John 13:36-38 (When God Lets You Face Plant)

The Shepherd's Church

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

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There is not a single person in this room Who doesn't at some level or not whether by belief or by behavior believe that in some way?

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That you don't have power We all believe that we have some sort of power in order to make decisions to achieve desirable outcomes to control situations places people

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Manipulate circumstances to our own advantage or to our own end to be the master of our own ship the controller of our own destiny

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We believe that we by our own effort can do just about anything that we want

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With consistent effort hard work pull yourself up by your bootstraps, which is a good

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American mythology We believe that we can see and do whatever we put our hand to Isn't that the speech that happens at every halftime guys if you just go out there and you give it your best

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We're gonna win. I think that's why sometimes we refuse help when people offer it because our pride gets in the way

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No, I can do that But then isn't it funny how we refuse help from someone else but we butt in to help someone else because they can't do that without me

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It's fascinating, isn't it? It's why we run from vulnerability It's why we mask our weaknesses.

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It's why we hide from true intimacy Over -emphasize our strengths undervalue our weaknesses reach for control

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Justify our decision -making all of these things are because we at some level or another believe we have

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Mastery over our life and control over our circumstances, but what happens? When things fall apart

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What happens when a problem paralyzes you emotionally What happens when a situation paralyzes you physically?

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What happens when the kids that you've spent decades investing in walk away you thought we could control that And yet they didn't follow us

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What happens when your body begins to shut down? What happens when the drunk driver? T -bones you what happens when you invest in something that you thought was gonna be

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There for you in the end and then you end up bankrupt or your pension is gone. What happens when life?

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Seems to be spiraling out of control What do you do? I'll tell you what

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I do and I think we're probably similar in this I Look at the circumstance that has happened and I look at it with shock

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How did this happen? This is something out of the ordinary. This is alien.

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This is foreign. I'm a victim here. I Don't look at the situation to have this grand moment of lucidity where I say, huh.

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I really didn't have control. I Has happened to me

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Like the laws of the universe have been temporarily suspended and I am the one in the crosshairs

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There's an example of this sort of needing to control our environment and being shocked when it doesn't happen

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There is a road on my way home from this place It's called Bridge Street, and it is the bane of my existence.

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I Go, but I get bananas when I'm on the street, especially when you're on the bridge When you're on the bridge, there's two lanes there is a turning lane and There's a straight lane and for anyone who's driven for any length of time if you're in the turning lane you turn

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Boy it really drives me up a wall when I'm sitting there being a responsible citizen and Someone uses the turn lane to almost sideswipe me and knock me off the bridge because they didn't have time to wait in line

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They were more important than everyone else. So here's what I do. I don't pray I Wish that I could say that I was there praying and saying

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Lord just maybe they're in a hurry I want you to bless. I want you to bless them today. I wish that was me, but it's not yet No, I am there thinking about strategy like a surgeon

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Can I maintain a six inch gap between me and the person in front of me? So that not even a snail on a miniature motorcycle could weave in between me and them

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And you know, I do this out of love because all the people behind me are looking to me

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To protect them from them And I assume that every single person in this whole charade has the same view as me

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So we're all working together and that person's got their blinker on but no one's gonna let them until About ten cars ahead the

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Good Samaritan lets them over and then another person over and before long I've been at the stoplight for 15 minutes

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I'm angry frustrated whining and acting like I'm a victim Why did I actually believe

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I could control that? It's a great example of how we think through sheer mental effort

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Strategy through all of the stuff that we can control things. We can't control anything The truth is is that we have no control

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One stray microbe in your lungs could change your life One meteor that breaks past the atmosphere can change this world one rogue agent in one

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Hostile nation like in North Korea who just so happens to let a bomb fly could change the face of this planet

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You have no control over that One bad investment you lose everything what happens

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To you and I When the house of cards that we've built that we think we have control what happens when it collapses?

