Ten Reasons for Studying the Humanity of Jesus (Selected Scriptures)

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Well, welcome to KCC. If you're just coming in, please find a seat here and we will get started this morning.

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Before we begin, let's open in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we come into your presence this morning to worship you and to bring you the glory that you alone deserve.

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Open our hearts and our minds to hear from you through the scriptures. Grant us ears to hear the truth and the

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Spirit's enablement to apply it to our lives. May you teach us, delight us, and challenge us this morning as we contemplate the life and ministry of your son,

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Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Well, this morning we begin a new series.

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I've really enjoyed the past couple of months in the book of James, and I'm looking forward to starting this new series with you today.

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I've entitled it Walk by the Spirit, wherein we'll be focusing on the humanity of Jesus and how we are sanctified through that focused endeavor.

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So we'll be taking an extended look at the humanity of Jesus, but my bigger picture goal is to draw out from that study the sanctification that is available to you and I through that focus.

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Now, whenever you begin a it's important to begin with the goal. My first goal is to make sure you all come back next week, but in reality, my serious goal is that we would all delight in the relationship that we have with Jesus Christ through the power of the

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Spirit. If you walk away from this series delighting in your Savior through the power of the

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Spirit, then I will have accomplished my goal. Now, for those of you who were here last

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Sunday, you'll recall that the sermon that we heard Dave Rich preach from 1 Peter 2 verses 7 and 8 directed us as believers to contemplate and to treasure the precious value of the precious cornerstone that we have in Jesus our

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Savior and Lord. And this series is a perfect opportunity for you to apply that sermon from last week.

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I want to quote from Spurgeon here. He says, when a man has his face toward Jesus, his back is necessarily turned on his sins.

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And that's exactly with our focus. So my plan, if the Lord wills and by his grace, is to combine for you the detailed examination of several key passages across the scriptures that focus and delight us in the humanity of Christ.

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And we're going to combine that with a broader survey about the how the humanity of Jesus embodies and empowers our sanctification.

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We're going to take a look at Old Testament, New Testament. We're going to be across lots of scriptures. And so this morning, I'll be an example of that.

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We'll definitely start in John 17. So if you want to get a head start, you're welcome to go to John 17.

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But we'll be moving around. And I'll do my best to slowly turn to those passages with you so that you can be in your text, rejoicing in where God's memory bank blesses you from your

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Bible. If you're having trouble keeping up, then obviously feel free to just listen as I read some of those texts for you.

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My strategy is to have this study cover the next three months together so that at the end, we can look back and we can delight in how

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God has used this time together in his word on Sunday mornings to deepen our fellowship, our fellowship with our

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Savior and with each other. This is for us together, both horizontally, as well as it is vertically, each individual person with their

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Savior and Lord. So this morning, I would like begin by answering the why question.

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Why do we study the humanity of Jesus? I'm going to give you 10 reasons for studying the humanity of Jesus so that we would give ourselves to that lifelong pattern of studying him.

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10 reasons. Now, there are more than 10. I had to restrict myself to 10. And believe me, with all of the study that I've been putting into this over the past several months,

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I'm going to have to restrain myself from just going full force into all of these wonderful truths that we've been studying.

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But just like you have a car, you got to warm it up in the mornings before you go full throttle on the freeway, this morning is a warm -up for us to get our minds around these 10 reasons.

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And we'll move rather quickly through some of them. So the first reason that I have for you for studying the humanity of Jesus is it brings glory to Jesus.

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It's the most compelling reason, in my opinion, here. By studying Jesus and his humanity, we are bringing him glory.

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And for that, we're going to look in our Bibles at John chapter 17. We'll start right at the beginning of the chapter, and I'll read for you the first five verses of John chapter 17.

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Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour has come.

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Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life.

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This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true

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God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do.

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Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which

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I had with you before the world was. As we gaze intently into the scriptures to ponder the person of Jesus, our hearts will be burning with passion to know

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Jesus and to see him glorified. Glorifying Christ is one of God, the

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Father's highest priorities. We saw it right here in John. And therefore, we can pursue it until it becomes one of our highest priorities.

