Episode Transcript
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I think you have one of the
best pastors in the OPC, let alone
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our presbytery. So just very thankful
to be here. Yes, yes,
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well, brothers and sisters, friends, would you stand with me for the
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prayer of illumination and then, afterwards, the reading of God's word? Let's
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go to the Lord in prayer.
Our Father, we come to you this
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morning not taking for granted that,
when we hear your word read, and
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particularly as we hear it preach to
us, that this is a spiritual act
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of worship in which, by faith, we receive all that you give to
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us, that when you speak,
you send out your word from heaven itself,
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through the pages of Scripture and through
your servant, that your word would
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go forth and it would not return
unto you, void, without accomplishing all
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that you ordain it. Lord,
would you call sinners to be born again?
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Would you convict us of our sins? Would you remind us of what
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Jesus has done for us in the
Gospel, and would you then lead us
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that we might walk in newness of
life? Lord, bless the Reading and
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preaching of your word. Bless your
people this morning, may be profitable to
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their souls. On this wondrous occasion
of the ordination of deacons. We ask
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all these things in Jesus precious name
a man. Here now the reading of
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God's word, beginning in Martin,
in in Verse Twenty Five of Chapter Twenty,
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from Verses Twenty five to twenty eight. And this is the Little Section
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in the Gospel where where the where
James and Peter, James and John's mother
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is advocating for for her son's to
to sit at Jesus's right and left side.
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And this is Jesus reply to her. Here now, the reading of
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God's word. But Jesus called to
them, to him and said, you
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know that the rulers of the gentiles
Lord it over them and they're great ones,
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exercise authority over them. It shall
not be so among you. But
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whoever would be great among you must
be your servant, and whoever would be
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first among you must be your slave, even as the son of man came
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not to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom
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for many. The grass withers in
the flower fades, but the word of
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our God stands forever. You may
be seated. It is my great pleasure
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to bring you God's word this morning
on this occasion the that Dack in it
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is not the most glamorous of offices. I was talking about that with somebody
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earlier this morning. And because of
the nature of the work working with those
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who are poor and needy, those
who have various needs that are sensitive in
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nature, it is by nature kind
of held back. It's not trumpeted,
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it's not the most glamorous of church
offices and in addition to that, I
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think it's because we normally think of
leadership and power as high and exalted and
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we think of regular, everyday service, a cup of cold water if somebody
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needs some money, to give them
some in their need, or even providing
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them a place to to stay if
they're if they're unable to make rent or
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whatever their case may be, in
their poverty or in their need. We
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think of service this everyday kind of
temporal need service. We think of it
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as Lower and lesser. But if
God's kingdom, as we've seen throughout the
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gospels, is an upside down kingdom
that overturns the values of this world and
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reminds us of the values of grace
and the Kingdom of Heaven and of God,
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then it is the service of diaconal
ministry that manifests the kingdom, the
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nature of the Kingdom of God,
that it manifests kingdom leadership in a way
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that the other office offices of the
church, the other jobs in the church,
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do not and cannot. It manifests
the glory of Christ in a way
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that that ministers and elders cannot.
And this is what I want us to
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consider this morning, on this occasion, as we look at our passage,
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that, when the World Thinks of
glory as a high and exalted power to
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be served, Jesus came to show
us a different kind of glory, a
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hidden glory, a Kingdom Glory,
a Gospel Glory, who came not to
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be served but to serve and to
give his life as a ransom for many.
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This is the nature of diaconal ministry, not just for the officers,
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but for each and every one of
you. If Jesus has redeemed you in
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body and soul, then the Lord
calls us to love one another as he
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loved us, both in body and
in soul. So this morning I want
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to look at the glory of Christian
Service, hidden in the glory of Christ
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Service for us in the Gospel.
So let's see what that means. Let's
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see what that looks like. First
we see glory of Jesus's Humble Service.
