Skip to content Cultivating a Eulogetos (Blessed) Mindset | Ephesians Part 2 | Rev Paul Jeyachandran Aug 9 · 36 min ...more
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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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0:00 Church. Hallelujah. What a joy and a privilege for us to worship the Lord together and to study the word of God together. Praise God. Hallelujah. I wanna0:11 sing the song that we sang last week. I hope you remember it.0:18 Abba Father, let me be yours and yours alone.0:32 May my will forever be, evermore your own.0:45 Never let my heart grow cold. Never let me go.0:59 Abba Father, let me be yours and yours alone.1:11 Heavenly Father, we thank you for this great privilege that we can come boldly to the throne room of grace to receive mercy and grace in time of our need.1:24 Even this morning, we come into your presence, acknowledging you as our heavenly father. We pray that you open our eyes and give us listening ears and a heart that is willing to obey your word.1:36 Holy Spirit be our teacher, and in all things, let the name of Jesus alone be glorified. In Jesus' precious name, and the people of God said, amen and amen.1:49 Today, I'm gonna continue in our sermon series on the book of Ephesians. This is the second message. I'm gonna bring you to chapter 1 and verse 3, just 1 verse for us to meditate today.2:02 I'm going to title this sermon Cultivating a Blessed Mindset. A Blessing Mindset. There's a Greek word for it that I want you to learn2:14 which we will discover in this sermon. Go with me to verse 3 and I'm gonna take you to NASB translation because it reads better in English. Blessed be the God2:25 and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. I love this verse.2:38 I couldn't go past this verse that's why we're going to meditate on just this 1 verse in today's sermon. See, Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3 to verse 14 is2:49 1 long sentence in the Greek. It has more than 200 words in it. When you study this text from verse 3 to verse 14, it3:01 is not a theological treatise even though it talks about a lot of theological content, but it is actually a praise. Paul is filled3:13 with praise. He's praising God, he's blessing God. And Paul being a keen intellect and Paul being a person who has a heart that is3:25 burning with passion for Jesus and for God, Paul comes out with this theology in his praise. It's full of nuggets. So we're going to take time to study this.3:37 But as I highlight verse 3, verse 3 is the introductory principle. In other words, Paul says, we bless God because he has richly blessed us.3:49 And then he goes on to explain from verse 4 to verse 14 what that blessing is. We bless God who has richly blessed us. That's the principle4:01 I want you to catch. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 18, Paul goes on to say in his prayer, which is the next part of the passage in chapter 1, what4:13 are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? In other words, Paul uses this language that you have a glorious inheritance. If you are a believer in4:25 Christ, you have a glorious inheritance. You have riches. In other words, you have things that you have not tapped into. You have not walked into it. You have4:36 not experienced it. All these are in Christ. In fact, in second Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 9, Paul writes and he says, for your sake he became poor. In4:48 other words, Jesus who was rich for your sake, became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich. In other words, you don't5:00 understand the riches you have, the glorious inheritance you have. And Paul says, your eyes need to be opened for you to understand how much you are blessed in God.5:12 And the whole of chapter 1 from verse 3 to verse 14, he talks about how God the Father has blessed us, how Jesus the Son has blessed us,5:24 and how Holy Spirit has blessed us. And as a result of all these rich blessings that we have, we have this principle, we need to bless God. We bless God who has5:36 richly blessed us. Hallelujah. In other words, God is worthy of praise. Why? Because he has blessed us with a glorious inheritance. Hallelujah.5:48 So in the context, I wanna just give you the context before I unpack verse 3. From verse 4 to verse 14, there are 4 key things that I believe that God has blessed us6:00 with and in the coming weeks we will study this. Number 1, God has blessed us with adoption. In other words, in verse 5 he says he predestined us for adoption to himself6:12 as sons through Jesus Christ. In other words, through Jesus we have been adopted into the family of God. What a great blessing. Once you were not a son6:24 but now you are a son and an heir because you have been adopted into the family of God. That's a rich blessing. Number 2, in verse 7, it is the redemption. God has blessed us6:36 with redemption. In verse 7 it says, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins. Listen