Collierville First Baptist Church

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I'm sure you know by now that we're in a series entitled Psalms for the Summer.

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What's your favorite Psalm? Just think about that just a minute. Just get it fixed in your mind, your absolute favorite Psalm. I'm sure that some of you would choose Psalm 23.

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Some of you might choose Psalm 46.

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Some might choose Psalm one.

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There's so many good ones to choose from, right? In fact, they're all good because they're in the Word of God.

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And last week I preached from an obscure chapter

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of Psalm, Psalm 131.

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Today, I'm gonna preach from a chapter that probably no one in this room picked as your favorite Psalm. So I want you to take your Bible, turn to Psalm 67.

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Psalm 67.

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Now this chapter is ripe for our consideration today. I say that because it is known as the mission Psalm. And with Ruth Ann being commissioned to serve as a missionary and a very unreached part of the world, I really sensed a strong leadership from the Holy Spirit to deal with this chapter and this theme and this subject today.

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But let me assure you this, this sermon is not just for Ruth Ann Essary.

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This sermon is for everybody within the sound of my voice. If you're sitting on a couch doing a live stream, I want you to know this sermon is for you. If you're in this room, you're a teenager, this Psalm is for you.

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If you're sitting here and you're a senior adult, this Psalm is for you. This Psalm is for everybody

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because everybody should be on mission for the Lord Jesus.

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Now let me say that here's, if I had to condense this sermon down to one sentence, here it is.

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If you're a born again believer in this room,

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you have been blessed to be a blessing.

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You say, well, how have I been blessed?

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Well, the Bible says you're a born again believer, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. They're innumerable,

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but you've been blessed to be a blessing.

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Now with this truth firmly planted in your heart, your soul and your mind,

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I want you to see in this Psalm number one,

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the prayer for God's blessing.

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The prayer for God's blessing.

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Look at verse one, here the Psalmist writes, "God, be gracious to us and bless us "and cause his face to shine upon us." Well, who are the us? Well, it's the nation of Israel.

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And the Psalmist is asking for God's graciousness and for God's blessing and for God to shine his face upon them, the nation of Israel.

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Now, the language of verse one is rooted in a blessing that Aaron pronounced over the children of Israel as they were coming out of Egypt.

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It's found in Numbers 6, verses 24 to 26. And here's what Aaron said over the people of God, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.

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Now that section has been pronounced as benedictions ever since Aaron pronounced that over the children of Israel.

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Notice, let's break it down for just a moment, verse one. Do you see how the words that Aaron spoke are found in verse one? God, be gracious to us. This is the Psalmist asking for the favor of God on the nation of Israel.

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Now listen, no sinner deserves the favor of God, no sinner.

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Remember, mercy is God not giving us what we deserve. Grace is God giving us what we don't deserve.

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Now he says, God, be gracious to us and bless us. Now, what does that mean? When the Psalmist said, bless us. Now, with our 21st century minds,

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when we hear the term bless us,

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we attribute God's blessing to him making our bank accounts fat.

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We attribute God's blessing to him allowing us to have a brand new SUV.

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We attribute God's blessing to him allowing us to have a nice home.

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We attribute God's blessing to him making us successful in our business.

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And that's what we think of when we hear the term and bless us.

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A more biblical grasp of this idea of God's blessing on our lives zeros in on the massive spiritual blessings that we have in Christ Jesus. I talked about those a minute ago.

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Listen, it's a blessing for us to be saved. Would you agree with that? Aren't you glad you're saved? Aren't you glad that your sins have been forgiven? Aren't you glad that you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus? Aren't you blessed that you can know God and you can know his son, the Lord Jesus? Aren't you blessed with having confidence and assurance that if you died tonight, you would be with Jesus in heaven?

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Amen?

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Now that's more in line with what the Psalmist meant when he asked the Lord to bless him.

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Warren Wiersby provided this explanation, I quote. He said, "A blessing is a gift from God

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that glorifies his name, helps his people,

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and through them reaches out to help others who will in turn glorify his name."

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That's a blessing from a biblical perspective. I wanna say something to you. Many of you have been blessed by God.

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I want you to hear me now and hear me well.

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If God will stop sending blessings to you if he cannot send blessings through you,

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let me repeat that.

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God will stop sending blessings to you if he cannot send blessings through you. Now remember our main point, you've been blessed to be a blessing.

