Foreknown and Foreloved: Unpacking the Golden Chain (Romans 8:28–30)

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Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the Crosspoint Podcast,
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where we help you take Sunday morning learning into Monday morning living.
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And please, do share this episode with anyone you think that it could encourage or bless.
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So my name is Brianna, and I'm joined by my guest, Elder Aldley. Hello, everyone.
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Yeah. So it is Sunday, which means it is the first start to the week.
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So very excited for this new week ahead of us.
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Got anything you're looking forward to this week? You know what?
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Every day brings a different challenge. And, you know, I take it day by day.
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Literally, I'm not a good planner.
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So I literally take it day by day. Amber, my wife, she's a great planner and,
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I'm learning. I'm learning from her.
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Listen, I know she's a great planner. I've seen like her like agenda planner
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book that she had. I'm like, oh, man, I need to get to her level.
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Gotta step my game up. That's funny. All right.
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Well, today is going to be fun episodes. So we finally got to the first chain.
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So let me explain a little bit.
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So for the past few weeks, Pastor Brennan has been taking us through Romans
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chapter 8, verses 28 to 30. And we've been looking at the golden chain.
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So looking at, yeah, just the sequence of like what happens from God foreknowing
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us to, you know, bringing us to glory.
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And like you said, that first week, the first chain is the most complex.
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And then as you go along each one, it descends in complexity.
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So yeah, this episode is going to be fun because we were talking about the most complex chain.
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So yeah, so the first chain is that we are foreknown by God.
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So I'm actually, actually, could you read Romans 28 to 30 for us? Sure.
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The text says, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good,
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to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
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This is the New American standard.
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For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son.
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So that he would be the firstborn among many brethren.
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And these whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified.
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And these whom he justified, he also glorified.
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Awesome. Thank you so much. Sure. So yeah, let's just jump right into it.
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Pastor Brennan spent a lot of time, yeah, just really helping us understand,
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what the scripture means when it says that God foreknew us.
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Which as I always say, if you guys have not heard the sermon,
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pause this and come back to us after you listen to it because you'll have all
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the context of what we're talking about in this episode. So pause it and come back.
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All right. So yeah, kind of just my first question to you is,
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you know, what does it mean for God to foreknow us? Like, what does it mean to be foreknown?
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So pastor, he talked about the Greek word for foreknown, which is prognosko.
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And it carries the connotation of knowing someone, not just that they exist,
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but knowing someone intimately, very intimately.
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If we had to go to an example in Scripture, Adam, when the text says, Adam knew his wife, Eve.
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The text is saying that Adam knew
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Eve in an intimate way, in a way that is relational, sexually relational.
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That's a part of it. but it's intimate. It's this knowing intimately.
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He also showed in Genesis 18 with Abraham and the Hebrew word for chosen here
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is yadah and it carries the same connotation, this new intimately.
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And I'll read it here real quickly. It's Genesis chapter 18, verse 19.
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And it says, for I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him,
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to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord
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may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him.
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And so this idea of foreknowing, it's really a blessing and it really brings
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glory to God to do it this way.
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And it's that deep, intimate knowledge of knowing us before the foundations of the world.
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Yeah, that's good. So it's so funny, as Pastor Brennan was talking about the
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Greek, which I love how he always goes through the languages and stuff.
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So I'm like, ah, this really helps.
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Because sometimes you know when things get like translated into english it like
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misses not saying it like it doesn't you know translate well or anything like
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that but like sometimes the way that we use a word is different than like the
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original word right so as he was saying like pro gnosco,
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it made me think so way back in the day when i was in college one of my majors
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was uh spanish oh and the word gnosco remind me of a word in spanish which is
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uh spanish which is conocer
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so there's two ways you could say that you know something you could say that
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like like you could use the word saber or conocer,
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and like saber means to like just know facts about something it's to know information.
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But conocer always means there's like a familiar familiarity to it it's like
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a personal so you would never use saber to say you know somebody,
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or like you're familiar with the place you would always use conocer and then
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vice versa to say like oh do you know what hour it is you would never use conocer
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because it's like what like that's Personal.
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So anyway, as he was, you know, talking about this word, I was like thinking
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about it in just like Spanish. And I was like, wow, like, I think it's easy,
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to read the text and to think like, oh, God just had this.
