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Go ahead and pull your hymnals out this morning.

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We're going to open up to page 323 for a moment. Something that I want

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to encourage you no matter what your station in life may be to have

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some words here memorized.

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One of the things that I would always tell my confirmation classes

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would be that anything they had to memorize I also had to memorize and

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you'd be surprised how many times they tried to catch me in.

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And so my encouragement is to memorize some things such as this we're going

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to look at the third article here for a moment. And I want to jump down

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to Doctor Luther's meaning for just a moment.

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I believe that I cannot buy my own reason or strength believe in Jesus

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Christ my Lord or come to him.

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But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel enlightened me with

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his gift Sanctified and kept me in the true faith.

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And in that same way, he calls gathers enlightens and sanctifies the

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whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the

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one true faith.

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We cannot by our own ability come to believe in God.

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Dr.

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Luther make sure to point this out very clearly to us.

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And yet then we get a reading like what we have today from Romans

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chapter 4 whereas you're going through there.

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There are three words that then stand out almost jumped out to grab

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our attention.

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Abraham believed God.

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epis toison de Abraham torcedor.

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Abraham believed God. A simple and yet profound statement with a great

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deal of depth to it.

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Abram a man, who in his old age had been called by God to leave his

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family to leave his inheritance and then to go off to a land that God

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would show to him. Who would later on be told by God that God would be

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his great shield and great reward.

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Abram realized at that point that there was a problem.

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He was an elderly man beyond 75 years of age his wife Sarah had not

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shown any ability to bear children.

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And he was told by God that his descendants would out number the stars.

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And then we have that simple yet profound statement.

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Abram believed God.

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Now for a moment it is worth considering the context for Abram their.

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Think about Abram and his relationship with God and what background

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he might have had with this God

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who made such a promise to him. This all happens in at in Genesis

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chapter 15, where were told that Abram believed God and it was

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counted to him as righteousness. Just a few chapters previously in

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chapter 12th God had called Abram to leave his family to leave his

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inheritance to go to a land that God would show him.

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There are a few misadventures that happen after that. Until finally

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Abram is back in the land and God tells him I am your shield your

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reward will be very great.

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Abram says wait a minute God

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there's a problem.

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I have no heir.

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Eleazar is going to be my heir.

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God tells him no it is one who is coming from your own body who will

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receive your inheritance and go out and count the stars in the sky

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if you can for that will be how many your descendants will be.

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Seems that Abram had a few moments of trying to figure out what

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believing God would look like.

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Abram responds to this challenge

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that he would believe the Lord.

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And that God would count such belief as righteousness.

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Abram did not have a great deal of information about this God upon

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which to base his faith.

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If you think of it in the contacts and perhaps in contrast to us Abram

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would have had at most, orally most likely, the first 11 chapters of our

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entire Bible as his history of this God.

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That seems rather profound you consider that we in our day and age have

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an entire book filled with God's actions in this world. Filled with God

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making his promise and then us being able to read about the

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fulfillment of those promises. In many any respects

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it might seem like we're in a far better place than Abram was when it

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comes to believe in God because we have a greater volume of

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information and a bigger record of it.

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Then we finally have God speaking to us through his own Son crucified

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for us risen from the dead and ascended into heaven.

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So it might be tempting to say yeah, we have it a bit easier when it

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comes to believing God.

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We simply have more upon which we could base it.

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And yet I would dare say that does not change the challenge of believing

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God.

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Because God calls us to believe.

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In reality the unbelievable.

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For Abram a man who 75 years old you will have a child.

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An unbelievable thing.

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And yet God cracks through even in someone like Abram to say.

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yes, you can believe this.

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You consider the central elements of our faith as Christians. God

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himself entering into human flesh coming down to bear the weight of

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all of sin, all of the wrong of the world on himself on the cross

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then raising himself back to life and say that now in that now impacts

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every single person who lives in this world.

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That truly is something that is unbelievable.

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Perhaps something that we would be do well to keep in mind when we go

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out and tell people about this because it is rather unbelievable.

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That's why we need something like the article

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and the meaning and the Holy Spirit.

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I cannot buy my own reason or strength

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believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.

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God calls us to believe in the unbelievable and so it doesn't matter

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the volume of information it still requires God being the one to come

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in and break through and call us to believe that which is

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unbelievable.

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He himself steps in to create that belief so that we can cling and

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receive the things that God promises. More information does not Inspire

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belief.

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It is the spirit doing its work through that Word of God.

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That's why the best thing I can do today is to encourage you to

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regularly be in engagement with God's Word.

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Yes for many of you

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it is a somewhat academic focus at this time and yet that devotional

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component of continuing to let that Spirit work through that word in

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you is undeniably necessary and powerful.

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God's spirit continues to do his work guiding you so that the same

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thing can be said about you that was said of Abram you believed God.

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But toward that and I want to ask you once again

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take out your hymnals open up to the inside of the front cover.

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I'm going to ask you to stand with me.

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We're simply going to ask that God would continue to do his work upon

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his word which is spoken and proclaimed to us. I am going to ask you to pray

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with me the prayer for Blessing on the Word at the bottom of the page.

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We pray.

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Lord God bless your word wherever it is proclaimed make it a word of

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power and peace to convert those not yet your own and to confirm those

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who have come to saving Faith.

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May your word pass from the ear to the heart from the heart to the lip

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and from the lip to the life that as you have promised your word may

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achieve the purpose for which you send it. Through Jesus Christ

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my Lord. Amen. I invite you to remain standing as we join in singing or

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Canticle the Benedictus on page 226.