In this fifth installment of the 'Thank God For...' sermon series, Marcel Hall focuses on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He summarizes previous topics of gratitude such as God's word, Spirit, church, and the life of Jesus. As we reflect during the Christmas season, Marcel emphasizes the sacrificial life and death of Jesus and its profound impact on salvation. He explores Scriptures, particularly from Philippians and Colossians, to delve deep into the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice—highlighting themes of redemption, forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace with God. Congregants are encouraged to engage actively with the message, reflecting on what stands out to them about Jesus' sacrifice, and ultimately to embody faithfulness in their daily lives as a thank you to God. The sermon includes a visual demonstration to illustrate the transformation from sinfulness to purity through Christ’s sacrifice and concludes with an action plan for the week to focus on different aspects of salvation. The sermon closes with a call to take communion and remember Jesus' sacrifice.

00:00 Introduction to the Sermon Series

00:28 Thanking God for Jesus' Sacrifice

00:51 Prayer and Reflection

01:21 The Sacrifice of Jesus in Philippians

02:28 Exploring Colossians Chapter 1

05:47 Group Discussion and Sharing

06:58 Deep Dive into Jesus' Sacrifice

15:35 Demonstration of Sin and Redemption

23:42 Call to Faithfulness

27:04 Action Steps for the Week

28:51 Communion and Closing Prayer

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OC Church of Christ

We're going to continue in

the sermon series that we

2

started at, in the beginning of

November called Thank God For.

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And so we've thanked God for his word.

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We have thanked God for his Spirit.

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We have thanked God for his church.

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And last week we talked about

thanking God for the life of Jesus.

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And so now as we're in the Christmas

season, a time where we reflect, remember,

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Jesus is coming and those who are selling

Advent, we, we wait in anticipation

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for his second coming of Jesus.

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And so we're going to talk about thanking

God today for the sacrifice of Jesus.

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And we know Jesus lived a life of

sacrifice, so we can really study out

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his life again, but we want to talk

about and study out and again reflect

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and really marvel at the sacrifice

that Jesus made for you and me.

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Let's go to God in prayer.

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Father, thank you so much for this

chance to worship, for this chance

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to look into your scriptures.

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I know for the last week or so

just studying things out and even

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this morning just being a hit.

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And impacted by the blessing we have

through your son, Jesus and his sacrifice.

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God, there's nothing we can do to repay

you, but we can thank you with our lives.

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And God, I pray today that we are

inspired to thank you more and more

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and to thank you with faithfulness.

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In Jesus name, Amen.

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In Philippians 2, we won't turn there.

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The Apostle Paul, he writes how

Jesus Jesus was in heaven, but

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chose to come to earth, live as a

human being, and die upon the cross.

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And not only just die, but die

a criminal's death, so that

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you and I can have salvation.

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Now that's a sacrifice, isn't it?

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I know many of us, it's hard for us

to sacrifice things, especially if

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we feel like we're the head honcho

or we feel like we've arrived.

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We have a certain status, so to

lower ourselves would be a sacrifice.

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And so for Jesus, God in the flesh,

for him to go ahead and sacrifice his

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position and lower himself so that he

can taste and feel and live like us.

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Showing us how to live, but then not

only that, but giving us salvation

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through a criminal's execution.

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And then raising from the dead.

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That's a sacrifice.

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And so we're going to look

at this sacrifice some more.

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So here's what I want us to do.

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We're going to go over to the book of

Colossians, and Colossians is a letter

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written by the Apostle Paul, and he writes

to the church that met in this city, and

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what's incredible about the Apostle Paul,

most of us in the audience know this,

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but some of us don't, Paul was actually

an, uh, really an enemy of Christianity.

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He was opposing Christianity

and then he became a Christian.

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Then he became a leader in the

Christian church and then he

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ultimately died for his faith in Jesus.

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And so that alone right there can

testify to the power of Christianity.

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The sacrifice of Jesus, but he writes

this letter and we're going to study

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out just a portion of it because we

won't have time to go through it all.

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But as we read, here's what I want you to

do, whether you're using physical paper,

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which is very few of us, or you have in

technology, I want you to write down as

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we walk through this passage, what stands

out to you about the sacrifice of Jesus.

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You guys with me here.

