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Well, how do you?

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So I tried.

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Last week I tried.

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Microphone doesn't like me today.

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I tried to remind the world that we need to stop looking for blood from our neighbors

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and stop looking for others to blame for our own issues.

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But I found out that apparently not everyone comes to church here at Christ Memorial Lutheran.

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So I was not able to reach all 161 million voting Americans with my sermon last week.

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For that I do apologize.

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I will work on that for next time.

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I've got about four more years so it should be okay.

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Now I am sure that nobody here rubbed it in anyone's face that they won.

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I'm sure nobody here lashed out at anybody else in anger because they lost.

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I am sure that all of you handled the whole thing politely and kindly.

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So don't worry, today's sermon is not for any of you.

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I promise.

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Now I'm also looking at purchasing some oceanfront property in Arizona.

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I've heard that from the front porch you can see the sea.

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We spoke previously about how God did not initially create us as human beings with the

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intention of bloodshed.

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Rather we ourselves have been the ones who pursue it.

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And therefore because of that our sin, Jesus had to provide his own blood to cover our

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own sins.

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The ones we continue to pursue and then blame on others.

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And so because of the pattern we created, we were required to use blood to find forgiveness

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of sins until Jesus sacrificed himself.

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It says in Hebrews in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels

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used in worship.

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Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding

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of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

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So then what does the rest of the chapter say?

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Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these

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rights but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

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The copies of the heavenly things.

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The tabernacle that the children of Israel followed in the wilderness was actually a

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copy.

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The tabernacle was the place where God's glory would descend so that God could meet the people,

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guide them and bestow his mercy upon them.

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But that isn't where God ultimately dwells.

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God doesn't limit himself to what we develop as if our plans define what he will do.

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Rather we are supposed to be God's dwelling.

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But the problem is that we need cleansing.

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See Jesus' sacrifice is not for the things that we create.

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Jesus' sacrifice is for our souls, for our very being.

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Have we finally faced the fact that what we create here on earth is not ultimately what

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God intends for us?

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No, that does not mean that we don't try to do what God wants us to do on this earth.

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We do.

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We are meant to try as much as we can.

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We pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

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But when did we start praying, thy kingdom has finished getting here and thy will is

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being done perfectly already.

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So Jesus, don't worry.

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You don't need to come because we got this.

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I think I missed that part in the English Standard Version.

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Maybe it's in the King James.

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Let me look.

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Nope, nope, not there.

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I know that this is hard to believe.

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I get it.

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I really do.

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Those other people out there, they're crazy and you don't understand them and you don't

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understand what they're pursuing.

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I get it.

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But whatever any of you are pursuing and whomever any of you are following is not the

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actual answer to the issues that our world is facing either.

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Our laws, our leaders, our ideas, they're from people making the best decisions they

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can, but they aren't what actually makes the world a better place.

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But what's concerning is because we think it does.

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The only sacrifice that actually does anything for anyone was already accomplished 2000 years

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ago.

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It says in Hebrews, for Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which

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are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God

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on our behalf.

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Our good intentions, our good works are not where Jesus is found.

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It's been amazing.

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I have been seeing tons of pictures for some time now that seem that all seem to include

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Jesus in them doing this, doing that.

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I see all these pictures, these memes, these graphics of Jesus doing this and doing that,

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expecting this person praying or that person attacking one person's hero or rescuing someone

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else's.

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Man, Jesus is like the new action figure, apparently online.

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Y'all, Jesus is not into the games that we're playing.

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He's not in your camp or your camp or your camp or my camp or anybody's camp.

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He's not a camp.

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And if you're sharing graphics that somehow seem to think that Jesus is somehow involved

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in our issues that we're facing currently, there's a good chance it's probably not right.

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Because it says in Hebrews, Christ is not entering into what is made with our hands,

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nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every

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year with blood, not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation

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of the world.

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But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by

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the sacrifice of himself.

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Could you imagine going in year after year to make sacrifices to God to amend your relationship

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with him and then deciding that your next sacrifice is somehow going to make everything

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better in a way that the previous sacrifices did not?

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Or if not every year, every four years, somehow thinking that our new set of works is somehow

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all that much better than what we did before.

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There was one sacrifice that truly brought to an end sin, death and the devil.

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There are no more battles that accomplish the same thing, nor more battles like that

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are even needed.

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We are celebrating this weekend, those who have gone to different places in order to

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defend us or to defend our allies and others from genuine threats.

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And what is it that we are spending so much time attacking right now?

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None of this is the actual battle in a nation where less than one half of 1% of the US population

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is active duty military.

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Why are we spending so much time trying to declare war on our neighbors or even more

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than that?

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Christians on fellow Christians.

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Are we that desperate to fight but so unwilling to serve the way that people did before?

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It says in Ephesians six, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might

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put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the

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devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers against

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the authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual

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forces of evil in the heavenly places.

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If we are fight trying to destroy flesh and blood, other human beings and that isn't actually

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the battle we're supposed to fight, then who is actually winning when we do?

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And more than that against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

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If it says in Hebrews that the heavenly places are to be cleansed by Christ Jesus, then where

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is it that we're actually dealing with the spiritual forces?

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Not out there in here.

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And just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment.

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So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time

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not not not to deal with sin.

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But to save those who are eagerly waiting for him not to deal with sin.

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Just think about what our world has been promoting.

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I have to attack you because we need to deal with sin.

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I hear this from so many different sides in groups.

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I have to attack you because we're trying to deal with sin in Jesus name.

