Podcasts about father phil

John 12:12–19 Color: Red Old Testament: Zechariah 9:9–12 Psalm: Psalm 31:9–16; antiphon: v. 5 Psalm: Psalm 118:19–29; antiphon: v. 26 Epistle: Philippians 2:5–11 Gospel: Matthew 26:1—27:66 Gospel: Matthew 27:11–54 Introit: Psalm 22:1, 7–8, 11; antiphon: vv. 19, 21 Gradual: Psalm 73:23b–24, 1 Tract: Psalm 22:1, 4–5 The Cross and Passion of Our Lord Are the Hour of His Glory   “Behold, your King is coming to you . . . humble and mounted on a donkey” (Zech. 9:9–12; Mt. 21:1–9). Our Lord rides in this humble fashion because He is entering Jerusalem to humble Himself even to the point of death on a cross (Phil. 2:5–11). His kingly crown will not be made of gold but of thorns, the sign of sin's curse. For His royal reign is displayed in bearing this curse for His people, saving us from our enemies by sacrificing His own life. The sinless One takes the place of the sinner so that the sinner can be freed and bear the name “Barabbas,” “son of the Father” (Matthew 26 and 27). It is at the name of this exalted Savior, Jesus, that we bow in humble faith. With the centurion who declared, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Mt. 27:54), we are also given to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11). Lectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

In this episode, Father Paul and Father Phil dive into a profound and often misunderstood topic—the heart. Drawing from Pope Francis' letter Dilexit nos, they explore what it truly means to have a heart, why it's central to our faith, and how we can help form the hearts of our children. With humour, personal stories, and deep theological insights, our chaplains discuss how the heart is more than just emotions—it's the place where we encounter God.   You can:   Follow us on Instagram @growingheartspodcast   Find out more about the Pared Foundation: visit our website   Discover our schools by visiting: pared.edu.au/openday   Remember to hit SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW so you don't miss out on any of our future episodes    

When I was a child, I remember the sense of security I had while Ronald Reagan served as our president. I also remember his farewell address to our nation and the great sense of loss that I felt knowing that he would no longer be serving as our nations president. John Winthrop preached in 1630 upon arriving in Massachusetts; in his sermon Winthrop declared his fellow pilgrims: For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. He also said of their future in Massachusetts: Beloved there is now set before us life and good, Death and evil, in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments and his Ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our Covenant with him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land we go to possess. John Winthrops sermon had a profound impact upon President Reagan for he placed that line about Winthrops hope and expectation that one day that land he and the pilgrims discovered, ...will be as a city upon a hill. I still remember President Reagans farewell address to our nation; I was in eighth grade at Neshaminy Junior High when I heard it. Reagans address is just over 20 minutes long, and although we do not have the time to listen to it, I would like to share with you his concluding remarks that I believe have affected our nation more than some of you may realize: I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still. And how stands the city on this winter night?More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago.But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home. We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought Americaback. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands.All in all, not bad, not bad at all. There is a phrase introduced to our nation from another campaign that I was going to use for the title of this sermon... a phrase I have heard many Christians say or embrace that I have chosen not to use. I know that when some use the phrase, it has been and continues to be used out of a hope and desire for Americas good. However, I have instead chosen the phrase: America is a shining city on hill used by a president I still admire and respect. Jesus is Eternally the Same (vv. 7-9) What I dislike about a sermon series like Christians Say the Darndest Things is that today you will receive an exposition on Hebrews 13:7-14 without the benefit of seeing the wounder of chapters 1:1-13:6. We are skipping right to the end without gazing at the Christ who is, the heir of all things, through whom God also made the world. Right out of the gate in the book of Hebrews, we discover a Jesus who is, the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of His nature. In Hebrews we discover a Jesus who, upholds all things by the word of His power. The Jesus of Hebrews 13:8 is the same Jesus who, When he had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:1-3). Because Jesus is, the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of His nature (1:3), He is the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:9). Jesus is the great I AM (John 8:48-59) because He is equal with the Father as the eternal Son (John 5:15-23). Jesus is He who was and is the Light of mankind because He is the Word who was in the beginning with God through Whom All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being (John 1:1-4). This same Jesus became flesh through the miraculous conception in Marys womb while still a virgin, He was born and lived among mankind yet without sin, and He lived for the purpose of dying for sinners like you and me on a cross. This same Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb, and on the third day... He defeated sin and death by rising from the grave. For this reason, this same Jesus is highly exalted and upon Him is, the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:8-11). Jesus is the same yesterday in that when God the Father spoke creation into existence, it was Jesus the Son who completed it: for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authoritiesall things have been created through Him and for Him (Col. 1:15-16). The reason why the earth remains in orbit and every atom and molecule remains in place is because the One who is also the same today is responsible for holding, all things together (Col. 1:17). Jesus is the same yesterday in that He was the One before Whom Abraham bowed (see Gen. 18:1-22). Jesus is the same yesterday in that He is the One who wrestled with Jacob (see Gen. 32:22-33). Jesus is the same yesterday in that He appeared before Joshua as the captain of the Lords army, and it was before Him that Joshua removed his sandals and worshiped (Josh. 5:13-15). Jesus is the same yesterday in that He was the One who was seen by King Nebuchadnezzar in the furnace as He kept Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from perishing in blazing fire of the furnace (see Dan. 3:8-30). Jesus is the same yesterday. Listen, the same Jesus who provided Peter, John, and James the miraculous catch of fish that compelled Peter to fall to his knees and respond: Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man (Luke 5:8), is still the same today! The same Jesus cured lepers, made the lame walk, the blind see, and the dead rise... is still the same today! The same Jesus who died for sinners and rose from the grave is still the same today! The same Jesus who commanded us to make disciples (Matt. 18:19-20) and promised, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judah, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth (Acts 1:8), is still the same today! And listen, the same Jesus who promised that He would come back in the same way that He ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9), is the same Jesus yesterday, today, and forever! The point is that if you get Jesus wrong, or if you miss Him, or if you choose any person, thing, or ideology over Him... you will get everything else wrong! The message of Hebrews is that Jesus is a treasure that no other treasure can compare. This is why we are told in verse 8 to, Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their way of life, imitate their faith. Those who truly spoke the word of God to you are those who did not get Jesus wrong! Jesus is the same yesterday. Everything in this World is Consistently Unsatisfactory (vv. 10-11) Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever... His life, death, and resurrection provide for us a more permanent solution to our sin problem. What this means is that Jesus cross is a better altar unlike ones used under the Old Covenant. The carcasses of the animals slaughtered on the Day of Atonement during Passover were taken out of the city to be burned; if they were thrown into a pile with the city and burned, they would have defiled the city. Not so with Jesus, for while living, he was led outside of the city to become a curse for us on the cross we deserved (Gal. 3:10-14), and by dying for our sins outside the gate, His blood is what makes us holy. What is the point? Here is the point: There is no person, there is no religion outside of Christianity, and there is no government that can do (if you are not a Christian) or has done (if you are a Christian) what Jesus alone can do. Paul Washer put it this way in his sermon preached to pastors some time ago answering the question as to how Jesus death on a cross for a few hours on a tree to save a multitude of men from an eternity in hell: Because that one Man is worth more of them put together. You take mountains and mole hills, crickets and clouds. You take everything. Every planet, every star, every form of beauty. Everything that sings, everything that brings delight, and you put it all onthe scale, and you put Christ on the other side and HE outweighs them all, HE outweighs them ALL! Brethren, this is the one we chase after![1] Compared to Christ, everything in this world is not only temporary but unsatisfactory. Jesus is the living water, and all the promises of this world together cannot compare. They are all broken and cannot deliver what they promise to deliver! The Old Covenant only provided a temporary solution to the sin problem of the Hebrew people; the work of the priests required them to remain standing for the need of a sin covering was ongoing. This is why just three chapters prior, we are reminded in Hebrews 10:1 of the following: For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the form of those things itself, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually every year, make those who approach perfect. Then in Hebrews 10:11-13, we are told of the only one qualified to address our sin problem: Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. (Heb. 10:1113) So, why is it that we are chasing after the shiny things of this world that cannot deliver what only Jesus is able to provide? Christian, if you have the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, why are you looking for something different? Why would you long for anything else when you have He who is the Bright Morning Star (Rev. 22:16)? Jesus is the same today. If You Have Jesus, You are Waiting for Something Greater (vv. 12-14) These next verses serve as the crescendo of the entire epistle, and they begin with the word Therefore and if the author of Hebrews was texting you Hebrews 13:7-14, you would see THEREFORE in all caps because it is a very big THEREFORE! In other words, in light of all that has been said from the very first sentence of this epistle to verse 11, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood (v. 12). What was accomplished on His cross for our sins outside the gate on Golgothas hill has done infinitely more than anything else you have chased after thinking that person, or thing, or ideology would bring you purpose, peace of mind, or pleasure. They cannot give you what only God is able to deliver! Dear Christian, Jesus sanctified you by dying for you, his corpse was in that tomb for three days, and the proof that Jesus sanctified you is in the fact that He marched out of that tomb three days later! Who or what can give you what Jesus has provided? If you are a Christian, Ephesians 1:7-8 is about you: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. What Jesus provided on the altar of the cross is only available for those who receive it, and those who receive it will never be the same because of Him. The evidence that you have received what Jesus has made available to you is a desire to follow Him. To any and all who wish to know Him, must follow Him, for Jesus said: If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul (Matt. 16:2426)? What we read in Hebrews 13:13 is no different: So then... So what? In light of the fact that Jesus is, the same yesterday and today, and forever (v. 7), and what has been provided on the altar of His cross for our sins (v. 10)... let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach (v. 13). The only reason anyone would do that is if they understood Jesus to be infinitely more precious and valuable than any person, any thing, any ideology, any city, or nation of this world. We chase after Jesus because in Him is life is and because He is life, He alone is the Light of mankind (John 1:4). We chase after Jesus because He is, the Light of the world and the one who chases after Him, will not walk in the darkness but will have the Light of life (John 8:12). Because we chase after Him and not the shiny trinkets of this world, He said of His Church: You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.... Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:14, 16). If you are a Christian, you are the light of the world because you have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God! He is the Alpha and Omega and He is the first and the last (Rev. 1:8, 17). It is before Him that the nations will stand in judgment and a day is coming when it will be from Him that earth and heaven will recoil in response to His holy and majestic presence! If you are a Christian, you belong to Him and because you belong to Him, you have no reason to fear Him who the tribes of the earth will mourn when He comes again (see Matt. 24:30). This may shock some of you and it may offend others of you, but you really need to hear this: America is not a shinning city on a hill! Here is what the Bible says about America and the nations that surround her: Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales (Isa. 40:15). Because we follow Jesus, we chase after another shinning city, we chase after His city... a city, which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Heb. 11:10). Because Jesus is the same yesterday and today, and forever, we live as foreigners, aliens, and strangers even in the United States of America. America cannot be our shinning city on a hill because we are promised something infinitely greater: For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking a city which is to come (Heb. 13:14). Here is what Revelation 21:23-27 says about the city we really belong to: And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lambs book of life. If America is a shinning city on a hill, it is nothing more than a tiny piece of glitter in comparison to the city we really belong to, and what makes the city we are seeking, that is to come, infinitely more beautiful is the Jesus who outweighs them all. He is the same yesterday and today, and forever! [1] Shepherds Conference 2016 | General Session 9 - Paul Washer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkqVZm9-7jc)

Luke is giving us a detailed description of the circumstances and people involved in the birth of Jesus that we do not find in the other Gospels. Luke first introduces us to Jesus the Baby in a stable lying in a manger. Then we read about Joseph and Mary taking Jesus to the temple about forty days after his birth to fulfill the Law of Moses concerning the purification of Mary after giving birth to a son. It is there that Simeon and Anna give us their witness recognizing the Jesus is the promised Messiah who will bring redemption to His people and be “a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles” (v. 34).   Now Luke introduces us to Jesus the Child growing up in Nazareth, the home city of Joseph and Mary. It might be interesting to note here that we know very little about the childhood of Jesus. From all the Gospels we find very little information. The Gospels of Mark and John make no mention at all about Jesus early years. From Matthew's Gospel we know Jesus was born in Bethlehem where the wise men came and worshipped Him, possibly within two years after His birth. But then when Herod tried to kill Him, Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt for a short period of time until Herod was dead, and then they returned to Nazareth (Matthew 2:13-23).   Here Luke informs us that having obeyed the Law in everything, Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth, which would be our Lord's home until He started His official ministry. There were many Jewish men with the name Jesus (Joshua), so He would be known as "Jesus of Nazareth" (Acts 2:22); and His followers would be called "Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5; see Matt. 2:23). His enemies used the name, scornfully and Pilate even hung it on the cross (John 19:19), but Jesus was not ashamed to use it when He spoke from heaven (Acts 22:8). That which men scorned (John 1:46), Jesus Christ took to heaven and made glorious!   What did Jesus do during the "hidden years" at Nazareth? Dr. Luke reports that the lad developed physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually (Luke 2:40, 52). In His incarnation, the Son of God set aside the independent use of His own divine attributes and submitted Himself wholly to the Father (Phil. 2:1-11). There are deep mysteries here that no one can fully understand or explain, but we have no problem accepting them by faith.   Jesus did not. perform any miracles as a Boy, traditions notwithstanding, because the turning of water into wine was the beginning of His miracles (John 2:1-11). He worked with Joseph in the carpenter shop (Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3) and apparently ran the business after Joseph died. Joseph and Mary had other children during those years (Matt. 13:55-56; John 7:1-10), for the "until" of Matthew 1:25 indicates that the couple eventually had normal marital relations.   At Nazareth, Jesus went through all of the stages of growing up. He lived in a home that He shared with brothers and sisters, all of whom manifested at times the Adamic nature. But He had no such nature. He was filled with the Spirit. He was always happy, always helpful, always holy. He was a familiar sight around the village, doing always those things that pleased His Father. The weak and sickly found a friend in Him for as was the Man, so was the Boy, known and liked by everyone for "the grace of God was upon him."   Because Scripture does not reveal much to us of the childhood of Jesus, we can only imagine what His growing up years at Nazareth must have been like! But for sure He was sinless, and during this time He developed the knowledge of His relationship with His Father in heaven through the Old Testament Scriptures. I believe as Jesus was reading the prophesies concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament in the Hebrew language, the Spirit of God was revealing to Him that He was the fulfilment of them!   Today, we can only marvel at God's wonderful love and grace in how He Himself becomes flesh to redeem us from our sins!   God bless!

As a kid, my favorite part about school was recess. Don't get me wrong, I liked school. I liked learning. But I liked playing even more. Now, when it came to recess, my friends and I almost always ended up deciding between one of two games to play together — football or kill the carrier. These two games are very different from one another.In football, you have an even amount of people on both teams — half who are trying to tackle you, half who are trying to block for and defend you. Now, one team may end up with bigger kids than the other team, or faster kids than the other team, but the numbers themselves are always an even split: Six on six. Seven on seven. And so on.Kill the carrier is different, because in kill the carrier the moment you pick up the ball, everyone on the field is your enemy. The kids to your right, to your left, in front of you and behind you, each one of them has one object in mind the moment that ball touches your hands — kill the carrier, which is now you. And within a matter of seconds, that object is typically accomplished as you find yourself flatly pressed to the ground, face to the dirt, and anywhere from 10-15 of your closest friends smothered on top of you. My vote was always for football. Because being surrounded by enemies did not make me feel strong. Did not make me feel at peace. But made me feel vulnerable, and weak, and in need of much help. Psalm 83 is a Psalm about a people surrounded by enemies. A people in need of much help. A people whose enemies did not mean to merely smother them, but annihilate them and wipe them from the face of the earth. Which is why Psalm 83 begins as it does: “O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!” Following that initial cry for help, we're going to see the Psalmist do three things. First, he's going to provide the reason he's asking God for help. Then, he's going to make his request to God — “God, this is how I'm asking you to help us.” Lastly, he's going to explain his hoped-for result. “God, this is what I want to have happen as the result of you answering my prayer. Reason for God's help, request for God's help, result of receiving God's help. Let's pray and ask God to help us.Alright, so what is the reason for the Psalmist's cry for help? What's the reason he prays: “O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!”? We'll start with verse 2:Reason for Prayer“For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads.” Notice the vertical dimension of these words. The problem, first and foremost, is that these people are enemies of God. It's first a vertical problem. “Your enemies (O God) make an uproar; those who hate you (O God) have raised their heads.” And right off the bat, we might wonder, “What could possibly lead to such insanity?” For a people to “raise their heads” against God. We get that imagery, right? “Raise their heads.” Like a rebellious child to his parents, or a defiant soldier to his captain. It's a posture of opposition. Of insolence. And, in this case, insanity. Like a bunch of toy soldiers lining up against a sixty-ton tank. What could lead to such insanity? Hate. Hate could cause a people to do something like that. And I fear that we are going to miss the significance of that word here in verse 2. I fear that because of our immersion into a world that daily disregards and defies God, that we'll simply skip over that word “hate” without even batting an eye. Brothers and sisters, don't miss the outrage of what's being communicated here. This Psalmist is saying these people hate God. “Those who hate you have raised their heads.” There is no greater evil in all the world than the evil expressed in that short phrase — “hate God.” And if our jaw is not ready to drop upon seeing those words (hate God), then we need to recalibrate to reality. What this verse is saying when it comes to the God who made this world, and upholds this world, and loves this world, and gave up his only Son for this world, these people hate him. There is nothing more dark and evil than that in all the world. Nothing. I mean, you might be able to find someone who hates your habits, hates your stuff, hates your politics, hates your morals, maybe even hates you — and yet not one of those hates, not one of them, holds a candle to the human hatred of God himself. There is no worse condition in all the world than having a heart that hates its Maker.Hatred for God's PeopleNow, it follows, that if a certain people hates God, they're going to hate the people who worship God as well. So verses 3-8 should come as no surprise — flowing from the fount of hatred for God is a hatred for God's people. And, as we see, it is a united hatred.Look with me at verse 3,“They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones.”Again in verse 5,“For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant.”Their shared hatred for God and his people leads, as it were, to a cooperative effort. One aimed at total annihilation. Verse 4, “They say, ‘Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!'”Total annihilation. Entire nations, linking arms, bound for the blood of God's treasured ones, and as much blood as possible. Now, to get a sense for the scale of this mounting opposition, the Psalmist lists the names of these enemy nations in verses 5-8 — Ten nations in total. And if we had more time together this morning, we could go through each one of these and note the backstory of the tension between these particular nations and God's people. As it is, we don't have time for that, and the backstory is not really the main point here anyway. The main point is this: Israel, God's people, are surrounded.See if you were to take a map of the world at this time, position Jerusalem (the Land of God's people) right in the center, you could plot out these other nations and come to find that they form a ring all round Jerusalem. Enemies on all sides — that's the point. God's people, in other words, have nowhere to run. Nowhere to turn. Nowhere to go, except to God who rules over all. So, that's what the Psalmist does. He goes to God. Lays out the reason for his alarm, and makes his request