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Many of you tithe and many of you give your offerings to this church, you invest in the kingdom of God. And what a joy it is to be able to receive what God has already provided for us. He gave you your job, right? And what a joy it is to take what he's given us and give him a portion of that back to him and invest in his kingdom so that more and more people can bless him and worship him and honor him.

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So the psalmist says here in verse one, "God be gracious to us and bless us." And look at this, "And cause his face to shine upon us." One thing you don't want, you don't want God to turn his face away from you.

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For God to turn his face to you and to shine his countenance upon you implies the magnificent abundant favor of God in your life.

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And then notice in verse one, "God be gracious to us and bless us "and cause his face to shine upon us." And then over there, there's a little word, Selah.

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Now Selah is a musical term that signifies some kind of pause.

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It's as if God is saying to us, after we read verse one, okay, don't move on too quickly in this song yet.

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Stop.

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Let these words marinate in your heart and your soul.

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Make sure you understand what it means for God to be gracious to you, what it means for God to bless you, what it means for him to cause his face to shine upon you. Let it get in your heart and your soul before you move on.

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Look at verse two,

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"That your way may be known on the earth,

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"your salvation among all the nations, "now the nation of Israel

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"had basically taken the blessings of God

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"and they have monopolized the blessings of God "and they were not sharing those blessings "with the nations of the world."

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And the Psalmist said, "The whole purpose is that your way may be known "on the earth, your salvation among all nations." Not just Israel,

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but Assyria,

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Babylon,

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all the nations of the world

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need the blessing of God on their lives.

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Notice that your way may be known on the earth,

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your salvation among all nations. You know, as I read this chapter,

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I noticed that word all.

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It appears a lot.

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It's not some nations.

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It's not just favored nations.

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It is all nations. Can I tell you the Bible says, "For God so loved the world

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"that he gave his only begotten son "that whoever believes in him shall not perish "but have eternal life." God loves the whole world. God sent his son Jesus

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to be the savior of the entire world.

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So here's the reason God blessed Israel.

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Now, since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden,

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man has been separated from God.

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Every human being that's born on this planet

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is born a sinner by nature and by choice.

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Nobody has to teach a little boy to be selfish with his toys.

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Nobody has to teach a little girl to be selfish with their dolls. It's part of them. We are sinners by nature and by choice and that sin in our life has separated us from God.

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You say, "Well, Pastor, how in the world "will we ever get back to God?"

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How?

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Well, I'm glad you asked that.

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Let me tell you, the way back to God could never be found through intellectual pursuits.

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The way back to God could never be found through idolatry

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or through stacking up good works, hoping that your good works that way, your bad works.

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Faith in the Lord is the only hope for the whole world.

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The gospel is not a message of condemnation. The gospel that Ruth Ann is gonna take to the Pacific Ram is not a gospel filled with condemnation. It is a gospel filled with celebration

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that God, the eternal righteous, holy, holy, holy God has provided a way for everybody in the whole world to get back to God.

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You say, "Well, what is that way?"

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Well, listen to what Jesus said in John 14, verses one to six. He told his disciples just before he went to the cross,

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"Do not let your heart be troubled.

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"Believe in God, believe also in me and my father's house "or many mansions if it were not so I would have told you, "for I go to prepare a place for you. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, "I will come again and receive you to myself "that where I am there, you may be also.

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"And you know the way where I'm going."

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And Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know "where you're going, how do we know the way?"

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And Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth and the life. "No one comes to the Father but through me."

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Jesus says, "I am the way that the psalmist is talking about here in Psalm 67. And when Ruth Ann goes to the Pacific ramp,

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she does not have the liberty to offer a different way. There is only one way.

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Matt Hess does not have the liberty to offer a different way in St. Louis.

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Zach does not have the liberty to offer a different way where he's going to serve as a IMB missionary. You and I do not have the authority or the ability to offer a different way to get back to God. There's only one way to get back to God. And that is through Jesus Christ who went to the cross of Calvary and died for our sins

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and was raised from the dead so we could be justified

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before a holy and righteous God.

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Now that stands at number one of the mission Psalm, verses one and two. But there's a second stanza.

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I want you to look with me at verses three to five and I call this the purpose of God's blessing. The prayer for God, but can I tell you, you are at liberty to pray that God would be gracious and bless you. You're at liberty to do that.

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But there is a second stanza

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and it's the purpose of God. Why would God bless us?

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Well, God would bless us because we deserve to be blessed, Brother Chuck. Oh, really?

