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I'm grateful for the many of you who have been praying and coming to the church in fact

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to pray.

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This last week every morning there were folks who came and were praying for the ministry

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of the spring conference as well as for the Nehemiah campaign.

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And God is answering prayer.

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We want along the way to be sharing some of those answers to prayer with you.

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And we may be able to do that tonight to some degree.

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And if not then next week.

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God is doing some amazing things and you're going to be thrilled as you begin hearing

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what God is doing already in preparation for the upcoming weeks.

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Would you open your Bible please with me to John chapter 12.

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As we think this morning concerning the theme, the hour has come.

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John 12 and I'll begin reading in verse 12.

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On the next day the great multitude who had come to the feast when they heard that Jesus

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was coming to Jerusalem took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet him

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and began to cry out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even

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the king of Israel.

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When Jesus finding a young donkey said on it as it is written, fear not daughter of

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Zion, behold your king is coming seated on a donkey's colt.

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These things his disciples did not understand at the first, but when Jesus was glorified

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then they remembered that these things were written of him and that they had done these

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things to him.

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Also the multitude who were with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised

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him from the dead were bearing him witness.

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For this cause also the multitude went and met him because they heard that he had performed

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the sign.

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The Pharisees therefore said to one another, you see that you are not doing any good.

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Look the world has gone after him.

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Now there were certain Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast.

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These therefore came to Philip who was from the side of Galilee and began to ask him saying,

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sir we wish to see Jesus.

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Philip came and told Andrew and Andrew and Philip came and they told Jesus.

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And Jesus answered them saying, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.

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Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it

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remains by itself alone.

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But if it dies it bears much fruit.

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He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it

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to life eternal.

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If anyone serves me, let him follow me, and where I am there shall my servant also be.

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If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

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Now my soul has become troubled and what shall I say?

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Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour.

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Father glorify thy name.

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There came therefore a voice out of heaven.

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I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.

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The multitude therefore who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered.

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Others were saying, an angel has spoken to him.

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Jesus answered and said, this voice has not come for my sake, that is exclusively for

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my sake, but also for your sakes.

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Now judgment is upon this world.

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Now the ruler of this world shall be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth,

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will draw all men to myself.

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The Son of God left the palace halls of his Father's house and departed from the realm

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of the Eternal.

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He came down, down, down to our sin-cursed existence, to the realm of death and corruption.

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Laying aside his visible glories as God, he entered our world by becoming one of us, by

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becoming human in every respect without diminishing his deity.

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His purpose in coming was to give his life as the ransom for captive sinners, to provide

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the propitiation for offended holiness, to fulfill the plan of God for the redemption

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of a remnant of humanity.

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He was sinless, and he remained so completely as he obeyed from his heart the law of God.

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All of his earthly life, all of his earthly life, had to be lived within the time plan

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of God.

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He could not die at any time, or for that matter, at any place, or in any way.

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He had to die at the time, at the place, and in the way which was planned by his Father.

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He did not come as an adult.

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He could have, but he did not.

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He had to experience certain things and accomplish certain goals before he could achieve his

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ultimate saving purpose, in other words, come to his hour.

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For example, he had to be tempted.

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He had to be proved to be sinless.

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He had to train disciples to carry on his message after he would depart.

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He had to present himself to Israel and be rejected by his own.

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All of those things had to be done before he could come to his hour, the purpose for

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his entrance into the world.

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Satan sought to short circuit God's fully accomplished program for Christ.

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Turn back with me and John to the seventh chapter and notice what takes place in verse

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30.

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Because of Jesus' claims in this chapter, in verse 30 it says, they, the religious leaders,

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were seeking therefore to seize him, and no man laid his hand on him, because his hour

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had not yet come.

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Then look again in chapter 8 and verse 20 where once more Jesus has made certain claims

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regarding who he is, that in fact he is God.

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And in verse 20 it says, these words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple,

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and no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.

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In other words, there were attempts to seize him, there were attempts to kill him, but

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he could not be killed until his hour had come.

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Now his hour had come.

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Jesus himself says, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

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The time for his glorification had arrived.

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But I have a question.

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What is the glory that will be manifested in this hour that he speaks about?

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He says, now is the hour, this is the event, this is the occasion when the Son of Man will

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be glorified, but what glory?

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What is manifested here in this hour?

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In what sense is the Son of Man glorified?

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I think as we understand the answer to that question, we'll see something also of the

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glory that he has called you and me to share with him.

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Now is the time for the Son of Man to be glorified.

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What is that glory?

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Number one, the glory of his humility.

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The glory of his humility.