to God. RequestBeginning in verse 9, we can see that the Psalmist's request is founded upon the pages of history — all the times in which God's people were in need, and all the times God came to their rescue. Specifically, he cites two scenes from history — both from the book of Judges.The first one involves Midian. You see it there in verse 9? “Do to them as you did to Midian.” To which we might ask, “What did God do to Midian?” Well, he embarrassed them is what he did. He not only defeated them but humiliated, embarrassed them in the process. See God's people at that time had an army of 22,000 men. That's a good size army, don't you think? Well, God didn't. Instead, he whittled that army down to a tiny remnant of only 300 men. He then equipped that army for battle against mighty Midian with clay jars and trumpets. He directed them to then go and surround Midian in the middle of the night, smash a bunch of the jars, blow a bunch of trumpets, make a really loud noise and hold their torches up in the air. They did it. Guess what happened?Midian's mighty soldiers woke up in a panic, and assuming their fellow comrades all round them to be the enemy, grabbed their swords and starting killing each other. Midian was routed that day. Their four leaders — Oreb, Zeeb, Zebah, and Zalmunna (you can see their names listed in verse 11), were killed as well. Midian was not only destroyed that day, but humiliated in the process.The second story involving Canaan, and its king Jabin and his leading commander Sisera (you can see their names listed in verse 9), is very similar. Not only was their army routed in battle, but their commander Sisera, (valiant warrior as he was) turned tail and ran from the battle in fear. He sought shelter in the home of a woman named Jael. He asked her for water and protection, just as a child would ask his mother. She brought him in, gave him some milk, covered him with a blanket, and then sunk a tent peg into his skull. Canaan, Jabin, and Sisera was not only destroyed that day, but humiliated in the process.Now, the Psalmist, looking out at the enemy nations all round him, and recalling those two scenes from history, says, “God, do to these enemies what you did to Midian and Canaan and Sisera. Destroy them, and even humiliate them in the process.Request Rooted in NatureNow, the Psalmist's request continues for a few more verses, but the background on his request changes a bit. No longer flowing from the pages of history, but from what can be seen in the realm of nature. Verse 13,“O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind.”If you've ever seen an old western movie, you know the image he has in mind here, right? I used to joke with my brother and sister about this because we watched a lot of old westerns with my grandpa when we were growing up. And always, always, there was a scene, where one guy is staring down another guy, it's quiet, tension is peaking, and then this lone tumble weed drifts across the plain between them. That's the picture here, “turn these enemy nations into something akin to lone, worthless, bone-dry tumbleweed blowing aimlessly out of focus.”Chaff, similarly, as the unused part of a plant after harvest, dries out, breaks up, and is carried away in the wind. “God,” says the Psalmist, make them like that. Take, what feels to us, like an immovable and impenetrable enemy, and, “poof,” blow them away.Still in the realm of nature, verse 14 takes things up a notch.“As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, so may you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane!”Notice: “May you pursue them with your tempest…” God, set your sights, lock in on our enemy, and set a fire blazing upon their heels.The Psalmist clearly wants God to go after this enemy. He wants him to be the one to take down this enemy, and, as we noted in the pages of history, to even do so with a sort of flair that humiliates them in the process. But the question we want to ask is, “to what end?” What does the Psalmist actually want as the result of God's intervention? At first, it appears he wants two very different, even contradictory, results. And we might wonder, “How is this going to work?” How does one possibly pray for both of these seemingly contradictory results, in the very same Psalm?Result of the Prayer Look with me first at verse 16. The Psalmist prays, “Fill their faces with shame,” (that's that bit about defeat leading to embarrassment that we've been talking about). “Fill their faces with shame,” like embarrassment, humiliation, dishonor. But observe the intended result,“Fill their faces with shame that they may seek your name, O Lord.”In other words, make them to see the foolishness and futility of their actions. Awaken them to their own darkness and depravity. Allow them to become so broken and burdened that it brings them to their knees, casts their eyes down to the ground, leads them to cover their faces with shame — “we're sinners.” But do so, O God, in such a way that there, on the ground, and in their shame, these wayward souls begin to feel a tug upon their hearts — one like they've never experienced before. A pull that cries, “Go to God, you rebel, bring your shame and sin to him.” Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord.” Now what does it mean to seek God's name? Well it means to seek God's character. Seek God's nature. Seek God for who he is as, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex. 34:5-7). To seek the Lord is to seek him for mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation, and joy. Just as the Psalms have been saying all along:Psalm 27:8, “You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”Psalm 40:16, “May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!”Psalm 69:6, “Let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel.”Psalm 105:3-4, “Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!”The Psalmist's prayer in verse 16 is rooted in the reality that, as we see in Paul's speech in Acts 17: God is the one who “Made the world and everything in it, (and who is the) Lord of heaven and earth… (and) who gives to all mankind life and breath… (and who) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth…that they should seek (Him), and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.”It is rooted in the reality that God the Son says to all mankind, Matthew 11,“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It is rooted in the reality that even now, from heaven, God the Son calls,“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Rev. 3:20).“Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord.”It is a glorious prayer. A prayer with an intended result that befits the nature of God. And it is not the Psalmist's only hoped for result. The Psalmist, as we said, seems to pray here in not one but two very different directions toward two very different results. See how verse 17 reads a bit different: “Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace.”Condemnation before GodThe image here, in contrast to verse 16, is one in which the nations do not end up repenting. They do not end up seeking God, but die in their disgrace and sins. That's what it means to be “Put to shame and dismayed forever.” Forever offers no second chances. Forever offers no hope of a change in the future. “Put to shame and dismayed forever.”This is a prayer for condemnation. And, we might ask, what gives the Psalmist the right to pray this way?Well, to begin, the Psalmist knows that some people will in fact die shaking their fist at God. The Psalmist knows that. Some people will never repent, but will instead die shaking their fist at God. What he doesn't know is whether that'll be the case for these particular people from the enemy nations round him, or not. Will they end up seeking God or will they not? The Psalmist does not know.Yet, this is where we need to lean in. What the Psalmist does know is that if, if, these people for the enemy nations round him do, in fact, never end up repenting and instead die in their sins, die shaking their fist at God, then they must not be allowed to get away with it. In other words, the Psalmist does not pray, “God, cause these people to seek your name. But if they don't, would you just ignore that fact? Could you just turn a blind eye to their sin? Would you be willing to just overlook their rebellion against you?”The Psalmist does not pray that, and he does not want that, and the reason he doesn't is actually the key to unlocking this whole thing. See, because more than anything, highest in priority in terms of the Psalmist's request, is not ultimately that these enemies would be saved, nor ultimately that these enemies would be condemned, but ultimately that one way or another, they would know, they would know, verse 18: That God alone, whose name is the Lord, is the Most High over all the earth. Not them. Not some other god. But God alone, whose name is the Lord, is the Most High over all the earth.See, because here's the thing: When people live their whole lives hating God and hating his people, they live as walking, talking proclaimers of fake news: “God isn't all that great.” “God isn't worthy of our time.” “God is like chopped liver compared to the treasures this world has to offer.” And in doing so, they defy God's glory and drag it through the mud. And when they die that way, they appear, at least from the perspective of the world, to have gotten away with it. They, not God, appear, in the eyes of the world, to be the ones who are most high over all the earth — after all, they were even able to defy God and get away with it.Were the Psalmist to pray, “God, call these people to seek your name. If they don't, just let ‘em be” it would be akin to praying, “God, either get your glory through saving these people, or, simply allow them to go on trampling your glory throughout all eternity. Allow their apparent victory over you to suggest your glory and worth which they've defied isn't all that great after all.” As it is, the Psalmist does not pray that and does not want that, and neither should we. Now, should we “Desire all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4)? Our God does, so we should as well. Should we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? Of course. Jesus tells us to in Matthew 5:44.Should we also seek to share the good news with our enemies in hopes they'll turn from their sin and receive God's mercy and forgiveness? Of course — that is our commission from here till the day God takes us home. But should we ever desire that those who die hating God, get off the hook for their rebellion against him? No.See, the truth of the matter is that one day, when the lights go out and the curtain falls, Jesus is going to come again to judge the world, and when he does, every knee is coming down. “Every knee [will] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11).Every man and every woman will know, they'll see it for themselves, that God, not man, but God alone, whose name is the Lord, is the Most High over all the earth.And on that day, God will get the glory he deserves from every single soul.From those who in their life repented and turned and sought God — God will be glorified in the fulfillment of their salvation. From those who did not, in their life, end up repenting or turning or seeking God — God will be glorified in their just condemnation. Their reception of the only punishment terrible enough and long enough to prove the glory and worth of the one whom they have spurned — Hell for all eternity.Our ultimate prayer as Christians should always be, “God, no matter what, get your glory.”Our ultimate prayer should always be, as Christians, “God, hallowed be your name!”The deepest desire within all of our hearts should be that God's worth and God's glory and God's splendor would be held high in our world and throughout all eternity.We pray for our enemies. We pray, “God, save our enemies.” God humble them so that they seek you while you may still be found. And behind that prayer, undergirding that prayer, is “God, no matter what, get the glory you deserve in this world. Get your glory no matter what.”The TableNow, what brings us to the table this morning is the reminder that each and every one of us in this room this morning were born enemies of God. We were born, Romans 1:30, “haters of God.” And yet, as Romans 5:8 tells us, “God show[ed] his love for us in that while we were still sinners [still haters of God], Christ died for us.” Christ died for his enemies. You and me. This table represents his broken body and shed blood for the sake of his enemies. Because that's what this table represents, if you're here this morning and you've trusted in Jesus, we invite you to take and eat with us. If you've not put your trust in Jesus, we ask that you'd let the elements pass, but we pray you would, in this moment, receive Jesus, and his death for you.