to me carefully. You cannot be adopted into the family of God unless6:48 you're redeemed and you have been redeemed in Christ because of the blood that he has shed on your behalf. Hallelujah. Number 3, in verse 9,7:00 making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ. In other words, God blessed us with revelation. You and I7:12 don't have to be, walking in a maze wondering what is life all about. God has revealed to us the mystery of his will. How we come to know him,7:24 how we find salvation how we inherit his riches and and and the glorious inheritance we have in Christ God has made known to us the revelation hallelujah number 47:36 confirmation In other words, God has blessed us with confirmation. In verse 13 he says, in him when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and7:47 believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. In other words, God has given you the assurance that the process of your salvation has begun, it will7:59 be completed. How? Because he has given you a guarantee and the guarantee is the presence of Holy Spirit in our lives. We have been sealed with the spirit. So in verse 3 Paul8:10 says, you have been blessed and because you have been blessed, bless God. Hallelujah. So that's why verse 3 is the introductory principle and the principle is this, we8:22 bless God who has richly blessed us. So let's go back to verse 3. Verse 3 declares this, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus8:34 Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. There are 3 things I want us to note about the blessing of8:46 God. Number 1, I want us to note the source of our blessing. The Bible says, blessed be God the Father. In other words, it is God who has blessed us. The source of our blessing is from8:58 God. Number 2, the security of our blessing. Our blessing is spiritual in nature as well as it is held in the heavenly places. Hallelujah. The security9:09 of our blessing. Third 1 is the sufficiency of our blessing. In other words, he has blessed us in Christ. Can I humbly say this? Christ is the blessing.9:21 God himself is the blessing and that blessing is sufficient for us. Hallelujah. Let's unpack this 1 by 1. Number 1, the source of our blessing. In verse 3, Paul begins by saying,9:33 blessed be God and father who has blessed us. I love the way he starts with this word blessed. In other words, he says, blessed be God. Bless the9:45 Lord. Blessed be God. You know, in the Greek, there are 2 words for blessed. 1 is the word makarios. This9:57 is the verse you find in the beatitudes. Blessed is the 1. Blessed are the poor. That blessed is the word makarios. It literally means to be10:08 happy. Happy is the 1 who is poor. Happy is the 1. I want you to listen to me. Happy. But that's not what hits refers to here. In the New Testament, whenever the word10:20 bless is referred to God, like blessed be God, it is the word in the New Testament, you go let us. You go let us means this, that you give back10:32 praise to a praiseworthy God. In other words, the word you go let us means you is well and let lego is to speak. In other words, to speak10:44 well of God. In other words, you are praising who God is. You're celebrating who he is. That's why you and I, we need to understand that when he looks at the blessings that God has given10:56 him, he is overwhelmed with praise and he starts to bless the God who has blessed us with everything. Hallelujah. I want you to catch this11:08 principle praise the self giving God. You know, in the Old Testament, a man by the name of Nehemiah, he starts to recount what God11:19 has done in history. In his prayer, he's recounting all the things that God gave to his people in history. And by that he established11:31 us a theology. The theology is that God who gives. A God who loves to bless. Listen. Go with me to Nehemiah chapter 9 and look at verse 5. Verse 5 says, then the11:43 Levites said, stand up and bless the Lord your God. Say, same thing. You stand up and you bless the Lord. In other words, you are eugalatos. You are blessing11:55 the Lord from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Then he recounts in verse 7, he12:07 says, you are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and gave him the name Abraham. The first thing God does is He chooses a man for himself12:19 and gave him a new name. In other words, that name represented a covenant. God cut a covenant with man. He said, will bless you. In you, the nations of the earth will be12:31 blessed. Hallelujah. In other words, he's a God who gave not because Abraham deserved it but because God is a giver. He's a blesser. He blesses. That's the12:43 nature of God. That's the character of God. Not only that, verse 8, you found his heart faithful before you and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the12:55 land. Listen, to give the land. In other words, he not only made a covenant with him, that covenant included 2 things, that God would give him land and God would give him a seed, a13:06 