Show Notes
Ephesians 1:18-23, Hebrews 7:25, 1 John 2:1-2
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Episode Transcript
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With me before your seated. Our
Father, we thank you today that we
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are able to draw near to you
through the complete finished work of your son,
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our Lord Jesus Christ, who bore
all our transgressions and so answered the
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demands of your character, that we
may come freely confidently and we draw near
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Lord, as your people, that
you might meet us today in the Ministry
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of your word, that the reading
and the preaching of the word of God
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today might speak into our hearts and
strengthen us, so that we walk away
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saying what a great God and what
a great savior for a needy sinner such
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as me. Show US yourself,
show US your son. We pray in
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Jesus name. Men, please be
seated. I'm going to introduce the sermon
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and that will be looking reading through
the scripture passages for the day, but
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I just wanted to say it's good
to be back with you all. My
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wife sends her greetings. She's unable
to be here. The choir at Rencon
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is singing for their last time in
this current year school year today and she
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is one of the few Sopranos,
so she is needed. Every one of
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US walked in the Sanctuary today into
this auditorium out of different circumstances, circum
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stances of life and marriage and singleness
and perhaps widow or widower states, of
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health, work situations, financial needs. There's a lot, a lot of
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diversity in this room today, but
as as I think about where we're going
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to go in scripture today, I
really think there are only two big categories
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of people here today. The first
group is maybe you're here today in the
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midst of some great affliction, maybe
in the midst of great personal failure or
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temptation, maybe in a season of
relentless difficulty. You may even be in
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a position where, as you go
to bed each night and wake up each
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day, you wonder how you can
keep pressing on and face the challenges that
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you have. That may be you
today, or you may be in the
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other category, which is someone in
between such afflictions, in between times of
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difficulty or personal failure or one adversity
of another kind. So that's it.
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Those are the two kinds of people
that are here today. Either you are
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in the midst of some form of
suffering or temptation, are you are between
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a time of suffering and temptation and
the next one. Now I'm not being
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pessimistic. It was Jesus who said
in this world you will have tribulations and
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it was Paul who said through many
sufferings we must enter the Kingdom of God.
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So you're either suffering or you're in
between, some form of suffering in
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another. What I wanted it today
is connect something of Jesus to our afflictions
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and our sufferings and our temptations.
And I don't want to talk about the
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past, what Jesus has done for
us and his life, death and resurrection,
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and I don't want to talk about
the future, what Jesus will do
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and he comes and his present at
the end of the age and ushers in
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the new creation Kingdom of God.
What I want to talk about today is
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what he is doing now, because
scripture tells us that yes, he has
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ascended at the right hand of God, that he is active there. He
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is not just sitting, he is
active at the right hand of God.
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He is working today, and here's
here's a I but summarize it and then
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we'll look at the scriptures. Jesus
ascended to God's right hand of power,
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is there for you and for me
every moment of every day until he brings
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us home. He is ascended to
God's right hand of power and he is
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active there for you and for me
every moment of every day until he brings
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us to the finish one. So
there are three scriptures were going to read.
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You can listen to me read them
or you can turn to them as
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we do, so they're there in
your bullets. In the first is Ephesians
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one, eighteen to twenty three.
We're stepping into the middle of Paul's prayer
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and he says this that you may
know what is the hope to which he
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has called you and what are the
riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
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and what is the immeasurable greatness of
his power toward us who believe,
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according to the working of his great
might that he worked in Christ when he
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raised him from the dead and seated
him at his own right hand in the
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heavenly places, far above all rule
and authority and power and Dominion and above
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every name that is named, not
only in this age but also in the
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one to come, and he put
all things under his feet and gave him
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his head over all things, to
the church which is his body, the
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fullness of Him who fills all in
all. And then dipping into the argument
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of the Book of Hebrews, Chapter
Seven, Verse Twenty Five, a conclusion
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of a discussion, the writer says. Consequently, he, Jesus, is
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able to save to the uttermost those
who draw near to God through him,
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since he always lives to make intercession
for them. And then, finally,
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First John Two, verses one and
two. My little children, writes John.