Although the word church is not used in these verses, it is used throughout Ephesians. The Greek word for church is ekklesia and means, assembly, gathering, community, congregation, or as you know it church. That is its meaning on the surface but dive a little deeper into the meaning of ekklesia and you will discover that the word is made up of a prefix and a root. The prefix is ek and means out of, and the root is kaleō, which means, call or summon. All I want you to know and appreciate is that the word for church (ekklesia) literally means, the community of called out ones. If you are a Christian, then you belong to the ekklesia of Jesus Christ; you have been called out of the world: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for Gods own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). If you are a Christian, your identity is now in Jesus and is the reason why He prayed this for you: I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me (John 17:20-21). If you are a Christian, you belong to Him as His Church. Nine times the word ekklesia is used in Ephesians, but the Church is also referred to as the body (sōma) in Ephesians 4:4 and six more times throughout the epistle (see 1:23; 2:16; 4:12, 16; 5:23, 30). To be the body of Christ is to belong to Christ and to be in Christ. In and through Jesus we now belong as the ekklesia and our identity will forever be linked to Him as His Bride. So, dear Christian, is it any wonder that it is Jesus who assures His Church who is His Bride, who is His body: Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1:17b-18). We do not have the time to get into the significance of numbers this morning, but I do want to point out three significant numbers in these verses that are easy to miss if someone doesnt point them out to you. First, the number one signifies unity in the Bible. The number seven signifies perfection or completion in the Bible. Finally, the number three, for reasons that will soon become clear. Paul is emphasizing the need for unity in the opening verses of Ephesians 4, and urges the Church to be zealous, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is why he emphasized that there is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God that we, as the Church of Jesus Christ, share. Now, notice how many ones the apostle lists in these verses; he lists seven ones symbolizing that what binds us together as the Bride of Christ is complete and perfectly as God intended it. Finally, and the neatest part of these verses in my opinion is the number three, and you can see it with each of these verses: We are, one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling this is due to the work of the Holy Spirit, as God the Spirit. We have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism because of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, as God the Son. We worship, one Father of all who is over all and through all and in all who is God the Father. The significance of the number three is that it is symbolic of the God who we worship who is Three-in-One as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are two ways I can break down these verses in this sermon. I was tempted to create seven points for each of the reasons why we must, urgently keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v. 3). I have chosen the second way I can break down these verses and it the outline Paul intentionally provided for us based on God as a Trinity. Notice that in Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul begins with the Father who has chosen us, then the Son who has Redeemed us, and then the Holy Spirit who has sealed us. Here in Ephesians 4:4-6, Paul begins from the ground up with the Holy Spirit who keeps us in power, the Son of God who walks with us in love, and the Father who is sovereignly for us. In light of all of the craziness in our nation and world, I cannot think of a more appropriate or more comforting passage in the Bible for this Sunday. The Holy Spirit Keeps His Church Powerfully (v. 4) There is only one body that is the Church, and that one body is defined by the Spirit of God: keeps all who have been redeemed through the blood of the Jesus (1:7) by sealing them as Gods inheritance that He promises to never lose (1:13-14). Listen, just as your physical body cannot live apart from your soul, it is equally true the Church is not really the Church apart from the Spirit of God in Her. If you are a Christian, it is because you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and believed it. In the moment you believed the gospel, you were baptized by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; Rom. 6:1-7). When you were baptized by the Holy, you experienced what was promised in Ezekiel 36:26-27, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances. This is the promise Jesus said all who belong to Him would receive: I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you (John 14:15-17). If you are a Christian, then you who were once dead in your sins are now alive in Jesus and the evidence that you are alive in Jesus is the inward and outward work of the Holy Spirit who you were baptized in, sealed by, and are now experiencing His regenerative power in your life. What you experienced is the same thing that every other true born-again Christian has experienced; that miracle is described for us in 2 Corinthians 4:6, For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. The true body of Christ is sealed by the lifegiving Spirit of God, and the one hope that is shared by every true Christian who makes up the Church of Christ is a single and unified hope that is rooted in a Jesus who not only died for sinners and rose from the grave, but is coming again to make all things new and to reverse the curse of sin! The hope of the true Christian is the hope of the true Church: We long for the return of Jesus who is, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come (Eph. 1:20-21), and as the body of Christ, we echo the same desire the apostle John shared in his concluding prayer in the book of Revelation: Come, Lord Jesus (Rev. 22:20). If you are a Christian, you belong to one body because of one Spirit, evidenced by one hope of your calling. The Son of God Walks with His Church Lovingly (v. 5) Another reason why we ought to be zealous, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is because, as the body of Christ, we share one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. The one Lord is Jesus, the one faith is His gospel, and the one baptism is the public confession that He is both savior and Lord over our lives through the waters of baptism. So, lets briefly look at each of these three statements individually. Jesus is Lord. There can be no other lord or lords if you are a Christian! What this means is that the body of Christ and those who truly belong to His body accept, embrace, and follow the Jesus revealed in the Bible. Who is the Jesus revealed in the Bible? He is the One who claimed: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). He is the One who asserts Himself with the proclamation: I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1:17b-18). It is this Christ that every true believer celebrates as the One who is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He who is the head of the body, the church; and He who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything (Col. 1:17-18). It is to Him all authority belongs and it is before Him that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11). Jesus is Lord, and because He is Lord, those who truly belong to Him follow where He goes (Luke 14:26-27), and go where He sends (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus is Lord because He is, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:13). Jesus is He, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Rev. 1:8). Jesus is Lord and it is the recognition of and submission to His lordship that marks every true Christian who makes up His Church. The one faith we share as His Church is a confidence in Jesus as Lord. The Greek word for faith is pistis which is confidence in the thing that you believe is indeed true! The faith Paul is speaking of is so much more than the acknowledgment of certain facts about Jesus such as His life, death for sin, and resurrection. No, the faith that marks the true body of Christ is a confidence that He is all that He claimed to be and all that He did and all that He is is enough for our life, salvation, and our complete redemption. It is our one faith in Him that compels us to follow Him! Oh, dear friends, in light of His Lordship and the faith you claim to have in Him, consider the words of our dear Savior: Now why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say (Luke 6:46)? It is because of Christs Lordship and our confidence in all that He did and all that He is that we share in one baptism. Now the baptism Paul is referring is in reference to water baptism, but it is so much more than water baptism, for it is the underlining reason why water baptism is not a way to complete your salvation but the next step of obedience to Jesus as a result of your salvation. One of the passages in the Bible I like to use during our baptism services is Romans 6:3-4, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. Water Baptism is the outward sign of a new identity that is rooted in Jesus death and resurrection which is the reason for the new life as His redeemed people. This is also the reason Jesus commanded His Church: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20). If you are a Christian, it is because of One Lord, one faith, and one baptism! God the Father is Sovereignly for His Church Eternally (v. 6) If you are a Christian, God is your Father! This ought to compel in us an urgency and zeal to, keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v. 3). Surely it is because we share, one hope, one Holy Spirit, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. However all of this is because of the sovereign will of God the Father who, according to Ephesians 5-6, In love predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. What unifies us across denominational lines as brothers and sisters who make up the body of Christ is the Holy Spirit who seals us as His own, the hope of the saving work of Jesus, the allegiance to the Lordship of Christ, a confidence that He is enough, and the evidence that we have gone from darkness to light and death to life. Because of this, we who were once sons of disobedience and children of wrath, now have been reconciled to God as his children; what unifies us now is that God is our Father! What unifies us is that we can celebrate with confidence the assurance of 1 John 3:1, See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him. But dear brothers and sisters, we now know the God who we used to run from, and now we can call him Father! This is why the all Paul is referring to in verse 6 are all true Christians regardless of the secondary issues we disagree on. This final and important point serves as the climax of Ephesians 4:1-6, Our God and Father is, over all and through all and in all. Dont miss this! The three alls here are referring to the one body of Christ who is sealed by one Spirit, because we share one hope, have one Lord, share one faith, who are identified by one baptism, and belong to one God is now our Father. Because of this our Father is over all believers, through all believers, and in all believers. Let me say it another way: Our God and Father is lovingly and sovereignly over all His redeemed children. Our God and Father is lovingly working through all His redeemed children. Our God and Father is lovingly residing in all His redeemed children. So what are the hills we ought to be dying on? There are seven of them listed for us in these verses: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all (vv. 4-6). The question I leave you with is this: In light of what unifies us, how are you doing with Ephesians 4:1-3? How are you, walking in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being zealous to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? Amen.

