The Cure For Weary Hearts (Hebrews 12:3)

Kootenai Church

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Hebrews chapter 12 and when you found your place there, let's pray together our father.

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It is our Our desire and our expectations to hear from you today in your word.

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We are gathered here today to acknowledge our unworthiness before you to confess that to rejoice in the

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Hope of the gospel and the hope that we have in your son because of his death for us on the cross Is your great work of redemption?

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So we pray now that you would encourage our hearts and strengthen them together in your word and that your word may give to us solace and comfort encouragement and strength

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We pray that you would be glorified through our understanding and our application of your word

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We pray in the name of Christ. Amen The Christian life is a struggle.

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That is something that that is something that's patently obvious to anybody who has either been a

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Christian for any period of time or Read your Bible at all which is why some of the modern gospel presentations are so frustrating when they hide the realities of the struggle of the

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Christian life and The cost of what it means to follow Christ Many times in churches you will hear gospel presentations that offer or promise physical blessings and a better life and an easier life or prosperity and all kinds of temporal ease if you simply become a

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Christian and Scripture doesn't promise any of those things to the child of God. In fact scripture Honestly warns us that it is through many trials and tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God.

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That's Acts 14 22 first Peter 5 8 says be of Sober spirit be on the alert your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour

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That doesn't sound like rainbows and giggles does it? Now that's the reality of the

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Christian life So Peter says we are to resist him firm in the faith knowing that the same

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Experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world Ephesians 6 12 says we struggle not against flesh and blood but against rulers against the powers against the world forces of this darkness against spiritual forces of wickedness and heavenly places

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First Timothy 6 12 Paul told Timothy you are to fight the good fight of faith and in 2nd

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Timothy chapter 4 Paul says I have fought the good fight of the faith scripture describes the

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Christian life as a battle a war a labor and effort agony conflict a race an

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Athletic contest and so we are told to endure to persevere to continue to fight the good fight

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To stand strong and to labor in the Lord and scripture commends for us hard work courage strength fortitude endurance and discipline

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That's the reality of what we face 1st Corinthians 16 13 says and I love this this verse be on the alert

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Stand firm in the faith act like men be strong That is about one of the most politically incorrect verses that you could possibly read act like men

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He says that to the women not because he is encouraging transgenderism, but there's

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Aspects of manhood and maleness namely strength and courage and fortitude and endurance

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That ought to characterize everybody as we run the Christian race There is a very real danger for us in our passage

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Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3 And that danger is that our hearts can faint the the command to be strong in the faith to act like men to endure and To be firm in the faith and be on the alert

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Those commands are not something that that really are for the faint of heart and yet our hearts faint don't they?

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They do faint in this world. That's the reality that we face so yes, we face a conflict a struggle a contest a race that we have to run and we put forth the effort into into finishing that race and Contending and and working in that contest laboring and striving and fighting the good fight.

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We're to stand strong and Yet our hearts in this world can faint that is the danger that is described in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3

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Which is our text for this morning for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself

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So that you will not grow weary and lose heart There is a warning there about growing weary and losing heart and that warning

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Perfectly fits the analogy of the race that we have been looking at in verses 1 through 3

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We understand that preparing for a race is is easy in terms of planning and setting aside on the schedule

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Starting the race is easy. It is running it and finishing the race. Well, that is the difficulty and so as the difficulties mount and as times get tough and as our

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Resolve and our discipline and our motivations begin to fail us There's always the danger that you and I would lose heart and begin to grow weary in the race

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We are susceptible to this weariness We get tired of this life and I think the older that we get the more tired and exhausted and done with it

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We also become And maybe I'm not speaking for everybody who's north of 35 but when you're north of 35 and the further north you get of 35 the more you start to realize and I just want

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I Want it all to be done I'm ready to I'm ready to wrap all of this up and There is a very real sense in which the older we get the more

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We get disconnected from and lose our affections for this world And we start to set our hope and affections and longings on the world that is to come

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The race is a difficult one and you and I need the encouragement and the instruction to run it Well, because weariness of heart and fainting of heart is a cause of all kinds of evils

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Because we are weary we begin to compromise with the world Capitulate to the spirit of the age make compromises and give in to our flesh

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We make moral theological and spiritual shipwreck of our lives when we are weary weariness leads to faithlessness

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To laziness to indolence and to apathy in our spiritual lives Now that weariness is not the only cause of those things, but it is a certain cause of those things so we have to be on guard in our own life lives and in our own hearts against the reality of Fainting in our heart and becoming weary as it is described at the end of verse 3 in Hebrews 12

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So what is the cure then for this weariness if weariness really is a danger to us?

