Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's hear God's Word now from the
EPHESIANS chapter three. If you happen to
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have one of the black bibles that
were on the cart, in the back,
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the letter of Paul to the Ephesians
is on page three hundred or a
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three hundred wow, nine hundred and
seventy six and nine hundred and seventy seven.
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I'm going to be reading the versus, the first thirteen verses in chapter
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three. So Ephesians chapter three,
versus one through thirteen. Let's give our
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attention to God's word. For this
reason, I Paul a prisoner for Christ
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Jesus, on behalf of you,
gentiles, assuming that you have heard of
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the Stewardship of God's grace that was
given to me for you, how the
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mystery was made known to me by
revelation, as I have written briefly.
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When you read this, you can
perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ,
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which was not made known to the
sons of men in other generations,
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as it is now been revealed to
his Holy Apostles and prophets by the spirit.
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This mystery is that the gentiles are
fellow heirs, members of the same
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body and partakers of the promise in
Christ Jesus, through the Gospel. Of
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this Gospel, I was made a
minister according to the gift of God's pace,
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which was given me by the working
of his power, to me though
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I am the very least of all
the saints. This grace was given to
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preach to the gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ and to bring to light for
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everyone what is the plan of the
mystery hidden for Ages in God who created
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all things, so that, through
the church, the manifold wisdom of God
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might now be made known to the
rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
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This was according to the eternal purpose
that has real that he has realized in
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Christ Jesus, Our Lord, in
whom we have boldness and access with confidence
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through our faith in him. So
I ask you not to lose heart over
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what I am suffering for you,
which is your glory. You may be
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seated. I think it's very easy
to read this passage and not even realize
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that Paul is in a bad place. He only mentioned something right at the
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beginning and then right at the end
the beginning, he calls himself a prisoner
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for Christ Jesus, which could perhaps
be somewhat metaphorical. Someone who belongs is
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bound by Christ, Jesus. He
uses the language and other places of being
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a slave. But as we come
to the end of those verses, in
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verse thirteen he says, I ask
you not to whose heart over what I
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am suffering for you. And then
in chapter four we read I've I therefore
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a prisoner for the Lord. Urge
you to walk in a manner worthy of
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which you have been called. It's
very likely that Paul was in fact a
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prisoner and was really suffering for these
Christians. But I mentioned, you might
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remember, I started by mentioning You'd
almost hardly notice right because there's all this
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wonderful stuff in between verse one in
Verse Thirteen, that Little Ward at the
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beginning, prisoner, and a little
word at the end suffering. Perhaps you've
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met people who seem to suffer the
smallest thing and their world just comes apart,
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just opens up at the seams,
and it's all terrible. It's all
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horrible. And then maybe you've met
other people where it really is all terrible,
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it is all horrible, there's hardily
a good thing going on that you
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can see, and yet they hardly
mention it. It hardly seems to come
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out. How do you account for
those things? William Kepper reading that earlier,
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singing this song earlier, or other
examples of this? I think in
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our own lives most of us can
probably point to being both at one time
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or another. And how do we
think about this as a church Urch?
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How do we think about it when, as it says, the promise of
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Jesus Christ goes forth through the Gospel, that's verse six, or, as
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we read in verse ten, that
through the church the manifold wisdom of God
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is made known? How do we
take into account that it's through the church,
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the work of the Apostles and the
Prophets in this gospel message that's being
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preached the word goes forth and the
gentiles are saved and all these wonderful things
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happen. And then yet here is
this apostle, this mighty wonderful truth speaking
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apostle, sitting in a jail.