Although the word church is not used in these verses, it is used throughout Ephesians. The Greek word for church is ekklesia and means, assembly, gathering, community, congregation, or as you know it church. That is its meaning on the surface but dive a little deeper into the meaning of ekklesia and you will discover that the word is made up of a prefix and a root. The prefix is ek and means out of, and the root is kaleō, which means, call or summon. All I want you to know and appreciate is that the word for church (ekklesia) literally means, the community of called out ones. If you are a Christian, then you belong to the ekklesia of Jesus Christ; you have been called out of the world: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for Gods own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). If you are a Christian, your identity is now in Jesus and is the reason why He prayed this for you: I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me (John 17:20-21). If you are a Christian, you belong to Him as His Church. Nine times the word ekklesia is used in Ephesians, but the Church is also referred to as the body (sōma) in Ephesians 4:4 and six more times throughout the epistle (see 1:23; 2:16; 4:12, 16; 5:23, 30). To be the body of Christ is to belong to Christ and to be in Christ. In and through Jesus we now belong as the ekklesia and our identity will forever be linked to Him as His Bride. So, dear Christian, is it any wonder that it is Jesus who assures His Church who is His Bride, who is His body: Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1:17b-18). We do not have the time to get into the significance of numbers this morning, but I do want to point out three significant numbers in these verses that are easy to miss if someone doesnt point them out to you. First, the number one signifies unity in the Bible. The number seven signifies perfection or completion in the Bible. Finally, the number three, for reasons that will soon become clear. Paul is emphasizing the need for unity in the opening verses of Ephesians 4, and urges the Church to be zealous, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is why he emphasized that there is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God that we, as the Church of Jesus Christ, share. Now, notice how many ones the apostle lists in these verses; he lists seven ones symbolizing that what binds us together as the Bride of Christ is complete and perfectly as God intended it. Finally, and the neatest part of these verses in my opinion is the number three, and you can see it with each of these verses: We are, one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling this is due to the work of the Holy Spirit, as God the Spirit. We have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism because of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, as God the Son. We worship, one Father of all who is over all and through all and in all who is God the Father. The significance of the number three is that it is symbolic of the God who we worship who is Three-in-One as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are two ways I can break down these verses in this sermon. I was tempted to create seven points for each of the reasons why we must, urgently keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v. 3). I have chosen the second way I can break down these verses and it the outline Paul intentionally provided for us based on God as a Trinity. Notice that in Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul begins with the Father who has chosen us, then the Son who has Redeemed us, and then the Holy Spirit who has sealed us. Here in Ephesians 4:4-6, Paul begins from the ground up with the Holy Spirit who keeps us in power, the Son of God who walks with us in love, and the Father who is sovereignly for us. In light of all of the craziness in our nation and world, I cannot think of a more appropriate or more comforting passage in the Bible for this Sunday. The Holy Spirit Keeps His Church Powerfully (v. 4) There is only one body that is the Church, and that one body is defined by the Spirit of God: keeps all who have been redeemed through the blood of the Jesus (1:7) by sealing them as Gods inheritance that He promises to never lose (1:13-14). Listen, just as your physical body cannot live apart from your soul, it is equally true the Church is not really the Church apart from the Spirit of God in Her. If you are a Christian, it is because you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and believed it. In the moment you believed the gospel, you were baptized by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; Rom. 6:1-7). When you were baptized by the Holy, you experienced what was promised in Ezekiel 36:26-27, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances. This is the promise Jesus said all who belong to Him would receive: I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you (John 14:15-17). If you are a Christian, then you who were once dead in your sins are now alive in Jesus and the evidence that you are alive in Jesus is the inward and outward work of the Holy Spirit who you were baptized in, sealed by, and are now experiencing His regenerative power in your life. What you experienced is the same thing that every other true born-again Christian has experienced; that miracle is described for us in 2 Corinthians 4:6, For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. The true body of Christ is sealed by the lifegiving Spirit of God, and the one hope that is shared by every true Christian who makes up the Church of Christ is a single and unified hope that is rooted in a Jesus who not only died for sinners and rose from the grave, but is coming again to make all things new and to reverse the curse of sin! The hope of the true Christian is the hope of the true Church: We long for the return of Jesus who is, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come (Eph. 1:20-21), and as the body of Christ, we echo the same desire the apostle John shared in his concluding prayer in the book of Revelation: Come, Lord Jesus (Rev. 22:20). If you are a Christian, you belong to one body because of one Spirit, evidenced by one hope of your calling. The Son of God Walks with His Church Lovingly (v. 5) Another reason why we ought to be zealous, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is because, as the body of Christ, we share one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. The one Lord is Jesus, the one faith is His gospel, and the one baptism is the public confession that He is both savior and Lord over our lives through the waters of baptism. So, lets briefly look at each of these three statements individually. Jesus is Lord. There can be no other lord or lords if you are a Christian! What this means is that the body of Christ and those who truly belong to His body accept, embrace, and follow the Jesus revealed in the Bible. Who is the Jesus revealed in the Bible? He is the One who claimed: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). He is the One who asserts Himself with the proclamation: I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1:17b-18). It is this Christ that every true believer celebrates as the One who is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He who is the head of the body, the church; and He who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything (Col. 1:17-18). It is to Him all authority belongs and it is before Him that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11). Jesus is Lord, and because He is Lord, those who truly belong to Him follow where He goes (Luke 14:26-27), and go where He sends (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus is Lord because He is, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:13). Jesus is He, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Rev. 1:8). Jesus is Lord and it is the recognition of and submission to His lordship that marks every true Christian who makes up His Church. The one faith we share as His Church is a confidence in Jesus as Lord. The Greek word for faith is pistis which is confidence in the thing that you believe is indeed true! The faith Paul is speaking of is so much more than the acknowledgment of certain facts about Jesus such as His life, death for sin, and resurrection. No, the faith that marks the true body of Christ is a confidence that He is all that He claimed to be and all that He did and all that He is is enough for our life, salvation, and our complete redemption. It is our one faith in Him that compels us to follow Him! Oh, dear friends, in light of His Lordship and the faith you claim to have in Him, consider the words of our dear Savior: Now why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say (Luke 6:46)? It is because of Christs Lordship and our confidence in all that He did and all that He is that we share in one baptism. Now the baptism Paul is referring is in reference to water baptism, but it is so much more than water baptism, for it is the underlining reason why water baptism is not a way to complete your salvation but the next step of obedience to Jesus as a result of your salvation. One of the passages in the Bible I like to use during our baptism services is Romans 6:3-4, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. Water Baptism is the outward sign of a new identity that is rooted in Jesus death and resurrection which is the reason for the new life as His redeemed people. This is also the reason Jesus commanded His Church: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20). If you are a Christian, it is because of One Lord, one faith, and one baptism! God the Father is Sovereignly for His Church Eternally (v. 6) If you are a Christian, God is your Father! This ought to compel in us an urgency and zeal to, keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v. 3). Surely it is because we share, one hope, one Holy Spirit, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. However all of this is because of the sovereign will of God the Father who, according to Ephesians 5-6, In love predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. What unifies us across denominational lines as brothers and sisters who make up the body of Christ is the Holy Spirit who seals us as His own, the hope of the saving work of Jesus, the allegiance to the Lordship of Christ, a confidence that He is enough, and the evidence that we have gone from darkness to light and death to life. Because of this, we who were once sons of disobedience and children of wrath, now have been reconciled to God as his children; what unifies us now is that God is our Father! What unifies us is that we can celebrate with confidence the assurance of 1 John 3:1, See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him. But dear brothers and sisters, we now know the God who we used to run from, and now we can call him Father! This is why the all Paul is referring to in verse 6 are all true Christians regardless of the secondary issues we disagree on. This final and important point serves as the climax of Ephesians 4:1-6, Our God and Father is, over all and through all and in all. Dont miss this! The three alls here are referring to the one body of Christ who is sealed by one Spirit, because we share one hope, have one Lord, share one faith, who are identified by one baptism, and belong to one God is now our Father. Because of this our Father is over all believers, through all believers, and in all believers. Let me say it another way: Our God and Father is lovingly and sovereignly over all His redeemed children. Our God and Father is lovingly working through all His redeemed children. Our God and Father is lovingly residing in all His redeemed children. So what are the hills we ought to be dying on? There are seven of them listed for us in these verses: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all (vv. 4-6). The question I leave you with is this: In light of what unifies us, how are you doing with Ephesians 4:1-3? How are you, walking in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being zealous to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? Amen.

And every tongue will say Jesus Christ is Lord. Everyone will give honor to God the Father (Phil. 2:11). Thank you, Jesus.

1 John 2:28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. In the last verse, John testified that his readers abide in Jesus today. In this verse we are encouraged by the confidence and hope that abiding in Jesus provides. The way we live today should always be in view of “that day,” the day Jesus returns. Is that how we are living? Jesus' second coming is as certain a historical event as was His first coming. We know from Scripture that when He returns, every eye will see Him (Rev. 1:7), every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father (Phil. 2:9-11). We know that everyone will give an account of his life to Jesus (2 Cor. 5:10). What will that moment be like for us? For His children, John wanted that moment to be a filled with hope and confidence—not a confidence in something they had done, but confidence in Jesus, the reality that their lives were testimonies of His life, love, and presence in this world. Here's the truth and our hope: the one who abides in Jesus will not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If we abide in Him and live with Him in each of our todays, we will have confidence to stand with Him on “that day.” We know that if God is for us, nothing can be against us. Paul put it this way in Rom. 8:32. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” Have you experienced the reality of His giving you all things in this life as opportunities for you to glorify Him by finding satisfaction in this life only in the fullness of Jesus Christ, God's Son? Your sins, all the days you didn't abide in Him, your suffering, your blessings, your storms in life, and all your relationships—all things—were freely given to you so you could glorify God by loving and trusting Christ Jesus, our Lord. How often do you think about Jesus' coming and appearance? Does it have an affect on your today? If you're not thinking about it, I think you are missing out on one of the most powerful encouragements to live to love with Jesus. It will be a day when those who abide in Jesus will be established blameless before God. 1 Thessalonians 3:13 “So that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.” When He returns, those who abide in Him will give Him glory and marvel at Him. 2 Thessalonians 1:10 “When He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed — for our testimony to you was believed.” So today's encouragement has “that day” in view. Abide in Him. Live to love with Him so you will be with Him when He appears instead of running away from Him in shame.

Old Testament: Zechariah 9:9–12 Psalm: Psalm 31:9–16; antiphon: v. 5 Psalm: Psalm 118:19–29; antiphon: v. 26 Epistle: Philippians 2:5–11 Gospel: Matthew 26:1—27:66 Gospel: Matthew 27:11–54 Introit: Psalm 22:1, 7–8, 11; antiphon: vv. 19, 21 Gradual: Psalm 73:23b–24, 1 Tract: Psalm 22:1, 4–5 The Cross and Passion of Our Lord Are the Hour of His Glory   “Behold, your King is coming to you . . . humble and mounted on a donkey” (Zech. 9:9–12; Mt. 21:1–9). Our Lord rides in this humble fashion because He is entering Jerusalem to humble Himself even to the point of death on a cross (Phil. 2:5–11). His kingly crown will not be made of gold but of thorns, the sign of sin's curse. For His royal reign is displayed in bearing this curse for His people, saving us from our enemies by sacrificing His own life. The sinless One takes the place of the sinner so that the sinner can be freed and bear the name “Barabbas,” “son of the Father” (Matthew 26 and 27). It is at the name of this exalted Savior, Jesus, that we bow in humble faith. With the centurion who declared, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Mt. 27:54), we are also given to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11).