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If it is possible for us to lose heart and to faint in our soul and become weary in the race Then how do we prevent that or how do we cure it?

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There are two things listed here in our text in verse 3 and want you to read it with me again Consider him who has endured such hostility against himself by sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart

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Here is the cure for it. How do we how do we? Guard against weariness.

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How do we fight against a fainting of soul? when the realities of this life and the trials of this world tend to sap our energy and strength and Make us despair of the outcome and even despair of life in this world.

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Listen, we don't do it by ignoring the reality of trials You'll notice that verse 3 doesn't say anything about that.

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It doesn't say pretend that the afflictions don't exist It doesn't say ignore them try not to think about them just Bear down and grit your teeth and endure all the way to the end muster up that resolve that is deep within the heart of every human person and just face it with a

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Stoicism and a gritted jaw and just get through it and get past it to the end

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That's that's not the counsel rather the author counsels us to To Inform our own hearts with the truth

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Regarding two things that begin to put our suffering and our afflictions in their proper perspective

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You and I are to do two things to compare our afflictions with the reward that is to come

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That's actually in verse 2 We started to look at that last week and the second is to compare our afflictions with the

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Lord's afflictions That's in verse 3 Now when you and I inform our hearts and our minds with the truth and we compare our afflictions and sufferings and difficulties in this life with the reward that we will receive when we cross the finish line and then when we compare our

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Afflictions to his afflictions and suddenly that puts everything into perspective, doesn't it?

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This is the cure for a weary heart. This is how it is that we prevent growing weary Let's look at the first one to compare our sufferings with the reward that is to come in this

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We looked at a little bit last week up in verse 2. Let us Fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith who for the joy set before him

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Endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God Now, this is the example that the

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Lord Jesus gave us in that He endured the cross and despised the shame while he was focusing himself on something else

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Namely the reward that was to come the joy that was set before him being Elevated and exalted to the father's right hand and taking his seat there at a position of power and authority

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In a position of exaltation that and many other things the scripture in the Old Testament Described and promised to him those things were the joy that was set before him with that joy

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That is the reward the treasure that was to come he endured the cross and despised the shame so there is a comparison here that the

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Lord Jesus made himself between The joy that was set before him and the affliction or the suffering that he himself was to endure

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Notice that Jesus didn't deny that the suffering was real and the passage doesn't deny that his suffering was real.

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It was a real shame It was a real shame scriptures honest about that What he endured was a real shame and Jesus didn't deny that it didn't pretend that it didn't exist

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And instead he assessed that very real shame in light of the joy that was set before him

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So that he would endure the cross and despise that shame The Hebrews that to which this epistle was written also faced and had endured real shame remember back in chapter 10 verse 32

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Remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings partly by being made a public spectacle to Reproaches and tribulations and partly be by becoming sharers with those who were so treated

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He showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one they had endured the reproaches and the tribulations a

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Conflict of sufferings having their property seized being thrown into prison all because of their faith that was the shame that the original audience had already endured and Now he is holding before them another person their

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Lord their Savior their Messiah who had endured Likewise shame but a far greater degree of shame and how did the

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Lord handle that shame? He despised it It's an interesting word in the Greek the word means to look down upon or to scorn in other words

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He did not consider it or take it into account The root word the root of that Greek word is for a neo which has to do with the mind and it describes

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Setting your mind on something and the way it is used here It describes setting your mind on the lowliness of a thing or looking down Mentally looking down upon a thing the verb or sorry the noun form of this would be

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Translated as a despiser or a scoffer one who looks down on someone or something else scoffs at it

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This is what the Lord Jesus did when he compared the joy that was set before him with the suffering

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Here is the here is the mental equation that took place He looked down upon the shame and the suffering of the cross and he endured that for the joy

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Which he valued far more in other words, there is a mental assessment that went on in the mind of the

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Lord Jesus where if he looked at the shame of the cross as real as it was and as serious as it was in all that it entailed

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And he saw that as worthy of scoffing that That was to be despised It was not something that deterred him at all

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He was able to pass over the shame of it through the shame of it Why because he could scoff at the suffering and the shame of it because he was so convinced of what?

