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Greater Things: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast the First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On this podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
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to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
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what God is doing in us and in our community.
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This fall, we're living in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
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and John and learning how to live from our model, Jesus.
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This sermon is part of our series The Gospels.
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You can find. Out more information about our
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church at fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for listening our.
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Scripture this morning Our scripture this morning comes
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from the book of John, chapter 14, verse 8 through 26.
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Philip said Lord show us the Father and we will be satisfied.
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Jesus replied, have I been with you this all this time Philip
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and yet you still don't know who I am.
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Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, so why are you
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asking me to show him to you? Don't you believe that I am in
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the Father and the Father is in me?
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The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in
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me, does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the
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Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe because of
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the work you have seen me do I tell you the truth.
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Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done
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and even greater works because I am going to be with the Father.
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You can ask for anything in my name and I will do it so that
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the Son could bring glory to the Father.
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Yes, ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.
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If you love me, obey My commandments and I will ask the
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Father and He will give you another advocate who will never
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leave you. He is always Holy Spirit who
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leads into all truth. The world.
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The world cannot receive Him because he isn't looking for Him
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and doesn't recognize Him, but you know him because he lives
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with you now and later will be in you.
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No, I will not abandon you as orphans.
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I will come to you soon. The world will no longer see me,
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but you will see me. Since I live, you will also
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live. When I am raised to life again,
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you will know that I am in my father and you are in me, and I
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am in you. Those who accept my commandments
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and obey them are the ones who love me.
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And because they love me, my father will love them and I will
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love them and grill myself to each of them.
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Judas, not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that
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name said to him, Lord, why? Why are you going to reveal
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yourself only to us and not to the word at large?
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Jesus replied, All who love me will do what I say, My Father
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will love them and we will come and make our home with each of
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them. Anyone who doesn't love me will
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not obey me. And remember, my words are not
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your own. What I am telling to you is from
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the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things
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now while I am still with you, but when the Father sends the
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Advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit.
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He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I
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told you. This is the Word of God for the
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people of God. Thanks be to God 11 weeks ago,
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if you can believe it, I started this series asking how many of
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us had been told that as Christians we should be like
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Jesus, but also that because Jesus is God and we are human,
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it's not actually possible for us to be like Jesus.
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And now here we are entering our 12th and final sermon in this
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series on Jesus life in the gospels.
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We've been looking at Jesus life not just for proofs of his
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divinity, his godness, right? We we've also been looking at
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Jesus life as an example, the ultimate example of what is
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possible in a human life that's surrendered to the Father and
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empowered by the spirit. We've been looking at the gospel
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through a lens that takes seriously what Paul recorded in
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Philippians chapter 2 that Jesus didn't try to grasp onto his
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right to be God and use his godly power for his own
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advantage, his own benefit, but that Jesus this truly became a
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human with all of our limitations in order to redeem
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humanity from our fallen state and how all that happened.
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I don't think we can quite wrap our minds around but but we
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accept this doctrine that we call the incarnation right as an
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article of our faith. It's it's a non negotiable
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right. We might have different
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interpretations of of what the implications of that mean.
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But to be a Christian is to acknowledge that Jesus was God
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the Son who became a human being.
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But I think we have to be careful that in our desire to
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protect Jesus's nature as God, we don't downplay Jesus as human
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nature, right? It's it's easier to say that
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that Jesus was human, right up until that point that seems
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impossible for us. And that's where his Godness
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comes in, right? It's also easier to to separate
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the two in such a way that what we're really saying is that we
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believe Jesus had a human body, but his mind, his spirit, that
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was the part of Jesus that was God.
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It's not quite so easy to say that Jesus was God the Son who
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became a human being by giving up not his divine nature but his
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divine privileges, right, to become truly human.
