Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Chosen - A People Kept in God's Love

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on February 26th 2023 by Navaz. For the audio & video please click here. To listen to the worship please click here.

CHOSEN - A People Kept in the Love of God

INTRODUCTION

We have looked at a commonly preached topic the last two Sundays but from a different angle. We looked at how we are a unique people set apart for the glory of God. You are a chosen people a royal priesthood –a Holy Nation.

And herein lies the problem. The Church/the chosen people are slowly getting diluted and beginning to look like everyone else. We are chosen to be image bearers, glory bearers, a light to the world, the culture and world changers.

When we forget the creator and the WHY of why we have been created we forget the purpose and intent of our design.

E.g.: using a fridge as a cupboard.

The root of the problem is the heart- We have lived compromised lives. We looked at some of the idols of the heart.

Feel Good – give into every sensual pleasure because we do not trust God to meet our needs the legitimate way.

Look Good – We hide, lie, cover up and live in deception and deceit because keeping up appearances is more important than living with integrity before God and man Eg) Ananias and Sapphira. King Saul. People pleasing is a big one here.

Be Right – Because of poor identity, we cannot accept a mistake, or a fault so we lie, cheat, cover-up, and play the blame game rather than take responsibility for our actions.

Be in control – Will not submit to authority, will question decisions, and be your own person for fear of losing control.

We then asked ourselves how we get out of this mess.

Two things that will keep us from having idols of the heart are The Fear of the Lord and the Love of God. Both are needed.

KEPT IN THE LOVE OF GOD

Today we are going to look at being kept in the Love of God: who does this and how?

Jude 21: keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Jude 1:24-25

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!

Jude was encouraging the Christians to contend for their faith amidst ungodliness and faithlessness. People were drifting away from the truth.

The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, heaven without hell.” ― William Booth

The greatest battle you may fight is the fight of perseverance. Jesus says in Revelations 3:21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.

What is a doxology?

A Doxology is a short hymn of praise to remind us to lift our eyes to God. Jude ends his message to the church with this.

But before this in verse 21:

Keep: to watch over, to guard.

Keep is an active verb. We must do something. Keep and keep on keeping yourself in the love of God.

Keep: Why and what? - Because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. (1Pet 5:8)

Agape love: not any other love. Not any other affections or your old boyfriends. Keep yourself in agape – the unconditional, never-ending, never-failing love of God.

We must keep ourselves – because it is easy to get distracted by other loves. What can we lose? We can lose the joy and fruit of abiding in Jesus and that is a terrible thing.

The Christian life is an amazing life with the opportunity to lay hold of the promises of God. There is something we must do.

All the promises in Jesus are YES and AMEN BUT a lot of the promises are conditional. If you abide by His word the promises will prove true in your life. You might argue with that and says it’s not fair!!! What is fair is that we pay for our sins.

Everything we have and enjoy is the sheer MERCY & GRACE of God. There are conditional promises in the Old Testament and the New Testament (a total of over 8000).

Jesus says If you love me you will obey my commandments. If any man will take up his cross and come after me. There are many such “Ifs” in the Bible. The curse is self-inflicted - God is not going to violate His character for your sake. If you live in disobedience, you will reap the fruit of that – that is a curse and not a blessing.

1. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:9 (NIV)

2. "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." - Matthew 21:22 (NIV)

3. "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." - John 7:37 (NIV)

Modern Christianity is preaching another Jesus, another gospel (where heaven, hell and sin are not mentioned) and this is what Jude was warning the people about 2000 years ago!!

“Now unto to him who is able to keep you from falling.”

Keep to guard, watch.

This passage tells us who is worthy of praise and what qualifies Him for this praise.

It is like saying I have put Mr. X in charge of your protection. Now, why should you trust Mr. X. When you know Mr. X’s credentials you will gain confidence to trust him. If I told you he is part of India's elite Blackcats, the best hand-to-hand combatant and marksman, you will have full confidence in his ability to protect you.

You may say so it is my effort that keeps me in God’s love. Not at all. The only reason you are standing is that HE has kept you from falling

So, does that mean you sit back and relax? No, refer to Jude 21. Here you see two truths in tension working together. No, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling and recognize that it is God’s power that is the fuel behind our efforts.

“present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy…”

Without fault or Blameless – without blemish. Anyone born after Adam was automatically blemished. We have all fallen short of the glory of God therefore how can we be presented to God? Jesus the ultimate sacrifice, the unblemished lamb died in the place of blemished people. You are now clothed in His righteousness. God did a prophetic act with Adam and Eve, A symbolic act with the Levitical priests clothing and then the actual act of Jesus shedding His blood and covering us with His righteousness.

We are the apple of His eye. God delights over us.