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John omits in his record most of the last week of our Savior and proceeds in his narrative

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directly to the upper room.

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There the Passover meal was shared with Jesus and his twelve disciples.

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One of them was a traitor of course, and Jesus knew that from the beginning.

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John makes that clear in chapter six of his gospel in the sixty-fourth verse where it

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says, but there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew, says John, from the

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beginning.

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Who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray him.

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Then again in verse seventy, Jesus answered them, did I myself not choose you the twelve,

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and yet one of you is a devil?

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Now he meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray

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him.

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Jesus knew that there was a traitor among them and yet he prepared for all this meal

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because he loved each of his disciples, including Judas.

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In humility the son of God clothed himself at that meal as a servant.

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He took a towel and a basin and then knelt down before each of the disciples and washed

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their feet.

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As the drama of that occasion unfolded, Judas eventually left and Jesus makes it clear that

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as Judas was leaving and in what he was going to do, that he, the son of man, was going

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to be glorified and God too was going to be glorified.

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What is it that prompted?

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His demonstration of his humility as he washed the feet of his disciples.

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Well as we read other accounts of that supper, it seems as though the thing that caused Jesus

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to take that action, to demonstrate his humility, was the fact that his disciples were in an

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argument.

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Their argument was over who was the greatest among them.

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Can you imagine that?

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They were not sensitive at all to what was going on around them.

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They did not perceive it and we cannot harshly judge them because had we been there, we would

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undoubtedly be just like they were.

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But on that occasion as he gathered to eat a Passover meal with them, the main theme

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of conversation among them was which of us is the greatest?

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And they were all jockeying for number one position.

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It seems to me that it must have been at that point that Jesus simply arose without

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saying a word and began to wash their feet.

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And then after supper they went out to the garden of Gethsemane.

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In doing so they passed over the Kibrin Brook there in the valley to the east of Jerusalem

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and entered into the garden where again we see the humility of the Son of God.

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We see his submission as he says, not what I will but what thou will.

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The commentary upon that, the apostle Paul said he was obedient unto death, even the

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death of a cross, humility.

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But after his arrest in the garden, Jesus was tried before both Jewish and Roman authorities.

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It was a mock trial in both cases.

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There was no justice, laws were broken and yet the Son of God did not protest, he did

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not argue.

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There was complete dignity on his part.

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He was under control.

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There were only quiet words of witness as Isaiah the prophet said, like a lamb that

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is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers.

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So he did not open his mouth.

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In actuality it was not Jesus who was on trial was it?

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But it was the world.

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But we see the glory of his humility manifested in this hour.

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And that humility is powerful folks.

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Genuine humility attracts like a magnet attracts iron filings.

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Arrogance, pride, boasting, self-centeredness, self-preservation, all of that repels.

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It does.

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But humility attracts.

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Was it not that very passage that I quoted from Isaiah that the Ethiopian eunuch was

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reading when he asked Philip of whom does the prophet speak?

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He was attracted by what it said of this one.

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And at that scripture Philip simply began to present to him Jesus and the glory of his

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humility.

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I want to suggest to you that that is the same glory that you and I are called to share.

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It seems as though that's contradictory in our worldly minds because we think of glory

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as self-promotion, of preeminence, as upfront, the top of the heap.

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And yet glory is found in humility not in all the rest of that junk.

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That's why the apostle Paul said, have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ

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Jesus.

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What attitude, Paul?

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Well, don't let everybody look after his own things only, but also the things of others.

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Consider others more important than yourselves.

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Let that attitude be in you as it was in Christ Jesus.

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James says, humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord.

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Peter joins in and he says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt

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you in due time.

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You and I are never wrong when we humble ourselves.

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Remember that humility is not thinking badly about ourselves.

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Do not confuse humility with an inferiority complex.

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But humility is when we choose to put others before ourselves.

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Humility looks after our own things, but not just our own things, also the concerns, the

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issues, the things of others.

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That's humility.

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And that's exactly what Jesus Christ was manifesting in his hour.

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The glory of his humility.

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And is it not that glory of his humility that attracts you to him in worship?

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May I suggest secondly that it was the glory of his love that was manifested in his hour?

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Love that was demonstrated at the cross for us.

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The world thinks of the cross as a relic, as an adornment or a piece of jewelry.

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Others see the cross as a mistake, as an unfortunate thing that simply got out of control so that

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Jesus was put to an untimely death.

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Then there are those who see the cross as weakness.

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They say surely God doesn't utilize such a humiliating thing as a cross.

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That was the idea of the Jews in that day.

