The Resurrected King (1 Corinthians 15:20-34, Jeff Kliewer)

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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org The Resurrected King

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He is risen. He is risen. Oh, come on guys.
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They need to hear us next door. He is risen. Isn't that an amazing reality to have knowledge that, that we, we don't think that Jesus rose from the dead.
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I'm stealing your thunder pastor. We know Jesus rose from the dead.
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We celebrate that. We remember that. There was a morning, much like this morning, perhaps over 2000 years ago, and Mary and Mary woke up before the sunrise and they had the, the ointments and they were going to head to a tomb to anoint the body of their
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Messiah. They did not know how they were going to get there because they knew there was a stone, but yet they went.
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And I believe this is an expression of their faith. They went and when they got there, the miracles had already begun.
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God had sent an angel to roll the stone away. There was an earthquake. There was a guard.
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There were guards there who, who on the penalty of death made sure that nothing happened.
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But that stone was rolled away. And when Mary and Mary got there, there were two angels, two men, a dazzling appearance.
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And they said to them, and this is recorded in Luke 24, why do you seek the living one among the dead?
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He is not here, but he is risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee saying that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise again.
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And they remembered his words. We don't think that Jesus rose from the dead.
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We don't have that based on the traditions. We have that on the assurity, the assurity that Jesus rose from the dead.
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And so today we remember this. Today we celebrate this because today we recognize
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Jesus rose from the dead. He lives forever. He is at the right hand of the father making intercession for us.
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And one day we will be in glory with the risen Savior, Jesus Christ.
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He is risen. Amen. Amen to that. Thank you. Praising God.
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Our Lord and heavenly father, we can only come in awe at the magnitude of the love that would have you send your only begotten son to earth to die for my sins.
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The promise from way back in Genesis that there would be a crushing of the head.
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There'll be a bruising of the heel, a crushing of the head that the promise of the Messiah is for, is throughout the, throughout scriptures.
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And it is your very, very promise. And Lord, you sent your son. He willingly went. You use the
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Romans, but he willingly went. He suffered. He died. And then he proclaimed to Telestai.
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On Saturday, the quietness. And then on Sunday morning, the glorious realization.
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Why do you seek the living one among the dead? Our, our
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Savior is not dead. Father, we come to you in anticipation of hearing these powerful words.
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And that we would remember, be with pastor Jeff as he speaks to us and open our hearts to this truth.
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We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Okay. I've got three little things to say.
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First thing, if you're sitting on the very row side that we expect more people to come in.
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So just to make it easy, if you could maybe scoot in closer towards the wall side, so that makes it easier for people to sneak in when they come in.
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Second, one thing I always told myself, if I was ever the temporary worship leader here, I was going to ask people to remember, go into your pocket, your purse, look at your phone, make sure that the ringer's turned off, that just silence it.
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That would be awesome for, for while the message is going on. And third, as we stand, don't forget to tell your face that you are joyful this morning.
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Amen. And through the darkness your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul.
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The work is finished, the end is written, you are the light of my life.
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Jesus Christ, my living hope.
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Who could imagine some weight of mercy?
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What heart could fathom such boundless grace?
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The God of ages, step down from glory.
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To wear my sin and bear my shame.
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The cross has spoken, I am forgiven.
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The King of kings calls me his own.
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Beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever.
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Jesus Christ, my living hope.
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Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free.
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Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me.
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You have broken every chain, there's salvation in your name.
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Jesus Christ, my living hope.
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In the morning, as to the promise.
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Your very body began to breathe.
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Out of the silence the poor ignited.
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Declared the grave has no name on me.
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In the morning, as to the promise.
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Your very body began to breathe.
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Out of the silence the poor ignited.
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Declared the grave has no name on me.
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Jesus, yours is the victory. Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free.
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Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me.
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You have broken every chain, there's salvation in your name.
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Jesus Christ, my living hope.
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Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free.
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Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me.
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You have broken every chain, there's salvation in your name.
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Jesus Christ, my living hope.
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Jesus Christ, my living hope.
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My son, my living hope.
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And he is that.
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I cast my mind to Calvary.
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Where Jesus bled and died for me.
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In the sea, his wounds, his hands, his feet.
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My savior on that cursed seat.
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His body bound and drenched in tears.
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They laid him down in Joseph's tomb.
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The entrance sealed by heavy storm.
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Messiah still and gone. Oh, praise the name of the
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Lord our God. Oh, praise his name forevermore.
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For endless days we will sing your praise.
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Oh, Lord, oh, Lord our God. Then on the third at break of dawn.
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The Son of Heaven rose again.
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Oh, trampled death, where is your sting?
