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It's always encouraging to hear 
how God is working through you. 

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I'm going to read this morning 
from Colossians chapter 1, 

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beginning in verse 15. 
And then down to verse 20, we 

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divided the text into two parts.
We looked at the first part last

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week, as Jesus, Lord of creation
and this week, we'll look at the

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part, Jesus. 
Lord of the church. 

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Remember, Paul's writing to the 
church in colossae, who were 

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concerned and worried about the 
different powers that impact 

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their lives, whether it It be 
political powers of Empire, 

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whether it be local powers of 
family society and their local 

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religions whether it is the 
powers of Nature and other gods.

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They were concerned about the 
powers that affected their lives

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and impacted them. 
And so Paul is writing to assure

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them of the power of God fully 
expressed through Jesus Christ. 

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He wants to assure them of their
faith and allegiance to Jesus. 

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And so he writes to them. 
The son is the image of the 

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invisible. 
God, the firstborn over all 

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creation. 
For in him, all things were 

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created things in heaven and on 
Earth, visible and invisible, 

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whether Thrones or powers or 
rulers or authorities, all 

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things have been created through
him. 

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And for For him, he is before 
all things, and in him all 

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things, hold together and he is 
the head of the body, the 

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church, he is the beginning. 
And the firstborn from among the

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dead, so that in everything he 
might have the supremacy for God

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was pleased to have all his 
fullness, dwell in him, and 

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through him to reconcile to 
himself all things, whether 

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things on earth, Or things in 
Heaven by making peace, through 

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his blood shed on the cross. 
Jesus had an amazing encounter 

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with his friends, Mary and 
Martha, and Lazarus, Lazarus had

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died. 
And when Jesus arrived, they're 

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both sisters were concerned and 
upset. 

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That Jesus hadn't, come, and 
they both affirmed a sense of 

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faith. 
That if Jesus had been there, 

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John would be alive. 
Jesus makes the most astonishing

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statement when he says will do 
you believe I am the 

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resurrection and the life, the 
one who believes in me will 

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live. 
And the sister who heard this 

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said, I believe. 
And it opened the way for Jesus 

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to do the most astonishing thing
where the placement of her faith

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was affirmed. 
She saw it in real time as Jesus

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called out Lazarus, come out. 
And Lazarus was raised from the 

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dead. 
Lazarus would die again. 

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And be buried. 
But what if Jesus? 

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The Lord of creation who died on
a cross who was buried and rose 

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again. 
Would he die again? 

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Would his power died with him, 
or would his power still be 

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evident and at work and the life
of people and particularly in 

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the life of the church? 
This was a concern that Paul is 

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seeking to address when he says 
in verse 17, that Jesus is the 

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head of the body Verse 18. 
Sorry, Jesus is the head of the 

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body, the church. 
This Lord of creation is the 

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lord of the church. 
He is the one who is in charge 

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of it, even to this day. 
And so, Paul is affirming him 

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them that though. 
Jesus is unseen. 

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He is the lord of the church 
though. 

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Jesus isn't the one standing at 
the front of their Gatherings? 

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Jesus is the lord of the church 
not the person who stands at the

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front. 
That's good news, right? 

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Yeah. 
Was that my wife? 

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It's good news, right? 
That I'm not the lord of the 

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church and neither are any of 
the worship leaders. 

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They're not the lord of the 
church. 

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Nor is there a secret person in 
the congregation who is Lord of 

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the church? 
Jesus is the lord of the church.

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He is the head of the church and
he has that. 

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Because the new creation that 
Jesus, as Lord of creation 

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began, is now to be expressed in
the church. 

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His body. 
So, the church is the body that 

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makes the lordship of Jesus 
visible. 

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The church is the body that 
makes the lordship of Jesus 

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visible. 
How are we doing? 

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We're only doing as well as we 
surrender to Jesus as Lord and 

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Caraway the allegiances that we 
make to other powers and rulers 

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and authorities. 
And declare by the spirit of 

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God, Jesus is Lord. 
And learn to listen to his 

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voice. 
Jesus said of his church, his 

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sheep that they will listen to 
his voice. 

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How was your listening going to 
the Lord of creation? 

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The lord of the church. 
He is the head of the body, the 

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church Paul goes on to say, he 
is the beginning and the 

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firstborn among the dead. 
So that in everything he might 

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have Supremacy. 
He is the beginning and the, how

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our anticipation, our reflexive 
move internally. 

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If you're familiar with the 
scripture is to say, Jesus is 

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the beginning and the end, he is
the Alpha and the but Paul 

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interrupts that move here to 
highlight the reason why Jesus 

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is the authority in this period 
of life, he says Jesus is the 

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firstborn. 
He is the beginning and the 

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firstborn among the Dead. 
Among the dead. 

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So he interrupts here with the 
end, he's the firstborn among 

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the dead, that Jesus himself was
buried. 

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And that when he rose from the 
dead, he brings the Dead with 

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them, who shall be transformed 
into life. 

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And so he didn't just Rise by 
himself, he rises with those of 

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us who would be dead without 
him. 

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And so now the dead in Christ 
shall be born with him. 

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So this is why in baptism when 
we Baptist someone we say buried

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with Christ in baptism but 
raised to walk in you life. 

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Why can we do that? 
Because Jesus is raised for 

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eternity. and so shall those who
by faith allow themselves to be 

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buried with him in baptism, My 
old life is gone, behold the new

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has come and Jesus has Primacy 
of authority. 

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He has Power Among Us. 
Who have United with him. 

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In faith and in baptism. 
As your life United with Christ.

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Both in his death and in his 
resurrection, without his 

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resurrection, I am just as good 
as dead. 

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Paul went on to say that, woe to
those of us who are in Christ. 

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If the resurrection didn't 
really happen, he recognized 

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that the moment of compelling 
belief in Christ is the 

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resurrection of Jesus. 
The firstborn among the dead so 

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that he might have Supremacy. 
In everything. 

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Is this how you see Jesus as 
having Supremacy in everything 

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or is there something in your 
life that you've kept as a 

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reserve to say? 
Well, this is really mine Lord. 

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This is my domain. 
This is my secret space of my 

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life and you can't come here. 
That secret space of your life 

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will be filled with death. 
Unless you open the doors to 

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Christ. 
To come and bring life where you

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thought, there could be no life.
He goes on here to speak of 

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Jesus in verse 19 for God was 
pleased to have all his 

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fullness, dwell in him. 
So not only did this Jesus come,

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and do this, he did it as God 
with all of the fullness of God 

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in him. 
And so when we read the gospels 

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and see Jesus on the cross, it 
was no imposter. 

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It was no fill in. 
For God, this was truly God on 

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the cross being crucified. 
That is a mysterious thought. 

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But the Lord of creation. 
Was on the cross dying. 

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For what? 
For why? 

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Notice Paul says in verse 19, 
for God was pleased to have all 

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his fullness, dwell in him. 
And then 20, he gives the reason

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and through him, to reconcile, 
to himself all things, whether 

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things on earth, or things in 
Heaven by making peace, through 

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his blood shed on the cross. 
When God died on the cross. 

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He was accomplish incur a 
Reconciliation move. 

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Now reconciliation is a strange 
thing to us because if you're in

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a friendship and a relationship 
and you find that you are the 

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offended party, you are the one 
who has been wronged, what are 

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you waiting for? 
An apology. 

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I thought you said coffee and I 
said, I'm with you an apology. 

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You're waiting for the other 
person to move. 

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You're waiting for the other 
person to act. 

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You're waiting for the other 
person to soften their heart and

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come and say you know I was 
really wrong. 

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I am sorry. 
I think this caused you a lot of

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pain. 
And I am sorry. 

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Those are really difficult words
to say, right? 

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Maybe you just need to practice 
it, you can turn to your 

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neighbor and saying I'm sorry. 
So now, you know, you can do it.

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You can make that move. 
That reconciliation move, except

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that's not what God did. 
God didn't wait for you to come 

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to him and apologize. 
God didn't wait for you to feel 

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sorry. 
God didn't wait for you to feel 

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the pain that he felt. 
God, moved first. 

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And all the fullness of God is 
present in the body of Jesus. 

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As he says, no one takes my life
from me, but I lay it down 

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because the father has given me 
authority to lay it down and to 

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take it back up. 
And so God moved first to love. 

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God moved first to forgive. 
God moved first to breathe life.

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And all those who were dead 
apart from him. 

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God moves first to reconcile. 
What was unreconciled label. 

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It required blood. 
It required life and on this 

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occasion, he didn't ask anyone 
else to do it but he said I will

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do it. in John 3, we spoke of 
this last month that that little

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verse for God. 
So loved the world that he gave 

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his only son, that whoever 
believes in him shall have, God 

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loves you that much. 
Did he would move first? 

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This Rift between us and God. 
Created and creates hostility. 

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It creates, hardness it creates,
Rejection, it creates Pride. 

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Pride is a strange thing when we
think of sin pride is a strange 

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thing. 
When we think of Reconciliation.

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But pride is not so strange in 
the academy, is it? 

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The pride of her 
accomplishments, the pride of 

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what we say, we will do the 
pride of what we can be. 

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There's an author. 
Her name's Frederica. 

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Matthews, Green. 
She's written a lot of books on 

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occasion. 
She writes for newspapers, like 

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the Washington Post and she says
that when she was a kid, she had

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lots of faith around eight or 
nine. 

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She would go around and tell her
her parents that she wanted to 

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be a nun. 
And they're like, we're going to

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have none of that. 
And so she learned pretty 

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quickly, that somehow being 
religious wasn't all that good. 

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Don't be too religious. 
And so, progressively over the 

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next 10 years of her life, she 
began to just shut it down. 

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Shut it down, shut it down to, 
ultimately, she would say, I've 

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tried to be an atheist. 
I've tried to be an act Gnostic.

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I've tried even other religions.
She said, the religion, she 

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liked the most was Hinduism. 
She said it's so colorful But 

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she said it was a strange 
experience that pulled her out 

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of all of that. 
She and her husband were on 

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their honeymoon and they had 
traveled to Ireland. and in 

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Dublin, What else do you do you 
visit churches? 

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She visited a church. 
And she felt very anxious as 

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they went in because her husband
had just said the night before, 

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you know, I'm an atheist. 
But there's something about 

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Jesus. 
I've never encountered anyone 

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like this before. 
I know he's speaking the truth 

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but I'm an atheist. 
But if Jesus says there's a God,

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there must be a god. 
She said that experience of him 

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completing an assignment in a 
class where he was asked to read

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a gospel. 
Made her very nervous going into

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that church. 
She said I didn't want him to be

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a Christian. 
She said, when they walked 

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through the church, she went to 
the corner. 

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I'm just was sitting down when 
she looked in and saw a white 

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marble statue. 
It was a statue of Jesus with 

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his heart exposed. 
And Thorns were wrapping around 

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it and Flames were coming out of
it. 

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It was strange art. 
But suddenly, she realized as 

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she looked she had fallen on her
knees. and she said it was if 

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there was a radio that clicked 
on in her head, Anna voice. 

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It said, I am your life. you 
thought that your life was in 

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your history, in your name, in 
your personality, you thought 

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that your life was the fact that
your heart beats but that is not

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your life. 
I am your life. 

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I am the foundation of 
everything else in your life. 

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She says, it was pretty 
indisputable as to, who was 

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talking to me? 
She said, I started reading the 

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Bible. 
I found that I disagreed with 

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Jesus about a lot of things. 
But something had happened to me

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in that church and I realized 
that I didn't know anything 

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about the world. 
And she said, gradually, I came 

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to Faith? 
And my husband came to Faith and

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then several months went by and 
our friend said to us, we'll 

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have you ever given your heart 
to Jesus. 

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Have you ever asked Jesus to be 
Lord? 

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And and she says, I didn't know 
quite what to say him. 

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I can only say well we're not 
Southern Baptists. 

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She said, you know, you have to 
think about where I live. 

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They were the most extreme 
Christians around in her town. 

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She said they're the only 
people. 

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I knew who asked is Jesus. 
Lord And he says, well actually 

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it's for everybody. 
And they said well, you know, 

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we're in graduate school. 
And he says, no even for you. 

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It's for you. 
Jesus is Lord. 

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And so she says the three of 
them knelt down and prayed and 

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asked Jesus to be our Lord. 
She says I had no idea what that

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would mean, but I so wanted to 
find out. 

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Jesus is Lord of creation and 
he's lord of the church. 

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Do you know when we speak of the
church? 

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And this passage in large part 
were speaking of This Global 

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sense of the Church of Jesus. 
He is Lord of the church, but 

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he's also Lord of these smaller 
expressions of it. 

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Whether it be here at origin, or
at Tenth or at University 

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Chapel, or any other 
congregation in the area, these 

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gatherings of little 
congregations are expressions of

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the church and Jesus is always 
seeking to ground into the place

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a witness to himself to make 
this Bull by his body, his 

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lordship over creation, and over
people. 