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Jesus is explaining the character of his
kingdom and his kingship and he's responding to
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a fundamental misunderstanding of that kingship by
James and John's mother. Right. She,
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she, she's the one who who's
advocating and maybe you know, some
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of US know mothers who are very
pushy and and you know I mean there's
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reality shows named after moms who are
are really advocating to the point of being
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pushy for their kids. And James
and John's mothers is not out of the
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ordinary. And she's talking to Jesus. Jesus, you know my son's can
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they be on your right and left
hand? Can you live up? Can
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you elevate them in leadership and in
honor above the rest? You know my
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son's and in Jesus rebukes her in
his kind and gentle way as he could,
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and and tells her, yeah,
exactly what that means, of what
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she's asking for. And as a
part of his overall answer to address this
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misunderstanding, he gives us this short
and most beautiful definition of the glory of
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serve us and so so she so
he tells so Jesus tells her what his
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kingdom is all about and what it
means to sit at his sides, his
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left and right sides, and it's
not way to expect. It's not what
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she expected. I'm sure he came
down from heaven and he humbled himself.
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That's what that's the that's what it
means that at the first part here,
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look at Verse Twenty Eight, even
as the son of man came right.
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How did he come? He came
down from heaven, and this is kind
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of why we celebrate advent before,
or we consider advent before Christmas, in
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preparation for his coming. This is
what is coming in tails is what it's
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coming brings to us, and it's
a reference then to his divine and human
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nature. The son of man prophesied
through visions in the book of Daniel.
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He is the one, like the
son of man in human form, who
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receives from God, the ancient of
days, all authority and power. And
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here we have a reference then to
the incarnation, in the coming down,
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of the son of God, who
took upon himself our human nature, our
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weakness, our frailty and became a
son of man, and this is the
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heart of why he came down,
not in power or in glory to exercise
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Lordship, but in humility and service, in weakness. This is the mystery
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of all mysteries, that God,
the son, who sat atop the highest
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of heavens and the highest throne,
the king of kings and Lord of Lords,
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came down, came down and humbled
himself. He who was clothed in
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Majesty and in Glory, condescended down, down, down to become one of
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us, me and lowly, poor
and needy. Service is by its very
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nature a coming down, a condescension
of love, patterned after this very divine
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act, patterned after Christ incarnate love
for you and for me. He also
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came down and in Humble Lordship,
not human leadership. Jesus can trast his
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kingship over the prevailing notion of kingship
in that day, even to this day,
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you know that the rulers of the
gentiles Lord it over them and they're
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great ones exercise authority over them.
This is how the rest of the world
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considers kingship, leadership, how everyone
else sees what it means to be a
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leader. It's a matter of exercising
power, Lording it over them, exercising
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power and authority over them. But
that is not what Christian leadership is about.
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Look at Verse Twenty Six. With
me, it shall not be so
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among you. He goes on to
describe the upside down, countercultural character of
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this kingdom. But whoever would be
great among you must be your servant,
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and whoever would be first among you
must be your slave. Do you see
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that? When the prevailing notion of
leadership is exercising power over others, Christ
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kingship is turns that upside down.
That leadership is serving and serving his leadership.
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It means that the last and the
least shall be the greatest and the
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first, and the greatest and the
first shall be the last and the least.
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If you want to be great,
if you want to be great in
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the Kingdom of Heaven, you must
humble yourself and be the least. If
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you want to be first, you
must stoop down low and be last.
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We also see the glory of his
self sacrificial service. Jesus addresses a a
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secondman misunderstanding by his disciples. He
gives us the sacrificial nature of his kingship.
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Right. It's not just to condescend
and to serve and to be last,
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but it is to sacrifice. You
see, the prevailing notion of kingship
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is that everyone lives to serve the
king. It is a me centered approach
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to life, not the other way
around. See, this is the picture
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of what we see throughout humans history
and and this is this is the way
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in which you can gage the worldliness, that the the fallenness of the institutions
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and organizations in the world, that
whoever rules over a people is where the
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people serve the ruler. The people, the servants, sacrifice their lives for
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the sake of the king. They
pay taxes to Phill his coffers, they
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live on his land and give them
a portion of their produce. They live
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to serve the king. But that's
not what Jesus is kingship and kingdom is
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about. It's a different kind of
service, a different kind of sacrifice.