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This like knowledge of like the facts of us, right?
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It's like, no, like you were saying in how we see elsewhere in scripture,
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no, there's like this personal relational knowledge, like what you were saying,
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like Adam and Eve or just, you got where he, you know, like you said,
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Genesis 18. Abraham, yeah.
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Yeah, like knowing in a way that he chose.
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And I was like, wow, you know, that's really awesome. Yeah, yeah, Bree.
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It's funny how the nuances of language can really be different from language to language.
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And I think the beauty of being foreknown is this thought right here.
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Like, and this is what helped me to see the beauty of it.
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It's like, before I've even prayed, before I've ever prayed a prayer,
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before I have ever had an awareness of sin, before I've even repented,
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God placed his love on me in a saving way.
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What a blessing that is to know that beforehand.
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And Romans 5, 6 says, while we were still helpless at the right time,
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that word helpless is key.
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While we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
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My salvation was not an afterthought in the plan of God.
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That is extremely, extremely comforting.
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For for me as i would even go through the the trials and the tribulations of
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life that my salvation is was not an ather thought god had me in mind before
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the foundations of the world,
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super encouraging yeah yeah and i think it's awesome too because we talked a
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bit about it last on last week's episode just like.
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For God to have chosen us, right? And now us talking about like him foreknowing
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us, there's just such an assurance of our salvation. Because I do think sometimes
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we, you know, it's like intellectually we understand like, okay, like I'm saved, right?
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Like I understand that because of what scripture says.
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But then like our lived out experience, sometimes we can only see maybe where
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we're failing in sanctification.
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And that can cause like a lot of doubt of like I don't know I don't know but
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when we think about the fact of like hey like you were foreknown before you
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were even born and you know what I'm saying even just,
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in the scripture it says like was it Jacob I love but you saw hated before they
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were even born you know like even for us like,
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even before we were born like God knew how many hairs would be on our head he
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knew every mistake that we would make every,
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willful act of disobedience and things like that, but he still chose us.
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That's right. You know, and I'm just like, wow.
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That gives us such an assurance of our salvation because now we're,
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it's basically taking our eyes off of us and it's putting it on God.
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Like, you know, it doesn't, because he foreknows us, not just in like factoid
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type of way, but in a like knows us intimate type of way.
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You know, our sin might trip us up and, and, you know, we struggle with it,
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but like he, it's, he's not surprised by it. He knows us. That's right. He knows all about us.
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Yeah. But in that love of us, like he still chose us. Yeah. Yeah.
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I mean, even the psalmist says he knows when we're going to sit down,
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when we're going to stand up. He knows when we're going to say something,
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when we're not going to say something. Yeah, before we even say it. Yeah.
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And, you know, how we understand this word foreknew will basically help us to
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understand the golden chain itself.
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So how you look at this word will really help us to understand what Paul is saying here.
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And he's not just saying that God looked down the corridors of time and saw
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who would believe and put their faith and trust in him because of something they did.
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You know, I think that's really important to think about because there's this
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concept in Scripture about boasting, right?
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When we boast in our efforts and our abilities, right, we are,
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in a sense, you could say taking glory from God.
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You know, I mean, God is going to get his glory regardless. But when we boast,
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in our own efforts and we take the credit and we accredit the things that are
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supposed to be accredit to God to us, we do a disservice, right?
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We kind of steal God's glory in a way. And, you know, Pastor was talking about,
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Pastor was talking about the whole idea of.
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Justice and mercy, right? Just understanding that, understanding that in relation
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to us, us being able to choose God, right?
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So God doesn't give us justice. God doesn't give us justice.
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Some, some he does and, and some he doesn't, right?
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And the fact that God pours out common grace, which is given to believers and
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unbelievers, God chooses some to give saving grace.
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And that is grace from God. God chooses to give us mercy and grace,
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right? Let me use an example about this private investor.
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I think it was last sermon. And this private investor chose to pay all the college
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debt off of these students.
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And Pastor Brendan raised a question, that is, would that be injustice?
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Would that be injustice for this guy to pay off the debt of these college students?
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And he raised a couple of different categories, injustice, justice, and mercy and grace.