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The angels roam for Christ the
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King. Oh, praise the name of the
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Lord our God. Oh, praise his name forevermore.
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For endless days we will sing your praise.
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Oh, Lord, oh, Lord our God. He shall return in robes of white.
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The blazing sun shall pierce the night.
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And I will rise among the saints.
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My gaze transfixed on Jesus' face.
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Oh, praise the name of the
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Lord our God. Oh, praise his name forevermore.
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For endless days we will sing your praise.
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Oh, Lord, oh, Lord our God. Oh, praise the name of the
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Lord our God. Oh, praise his name forevermore.
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For endless days we will sing your praise.
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Oh, Lord, oh, Lord our God. Oh, Lord, oh,
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Lord our God. Oh, Lord, oh,
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Lord our God. For the throne of God, I have a strong and perfect King.
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A great high priest who is brave as love. Whoever lives in peace for me.
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My name is graven on his hands. My name is written on his heart.
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I know that while in heaven he stands.
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No tongue can bend me hence, deep heart. No tongue can bend me hence, deep heart.
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Satan tempts me to despair. And tells me of the guilt within.
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Upward I look and see him there. Who made an end to all my sin.
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Because no sinless Savior died. My sinful soul is counted free.
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For God the just is satisfied. To look on him and pardon me.
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To look on him and pardon me.
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Older than the recent land.
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My perfect spot is righteousness. The great unchangeable
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I am. The King of glory and of grace.
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One with whom self -honor cannot die. My soul is purchased by his blood.
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My life is healed with Christ on high. With Christ my
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Savior and my God. With Christ my
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Savior and my God. Now let's all be seated.
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Well, good morning.
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What a glorious morning he's given us on this resurrection day. So good to see you all. Let's pray.
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Father God, thank you so much for what you have done.
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We don't even have words to express that you would give your one and only son to die for sinners like us who deserve to die and to go to hell, frankly.
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And yet Jesus died in our place and rose from the dead. Lord, we celebrate this morning.
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We say thank you. And now, Lord, I ask that you would give me resurrection power to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingship of Jesus over all things and help us as a people to know what that means for us and how we are to go forth and live in Jesus' name.
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Amen. Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my
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Savior, waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord. Vainly they watch his bed,
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Jesus my Savior. Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord.
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Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior. He tore the bars away,
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Jesus my Lord. Up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph for his foes.
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He arose a victor from the dark domain and he lives forever with his saints to reign.
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He arose, he arose. Hallelujah. Christ arose.
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I was tempted to start singing that rather than reading it for a moment there. But Pastor Robert Lowry wrote a new song way back in 1874, not so new any longer.
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But doesn't it just capture the glory of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and triumphed over his foes and that he reigns even now.
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He is the resurrected king. Because we have a resurrected king, a young couple who was sitting in this very church many, many years ago felt called to leave everything behind and move to Portugal.
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Gary and Terry Camlin moved to Portugal and for 40 years preached the gospel and established a
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Bible training school there where many have come to faith and where the work continues on.
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I'm not sure if they're back. Gary and Terry, are they back? I know they were in Portugal last week. They're still there, says
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Phil. So the Camlins go to Portugal, why? Because they believe that Christ is the resurrected king.
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And they went to Portugal to establish his reign in a place that did not know the fullness of who he was.
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We have another young man who came through this church just a year ago, year and a half ago, whose name is
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Hamilton Banda. He was studying at Cairn. And since then, he moved back to his hometown,
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Lilongwe, Malawi. And there, God has used him to build an orphanage.
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By God's grace, it has been named the Cornerstone Girls' Safe House Orphanage. Our church is funding this.
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And church, take a look at the pictures we have here. Here's the orphanage on the left. It is now 80 % complete.
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This is the work of a resurrected king. He's working through Hamilton and through us to provide a safe house for girls who are orphaned on the streets of Malawi.
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Up from the grave he arose. We serve a living savior.
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The song, Up From the Grave He Arose, was written in 1874, the year after David Livingston died.
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Anybody here know the name David Livingston? Show of hands. A lot of you, many people have heard of him.
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He was a Scottish boy growing up, early 1800s, and very poor.
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His family lived in one room with seven family members, a very small room at that.
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And so at the age of 10, he had to drop out of school in order to help support the family, and he went to the factory where he worked from 6 a .m.
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till 8 p .m., from Monday to Saturday. Parents, don't nudge your children.
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That's a little excessive. You know, you want to see the young people working hard, but that was a little outrageous.
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He worked from 6 a .m. to 8 p .m., six days a week, and then on Sunday mornings, worshiped the
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Lord and would have a few hours to play. But see, David Livingston was driven to serve the resurrected king.