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Then there are those who see it as foolishness, the worldly wise, like the Greeks of Paul's

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day.

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They said why, why the cross?

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Why is that necessary?

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Man is sufficient in himself.

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And to think that such a despicable, bloody event could have an impact on the world, that

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is foolishness.

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The Paul says that in fact the message of the cross is both the wisdom and the power

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of God.

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Jesus was glorified in his cross work.

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It revealed his deep, eternal love for lost sinners like you and me.

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

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his love, not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation

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for our sins.

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Jesus was glorified at the cross and it was his love that was manifested.

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You cannot look upon that scene in your mind, in your imagination.

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You cannot look into the eyes of the Savior and view his bleeding body hanging there without

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having your own heart touched and warmed by the love, the glory of his love that was demonstrated.

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Beloved you and I are called to share the glory of his love.

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We are called to share the glory of his love by our own love for each other.

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I mean by our own sacrifice for others, our seeking the welfare of others, whether they

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appreciate it, whether they respond to it or not.

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You and I are called to share the glory of that love.

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The world does not know that glory.

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This kind of love is unique to God.

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Behold what manner or what foreign kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us.

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This love, agape love, comes from God.

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It is not a love that is known in the world.

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The world can know a friendship love.

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It can know an emotional love.

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It can know a sincere love but it cannot know this love for this love is a love that can

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only be known by those who are called of God into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ.

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We are called that we might share the glory of this love with him and with each other.

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When there is an atmosphere of agape love in a church, in a home, it makes it like heaven

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on earth because it is this love that rules and dominates heaven.

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When we pray, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are praying for that love

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to be transposed into our existence, to be brought into our lives that we might share

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the glory of that love with others.

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The cross today stands forever as a symbol not of man's cruelty but of God's love.

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When you see a cross, is that not your thought?

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To show his love for us, God gave his son.

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Of course, one question that we have to ask is have you received his gift that he has

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given?

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God to give it is one part, but the rest of the story is that you must receive that gift

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for yourself.

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You say, well I have always been raised in a Christian home, a religious home, I have

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grown up in the church.

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The question is has there been a decisive point in your life when you have received

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God's love gift in his son?

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He gave his son on the cross that you might receive his son and eternal life.

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If you have not received him, will you do that today and open your heart that you might

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share in the glory of his love?

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And then think with me thirdly regarding the glory of his power.

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Now is the hour, said Jesus, for the son of man to be glorified.

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In what sense?

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The glory of his humility, the glory of his love, and now the glory of his power, which

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we see clearly evidenced at the empty tomb.

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In the Gospel of John, turn back a page or two to the tenth chapter and look at verse

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17.

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Jesus says, for this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may

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take it again.

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No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative.

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I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.

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What is Jesus talking about?

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He's talking about his resurrection from the dead.

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Certainly as he had the authority to lay down his life as a sacrifice, he had the authority,

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the exucia, that is the power from God to take it up again.

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We see here the glory of his power as God the Son.

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He came and suffered in humility.

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But now at the tomb on that first Easter morn, his power is demonstrated as he is revived

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and his body is changed into a glorified body, the first fruits of the kind of body that

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you and I will have in the resurrection.

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And he comes forth from that grave as victor and conqueror over death.

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The glory of his power is seen in this hour when he is glorified.

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The suffering which began in a garden was overshadowed by surprise in another garden.

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The grief was turned to joy, the tears to laughing because of the empty tomb.

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It reveals his glorious power.

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And once more, beloved, that is the same glory that you and I are called to, that we might

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share in the glory of his power even now at this moment.

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That power, that very same energy that raised him from the tomb is the energy that works

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dynamically in you who believe.

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And through that power within you that God has placed in you in the person of his spirit,

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he is able to do exceeding, abundantly beyond all that you could ask or think.

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You and I are called to share in the glory of his power.

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It is a power that we also exercise in prayer as we come into the very presence of God and

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we pour out our hearts to him.

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And it is a power that one day is going to change these lowly bodies to be fashioned

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like his body of glory.

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That power that is inside of us now is going to change the very structure, the very makeup

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of these physical, mortal bodies.

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And we will in that instant of time be changed to immortality, to incorruption.

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And how?

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By the glory of his power.

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The Son of Man is to be glorified in this hour, said Jesus.

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How?

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By his resurrection from the dead.

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We see the glory of his power.

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But then think with me finally, of the glory of his position.

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Where the Son of God was raised from the dead, lived among men for a period of weeks, and

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then returned to heaven.

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He stood with them on the Mount of Olives and after blessing them and commissioning

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them, he was lifted up from them and taken out of their sight bodily, he went up into

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the air, was hidden from their sight by the clouds, and then entered into the heavenly

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dimension.