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And what that guy did for the college students, he gave them mercy and grace, right?
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Because justice would be telling those students to, you took these courses and
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you took these classes, you pay the loan.
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You know, you have to pay it off. So I think that was very helpful in us understanding.
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The categories God chooses to, that he could have used. Yeah.
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Yeah, we talked a bit about that last week too. Just thinking.
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It's not a matter of fairness or not fair. It's a matter of,
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hey, God just kind of blows that all up by introducing this new category of mercy and grace.
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Because, yeah, like, as people who shouldn't be recipients of grace or mercy,
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you know, we shouldn't be, none of us should be chosen. We all should be just,
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you know, in the wrath of God, you know, leave it to ourselves.
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But as someone who is a recipient of God's grace, like, who am I to then turn
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back to him and be like, you know, tell him how he should dispense that grace?
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The fact that he gives it to any one of us is his mercy. Amen.
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You know what I'm saying? That's right. That's right.
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So, yeah. And something Pastor Brendan said that I thought was really great.
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He was sharing a quote from John Stott where he said, to be foreknown is to be foreloved.
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And I really love that because, again, it really captures that it's not just
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a knowing of knowledge, but it's a knowing, like, intimately, right?
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So, I guess a question I have for us, right? So, following that train of thought
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of, like, okay, to be foreknown is to be foreloved, right?
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That means that to be foreloved is to be a recipient of mercy and grace,
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like you were saying, right?
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So with that in mind, like how is being foreloved and being a recipient of God's
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mercy and grace, knowing again that we don't deserve it, right?
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That's what makes it mercy and grace, right?
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Like how should that affect how we like live our lives on the day to day,
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right? Because it's not just like, oh, okay, mercy and grace,
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I'm going to go my merry way. It's like, no, like this is going to have an impact
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on our day to day. Yeah, yeah.
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I think just understanding this idea of foreknown, it's extremely practical.
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And it could help us in how we see suffering, how we deal with sickness,
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how we deal with the death of a loved one, a disrespectful supervisor,
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and also like things that like bother us personally, like taking your kindness for weakness, right?
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Just knowing that God has,
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foreknown you and all the days of your life has been ordained before you've
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even said anything or even done anything, good or bad, it's extremely, extremely practical.
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I had an accident in 2025 and I was going down the road here.
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You guys probably heard me explain this before and I hit a tree, right?
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I'll spare you the details because it's kind of crazy how it happened,
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But basically, I was I was on the cell phone talking to a friend,
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and I laughed so hard to the point I passed out. Right. And.
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What happened with that was that I ran into a tree, and when I woke up, it was.
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My arm, my left arm, wrist, excuse me, was exposed.
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My jaw was busted up, all this blood. And when the doctors investigated,
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they said you had something called vasovagal syncope,
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which is this when your blood pressure drops, when your oxygen level drops,
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and you can literally pass out from this, right? And so this is what happened with me.
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And I just need to tell you, like, what helped me, first of all,
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was the prayers of the saints, for sure.
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And the fact that I understood this idea of God foreknowing,
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knowing the certain scriptures that talks about that
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God's providence, Him directing and governing all things for His good and sovereign
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purposes, the fact that we're predestined, we're called, and He's going to keep us to the end, right?
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Knowing that if he saved you, if he called you effectually,
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he's going to keep you through all of your life, through sanctification,
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and you will persevere to the end, to the final culmination,
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which is glorification.
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It made such a huge difference knowing that and really having this concept of
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foreknown, predestined, being called God's providence really embedded in my heart.
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So it's extremely practical, extremely practical.
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Yeah, that's really great. And thank you for sharing your personal testimony.
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Of that event in your life.
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Because it even just makes me think of even just the practical impact on suffering,
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is that, like, again, to be foreknown, if we just think of like,
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okay, God knows how many hairs on my head, that's it.
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You know, it's like, that's not quite as comforting amid suffering,
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but what is comforting is knowing that, like, God knows me personally.
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And despite these circumstances that I wouldn't choose for myself,
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like, he knows what is necessary in my life to produce Christlikeness.
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He knows what's necessary in my life for me to depend upon him.
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Like, he's a good God that only gives good gifts. And sometimes those good gifts
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come in packages that, again, that we wouldn't have chosen for ourselves.
