- Mustard Seed: The Kingdom will see Massive Growth (Matthew 13:31-32)
- Leaven: The Kingdom will have Total Influence. (Matthew 13:33)
We are Citizens of a Kingdom of Victory
Live in Victory.
1 John 5:4 - For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.
Serve in Victory.
1 Corinthians 15:57-58 - thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Worship in Victory.
Revelation 19:6-8- Allelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:01
Matthew chapter 13.
00:05-00:15
How many of you, I always have to watch making movie references because I'm realizing I'm starting to get to the age where I'm dating myself by referencing movies.
00:16-00:19
But here's one that I think spans all generations.
00:21-00:22
The Karate Kid.
00:23-00:24
Have you seen the Karate Kid?
00:25-00:31
Now I'm not, hang on, I'm not talking about the Will Smith's kid in Jackie Chan.
00:31-00:33
I'm not talking about that one.
00:33-00:36
I'm talking about the real Karate Kid.
00:36-00:38
You know who I'm talking about, right?
00:38-00:41
Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso.
00:41-00:42
He was this kid.
00:42-00:43
How many of you have seen that?
00:44-00:46
OK, now we're fessing up now.
00:46-00:46
Come on.
00:46-00:47
I love that movie.
00:47-00:48
Don't be embarrassed.
00:48-00:51
There's no shame in loving the Karate Kid.
00:52-01:11
But the story is, for the two of you that may not have seen it, Kid from New Jersey moves to California, has the accent, doesn't quite fit in with the surfer dudes in California, and ends up getting tangled up in all kind of problems with some bullies.
01:12-01:15
Apparently they didn't have a bullying sign in their school, like there's one here.
01:17-01:22
And he gets, not only did they bully, but he gets attacked by these bullies.
01:22-01:23
You remember the scene?
01:23-01:26
After the Halloween party, They're all wearing their skeleton costumes.
01:28-01:29
Okay, don't look at me like I'm making this up.
01:30-01:31
Come on, you remember the scene.
01:32-01:32
Okay, thank you.
01:34-01:42
And we find out in the movie that they are all members of a dojo, right?
01:42-01:43
Cobra Kai.
01:45-01:48
Now, when I saw that movie, I was nine.
01:49-01:50
It came out in 1984.
01:52-02:07
And I remember when I saw that movie and saw Daniel get whooped in the schoolyard by all these karate guys, I remember thinking, this guy's done for.
02:08-02:18
There's no way he's gonna be able to take on and overcome an entire dojo full of skeletons that know karate.
02:20-02:22
Well, then he meets Mr. Miyagi, right?
02:22-02:26
Mr. Miyagi has him, you know, waxing all the cars and painting the fence and the house.
02:26-02:27
You know what I'm talking about?
02:27-02:30
And then he gets to the big tournament at the end.
02:31-02:34
I was so fascinated with that movie when I was a kid.
02:34-02:41
And I remember the very first time I saw that movie, all I could think of was, he's a goner.
02:42-02:44
There's no way he can overcome these odds.
02:45-02:47
The odds are too great against him.
02:49-03:20
Now I'm a little older and realize how it works when you make movies in Hollywood as they've repeated several times. Rocky before the Karate Kid, Rocky 2, 3, 4, 5, Rocky 6, Rocky 7, how far did they go? 57. Okay and now there's even another Karate Kid as I mentioned but my My point is, overwhelming odds.
03:21-03:26
How in the world is this kid gonna overcome these odds?
03:27-03:38
When we get to Matthew chapter 13, Jesus was telling some stories about the kingdom, about the period of time between his first coming and his second coming, we call that the church age.
03:40-04:04
And remember the first two parables, he said, "Well, the kingdom of heaven is like," He talked about a man who was sowing seed and some of the seed fell on the path and some of the seed fell on shallow soil and some fell on thorny soil and some fell on good soil and reproduced, but you're gonna have a lot of people rejecting the kingdom in one way, shape or form.
04:06-04:10
And then last week we talked about the parable of the wheat and the weeds of the Darnell.