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And so online as well, uh, you'll

have an opportunity to go ahead

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and type in the little chat what

observations you have about the

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sacrifice of Jesus from this passage.

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You guys all with me?

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Alright, let's get into the word here.

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Alright, Colossians chapter 1.

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Again, we're taking it up in the middle,

uh, uh, of the chapter here in verse 13.

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It says, For he, talking

about God, has rescued us.

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From the dominion of darkness

and brought us into the kingdom

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of the sun he loves in home.

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Now, that's really big I'll give

you a little teaser right there.

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We're going to come back

to that idea of in whom.

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In whom we have redemption,

the forgiveness of sins.

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The sun is the image of the invisible

God, the firstborn over all creation.

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For in him all things were created,

things in heaven and on earth, visible

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and invisible, whether thrones or powers

or rulers or authorities, all things have

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been created through him and for him.

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He is before all things, and in

Him all things hold together.

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And He is the head of

the body, the church.

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He is the beginning, and the

firstborn from among the dead.

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So that in everything, He

might have the supremacy.

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For God was pleased to have

all His fullness dwell in Him.

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And through Him, To reconcile to himself

all things, whether things on earth

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or things in heaven by making peace

through his blood shed on the cross.

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Once you were alienated from God

and were enemies in your minds

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because of your evil behavior.

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But now he has reconciled you by

Christ's physical body through death to

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present you holy in his sight without

blemish and free from accusation.

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If you continue in your faith,

established and firm, and do not move

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from the hope held out in the gospel.

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This is the gospel you heard and

that has been proclaimed to every

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creature under heaven and of which

I, Paul, have become a servant.

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Let's stop right there.

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Anything stand out to you about

the cross and the crucifixion

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and the sacrifice of Jesus?

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Did you take down, did you note

down anything that stood out to you?

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Let's do this.

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Go ahead and share with

those right next to you.

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What are some things that stood

out to you about the sacrifice of

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Jesus from Colossians chapter one?

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And those online again, go ahead and type

in the chat what things stood out to you

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from this passage about the blessings or

the the results of Jesus sacrifice for us.

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I'll go ahead and give

you guys a couple minutes.

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Right.

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Let's go ahead.

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Let's get a couple of people.

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Let's have a couple of people

share what stood out to you about

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the sacrifice of Jesus here from

Colossians one 13 through 23.

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That he presents you

wholly without blemish.

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Okay.

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Awesome.

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Awesome.

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I saw another hand over here.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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That Jesus made everything.

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Everything we see and do is through him

and by him and he can see everything.

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Okay, great.

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All right.

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Joan, you, you, you also said something.

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Okay, same thing, the same

thing that makes us holy there.

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All right.

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Who is that?

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Yes.

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John.

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Okay.

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So Jesus's sacrifice also means you

have to continue in your faith there.

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Okay.

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Awesome.

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Awesome.

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Anybody on this side here?

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We were talking about the

young folks over here.

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All right.

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Let's get one of the young folks,

uh, to share something there.

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Yes.

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The pressure is on.

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The light is on you.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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All right.

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Devin, let's go.

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Devin.

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Okay, so the sun is the invisible image of

God that, that helps us in our faith here.

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Okay, awesome.

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There's a number of things that

are in this passage that we're

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gonna walk through a little bit.

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Some things were already mentioned.

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One of the things that stands out to me

is Jesus sacrifice means our salvation.

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That's clearly stated in the passage.

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It's our salvation meaning a right

relationship with God for all eternity.

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To have a right relationship,

no longer at odds or there's

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no insecurity, uncertainty.

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We have a right relationship, not just

for the moments, but for all eternity.

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That's through the sacrifice of Jesus.

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But let's walk through this and

let's go back over to verse 14.

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It says that in whom again in

whom in Christ we have redemption.

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Redemption to redeem someone means

to buy them back and set them free.

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So if you are a prisoner, if you were

a slave, if you were redeemed, the

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price was paid and you were set free.

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So Jesus threw the cross, paid the price

and bought us back and set us free.

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From the dominion of darkness, the power

of sin, the chains of darkness and evil.

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He redeemed us from that and

set us free and allowed us to

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now be in His glorious kingdom.

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And because of Christ's death on

our behalf, we are set free from

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the prison and the darkness of sin.

