Pastor Aaron Shamp preaches about the Gospel and facets of Christianity at Redeemer City Church. These podcasts are his sermons.
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where we're looking at the marks of renewal through the story of the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. But since I was on vacation this week, we're going to have today's installment in that series given to us from my friend Dusty Durbin. Dusty is the associational mission strategist for the Evangelion Baptist Association. know, Redeemer, we are not a single cell organism.
We are connected to a body. We are connected to the body of Christ that is represented by other local churches, not just here in Acadiana, but also around the world. You know, we talk about that and we know that there is the big C church that exists. We talk about the kingdom of God, but without some actual on -the -ground partnerships and ways that we organize those partnerships, then we act alone.
away from the rest of the body. And so, what Dusty does is he connects these local churches so that we aren't isolated, we aren't single cell organisms, but that we are connected to one another, that we work together as the kingdom of God. And so, he plays a crucial role and I'm extraordinarily thankful that we have him as our associational mission strategist here in Acadiana.
And we are privileged to get to have him with us here at Redeemer this morning. So would y 'all give Dusty a warm welcome?
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Aaron, thank you brother. Thank you for having me this morning. It is a joy to be back with you guys. I have been praying for you and am thankful for your partnership in reaching a katiana with the gospel. I know if you've heard me last time I was here, I'm going to throw out this statistic because I believe it's a very vital statistic. Actually, there's two. One, there's about 250 ,000 people that are without Jesus, 62 % of our population, and four parishes.
that are without Christ, and no one church can do that alone, but together we can reach our region with the gospel of Christ. In fact, not only is there 250 ,000 people that live within our four parishes without Jesus, we are the least churched region of our state. Around the state, there's about one Baptist church for every 3 ,000 people. In New Orleans, there's one for every 6 ,500 people. In our region, there's one Baptist church for every 12 ,000 people. In the Lafayette, it's like one for every...
15 ,000. And so we have a lot of work to do and I am grateful for your partnership. Grateful that we can lock arms to carry the gospel to people who are in need of Christ and make disciples. If you have your copy of God's word with you this morning, and I hope you do, I would like to invite you to turn with me to Acts chapter two, 42, 42 through 47, and we're really gonna focus on verse 42. But let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we love you.
And God, we do thank you that you take what is broken, you take what is spiritually dead and you give us life in Christ alone. Thank you that through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, Father, you snatch us out of darkness and you transfer us into the gospel light. You make us new, Father. You make us new with.
with eternal hope and eternal joy, knowing that one day we will enjoy your presence with brothers and sisters in Christ around your throne for all eternity. And Lord, we long for that day, not because we deserve it, but because Father, you are a gracious, merciful, just God. But until that day comes, Father, may we be faithful in our pursuit of you as you
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sanctify us as you make us holy, as you mold us into the image of Christ. Father, help us to walk in obedience before you. Lord, give us a desire, an urgency to live in community with brothers and sisters in Christ, serving one another, serving alongside one another as we seek to be obedient to
In these next moments, God, I ask above all else that you be glorified, that Christ be made much of. So in Jesus' name we pray.
We go to the doctor and the doctor wants to check our vital signs, right? What's our blood pressure? What's our heart rate? What's our O2 level? There are indicators of health, physical health, right? Unfortunately, they also, this is my worst or least favorite part of going to the doctor. I don't know if you ever have a favorite part about going to the doctor, but least favorite is when you have to get on the scale, right?
And for a big guy, that's not fun, okay? But there's indicators. They check us out, make sure that we are okay, that we're healthy. Listen, there's indicators for the church. Is the church healthy? And what are those indicators that help us know if the local church is healthy? If the local church is doing what God's called us to do, if the local church is living according to the will of God and in obedience.
Well, Acts 2 .42 is such indicators, or 2 .42 to 2 .47, these are the indicators. If I had to go to one text and say, here's how you measure if your church is healthy. Now, some may push back and say, well, there's other areas. Well, sure. But if you pinned me to the wall and said, what's one text? This is it. Because in here, we see, what does the healthy church look like? Now, this is coming off the heels, right, of Jesus has appeared.
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to his disciples in the upper room, there's 120, he told them to wait, don't do anything until the Spirit comes. And when the Spirit comes, right, they will receive power and they will be witnesses where? In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. The Spirit of God fell, they didn't do, they did what God told them to do, they waited. And they weren't just waiting and twiddling their thumbs. They were praying, they were praying. That's significant.