04:11-06:19
The guy planted a good crop in his garden or farm an enemy came and just dumped buckets of seed of weeds, sabotaging. And remember the the servant said, "Well, let's let's pull the weeds now." No, no, if you pull the weeds now you might accidentally get some of the weed. Just let them all grow and then at harvest time, that's when we'll reap because you'll be able to tell one from the other. So if you can, put yourself in the place of the disciples here for a second. Jesus is talking about this period of history that's ahead and the first thing you hear is, "Okay, a lot of people are gonna reject this message. All right. And we're going to coexist with these people that have rejected the message all the way up until the end of the age." And I have to wonder if the disciples at this point might have felt like, well, how I felt when I watched the Karate Kid. Like, how is this gonna happen? How is this gonna happen? You know, there's a handful of us and you're talking about a world full of rejecters. How is this thing gonna take off? Well, actually, things looked really good until Jesus was rejected and then things looked like they were over when he was killed. But Jesus in these parables, and you know the rest of the story there, Jesus rose from the dead ushering in this age that we're living in now, the church age. But Jesus here in this passage, he's calling it ahead of time. He says, "Here is what's going to happen as my kingdom goes forward." You know, it's sort of like, you remember the iconic image of Babe Ruth calling a shot?
06:21-06:33
You remember that? Well, some people say he was actually shielding his eyes from the sun, and he wasn't really calling a shot. I prefer to think that he was calling a shot, but that's what Jesus was doing here.
06:33-06:37
How far is this kingdom gonna go in a world full of rejecters?
06:38-06:41
How far can it go in a world full of rejecters?
06:44-06:46
Well, I got some amazing news for you this morning.
06:46-06:47
Look at Matthew 13.
06:47-06:49
We're gonna pick up in verse 31, are you there?
06:53-07:03
He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.
07:05-07:24
It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
07:25-07:27
Let's talk about the mustard seed for a moment.
07:29-07:32
Jesus said it's the smallest of all seeds.
07:32-07:39
And there've been some Bible skeptics that are like, well, that's really not true because the wild orchard seed is actually smaller than the mustard seed.
07:40-07:45
Actually, they're wrong because in the Greek, the word for seed is a very specific word.
07:45-07:48
It refers to something you plant to grow to eat.
07:49-07:51
We don't eat orchids, do we?
07:51-07:56
But of the seeds that you plant for something that you consume, the mustard seed is the smallest.
07:56-07:57
Has anybody ever seen a mustard seed?
07:58-07:59
Ever seen one?
08:00-08:03
I was gonna try to find one for you, and then I thought, well, you know what?
08:03-08:07
If I just went like this and said, here's one, you wouldn't have been able to tell anyways.
08:08-08:09
They are microscopic.
08:10-08:13
Actually, I knew a lady in a senior citizen home where I used to do services.
08:13-08:16
She actually had a mustard seed like inside a pendant.
08:17-08:19
The pendant was about the size of a marble.
08:19-08:22
It was like this glass thing, and the mustard seed was encased.
08:22-08:25
you can barely see the mustard seed.
08:27-08:39
But the amazing thing about that tiny little seed is when you put it in the ground, it becomes a bush or a tree that can get up to 10 feet tall from that one little seed.
08:42-08:53
And Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven's like that." What he's saying is something really small is ultimately going to have a huge effect.
08:54-08:55
And we understand that, don't we?
08:55-08:56
Like a virus, right?
08:57-08:59
Can't even see a virus.
08:59-09:00
Does it have a big effect?
09:01-09:02
Yeah, or a spark?
09:03-09:06
A small little spark can start a forest fire.
09:08-09:15
And here Jesus was saying, the smallest seed is going to have a huge effect.
09:19-09:21
He said, it's going to grow into a tree.
09:21-09:27
Trees provide protection and security and a place to belong for the birds.
09:27-09:30
That's what the birds are indicative of here in this parable.
09:30-09:32
He says the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
09:32-09:36
It's the place where they find their home, so to speak.
09:37-09:39
Trees were also used to illustrate kingdoms.
09:40-09:43
Daniel chapter four, Ezekiel chapter 31 in the Old Testament.
09:45-09:49
Trees were used to symbolize kingdoms.
09:50-09:56
So what was the point of this story?
09:58-10:02
Well, the point that Jesus was making was to encourage his disciples.
10:05-10:07
We are in a lost and dying world.
10:08-10:14
And even in our day, pick up the paper, turn on the news.
10:16-10:22
Unfortunately, we've had to deal with this debacle in the past week, this Jerry Sandusky trial.
10:22-10:28
If you've been following that thing and you look at this, you're like, "What's wrong with people? What's going on?