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It also says that we have

the forgiveness of sins.

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through the cross of Jesus.

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You know, redemption releases us from

the power of sin, while forgiveness

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releases us from the penalty of sin.

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It releases us from the guilt of sin.

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To be forgiven.

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That means to have mercy and

to, in Romans 8 verse 1, to have

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no condemnation, no judgments.

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Now you know what it's

like to be forgiven.

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I know you've been forgiven.

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Maybe from your parents or the

police or maybe you haven't

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been forgiven from the police.

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But to be forgiven to not suffer the

time, even though you did the crime.

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That's what the scriptures reveal

about Jesus's death for us.

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Our salvation means we are forgiven.

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It is wiped clean before the eyes of God.

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He has canceled the debts.

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From our sin, a debt that

you and I couldn't pay back.

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There's no righteous deed.

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There's no amount of deeds, no

amount of time that can go and

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measure up and equal out the sin.

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That we have before a

righteous and holy God.

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It was only through Jesus

because that debt be canceled.

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And it means we have grace.

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We have a second chance, an opportunity

in our relationship with God.

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We continue in verse 20 and 22,

it talks about reconciliation

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being reconciled to himself.

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But now he has reconciled

you by Christ's physical body

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through death to present you.

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You know, it talks about reconciliation.

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What's reconciliation?

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Reconciliation means that

two parties have been at war.

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They've been at odds.

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There is hostility between the two.

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And when you reconcile those,

instead of them being at odds, they

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are now at a friendly relationship.

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They have now been reconciled.

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And so through Christ's sacrifice,

those who are in and out of That Christ

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have now been reconciled with God.

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We have now been redeemed.

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We've been forgiven the hostility.

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The war between us has been removed.

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It says now once you were alienated,

we're enemies in your minds

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because of your evil behavior.

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Some of us might look and say, well,

that was just the church in Colossae.

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That's not me.

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Really?

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That's not me.

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All of us, whether we grew up in a

church or not, all of us had a mindset

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and had attitudes or behavior that

was contrary to God's righteous ways.

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And so therefore we

were alienated from God.

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Therefore we were at odds with God.

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Whether it was our stinking

thinking or our stinking behavior.

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But we were at odds with

our faithful Creator.

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But yet, through Christ,

we have been reconciled.

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We have been brought back

to a right relationship.

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You know, Jesus death allows God's

enemy to become God's friend.

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And so we are not just on his team, but

we are now a child of the living God.

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We continue.

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And it says, making peace

through his blood, making peace.

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There is now harmony between

us and the living God.

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There is peace between us.

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There is harmony.

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The purpose of Christ's death on the cross

was to bring not just you and I, but it

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says all things created by Christ and for

Christ into a harmonious relationship.

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And so all of creation through the

cross has the opportunity to have a

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harmonious relationship with the Father.

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You know, me and Karina almost got

into it a little bit this morning.

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Somebody said, yeah, maybe you did too.

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And I had an opportunity to think

through this and the Holy Spirit

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was ministering to me and I came

back and we were able to talk in.

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And, and have a harmonious

relationship this morning.

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We were able to make

some peace this morning.

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And you know, that just does something

to, I'm firing up, I'm like, whoo, amen.

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I don't have to act weird or it don't have

to get strange and then I'm have to pray

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before I get to praying and preaching.

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You know what I'm saying?

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It just gets a little crazy for me.

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But I thank God for the peace of there,

but I thank God for the peace that we

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have in Christ through Christ's sacrifice.

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And here's an incredible thing, it stood

out to me, I was reading something.

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You know, it wasn't, it says

by his blood, did you see that?

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Through his blood.

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And you think, it wasn't the blood

of a victorious physical fight.

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It wasn't like Jesus was one of the

Roman soldiers and he was fighting and

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he, and he got cut and he came away

victorious, like I shed blood for this.

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It wasn't that type of

blood that was shed.

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It was actually blood from an animal.

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innocent person being executed.

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It was innocent blood that was executed.

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A criminal's death that allowed

for us to have peace with our

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father, our maker and creator.

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This is incredible.

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And then it goes on and somebody mentioned

this earlier, it says, to make us holy

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in his sight without blemish and free

from accusation, to be holy, to be

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sacred, to be set apart for God's divine

purpose, to be righteous, to be of him.