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And that's hard because it raises the bar for what it means
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for us to be humans, right? It means that becoming like
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Jesus is actually possible. It means living like he did is
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actually Our Calling. It means that we have to define
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our human nature by what God intended when he created
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humanity and not just by what we've experienced living in a
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world after the fall. Because the reality is, yes, we
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live in a world after the fall, but we also live in a world
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after the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of
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Jesus, not to mention Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured
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out on the church. And, and those things change
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everything. The passage that we read this
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morning from John chapter 14 has to be key to how we understand
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what Jesus was modeling for us in his life and, and the life
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that he's inviting us into, right?
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This this passage that we read this morning, it's part of the
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conversation that Jesus was having with his apprentices on
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the night in which he would be betrayed, arrested and tried by
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the Jewish leaders, right? These were some of Jesus's last
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words to those who had been the very closest ones to him over
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the last three years of his ministry.
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So I want to take a look at what Jesus is telling them and what
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he's saying to us this morning. The verses we're looking at
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today from John 14, verses 8 to 26, that they exist within that
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larger conversation that Jesus was having, right?
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That that night that Jesus is together with his disciples to
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celebrate the Passover together, what we've come to call the Last
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Supper, right? Jesus has already taken on the
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role of a servant and washed the disciples feet.
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He's predicted Judas's betrayal as well as Peter's denial.
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Jesus then shifts his conversation to preparing his
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friends for his impending departure from their presence.
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Right. He was preparing them because he
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knew that he was going to die. And it's in the midst of this
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conversation that our reading begins.
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Jesus has just told them that He is the way to the Father.
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And he said that in knowing him, they've seen the Father.
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And Philip tells Jesus, right, that that if he would just
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reveal the Father to them, everything would be good.
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They'd be content, right? And I think Philip there is one
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of the stuff he's been walking with Jesus for three years.
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He's he's all of us, right? Aren't there times we we say to
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God, oh, geez, if you would just show me or tell me, we'd be
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content, everything would be OK. But you can almost sense Jesus's
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exasperation with Philip in his response.
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And if the rest of the Gospels are any indication, right,
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Philip wasn't the only one who still wasn't getting it.
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He's just the one who gets named for it, right?
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But but Jesus says, really? After all this time with me, you
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still don't know me, Philip? Jesus then makes clear that
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anyone who has seen him has already seen the Father.
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The the the words that Jesus had spoken to them were not his own.
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They were given by the Father. The work he did was because he
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was in the Father and the Father was in him.
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And Jesus gets even more illustrative on this point in
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the next chapter when he uses the figure of the vine in the
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branches right as a metaphor for the way that Jesus's people were
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to abide in him and he would abide in them just like he lives
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in the Father and the Father lived in him.
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I almost chose to preach on that that passage this morning, but
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the Spirit kept me here in in chapter 14.
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The point is Philip asking Jesus to reveal the Father.
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Missed the point, right? It missed the point that the
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entire time that Jesus was with them, he had been revealing the
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Father to them. Everything Jesus said, the
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parables he told, the sermons he preached, the rebukes and
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encouragement that he gave, it was from the Father.
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Everything Jesus did, the healings he performed, the
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deliverances he did, the miracles that they saw, it all
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came from the Father, It all came from the Father.
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And it all revealed the Father to those who were looking, to
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those who are watching, to those who had eyes to see and ears to
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hear. And then Jesus says what might
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be the craziest thing recorded in all the gospels, at least in
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my opinion. If you've got a better one, I'd
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love to hear it. OK, you can.
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You can let me know after the service.
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But in verse 12, chapter 14, verse 12, Jesus says, I tell you
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the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I
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have done and even greater works because I am going to the
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Father. I don't know about you, but that
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just makes my brain explode a little bit, right?
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Not just the same works that they saw Jesus do, but even
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greater works. All the things that that Jesus
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had done and said over the course of those three years that
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his, his disciples had been walking with him.
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Jesus says that anyone who believes in him will do those
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same things and even greater things.
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I don't know about you, but that's not exactly been my
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experience of the church. Right?
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Which begs the question, why not?
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Why not? Why doesn't the church reflect
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this reality? Why don't we see people who
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believe in Jesus doing these things?
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Did God change his mind somewhere along the way?
