Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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John, Chapter Twenty one. Let's
hear the word of our Lord. After
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this, Jesus revealed himself again to
the disciples by the Sea of Tiberius,
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and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter Thomas, called the twin
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methaniel of Cana and Galilee, the
sons of Zevity, and two others,
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two others of his disciples, were
together. Simon Peter said to them,
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I'm going fishing. They said to
him, we will go with you.
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They went out and got into the
boat, but that night they caught nothing.
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Just as day was breaking, Jesus
stood on the shore. Yet the
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disciples did not know that it was
Jesus. Jesus said to them, children,
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do you have any fish? They
answered him no. He said to
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them, cast the net on the
right side of the boat and you will
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find some. So they cast it, and now they were not able.
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Now and now they were not able
to haul it in because of the quantity
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of fish. That disciple, whom
Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter,
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it is the Lord. When Simon
Peter Heard that it was the Lord,
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he put on his outer garment,
for he was stripped for work and threw
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himself into the sea. The other
disciples came in the boat dragging the net
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full of fish, for they were
not far from the land, about a
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hundred yards off. When they got
out on land, they saw a charcoal
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fire in place, with fish laid
out on it, in Brett laid out
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on it, and bread. Jesus
said to them bring some of the fish
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that you have just caught. So
Simon Peter went to board and hauled the
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net ashore full of large fish,
a hundred and fifty three of them.
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And although there were so many,
the net was not torn. Jesus said
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to them come and have breakfast now. None of the disciples dared ask him,
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who are you? They knew it
was the Lord. Jesus came and
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took the bread and gave it to
them, and so with the fish.
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This was now the third time that
Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he
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was raised from the dead. When
they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to
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Simon Peter, Simon Son of John, do you love me more than these?
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He said to him. Yes,
Lord, you know that I love
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you. He said to him,
feed my lambs, he said to him
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a second time Simon Son of John, do you love me? He said
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to him. Yes, Lord,
you know that I love you. He
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said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him a third the
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third time, Simon Son of John, do you love me? Peter was
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grieved because he had said to him
the third time, do you love me?
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And he said to him, Lord, you know everything, you know
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that I love you. Gee,
Jesus said to him. Feed my sheep.
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Truly, truly, I say to
you, when you were young,
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you used to dress yourself and walk
wherever you wanted, but when you are
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old, you will stretch out your
hands and another will dress you and carry
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you where you do not want to
go. This, he said, to
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show by what kind of death he
was to glorify God. And after saying
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this, he said to him,
follow me. Peter turned and saw the
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disciple whom Jesus loved following them,
the one who also had leaned back against
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him during the supper, and said, Lord, who is it that is
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going to betray you? When Peter
saw him, he said to Jesus,
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Lord, what about this man?
Jesus said to him, if it is
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my will that he remain until I
come, what is that to you.
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You follow me? So the spring, saying spread among the brothers that this
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disciple was not to die. Yet
Jesus did not say to him that he
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was not to die. But if
it is my will that he remain until
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I come, what is that to
you? This is the disciple is bearing
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witness about these things and who has
written these things, and we know that
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his testimony is true. Now there
are also many other things that Jesus did,
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where every one of them to be
written. I suppose that the world
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itself could not contain the books that
would be written. Amen, our passage
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this morning. John, Chapter Twenty
one begins with these words. After this,
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Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples
by the seer of Tiberius, and
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he revealed himself in this way.