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That's what it means to be holy.

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And then it says not only holy, but

without blemish, there's no stain,

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there's no wrinkle, there's no issue.

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It's pure.

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It's pure.

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And that says to be free from accusation,

free from accusation, blameless,

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justified before the eyes of God.

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All of this is through the Word of God.

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The sacrifice of Jesus.

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And so if we look at this, we see

redemption, we see forgiveness of sins,

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reconciliation, peace with God, holy

without blemish and free from accusation.

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This is incredible, isn't it?

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You're probably wondering

what's going on on the stage.

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I want to do a little demonstration.

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I'm in my demonstration season.

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I have these seasons where I'm all

about demonstrations and seasons

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where I'm just not as creative.

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And I saw this online and so I

said, you know, this is really good.

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And so I want to do this

demonstration here to help us

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understand the magnitude of what we

have for those who are in Christ.

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The blessings we have from Jesus's

sacrifice, the reconciliation,

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the forgiveness of sins.

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I have some now this

right here represents Us.

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It represents us.

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This is our lives.

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This is our body.

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Now, unfortunately, you and I, we were

alienated from God because of what?

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Because of sin.

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I have a little iodine right here.

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And so you pour that in there, and

this is what happens when we sin.

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Oh, let me listen to a little

white lie to my mom and my dad.

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Oh, let me just go ahead and

steal, or let me just be, uh,

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immoral or sexually impure.

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Whatever the case may be, go

down the list of lines, my pride,

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my arrogance, all that stuff.

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Here's what happens to our very souls.

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We went from this pure soul, we went

from being clear and clean before

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the eyes of God, to now we are what?

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Dark and tainted.

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No longer righteous, no longer

sacred, no longer without blemish.

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Definitely not free of accusation.

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No, there's a whole lot of truth

in the accusations, isn't there?

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And this is what happens

when you and I sin.

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And this is what happens.

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This is our standing before the eyes

of God until the cross comes into play.

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And so we have, oh, let me see here.

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We have here the cross.

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This is where the cross comes in.

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And this is where Jesus comes in.

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And when Jesus, when we decide that Jesus,

we want Jesus to be Lord of our lives.

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And we have saving faith.

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We believe he's the Messiah, the son

of the living King, the God almighty.

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And we decided to repent and get baptized.

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What happens to us then is that

we go ahead and we see something

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incredible take place in our lives.

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The cross deals with all that sin.

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And now what we see is what

we are free from accusation.

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We are no longer polluted

but without blemish.

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We are holy before the

eyes of the living God.

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We have been redeemed

and all that sin is what?

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Wiped away.

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Does this look like this has ever sinned?

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No, it doesn't.

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And this is our standing

before the eyes of God.

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For those who have received

Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

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Now, I don't know about you, but I say

thank God for the sacrifice of Jesus,

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because I don't know about you, but I

don't want to stay in this position.

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I want this to be me, and hallelujah, for

this is my status before the living God.

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Now, here's the thing.

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If we don't have the cross,

This is where we're at.

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This is our standing

before the eyes of God.

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Because again, it said in whom, in

whom talking about in Jesus, all

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of the blessings are in Christ.

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If we are outside of Christ, this

is where we're at spiritually.

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And this is where some of us in

this room are at spiritually.

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And so you say, well, maybe I grew

up in a church where you can be as

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close to the cross as you want to be.

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But if cross.

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If the sacrifice of Jesus hasn't

entered your life, then this

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is your standing before God.

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I say this not to make you feel bad.

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I say this so that you can understand

the opportunity that waits for you

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to make Jesus Lord of your life.

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The opportunity to be wiped clean

of all guilt and all sin and be able

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to stand before the eyes of God, not

with head down, but with confidence

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and a welcoming of his spirits.

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And so this is what we have.

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Through the blessings of Christ.

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And you say, well, man,

I've sinned a little bit.

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Well, here's how powerful the cross is.

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You go, OK, well, you sinned a little bit.

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OK, well, we understand your situation.

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But guess what happens when the

cross is still working in your life?

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You say, well, OK, Marcel,

I sinned some more.

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OK, well, if you persevere in

the faith, guess what happens?

