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Welcome to Finding Our Way. My name's James.
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My good friend Larry and myself are inviting
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you to join us in the conversations that we're
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having of our journey to finding our way to the
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goodness of God. God is good. God is love. God
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was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,
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not imputing their trespasses against them. So
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come on, let's go. The party has already started.
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With God's goodness as our guide. episode talking
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about who it was that died. Jesus standing there
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in the flesh on the shores of Galilee. That was
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the Father's eternal Son anointed in the Holy
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Spirit. The creator, sustainer of all that is.
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And I want to give credit. I learned this from
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Baxter Kruger. But the reality is that is who's
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standing there who's being baptized of john and
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he's holding the stars he's causing the planets
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to spin on their axis yeah in the galaxy and
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all the stars and he's holding it all together
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jesus in the flesh he's the one hanging on the
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cross saying father forgive me Yeah. He's the
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one that died. And he has been raised. We were
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raised with him in the whole cosmos. And it's
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all new. Yes. That's the message. That is the
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message. Yeah. We were also talking about Hebrews
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1. About... Hadn't he purged our sins? Yeah.
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Well, the final revelation, he's spoken to us
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by the Son. Yes, yes. And he has... purged our
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sins and sat down. That being that final revelation,
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the full revelation of God. I'm going to give
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another shameless plug to this book, Getting
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to Know Papa, a 31 -day journey into the heart
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of our Father. I do recommend it. On day eight,
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the title of everything has changed. James picks
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up this scripture out of Hebrews chapter 1. Verses
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1 through 3. This is the New Living Translation.
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I love that translation too. Yeah. Long ago,
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God spoke many times and in many ways to our
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ancestors through the prophets. And now in these
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final days, He has spoken to us through His Son.
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God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance.
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And through the Son, He created the universe.
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The Son radiates God's own glory and expresses
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the very character of God, and he sustains everything
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by the mighty power of his command. When he had
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cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the
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place of honor at the right hand of the majestic
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God in heaven. Son, that puts it in perspective.
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That's good for a new living translation. Yeah,
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that puts it in perspective. All right, and this
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is James' reflection on that verse. Having established
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that Jesus is the full and final revelation of
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God, that he is perfect theology, any understanding
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of God that does not look like Jesus must be
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reexamined. If what we believe about God contradicts
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what we see in Christ, then Christ must have
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the final word. Yeah, yeah. I remember Bill Johnson
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saying one time, And I don't remember the context
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of the comment. He says, people ask me about,
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what about Job? You know, the book of Job and
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Christian sufferings. What about Job? He said,
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I just look at him and say, but what about Jesus?
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You know, are you going to, who are you going
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to follow here? Who are you going to get your
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life from? Yeah, we got a story of Job, but we
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also got what Jesus did. He went about doing
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good, healing all that were sick and oppressed
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of the devil. That's good. You have to forgive
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my aside here. That's good. Okay. One of the
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keys to reading the Bible well is to read it
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through the lens of Jesus and his ministry, bringing
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everything all the way through the cross. Well,
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you might have. I may not have read it right.
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No, no. Okay. All the way through the cross,
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burial, resurrection, ascension, and the sending
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of the Holy Spirit. This is the realm in which
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we now live. Scripture is not merely a record
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of what God once did. It is a witness that finds
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its meaning and fulfillment in him. What did
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Jesus accomplish with his coming? And what does
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that mean to us? We live in a very different
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reality than those who lived before and during
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the earthly life of Jesus. Before the cross and
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resurrection, the coming of the king changes
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everything. A new creation has begun. A new covenant
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has been established. And a new way of relating
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to God has been revealed. Yet in our day, many
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still live no differently. than those who lived
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under the law people strive to please god by
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doing this or that whatever their tradition or
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denomination has determined must be done often
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this flows from a failure to grasp the magnitude
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of god becoming human and accomplishing what
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only god could accomplish for us the gospel is
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not about trying harder to reach god It is about
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awakening to what God has already done in Christ
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and learning to live from that finished reality.
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That's good, James. That's good. And then he
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says, sit with this. Notice what ideas about
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God quietly surface in you. Gently hold them
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up to the face of Jesus, allowing yourself to
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rest in his gentle embrace and listen. Yeah.
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Yeah, Jesus becomes the lens we look through.