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And so while he was working the cotton spinner, he devised a way of putting his
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Latin book behind the machine so that for 14 hours a day, he could study
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Latin while doing his work. He taught himself Latin that way, and as he got into his early 20s, he actually entered medical school and became a physician.
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But the call of God was on his life, and he was very upset by something that was happening in East Africa.
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It was the Arab -Muslim -Swahili slave trade.
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The Muslims were capturing Swahili Africans and selling them into slavery in North Africa.
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And this, of course, disturbed David Livingston. That, along with a fire to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, led him where no one had gone before.
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The only ones who would leave the coastal towns of Cape Town, South Africa, and other places to go inland were the slave traders themselves.
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But David Livingston ventured to go into inland Africa to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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This was a dark region. Very few Christians in the Sub -Saharan continent of Africa. In fact, mortality rates, one out of two children would die before age five, and even if you made it to age five, life expectancy was in the 20s.
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There was a number of terrifying practices that we don't have time to get into, but needless to say, it was very dark.
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And people were oppressed and lived in fear of spirits and ancestor worship and all kinds of control.
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But David Livingston ventured inland. He went because he had optimism, belief in the power of the resurrected
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Christ. When he went, there were hardly any believers. But would you know that on this
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Resurrection Sunday, just 150 years after Livingston died, 62 % of Sub -Saharan
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Africa believes in the resurrected Christ. The United States of America stands at 63 % right now.
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210 million out of 332 million people profess to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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He wanted to discover the source of the Nile, but he told his friend why he wanted to do that.
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He said if he could discover the Nile's source, this would be valuable only as a means of opening my mouth with power among men.
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It is this power which I hope to remedy an immense evil.
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He wanted to become famous only to tell the world what was going on in the
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Swahili slave trade. And so he did discover the source of the Nile, and he discovered
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Victoria Falls, and he mapped the great rivers of Central Africa.
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He traveled over 29 ,000 miles by foot and canoe throughout
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Africa, had malaria 27 times. He was the first to cross the continent from east to west, and when he got to the west with his traveling tribal people that were working with him, the boat to go back to England was waiting for him there.
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He found it. He put his journals on board, but then decided not to get on board for fear that his companions were about to be captured into slavery, so he spent two more years walking back across the continent to the place where he started.
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These are the exploits of the great David Livingston. But I want you to hear his own words because what
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David Livingston teaches us is that we ought to have true optimism, optimism about the power of the resurrected
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Christ, even when it doesn't look like we're winning. Listen to Livingston.
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A quiet audience today. He's in a small tribe, and nobody seems to be listening to the gospel, but the seed is being sown.
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The least of all seeds now, but it will grow into a mighty tree. It is as if it were a small stone cut out of a mountain, but it will fill the whole earth.
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He's quoting from Matthew 13 and Daniel 2. He sees that the kingdom starts like a mustard seed, but it will grow, and it will fill the earth.
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He expected to see Africa won for Christ. We work for a glorious future, which we are not destined to see.
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The golden age, which has not yet been, but will yet be.
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We are only morning stars shining in the dark, but the glorious morn will break the good time coming yet.
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Do you hear the optimism? He believed that he was bringing the first light of the gospel, but that all of Africa would see the light.
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Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15. This morning, we have been in the book of Genesis, and so today, we're going to take a break from that.
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And yet, in a sense, we're not taking a break from it because Genesis 1 26 says that man,
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Adam, was given dominion over creation. Adam then fell into sin, but the promise was given in Genesis 3 15 that a seed of the woman, a man, will crush the head of the serpent.
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Take that dominion. Trample on snakes. Rule as a man.
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So the promise of Genesis 1 26 to 28 actually fits very well with 1
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Corinthians 15 as we'll see today. We're going to pick up on the 20th verse, but we need to know the context of what
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Paul said. He wants to remind us of the gospel. And what is the gospel?
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That Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. That he was buried, and that on the third day, he rose from the dead according to the scriptures.
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And that he appeared to many witnesses, to James, to Peter, and all of the apostles.
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Then to more than 500 people who saw him after he rose from the dead.
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Last of all, to Paul as one untimely born who doesn't even feel like he's worthy to be called an apostle because he persecuted the church of God.
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But God's grace was shown in calling Paul to be an eyewitness. And then he introduces in verse 12 a problem that had come into Corinth.
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There were some teachers who came along and said, look, there's not really going to be a bodily resurrection of the dead.
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And these people were deceiving many people. This was the philosophy of Athens. The Greco -Roman philosophers did not believe in bodily resurrection, only some ethereal, spiritual existence after this world.
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Or maybe to become part of the whole spiritual world. But Paul points out with piercing logic that if one person rose from the dead, then your theory that there is no resurrection completely bursts.
