Episode Transcript
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Brothers and sisters, let's turn our
attention to John Chapter Seventeen. You're continuing
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to hear God's Word from this chapter
and to consider what Jesus is telling us
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in it. John Chapter Seventeen.
This morning I'm going to read verses six
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through six through fourteen. Fourteen.
Let us give our attention to God's word.
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I have manifested your name to the
people whom you gave me out of
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the world. Yours they were,
and you gave them to me, and
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they have kept your word. Now
they know everything that you have given me
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is from you, for I have
given them the words that you gave me
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and they have received them and have
come to know in truth that I came
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from you, and they have believed
that you sent me. I am praying
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for them. I am not praying
for the world, but for those whom
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you have given me, for they
are yours. All Mine Are Yours and
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yours are mine, and I am
glorified in them. I am no longer
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in the world, but they are
in the world and I am coming to
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you, Holy Father, keep them
in your name, which you have given
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me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While
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I was with them. I kept
them in your name which you have given
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me. I have guarded them and
not one of them has been lost,
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except the son of destruction, that
the scripture might be fulfilled. But now
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I am coming to you and these
things I speak in the world that they
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may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Praise God. Well, as we
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have considered before, both in this
chapter and in previous chapters, this night
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and which Jesus is giving these words
to his disciples and in this prayer in
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which he praised to his father,
we are being prepared to understand the meaning
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of his death, the meaning of
his resurrection, the meaning of his life,
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even now, as he sits and
reigns at the hand the right hand
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of God, the Father, Almighty
Jesus gives us these words in this prayer
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that he prays to his father to
help us to understand him, to help
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us to understand our place in this
world. He says, for example,
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ample that he is praying for us. He is not praying for those who
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are in the world, he is
praying particularly for those whom the father has
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given him. He helps us to
understand that mission that he is on.
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He comes into the world because of
those whom the father has given him and
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he has is asking the father would
keep them, even though he is leaving.
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All of these things help to encourage
us, and encouragement we definitely need,
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because, though Jesus has left us
in this world and he has not
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left us alone, the world is
is hard, the world is difficult,
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it's full of disunity and trouble,
and we feel this Jesus is departure from
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the world might leave us thinking that
we are perhaps going to be alone,
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alone, away from him, alone
in a way, that the center is
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missing, that things will fall apart. And we know that God has not
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man met made man mankind to be
alone. God has made us to live
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our lives in him, following him
and in communion with each other under him.
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God has designed each and every one
of us to have fellowship in this
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vertical way with the Lord and in
a horizon mountal way with people under him.
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In this kind of fellowship with God
and with one another, we find
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coherence and happiness, joy and peace. But now the the Lord that is
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at the center of those things,
that's at the top of that triangle,
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Jesus is leaving. He says,
I am leaving that's why we say he's
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leading. He says I am leaving, I I'm going away, and where
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I'm going you cannot follow. How
can we follow him if he's not here?
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How can we be one with one
another? How can we have fellowship
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with God if the one whom we
have been called to follow after is no
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longer with us? How can we
be together without him? These are questions
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that we might have in their questions
that we experience as we feel the troubles
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and the trials of this life.
And Satan whispers as our ear and says
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he's left you, you're by yourself, you're all alone. He lies to
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us and says you're going to have
to figure this out. It's up to
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you now. But God made man
for this reason. Our chief end is
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to glorify him and enjoy him forever, and Jesus comes in the world to
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save a people, to lift them
up to that purpose. And God has
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not failed and God has not left
us alone, and these words that Jesus
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gives to us are to help us
to understand that and to remember it so
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that we might have joy, even
his joy. Notice the verse that I
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ended reading where he says I am
come thirteen, he says, I am
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coming to you and these things I
speak in the world that they might have
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my joy fulfilled in themselves. And
this weary old world, it is easy
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to lose our joy, is easy
to give up and to lose hard and
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to get really down, and of
course that's very reasonable that that happens.
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But the Lord he sets before us
this promise, a promise that I'm not
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making up or just giving you platitudes, I'm just reading it from his word,
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that the joy that belongs to Jesus
might be fulfilled in you. That's
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his promise, that's what he says. What an amazing thing that is,
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and he brings that to us,
as he says, by telling us the
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things that we have here and and
other places as well. Want to think
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about those two things, those two
categories. First briefly, what do we
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mean when we're talking about joy?