Because every major revival, awakening we have seen in history has come on the heels of the preaching of the word of God and the people of God praying. We wanna see a movement of God in our church, we wanna see a movement of God in our community. You wanna see a movement of God across, in your family and across the nation and ultimately the globe. Brothers and sisters, we have to be intentional about praying and seeking the face of God for the glory of God. They pray.
And when they prayed, the Spirit of God fell. And when the Spirit of God fell, they began to speak in other languages. And as they began to speak in other languages, this was a time of Passover, so there were people from many different dialects gathered in this one place. The Word of God went forth. Peter ultimately stands up at Pentecost, preaches, and 3 ,000 people come to faith in Christ. The early church is formed. And what was the early church devoted to? And that leads us to the text today. The early church was devoted to what? Look at Acts 2, 42 through 44.
through 47. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all as any had need.
Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who are being saved. Here are indicators, and we're only going to focus on one, but I do want to touch base on all of these. They were devoted to what? The Apostles teaching. They were devoted to the Word.
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I appreciate it the way you guys open up your worship service. You open up with the reading of scripture because it is God as Joe Crider says, it's God who invites us to worship him. And if God is inviting us to worship him, what is the driving force of our worship services? It's the word of God. It's the word of God. The apostles were, listen, the early church was committed to the preaching and teaching of scripture.
healthy church is one that is devoted to the word of God. That word devotion though is not just a half -hearted commitment.
When Jesus was being tempted in Matthew chapter three, Satan comes and says, hey, turn that stone into bread. You've been fasting 40 days and 40 nights. What does Jesus say? Man doesn't live on bread alone, but by the very word of God. Friends, we need to feast on scripture more than we need to feast on food.
They were devoted to the word of God. They were devoted to fellowship. We're gonna come back there in a moment. They were devoted to the breaking of bread. In this context here is more than just eating a meal together. It was the Lord's Supper, right? Remembering the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. A time to regularly remember that Christ left the throne room of heaven. He came to this earth with one purpose, and that was to be the substitutionary atonement. He took our place, making payment for our sin.
through his death, burial, and resurrection so that we can be forgiven. They were devoted to prayer. Again, listen, as we look at churches, there's many statistics out there, somewhere between 65 to 90 % of churches across denominations are plateaued or declining. I think one of the reasons, this is anecdotal, okay, I think one of the reasons many of our churches are plateaued or declining is because we left a central focus of prayer.
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We left coming together and crying out to God for the glory of God to be made known, for the movement of God in our lives and in our churches. They were devoted to prayer. In fact, in Acts 6, Acts 6, you see the beginning precursors of deacons. The church was growing, and when problems were arising, the apostles couldn't keep up. So what did they do? Let's go find these precursors of deacons. Let's set them up so that they could serve the church.
So we can be devoted, the apostle says, to the ministry of the word and the ministry of prayer. The ministry of prayer. They were leading the church in praying and they were leading the church in preaching of the word. We go down and it says, verse 46, they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple. They devoted themselves to worship, not neglecting as some have in Hebrews. They worshiped together.
They praised God together. But then listen to what it says. Every day, the end of verse 47, every day the Lord added to their number those who are being saved. Healthy church not only worships and protects the Lord's Supper and praise and fellowships and worships. Healthy church is one that's doing evangelism. So where do see evangelism? I don't see evangelism in that text. Well, how do we study scripture in its context, right? The passage in the chapter in the book.
in the testament and the Bible. Well, you go to Romans chapter 10, and what do we find in Romans 10? Verse 13, for all who call on the name of the Lord may be saved, but how can they call on him they have not believed, and how can they believe without hearing, and how can they hear without a preacher, and how can they preach unless they are sent? You drop down and it says, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. How are people being added to the church every day? The believers were hearing the gospel, they were living the gospel, and they were proclaiming the gospel.
so that those who are without Christ could hear and respond to Jesus. The role of evangelism is the responsibility of every born again believer. See, these are indicators of a healthy church. We can determine how healthy a church is in many ways. Listen, many times we like to numbers, budgets, buildings, people. In reality, health of a local church is determined by our
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faithfulness to these indicators. So with that then, let's look, let's unpack what does it mean when we talk about fellowship. He says, they were devoted themselves, the apostles teaching and to fellowship. What is fellowship? In the South, we think of fellowship, we think of eating, right? But this is much more than gathering together and sharing a meal together while that's part of fellowship. This is about sharing life together. It's about living life together.
