Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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You may be seated and let's turn
to John Chapter Fourteen. Just previous to
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this chapter, Jesus has talked about
betrayal. Most immediately before this chapter,
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Jesus tells Peter that he will deny
him three times before the morning comes.
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And so, in light of that
and several other things which I'll mention in
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a moment, Jesus begins with these
words. Let not your hearts be troubled.
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Let's hear God's word this morning from
John Fourteen. Let not your hearts
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be troubled, troubled. Believe in
God, believe also in me. In
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my father's house are many rooms.
If it were not so, what I
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have told you that I go to
prepare a place for you, and if
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I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and will
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take you to myself, that where
I am, you may be also,
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and you know the way to where
I am going. Thomas said to him,
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Lord, we do not know where
you are going. How can we
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know the way? Jesus said to
him. I am the way, the
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truth and the life. No one
comes to the father except through me.
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If you had known me, who
had have known my father? Also,
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from now on, you do know
him and have seen him. Philip said
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to him, Lord, show us
the father and it is enough for us.
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Jesus said to him. Have I
been with you so long and you
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still do not know me? Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the
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father. How can you say,
show us the father. Do you not
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believe that I am in the father
and the father is in me? The
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words that I say to you,
I do not speak on my own authority,
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but the father, who dwells in
me, does his works. Believe
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me that I am in the father
and the father is in me, or
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else believe on account of the works
themselves. Truly truly, I say to
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you, whoever believes in me will
also do the works that I do,
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and greater works than these will he
do, because I am going to the
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father. Whatever you ask in my
name, this I will do, that
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the father may be glorified in the
son. If you ask me anything in
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my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will
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keep my commandments. And if,
and I excuse me, Verse Sixteen and
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I will ask the father, and
he will give you another helper to be
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with you forever, even the spirit
of truth, whom the world cannot receive
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because it neither sees him nor knows
him. You know him, for he
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dwells with you and will be in
you. I will not leave you as
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orphans. I will come to you
yet a little while, and the world
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will see any won't see me no
more, but you will see me,
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because I live, you also will
live. In that day, you will
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know that I am in my father
and you in me, and I in
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you. Whoever has my commandments and
keeps them, he it is who loves
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me, and he who loves me
will be loved by my father, and
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I will love him and Matt and
manifest myself to him. Judas not a
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scariot, said to him. Lord, how is it that you will manifest
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yourself to us and not to the
world? Jesus answered him. If anyone
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loves me, he will keep my
word, and my father will love him
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and we will come to him and
make our home with him. Whoever does
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not love me does not keep my
words, and the word that you hear
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is not mine, but the father's, who sent me these things. I
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have spoken to you while I am
still with you, but the helper,
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the Holy Spirit, whom the father
will send in my name. He will
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teach you all things and bring to
your remembrance all that I have said to
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you. Peace I leave with you
my peace. I give to you,
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not as the world gives do I
give to you. Let not your hearts
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be troubled, neither let them be
afraid. You heard me say to you
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I am going away and I will
come to you. If you loved me,
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you would have rejoiced, because I
am going to the father, for
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the father is greater than i.
and now I have told you before it
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takes place, so that when it
does take place, you may believe I
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will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is
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coming. He has no claim on
me, but I do as the father
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has commanded me, so that the
world may know that I love the father
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rise. Let us go from here. God bless his word to us.
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Was I mentioned before? I read
the disciples have a lot of reasons to
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be troubled, grieved distressed, if
you can try to put yourself in their
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shoes for a moment. Here they
are on the last night before Jesus is
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crucified, and he is spoken to
them before that he will die. They
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certainly know about the pressure that is
bearing down on him from the authorities in
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Jerusalem. He is talked just recently
about a betrayal from among them. Even
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Peter is publicly called out in a
way and he says I'm leaving, I'm
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going. Even if that didn't mean
his death, it would still be extremely
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distressing. Why? Will? Imagine
that you had experienced what the disciples had
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experience, that you had witnessed the
glory of God coming into the world in
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human flesh. Imagine that the long
promised and coming Messiah is now here.