And then, secondly, what are those
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things that he's telling us to give
us that joy? And I hope that
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in hearing these things, the Lord's
will might be done and that you might
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be encouraged and have the joy of
Jesus. In thinking about joy, we
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remember that this is an important thing
that he's been emphasizing a lot. In
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the last chapter, he said in
a verse twenty you will be sorrowful,
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but your sorrow will turn into joy. In Verse Twenty Two he says,
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you have sorrow now, but I
will again see you and your hearts will
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rejoice and no one will take your
joy from you. And here in our
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passage, Jesus gives more reasons that
we have to be joyful. What is
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joy? A quite as fine defines
joy as the emotion of having attained something
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good, the emotion of having attained
something good, and that definition to me
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seems just just perfect. Joy is
a happiness of completion or satisfaction of having
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something on that is a good thing. Joy is a settledness. It's different
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from hope in this way. Hope
looks forward to something that will be attained
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in the future. Joy Arrests and
celebrates in something that has been attained now,
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of course, and all the good
things of the Lord, these things
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interlink, and so we can have
joy and hope, all right, especially
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hope that God gives, because the
hope that God gives is so certain that
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it is as if we have already
attained it, and in some ways we
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already have, and so there is
overlapping these things. But joy and particulars
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this having attained something good, even
something good like hope. So then,
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in light of that, consider what
Jesus is saying. He's saying I want
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you to have my joy. I
want you to have in yourself the fulfillment
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of my joy, in other words
the the feeling and the emotion that Jesus
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has of having attained all good things. He wants you to have that fulfilled
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in yourself. That's quite a thing
to say. Advertisers every day promise us
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all kinds of good things. Will
do this if all my plan, take
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my course, read my book and
you will attain this good thing. Right.
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We get excited and we're thankful and
maybe in ways we get a measure
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of those things and we have some
happiness from that, but nothing compares to
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the joy that Jesus has in himself, Jesus who has every good thing perfectly,
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completely and without any evil attached.
That's quite a joy. Jesus who
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has received the Kingship, the glorified
body of the Resurrection, who now rules
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and power and authority and the heavenly
places, who is surrounded by angels,
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singing his praise. Betty has joy
filled with happiness and pleasure, the satisfaction
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of having all good things. That's
what Jesus has and that's what Jesus wants
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us to have, not a joy
in ourselves as he has it in himself
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as God, but his joy in
ourselves. That's what he says again,
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third verse thirteen. I'm coming to
you, and these things I speak in
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the world that they may have my
joy fulfilled in themselves. What an amazing
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thing to consider and to ponder what
he is accomplishing here. This, I
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hope, adds another level and another
layer for you of what it means when
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Jesus says something like I say these
things that you might have eternal life.
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I say these things that you might
have victory. I say these things that
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you might have a peace. This
life, this abundant life that God gives
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to us in Christ is in part
described in this way the joy of the
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Lord being fulfilled in us. So
this is the promise that he gives.
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What are the things, then,
that he says that bring us to that
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joy, that give us that joy? Well, I want to point out
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three of the most important things that
we have in this passage. I'll list
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them here and then we'll go through
them each briefly. The first is because
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the father has given us to the
son. This is one reason we have
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this joy and this is one reason
we have, in particular, the joy
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of unity and fellowship with God and
with one another, because the father has
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given us to the son. Number
two is because the father has given us
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his word and life. In the
son, Jesus speaks things to us,
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the things that he has been given. Then and then number three, because
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the father has kept us in his
name, through his name. So the
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first one, because the father gave
us to the son. How does US
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relate to this joy and this joy
of fellowship and satisfaction and unity and all
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of these things that are swirling around
us in this passage? Because the father
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gave us to the son. We
know that this is an important reason.
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We know a for securing our joy
in fellowship, because Jesus says it a
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lot. Let me start with verse
six. Notice how he says I have
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manifested your name to the people whom
you gave me out of this world,
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whom you gave me yours. They
were and you gave them to me.
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So he says this in verse six
twice. He says it again in verse
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seven, in Verse Nine, in
Verse Ten, in Verse Eleven and in
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Verse Twelve. In almost every single
verse in this passage, sometimes multiple times
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in a verse, he talks about
those whom the father has given him.