How do you deal with that? I
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had a pastor once who wrote something
called the inefficiency of God, and it
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wasn't a blasphemous article. It was
this wonderful little thing where he went through
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various portions of scripture and asked sort
of from a human perspective? Why this
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like? Is this the way that
you would sort of planet out as you're
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getting from Point A to point b? Right? Would you take a man
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like Saul, the this Paul's former
name? Would you take someone like Paul,
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this murderous, hateful person, give
him this amazing moment of revelation,
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teach him, call him and to
an Apostleship, equip him for this amazing
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work, specifically, call him to
go and preach to the gentiles and then
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let him get locked up in jail. Does that make sense? Does that
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sound efficient? Doesn't to me and
my pastor he pointed out a number of
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these examples. Joseph sitting in prison, Noah, toiling away, thing after
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thing after thing, where you think, what's going on here? Does this
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make any sense? How do we
not lose heart when it seems that the
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good things that were trying to achieve, the mission that God had himself has
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given to the church, his own
plan that he has been revealed, is
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being locked up in prison, as
being held in bonds, is being ignored,
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despised. How do you not lose
heart in suffering, particularly and suffering
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for the possible and suffering for the
things of God his kingdom. It's not
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an easy question and it's not something
that we can sort of give you three
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or four bullet points and then everything's
going to be okay. But there are
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things here in God's word did are
very helpful. There are things that God
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himself says and ways in which we
see the apostle thinking and acting that we
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can genuinely draw from this and I
think find a true help and encouragement because,
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and the reason I think we can
legitimately do that is because that's what
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that's how Paul presents all of this. He begins at the Beg Verse One
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and Chapter Three. For this reason, I and then he explains and then,
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on the basis of what he says, he ends in Verse Three To
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thirst. He ends in verse three
and thirteen by saying so the words on
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the basis of what I've been saying. I ask you not to lose heart.
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Right. So something he says between
Verse One and verse thirteen is he
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intends to have an effect on our
hearts. He intends to encourage these EPHESIAN
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Christians in a particular way so that
when they think about Paul's suffering, his
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is being locked up, that they
will not be overly saddened, that they
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will not take their sadness and move
from your sadness or frustration, but will
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move down even further into the depths
of despair. So what does Paul say?
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What does he put in the minds
of these ephesian Christians and in our
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minds as well, to frame our
thoughts about the perceived inefficiencies of God,
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about the things which we suffer which
seem to not make sense? Well,
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says several things, various pieces which
fit together to frame our minds, to
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move our hearts and and, I
think, cause us to act as well.
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One of the biggest things, or
one of the main things, is
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that he wants us, he calls
us, to see the bigger picture.
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All Right, a lot of times
when we're suffering, when we think about
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the again, quote unquote, inefficiency
of God, we're so focused on this
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tiny, tiny little now it's,
of course, hard not to focus on
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that when you're in jail, when
you're rotting in jail, when you're feeling
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your chains and coldness and darkness and
all the rest, literally even of course,
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it's hard not to focus on that. But that's the thing. Paul
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always is calling us to do.
That's the thing the spirit of God is
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always calling us to do, is
to see this life in perspective of the
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life to come. Paul says and
another place, that the things, the
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sufferings of this world don't even begin
to compare to the weight of glory that
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is to be revealed. Don't even
begin to compare. We struggle to see
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how the parts fit into the hole, and so he helps us to do
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that. He reminds us of certain
things. For example, in Verse Eleven,
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he tells us that this act of
his being made an apostle in the
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gospel, going out into the world, in verse eleven, this was according
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to the eternal purpose that he has
realized in Christ Jesus, Our Lord.
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That's a bigger picture kind of perspective, isn't it? That the things that
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are going on here in the church
right now, is Paul is speaking,
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and even right now today, as
I am speaking, are predestined by God
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according to his eternal purpose. This
plan of the for the Gospel to go
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out into the gent go out to
the gentiles, was not something that was
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sort of thought up at the last
minute. It wasn't a plan be or
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a mistake or something that a committee
put together and it sort of organize itself
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into something. It was the eternal
purpose of God, who will not be
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frustrated, a purpose, a plan
that was realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Now we won't do this now.