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All it takes is one to falsify that thinking. If one rose from the dead, then there is a resurrection.
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And Christ is that one who did in fact rise from the dead. And he goes on to show the importance of this in verses 14 to 19, that if Christ hadn't risen from the dead, then you're still in your sins.
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Those who died in Christ, they have perished. And we ought to be pitied more than all men because we are banking our eternity and all of our hope on this central fact that Christ rose from the dead.
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Everything rides on this. And so we pick up in verse 20. First point, the fact of the matter is that God raised
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Christ. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.
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The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Notice that Paul declares that the resurrection of Jesus is not just his opinion.
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Have you noticed in our society that nobody is allowed to speak dogmatically about their religious views?
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Everyone seems to say, in my opinion, such and such. Or from my vantage point.
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Or it looks to me. Some people even say, in my humble opinion.
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Which is interesting. Once you call yourself humble, maybe you've lost what you thought you had, right?
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In my humble... It seems to be that the orthodoxy of our day is that no one is to be certain of anything.
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You can only hold private opinion and respect others' views as being equally valid to your own.
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Even if those things contradict. But notice what Paul says. He does not say, in my humble opinion.
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In my awesome opinion. What does he say? But in fact,
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Christ has been raised from the dead. Why does he claim to see so clearly?
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Why can Paul speak so authoritatively of the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
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Could it be that because he was himself a persecutor of the church, he can speak this way?
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He was sent with papers from the Jerusalem council to go up to Damascus and arrest
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Christians who were preaching, in Jesus, the resurrection of the dead. He was on the road to Damascus when suddenly a blinding light knocked him down.
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And he heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Saul then answered, who are you,
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Lord? And the voice answered him back, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
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Now get up and go into the city. When he did, he was blind for three days. After fasting and praying,
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Ananias came and laid hands on him. His eyes were opened and now he saw, not just physically, but he saw.
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He knew what he had experienced. It was not a matter of debate. The risen
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Jesus appeared to him. He was blind for three days and now he's testifying, not of what he thinks, but of what he knows.
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He speaks as one who has seen because he was made blind, healed, and now sees clearly.
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The first central fact that we ought to point to when people doubt that Jesus rose from the dead is that eyewitnesses like Paul saw him, encountered him.
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The light of his brilliance was so blinding that Paul was blinded by the presence of Jesus Christ.
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The others ate bread with him, touched his wounds. The eyewitness testimony of more than 500 people, we are told.
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People that saw him risen from the dead. There is a second fact to which we ought to point and that is that these same people were willing to die for what they saw.
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As Stephen, falling to his knees, cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against him.
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And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Stephen was the first martyr. While preaching
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Jesus, they stoned him to death. He did not curse. He did not fret.
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He didn't do that. Whatever that is, yeah. This might be this monitor here,
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Nate. Thank you. Or Phil. Yeah. It sounds like this monitor's popping.
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Ah. Oh, no, this guy wants to get in on it. Yes. Well, let us not fret.
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Paul, Stephen did not fret. He prayed for those who were killing him. And listen, the second big point here is that these are people who sealed their testimony with their blood.
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Those who are willing to die for what they're preaching have not made up a fantasy or an imagination.
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They saw the resurrected Christ, and so Paul lost his head, beheaded for the sake of the name.
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And the third thing that we ought to point to so that we preach the resurrection not as an opinion but as fact is that all of these things were written ahead of time before Jesus accomplished what he came to do.
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David wrote about the sufferings of Christ, how he'd be pierced through his hands and feet, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth, surrounded by wild dogs.
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Psalm 22, the details of the crucifixion of Jesus were written ahead of time, and David tells then of the resurrection of Christ.
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The prophets foretold what the eyewitnesses then saw. So in the resurrection of Jesus, Christian, it's not just your opinion, it's the fact of history.
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Secondly now, that's the first main point, the second major point, verses 21 to 23.
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For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
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For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
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But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
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I want you to understand from this passage that when Christ rose from the dead, we're told he was the firstfruits of those who would later be resurrected.
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The image here is harvesting. When the seed is sown in the fall and over the winter, it's as if it's dead, it lies in the ground.
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But then as the warmth of the spring comes, eventually the harvest begins to come in.
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And that firstfruits is an analogy to Christ, the first one to rise from the dead.
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But what this indicates is that the full harvest is coming soon. He's only the firstfruits of many that will be raised from the dead.
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Church, we live in the day of the harvest. Look at the fields.
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They're ripe for the harvesting. People all around us who are dead that need to be brought alive.
