WEBVTT

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 You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.

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 Our passion is to experience and express grace.

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 Join us.

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 Wow, that's beautiful.

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 Thank you.

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 And not just beautiful singing and harmonies, but the message.

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 For I know a lot of you who are hurting, who feel the heavy load that that song tells about.

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 The beautiful hope.

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 We heard it read from Isaiah 11 of what God is going to do to make everything right.

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 To renew us in his whole creation.

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 And that's the hope that we look forward to even as we bend.

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 Even as we're weary.

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 Even as we feel darkness in us and around us, we look to that hope because of Christmas.

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 That's what we've been talking about this Advent season.

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 We've been listening to Jesus tell us why he came.

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 Why the first Christmas happened.

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 There's all sorts of historical evidence that a baby was born.

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 That this person named Jesus really did live about 33 years.

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 That he really did die on a cross.

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 But from his perspective, why?

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 What was the purpose?

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 Jesus speaks to that quite often.

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 We've already heard him say for fulfillment of the Old Testament promises and demands.

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 For the seeking and saving of lost people needing light.

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 This morning I want to look at another passage that I almost skipped over.

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 Because we're going to be back to John chapter 6 in January in our study of John's gospel.

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 And I didn't want to preach it twice in a row.

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 But then I just couldn't.

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 You know how it is, right?

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 When you're preaching and you just can't skip that passage.

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 Okay.

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 Sometimes you feel like this.

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 I've just got to preach this one as a part of this.

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 The more I consider this passage, especially the one verse that I'm about to read.

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 The more amazing it is to me.

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 The more it causes me to rejoice in Christmas.

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 So I wanted to go ahead and look at it with you now.

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 We'll look as we go at the context.

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 A few other verses around this that will be helpful.

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 But for now I'll read only verse 38 of John 6.

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 Why Christmas?

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 Jesus tells us.

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 I have come down from heaven.

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 Not to do my own will.

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 But the will of him who sent me.

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 This is God's word.

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 Father, we need your help.

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 We ask for your spirit.

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 We pray that you would open the eyes of our hearts.

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 That you would cause us to marvel at something that sounds pretty simple.

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 Don't let us overcomplicate it.

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 But don't let us miss the glory of our Savior here.

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 And we ask it in his name.

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 Amen.

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 Amen.

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 We marvel at missionaries of the past who gave their lives to share the gospel with people who hadn't heard.

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 Some packing all of their belongings into a coffin before they set out on the journey knowing that they would not be coming back to this life.

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 Feeling sent by God, Peter Milne left for Scotland.

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 He left Scotland and went to the New Hebrides in the South Pacific around 1870.

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 He and his wife and eventually their children dedicated their lives to the people of Nguna Island who had previously killed every missionary who had been sent to their island.

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 They did whatever the people needed.

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 Whatever it took to care for them day after day.

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 They lived.

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 You tell us what you want us to do.

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 They lived for them.

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 Fifty years later when Peter Milne died there on the island, it's said that the people of the island wrote on his tombstone,

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 When he came, there was no light.

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 When he left, there was no darkness.

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 He lived his life for theirs.

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 We marvel.

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 We marvel at people who leave careers and homes and friends and are sent to care for aging loved ones, spouses,

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 to do whatever they need day after day while it appears the end is nearing,

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 but sometimes it is many days of caring over and over.

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 Whatever they need, I'll do.

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 We marvel at soldiers who are sent across the world from the people and the places that they grew up with to live their lives and in some cases give their lives for the sake of people they've never met thousands of miles away from home.

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 We marvel.

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 We marvel.

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 So certainly this morning we will marvel at Jesus because none of these others had to go nearly as far.

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 They weren't sent nearly as far on their mission.

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 They didn't give up nearly as much as Jesus.

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 Jesus came down from heaven, he says.

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 Not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

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 Will you ponder that reality with me for just a minute?

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 Just think about what that means.

