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We don't often look upon work as a gift.

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Rather, we see it as a grind.

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We see work as a chore, as a job, an obligation that must be taken care of.

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We know there are some times when the two are the same, when work is a gift, or we at

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least view it that way.

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An example of that would be the person who is unemployed and who is given a job whereby

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he can earn money to meet his needs.

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He looks upon that work as a gift.

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Yesterday I overheard Q.T. Smith after the seminar talking about the work that he does

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as a management consultant and a motivational speaker.

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By the way, we had a great seminar yesterday.

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I think there were 88 people who registered for it.

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It was called Listening and Perception, Bridges to Understanding, and all of those who came

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were just thrilled by the presentation.

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I heard Q.T. say that sometimes he feels a little guilty because he enjoys so much the

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work that he's doing.

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You ever feel that way?

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You enjoy what you do so much that you feel guilty taking the paycheck for it?

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Well almost guilty.

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There are times when we look upon our work as a gift.

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The thing that makes it that way, the secret to that, is that the work corresponds to the

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desire of our own hearts.

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Am I doing what I really want to do?

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Well, if so, then I look upon my work as a gift.

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Our Savior looked upon the work given to him by the Father as a gift.

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John 17, verse 4, brings us to another of the good gifts of John 17.

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In this verse our Lord says as part of his prayer, I glorified thee on the earth, having

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accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do.

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Our Lord points to the work which the Father had given him to do.

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This is one of the good gifts given by the Father to the Son.

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Our Lord was grateful for this work, and he looked upon it as a gift given him by the

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Father because it perfectly agreed with the desire which was within himself.

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The work mentioned here is the work of salvation.

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The work of salvation is one of the good gifts given by the Father to the Son.

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In this verse there are three lines of truth that are woven together.

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I'd like for us just to pick those apart and look at them briefly tonight before we come

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to the Lord's table.

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First of all, this work that Jesus prays about here, this work was an assignment, but one

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he willingly accepted.

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The work which thou hast given me to do, it was an assignment from the Father, no question

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about that.

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God gave him orders, but these were orders that he delighted to obey because they were

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orders that perfectly agreed with his own heart and what he wanted to accomplish in

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his coming into the world.

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It could be no other way, of course, because of the unity within the triune God.

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The work of redemption was God's purpose from even before creation.

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What God the Father assigned to God the Son, God the Son was eager to carry out.

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So I say to you that while the work of salvation was an assignment to the Lord Jesus Christ,

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his going to the cross, his suffering, his death, his resurrection, it was nonetheless

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a gift from his perspective, something the Father had given him to do.

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He was fulfilled in this work because it was the desire of his heart to carry out the work

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of the Father in saving us.

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John before has given us this same parallel.

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If you just look back at a couple of passages briefly, we don't have time to say much about

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them, and in John 8 verse 28 it says, Jesus therefore said, when you lift up the Son of

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Man, and he's talking here to the religious leaders of the Jews, and he says, when you

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lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he.

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That's that little phrase that John is telling us in this gospel that Jesus refers to himself

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by, the I am.

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He says, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but

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I speak those things as the Father taught me, and he who sent me is with me.

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He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.

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So our Lord points to the fact here that his coming into the world, his being lifted up

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as the Son of Man, was something that the Father had sent him to do, and yet he says,

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I always do the things pleasing to him.

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Why?

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Because it pleased him, the Lord Jesus, to please the Father.

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Turn over in John chapter 10, and again our Lord points to this.

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He says, no one has taken it, my life, away from me, verse 18, but I lay it down on my

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own initiative.

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In other words, he says, I'm doing this because I want to do it.

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I have authority to lay it down.

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I have authority to take it up again.

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And then he says, this commandment I receive from my Father.

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So I say again regarding the work of salvation that it was an assignment that he came to

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carry out, but not reluctantly, not half-heartedly, not just as an obligation.

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It was an assignment that he willingly and gladly accepted because it was in his own

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heart to give himself to be the Savior of the world through his death and his resurrection.

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And should that same attitude not be the attitude of every child of God, we have an assignment

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in this world, but it's one that we gladly carry out because we love the Father.

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Now going again to John chapter 17, it seems to me there is a second line of truth that

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we can find in this verse.

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Not only was the work of salvation an assignment and one willingly accepted, but it was a work

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fully accomplished.

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Jesus says, I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast

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given me to do.

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Jesus has been moving in the direction of accomplishing that work for a long time.

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In fact, as far back in the Gospel of John in the fourth chapter, he talks about it in

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the 34th verse, Jesus said to his disciples, this was after the woman had gone back into

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the city, you remember, and she was in there saying, come and see a man who told me all

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things ever I did.

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He said to those disciples who were quizzing him as to who the woman was and what was going

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on, he says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

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So Jesus was on a course, he had a work to do, here he says it's still in the future.

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It's not something that he had accomplished at that point, his culmination was yet in

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the future.

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And we see it accomplished in the Gospel of John in the 19th chapter and the 30th verse

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where Jesus cried out from the cross those three words as they are in the English, it

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is finished.

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What was finished?

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His work.

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It was accomplished.

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That which he had been moving toward all of his earthly life now had been culminated as

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he had suffered and bled on the cross and just before he bows his head and gives up

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his spirit, just before he lays down his life as he had authority to do, he says it is accomplished.

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It is finished.