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Imagine that you have given up friends
and family and livelihoods to follow him because
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you believe are. You've come to
believe that he is from the father,
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that the father is in him,
that he is in the father, that
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he is the Messiah, the Christ, the promised one. You've willingly put
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yourself against the rulers and authorities of
your community by being in connection with him.
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And now he tells you that he's
going to leave you and that where
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he is going you cannot follow.
You've done everything you can to follow him.
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He said, follow me and I
will make you fishers of men.
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Follow me, and the disciples went
and father is how the book of John
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Begins. But this call, these
calls to the disciples to follow him.
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And now he's saying you can't follow
me where I'm going. But I thought
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that was the whole point, Jesus. That's what I've been doing there the
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last three years, is following you, giving my life for you. And
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now, on top of all of
that, he not only says you cannot
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follow him, but he says you
won't follow him, that you will betray
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him, that you will leave him. and well, this distress is troubling,
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not the distress of Jesus leaving the
promise of Your own faithfulness should certainly
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be distressing as well. Imagine being
Peter. I will go with you to
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the very end. No, you
won't. I promise you that before the
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morning comes, you will deny me
three times before the Rooster Crows, he
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says. What does that say about
our hearts? There's a lot to be
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distressed about here. There's a lot
to be a troubled about, even we
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might say, legitimate things. And
yet Jesus says to us and to the
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disciples, they're let not your hearts
be troubled. He understands the weightiness of
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the things he saying and the impact
that this is having on his disciples even
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justified in many ways. And yet, nevertheless, he has things to tell
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them. He wants them to know
certain things that they might have peace.
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That's how this chapter begins and ends. Let not your hearts be troubled.
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Don't be overwhelmed by the things that
I am saying. And then at the
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end, in Verse Twenty Seven,
peace I leave with you. My peace
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I give to you, not as
the world gives, do I give.
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Let not your hearts be troubled,
neither let them be afraid. So in
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this chapter, Jesus gives to his
disciples a message intended to calm their hearts,
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intended to encourage them, intended to
speak to them in the midst of
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their distress. Now, maybe they
won't experience that it encouragement right away.
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In fact, that seems likely,
because Jesus promises them a helper, a
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spirit, who will come later and
remind them of the things that have been
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said. It seems that in some
way, maybe the things that he is
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saying now are going to pay the
greatest dividends, not at the moment but
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later. Nevertheless, these spiritual words, these seeds that are planted, because
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they are planted by the Lord and
intended for these things. They will grow,
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they will produce fruit, and not
only peace which he gives to them,
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but other things too, as we
see throughout the acts of the apostles,
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that second half of the gospel of
Luke zeal, boldness, confidence and
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amazing amounts of hope, hope and
heaven, peace and joy in the things
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of this world. Now this message
is, of course, not only for
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the disciples but also for us,
because we are very much in the same
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situation in that the Lord is not
here. He left this world and he's
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still not here. The same kind
of troubles that they would experience, our
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troubles that we do experience. To
try to and want to follow the Lord
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and yet have him not here in
the flesh with us, was a challenging
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thing for them and it's a challenging
thing for us, and there's all kinds
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of ways that people try to overcome
that challenge, but often ways that are
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not good. It is the essence
of human life. It is what we
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were made for to be in the
present of God, to know him and
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to be unified with him, to
be intimate with him, connected, not
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at war, but at peace.
This is what God made us for.
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We were made in his image as
his children. You think about back in
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the garden of Eden, Adam and
Eve walking, the Lord walking with them,
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God dwelling with his people. This
is this is what we want.
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We want to be with the father. Jesus tells US I am the way
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to the father. You must understand
me and know me to know him.
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So how does Jesus Comfort us?
How does Jesus Comfort the disciples and give
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us this peace? What is the
powerful message? It's simply this that even
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though Jesus is absent in the body, he is still present with us and
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the Holy Spirit. He is still
active in this world, doing particular things
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right now, in a mission that
will not only continue on but expand and
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come to a glorious conclusion. So
I want to think with you this morning
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and pay close attention to what Jesus
says about this mission in the present,
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the promises of the age to come
and the the foundation on which all this
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stands, and my hope is that
in hearing these things you too will find
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the peace of the Lord. First, what is Jesus doing in the present?
