Introducing Christ’s Glorious Church

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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Well, we're finally here. In many ways, you could almost say that it's like we've reached our due date and it's time for this humble church to be born.

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And as I was preparing for this particular service weeks ago,

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I was thinking, I was agonizing about what word would fit this occasion.

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We're planting a church in the middle of a pandemic during a strict lockdown with opposition, it seems, from every possible angle.

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And as I was thinking about what word that I could bring here today, nothing was coming.

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And then a few weeks ago, as I was walking and spending time with the Lord, five words came into my mind, five words from the scriptures, from the

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New Testament, filled my mind, gripped my mind, and I was convicted beyond a shadow of a doubt that these were the five words that the

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Lord had for us today, that the Lord has for you today, that the

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Lord has for me today. Five words. And they are these.

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They're Christ's words. I will build my church.

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I will build my church. What a good word.

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I can't think of a more fitting passage for us for this particular situation that we're in, as we begin planning a church.

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And let's not let the significance of what we're doing today escape us. We're now a local church.

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Think about that. A local church united with and yet independent of other churches.

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We're now a local church with our own distinct identity. A church, and really think about this, that is directly accountable to God and to God alone.

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A local church that is responsible, that has the privilege and the responsibility of preaching the word of God week in and week out, of practicing faithfully the aspect of church discipline, of rightly administering the ordinances.

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It's a sobering and an awesome, some might say an awful thought, a fearful thought.

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And what are the words that the Lord has for us today? I will build my church.

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On this day as we plant Grace Fellowship Church, I can think of no other word, no other words in all of the

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Bible, in light of what we're entering into today, that ring with greater encouragement.

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I can think of no other words in the whole canon of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, that offer us greater comfort and assurance when our hearts are doubting, that will strengthen our knees when they're weak, that will embolden our praying and our living and our laboring, and maybe most importantly, that will exalt

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Christ as Lord and as Savior and as God in our hearts forever.

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So if you forget everything that I say today, and at some point you probably will, at least remember these five words,

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Christ will build his church. Christ will build his church.

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Mark his words, brothers and sisters, mark his words, he who is faithful will do it.

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And so this afternoon what we're going to do is look into the Scriptures. We're going to look at Matthew chapter 16.

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So if you have your Bibles open, then we're going to look there. If you need to, turn there, Matthew 16 and verse 13.

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And as you're turning there, I'll say this. I've entitled this sermon, Introducing Christ's Glorious Church.

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Introducing Christ's Glorious Church. And the reason I've chosen this title is because here in Matthew 16, if you were here and learning about ecclesiology with us a few months ago, you'll remember this, but here in Matthew 16, we as the readers are introduced to the concept of the church proper for the very first time in all of Scripture.

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If you can believe it, or I should say in all of the New Testament, and if you can believe it in all the Gospels, the church is only referenced twice.

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Once here in Matthew chapter 16 and then again in Matthew chapter 18. And so it's here in the most explicit sense that Christ unveils the church of God.

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It is here in this passage that Christ draws back the curtain as it were on his cosmic masterpiece.

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And this cosmic masterpiece is what we are becoming and what we've become.

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It is the church. It is the universal church and it is the local church.

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It is the ecclesia, God's assembly of his called out ones. And so as we get into our passage,

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I'll explain up front what we're going to do. So we're going to do a survey of the text, the text that Jason read for us.

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And we're going to do the hard work of exegesis early. So we're going to interpret the text and see what it says, look at some of the cultural, historical, and literary context.

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And then once we've done that, I want to bring before you three fundamental truths.

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Three fundamental truths that we find in this text of scripture. And these are truths that I want us to cling to.

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I want us to cling to them as we plant this church and as we persist in living out our lives as a faithful local church.

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So let's look at Matthew 16 and verse 13. And we'll read the first two verses there, 13 and 14.

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Now, when Jesus met Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is?

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And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

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So here we find Christ and his disciples, they are entering into the region of Caesarea Philippi.

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That might not mean anything to you, but Caesarea Philippi was on the northern edge of Israel.

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So if you're looking at a map of Israel and you find the Sea of Galilee, which in itself is already north in Israel, Caesarea Philippi is about 40 kilometers north of the

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Sea of Galilee. And this exchange that we're going to see is an important exchange.

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And we know this because it's recorded in three out of the four Gospels. We see it here in Matthew 16, we see it in Mark 8, and then in Luke 9.

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And the geographical location, the reason why I explain this is because it's important. It's relevant to the account.