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 Jesus lived in heaven with the Father.

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 With all the freedom.

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 All the power.

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 Endless riches at his disposal.

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 The greatest comfort possible.

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 The comfort of glory.

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 Perfect glory.

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 He's surrounded by it all the time.

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 And he decides what?

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 To come down from heaven.

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 To be born in a lowly manger.

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 He decides that he would even enter into this broken world that is in rebellion against his kingship.

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 We've been singing this morning that Jesus is the king.

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 That this newborn baby is the king.

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 But he comes to a world that is rejecting that idea.

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 That is rebelling against his kingship.

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 Is that not astonishing?

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 That he would choose to go there.

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 It's a massive part of Jesus' humiliation.

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 Just coming.

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 Christmas.

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 Is huge.

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 But that's not all.

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 Jesus comes into the world that he has created.

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 The world that he has sustained.

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 By the word of his power.

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 By his utter might.

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 And he doesn't lord that authority over everyone and everything in the creation, does he?

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 Instead he submits his own will.

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 To his father's will.

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 He is sent on a mission to do the will of the one who sent him.

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 Why Christmas?

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 Jesus says very simply, Jesus came to do the will of his father.

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 Why Christmas, Jesus?

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 Jesus.

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 He says I, the king of kings, the lord of lords, wanted to live a life completely shaped and directed by the desires and the plans and the purposes of someone else.

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 Jesus.

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 Wow.

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 This verse may be the most direct statement in scripture of this life shaping purpose that Jesus has.

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 That he's born with, lives with, dies with.

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 But the Bible shows it to us from the beginning to the end of his life, doesn't it?

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 Remember as a young boy when his parents are looking for him and finally they find him where?

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 At the temple.

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 Because, he says, didn't you know that I must be about my father's business?

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 He's at his father's house.

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 He's studying his father's word.

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 He's learning his father's will from an early age.

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 He must be about that.

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 In John chapter 4, now having begun his public ministry, Jesus says to his disciples,

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 my food is not the bread you're chasing after.

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 My food is to do the will of him who sent me.

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 It's what fulfills him.

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 It's what drives his mission.

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 It's what sustains his passion.

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 The will of God.

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 It's why we see Jesus drawing away regularly to pray.

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 To talk with his father.

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 To ask for his father's direction.

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 Especially before significant decisions.

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 We find Jesus has removed himself from everyone else to talk to the one person he needs to hear from.

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 He delights in God's will, says Psalm 40.

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 Which Hebrews 10 quotes of Jesus.

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 Behold, I have come to do your will.

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 Oh God.

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 To be the true king.

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 The ideal Israelite.

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 Delighting in his whole life with his whole heart to do the whole will of God.

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 To follow all of it.

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 So much so that when his life on earth is ending.

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 When he faces the unimaginable agony of death on a cross.

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 The torment of separation from his father for the first moment.

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 There's drops of blood coming out of his pores.

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 And Jesus prays again.

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 And three times we're told he says what?

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 Father, not my will.

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 But your will be done.

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 Jesus lives with a strong sense of being sent.

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 Doesn't he?

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 He knows what he is here for.

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 He has this clear confidence that he can trust the heart.

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 And follow the will of the one who sent him.

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 Think about it.

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 Think about all the things we read about Jesus doing.

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 He preaches the message of the kingdom in places he knows are going to reject it.

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 He invests in men that he knows will abandon him at the crucial hour.

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 He goes to Jerusalem where he knows that what awaits him is tortures and beatings.

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 He washes the feet of a friend that he knows is about to go betray him to his death.

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 So it's only fitting, isn't it?

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 That he agrees to go to a cross where he knows that his body and his spirit will be torn apart.

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 He has lived a pattern of doing not what feels good to him.

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 But what his father has sent him to do.

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 Isn't our savior wonderful?

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 Isn't that glorious?

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 That the king over all who could do anything he wanted says,

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 I'm going to follow.