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How easy it is for us and our frailty and humanity to lose sight of this priority and replace it with the shallow priorities of our own hearts and the world's priorities that surround us.

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May God delight us in re -establishing the priority of glorifying

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Jesus Christ. Look down at John 17, verse 22, the glory which you have given me,

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I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one.

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Jesus receives all glory from God the Father. And what does he do with it?

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He shares it with us. In what way is that possible?

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How does the glory of God the Father somehow end up being shared with you and I? We are not

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God and we do not deserve his glory. So, in what ways does he give it to us?

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I would suggest to you through the humanity of Jesus Christ, by being linked together with him.

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So, that's just a taste for you. But the first reason that we study the humanity of Jesus is that it brings glory to Jesus.

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And the second reason is that it grows our relationship with the Father.

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Jesus lived his human life for many reasons. But one of them was so that we could see just how much he loved the

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Father and how much the Father loved him in turn. I want you to see that.

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So, turn with me backwards in your scriptures to John 14, verse 31. John 14, the end of the chapter, verse 31.

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He says, But so that the world may know that I love the

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Father, I do exactly as the Father has commanded me. Get up, let us go from here.

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So that Jesus is giving you a purpose clause here. He's telling you why he did what he did.

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He's showing us how much God the Father loves him and how much he in turn loves

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God the Father. Go back to the right, John 17. We were just there, but we're going to look at verse 23 of John 17.

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Verse 23 of John 17 says, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you have loved me.

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Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, which you have given me for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

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Before the foundation of the world, the Father, Son, and the

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Spirit existed in a perfect relationship, delighting in the mutual love and fellowship between each member of the

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Trinity. It was out of this overflow of perfect relational love that God the

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Father purposed to create mankind. And the highest expression of that love for us is the gift of his

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Son in human flesh. That's the greatest expression of God's love for you, is his gift of the one that he has loved from eternity past.

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When we ponder Jesus, when we encounter him in his human frailty, when we marvel at his love for us, we grow in our relationship with God the

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Father. Turn back again. I know it's going back and forth here, but John 14 and John 17 are linked together here.

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We're going to go back to John 14 verse 8. I love the disciples.

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I love Simon Peter because he's the dumb one. Remember, whenever God calls him

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Simon, he's referring to his dumb sinfulness. So I take that with a measure of humility.

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But here, it's not Simon sticking his foot in his mouth, it's Philip. Philip said to Jesus, said to him,

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Lord, show us the Father and it's enough for us. Jesus said to him, have

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I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know me,

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Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the

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Father? I take from that, if you want to know and love the

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Father more, contemplate the Son, contemplate

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Jesus. So as we study Jesus' humanity, our love for the

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Father will grow. And that's the second reason. The first was it brings glory to Jesus.

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The second reason is it grows our love for the Father. The third reason is it deepens our relationship with the

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Son. We bring glory to Jesus, but it's not just glory. We want a relationship with Jesus, the

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Son of God. Now, as we stretch our minds out to encounter this mystery of the

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God -man, Jesus, we're going to encounter a danger, a danger that I refer to as doctrinal ditches.

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Doctrinal ditches refer to the reality that every right doctrine has ditches on either side of it that are the result of either oversimplification, trying to dumb it down to our humanity, going too far in one emphasis or one aspect of the doctrine, or just narrowing our focus too much.

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So as we look at the humanity of Jesus, the God -man, we can see that the ditches that lie alongside of that doctrine consist of at least two forms.

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The first is that we focus too much on Jesus' deity, and we neglect or diminish

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His humanity. We could easily go way off the track and just focus on Jesus as God and neglect the reality that He was a man.

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On the other end, we could be so far off the beaten path that we're looking only at His humanity, and we neglect the fact that He is

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God. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, but Simon, aren't you encouraging us to do that very thing by spending three months focusing on humanity of Christ?

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May it never be. Right? We cannot and we will not ignore what the scripture says about the mystery that Jesus is fully

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God and fully man. Let me just affirm right at the beginning here my full agreement with our church's doctrinal statement about Jesus.

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I'll read it to you. It says, We believe that Jesus Christ, the second person of the

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Trinity, possesses all the divine excellencies, and in these He is co -equal, consubstantial, and co -eternal with the

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Father. He is thus full deity, very God of very

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God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father. We believe in the eternal sonship of Christ.