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How do you respond to that? Do you learn from it? Or do you do what

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I do and act like you're the victim shocked? I can't believe it this same sort of thing affects our spiritual life as well all the time

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How many times do we think you know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna wake up earlier. I'm gonna read my

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Bible I'm gonna go to church. I'm gonna clean myself. I'm gonna repent of that sin I'm gonna work and work and work and then

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God will be Happy with me if I do better work harder try more But today's scripture tells us it shows us brothers and sisters that we really don't have any power at all

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That we don't really now there are things that we were called to do and I'm not saying that we that we're don't but today's scripture

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Is going to teach us that we do not really have the power or the control over our lives that we think that we have and at the end of the day

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Instead of clinging to things like we do we ought to open up our hands and with great humility and gratitude say

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God Thank you for your graces. I can't control anything. I'm yours That's my hope for us today

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Is that as we look at? The light and dark themes in John's gospel as we close out

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John chapter 13 as we look at Peter who thought that he could serve the

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Lord and Then Jesus said no you will deny me as we look at these things today.

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I pray that we would abandon self -sufficiency that we would abandon control and That we would be humble people who just simply say praise

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God for the good times and the bad. Thank you Lord for all you Give me I'll receive it with joy

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So if you will turn with me to John chapter 13 verses 36 through 38 again, we're gonna close out

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John's 13th chapter today by looking at what the presence of Christ accomplishes in your life.

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What does it do? How does it help? How does it humble let us look at John 13 verses 36 through 38

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Simon Peter said to him Lord. Where are you going? Jesus answered where I go.

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You cannot follow me now, but you will follow me later and Peter said Lord, why can't

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I follow you right now? I will lay down my life for you and Jesus answered will you

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Lay down your life for me Truly truly I say to you a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times the

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Word of the Lord. Let's pray Lord Jesus, there's so many times where we think that we have control over our circumstances where we can do and and say and believe and exert some level of effort and it will please you and yet Lord All of that is dependent upon your spirit your presence

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If you pull back for a moment and in this situation Lord, we see you're going to the cross

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If you pull back for a moment We would be thoroughly different people.

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We live we move we have our being in your presence We are not

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The makers of our own destiny. We are dependent upon you for everything Lord.

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I pray today that we would see that That we would be humbled in that and Lord. I pray that we would rejoice in that and it's in Christ's name.

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We pray. Amen Now to go back to the question that we were asking how much power and control do you have well the gospel of John has been

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Incredibly helpful to tell us about how much power and control we have none

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The author of the gospel It's given us clear statements of our inability of our lack of power of our lack of control

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John 118 No one has seen God at any time John 3 2 No one can do these signs that you do not see

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Unless God is with him John 3 3 Truly truly I say to you unless one is born again.

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He cannot see the kingdom of God verse 5 Unless one is born of water and of spirit. He cannot enter the kingdom of God Verse 13.

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No one has ascended to heaven verse 32. No one receives Jesus's testimony John 6 44

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No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him verse 65

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No one can come to me unless God grants it John 7 34 you will seek me and you will not find me where I am

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You cannot come John 8 21 I will go away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin where I am.

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You cannot come Verse 43. Why do you not understand what I'm saying? It's because you can't

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John 13 33 little children. I'm with you a little longer You will seek me as I said to the Jews now

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I say to you where I'm going you cannot come In some ways the gospel of John tells us more about what we cannot do

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In our flesh than what we actually can do and we get a glimpse into the fallen human condition here

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Apart from Christ. We cannot see God. We cannot do the works of God. We cannot enter the kingdom of God We cannot ascend to the throne of God.

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We can't receive God's testimonies. We can't come to Christ We can't follow him where he's going. We are totally lost without him without Christ We cannot do the things of God and This becomes even more clear in the way that John talks about light and dark.

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It's something that we haven't covered yet But there's a theme that runs all throughout the gospel of John. That's light and dark when

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John talks about light He is demonstrating people who are in proximity to Jesus people are in Jesus's presence

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And when he talks about the darkness he's talking about people who are far from God's presence

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This is a a theme that runs all throughout the book. I'd love to share with you a few examples of when lightness and darkness happens

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For instance John chapter 1 the light is what breaks into the world. That's Christ and It says that there was one true light which coming into the world enlightens every man

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It is Christ who is the light of John chapter 1 and it is Christ who enlightens every man and what that means

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Jesus was not a universalist It means that every man who will be enlightened everyone who will be awakened will do so only under the influence of the light if It's not for Christ shining his light on you.

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You will remain in darkness. That is what it's saying Because we are wholly dependent upon him.