And then it goes on to recount a
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number of events that happen. First
a fishing event, a breakfast and finally
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a conversation. And each of these
scenes we might call him, and each
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of these events or or movements of
this story, we see the Lord revealing
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himself. I'm showing himself to the
disciples, and not only to the disciples,
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I'm also to us. In these
verses. In this final chapter of
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John, Jesus reveals to US himself
and his will for us in the in
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our ongoing relationship with him as the
church. We might think of the disciples
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here as the first church, the
early church, these first group of people
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that were following Jesus. And what
is Jesus doing? He's revealing himself to
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them. He's giving them a mission, he's calling them to a task,
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he's showing them a way of life
and all these things we have much to
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learn. I want to draw four
lessons. We might call them four places
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where the Lord reveals him self and
continues to reveal himself today. The first
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one is the Lord reveals himself in
making fishers of men. Lord makes fishers
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of men. We see this in
the our first scene here. The disciples
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are out on the boat. This
is, after all, how Jesus originally
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called them. He said in the
Early Gospel, in the early parts of
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the Gospels, he says, follow
me and I will make you fishers of
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men. Here at the end these
book ends on his ministry to them,
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this is what is happening. I'm
he is impressing this point on him some
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of the disciples are in a boat, notice that they are continuing on with
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life. Peter is says, I'm
going fishing. They say, will go
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with you, but they're not catching
anything. They're not catching anything at all.
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All night they're not catching anything.
When they do catch something, though,
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it is because Jesus makes it happen. Jesus took calls to them from
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the shore and says, do you
have any fish? There are made aware
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of their inadequacy. They say no. He tells them what to do.
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Cast their net over here and they
pull in a load to so heavy they
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can't pull it up into the boat. This will this is a picture of
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what Jesus will do with their man
fishing, so so to speak, their
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work in spreading the Gospel, their
work and going out and calling people unto
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Christ. There are going to be
so many that come that it will be
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it will be a weighty thing.
And this continues, of course, to
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be the work of the church in
what we call the Great Commission. At
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the end of Matthew and the last
chapter of Matthew, Jesus tells us to
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go and make disciples of all nations. They are to go fishing and the
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Lord promises them that they will catch, and this is, of course,
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a wonderful promise. Right when we
are empowered by the Lord to do his
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work, there will be success,
and indeed there has been a consider this
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small group of men on a boat, and now consider the millions and millions
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of people that worship the Lord and
have worshiped the Lord now for two thousand
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plus years. Amazing, amazing.
This is what he promised to them and
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this is exactly what has happened through
them. And there were going out,
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and then those people spreading the word, and those people spreading the word and
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those all the way to today and
even us here. The Lord continues to
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do his work. He continues to
tell us how to catch and where to
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catch and and with what to catch
them with, and we find success in
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all this. We learn are we
are reminded anyway, and we should learn
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that we are totally dependent upon Christ. Apart from Him we have nothing.
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We do not grow in ourselves,
we do not grow in number. The
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church is not built if it's not
for Christ, but in Christ. He
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tells us that the gates of hell
itself will not prevail against his people.
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We are totally dependent on him,
and there's nothing bad about that. There's
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nothing wrong about that, there's nothing
like we're supposed to be sufficient in ourselves.
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Jesus wants us to trust him,
to listen to him. I think
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it's also worth noting that this fishing
of men, there's calling people to the
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Gospel and this catch that inevitably happens. It's a team effort. Jesus doesn't
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tell each one of them to put
their line in the water, all kind
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of lined up there on their boat. Chances are they'd all get tangled up.
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Here the images of a net,
all of them working together to make
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this catch, and when they catch
the net is full and good. So
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one way the Lord reveals himself to
us is in making us successful, making
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the Gospel successful in people who themselves
were changed by his word. He makes
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fishers of men who are successful in
their catch. The second thing to know
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is the fellowship of care. The
Lord reveals himself in this breakfast. But
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I'm calling here a fellowship of care. After they they bring the the fish
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in, Jesus tells them to take
some of the fish. Verse Ten that
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you have caught any makes breakfast for
them. This is a reminder to us
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that the Lord does not merely send
us out. He also is constantly gathering
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US around. He gathers US around
himself and he feeds us. If these
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words sound familiar, that he took
bread and gave it to them, you
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almost are waiting to hear any blessed
it and broke it and gave it to
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his disciples. Right, because these
are the same verbs, in the same
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order that we have the feeding of
the five thousand, with the bread and
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the fish and the feet and the
Lord Supper, the institution of the Lord's
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Supper. In all of these things, Jesus is communicating to us that we
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gather around him and he nourishes us, he feeds us. He is where
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we find our fellowship, our care
and our life, and this is important.
