Book of Luke - Ch. 22, Vs. 52-65 (12/05/2004)

Park Meadows Church

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We're in Luke chapter 22, starting with verse 52 today. Luke 22, 52.

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I'd like us to go back and review Luke 22, 31, 31 through 34, and then we will come back into 52.

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So turn back to Luke 22 and verse 31, please.

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All righty. Let's have a word of prayer and we'll get started. Thank you. Thank you, Father, for the time you've allowed us to spend together today.

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And Lord, we thank you for the power of your word and the ability of your

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Holy Spirit to take your word and teach us and grow us and move us more into the image of Jesus Christ.

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We ask you to accomplish that work in our lives this afternoon as well, in Jesus' name. Amen. And the

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Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.

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But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

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And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. And he said,

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I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

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I want to look at this word, converted, here up in verse 32, where it says, when you're converted, strengthen your brothers, because it's a word we're going to find in the study for today.

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This word, converted, is epistrepho, epistrepho, or strepho, epistrepho in the

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Greek. And it means to revert. Now, who can tell me what revert means?

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That's what I think it means. Ooh, you OK? All right. That sounded bad.

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That must have been a boot rather than a head. But to go back to.

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So isn't that interesting? He's telling Peter, now, when you get back to like you were, strong in your faith, strong in the

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Lord, then strengthen your brothers. We're going to see this word again. In the sermon this morning, that word was found, and we didn't get to it.

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So I'm not going to talk about it, because I'd rather save that. But it's an interesting word.

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Now, let's go to Luke 22, 52. This is where we pick up our new material.

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Then Jesus said unto the chief priests and the captains of the temple and the elders which were come to him, be ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves.

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When I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched forth no hands against me. But this is your hour and the power of darkness.

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Now, this lists the parties who were come out against the Lord, the chief priests, the captains of the temple, and the elders.

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Verse 54, then took they him and led him and brought him into the high priest's house.

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And Peter followed afar off. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall and were set down together,

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Peter sat down among them. But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire and earnestly looked upon him and said, this man was also with him.

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And he denied him, saying, woman, I know him not. And after a little while, another saw him and said, thou art also of them.

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And Peter said, man, I am not. And about the space of an hour, another confidently affirmed, saying of a truth, this fellow was with him, for he is a

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Galilean. He's probably going by his accent. And Peter said, man,

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I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew.

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And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And this word look in the Greek means to observe fixedly.

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In other words, he fixed his eyes upon Peter. The Lord was apparently off at another area, but close enough where he could turn and look at Peter.

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And Peter saw this. And the Lord just fixed his eyes on his eyes. And Peter remembered the word of the

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Lord, how he had said unto him before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.

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Now, this word deny in the Greek is a word that means, it's a very, very strong word.

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It has the phrase apa in front of it, which adds strength to whatever word that's in front of.

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So it means to deny utterly, to deny utterly, to utterly deny, very strong word.

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So it says Peter utterly denied, or another word is to disown.

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He disowned him. He utterly, utterly denied the Lord. And Peter saw the

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Lord gazing at him, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. In Matthew 26, 49,

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I want us to contrast now. I want us to contrast Peter and Judas. And I'm gonna be asking you a question in a minute, so you can be thinking about it.

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What's the difference between the two of them? Okay, Peter utterly denied the

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Lord. Matthew 26, 49, and forthwith, he came to Jesus and said, hail, master, and kissed him.

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This is Judas. And Jesus said unto him, friend, wherefore art thou come?

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He addresses him as a friend. Then came they and laid hands on Jesus and took him.

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Then in Luke 22, three, it says, then entered Satan into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the 12.

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And he went his way and communed with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him unto them.

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And they were glad and covenanted to give him money. And he promised and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.

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And then John 13, 26, Jesus answered, he it is to whom

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I shall give sop when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

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Now, picture this, here they are at the last supper. The Lord and his apostles in this room together, and look what happens.

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As soon as he dips this and hands it to Judas, look at verse 27, and after the sop,

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Satan entered into him. So who else was in that room with him? In the room with him at the last supper.