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Scripture said concerning the reward that had been set before him so there is an evaluation that goes on between the suffering and the reward that is to come and if you want to handle suffering and affliction and the shame of Persecution the way the

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Lord Jesus Christ did then you're going to have to compare your afflictions with the reward that is to come

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That's the first cure for a weary heart. We are not told to endure suffering for the sake of suffering

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We're not told to sacrifice for the sake of sacrificing We are told and encouraged to endure suffering and to sacrifice

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With an eye on the reward that we are to receive for that that is biblical that is legitimate

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That is how we are created to think that is as inherent to our nature as any human aspect of us

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Not that we are selfish not that we don't do it for his sake But we have laid out in front of us a reward that we receive for the sacrifice and for the shame

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We are promised a reward that motivates us to step over the shame to despise it to think of it as nothing

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So that we might endure the affliction and the suffering that lies ahead The cross was shameful and unthinkably so but the

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Lord Jesus Christ did not care. That's the point He scoffed at the shame Because it was not worthy to be compared with the glory that was to be revealed to him and through him

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Isn't that what Paul says in Romans 8 verse 18? I consider the sufferings with this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that's to be revealed in us

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Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 4 17 momentary and light affliction is working for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison

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Paul had this mindset which is why he says in Acts chapter 20 when he calls the Ephesian elders to himself on the shore there and has his his little

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Conversation with them Paul says in Acts 20 23 the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me that in every city that I enter

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Bonds and afflictions await me Listen to the next phrase But I do not consider my own life on any account as dear to myself

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So that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace

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Of God bonds and afflictions await me That's the affliction in the suffering, but I do not consider my own life

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Even if the bonds and affliction should take my life I do not consider my own life in any way dear why so that I may finish my course in the ministry

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Which I received from the Lord Jesus with an eye on the prize at the finish line Paul could say

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I did I despise or I scoff at even my own life Because the reward is so much better This by the way is the attitude that we should have

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Towards discipline which the author of Hebrews deals with next beginning in verse 4 and following look down at verse 11

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All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful you figure But sorrowful

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But look at this yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards. It yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness

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See you endure the discipline why on the other side of the discipline there's peaceable fruits of righteousness

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So the reason we endure discipline from the Lord is the same reason we endure suffering from the world

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Why because there is something that it is producing for us which far outweighs the cost that we have to pay for it

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Hebrews 13 13 says let us go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach

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For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come There's the cost reward right again

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Hebrews 13 We go outside the city bear his reproach why because we get a lasting city

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So we turn our back on the world of men on this world Bearing his reproach knowing that we are going to be given something that makes all of the reproach and the sufferings of this world pale by comparison

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So the key to enduring trials is not to deny them. It is not to ignore them It's not to pretend that they don't exist

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But to always keep before our eyes the reward that we are promised for our endurance and our perseverance

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This is what the Lord Jesus did in despising the shame you and I are to have in front of our mind's eye

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That reward and it is to be so crystal clear in our hearts and in our minds

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That it is as if we could reach out and touch it. That's what faith does, right? It is the substance of what is hope for the tangible part of what is hope for it makes what we have not seen

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Real and convincing and substantive to us. That's what faith does So we have to have that perspective worth the reward

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I was just talking with somebody this morning about a saint in our congregation Who's probably going to be going to home to be with the

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Lord unless the Lord intervenes in his life soon And of course, there's the sadness that is associated with the losing of a brother or sister or a husband or a wife

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But I said to this brother if you and I could just feel if we could just see

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Eternity and what the presence of the Lord is for him right now if we could just see that we wouldn't shed a single tear

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There would be no tears. We would just simply say yep It's gonna feel like probably about a week till we see him again

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And then we're gonna be in Lord's presence and this is what we get to enjoy that would be our perspective Faith makes that thing which is unseen tangible and real to us

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So we can actually mentally spiritually feel the reality of that reward

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Second cure for a weary heart is to compare your sufferings with the Lord's chapter 12 verse 3 for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart

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Now this may sound a lot like what we saw up in verse 2 that we are to fix our eyes on Jesus Is this just the author's way of restating what he said in verse 2?