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Jesus and his disciples are entering into Caesarea Philippi, this important Greco -Roman city located at the base of Mount Hermon on a plateau.

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And this city was a spiritually dark place. You've heard me talk about going to Indonesia before.

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And maybe if you remember me saying about this, I remember at one point in time in the car, driving through these dusty roads in a busy city, hearing the

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Muslim call to prayer over the loudspeakers, and looking at what looked like just the hopeless faces of the people in that particular city.

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And I thought, what a dark, what a spiritually dark place. What a destitute place.

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Well, this is Caesarea Philippi. It is by all accounts a pagan city.

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And the reason I say this, it was the center to three different religious or worship sites of pagan deities.

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So if anyone remembers, if you've ever read through the Old Testament, and you read about Baal, the false god

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Baal, one of the ancient enemies of the people of God. Baal was a continuous stumbling block to God's people.

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This was not a home or one of the homes, but this was the home to the false god

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Baal. This is where the center of Baal worship was. It's here at Caesarea Philippi that you could find a cave or a grotto that was the home of the famous god

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Pan. If you're up on your Greek mythology, Pan was a minor deity that was responsible for, oversaw, he was the god of the wild, the god of shepherds and sheep.

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And kids, if you know the Disney character Peter Pan, Peter Pan was loosely based on the

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Greek god Pan. This was the home of Pan worship. And then here at Caesarea Philippi, not only do we have

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Baal, not only do we have Pan, but there was also a temple to Caesar worship, the worship of the

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Roman emperor, hence the name Caesarea, named after Augustus Caesar, and Philippi, Philip Antipas, the son of Herod the

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Great. And so this was pagan territory, a place of rank idolatry, a place of spiritual blindness and confusion.

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Christ and his disciples are entering Caesarea Philippi. So understand here the geographical and the cultural context.

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And it's here that Christ asks his disciples, he says, who do people say that I am? In another gospel account he says, what are the crowds, or who do the crowds say that I am?

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In other words, what does the world think of me? And his disciples respond with these words.

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They say, some say that you are John the Baptist. If you're not

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John the Baptist, or if you don't measure up to John the Baptist, those are actually quite flattering words. People had a favorable view of John the

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Baptist. He was widely recognized as a prophet, and even a forerunner to the Messiah. When Mark tells us in his gospel that when

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Herod beheaded John, even he believed that Jesus Christ was a resurrected form of John the

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Baptist. And so to equate Jesus with John the Baptist would mean that people had a positive view of him, that he was a man of God.

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Perhaps he was even a prophet, or the prophet, who would usher in the long -awaited

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Messiah. Others, our text says, the disciples point out that, sorry, others, the disciples point out, thought that Jesus was

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Elijah. And it was a widely accepted fact that Elijah would precede the coming of the

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Messiah. Elijah was one of the most important, if not the most important,

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Old Testament prophets prior to John the Baptist. And we read a little bit about this in the last two sentences of the

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Old Testament, Malachi 4, verses 5 and 6. Malachi quotes

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God and says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the

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Lord, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.

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And so to equate Jesus with Elijah, if we don't know anything about Jesus, is no small honor.

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Others thought that he was Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Again, all of this reflects a very positive view of Christ.

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We take this for granted because we know the whole story. But essentially what the disciples are saying is, Jesus, a lot of the people think that you're a big deal.

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A lot of people think that you might be a prophet, that you might be the prophet. And if anyone were to put you in that camp, think about you,

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Jason, right? If someone says, boy, you remind me of John the Baptist. Or, Steve, you remind me of Elijah.

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Even the most humble among us would become puffed up with pride at that comparison to say that,

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Amy, you remind me of Deborah. But it begs the question, does this estimation of the

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Lord go far enough in describing who he is? Jesus doesn't respond.

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He just moves on to verse 15, and he says this. Jesus says, but who do you say that I am?

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But who do you say that I am? And make no mistake, brothers and sisters, this is the question above all questions.

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This is, if any inquiry could be made by anyone at any time, at any place in all of human history, this question rises above all others and stands alone as supreme.

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This is the great existential question of all of humanity that everyone must answer and that everyone will answer and that everyone is answering.

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Jesus puts it to his disciples point blank. He says, who do you say that I am?

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I've heard what other people say about me, but who am I to you? You can always count on Peter to raise his hand first.

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And what's Peter going to say this time? He says in verse 16, let's look there. Simon Peter replied, you are the

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Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter doesn't often get it right in Scripture, but this time he hits the nail on the head without hesitation, without doubt, without error.