The early church was living life, they lived life together because what did they have in common? Especially when you think about not just the Jews, when you had, the church grew, there was Jews and Gentiles, you had people from many different backgrounds, Many different, what bound them together? It wasn't their economic status, it wasn't their ethnicity, it wasn't their cultural background. What was the binder for the church? It was Jesus.
Listen, I argue that we have more in common with brothers and sisters in Christ than we may even have in common with our family members who don't know Jesus.
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because we have been grafted into the family of God, sealed with the Holy Spirit. We belong to Jesus, we are a family. And as a family of faith, we are to live life together. We live life together, and that was the early church. And that became very important because it wasn't soon after the birth of the early church, persecution came. And when persecution came, the church needed
When difficulties and trials come, we need one in us.
When temptation comes, we need one another. When we're weary and broken, we need one another. We need the church. We need the church. We need the community, the family. And that's what it means here. They just didn't show up and attend. You we live in a day. It wasn't too long ago.
when people would give three blocks of time to the local church, okay? Sunday morning, whether it was Sunday school, Bible study, worship service, they would come back on Sunday night, they would be there on Wednesday night, and then there were others who would give another night for visitation or another night for Bible study. That's not the time we live in today. And COVID has actually exasperated that. You know, used to the average time people would come to church would be
two times a month. But I was listening to Tom Rayner not too long ago and he said, now the new norm, the new average is one time a month. Listen, that's really heartbreaking. That's not living in community. That's checking off a box. You see, as a church, we are a community. We're a family. A family that, you you look at the early church, what did that fellowship look like? They,
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They met together in the temple, verse 46, every day. They broke bread from house to house. Not only did they gather to worship, they were meeting together, home to home, eating together. They were meeting their needs. They were serving one another. They were serving their community.
Fellowship is walking through life together, and here's some aspects of what that looks like. One, it's a matter of encouraging each other. You ever just needed somebody to send you that text? I'm praying for you.
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love you, I'm here for you. You ever had somebody just call you and say, I know you're struggling, I'm here to listen. You ever see Paul needing Barnabas as an encourager? We need encouragement.
Who are we encouraging?
in our family, as we fellowship together, we should encourage one another. Not only should we encourage one another, we should pray for
was the last time you prayed for your family of faith.
When was the last time you prayed specifically for members of your family of faith? You prayed for them by name. You prayed for them based on their situation. Many times we, as a pastor, one of my struggles when I was pastoring, people going through very difficult trials. And I can't do anything to make the situation better. They always wait on me, right? A family that their child is.
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30 year old child is going through cancer and this lady's got two kids. There's nothing I could do physically for them. But send those texts, have those calls, show up and just be the presence. You know, many times we think, all I can do is pray, but hear me, prayer isn't the last thing we do. Prayer is what we do. Because at the end of the, when it's all said and done, there's nothing you and I can do.
but we can pray to the God who knows tomorrow. We can pray to the God who is sovereign, the God who knows yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We need to be praying for one another, trusting that when we come to the His throne with boldness and confidence, He hears us and He answers us. We need to pray for one another. But look at the text. Not only do they pray and encourage, and we see prayer and encouragement, you get Acts 42, and you see the church praying, the disciples had been,
told to quit preaching Jesus in Acts 4, Quit preaching, they were being persecuted. And the church comes together and they pray and in verse 29 it says, and now Lord consider their threats and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand for healing and signs and wonders and perform through the name of your holy servant. And when they prayed the place where they were assembled was shaken.
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness or boldly. Listen, when the church faced persecution, what did they do? They prayed. And what did they pray for? It wasn't for their comfort or it wasn't for their safety. In community, as a family, when they prayed, they prayed for boldness to be faithful. They prayed for boldness to preach Jesus.
Many times we are worried about our comforts and our safety instead of faithfulness to what God has called us to do.
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You see, as a family, they came together and they prayed. As a family, they encouraged one another. But go back to Acts two, as a family, they met needs. They met needs. Look at verse 44. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. Does that mean they agreed on everything? Absolutely not. Look, me and my wife don't agree on everything, okay? You're not gonna agree with every, well, what did they hold in common? They held the gospel in common. They the gospel in
They held Jesus in command. What is it that binds us as a family of faith? It's Jesus. Then says, they sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all as any had needed. Now listen, this is descriptive, not prescriptive. What does that mean? He's not saying that as believers, you have to go sell everything you have and give it to the church so it can be distributed. That's not what he's saying. What is the heart here? The heart of this text is descriptive in the sense that
We are to be faithful to care for those within the family of faith. It's not prescriptive, go do this, sell all you have. It's descriptive in the sense that you are to serve and care for others. When somebody in the church is in need, who should be the first people to come alongside them?