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We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross, and that His death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, propitiatory, and redemptive.

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I love the writings of John Owen, and in his book, The Glory of Christ, he summarizes this very well for us.

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I'll read his quote. It says, There are in Him, in His one single individual person, two distinct natures, the one eternal, infinite, immense, almighty, the form and essence of God, the other having a beginning in time, finite, limited, confined to a certain place, which is our nature, which

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He took on Him when He was made flesh and dwelt among us.

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So in this study, we will never, never take our eyes off of the glory of Christ in His deity.

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We will not deny it, we will not denigrate it, and we will not dismiss its importance.

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However, we will delight in the opportunity to see what John 1 .14 highlights.

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Don't turn there, I'll just read it for you. It says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw

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His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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So we are going to take a focus, a distinct focus on the humanity of Jesus in this study.

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And there is immense benefit for us as we go back and we read the Gospels with an eye to what

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I refer to as the fleshiness of Jesus, the reality of His human existence.

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He had parents, siblings, an educational process, human desires, real needs.

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All of these things allow us to draw closer to Him in our individual relationship with the

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Son of God. So by studying Jesus' humanity, we will deepen our relationship with Him as a person.

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So, so far we've seen three reasons. One, it brings glory to Jesus. Two, it helps us grow and expand our love for God the

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Father. Three, it deepens our relationship with the Son. Fourth, it encourages us to depend daily upon our relationship with the

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Spirit. Now one of the key aspects that we're going to spend a lot of time on in this series is the study of how

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Jesus' humanity is lived out in dependence upon the third person of the

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Trinity, the Spirit. I've entitled the series, Walk by the

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Spirit, because I believe that this relationship of Jesus and His full dependence upon the

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Holy Spirit is one of the keys for us as we seek to grow in our relationship through Christ with the

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Spirit and be sanctified and grow. I'm just going to read for you a couple of passages.

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I don't want you to turn here because we're going to be back and forth across the New Testament, but we'll come back and spend some time in a couple of these passages in future weeks and you'll get your full share of them.

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The first of them is Luke chapter 2, verse 40, and it says, The child of Jesus continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

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Those phrases are packed with humanity, but not just humanity, Jesus' reliance upon the

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Spirit. Hebrews chapter 5, verses 7 and 8 says, In the days of his flesh he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his piety.

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Although he was a son, listen here, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered.

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He learned obedience through suffering. Isn't that what you and I do?

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How do we do that? By depending upon the Spirit. So we are going to take our time, we're going to go to some of those passages and develop the truth that Jesus in his humanity had to practice what he preached.

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He had to learn obedience to God the Father by fully depending upon the

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Spirit to work in and through him through the word. Sound familiar?

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Because he had to do it, so do we. This truth just delights my heart and I pray it does yours as well, as you understand that through a deeper, more full contemplation of Jesus' humility and humanity, you will learn to depend more upon the

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Spirit as you go through your walk of sanctification. So that is the fourth reason.

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First is it brings glory to Christ. Second, it grows our relationship with the Father. Third, it deepens our relationship with the

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Son. And fourth, it encourages us to depend daily upon our relationship with the

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Spirit. Fifth, it stretches our minds to understand difficult doctrine.

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As I previously affirmed for you, the mystery here is profound and deep.

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In fact, I will assert it is beyond comprehension. And this is how

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God intends it. As we pursue our understanding of how

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Jesus can be fully God and fully man, we should just repeatedly bump our heads up against the ceiling of our finite understanding and God's infinite understanding.

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And that is so good for us. It is really good for us to stretch our minds out into difficult doctrines and to strain as we carefully examine the scriptures to see if the things that we are reading and being taught are true.

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As we do that, our mental muscles are going to grow. But more importantly than just growing your mental muscles and acquiring knowledge here, you're going to more closely cherish and remember these truths.

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They'll become deep, abiding parts of your relationship with God. And it's going to heighten your ability to articulate them clearly to one another and to the unbelieving world.

