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We're in our third week of a series we're calling just John because it is the

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the book of John that we're gonna be going through for the whole summer and

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Scott kicked us off a couple weeks ago and last week we had the special treat

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of my high school youth pastor being in town he's one of our spiritual overseers

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which basically means that I talk to him on a monthly basis maybe I ask him

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questions or he encourages me and it's important for us to know that here at

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the house we have elders will pray for people and we have staff but it's really

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nice to know that we have pastors outside of our environment that are

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also caring about us and speaking into the life of of this church so let's go

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ahead and jump in to John chapter 3 if you have your Bibles we'll open to John

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chapter 3 goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans that way you know you're in

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the right neighborhood there's blue Bibles on the tables if you don't have

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one otherwise you can grab one on your way out on the way home you can take

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one home if you'd like or download a Bible from any of the digital app

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stores and then we have a tradition of giving the scriptures our full

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attention while they're being read during the sermon and one of the

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primaries we do that is that you can join me in standing if you would like otherwise

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just give the scriptures your full attention as I read John 3 starting in

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verse 1 says this now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus a leader of

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the Jews he came to Jesus by night and said to him Rabbi we know that you are a

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teacher who has come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless

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God is with that person Jesus answered him very truly I tell you no one can see

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the kingdom of God without being born from above Nicodemus said to him how can

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anyone be born after having grown old how can you want enter a second time

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into the mother's womb and be born Jesus answered very truly I tell you no one

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can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit what is

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born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the spirit is spirit do not be

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astonished that I said what I said to you you must be born from above the wind

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blows where it chooses and you hear the sound of it all sound of it but you do

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not know where it comes from or where it goes so it is with everyone who is born

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of the spirit Nicodemus said to him how can these things be Jesus answered him

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are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things very

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truly I tell you we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen

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yet you do not receive our testimony if I had told you about earthly things and

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you do not believe how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things no

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one has ascended into heaven except the one who descends from heaven the son of

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man and just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the

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son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life

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for God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who

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believes in him may not perish but have eternal life let us pray God of every

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tribe every tongue every color in every nation we thank you for the scriptures

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that they have persisted throughout the millennia that we still have them to

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learn from to consider to read and I pray that whatever you have for us to

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learn today I pray that it would stick that it would become a part of the

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framework of our faith that our faith would become stronger as we become more

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like your son Jesus amen amen can all have a seat all right so there is that's

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a long passage and we're not gonna go verse by verse through all of it but

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there is a ton happening in this chapter first of all verse 1 who's Nicodemus

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like that's the first thing that we should ask we're introduced to this new

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character who is he we actually know very little about him we know that he

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was a leader of the Jews we know that he was a Pharisee we know that he shows up

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in the gospel of John three different times and we know that he is the only

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Pharisee that John gives a name to in all the Gospels there's only one other

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person that's given a name that is a Pharisee Simon Jesus went to his house

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for a meal the only other Pharisees maybe some of you think wait well what

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about Paul right Paul is said to have been a Pharisee but he's not in the

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Gospels so you know technically I'm right you see so you know saying so what is a

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Pharisee because you know most of us have not been through seminary or

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college Bible classes so what is a Pharisee Pharisee was very much like a

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local pastor but there was a large group of them and they were all obsessed with

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following the rules of Moses and they didn't just follow the rules they made

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up rules about how to follow the rules because John says that he was a leader

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of the Jews we can assume that he was either a member of what was called the

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Sanhedrin which was this 71 person religious kind of Supreme Court or it

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just means that he was well respected among the other Pharisees and that

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people would listen to him which is probably the more likely of the two

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scenarios why because even though Matthew and Mark and Luke all showed

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Jesus standing before the Sanhedrin at the end of their Gospels as he's

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condemned to death on a cross as they're handed over to Pilate I should say John

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doesn't show this at all John only shows him standing before one person and it's

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not Nick Ademus but in chapter 7 of John what we see is that a bunch of

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Pharisees are upset that Jesus wasn't arrested and it's Nick Ademus that gives

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a legal reason for why he wasn't and they listen it's probably not on the

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Sanhedrin but definitely respected among the Pharisees all right that was verse

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one everybody that's all just from reading John 3 verse 1 verse 2 ready

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Nick Ademus came to see Jesus at night and so we should say why why did he come