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Again, it's an upside down ethics
of life in the Kingdom. And what
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does that look like? What does
it mean? Than for this this upside
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down kingdom, the this kingdom life
in which Jesus came not to be served
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but to serve. He came not
to be served. Right, he's he
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is king, but but the way
that the kingdom works is that the people
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don't live to serve him in the
way that rulers of this world serve them.
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He he's overturning what it means to
be a king who doesn't Lord it
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over as people, but loves them
by serving them. Look at what he
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says. They're whoever, he says, whoever would be great among you,
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must be your servants. The language
of being great, right of being great,
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is the language of kingship here,
and so he's turning everything we think
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about the nature of leadership and power
and turning it on its head. This
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disciple still don't get it. They
think Jesus came to be like all other
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kings and rulers of this world.
They think he came to exercise his power
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to kick the Romans out and restore
the glory of Israel, as in the
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days of David Solomon. No,
he came to be a completely different type
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of king. He came to usher
in a totally different kind of kingdom that
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is not of this world. John
One thousand eight hundred and thirty six.
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He came to be great by becoming
least, to be first, by becoming
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last. He came to be sovereign
over all by becoming servant of all.
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He came not to be served but
to serve and to give his life,
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to give his life. That's that's
part of the sacrifice here. This is
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the nature of his kingship. Instead
of his subject serving him, he came
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to serve his subjects. This is
important because when we think of service,
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we think of something commercial or transactional. We think of service as a kind
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of works. If you will right, you do this for me, then
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I will do this for you,
or vice versa. Right, you scratch
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my back, I scratch yours.
You helped me, now I'll help you.
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Gospel Service means providing for someone in
their need by grace, as a
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totally and completely free gift of love. Maybe one of the ways in which
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we exemplify this idea sometimes, and
we kind of sneak in an idea of
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of of obligation and works and duty, is that you know, if you
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go out for coffee with a friend
and and they decide to buy you a
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nice, big large Mocha Frappuccino from
starbucks that you know and not che it's
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way over over price, I think. And and you know that the person
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you know has has to. You
know they're not rich, and so you
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feel bad that they bought you one, including one for themselves, and you
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say, you know what, I'll
get you next time. You know when
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the person wanted to just share a
free gift of love for you. And
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I think we think of service in
that transactional way. If someone cares for
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you, you think, well,
I owe them, and then it becomes
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the Kingdom of Heaven is absolutely not
like that. Gospel Ministry and Service is
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absolutely not like that because it is
a free gift of God's grace and love
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to you and to me, and
it began with Jesus as gift and service
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to us. You know, one
of the mindsets that I think we have
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as churches is that, you know, this idea of this transactional commercial approach
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to service applied to churches is when
people walk into church, what are some
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of the first things that people ask
about a church? Right? What can
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what can this church provide for me? How is their child cares there?
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It does. Isn't it a full
service church. Will they change my oil
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while I'm in while I'm in service? Will they fill up my gas tank?
