Episode Transcript
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Tonight scripture is actually going to be
coming from the gospel of John and we're
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going to be looking at John Chapter
six, starting at Verse Twenty Five and
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going through until or through verse thirty
five. So John Chapter Six, starting
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at Verse Twenty Five. Here now
is God's word. When they found him
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on the other side of the sea, they said to him, rabbi,
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when did you come here? Jesus
answered them truly, truly, I say
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to you, you are seeking me
not because you saw signs, but because
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you ate your fill of the loaves. Do Not Labor for the food that
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perishes, but for the food that
endures to eternal life, which the son
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of Man will give to you,
for on him, God, the father,
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has set his seal. Then they
said to him, what must we
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do to be doing the works of
God? Jesus answered them, this is
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the work of God that you believe
in him, whom he has sent.
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So they said to him. Then, what sign do you do that we
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may see and believe you? What
work do you perform? Our fathers ate
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the manner and the Wilderness. As
it is written, he gave them bread
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from heaven to eat. Jesus then
said to them, truly truly, I
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say to you, it was not
Moses who gave you the bread from heaven,
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but my father gives you the true
bread from heaven, for the bread
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of God is he who comes down
from heaven and gives life to the world.
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They said to him, sir,
give us this bread always. Jesus
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said to them, I am the
bread of life. Whoever comes to me
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shall not hunger, and whoever believes
in me shall never thirst. Thus,
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ins God's word, you may be
seated. Well, we are in the
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season arounding the corner to Thanksgiving this
coming week, and it is interesting,
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as we contrast godliness and worldly mindedness, how this one holiday is an example
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of how people have totally turned it
from an opportunity to thank God and focus
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on him to an opportunity, quite
literally, to think about the belly.
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I heard on a radio program a
few years ago that the average amount of
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calories that Americans eat on Thanksgiving was
five thousand, and I think they even
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said it was just for the Thanksgiving
meal, not counting breakfast or anything else,
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but just Thanksgiving meal. Let's probably
counts the or d'euvres and, you
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know, the wine and then the
meal and then seconds and thirds and then
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you got dessert and then, of
course, you pass out as the football
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game is going on, because the
trip to fan kicks in. And you
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see, that's the modern liturgy for
Thanksgiving. We've transformed it from being something
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which we focus primarily on God to
something that is definitely worldly minded. And
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that contrast is kind of what Jesus
deals with as he comes even to his
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own people, the Covenant People of
God in Israel, as he comes to
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those who were called out from the
world, those who had been given God's
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word, given his law, given
the prophets, those who had the signs
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and symbols of God's grace, Jesus
finds that his message about his kingdom meets
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with a sharp contrast with the mindset
of the people around him, that even
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among his disciples, he has to
constantly correct them and focus them on the
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kingdom that is to come rather than
on the kingdoms of this earth and the
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way things work among the kingdoms of
this world. And so Jesus here,
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as he is teaching these people who
have been following him around kind of like
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a fan club. They have been
following watching his miracles, hearing his teaching
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and just being very, very busy
about following him. Suddenly are brought to
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a screeching halt and are even offended
by what Jesus says here and what he
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will shortly go on to say as
he continues in his discourse. This passage
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follows on the heels of Jesus feeding
the five thousand across the the Sea of
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Galilee. And what happened there was
Jesus in its disciples had wanted to get
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away, actually to get some rest
from all these people who had kept going
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in and out among them and trying
to get more miracles and and just hobnob
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around Jesus and the disciples, and
they finally needed some rest. And so
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Jesus and them got in a boat
and went across the Sea of Galilee.
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But, Lo and behold, when
they got there, they found that the
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people had intercepted them. They made
an run around the lake there and we're
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already there and were we're wanting more. And so, you know, Jesus
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taught them and he performed this this
miracle, the most public miracle that he
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had performed up to date, a
feeding five thousand men, not counting women
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and children, from this small lunch
that this boy had brought a five loaves
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and two fishes. And the people
saw what Jesus did and they knew that
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this was a miracle and they started
to think to themselves, this must be
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the Prophet of God, this must
be the one who is who is sent
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from God to save our nation,
and began to plot. and Jesus,
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it says in earlier in this chapter
that Jesus knew that they were trying to
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make him king by force, that
that was their intent so that they could
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bring their will to pass. And
yet Jesus, because he had a different
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kind of kingdom to bring a separated
himself from them and and did not allow
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that to happen. Well, in
the meantime, the disciples had gone over
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in the boat, the single boat
that they had brought over, and Jesus,
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under cover of darkness, had snuck
over the water by walking on the
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water. And you recall that story, how the there was a storm and
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how the disciples were making a difficult
headway and Jesus walked out to them and
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calm the storm and I got in
the boat and and finally they all got
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to the other side. Well,
this is perplexing for the people, these
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groupies who've been following Jesus around.