TO THE ONLY GOD OUR SAVIOR

To what kind of God are we being presented? The ONLY GOD!! At the time Jude was writing his letter to Jews that had come to faith there were two dangers that the church was facing: The grace of God was being changed into a license for immorality (v4)

License or liberalism says you are free to sin because Jesus has forgiven all your sins.

Legalism -The Galatian church needed to be reminded of the freedom for which Christ had set them free: they were in danger of legalism which says, “you should not...”

Freedom in Christ or Grace says you are free not to sin anymore because you are no longer a slave to sin, it shall not have dominion over you.

The second danger that was already doing the rounds is the thought that Jesus is not the only way. The incarnation and deity of Jesus were already being challenged. And Jude is telling them to contend for the faith.

ONLY GOD – there is none like Him.

No one can be compared to Him. Unbelief makes you believe that He is one of the many gods out there. That is what idolatry is

So sexual sin is not just based on lust but because they want comfort, and they believe this sin will give them the comfort they desire. (the feel-good idol) Only God!!

OUR SAVIOR

We have been saved from the wrath of God. Salvation is found in no other name other than the name Jesus. This is a foundational doctrine of the Christian faith. You are free to believe in anything else but that would not be the Christian faith.

OUR

Yes, He saved you, but he also saved the US. Don’t forget this communal nature of our faith. One of the ways you can look like God is when you are in a community.

BE GLORY

God’s glory is revealed when sons and daughters of God walk in the light and reflect His light and Christlikeness.

Our natural tendency is to take the glory for ourselves. But we now want to give God glory as a miracle of a changed heart.

Majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord,

V25 – God is majestic and, ruler and king over everything. While the world may seem out of control, we do have a king that is completely in control. He is always reigning.

Dominion/power– speaks of the extent of His power which is over everything.

Authority speaks of his sovereign rule over all things and legitimate power. Because all power and authority belong to Jesus, we are kept from falling. John 17 Jesus prayed that non would be plucked from His hand.

So, it is He who will keep us from falling and we need to keep ourselves in the love of God.

We will do well to submit to His majesty, dominion, and power. Many people in the church do not want to live under the authority. This idol of the heart is the need to be in control and self-will. Also, they do not believe that God is good. When your view of God is of your view of submission is off.

Now and Forever

Jude gives a time frame for the praise. How long? He is the one deserving of praise now and forever. It is an eternity perspective.

Amen – yes or so be it. It means that we can be certain it will happen.

CONCLUSION

We have been meditating on a very sober topic for three weeks.

It is easy to take the milk of the word that soothes and ignore the meat of the word that provokes change. - (Bill Johnson)

We said you need two things in your life to keep you from falling back into old ways of doing things: The Fear of the Lord and the Love of God. Two sides of the coin, bookends if you like – that keep us together and strong till the end.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again), Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English-speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. Word of Grace is part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Chosen - A People Who Fear the Lord

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on February 19th 2023 by Lasya. For the audio & video please click here. To listen to the worship please click here.

The Fear of God

Q. What is the fear of the Lord?

The word fear refers to reverential awe. Reverence is defined as a feeling or attitude of deep respect, love, and awe, for something sacred. It is a heart posture.

It is NOT being afraid of God. In fact, being scared to come into his presence generally indicates a guilty conscience (E.g.: Adam and Eve) and is not the outworking of a reverent awe of God.

This fear of the lord is not the fear which drives us away from him but the fear that instructs us on how to rightly draw near to him.

Every good parent trains their child in 2 things with regard to their relationship:

To know that they are deeply and unconditionally loved
To honour them with a reverential fear.

An imbalance in either direction is detrimental (not to the parent) but to the growth of the child. God is a good father and belonging to him requires us to know these 2 things - that we are unconditionally loved and that he is wholly holy and worthy of our reverential awe. Today we don't have a dearth of messaging - in culture or in the church - that you are loved and worthy of love. But the fear of the Lord is avoided and that’s what we are going to address today.

Q. Why do we need the fear of the Lord?

There are tons of cautionary tales in the bible right from Adam and Eve, Saul, Solomon, to Ananias and Sapphira. But we don't even need to go that far. We need to fear the Lord because of 2 things

Because of who He is

In creation: who is God? Is he the mighty mountain or the blazing sun or the endless ocean? Who is

Gen 1:1 -5: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Gen 2:7 “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

Job 38 to 42. (excerpts)

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?

“Have you entered into the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.

These questions go on for 4 chapters to answer Job and his friends saying - I am God and you are not. He is the potter and we are the clay, he is the author and we are the pages. We are His creation, the people formed for His good pleasure.

Response -

Awe and wonder: Wonder is defined as “the rapt attention and deep emotion caused by something extraordinary.” Awe is “the feeling we get in the presence of something vast that challenges our understanding of the world.” Our lives have shrunken down to screens- it’s all smoke and mirrors. But the psalmist says in Psalm 8:3-4 “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” . We need to behold him. And when we do, we surrender.
Submission/Obedience to him and to one another (Eph 5:21). When we see his majesty in creation we rightly see ourselves 1 Peter 5:6 (humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God).