We've done it in other places,
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but you can go back into the
Old Testament and see how this plan is
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developing, how various covenant promises,
building one after another, brought these things
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into greater and greater fruition and how
they ultimately flowered in Christ Jesus our Lord,
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realized in Him. This is an
amazing thing to see that the things
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that we were are experiencing now are
part of a plan that came from the
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very beginning. I think is very
valuable. We might also think about the
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source of this, of these things
that are going on. Think of Paul's
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apostleship. What does he say in
verse seven? He says of this Gospel,
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I was made a minister according to
the Gift of God's grace, which
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was given me by the working of
his power. This morning we considered the
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power of God's grace in in surrounding
the account of Jonah, God's Prophet Hey.
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How the power of God's grace is
very strongly demonstrated there in the sending
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of this person, that God made
sure that the Gospel went forth to the
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gentiles, to the Ninevites in that
particular instance. Well, here God is
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doing it again, as he often
does. He is he speaks to this
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apostle on that road to the MASCUS. He shines down this light out of
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heaven. He Blinds Paul and says, why are you persecuting me, and
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then he goes on to teach Paul
directly these truths a concerning Jesus Christ.
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He changes his heart and he changes
Paul, somebody who was a Pharisee of
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Pharisees, one who is a persecutor
of the Church of Jesus Christ, called
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that by Christ himself, one who
was zealous for Selfjustification, for Selfrighteousness,
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for earning one salvation according to the
law, who is zealous for these things,
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gave all of that up and was
willing to suffer and die on the
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side of the Church and on the
side of Jesus Christ, for justification by
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faith alone. How does that happen? By the power of God, that's
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what he says, and that's what's
obvious. Of this Gospel. I was
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made a minister according to the Gift
of God's grace. This is an amazing
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thing that has happened in my life. He says, I didn't deserve this.
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God gave this to me and it
was given to me. This gift,
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this change in my life, this
this call and vocation to be a
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preacher and Apostle of the Gospel and
of Jesus, it was given to me
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by the working of his power.
All right, so Paul doesn't just sort
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of wake up one morning and,
you know, read something on the Internet
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and say, you know what,
I'm going to do something different today.
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I'm going to turn my life around, pull himself up by his bootstraps and
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sort of move forward into the world
and make a dent or something. Right,
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doesn't that what he does? Paul, this persecutor of the church,
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one who was full of zero is
a zealous and and in go get them
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kind of spirit. But all pointed
in the wrong direction, was shifted the
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other way. Why? The powerful
working of God and His grace, the
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king's hand, like in the water, turning the water this way or that
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way, or the water in God's
hand he can turn a King's heart.
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So true with Paul. So as
Paul thinks about his Apostolic Ministry, as
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he sits there in jail, he
is remembering the source of it, the
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powerful working of God, the Gift
of God, the grace of God.
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He is remembering that he is fitting
into a larger plan and eternal purpose which
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heads, which God has realized in
Christ Jesus, Our Lord, Paul's Lord,
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the one who has sent him into
the world to preach this Gospel,
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a Gospel that the Ephesians have heard
and are benefiting from. And that's a
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third thing to notice about this big
picture perspective, about Paul sitting in jail,
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the purpose of all of this.
What is God's eternal purpose realized in
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Christ Jesus? Well, he tells
us in various ways. He talks about
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the mystery of being made known,
in which the gentiles verse. Six the
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gentiles. Here's the mystery that is
revealed. They are fellow heirs, members
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of the same body, partakers of
the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.
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If you want to understand more about
what that means, I'd encourage you
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to to read the end of chapter
two and listen to my sermon last week.
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They're where Paul talks about how Jews
and gentiles are being brought in through
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the preaching of the Gospel, through
this Ministry of Christ, into one household,
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one people under one promise, through
faith. That's what he's talking about
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here. This is the mystery that
has been revealed and it's an amazing thing.
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Notice in Verse Eight, how he
puts it. He says to preach
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to the gentiles the unsearchable riches of
Christ. Who's the richest person you know
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or can't imagine? How wealthy are
they really? Right, no matter who
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you pick, eventually you're going to
come to an end of that, to
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something that is not owned, something
that is not possessed by them, some
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amount which is beyond where they're at. Not so with God, not so
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with his Christ he has been called. Verse Eight, he says to me,
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this gift was given, though I
am the very least of all the
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saints. This grace was given to
preach to the gentiles the unsearchable riches of
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Christ. What a pleasure it is
to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.
