praise the God who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. Wonderful light. So, it's our mission

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 as the church to both display and declare the gospel. To live with faith and not with fear, because we

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 know that our hearts and lives and our identity has been transformed by Jesus and the Spirit in us.

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 Like those first apostles, like Peter, we know salvation is found in no one else, and so we

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 cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard when it comes to Jesus. That as we appreciate

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 what God has done for us in Christ, all of a sudden the glory of the cross and the resurrection of the

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 Lord Jesus, that becomes our highest concern and our greatest treasure. And so, we want to live to praise

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 the one who showed us mercy, who has made us a people, his people, who has shone his light, the

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 light of the gospel of saving grace to replace our darkness. So, that's what we're called to do, to

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 display and to declare. And that's going to involve us committing ourselves to God and His power and His work

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 in our. And so, one of the things that we're going to do tonight is we're going to pray. We're going to pray

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 for our mission and we're going to think about the work of God here in Edinburgh and for the