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Peter states emphatically and correctly, you are the Christ. You are the long awaited

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Messiah, the Son of the living God. Now let's stop here for a moment and take all this in.

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Let's unpack this for a second. So Peter says, you are the Christ. What does that mean if you're a

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Jew? What does it mean that Jesus is the Christ?

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Where the crowds have fallen short in their estimation of Jesus, woefully short, Peter has not.

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What Peter is confessing when he calls Jesus Christ, I remember one time,

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I'll just interrupt myself, being on White Avenue and talking to someone about Jesus Christ, and they said, is

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Christ his last name? And the answer is no, Christ is not his last name.

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This is what it means that Jesus was the Christ. This man, Jesus, is not merely a prophet.

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He's not just an important prophet. He's not to be compared with the greatest prophet who would welcome in the

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Messiah that would make the way straight for him. The prophet that the

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Jews longed for as they waited for the Messiah. He is, Jesus Christ, is the object.

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Understand this, he is the object of all prophecy. He is the object of everything written in the

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Old Testament. He is the fulfillment of every prophecy, of every valid prophet in all of redemptive history, at least all prophecy related to the

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Messiah. Jesus is the anointed one. He is the Christ. The great and awesome day of the

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Lord has come, and Jesus Christ is the Lord of that day. That is what Peter is saying when he says, you are the

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Christ. And this detail we take for granted, right?

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I can say this, and it doesn't stir anyone up 2 ,000 years after the fact, but put yourselves in the disciples' sandals for a moment and think about this, that at this time, the

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Jews had been waiting. God's chosen people had been waiting, had been recounting promises concerning the

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Messiah for a millennia, for more than a millennia. They were taught in the

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Torah, that's the first five books of the Old Testament, that Adam and Eve fell into sin, and while they were grieved by that sin, they were comforted by the reality, by the promise that there would be an offspring of Adam, and this offspring of Adam would come and crush the serpent's head, that he would put to death the ancient enemy of God's people.

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The children were told stories about Moses, just like we tell our kids stories about Moses, and they heard about Moses delivering the

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Israelites out of bondage to the Egyptians. And not only did they hear about that, but they longed for this man that would come, this anointed one who would deliver

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God's people from their oppressors, not just from 400 years of slavery, and not just for a time, but forever.

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They read about King David, and longed for the arrival of what Jeremiah 23 calls, the righteous branch who would reign as king, and execute justice and righteousness in the land.

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For nearly 2 ,000 years, the Jews were waiting for God's man, who would right every wrong, and who would usher in God's kingdom.

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And here, standing before them, Peter confesses that here, in Christ, we find the fulfillment of the law, the fulfillment of every history book, the fulfillment of all wisdom, literature, the fulfillment of every prophecy in Christ, every river, every stream, every tributary finds its terminus, finds its termination point.

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It all points to the Messiah, and Jesus Christ is the Messiah. And then he says this in the second part of verse 16, not only is he the

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Christ, but Peter says that he is the son of the living God. Again, another phrase that we would take for granted.

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Peter might not have even fully appreciated it in this moment, but what he was saying is this, that not only is

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Jesus the Messiah, and not only is he the son of man, or the son of a

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God, like the many gods that were worshipped in Caesarea Philippi, but that he was the son of the living

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God. Jesus is the son of the living God, of the one true

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God who is alive, and is not worshipped in temples made by human hands.

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And what Jesus Christ is saying, what Peter is saying, is that Jesus Christ is divine.

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He is not merely a man sent by God, but he is God himself sent to man.

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Peter is confessing the deity of Christ, the divinity of Christ.

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When Peter speaks these words, he acknowledges, as John MacArthur puts it in his commentary on this passage, that Christ is one in essence with God.

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To be God's son is to be equal with God in glory, and in stature, and in power.

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So here, standing before Peter, is not just a man, but the God -man. The God -man, the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm not stretching. If we had a Jehovah's Witness sitting in this room with us, they would be squirming in their seats.

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They'd be very uncomfortable with this whole idea that we are saying that Jesus is God, but we're not going beyond what the word of God has said.

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In John 5, verse 18, we see why the religious leaders hated

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Jesus. One of the many reasons why they wanted to kill him. John 5, verse 18, it says this.

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This is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. Because not only was he breaking the

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Sabbath, but because he was calling God his father. If it stopped there, that might not finish anything.

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But this is what it says. But he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.

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The Jews knew what it meant for Jesus to say that he is the son of God. Peter, to some extent at least, knew what he was saying when he was saying that Jesus is the son of the living

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God. What he's saying is that here is one who is equal with God.