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But he knows what he's doing which can be really hard in a moment of suffering
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right knowledge of like which i think,
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us knowing that god knows the facts like he knows then from the beginning that
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actually is comforting not gonna lie,
00:17:52.150 --> 00:17:55.930
because we some we don't know how sometimes a story is going to end or how a
00:17:55.930 --> 00:17:59.510
circumstance is going to end but knowing that someone does that someone isn't
00:17:59.510 --> 00:18:03.210
just anybody it's god that does help us because it's like okay like he's sovereign
00:18:03.210 --> 00:18:04.990
over all the things These things,
00:18:05.470 --> 00:18:10.823
this ball of yarn isn't just unraveling into chaos, but there's something,
00:18:11.630 --> 00:18:14.311
that God is doing. There's an end to this, right?
00:18:14.427 --> 00:18:17.893
Even if we don't know what that end is for the rest of our lives.
00:18:18.305 --> 00:18:23.309
But then the more personal type of knowledge of him knowing us is...
00:18:24.541 --> 00:18:28.975
I think that helps us remember too, that like, we're not alone amid whatever
00:18:28.975 --> 00:18:30.735
the suffering is. You know what I'm saying?
00:18:31.075 --> 00:18:35.015
Yeah. Yeah, Brie. No, that's, that's important. And I think the longer you become
00:18:35.015 --> 00:18:37.381
a Christian, sometimes we could take that for granted.
00:18:37.816 --> 00:18:43.675
The fact that God is, he is with us in all things. Like, you know,
00:18:43.675 --> 00:18:47.105
it's, it's all throughout the scripture that, that he will never leave us nor
00:18:47.105 --> 00:18:48.980
forsake, nor forsake us.
00:18:49.543 --> 00:18:55.155
And we hear that all the time. We hear that all the time. But that is so important
00:18:55.155 --> 00:18:56.215
in the life of a believer.
00:18:56.835 --> 00:19:00.846
Even the fact that we have the Holy Spirit working on the inside of us,
00:19:01.228 --> 00:19:09.324
we don't know how much of a blessing that is because we can't do things in our own strength.
00:19:09.893 --> 00:19:16.355
It takes God the Holy Spirit to initiate salvation, to keep us living for Him,
00:19:16.355 --> 00:19:22.734
empowering us to live lives of personal holiness and, and, and have the desires of Christ.
00:19:23.059 --> 00:19:28.795
I mean, it's, we see it all the time and just knowing that God is with us makes
00:19:28.795 --> 00:19:31.050
it, makes a huge difference.
00:19:31.247 --> 00:19:32.867
Yeah. Yeah. No, that's so good.
00:19:33.994 --> 00:19:39.915
Yeah. I think some other like practical ways us recognizing that we are foreknown
00:19:39.915 --> 00:19:41.809
and therefore foreloved by God,
00:19:42.633 --> 00:19:46.545
how that can like practically impact our day-to-day is like i think it really
00:19:46.545 --> 00:19:52.045
should inform not just how we worship but inform us to worship period yeah because
00:19:52.045 --> 00:19:54.348
i think sometimes i'll speak for myself like,
00:19:55.177 --> 00:20:00.275
i don't know it's just so easy to go day to day and just like not give god his
00:20:00.275 --> 00:20:03.365
proper worship and like that's what we were created for to be in a relationship
00:20:03.365 --> 00:20:07.975
with god and to like worship him literally forever right as believers so.
00:20:09.248 --> 00:20:14.339
Just knowing, like, just sitting on the fact of, like, wow, he really didn't have to love me.
00:20:14.809 --> 00:20:15.809
You know what I'm saying? He didn't
00:20:15.809 --> 00:20:19.819
have to save me, but he did in his kindness and his grace and mercy.
00:20:19.819 --> 00:20:24.729
Like, man, that's enough to get me to worship 24-7. Now, you know what I'm saying?
00:20:24.729 --> 00:20:27.939
Like, you know, obviously we have to go to work and do the things and stuff
00:20:27.939 --> 00:20:29.569
like that. But even as we are going about
00:20:29.569 --> 00:20:32.596
our lives and doing the task and responsibilities and stuff, I think...