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We have no power Not even to come to him without him helping us first We know that Jesus is not a universalist for several reasons

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But John chapter 1 verse 10 says he was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him

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That means that there are a subgroup of people called the world who will remain in darkness

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And it will not experience his marvelous light John 3 19. Jesus says this is the judgment

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That light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil

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This battle between light and dark and John's gospel shows up all over the place

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Not only is Jesus the true light who breaks into creation John preaches that the true light has come in John 1

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Jesus calls his disciples during the day That's a fascinating way that John describes the story

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He tells us when it's day and night on purpose, which is actually pretty ironic His first miracle was done in the day

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The temple cleansing was done in the day and he doesn't entrust himself to people because darkness resides in their hearts

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That's the end of John chapter 2 Now Nicodemus John chapter 3 when does he come to Jesus by night and He's confused and he's perplexed because in the dark when you're far away from the

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Spirit of God, there is no understanding There is no knowledge. What about the woman at the well? When does she meet Jesus? during the day

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What a great contrast the man who's supposed to know God Comes at night because he's thoroughly confused and away from the presence of God the woman

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The Samaritan who really was not responsible for being a great theologian

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She's the one who gets to experience the light of Jesus's presence in the entire town becomes saved

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Now light is not merely physical as in daytime and nighttime in the gospel Although that theme does play out actually quite a bit, but there's also spiritual lightness and spiritual darkness

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John chapter 5 The Pharisees remain in their confusion, even though it's daytime outside John 5 33 through 38 says you have sent to John and he testified to the truth

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But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved

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John was a lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light

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But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John For the works which the father has given me to accomplish the very works.

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I do testify about me That the father has sent me and the father who sent me has testified of me

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You have neither heard his voice at any time nor see his form. You do not have his words

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Abiding in you for you do not believe him who he sent John is telling us that John the

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Baptist was a candle Burning in the wilderness. Jesus is a cosmos full of supernovas

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Infinitely brilliant and bright and yet their blindness was so deep that they could not see Do you see the light and the dark themes that are happening there?

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There's more the disciples even they're confused And they're perplexed and they're afraid in the dark in John chapter 6

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They're serving Jesus during the day watching Jesus divide the loaves and the fish but at night

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They're confused and they're perplexed John chapter 7 Jesus is the true light of the

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Feast of Tabernacles Even though the Pharisees couldn't see it John chapter 11 Lazarus is the one living in darkness until Jesus says open the tomb and the light not the physical light the light calls him out

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John chapter 12 Judas sneaks out After Mary anoints his feet at night to do his evil bidding

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Judas comes back and he's identified at the Last Supper at night for his sinister

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Betrayal and then Judas leaves to go out into the darkness to get the arrest party in the mob to come back and arrest

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Jesus at Night, you remember when Jesus is crucified darkness falls upon the earth

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You remember when Jesus? Raises from the dead and light burst forth in such a brilliant way that the

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Roman guards are are bewildered by it Jesus is the presence of God on earth and he brings light and when

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Jesus is far from something there is darkness in our passage today it's nighttime in John 13 and Peter with all of his great ambitions says

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I'll serve you. I'm ready to give my life for you and Jesus says You'll serve me

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Before the rooster crows in the morning, you'll deny me three times Peter These are real historical events

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But isn't it interesting how John has woven his story together to emphasize the events that happen at night?

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Which are all taking people away from Christ and the events that happen in the day, which are people who are pursuing towards Christ when

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Jesus goes away The theological story that is being woven there is that the light of the world is being taken from them temporarily momentarily

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It's being extinguished on the cross. That's why darkness falls upon the land when Jesus gives up his spirit

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The light would be hidden in a tomb Underneath a bushel of a borrowed grave

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And That light would lie dormant for three days as Peter would be left in the shadows of his own guilt for denying

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Christ's the disciples Who would scatter in the darkness? away from Christ This is why

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John quotes Jesus saying While I am in the world John chapter 9,

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I am the light of the world John chapter 11 9 through 10. Are there not 12 hours in the day?

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If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of the world

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But if anyone walks in the night, that's away from Christ. It's away from his presence He stumbles because the light is not in him

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John chapter 12 So Jesus said to them this is verse 35 and 36 for a little while longer.