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Here is Jesus Christ, the ultimate prophet, priest, and king. He is the

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Messiah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Holy One of Israel.

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Before Peter stands the living God in a place that was filled with deaf, dumb, and dead deities, false gods.

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Here stands Emmanuel, God with us. Now, verse 17 tells us how

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Peter came to this understanding. Peter did not recognize this because he was especially wise or perceptive.

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Kids, you might find this interesting. Here in verse 16, Peter makes this great confession.

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He says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Did he say that because he was smart? Did he say that because he was wise?

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Because he was more studied than the other apostles? No, the

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Bible says here in verse 17, And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you,

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Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

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Peter confesses this because God has revealed it to him. If we look just six verses further, in Matthew 16, 23,

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Jesus calls Peter Satan. Six verses later in the text. This has nothing to do with the wisdom of Peter.

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This has nothing to do with the ability of Peter. This has everything to do with the fact that the only sovereign,

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God Almighty, has personally and specifically and specially revealed this to Peter.

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Now, I know I've laid, I've already spent a good chunk of time laying this out, but we're going somewhere, so stick with me, okay?

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So, if you weren't already familiar with how this text goes, Peter makes this confession.

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It was revealed to him by God. What would you expect Jesus to say next? I think if I didn't know what was going to be said next,

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I would probably think that Jesus would say something like this. You're right, Peter. Now, crown me king.

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You're right, Peter. Declare to the nations that I am the king, that I am the Lord, that I am the

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Messiah. Let my reign begin. What would he say?

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How does Christ respond? He responds with what I think are shocking and awesome and glorious and profound words that few would have expected.

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So, Peter makes this confession. Christ recognizes it, and then in verse 18, he says this,

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And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock

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I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

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Upon this rock I will build my church. I don't know if you know this, but this is one of the most controversial and one of the most debated texts in all of Scripture, this one verse, verse 18.

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We don't have time to get into the fine details. I would love to. I think, Jason, you would probably love to, too.

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But afterwards, we can get into some of the finer details about this. But suffice it to say that this text does not teach, perhaps to the dismay of our

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Catholic friends, that this text does not teach that Peter was the first pope.

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It does not teach the doctrine of apostolic succession, that Peter was the first pope, he was succeeded by another and another and another and another, and now we have

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Pope Francis who is in the office of Peter. It does not teach papal infallibility, this idea that when the pope speaks ex cathedra, that he is without error, and it is as if God himself is speaking.

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This text does not undermine the doctrine of sola scriptura, this concept that teaches that the

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Bible alone is sufficient and clear and authoritative and necessary.

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It does not teach that the pope has to hand down doctrines and traditions to the church. So I'm just going to say that to clear that up.

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But what this teaches is this, that upon this rock, upon the apostles and their confession, this is why we get the whole

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New Testament, this is why we've heard the gospel through the writings of the apostles, through the apostles and through their confession,

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Jesus Christ, upon this foundation, he will build his church. Jesus Christ will build his church primarily, solely, principally on himself, on this confession about who he is, about his person and work.

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So that is the hard work of exegesis that I was talking about. Hopefully not too draining, but what do we do now with this passage?

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I want us to look at three particular truths that I want us to hold as precious, brothers and sisters, in this church plant.

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I really do want us to be attentive to this and to take heart as a result of these truths.

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So this is the first truth that I want us to recognize. If you're writing notes, you can write it down. The first thing that we see in this passage is the church's great foundation.

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The church's great foundation. The church... Kids, I'm going to ask you, how many foundations can a house have?

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One. I'm not a construction worker, but I'm pretty sure that's the case. How many foundations can the church have?

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Same answer as the houses. The church can only have one sure foundation.

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And this foundation, know this, it's not a missiological strategy. This foundation is not a great tradition.

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I love the tradition of the Puritans. I appreciate them, but they are not the foundation of the church.

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The church's great foundation is not an awesome doctrine. It is not an awesome theological concept like the doctrines of grace, which

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I love and hold dear to. No, none of these are the church's foundation.

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Peter bears witness to the foundation. The apostles in their writings bear witness to this foundation.

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Paul wrote about this foundation in 1 Corinthians 3. In verse 10 he writes,

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According to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it.

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Let each one take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is

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Jesus Christ. Like we were singing just a little bit earlier, the church's one foundation is

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Jesus Christ her Lord. Give me all of your attention for this, brothers and sisters.

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Just think about this. In everything that we are, in everything that we do, in everything that we teach, in everything that we become,

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Jesus needs to be preeminent.

