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Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons podcast.

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This is where you can find audio from Sunday morning messages and more.

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Make sure you're subscribed so that you don't miss future episodes.

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And thanks for listening.

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Well, good morning.

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That was a little of a delay.

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All right, let's do that again.

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Good morning.

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There we go.

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That's what I like.

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It's so good to be here.

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So good to see each and every one of you here.

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If you've got your Bibles, go and open them up to Acts.

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Chapter one is where we are going to be.

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As you turn there.

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I want to remind everyone this week, if you are planning on attending secret church here with us, we need to have you registered this week.

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It is going to be this upcoming Friday night into Saturday morning.

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So the cards are back here, right underneath the exit sign.

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You can grab one of those, scan the QR code.

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If you're interested in going and scanning a QR code, terrifies, you grab me, grab burger.

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We can get you connected and get you to be with us on Friday night.

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We will gather from 06:30 p.m..

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Friday to 01:00, a.m.

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Saturday.

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And it is going to be a wonderful, wonderful time together studying God's Word as we walk through the Book of Jonah.

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For those of you who are already so if you're kind of like a scripture nerd, this might excite you.

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I got a copy of the journal that we're going to walk through that night, and it's 128 pages, right?

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We're going to go through for that.

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So if you want to join us, if you want to do that, we'd love to have you and love to have you be a part of that.

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Now, next week, we will pick back up in our series in Genesis.

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We'll pick back up in Genesis, chapter four.

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But what we've been doing kind of over the last this will be our third week going back to when we looked at Genesis.

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Chapter three is we've been in this progression for us around this time for Easter.

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So two weeks ago, the Sunday before Easter, we looked at Genesis three and we talked about sin and the need of the cross and that Jesus Christ is the one and one only payment that is sufficient for our sins.

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We cannot make that payment.

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We cannot make the works.

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We cannot provide the sacrifice.

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So Jesus comes to restore to the Father of the brokenness of creation, to fill the gap so that you and I may have eternal life.

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And then last week, we gathered together early service.

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We gathered together at our normal hour together, and we talked about our Savior Jesus Christ and the power of the Resurrection and how that's not just simply a historical event.

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It is a historical event, but it's not simply that.

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It's something that you and I live in the power of the Resurrection and our hope for eternity.

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Is found in the power of the resurrection as well.

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And so for me, in the full cycle of all of these things, we're going to look at Jesus is our Lord and the Ascension.

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And what that means is we look at Acts, chapter one.

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And in just a moment we'll start in verse six.

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So I'm going to ask you if you will join us there and let's read that together.

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Acts one, starting in verse six says, so when they had come together, they asked him, now this is the disciples and Jesus.

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Here's their question.

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Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

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Now, let's kind of pause here for a second.

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This is a very key question that the disciples are asking Jesus.

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And when we understand the world in which they live, we can maybe understand and extend a little bit of grace to their question.

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They had just watched their messiah, their savior, their teacher.

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They had just watched Jesus crucified on a Roman cross.

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Every day of their life was marked by the oppression of Rome with where they are.

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So their question here is not one that focuses on the kingdom of God that you and I think of, but on the kingdom of man.

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And their hope in this question is one that Jesus would establish, this political theocracy where Jesus is the Lord and they are the leaders.

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I get it, I get it.

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I understand their question, I understand their struggle.

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But I also understand they like you.

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And they like me, can only see in the moment.

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Look at verse seven.

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So he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

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So Jesus is looking to change their.

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Thinking, to change their perspective, and to fix their minds on the will of God.

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And so verse eight, but you will.

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Receive power when the Holy Spirit has.

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Come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

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So they're looking for this leadership position.

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They're looking for this kingdom authority.

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And what Jesus does is he gives them position, he gives them authority.

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He talks about the kingdom, but in a different way.

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He says, you're going to receive power through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and you're going to be my witnesses speaking to what you have seen and to what you know, but also as a representation of the person who is sending you.

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And you are going to go, you're going to carry this message.

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This won't be just a message for Jerusalem, but this will be a message for Jerusalem, for Judea, to Samaria and.

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To the ends of the earth.

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This is the kingdom that we're going to work toward.

