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Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us.

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Happy Ash Wednesday,
and thank you for joining us.

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As we continue through the gospel of John,
we move into the 16th chapter.

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And, I'll say two things
about our passage today,

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or at least the first part,
if we depending on how long it takes us, a

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we probably should have done it yesterday
and included it with yesterday's reading.

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And I might even go so far as to say
it should be included in the 15th chapter.

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This is an odd place structurally

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to break the chapter,
but a little bit of recap.

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Yesterday, Jesus is warning the disciples
that the times ahead

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will be difficult for them
and that the world has,

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harbored, a

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resentment, a hatred,
he calls it, toward Jesus.

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And so that the disciples

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should not be surprised
when that gets pointed at them as well.

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And today he he adds to that a little bit.

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So let me read just a few verses here and
we'll go back and give it some context.

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I have said these things to you
to keep you from stumbling.

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They will put you out of the synagogues.

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Indeed, an hour is coming
when they will kill you,

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and they will think that by doing
so they are offering worship to God.

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And they will do this because they have
not known the father or me.

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But I have said these things to you,
so that when that hour comes,

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you may remember that I told you about it.

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So again,

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this is very much an extension of what
Jesus had said.

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Jesus said, you know, there will be a time
when you're at odds with the world.

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And now Jesus points
out, for the disciples and for the church

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that's listening in to these words later,
how difficult those days will be.

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They'll put you out of the synagogue.

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And this is this is a powerful sentence,
I think, Michael, they will kill you.

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And that is as
if that's not a strong enough statement.

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They will think they're worshiping God.

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By doing so,
they will justify what they do

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and the they hear is clearly
the Jewish religious authorities.

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That's the people that Jesus
is fighting with in the early wave

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of the evolution of the church.

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That's the people
that Christians are struggling with.

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The Roman opposition comes later.

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John likely reflects the Gospel of John,
likely reflects a time where there

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significant tension between Jewish

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religion and Christian religion.

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And I think that's a stunning statement.

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They will think they are offering
worship by doing so.

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And so,

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I suppose one of the things

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this does is to intensify
yesterday's words.

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You know, it's one thing to think
that there'll be some general conflict

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and some rough patches
between the world and the faith,

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but this is at times
Jesus says, life or death.

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Again, if you know the gospel story,
we're headed to the cross.

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Maybe it's not particularly surprising,
but I think these are sobering words.

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Yeah, it is really hard
for us to get our mind around.

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I think the
the schism of what's happening here.

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But bear with me for a minute.

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What Jesus is saying is that

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when you consider yourself
because remember, the earliest church

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thought of themselves
as being Jewish Christians,

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that they thought of synagogue as a place
that that worked with the faith, right?

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That Jesus himself
taught where in the synagogue.

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So that was the context
of being people of faith.

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But here in our text,
it is made abundantly clear

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that that there will come a day
when you can no longer

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think of those things as being synonymous,
that those two things

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can't live in the same context.

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That's a heart rending reality
for the earliest Christians,

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and I do think it's wise
that we connect this to the why.

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Why is this going to be your experience?

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And that is connected to verse 27.

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If you lead us off, Clint,
with the idea that we should have

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included these together,
I think that 27 is a classic example. Why?

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Because you are going to testify, because
you've been with me in the beginning.

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And what will that test
of, testifying result in?

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It's going to result
in this reality in the world.

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It's going to change your relationship
with the people

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who you've always thought
to be brothers and sisters in the faith.

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And I just think that that separation,
the cost of following Jesus,

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John is not shy about
John is not saying that

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that Christians are going to get there
because they want it,

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or that Christians are going
to have sought out their own pain.

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He's he's not saying that Christians
are going to find themselves

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opposite the world, because the gospel
somehow makes us people who,

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put ourselves in position
of always being in paint.

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No, it's that when we testify
to the truth of who Jesus is,

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that will create the very same division
that John has exemplified

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Jesus having with those religious leaders
the entire way.

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And and so his commandments
that Jesus just gave just a few verses ago

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about love, about how we're going to love
one another, we're going to love,

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as Jesus has demonstrated,
that kind of love that that becomes

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the sinew that holds it all together,
that that's what keeps Christian community

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strong in the midst of a world
that doesn't know what to do with it.

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When the world presses in
with that pressure, even pressure

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that's going to look to the Lord from
the world's eyes is doing good.

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It's actually bringing glory
and praise to God.

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That's the kind of thing
that that Christians are going

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to have to bow up under.

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And the way that we'll do it,
by the power of the spirit at work,

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we had that yesterday
and of course, the fruits of love

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growing within that community,
that that's the way that Christians repel

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the force of the world and the separation
and the pain and all these things.

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We're talking about. I think

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I think there are

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just sort of, in a general sense
of thinking about our discipleship.

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My goal,
I think there are probably two mistakes

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that Christians make
when it comes to verses like this.

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And and the one is to be obsessed
with them

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and, and sort of look for conflict.

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Right.

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That the idea that,
oh, someone made fun of me

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for going to church, that
that's persecution.