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Our zeal for evangelism are zeal for
the lost. Is Not a feverish
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one of activity that's just constantly try. We're we're trying to whip ourselves up
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into some kind of crave. We
do that work and we do it zealously,
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but we also resting in Christ.
Sometimes that looks like just sitting around
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and eating breakfast with him and with
one another, trusting in him, waiting
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on him, conversing with him.
Notice also the place of doubt in this
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passage. They begins on the sea
where they can't quite see him. This
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probably was it possibly I'll say it
was, because he was just at some
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distance away and it was early borning. But he is recognized by John,
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probably through his actions, through their
catch. He says it is the Lord,
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he says to Peter. Then when
they get on land and they bring
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the net, we read in verse
a twelve none of the disciples dared to
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ask him, who are you?
It's an interesting it's an interesting verse.
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It's almost like they wanted to but
didn't want to. They knew that it
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was the Lord, but there was
a sense of perhaps fear in them,
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a sense of wonder, what's going
on? This lord is, of course,
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the one who is just crucified on
a cross and paled with a spear,
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put into a tomb and dead for
three days. And yet it is
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the Lord. Here he is calling
us, I'm making us effective and now
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ministering to US breakfast. This doubt
that we have sometimes, is it the
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Lord? I don't know if it's
the Lord. It is the Lord.
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Is that the Lord? It is
the Lord. That's something that goes on
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throughout our whole lives. Doubt,
of course, is not is the opposite
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of faith, but it is present
in us. The Lord knows this,
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so he ministers to US enough.
What I'm saying is fellowship of care.
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He binds us together with one another
and he takes care of us day in
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and day out. He meets our
needs, he provides for us when we
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are hungry, both in body and
in soul. Next, we see the
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Lord revealed in the feeding of the
flock, not just here at breakfast,
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but the Future Commission and ordination that
he gives to Peter. Three times he
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says to Peter, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. He says a
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first, feed my lambs, perhaps
a comment that it is to the weakest
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and the most precious and the little
ones that we are to reminder not to
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neglect them. But overall, his
point is is the same. We are
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to hear the church is commission to
feed the sheep. It's ministers in particular,
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he says, reveals himself in the
life of the church. In this
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way, he continues to take care
of us, and he does that through
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his servants. This is quite an
amazing thing when we remember that it was
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just a short while ago that Peter
was denying his Lord and Savior three times,
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three times before the Rooster Crows.
You will deny me, he says
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to Peter. And three times Peter
said, I don't know him, I
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don't know him, I don't know
him. Now the Lord draws back this
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sinner to himself so that he might
minister to sinners, one who is needy,
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going to others who are needy,
one who has been loved, going
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to others who are loved by Christ, to Minister to them, to feed
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them and to care for them.
This is the commission he gives to Peter
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and he impresses on it, presses
the US on him. And it is
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not just on Peter in the ministers
of the Gospel, but it is the
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Hork of the whole church. To
feed the sheep. We are to be
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a discipling go and make disciples of
all nations, and that, of course,
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means of one another. That work
of discipleship, of care, of
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feeding, of nourishment, a continues
on each and every week throughout our lives,
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and all of it might be summed
up in this one phrase. Feed
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my sheep, tend my sheep.
In this work, we really have everything.
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You can't tend and feed to the
sheep unless you're guarding them. You
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can't tend and feed to the sheep
the love of Christ unless you know him
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and are loving him. The thing
areous things. The various works that we
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might think that go on in the
church and go on in our lives would
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be summed up here, and that's
a good thing because it means that again,
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this is how the Lord is revealing
himself to us. He's feeding us,
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he's taking care of us, he's
watching over us, and he does
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that even through each other, which
takes us back to the fellowship of care,
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which takes us back to the fishers
of men. And all of this
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he is reminding us, of course, that it is based in our love
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for him and, even before that, his love for us, that these
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things happen. What is it that
we are to nourish each other with?