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We are to fix our eyes on Jesus and we are to consider him who endured such hostility against sinners

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There is some overlap in the meaning of these two phrases these two concepts But they are slightly different up in verse 2 when he says we are to fix our eyes on Jesus The the focus or the intention there is is the direction in which we look

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You remember that word had the idea of not just looking to something but intentionally purposefully looking away from things

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The treasures and pleasures of this world the encumbrances and the sin the distractions other runners in the race, etc

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We're to take our eyes off of those things and fix them on something has to do with the direction in which we look just As a runner would run his race looking to the finish line

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Focusing on the wreath that it was ahead the prize that was promised to him So you and I are to fix our eyes in that way on the

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Lord Jesus Christ Not looking up to the witnesses or the clouds or anything that is beside the racetrack But to fix and not take our eyes off of that that was verse 2 verse 3 is a slightly different phrase

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It's a different word that has to do with considering something in your mind again

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This is a mental activity that we are being to it to be engaged in It is the word on a leg it's oh my and it has to do with the mind and thinking out something carefully

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This is a very interesting word. It's a clever word It means to reason something through thoroughly and it was related to the mathematical sciences on a look it's oh my you can hear

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The look it's oh in there. It's similar to our idea of logistics. It has to do with counting something up Summing something up reckoning it estimating it consider the sum of it adding it all together

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That's what we were counseled to do The emphasis is on making an evaluation of something in proportion to something else.

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That's the idea That's what logistics does you work out the most? Advantageous way of doing something when you're considering all of the other factors that are involved in this and this is the word that the author

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Is using you are to sum up or add up? the sufferings and afflictions of him who endured such hostility against himself and you're to count all of that up in your mind and To make an evaluation of what it is that he endured against himself at the hands of wicked sinners mull that over put that in your mind consider and calculate up the hostilities that he faced and The word hostility there is a beautiful word also has the legit zoe kind of an idea in it on a

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Logian which means to gain say or to speak against or to contradict you and I are to add up all of the things that sinners

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Contradicted him. That's the idea That's why the King James Version translates this phrase the contradiction of sinners against himself and it's not simply referring to yeah

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People argued with him. That's not what it's describing It's actually describing all kinds of hostility all kinds of rebellion

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The word was used to describe defiance opposition dispute or strife So, how is it that we would count up the sufferings and afflictions that the

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Lord Jesus Christ endured at the hands of hostile sinners How would we do that? They say okay.

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Well, he was he was tried. He was scourged. He was beaten Hold on a second.

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You have to go back a little ways, don't we? He was born by an ignoble birth didn't even have a good room to be born in really that's where the hostility all started and After that we have the following he was hunted by Herod Herod tried to kill him

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So his family had to flee to Egypt then he after coming out of Egypt. He had to settle in Nazareth, which was this obscure Backwoods Hick town of no reputation not a destination town in in any way.

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It was the Clark fork of Israel So much so that people would say can anything good come out of Nazareth He was not from a respected class of society.

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He grew up in a family full of sinners His brothers did not believe in him he grew up under the cloud of Illegitimacy and remember his enemies used this against him on one occasion at least

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John 8 they said we were not born of fornication Can you hear the implication there of What haunted him his entire life in terms of what other people thought and said about him because of the virgin birth

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Then we have record on more than one occasion of his brothers mocking him and challenging his credentials the

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Pharisees challenged him at every turn Questioning his authority when he cleansed the temple They said show us a sign give us some reason why you think you are able to do this by whose authority

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Do you take this action? When he healed on the Sabbath They challenged him and argued with him and contradicted him regarding the meaning and the appropriateness of that action

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When he taught publicly they would accuse him and argue with him publicly in front of the crowds They argued with him and contradicted him and tried to turn the crowds against him the crowds wanted nothing more from him by the way than just food and healing and signs and miracles and to show

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They refused to come to him to repent to turn to him to believe upon him and to embrace him as he demanded

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They refused to have a Messiah that would not liberate them from the bonds of the Roman Empire They wanted signs and they saw signs and then demanded even more signs

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The disciples saw the signs and they still doubted and feared the religious leaders plotted to kill him on Multiple occasions on some occasions picking up stones to stone him and they even in John I think it's chapter 7 they told the temple police to go and arrest him and the temple police went to do that and they came back and they said

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How come he didn't arrest him and the temple police said no man speaks like this man. They just couldn't do it

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There was a plot to kill him for years that that traveled around with him all the time

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They were always looking for an opportunity to arrest him to seize him to even to throw him off a cliff Which they tried to do in Nazareth his hometown

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This is what people in Clark Fork do they will take you to the edge of the cliff and they will toss you off If they don't like you, this is what they did in Nazareth.