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I'm writing these things to you so
that you may not sin. But
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if anyone does sin, we have
an advocate with the father, Jesus,
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Christ the righteous, and he is
the propitiation for our sins, and not
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for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world. Look
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at other passages as well, but
here's what I think we will see.
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The Jesus, ascended to God's right
hand of power, is active there for
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me and for you, every moment
of every day until he brings us safely
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home. So we're going to look
at that four different ways. How he
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is there for us as we run
the rays God has given us until we
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cross the finish line. So the
first way I want to look at is
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the we're going to look at four
realities that we live with as God's people,
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and how what he is doing at
God's right hand answers those first you
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and I live in hostile territory,
surrounded by enemies. How can I not
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be overcome by that? And the
answer is he is the reigning King of
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all. So let's talk a little
bit about hostile territory. Jesus said,
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if you were of the world,
the world but love its own. But
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because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the
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world. There for the world hates
you. We are to expect that.
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We live in a world where there
is hostility and hatred for us. That
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begins with the enemy, the arch
enemy of God and of us, the
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devil and Satan and the multitude of
their demons. We wrestle not with flesh
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and blood. And here's what you
need to know about Satan. He hates
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God, he hates Jesus, he
hates you. If you are in Christ.
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He has undiluted intentions to destroy you
every moment of every day, and
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by destroy I mean do whatever he
can to cut you off from trusting in
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Jesus Christ as savior. And he
will, and he does, mobilize every
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resource at his hand to do so. We live in hostile territory. He
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has allies, not not just invisible
allies, but he has visible allies and
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he'll use those to destroy me.
One of those allies. Jesus talks about
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theiry tall, he talks about the
world. He that he did. The
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Devil hates Christ and the world hates
Christ, and John says that very clearly.
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Jesus says that very clearly. Well, who is this world that hated
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him and hates us? Well,
we tend to think that the world is
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that hates Christ are all the immoral
and irreligious and godless people that are all
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around us. That's true. Those
people are all around us, have always
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been around us, but we forget
that the people who hated Christ and put
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him to death were moral and religious
and pious people. Sometimes those who hate
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Christ do not appear to be against
his morality, but for it. But
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what the irreligious and immorl have in
common with the moral and the religious is
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they agree to one thing. Christ
will not be our king and he will
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not be our savior. We will
take care of things by ourselves. Thank
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you very much. We're surrounded.
We have an enemy. He has allies
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in the human race who oppose Christ, and he and his allies will create
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great pressure on my life and tempt
me to walk away from Christ. But
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he has other allies as well.
See in a few moments he has allies
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among God's people. Well, what
do I mean by that? He has
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in every one of us the flesh, the inner traitor to God and his
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purposes, and he can appeal to
the flesh in any Christian to use them
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to cause harm to other Christians.
We call it betrayal or deception or slender
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it's friendly fire and it is perhaps
the most discourage and kind of assault when
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people who are in my family seem
to do things to undermine my faith and
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confidence in Christ. So I'm surrounded
by enemies in the world, in society,
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in in the devil and his Legion
of Demons, and sometimes in the
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church as well. And so what
am I to do? Am I to
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live in fear? How can I
not be overcome? I'm surrounded. They
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outnumber me a thousand to one.
The answer is Jesus is the reigning King
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of all. That's what Paul said
in the Fesians. One he seated him.
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The father seated the son at his
own right hand in the heavenly places,
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far above all rule and authority and
power and dominion, not just above
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but far above, not most,
but all rule and authority and power and
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dominion and every name, not most
names, every name that is named,
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not only in this age but also
in the one to come. There is
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nothing left out here. So what
I know is a CH Chritian as.
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I'm in the midst of the battle
which I am not going to be read.
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I'm not going to be rescued from
fighting, but I will be delivered
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through it. And the one who
is my savior is reigning at God's right
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hand, not just sitting but reigning
overseeing, ordering the events of human history
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and every detail of my life for
the purpose of keeping me and bringing me
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across the finish one. So a
couple things. That means. Number One,
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my enemy and my enemies can do
nothing against me except by the permission
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of the king. You find that
in the book of Job Satan came and
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made accusations and God said you may
do this, but no further. That's
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because Jesus is King of all.
