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God, as you have put those in our lives, who are meant to guide, to guard, to comfort, to shape us in the people who we are meant to be,

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God, we ask that you would help us in humility, to be grateful, to take the time to pray for them, to love them, to say thank you.

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Lord God, please continue to bless us with one another, but also at the times whenever we struggle, continue to bless us by your spirit. In Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Howdy. So this is our final section of the first letter of John, and just a quick recap of a few things that we have learned over the last several weeks.

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We cannot avoid the light. As much as we might wish to say in the darkness, the light is where it is that God is transforming us, and that's why he keeps bringing us back to it.

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Abiding in Christ means loving your fellow human beings. Being transformed is not just about the rules that are around us, but rather about what is happening within, because we are God's children, not Satan's.

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Our hearts are meant to be open so that God can shape us. God reveals himself and his spirit that was working in us, gives us confidence that we belong to God.

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And today we see the testimony of the spirit, the water, and the blood. But with that, happy Mother's Day.

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Just to say curiosity, how many people are with their mother right now?

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Alright, got you. A few people maybe they're not sure if they want to say whether they're with their mother or not.

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But with that also, I do want to point out something though, is that today, and for the last few weeks we've been especially emphasizing God the Father.

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Now with that is that we're not trying to focus on gender because somehow we're trying to say that now God has to be limited in some confines.

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But the reason why we emphasize God the Father is because what we teach is in line with the Old Testament and the New Testament.

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And so since they refer to God as Father, we do so in order to connect with what it is that they teach.

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But at the same time, we do also want to take note that God is also a God of compassion and nurturing and care and love.

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And while they're not strictly for women, they are in many ways things that might be associated with our mothers.

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And so with that is we take joy in that today. Because let's be honest, mothers, mothers are the source of a lot of things.

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Mothers are the source of answers. We're trying to figure out things. Why is it that I can't get more of the books that I'm looking for on the shelf and you're going to go to your mother?

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Why is it that my sibling cannot seem to be nice to me and you're going to go to your mother?

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But also your mother is going to be the source of food.

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As much as we would say that the Father is the breadwinner, who oftentimes is the one that's happened to deal with the snacks.

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I would like a cookie. Who's going to tell you no? Your dad, very likely, might say yes. Who's going to tell you no? Your mom.

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And she rightfully said. And frankly, it's also your mom who's going to grant permission.

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Because you may be able to get your dad to say yes to something, but who's the final boss?

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Because if your mom says no, your dad says yes. What's the answer? No.

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And here's the thing with that.

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Is that mothers are in many ways influencing us all the time.

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And as much as I will tell you that the dad jokes come from my dad, I haven't told you the fact that the other half of my jokes are probably mom jokes.

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Nobody just quite realizes that my mom has a very subtle sense of humor. Very subtle.

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So subtle, I don't always laugh. But that's okay.

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The thing with it, though, is that in many ways that relationship of the nurturer, the parent, is something that is important and key to our passage today.

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You see, it talks about in our passage that we are meant to be overcoming the world.

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But the way that we're overcoming the world is through our faith, through what we believe.

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Now, when we say in here that overcoming the world is through faith, doesn't that sound like it's oversimplifying things?

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Doesn't it sound like somehow all we're doing is we're saying, well, just obey God's commandments and everything else will work itself out?

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I have heard times where people will discuss issues in the world and they'll say, we just all need to go back to the Bible and we'll follow what the commandments say and everything will be okay.

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Really?

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There are issues of warfare in the Middle East, partisanship in the U.S.

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The housing market is just absolutely terrible. Education isn't any better.

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Inflation is out of the roof. There are systemic inequities throughout our society.

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And I have heard times where pastors say, well, you just need to go back to the Bible and you need to obey God's commands.

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And it's like, so you're going to oversimplify the issues of the world by giving me my Bible.

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The thing is, though, is instead is looking at this and realizing that when looking at overcoming the world, is rather is that it's billions of people each making their own decisions.

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And so the issue then comes with, are we letting the world tell us how we should see things? Are we looking at the world through the lenses of the world rather than God's eyes?

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Or even more than that? How often do we even pause and say, well, this is the Christian answer to this question?

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And in reality, it's just what a lot of Christians who are the most vocal may be saying is right in their eyes.

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Because more than this is instead overcoming the world that comes down to how are we pausing and seeing what is around us through God's eyes and not our own.

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But you see, is that actually going to be a true victory?

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See, how is it that we even trust that Jesus being on this earth, dying on a cross, how do we even know that that's going to overcome anything?

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And that's why it is that we need to get down to this question that is in chapter five about the testimony of three people.

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You see, here's the thing about this is that the testimony of two people is something that came up a lot in the Old Testament and it kept being brought up with Jesus as well.

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You see, in the Old Testament, there was a law that was there that in a court of law, if you wanted testimony to be shown as evidence, you had to have two people who agreed.

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Two people who experienced the same thing and that they would testify that it had happened.