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This is the kingdom that the power is going to come.

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This is the kingdom that Jesus says, I'm the authority over.

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And this is the kingdom that you are going to lead.

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And we see this expansion happen and take place throughout the Book of Acts.

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It's the kingdom that we read about.

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And it's the kingdom that we live in as followers of Jesus Christ.

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But verse nine, let's look at it.

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He says, and when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

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And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said.

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Men of Galilee, notice this question why do you stand looking into heaven?

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This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

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And this is the account of what we read in the ascension of Christ.

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So the question that I have for us this morning is this why did.

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Jesus have to go?

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Why do you have to go?

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Have you ever had to go somewhere and do something and you're with someone who doesn't want you to leave?

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And they ask the question, but do you have to?

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Why do you have to go?

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Can't someone else go?

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Can't someone else do that?

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Can't someone else be a part of that?

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I want you here with me.

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Why do you have to go?

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It seems to me what I think it seemed to the disciples at the time, if we don't fully grasp and understand, I think what the disciples in that moment, what they're watching, is Jesus, the walking, living proof of the resurrection.

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Show me your hands, show me your side.

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What they are seeing in this moment.

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Is in their mind, the easier approach to the fulfillment of the mission is leaving.

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And in that moment, I would think maybe the thought, why did he have to go?

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So I want to answer this question.

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For us this morning with what we can see in Acts.

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Chapter one is then why did Jesus have to go?

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Three things I think we can draw out of this as we look through this, that Scripture teaches us as we look.

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Number one is this his earthly ministry was complete and our call to ministry begins.

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Jesus's earthly ministry was complete and our call to ministry begins.

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Now it's evident in this passage that the expectation that others had on Jesus wasn't necessarily complete, but Jesus had fulfilled the mission that Jesus was sent from the Father to complete.

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In John chapter six, verse 48, it says, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

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And so Jesus, from his birth to his death on the cross to his resurrection, from the grave to his ascension to heaven, jesus came and fully fulfilled the will of the Father through his sinless life, through his teachings, through his miracles, through his death, through his resurrection.

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And there was no work that was left and required of him.

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Have you ever left work after a long busy day and on your way home you realize, oh yeah, I forgot to do that.

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That's not Jesus.

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That's not Jesus.

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Every part of the work that Jesus.

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Was sent to do, jesus did and Jesus fulfilled.

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And so what Jesus does is he.

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Doesn'T just go, I'm done and I'm out.

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He invites us into our call, into the ministry.

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Look back at Acts One eight, but who you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

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And so what Jesus does in his life and his ministry is he set the example for them.

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But it wasn't now that you've seen.

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The example, now you've figured this out on your own, but Jesus does for them what he does in the life of every believer.

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He gives the power for ministry.

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The plan to go be fishers of men, the plan to go and make disciples, the plan to go and be witnesses.

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And what happens in this moment is the disciples were moving from being a participant in the ministry of Jesus to being an active participant in the ministry of Jesus.

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And what they received and what you and I receive in his ascension is an invitation and a command to the ministry of Christ.

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This is what Jesus does.

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He says, I'm going to leave, but I'm going to send My power.

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And when My power comes through the person of the Holy Spirit, he will come upon you and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

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The mission of God.

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The second thing that we see in this passage of Scripture in Acts chapter nine, is the ascension marked his exaltation back at verse nine of Acts one.

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And when he had said these things as they were looking on, he was lifted up and the cloud took Him out of their sight.

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So here's what's going on.

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And there is not a lot said, there's not a lot of detail given about verse nine.

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There's not a lot.

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When you study this verse and read a lot of commentaries, there's not a great picture of exactly what this looks like.

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But there are some pieces of Scripture that help us draw and understand a little bit of what is happening.

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And so what we see is, while Jesus is ascending into Heaven, it says that he was lifted up in front of them and then there was a cloud while he was still there that.

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Hides Him.

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As the form of the.

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Earthly man that they had seen and that they had known and that the experienced is ascending.

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And in this, what theologians believe is the fullness of his divine glory, is revealed and too much for their eyes to take.

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In Philippians two, verse six through eight, paul talks about Christ and the form in which he will take and the.

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Form in which he is.