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The workers are few, but this harvest, it's plentiful. We're living in a time of harvest. Jesus' resurrection from the dead indicates that he will raise others as well.
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In one man, Adam, death came into the world. That's why everybody dies.
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But another Adam, whose name is Jesus Christ, has come and conquered death so that those who are born of him will be resurrected as he rose from the dead.
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This is the idea here. And with this idea, with this firm belief in the resurrection of the dead, we live and we harvest as those who believe.
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Those who believe in the resurrection. The Corinthians were beginning to doubt this. And so they had become as if drunk in a stupor.
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But we believe in the resurrection of the dead. David and Spahe flood were also missionaries to Africa.
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They followed in the footsteps of David Livingston.
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They went to the Congo, the Belgian Congo. And they went beyond the mission outpost to the next village yet unreached,
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Ndolora. When they came to the chief of the village, 600 people,
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David and Spahe flood were not allowed to enter because the chieftain was thinking that that would offend the gods of the land.
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And so they went about a mile up the slope and camped out and began to pray.
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Didn't have much else to do, so they just had babies in the jungle. The first one born was named
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Ina, a precious little girl. But Spahe flood, she was a young, she was a young mom and very frail, only four foot eight.
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She gave birth to Ina and 17 days later, she passed away.
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The only contact that she ever had with anyone from the tribe was a little boy who would come out of the tribe to sell them chickens and eggs.
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And they would sell beads and different knives and things that came from Europe.
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This young mother laid down her life for the gospel. Through that interaction with that little boy, that was all the contacts she had.
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Then she laid down her life. When David, the husband, experienced this horrible death of his wife with a young baby, he was broken.
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He buried her in a crude grave and erected a white cross and he left
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Africa dejected. He left baby Ina with the Eriksons, the other missionary family at the outpost.
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And then he returned. He was from Sweden. He returned to Sweden where he began to drown his sorrows in alcoholism until his old age.
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And you think, he was willing to go lay down his life and now look at what came of it.
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Where was God? This little girl Ina was given to some American missionaries.
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They ended up coming home. She took the name Aggie and later married a pastor,
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Dewey Hurst, who became the president of a Bible college in Seattle. And Aggie Hurst one day got a newspaper article that was sent to her in the mail.
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She didn't know who sent it. But it had a picture of a white cross and a crude grave.
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And the cross and the grave said, Svea flood. She began to research her past and she had someone translate the article and what she read in that article blew her mind.
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That little boy that sold them chickens and eggs went back like a seed into that village.
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He had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And as he grew up, he got permission to open a school in that tribe.
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And over the years, the children came to Saving Faith and then the parents and then the chieftain so that all 600 members of that tribe became born again
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Christians. And this girl who had been given up to other missionaries was raised in America.
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Then was able to fly to Sweden where she met her father David Flood. And he wept when he saw her.
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I did not mean to give you up. This precious baby given up.
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And when he saw her and heard the story, hearing that the death of Svea Flood was not in vain.
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She was like a kernel sowed into the ground that God used for the sake of the gospel.
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David Flood came back to Saving Faith in Jesus Christ. You see,
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John 12, 24, Jesus says, unless a seed is sown into the ground, it remains alone.
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But if it's sown into the ground, it comes and produces many seeds. It grows.
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And John 12, 25 tells us, he who loves his life will lose it. But he who lays down his life will gain it.
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David and Svea Flood died when they left Europe, when they left everything behind for the sake of the name.
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And God took that sacrifice, took that seed and raised up a harvest behind them.
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This is optimistic faith, believing what Jesus can do. Look at verses 24 to 28.
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Then comes the end. The word end doesn't fully communicate the meaning here. Telos in Greek means the purpose, the end, the final cosmic reason for all of this.
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Don't you want to know the purpose of life? The end? Some people think salvation is that me, lovable little me, that God could not do without and could not enjoy heaven without.
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God sent his son so that I could be saved. That's not the cosmic Telos, the end of all things.
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It's true that he loves us. But let's read the end of all things.
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It's more glorious than that. It's about the father and the son and the love that they have for one another.
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Listen, then comes the end when he, Jesus, delivers the kingdom to God the father after destroying every rule and every authority and power for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
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The last enemy to be destroyed is death for God has put all things in subjection under his feet.
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But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him.
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When all things are subjected to him, then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all.
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That was a mouthful, wasn't it? A little hard to follow? What's happening here, it's a chiastic structure we won't get into the full
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Bible study of that but where he begins in verse 24 is where he ends in verse 28 when it says he delivers the kingdom to God the father again in verse 28 when all things are subjected to him and between those buns of the hamburger which correspond to one another there are sub -ideas that correspond to one another and then in the middle is the meat of the hamburger the main idea that main idea, the central theme here in chapter 15 is verse 26, do you see this?