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Listen, if we got what we deserved,

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you don't want what you deserve.

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No, God gives us what we don't deserve.

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The purpose of God's blessing. Look at verses three to five.

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Let the peoples praise you, oh God. By the way, can I say this?

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The ultimate purpose of the church is not missions.

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The ultimate purpose of the church is worship.

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The ultimate purpose of the church is for all the nations and every person on this globe to bow the knee to the Lord God himself and to worship him in spirit and in truth.

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So in verse three, the Psalmist wrote, let the peoples praise you, oh God. There's that word again, let all the peoples praise you.

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Let the nations be glad and seen for joy

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for you will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth, Selah.

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Remember what that is?

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That's a pause.

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Think about what we've just looked at.

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Let it marinate in your heart and your soul before you move on.

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Look at verse five, let the peoples praise you, oh God. Let all the peoples praise you. You notice a repetition here.

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God's desire is for all the peoples in the world to worship him, to praise him.

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Now, I want you to know this is not the only place in the Bible where you see this thing.

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In fact, in Genesis chapter 12, verses one to three,

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the Lord said to Abraham, go forth from your country. Now, remember, Abraham was a pagan.

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Abraham was a pagan.

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He did not believe in God and God chose him and God delivered him and saved him. And he told him, look what he told him, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you. And I will make you a great nation

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and I will bless you and make your name great

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and you shall be a blessing. Notice this, God said to Abram, I will bless you

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and you will be a blessing.

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That's exactly our theme that we have here in Psalm 67.

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Verse three, and I will bless those who bless you

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and the one who curses you, I will curse and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

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Now, what did God mean when he said in Abram, all the families of the earth will be blessed?

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Well, he's talking about the seed of Abram.

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And who was the seed of Abram? The Lord Jesus Christ.

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He's talking about the Jewish people and the Lord Jesus Christ was born a Jew. He offered salvation as a Jew.

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And now all the families of the earth are blessed because of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Daniel chapter six, verses 26 and 27.

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Now, you know the story, you've been in Sunday school all your life and you've heard the story of Daniel and the lions then. How many of you heard of Daniel and the lions then? Do you remember what happened in the lions then?

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King Darius was forced to throw Daniel in the lions den

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by a group of hoodlums, we might say. And Daniel's thrown in the lions den, Darius goes to his bed and he prays all night. He prays, he's worried about Daniel.

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In verse 26 and 27, the Bible says that when Darius came to the lions den the next morning, I think he half expected to see a bunch of bones down there and blood and gory stuff. But he said, Daniel, are you there?

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Daniel said, I'm alive.

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God took those lions.

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He made them soft pillows for Daniel's head that night.

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And when King Darius saw what God did in Daniel's life, I want you to notice this verse 26 and 27 of Daniel chapter six.

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I make a decree, here's what King Darius said, I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom, men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel.

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For he is the living God and enduring forever. And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. And his dominion will be forever. And he delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who also has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

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Now notice it, God blessed Daniel with deliverance.

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And because God blessed Daniel, King Darius saw that God was the only true God. And he demanded that all the people in his kingdom worship the true God.

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You see Daniel was blessed to be a blessing. Ruth Ann has been blessed to be a blessing. You, if you're a believer, you've been blessed to be a blessing so that people could see the living God work in and through you so that they would turn in repentance and faith to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Ezekiel chapter 36, verses 22 and 23.

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Therefore say to the house of Israel,

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thus says the Lord God is not for your sake, oh house of Israel, that I'm about to act, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. Now remember, it is God's will, it is God's plan for all the nations to worship Him, to praise His name. But the nation of Israel had profaned the name of God among the nations. In verse 23 of Ezekiel 36, God says, "I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, "which has been profaned among the nations, "which you have profaned in their midst."

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Listen to this. "Then the nations will know that I am the Lord

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"when I prove myself holy among you in their sight."

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In verses three to five,

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God expresses His desire for people from the north to the south,

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from the east to the west,

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from the rich to the poor, from the young to the old, from the urban to the rural. In every tribe, every language, among every ethnic group on this earth, it is God's will for them to praise the living God.

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Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you, there's only one God.

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There is just one God. And there is one Savior that this one God has provided to make a way back for sinners to come back to God in His name is Jesus.

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That's the purpose for God blessing His people.

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So you say, but how are the nations

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going to know God, praise Him, and give Him the glory He deserves?