son to inherit that land. I want you to listen to me carefully. He's a God who gives. Look at verse 13. It says, you came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from13:18 heaven and gave them right rules and true laws and good statutes and commandments. Listen carefully. Our God is a God who gave. What did he give? He gave us the moral law. He13:29 gave us his mind. He gave us the scriptural declarations of his will. His will of command. He gave. He's a God who gives. Verse 15, he says, You gave them bread from13:41 heaven for their hunger. Look at verse 20, You gave your good spirit to instruct them and gave them water for their thirst. God is a God who gave. Hallelujah.13:53 Nehemiah 9 and verse 21, 40 years you sustained them in the wilderness and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, their feet did not swell. You know, when I think of this prayer14:05 that Nehemiah prayed, recounting the goodness of God and how God gave, can I humbly address this erroneous thinking that many people have? Many people think14:17 God is out there trying to squeeze squeeze everything out of man. Can I humbly say this? That's not the kind of God we have. The kind of God we have is He created14:28 man to give Himself to man. He is a God who lavishes His blessing. He is a God who blesses and He is consistent both in the Old Testament as a giver, as a14:40 blesser and in the new testament as a giver and a blesser. Hallelujah. God is the God who delights to bless. Now the reason why I'm taking time to explain this is because this will give14:52 you a key question to examine your heart. What is the question? The question is this, if God is the divine blesser, then why worry? If you know that your God is a God who15:03 blesses, then why is there a churning within? Why do you have that anxiety filling up your heart? Why are you concerned and worried in your mind and in your heart if15:15 God is truly a God who blesses? Can I humbly say this? We gotta learn to understand that our Father in heaven is a Father who consistently15:27 gives. He's a blesser. He doesn't withhold anything from us that is good for us. But can I make this principle even clearer? Sometimes15:39 we are standing in the way of his blessing. Now what do I mean by that? Can God bless a person in his sins? I do believe the answer is15:51 yes and no. Yes meaning, if God says, I will never bless you if you are in your sin, then none of us will be blessed. God sometimes blesses us in spite of our sin. But can God16:03 continue to bless a person if the person continues to remain in sin? Listen. Will he continue to bless? The answer, we go back to the scriptures, it says no. God will deal with that sin first.16:15 How? He brings correction. He brings discipline. And that's why sometimes we go through our necessary journey and some people go through an unnecessary necessary journey. Why? Because they didn't choose16:26 to obey. They didn't choose to follow and align themselves with God. So you and I need to understand sometimes we are the ones standing in the way of the blessing. So you could have 216:38 extremes in your heart. 1, you could be the you could be a channel of God's blessing. In other words, you allow the God's blessings to flow in your life or you could be the obstacle of God's blessing because of the16:50 condition of your heart. But at by the same time, I want to also address this. There are 2 dangers when it comes to declaring that God is a blesser. Because17:02 people want God to be their blesser. And if people want God to be their blesser, the danger is it will produce within the people a carnal consumeristic attitude. In other words, they become17:14 spiritual consumers. We I only seek him for what he can do for me. I only seek him for his hand, not for his heart. Listen carefully. I want his hand to bless me.17:26 We become carnal consumers. That's the danger. If you become carnal consumers, when God doesn't give us what we asked for in the time that we wanted it,17:38 we will become upset. Why? Because now we are dictating the terms on how God will deal with us, how God will bless Listen carefully, that comes back to the selfish individualism.17:51 We place importance on the creation demanding the creator to do something. Listen, our God is a God who wants to bless. But the danger is, are you pursuing him18:03 for the blessing or are you pursuing him for who he is? Hallelujah. I want you to listen to me carefully. That's why Paul, in this letter, he's actually helping18:15 us to understand that even though he's writing this from a prison, he's writing this letter when he was poor, penniless, and in prison. And he's writing18:26 this and he has a mindset that says, doesn't matter. My I don't have the material blessing. I don't have the freedom that other people enjoy. I can't do what others are doing. I'm stuck in this18:38 prison but yet he has a blessed mindset. That's why the application for us is we must cultivate an you go let us mindset. In other words, I want to bless