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Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled Himself by coming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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Jesus fully God, Jesus fully man.

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And in the ascension of Christ, of leaving this earth, the fullness of his glory as his exaltation is taking place in this moment.

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And it's in this moment in Acts chapter One that his glory is no longer veiled.

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And who he was in those moments in the mount of Transfiguration is who he is.

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Where Jesus takes Peter, James and John up with Him high on a mountain in Acts chapter 17 and verse two says this and he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

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And then Matthew continues to tell us in this account that then Moses and Elijah, they appear and they talk with.

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Jesus and Peter and James and John, they see all this.

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They have their responses that they have.

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And then they hear the voice of the Father, this is my Son with who I am well pleased.

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And so in that glimpse on the mountain is who Jesus is, right?

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And as Jesus ascended into heaven, the place where we find Him is talked about in Ephesians One.

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He worked in Christ when he raised Him from the dead, and the Father seated Him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the One to come.

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And he put all things under his feet and gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills all.

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In all this glimpse of what we see in Jesus, still who he was, but now fully revealed.

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I love John's account of Jesus in Revelation.

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So many of the things that we see in in Revelation so many of the descriptions that we find in Revelation.

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Are defined in the ways that they are defined, because our earthly mind and.

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Our earthly eyes cannot comprehend.

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Because we've never seen or experienced anything like that before.

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And here's how John describes Christ in Revelation One, starting in verse 14.

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The hairs of his head were white like white wool, like snow.

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And his eyes were like a flame of fire.

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And his feet were burnished bronze, refined in a furnace.

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And his voice was like the roar of many waters.

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In his right hand he held seven.

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Stars from his mouth came a sharp, two edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

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And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

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But he laid his right hand on me, saying, fear not, I am the first and the last, the living one.

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I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death in Hades.

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And so Jesus, ascends his work has been fulfilled, his earthly work that the Father had sent him to do has been complete.

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And so he ascends.

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And in that he's exalted.

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And we can understand even more about who he is.

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But the third thing we're going to look at this morning that we can draw from Acts chapter one, is why did Jesus leave when Jesus left?

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So that he could return.

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Jesus left so that he could return.

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I love verse eleven.

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Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?

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This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

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Here's what we don't know.

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And I want to acknowledge what we don't know.

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We don't know what the disciples faces.

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Looked like in that moment.

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But I imagine, I know they had not ever seen anything like this before.

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And as they're there talking with Jesus, just in that moment, they're hoping, right, that this political, earthly movement would happen.

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And then all of a sudden, Jesus is lifted up, covered by a cloud as he ascends into heaven.

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Were they amazed?

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Were they fearful?

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Were they stunned?

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Were they confused?

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Here's what I do know.

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As he is leaving, they see someone who they dearly love go away from them.

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And in their minds they had just.

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Gotten him back and now he's gone again.

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But Jesus leaves so that he could return.

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And so these two men say to them, like, why are you staring?

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He's coming back.

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Stop looking.

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He's going to return.

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And Jesus had told them this in John, chapter 14, starting in verse one, jesus says, let not your hearts be troubled.

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Believe in God, believe also in me.

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In my Father's house are many rooms.

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If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

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Let's pause here for just a moment.

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Jesus told them that I am going, that I'm preparing a place for you.

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And that Jesus has done that.

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And he's prepared a place for you and for me, for all of us who were found in Christ in verse three.

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And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself.

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That where I am, you may also be.

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And so Jesus says he's going to come again.

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He's going to go, he's going to prepare, he's going to come back.

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He's going to come again.

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And he's going to take us to himself.

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And then look at his words here in verse four.

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And you know the way to where I am going.

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Now, this word no, here, it's a word that's a little bit difficult to.

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Translate in its original language.

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It's more metaphorically speaking and knowing it's not like and you know your multiplication tables, right?

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And you know your address and you know your Social Security number, right?

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Like these are the things that we know.

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But when Jesus says here, it's more metaphorical.

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And the word literally translated is see.

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See, you know, because you see and kind of think about it like this.

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It's like has someone ever asked you something?

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And you're like, I can see it, right?

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It's right on the front of my mind.

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It's on the tip of my tongue.