10:30-10:35
Does evil have its grip over the world?" And Jesus is saying, "Sometimes it's going to seem like that.
10:36-10:37
But let me tell you something about my kingdom.
10:38-10:41
It's going to start small and it's going to get huge.
10:43-10:45
Nothing will stop." I'll put this down in your outline.
10:46-10:48
Nothing will stop the massive growth of the kingdom.
10:51-10:53
Nothing will stop the massive growth of the kingdom.
10:55-10:56
Think about how this kingdom has grown.
10:56-11:02
Really, if you just try to look at Christianity on a surface level, think about how it started.
11:02-11:04
It really started with one man, right?
11:06-11:24
It starts with this Jewish man who grew up as a carpenter, never traveled much more than 100 or 150 miles away from his home, went everywhere on foot, and just traveled around and started preaching.
11:26-11:35
Well, some people followed him, and you could say he grew from one person, he had the 12 disciples, so now we have 13.
11:37-11:41
And then we have the 70 come on board that he's commissioned and sent out.
11:41-11:43
and you had more followers come on board.
11:43-11:47
Then by the time you get to Acts chapter one, it says there are 120 people in the upper room.
11:48-11:51
Acts chapter two, 3000 more are baptized.
11:54-12:02
Now in 2012, all over the earth, there are over 2 billion people that call themselves Christians.
12:04-12:15
To put that into perspective, global population, they estimate that 32% of the population of the world calls themselves Christians.
12:18-12:19
Started small, didn't it?
12:23-12:24
Growing huge.
12:25-12:27
It's the largest of the five world religions.
12:27-12:31
The five world religions, those are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hindu, and Judaism.
12:32-12:35
Christianity is the largest of the five world religions.
12:36-12:38
Started small and grew huge.
12:39-12:48
To kind of look at a section of that, obviously being part of Harvest Bible Chapel, we're seeing that on a smaller scale happen again.
12:49-12:51
And that's what's really exciting about being part of this church.
12:52-12:55
You know, Harvest Bible Chapel in 1988 started with 18 people.
12:58-13:09
And in the year 2000, James McDonald said, "By 2010, I'd like to plant 10 churches." And whoa, you wanna plant 10 churches in 10 years?
13:09-13:09
That's crazy.
13:11-13:16
Well, it's 2012 now, and there are 75 Harvest Bible Chapels all over the world.
13:16-13:26
And they estimate that on any weekend, there are about 33, 34,000 people all over the world that attend a Harvest Bible Chapel.
13:28-13:36
So just looking from 1988 to now, you're seeing this principle play over, starting small, growing huge.
13:37-13:39
That's what Jesus was saying about the mustard seed.
13:39-13:40
It's going to be like that.
13:42-13:47
Even narrowing it down a little bit more, I think of this church.
13:47-13:51
This church really started with two people or two families.
13:51-14:00
You know, I think back to two or three years ago when Dale Lippin and I were sitting in a Mexican restaurant talking about being part of Harvest Bible Chapel and planning a church.
14:00-14:05
And already we're seeing the Lord bless and bring people to be part of this exciting new ministry.
14:06-14:09
But that's what Jesus was illustrating with the mustard seed.
14:10-14:15
It's going to start small, but it is going to grow huge.
14:17-14:18
Look at verse 33.
14:20-14:21
He told him another parable.
14:21-14:34
"The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened." No, this parable is the partner of the mustard seed.
14:37-14:52
In Jesus' day, when you were making bread, you would take the dough and you would knead it, and you would actually take a piece of the fermented dough from a former loaf and put it into the new unleavened lump.
14:56-15:33
And that leaven would cause the new dough to ferment, a bubble to permeate the whole loaf and that's what would cause it to rise. It says that she put it in three measures of meal. That's actually a very huge amount, but it's a very common amount. When they were making their bread they didn't make it a loaf at a time. We're going to make a big batch, enough to use for several days. It's common biblically. Sarah in the Old Testament, the book of to use three measures a meal. Gideon in the book of Judges, three measures a meal.
15:33-16:05
But the point is the same. We're starting with a little bit and it's going to have a huge effect. Well I'm gonna get this off the table. There's actually, when you deal with the leaven, there are two major interpretations on this verse. And I I gotta kind of throw this out here because maybe some of you have heard this, but some people teach and believe that the leaven actually represents sin.