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We in America are so blessed

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that we sometimes take for granted
the idea that we can worship publicly.

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You and I, hundreds and hundreds of times
have come to this church.

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Never once,
not a single moment spent wondering

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if somebody would show up and stop us,
if someone would cast us off it.

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Never once fearing that it would be
discovered, we put it on our sign.

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We put it in the paper
if it's on our website.

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Right.

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And and so on one

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hand, we can minimize the idea

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of opposition

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to those things that just frustrate
us, you know?

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Oh, my uncle, who's not a Christian,
makes fun of the faith.

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Well.

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Oh, okay.

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But but I think that

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that minimizes true persecution.

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And the other mistake, and maybe
the one that Americans are more often

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guilty of, is to think that our situation
is normative and to forget

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that there are places in the world
today, right,

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that remain dangerous for Christians.

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There are Christians who risk their lives

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to worship and own and own Bibles

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and read Scripture together
and have worship together.

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That that that is dangerous
in parts of our world.

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And I think an awareness of that helps

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us a to keep our own minor
struggles in proper perspective,

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but also leads us to pray and to support

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and to reach out to those
who are struggling.

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And I think one of the disconnects

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of our experience and again,
we are so blessed.

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But the Scripture is written
in a time that reflects the risk.

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This is a life and death decision

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that these people
are making at times to follow Christ.

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And you know, Jesus says it here.

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I've told you this so that when it comes,

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you may remember what I've said.

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You can be ready.

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And again, we believe,
John, to have been written in a time

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that the church is experiencing
some persecution.

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And so these words and these themes
become massively important

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in the early evolutions of the church,
in which it is a risk, it is a struggle.

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It costs these people something.

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It is a chance that they take
when they put their faith

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and they live their life
as, as a Christian.

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And so,

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I, I think

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I don't know
exactly what we do with these passages,

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but I think they're important
because they give us

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they give us both,

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hopefully some courage,

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some awareness.

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But I think also some perspective.

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This is a thing that John has done
now a couple times

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that I find really beautiful
and I really appreciate is, is John.

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And look at this language
explicitly in verse four.

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I've said these things to you
so that when their hour comes,

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you may remember, right,

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we know that this gospel
is being given to us by John,

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so that we have what we need

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as people of faith to know who Jesus is

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and the honesty of this gospel
is to say that there's a lot of things

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that the disciples did not understand
when they heard them,

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but in Jesus's own wording,
I want this said

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so that when the time comes,
you will remember this conversation.

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You'll remember that when I was with you,
I promised an advocate.

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When I was with you, I told you that
the servant will not be greater

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than the master, that when I was with you
I said times of persecution would come,

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so that when the doubt comes,
when the struggle is great,

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when your life is literally
being asked of you,

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that you might know that this request

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has not been unseen,
that that this cost has not been missed,

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but that rather you are stepping
in, in firm

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view of the providence of what God
has already laid out of what Jesus said

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would happen,
that you stand on firm ground

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and that your witness is grounded
in reality.

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That's what John's trying to do,
is it's trying to show that

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Jesus is not just teaching
those people in the room that night.

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Jesus is looking ahead to those
who will follow him

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and is making very clear
he is just as much Lord, when the road

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is difficult as that when he's Lord,
when he's with you in the room.

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And I think the text goes
on, you know, as we'll continue,

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in this study,
we're going to discover that Jesus

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is going to say more
about the reality of that.

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But I think at this stage,
we we would be wise,

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I think, to hear in Jesus's words,
not a call to go out

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with, with, some sort of immaturity
or to look for trouble.

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But the reality is that
we might have confidence that when trouble

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inevitably finds us, that Jesus is
the Lord still in that moment.

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At at no level
is the goal to be persecuted.

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The goal is to be faithful.

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And if if that faithfulness comes
in the midst of persecution,

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then we should not be surprised,
because while all the Gospels.

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While all the Gospels

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include this theme, John
maybe most passionately portrays

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Jesus as the one who is faithful
in the midst of opposition.

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We've seen intense conflicts

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already here,
and I think maybe, perhaps more intensely

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than they are portrayed at the same place
in the other gospel accounts.

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You know that you could argue that.

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But John has wanted us to know
from the very beginning

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that Jesus presses on

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in the face of significant opposition

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so that he can be faithful to his calling

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so that he can be faithful to his mission
and his personhood

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as the Messiah, his role
as the Son of God.

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And we now are going to inherit that.

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And so the idea isn't to go out there
and find suffering

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and then pat ourselves on the back
because we found it.

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The idea is to be faithful and not shocked

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when being faithful sometimes invites

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difficulty with it, because the world
doesn't love faithfulness

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and Jesus lines that out here
explicitly and again in a culture.

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Where?

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There's not a great deal of true risk

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to be a Christian,

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I, I think we both want to be grateful
for that.

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Aware of how

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that might lead us to complacency,

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and certainly understand that

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that's not the case for everyone there.

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There are brothers and sisters

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who live under the reality of risk
because they follow Christ.