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He wants you to know that your
joy might be fulfilled. He wants you
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to know this. You have been
given to him by the father. A
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lot of people would be pretty excited
if they got a call from their bank,
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let's say around Christmas time, and
their bank said, hey, guess
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what, we're so glad you're a
customer here. We have had a banner
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year. We've chosen a few people
to just give a thousand dollars to,
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no strings attached. Wouldn't it be
awesome to be chosen and be a part
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of that group? If that's exciting, if the mere thought of that is
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exciting, a thought of something that, of course, will never happen to
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any of us, be excited about
this that the father, that God,
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the father, has chosen you and
given you to the son that he might
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give you everything, not a thousand
dollars. That'll sure be helpful for a
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month pass away, but eternal life, joy filled life, resurrection life,
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heavenly life, communal life with one
another, no more biggering and fighting and
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arguing, and you did this and
you did that, and why are you
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hurting me? And I don't want
to just peace, total peace with one
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another, own with God. This
is what he gives to us. The
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father says, I choose you for
these gifts, whom you have given me,
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whom you have given me, whom
you have given me. All the
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things that Jesus does, the things
that we've been reading about, the things
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that he says, is mere racles, are done for the people whom God
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has given him. And if you
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you
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are one of those people because,
as he tells us later on, one
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of the things that he does is
he causes these people to believe, he
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gives them faith so that they might
actually attain these promises, attain this joy,
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attain this unity. In giving us
the Sun, God has chosen us
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out of the world to give us
this joy that he has in his cell,
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in himself. In other words,
our salvation, our joy, our
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unity, is found in the fellowship
of God himself, in the Fellowship and
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Union between the father and the son. We could add the Holy Spirit to
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from other passages. He's not mentioned
directly here, but he has been elsewhere,
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even recently. As Jesus is said, our union with one another,
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our joy, our fellowship, our
life is intimately tied, is perfectly tied,
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completely tied to the Union that the
Triune God has within himself. Right
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there. It is hard to express
these things, but this is why we
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call it inexpressible joy. Praise God. It's also reminds us that nothing can
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be more secure. Your salvation is
a hundred percent secure. Its Foundation is
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not in your good works, your
family history, your wealth, your education,
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your looks, your skills, nothing, all of which come up in
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major ways. Lacking, lacking,
lacking all the time, lacking. We
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find ourselves not needing the things that
we need to attain the perfectly good things,
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but God gives them freely to you. And the joy of your self,
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valuation rests entirely in that, not
in yourself, but in the father
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giving you, giving you, choosing
you in the sun and to the sun.
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The joy that you have is not
a secret, guilty pleasure, not
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that any of you do this,
but perhaps hiding in the pantry eating some
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chocolate. It is not trying to
simply grab a little something for yourself to
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kind of get you through the next
hour. The joy that you have is
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the joy of the Lord, given
to you from all, from all eternity,
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for all eternity, fulfilling all things. It is not stolen, is
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not done in secret, it is
not momentary. It is all for you
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and from God. The second reason
that Jesus says our joy is secure in
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the fellowship of the Lord is that
because we have these words given to us
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in the Sun. Verse six,
Jesus says, I have manifested your name,
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to the ones whom you have given
me, I have manifested your name.
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This is his mission, this is
his work, to make the father
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known. And if you've been with
us going through these passes, is passages
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in John you've heard that over and
over and over again. This is central
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to Jesus mission to make God known. This is why theology, the knowledge
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of God, is so important.
To Know God is essential for salvation.
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I have manifested your name, he
has made it known. Verse Seven.
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Now that they know, now that
they know that everything that you have given
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is from you, or that everything
you have given me is from you.
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This is another thing Jesus wants us
to know. He's telling us these things,
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things which reveal that they have been
given to him from the father,
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or verse eight, for I have
given them the words that you have given
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me and they have received them and
they have come to know the truth that
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I came from you. I apologize
for not yet having a very I feel
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like I don't yet have a very
clear way of expressing these things, but
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I'm hoping that if I just keep
throwing them against the wall as something will
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stick. The Lord is trying to
tell us that that he that he has
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been given this mission to speak these
words, but the words that he speaks
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are itself about the mission that he
has been given to speak. He is
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he is revealing himself, he is
revealing the father, and as he does
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that, it's just it's a circle
of revelation. He keeps just giving and
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giving more and more at the deepest
levels, at the deepest levels, the
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father has given revelation to the son. That's why we have these gospels,
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that's why we have the New Testament, that's why we have the Old Testament,
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because God desires to make himself known
in the Sun. That's why I
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began the sermon today by saying something
like these are the words that Jesus is
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telling us. This is what he
wants you to know, because that's his
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mission. That's why we have this
this these things help us to understand more
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of what Jesus is saying about the
father. Maybe I could put it this
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way. If you think about Jesus
and what he says, is this way.