16:06-16:18
That what Jesus was saying was the kingdom of heaven, the church age is going to see a little bit of sin enter in and it's going to permeate and saturate the entire kingdom.
16:19-16:22
Well, let me tell you why I don't lean towards that interpretation.
16:22-16:26
First of all, it doesn't flow with the context.
16:28-16:29
It just doesn't flow with the context.
16:29-16:36
Jesus talking about the kingdom being planted, the kingdom being rejected, coexisting.
16:36-16:41
Now he's talking about the kingdom growing and victorious with the mustard seed.
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And the word that really bothers me in this verse with that interpretation is the word all.
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That's the one that really bothers me.
16:51-17:00
So is Jesus teaching that this is what the church age is going to be like, a little sin's going to creep in, and at some point, the entire church is going to be corrupt.
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It's going to be nothing but evil and sinful, the entire church.
17:04-17:09
I don't see that as being what Jesus is teaching.
17:13-17:17
Another issue with context, throughout Matthew 13, the parables are actually in pairs.
17:18-17:53
The first two parables talk about the conflict in the kingdom. These two talk about the victory of the kingdom. The first two parables we looked at talk about the nature of the kingdom. This talks about the power of the kingdom. So leaven is a picture of permeation. This is the other reason I know by that leaven refers to sin here. Leaven doesn't refer to sin, it refers to permeation. Some people say, "Well, every time the Bible talks about is talking about sin, and that's not really true.
17:54-17:56
It's talking about permeation.
17:56-18:09
For example, Luke chapter 12 and verse 1, Jesus said, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." What Jesus was saying was, hypocrisy has saturated everything that they do.
18:09-18:12
They can't do anything without being hypocritical about it.
18:12-18:14
So it's a picture of permeation.
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This is what he's saying about his kingdom.
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Well, that's one interpretation. The second interpretation is Levin represents Christ himself, and his teaching is that he is going to permeate and ultimately influence the world. That's what I believe Jesus is teaching here, especially piggybacked with the parable of the mustard seed. So how far can this thing go? Well, the mustard seed says it's going to start small and it's going to grow.
18:55-19:22
The leaven is teaching it's going to start small and it's going to influence and permeate everything. Notice God did not just sit in heaven. He came down and inserted himself into the world and now he's influencing the world by living in and through believers everywhere.
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So write this down on your outline, total influence.
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Total influence.
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Has Christianity had an influence on the world?
19:39-19:41
Has Christianity had an influence on the world?
19:43-19:44
Well, this is an interesting study.
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Actually, entire books have been written about this.
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But here's some food for thought.
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Has Christianity influenced the world?
19:53-20:01
First of all, Jesus Christ is so significant that time is marked by his existence.
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Did you know that?
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All of time is either marked what?
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before Christ or after Christ.
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His very existence changed the calendar.
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Pretty influential person, wouldn't you think?
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Even looking at the effect that his ministry had in first century Rome and how that has spread.
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There's a radical change in the view of human life.
20:33-20:37
For example, infanticide, very common thing.
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So many more babies being born than living.
20:45-20:46
But Jesus Christ changed that.
20:50-20:51
The issue of slavery.
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Do a little history study on that.
20:57-21:04
Look at Wilberforce and the people who have championed anti-slavery movements.
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It's been the effect of Christ.
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The view that all people are equal.
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Same with women.
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You know, Jesus Christ was one who would actually talk to women, like the Samaritan woman, like Mary.
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Treat them with the same value that he would treat everyone else.
21:27-21:29
That was not common in his day.
21:32-21:44
Sometimes when Aaron and I are joking, this is a really bad joke, but sometimes you do these things in your home too, and you'll probably do this one from now on.
21:44-21:46
But sometimes we're kind of bickering back and forth.
21:46-21:52
Playfully, sometimes I'm just like, oh, I just wish you would have married a Muslim because you wouldn't talk to him like that.
21:54-21:55
And yeah, I know that's mean, right?
21:57-21:58
But it's a joke, we laugh about it.
21:59-22:06
Usually when I wake up from being unconscious, I laugh about it.
22:06-22:10
But you don't see that in any other religion.
22:10-22:14
Christian women the world over are treated better than women in any other religion.
22:14-22:15
That's true.
22:16-22:17
Influence of Jesus Christ.