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They need to know the truth and it needs to come out of your mouth. And we will comfort ourselves with the reality that we are not

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God. And we cannot understand this mystery as fully as he does, but we can understand it.

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So turn with me now to Titus chapter three and verse four. I encountered this verse this week providentially in my family's

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Bible reading calendar. Somehow God knows what you need when you need it.

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Titus chapter three, verse four, and we'll read all the way down to verse eight. Titus chapter three, short little book.

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This is at the very end of the Paul's letter to Titus. It says in verse four, but when the kindness of God, our savior, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us.

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Not on the basis of deeds, which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the holy spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior.

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So that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

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This is a trustworthy statement and concerning these things. I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed

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God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

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Paul lays out the Trinity right there. The kindness and the affection of God, the father, the savior, and his love for mankind that results in the salvation of Jesus Christ and the washing of regeneration and renewing by the holy spirit.

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He gives us this truncated deep dive into doctrine. And then how does he finish it?

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He says, this is a trustworthy statement. What I have just given you here is a trustworthy. You can trust in this.

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And more importantly, I want you to speak confidently about it. I don't want you to shy away from it and say, well, that's the

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Trinity. No, it's too far, too deep. That's something for the scholars to study and understand.

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I'm just a, I'm a garden variety, Christian, just bottom shelf, cookie jar on the bottom shelf kind of person.

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I don't, I can't get that some stuff. No, Paul wants all of us to speak confidently about these things so that what we would engage in good deeds.

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He couples it together. Your ability to understand doctrine and speak about it is tied to your walk, your salvation, sanctification walk with Christ.

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And it's a good thing for us to apply doctrine to our lives. Faithful reading of God's word is intended by God to bring us to knowledge, wisdom, and righteousness.

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And thus we should lean into it. We shouldn't shy away from doctrine. We should lean into doctrine as tempting as it is to dismiss difficult doctrines as unnecessary to our walk.

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This is one example of a doctrine that is essential to your sanctification and not just your sanctification, but our unity as a body.

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We need right doctrine. So there are 10 reasons, at least 10 reasons.

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We're, we're cooking through them here. Hopefully you guys are not getting overwhelmed, but the first is it brings glory to Christ.

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Second, it helps us grow our love with God, the Father. Third, deepens the relationship we have with the

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Son. Fourth, we depend more fully upon our relationship with the Spirit. And fifth, we just saw it stretches our minds out to encounter and to understand difficult doctrine.

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Sixth, it is foundational for church unity.

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And for that, I'm going to take you to Ephesians chapter four. Back in your scriptures to the left to Ephesians chapter four will be in verse one.

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The sixth reason that we study the humanity of Jesus is it is foundational for church unity.

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Now we heard this passage preached from the pulpit about three or four months ago, if I recall correctly.

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And this passage has been in my prayer life for you as a body since that day. I pray weekly for the unity of this body.

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And Paul gives us here the exhortation to church unity. I want to tie it together with the humanity of Jesus.

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Look at chapter four, verses one through three. It says, therefore, I, the prisoner of the

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Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the

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Spirit in the bond of peace. If you look over at verse 13, he continues this thought here.

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He says, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and look here, and of the knowledge of the

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Son of God. You see how he couples those two together? The unity that he prays for in verses one through three is coupled with what?

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The knowledge of the Son of God. As we collectively, all of us in this room, as we dwell for the next three months on the truth about who

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Jesus is, our unity with Christ will just extend horizontally to our unity within this body.

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This is what God will use over the next three months to protect us, to preserve us, to help us get through the relational difficulties that exist in this body.

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There are people here today who are not in right relationship with one another, and that damages the whole.

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Remember Paul's analogy, right? The whole body suffers when one individual is sinning or suffering.

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So we need to fight the fight for unity. We have to guard it.

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We have to protect it. And one of the best tools in this fight is to continually remind ourselves of who

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Jesus is, and how he demonstrated the attitudes and the actions that lead to peace, brotherly affection, and mutual service.

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That's our sixth reason, six reasons so far. Seventh, it challenges us to grow in our marriage and our parenting.

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And for that, I'm going to keep you in Ephesians, but I'm not going to make you turn too far. Just look to the right, Ephesians chapter five.