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It's a two step plan. Step
One, God gave us to the
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son. Step to the Sun reveals
that truth to us that we would believe
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him and be saved. He reveals
the truth that we have been given to.
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The father has given us in the
son and to the son. And
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when we believe that, when we
trust in the Lord, when we trust
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in His grace, we find our
salvation. This is important to remember when
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it comes to joy, because when
life gets you down, or to quote
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the him and sorrows like sea billows
roll, what teaches you to say?
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Whatever my lot, God has taught
me to say, it is well,
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it is well with my soul.
What gets to that place of steadiness,
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of being okay even though it's not
okay? What gets us to that place
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is hearing the words of Jesus,
remembering the words of Jesus and knowing that
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they are true, that the father
has given us, or has given given
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the son this people. He's given
us to the sun, and the Sun
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has brought about our salvation. What
calms our souls, what gives us joy,
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is that the words that the son
speaks are true, that Jesus is
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not just another teacher, he's not
just another prophet, he's not just another
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person trying to help out and make
things better. He is the son of
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God, sent to reveal the love
and grace of God to us in the
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world. The love and grace,
the good news that we are sinners saved
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by grace, saved by this eternal
plan of redemption carried out in this world
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through the Sun. This is the
message that Jesus has revealed. It's the
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plan that he is not only told
but also enacted, so that we might
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not be separated from God but united
to him enjoy. He is given us
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the words that were given to him
by the father, and that brings me
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finally to this last thing, that
Jee is or that the father has kept
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us in these words, in this
word has kept us in his name.
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Be Thinking to yourself, well,
aren't words just words? How is Jesus
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revealing the words of God actual source
of joy? Well, it's because of
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this number three that God uses,
that God speaks these words with power.
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You see, his words are not
like our words. I might command my
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dog to sit, but my dog
may not sit right. But when God
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commands and says something like let there
be light, there will be light.
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And when Jesus speaks the words of
life to one whom God has chosen and
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says, let there be light,
let there be life, I want you
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to know that I am from the
father and that if you believe in me,
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you will be saved. Boom,
a person is saved. Those words,
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the words of Jesus, have power, and this is another reason for
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our joy. Not only has this
happened, not only does Jesus reveal this
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mission, but in the revelation of
that mission and to the ones whom God
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has chosen, life happens. To
put it another way, he gives us
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the power, or he empowers us
to believe the things that he says.
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He does the impossible, because we
don't believe the things that God says.
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Apart from God changing our hearts.
He lifts US up, he makes us
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capable of joy, he makes us
capable of satisfaction, of union, of
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belonging and all of these things by
regenerating our hearts. And this, of
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course, is all based on the
work that he has done. Jesus did
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not merely receive us from the father, from all eternity, but he went
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to the cross and he died for
us in history, in real time and
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in real space. He took our
sins upon himself so that he might give
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us this joy and this life that
has been promised to us from before the
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world began. And, brothers and
sisters, he didn't just do it for
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this one and this one and this
one, but he did it for the
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body here in the passage and other
places in Scriptures. In the Scriptures,
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he describes his goal, and I
think I've used this metaphor recently, so
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I'll use it again. His his
goal is not to put a bunch of
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of marbles in a bowl, a
little bunch of marbles sort of separated from
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one another, you know, individually
marbles. God's desire is to bring us.
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The metaphor that he uses is a
body, one body with many members.
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He describes that body is being united
to Christ, so so united are
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we to God and with one another
that it's not even sort of Jesus and
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this other one, but it's the
body of Christ all together, united together.
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This world constantly divides, it constantly
separates us from God and from one
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another. But Jesus has come into
the world to give us a different kind
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of joy, a joy of unity, of peace, of fellowship with him
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and with each other. Let me
read again, and I'll close with this
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what he says in verse eleven.