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The last enemy to be destroyed is death. This is the point of 1
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Corinthians 15 that death will ultimately be destroyed.
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There will be a resurrection of the dead. Now, follow this for a moment. We look to the end, after that occurs the son of God will have reigned and ruled and will present a kingdom to his father.
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So God will be all in all. John 6, 37 the father gives people to the son.
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So the son is gathering a people and reigning over a kingdom in this world meanwhile, he's putting every enemy under his feet.
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In the end of time the son will then present what he's done back to his father as a love gift.
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It is this reciprocal love father and son. The son gathers a people for his name and gives that back to the father.
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So here's my question for you. If the last enemy to be destroyed is death where are we now in this cosmic plan?
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Does it not say in verse 25 and 27 that Christ has already taken his seat as the ruler, the king of this world?
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It's yet to be that the last enemy will be destroyed. Here's how you'll know that that's taken place.
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Nobody will die anymore. Death itself will be abolished. Verse 26 but verses 25 and 27 corresponding to one another for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
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It's quoting from Psalm 110. David writes, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
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Now listen, the next verse. Psalm 110 verse 2 says, the Lord has extended from Zion his mighty scepter, the ruling staff, and said, rule in the midst of your enemies.
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This means that Christ, when he sat down at the right hand of the Father, received the ruling scepter.
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He is sitting because his work is done in purifying a people. He's done the work of a priest.
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He's paid for our sin. He's made purification. But now he sits as a king with a ruling staff while the enemies on earth rage against him.
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Corresponding to that, verse 27, for God has put all things in subjection under his feet.
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Does it say God will put all things in subjection under his feet?
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No, it says God has put all things under his feet.
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As a man, Psalm 8 is about the man that God made to have dominion over the earth.
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Jesus is that man. Adam lost that reign, that rule on earth, because he himself fell under Satan's curse, under the sway of Satan.
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But now another man has come, and God has put all things under his feet.
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He reigns from heaven even now. He is a resurrected king. So when a president says that this day is to be called
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Transvisibility Day, the president is joining the worldly chorus of deception that harms people.
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Poor children, often coached this way by their own parents, are taught that they might be a boy trapped in a girl's body or vice versa.
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Perish the thought. But the world ruling power, a president of the
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United States, declares a day to honor such thinking.
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And to that, the resurrected Christ has a word to speak.
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And we with him can say, with all due respect, Mr. President, with respect in account of your office, with all due respect, you have spoken out of place.
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You are a president. And that is a delegated authority. But there is a king, no, a king of kings, a resurrected king who speaks and whose rule is final.
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By virtue of the fact that he rose from the dead, he speaks with all authority, power, and rule.
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And so we do not recognize your proclamation, Mr. President. In the name of the resurrected king, we reject your hostile takeover of the resurrection day.
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This day belongs to the resurrected king. And listen, there are 210 million of us in this country who claim to bow the knee to the resurrected king.
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Even if there was only one, one Svea flood, one
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David Livingston in a land, still they speak for a king whose office is higher than any earthly rule.
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And so the point that I don't want you to miss in verses 24 to 28 is that even now,
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Christ is destroying every rule and authority and power. That refers to the wickedness of this age.
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In this world, before the resurrection of the dead, Christ already reigns and he uses his people to take that dominion.
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All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them.
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All authority has been given. Matthew 28, 18. He has been given the name that is above every name.
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That at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is
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Lord. Philippians 2, 8. Psalm 22 about the suffering servant ends in verses 27 and 28 with Jesus as the ruler, the king of the nations.
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This is what's been happening for 2 ,000 years. The rule of Christ has been extending to the ends of the earth.
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And where it has already taken root, we are to hold that ground and not cede it to any false rule or authority.
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This is where we stand now. How are we doing? Lastly, verses 29 to 34. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?
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That woke you up, didn't it? What did he just say? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?
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Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which
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I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die every day. Paul's speaking here.
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What does he mean in verse 29? Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?
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Have you ever thought about that verse? What does it mean? In the first century in Corinth, to be a
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Christian means you must be willing to die. Paul says, I die every day. The Jewish authorities in Corinth were stirred up in a rage against Christians.
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And after Paul left, there was about a four -year period before he writes this letter. And what happened is persecution broke out against the church.
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They were making many disciples, baptizing Christians. But then the persecutors began to imprison
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Christians and even kill them. So the process was to train someone for baptism.
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This is what we're doing, by the way. In June, we're going to baptize in this field. Beginning in a few weeks, we're going to start offering classes where you can get ready for that baptism.
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Here's what would happen. Someone would come in and capture a catechumen, someone getting ready for baptism.
