Episode Transcript
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Oh Lord, we're so thankful for
the salvation that we have. In Jesus
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Christ, you have turned our mourning
into dancing, dancing, you've loosed the
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sackcloth and clothed us with gladness,
and what a joy it is to enjoy
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these things and to praise you for
them in the company of brothers and sisters
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who have likewise been brought out of
their sin and misery and into your marvelous
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light. We ask that you,
through the light of the word of God,
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through the Gospel and your spirit working
that word in us, would help
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us to hear and to see and
to believe and to stand in that truth.
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I'm even this morning, and we
pray this now in Jesus name on
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them well, please remain standing if
you're able, and let's turn our attention
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to first Corinthians, Chapter Fifteen.
So First Corinthians Fifteen, I'll be reading
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verses one through eleven. All right, let's give our attention to God's word.
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Now. I would remind you,
Brothers, of the Gospel I preach
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to you, which you received,
in which you stand and by which you
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are being saved. If you hold
fast to the word I preach to you,
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unless you believed in vain, for
I delivered to you as of first
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importance what I also received. That
Christ died for our sins, in accordance
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with the scriptures, that he was
buried, that he was raised on the
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third day, in accordance with the
Scriptures, and that he appeared deciphus,
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then to the twelve. Then he
appeared to more than five hundred brothers at
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one time, most of whom are
still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
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Then he appeared to James, then
to all the apostles, last of
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all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me, for
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I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because
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I persecuted the Church of God.
But by the grace of God I am
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what I am, and His grace
toward me was not in vain. On
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the contrary, I worked harder than
all of them, or that any of
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them, though. It was not
I, but the grace of God that
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is with me, whether then it
was I or they. So we preach
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and so you believed. Amen,
you may be seated. So have you
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ever been trying to get out of
the house quickly and you know, you're
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looking around for your glasses, right, you're looking and you're looking. Where
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are my glasses? Where my glasses? They're on your head, honey,
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oh right. Or Your keys or
your book or whatever are you had something
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in your hand right, and you
set it down and you say, I
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just had this a moment ago and
I can't find it. Well, why
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does this happen? Well, there's
all kinds of reasons. One of them
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is we get distracted when there's too
much information, too much going on,
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we're not paying attention. It's easy
to stop and or to forget, let
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things slide. Sometimes the reminders that
we need. We're not forgotten just a
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moment ago, but we need the
reminders of the of the depth of something.
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So, for example, you of
course know that your friend loves you
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or your mom loves you or someone
else in your life, and yet when
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they give you that present on your
birthday, you're reminded of how much they
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love you. Right. There's a
way in which there's we know things and
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then we come into a deeper knowledge
of them or we remember them at a
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new level in a way that's very
helpful to us. For whatever reason,
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this seems to be a need of
ours. As a need of ours,
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we need reminders, and so much
in the scriptures is a call to remember,
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over and over and over again.
Even the Lord's Day itself as a
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day for remembering. It's a day
for setting things aside, keeping it special,
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so that we can remember, especially
the things that are of first importance.
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And that's what Paul does for us
here in Chapter Fifteen of First Corinthians.
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Here, in these verses in particular, he begins and says, I
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would remind you, Brothers, of
the Gospel I preach to you, which
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you received. Paul wants to remind
them of the Gospel, and that's a
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good thing and it's something that we
all need. There's not a point in
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our lives where we ever fully understand
or appreciate the depth and the level of
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importance and and beauty and its effects
of the of the Gospel. Paul wants
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to remind them of the Gospel.
Now it's not that he hasn't been saying
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anything about it. It's not been
absent from the chapters that have come before.