00:20:33.368 --> 00:20:36.366
That helps us to live like lifestyles of worship, right? So like we can just
00:20:36.366 --> 00:20:40.653
like worship God through like praise, right? And like adoration and things.
00:20:41.267 --> 00:20:44.489
But even just like how I live my life can be worship unto the Lord because,
00:20:44.843 --> 00:20:48.516
you know, I just think of decision-making, right? We were talking a little bit
00:20:48.516 --> 00:20:52.196
with Donna about that in the prep for the podcast episode. It's like we have
00:20:52.196 --> 00:20:54.178
so many decisions to make in a day.
00:20:54.591 --> 00:20:59.906
And like, not gonna lie sometimes, it's just we're kind of naturally bent to
00:20:59.906 --> 00:21:03.796
make decisions that like favor us and are easy and bring comfort and just,
00:21:03.796 --> 00:21:07.616
you know, will help us get to the next step or whatever.
00:21:08.057 --> 00:21:11.976
But when it comes to God, it's like, actually, okay, like if I'm going to do
00:21:11.976 --> 00:21:16.596
all things as unto the Lord, as a act of worship unto him, sometimes that means
00:21:16.596 --> 00:21:20.146
I'm going to make hard decisions at my own disposal, you know?
00:21:20.666 --> 00:21:24.306
Or I'm going to make hard decisions that people around me won't understand.
00:21:24.306 --> 00:21:27.716
But like, I know this is the way that God is leading me for his glory and it
00:21:27.716 --> 00:21:29.046
just is what it is, you know?
00:21:29.774 --> 00:21:33.016
So, I don't know. I just think it does have a great impact on like worship and
00:21:33.016 --> 00:21:36.387
living lifestyles of worship. That's a good point. That's a good point, Brie.
00:21:36.722 --> 00:21:39.265
Worship is extremely, extremely important.
00:21:39.782 --> 00:21:48.149
And I think the more we realize how much we are dead in our trespasses and sin
00:21:48.567 --> 00:21:50.117
before salvation, right?
00:21:51.406 --> 00:21:57.536
How heinous and how vile sin is, I think the more we could appreciate God's
00:21:57.536 --> 00:22:00.274
sovereignty, God's foreknowing, His predestination.
00:22:00.946 --> 00:22:08.915
It's not until we know how bad the situation is, how deep and how ugly sin is.
00:22:09.332 --> 00:22:13.006
You know, the people in church history has called it the sinfulness of sin,
00:22:13.750 --> 00:22:20.246
how bad that is. And it's not until you really understand that situation that.
00:22:21.953 --> 00:22:26.440
You could appreciate God's saving grace and salvation.
00:22:26.852 --> 00:22:32.591
And, you know, you have to know, like, how Scripture talks about being dead,
00:22:32.591 --> 00:22:37.286
being hostile to God, not being able to even please God.
00:22:37.756 --> 00:22:42.451
You know, a lot of people will disagree with that fact, the fact that we are
00:22:42.451 --> 00:22:47.991
totally unable to come to God on our own terms.
00:22:47.991 --> 00:22:51.041
And, you know, I do believe that
00:22:51.041 --> 00:22:55.406
we as a church here takes the stance that regeneration precedes faith.
00:22:56.341 --> 00:23:01.551
This is the fact that the Holy Spirit has to initiate in us what we can do for
00:23:01.551 --> 00:23:08.656
ourselves and save us and give us saving faith and allow us to have new desires for Christ.
00:23:08.877 --> 00:23:16.561
So I think that's huge as we look at this topic of salvation and God being sovereign
00:23:16.561 --> 00:23:19.201
and him choosing us before the foundation of the world.
00:23:20.234 --> 00:23:23.511
Yeah. And as you were talking, it made me think of like, okay,
00:23:23.511 --> 00:23:30.421
God, again, it's God who's saving us, right? It's God who's initiating that
00:23:30.421 --> 00:23:32.692
and who's bringing it to pass.
00:23:33.336 --> 00:23:37.501
And it's, I love how whoever came up with the phrase of, you know,
00:23:37.501 --> 00:23:39.081
this verse being a golden chain.
00:23:39.081 --> 00:23:42.241
Because again it's like they're all so interconnected with each other.