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And he is seated today at the right hand of God the Father.

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Listen to how the writer of the book of Hebrews puts it.

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We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.

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Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize

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with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without

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sin.

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Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive

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mercy and find grace to help in the time of need, the glory of his position.

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His humiliation was swallowed by exaltation.

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He is the great high priest who today ministers before the throne of grace.

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He ministers there in the first place to defend his own as our advocate.

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When the accuser of the brethren comes before God and accuses us because of our failings

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and our sins, we have a defense attorney, an advocate who stands before God, who is

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the propitiation for our sins and intercedes perfectly before us, before him, as our defender.

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And he has the right to do that because he paid the price for our sins.

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Satan has no standing to accuse us because those sins have been paid for, past, present,

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and future.

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Why as he may, to undermine us before God, we have one who has a glorious position before

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the Lord, before the Father in heaven.

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And he exercises that position to do the work of advocacy on our part, but not only so,

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he also uses that position to pray for his own, to pray for you, for me, as our intercessor.

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And he ever lives to do that.

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He will ever exercise that position as the intercessor of his people.

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The same Jesus is enthroned also as a sovereign.

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He is seated at the right hand of God, which doesn't mean that he has literally been seated

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in a throne for 2,000 years of earth time, but it's a positional statement.

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He is at the right hand of God, there at that place of authority, designated authority,

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and he is there to reign.

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He reigns now over a hidden kingdom in the hearts of his people.

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But one day he will reign over a visible kingdom, an earthly kingdom, as he returns to the earth.

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Now because he has that glorious position, you and I have access to God directly.

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And not only that, but we are seated with him in the heavenlies.

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We share a calling to the glory of his position.

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Not that we will ever become deity ourselves, but even now we are seated with Christ in

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the heavenlies, Ephesians 1.

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And we shall one day be seated on a throne of glory with him, and shall reign with him

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over the new heavens and the new earth.

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What a wonderful calling God has given us.

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Isn't it great that even now you and I can interpret life from that position as seated

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with him in the heavenlies?

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A few months ago I met a friend of mine here in the Twin Cities and he said, how are things

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going?

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And I responded, I don't know what I said.

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And he said, isn't it great that we can look down on all of those things, being seated

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with him in glory?

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I thought, wow, what a great statement.

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So often you and I live under our circumstances.

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We're in the midst of them, and we get harassed and hurried and oppressed.

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But the fact is that we have a calling to be seated with him, and we are seated with

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him.

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And you and I have the perspective of being able to look down on life, look down upon

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our circumstances with understanding, with gratitude to God, with faith in the Lord,

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that all of it in the end is going to come out to his ultimate purpose before our good.

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Jesus said, now the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.

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How was he glorified?

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By his humility.

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A humility that you and I are called to share as believers.

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A humility that will enable us to remain one of heart and mind, to serve one another.

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How was he glorified?

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He was glorified in the cross as his love was demonstrated.

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A love that you and I are called upon to know and to express to others.

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Jesus said, by this shall all men know you are my disciples if you have this kind of

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love, the kind of love I've demonstrated at the cross.

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How was he glorified in that hour?

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By the power that was demonstrated in his resurrection from the tomb.

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A power that you and I now can draw upon in our lives.

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A power that indeed is working in us to do beyond all that we could ask or think.

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How was he glorified?

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By the position that he resumed in heaven.

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By being taken back into the presence of God and there now as advocate and high priest

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of his people.

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A calling that you and I share as we can come directly to the throne of grace ourselves

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through him.

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And we're seated with him.

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And one day we'll sit with him on a throne of glory when he comes to reign in his kingdom.

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This is a glory that you and I are called to share because in that hour he was glorified.

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His hour was the appointed time.

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God's time.

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God's way.

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God's place.

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And it was all signaled to begin by what we call the triumphal entry.

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There was not a whole lot of triumph there frankly, though we call it that.

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The real triumphal entry is going to take place when he comes again to the earth and

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enters into the city of Jerusalem.

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That will be his true triumphal entry.

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But on that day, two thousand years ago, there was a crowd of people coming with tremendous

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enthusiasm in the direction of Bethany over the Mount of Olives.

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And Jesus was there in the front of that crowd.

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And word got to Jerusalem that Jesus was coming.

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And they heard what had happened in the resurrection of Lazarus.

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And they came running out from Jerusalem and somewhere on the Mount of Olives, those two

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crowds converged, came together.

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And with great exultation and enthusiasm, they began to cry out, Lord, save, save now.