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Give you goosebumps? Who else got goosebumps besides me? It did me. It did me. Then said

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Jesus unto him, that thou, what thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.

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Let me ask you this, who was in control of who got invited to that last supper? The father, and he had

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Satan there. Is that amazing or what? So my question today is what is the difference between Peter and Judas based on what we just read?

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Who would like to be first? He didn't want to get caught and crucified with him, really did he?

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He said no, he had said I'm willing to die with you, go to prison with you and to die with you. Jesus said no you're not.

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You're gonna deny me three times. So one difference was that Peter's was more hidden and Judas walked right up to him and denied him in front of everybody, or betrayed him anyway.

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Okay, okay.

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Well Jesus told Peter, Satan had desired to do what? Sifting.

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And when Jesus said, but I have prayed for you that what? No, that's not what he said.

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I have prayed for you that what? That your faith would what?

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Would fail not. So what happened to Judas' faith? Oh he had, from human viewpoint, he did.

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He walked with him for three years, he had belief. He believed in him, but he didn't have faith.

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Tricky question. He believed in him, yes he did. And in fact, the demons believe in him.

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He believed in him with the kind of belief that does not hold unto the saving of the soul.

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It's a human fleshly belief. In other words, he believed in his existence. He knew about him and he even believed it was the

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Messiah. But you see, that doesn't save you. The kind of belief that saves you is the kind of belief that means that you adhere to him, you stick to him like glue, you trust him with everything.

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It's a loving trust. And Judas didn't have that, but Peter did.

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Well, it comes with it, I would say. It's the human side of the faith that God gives us.

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How does that sound? You're talking about the true faith. It's the human side of, it's the human, if you want to think of salvation as pictured by marriage where you have the bride and the groom.

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Faith comes from the groom and the belief is like the response of the bride.

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And so, Peter had this and yet Satan came to God and requested that he be able to destroy

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Peter. Do you think Satan's ever made that request about you or your family?

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Or maybe one of his demons has made that request? I don't know if demons are allowed to make requests like that.

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But can he do it without permission? He can't.

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So when he came to Jesus and he requested to sift Peter, what was

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Jesus' response? He prayed to the Father and apparently asked the

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Father, do not allow this, and furthermore, strengthen his faith. Was that prayer uttered by Jesus for Judas?

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Why wouldn't it be? He doesn't even know him as a child.

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And so, without this prayer, Judas was doomed. And if you look at it on the human side, in space and time, where Judas is simply making decisions, doing what he wants to do, he was doomed.

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Did you know that Peter would have been, too? If everything worked off of man's simply making decisions with a, quote, free will, do you know what

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Peter had already chosen to do of his own will? To deny Christ.

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With the strongest Greek word there is, to utterly deny. To utterly deny that he even knew him.

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So what's the difference? The only difference is the election, which we talked about in the message this morning.

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That's the only difference, the election. Our flesh is just as bad as anyone else's flesh.

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Peter's flesh was just as bad as Judas' flesh, and vice versa. The only difference is that Peter was loved and known by Jesus.

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And so, John 17, 12, while I was with them in the world,

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I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost, except the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.

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Who was that son of perdition? Judas. Judas was born a son of hell.

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How many people have you ever heard tell you, God does not elect those who will go to hell? Well, they're wrong.

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And there's gonna be an interesting verse next Sunday, the Lord willing, as we continue the study from this morning of the main message.

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I remember, if you remember when the message started, I said the first word is but. And it's gonna become an important word.

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Well, if you wanna get a sneak preview, go home and look that verse up, and look at the verse right above it, because the word but refers to it.

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You're gonna be surprised what it says. But don't look, it'll blow the surprise of my message, so do not look at 1

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Peter 2, 9. Don't look at it. So, and the men that held

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Jesus mocked him and smote him. And when they had blindfolded him,

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I'm back in the Luke passage now, he's been turned over to them by Judas, and then

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Peter denies him three times, utterly denies that he ever knew him. Now, you can't be saved without knowing the

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Lord. That's just one of the phrases that's used in the Bible that talks about being saved. And so he denied that he knew him.