00:23:43.530 --> 00:23:46.211
And it just makes me think of just like sanctification right it's like okay
00:23:46.211 --> 00:23:52.339
so god foreknew me he foreloved me like like he's the one that chose me,
00:23:53.047 --> 00:23:57.221
and now i know that he's committed to making me look like jesus for the rest
00:23:57.221 --> 00:24:01.405
of my life so like when it comes to like me living and walking in obedience it's like.
00:24:02.491 --> 00:24:06.257
I can't deny who I am. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm a daughter of the
00:24:06.257 --> 00:24:10.627
risen King. Amen. And as a daughter of a King, like, yeah, my life is going
00:24:10.627 --> 00:24:13.097
to look different. Am I going to do sanctification perfectly?
00:24:13.097 --> 00:24:15.548
Obviously, none of us will, you know.
00:24:16.338 --> 00:24:19.087
But I think it empowers us because, again, it's the same thing with,
00:24:19.087 --> 00:24:22.067
like, the assurance of salvation where it, like, takes our eyes off of us and
00:24:22.067 --> 00:24:23.937
it puts it back on God and the power of God.
00:24:24.907 --> 00:24:29.077
I really loved when we were looking at earlier verses in Romans a few months
00:24:29.077 --> 00:24:37.520
ago was like the gospel is so powerful that it not only has the power to save, but also like,
00:24:38.347 --> 00:24:42.437
it has the power of those who are saved to be transformed too.
00:24:42.698 --> 00:24:45.707
Like there's no choice. You're going to be changed. Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:46.667 --> 00:24:51.627
Yeah, he's molding and shaping us and he's carving out all of the things we
00:24:51.627 --> 00:24:54.607
used to get caught up in, in our old lost ways.
00:24:54.967 --> 00:24:59.557
And yeah, like, you know, there's a greater purpose. You know,
00:24:59.557 --> 00:25:03.727
there's, you know, in the life of the believer, there's no such thing as meaningless
00:25:03.727 --> 00:25:05.617
suffering. Yeah, I agree.
00:25:06.678 --> 00:25:14.431
Yeah, I think another practical impact of us, you know, capturing the definition
00:25:14.431 --> 00:25:16.484
of foreknown, again, not just being like.
00:25:17.591 --> 00:25:20.560
You know, just knowing of facts, but knowing personally and like God,
00:25:21.001 --> 00:25:25.111
like actually like choosing us is like, we kind of talked about a bit last week,
00:25:25.111 --> 00:25:27.893
but the impact on how we share our faith too.
00:25:28.398 --> 00:25:31.801
Because again you know similar to how we're talking last week like i could see
00:25:31.801 --> 00:25:35.311
somebody this week being like well if god for knows right it's not him just
00:25:35.311 --> 00:25:38.638
looking down the quarters of time and being like okay i'll save that one because,
00:25:39.248 --> 00:25:43.161
you know they agree type of thing right but,
00:25:43.798 --> 00:25:47.980
it's him saying no like he saw i hated jacob i loved,
00:25:48.775 --> 00:25:52.151
that some people were like well you know there's no point in like sharing our
00:25:52.151 --> 00:25:55.312
faith and it's like no like if anything i think this makes,
00:25:56.107 --> 00:26:03.331
such a argument for sharing our faith because like god knows whom he's foreknew
00:26:03.331 --> 00:26:06.988
but we don't know yeah yeah it's a fuel of evangelism right,
00:26:07.651 --> 00:26:12.331
and the same god who foreknew us is the same god who commissions us to go out
00:26:12.331 --> 00:26:17.403
into all the world and make disciples yeah disciples that make disciples amen amen,
00:26:18.091 --> 00:26:23.341
um yeah and and and the pastor used that a great example with the uh car battery, right?
00:26:23.341 --> 00:26:25.786
The car battery and the jumper cables, right?
00:26:26.094 --> 00:26:30.641
I know you've put a lot of effort into that illustration and such a great way
00:26:30.641 --> 00:26:34.071
in us understanding how God saves us, right?
00:26:34.911 --> 00:26:41.765
I'm definitely a new car battery guy. I also know that other people believe that, you know.