God who has richly blessed18:50 me. Count your blessings, name them 1 by 1. Count your blessings, see what God has19:02 done. Count your blessings, name them 1 by 1, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.19:13 Isn't that beautiful? That God has done so much. That's why Paul's declaration is blessed be God who has blessed us richly. Hallelujah.19:25 The second thing I want you to capture from this is the security of our blessing. Paul writes and says, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. I want you to pay19:37 attention to 2 things. Number 1, that it's the the spear of blessing is spiritual. In other words, where has God blessed us? What kind of blessings does God give us? The choice of blessing that God gives us is spiritual19:49 in nature. And many times people when they read this, they go, but I I'm waiting for God to bless me physically. I want God to bless me materially, but he has blessed20:01 me spiritually. See, you and I, we don't understand this, that human beings are spiritual beings. You and I are created. We are spiritual beings. We are spiritual20:13 beings who have a physical experience. We are not physical beings who every now and then, maybe once a week when you go to church have a spiritual experience. In other words, we are20:24 spiritual beings. That's why the greatest need of a human heart, the greatest need for a human life is not the material and the physical, it is the spiritual blessing. And God says, I'm blessing you with20:36 what you actually need. And in the spiritual blessings, He's not just saying, I give you spiritual blessings only. If you know the heart of God,20:48 He's not the God who withholds anything. Along with the spiritual blessing He gives you everything else. Imagine this, if I go to my wife and say, Honey,21:01 I bought this beautiful diamond ring for you from Tiffany's And I give her the ring and she's so delighted that I gave her the ring, but then she asked me this million21:13 dollar question, but where is the box that the ring came with? I want the box. Now you gotta ask this question. If I'm willing to give her the diamond21:24 ring which is more expensive, would I not be giving her the box as well? I want you to listen to me carefully. That's what we do. Sometimes we don't understand that he has given21:36 us the spiritual blessing. We are more concerned about the material and the physical. See, our God is a God does not withhold. He blesses everyone. His heart is to bless. We established it in our first21:48 sermon. But I want you to pay attention to this, there are 2 kinds of blessings. 1, the blessings that is a common grace. It is a blessing on both the rich and the poor, the wicked and the22:00 righteous. This is the blessing of God's provision through his providence for the whole world. But then there is a special grace that he gives to his people. These are the people whom has been born22:12 again, that are adopted into his family. They are in Christ. They have a covenant relationship with God and God says, I'm going to pour out a special blessing upon them and that blessing is what Paul22:23 is talking about and that blessing is not material or physical, that is spiritual in nature. See Paul when he's penning this from the prison he's been22:35 stripped of all the material blessings and yet Paul has this mindset of eulogatos, bless the Lord, why? Because he has richly blessed me. Hallelujah. Paul could not sit22:47 still. He was praising God. Why was he praising God? Because everything that God has done for him that he values that are in spiritual blessing. Hallelujah.22:59 I want you to think about this. The Bible says in verse 3, He has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. I love this word in the heavenly23:11 places. You know in the letter of Ephesians, Paul mentions heavenly places at least 5 times and he says the first time he says here in chapter23:23 1 and verse 3, then he says in chapter 1 and verse 20, and then in chapter 2 and verse 6, and chapter 3 and verse 10, and chapter 6 and verse 12, he talks about it 5 times.23:35 Heavenly places. What does that mean? He's not talking about the blessings are stored up for you in heaven that 1 day when you die and go to heaven, you will experience it. No. He's not talking about heaven here. What23:46 he's saying is it's in the heavenly realm. In other words, it's in the spiritual realm that you have all the blessings that you need. This is why you and I need to understand that when Jesus died23:58 physically, God raised him bodily. He was raised physically and then he was he ascended into heaven and the Bible says God seated him at the right hand of24:10 God in the heavenlies. So Jesus is seated in the heavenly places at the right hand of God. Then in chapter 3, he actually explains in chapter 2, he explains that you and I, we24:22 have also been raised. But we are raised not physically, we are raised spiritually. And we have also been raised and we are seated together with Christ in the24:34 heavenly