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And often they would be killed. So when it came time for that baptism Sunday, or whatever day of the week, the person getting baptized would be baptized in the name of the
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And then they remembered the one captured and unable to be dunked under that water.
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And the Corinthian would say, you know what? Baptize me for David in his place.
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For Jonathan. For Saul. Whatever the name of the Christian was.
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And so they baptized in, vicariously in the place of the one who had been captured or killed.
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Now, look at verse 29. Is Paul criticizing them for this practice?
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No. He doesn't recommend it In fact, what does he say?
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Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? R .C.
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Sproul was famous for saying to Christians, what's wrong with you people? You people.
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And by that he meant he's distancing himself from them. So is Paul actually teaching them to baptize for the dead?
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No, he says, what do people mean? Not what do we mean? Or what do I mean? He's saying,
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Corinthians, I saw you do this. And why were you doing this? He's not so much concerned with the practice.
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Hey, if you want to baptize Shmuley vicariously through this believer, he's whatever.
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But the point is, what's his point? You believe so much in the resurrection of the dead that you were willing to do this.
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You were willing to suffer. Look at verse 31. Why are we in danger every hour? Paul will go on to say,
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I fought beasts in Ephesus. If the dead are not raised, then let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.
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Doesn't it make sense? If there's no resurrection of the dead, just live like we're here for this world.
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Eat, drink, and then tomorrow we die. But if you believe that God's going to resurrect the dead, you ought to live like it.
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Now here's the condemnation, not so much condemnation, but the discipline in verse 34. Wake up from your drunken stupor as is right and do not go on sinning for some have no knowledge of God.
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I say this to your shame. These ideas that there's no resurrection, it's gotten them drunk.
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They're no longer going out preaching with fire in their hearts. He says this to their shame.
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It's as if they got drunk and they're just stumbling about as Christians with no purpose. Eat, drink, be merry.
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Tomorrow we die. And Paul says this to their shame.
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If you believe in the resurrection of the dead, then hasten the day.
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Jeremy Camp was a young man, teenager, when he went to Calvary Chapel Bible College in California, fell in love with a beautiful girl.
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And then just after they were married, she died. And that could have ruined him like David Flood.
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He could have been out of the game, inebriated, in a drunken stupor. But instead, do you want to know what
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Jeremy Camp did? He continued to write music for the king.
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There will be a day. And the turning point for him came at the funeral of his bride.
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At the funeral of his bride, one of his friends came up and whispered something in his ear.
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He said, hasten the day. It's from 1
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Peter 3, 12. Hasten the day. We're waiting for the coming of the Lord and hastening his coming.
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What that means is, listen, the day that Jesus is coming is fixed from heaven's perspective, but from our perspective, we are the means that God uses to reach the nations.
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And then the end will come, Matthew 24, 14. So how we pray at six o 'clock on Sunday nights in this room, how we go out and evangelize, how we preach and how we live in holiness and godliness, it hastens the day.
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It brings us nearer to the coming of Christ. If you believe that God is going to resurrect the dead who are in Christ, why aren't we telling everyone to believe in Christ?
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Why aren't we living for this purpose, for this telos, this end, this kingdom? This is the point.
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So many Christians, and I'm afraid in America more than most places, because we have so much comfort.
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We're drunk. We're in a stupor. We're just living as if this is the only life.
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But if you believe that Jesus will resurrect the dead, then you have a purpose.
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David and Heather, right there in the building here, they go down to Kensington a couple times a week and give food to homeless people and give out
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Bibles. You want to know what God has done to help supply that Bible need? There's a lady in our church named
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Judy who works at Goodwill. And more people are giving away
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Bibles to Goodwill than are being sold at Goodwill, and so they have to throw away the excess
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Bibles. But Judy watches for them and every day plucks a couple of those from the trash.
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And she brings them to my office. She gives them to me on Wednesdays, and I store them up, and then they go out to Kensington.
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This beautiful cycle. How many more of you should be going to a dangerous place?
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You have to be willing to say, I die to myself to go work in Kensington, to go share the
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Gospel where there's a people in need and who are held in a dark culture. Are you willing to die to yourself and go do something like that?
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Beautiful thing happened in first service. I said, at Christmas time, we started a project here to do something for the kingdom.
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We wanted to build an orphanage in Malawi, and we're 80 % done. 80%.
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They still need funding for power. They're going to put in solar panels, and they're going to dig a well.
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And I told first service, I said, how about this Resurrection Day? We finish the job.
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After the service, a lady came walking up to me and she said, how much do we need to finish it?
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And I told her the amount, and she said, it's done. It's finished.