00:26:42.611 --> 00:26:48.749
God jumpstarts the battery and they turn the key and the ignition comes on.
00:26:48.749 --> 00:26:55.149
But none of those things are, none of those things are, doesn't cause us to
00:26:55.149 --> 00:27:00.039
lose our salvation. You holding to either thing doesn't cause us to lose our
00:27:00.039 --> 00:27:03.269
salvation. It's a secondary issue, pastor said.
00:27:03.797 --> 00:27:08.229
And it's like two different currents in the same river. We're on the same team.
00:27:08.229 --> 00:27:10.479
So we maintain the unity, right?
00:27:11.442 --> 00:27:17.459
We love our brethren who takes different positions and we wanna maintain the
00:27:17.459 --> 00:27:22.019
unity of the church and understanding this doctrine of God's sovereignty.
00:27:22.379 --> 00:27:23.673
Yeah, that's good. That's good.
00:27:24.306 --> 00:27:28.509
Even you just saying that just makes me think of like, man, when we read we're
00:27:28.509 --> 00:27:32.249
foreknown, I guess it kind of goes back to the assurance of salvation.
00:27:32.249 --> 00:27:35.999
Like there is no loss of salvation. It's absolutely impossible,
00:27:35.999 --> 00:27:37.546
which again, I think just really.
00:27:38.705 --> 00:27:43.043
Helps us as believers to just like walk with God, see him at work,
00:27:43.383 --> 00:27:49.213
moving throughout our lives and using us and sending us out again to like go
00:27:49.213 --> 00:27:53.073
and reach the lost who haven't heard of him yet.
00:27:53.073 --> 00:27:56.038
And it's like, man, like each person you meet, you don't, you don't know,
00:27:56.206 --> 00:28:00.304
you know, what God has decided for their life, but you get to be a part of like
00:28:00.479 --> 00:28:03.776
sharing about him with them. And again, what is it?
00:28:04.267 --> 00:28:08.643
Like one waters, you know, one plants the seed, but it's God that causes the
00:28:08.643 --> 00:28:10.223
growth. Like he's the master gardener.
00:28:10.963 --> 00:28:13.603
He's going to do his thing. That's right. And maybe we like worship God for
00:28:13.603 --> 00:28:16.943
doing his thing in our lives. So, all right.
00:28:17.343 --> 00:28:20.329
So yeah, that's good. Well, would you go praying for our listeners? Sure, sure.
00:28:21.424 --> 00:28:26.248
Heavenly Father, gracious God, Lord, we, we thank you, mighty God, for your scriptures.
00:28:26.840 --> 00:28:30.582
We thank you, O Lord, for this text in Romans, O Lord.
00:28:31.174 --> 00:28:35.763
And Lord, we ask, O God, that you would continue to help us,
00:28:35.763 --> 00:28:40.565
meet us where we are, mighty Lord, in our understanding of the text.
00:28:41.041 --> 00:28:45.415
And one of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to help us interpret.
00:28:46.872 --> 00:28:51.441
And I ask that as we continue to read your word, that the Holy Spirit would
00:28:51.772 --> 00:28:54.273
help us to rightly divide your truth, Lord.
00:28:54.273 --> 00:28:58.773
And Lord, I thank you, Father, for all your servants, O Lord.
00:28:58.773 --> 00:29:03.075
I thank you, O God, for your faithfulness to us, O God.
00:29:04.287 --> 00:29:08.083
In spite of the fact that we do not deserve your love, we do not deserve your
00:29:08.083 --> 00:29:10.794
grace, Lord, we actually deserve the opposite.
00:29:11.247 --> 00:29:14.846
And we just thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. Thank you for your kindness.
00:29:15.241 --> 00:29:20.653
Thank you for loving us while we were yet sinners, O Lord. You bestowed your
00:29:20.653 --> 00:29:23.541
love upon us. So we thank you for that, O God.
00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:27.353
And we give you the praise, the honor, and the glory. We exalt you,
00:29:27.353 --> 00:29:31.163
mighty Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
00:29:31.877 --> 00:29:34.943
Well, thank you everyone so much for listening. We pray that you seek Christ
00:29:34.943 --> 00:29:37.798
with your whole heart and that you have a great rest of your week. Bye.