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In everything that we prioritize as a church, from here on, from now, until the

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Lord does away with this church, or until we die, or until he comes, everything that we are to be about, in everything that we prioritize,

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Jesus Christ must have supremacy. He must be our all.

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Some people might think that this goes without saying, but I assure you it doesn't. Children, if you are here when this church gets older and you are adults, and if the

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Lord makes you a leader in this church, remember that this church is about nothing other than Jesus Christ.

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Nothing else. No matter what anyone else tells you, we are about Jesus. In a lost world where truth is relative and ever -changing, and morality changes, it seems, with the prevailing winds, the church, in contrast, must be firmly grounded, firmly founded on the unchanging person of Jesus Christ, of the unchanging confession of who he is and of what he's done.

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Colossians 1 .15 affirms this. It says there, This is talking about Christ.

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And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church.

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That's us. And he is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

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For in him all the fullness. This is the reason why Jesus is to have preeminence.

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For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

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This is our confession. This must be our confession. This must be our foundation, that Jesus is the

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Christ, that he is God, that he is the only Savior of the world, that there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.

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Every time we sing, you can hold me accountable of this. Every time we preach, if you ever hear one of us preach a

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Christless sermon, you tell us about it. Every time we preach, every time that we go through those doors back into the world,

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Christ and the gospel must have primacy. One of my hopes, and Steve and I have joked about this, but in all earnestness, we never want to preach a synagogue sermon in this church.

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What is a synagogue sermon? It's a sermon about God. It's a sermon about the word of God, from the word of God.

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It's a sermon about the ethics of God. But there's one thing, or one person, namely, that is absent, and that is the

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Messiah that has come. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. In everything that we do,

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Christ must have the right focal point. And I'll explain a story about how easily we can drift away from this.

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I once went to a conference and listened to a brother speak. I trust he's a brother, by all appearances at least.

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He's a godly man. And he told a story about one time he was preaching at a youth conference. So maybe kids

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Daryl's age and a little bit older, this throng of teenagers in their adult chaperones.

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And he preached what he thought was a great sermon, and after he wrapped up his sermon, he walked off the stage, and he was met by a group of teenagers and their adult leader.

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And they just heaped on the praise about how excellent his sermon was and how thankful they were for his sermon.

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And he was pretty happy with the feedback. That wasn't until they told him why they liked the sermon so much.

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The adult chaperone said, he said, you know, we're just so glad for that sermon you just preached.

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You see, we're Jews, and it was just so nice to hear a sermon that didn't mention

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Jesus. And this brother, like I said, a brother I trust in the

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Lord, maybe his sense of elation at being credited with a good sermon turned into horror.

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He had preached a sermon, an entire sermon, to a group of youth who knows whether they're right with God or not, and he did not mention the name of Christ once.

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And by his own admission, he said that his sermon was a failure, an utter failure. And I'm telling you, this church will be an utter failure if we are not about Christ, if Christ does not permeate all that we are.

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And I'll say something, and I don't mean it to be harsh, but if your lives are not all about Jesus Christ, if he is not your sole treasure, then your life will be an utter failure, just like the sermon.

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So let me put the question to you that Christ puts to his disciples.

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Who do you say that Jesus Christ is? I want to say this, even as we plan our church.

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Who do you say that Christ is? Who is he to you?

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To the disciples? Some said he was a prophet, others said he was a rabbi, he was a good teacher, he was a godly man.

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They had favorable opinions of him. But when it comes to Christ, close is not good enough.

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Close enough doesn't even factor in. Your favorable views of Jesus are not enough.

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It's not enough to admire Jesus Christ from arm's length. This is something that the world doesn't understand, but Jesus Christ is either everything to you, or he is nothing to you.

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He is all, or he is not. You can't have him halfway.

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You can't have him at lukewarm. He must be everything, or he must be nothing.

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And so who is Christ to you? Who is he to you? Is he an add -on to your life, or is he

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Lord and is he God? Heaven and hell hang in the balance based on your answer to that question.

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Now you might ask, how do I know? How do I know if Christ is my first love?

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I want him to be my first love, but how do I know? And I'll say this, when we're brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, he cannot remain a casual interest.

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He is not one of the priorities of our life, but he is the chief and the sustaining priority of our life.

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Like the sun, when the sun rises in the morning sky, it drowns out the light of the brightest stars.

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When the light of Christ shines in our hearts, he becomes our life. He becomes our all.

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With Paul we confess, to live is Christ. If I'm going to live, it is for Christ.