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That's a tectonic shift in the plates, man. Oh,
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yes. Yes. Paradigm shift. Yeah. Well, and I think
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we don't realize the magnitude of what Jesus
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accomplished on one hand, and then two, I don't
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think we realize how deep that old way of living
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is in us. I just like the way this new living
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says some of this stuff. God promised everything
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to the Son as an inheritance. Is that everything?
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Well, that goes back to, I don't know that we've
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ever done an episode on Paul's awls. No, we might
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need to. And I'd have taken some time to actually,
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I can't do that off the top of my head. I just
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know there's a bunch of them in there. But it's
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like, if he's given, if he, if Christ is the
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creator of everything, and I don't think that's
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even a debated fact. I think everybody finds
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agreement there. And he's the inheritance of
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everything. Then what gets left out? Or who gets
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left out? I don't think anything does. But that's
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where I've come. Now, how it plays out, we can
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discuss some of that. But in the end, Christ,
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God is all and in all. Come on now. That's the
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telos. All things gathered up into Christ. Yes.
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In heaven, on the earth, and under the earth.
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Yes. I had this thought just recently. What's
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he talking about under there? In the underground.
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Whatever, you know. All things, everything. That's
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Ephesians 1 .10, I think. Summing up of all things.
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That's the plan. Yeah. Well, and I realize, I
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know I've mentioned this in Hebrews 2 many times,
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that we see... We do not see all things yet put
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under his feet, but we see Jesus. We're caught
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up in this process of things. Under his feet?
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How do you understand that? I think that's where
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things come to be willfully ruled by him. A footstool.
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A footstool, yeah. Worship, yeah. That's in Acts.
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We welcome his rest. I might think about that
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a minute. One heart at a time. Yeah. Says he
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sustains. We don't have a problem with it. He
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sustains everything by his mighty power. He's
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the reason that tree over us. Doing what he's
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doing. Yeah. He's the reason we can get up and
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move and walk. Acts 17, in him we live and move
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and have our being. Oh, don't be talking about
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that now. Yeah. Oh, that's a good chapter right
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there. Well, somewhere, I read somewhere, somebody
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talked about in him we live, that tree lives.
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Yeah. In him we move. And that animal moves.
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Yep. But in him we have our being. Ooh, that's
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good. And only humanity has being. Yeah, that's
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good. But we do live and we move, but we also
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have being. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, we're human.
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We're human beings. That's right. That's good,
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man. Yeah. I never saw that, but there's all
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forms of life existing in him. Yes, in him. The
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way that you said it. What's it in perspective?
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That's good. Yeah. Well, and even in the scientific
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world, we break things down into the plant kingdom,
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the animal kingdom, you know. But if it's life,
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it's from him. That's John 1. Yeah. Yeah. In
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him was life. Well, but I think some of that
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goes back to... The fact of in my original coming
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up and ideas and thoughts about God, I got this
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image of what I would call today this dualistic
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approach. Well, that God was separate from his
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creation. And I don't mean, I'm not trying to
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say I'm a pantheist. That's just a term. Well,
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of course, we don't rehearse what we're going
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to do anyway, so I'm over here just stuttering,
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trying to cover up my thoughts. But that there
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was this, it goes back to this, if your starting
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spot is separation, then you're always working
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to get back. And what Jesus come to reveal is
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that you've always been in union with him, except
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you were alienated in your mind. You thought
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you were separated. You thought you were abandoned.
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You thought you were cursed. You thought all
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these wrong thoughts and Jesus came and in the
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wisdom of God dealt with all those things sufficiently
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and completely. And in a fascinating way in the
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cross, where he just kind of like summed it all
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up and put it to death in one act of righteousness.
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Yeah. Yeah, that's good. He having made purification.
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How does he say it here? When he had cleansed
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us from our sins. The way this says that, a certain
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timing of it. Yeah. Well, that's if I overemphasize
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that he has cleansed us from our sins. Later
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in Hebrews, he mentions about there remains no
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more consciousness of sin. We won't even accept
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the fact that we've been washed clean. Like we're
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still hanging on to the guilt of the past and
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regret over things. The remembrance of what somebody's
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done against us. That's right. We can roll it
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down. If you're fine, that's fine. Well, that'd
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be better. Yeah, cleansed. We've been cleansed
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from our sins. Later in Hebrews, he talks about
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he has put an end to sin. John said he has taken
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away sin. Without sin. He comes a second time
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without sin. Because he's dealt with it so completely
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the first time. And we can't, in our minds, we
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can't even get there. And when you start trying
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to talk about that, you get the label of hyper
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grace and greasy grace. I'm like, no, you don't
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understand what he's done. You're still trying
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to act like, well, yeah, he did something, but
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it's back on me. And that's what Jesus came and
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said, no, it's all on me, and I got it. Come
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on. What you think's a problem, I'll deal with
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it. I've solved it. Now see yourself like I see
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you. Believe about you what I believe about you.