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by night now this is also probably one of two things the most popular answer is

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that he met Jesus at night because he didn't want to be seen he was respected

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among the Pharisees we've already established that and he probably wanted

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to keep it that way because most the Pharisees did not appreciate Jesus so

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that is probably that's possible it may even be the most probable answer but

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it's also it was also common for rabbis what does he call him he says rabbi

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it's very common for rabbis to stay up late or through the night to study the

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law to consider what they were going to say or teach so it's also possible that

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Nick Ademus is just kind of visiting Jesus with what we might call office

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hours he's like all right this is when Jesus is going to be thinking about

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these things anyway let me go see what he has to say now when we put all this

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together what I think is important for us to think about here isn't so much

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what time Nick Ademus meets Jesus but what we're shown Nick Ademus saying he

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says we know that you are a teacher we know that you have come from God that

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feels like a really big statement doesn't it now for a modern mind that has

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any concept of Christianity at all you might hear that phrase and you might

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think that Nick Ademus is going we know that you are God or we know that you are

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the son of God but that's not at all what Nick Ademus is actually getting at

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so what is he saying well for that we need to know a little bit more about the

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Pharisees one of the reasons that Pharisees were so obsessed with the

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rules is that they thought that the more obedient that they were to the rules the

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more likely God would bring his kingdom the more likely it was that they would

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no longer be under the thumb of their enemies and that they would be able to

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rule on earth under the Lordship of God this is why Nick Ademus has come to

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Jesus because Jesus has come doing miracles Jesus has come preach come

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preaching what that the kingdom of God is at hand so Nick Ademus is asking is

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is he a prophet is he preparing the way Nick Ademus is trying to figure out how

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Jesus fits into their kingdom equation now you might say well Nick Ademus

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doesn't even use the word kingdom matter of fact he doesn't even ask a question

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but we know that's what he's talking about because that's the question that

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Jesus answers you probably all have someone in your life that when they say

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a statement to you you know they're actually asking a question right Nick

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Ademus says we know you are from God and Jesus responds with what no one can see

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the kingdom of God without being born anew or born from above those are the

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two translations Nick Ademus is asking is the kingdom coming and Jesus answers

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yes but it's a yes that's confusing for Nick Ademus because Nick Ademus hears

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everything literally some of us are literalists some of us struggle with

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metaphor with allegory we struggle with hyperbole we struggle with parables and

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stories we just want the facts you have probably loved this sermon so far because

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it has been exegetical informational historical there's been no jokes no

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stories from Greg about his childhood no illustrations just the facts and you

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have loved it and that's okay but if you want the facts and only the literal

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facts you might struggle with the gospel of John because in general this book is

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not about the literal and that's why this book is 100% absolutely for you if

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that's what you struggle with because John's primary goal is not facts but

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belief the reason Nick Ademus was confused and it shows him stumbling over

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well how does an older person go back and get born again the reason the

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Nick Ademus was confused like this was because the word that Jesus used I've

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already said meant two things either a new or from above and so Nick Ademus

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hears the word a new that's the way that he took it he's like well I have to be

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born a new well that can only be literal how would I literally be born a new would

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I go back into my mother's womb John is trying to get the kind of people that

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hear Jesus say you must be born a new to understand that he means you must be

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born from above over and over again throughout the gospel of John he's gonna

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confront you with belief with belief with belief John's John's aim from

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beginning to end is to push past the literal into the spiritual think about

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it the gospel of Mark we went through the gospel of Mark last year and we

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called it the first gospel and it was it was the first gospel it's also the

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shortest gospel the gospel of Mark begins immediately with Jesus already an

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adult immediately already doing ministry Matthew gives you a genealogy it tells

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you kind of where does this guy come from Luke gives you even more gives you

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even more family history not only that he tells you oh hey little twist here

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that the other guys didn't tell you John the Baptist his cousins with Jesus

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right you get more and more information from gospel to gospel literal literal

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literal and then John John begins with a theological statement of galactic

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proportions in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the

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word was God nothing that exists exists but through God but through the word in

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God John is trying to get you to think spiritually about belief John isn't

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trying to give you clues about what year Jesus was born he's trying to get you to

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believe that Jesus has always been and always will be throughout his gospel

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John uses the word for belief or to believe nearly 100 times he's doing