They realized that he and the disciples came
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over in just one boat and they
realize the disciples left without Jesus, and
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yet they don't know where Jesus is. And so, you know, they
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start to do the math. are
like, okay, guys, there's one
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boat. The disciples got in and
they went to the other side. Jesus
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must be around here somewhere. So
they're looking, looking, and they can't
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find them and finally they give up
and decide however he got there, he
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must be in another place, and
so they get in some other boats that
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came across and they head over to
copernium and sure enough, when they get
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there they find Jesus and they're still
a little bit frustrated and they they find
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him and they say, rabbi,
went do you come here? They're trying
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to still add it up in their
mind. You know, we're your groupies,
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we're your fans. You know,
we're the ones who are following you
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around. We like you. You
know, why did you just leave us
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behind and Jesus, rather than answering
their question and, you know, restoring
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that breach so that he could be
popular and continue that wave and they're thinking.
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Cuts right to the root of what's
going on in their hearts. He
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does ministry and he does the Difficult
Ministry of confrontation with him and he says
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to them, truly, truly,
I say to you, you are seeking
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me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate your fill of
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the loaves. Yes, they called
him rabbi, yes, they put a
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premium on the miracles. Yes,
they respected him as far as they understood
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him in their worldly mentality. But
Jesus says, that's not the real reason
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that you came to me. The
real reason is not because you care about
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spiritual things. The real reason is
not because you are looking for the Kingdom
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of God as I have been preaching
it. I know that the real reason
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that you were seeking these because you
ate bread and in your worldly mindset you
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thought that that was something special,
that that was going to crave your desire
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or that was going to satiate your
desires, and that that was going to
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bring about the type of kingdom that
you were looking for. Were and so
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Jesus Confronts Him. He goes right
to the root of their thinking and he
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teaches them in verse twenty seven.
He says do not Labor for the food
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that perishes, but for the food
that endures to eternal life, which the
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son of Man will give to you. There's so many things in this world
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that people go after, whether it's
politically, and we see, we saw
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just a few weeks ago in our
own nation, how, you know,
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hopes and dreams can be dashed.
You know, in the span of a
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couple of hours. You know somebody
who thinks their winning suddenly realizes that they're
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losing, and all that money,
always millions of dollars, poured into a
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campaign, are just up and smoke. But people who care about their their
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their food and their their ambitions and
their worldly their name and reputation, these
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things come in, these things go
and eventually, no matter how much they
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take care of their bodies, no
matter how well they feed themselves, their
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bodies wear out and die. and
Jesus says, I did not come to
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bring that kind of a kingdom,
a kingdom that you can understand in your
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worldliness, but a kingdom that will
eventually die like every other kingdom. Know,
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I came to bring a kingdom that
endures. I came to bring eternal
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life. And so Jesus says,
do not be distracted, for indeed,
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the the irony here is the whole
purpose of those miracles was to point away
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from the world and point to the
uniqueness of Jesus Ministry, that to point
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and substantiate what Jesus was saying,
as different as it was from how the
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way other kingdoms worked and the way
other politicians did their business. But Jesus
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says, this is what you should
have your your heart set on. This
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should be your priority, eternal life, not just tomorrow's bread. And this
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is something that the son of Man
will give you for on him, God,
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the father, has set his seal. So yes, Jesus is engaging
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in a bit of confrontation, but
he's also giving them good news. He's
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saying, folks, you need to
redirect your focus. But the reason you
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need to direct your focus is because
there are blessings that the Lord will give
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you, eternal blessings. You know
you're barking up the wrong tree if you
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just want what the world has to
offer. And so he tells them.
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Even God, the father, in
the highest of heavens, has set his
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seal on the son of man,
and they ask him in Verse Twenty Eight.
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What must we do to be doing
the works of God? See,
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they don't quite get it yet.
They, I don't think, even completely
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understand that the difference that Jesus is
bringing here when he talks about eternal things.
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Maybe in their mind they think of, you know, a bottomless basket
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of bread or something like that.
That, to them, would be eternal.
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Give me something that, you know, like the and at the well,
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so I don't have to keep coming
to this well to draw water.
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Give me something that will give me
a life of ease, give me something
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that will give me convenience. And
they think in a worldly way, like
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political kingdoms. What box do I
have to check? What foreign do I
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have to fill out to get on
this gravy train? You know, what
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do we have to do? They
ask Jesus to be doing the works of
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God, and Jesus answers them in
a way that once again steers them away
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from worldliness. He says this is
the work of God, that you believe
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in him, whom he has sent. This is fundamentally different than the advice
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that's your average political consultant or your
average financial planner would give you, although
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some financial planners might tell you just
to believe you needed to stay away from
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those ones. But but generally what
they will tell you is why you need
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to you need to be aggressive,
you need to be assertive, you need
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to go out and, you know, campaign or, you know, ingratiate
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yourself with a whoever's in power.
You know, send your lobbyists and money,
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try to get in their favor or
just work really hard to get an
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angle on the market and try to
outsmart other people. It's all about being
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stronger, being better, being faster, all those things. That's the way
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the world works. But Jesus points
into something totally different. He says it
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is by faith that is how they
will be connected to these eternal blessings that
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he is talking about, and faith
itself is something that is not of this
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world. Faith is something that,
at least this kind of faith, which
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looks away from what man can do
and trust in a God that man cannot
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see and in the kingdom which you
cannot understand according to the principles of this
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world, and a savior who will
come in his time, not your time,
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to save you. When Jesus tells
them, this is the work of
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God that you believe in, him. He's telling them here something that they,
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at least some of them, are
fundamentally not going to understand and not
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going to accept because it's too different. Free See, we as Christians,
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are called, when we are called, to live by faith, to live
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and to believe in a God that
we cannot see, that we know only
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because of what is told to us
in the word and which is spiritually discerned
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as well by the work of the
Holy Spirit. But that itself is something
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that is not worldly. Everything about
the Kingdom of God is different, and
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that is why Jesus has such difficulty
explaining to worldly people what it is all
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about, because it can't be interpreted
or understood or grasped by worldly criteria.
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You can't measure the Kingdom of God
the way you measure other kingdoms, but
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rather the way we enter into eternal
life is by relying on somebody else's work,
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by waiting for a savior to come
and redeem us, rather than US
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redeeming our self. It requires us
to do the opposite of ambition. It
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requires us to rest and humbly glory
in somebody else's works and boast in somebody
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else's righteousness and somebody else's accomplishments to
save us. It is something that is
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impossible for unregenerate man to do.
Jesus said it is easier for a camel
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to go through the eye of a
needle than for the wealthy in that case
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to enter the Kingdom of God.
But he also said what is impossible for
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man is possible for God. God
is the one who is able to do
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that heart surgery, to bring somebody
spiritually from death to life so that they
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can see the Kingdom of God and
they can believe in what they cannot see,
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what they're physicalized, but which they
can now see, what their spiritualize.
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God is the author and perfector of
faith. And so even as Jesus
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is telling them this, even as
he is telling them to believe, he
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knows that there are some, even
many, in as audience who are not
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going to accept us, who are
not in fact going to believe and follow
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him. In fact, what he
goes on to say is going to become
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so offensive that there's going to be
a mass exodus of of these groupies,
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these disciples, who are going to
turn away from following Jesus completely because they're
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so offended by what he says and
so many of them leave that Jesus even
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turns to the twelve and he says, are you also going to leave?
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When it's like a pastor who gets
up and just, you know, offends
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everybody, and you just see people
leaving the church never to come back,
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you know. And that's what's was
going on here. But Jesus was not
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bringing in a kingdom that would appeal
to groupies or to worldly people. He
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was not, in that sense,
seeker sensitive, but he was bringing in
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a totally different kind of kingdom.
Well, the proof that that their faith,
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many of them, is not that
strong is something that we see in
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verse thirty. Immediately they ask him
for a sign. Now these are the
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same people, of course, who
just saw him multiply those loaves, who
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were wanting to take him and make
him king by force because of the sign
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that they had already seen. But
before they will believe in him further,
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before they will believe the words that
he is now telling them, they want
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to see yet another sign and they
wanted to be a sign that once again,
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they can taste in, they can
touch and they can apprehend with their
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worldly faculties as earthly people. He
says, our fathers Ain't the man in
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the Wilderness, as it is written. He gave him bread from heaven to
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eat. They wanted more bread,
they wanted yet again, to fill their
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bellies. But Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to
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you, it was not Moses who
gave you the bread from heaven, but
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my father gives you the true bread
from heaven. Moses gave them something that
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could not give them eternal life.
They had to go out and collect man
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I every day, and all those
people who wandered around in the wilderness,
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except the two spies who were faithful, eventually died and their bodies were scattered
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around in the Wilderness. That manner
that they ate sustain them for a short
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period of time, but it did
not even come close to giving them eternity.
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Jesus says to them, Moses didn't
even give you this bread and that
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I'm talking about, but my father
gives you the true bread from heaven.
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Need the people were looking for something
that they could that they could get behind.
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I should mention that when Jesus had
multiplied bread and fishes for the crowds,
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it was right before Passover, which
for Israel, was kind of like
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their Independence Day, it was their
celebration of liberation from Egypt, and this,
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I think, is one of the
reasons why they tried to take him
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by force and make Jesus King,
because they saw that this power to make
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food was a very, very important
power indeed if you're going to be a
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king, if you're going to lead
a kingdom, especially if they were going
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to throw off the yoke of the
Roman Empire, which had been oppressing them.
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They would need food if they were
going to survive a siege from the
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Roman army. And so here's somebody
who can heal the sick, here's somebody
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that can give sight to the blind
and here's somebody who, for thousands,
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can multiply food out of nothing or
very small amount. They wanted to get
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behind this movement, they wanted this
bread that could bring political power and could
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bring freedom and could bring them a
life of health and wealth, and they
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were willing to give their allegiance to
Jesus for that end. But Jesus was
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not willing to accept that allegiance for
that end, but rather he pointed them
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to something that they could not accept, which was the bread of God.
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and Jesus says in Verse Thirty Three. The bread of God is he who
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comes down from heaven and gives life
to the world. They say, sir,
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give us this bread always, and
Jesus said to them, I am
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the bread of life. Whoever comes
to me shall not hunger and whoever believes
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in me shall never thirst. He's
not going to give them another worldly sign,
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he's not going to give them some
more manner that they can gather up
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from the ground, but he who
is standing in their midst, he whom
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they are looking at, is greater
than the manner which even Moses gave to
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them, is greater than the bread
that even he gave to them when they
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were on the other side of the
sea. For He who is the bread
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of life can give them eternal life, so they cannot hunger or will not
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have to hunger or thirst ever again, not in the way that we hunger
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and thirst as worldlings, but for
eternity, for he is the one who
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is able to conquer the the ultimate
human problem, the ultimate reason that death
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is in the world, and that
is sin, the reason that there are
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hardships, the reason that there are
famines and trials, the reason that's we
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fall and die is because of sin, because of our separation from God.
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That happened as a result of sin, and that is what Jesus came to
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bridge by the bread and drink of
his own body and blood, which is
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able to wipe away our sin and
unite us once again to God and reconcile
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us to our creator. And he
is able to give life to all of
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creation, just as he raised himself
up from the dead. But the promise
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is surer that we ourselves, who
trust in him, will also be raised
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up and this whole heavens and earth
will be recreated. There will be a
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new heavens and a new earth that
would be glorified because of what Jesus has
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done. This is so much better
than a political campaign. This is so
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much better then even an empire that
lasts for a thousand years. This is
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a new cosmos, this is something
that is fundamentally different, in new world
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order where, instead of ambition and
a rat race and death and pain,
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we have rest and glory and peace
and life. That is why Jesus was
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trying to steer their minds away from
worldly things. That is why he was
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willing even to offend them and even
to confront them because he knew that what
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he was bringing was so fundamentally better
than what they were trying to cling to.
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And that is the message of the
Gospel. Even today, we,
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as we study the word and as
we learn more and more about the Gospel
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and as we hear about it in
church, our flesh is bound to be
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disappointed with what we hear about,
just as these people were disappointed, no
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doubt, in what Jesus was preaching. They wanted political glory, they wanted
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earthly glory, they wanted health and
wealth and prosperity, something that they could
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appre and with their flesh lead senses, and Jesus no doubt disappointed them.
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And so as well, people today, who think only with their flesh,
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will be disappointed with the word of
the Gospel, but beloved nevertheless. We
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have good news to preach and we
have good news to believe in, because
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we have something better than what our
flesh can apprehend. We have eternal life,
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and that is something beloved that we
can participate in and taste even now.
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That bread, that living water,
that living bread, is something that
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gives us life, even in this
world, even though we are pilgrims in
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this world, even though we were
waiting for a Christ to come again and
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bring that new heavens and earth.
Even a while we walk in this present
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world, we can still bear the
fruit of the Holy Spirit. We can
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still know that we are a new
creation, that we have new life within
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us, that we are born again, that we are not slaves to the
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principles of this world, but the
through the work of the Holy Spirit,
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we have been made anew. There
we have been renewed, that we have
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died to sin and are alive in
Christ that is something that we can taste
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and see and know is real even
now, and for us who believe,
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this is what we are called more
and more to cherish and more and more
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to prioritize, even as Jesus said, seek ye first, the Kingdom of
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God, and all these other things, you know, your food, you're
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clothing, all the other things you
worry about, these will be added to
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you because, yes, here father
knows that you need them, he knows
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that you need health, he knows
that you need food. You know,
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we even pray in the Lord's prayer, give us this day our daily bread.
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That's talking about temporal bread, but
we also know that is Christians once
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this body wears out once we die. We have something so much better that
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is even now within us, and
this jars of clay, the new life
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that we experience spiritually, but we
know we will experience physically at the resurrection.
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And so this is something that we
can rejoice in and it is something
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that we can cherish and prioritize it
and make the very thing that we that
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we prize the most, and it
is something we should do. But this
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also takes some continued wrestling with the
flesh, because it is still the case
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that the Kingdom of God cannot be
understood with fleshly means, and so sometimes
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it's difficult to understand the fullness of
our salvation. Is Difficult to see it,
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especially when we watch the news and
we see so many bad things is
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happening in our world, or we
look at our bodies falling apart and we
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may not understand what God is doing, we may not understand his plans and
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it may be frustrating when we wrestle
with our own sins, it may be
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frustrating, but what God has given
to us is a way that we can
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apprehend this very different kingdom, and
that is the word of God. The
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more we study the word of God, the more we study the Gospel.
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That is how we will be able
to gradually perceive and understand the dimensions of
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his kingdom. We will be able
to know what it means to be part
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of his kingdom will be able to
understand the newness of life that he is
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given to us. For, as
I said before, his kingdom is not
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measured the same way other kingdoms are, in terms of how many nuclear missiles
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and nation has, or how strong
their currency is or how healthy their citizens
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are or how much money they have
or anything else like that. That means
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nothing to the Kingdom of God.
But the things that are important in the
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Kingdom of God are things that we
find in his word. The treasure and
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the inheritance that is reserved for us
in Heaven, the glory that that Christ
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earned by his righteousness and the fact
that he is seated with on the right
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hand of God, the father,
the sending of the Holy Spirit that empowers
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us and that causes us to bear
the fruit of righteousness, all of these
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things are our treasures and the fact
that it is his strength, not ours,
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that we glory in and boast and
is our wealth. And so,
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beloved I would exhort you, as
Christians, for those who already believe,
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for those who already are following Jesus, to continue to study the word so
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that we can continue to grow,
so that we can see more and more
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clearly, because we still walk with
the eyes of faith, that we can
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see more and more clearly what God's
kingdom is all about, for it is
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the word of God that will sanctify
us, just as it was the word
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of God that saved us in the
first place, just as the Gospel is
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brought to us here for our justification, that Same Gospel in the word will
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strengthen us and cause us to grow. And so let us do that.
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As we continue as pilgrims in this
world, as we continue to face people
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who do not share our priorities,
and as we continue to wrestle with our
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own flesh, let us keep coming
back again and again to that fount,
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knowing that the Lord God will never
attire or slacken in his power, but
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that that life that he has earned
is secure for eternity, and that life
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is the life that he gives to
us through his spirit. Let us pray