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Let's bring it down to our level. Let's bring it into the 21st century.

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How are nations, do you realize how many unreached people, groups there are in the world?

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There's upwards of 2 billion people

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who have not heard the name Jesus.

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It's not that they've rejected it.

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They've never heard the gospel.

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Ruth Ann will maybe go into some places where people have never heard the gospel. I never will forget our trip to India.

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And Brother Tommy and his group were ministering to a group of Indians and there was a guy 103 years old.

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And our group sharing the gospel with them.

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And this man, our group talks about Jesus. This man turned to Brother Tommy and he said, "Who's that boy?

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Who's that boy?

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Now he was not being blasphemous or anything.

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He had never heard the name Jesus.

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Can you imagine what it would be like to be living somewhere in the world and to never hear the name Jesus, to never hear the gospel?

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Listen, we have been so blessed,

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but I remind you, we've been blessed to be a blessing.

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You say, but how will the nations believe in God

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by observing God's gracious blessing on our lives? That's how.

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I love what John Stott said. He said, "We must pray for God's blessing, not that we may then monopolize his grace and bask in the sunshine of his favor,

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but that others may see in us his blessing and his beauty and be drawn to him through us." Can I ask you a question?

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Does anybody look at your life and say to themselves,

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"That man, that woman, they love the Lord."

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Look how God is blessing them.

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Not financially, not materially, but spiritually.

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Oh, I pray that we as a body of Christ

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would be so on fire for the Lord.

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I pray that all of us have a little swazie in us

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and that people would see us and they would say, "I want what he's got.

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I want what she's got."

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That's how the nations,

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that's how the people in Carville and the surrounding area are gonna know the truth of the gospel by looking at what God is doing in our lives.

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Here's another way they'll know. It's the power of God's word through believers.

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God is glorified and praised as Christians share the gospel with those who are lost.

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You do realize that the great commission is for us.

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You do realize that we have been tasked with the responsibility of opening our mouths and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with those who are lost and undone. Now, many of the people we share the gospel with here, they've heard the gospel many times,

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but they're still lost.

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They still need to hear the gospel.

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We still need Ruth Ann's to take the mantle of missions and to go to another part of the world to share the gospel with unreached people groups. We need that.

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We need Matt Hess's to be sent out of this church, to plant churches in unreached parts of North America. We need Zach Tucker's to go on the mission field for the rest of his life to make a difference for the kingdom.

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Let me say this.

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Every person within the sound of my voice is a missionary.

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He said, I ain't no missionary.

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Yes, you are. If you're a believer, you're a missionary.

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Now you may not be missioning very well,

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but you are a missionary. You say, give me some biblical basis for that. Okay, I'm glad you asked me to do that.

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First Peter chapter two, verses nine and 10, listen to this.

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But you are a chosen race.

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This is you if you're a believer. You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

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a people for God's own possession

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so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

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For you once were not a people,

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but now you are the people of God. Are you a born again believer? You're the people of God.

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You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

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Oh, listen, you've been blessed to be a blessing.

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Or that's two stanzas of the mission song.

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Prayer for God's blessing, stand to one.

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The purpose of God's blessing, stands at two,

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stands at three, the promise of God's blessing.

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The promise of God's blessing. Look at verses six and seven.

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The earth has yielded its produce.

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God, our God blesses us. Now notice, the first verse talks about them praying for God's blessing.

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Verse six talks about the fulfillment or the result and the fact that God has blessed them. He's blessed Israel.

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God blesses us so that all the ends of the earth may fear him. You see that?

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God blesses us so that all the ends of the earth may fear him.

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Now here's the danger.

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Here's the danger for every believer in this room.

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It is that we decide that we're gonna disconnect

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the blessing of God on our lives

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from the purpose of God for our lives.

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And we do not have the authority or the right

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to disconnect that.

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Every believer, every believer,

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you've been blessed to be a blessing.

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Now notice verse seven, God blesses us so that all the ends of the earth may fear him,

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may have a reverence for him, may praise him, may worship him.

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Let me say this to you.

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What God inspired the Psalmist to write here

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is gonna happen one day.

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I wanna tell you on the authority of the word of God

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that one day every nation,

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one day every person will bow the knee to King Jesus

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and declare that he is Lord to the glory of God, the Father, in the bowels of hell,

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every person will bow the knee to Jesus and say you're Lord to the glory of God, the Father.

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You see it's all about worship.