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What is it that Peter is to
go and shepherd the flocks with? It
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is the love of Christ as and
the message of love that is given on
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the cross. This word of Christ
that calls people into the church is the
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same word of Christ that nourishes the
church. Jesus feeds us with the promise
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comes to us in the Gospel,
the good news that he comes to save
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sinners from their sins. And this
is the word that he gives to Peter
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and it's the word that he gives
to us. It is a word of
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love. And so we see the
Lord revealing himself in making fishes of men,
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in this fellowship of care, in
the feeding of the sheep and finally
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in this full variety of gifts and
diversity within the body, variety that will
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call us to depend and trust on
the Lord. In the last scene that
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John gives to hear, this last
movement, we see Jesus saying to Peter
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of the he will, he will
die verse nineteen. This he said to
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show by what kind of death he
was to glorify God. And so he
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calls to him and says follow me. It's a reminder that the fishing is
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not always going to be easy,
that shepherding is not always going to be
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easy, that church life is not
always going going to be though there will
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be excess success and even massive success, it will be a battle. It
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will be a hard one. Fight
Peter and many of the other disciples are
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going to die for this work,
even as perhaps some of you will die
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for this work. The Lord calls
us to trust in him even through death,
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to follow him even through death,
to be willing to give up everything
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to follow him. That is what
discipleship is for. It's about trusting him.
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discipleship is all about following him,
trusting him above all else. Well,
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as we think about that trust,
we have it at this particular level
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of diversity and of gifts and a
full variety of gifts within the church.
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And we have that when Peter Turns
and sees John, the disciple whom Jesus
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loved, it says following them and
he says Lord. Whom? He says
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to the one who had said Lord? Who is it going to betray you?
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When Peter saw him, he says
Lord, what about this man?
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and Jesus says to him, it's
not of Your Business. Don't ask dumb
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questions. The Lord says, if
it's my will that he remain until I
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come, what's it to you?
What is that to you, Peter?
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So funny? Perhaps you see himself
in him in some ways. Peter here,
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at the beginning of our story,
he goes out fishing. The Lord
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calls them and of course it's John
who recognizes Jesus First, not Peter.
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But when he says that's it's Peter, Peter Jumps off the boat, even
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though they're close. Jumps off the
boat, swims to the shore. The
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other disciples, you know, pull
the boat in with the fish, and
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then Peter runs over to the boat, grabs this net full of fish drags
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it all by himself. We see
a same kind of like vigor and intensity
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in Peter, in in in his
professions, and then other actions. Remember
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just recently at the Tomb. He
and John goes the tomb. John Stops
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at the door and peeks in.
Peter Rushes into the tomb and then after
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that John Comes in and takes a
look. John gets there first, but
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then Peter Rushes. This is a
this is the pattern of their relationship.
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There Peter is our John is at
the Lord's supper. That was Jesus is
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meeting with them right on the night
when he would use betrayed John leaning up
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against his law, against his Lord, close to his heart, literally,
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like maybe hearing the heartbeat of his
savior. Peter Professing his love. I
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will die with you or I'll die
for you. I'll I'll fight for you
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to the very end. And then
moments later it's Peter who's denying his Lord.
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It's Peter who saying I don't know
him. And you know who is
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that gets him and brings him in
to the to the courtroom scene. There
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it's John. If you were at
a friend is. See, it's like
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always get it right, who never
seems to mess up, who always seems
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to beat you to the Punch in
terms of faithfulness and righteousness and loving the
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Lord? And felt a little frustrated
about that. What about them? What's
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going to happen to them? That
seems to be Peter here. Peter has
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just been spoken to by the Lord. Do He love me? Do you?
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He's recommissioned him, he's called him
back into His grace, and Peter
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can't help a look behind him and
say, well, what about him?
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What's going to happen to him?