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I'll do it this week. That's the kingdom life where you're living for the resurrection, not for eat, drink, and be merry, and tomorrow we die.
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This is how we ought to live. I'm going to close with two quotes, one of my favorite names to pronounce,
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Count Ludwig van Zinzendorf. He founded the Moravians. He had a poster, which is a picture of Jesus that said, this
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I did for thee. What have you done for me? And he would look at that picture of Christ.
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This I did for thee. What have you done for me? And Zinzendorf started a prayer meeting that lasted a hundred years nonstop.
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And they sent missionaries to the farthest reaches of the world. When Jen and I were on our honeymoon, we went to St.
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Kitts in the Caribbean. And sure enough, a Moravian church there, we got to worship on a Sunday morning because they had brought the gospel to that island.
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This I have done for thee. What have you done for me? The last quote is from David Livingston, that great missionary, pioneer.
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For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office.
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People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blessed reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter?
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Away with the word in such a view and with such a thought. It is emphatically no sacrifice.
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Say rather, it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with the foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink.
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But let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us.
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I never made a sacrifice. It's one of my favorite quotes I've ever read.
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The man who puts us all to shame, as Paul said, shame on you because you're not living as if you believe these things.
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Oh man, I feel it, church. I see someone like David Livingston, I think, how weak is my faith?
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And yet David Livingston, living all out for Christ, says, I never made a sacrifice.
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Let's pray. So Father God, we thank you so much for the sacrifice that you made.
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You gave your only son, Jesus, to die the death that we deserve. And we confess that Jesus was buried and rose from the dead on the third day.
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Father, I pray for those listening to this sermon. Some surely have not yet believed. I pray right now that they would believe the fact of the gospel.
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Paul encountered the resurrected Christ. The martyrs bled for what they saw.
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The prophets foretold the coming Messiah. I pray that by hearing the word of Christ, they would right now believe that Jesus is the son of God who died for sinners, was buried and rose from the dead.
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Open their hearts to believe, Lord God. Help them to repent of their sin and to believe in Jesus.
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And for us who have believed, Lord, awaken us from the drunken stupor. Open our ears to hear your will for our lives and to do every word that you have spoken.
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Help us to truly believe in the resurrection of the dead,
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Christ the firstfruits, and then the harvest to come. Lord, we look forward to the day when death is destroyed.
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Until that day, we know that you are already reigning. So Jesus, help us to extend that reign.
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Your rule, your authority, your power on earth. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and help us to go.
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In Jesus' name, amen. And he is risen. Let's rise and go out and sing praises.
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The King of King and Lords of Lords. ♪
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In the darkness we were waiting Without hope, without light
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Down from heaven you came running There was mercy in your eyes
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To fulfill the law and prophets To a virgin came the word
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From a throne of endless glory To a cradle in the dirt ♪
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Praise the Father, praise the
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Son Praise the Spirit, three in one
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God of glory, majesty
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Praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪
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For the kingdom coming And to reconcile the lost
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To reap with your creation You did not despise the cross
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For even in your suffering You saw to the other side
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Knowing this was our salvation Jesus for our sake you died ♪
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Praise the Father, praise the
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Son Praise the Spirit, three in one
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God of glory, majesty
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Praise forever to the King of kings ♪
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In the morning that you rose All of heaven held its breath
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Till that stone was moved for good For the Lamb had conquered death
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And the dead rose from their tombs And the angels stood in awe
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For the souls of all who come To the Father are restored
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And the Church of Christ was born And the Spirit lit the flame
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Now this gospel's truth of old Shall not kneel, shall not faint
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By His blood and in His name I am freedom, I am free
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For the love of Jesus Christ Who has resurrected me ♪
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Praise the Father, praise the Son Praise the
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Spirit, three in one God of glory, majesty
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Praise forever to the King of kings
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Praise the Father, praise the
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Son Praise the Spirit, three in one
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God of glory, majesty
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Praise forever to the King of kings
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Praise forever to the King of kings ♪
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It occurs to me that in sharing that God moved this woman to make a sacrifice, which she would say is no sacrifice, to finish the orphanage, that some would think, well then, maybe we don't need to.
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But I would encourage you to pray about what God might use you to give toward that orphanage, because there could be more work to be done.
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So if you want to go on the app and just look up Give button, and you can find the orphanage in Malawi and donate specifically to that, you'll have a part in it.
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It would be a privilege to keep building and see how far this goes. So praise
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God for that. Let's do the benediction and a prayer. Father God, we thank you so much for this glorious resurrection day.
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Pray that we would be changed by it and we would go out today, not as we came in, but touched by the power of the resurrected
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King. For your word says, but the angel said to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek
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Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen.