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He Has Provided Salvation on the Mountain :: Genesis 22:1-14

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And Abraham called the name of that place, YHWH will provide (v 14).  [Introduction] Scripture was written to tell us about Jesus. As that sign on the wall in the back of the sanctuary says, It’s still all about Jesus! Every word of it. It’s all about how YHWH shows us our salvation. When Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible ... Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, he was writing about Jesus as the promised redeemer who fulfills the Law, who acts as the ultimate sacrifice and completes the story of salvation. It’s all there: His birth, his life, his death, his resurrection. Consider that Genesis 3 promises that the son who crushes sin, death, and the devil will come from the woman (v 15) and that God will cover our sin and shame (v 21). Genesis 37-50 describes his death and resurrection. It tells us that our redeemer will come from Judah, and that there is unconditional forgiveness. Exodus then highlights that God is always with us and that he sets us free...
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Sounds of the Passion: The Rooster’s Crow :: Matthew 26:69-75

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Then [Peter] began to curse himself and swear: I don’t know the man! And immediately, the rooster crowed (v 74). 5. Every once in a while, something happens that really lets us know that we’ve failed. For Peter, it was the moment the rooster crowed. Of all the Sounds of the Passion, hearing the rooster crow must be the most overwhelming. Peter idolized his pride. He cursed and swore he didn’t know Jesus. He despised God’s Word. Then the rooster crowed. Of all the people we would expect this least from, it is Peter. He was willing to take leaps of faith most of us would never think about, let alone try ... you know, like actually dropping his nets and abandoning his $100,000 boat, walking away from the only career he’d ever known, just because Jesus said, Follow me . Don’t we all wish we had that much faith?  Though Peter would become a pillar of the church, he became perhaps the most conflicted disciple. One moment he’ll say he doesn’t want Jesus to wash his feet ... and the next ...
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We Are His Highest Priority :: John 6:1-15

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When the men saw the sign that he did, they said: “This One is truly the Prophet, the One Coming into the world (v 14). [Introduction] Apart from the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, the feeding of the five thousand in the wilderness near the Sea of Galilee is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. That should tell you something about how important this great event is in the life of the church.  THROUGH THE FEEDING OF THE 5,000, OUR LORD TEACHES US THAT HIS HIGHEST PRIORITY IS OUR ETERNAL WELL-BEING Unlike Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Gospel of John not only specifically associates the feeding of the five thousand with Passover and that it happened on a mountain, the place where heaven and earth meet ... we learn that it is Jesus himself, Jesus alone, who sees a need among the people, fills that need himself personally, and doesn’t wait for his disciples to do it. His highest priority is our eternal well-being. After taking bread and giving thanks, in John’s Gospel, it is Je...
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Sounds of the Passion: Tramping Feet :: John 18:1-14

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One of my favorite memories of serving in the Marine Corps comes from boot camp ... the sound of tramping feet. When you get 70 men into formation and start teaching them to march in time, to snap their rifle to port arms in time ... the first thing you hear is something like the sound of bubble pop [Purrrrerdip]. By the end of boot camp, the drill instructors always have everyone in perfect time. There’s a perfect rhythm in the martial beat of our Lord Jesus, too. It’s a sound that repeats again and again as Jesus is shuttled from Gethsemane to trial, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod and back ... and finally from judgment to the cross. THE SOUND OF THE PASSION MARCHES ON WITH TRAMPING FEET I. [Left ... Left ... Left, Right, Left] We first hear this sound in the Garden.  Jesus had just finished his agonizing time in prayer, sweating blood. He roused the disciples from their slumber with the news that his betrayer was at hand. Right on cue, the sound of tramping feet ...
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In the Name Above All Names :: Luke 11:14-28

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In the name of Jesus ... The demon came out, the mute man spoke, and the crowd marveled (v 14). [Introduction] For the third time in three weeks, we have heard of a conflict between God and the devil. Two weeks ago, our Lord rebuked satan for his accusations against God himself. Last week, our Lord walked into a pagan wilderness to answer the prayer of a faithful woman whose daughter was being tormented by a demon. And now today, our Lord has given a faithful confession to a man who had been silenced by a demon. In all three cases, we learned that “The One” who is stronger than the unholy trinity of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh has arrived. Jesus has come and brings great blessings. Jesus has come to cleanse and set us free. Jesus has come to leave those of us who actively hear his Word and guard it ... holding it close ... blessed and in awe.  IN THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES, JESUS HAS COME TO GIVE US A FAITHFUL CONFESSION  1.  Now, before we get into this text...
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