22:17-22:19
Look at issues of charity and compassion.
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How many movements have been made for charity and compassion modeled after, empowered by, modeled because of Jesus Christ.
22:33-22:40
Look at sexual morals in the first century of Rome and how the influence of Christ radically changed the view.
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Let's take it to our context.
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The US Constitution affected by Christianity?
22:49-22:51
Absolutely, absolutely.
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Here's a few things.
22:53-23:02
Having objective values, that's what the Constitution was about, subjective values, objective values. Having a system of checks and balances.
23:02-23:15
Here's a little political lesson for you. Do you know why we have a system of checks and balances? It's because our founding fathers knew that people wrestled with sin and that was a way to keep it in check on a government level.
23:16-24:17
That's why they instituted the system of checks and balances. Look at our judicial laws. Everywhere the church has advanced and Christ has been represented, there's been radical change. I could go on and on, the effect that Jesus Christ and his kingdom has had on science, on education, in art, in music. He's influenced the entire planet by his existence. One Jewish man who grew up in an obscure village and only lived to be 33 years old somehow completely changed everything about this planet. That's what Jesus is teaching about the leaven. Real small. Total permeation. So on your outline, I want you to jot some things down here.
24:21-24:36
Here's the point to this. Why is Jesus telling this? Well, here's what I want to share with you today. We are citizens of a kingdom of victory. We are citizens of of a kingdom, but it's a kingdom of victory.
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So in response to what Jesus is saying here, I want to leave you with three things.
24:48-24:50
The first one is this.
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Live in victory.
24:57-25:09
Live in victory. 1 John 5, verse 4 says, "For everyone who has been born of God," I love this word, "overcomes." It's a word that John uses a lot referring to Christians, overcomers.
25:09-25:23
"Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, "and this is the victory that has overcome the world, "our faith." This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
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Why is the gospel working on such a large scale?
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Because it's working on a small scale.
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You see, because Jesus Christ is radically changing your life, He's mobilizing you to go out and plant the seed, so that other people would be affected as well.
25:57-26:19
But I want to encourage you to live in victory. Jesus has won the victory and he gives it to us. Do you understand that? I love this story. I had to share this with you. This is a story about the greatest basketball player of all time, which is, everybody say it nice and loud in unison.
26:21-26:23
Michael Jordan is the correct answer.
26:24-26:29
If you said anything other than Michael Jordan, you have given an incorrect answer.
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Sorry, there's a Kobe Bryant fan here that, just pray for him.
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Michael Jordan back in his heyday.
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The Bulls were playing the Cavaliers.
26:55-26:58
Michael Jordan scored 69 points in that game.
27:02-27:16
And one of his teammates named Stacy King came in, got in the game and scored one point, which the story didn't tell me how.
27:16-27:18
I'm assuming he got fouled, right?
27:18-27:20
That's the only way you're gonna score one point in a game, right?
27:21-27:24
So Michael Jordan scored 69 points in that game.
27:24-27:28
Stacey King comes in, puts one point on the board.
27:29-27:30
I love this quote from Stacey King.
27:31-27:40
He said, "I'll always remember this "as the night that Michael Jordan and I "combined for 70 points." Isn't that great?
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You know why I love that story is because that is such a picture of what Jesus Christ has done.
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The difference is, Jesus would have scored 70 points and we didn't have any, but Jesus gives us the victory.
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Do you understand that?
27:59-28:04
Through his death and through his resurrection, we are pronounced not guilty from sin.
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Nothing's gonna overturn that verdict.
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Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?
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Jesus said in John 10 that you're in his father's hand.
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And nothing can take you from the Father's hand.
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But the reason I want to share this with you is, there are a lot of Christians that don't walk in victory.
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I'm not preaching some prosperity thing or some health and wealth thing.
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I'm not preaching any of that stuff.
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I'm saying that we are victorious people.
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And we have a tendency to walk around And the world beats us up and I'm no good and I stink.
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And when the God of the universe has said, I love you, let me demonstrate how much I love you.
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I'm going to nail my son to a cross so that your sins can be forgiven.
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And he's gonna raise from the dead so you can have eternal life.
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That's how much I love you.
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I love you so much that while you were wayward, a spiritual adulterer.
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Understand, that's the picture that the Bible gives.
29:26-29:29
It's spiritual prostitution, like Hosea.
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Though you spiritually prostituted yourself.