In redemption - Hebrews 9:12-14 ”12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify[f] for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our[g] conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Millions of people have died before Jesus and after him, some have even been resurrected but not one of them could have purchased eternal redemption for us. He is the redeemer, there is no one else.

Response -

Repentance comes before redemption. Job 42 “ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”, Acts 2, John the Baptist. Repentance is not punishment - it is mercy. It is a gift.
Living set apart (holiness)- 1 Peter 1: 14-19 “14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” Culture can impact how we process holiness. Eg: Lot’s children gave birth to the Moabites and ammonites. So it is important to be set apart by the standard of the word of God. Egs of what the Bible calls sin and are a common practice in culture (lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, wrath, envy, and pride.) - Work related, sex-related, etc. How to recognise and act on the conviction of the Holy Spirit. (Personal example) . The fear of man v. The fear of God

In glory - John referred to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved and reclined on his chest at the last supper, but on the Island of Patmos, he sees this very Jesus in his glory. Rev 1: 12-18, “2 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”‭‭ ‭ESV‬‬ The presence of God is not a plaything - it is fearsome! 2 samuel 6:5-7 (story of Uzziah)

Response - Worship Rev 4:8-11 “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Because of what it does for us

It’s the beginning of wisdom - Proverbs 1:7. Wise in your own eyes- illustration - law students
It is for our safety - Psalm 34:7( the angel of the lord encamps around those) Pro 29:25 ( the fear of man lays a snare but whoever trusts in the lord is safe)
To turn away from evil - Job, Pro 16:6( by the fear of the lord one turns away from evil)
For blessing- Pro 22:4(riches and honor and life); Pro 8:14(counsel, wisdom, insight and strength); Psalm 115:13 (bless those who fear the Lord)

We have a prophetic sense that a mighty outpouring of his spirit is coming. We don't just want a sense of the presence of God, we want him! We want to see the power of the holy spirit at work in us and in the world around us. Since we have this expectation, we need to get ready.

Monday, February 13, 2023

Chosen - A Holy People

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on February 12th 2023 by Navaz D. For the audio & video please click here. To listen to the worship please click here.

CHOSEN - A HOLY PEOPLE

INTRODUCTION

Over the last few weeks, we went through the vision and values of the Church. We looked at the importance of the foundations of our faith and then we looked at some important areas each one of us needs to grow in as disciples of Jesus (private worship, public worship, Heart worship, small groups, loving one another, obedience to God’s Word, serving, and reaching out.)

Today we are going to remind ourselves of a couple more foundational values that every Christ follower needs to live by.

So how do you grow into maturity and become this reproducing adult Christian? You need to remember who you are and why you are here.

Here are two passages of scripture that remind us of these truths.

TEXT

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1Peter 2:9-10

¹⁹Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²²And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. EPH 2:19-20

PEOPLE OF PURPOSE AND PRESENCE

God has chosen you for a God in His rich mercy and great sacrifice of His Son brought you to repentance and saved you from hell.

He made you a chosen people (so it’s not just you alone, you are knitted to a worldwide web of believers.) He chose you.

Not just that he made you a royal priesthood!!! You serve before the King of Kings!!! Your job is to intercede on behalf of everyone who is not yet in the family, so that they may be saved.

A Holy Nation – God always wanted a people for Himself who would be a light for the world that through them many would come to salvation.

We are to live set apart, undefiled, pure, and blameless until the day of Christ. This is our calling. This is who we are. WHY?

So that we may show forth the praises of Him to the ones who still do not know Him.

Ephesians starts with “Consequently” or therefore… Paul is reminding the Ephesian church of how God saved them from God’s wrath and judgement and now the gentiles have become the chosen people of God. Therefore, live as ones who are the Holy temple of God.

Let’s watch a VIDEO. https://youtu.be/7EofsF61kcU

What do you see in this video? Is the lady’s behaviour normal? Would any of you tolerate this in your marriage? Now keep in mind who we are. We are a chosen people, holy and set apart. Can we be flirting during the engagement?

But sometimes our lives can look just like what we saw in the video. We have not cut off from our old boyfriends/ sin habits/lifestyles/desires.

Paul tells us that we must put the deeds of the flesh to death. Don’t try to tame it, don’t try to control it – KILL it.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Rom 8:13)

The first commandment And God spoke all these words:“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.³“You shall have no other gods before me.” Ex 20:2

We may say that we have no idols and that we only follow Christ. Pit stop check: you may be right. How about the idols of the heart?