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 I'm going to come do my father's will.

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 I hope you're marveling in a fresh way that the baby in the manger is there.

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 Because every breath that he will take will be for someone else.

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 In the service of someone else.

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 Shouldn't we be amazed as we look back on that first Christmas that the one in charge of armies of angels

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 came to follow orders rather than to give them.

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 And I want to be clear about this.

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 There is absolutely no weakness in this submission.

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 In this humiliation of Jesus.

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 As though he were defeated.

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 As though he were forced into this.

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 As though he were somehow lesser as he submits his will to his fathers.

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 By no means.

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 The king is willingly becoming the servant.

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 The leader is willingly following the direction of another.

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 With the absolute certainty that as he does so.

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 He will conquer all of his enemies.

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 And rescue his friends.

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 Jesus came to do the will of the father.

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 Glory.

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 Wonder.

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 Thank you.

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 Thank you Jesus.

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 That you were willing to set aside what was comfortable and easy for you.

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 To live all of your life.

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 And even go to a cross.

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 Because you were sent there.

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 By your father.

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 That's an amazing reality.

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 It's a remarkable reality.

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 It's made me ask a lot of questions about myself this week.

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 They're uncomfortable questions.

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 If you call yourself a follower of Jesus.

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 You might find them very uncomfortable.

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 As I did.

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 If I'm following Jesus.

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 Then theoretically I'm walking along that same path that he did.

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 Right?

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 Would you ask yourself a question like.

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 Is the father's will really my life's purpose?

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 Sometimes it is.

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 I've been in places this week where with my family.

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 Where I intentionally planned to be with them.

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 And felt right where God wanted me.

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 I've also been in a couple conversations this week about.

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 About the glories of Christmas.

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 The good news of Jesus.

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 That I never saw coming.

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 I didn't plan for him.

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 In fact I was supposed to be doing something else.

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 But I followed God's lead.

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 Right where he wanted me.

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 And what a joy it is.

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 Do you know that feeling?

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 When you find yourself somewhere.

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 And you didn't mean to be there.

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 And you realize this is exactly where God wanted me.

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 You're right there in his will.

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 You know that feeling?

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 We can have the same sense of being sent on a mission to do God's will that Jesus had.

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 After all remember what he said when he's praying for his disciples.

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 And all of us who will follow after them in John chapter 17.

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 He says father as you sent me into the world.

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 So I have sent them into the world.

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 You're not just here accidentally.

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 You're not just floating through life purposelessly.

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 You're here on a mission.

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 Sent by the God who sent his son.

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 It's easy to forget that we're sent here every day isn't it?

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 It's easy to lose sight of that mission that we're sent on very quickly.

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 Right?

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 I lose sight of that when my wife sends me to the grocery store.

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 Right?

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 I even write it down.

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 Milk and eggs.

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 Milk and eggs.

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 Even when all I want to do is get in quickly and get out and get home.

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 I don't want to be at the store very long.

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 It's very easy for milk and eggs to turn into donuts.

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 And cereal.

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 And light bulbs.

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 And milk and eggs if I'm lucky.

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 If I'm lucky I get the milk and eggs.

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 I feel sometimes like a toddler on this show we've seen a couple episodes of called Old Enough.

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 I don't know if you've heard of this.

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 The premise of the show is that toddlers in Japan are sent walking to a store that's around the corner.

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 Maybe a couple of blocks away.

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 With a couple of items that they are supposed to go purchase and then return home.

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 And they're followed every step of the way by what must be hundreds of cameras.

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 I don't know.

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 Seems like a city-wide event.

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 But here they are.

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 And as you can imagine they're very easily distracted.

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 There's a lot of things along the way to the store.

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 Toys.

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 Even when they get there.

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 Animals.

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 Treats.

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 And the whole time the tension is building.

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 Will the toddler remember to get the eggs?

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 I'm so easily distracted.

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 Really easily distracted.