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Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

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And they took off their coats and threw them on the ground so that he might ride over them.

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They waved the palm branches in the air.

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And as they were doing that, Jesus wept.

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Jesus burst into tears because of his burden for Jerusalem.

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He said, Oh, if only you had known your hour, your time of opportunity.

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He says, now it's too late.

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He pronounces judgment on Jerusalem and enters on into the city only a few days later to

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be rejected by Jews, condemned by Jews and Gentiles, and put on the cross to die.

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Beloved, because of that hour in his life, you and I came to a point, an hour in our

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own experience, when we came to receive him, to trust him.

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To the nation of the Jews, Jesus said, you've missed your hour.

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It was too late.

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But thank God in this day of grace, there is still an hour for you if you've not responded

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to him.

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Behold, today is the day of salvation.

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Now is the appointed time.

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You say, I'm not sure my hour has come.

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Listen, my friend, this is your hour.

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You are not guaranteed of another opportunity, another day, another hour.

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This is your hour.

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And this is the time when the Son of God comes to you in grace.

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And he beckons for you to come to him and for you to receive him, to trust him.

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Will you do that?

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Will you make that decision today and let his entry be one of triumph into your heart,

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into your life?

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Will you cry out, as did the multitudes of that day, Lord, Lord, save?

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Except that you do it with more personal meaning.

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Lord save me.

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And he will.

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And what a triumphant hour, my friend, that will be for you.

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And then you will be called to share in all of his glory.

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Let's bow together.

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With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, as the Spirit of God speaks tenderly to our

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hearts.

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I wonder if you sense very, very personally and genuinely that this is your hour.

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Whatever your past has been, whether it has been religious or irreverent, whether it has

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involved church and ritual or you come today to a church for the first time, if in this

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moment you sense within your heart an agitation, a conviction for your sinfulness, and you're

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willing to say to Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus Christ, come into my life.

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I receive you.

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Lord save, save me.

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He will hear that cry of yours, my friend.

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Do not turn him away.

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But at this moment, extend your faith to him, will you?

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Within your heart, speak to him and receive him now.

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If you've done that this morning, and if that is your heart's attitude, you are trusting

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in Jesus Christ.

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I want to invite you to slip your hand up and then put it down.

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But in slipping it up, say, Pastor Cole, today I did make that decision.

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This is my hour, and I am trusting in Jesus Christ alone for my salvation.

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Would you put your hand up and then put it down?

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I want to pray for you.

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I'm not going to come back and get you or point you out, but I would like to pray for

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you.

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Yes this is my hour, and I receive him today.

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Is there one?

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Is there one?

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Not to those of us who are the children of God.

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But we are sharing in his glory as we ought to be in humility, in love, in power, utilizing

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our position in Christ.

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On this day, as we think of his triumphal entry, let's commit ourselves afresh to him, to follow

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him obediently.

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Lord, I pray that we will indeed enter into the fullness of the calling that we have in

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Christ.

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Lord, let none of us remain on the periphery of this.

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But I pray that all of us will plunge fully into the glory that you've called us to.

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And may we experience in our own walk with you humility and love.

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May that dynamic power that indwells us as the children of God energize us and fulfill

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in us your perfect will.

464
00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:19,560
And may we today interpret life from the position that we share as seated with Christ in the

465
00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:20,560
heavenlies.

466
00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:28,880
Deliver us from living under our circumstances to interpreting them from on top and seeing

467
00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:33,880
your hand at work.

468
00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:39,960
We give ourselves afresh to you, O Son of God, Son of David.

469
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:43,800
We thank you that you've called us in fellowship with yourself.

470
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:46,800
We bless you.

471
00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:48,280
Amen.

472
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:54,160
Would you stand together with me, please?

473
00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:57,160
And would you sing with me?

474
00:42:57,160 --> 00:43:04,400
Sing hallelujah to the Lord.

475
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:11,400
Sing hallelujah to the Lord.

476
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:19,400
Sing hallelujah, sing hallelujah.

477
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:24,200
Sing hallelujah to the Lord.

478
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:25,200
Once more.

479
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:33,200
Sing hallelujah to the Lord.

480
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:40,200
Sing hallelujah to the Lord.

481
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:48,200
Sing hallelujah, sing hallelujah.

482
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:56,200
Sing hallelujah to the Lord.

483
00:43:56,200 --> 00:44:01,080
The Lord from our hearts and our lips receive that word of praise as we depart from the

484
00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:02,800
service this morning.

485
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:09,160
We love you and we go forth from here to serve you in this world.

486
00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:23,000
Amen.