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What an endless thing list of things
there are to say it's a dwell on
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and to meditate on. Why is
Paul not got his hands on his hips
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and yelling at the wall while he's
in jail? Because he's been given a
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gift? WHO COMPLAINS ABOUT GIFTS?
Who complains about being given unsearchable riches?
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Not Many, and Paul Paul certainly
isn't going to be the first one.
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Now he's been given that's how he
sees what is happening. He has been
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given this amazing task, this pleasurable
thing, to preach to the gentiles the
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unsearchable riches of Christ and verse nine, to bring to light for everyone what
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is the plan of the mystery hidden
for ages and God who created all things.
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The benefits of this are applied in
particular in verse twelve, so I'll
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read verse eleven first. He says
this was according as I've read several times
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already, this was according to the
eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ
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Jesus, Our lord in whom we
have boldness and access with confidence through our
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faith in him. This is helpful
to see, because we might just we
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might be tempted to think, well, of course I'd be happy in jail
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if I had also been called to
be an apostle of Jesus Christ if I
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had also been commissioned to preach the
unsearchable riches of Christ. But that's not
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me. But notice what Paul does
is he connects his ministry to their faith
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and the blessings of their faith.
Right so he says, because of this
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gift that was given to him,
because of Christ, Jesus, whom he
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preaches in this savior, through we
in whom we hear in the word that
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is preached. He says, we
have access in him with boldness, with
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confidence, through our faith in him. In other words, the blessings that
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God has given to Paul did not
stay with Paul. The blessings that Paul
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has sort of spread out. They
they extended out into the world. That
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is, he says, was the
very plan of God, that was the
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purpose empiss of this gift. That
was the eternal purpose of this gift,
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not to just not just to bless
this one man in this one time,
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in this one place, but to
bless the whole world with this message of
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Jesus Christ, in whom we have
boldness and access with confidence through our faith
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in him. What an amazing thing
it is to be caught, to come
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before the throne of God with boldness, to have access to him with confidence.
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Do you remember what happened to Adam
and Eve after they had sinned?
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Do you remember, rather, what
they did? Did they have boldness before
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God? Did they have access with
confidence before God? Now, what did
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they do? They realize they were
naked and they sewed fig leaves from themselves
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and they hid. They did not
go toward the presence of God with boldness
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and confidence. They ran away,
they hid, they were ashamed. That's
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what happens when we try to when
we find ourselves in the presence of God,
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standing in our sin. But when
we're clothed in the righteousness of Chris
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Lease, those unsearchable riches of His
grace, when God's love is poured out
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on us, in him and he
adopts us as his children, he calls
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US justified by his works, when
he removes the stain of our sin,
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the pollution that's in us, calls
as saints. Paul says I am the
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least of all the saints. He's
not talking about five or six people,
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it's talking about all of us.
God calls us to be holy ones,
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sanctified ones, people set apart.
When God does that for us, when
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he makes a sacrifice and clothes us, even as he clothed Adam and Eve,
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then things change and instead of hiding
and instead of running, instead of
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being afraid, we stand up and
we walk into the very throne room of
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God in the name of Jesus Christ
and say our father, who are in
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heaven, how would be your name? That's an amazing thing to be able
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to do, to not run,
to not hide, but to call him
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father and know that he hears us
and answers us and cares for us.
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This is the blessing that we have
through the Apostolic Ministry. This is what
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Jesus Christ did when he established a
church through his apostles, in his prophets,
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including Paul. That is why the
Church, with Jesus Christ as her
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corner stone, is able to make
known the manifest wisdom of God, broken
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vessels, broken people with difficulties and
struggles and not and on and on,
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that God is able to use.