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When he was talking to the Corinthians
about the divisions within the Church and
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the clamoring after this teacher and that
teacher. He reminded them that all of
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them, all of the teachers,
are ultimately speaking the word of the one
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word of the one Christ. He
tells them in chapter three, you are
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God's workers, God's field, God's
building. He grounds his instructions and his
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exhortations in the Gospel. Same thing
in chapter four when he talks about ministry,
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in chapter five when he talks about
sexual immorality, also in six and
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seven. Yes, he gives very
practical instructions. He works US through all
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kinds of ethical, important ethical situations. But in the midst of it he's
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focusing on Christ sacrifice, who brings
US purity and forgiveness and calls us to
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a certain calling. The lawsuits among
believers, food sacrifice to idols, ministerial
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pay, clothes in church, all
of these things, the Lord's supper,
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spiritual gifts, worship practices. He
keeps connecting it and relating it to the
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Gospel. We are called to do
these things because of what Jesus has already
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done for us. That's been there
all along. It's come up in many
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ways, but now he wants to
focus on that explicitly, to remind them
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of the Gospel in its in its
particularities, and I'd like to focus on
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it this morning with you in three
ways, thinking about its content, its
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effect and it's importance. So first, it's content. What does Paul say?
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The Gospel is Gospel, of course, is a word that means just
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good news. Right, you receive
news throughout the day, throughout the week,
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hopefully not too much, but you
received news, some of it's bad,
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some of its good. This is
good news. It's news about something
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that has happened. And what has
happened? What is the news that has
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been proclaimed, the news that has
been preached? Well, Paul says it
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is this. In verse three,
he begins. I delivered to you as
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a first importance, what I also
received. That's as a reminder, by
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the way, that Paul is not
just making something up, he's not telling
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stories, he's delivering the message.
That's his job. And what is the
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message, Colan? That Christ died
for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.
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This is the first thing he says. So if somebody asks you,
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what is the Gospel, and he
will say more. There's a lot of
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things we can add and ways we
can fill out the news, but what's
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a headline right? What's the headline
for the story? This would be a
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very good one to use. Christ
died for our sins, in accordance with
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the Scriptures. Christ died for our
sins. In accordance with the Scriptures,
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Christ is a word that means anointed. It's a title that is applied to
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Jesus. It means the same thing
as Messiah in the Old Testament. This
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anointed one is one who is anointed
by God to fulfill a particular calling,
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which means when we think Christ,
we think not just Jesus, we think
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of the Trinity, because he is
anointed with the spirit by the father,
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as modern way to put it,
among other ways, he is anointed for
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a particular task. And it also
reminds us, what we'll think about at
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the end of this phrase, that
this is an accordance with the scriptures,
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with a plan that has been coming
and being revealed for a long time.
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The Messiah that we read about in
the Old Testament is the Christ who is
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Jesus in the new. This hope, this expectation, this longing for years
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after years after years, generation after
generation, and not a vein hope,
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not a vein expectation, but one
that God himself had promised. It comes
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into fulfillment when Jesus comes into the
world, when he takes on human flesh
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in order that he might die,
and that's our second word. Jesus Christ,
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the anointed one. He died.
The son of God came into the
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world to take on a body like
yours and mine, so that he might
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be able to die as we do. Jesus died not because something, an
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accident, happened to him. He
died not because he really didn't want to
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and he sort of fell into the
situation. Jesus came into the world for
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that very purpose. That's why he
took on flesh and blood, so that
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he might die the death that we
deserved, so that he might be our
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sacrifice and do or be our mediator, a sacrifice for our sins and do
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what the next word says, or
the next phrase, which is for our
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sins. His death had a purpose, and what is that purpose? It
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was to forgive our sins, to
heal us from the effects of our sins,
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and we're going to get into this
more as we look at the rest
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of the chapter. When he rose
again from the dead, he rose victorious
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over sin, over death and and
and everything that is attached to that.
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Our Fall in Adam was fixed,
was solved, repaired and healed by our
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reserve action. In Christ, Jesus
died for our sins. Our relationship,
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therefore, to Jesus, is not
one of equals or partners. It's not
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one that's temporary or, you know, just for a little bit while it's
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convenient. It's a permanent one that
he himself establishes and by his own blood.