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Jesus isn't coming back to deal with sin.

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He already did.

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Jesus is coming back to save.

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So then why are we spending our time trying to deal with sin instead of using grace and

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mercy to save souls?

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If we truly believe that the people around us are so lost, then why is it that we cannot

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show them the one thing that would actually save them?

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For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form

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of these realities.

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It can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect

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those who draw near.

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Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers having once been

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cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sins.

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But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year for it is impossible for

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the blood of bulls and coats to take away sins.

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The law and everyone who comes with it is a shadow.

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There's no substance here.

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None of what we are doing is cleansing anybody.

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If what we do every four years could ever change or our hearts and our souls, then wouldn't

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it have happened already?

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And not just for a moment or a season or until somebody says or does something dumb, but

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from now on.

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Wouldn't it have been so overwhelmingly amazing and salvific that it would have brought everyone

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and everything in line with Christ Jesus?

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Israel kept making sacrifices to deal with their situation at that moment.

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They had to.

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But their sacrifices, their works were nothing to be proud of their practices, their ways.

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They didn't prove anything to God about their worth or whether he should love them or take

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away their sins in any real and permanent way.

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And nothing that we're doing is the point of helping his kingdom.

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That's not how it works.

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Not playing the victim as if we have never did anything wrong ourselves.

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Not playing the hero as if somehow we have saved all of humanity and not playing the

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villain as if we are tasked by God himself to hurt anyone and everyone that we believe

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deserves it because none of it is helping the kingdom.

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And I am not going to pretend that I have not done that third one.

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Believe me, even at this moment, I sometimes feel like I'm teetering on the edge and it

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worries me.

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The only reason why I should even be discussing this is because I'm scared.

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I'm scared for us.

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And sometimes I'm scared of us.

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And yet we keep doing so many things, behaving the way we do in God's name.

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And even more than that, I have had my own friends hear me say how scared I am and then

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attack me even more for being scared.

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But didn't Jesus become the ultimate sacrifice?

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Aren't we ignoring that sin requires blood?

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And if Jesus already did everything, then shouldn't we be willing to lay it all on the

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line for him?

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I'd like to go forward a few verses.

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Don't worry.

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I'm not spoiling next week's passage at all.

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But Hebrews 10.5.

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Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have

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not desired, but a body have you prepared for me.

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In Bert offerings and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure.

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Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the

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scroll of the book.

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I need to let you all in on a history lesson.

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When people were writing the New Testament, many of them were not actually going back

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and using the Old Testament Hebrew of the Old Testament scriptures.

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They had something that was called the Septuagint.

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It was a Greek translation.

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What they had done is because Greek was so well used is that also when they were translating,

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it had so many better manuscripts to go from.

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But in so doing, you have to translate from Hebrew, the original Masoretic text to Greek.

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But there were variations in it.

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Not destroying the word of God, but variations.

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The writer of Hebrews here was quoting Psalm 40, and there was a variation in there.

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We read the part that says, a body you have prepared for me.

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And when we read that, we oftentimes jump to Jesus giving his body as a sacrifice.

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A body have you prepared for me?

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Oh, offering sacrifices, a body.

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Yep, that's talking about Jesus giving his life.

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But look at the context.

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Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired.

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Because when it talks about the body, it is not saying what you think.

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Because the original Masoretic text had a different way of saying what it was trying

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to get across.

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We have some copies that still exist.

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And we say that the original wording was, but you dug two ears.

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What does that mean?

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If you have two ears, then you can listen to God's word and you can obey him.

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Which is what you can do when you have a body prepared for you.

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A body to listen and a body to do God's will.

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Because the point here is exactly what the Hebrews writing is trying to get across to

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us.

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It's not about the sacrifices or the offerings.

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It's about listening and obeying our God.

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When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings

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and Burt offerings and sin offerings, these are offered according to the law.

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Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will.

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He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

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And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ

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once for all.

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Psalm 40 describes what happens when the king is present at the altar, when the sacrifice

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is being made.

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The king is there to present the offering and to sing God's praises.

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But the king is not the one to make the sacrifice.

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The king is not the high priest.

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The king is not the one to bring salvation to the people.

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The king is not the one who makes the people righteous.

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The king is supposed to be righteous himself.

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Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.

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If we want people to follow Christ, it is not by victories.

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It is not by what we can somehow push toward with our efforts.

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Whatever we wish to see in the world must be because of what Christ has done and does

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now through us.

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If we want the world to trust in his mercy, then we have to embody mercy.

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If we want the world to know that there is love and that we are meant to follow, then

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we need to do it ourselves first.

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And if we don't understand why it is that people would go in a different direction,

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yelling louder won't fix it.

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And listening to them to understand won't change that God has saved us.

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It doesn't matter what has happened right now.

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And it doesn't matter what happens in four years or four years after that or however

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many multiples that there are that we have to teach kids in third grade.

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The same is true as it has always been.

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The king is not the high priest.

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And if we want the world to follow Christ, the answer has to be in our lives, not in

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our fight to win power.

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So fortunately, we've talked about this twice in a row, so I'm sure that all of you have

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got it down now perfectly.

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But wherever you may find yourself this week, and whoever it is that may be upsetting you,

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that's not where we find the true salvation because Christ already did it.

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So my hope and my prayer is that we as people who already know the mercy and the forgiveness

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of Christ Jesus ourselves can show that to the world around us because it is only by

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forgiveness and mercy that God can actually transform this world.

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Thanks be to God.