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I want you to be my bride.
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There you've been like a rebellious child.
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I want to adopt you to those who received Christ, to those who believed in His name.
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He gave the right to become, what?
29:53-29:54
Children of God.
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That's the love of God.
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You can't earn it and you don't deserve it, but He pours it out.
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And when you have it, you can't lose it.
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Being a parent, I've learned some things on a smaller scale level about the relationship between a father and a child.
30:20-30:25
And do you know no matter what my kids do, they will never stop being my kids, right?
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Isn't that right, Jay Naur?
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No matter what your kids do, you love them and you accept them and there's nothing that they're going to be a Naur.
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They're going to be a Naur.
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They got the Naur genes in them.
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are gonna be an hour from now until eternity, right?
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Well, that's what God has done for us through adoption.
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He says, "You are mine." And even when we wrestle with sin, even when we fall, even when we fail, God says, "You're still my kid.
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"I love you just as much.
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"I will discipline you, not to punish you, "but to bring you back in line." The same reason we punish our kids.
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We wanna correct the behavior And God's a loving Father that does that.
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Knowing that we have this love from God, we should walk in victory.
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Not cocky, not arrogant, but humbled at the kind of love that's being poured on us.
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We didn't deserve it, we can't earn it, but we can't lose it either once we have it.
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That's why, you know, to say, well, you know, we're going to have the victory someday.
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That's that's just not true.
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You're not going to have the victory someday.
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The truth is you have it now.
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Right.
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You have it now.
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Your victory starts the moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
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You have it now.
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So let me ask you, are you struggling with your past?
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Well, first off, if you're here today and you don't know the Lord, today's the day.
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Okay? All this talk about victory doesn't mean anything to you, if you haven't joined the victorious team, so to speak, in the kingdom.
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But are you struggling with sin? The victory is found in Jesus Christ. You know, we have a tendency to try to do so many things to overcome that. To say, "Well, you know, maybe if I just go to more seminars and read more books and, you know, do all these little things, I'll overcome this sin." Do you know how you're gonna overcome come your sin, it's when you get to that realization of what your identity is.
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So that's that's not me, but that temptation for sin, that's not me, that's not who I am.
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I am a child of the king.
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I have God's name on me, so to speak, that's just not me.
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That's where the victory from sin comes from.
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It comes from hating your sin because it was your sin that nailed your Savior to the cross.
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And only when you understand that you have victory.
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Are you going to begin to experience victory?
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You see, if you're walking around going, well, I just can't stop sinning because I'm a sinner and and I'm a loser, I'm a miserable failure.
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Guess what you're going to start acting like?
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A loser and a miserable failure and a sinner, right?
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Because you've talked yourself into, well, that's just what I am.
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But when you're walking around saying, you know what?
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Yeah, I I still have indwelling sin.
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I'll have it until I shed this.
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But you know what? The spirit of God lives in me.
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OK, and when I'm tempted to sin, he is like one prayer away.
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He's right there. I can have victory over sin.
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I mentioned before about struggling with your past.
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Let me just say this.
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I've done a lot of counseling over the last 15 years.
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And that is one of the biggest issues that people bring to me.
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Saying things like, "I've done some miserable things in my past.
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"I've done some horrible things.
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"I've hurt some people." And you know what?
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Yeah, me too.
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I have, I've done some things that I'm embarrassed about, that I'd be ashamed to have to stand up here and say, here's some of the miserable rotten things that I've done in the past.
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But you see, some people get so debilitated by that, as if there's no moving on.
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Your past isn't an issue with God, right?
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God promises in Jeremiah, quoted again in Hebrews, I will remember their sins no more.
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Your sin has been taken away.
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You're making an issue out of a past sin that God isn't even making an issue of.
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It's over.
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Let me warn you, you're actually treading on dangerous ground when you start undermining the grace of God.
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Because I've talked to people that almost feel like, I've done something so sinful that I can't be forgiven for it.
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Really?
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You've done something so bad that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ can't cover that one.
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Wow, I gotta hear what this one is.
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Don't sell it short, right?
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Live in victory.
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Live in victory.
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Why?
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Because it's already happened.
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Secondly, serve in victory.
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First Corinthians 15, I have on your outline, thanks be to God.
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This is in your outline, right?
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Okay, thanks.
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Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.
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Serve in victory.