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When the Apostle Paul speaks to the
elders in Ephesus and Acts Chapter Twenty,
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he tells them to a care for
the Church of God, which Jesus
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obtained with his own blood. That's
who we are. We are people whom
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Jesus cut a covenant for and not
some animal representing what might happen to him.
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His own blood flowed and his own
blood flowed not pointing to him,
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but it was him. He was
the sacrifice that all the sacrifices pointed forward
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to. He was the solution,
God's own solution in his own son for
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our sins. So Christ died for
our sins. And finally, as I
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said, is the scriptures say accordance
with the scriptures, Jesus came to fulfill
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what had promised before. It was
not a surprise in some senses, is
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that Jesus came. Some people weren't
surprised, although many were, but he
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came and did what he what God
had promised to do, and you see
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that in his miracles, you see
it in his birth, you see it
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in his death and in his resurrection. This is what we find his burial
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and resurrection, then, is what
Paul speaks of next. So first we
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have the headline right, Christ died
for our sins, in accordance with the
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scriptures. But then he goes on
and he adds these things verse four,
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that he was buried and that he
was raised on the third day, in
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accordance with the scriptures. The life
and death are a part of the Gospel,
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and so is the burial and the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Like
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to read a little bit to you
from the Gospel of Luke. First from
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Luke Chapter Nine. After feeding the
five thousand, in Luke Nine, verse
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Twenty One or verse twenty two,
he says to his disciples the son of
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man must suffer many things and be
rejected by the elders and the chief priests
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and scribes and be killed and on
the third day be raised. That's what
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Jesus says to his disciples before all
of that happens, and he's pretty clear
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about it, isn't he listen to
what he says in the same chapter write
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a few versus later, he says
in Verse Forty Four, let these words
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sink into your ears, the son
of man is about to be delivered into
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the hands of men. But they
did not understand this saying and it was
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concealed from them so they might not
perceive it, and they were afraid to
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ask him about this saying. There
are other places in the scriptures where Jesus
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repeats these things. He tells them
what's going to happen, but they they
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have trouble understanding for various reasons.
They don't believe for various reasons. But
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of course, exactly as Jesus predicted, he he was delivered over, he
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did die, he was buried.
Any rose again. Turning over to Luke,
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Chapter Twenty Four, verses one through
nine, let's read about his resurrection
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on the first day of the week. But early dawn they went to the
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tomb taking the spices they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away
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from the tomb, but when they
went in they did not find the body
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of the Lord Jesus. While they
were pupat perplexed about this, behold two
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men stood by them and dazzling apparel, and as they were frightened and bowed
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their faces to the ground, the
men said to them, why do you
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seek the living among the dead?
He is not here, but has risen.
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Remember how he told you, while
he was still in Galilee, that
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the son of man must be delivered
into the hands of Sinful men and be
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crucified and on the third day rise. And they remembered his words. Remember
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my point earlier about remembering. They
remembered his words and, returning to the
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tomb, they told all these things
to the eleven and to all the rest.
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So there are these these two angels
right saying Jesus has risen from the
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dead. He's no longer he's no
longer dead, he's alive. Do you
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remember what he told you, that
this is exactly what would happen? And
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at that moment they remembered. They
remembered, they were reminded of the Gospel
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and they heard it and they believe
and they went and started telling others,
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exactly as we should do. So
this good news is that Jesus died for
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our sins, that he did so
accord to the scriptures that he wrote,
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was buried and he rose again from
the dead. Now, continuing on in
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Verse Five, Paul then says he
and that he appeared to Siphast, then
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to the twelve. Then he appeared
to more than five hundred brothers at one
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time, most of whom are still
alive, though some have fallen asleep.
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Then he appeared to James, then
to all the apostles, last of all,
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as to one untimely born. He
also appeared to me. This is
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a really fascinating passage for all kinds
of reasons. One of them is it
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does remind us that these things that
we're talking about happened in a particular place
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at a particular time, and people
saw it alive. People all saw it.