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And there are churches like that,
and I don't mean to to grade
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honest ministries that try to minister to
people in their need. All I'm trying
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to say here is that if you
come to church wondering how they can serve
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you, right, then it then
then you know. Then it is a
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transactional ministry. But but how about
a few came and you said, how
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can I serve people in their need? Here? There are people who need
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my gifts. How can I help
them? There are people here who need
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my help. How can I help
them? In the Gospel, what Jesus
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says here ought to be how we
ought to approach ministry in the Church,
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in this church and in every church, that I came not to be served
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but to serve and to give my
life for the blessing of others. Right
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Consumerism, for example, right kind
of that? Other mindset is I came
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not to serve but to be served
for others, so that others can give
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their lives for me. Do you
see that? There's there's a completely different
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mindset. So my question to you
this morning is which one describes you,
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which approach describes you? Have you
come this morning to be served or to
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serve like Jesus did? Are You
living as as a Christ centered servant for
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others or as a self centered Lord
to be served by others? The way
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we turn from a consumer to a
Christ centered her is to serve, to
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remember what Jesus has done for you
and then to turn around and to do
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that for others. Right, there's
a lot of different aspects. When Jesus
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loved one another, just as I
have loved you. What does that look
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like? Service, and this is
what deacons do in their special office and
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calling, and I'm so privileged to
be here to witness that ordination. But
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this is what also every Christian is
is, is also called to do,
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and that deacons in their special office, help administer and organize the whole church
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to serve one another. Right,
it's not sometimes. It's sometimes, and
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I've heard this from other deacons,
it sometimes they ordained, there ordained and
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then all of a sudden the rest
of Churchi okay, now you go ahead
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and do it, you do it
for us. I can just sit back
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and just give my money, but
not my time, not my energy,
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not my resources. That's what you're
there for. No, friends, brothers
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and sisters, the deacons are here
to help you serve one another, and
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they do it themselves directly. Right, but, but there is no office
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of Professional Deacon so that you can
sit back and do nothing. So this
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is a this is a call for
all of you to help the deacons do
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what they're supposed to do as a
ministry of this church, as a service
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to this church. And this brings
us, then, to my last point.
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We not only see the glory of
his humble and self sacrificial service,
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but we see the glory of his
cell, of his substitutionary service to his
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people. And what is that?
This brings us to the question of how
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does Jesus actually give his life in
service for others? He gave it as
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is, as a substitutionary act of
service for you and for me. Again,
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service is not service if we do
not substitute ourselves for others. See,
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this is the heart of service.
And let think about it. If
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someone could do something for themselves,
they would not need you to serve them,
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they would not need your help,
they would not need your resources.
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It is precisely because they cannot do
it themselves that they need to see they
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need you to substitute yourself for them
and to do it in their place.
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That's what it means to serve others. I mean serving the place of others
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when they can't or won't do it
for themselves. You know, at my
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church in Long Beach we had they
went to be at the Lord. Rob
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and Melva a long time, long
time members of our church and Melva was
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stricken with a viral infection early in
her life in their marriage to where she
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became a quadriplegic for for her the
last thirty, forty years of their marriage
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together, their lives together, and
when I first came we had a senior
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lunch where all the the elderly folks
in our church would all have a meal
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together and we would minister to each
other and she couldn't use her hands or
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her feet and rob makes me think
about what a beautiful picture was and how
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much I loved them. Rob would
he would go and he was elderly himself.
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He would go to the buffet line
and he would get all the food
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that that that melva loved. Then
he would come over. He would come
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over and he would cut each little
piece and he would put it. He
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would, you know, put it
on the spoon of the fork and he
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would feed her in right into her
mouth, because she can use her hands.
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He became her hands when she couldn't
walk, he walked for her.
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He did everything for her and he
substituted himself for her because he could never
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eat himself, because she had to. He needed to feed her. And
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so we all know this kind of
substitutionary love and service in our lives and
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it is a manifestation of Jesus's love
for you and for me. He sacrificed
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his life so that we could live
ours, and that's what service is,
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that's what Gospel Service in the Kingdom
of God is, the sacrifice your own
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life, your own comfort, your
own time and energy and resources for the
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blessing and benefit of others, so
that others could live their life. He
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also gave it as a substitutionary sacrifice
for us. Look at the end of
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Verse Twenty Eight. Here he gives
his life as a ransom for many.
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Right in the Bible, a ransom
was a price that was paid to set
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a slave free. Night. So
if you are a slave, someone else
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had to pay a ransom to set
you free, and this is why he
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came into the world, to be
the son of man, not to be
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served, but to serve, and
he came to give us the supreme sacrifice
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of his own service, climaxing in
his own life. He came to be
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a ransom price for you and me, to set us free. He paid
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the price for us by substituting himself
in our place, and this is why
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the son of God came, became
a man, to take our place and
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pay our ransom for the many who
would come to put their faith in him.