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Now this might not be as easy for you to see on the surface, but I don't think it's very difficult to understand.

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I would suggest to you that the diligent study of who Jesus is in his humanity leads directly to the applications of how do you grow in your marriage?

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How do you grow as a parent? Look at Ephesians five verse one. It says, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love.

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Look at this, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us on offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

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Paul commands us here to imitate God's love and how specifically the love of Christ.

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Well, how do you do that? Well, look over at verse 15. Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil.

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So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is and do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but be filled by the spirit, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the

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Lord. Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the father and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

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Now we spent six months in this passage just a year ago talking about marriage, talking about parenting.

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But if you look here, the walk, our walk is where God's will for us in this regard is going to be revealed.

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Well, what parts of our walk specifically, Paul? Well, verse 22, wives be subject to your own husband as to the

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Lord. Wives can embrace submission to God's design of biblical authority with the mind informed by Jesus submission to the father through the spirit.

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Look at verse 25, husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.

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Husbands can be delighted to live sacrificially in their leadership of their wives and families because of the example they have of Jesus sacrificially loving and leading his church.

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Look at Ephesians six, four fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the

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Lord. This truth provides the foundation for parents, specifically fathers, for us to apply the admonition to provide patient instruction to our children, knowing that they have to grow in obedience to their parents, just as Jesus did to his.

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But when we study the humanity of Christ, it challenges us to grow in our marriage and our parenting.

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Eighth, it is essential to proclaiming the gospel.

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And for that, I'm going to take you all the way back again. We've been there a lot, John 17. So turn back to John 17 verse 18 for our eighth reason why we should study the humanity of Jesus.

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So far, we've seen seven of them. Our eighth one is that is essential to proclaiming the gospel in evangelism.

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It's essential for evangelism. John chapter 17, verse 18 says. As you sent me into the world,

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I also have sent them into the world. Jesus is the great evangelist.

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He was sent into the world as a man to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, and he did so perfectly in his humanity.

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Now note that perfect evangelism is measured by what? Faithful proclamation of the truth.

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There were many who heard Jesus who did not repent, and that did not invalidate the perfection of his evangelistic endeavor.

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Neither does it for you and I. There will be many who hear us speak of our savior who will not repent, and that does not mean that we did it the wrong way or that we failed.

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The measure of evangelism is not conversions, but faithful proclamation of the truth.

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Well, what truth? Well, the gospel of the kingdom, as we proclaim the truth that Jesus lived the life that we could not live and died the death that we deserve, we are assuming and we're positing the truth that his life was authentic human experience.

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If that's not true, then our gospel is not true. Jesus' life had to be authentic human experience, lived in faith in the power of the spirit, or it could not be credited to you and I as a gift.

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Jesus' humanity undergirds all of our gospel presentation.

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Ninth, it is the fuel for fighting sin. If we want to fight sin, and I know you do, because we all struggle to fight sin, then the fuel for fighting sin comes through a contemplation of how

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Jesus makes that possible for us. I am going to turn you to Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14.

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So blessed that Jim just covered this so recently for you all. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14, and we'll read through the end of Hebrews 4, says in Hebrews 4,

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Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

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Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin.

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Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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Now, I am really holding myself back. I want to dive right in here and exposit this passage, and we will.

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But we see here that because Jesus is our great high priest, who in his humanity has suffered temptation, has been exposed to the temptation to evade

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God's instruction and to do it his own way, and has resisted that temptation, we can do the same.

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He can sympathize with us in our weakness and human frailty. So our ability to hold fast to our faith and to fight sin as we walk through life is enlivened by the reality that Jesus can sympathize with us.

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He enables us to battle the temptations. Turn to the right, 1

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Peter chapter 2. Now, if Dave had been moving a little faster, he would have covered this before I got here.

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So I would have been benefiting from two previous expositions of this scripture, but he's stuck in 1

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Peter 2 .7, 8, and 9. So he'll get here, but 1 Peter 2 .21

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says, for you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth.

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And while being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.

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So Peter here also encourages us to look back to the humanity of Christ and to embrace the pattern that Christ provides in suffering under injustice and yet refusing to sin.