00:17:34.579 --> 00:17:36.920
 From the mission God has sent me on.

00:17:37.299 --> 00:17:41.059
 It's why honestly I need to be in a grace group on Mondays.

00:17:41.420 --> 00:17:43.400
 And in another one on Fridays.

00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:47.500
 It's why I need to come back in here with you all every Sunday.

00:17:47.500 --> 00:17:51.400
 It's why I need to be in God's word day by day.

00:17:51.460 --> 00:17:52.839
 Every single day.

00:17:53.180 --> 00:17:56.420
 To remind me what I'm sent for.

00:17:56.640 --> 00:18:01.140
 To remind me what the most important relationship in my life must be.

00:18:01.400 --> 00:18:04.480
 To remind me what the Father's will is for me.

00:18:04.500 --> 00:18:07.759
 Because how else am I going to live not by my own will?

00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:09.640
 I remember that quite well most of the time.

00:18:09.880 --> 00:18:11.920
 I ask myself what I want to do a lot.

00:18:13.099 --> 00:18:16.819
 Do I ask God what he wants me to do nearly as often?

00:18:17.500 --> 00:18:20.460
 As I've reflected on that this week.

00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:26.619
 I think I often live with what I'll call a filter on God's will.

00:18:27.180 --> 00:18:28.880
 I like God's will.

00:18:28.940 --> 00:18:30.359
 He says lots of good things.

00:18:30.700 --> 00:18:32.900
 I'm interested in what he thinks about my life.

00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:33.380
 I am.

00:18:34.920 --> 00:18:37.640
 But then there are several layers of filter.

00:18:37.640 --> 00:18:42.840
 If it fits into my schedule.

00:18:44.120 --> 00:18:45.540
 That's a big one for me.

00:18:46.600 --> 00:18:48.380
 I mean we have calendars for a reason, right?

00:18:48.600 --> 00:18:51.220
 If that's not what I was going to do at two o'clock I wouldn't have put it on the calendar.

00:18:51.740 --> 00:18:52.740
 This is what I'm doing, God.

00:18:54.180 --> 00:18:55.900
 If it fits my schedule.

00:18:55.900 --> 00:19:01.460
 If I have the resources to do it.

00:19:01.540 --> 00:19:08.060
 And I don't have to be stretched to a point of desperately trusting God to show up and come through.

00:19:08.140 --> 00:19:10.220
 As long as I can comfortably do that.

00:19:11.180 --> 00:19:13.420
 In fact, that's the third layer of my filter.

00:19:13.540 --> 00:19:16.400
 If it doesn't make me uncomfortable in any way.

00:19:16.860 --> 00:19:20.900
 Because pain and conflict and inefficiency are bad.

00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:23.540
 And I just hope God knows that.

00:19:24.300 --> 00:19:26.940
 They're not in his will because I'm telling him they're not.

00:19:27.700 --> 00:19:28.700
 None of that stuff.

00:19:29.900 --> 00:19:36.340
 So I read in God's word that his will for me is to find my life in knowing him.

00:19:36.620 --> 00:19:39.780
 And my filter shows up and says, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:19:39.840 --> 00:19:40.700
 I agree with that.

00:19:40.800 --> 00:19:46.120
 After I get my family and my career settled, that'll be what life's about.

00:19:46.119 --> 00:19:51.039
 I hear that I'm supposed to share the reason for the hope that is in me.

00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:55.079
 To declare the praises of him who called me out of darkness into his marvelous light.

00:19:55.419 --> 00:19:56.459
 And I say, yeah, sure.

00:19:56.519 --> 00:20:00.459
 If a convenient opportunity comes along that doesn't throw my schedule off too much.

00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:05.519
 I read the will of God is my sanctification.

00:20:06.139 --> 00:20:07.179
 Denying myself.

00:20:07.500 --> 00:20:08.439
 Taking up my cross.