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They hated him The religious leaders all plotting to kill him over the course of his entire ministry

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He had to labor in obscurity often avoiding Jerusalem and the crowds just to remain hidden Sometimes they picked up stones to stone him

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They tried to trick him into saying things that were not true giving him all these questions and and conundrums from the law attempting to trick him into saying something that was stupid or in or errant in some way or theologically

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Contradictory so that they could accuse him before the religious leaders Offering him all kinds of stupid stories trying to get him to say things at the worst of times

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His disciples didn't get on board easily either While he's talking to them about suffering crucifixion and being raised again.

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His disciples were arguing about which one of them was the greatest He's talking about his humiliation and they're concerned about which one of them is going to get the most exaltation

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On one occasion Jesus was talking about his coming Crucifixion and Peter said to him

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Peter contradict him and said no no Lord. I'm not gonna happen to you Let me explain to you how this is gonna go down Get that from his own disciples

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His brothers did not believe in him when a woman worshipped him and poured out oil for his anointing him for his burial

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Remember Judas's reaction Judas's reaction this oil should have been sold so we could put the money in the money bag and of course give it to the

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Which Judas was not interested in doing because he was taking money out of the money bag But that showed you Judas's assessment of the

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Lord Jesus Christ This oil would have been better used being sold so that we could get the money than to be used on you

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That was his assessment. Then Judas sold him for 30 pieces of silver and betrayed him with a kiss

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Then Peter denied him and his disciples fled Now we can get to the trials to the whipping to the scourging the crucifixion the nails to being crucified with common thieves and then to not even be given a proper burial and Then to be put into a borrowed tomb

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As the worst of humiliations in other words for more than 30 years He suffered every indignity every hostility every insult abuse slander scoffing

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Contradiction strife dispute threat and disrespect possible. Now, how do you add all of that up?

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That's just what is revealed to us in the Gospels and John says I haven't written to you everything he said or did

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We have to assume that in the large gaps of the Gospels there's other hostility other contradiction other afflictions and sufferings that were poured out on him and toward him by the vilest of sinners all men and women to whom he offered salvation and grace and showed them nothing but love and they returned nothing but Hatred for his love and for 30 years they did this and how did he endure?

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Peter says while being reviled he did not revile and return him while suffering he uttered no threats but he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously a patient endurance and In this in his suffering.

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Jesus is our example and in his exaltation Jesus is our hope in his suffering.

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He is our example in his exaltation. He is our hope keep that in mind And how he endured that hostility from sinners

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So here's the prevention for a weary heart Add up your own sufferings add up your own sufferings and Then that some estimating total that we did of just counting out his sufferings and that was by no means a complete list not even close to a complete list just Compare them his afflictions and my afflictions

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That in itself itself should be enough to encourage your weary heart Now you're saying

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Jim. Is that your counsel? Your counsel is just to say Compare yourself to somebody else who had it worse and Buck up chump take heart in that Yeah, that's it

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Compare your afflictions with the reward that is to come and then consider his afflictions and Realize that your afflictions your suffering and whatever it is that you and I sacrifice in this life

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It is nothing compared to what he endured and we do this Verse 3 says so that we will not grow weary and lose heart

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The word grow weary is the word that this means fatigued. It's used twice in the New Testament. It's used here

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It's used also in James chapter 5 verse 15 to describe being sick Describes just being fatigued.

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It's the exhaustion or the tiredness that comes with being sick Losing heart or lose heart is the way the way it has it in our

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English translation It's as if growing weary and losing heart are two separate and distinct things but it's not the losing heart as part of simple is kind of a

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An adjective in a verb form that describes the what it is that you that happens to you when you grow weary In other words, we would translate this you don't become weary or sick from a fainting soul or by losing heart the idea that your soul you

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Sukay your inner self begins to faint or to come loose and the process of becoming loosed in your inner man and having your your soul kind of come loose and rattle around this creates a

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Fatigue and exhaustion or almost a sickness of soul Matthew 15 verse 32 uses this word faint and it's describing there a physical fainting when

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Jesus called his disciples to him and he said I feel compassion for the people because They have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat and I don't want to send them away hungry

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Or they might faint on the way in other words They might just kind of become loose and and and and and fall down and lose heart the same word fainting

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So we are to compare our sufferings with the reward this to come and to compare our sufferings with his sufferings

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So that we do not become tired By our hearts our inner man

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Starting to fall away or faint. This is how you avoid Exhaustion you look at his sufferings and compare them

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So a physical fainting is caused by a lack of physical nourishment and it's also cured by physical nourishment and if spiritual fainting or weakness is caused by a lack of Spiritual nourishment and it also is also cured by spiritual nourishment

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And what is the spiritual nourishment that we are to give our hearts our minds and our souls? Lest we faint and grow weary by losing our hearts

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We are to feed them the truth the truth regarding what The reward that is to come in the reality of his sufferings and here's another truth.