The Characters Around The Cross Matthew 27:26–44 1.The Rulers - they passed judgment upon Christ - that He was a threat and must be destroyed (v.26). 2.The soldiers - they mocked and tortured Christ (v.26-38). 1. They scourged Christ (Matthew 27:26). “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). 2.They humiliated Christ before a hundred or more soldiers (Matthew 27:27). 3.They stripped Christ and put a scarlet robe on Him (Matthew 27:28). chlamús;. A garment of dignity and office. The purple robe with which our Lord was arrayed in scorn by the mockers in Pilate's judgment hall (Matt. 27:28, 31). When put over the shoulders of someone, it was an indication that he was assuming a magistracy. It may have been the cast–off cloak of some high Roman officer which they put over the body of Jesus to mock Him as if He were an official person. 4. They put a crown of thorns on the head of Christ and a reed in His hands (Matthew 27:29). 5. They bowed and ridiculed the claim of Christ to be king (Matthew 27:29). 6. They spat upon Christ (Matthew 27:30). 7. They beat Christ on the head with the reed (Matthew 27:30). 8. They stripped Christ of the kingly robe and put His own robe back on Him, aggravating the wounds. 9. They forced Christ to carry the cross until He was exhausted (Matthew 27:32). 10. They enlisted a Gentile to help with the cross of Christ (Matthew 27:32). 11.They escorted Christ to a terrible place for execution (Matthew 27:33). 12.They gave Christ vinegar mixed with gall (Matthew 27:34). 13. They crucified Christ (Matthew 27:35). 14. They gambled for the clothes of Christ (Matthew 27:35). 15.They sat down and stared at Christ (Matthew 27:36). 16.They shamed Christ and reproached His claim again (Matthew 27:37). “He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:8-11). 17.They added shame and reproach by crucifying Christ between two thieves (Matthew 27:38). “He was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).

There is a sticker I have seen on vehicles and on the back of laptops that I have seen just about every day since we moved into Cheyenne. The sticker did not capture my interest enough to google its meaning but every time I was forced to notice it at a stop light because it was affixed to the car in front of me, I would wonder about its meaning for as long as the light would last and then I would forget about it. Would you believe that I encountered this sticker for four years not realizing its significance because I never thought long enough about it to realize what it really meant? It wasnt until a year ago that while at a red light and another car with the same sticker I had seen dozens of times since moving to Wyoming that I realized that the number 307 stood for something; we even have a day each year in the great state of Wyoming to celebrate the significance of 307 every year on March 7th known as 307 Day to celebrate all things Wyoming. I am not the most observant person on planet earth when it comes to the most obvious things around me, but I do realize that the 307 stickers were low hanging fruit. Of the fifty-two states that make up our nation, Wyoming is one of eleven states that can boast of a single area code. In case you did not know this, area codes are given based on the population and number of phones in a geographic area and not based on the states land mass. As I thought about the significance of 307 and how that number was always before me for the first four years since making our home in Cheyenne before I ever realized what it truly meant, I cannot help but reflect upon how it is that so many can claim to be a Christian without fully appreciating what it means to be in Christ. Saved Through Christ from Death to Life I shared with you last Sunday that if you are a Christian, there are three reasons why you are, alive together with Christ. We, who were dead in our offenses and sins, walked in step with the prince of the power of the air, were disobedient, lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulged in the desires of our flesh and mind, and at the core of our nature were children of the wrath of Godare now, alive together with Christ (v. 5). The catalyst that moved God to, chose us in Him before the foundation of the world (1:4) was His mercy, love, and grace. The catalyst that made available the redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness of our wrongdoings (1:7) was Gods mercy, love, and grace. The catalyst that resulted in God sealing all who belong to Him by His Holy Spirit was the mercy, love, and grace of almighty God! However, it was not just any old mercy, love, and grace that we received from God, no it was His rich mercy, great love, and sufficient grace. In what way is Gods mercy rich? Last week we went back to Genesis 2-3 to discover what Paul meant by stating we were all, dead in our offenses and sins. Today, to understand what Paul means by mercy, we must go to the place he drew the word from, and that place is found in Exodus 34:6-7, Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. (Exod. 34:6-7) What you need to know is just before we come to Exodus 34, Moses requested to see God, but was warned, You cannot see My face, for mankind shall not see Me and live (33:20). God did promise that Moses could experience His presence, but Moses would have to remain hidden in a cleft of a rock as a way to protect him from certain death. The reason why Moses could not see the face of God and live was because Moses was sinful while God is holy. God promised Moses that while he was safe in the cleft of the rock, I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion to whom I will show compassion (see Exod. 33:12-23). There was another man who found himself in the presence of God, but for him it was in the form of a vision. The man I am referring to is the prophet, Isaiah. It happened after Israels king, who had served for over 40 years, died. We are told about the prophets encounter in Isaiah 6, but what we learn in those verses is that even Seraphim had to cover their faces and their feet in the presence of God: In the year of King Uzziahs death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim were standing above Him, each having six wings: with two each covered his face, and with two each covered his feet, and with two each flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of armies. The whole earth is full of His glory (vv. 1-3). It was only a vison that Isaiah had, and yet his response was appropriate: Woe to me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies (Isa.6:5). So, of course Moses could not see the face of God and live, but he could experience His presence, and as he did, he heard Yahweh proclaim: The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin... (Exod. 34:6-7a). Let me give you four reasons why I am certain that the mercy, love, and grace of God that Paul refers to in Ephesians 2:4-5 was shaped by his understanding of Exodus 34. My four reasons are really four words God declared about Himself to Moses: Compassion (rǎḥm), merciful (ḥǎnnn), faithfulness (ḥěʹsěḏ), and truth (ʾěměṯ). The Hebrew word for compassion means mercy; the Hebrew word for mercy can be translated kindness or goodness; the Hebrew word for truth can be translated trustworthy. There is one more word God used to describe Himself, and that word is faithfulness which is the word used to describe Gods faithful and loyal love; listen, ḥěʹsěḏ is Gods covenantal and great love! What was revealed to Moses while he was in the cleft of the rock is the same God that Paul described whose mercy is rich, whose love is great, and whose grace is sufficient! But wait! God did not end His description of Himself there, of His rich mercy, kindness, goodness, or his covenantal and great love; for His also told Moses: yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations (Exod. 34:7b). God cannot and will not compromise His holiness and justice so that He is able to extend mercy, love, and grace towards guilty sinners. His holiness and His justice will not permit Him to leave the guilty unpunished. This is why, after seeing and experiencing the holiness of God, Isaiah cried out: Woe to me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies (Isa. 6:5). If God is God, then He must be just as merciful as He is just, He must be equally holy as He is a God of love. If God is God, then He is all that He is in equal measure with no character trait of His in conflict with the other. There is nothing about Him that is lacking and there is no room in Him for improvement. So, if God is God, then can He be rich in mercy and absolutely just in dealing with those who are dead in their offenses and sins (Eph. 2:1-3)? The Answer is found in Ephesians 1:7-8, which states: In Him [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. This is why Paul could write: But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ. (Eph. 2:4-5). At the cross the rich mercy, great love, and sufficient grace of God was reconciled through Jesus who bore Gods perfect justice through the full measure of a wrath we all deserve. First and foremost Jesus died to satisfy legal demands our sin required, and this is why Jesus was, Pierced for our offenses, and was crushed for our wrongdoings (Isa. 53:5); this is also why just five verses later, we read these words: The Lord delighted to crush Him, causing Him grief (v. 10). If you are a Christian, you are the recipient of a mercy that is rich, a love that is great, and a grace that is sufficient to address all your sins because of the Christ who, redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). This is why we can sing: Who could imagine so great a mercy?What heart could fathom such boundless grace?The God of ages stepped down from gloryTo wear my sin and bear my shameThe cross has spoken, I am forgivenThe King of kings calls me His ownBeautiful savior, I'm yours foreverJesus Christ, my living hope[1] Raised With Christ to Show Gods Grace As a result of being made alive with Christ, you, Christian, are raised up with Him, seated with Him, and united with Him. You were dead in our offenses and sins, but now you have been made alive with Christ! You were the spiritually walking dead and bound to a nature united with you, depravity, but now you have been set free by Christ and your life is now rooted in Him! You were once a child of wrath, but now you are a recipient of Gods great lovedeclared by Him to be His child! We who were dead in our offenses and sins, God made alive by the same power that He was able to give life to Adam from the lifeless dirt of the earth. However, our lifelessness was worse in the sense that Adams lifelessness came from the dirt of the earth while ours came from the soil of our own sin and rebellion, and from that polluted soil, God brought forth life out of death. God did what only God could do, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings through the same boundless power that raised Jesus from the grave, God did three things: 1) He made us alive with Christ, 2) He raised us up with Christ, and 3) He seated us with Christ in the heavenly places. Bryan Chapell, in his commentary on Ephesians said of these verses: These are the words of resurrection. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, so also, we are filled with the life that is from God. Our spiritual death has been swallowed up in Christs resurrection victory. The guilt and power of sin have been conquered by the Savior who now resides in us.[2] Oh, can you see it? Can you see that to be a Christian is not about being a more moral person, or a more religious person, or a nicer person, but about becoming a whole new person just as we are promised in the Bible: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, the new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17). Not only are we alive in Christ, but we have been raised up and seated with Him. The Greek word that Paul used for raised is synegeirō, the prefix of this word is syn-, from which we get the word sync and is short for synchronize. God made us alive in Christ, and quite literally has synced us with Him. What this means is that if you are a Christian, your identity is not in an area code, your last name, the person you are married to, your employment, or what you are able to do or unable to do. No! Your identity dear Christian is synced with the living Christ; you are not only alive in Him, but now you are raised up with Him. This is why, in his epistle to the Colossians, Paul wrote, Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). Your identity as a Christian is and always will be where Christ is! But hold on, it gets even better Christian! Not only have you been raised with Christ, but you are also seated with Christ. What does it mean to be seated with Christ exactly? Remember the way Ephesians 1 concludes, for it is in the final four verses that Paul informs us where it is that Christ is: He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (vv. 20-23).Jesus is above all things and all powers, and one day, at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-11). It is with that Christ that you are raised with and are seated with! What this means is that Christs identity is now our identity and now we are seated with Him positionally. What this means is that Jesus victories are now our victories, and because His victories are our victories, death, sin, disease, persecution, hardship, the demonic, and any other front that threatens to undo us does not have the final word or say over all who are raise with Christ and seated with Christ! What this means is that you are the Bride of Christ and regardless of your past, you dear Christian are now the apple of His eye! Christian, you were once dead in your offenses and sins, and now you are alive with Christ. Christian, you were once among the spiritually walking dead, but now you are raised up with Christ. Christian, you were once synced up with the prince of the power of the air and the spirit of the age, but now you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.Christian, when you were dead, you lived in the lusts of your flesh and indulged the desires of the flesh, and now you are the recipient of the boundless riches of His grace in kindness in Christ Jesus (v. 7). Christian, do you know who you are? Because if you do, you will begin to live as though you are alive in Jesus, raised up with Jesus, and seated with Jesus. You will live with the confidence that it doesnt matter what anyone else thinks of you or has said about you because what matters most is what God thinks of you, and to Him, you are His inheritance and His trophy, demonstrating His all sufficient and infinite grace. Christian, you are a testament to the grace of God that is as boundless as is His power that raised Jesus from the grave and brought you from death to life. According to verse 7, for all of eternity you who were once dead will only know the unending benefits of His rich mercy, great love, and all-sufficient grace! For the ages to come we will stand together as Gods trophy of Grace that will forever serve as a reminder that there is no sin so great and no life so messed up that Gods mercy, love, and grace cannot overcome, redeem, resurrect, and put back together through the great serpent crushing, grave robbing, all-sufficient redeemer Himselfnamely Jesus Christ! We sing as the Church not because of how we feel or what style of music we like, we sing because the words we sing are true like the words in the modern hymn, In Christ Alone: In Christ alone, who took on fleshFullness of God in helpless babeThis gift of love and righteousnessScorned by the ones He came to save'Til on that cross as Jesus diedThe wrath of God was satisfiedFor every sin on Him was laidHere in the death of Christ I live, I live No guilt in life, no fear in deathThis is the power of Christ in meFrom life's first cry to final breathJesus commands my destinyNo power of hell, no scheme of manCan ever pluck me from His handTill He returns or calls me homeHere in the power of Christ I'll stand [1] Phil Wickham and Brian Johnson; Living Hope [2] Bryan Chapell, Reformed Expository Commentary: Ephesians (Phillipsburg, NJ: PR Publishing; 2009), p. 83.