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Nobody wants to be on the winning team but never get in the game, right?
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I always feel bad for, you know, a fellow hockey nut like me.
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You see, you know, remember when the Penguins won the Cup and there'd be like some people skate out?
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Like, "Yeah, you really didn't get to play in the Stanley Cup Finals, but you were out there for the victory, weren't you?" Yes, victorious, but wouldn't you rather be the guy that was like, "I was right there in there.
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I was right there in the middle of experiencing what was going on.
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That's where I want to be.
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You want to be in the work of the Lord.
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You want to look back someday and say, "I was a part of that.
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I was a part of that.
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God used me to advance his kingdom." Isn't that awesome?
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Isn't that awesome for God to say, "I have this unstoppable kingdom that's going forth and covering and permeating the entire world." You want to be a part of it?
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Like, "Yeah.
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Why do I sign up for that?
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Servant victory.
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That's why, I love this verse, "Your labor in the Lord is not in vain." You know, every second spent in ministry is productive, right?
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Isn't that what this verse says?
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You're never going to be involved in ministry where Christ is using you and you're ministering the gospel and you're caring for people in the name of Christ.
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You're never gonna have a day of ministry like that where you walk away saying, "Well, that was a waste." Never in vain, never in vain, never in vain.
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So serve in victory.
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And then finally, worship in victory.
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Worship in victory.
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Let's get ready to do that.
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Revelation 19 verses 6-8. This is the song that they're singing in heaven, by the way.
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"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
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Let us rejoice and exalt and give Him the glory.
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For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.
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It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.
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I love this. Heaven is described as a wedding reception.
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You ever been to a wedding reception?
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What typically happens at a wedding reception? People usually sit around, bored out of their minds, yawn, Lame.
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When's this over?
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Lame.
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Is that what a wedding reception's like?
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None that I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot of weddings.
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Okay, usually I get the best spot in the wedding.
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I've been to a lot of weddings.
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And do you know what I see at wedding receptions?
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I see joy, I see laughter, and there's music and singing and dancing.
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That's like the mother of all parties, right?
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Yours is going to totally be like that.
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I can't wait for that.
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That's the only reason I'm doing your wedding, by the way, is because I know you guys are going to have a killer reception.
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I shouldn't have said all that out loud, I suppose.
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But what's that?
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Oh, you haven't booked me yet.
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You know what?
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I didn't get my invitation yet.
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Maybe I should hold off on these comments.
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But the point is, wedding receptions are a lot of fun, aren't they?
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And that's the very terminology it's used to describe what's heaven like.
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What's heaven like?
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Heaven is the marriage supper of the lamb.
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It's a giant wedding reception.
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And what's the DJ playing?
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Well, did you see that?
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He's playing a song of victory.
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Our God reigns.
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Our God reigns.
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To him be all glory and honor and power.
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It's a song of victory.
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And you're sitting here thinking, you know what, I can't wait for that.
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Well, I got good news for you, you're not gonna have to wait.
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Do you know what we're doing up here every Sunday?
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This is like preparing us.
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This is rehearsal for the big one, but it's not just rehearsal.
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This is our anthem, our worship.
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This is our anthem that our God reigns.
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This is our anthem that victory has already been won.
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This is our anthem that sin and Satan and death have been defeated.
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And that the holy awesome sovereign of the universe loves us.
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So how can we stand up and kind of mouth the words to that?
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How can't we?
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How can we get up?
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Hallelujah, our God reigns.
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Then in a couple hours, we'll be singing, take me out to the ball game, as loud and joyfully as we can.
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When we can stand and raise our hands and cheer for a meaningless football game.
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But we come to worship the King.
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I think it's because sometimes we just lose our focus on what worship is about.
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And understand that worship isn't just limited to the music that we do on Sunday morning, but there is something special about congregational worship.
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There's something special about that.
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Why?
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God ordained it, and because that's the thing that's happening in heaven for eternity.
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So I want to encourage you.
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In just a moment, we're going to take our offering, and if our ushers would come forward, and offering is part of your worship.
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But I want to encourage you.
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See, this is why we wanted to do worship after the message today.
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Because it's time to celebrate.
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We serve a victorious King.
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We serve the one who conquered death.
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We serve the Lord Jesus Christ and a kingdom that can't be stopped, that can't be silenced, and will never end.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Matthew 13:31-33
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.