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What is he promise to do.
Well, Jesus is saying that they
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cannot follow him in a particular way, and yet and another way they do,
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are able to continue following them because
he says, I am the way,
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the truth and the life. This
is how we come to Jesus.
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He also tells us that he is
sending someone, the spirit, a helper.
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One translator translate its this as a
true friend, that the Holy Spirit
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is a true friend, and I
liked that translation as well. His reasoning
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for it is, you know,
who is the one who comes and when?
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You would you're sort of sick and
they're having a really hard time.
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Who is the one who comes and
helps you in that moment? We would
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say a true friend, and that
is what the Holy Spirit here is.
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I'm to give to US love,
knowledge, assistance, help, all kinds
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of things. Jesus promise, misses
us, that he will give us this
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spirit. Look at verse eighteen.
Though he says he is leaving and we
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cannot follow in one way, he
also says in another, I will not
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leave you as orphans. I will
come to you, of course, on
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the last day, but in between
we have the Holy Spirit. Look at
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Verse Twenty Six, but the helper
the holy spirit, whom the father will
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send in my name. He will
teach you all things and bring to your
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remembrance all that I have said to
you. Look at Verse Fifteen, or
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Sixteen Rather, and I will ask
the father, and he will give you
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another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom
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the world cannot receive because it neither
sees him or nor knows him. But
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you know him, for he dwells
with you and will be in you.
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God promises to make his home in
us, and not just individually. Jesus
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is speaking to them here as a
community, a community of people that will
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stablish a great community at Church.
God promises that in these ones that he
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calls out of the world, in
us, he will dwell in us,
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as the Holy Spirit once dwelled in
the Temple of God, that place where
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God put his name and dwelled among
his people. He promises to dwell in
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this body, the body of Christ, and in us he will produce love
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in such a way that if we
don't love, we can say we don't
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belong to him, and if we
do love, we can say that we
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do belong to him, because that's
what he's doing. That's what God is
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doing. He produces love in us, he creates a community that is different
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and is changed. In addition to
these things, Jesus says that his mission,
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I'm very remarkably, will even be
expanded. Notice what he says in
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verse twelve through fourteen, and I
want to ask you right now, do
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you believe what Jesus says here?
I'm going to read it and you ask
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yourself, do I believe this?
Truly truly, I say to you,
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whoever believes in me will also do
the works that I do, and greater
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works than these will he do,
because I am going to the father.
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Whatever you ask in my name,
this I will do in the father may
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be glorified in the son. If
you ask me anything in my name,
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I will do it. So the
first thing to note here is not only
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is this passage in the Bible,
but it begins with these words Amen,
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Amen, or truly truly, I
say to you, this is the way
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that Jesus does underlining and highlighting for
us pay attention to this. Right I'm
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telling you something really, really important. Truly truly, I say to you,
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whoever believes in me will also do
the works that I do. And
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greater works than these will he do? Because I am going to the father.
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Whatever you ask in my name this, I will do that. The
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father may be glorified in the son. If you ask me anything in my
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name, I will do it.
So, before we think about what he
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says here, what I want to
impress on you is if your first instinct
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is to explain these a way or
to downgrade them in some way or to
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ignore them, then you're not reading
it right. Your first instincts being to
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say, what is he saying here? That sounds really important. Want to
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make sure I get this and believe
us. Okay, so just an attitude
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check there. So what is he
saying? What should we be committed to
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and how in the world can we
do greater works than Jesus Right? Jesus
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has turned water into wine. Jesus
is caused paralyzed people to walk again.
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Jesus has healed people from a distance. Jesus has a UM, has caused
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a dead man to rise up.
Jesus has taught with such authority that those
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who are rulers don't understand him,
can't explain him. I'm Jesus is about
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to go to the cross atone for
the sins of all his people, be
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buried and then rise again from the
dead. And then he's going to commission
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apostles and prophets will go out into
all the world establish a foundation on which
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the Church of the Living God will
be built for the next few Millennia.
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Well, what do you mean?