There is a sticker I have seen on vehicles and on the back of laptops that I have seen just about every day since we moved into Cheyenne. The sticker did not capture my interest enough to google its meaning but every time I was forced to notice it at a stop light because it was affixed to the car in front of me, I would wonder about its meaning for as long as the light would last and then I would forget about it. Would you believe that I encountered this sticker for four years not realizing its significance because I never thought long enough about it to realize what it really meant? It wasnt until a year ago that while at a red light and another car with the same sticker I had seen dozens of times since moving to Wyoming that I realized that the number 307 stood for something; we even have a day each year in the great state of Wyoming to celebrate the significance of 307 every year on March 7th known as 307 Day to celebrate all things Wyoming. I am not the most observant person on planet earth when it comes to the most obvious things around me, but I do realize that the 307 stickers were low hanging fruit. Of the fifty-two states that make up our nation, Wyoming is one of eleven states that can boast of a single area code. In case you did not know this, area codes are given based on the population and number of phones in a geographic area and not based on the states land mass. As I thought about the significance of 307 and how that number was always before me for the first four years since making our home in Cheyenne before I ever realized what it truly meant, I cannot help but reflect upon how it is that so many can claim to be a Christian without fully appreciating what it means to be in Christ. Saved Through Christ from Death to Life I shared with you last Sunday that if you are a Christian, there are three reasons why you are, alive together with Christ. We, who were dead in our offenses and sins, walked in step with the prince of the power of the air, were disobedient, lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulged in the desires of our flesh and mind, and at the core of our nature were children of the wrath of Godare now, alive together with Christ (v. 5). The catalyst that moved God to, chose us in Him before the foundation of the world (1:4) was His mercy, love, and grace. The catalyst that made available the redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness of our wrongdoings (1:7) was Gods mercy, love, and grace. The catalyst that resulted in God sealing all who belong to Him by His Holy Spirit was the mercy, love, and grace of almighty God! However, it was not just any old mercy, love, and grace that we received from God, no it was His rich mercy, great love, and sufficient grace. In what way is Gods mercy rich? Last week we went back to Genesis 2-3 to discover what Paul meant by stating we were all, dead in our offenses and sins. Today, to understand what Paul means by mercy, we must go to the place he drew the word from, and that place is found in Exodus 34:6-7, Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. (Exod. 34:6-7) What you need to know is just before we come to Exodus 34, Moses requested to see God, but was warned, You cannot see My face, for mankind shall not see Me and live (33:20). God did promise that Moses could experience His presence, but Moses would have to remain hidden in a cleft of a rock as a way to protect him from certain death. The reason why Moses could not see the face of God and live was because Moses was sinful while God is holy. God promised Moses that while he was safe in the cleft of the rock, I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion to whom I will show compassion (see Exod. 33:12-23). There was another man who found himself in the presence of God, but for him it was in the form of a vision. The man I am referring to is the prophet, Isaiah. It happened after Israels king, who had served for over 40 years, died. We are told about the prophets encounter in Isaiah 6, but what we learn in those verses is that even Seraphim had to cover their faces and their feet in the presence of God: In the year of King Uzziahs death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim were standing above Him, each having six wings: with two each covered his face, and with two each covered his feet, and with two each flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of armies. The whole earth is full of His glory (vv. 1-3). It was only a vison that Isaiah had, and yet his response was appropriate: Woe to me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies (Isa.6:5). So, of course Moses could not see the face of God and live, but he could experience His presence, and as he did, he heard Yahweh proclaim: The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin... (Exod. 34:6-7a). Let me give you four reasons why I am certain that the mercy, love, and grace of God that Paul refers to in Ephesians 2:4-5 was shaped by his understanding of Exodus 34. My four reasons are really four words God declared about Himself to Moses: Compassion (rǎḥm), merciful (ḥǎnnn), faithfulness (ḥěʹsěḏ), and truth (ʾěměṯ). The Hebrew word for compassion means mercy; the Hebrew word for mercy can be translated kindness or goodness; the Hebrew word for truth can be translated trustworthy. There is one more word God used to describe Himself, and that word is faithfulness which is the word used to describe Gods faithful and loyal love; listen, ḥěʹsěḏ is Gods covenantal and great love! What was revealed to Moses while he was in the cleft of the rock is the same God that Paul described whose mercy is rich, whose love is great, and whose grace is sufficient! But wait! God did not end His description of Himself there, of His rich mercy, kindness, goodness, or his covenantal and great love; for His also told Moses: yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations (Exod. 34:7b). God cannot and will not compromise His holiness and justice so that He is able to extend mercy, love, and grace towards guilty sinners. His holiness and His justice will not permit Him to leave the guilty unpunished. This is why, after seeing and experiencing the holiness of God, Isaiah cried out: Woe to me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies (Isa. 6:5). If God is God, then He must be just as merciful as He is just, He must be equally holy as He is a God of love. If God is God, then He is all that He is in equal measure with no character trait of His in conflict with the other. There is nothing about Him that is lacking and there is no room in Him for improvement. So, if God is God, then can He be rich in mercy and absolutely just in dealing with those who are dead in their offenses and sins (Eph. 2:1-3)? The Answer is found in Ephesians 1:7-8, which states: In Him [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. This is why Paul could write: But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ. (Eph. 2:4-5). At the cross the rich mercy, great love, and sufficient grace of God was reconciled through Jesus who bore Gods perfect justice through the full measure of a wrath we all deserve. First and foremost Jesus died to satisfy legal demands our sin required, and this is why Jesus was, Pierced for our offenses, and was crushed for our wrongdoings (Isa. 53:5); this is also why just five verses later, we read these words: The Lord delighted to crush Him, causing Him grief (v. 10). If you are a Christian, you are the recipient of a mercy that is rich, a love that is great, and a grace that is sufficient to address all your sins because of the Christ who, redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). This is why we can sing: Who could imagine so great a mercy?What heart could fathom such boundless grace?The God of ages stepped down from gloryTo wear my sin and bear my shameThe cross has spoken, I am forgivenThe King of kings calls me His ownBeautiful savior, I'm yours foreverJesus Christ, my living hope[1] Raised With Christ to Show Gods Grace As a result of being made alive with Christ, you, Christian, are raised up with Him, seated with Him, and united with Him. You were dead in our offenses and sins, but now you have been made alive with Christ! You were the spiritually walking dead and bound to a nature united with you, depravity, but now you have been set free by Christ and your life is now rooted in Him! You were once a child of wrath, but now you are a recipient of Gods great lovedeclared by Him to be His child! We who were dead in our offenses and sins, God made alive by the same power that He was able to give life to Adam from the lifeless dirt of the earth. However, our lifelessness was worse in the sense that Adams lifelessness came from the dirt of the earth while ours came from the soil of our own sin and rebellion, and from that polluted soil, God brought forth life out of death. God did what only God could do, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings through the same boundless power that raised Jesus from the grave, God did three things: 1) He made us alive with Christ, 2) He raised us up with Christ, and 3) He seated us with Christ in the heavenly places. Bryan Chapell, in his commentary on Ephesians said of these verses: These are the words of resurrection. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, so also, we are filled with the life that is from God. Our spiritual death has been swallowed up in Christs resurrection victory. The guilt and power of sin have been conquered by the Savior who now resides in us.