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I don't think so. We see it in Acts, in the in the
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lives of the apostles. But not just the apostles, there
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are others too. Why don't we see it today?
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Why don't we believe Jesus? Right, We say we believe in
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Jesus. Why don't believe?
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Why don't we believe what Jesus says?
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In my mind, using the word belief and believe to translate
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the Greek words there of of pistus and pistuo.
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For those of you who are word nerds like me, using belief to
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translate that word, it doesn't quite capture what it means.
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Pistuo doesn't just mean a mental ascent to an abstract
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truth claim, right? Like the things we would think
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about in philosophy. We, we think about these things
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and we think about them, but it doesn't really do anything.
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Pistuo, it means trust, right? Think about when you're driving
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a car. How many of you drove here
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today? A number of you, right?
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And when you got in your car this morning, you believed that
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your brakes were going to work when you pushed the brake pedal,
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right? But it's not just a mental
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ascent. It's not just something we
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believe in our minds. You don't just believe in your
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brakes and that they'll magically stop you when needed.
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You trust them, right? So when you come up to the step
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sign, stop sign, you push your foot down on the brake pedal
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because you trust that the brakes are going to do what
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they're supposed to do. There's a belief undergirded by
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trust that gives you confidence to act.
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It's a trust so deep you don't even think about it most of the
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time. Or you just drive as if your
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brakes are going to work until they don't.
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That's a whole nother situation, right?
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But, but I think this is the kind of faith or belief or trust
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that Jesus is talking about here.
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What Jesus goes on to say that it's our love for Him that makes
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a difference. And this love must be connected
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to our obedience of Him, right? Our love for Him and our
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obedience of Him. If we say we love Jesus, we will
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do what He has told us to do. If we trust Jesus, we will live
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as if He will do what He said He would do.
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This is how we will know what things we're supposed to ask for
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when we pray. This is how we're supposed to
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know how to live out that trust that we say we have in Jesus.
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It's it's this kind of trusting obedience that creates the
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intimacy we see in Jesus life and which we need in our own
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lives. In verse 23, Jesus says, all who
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love me will do what I say, my Father will love them, and we
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will come and make our home with each of them, right?
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This is that idea of abiding in God, of drawing our very life
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from Him and knowing what to do and what to say because He's the
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one who's leading us and guiding us and directing us and telling
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us all this is possible. Jesus says because he was going
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to send the Spirit, it wasn't just something unique for Jesus.
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He was going to send the very Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.
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The same Spirit that descended on Jesus in the form of a dove
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when he was baptized. The the same Spirit that led
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Jesus out into the wilderness and then back and into ministry.
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The same Spirit who empowered Jesus to do all that he did.
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The same Spirit who would raise Christ Jesus from the dead, now
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living in US. Jesus promised that the Spirit,
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that same Spirit, would come and not just live with us, but dwell
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in us. This is how God abides in us as
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we abide in Him. How will we do the same works
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that Jesus did, and even greater works the same way he did, right
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through surrender to the Father and empowerment by the Holy
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Spirit. It's through loving obedience to
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the voice of God, nurtured through through the spiritual
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practices that lead us into an intimate conversational
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relationship with God. And it's lived out through that
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unique combination of spiritual gifts that God has given to each
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of us by the power of God. This is why we spend time with
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God day by day, spending time with him, being with him so we
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can become like Him, learning to do the things he did, which
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empowered him to do the other things he did.
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It it. It's a different way to think
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about discipleship than what most of us have been taught for
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most of our lives, right? Mostly I was taught that we
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accept Jesus and his forgiveness of our sin.
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Then we keep coming to church every week and and we try to
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have a daily quiet time. Maybe we learn more about God,
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which often just meant learning more about the Bible, and we try
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to manage the sin in our lives down to just the acceptable
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ones, right? And if you try hard enough at
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that, you know, maybe God will make you holy.
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But what I've been seeing in Scripture recently is that Jesus
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actually believed that. That people can follow him, That
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people can learn to walk the way Jesus walked.