places spiritually. In other words, in the heavenly places you and I enjoy the same privileges, the same blessing that God has given Jesus. You are in24:46 him and in him you have everything. And that heavenly place, he describes that you and I need to understand. That's why 5 times in this letter, we will study24:58 this in detail as we go along because he talks about in in chapter 6 and verse 12, he talks about how we wage war and our warfare is not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers of darkness in the25:09 heavenly places. In other words, you not only have your wealth in the heavenly places, you also have your warfare in the heavenly places. So listen, we gotta understand what that actually means and through this letter we25:21 will understand that. But I want you to pay attention to this that when you all your blessings that God has blessed you with, they are not only spiritual in nature but they are in the heavenly realm, they are25:33 in the spiritual realm and that means you cannot buy them with your money and you cannot lose them by your death. Listen carefully. You can't buy them with money and you won't25:45 lose them. No 1 can take it from them. No 1 can take it from you and you won't lose it when you die. Why? Because it's imperishable. That is what the word of God says in first Peter chapter25:57 1 and verse 4 to 6 Peter has a revelation of this. He says you have received an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled unfading kept in heaven for you who by God's power26:08 are being guarded through faith for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.26:20 Peter says, yes, you go through the necessary journeys of life, you go through the various trials, but 1 thing is for sure, you will never lose your inheritance because that inheritance is kept for you in heaven.26:33 It is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. In other words, when you and I go through the necessary journeys of life, we should not let the26:45 circumstances dictate the mindset we carry. We should not allow the circumstances to dictate how we worship God, how we praise God. Rather, we should look to the heavenlies and recognize26:56 what he has already blessed me with and that blessing is the mindset that we need to carry. So we must cultivate that Yugo Letters mindset of praising God,27:08 blessed be God who has richly blessed us. In 20 21, I read an article about a Canadian diving medalist. She's an27:20 Olympian, she won a medal in the diving competition. Now this Canadian medalist, her name is Megan, her apartment caught on fire the27:32 entire building. Someone's barbecue burst into flames and and destroyed the entire apartment units, destroyed the entire apartment building. And in27:44 that, she says, all the medals that she won in and the trophies she has gained over her career, all of them were lost because she didn't have27:55 time to protect any of them. She only had time to put on a court and run for her life. I want you to listen to me. 1 day, the bible says, everything that we do in this material world will be28:07 tested. All the work, all the accomplishments, all the accolades, all the recognition, all the validation, everything will go through fire. And the bible says, some of28:19 us, we will lose everything and we will only be spared. Only our life will be spared. Listen. In other words, what is of ultimate importance is not how we are in the material world, in the28:31 physical world, but how what we have in the spiritual world. You know, there was another Olympian in Singapore who actually lost, her medals also in an apartment28:42 fire. She lived in Topayo area and and the apartment was on fire. She lost all her medals. But when the when the newspaper interviewed her, this is going back many many decades28:54 ago, she actually talked about this, that the medals are all lost. The medals that she had in her house were all lost. But the trophies that she had received for the tournaments that she won,29:06 she had donated it to the museum of sports and those things that she had donated to the museum, they are all safe and she's happy about it. I want you to listen to me carefully. That's why29:18 the mindset that the person, who is in Christ carries is this, I'm richly blessed but the blessing for me that matters is not the material or the physical, the riches29:30 that I that matter to me, the inheritance that has been given to me that matters to me is spiritual. That's why even the material we use it as investment. We invest in the things of God. We invest in the29:42 kingdom of God so that it can be stored in heaven. That's the mindset of a believer. The third thing that apostle Paul highlights here for us is the sufficiency of our29:53 blessing. He says, who has blessed us in Christ. I love that word in Christ. Why? Because the key to all the blessings of God, the key to30:05 you being adopted, the key for you to be redeemed, the key for you to have his revelation, the key of confirmation that you