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I can see this, but it's not there.

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Jesus says to them.

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And you know, Jesus says to them as he stands there in front of them, you see the way to where I am going.

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As the disciples gathered around him with their eyes locked on Jesus, he says to them, I'm going to go and prepare a place and I'm going to return so that I can take you into myself.

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And you see the way to where I'm going.

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And so Thomas.

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I love Thomas.

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Right.

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I feel like he's just us.

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Let me think it and say it.

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Lord, we do not know where you are going.

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How can we know the way?

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Verse six and Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

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No one comes to the Father except through me.

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Jesus is the way and Jesus is the Lord.

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And when he returns, all, all will acknowledge who he is.

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All will.

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Here's what Paul says in Philippians chapter two.

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Therefore, God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every other name.

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So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

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And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

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So here's what happens in the return of Christ.

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Every knee, every knee, paul says, every knee in heaven, every knee on earth, and every knee under the earth, every knee will bow.

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Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

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The promise of the truth of the Scripture.

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Those who have placed their faith, their.

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Hope and trust in him, it'll be the sweetness and the return.

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And even those who have not in that moment will not be able to turn away who he is.

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That Jesus is Lord.

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That Jesus is Lord.

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So how can you know?

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How can I know that Jesus has prepared a place and that when he returns being found in him, he'll receive me.

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That where I am.

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That where he is, that I will also be.

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Paul says in Romans ten nine, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

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And from this verse, what we see is this picture of salvation.

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And what that means is, jesus is your Savior, and Jesus is your Lord.

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Jesus is your means of salvation, but Jesus is also the Lord of your life and church.

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My concern is this, that churches all over the world are filled with men and women who want Jesus to be their savior but have no interest in Jesus being their Lord.

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And the gospel doesn't work that way.

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Jesus wants to be your Savior and your Lord.

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You see, we want Jesus to save us, but we don't want to surrender to him.

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We want Jesus to save us, but we don't want to surrender our life.

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We want Jesus to give us all the benefit of eternity, but while we want to live in the benefit of who we are and what we want to do right now.

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But here's the connection.

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Lordship and obedience go hand in hand.

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Jesus says in Luke, chapter six, why do you call me Lord Lord and not do what I tell you?

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Think about that.

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Why do you call me this?

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Jesus's words, why do you call me Lord, but yet you don't want to.

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Do what I tell you?

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Monday driving to school with my kids, and we had a very interesting conversation that getting woven into an eminenose, what I'm talking about.

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I'm not calling her out on anything.

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That gets woven into this today.

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So I'm going to bring forth for.

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Some of us older people, I'm have.

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To explain this a little bit, okay?

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But I want to ask this question.

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For you to think through.

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Is Jesus your lord or is Jesus your influencer?

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So what is an influencer?

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All right, so years ago, when I was a youth pastor, right, when I had more hair on my head and less of a belly, right, and more energy needed, less sleep, I was a youth pastor, and I never forget I had a kid named James that went to my church in Aiken.

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James was the first kid that I met there.

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And James is a wonderfully, beautifully different kid.

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He would tell you that.

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He would, yes, and amen to that.

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And his parents were a little worried that James didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, right?

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And I get that as a parent.

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With teenagers, it's like, oh, do you know, how can you prepare and all these things?

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And so one day, I was talking with James, and I said, James, what do you want to do for the rest of your life?

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And he told me this.

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He said, I want to travel all over the world and take pictures and have people pay me to do that.

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I said, oh, you mean, like to show really how old I am?

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Like, you want to work for a magazine or a newspaper.

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He said, no, I want to post my pictures on social media.

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Now, this is right around the time where I believe I was still kind of fully embracing my space, all right?

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And I said, James, that's a wonderful hobby, but no one is ever going to make a living, much less be successful with simply traveling around the world, having other people pay your expenses to travel around the world, and then you make a salary on top of that, just simply as you post your pictures on social media.

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James said, I think it can happen.

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Guess what James does today.

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Guess who makes a lot of money doing that today, right?

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James does.

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He's become an influencer.

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He's all over different means of social media, capturing pictures, posting them, capturing videos.

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And posting them with the goal of influencing people to go and to live and to experience and do different things.