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Live as I live because we only have one life.
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That's right. Yeah, and I'm the source of it.
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You can't live independent of me. Without me,
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you can do nothing. I can't remember Augustine's
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quote. I remember one time when I was a pastor,
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I quoted Augustine along these lines. Oh, well,
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that's what it was. Love God and do as you please.
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Do as you please, yeah. There were some things
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Augustine was real good on. That's some of the
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things people have a problem with. Well, if I
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believe that, I just do what I want to. Yes.
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Yeah. But are you believing that? Well, if you
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believe that, meaning what's really in the gospel,
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your want to has changed. Exactly. It goes back
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to sin's not who you are. It's not your identity.
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Yeah. You see temptation for what it is. You
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see that you're one with Jesus. Yes. Do what
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you want to. You'll find yourself loving your
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wife if you're married to a woman or your husband.
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Yeah. You'll find yourself loving your neighbor.
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You'll find yourself loving your enemy. Yeah.
00:16:52.860 --> 00:17:01.940
Yeah. Do what you want. That's good. He says,
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when he had cleansed us from our sins. That's
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my point. When did he do that? Yeah. When you
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said the prayer? No, when he became sin for us.
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When you got baptized? When Christ died for our
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sins. When you joined the church? No. Yeah. Then
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he sat down in the place of honor at the right
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hand of the majestic God, and he sat down. Why?
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He died. Yeah. And we sat down in him. Yeah.
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And that's the other thing. Yeah. I've seen Ephesians
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and Colossians. Yeah. That's right. We ascended
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with him. We died with him. It's in Romans where
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we started. We died with him. We were crucified
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with him. We died with him. We were buried with
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him. We were raised with him. We ascended with
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him. We're enthroned with him. We're enthroned
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with him. Yeah. That's why Paul said, seek those
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things which are above where Christ sits at the
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right hand of God, not on things of the earth,
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but on things on high. For you are dead or have
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died with Christ, and your life is hidden with
00:18:09.339 --> 00:18:15.559
Christ in God. Yeah. Son. Yeah. That's the new
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creation. Roman Ephesians 2, I believe it is.
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Two or four. I can't remember. New humanity.
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Jew and Gentile. Got crucified. Married and made.
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Now there's one new man in Christ Jesus. Yes.
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Ah, come on somebody. Can you believe it? Yeah.
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Well, that's the problem is that everywhere we
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go in the world, everybody's divided up, ranked
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some kind of way. You can divide them however
00:18:46.269 --> 00:18:48.730
you want to. You can rank them however you want
00:18:48.730 --> 00:18:52.109
to. And Jesus comes and says there is no division
00:18:52.109 --> 00:18:58.369
and there is no ranking. We are one and everybody
00:18:58.369 --> 00:19:01.750
is forgiven and loved. Now can we learn to live
00:19:01.750 --> 00:19:06.190
from that position? Which is so foreign to our
00:19:06.190 --> 00:19:09.289
thought process. That's right. That's right.
00:19:10.170 --> 00:19:12.730
We don't have to read it, but the next day I
00:19:12.730 --> 00:19:15.480
talked more about interpreting scripture through
00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:17.759
the lens of Jesus. There's three old days on
00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:20.119
that. Hey, I better quit or they won't buy your
00:19:20.119 --> 00:19:26.140
book. I've already read it. Larry's read it to
00:19:26.140 --> 00:19:34.420
me. I don't need to buy it. Let's see. God has
00:19:34.420 --> 00:19:39.319
spoken. Do you want me to read all these scriptures?