When somebody sick, who should come alongside and help them? Provide a meal, maybe go get groceries? The church. When there's a death in a family of faith's home, when somebody that's part of, when there's a death, who should be the first one to be there to love them, sit with them, encourage them, serve them? The church. Why? Because we're a family. That's what living life.
together is when somebody is in need, we come alongside them and we serve them. The early church did that. You know, it's easy in today's society.
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that tells us it's all about us. It's all about your wants. It's all about your needs. It's all about your desires. Whatever makes you happy, you do whatever you want. That's a lie. It's not about you and me. It's about the glory of God and it's about being obedient to Him. We live our lives for His glory. And if we're really, listen, an healthy aspect of a family of faith, a church, it's this living life together.
and coming alongside one another and meeting one another's needs. Are you gonna be able to meet everybody's needs? Absolutely.
but we should do everything we can to the best of our.
And it's not just about meeting one another's needs. I think the application here stretches farther than that. The application here is the believer meeting the greatest need that the world has. And what is that? It's Jesus.
What is the greatest need that your coworker has? Or your lost family member has? Or the stranger that lives next door to you? The greatest need is Jesus. People are dying without Christ and because of their sin and rebellion, they will spend eternity in a Christless hell, whether it's forever fire, darkness, torture, and torment. And their only hope is Jesus. Their only hope is Christ. And God has called and commanded you
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and me, Christ's follower, to be the voice of the gospel to those who are without him. Not only should we be praying for people and encouraging people, we should be meeting needs of those within the family of faith, and we should seek to meet the needs of the lost.
We look through the early church and not only did they encourage one another, meet one another's needs as a family of faith, when we think about this fellowship, doing life together, they also held one another accountable. Turn with me to Galatians chapter six. Galatians chapter six, I want you to see this.
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Galatians 6, verse 1.
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Galatians 6 verse 1, says, brothers and sisters, Galatians 6 verse 1, brothers and sisters, if anyone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won't be tempted. And many times we hear people quote, you may have heard this, look, we don't,
We don't wanna go to somebody and talk to them about their sin because we don't want them to judge them, right? Scripture says, don't judge, right? Least you be judged. That's not what Jesus is saying in Matthew. He's saying you take care of your own heart first, get the log out of your eye first so that you then can go to your brother and sister who's in sin. You see, as part of the family, just as a...
a father or mother is gonna correct their child when they're at sin, God corrects us, right? We're thankful for the correction of God. Hebrews tells us if he doesn't correct us, we're illegitimate children, right? As believers then, we are to heed the responsibility that God has given us in Galatians chapter six as part of the family of faith, as part of living life together, as part of living in community with one another. When we see a brother or sister,
not living according to the word of God when we see them actively engaging in sin apart from repentance, we have a responsibility because we love them and our desire for them is to walk in personal holiness before God. We have a responsibility to lovingly correct.
Yeah, but what are they gonna think about me? Listen, at the end of the day, our responsibility is to God first. And if we genuinely love people, and if we genuinely love those who are part of our family of faith.
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and we genuinely desire them to walk in holiness. One way we show them our love is by pointing out their sin and not just pointing out their sin, but helping them walk away from that sin and repentance to Jesus. Helping hold them accountable in their walk with Christ, in their time in the word, in their time in
Helping them to walk in faithfulness and obedience to the Father. Listen, we have this responsibility not given to you by a preacher, we have this responsibility given to us by God, you who are spiritual. What does that mean? You who are walking with Christ. Not perfect, because there's no one in this room perfect. But you who are walking with Christ, you who are walking in repentance, when you see a brother or sister in sin, seek to restore them.
What does that look like? How do you do that? How do you do that with coming across sounding judgmental? You go to a brother or sister and you say, listen, I love you. I see this sin in your life.
doesn't honor Jesus. God's called us to walk worthy of him. How can I help you? How can I serve you? How can I pray for you? How can I help hold you accountable? We want others to do that for us. We want to do that for others. You say, why is this important? Because at the end of the day, the gospel is at stake. The reputation of the church is at stake.