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But with that is then even this question of what if there were even a third?

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You see, having three people agree to something that can be the hardest thing of all sometimes.

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Now, I say that as someone who came from a family of four.

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You see, when I was younger, it was always difficult to schedule things.

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Why? Because we had one car.

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Now, I'm sorry, but for those families that you have more than one car, okay, you are privileged more than you realize, okay?

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I'm sorry, but if you have one car, that's when you learn how to cooperate, all right?

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And that's when you also learn that you're stuck with each other a lot.

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You see, with it is that whenever we had this one car, and I couldn't drive until my senior year,

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I wasn't able to take driver's ed until the end of my junior year.

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And even then, I was like driving around this red Dodge Caravan.

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It looked like a red bubble.

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I don't even know.

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Yeah, that's not what you want to have there to try to be cool in school.

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But being in this family, I would have to start, if I wanted to go and do something, I had to start with my dad.

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Why? Because he was the keeper of the car.

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And not just whether or not someone was using it, but whether or not it was working.

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I don't know what it was, but somehow the car, there was always some issue that was going on with it.

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And frankly, nine times out of ten, it was the brakes.

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I know that because I'd say every week for several years,

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my dad would be like, son, I need you to come and bleed the brakes.

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Okay, fine.

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So I take my book out there.

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Okay, push some brake.

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Okay, great.

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Okay, did you do it?

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Yes, I did it.

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Okay, do it again.

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Okay.

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And then after about 20 minutes, is it not fixed?

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No.

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Should I go back inside?

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Yes, okay.

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And that was attempting to fix the brakes.

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But you see, there would be more than just whether the car was working.

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It was also who's going to actually take you where you want to go?

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You see, the thing with it is that it was also going to be asking my mom.

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Because the thing is, is that my mom would have to take me and either have errands that she would run,

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or come back home and then go back again, or sometimes just wait.

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We have a lot of things that happen on this church campus.

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I see a lot of parents at different times waiting.

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And so you're not only asking your mom to take you.

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You're asking her to just change up her life and her schedule for wherever it is that you're going to be.

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And I know this may be hard for all those children to know in the congregation,

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but moms may or may not actually have a life to live.

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I know it's hard to believe that they could possibly do anything that isn't about their children.

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But believe it or not, they might actually have something else to do.

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But you see, I would go to my mom and I'd go to my dad and I'd be thinking to myself, you know what?

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This is great. They're both saying yes to something. Good.

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And then the wild card would come in.

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My sister.

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What are you doing to me?

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And she would come up and say, but I've got plans already.

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You're supposed to take me so and so in place.

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And my mom's like, I was and I swear nine times out of ten, she hadn't said anything before.

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I swear she didn't.

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But there it was.

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And so then wait, mom and dad both agreed.

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And yet here comes the third person completely messing up my plans.

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Granted, my plans were not very well formulated in the first place,

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but I still knew that there was that third person that had to say yes.

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And that's the thing about this though, is that when we're looking at the testimony,

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we're also looking at what it is to know who Jesus is and what he did.

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You see, if we wish to know that Jesus actually overcame anything,

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there are three witnesses, the water, the blood and the spirit.

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Now, I know that this is one of those passages where we easily just read past it.

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I don't know, John likes imagery and pictures, so I don't know what to do with this.

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But the thing is, is that Jesus' baptism, God the Father, was pointing out that Jesus was his son

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and that he was doing his will.

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Then at Jesus' crucifixion, his blood was the payment for our sins,

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taking away our guilt, not just as man, but as God.

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And then after Jesus ascended, the Holy Spirit came to his disciples

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and led them in his name to bring hope and forgiveness to the whole world,

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indicating that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

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It wasn't just that he was marked by his baptism,

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okay, great, go be a good teacher, and it wasn't just ending with the crucifixion.

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Oh, well, he gave of himself, that's a wonderful sacrifice for all people, but it's more.

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It's that his life, who he is, who he had lived out himself to be in this world,

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what he had done is now to go throughout the whole world,

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because his spirit is inside of us, leading us and guiding us.

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See, all three were pointing to Jesus being God and man.

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See, with that is that while we may oftentimes end up ignoring what it is that God is doing,

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his spirit is still active and alive.

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But you see, more than this is that our own life of faith is marked by water, blood and spirit.

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See, for the times whenever we may wonder, we may wonder if God has truly seen and known us,

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we're over there wondering, does God even acknowledge us? Does God even see us?

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Is that we remember that we are baptized in his name.

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See, in that he has called us to be his own.

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But you see, for the times when we wonder if God's salvation could possibly be enough to cover our sins,

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we know that he died as both man and God, meaning his salvation is real being man and tangible,

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but also being enough for the whole world as God.

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And that's the thing about this, is that for even the times though, whenever we truly wonder,

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have I really believed in Jesus? Have I really accepted?

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Is that we still hear his spirit calling us, convicting us, speaking to us, leading us?