00:19:39.859 --> 00:19:45.170
Yeah, we're in the same scripture. Okay. All
00:19:45.170 --> 00:19:46.930
right, I'm going to go back. I am going to give
00:19:46.930 --> 00:19:49.789
another plug for the book because it's 31 days,
00:19:50.130 --> 00:19:54.190
and it takes a while sometimes to get some of
00:19:54.190 --> 00:19:57.410
this truth down in you. I mean, you've got to
00:19:57.410 --> 00:20:01.549
marinate in it. You've got to soak in it. You've
00:20:01.549 --> 00:20:05.009
got to lie down there in it and just let it wash
00:20:05.009 --> 00:20:09.230
all over you. Crock -pot it. Yeah. You're getting
00:20:09.230 --> 00:20:13.069
our minds renewed to thinking different, especially,
00:20:13.210 --> 00:20:17.619
I mean, It depends on where you come from. Anyway,
00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:22.299
here's day nine about God spoken, the Hebrews
00:20:22.299 --> 00:20:28.980
1 scripture. The Son of God is the means of God's
00:20:28.980 --> 00:20:33.420
communication, the word. God did indeed speak
00:20:33.420 --> 00:20:36.519
through the prophets, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah,
00:20:36.779 --> 00:20:40.039
Isaiah, and others. But now God has spoken to
00:20:40.039 --> 00:20:44.069
us through his Son. Jesus is God communicating
00:20:44.069 --> 00:20:48.329
himself to us. He has come down to our level.
00:20:48.490 --> 00:20:52.450
In many ways, we are like children learning to
00:20:52.450 --> 00:20:57.730
read, slow to grasp, slow to respond. Yet Jesus
00:20:57.730 --> 00:21:01.009
comes to us anyway, meeting us in our limitation
00:21:01.009 --> 00:21:05.670
with patience and clarity. When interpreting
00:21:05.670 --> 00:21:09.029
scripture, it is important to remember that Jesus
00:21:09.029 --> 00:21:12.599
came first to the Jews. His earthly ministry
00:21:12.599 --> 00:21:15.279
and much of what he said was directed towards
00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:19.480
them, especially the religious leaders. His ministry
00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:22.799
unfolded under the old covenant, which is significant.
00:21:23.059 --> 00:21:25.759
The new covenant, which has now replaced the
00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:29.559
old, did not come into effect until his resurrection.
00:21:30.599 --> 00:21:33.940
Consider the relationship of father, son, and
00:21:33.940 --> 00:21:38.539
spirit before time began. Think of that perichoretic
00:21:38.539 --> 00:21:42.910
dance of love. Each preferring the other, enjoying
00:21:42.910 --> 00:21:46.549
the other in perfect fellowship. Out of that
00:21:46.549 --> 00:21:50.069
eternal communion and from the very heart of
00:21:50.069 --> 00:21:55.089
God, the Father sent his Son to us. Why? God
00:21:55.089 --> 00:21:58.589
sent his Son into the world, not to judge the
00:21:58.589 --> 00:22:02.650
world, but to save the world through him. Jesus
00:22:02.650 --> 00:22:06.609
is not merely a messenger. He is the message.
00:22:07.130 --> 00:22:12.759
God revealed, God speaking. God reaching. That's
00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:17.420
good. And he says, sit with this. Jesus is the
00:22:17.420 --> 00:22:20.480
clearest picture you will ever have of what God
00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:24.720
is like. His heart, his character, his love towards
00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:28.799
you. He came near. He spoke in a language we
00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:31.539
could understand through a life we could see,
00:22:31.700 --> 00:22:34.980
touch, and receive. What might it mean for you
00:22:34.980 --> 00:22:38.549
to listen more closely to the son today? I'm
00:22:38.549 --> 00:22:41.549
not ashamed to say it. I read it. I've been reading
00:22:41.549 --> 00:22:46.210
it this month. Every morning. Yeah, because I
00:22:46.210 --> 00:22:55.190
need that truth, man. Yes. Every day. Yeah. Well,
00:22:55.329 --> 00:23:00.769
it goes back to how much that our minds need
00:23:00.769 --> 00:23:04.809
to get renewed because I know I can get on a
00:23:04.809 --> 00:23:07.920
negative thought pattern. Oh, yeah. Or I can
00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:14.160
get on just negative thought or low expectations.