00:20:08.699 --> 00:20:09.639
 And following Jesus.

00:20:09.899 --> 00:20:13.539
 And the filter comes in and says, unless I've had a long day.

00:20:13.539 --> 00:20:17.139
 And I deserve a break and some indulgence.

00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:22.059
 Father, I repent.

00:20:23.659 --> 00:20:26.539
 That's the way I often respond to your will.

00:20:26.700 --> 00:20:28.379
 Please, please, Father, help me.

00:20:28.500 --> 00:20:31.579
 Help us to stay on mission.

00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:33.700
 To stay with you.

00:20:36.019 --> 00:20:37.139
 We need his help.

00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:38.379
 What does that look like for you?

00:20:39.819 --> 00:20:41.119
 For us as a church.

00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:44.579
 How eager are you to learn God's will?

00:20:46.939 --> 00:20:54.779
 How eager are we to have our church and our grace groups reflect the kind of people who are a part of Jesus' kingdom.

00:20:54.779 --> 00:20:57.259
 Even if it disrupts your life a bit.

00:20:58.619 --> 00:21:02.000
 How eager are we to see our money spent on God's priorities?

00:21:02.399 --> 00:21:09.759
 How eager are you to embrace the difficulties and the pains of life as part of God's plan to form you into his image?

00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:10.640
 That's what he says.

00:21:10.640 --> 00:21:19.720
 And to send you, actually, into a world of difficulty and pain that desperately needs the comfort that he's given you.

00:21:22.900 --> 00:21:25.119
 What filters are you using?

00:21:25.119 --> 00:21:38.299
 Y'all, I am really, really thankful that Jesus doesn't use my filters when he comes to do the Father's will.

00:21:39.479 --> 00:21:43.979
 If he had, there is no way he would have come.

00:21:43.980 --> 00:21:53.660
 The mission he sent on would not have passed the comfort filter, the convenience filter, the self-serving filters that I use.

00:21:54.180 --> 00:21:57.920
 Not even for one day would it have passed through those.

00:22:00.099 --> 00:22:04.860
 Listen to what Jesus means when he says, I have come to do the will of him who sent me.

00:22:04.859 --> 00:22:13.139
 Yes, there's this general reality of in everything doing God's will as opposed to his own.

00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:15.699
 It's a big part of that verse.

00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:18.799
 That should amaze us.

00:22:20.379 --> 00:22:27.219
 But specifically, there's something specific about God's will that Jesus is talking about in this passage.

00:22:27.220 --> 00:22:34.779
 The mission that he sends Jesus on here is one that should provide great assurance for us.

00:22:34.900 --> 00:22:36.319
 Look at verse 37.

00:22:36.980 --> 00:22:42.600
 Jesus is talking about our relationship with him, our salvation.

00:22:43.259 --> 00:22:49.960
 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

00:22:50.279 --> 00:22:53.480
 That's why I've come to do the Father's will.

00:22:53.480 --> 00:23:02.759
 This is the will of him who sent me, verse 39, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:13.860
 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

00:23:14.620 --> 00:23:17.339
 Three times God's will there.

00:23:17.539 --> 00:23:18.960
 What is it specifically?

00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:22.400
 What's the specific will of God that sent Jesus?

00:23:23.680 --> 00:23:26.019
 It's that you would find life in Jesus.

00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:30.120
 That you would be brought into relationship with him.

00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:33.940
 That he would never let you go, but bring you home with him forever.

00:23:34.400 --> 00:23:36.420
 This is God's will.

00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:40.579
 The will Jesus came specifically to do above anything else.

00:23:41.100 --> 00:23:45.579
 It's actually a part of those other passages that we read earlier about Jesus doing God's will.

00:23:45.579 --> 00:23:46.659
 It's there too.

00:23:47.179 --> 00:23:56.379
 In John 4, the food of Jesus is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

00:23:56.879 --> 00:24:06.319
 In context, in case you don't remember, Woman at the Well story, to accomplish his work is the bringing into the harvest of souls for eternal life.