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

Remember you are a Royal priesthood – you are special. You are not common therefore you cannot live like a commoner. We are reminded repeatedly that we are strangers to this world, therefore, do not get involved in civilian or common things.

IDOLS OF THE HEART

So, what are some of the idols of the heart? There are many. But here are some that keep us from fulfilling our calling and corrupting our influence on the world.

What is an idol?

Anything that we desire more than God or that takes the place of God.

The Greek word is “epithumiai” – over desire.

Idols of the HEART – the word of God says the heart is the wellspring of life (Prov. 4:23), and out of the overflow of the heart comes all kinds of greed etc. (Matt 15:19)

Behaviour is a product of beliefs which is the ROOT of the issue.

This message is not about behaviour modification but heart transformation. When the heart is in the right place, the behaviour automatically follows. Whenever you see a behaviour change (good or bad) you know something has changed in a person’s heart.

Some idols can even be good things. The key is we over-desire them.

Timothy Keller writes, “God was saying that the human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the centre of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfilment, if we attain them.”

Look at Adam and Eve. They wanted to gain wisdom apart from God who is the fount of all wisdom. She did not want to run to God for wisdom and knowledge, she wanted it independent of God.

Idolatry is a heart issue – people abandon God’s methods for life and chase after their ways as they become wise in their own eyes

At the root of idolatry is a lack of trust in God’s goodness.

Religion can be an idol too – when we seek the gifts, ministry, position etc more than Jesus.

AREAS OF IDOLATRY

FEEL GOOD

You can’t always feel good. To project that would be deception and create false impressions. It’s an inaccurate assessment of where I am right now.

The feel-good idol wants a life of pleasure at all costs. You do not walk led by the Spirit but by feelings. Freedom is not permission to do your own thing rather it is freedom from inner compulsions.

LOOK GOOD

The need to look good is all about appearances. Life in God is about being authentic. Insecurity makes you hide who you are. So, you pretend, and it is bondage. This makes you lie, cheat, and create false impressions and you will do all kinds of things to make you have a good impression of me. People pleasing is very important to you.

So, we project an image of ourselves as Holy, serving, giving, and spiritual but the real you is seen by God.

BE RIGHT

Marriages have split on this one i.e the inability to yield. Friendships have gone sour, and churches have split because of Pride and the inability to say, “I was wrong, please forgive me”.

4. STAY IN CONTROL

You can lose friendships, your marriage and even your job over this one. Whatever it is in your mind that says “you must do it my want” is an idol of control.

The idols that we have in our hearts come at a cost. What is the price that you are willing to pay to keep them?

Though we struggle we have someone who helps us to overcome. Jesus came for us who need Him daily. Jesus came so that we can give up our idols and embrace Him.

CONCLUSION

What will keep us from falling into the trap of idolatry? Idolatry is placing anything or anyone above Jesus. It is an over-desire for something that takes us away from worship and obedience to God.

The answer is found in the Word of God.

1. THE FEAR OF THE LORD

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Prov 1:7 Hebrew word for fear – yirah - reverence The Hebrew verb yare can mean “to fear, to respect, to reverence” and the Hebrew noun yirah “usually refers to the fear of God and is viewed as a positive quality. (Warren Baker and Eugene Carpenter, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament, 2003, pp. 470-471).

The Greek noun phobos can mean “reverential fear” of God, “not a mere ‘fear’ of His power and righteous retribution, but a wholesome dread of displeasing Him” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1985, “Fear, Fearful, Fearfulness”)

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death. Prov 14:27

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matt 10:28

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. Psalm 111:10

Philippians 2:12-13

12 work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Fear of God will keep us from sin.

Today there has been an unbalanced approach to the Grace of God.

Grace is God’s empowering For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. ¹²It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, Titus 2:11-14

When we give people unsanctified mercy, we short-circuit the process of repentance and set people up for judgement!

When you empathize be biblical You can say but for the grace of God, I could have done the same thing so I am no one to condemn you. You point them to Jesus.

The fear of man or the need to please is inversely proportional to the fear of God. i.e. – the more you want to please others or be seen as the nice guy the less you will fear God.

There is a difference between the fear of God and being afraid of God. When we sin, we hide. After all, we are afraid to enter into the presence of God. Adam and Eve did that.

Fear is reverence, honour, and deep respect that results in obedience.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— and he will delight in the fear of the Lord."

Isaiah 11:2-3 NIV Jesus delighted in the fear of the Lord!! How much more do we?

2. KEEP OURSELVES IN THE LOVE OF GOD

The other thing that will keep us from idols is if we keep ourselves in the love of God. Jude commands But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹keep yourselves in God’s love Jude 20-21

And when we do that, He “is able” to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before God.

Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.^[^f^]

²⁴To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude 22-25

Remember you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, belonging to God. We are different, we are not common. We have a high call. Revival will come when the church aligns her heart with His.