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and if we bear the name of Jesus, people are watching us. If we bear the name of Christ, people want to see us fall. They're examining our lives. And if we profess Jesus, but we're not living like Christ, we're openly sinning, what does that tell the world? You look no different than me. Why do I need what you say you
You say you're a follower of Jesus, but you talk like me or you think like, or you act like me, you live like me, what's the difference? As Christ followers, there should be something different about our lives. People should see a difference. They should hear a difference in our lives. The way we talk, the way we act, the way we live, the places we go, the things we partake in or not partake
And when somebody professes Jesus but lives different.
And they say, hey, yeah, I go to Redeemer City Church. It actually hurts the reputation not only of Christ, it hurts the reputation of the church. And because we're a family, because we're living life together, because we allow ourselves to come under the accountability of one another, we lovingly correct one
But it's not just correcting, it's restoring. But not only do we encourage and pray and meet needs and hold one another accountable, listen, in the family of faith, are responsible, we're responsible for the discipleship of one another. We're responsible for the discipleship of one another. Listen, they were devoted to the word, right? They were devoted to meeting in the temple, they were devoted.
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to going from house to house, there's an idea here in line with Acts 1 -8 when he says, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth, in line with Matthew 28, 19 through 20, make disciples, right, by going, baptizing, and teaching. We make disciples by evangelizing. We make disciples by seeing believers assimilate in the local church through believers' baptism. And we make disciples by teaching and training one another. If we really have a love for one another,
We're gonna spend time investing in one another's spiritual walk with Christ, discipling one another, discipling one another how to read the word, discipling one another how to pray, discipling one another how to share the faith, how to serve the local church using the gifts that God has given us to serve the body of Christ so that the body of Christ functions according to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We should be discipling one
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across denominations, many times the back door of the church is broader, wider than the front door.
People come in and then they exit quickly. You wanna know one of the reasons I believe that happens? Because we quit discipling people. And I'm not saying you in particular, I'm looking at the statistics across the board. You know, just in Baptist life, particularly Southern Baptist life, there's about 14 million people on a church roll. You wanna know how many are in a gathering, worship gathering any given Sunday? Three to five million.
Think about that for a moment. There's 14 million people on a Southern Baptist Church roll. I say Southern Baptist because that's who I am, right? But out of those 14 million, any given Sunday, there's only three to five million people in the worship service.
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Back door is too big. Why is that? Could be one, are we encouraging one another? Are we praying for one another? Are we holding one another accountable? Then are we discipling?
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Are we having those times where, whether it's small groups or one -on -one, where we're reading the Bible together, we're praying together?
We're evangelizing together. We're serving side by side together. And we think about the family of faith living in fellowship. That's what it looks like. That's what the early church did. They lived life together, discipling, encouraging, praying, meeting needs, and holding one another accountable. Where do we find this in the local church? Where do we find community in the local church? Well, one aspect is just the
the Sunday morning gathering. I want you to hear me. The only time we have fellowship with the family of faith is on Sunday mornings when we gather. We really don't have fellowship. Or at best, we have minimal fellowship. Because an hour, hour and a half on Sunday morning, worshiping, we're not getting to know one another. And we're not letting others get to know us. As a family, my wife and I know
know just about everything about one another. We're in the church, we should know one another. Why? Because we're
We need not only the worship gathering, we can't neglect that, but we also need those other times, whether it's small group or one -on -one or certain events where you're coming together, you're doing life together, gathering at one another's house for lunch or dinner or a party event, something. We're just walking through life together. Let me tell you, in the times when life gets difficult,
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What is gonna help carry us through apart from our relationship with Jesus, the Spirit of God that indwells us? What helps carry us through is the fellowship with our family of faith. It's others coming alongside us and holding our arms up when we can't. That's what we get from the family of faith. That's what we get from walking through life together.
See, all of this is rooted where? It's ultimately rooted in Jesus. Apart from Christ, we don't have anything that binds us. Things bind us temporarily, right? Our sports teams or our jobs, right? But what binds us eternally is that our sovereign God sent Jesus to die in our place. And through his death, burial and resurrection, our names are written.
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Those who responded to God's offer of salvation and faith and repentance, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. And we have the assurance that one day we're gonna enjoy the glory of God for all eternity in a place called heaven. That's what binds us. That's what makes us family. So may we, may we as believers not neglect, not neglect that fellowship.
Let's be committed to the local church, serving, loving, and getting to know one another. Father, we love you.
Lord, we thank you for your love for us.
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God, thank you for the church. Thank you for the family of faith that you have given. Lord, may we be committed to living life with one another for your glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
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you stay with us and continue to worship.
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you
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you
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Here you come