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The light is going to be among you Walk while you have the light So that darkness does not overtake you

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He who walks in the darkness Does not know where he is going While you have the light and he's not talking about that gaseous ball

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That's hanging up in the sky that we call the Sun while you have the light believe in the light so that you may become sons of the light

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Jesus is saying that the light of the world is leaving you and As Christ is pulling away from his disciples

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Judas is betraying him Peter is denying him. The disciples are going to be scattering and abandoning him and The point that we must wrestle with is what kind of power do we have?

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without Christ Without his presence would we follow him? even as Christians Without his presence would we remain with him

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Peter doesn't? We talked about a couple weeks ago Judas the best friend of Jesus the

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CFO of the disciples the one who Was given the prominent position at the

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Last Supper at the table The man who no one would have thought would have betrayed Jesus when

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Jesus pulls back his presence from Judas Judas is a fiend and an enemy of God What we can discern and there's so much more that we could say in this passage

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But what we can discern is that Christ is the light of the world That we if we did not have

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Jesus would be walking in darkness and we no matter how much Intention we have no matter how much passion we have and no matter how much

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Position we have we can't manipulate this fact Peter could not keep himself from denying

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Jesus because Jesus pulled back from Peter and Allowed him to live in the shadows and Peter did what

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Peter never thought that he would do if Jesus is removed from your life

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You would be worse than the demons of hell You think about the worst men the worst women that have ever existed you would be no different if The presence of Christ were pulled from you for a moment.

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So I asked the beginning Question I'll ask it again. How much power do you have in your own walk in your own life in your own faith?

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How much power do you have how much? Responsibility do you have how much ability do you have?

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I think what we see here is that we have none Look at the interaction one more time in John 13

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Simon Peter said to him Lord, where are you going? Where I go

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Jesus says you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me later and Peter said no, no, no, no

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Lord Oh, why can I not follow you now? I want to I will lay down my life for you and Jesus answered

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Will you truly truly I say to you a rooster will not crow

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Until you deny me three times Peter believed that by the power of his own will

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By the sincerity of his own commitment By the poignancy of his own skill and ability by his own natural talent leadership passions affections machinations and strength that he would be different that he would follow

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Christ and When Christ pulled back his light from Peter Peter denied him

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Peter wept bitterly in sorrow, but Peter denied him all the same if Jesus is taken away from us

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We would be no different Our best intentions are not enough

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We would be like Nicodemus in our confusion We would be like the Pharisees in our rage

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We would be like Judas and betraying Jesus Peter and denying Jesus or the disciples in abandoning

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Jesus What this text is teaching us is that pursuing

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Jesus There's a necessary condition that must happen first and you must be in the light

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If you want to pursue Christ If you want to run after him if you want to find him if you want to chase after Jesus you want to be in Him then you have to first be in the light and That is certainly what happens in our salvation

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We see that in the scriptures That's what the gospel tells us that the light has broken into the world so that we can be brought into the light

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Transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and Jesus did that work on the cross when it seemed like Darkness was was was choking out the light on the third day.

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The stone was rolled away in the light of the world stood Victorious over death and over darkness our great priest mediated this kingdom for us

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He saved us by his justifying work Peter says in first Peter 2 9 But you are a chosen race and you are a royal people a people for his own possession that you may proclaim his excellencies who called you out of darkness and Into light

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I'm teasing this out this way because I want you to remember that the responsibility of your salvation

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Is not on you Christ called you into the light and you came because he called not because you called

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Paul says something similar in 2nd Corinthians 4 6 for God who said let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts

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To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ The knowledge of the glory of God is not something you can study

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You may be smart You may be able to read a textbook or a theology book. You may have went to seminary.

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I don't care That's not what the text says if the light of Christ has not shown into your heart

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You do not have the knowledge of the glory of God that is found only in the face of Jesus Christ How could you like Peter if you're in Christ?

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You've been rescued out of darkness and you've been brought into the kingdom of light, but there's another aspect of this

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That I want to hit before we close Because I think this goes beyond just our salvation.

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I think the application goes even further Because there are times as Christians Where we feel like Jesus is distant

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How many of you have felt like before? That your prayers were bouncing off the ceiling

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Were you in a dark vacuum where you were in a cloud of fog? Depression has sit in anxiety has sit in you've tried again to control your situation only

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For God to have allowed you to fall flat on your face again. I Think that even for Christians God sometimes although he will never ever

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Take away the gift of salvation that he has given you sometimes he will take away the light of his presence so that you live in darkness for a season

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There are times When we become prideful There are times when we trust in our own ability like Peter.