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Now, does this mean, let me

go ahead and continue to sit?

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No, of course not.

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But we see the power of Jesus's sacrifice.

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Now, I don't know about you, but I

say, thank God for his sacrifice.

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Turn to the person to your right.

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Let's say, thank God

for Jesus's sacrifice.

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I don't know about you, but if this

doesn't get fired up and I don't know

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what will, that means you're asleep and

I don't know how you fall asleep on me.

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You know, this is important that

we remember that what I'm saying

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is anything new, but we're getting

a chance to have a fresh look and

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maybe a deeper perspective and

appreciation for what we have in Christ.

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And it's important that we do this.

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And in fact, this is partly why we take

communion every Sunday so that we can have

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a time to reflect and meditate and realize

what we have through Jesus's sacrifice.

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Because if we do not stay in

connection with the cross of Jesus,

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what will happen to our faith?

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One of the things that will happen

is it will become a distant memory.

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It won't be something that impacts us.

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And when that happens, what happens

is we start to separate from the

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cross and we become less appreciative

and thankful for the cross.

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Which leads to our heart getting

harder and can lead to leaving God

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All of us have seen those who have

been around if you've been around for

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probably three or six months You've

seen somebody leave the faith Did you

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ever hear them talk about how great

Jesus sacrifice was as they left God?

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of course not and In fact, that's

one of the things that's omitted

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from the conversation, isn't it?

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You It's everything else except

for the sacrifice of Jesus.

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So this is why it's so important,

brothers and sisters, that we

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recognize, we remember, and here's

what Paul is doing for the church.

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He wants them to get it.

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Please get what you have from the

sacrifice of Jesus so that you will

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remain in your standing with God.

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And you will have an inheritance

of his kingdom for all eternity.

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And this is why we need one another.

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This is why we encourage one

another with the scriptures and

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the truth and the promises of God

through Jesus and his sacrifice.

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This is why we show up and worship God.

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And we can say how he loves us, how

he show us love through the cross.

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This is why we dig into his word.

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So we can remember who it is

that we serve and that He is

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forever present in our lives.

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This is why you and I are here.

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This is why you and I need

to stay here in the faith.

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And it says to me, and it was mentioned

earlier, what's the response to that?

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To such a great treasure we have

through the sacrifice of Jesus.

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I believe is this is to be faithful to

Jesus is to be faithful to Jesus, to thank

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God with faithfulness, to thank him, not

just with words, not just with the song,

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not just what the moment of appreciation,

but to thank him with faithfulness.

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And Jesus, you know, it says this in the

scripture, it was alluded to earlier.

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If you continue in your faith,

established and firm, it's not

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shaking, it's not swayed back and forth

like, like a tree blown by the wind.

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It says, and do not move from

the hope held out in the gospel.

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This is a call to keep going.

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This is a call to never quit.

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This is a call to be firm and

established in our faith, meaning

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I'm gonna be as faithful to him,

his laws, and his ways as I can.

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Like a faithful soldier in his service.

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Like a faithful friend, I am there

for you through thick and thin.

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Like a faithful child to a family.

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Like a faithful spouse.

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There is fidelity.

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I will be faithful to you.

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That's the call for you in being Christ.

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Why?

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Because of all that we

have through the cross.

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Because of all that it

means for our lives.

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It's a call for you and I to be faithful.

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Not to quit, not to give the least,

or to give less, but to give all

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that we can to Jesus and his will.

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You know, he was faithful to us.

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We should be faithful in return.

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Giving our best until

the day that we pass.

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Amen.

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You know, as mentioned

earlier, Brian Craig's funeral.

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We also have one coming up, uh, uh, uh,

uh, for Maria Hertzberg here in January.

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And I just appreciate when, you know,

it's sad, it's, it's a bittersweet thing.

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It's bitter because we, we, we miss,

we, we lose, we grieve, we mourn the

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loss of our brother and sister in

the faith and we want to be able to

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physically talk and be with them.

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But yet we celebrate because they've

already achieved the goal of our faith.

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And so we actually want

to mimic their faith.

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And I just love going to

faithful disciples funerals in

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the sense of being inspired.

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They made it.

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I was so inspired yesterday.