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It's all about praising God. We see that over and over in this Psalm. I wanna read to you Revelation 7, verses 9 through 12. This is a consummation of everything the Psalmist is talking about here.

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So John writes, after these things I looked

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and behold a great multitude which no one could count. Now notice this, from every nation, what the Psalmist is talking about here,

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God wants people from every nation and every people group to praise him, to worship him.

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"A great multitude which no one could count "from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues "standing before the throne and before the Lamb "clothed in white robes and palm branches "were in their hands and they cried with a loud voice "saying salvation to our God "who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. "And all the angels were standing around the throne "and around the elders and the four living creatures "and they fell on their faces before the throne "and they," notice this, "they worshiped God."

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Saying, "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom "and thanksgiving and honor and power might be to our God "forever and ever, amen." You say, "Who are these people?"

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Well, they are men, women, boys and girls

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who heard the gospel.

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They are men, women, boys and girls who looked into the hearts and lives of on-fire believers and saw God at work in their lives

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and they decided that they wanted Jesus for themselves

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and they repented of their sin and they placed their faith in Christ alone.

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And that's why they're here. They found the way back to God.

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Remember, there's only one way back to God.

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That's the Lord Jesus Christ.

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David Platt observed, I quote,

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"This promise must compel risk-taking,

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"life-giving, death-defying confidence in our Lord.

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"There is more to this life than having a nice job,

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"a decent family, a comfortable life "and then tacking on church attendance.

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"We've been created, saved and blessed by God "for the praise of God among the peoples of the world."

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So true.

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So I'm wondering,

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is God calling some folks in this church

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to be missionaries?

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Oh, there's a risk involved, sure.

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Is God calling some folks in this church to plan a church in an unreached part of North America?

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Is God calling people in this church

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to share the gospel with their relatives,

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with their neighbors, with their acquaintances at work?

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And why would God do that?

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Because He wants the nations and every person on this planet to worship Him,

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to give Him the glory He deserves.

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You know how some songs sort of get stuck in your mind?

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I remember Lakin' back there, there was a time when that song, "Honey and the Rock,"

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and man, that girl, she sang it all the time.

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And it got in my mind, okay? Now I can't sing as well as Lakin',

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but it was stuck in my mind,

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"Honey and the Rock," or "Honey from the Rock."

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I hope and pray that for every person in this room,

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that the mission song gets stuck in your mind,

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the mission song gets stuck in your heart,

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in the very depths of your soul.

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And I pray that every person within the sound of my voice

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will seek to honor the Lord and praise Him and glorify Him and allow people to look into our lives and see that Jesus is real to us.

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And that God would use us to be a blessing

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to others.

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Again, let me warn you of the danger

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of disconnecting God's gracious blessing in your life

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from God's ultimate purpose for your life. You've been blessed to be a blessing.

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I'm gonna ask our worship team to come on, ask our staff to come, and we're gonna give you an opportunity to respond. It would be a crying shame to take this great psalm

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and not give an invitation for you to respond to it.

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Now there are different responses you can have today.

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You may be here today, you say, "Pastor,

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I'm that person who's lost my way back to God."

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Pastor, I'm lost.

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I don't know how to get back to God. I've tried everything.

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And God seems to be a million miles away from me.

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I tell you, He loves you.

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And He sent His Son to down the cross for your sins so that you could be forgiven.

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And Jesus, if you'll come to Christ today, if you'll repent of your sin, place your faith in Christ and desire to obey Him in your heart, He'll bring you back to God.

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Oh, come to Christ today.

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Listen, come to one of our staff members

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and we'll help you with that decision. If you have any questions, we'll answer them. We'll pray for you. We'll share the gospel with you.

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But many of you here today, you are believers.

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You have been blessed with the greatest blessing of all time, salvation, forgiveness, eternal life.

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And the Bible says in Matthew 5, 16, Jesus said this, "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

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Listen, I can't look in your heart.

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I can't. But I'm telling you, you need to look in your own heart.

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You need to ask yourself this question.

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Am I glorifying the heavenly Father? Can people look at my life and see the power of the gospel,

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the power and joy of God's blessing and love?

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Oh, I pray that today many of you will come to this altar and this would be a time of refreshing and renewal in your heart.

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Let me pray, Father, the name of Jesus, have your way.

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Oh God in heaven, have your way in our heart. In Jesus name, amen. Let's stand and worship and you come.