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As Paul writes this, he says
you can go talk to them right
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now, some of these people who
witnessed these things. Not so much time
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has passed that you can go at
Corinthians. He saying to the Corinthians,
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you can go and get an eyewitness
testimony to this fact that this person saw
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Jesus and not one person, not
the story of somebody, of somebody,
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of somebody. He says he appeared
to all these people and an over to
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two, over five hundred brothers at
one time. This is amazing, right.
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Not only was though, all of
this work testified to in the scriptures,
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proven by the fact that it happened, and then there were all of
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these witnesses as well. On top
of all of that, and we'll get
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this to this in a moment,
as we moved to the effect of the
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Gospel. It it made this powerful
change in these people's lives. Paul uses
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himself as an example. I was
persecuting the church, he says, but
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then I saw Jesus and now I'm
willing to die for the church. What
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an amazing, amazing thing. It's
a reminder that the Church of God,
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the people that Jesus raises, for
the people that Jesus reveals himself to,
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is not an unnecessary thing on the
side, not related to the Gospel.
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The Work of God for the Church, which he obtained by his blood,
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acts twenty. The Work of God
for the Church and which he cans,
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converting men like Paul the Work of
God for the Church and where he is
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causing like the women at the Tomb
to remember the Gospel. It's for real
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people. It didn't just happen there
in history and then we can kind of
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read about it. It happened in
history for the world and then ripple effects
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continue to go out and affect even
us. Well now I think I'm firmly
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in point two, so we'll just
keep going. Paul says, what are
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the effects of this Gospel? He
says several things. One in verse one,
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he says, in which you stand. It's a truth that we don't
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just hear. It's a truth we
stand on, a truth, we depend
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on a truth we live out of. He also says of the Gospel it
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is the word by which you are
being saying the word of God has its
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effect and causing us to be born
again to new life, but it also
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helps us in our continuing growth in
that life. The perfecting of the saints
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is a work of God and he
does it through the Gospel. In other
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words, we don't just hear the
Gospel once and say, okay, I
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understand that Jesus died and now I
get to work doing my obeying part.
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We, of course, are called
to obey. The law. Is Good
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like honey to our lips. It's
what we were made to do, to
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live and light of. But the
law doesn't empower us in the way that
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the Gospel does. The Gospel and
the Work of God, He Paul says
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in another place, is the power
of God unto salvation for those who believe.
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That's why, in my preaching and
in our worship services and in our
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Bible Studies and fellowships, we're always
talking about this over and over and over
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again. The Gospel, the work
of Christ, for us, is of
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first importance. It's the thing that
saves us, it's the thing that continues
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to save us, it's the thing
that will bring salvation to completion. And
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of course it's not just a thing. It is the word of God.
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It is the revelation of Jesus Christ
and the work of the spirit in us.
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In the same way in which God
created the world and wrought it into
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being and sustains it by the word
of his power, he is bringing new
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life and new creation into being and
sustaining it by the word of his power,
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and that word is the good news
that Jesus Christ died for sinners and
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rose again. So that brings us
finally to the importance of this message.
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We see it in a number of
ways, most easily when Paul says at
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first three I delivered, for I
delivered to you as of first importance what
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I also received. When we are
focused on other things, that's when we
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lose our glasses. When we're focused
on other things, that's when we lose
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we get distracted and we begin forgetting
one of the things that the word of
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God does for us, one of
the things that we enjoy on the Lord's
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Day as a resetting and a recalibrating
and a reminding of who we are,
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of what God has done, and
that this is of first importance. It's
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at the core of who we are
in our life and our families and our
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communities, in our church. It's
the thing that is saving us. It
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is the thing by which we understand
all other things. It's also important in
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this negative sense. All says,
unless you believed in vain, which is
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a reminder that it is possible to
have a kind of false faith, a
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vain faith, a faith that isn't
really faith. It's possible to believe in
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vain, not in the sense that
you have true belief that doesn't achieve its
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end. Because what does Jesus say? He says faith is small as a
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mustard seed, or faith is as
little as, or even mixed with,
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unbelief, is still capable of moving
mountains. Right. He's not saying you
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have to believe at levels seventy five
at least in order to in order for
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it to not be in vain.