00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:13.240
 Hebrews 10 is talking about the need for a perfect sacrifice.

00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:19.299
 Because the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.

00:24:19.679 --> 00:24:23.220
 So Jesus has come to do God's will, which is what?

00:24:23.379 --> 00:24:27.720
 To offer his body as a sacrifice for sins once for all.

00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:32.019
 The righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God.

00:24:32.019 --> 00:24:36.000
 God, that's what Jesus is doing when he comes to do God's will.

00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:41.500
 What is the will of God that sent the Son all the way from heaven to a manger to a cross?

00:24:41.960 --> 00:24:53.039
 As Tim Keller says, Christmas and the incarnation mean that God went to infinite lengths to make himself one we can know personally.

00:24:53.039 --> 00:25:01.139
 God's will is to have you in his family.

00:25:02.339 --> 00:25:06.299
 To hold me in his arms.

00:25:06.680 --> 00:25:11.819
 To live forever in relationship with us.

00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:13.539
 That's his will.

00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:19.680
 As certainly as the Father wills it, the Son accomplishes it.

00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:28.519
 Though it cost him his very life, it is his heartbeat, it is his food, it is his top priority from which nothing can distract him.

00:25:28.900 --> 00:25:36.560
 It is why at a young age he sets his eyes to Jerusalem and he tells his friends that he must suffer and that he must die.

00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:43.640
 And then he goes and submits one last time in that garden to the eternal plan of the divine trinity.

00:25:44.100 --> 00:25:45.380
 Can you believe that?

00:25:45.900 --> 00:25:47.039
 Why he did that?

00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:51.779
 Because of his love for you.

00:25:53.039 --> 00:25:56.839
 Because he loves you he did that.

00:25:58.299 --> 00:25:59.299
 That's why.

00:25:59.799 --> 00:26:02.379
 That's why he submitted his will to his Father.

00:26:02.619 --> 00:26:04.299
 The cross keeps coming up, doesn't it?

00:26:04.460 --> 00:26:07.599
 It keeps being a part of all these reasons Jesus says he came.

00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:09.359
 Verse 40.

00:26:10.599 --> 00:26:16.879
 That everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.

00:26:17.079 --> 00:26:20.719
 Looks on the Son like the serpent in the wilderness.

00:26:20.899 --> 00:26:22.339
 Jesus told us in John 3.

00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:25.859
 He must be lifted up, in his case, on the cross.

00:26:26.099 --> 00:26:31.779
 That everyone who looks to him, who believes in him, should have eternal life.

00:26:31.779 --> 00:26:36.859
 The life like that of the age to come where you have fellowship with God himself.

00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:39.139
 Verse 39.

00:26:39.899 --> 00:26:48.420
 That I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day.

00:26:48.619 --> 00:26:49.139
 Did you hear that?

00:26:49.420 --> 00:26:50.859
 Lose nothing.

00:26:50.859 --> 00:26:50.939
 Nothing.

00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:55.319
 Not a single person of all of those who trust in him.

00:26:55.399 --> 00:26:56.959
 No one slips through his fingers.

00:26:57.599 --> 00:27:00.240
 No one can be snatched out of his hand.

00:27:00.879 --> 00:27:01.279
 No.

00:27:01.799 --> 00:27:02.959
 Nothing will be lost.

00:27:03.179 --> 00:27:04.439
 He will raise you up.

00:27:04.639 --> 00:27:11.539
 He will bring you body and soul into his eternal glory where you live the way that he created you to do in the first place.

00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:15.139
 When he knit you together fearfully and wonderfully in your mother's womb.

00:27:15.199 --> 00:27:17.899
 He'll bring you to that kind of life with him.

00:27:17.900 --> 00:27:20.720
 What rich assurance, right?

00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:30.759
 What rich assurance, brother or sister, desperately struggling to find life in trusting Jesus.