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And if I die, gain. I get to be with him. When Christ is revealed to us by the

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Father, like he was to Peter, we see him in all of his beauty, in all of his grace.

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We see his great love. We see him on the cross. Not meaninglessly, but on the cross in our place.

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We see him going before us into glory. When we behold

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Christ for real, we joyfully run to him as Savior.

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We cast aside every sin, every hindrance, anything that would slow us down, and we run to Christ with joy as our

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Savior, and as our Lord, and as our Master. I'll illustrate this with a quick story.

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I heard about, there was one time in the 19th century, this was during the gold rush. We read about the gold rush not that long ago.

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And there was an Englishman, an English nobleman, that traveled from Britain to California to,

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I'm not sure, make some gains during the gold rush. And after his stay in California was done, he passed back through, or was traveling back to Britain, and passed through New Orleans.

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And in New Orleans he thought, well he would go and see the famous slave auction on the streets of New Orleans.

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And so he went amongst the crowds. This was quite a popular event for people to go to and just to watch.

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And he went to watch this auction. And there on the auction block, on the platform, was a young, beautiful African woman.

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And as he stood there, he was a godly man, he listened to these two men in front of him that were bidding for this woman.

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And he heard of all of the vile and perverted things that they planned to do with her when they took possession of her.

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And so moved with concern for her, the man raised his hand and said to the auctioneer, I will pay twice the price of the highest bidder for this woman.

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And the auctioneer said, do you even have the money for that? No one has ever paid that much for a slave.

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And the man showed his money, he said, I will purchase her. And so the man went to the front, he paid the price, and he received this slave girl, this slave woman, into his possession.

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And the very first thing that she did was not to thank him or to give him a hug, but she spat in his face.

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And the man took the woman away from the auction, took her to a local office, and had papers drafted up to secure her release.

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And as the man gave the manumission papers, these papers that were to set her free from slavery, as he gave them to her, she spat in his face again.

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And he said to her, don't you understand? Don't you understand? I'm trying to set you free.

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And in that moment, the woman fell down on her knees and wept. And then once she had got her bearings together, stood up again, and she said to the man, do you mean to tell me that you have paid double what any person has ever paid for a slave?

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You have paid that for me just to set me free? The man said, yes.

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Again, the woman wept. And then again, recovering, she said to him, sir,

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I just have one more request. Just one more request. Can I be your slave forever?

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That is what it means to be a Christian. That is what it means to be a church founded on Jesus Christ.

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See him there, the noblest man there ever has been.

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Righteous in above all reproach. God of very gods, dying on the cross to save filthy, vile, and helpless me.

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And filthy and vile and helpless you. There he is on that cross, not paying double the price, but 10 billion, 100 billion, 100 quadrillion times more than we are ever worth on that cross, dying in our place.

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Reconciling us to himself, it says in Ephesians 2, that he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness to you.

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God did not send his son to the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him and to save you, individually, in your own hearts now.

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Let me ask you, who could be a better master? You name one person, one thing, that would be a greater foundation that we should build this church on.

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There is none but Jesus Christ. Next, I want us to behold this.

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We've looked at the church's great foundation. I want us to see the church's great guarantee.

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Foundation and now guarantee. We read in verse 18, Christ says,

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And on this rock I will build my church. I will build my church.

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What a promise. What a guarantee. What a truth to lay hold of, brothers and sisters.

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If it was up to me, if it was up to the most skilled person in this room, if it was up to any of you, there would be no hope and there would be no church.

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We would have a lot of activity, but there would be no church. But look at this in verse 18.

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I will build my church. Who is the active party in this equation? Christ does not say, you will build your church.

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Oftentimes people have asked us that question. When are you starting your church? And I answer graciously, but there's a part of me that dies inside.

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It's not my church. Christ does not say, you will build your church. Christ does not say, we collectively will build our church.

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No. He says, I will build my church. The church is from Christ.

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It is through Christ. It is to return to Christ in glory. The church is his to define.

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It is his possession. It is his to do as he pleases. And so what this means is that we, brothers and sisters, as Grace Fellowship Church, have the privilege and the fearful responsibility to order this church in accord with God's revealed will, in accord with God's word and nothing else.

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This is how we are to regard ourselves as servants of Christ and stewards of this precious possession, the blood -bought church of God.

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I want you to imagine for a moment that you're going to leave on vacation. You're going to go on an extended vacation, and you know that I like to help people out and look after their homes when they're away.