Greater Works Right? How do we understand
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this? Well, the way that
the church has always understood this, and
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I think rightly, is not greater
in terms of quality, not as in
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more powerful than Jesus, but in
terms of quantity, in other words,
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the way there is a way in
which the Kingdom of God grows, expands
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moves that is different than when Jesus
left them. When you think about the
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size of the church now, for
example, and compare that to the size
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of Jesus's disciples, Twelve, eleven
disciples. I'm here on this night in
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which he would be betrayed. A
lot has happened, hasn't it? And
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it happened, Jesus says, because
he left. That's why, later he
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says, if you had loved me, if you understood the things that I
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was saying, you'd be happy that
I was going. All I would just
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so hard for us to understand.
Until we understand what he's saying, until
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we make the connections that he's making, and when we do, brothers and
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sisters, we will find encouragement.
I titled The sermon. I'm not very
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good at titling sermons. I'm really
sorry for that, but I titled The
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sermon something like I got to look
now, Glad God is gone. Question
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Mark. Right. Should we be
glad that Jesus leaves? Right? Obvious
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answer would seem to be no,
right, because we presence with God,
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communion with Christ, all of these
things. And yet Jesus himself says that
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you should have rejoiced when I told
you that I was going to the father.
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Well, it's cause. So how
we answer this to question will,
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of course, depend on what we
mean by gone. If we mean separate
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from God, that God turns his
back on us, that God turns his
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face with from us, well then
of course there's no reason to be happy
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about that. But if we mean
the God is continuing his work of redemption
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and that, in going to the
father, Jesus will send to us that
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the spirit, and then we'll build
his church, will call in the elect
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and will bring these things to a
full consummation. Well then there's a lot
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to be happy about there. Yes, Jesus leaves us for a time and
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yes, there is suffering and yes, there is trials and distress and imprisonment
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and beheadings and all kinds of terrible
things that Christians have had to undergo for
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the sake of Christ it seems like
up till this point that everyone was kind
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of hoping, and maybe a lot
of people still do hope, that the
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Christian life would just be this,
you know, point a to point,
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be road to glory without any suffering, without any distress, without any trouble.
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and Jesus says it's not going to
be that way. But I'm not
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going to leave you alone and I
will use these things, even my departure
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from you, to bless you and
to bring into full consummation the Kingdom of
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God. The greater works that we
do are the expanding works on his works,
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and these are not an expansion apart
from him, because he says here
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in this passage that these are the
works that are done in us by him.
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They are not sort of non Jesus
works, they are Jesus works in
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us. So Jesus continues his works, as he pours out apostles and prophets
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and evangelist and teachers and others,
as he mentions and Effesians for and because
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of these things, because of his
promise to us, because of the ways
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that he is working, we have
this promise for prayer as well. Be
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Bold, he says, whatever you
ask in my name, I will do.
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Jesus is on a mission and he
wants us to be involved in that.
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He wants us to pray for the
things that are according to his will,
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that are in his name. If
you are asking for things in such
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a way that the father will be
glorified through the son, that the Gospel
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will be made known, that the
Cross of Christ will be preached, that
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the elect will be brought in,
that the angels will rejoice and all of
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these wonderful things will happen, you
can bet that God is going to answer
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your prayer. This is what God
wants. This is not a promise to
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us that we can turn God into
a vending machine and sort of pull that
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lever and just get anything out of
there that we we happen to desire.
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It's things that we pray in his
name. He says it twice in my
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name and my name. What are
the things that Jesus is wants? That
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Jesus wants, I was telling US
right here. He wants us to persevere,
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he wants us to grow, he
wants his spirit to be at work
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within us. He wants us to
love one another. He wants us to
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find victory through the cross. And
that brings us to the age to come,
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the things that are promised by Christ. One day there will be a
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final removal of suffering, entrance into
the presence of God, and not just
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eleven men, not just a big
room full of dozens of people, but
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an innumerable host, as many as
the stars, as many as the grains
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of sand by the ocean. Entrance
into the presence of God, and not
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in the old way of pilgrims in
ten smoothing from place to place, but
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in the home of the Lord Almighty, many rooms. Jesus goes to prepare
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a place for us, to prepare
us for the place, for us,
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to get things ready to enter into
the presence of the father in his glorified
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state, that we all might join
him in that. And this is what
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the apostle talks about. In Philippians
chapter two. I'll turn there and read
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to you, and Philippians two,
verse five. The Lord's Apostle says,
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have this mind among yourselves, which
is yours, in Christ Jesus, who,
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though he was in the form of
God, did not count equality with
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God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself by taking the form of
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a servant. Being born in the
likeness of men and being found in human
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form, he humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even
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death on a cross. Therefore,
God has highly Exalted Him and bestowed on
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him the name that is above every
name, so that at the name of
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Jesus, every knee should bow in
heaven, on earth and under the nerve
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earth, and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
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God, the Father There for my
beloved, as you have always obeyed.