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That's the thing is that God's spirit is speaking to us and leading us, because God has called us.

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You see, whatever issue may cause us to doubt or question, the other witnesses are still there to hold us firm.

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See, the thing is that we may stumble, but we are forgiven children.

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But you see, does that mean that we're never going to have consequences for our sins?

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Of course not. There are always consequences.

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That doesn't mean that God is not listening.

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Rather, if we choose to push away the Holy Spirit, is that when we push God away, that is a path that leads to death.

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But God is calling us. God is saying, this is my child.

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While there are consequences, we also know that his spirit is loving us and bringing us back.

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And that's the thing with this, is that the paths that we want to follow, that take us places that we don't want to go,

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God is the one calling us back to his path, to his light.

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See, that's the thing about this, is that we oftentimes want to push away parents, but that does not negate their love for us.

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You see, there are a lot of times whenever I realize something's been bothering me, and I'm a single person, I go to a house,

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sometimes it's easy to get stuck in your thoughts.

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But then those times when I say, what if I talk to my mom?

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And you're kind of like, I'm not a kid, I don't need to go talk to my mom, whatever, I'm 44, geez, aren't I better than that?

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And yet at the same time, while I may be in my head saying, I'm afraid of what my mom might think or say, or even the I told you so,

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but you see, those are the things that are in my head.

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It's not really what it is that I'm seeing from my mom.

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But you see, that's also the same thing that we oftentimes see with God.

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See, the thing is, is that just as we oftentimes may push away or reject what it is that our mothers have said,

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and we think I need to go on my path, is that there are times where we've done the same thing with God.

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See, the thing is, is that while we do that, there is still a place of support and comfort and compassion.

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You see, why do we know that we will always be able to benefit from that love?

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Because of our identity. Because we're God's child.

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You see, later today, I'm going to drive to the north side of Houston,

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and I'm going to drive to a house that I've spent almost two decades of my childhood in,

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and I'm going to walk in, and I'm going to go to the woman who lives in that house,

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and I'm going to say, Happy Mother's Day, I'm going to say I love you, I'm going to give her a hug,

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and we'll talk about life and everything else in general.

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Now, if I were to do the same, drive to some random house, walk up to the door,

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open it, and give whichever woman is in there a hug, and say, I love you, let's have lunch, and I don't know her,

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they'll probably call 911, and we are in Texas, so they may do even more than that.

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But you see, I can do that because of knowing the woman that's there.

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But you see, is also, this is the one who has taught me to be kind, to be truthful, to be strong,

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to be hopeful, and never to lose sight of Jesus as my Lord.

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But the same is true with us and God, is that we turn to God not thinking that we're good enough to prove ourselves

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to some deity that we hope might be out there, no, we're trusting in the relationship that God has provided for us.

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See, God has provided the gift of life, and we can always turn to Him.

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And as we do, He shows us our identity as His children, to be kind, truthful, strong, hopeful,

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but especially to never lose sight of Jesus as our Lord.

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And the thing is, is that if you are struggling with that identity,

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is that that is when the time is to listen to what God's spirit is speaking to you now,

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to know God better, to love one another, and to make disciples of all nations.

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See, this isn't just a life of Christ Memorial Lutheran church kind of a thing.

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This is something for all of us.

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And while our passage today speaks of some things that lead to death,

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that is only for those who decide to reject God's spirit.

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For those of us that are responding, there is hope in life.

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See, that's why we focus on things like knowing God in discipleship,

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and loving one another, and reaching out into the world.

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Because this is who we are. This is our identity.

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And that's why we are remembering our baptism today.

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You see, in baptism, the water washes over us,

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and God is saying, you are forgiven and you are my child.

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Not because of the water. The water is just water.

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But because of Christ's sacrifice for us.

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And the thing is that we sometimes lose sight of that.

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You see, we forget that we are called to follow after Christ.

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And so with that is, as we are taking communion,

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as you're going back to your seats, you are invited to take with the water

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and mark it on your forehead to remember that God has called you,

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but also to have a time to pause and to say,

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God, I want to follow you.

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A time to say, God, thank you for your salvation because of the cross.

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My only hope. I want to follow you.

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Please lead me by your spirit.

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

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Amen.

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So as we close,

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at some point in time, my mom's going to hear this sermon.

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She has a habit of listening to my sermons online.

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I don't know. She says they're okay, but I think she's biased.

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The thing with it though is that my mom may not always get the jokes,

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and frankly, I don't always get hers.

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But what I do know is that she knows my heart

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because it's the one that she spoke to me from God,

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the one in which God's spirit continues to speak and to guide,

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the one that she taught me to have even as you have been taught as well.

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So may we always follow that spirit,

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not just because it was given to us,

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but because we embrace him now and always.

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And as we do so, may our individual places and decisions

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change the way that we view the world,

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not so that the world defines how we live in it,

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but that God shows us how to take his gospel into that world.

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Amen.