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And so you say to me, Shane, will you look after our house? We're going to be away for about a month.

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Can you just take care of our house? We'll lay out very detailed instructions, when to water the plants, how much to feed the hamster, when to get the mail.

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And I say, absolutely, I'd be happy to look after your house for you. And so you lay out the instructions for me, detailed instructions.

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And then after you leave, while you're away, I go in and I collect the mail, and I water the flowers, and I feed the hamster, and I go into your living room and think to myself,

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I think I'm going to repaint these walls. Something unique, something bold. You know what,

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I'm going to change out the carpet, something to match the walls. And we're going to knock out this wall, and we're going to put in a sunlight right there.

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And we're going to go outside. I'd like to change the color of that siding on the house. It's just not my style.

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We're going to tear down the garage, build an addition to the house. It's going to be really good. And because it's coming out of my pocket, we're on a limited budget, it's going to be a

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DIY project, so I'm going to be the one to do it. Well, when you come back to your house after your glorious, restful one -month vacation, you're going to pull up to that house, and it's going to be unrecognizable.

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And the first thing that you're going to say to me is not, Well done, Shane, my good and faithful friend.

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You watered the hamster, you checked the mail. No, you're going to say, Shane, you have destroyed our house.

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We have worked our whole lives for this home. This is our home.

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What have you done? You had one job, and you blew it. Brethren, this is what men do to Christ's church.

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This is what people do to Christ's precious church that He paid with by the blood of His own dear

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Son. Men reinvent the church according to the world's appetite. Not according to God's will, not according to God's wisdom, but the world's appetite.

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They cast aside the wisdom of God. They replace it with their own. And in so doing, that church ceases to be a church.

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And this cannot be our story. This is Christ's church, and we are stewards of this precious possession.

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This is Christ's body. You, brethren, are Christ's bride.

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And it is our job collectively, and as the leaders of this church, to love this church, and to care for this assembly, and to with diligence order it according to God's word, according to the

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Bible. Psalm 19 says in verse 9, How can a young man keep his way pure?

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It says, By guarding it according to your word. I would submit that how does a church keep its way pure?

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By guarding it according to God's word. And when the church is founded on Jesus Christ, and when it's stewarded according to Scripture, we have

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Christ's guarantee that He will build it. Christ will build

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His church. These are God's words. Psalm 18 says,

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God's words always prove true. Does it mean that we will be a big church?

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Does it mean that we'll be an impressive church in the world's eyes? What do you guys think? No, it does not mean that.

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That is not the guarantee. But what it does mean is that God will grow this church in breadth.

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He will grow this church in depth. His word will not return empty.

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As we faithfully live out the words of Scripture, as we plant gospel seeds, as we water them,

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God in His divine sovereignty, like He did for Peter, He will reveal the truth of Christ and the gospel to man's hearts, and they will be saved, and they will be made new, and the church will grow.

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It will grow. The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also the

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Greek. God has many people in this city. We have seen it as we go out and pass out tracts.

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It's not been romantic. It has not been especially impressive to put gospel tracts in people's mailboxes.

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And yet it has been faithful. And we've heard from people every single time who have been benefited and have been blessed by that ministry.

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God has many in this city, and He will be pleased to use us as His ordained means to build

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His church, to bring people to Himself, to call His elect out of the world and into His assembly.

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And as we look for and as we wait for numeric growth, I look at you guys, and I am completely content with who the

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Lord has put before me. I want you to know. But I trust that the Lord will add to our number.

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And as we wait for Him to add to our number, Christ's construction of the church does not only apply to our size, but to the structural integrity of this body.

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Ephesians 2 says in verse 18,

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Through Him we both have access in one

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Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

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Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, listen to how

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Christ is building, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the

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Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit. Christ will join us together. He will strengthen our bonds.

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He will increase our unity. He will restore. He will purify. He will make us a holy habitation for Himself.

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We had our prayer meeting this Thursday, and one person referenced this verse, and it's such a fitting verse.

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Psalm 127, verses 1 and 2, Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

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Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

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There is only one true church planter that we want for this church. Make no mistake about it.

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You don't want me. You don't want Steve. You don't want yourself. We want the Lord Jesus to plant this church.

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That is the way we want it. And then lastly, and quickly, the last truth that I want us to consider is this, the church's great victory.

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So we have the church's great foundation, the church's great guarantee, and the church's great victory.

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And here Christ says, I will build my church, and the gate of hell shall not prevail against it.

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Again, this is a debated passage, but what I want us to see is this, that what this is referring to, this is referring to Hades, that was the original word used in that particular text.