Secondly, we can know that, because
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he is reigning there, he can
turn the worst action someone intends to me
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into something good and for his glory. We think of the story of Joseph,
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where the malice of his brother soldom
as a slave to Egypt and God,
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as Joseph said at the end of
his life, you intended it for
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evil, but God turned it to
good. That's what it means that he
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is reigning. We see that in
Jesus, when the powers of the age
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gathered to slander him and malign him
and murder him, and God turned it
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to the salvation of an uncountable multitude
from all nations. He, the enemy,
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can do nothing to me except by
his permission. Whatever the enemies do
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to me, it can be turned
to something good and will be come turned
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to something good by my reigning king. And number three, they may appear
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to win some battles, but they've
already lost the war. So, because
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he is the reigning king, reigning
on my behalf as his child at God's
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right hand, I do not live
in fear. Rather, I have every
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reason to press on with courage,
to endure in following Christ, and I
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have weapons at my disposal, not
carnal weapons of money and politics and power,
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but spiritual weapons of the word of
God. In prayer that I may
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take up, and by them the
enemy will flee. The book of Revelation
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says the Followers of Christ overcame the
dragon by the blood of the lamb and
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by their word of witness to Christ. Those are my weapons. So I
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will face enemies all the way to
the finish line. But because he is
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at God's right hand and he is
reigning there for me, I can trust
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him in press on. Second what's
the second circumstance? I live with constant
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temptation and I often sin. How, then, can I not be found
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guilty in face condemnation? The answer
is he is my advocate at God's right
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hand. So not only do I
have enemies outside, I have an enemy
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within, and I don't think there's
any greater burden to the Christian than the
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enemy within. Yes, the New
Testament clarifies that. Certainly, from the
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day I become born of Christ to
the day I finish the race and cross
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the finish line, and then I
am home, I will face every day
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of my life the active presence of
what the New Testament calls the flesh or
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sin which lives in me, and
that is a battle that is going to
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be experienced in my life all the
time. Now, Paul Paul puts it
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this way. The spirit of God
in me as opposed to the flesh,
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and the flesh is opposed to the
spirit. They're opposed to each other,
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Paul says in Galatians. I will
live with that inner war, in the
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reality of sin in me and the
temptations that arise from within me, all
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the way through the end of my
life, and that will not change until
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I cross the finish line. And
because that is the case, I will
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sin. And when I send there
two particular ways I think sin becomes a
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greater burden than in other situations,
and I'm number one, is if I
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sin in a particular way and I
find myself committing that sin repeatedly, I
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find myself not making much progress against
that particular sin, and that can be
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everything from online pornography to outbursts of
anger or even just the delight of Gossiping
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and talking about other people. I
find those sins grip me. Perhaps you'd
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perhaps perhaps you can say I find
one of those sins grip me and I'm
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discouraged by it. I find it
leading me to a place of condemnation,
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and the other way in which sin
can become a greater burden that at other
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times, as when we sin in
a way that the puritans described as wounding
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the conscience, and and what they
meant by that was a public and scandalous
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sin, a sin that alters my
life or the life of the people I
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love. It may it may be
a criminal act, it maybe a violation
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of marriage vows. Think King David
committing adultery and setting up the murder of
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one of his best friends. So
we have this inner battle and when we
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look at our lives and how little
progress we make, or maybe when we
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look at some of the sins of
our past that we're scandalous and brought harm
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to others, two things can happen. Not Number One, our conscience accuses
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us, this this umpire that's within
our hearts, that calls us on our
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sin, and our conscience says things
like kind of Christian are you? Or
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how can you say you're a Christian
and do such things? Or maybe you're
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going to be the first person for
whom Jesus is run out of patience.