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This work that I was assigned by the Father, this work that is the desire of my own heart,

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it is accomplished.

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Now chapter 17 comes before chapter 19, doesn't it?

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And so even before the cross, Jesus prays having accomplished the work which thou hast

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given me to do.

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Our Lord as he prayed that prayer the night before going to the cross was placing himself

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in time past the cross as though it were already done.

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He is praying in John 17 as though he were already back in heaven having accomplished

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his work of salvation on the earth now to stand interceding before the Father on behalf

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of his own.

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That is his attitude.

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That is his position as he prays in John 17.

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And so in chapter 17 though the cross historically had not yet happened, it was still hours away,

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he is saying I have accomplished it Father.

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I have finished the work that you gave me to do.

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The work of salvation was fully accomplished.

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And so Philip Bliss wrote and we sing, guilty, vile, and helpless we.

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Spotless lamb of God was he.

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Full atonement.

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Can it be?

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Hallelujah, what a Savior.

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Why did Bliss feel that way?

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Why do we sing that with such joy?

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Because hallelujah, what a Savior who fully accomplished the work of salvation.

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We have to add nothing to his finished work.

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Indeed, to seek to add some element to the work of the cross or to seek another way of

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salvation around the cross is to pervert the gospel of Christ.

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It is to proclaim or to seek a false gospel.

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I know that there are people who say sincerely all religions lead to God.

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All roads eventually lead to heaven, but that is not true.

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There is but one road that leads to heaven.

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There is but one way to God and that is the way that he provided in Jesus Christ who fully

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accomplished at the cross the work of salvation.

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The writer of Hebrews puts it so dramatically, doesn't he, when he writes these words.

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By God's will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once

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for all.

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He, Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand

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of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made his footstool for his

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feet.

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For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

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He could not make it more clear that one offering for all time was offered by Jesus Christ and

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by that he fully accomplished the work of salvation.

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You and I have to do nothing to add to that.

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We could do nothing to add to it.

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Christ has for sin atonement made.

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What a wonderful Savior!

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We are redeemed.

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The price is paid.

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What a wonderful Savior!

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Then the third line of truth we see in that verse in John 17.

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Not only was the work an assignment, but willingly accepted.

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Not only was it a work fully accomplished, but it was a work which glorified God.

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Jesus said, I glorified thee on the earth.

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Notice that again is in the past tense.

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He's praying as though the work were already done.

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It's still hours away as he prays.

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But he says, I glorified thee on the earth.

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The work of salvation glorified God.

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Why was that?

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For at least a couple of reasons.

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First of all, because it exposed the nature of God.

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The cross reveals to us the holiness of God.

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God demanding that price for sin, the death of his own son, the holiness of God.

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But at the same time it reveals to us the love of God.

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For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

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All that may be known of God is fully revealed in Jesus Christ.

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Not just in the miracles, not just in his words, but in the cross.

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In that work of salvation.

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But it glorified God not only because it exposed the nature of God, but because Jesus in so

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dying obeyed the will of God.

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The obedience of this one willing person, this man who was God, greatly honored and

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glorified God.

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He stands in contrast to the first man, to Adam, who disobeyed God.

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But as the last Adam, he comes now and glorifies God by perfect obedience to the will of God

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so that he suffered even the death of the cross.

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You and I, by obeying the will of God, likewise glorify him.

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The Apostle Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31, whether then you eat or drink

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or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

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Just as our Savior obeyed the will of God and brought glory to him, so you and I are

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to do the same.

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God gives all of us a work to do.

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Just as he gave the Savior a work to do, we can never do his work.

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His work stands unique throughout the ages.

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But God has a work for you to do, for me to do in the world.

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Are you willing to accept yours as he was willing to accept his?

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Are you willing to fully accomplish it, whatever the price may be?

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Are you willing to seek to glorify God in his will, whatever that work is he's called

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you to?

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I tell you, it's that kind of commitment that this table calls us to.

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For as we come to this table tonight, we are not only testifying of what Jesus did by his

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sacrifice and the work of salvation, but we are testifying that we stand with our Savior,

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committed to the will of God in our lives.

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And we are saying to him, Father, God, whatever it is, whatever I must suffer for your sake,

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by partaking of these elements, I am identifying with the Savior in his suffering.

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And I desire to know him in the fellowship of his suffering and in the power of his resurrection.

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As we partake of the elements tonight, remember that.

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As you eat of this bread, as you drink of this cup, you are identifying with him in

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his suffering.

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But you are saying at the same time, Father, I am willing to suffer.

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I am willing to do your will, to fully accomplish it, to accept it, to glorify you in it, just

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as the Savior did.

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Let's pray together.

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Do you see the will of God that way?

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Jesus didn't look upon the work the Father had given him as some unbearable, harsh thing,

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but willingly accepted it.

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He fully accomplished it.

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He wanted to glorify the Father.

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Is that your heart's desire tonight?

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Is that the pulse of your life?

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Oh, God, show me your will, whatever it is.

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I believe it is, for many, many of you.

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Father, I pray tonight as we partake of the communion elements that in partaking we will

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remember this aspect of them, that we are identifying with the Savior and saying, as

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he said, Father, not my will, but thine be done.

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May that be true in our lives.

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May we be willing to bear the suffering, to pay the cost, so that we can share in the

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power of the resurrection.

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In Jesus' name, amen.