are now secure in your salvation, that you are sealed by the Holy30:17 Spirit. All of that is found in Christ. Can I humbly say this? The centrality of Jesus Christ is the key to the blessing of God in our life. That's why you and I,30:29 we need to acknowledge our position in Christ. We have to know that we are so blessed in Christ. The moment you are in Christ, you have all that you30:41 need. That's why Paul had this mindset, the complete sufficiency of Christ for all of life. You know, various passages, you find this in first30:52 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 5, that in every way you were enriched in him. Circle that word, enriched. In other words, you didn't lack anything. Your life has been31:04 enriched when you are in Christ in every way. Hallelujah. Just like Paul writes and he says, with every spiritual blessing, in all the best, all the blessing of God31:16 has come upon you in Christ. Peter also has a revelation of this and he says in second Peter chapter 1 and in his introduction he says, His divine power has granted to us31:28 all things that pertain to life and godliness. Hallelujah. In other words, God did not withhold anything. He has blessed you. In Christ, we have everything that we31:40 need for life and godliness. So this begs the question. I want you to consider your position in Christ this morning.31:53 Are you someone who is in Christ? Because if you're not in Christ, then you won't have God as your Father. Then you won't be blessed in the32:05 spiritual realm with the heavenly blessings, with the spiritual blessings, and you would not walk in that inheritance. In other words, you and I need to recognize our position32:16 in Christ. Without Christ, you could have everything in this material world, but you won't have anything of significance in the spiritual world and in the eternal world.32:28 You won't have anything of eternal significance. Why? Because only Christ gives you what you need that will be significant in eternity. That's32:40 why all of God's blessing is tied up in Christ. The moment you open your heart to Christ and say, Lord Jesus, come into my life. John chapter 1 and verse 12, he32:52 says, if you have received Christ, you have been given the power to become children of God. And the moment you become children of God, God has now adopted33:04 you into his household. You become a child of God. You become a son and a daughter of God. And as you have become a son and a daughter of God, all the blessings that God has given Jesus is now33:15 yours. And that's why Paul, when he thinks of this, he says, because I'm in Christ, I must cultivate and you go let this mindset. In other words, I need to praise33:27 him because I've been blessed. I've been blessed. I've been blessed because I have a God who is my father and his father's heart is to bless me. And he has blessed me. I33:39 may not have experienced the material blessing I want but I definitely have the material physical blessings, and the and the spiritual blessings I need. He has blessed me. I33:51 may not have all the material blessings that I want but I surely have the spiritual blessings33:57 that33:57 I need. The need to be loved. The need to be accepted. The need to be reconciled. The need to be forgiven. The need to be redeemed.34:09 Oh hallelujah. And in Christ, I have all of that. That's why I want you to think about this. When Paul thinks of Christ, he can't help it but to say, bless God34:21 who has richly blessed us. So this morning, let me ask you this question. What is your relationship with Christ? Is Christ Jesus your Lord? Do you have the34:33 assurance in your heart that you are born again? That you have truly placed your faith in Christ? That Christ Jesus is your savior and your lord? And if you have placed your faith in Christ34:44 and Christ Jesus is your lord and your savior, then you know this for sure that God the father is now your That the father of our Lord Jesus Christ is now your34:56 father and his the father's heart is to bless you and the father has already blessed you. And in the coming weeks, we're gonna study how he has blessed us.35:08 But today, I wanna just pray for you. I pray that the Lord will give you the grace to cultivate that you go let us mindset. A blessing mindset. A mindset that says, I'm35:20 richly blessed. I don't look at my circumstance, but I look to the 1 who has blessed me. And in him, I have everything pertaining to life and godliness. In him, I'm enriched in35:32 every possible way. Blessed be God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in35:43 Christ. Hallelujah. Receive this benediction. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord35:55 lift up his countenance and give you shalom. Go in his peace church. In Jesus' name. And the people of God said, amen and amen. We love you. God bless36:07 you. Have this mindset that you are greatly blessed, highly favored, and deeply loved. We love you. Take care. God bless you.
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