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Conscience accuses us, and then we
have an enemy, the external enemy,
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who is the accuser, and he
accuses us as well, and we can
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begin to wonder is Jesus great enough
to save someone like me? And we
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can begin to live under condemnation,
eyes to the ground, had not held
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high, no joy, just a
burden of sin. Well, how,
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how can I not be found guilty
of continued sin? And the answer is
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he at God's right hand is my
advocate. He is the one who died
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for sin and rose again, and
he is at God's right hand and he
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is presenting there his finished work,
is finished sacrifice, as more than sufficient
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to cover all my sins. That's
what that's what John says. If anyone
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does sin, we have an advocate
with the father, Jesus Christ, the
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righteous. John Calvin says that Jesus
Work at God's right hand is to turn
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the father's eyes to his righteousness and
away from our sins. Let's stop and
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picture that for a minute. He
turns the father's eyes away from our sin
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to look at his sacrifice, his
perfect righteousness, and he's not persuading a
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reluctant judge. It was the father
who, for love of us, gave
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his son for us, and it
was the son who, for love of
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the father and of us, gave
himself for us. So one of the
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ways that I've been helped over the
years with a poem by a woman named
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Martha Snell Nicholson. The poem is
called my advocate, and I'm going to
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would tempt to read it because it
describes what it means to have Jesus as
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my advocate. She writes, I
sinned, and quickly Satan flew before the
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presence of the most High God and
made a railing accusation. There he said
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this soul, this thing of clay
and Sawd has sinned. Tis True that
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he has named THY name, but
I demand his death, for you have
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said the soul that sins it shall
die. Shall Not your sentence be fulfilled?
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Is Justice dead? Send now this
wretched sinner to his doom. And
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thus he did accuse me, day
and night, and every word he spoke,
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Oh God, was true. Then
quickly one rose up from God's right
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hand, before who's glory angels veiled
their eyes. He spoke. Every jot
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and tittle of the law must be
fulfilled. The guilty sinner dies. But
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wait, suppose his guilt was all
transferred to me and that I paid his
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penalty. Behold my hands, my
side, my feet, one day,
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I was made sin for him and
died that he might be presented faultless at
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THY throne. And Satan fled away
full well, he knew that he could
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not prevail against such love, for
every word my dear Lord spoke was true.
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What does that mean? Yes,
I have an external enemy, the
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devil, who wants me to quit
and stop fighting sin and give up on
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Christ. I have an internal enemy
that draws me to sin and tempts me
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day and night. But Jesus is
my advocate, he is pleading his sacrifice
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for me at God's right hand,
and even when I sin repeatedly or even
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when I sin greatly, he is
there for me. Therefore, I can
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get up from where I stumble and
confess my sin and continue on and following
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Christ and trust in Christ until the
end. Oh, third circumstance, this
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war is fierce and I am weak
and needy. How can I endure?
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And the answer is he is my
intercessor at God's right hand. Well,
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it should be obvious by now that
I think the New Testament says that the
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life of the Christian is a war
against mortal enemies inside and out, and
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it is relentless. It is day
in and day out. And when soldiers
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face battle day in and day out, they get battle fatigue. We come
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to an end of our strength,
our resolve, our determination, our resources.
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We feel desperately weak and needy.
So where do I go when I
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feel so weak and needy? The
answer is he is my intercessor that's what
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Hebrews says. He is able to
save to the uttermost those who draw near
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to God through him, since he
always lives, always lives to make intercession
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for them. See, my savior
knows that. I don't need moral cheerleading,
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I don't need positive thinking. I
need to remember that his eye is
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upon me every moment of every day
and he is never weary and he is
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never distracted and he will bring me
home safely and save me to the uttermost,
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because he will never fail to intercede
for me. And what we know
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is whatever you ask according to God's
will, he hears. And what we
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know is the son of God,
at God's right hand, always asks according
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to the father's will and therefore all
that he asks he receives, and he
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is asking so that he may save
us to the utter most. And what's
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so amazing is he is utterly faithful, even when we are not. Christ
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is praying for you, my friends, and for me every day, even
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when we are negligent in prayer.