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everything that he can to get the reader to believe which brings us back to

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Nicodemus in verse 2 what does Nicodemus say he says we know that you are from

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God but Jesus wants to know does he believe in who he is

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that is the question that I bring to you today because we can read the Bible from

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beginning to end and we can use our modern minds to try to turn the Bible

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into things that the Bible was never asking to be the Bible was not asking to

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be a literal fact-for-fact historical document that you would lay over the

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archaeological evidence that people find throughout the years the Bible is trying

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to get you to see who God is and to believe that Jesus has been there from

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the beginning John in his later writings he has one of the most famous verses he

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gets two of the most famous verses in the Bible for God so loved the world he

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gave his only son who so ever believes in him will not perish but have eternal

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life and then later in one of his letters he writes for God is love

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today I just want to leave you the reason that we're here is to try to

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convince people to help them see to believe that God is love Jesus in God

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has taken all of their sins all of their mistakes on himself and said now you are

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indwelt by a God that is it's Father's Day all of us have had different

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experiences with what it means to be a father to have a father but I hope that

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you can walk away today with a tiny tiny bit more belief that God is father is a

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good one that he's loved that he loves you there whether you fall apart he'll

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hold you together that when you feel low he's comfort and healing when you feel

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far from home that he comes out to find you when you forget or doubt what you

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know you will be reminded that you are loved by the God that is love amen let's

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pray

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heavenly father we thank you for the life of your son we thank you for the

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words that we have in the gospel of John trying to lead us past what our literal

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brains might get stuck on and just into belief you are good she loved us it's

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your spirit working us today your spirit move us closer and closer to you pray

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these things the name of Jesus amen as we turn to the table I wanted to ask if

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Dave Hodge would you help me with communion and I wanted to ask another

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Dave in the room if he would help me with communion go ahead and pass those

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out we practice an open table means that it's really between you and Jesus where

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you are with him it would not make much sense for you to take these elements if

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you have no belief in him whatsoever feel free to let it pass but it's not

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something you're comfortable with but this is for everybody on the night that

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Jesus was betrayed he sat with his disciples and he added new things to

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believe in about something that they had always done he took bread that was at a

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table that used to be just a piece of bread and then he said hey you guys are

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gonna get together quite often and you're gonna see bread all the time and

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I wanted to remind you that my body is broken for you that this world and its

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sin will literally break me and you can remember the goodness of who I am

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because of it and after the meal he took a cup of wine that was always on the

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table that they would always see at most meals that they would ever sit down to

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and he said this look at this cup this cup is for a new covenant it represents

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my blood that is poured out in their context in the Jewish context they had a

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sacrificial system they believed that something had to die to cover sin and

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here Jesus is saying I will die and this will cover you all of your mistakes all

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of your sins you will be now perfect in the sight of God whenever you see this

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bread whenever you see this cup do these things together in remembrance of me and

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I love that word remember in the scriptures it's a Greek word anamnesis

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and it means more than remember it means as though present again so today as we

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share the elements as we take the bread Jesus blessed and broke it let us

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remember as though present our Lord Jesus let's take and with the juice let

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us remember our Lord Jesus

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Jesus we thank you for the work on the cross and for your resurrection from the

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grave be with us all our days as we follow you amen there's something I put

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in my notes and I didn't I didn't end up saying it and I'm still gonna say it so

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you get sermon part two okay just forgive me I know it's Father's Day you

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probably have lunch plans I mentioned two of the three times that Nicodemus

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was mentioned right the third time that Nicodemus has mentioned it's because it

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was he and a guy named Joseph of Arimathea that took the body of the dead

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Christ from Pilate and buried him and it says that Nicodemus brought a hundred

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pounds of spices to prepare his body and it says that he wrapped the body of Jesus

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and laid him in a new tomb that had never had a body in it before and I wrote

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in my notes I said that's the last we hear of Nicodemus we have no idea if he

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believed in Jesus beyond that moment the last thing we see him doing is maybe

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wrapping up the belief he had with Jesus and laying it in a grave so I just hope

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maybe for what for what it's worth maybe even prophetically that you would hear

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the Lord saying to you whatever hope it is whatever belief you had in God that

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you buried that he is resurrecting it there is still new life and that you are

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born again from above amen amen