00:27:31.940 --> 00:27:35.860
 Desperately struggling to figure out where is hope.

00:27:37.080 --> 00:27:40.759
 Desperately looking to Jesus for life, for hope.

00:27:41.540 --> 00:27:42.180
 Hear me.

00:27:42.180 --> 00:27:49.460
 He is not leaving it up to you to hang on tightly and make it home at the end of the ride.

00:27:50.660 --> 00:27:51.039
 No.

00:27:51.960 --> 00:27:57.299
 It is the Father's will that you come home.

00:27:57.560 --> 00:28:04.700
 And so it is the absolute commitment of the Son to raise you up and never let you go.

00:28:04.700 --> 00:28:13.180
 When he bursts from the grave, having endured death in your place, having conquered death for you, he brings you to life with him.

00:28:13.299 --> 00:28:17.519
 So that even on the day that you die, yet shall you live.

00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:17.900
 Amen.

00:28:18.620 --> 00:28:19.140
 Forever.

00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:23.480
 That day and never again to die.

00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:31.220
 Friend, if you haven't trusted yourself to Jesus, would you cast yourself on him right now?

00:28:32.279 --> 00:28:38.440
 Would you rest in his strong promise to rescue you, to bring you home?

00:28:38.620 --> 00:28:43.240
 That's what we talked about last week, that Jesus came on a rescue mission.

00:28:43.759 --> 00:28:49.779
 Seeking not top performers, but people admitting they need him.

00:28:49.779 --> 00:29:04.960
 And he promises for all of those who admit that need, who cling to him, that for all those for whom he died, he will bring them to life with him forever.

00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:15.160
 The Father cares so deeply for you that he puts your name and picture on a missing sign.

00:29:15.619 --> 00:29:17.319
 You know the signs I'm talking about, right?

00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:18.940
 You see them around your neighborhood.

00:29:18.940 --> 00:29:20.900
 You see them at the grocery store.

00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:23.720
 Someone or something is lost.

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:34.200
 The Father puts your name and face on a missing sign, but he doesn't post it on a street sign or a telephone pole.

00:29:35.100 --> 00:29:38.220
 He posted it on a cross.

00:29:38.220 --> 00:29:42.720
 Jesus said,

00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:57.220
 Jesus has done that.

00:29:57.279 --> 00:29:59.339
 He came to do that.

00:29:59.339 --> 00:30:04.539
 God rest ye, gentlemen and ladies, let nothing you dismay.

00:30:04.879 --> 00:30:13.240
 Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray.

00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:17.759
 Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.

00:30:18.279 --> 00:30:19.759
 What comfort?

00:30:19.759 --> 00:30:23.259
 Lord, he loves you.

00:30:23.259 --> 00:30:37.940
 When you think of how long he has been loving you, pursuing you, securing your salvation, is there any way that he's going to forsake you now to leave you alone today?

00:30:37.940 --> 00:30:39.180
 No way.

00:30:39.180 --> 00:30:40.039
 No way.

00:30:40.039 --> 00:30:40.160
 No way.

00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:41.279
 No way.

00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:41.360
 No way.

00:30:41.360 --> 00:30:41.759
 No way.

00:30:41.759 --> 00:30:41.860
 No way.

00:30:41.860 --> 00:30:42.000
 No way.

00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:42.799
 You're his beloved.

00:30:42.799 --> 00:30:43.500
 No way.

00:30:43.500 --> 00:30:46.160
 Even when you don't act like it, you are his beloved.

00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:49.080
 His eyes are on you always.

00:30:49.080 --> 00:30:53.880
 That is his smile that you see delighting in you.

00:30:53.880 --> 00:31:01.240
 It's his gaze that is ensuring your safe return home, watching you every step of the way.

00:31:01.480 --> 00:31:05.100
 Is that not a gaze that you want to return?