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Did he really know him though? Yes, he did. He was lying. So apparently lying is not the unpardonable sin, is it?

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Because Peter said he didn't know him, but he really did. And all of this is happening, and now these men are taking

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Jesus back. And the men that held Jesus mocked him and smote him. And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him saying, prophesy, who is it that just hit you?

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That's evil, isn't it? And many other things blasphemously spake they against him.

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Well, the last thought I had about this passage is this. Do you see anything in verse 65 that speaks to the deity of Jesus Christ?

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You can't blaspheme a man. You can only blaspheme God. And the scripture says very clearly that they blasphemed

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Jesus with many other words. So there's a proof of the deity of Jesus Christ that you may not have thought of before.

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So that's the end I wanted to teach today, but the main thing that I was interested in was the contrast between Peter and Judas, because on the human level, which one's worse than the other?

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They're both just as bad. It's just that the thing that makes the difference is the calling.

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The thing that makes the difference is who's your parent? Is God your, are you God's seed or Satan's seed?

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That's what makes the difference. And doesn't mean that we don't make mistakes.

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Doesn't mean that we don't sin. Doesn't mean that we don't do really despicable things sometimes.

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I don't know that anyone in this room has ever denied Jesus three times. Utterly denied him, said you don't even know him.

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I doubt if you've ever done it once. And yet you may have done some things that you think are just terrible, and you're glad no one else knows about, but you've never done that one.

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And so it just shows that it is not of us. It is not of us being good, of having good character, and growing in character and all that.

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No, it is true that the Holy Spirit sanctifies us and does make us more like Jesus if we're saved, but that is not the basis upon which

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God loves us. He loves us because he knew us before the foundation of the world, and we've always been his, and the others haven't.

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He doesn't even know them. And what Jesus will say when he sees them, he says, depart from me,

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I never knew you, and that's what makes the difference. So Peter's actions and Judas's actions were similar, but Judas spent eternity in hell because he denied

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Jesus Christ because he didn't really know him. Peter knew him.

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You could almost say Peter did the worst thing, but it's just that you're part of a family, and you'll always be part of the family, and nothing can change that.

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That's what we call positional truth. It's just your position. And when we have crowds, larger crowds, on a

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Sunday morning, you teach these things, you're always wondering, well, could there be a lost person out there? How will a lost person take this kind of information?

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Well, I'll tell you this, if the lost person's even concerned about it, that's a great sign.

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It's a great sign. If his spirit is even concerned about it, he's even thinking, gosh, I wonder if I'm one of those elect people.

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That's a great sign because the non -elect never asks that question. They don't ask that.

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They don't even believe it. They could care less. So, you know, we have a group.

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Besides this morning, you'd have to hope that the Holy Spirit is, well, you don't hope that.

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You know he's doing what he's supposed to do, but from the human view, if there are people there that are not saved, you're hoping that they're going to be saved.

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And you know that if they are concerned about these things, the

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Holy Spirit will move on their heart. He's already working in their hearts before they get saved in time, as he was us.

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All right, well, let's stand and have prayer together. Lord, we thank you for your word.

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Once again, we thank you for your love for your own. We thank you for how you prayed for Peter and would not allow

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Satan to sift him and take his faith away because it's a gift from you and you are not an

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Indian giver. You don't take away that which you have given. So we thank you for the faith that you've given us.

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And Lord, we ask you to cause us to walk in that faith moment by moment. And we thank you for the great truth that we saw in the passage this morning about how you are keeping us ready to be revealed.

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And it's your work to make us be ready the day we are revealed. So thank you for working in our lives and Lord help us to respond in a pleasing way to you as we respond to you as the bride does to the groom.

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And as you love us, may we love you in return. And Lord, thank you that you help our relationship to grow deeper and deeper as we go on.

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We ask you to watch over our families during these times and help us to arrive back safely together.