Is he going to die too? And
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Jesus and his great mercy continues.
Is To love Peter, and he loves
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him with a somewhat harsh word and
says, what's it to you? It's
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none of your business. What is
it to you? If it's my will
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that he remain until I come,
of course, Jesus, knowing that it
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would be at least thousands of years
before he would return. What's it to
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you if John would last another day, a year, a month or Millennia?
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That's my will and this reminds us
that in the work of the church,
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as we work together, there is
a diversity of gifts. Some of
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us are outgoing and strong go getters, other as of us are more careful
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and quiet. Some of us are
Mary's, some of US are Martha's.
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Some of US when struggle intensely without
others of us not as much. Some
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of us are rich, some of
US are poor. Some of us are
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blessed with hospitality and are amazingly capable
of that. Others of us are better
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one on one or being a part
of the support. We could go on
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and on, and the Scriptures do, listing variety and diversity of gifts.
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That's wonderful for all kinds of reasons, but the thing I want to emphasize
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this morning is it's in that diversity
that the Lord calls us to trust him
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above it all, rather than trying
to get this particular Christian life for myself
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or having this particular following of the
Lord, Jesus, the Lord and and
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and to have someone else's or something
like that. The Lord calls each of
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us to follow the Lord, to
trust him personally, and that will mean
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different circumstances for our lives. Some
of us will live a long time,
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some of us will not, some
of us will be very active and in
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front and some of us will be
more quiet and behind the scenes. There's
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all kinds of ways we can slice
this, but the point is that in
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the end of the day we're not
to be jealous of others, but to
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rejoice in the Lord, in bringing
together a people with diverse gifts and diverse
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backgrounds that together we might serve him. Only the Lord himself could use such
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a diverse and and wide body,
body of people for his work. And
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instead of creating a tower of babble
which falls apart and all kinds of division
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and disunity, the Lord knows how
to bring the people together as one.
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Now we struggle, of course,
at this and this life on. There
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are many denominations and churches and even
within our own churches we struggle to to
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hang together, to stick together in
the Lord. But this is the Lord's
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promise to us. He tells us
to focus on him, even as he
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calls us to this work of the
church he's even as he calls us to
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discipleship and evangelism and care and nourishment
and all these things. He keeps telling
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US focus on me, focus on
me even a way more than our calling
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focus on the Lord Jesus. And
that's why the book, of course,
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ends this way. John Ends word
about his word of clarification, about his
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death and then, of course,
the promise that these things are true.
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But instead of ending on a word
about himself, he ends with the word
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about the Lord, and he says
in Verse Twenty Five. Now there are
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many other things that Jesus did,
where every one of them to be written.
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I suppose that the world itself could
not contain the books that would be
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written. So here, in this
last chapter is we come to know the
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work of Christ, as we come
to know in this Gospel who Jesus is,
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what he did, what he's doing
today in this world and through his
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people. We learn that God reveals
himself in the drawing in of the elect,
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that as we listen to him,
that is, we proclaim his name,
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all kinds will be brought in and
it will be a quite heavy weight
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and the net will not break.
We also learn that God will continue to
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shepherd is people, to care for
us. He will not only catch us,
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but he will care for us and
there will be sustaining relationships and spoonful
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by spoonful, Sunday by Sunday,
day by day, the Lord will feed
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us and take care of us and
ultimately, as this work goes on,
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the success of this is his,
it's his word, it's his directive,
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it's his commission, it's his people. We will be a part of that,
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we will enjoy that, we will
eat breakfast with the Lord, but
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ultimately it will be him who is
empowering us, him whose strengthening us,
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and that's important to for us to
remember because, as it will involve suffering
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and trials and temptations and difficulties of
every kind, we must remember that the
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Lord is in command, that the
Lord is king, that it is the
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Lord who died and the Lord who
rose again from the dead to make his
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people, to establish his kingdom forever
and ever and ever. Amen, our
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heavenly father, we thank you for
your word. We