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Turn back to the left, Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8, verse 3, that in the humanity of Christ provides fuel for the fight against sin.

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And in Romans chapter 8, verse 3, Paul says, for what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh,

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God did, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.

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And as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. That is fuel for your fight.

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What the law could never do, God did. How? He sent his own son in the likeness of sinful human flesh.

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So not sinful, but in the likeness of the flesh that can sin. And he did not sin.

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And his righteousness and his gift of that righteousness is the fuel that has saved you and now can sanctify you.

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Paul points out to us that the life of the son provides the strength that we need to overcome sin.

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And the law could never do that. So the first nine reasons for studying the humanity of Jesus are, it brings glory to Christ, it grows our relationship with the

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Father, it deepens the relationship with the Son, it encourages us to depend upon the relationship with the

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Spirit, it stretches our minds to understand difficult doctrines, it's foundational for church unity, it challenges us to grow in our marriage and parenting, and as we just saw, it's the fuel we need to fight sin.

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And lastly, tenth, it improves the way we read our Bibles. The tenth reason for studying the humanity of Jesus is it will improve the way you read your

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Bible. When we embrace a commitment to search the scriptures for passages that speak to his humanity, the whole

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Bible just lights up with rich food. It's everywhere, he's everywhere.

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Passages that you would have never fully appreciated when you're looking at the humanity of Jesus and contemplating that.

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You see him from beginning to end. And more importantly, you see how the plan is taking place.

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How the plan that God purposed before the foundation of the world to have Jesus' humanity redeem ours, you see how it's perfect.

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You see how it's executed perfectly. It is the infinite wisdom of our great

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God to bring not just redemption, not just salvation, not just freedom from sin, but restoration.

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Redemption is only the beginning of the story. The restoration of the plan that Jesus is the greater

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Adam, whose ability and authority to rule and subdue this earth is the ultimate fulfillment of the creation mandate in Genesis 1.

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Jesus in his humanity will fulfill that plan as he reigns as the eternal human son of God all the way through the end of the book of Revelation and beyond.

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So our list today has highlighted that nearly every area of our spiritual life is impacted positively by a pursuit of the humanity of Christ.

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So as you dwell on this truth this week, I want to encourage you to rejoice in Jesus.

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Rejoice in who he is. Rejoice in your Savior and your

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Lord. And here are some practical ways that I'm going to suggest for you to go about doing that.

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So first off, I want you to discuss these 10 reasons with your family and friends. Ask them the question, which reason stood out as the most compelling reason for you to study humanity?

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Talk about it with your friends, family, fellow churchgoers. This will cultivate the unity of the body as we all study this together.

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I want you to take time in your own personal lives to think about the life of Christ. Think back to his human life as recorded in the

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Gospels and ask God to bring to your mind those accounts that highlight his humanity.

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Think about it. If you're not in the Gospels, feel free to go read them. I love parallel harmonies of the

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Gospels so you can read what happened at the same time in multiple different books at the same time. They're a really rich way to study the humanity of Christ.

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So third, I want you to increase the depth of your prayer time. Go deep by asking

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God the Father to give you a love for all three members of the

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Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit. And four, if you are a go -getter, an extracurricular,

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I just want to work ahead kind of student, which I know you all are, I want you to read Luke 1 and 2 in preparation for next week's lesson.

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Luke chapters 1 and 2, they are long, long chapters, but they're familiar and I would love for you to be soaked in them before we get back to Sunday school next week.

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Let's close in a word of prayer. Our loving

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Father, we thank you for the love and affection you have for us.

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Your love is perfect, eternal, and infinite.

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You love the Son and the Spirit in eternity past, and we are so delighted that you chose to extend that love to us.

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Father, we do not deserve this. Our sins have separated us from you, and yet even though we deserve your justice, you sent us your

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Son, born of a woman, a man, just like us. You sent him to grow, live, learn, serve, and then die the death we deserve, so that his life might be granted to us as a gift of your grace.

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And for that, Father, we are so thankful. May we go forward this week determined to grow in our knowledge and love of your

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Son, Jesus. May you use this to produce wisdom, unity, and sanctification in our hearts and our minds.