And then we sort of measure that anything
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that's faith and anything that receives Jesus
is not in vain. There is,
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however, a false kind of faith, right. Jesus talks about this in
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one of his parables, a sort
of seed that gets planted in the ground
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and then sport of springs up,
the sun comes, it withers away and
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it dies. It's not really grounded, as we say, it's not really
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rooted. Right. Not True,
and that's a warning to us. If
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you look at your life and and
you test your heart by the standards of
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scripture and you say, you know, I don't really believe this. I'm
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not here this morning because I'm here
to worship God. I'm here this morning
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because I'm trying to impress someone or
make a point, or I'm here because
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I think that God will someholp be
pleased by my actions and then save me.
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Anything like this, this is this
is not faith. Anything that starts
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with you, know, I and
me. These things are likely heading us
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in the wrong direction. So we
should ask ourselves, who do I belong
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to? Am I like the thief
on the Cross, or the people on
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the road, or the people in
the desolate places needing to be fed?
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My like these people who Jesus encountered
and said, I need you, Lord,
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help me, Lord, or are
we like the other people who,
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when they spoke to the Lord and
he told them things? You, they
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said Nah, not for me.
Who are who walked away? We said
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the sacrifice is or I don't care
that much, or you're a liar and
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I'm going to kill you. These
were the various reactions of people who did
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not have faith, who did not
believe. It's worth our asking the question,
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because this Gospel, this faith that
we have in Jesus Christ, this
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faith in this word, is of
first importance because, apart from faith in
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Jesus, this Jesus that we hear
about in this news, we remain in
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our sins. Because why? Well, that's why Jesus died for our sins,
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to forgive us our sins. And
if we reject him, then no
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one has died for your sins.
You remain in your sins, you remain
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separated from God. Our faith must
be in him, and the Scriptures promise
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that when we put our faith in
him, no matter how small it is,
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no matter how beginning, no matter
how mixed, he answers it.
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He gives freely, even more than
we ask, and when he does,
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it has this effect that Paul's talking
about. Instead of being bought in bondage
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to slavery and death, to fear
and guilt and shame, he opens up
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our lives and he allows us to
feel freedom for the first time. He
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allows us to stand, he allows
us to not be living anymore in vain
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but with purpose and with meaning,
and he promises that what he begins in
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us, he he willing to completion. That is the message that they've received,
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that is the message that we have
received. Let's stand in it,
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let's believe it and let's always remember
him. Let's pray our heavenly father,
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we thank you for giving your word
to us, your son, and thank
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you also for the gift of Your
Spirit by which we might perceive these things.
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As we see with the Lord's disciples
and those very early days, even
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they who were with him could not
perceive and understand until the spirit opened up
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their minds and their lives. Lord, we ask that, in the places
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where we are dull of hearing,
where we cannot perceive, where we don't
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understand, we asked that you would
help us, that you would humble us,
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that we might really know and believe
that this good news is of first
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importance and that we might not believe
a news of our own making, that
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we might believe the true news,
the news of Jesus, his death and
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his resurrection, his victory over sins
and his promise to heal us. Lord
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Jesus, we thank you for your
work in the world. We thank you
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for your revelation to us that we
might no longer remain in darkness but be
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brought into the light. We asked
that you would help us to believe,
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that you would stir in us a
hunger and a desire to know you,
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and that you would increase this day
after day, that we with the Apostle
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Paul, might be willing to give
up everything, even our own lives,
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that we might follow after you.
Let us give up, of course,
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our sins, but also our possessions, our relationships, of whatever it takes
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that we might know you and follow
you. This is a first importance.
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Help us to believe that and to
live in light of it. We pray
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this in Jesus name. Amen.