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James wanted to influence people's lives, and he's doing that when it comes to.

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In our culture, influences, influencers.

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Here's what I've come kind of come to understand now, as a soon to be 44 year old middle aged man with teenage kids who know way more about this stuff than I do, but here's what I can kind of break it down.

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As you are engaging with influencers, what you choose, you get to choose what you like and what you don't.

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You get to choose what you follow and what you don't.

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So with a simple click, you can.

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Like something or not like something.

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With a simple click, you can follow.

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Something, or you can even unfollow something or choose not to follow at all from the beginning.

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And this is what an influencer in our current day and time does.

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And my fear is this for so many people, they just want Jesus to be their influencer.

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Let me click what I like and ignore what I don't.

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Let me follow what I want and not follow what I don't.

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Let me pick and choose the parts and pieces of Jesus that resonate to me and who I am as an individual and what I want to do and what I want to be a part of.

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And then the areas of Jesus that don't seem to align with what I want to do and what I want to be, let me just exclude them from my life and then claim that Jesus is my Savior.

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And I would say that Jesus is not their savior.

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Jesus is not their lord.

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Jesus is their influencer.

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Jesus is a means of a moral teaching for them that only benefits them in the areas of their life that they choose and in that Jesus is not their Lord.

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Jesus wants to be your Lord and Savior.

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He wants to be Lord all over.

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Every part of your life.

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Jesus wants the good.

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Jesus wants the bad.

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Jesus wants the clean.

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Jesus wants the messy.

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Jesus wants the gifts, jesus wants the struggles, jesus wants all of it.

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He wants your marriages, he wants your relationships, he wants your job, he wants your home, he wants your hobbies, he wants your career, he wants your savings, he wants your mind, he wants your heart, he wants your athletics, he wants your music, he wants your gifts, he wants your skills.

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Jesus wants all of it, all of.

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It.

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To be your Lord.

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So that you can confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved.

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The question that I have for you as we wrap up this morning, the question I have for you as you go from here is that are you living in the power of the resurrection?

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Are you living with the truth that Jesus ascended and sits at the right hand of the Father and everything has been bestowed to him and he has no desire to simply be an influencer on you?

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But Jesus strongly desires to be the Lord and Savior of your life.

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Is he your lord or is he your influencer?

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Let's pray.

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God, I come to you this morning thanking you for the power of what we see in Your Word or just.

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This glimpse that we can't understand even what the disciples see in that moment.

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We can't understand what Peter, James and John saw in that moment on top of the mountain.

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Lord, we can't understand fully the glimpse of what John reveals to us in revelation of what you look like in this moment.

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But we know Lord, that you came and you fulfilled and did the will of the Father and You've been exalted in the fullness of Your glory.

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And.

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Set at the right hand.

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Lord, we know that You've called us.

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Into the mission and Lord, we know that one day you will return.

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Lord, my heart cries out for so.

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Many of those who live their life the way that I did for so many years.

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Whether I wanted the bits and pieces of Jesus that fit neatly in my sinfully wrecked life, I wanted the religious parts that made me feel good and run from the things that wanted to speak deep into the depthness of depravity that filled my heart and Jesus.

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My prayer for them is that you would be their Savior and their Lord.

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A life surrendered.

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Not a life that we're living perfectly but a life filled with repentance and submission and a desire to live a life that is pleasing with you.

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Powered by the Holy Spirit.

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To be on mission to make fishers of men to become fishers of men or to be witnesses in our Jerusalem, in our Judea, in our Samaria into.

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The ends of the earth.

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And so Lord, as we go into this time of response, I pray that in the work of the Holy Spirit, that men and women and teenagers in.

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This place.

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And kids who are with us, who are apart from you, would feel the draw in their hearts.

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And they would not simply come and say, Jesus, be my savior, but they would come and say, Jesus, be the savior and Lord of my life.

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Because.

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You are the way, the truth and the life.

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And no one, no one comes to the Father except through you.

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It's in Jesus name we pray.

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Amen.

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Thanks again for listening, and be sure to check back next week for another episode.

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In the meantime, you can visit us@willowridgechurch.org or by searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.