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This is the glory of his humble
service and self sacrifice that saves us
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from the just wrath that we deserve
for our sins. He came to sacrifice
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and substitute himself to do what we
could not do, to live a perfect,
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righteous life in obedience to God,
to live a sinless life without spot
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or blemish, and to pay the
penalty and the punishment in the wrath that
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we deserved, and to rise from
the dead as a reward and as a
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blessing to save us from eternal life
to eternal from eternal death to eternal life.
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He came as a ransom for you
and for me. Isn't this a
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King Worthy of your faith? Isn't
this isn't isn't he worthy of your loyalty
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and service? When was the last
time that a king laid down his life
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for his subjects, laid down his
life, let alone for you? I
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know King has never done that for
me, except for Jesus. This is
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the glory of Christian service that Jesus
calls us to today. If he has
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so loved us, friends, brothers
and sisters, then let us love one
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another in the very same way.
Let us serve one another as he served
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us. Let us give our lives
as an act of substitutionary love and service
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for the blessing of one another.
Deacons, this is how you are ambassadors
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to everyone around you. You're not
an afterthought or a lesser office, but
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you are, in my opinion,
servants of Christ to the church into the
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world, and it is a glorious
office. I think if you if you
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apply the upside down nature of the
Kingdom of God in the life of the
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church, the deacons ought to have
all the glory on Judgment Day when everything
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is revealed. I think the hidden
members of the body Paul says in First
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Corinthians thirteen are the most important.
I think on Judgment Day, when everything
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is revealed, I will have done
wonderful things for the kingdom and and and
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and I'm looking forward to all the
people who who were converted under my ministry,
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all the people who are saved under
my ministry, all the people who
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have struggled but one the victory over
their sins through my ministry, and those
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who are faithful even unto death,
through my ministry. And I can see
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them, I can welcome them and
I I'm looking forward to seeing that.
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But I also think that one day, when the Deacons Ministry is revealed,
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I think it will be far larger
of an impact as a way to humble
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the more, the more or upfront
public servants of the ministry. Jesus came
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not to be Sir but to serve, to give his life for the many,
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and this is what all of what
God calls all of you to do
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as well. All of you,
the reason why diachyl ministry has such a
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special place in my heart and in
my life I want to share with you
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before we close. So my father, soon after the Korean War, ran
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away from home because he it was
the one of the most impoverished areas of
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Korea postwar, Korean War Korea.
He ran away from home and lived in
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the city, on the streets,
trying to put himself through through a middle
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school, in high school at the
age of thirteen. And he was on
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the streets, eating, begging,
digging through trash, the leftovers in front
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of a restaurant so that he could
eat in a Christian family. A Christian
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family brought him in, fed him, clothed him, housed him, even
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adopted him in a sense, treated
him as their very own son. And
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they did it because they loved Jesus. They did it because they knew what
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it meant to be saved both in
body and soul, and would Jesus done
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for them. And it is that
sacrificial love and service of diaconal ministry to
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my father outside of the Church that
brought him into the church to where he
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heard the Gospel, repented and put
his faith in Jesus Christ. And I
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stand before you here today as the
son of a Christian through that diaconal Ministry
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of the Gospel. So, friends, brothers and sisters, what a wonderful,
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glorious thing it is to serve the
poor and the needy among you and
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outside in the community, do so
in the spirit of Christ. Why?
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Because he came not to be served
but to serve and to give his life
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as a ransom for you. Let
us now go and do the same.
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Amen. Let's pray together. Our
Father, we thank you. We thank
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you for this wonderful truth of what
Jesus done for us. Lord help us
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then to do that, to express
that same manifest that seeing love, that
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Gospel Love, through the diaconal Ministry
of this church here. Bless us this
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morning write those truths and imprint them
into our hearts. In his name,
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we pray. Amen.