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That is death, the power of death, and it refers to both the security and the power of evil in the world, the devil and his angels.

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Death and the devil and demons and hell will not prevail against the church.

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The church, she shall be victorious. There is nothing that can stop the construction of Christ's church.

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There's nothing that can separate us from his love. There's nothing that will ever separate us from his power.

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There's nothing that will ever rob the church of her beauty. In fact, the church's victory is so secure, so stable, so set, that in Ephesians 3 .10,

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it actually says that the church, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God is made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

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The church has been set up in such a way that even angels and devils look at the church and they see

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God's perfect wisdom. Perfect wisdom. We might feel like we're losing at times, maybe like we do in this pandemic,

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I'm not sure. Maybe like the disciples as they walked towards Caesarea Philippi, this wretched and filthy and lost world where there is no hope.

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And yet, the victory has been won. Christ won the victory 2 ,000 years ago on Calvary.

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Colossians 2 .15 says that Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

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Every assault that we experience. I think about this week, right? We were talking about this before the service started.

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I woke up on Friday morning. I did not know how I was going to be here. I could not move.

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I tried to drive to work. Nicole had to help me out of the car. I couldn't even stand up on my own. We encounter all kinds of difficulty, all kinds of opposition, even if it's the train on 50th

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Street that makes us start late today. And yet, every assault that the enemy launches against us only serves to accomplish

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God's purposes for us and for his own glory. Everything that God allows, that he ordains, will be for your good and will be for his glory.

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Charles Spurgeon told a story about Whitefield, George Whitefield.

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If you don't know anything about George Whitefield, quick crash course is that he preached in the open air, sometimes without amplification, well, always without amplification, but sometimes to 10 ,000 or 15 ,000 or 20 ,000 people all at one time.

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He preached more sermons in a week maybe than some preachers preach in a year. And he was used by God.

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I've told stories about this where he would preach to miners as they were coming out of the coal mines, and the miners would stop and listen to George Whitefield, and he knew that they were being moved by the gospel because there would be skin -colored streaks down their blackened faces.

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They were so moved by his preaching. Well, in the days of George Whitefield, there was a young man named

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John Thorpe, and he was a member of a club. Think of belonging to a club like this called the

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Hellfire Club. And among their activities, they would hold imitations of religious services and mimic and mock the popular

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Christian ministers of the day. And John Thorpe wanted some new material for one of these imitation services, so he went to go hear

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George Whitefield preach in the open air, that he could imitate and mock him amongst his club mates.

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So John attended and he listened carefully that he would be able to impersonate Whitefield's manner of speech and vocal tones and mannerisms and the substance of some of what he taught.

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And when the club met next to see this caricature of Whitefield, Thorpe opened his

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Bible to make a mockery of God's word before the

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Hellfire Club, and there his eyes fell on Luke 13, verse 3, where it read these words.

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In his Bible, it would have said, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

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Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. As he began to speak and teach from this text, the mocking fled away.

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And in earnest, he preached the text, and Charles Spurgeon tells us that that sermon was used by God for his own conversion.

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Even what man and even what the devil would use for evil,

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God will use for good. The church, she will have victory.

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I'll finish with this quote from J .C. Ryle. He says, Nothing can altogether overthrow and destroy the church.

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Its members may be persecuted, oppressed, imprisoned, beaten, beheaded, burned. But the church, the true church, is never altogether extinguished.

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It rises again from its afflictions. It lives on through fire and water.

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When crushed in one land, it springs up in another.

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The Pharaohs, the Herods, the Neroes have labored in vain to put down this church.

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They slay their thousands and then pass away and go to their own place. The true church outlives them all and sees them buried.

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Each in his turn, the church is an anvil that has broken many a hammer in this world and will break many a hammer still.

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The church is a bush which is often burning and yet not consumed.

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So brothers and sisters, this is my exhortation to us. As we plant this church, as we live as a church, may

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Christ be our first love today and forever. May he be the foundation and the cornerstone of Grace Fellowship Church.

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May we always look to him to build this church according to his wisdom and his will.

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And may we endure and reign victorious with him forever. Let's go to the

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Lord in prayer. Father, I pray that you would impress these truths on our hearts and minds.

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Lord, that we would be a church firmly planted on the Lord Jesus Christ. That he would be our all forever and always.

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Lord, that you would be pleased to use this church to make your name great in this city.

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Lord, and that as the waters cover the sea, the glory of the Lord would cover this earth and this city.

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And Lord, that we would in some small way have a part in being the means to achieve that.