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We are to feed them We are to feed our mind and our heart the reminder that his sufferings were because of me or you would say because of you everything he endured he endured to save All who are going to be saved and Everything he endured he would have had to endure if he were even only going to save one me you see all of his sufferings everything we've counted up all of that had to have been done and Would have had to have been done

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Even if the only object of his salvation the only one saved all out of all of the massive human history was you one person

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He would have had to endure all of that. He still would have had to have been born a virgin He still would have had to have lived a perfect and sinless life

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He still would have had to endure all of the hostility and affliction of Evil and vile sinners and he still would have had to endure the same death even if it was to save just one

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Which means in a very real way all of the affliction that we've talked about that he endured it was all caused by you individually and by me individually

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Because my sin warranted that he had to endure all of that for my sake This is why

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Paul can say he has died for me. He gave himself up for me It was a personal death that he did he did that individually for me as much as he did it individually for you

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If you're in Jesus Christ, which means that everything he endured he endured because you brought it on him He endured it because I brought it on him

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And so not only do I compare my affliction and suffering with the reward that I get for it

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But I also must compare my affliction and suffering to his affliction and suffering and then remember his affliction and suffering

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Was due for me. I Was the cause of that my sin put him there my sin required that And if my sin required that then all of his affliction was my fault

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Just as all of his affliction was your fault because he would have endured it all for you So I endured everything that he

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I deserve to endure everything that he endured and he endured all of it

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And then I just taste a little bit of the affliction in this world in comparison to it And I deserve none of the reward that he secured

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But he secured all of that reward and then gives it all to you and I That's a great exchange

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You and I have to feed that truth to our hearts and to our minds You and I are involved in a battle of the mind

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Which is why both of these phrases both of these words have to do with how it is that we think We are to think about our suffering in light of the reward to look down upon the affliction

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With our eyes upon the joy that is set before us We are to mentally evaluate those two things and keep that in mind

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Then we are to mentally evaluate something else Namely his suffering and compare it to ours and then remember that his suffering was due to us

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That is the cure for a weary heart This is what is promised to us in the gospel if you are in Jesus Christ Then you know that all of your lies all of your lust all of your gossip all of your slander

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Your disobedience to your parents your pride Your selfishness all of that was laid upon the

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Son the Lord Jesus Christ if you're in Christ All of your sin was laid upon him

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You can count up all of his sufferings knowing that it was for you all that he endured knowing it was for you and Herein is the hope of Scripture the

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Scripture offers to us that God loved sinners so much That he sent his son the

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Lord Jesus Christ into this world to take upon himself human flesh a reality That will never change for all of eternity he is now fully and forever and always the

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God man and He lived the life that you and I were required to live and then he died the death that you and I deserve to die

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So that he could bear our sin and take our penalty and our burden and then provide us eternal life on his terms and his terms of repentance and faith and So God in response to this good news commands you this day if you are not in Jesus Christ To turn from your sin and to believe savingly upon him to trust that his sacrifice was sufficient to pay the price for your sin

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All that he endured he endured for every last sinner who will come to him in repentance and faith

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And he commands you this day to repent and his promise the promise of the Son is that if you come to him He will never cast you out.

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He will forgive your sin. He will give you eternal life He will clothe you with his righteousness and he will take you home to be with him

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And he will give you the reward that is with him even now for his people Repent and believe today let's bow our heads our father.

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We praise you for your goodness and your grace in your son We marvel each and every week at how much you have provided for us in him

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How glorious it is to reflect upon him and what he endured and how that motivates us We are thankful that we have such a great salvation

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Purchased as such a high and great cost and we are grateful that he has endured all of that in our stead and we recognize before you father

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That all that affliction all that hostility was due to our sin And so we just express again our gratitude and our thankfulness

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That you have saved wretched sinners out of the despair out of our sin and out of our wretchedness

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To make us treasures of your grace for all of eternity Thank you for so great a mercy.

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Thank you for not Crediting our sins to our accounts. Thank you for not counting up our sins and knowing all of them

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Thank you for dealing with us as you do sons because of what your son has done for us We praise you in the name of Christ our