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And so, this is why we will 
follow him to langara and to 

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Oakridge and we will look to see
that God would establish again 

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of visible witness of his 
creation and of his new 

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creation. 
My father used to say when 

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asked, do you witness? 
Do you do evangelism? 

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My dad will say, well, yeah. 
And I get up and I go meet with 

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the church. 
I remember listening to that as 

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a kid and thinking that's not 
enough, is that really enough 

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but it's the start, isn't it? 
To go and be a part of the 

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visible expression of the 
lordship of Jesus. 

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To make visible, what would be 
invisible? 

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As our connection together as 
brothers and sisters, our 

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connection together as the 
redeemed, the rescued, our 

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connection as the reconciled. 
I find that a lot of my friends.

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Like to maintain a bit of 
humanity in their life and 

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mystery. 
And so they will say I'm 

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religious, I'm spiritual, but 
not religious I'm spiritual but 

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not religious. 
Our hyper individualism has 

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rejected the lordship of Jesus. 
And it is the lordship of Jesus 

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that calls us to Value his body.
The church It is the lordship of

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Jesus that calls us in some way 
to maintain connection, even 

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when our lives get complicated 
and busy and the seasons of our 

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life change, it is the lordship 
of Jesus that calls us back into

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connection with each other. 
He says, by this the world will 

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know Your love for each other. 
That you are my disciples. 

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There was a pastor named Philip 
Johnson in 1969. 

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The year after I was born, he 
accepted an assignment to Pastor

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11 churches in Newfoundland. 
Now, I don't know about you but 

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pastoring 11 churches would be 
really stressful, but he was 

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doing a circuit. 
So he pastored one church. 

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That was larger and then ten 
other little congregations. 

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He would travel to it on the 
weekend and they would meet 

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together on one occasion. 
The first time he went, he 

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traveled 40 miles. 
To go and visit a congregation 

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that morning. 
One person showed up It was a 

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00:25:53,508 --> 00:25:56,900
fisherman who had traveled 20 
miles. 

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00:25:58,700 --> 00:26:02,700
And so while Pastor Johnson was 
tempted to say let's just pray 

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00:26:02,700 --> 00:26:06,500
and go home. 
He realized, oh my we have both 

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00:26:06,500 --> 00:26:12,100
traveled 60 miles to be here, so
maybe I should run the service. 

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00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:16,500
So he said we did everything. 
We did it all. 

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We did the hymns, we did the 
readings, we did the prayers, I 

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did the sermon, we did the 
Lord's Supper, we did the 

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00:26:25,500 --> 00:26:29,200
benediction, we did it all, and 
he said, then I went to the back

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door and I stood there and I 
shook his hand. 

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And he said, I didn't think it 
went all that. 

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Well, because the whole time 
that we did all of that 

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00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:50,700
together, this man kept his head
down. but at the door after 

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00:26:50,700 --> 00:26:55,400
shaking his hand, the fishermen 
said Reverend I've been 

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thinking, I've been thinking for
about 30 years to become a 

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Christian. 
And today is the day. 

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Nothing is wasted. 
Done in faith with Jesus, who is

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00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:18,500
Lord? 
Let's pray together. 

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00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:24,700
Heavenly Father, we set our 
lives before you and thank you 

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00:27:24,700 --> 00:27:29,300
for the son who is Lord of 
creation and Lord of the church 

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00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:35,200
and we surrender Our Lives. 
Once again, we open our hearts 

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00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:38,800
to you. 
We bend the knee and declare 

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00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:45,900
that Jesus is Lord. 
Oh, Come Holy Spirit and fill us

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00:27:46,300 --> 00:27:49,200
revive. 
Vive your church, do your 

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00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:54,900
creation work again in the chaos
and mess of our lives and 

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00:27:54,900 --> 00:28:00,200
relationships and busyness 
somehow break in Lord and 

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00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:04,500
restore to us. 
Our first love, our first love 

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00:28:04,500 --> 00:28:08,500
for you. 
Our first love for your church. 

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00:28:09,900 --> 00:28:13,900
Oh, Come Lord Jesus and work 
Among Us. 

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00:28:09,900 --> 00:28:13,900
Oh, Come Lord Jesus and work 
Among Us.