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So now, not only in my
presence but much more in my absence,
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work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling, for it is God who
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works in you both to will and
to work for his good pleasure. In
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the same way that Abraham cast his
eyes on Canaan and trusted that God would
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give this place to him. We
look up to heaven, where our Lord
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is, and we know that we
will go there someday, we will enter
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into the presence of God and there
will be no more suffering, no more
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trial, no more distress, because
God is with us and has been with
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us all the way to the end. Now, why is this true?
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All of this is true. These
promises are true, both now and in
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this age and in the age to
come, because Jesus is God, because
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he is in the father and the
father is in him, and because he
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loves you. That is why Jesus
is the way, the truth and the
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life, and no one comes to
the father except through him. We have
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paired in the Gospel these two amazing
truths, the awesome, Almighty power of
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this glorious God. Who says of
the Devil, who Jesus says? Remember,
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he says that the devil is coming. The devil is is coming the
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this is verse thirty. I will
no longer talk with you much, for
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the ruler is coming. And yet
the second thing he says is he has
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no claim on me. Right,
they are about to go through all kinds
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of intense suffering, Jesus himself and
them as people are accusing them and trying
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to find them, and are you
as disciple and are you as disciple?
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Satan is coming and he's bringing is
a game and Jesus will die and Jesus
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will be buried and Jesus will stay
buried for a time. But they have
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to remember, and we have to
remember, he has no claim on me,
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he has no claim on me.
Even in the suffering, even in
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the trials, even in the darkness, they have to remember that the devil
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has no claim on Jesus and he
is no claim on those who are in
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him. So this awesome power of
God in which he can look the devil
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in the eye and say, you
got nothing, I will rise from the
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dead and I will use everything that
you're doing to accomplish my perfect salvation for
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my people, and this awesome power, in this glorious of this glorious God,
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coupled with this amazing loving grace in
which he speaks to us and he
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says come unto me, all you
who are distressed and wearied and heavy laden,
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and I will give you rest,
because I am the way, the
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truth and the life. There's this
amazing I think it's amazing, this wonderful
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scene. A metaphor of this in
the silver chair that see us, Lewis
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tells in us one of his books
in the chronicles of Narnia. I'm paraphrasing
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and I'm sorry if I get some
of the details wrong, but Lucy sees
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as land and she's very, very
thirsty, just very thirsty. And as
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land shows her the water and says
here, this is the water that you
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need to drink. And she says, but I'm scared of you. What
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if you eat me? You're not
going to eat me, are you?
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And he says, I've devoured men
and women and boys and girls and even
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whole empires and kingdoms. She says, well then, I guess I'll have
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to go find another stream. And
as land says to Lucy, there is
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no other stream. So she has
a choice to make. She has a
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choice to make. What will she
do and will will she die in her
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thirst or will she trust this awesome, fearsome lion? That's the same thing
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for us. We can't change Jesus. We can't, we don't want to,
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we shouldn't, but he's our everything. We don't make him any less
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than he is. But because he
is who he is. He is our
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hope, he's our confidence against our
sin, the world and the devil too.
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So what do we do with all
of this? Well, we do
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is Jesus calls us to do,
to believe, to trust him and to
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find our life in his life.
And when you do that, you will
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know that it will be eternal life, forever life, abundant life, glorified
359
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life, and the age to come
anticipated even now. So let's pray and
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ask that God would help us to
believe as he calls us to