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And if that's not us in the moment
we're in,

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then we should be both thankful and aware

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of of supporting, encouraging
and praying for those for whom it is true.

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I'm certainly

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conscious, Clint, that yeah,
we've not made it many verses here today.

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I think that's okay for Ash Wednesday.

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But I do think that there's there's

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some wisdom in even honing in on verse
three here.

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Since we've got the time,
they will do this

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because they've not known
the father or me.

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And I submit to you
and push back on this clip.

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I submit to you
that this is a very good rubric

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for measuring whatever
sense of persecution we might have.

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If you are in a position

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in which you find yourself
meeting headwind because of the faith,

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you might ask yourself, is this
because I know the father?

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And is this because I know the son?

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Are you acting like Jesus acts?

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Because, Clint,

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you and I both know that there are people
who call themselves persecuted Christians

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who are acting far
outside the ethic of Jesus Christ,

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who are living outside
the kingdom way of living, of faithfulness

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that that's existed in all times
and places.

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That's just a reality of being human,
that we're tempted to make it about us

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instead about the one
who calls us to the cross. So.

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So I think the rubric then becomes
very powerful.

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Yeah.

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Are we being, called to account
because we are testifying

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to Jesus Christ who came, gave, died,
sacrificed and gave up?

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Are we giving testimony
to God who is Almighty

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and the one whom we follow, and the one
who has grace and mercy and love for all?

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Or are we in some way
seeking for power, for fame,

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for privilege, for accumulate
of all kinds, for our own benefit?

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That rubric matters in the midst
of persecution, especially in our context.

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I think you know,
you're right to point out

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there are countries in our modern world
today

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where simply possessing the Bible,

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but the collection of books
that have been preserved and given to us

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by the historic faith
as as a way to see the revelation

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of Jesus Christ simply possessing
that book is on.

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It is in itself enough to
to cause the giving of your life.

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I think for Christians who don't fear that
we find ourselves tempted

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by this gradual scale
of what persecution is and what it isn't.

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And I think
the rubric of persecution is Christlike.

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If it is that thing known by the father
and known by the son,

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if it resonates with their character,
that is where Christians are called to be.

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That's what to be a disciple
means to be a follower.

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To be a Christian means
to be a little Christ.

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That should be our sole focus.

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Instead of taking pride in whatever

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difficulty of faith we might be having,
as some are want to do.

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I think historically,

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this idea and this word persecution has

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been very serious and has had.

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Sometimes life threatening ramifications.

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And so when we apply that word

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to lesser struggles and lesser challenges,

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I think we need to certainly be conscious
that we're doing that.

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And I think we need to be careful in not,

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undervaluing

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what the church
has historically spoken of.

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And certainly I think what the Scripture
speaks of as persecution.

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We may all hit some bumps in the road
because we are Christian

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and probably should
if we're being faithful,

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but not all of them will rise to the level
of what the Scripture

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and and church
history has typically called persecution.

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And we we want to be careful
so that we don't minimize

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the idea that

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there really have been
and currently are, people

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who risk their very lives
more than, you know, discomfort,

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more than inconvenience,
more than disagreement.

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The gospel has been dangerous for people,
and we just want to be very careful,

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including ourselves in that
for lesser reasons.

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I think that does a disservice to them

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and us again, while simultaneously saying

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that our faith should disconnect us
from the world that places and right

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and we should experience some differences
and some discomforts

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because of it, which
I think we want to be careful how we talk.

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About those don't oversimplify
things that have depth.

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And also, I would say, be mindful
that the people who

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lose their life for the faith
are not losing it

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because they're carrying an NIV Bible
instead of a noise free Bible.

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It's because they claim Jesus.

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I mean, that's the it boils down
to the one that they claim to be Lord.

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And so it sometimes we get fixated
on details if we're people in the faith.

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But but know that simply who we call

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Lord is in most cases the dividing line.

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And that is that's a life oriented choice
that we've made.

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And, and those who make it can often

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and have often
found the implications of that choice.

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Yeah, we have the luxury
and therefore the challenge

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of living out our faith
in a mostly non dangerous context.

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And so that that brings with it some,

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some particular
difficulties that we have to navigate.

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That's not enough for today.
We're glad that you're with us.

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Hope that this conversation has been
helpful, challenging, meaningful for you.

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I give it a like if it has, well,
I can't tell you strongly enough

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how much that matters in terms of other
people being able to find the study.

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After we are done together.

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So I hope you'll do that.

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Subscribe
so you can stay with us on the journey.

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We will be back tomorrow

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and look forward to continuing
on through the Gospel of John.

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Just want to add,
if you are not in our first press

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community and you're interested
in these kind of conversations,

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we will be offering an Ash Wednesday
devotion this evening.

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It will just be online.

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It won't be live.

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But, if these are kind of thoughts
that you're interested in

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and you're not in our community,
we're grateful that you listen.

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And if you'd like to hear more,
that will be up on our on our website.

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You'll find links later on in the day.

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We will see you all tomorrow.