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Brian and I didn't get a chance

to talk to him in the last couple

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weeks, but I talked to him a

couple months prior to his passing.

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And I was so in awe, like,

that man is worthy of imitation

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the way he's facing death.

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He was inspiring, still

teaching, still preaching.

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And wasn't mad at God,

he wrestled with God.

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But he wasn't mad at God.

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And he said he got closer to

God through the experience.

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Going through brain cancer,

you get closer to God?

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Shouldn't that lead you to faithlessness

and despair and discouragement?

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And let him closer to God.

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And say that's, that's

what Paul's talking about.

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Continuing in the faith.

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Established and firm.

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Not moving from the hope of the gospel.

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You know, this is the proper response

to such a great love and sacrifice.

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What other response could we have

than to be faithful with all of

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our hearts for all of our lives?

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I want to give us some action steps here.

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Church, are you still with me?

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Are you still tripping like,

hey, how did he do that?

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Alright, we can talk later.

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I want to give you some action steps

this week here in, so pillow, pillow,

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pillow, whatever it is, pull out,

pull out your phone or write down

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because it's going to be something

each day I want to give you here.

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It's going to allow us to remember to

recognize every day this week what we

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have through the sacrifice of Jesus.

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And I believe it will allow us then

to swell up not only with generosity

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but with faithfulness each day.

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Are you guys ready here?

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All right, get ready here.

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All right, so here's

what the call here is.

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To thank God for the blessings of

salvation through Jesus sacrifice.

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So here we go.

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So today you can start.

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Sunday, thank God for the grace that we

receive through the sacrifice of Jesus.

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Tomorrow, for the rescue.

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Through this sacrifice,

Tuesday, the inheritance.

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We didn't get a chance to talk too

much about it, but go ahead and read

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Colossians one again on your own

Wednesday, the redemption being redeemed.

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Thursday, the forgiveness Friday, the

reconciliation and Saturday, the hope.

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It's been a couple of moments in your

prayer, maybe the beginning of the day.

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I would encourage you because

that'll help you throughout the

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day and thank God for these things.

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Meditate upon them.

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Each day, this particular area, and

who knows, God may open up more ideas

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and areas in which you can thank him

for through the sacrifice of Jesus.

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But do this and allow this to

swell up to, to not only gratitude,

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but to influence your daily life.

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And so that's my encouragement

and my charge for every one of us.

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We're going to come to a close

here, we're going to take communion.

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This is a time where we

recognize, we thank God.

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reflect upon, we meditate, we

remember, and in many ways we

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celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus.

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And we take the emblems that represent

his body and his blood that was

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broken and shed so that you and I

can have all these things and more.

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And we close out in Colossians 1,

verses 19 through 22, we'll read again.

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For God was pleased to have all his

fullness dwell in him, and through

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him to reconcile to himself all

things, whether things on earth or

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things in heaven, by making peace

through his blood shed on the cross.

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Once you were alienated from God.

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And we're enemies in your minds

because of your evil behavior.

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But now he has reconciled you by

Christ's physical body through death to

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present you wholly in his sight without

blemish and free from accusation.

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Let's pray.

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Father, we thank you so much

for the sacrifice of Jesus.

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God, we could go through each element.

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We could go through each category.

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We, that could be its own sermon.

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That can, we can reflect upon that

all day, but God, we are reminded

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of all that we have through your

son, Jesus and his sacrifice.

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God, I'm humbled.

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I'm not deserving.

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I didn't earn a thing.

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In fact, what I did earn was judgment.

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But you out of love extended grace

and mercy and God, you did that

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through the sacrifice of your son.

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We thank you.

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We praise you.

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We love you and pray that you help us to

remember and to respond with faithfulness.

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Thank you, Lord Jesus,

for deciding to come.

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For living the life you lived for staying

upon the cross and for resurrecting.

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And as you know, you hit me several

days ago, thinking in John 10, where

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Lord, you are recorded as saying it was

your life to lay down, then no one took

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it from you that you chose to lay your

life down and God, it was your choice.

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And I'm so grateful that

you made that choice.

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Thank you that you showed your

desire for us and your desire to

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father, to follow the father's will.

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All we can do is thank you

with our hearts, our minds,

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our souls, and our strength.

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We pray that this may be acceptable

in the name of Jesus, amen.