00:31:07.100 --> 00:31:15.100
 Is that not a God whose eyes you can meet as you bask in his smile, as you know his delight?

00:31:15.100 --> 00:31:22.160
 Do you not want to be looking at him and listening to him and following towards him every moment of every day?

00:31:22.760 --> 00:31:23.840
 Think about his love.

00:31:24.820 --> 00:31:35.460
 His utter delight in you, his sacrificial death in your place, his unwavering commitment to raise you up with him forever,

00:31:35.840 --> 00:31:44.720
 his absolute insistence that nothing in this world, height nor depth nor anything else in all creation could separate you from his love.

00:31:44.960 --> 00:31:46.860
 Is that not a love you want to return?

00:31:47.600 --> 00:31:52.000
 Is that not a God who watches you, who loves you,

00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:55.380
 whose will you delight to do?

00:31:55.380 --> 00:31:58.120
 Is that not what stirs your heart?

00:31:58.920 --> 00:32:03.340
 To say, okay, there's a lot of other people's wills that I'm not going to be driven by.

00:32:04.080 --> 00:32:06.820
 Oh, but God, if you love me like that,

00:32:07.180 --> 00:32:10.380
 if you watch over me like that,

00:32:10.600 --> 00:32:12.280
 I'll follow you anywhere.

00:32:12.279 --> 00:32:15.819
 I'll do your will every moment of every day.

00:32:15.879 --> 00:32:20.599
 Could anything possibly be better than the life that he has for you,

00:32:20.839 --> 00:32:23.819
 than the path that he has laid before you to walk on?

00:32:24.019 --> 00:32:26.680
 Could anything else, even the one that looks good to you,

00:32:26.899 --> 00:32:30.019
 be better than his will for you?

00:32:30.019 --> 00:32:35.599
 This is no mere sentimental story.

00:32:36.339 --> 00:32:38.819
 Jesus came down from heaven,

00:32:39.220 --> 00:32:41.799
 not to do his own will,

00:32:42.619 --> 00:32:44.819
 but to do the will of his father.

00:32:46.099 --> 00:32:47.059
 Marvel at that.

00:32:48.319 --> 00:32:50.119
 The father who sent him,

00:32:50.859 --> 00:32:52.660
 he came to do that.

00:32:52.980 --> 00:32:54.160
 And what good news,

00:32:54.700 --> 00:32:59.200
 what life-changing tidings of comfort and joy that is for us.

00:32:59.200 --> 00:32:59.880
 Let's pray.

00:33:02.380 --> 00:33:05.160
 Jesus, we worship you and we thank you

00:33:05.160 --> 00:33:09.240
 that you are king.

00:33:12.660 --> 00:33:16.580
 The one who deserved to reign over everyone else

00:33:16.580 --> 00:33:20.660
 came not to do your own will.

00:33:21.600 --> 00:33:22.700
 Oh, forgive us,

00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:29.039
 because we so regularly feel we live to do our own will.

00:33:29.200 --> 00:33:30.840
 What makes us feel good,

00:33:30.980 --> 00:33:34.640
 what we hope will make us look good or be successful.

00:33:36.519 --> 00:33:37.779
 We praise you, Jesus,

00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:40.500
 for loving us,

00:33:41.120 --> 00:33:42.000
 for seeing us,

00:33:42.259 --> 00:33:43.360
 for watching over us,

00:33:43.660 --> 00:33:45.259
 for never letting go of us,

00:33:45.340 --> 00:33:46.539
 for bringing us home.

00:33:48.019 --> 00:33:50.080
 We worship you and we thank you in your name.

00:33:50.759 --> 00:33:51.039
 Amen.

00:33:51.039 --> 00:33:53.899
 For more information,

00:33:54.220 --> 00:33:56.200
 visit us online at southwood.org.

00:33:56.440 --> 00:33:58.940
 that goes to our channel.

00:33:59.080 --> 00:34:16.840
 We hope that you have a deep Push