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There are times when we say Lord, why can't I do this? Lord, I'll follow you. I'll get ready to give my life for you.

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And then the next moment we're in the fetal position like a cat afraid of our own shadow the

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Puritans Talked about this as as the as the glorious frowning face of God That there are times when the best thing that God can give you

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Shadows and distance wildernesses and deserts Darkness even

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The light may be shining brightly all around you but for us for a moment God Will hold his hand and allow you to sit in the darkness.

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Why? Why does God allow depression in your life? This is an important question Why does

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God allow sometimes for us to feel like we are distant from Jesus? Why does God allow discouragement in our life?

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Why does God allow us? to sometimes walk through the valley of the shadow of death or the or to feel like we're parched in a wilderness where we don't have

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Any hope and and we cry out to the Lord and it seems like our prayers are not working

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Why does God allow that if there's therefore no no condemnation for those who are in Christ? Because God has something good that blessings will not give you

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There are times When our pride is in the way and we need to fall There are times

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When God graciously lets us face plant So that we will be humble

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So that we'll stop trusting in us and our sufficiency and our ability

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You think about Peter? Peter would not have become the lion -hearted

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Proclaimer of the gospel had he not denied Jesus three times It was

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God's gracious gift to Peter To sanctify him through trial to allow

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Peter to walk in the shadows for a season So that he would trust Christ more than anything.

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He would stop trusting in himself And he would start trusting in him

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Beloved there are times when the darkness Will come in your life where pain and tragedy will come in your life where the most difficult situations you have ever walked through You will face and you will walk through them and you have to ask yourself the question

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Is God absent? Did God abandon me? Did God forsake me?

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Or because of God's good kind pleasure towards you he's allowing you to walk through the valley

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So that you can experience Growth in a way that only the valley can teach you

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I said this a couple weeks ago I think this is poignant when I lived in Colorado the mountains had no grass when you get up to the top of them

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There's no life. There's no oxygen. There's there's nothing but death at the top of the mountain We all want the mountaintop experience.

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We all want to be on cloud nine or whatever metaphor you want to give but growth happens in the valleys

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It's where the richest greenest grass grows. It's where the animals scurry it's where it's where plant and vegetation and crops and fields and and Bubbling creeks the valley is where the growth happens and Christ Has one life that he has given you to sanctify you according to his presence and Sometimes the valley is just what is required.

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I think that happens here in Peter's life. I Know that's happened in my life, and I believe it's happened in yours embrace the valley

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Don't believe that you are the master of your own destiny You're not if Christ pulls his presence from you for a moment

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You will walk out of here denying Jesus with more with more vigor than Peter Every day we live and we move and we have our being in Christ and if we receive heartache and trial and pain

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Praise God for that Because a good God gave it to us for a good purpose to use it to shape us into his good image

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And if he gives us blessing praise God for that, but don't expect it to last Because We don't usually thrive very well in blessings do we

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Look at Israel look at our life. It's funny how When things go good for us for a week

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We start walking with a swagger like we had something to do with it beloved allow a

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Message like this even Peter the great disciple to see how he needed to be humbled

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Allow that message to touch your heart and next time that you go through something hard or painful

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That breaks you that stretches you don't act like something surprising is happening to you

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Remember that God loves you and he gave you that situation as a gift to shape you What a blessing that is if we think about it in that way, let's pray

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Lord we thank you that a part of your sovereign plan was that Peter would deny you and That Lord Peter could not become the man that you had called him to be without that denial

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That Lord somehow in some beautiful and mysterious way you have woven together All of the successes and failures of our life to achieve your great end

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Which is that we would be conformed to the image of Christ Lord we know that there's nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ And we know that everything is part of your good plan that you are working out for your good pleasure

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Lord help us to receive these things Lord if we truly are in Christ let our pain suffering our seasons of doubt

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Those situations that cause us to weep Lord help us not

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To ever be tempted to think that those situations prove that you don't love us In fact

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Lord let us to have the boldness to say it's because you love us That you've given us these things

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Lord help us to see your love your tender affections and your grace in every situation you give us