He says, Holy Father, keep them
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in your name, which you have
given me, that they may be one,
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even as we are one. This
is God's desire for his church and
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in many ways we see that expressed
here and now. We see a diverse
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people from different times and places,
different backgrounds, different histories, here in
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this room and throughout the world and
throughout time, many, many people confessing
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the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and united in faith in him. Sadly,
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we also see that there is a
we have not perfectly attained that yet
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and in some of the ways in
which that not perfection has happened, we
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have much sadness much brokenness and much
to do and forgiving and asking for forgiveness,
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but we can do that with confidence
and joy that we are headed in
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the right direction and that we are
doing it in the power of God himself.
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In other words, as I said
earlier, we are not clamoring and
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coercing one another in the church to
get these things. We're simply living into,
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leaning into becoming more of what he
has already given to us. We
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are trying to walk in a manner
worthy of the calling to which we have
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already been called old and a calling
and a promise which he guarantees that we
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will receive. So be encouraged,
beloved, be encouraged. The world is
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hard. I know it, you
know it. More importantly, God knows
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it. He says so that there
are sorrows and they will be sorrowful and
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it's okay to be sorrowful. But
don't be overly discouraged, don't despair,
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don't give up, but put your
faith in the one true living God who
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has revealed himself in Jesus Christ on
the Cross. He has revealed himself in
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such a way that we might know
that all of our brokenness, all of
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our sins all of our disunity is
healed in him, forgiven in him,
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and in Him we have his very
joy given to us. Praise God,
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let us pray our father, we
thank you for the happiness and pleasure and
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satisfaction that you give to your people, that we might know and live in
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this world in a way that is
not despairing, but confident in you and
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in who you are. Lords,
does not mean that we desire to over
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look our sin. We don't want
to sweep it under the rug or pretend
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it's not there. Lord, we
just want to see it on the cross.
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We want to see it and to
know our sin in the forgiveness of
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it, in the healing of it. Please help us to know that more
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and more, to resist the the
the the temptations of the evil one who
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would divide us and break US apart, who would make us think that we
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are not worthy of these things and
that, for that reason, we ought
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to despair. Lord, teach us
that we are not alone, both with
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each other and with you. Help
us to know that as we progress along
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this journey, in this road,
on this road, as we walk in
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the way and in the truth and
in the life, help us to know
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that we belong to you, that
you are our God and that we are
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your people, that we are not
here by accident, that we have not
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snuck in, that we have not
found ourselves in a place that we ought
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not to be, but that we
are here because of your love and your
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grace, because of your choice and
not ours. And, Lord is do
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teach us these things and, as
you help us to know them, give
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us that joy by that is inexpressible, that peace that is infinite, that
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will never end. Lord, we
have sorrows now, but we look forward
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to the day when we will see
you again in our hearts will rejoice completely,
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knowing that our joy will never be
taken from us. Teach us to
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be satisfied in all good things and
to know that they come from you.
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We pray, Lord, that this
Gospel, this good news that Jesus has
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delivered in the world and made manifest, would go out from US and into
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all the world. We pray in
particular for our neighbors and our families and
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our friends here in Tucson. We
ask that in the various places that you
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have placed us, in, the
various callings to which you have called us,
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that people would come to know and
to see what it means for the
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Gospel to be at work, what
it means for Jesus to have done the
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things that he has done. Lord, let us hear, let the let
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these people here and see these things
of the Lord in us, that they
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might come and join us on this
journey, that they might come and be
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pilgrims with us, not tied to
this world but citizens of Heaven. Lord,
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we also pray for our missionaries and
the churches that they are planting,
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the future ministers and elders and deacons
that they are training, I'm the people
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that they are calling, and asked
that you would bless their work. We
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pray for those that we support and
and and and and pray for. We
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asked that you would watch over them
and keep them, that you would bless
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them in every way. Finally,
Lord, we pray for our particular needs
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here in our congregation. We pray
for those who are sick and asked that
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you would heal them, that you
would make them well. We also pray
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for those that are unemployed or underemployed, those who are looking for work.
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Help, help them to find what
they need, that they might provide for
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themselves and their families that they might
be generous to others. Lord, we
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asked that you would provide for us
our daily bread. We also asked that
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you would provide us contentment, that
you would give us food and clothing and
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that that would be added to godliness
and that we would grow. And these
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things we pray, all these things
in your name. Men