He is presenting to the father our spiritual
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needs, even when we don't even
know what they are. He is praying
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for our protection against dangers we don't
even see. He's praying against enemies that
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threaten us even though we don't notice
them. Yes, I face a relentless
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battle and I grow weary, but
I am not alone. His resources are
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infinite. He knows exactly what you
and I need and will have no difficulty
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getting it to you. All that
he asks, the father gives, and
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so I may rest and his faithful
interception and endure. And the fourth circumstance
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and last is the path is hard
and the road is often dark. How
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can I find my way? And
the answer is the one at God's right
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hand is the trailblazer. Well,
what do I mean by that? Well,
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obviously, again, the life of
the Christian is that. I call
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it an uphill climb on a dangerous
path into a stiff wind in the dark.
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That's the nature of the Christian life. Some days it doesn't seem that
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way, and some days it seems
like that's not that might not quite get
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at it, and in the face
of that kind of difficulty we lose hope,
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we become perplexed. And Hebrews says
Jesus is our pioneer, he's our
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trailblazer. is how I like to
translate that. We have in him a
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sure and steadfast anchor of the soul
who has entered into the inner place,
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behind the curtain where Jesus has gone
as a trailblazer on our behalf, says
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he brews. And what that means
is he has gone ahead of us,
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and he has gone ahead of us
after facing every temptation, standing against every
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enemy, dealing with every obstacle.
He has cleared the way for us to
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follow. He knows exactly what we
will face and he is able to supply
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all we need for every circumstance we
face, and he will bring us home.
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So I've done hiking at times.
Number of years ago, my my
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son and I hike the trail in
the Machu Pichu in the andies. Now
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he's an outdoors man. He wanted
to do with just a map and I
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said, number one, you can't. Number two, I'd rather have a
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guide. I appreciate your map reading
skills, I'd rather have a guide that
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knows the areas. So guess what, Jesus is a God's right hand who
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would be our guide, and he
has given us his spirit, who and
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dwells us, who is our God. So not only is he our trailblazer,
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but we have the spirit of God, the son, within us to
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guide us in a path with unlimited
supplies for every obstacle and challenge and dark
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moment we face. He will bring
us home. And when he brings us
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home, he will bring us to
sit with him at God's right hand,
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even as he conquered and sad,
at God's right hand. The promise of
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scriptured, the way the church fathers
put it, as as we were,
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he became incarnate and as he is
exalted, we shall be with him.
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So Jesus as ascended, and because
he is ascended, he is active there
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for you and me every moment of
every day, as king, as advocate,
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as intercessor and as our trailblazer,
and he will enable us to finish
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the race and bring us home.
And knowing that gives us reason for the
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greatest confidence and the greatest boldness.
To press on in following him. And
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No, I'll end with these words
from Calvin who, in his discussion of
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the ascension, says some rather gutsy
things. On the else to say very
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bold things, but I think he
catches the spirit with which we should see
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Jesus present work for us and how
we live each day. Calvin writes thus,
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since he has gone up there,
the ascended Christ, and is in
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heaven for us, we need not
fear to be in this world. Fear
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has no place. He's saying.
We look to our head, who is
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already in heaven, and we say, although I am weak, there is
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Jesus Christ, who is powerful enough
to make me stand upright. Although I
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am feeble, there is Jesus Christ, or is my strength. Yes,
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the devil is called the Prince of
this world, but what of it?
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I love that. What of it? Jesus Christ holds him in check,
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for he is King of Heaven and
earth. There are devils above us in
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the air who make war against us, but what of it? Jesus Christ
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rules above having entire control of the
battle. Thus we need not doubt that
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he gives us the victory, and
this is how we must look at his
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ascension, applying the benefit to ourselves. Jesus, Christ of God's right hand
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is active there for you and for
me, every hour of every day until
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he brings us home. Would you
pray with me? My father, we
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thank you today for the completeness of
the salvation that father, son and spirit
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of design for us as sinners,
that not only do we have a savior
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whose sacrifice paid for all our sin, whose resurrection was the beginning of triumph
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and a new creation, and who
will one day come again and bring about
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the consummation of all things, but
today he, the God man at your
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right hand, is active for his
own ruling, advocating, praying, providing
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US exactly what we need as we
walk this path of following him. Father,
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I pray and we pray, that
you might strengthen our faith as we
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consider Christ, our reigning savior,
at Root Your right hand. But we
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pray this in Jesus name. Amend