This is the bigger picture in which Paul
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sees what he's going on. It's
why he doesn't it's he's not ignoring his
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situation right. He's not pretending it's
not there, but he's not dwelling in
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it either. He's not sitting in
it day after day, year after year.
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And it doesn't mean Paul didn't ever
struggle. He certainly did. In
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various places. We talk about him
with tears, with difficulties, with trials,
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temptations, of struggles. Indeed,
we see the church at various times
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crying and weeping, and no doubt
they were here too, which is why
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Paul tells them, why he tells
them and he gives them this encouraging word
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and he says, brothers and sisters, don't lose heart, don't lose your
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hope, don't lose your confidence,
because something is bigger going something bigger is
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going on. Don't get swallowed up
by the suffering that either I am facing
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or that you are facing. Don't
get swallowed up by the temporary things of
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this world when you have been given
something much greater. Don't lose heart,
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because what I am suffering is for
your glory. I want to mention,
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Justin closing, the power of prayer. This thing that God has done,
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is this bigger picture in which we
are called to see things in manifests itself
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in a life of faith through prayer. That's why Paul says in the next
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verse, which we haven't read yet, but at first fourteen, he says,
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for this reason, I bow my
knees before the father. That's how
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Paul Reacts, reacts to this.
And then when we come in a chapter
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six, verses eighteen and nineteen,
this wonderful section where he calls us to
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not just not to lose heart,
but to be active and strong people,
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putting on the armor of God.
What does he say? He says in
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verses eighteen and nineteen, clowing closing
that section, he says praying at all
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times in the spirit, with all
prayer and supplication. That's because we have
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boldness and access with confidence. He
says, praying at all times in the
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spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with
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all perseverance, making supplication for all
the Saints and also for me, that
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words may be given to me in
opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery
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of the Gospel for which I am
in them, for which I am an
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ambassador in chains, that I may
declare it boldly as I ought to speak.
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Prayer Right. That is the thing
that God calls us to that's what
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Paul the applause. He's an ambassador
in chains. What an amazing image.
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How is it that the word of
God can go forth when the king's ambassador
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is in jail? How does that
happen? Right? If we wanted to
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send an ambassador of our country,
wanted to send an ambassador to another country
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to declare the word of our country, and our ambassador was put in jail,
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it would seem that that mission would
be difficult. At least Paul doesn't
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seem to be scared at all.
He calls himself an ambassador and change.
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He says it with this kind of
boldness. He says pray for me for
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an opening for in opening my mouth
boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel,
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that I may declare it boldly as
I ought to speak. If people
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are going to come around Paul,
he's probably going to be talking. He's
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going to declare this, he's going
to proclaim this message. That's who he
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is. That's the gift that God
has given him. Again, that's Paul's
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particular gift, that's Paul's particular calling. But what is the connection he sees
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with these ephesian Christians and with us. It's that of prayer. Pray for
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me, he says, and pray
for each other, prayers of supplication.
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Be Alert, persevere, making supplication
for all the saints. This access that
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you have to God is not to
be ignored. If you have access,
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with boldness and confidence, to the
Heavenly Throne Room, are you going to
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just leave that on the table,
or are you going to go, in
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the confidence of the things that God
has spoken, in the Gospel that he
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has proclaimed to you, in the
spirit who is empowering you and in the
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name of Jesus Christ, to speak
to your father in heaven and ask that
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his will on earth would be done
as it is in heaven, to give
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us our daily bread, to take
care of us and keep us from temptation,
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to bring about his kingdom into this
world, to sustain us in all
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things. Of course, that's what
we did, ought to do, and
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we do it because that is where
our faith is right our faith is in
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him, and that's why we pray
and we respond in him. This is
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how we don't lose heart, this
is how we persevere, how we continue
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on even in the dark places.
This is how we don't give up and
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how we continue on with bold struggle, with perseverance and with zeal. Not
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Every day looking the same, of
course, but in our lives God has
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done something great. Let us learn
to see it, let us pray