00:23:17.920 --> 00:23:20.480
Whether it's just beating myself up or being
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:24.640
depressed about something or trying to figure
00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:27.319
out how I can work to achieve something. I can
00:23:27.319 --> 00:23:31.539
get on that train real easy and totally forget
00:23:31.539 --> 00:23:37.099
about what's really true. Yeah, that's the point,
00:23:37.259 --> 00:23:44.240
I think, of these last few episodes is renewing
00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:49.839
our minds to the truth that is. Yeah. It's that
00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:54.319
truth that makes you free. Yeah. Reality. Mm
00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:58.099
-hmm. The world that we live in is a resurrected
00:23:58.099 --> 00:24:07.519
Christ's world. Mm -hmm. In Him. We share his
00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:11.900
life, and we're alive forevermore. Yeah. The
00:24:11.900 --> 00:24:17.140
Jesus that we grew up on, who was he? The emphasis
00:24:17.140 --> 00:24:22.019
that was there. Yeah. He was the one that was
00:24:22.019 --> 00:24:25.380
going to die for our sins because God was angry
00:24:25.380 --> 00:24:30.490
at us. Merciful Jesus came to save us from my
00:24:30.490 --> 00:24:32.809
angry father. He was going to take the whooping
00:24:32.809 --> 00:24:38.309
I deserved. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. He was
00:24:38.309 --> 00:24:41.329
going to take the whooping I deserved. It never
00:24:41.329 --> 00:24:45.970
dawned on any of us or me and these back in that
00:24:45.970 --> 00:24:50.990
day that the one that died was actually the one.
00:24:52.879 --> 00:24:55.160
anointed in the Holy Spirit, maybe it did, and
00:24:55.160 --> 00:24:57.180
that he was the Father's son, but not that he
00:24:57.180 --> 00:25:01.380
was the creator and sustainer of the cosmos.
00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:06.180
I grew up with somewhat a limited view of Jesus
00:25:06.180 --> 00:25:11.740
and his humanity. Not that he wasn't fully human,
00:25:11.940 --> 00:25:19.720
but that he had, that I did not think much about
00:25:19.720 --> 00:25:27.099
the fact that when he became man, He became related
00:25:27.099 --> 00:25:31.140
and connected and identified with everybody,
00:25:31.519 --> 00:25:39.259
all people. But that he was just a man like any
00:25:39.259 --> 00:25:47.059
other man. And that he was coming to pay for
00:25:47.059 --> 00:25:52.279
our sins and satisfy the holiness. or the justice
00:25:52.279 --> 00:25:57.180
of a holy God. That was the penal substitutionary
00:25:57.180 --> 00:26:00.099
atonement thought process. The justice being
00:26:00.099 --> 00:26:06.579
the law was broken. Yes. Somebody had to. That's
00:26:06.579 --> 00:26:12.039
all I heard. It was a good gospel. It seemed
00:26:12.039 --> 00:26:15.039
to make sense to me for a long time until it
00:26:15.039 --> 00:26:19.759
didn't. Well, I never ran into anybody preaching
00:26:19.759 --> 00:26:21.720
anything different. Everybody had a different
00:26:21.720 --> 00:26:24.700
form of a penal substitutionary atonement. There
00:26:24.700 --> 00:26:28.940
was debate over how you got in on it. Was it
00:26:28.940 --> 00:26:31.079
by grace through faith, or did you have to be
00:26:31.079 --> 00:26:33.619
baptized, or did you have to speak in tongues?
00:26:33.640 --> 00:26:36.799
All those debates. But it still was under the
00:26:36.799 --> 00:26:40.759
same umbrella of Jesus paying for your penalty.
00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:43.900
I'm not going to think about it. We made that
00:26:43.900 --> 00:26:47.500
road, all right? We made it. Yeah. It wasn't
00:26:47.500 --> 00:26:50.019
a big thing, really. I could have run off the
00:26:50.019 --> 00:26:52.359
road. No, you didn't run off the road. You liked
00:26:52.359 --> 00:26:54.259
about it, though, since putting us in the ditch
00:26:54.259 --> 00:26:57.319
and getting in front of them. Oh, yeah, finding
00:26:57.319 --> 00:27:01.059
our way in the ditch. I may find a way to put
00:27:01.059 --> 00:27:04.000
that in there. You probably see my big old eyes
00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:09.900
getting on the road, too. Hey, thanks for listening
00:27:09.900 --> 00:27:14.000
to us talk about how we're finding our way. We
00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:17.250
hope it helps you find your way. to experiencing
00:27:17.250 --> 00:27:20.869
the goodness of our Heavenly Father, the abundant
00:27:20.869 --> 00:27:25.589
life Jesus shares with us now, and the immeasurable
00:27:25.589 --> 00:27:29.930
love He has for everyone. For more information
00:27:29.930 --> 00:27:34.869
or to contact us, go to our website, findingourway
00:27:34.869 --> 00:27:36.569
.co