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That Jesus believed the relationship he had with the
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Father in his earthly life here wasn't just for him, but that
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through him we could know the Father in the same way he knew
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the Father. And that Jesus believed that
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people could be empowered to join him and the Father in the
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family business of restoring life to dead places.
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So this morning as we close the service and we close this
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series, I think Jesus is inviting us to respond in a few
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different ways. First, I think he's inviting all
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of us to follow him to walk like he did, like we see on the, on
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the pages of, of scripture and the pages of the Gospels that
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we've just spent these last three months reading day by day
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to give him our lives and, and learn to walk as Jesus walked.
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Maybe you've done that before, but maybe you haven't.
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And if you've never done that today, or if you've never done
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that before, you can do that today.
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You can begin to follow Jesus today.
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It's been said that the best time to change your life or to
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make a change in your life was five years ago, but the second
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best time it's today. You can start following Jesus
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today, or you can restart following Jesus today.
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Second thing I think Jesus or that God is inviting us to, is
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to surrender to Him. Maybe you've been following
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Jesus for a while, but there are some things that that you're
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beginning to realize you've been holding back.
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There are parts of your life that that you've been trying to
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hold on to control of areas where you want to feel free to
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do what you want to do, not necessarily what you know God
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wants you to do. Maybe there's some sin you've
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been struggling with, something you just can't seem to get past,
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something that you know doesn't line up with God's way for our
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lives. And you know it's keeping you
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from experiencing that intimacy with God.
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He wants you to surrender those things to him.
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He wants you to learn to know His voice, to walk with Him in
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in a deeper surrender. Third thing I think God's
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inviting us into this morning is to be empowered by his Spirit,
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right? Maybe, maybe you realize that
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you've been trying to follow Jesus out of your own strength.
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You've been doing a lot of things for God, maybe even good
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things, but He wants you to do things with Him, the things He's
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telling you to do. Or maybe you want to see God do
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those greater works that He was talking about through His church
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and maybe even through you. And you recognize you need the
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Holy Spirit to empower you to do that.
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It's not something we can do in and of ourselves.
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We need Him to show us the gifts that He's given us that He wants
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to show His power through to the world.
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So however God is speaking to you this morning, invitation to
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follow, invitation to surrender, invitation to be empowered by
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the Spirit. I hope you hear it as an
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invitation might even feel like conviction.
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But if you're sitting here feeling condemned this morning,
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like you're not doing enough or like you're not good enough to
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be one of those people, let me just say that's not the voice of
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God. God convicts.
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He corrects. He invites.
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He doesn't condemn. He offers grace.
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He offers himself. He longs to give you life as you
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learn to abide in Him. So as we close this morning,
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we're going to sing in just a minute.
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You're welcome to come and pray about any of these things or
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anything else that's on your heart this morning because God
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knows it's, it's heavy out there, right?
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Life is heavy these days. So let me lead us in a prayer
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and then we'll respond in song. And whatever way God's inviting
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you to respond this morning, I would encourage you to do that.
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Let's pray together, Jesus. It's hard to wrap our minds
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around the possibility that you would call us to do the same
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things you've done, the same works, even greater works than
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what you've done. But Jesus, we believe you, we
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trust you, and we trust that that you don't say that this
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morning for no reason. You're not holding up a bar that
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you know that we'll never be able to jump over.
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You're inviting us into your life, your way of living, and
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you've modeled for us the way that happens in our lives as we
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surrender to You, as your Spirit comes and moves among us and in
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US. You've got gifts you've given to
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each of us, things you want to use to show your power to the
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world. But Jesus, we don't just want
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your power, Jesus, we want your presence.
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We need your presence in our lives.
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Would you come and speak to us this morning?
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Come and meet us here in these moments.
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Jesus, we hear you calling, the call to follow you, the call to
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surrender to the Father, to be empowered by the Spirit.
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Would you help us cooperate with the grace that you're offering
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to us today? Would you help us join you in
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the work you're doing? Jesus, we give you ourselves
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this morning. We pray these things in your
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name.