[2] Oh, can you see it? Can you see that to be a Christian is not about being a more moral person, or a more religious person, or a nicer person, but about becoming a whole new person just as we are promised in the Bible: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, the new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17). Not only are we alive in Christ, but we have been raised up and seated with Him. The Greek word that Paul used for raised is synegeirō, the prefix of this word is syn-, from which we get the word sync and is short for synchronize. God made us alive in Christ, and quite literally has synced us with Him. What this means is that if you are a Christian, your identity is not in an area code, your last name, the person you are married to, your employment, or what you are able to do or unable to do. No! Your identity dear Christian is synced with the living Christ; you are not only alive in Him, but now you are raised up with Him. This is why, in his epistle to the Colossians, Paul wrote, Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). Your identity as a Christian is and always will be where Christ is! But hold on, it gets even better Christian! Not only have you been raised with Christ, but you are also seated with Christ. What does it mean to be seated with Christ exactly? Remember the way Ephesians 1 concludes, for it is in the final four verses that Paul informs us where it is that Christ is: He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (vv. 20-23).Jesus is above all things and all powers, and one day, at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-11). It is with that Christ that you are raised with and are seated with! What this means is that Christs identity is now our identity and now we are seated with Him positionally. What this means is that Jesus victories are now our victories, and because His victories are our victories, death, sin, disease, persecution, hardship, the demonic, and any other front that threatens to undo us does not have the final word or say over all who are raise with Christ and seated with Christ! What this means is that you are the Bride of Christ and regardless of your past, you dear Christian are now the apple of His eye! Christian, you were once dead in your offenses and sins, and now you are alive with Christ. Christian, you were once among the spiritually walking dead, but now you are raised up with Christ. Christian, you were once synced up with the prince of the power of the air and the spirit of the age, but now you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.Christian, when you were dead, you lived in the lusts of your flesh and indulged the desires of the flesh, and now you are the recipient of the boundless riches of His grace in kindness in Christ Jesus (v. 7). Christian, do you know who you are? Because if you do, you will begin to live as though you are alive in Jesus, raised up with Jesus, and seated with Jesus. You will live with the confidence that it doesnt matter what anyone else thinks of you or has said about you because what matters most is what God thinks of you, and to Him, you are His inheritance and His trophy, demonstrating His all sufficient and infinite grace. Christian, you are a testament to the grace of God that is as boundless as is His power that raised Jesus from the grave and brought you from death to life. According to verse 7, for all of eternity you who were once dead will only know the unending benefits of His rich mercy, great love, and all-sufficient grace! For the ages to come we will stand together as Gods trophy of Grace that will forever serve as a reminder that there is no sin so great and no life so messed up that Gods mercy, love, and grace cannot overcome, redeem, resurrect, and put back together through the great serpent crushing, grave robbing, all-sufficient redeemer Himselfnamely Jesus Christ! We sing as the Church not because of how we feel or what style of music we like, we sing because the words we sing are true like the words in the modern hymn, In Christ Alone: In Christ alone, who took on fleshFullness of God in helpless babeThis gift of love and righteousnessScorned by the ones He came to save'Til on that cross as Jesus diedThe wrath of God was satisfiedFor every sin on Him was laidHere in the death of Christ I live, I live No guilt in life, no fear in deathThis is the power of Christ in meFrom life's first cry to final breathJesus commands my destinyNo power of hell, no scheme of manCan ever pluck me from His handTill He returns or calls me homeHere in the power of Christ I'll stand [1] Phil Wickham and Brian Johnson; Living Hope [2] Bryan Chapell, Reformed Expository Commentary: Ephesians (Phillipsburg, NJ: PR Publishing; 2009), p. 83.

In Revelation 19:11-18 is a description of Jesus that proceeds His reign on earth as promised King who will bring peace on earth. In our passage there are eight descriptions of King Jesus that highlight His authority and character as the Only One who is able to make what is wrong in our world right. Jesus is coming and will come to make peace in our world by waging war on the antichrist who is to come and all the peoples who will align themselves with Him. It will be the realization that perhaps there was some truth that all roads do in fact lead to God, with the major clarification that many lead to Him as judge and only one leads to Him as savior. All I want to do with the time that we have this morning is to show you who He really is. Jesus is a triumphant King. The color white does not symbolize purity here as it does when used to describe garments. The white war horse that Jesus descends from heaven on symbolizes His role as a conquering King, and what is impressive is that, in Revelation 19:1, the battle has not yet begun. Jesus is coming back. You dont have to believe it and you dont even have to live like it, but the fact of the matter is this: Jesus is coming again, and He is not coming to die like He did the first time He came, He is coming to judge! The Bible says, at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11; see also Isa. 45:22-23). The Roman Senate had to give Julius Caesar permission to drive a chariot drawn by white horses through Rome to celebrate his victory in North Africa, but only after he defeated North Africa. When Jesus comes, He comes as a victorious King whose power will be demonstrated in such a way that every living creature will have no alternative but to bow before Him as the Lord. He rides a white horse signifying His victory because none can stay His hand. Jesus is a Faithful and True King (v. 11a). The second characteristic of Jesus is that He is faithful and true. When King Jesus comes to set up His kingdom, He will have no need to boast in a facade of faithfulness and truth because He is the very embodiment of faithfulness and truth. There is a lot of suffering in the world today. Every time there is a catastrophe in the world, governments rush with promises of help and often those who are left in the wake of tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, ethnic genocide, and the like, are left with empty promises of deliverance. Not so with Jesus! My dear brothers and sisters, many of you have been touched by divorce. Some of you have grown up with one broken promise after another. Some of you have been disappointed, have been hurt, have been mistreated, or perhaps taken advantage of. Take a look at verse 11 again, and permit me to ask you, Who is sitting on the white horse? Jesus is planning an eternity with His Bride, and He means to make a home for her that is characterized by holiness and righteousness. Jesus is a righteous King (v. 11b). When Jesus comes, He will come in righteousness to judge the nations. There will be no room to accuse Him as being harsh, rash, or unjust in the execution of His judgment. For many of you, the idea of righteousness and justice is something you have been thinking a lot about because of the politicking we are seeing on television. An election will be coming soon in the United States; promises will be made, and every candidate will claim some measure of integrity while maligning the other candidates. The wars we read about in our history books and the ones we hear on the news often leave a wake of injustice and suffering. Books have been written about The Just War. Whatever your views are concerning war and the one we may find ourselves in the future, one thing is sure: When Jesus comes to wage war on the nations, it will be completely and categorically just, for the Bible says of Jesus: Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make decisions by what His ears hear; but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the humble of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the belt around His waist. (Isaiah 11:15) Jesus is an all-seeing King (v. 12a). This is the third time in Revelation that Jesus is described as having eyes like fire (see 1:14; 2:18); every time He is characterized this way, it is metaphorical of His ability to see all things, including the human heart. As King, Jesus will execute justice on all those who have rejected Him as the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus does not have to pretend at being able to see all things; He is able to see all things; He is all knowing, and the entire world will be held accountable for what they do and think, both in public and private. When He comes to judge the nations, He will do so intelligently, there will be no civilian casualties. Jesus is the King of kings (v. 12b). In verse 12b, John notices something on Jesus head: many crowns. The Greek word for crown is also diadēma (we get the word diadem from it), it also means rulers crown. It is used only three times in Revelation. It is used to describe the crown worn by the dragon (12:3), the beast (13:1), and Jesus Christ. The point that is being made here is that the dragon (Lucifer) and the beast pretend to be what Jesus is. Their authority is temporary and given by God, Jesus authority is absolute and universal (This is why John records that Jesus had many crowns. The use of many is one way of saying innumerable). When Jesus comes, not only does John see many crowns on His head, but John also sees the title King of kings and Lord of lords on His robe and thigh. Every king or ruler that had been born into this world has had a temporal reign limited by age and mortality. When it comes to our lifespan, we are all like blips on a radar flashing on the screen of life and fading out just as quickly as we came in; James 4:14 asks, You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. Jesus reign and authority is eternal and genuine, He does not need to pretend. Jesus is a One-of-a-kind King (v. 12c) There is a lot of debate and theologizing over what name Jesus has that no one knows. There are two things we know about the ancient world of Johns day that may help us understand why Jesus has a name that no one knows. First, it was common in the world of Johns day to believe that both the gods and humans had a hidden name that contained their true essence, that defined their fundamental nature. Second, it was believed that to know a persons name was to exercise some level of control over that person. What is revealed of the Rider on the white horse is that His revealed name is called, The Word of God and what is tattooed on His thigh is the title: King of kings and Lord of lords. What we see in Revelation 19:11-18, Paul described in Philippians 2:9-11, which I believe helps us understand the unknown name that only He knows: For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. What Paul wrote in Philippians 2:9-11 would have given his readers goosebumps because of what is written in Isaiah 45:22-23, Declare and present your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this long ago? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. (Isa. 45:2123) According to Isaiah, only Yahweh has the right to judge the nations, and it is to Yahweh that every knee will bow, and every tongue will swear allegiance. Yet, Paul tells us that it will be before and to Jesus that, every tongue will swear allegiance and every knee will bow. Revelation 19:11-18 described the day when that will happen. The name that Jesus has that no one knows is reveals his absolute authority as God in the flesh who will not nor cannot be manipulated. Jesus is a just and holy King (v 13a). Why is Jesus robe dipped in blood? Is His robe dipped in blood to symbolize what He did at Calvary? I do not think so. I think Isaiah 63:2-3 gives us a clue to the meaning behind what John sees, Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the wine press? I have trodden the wine trough alone, and from the peoples there was no one with Me. I also trod them in My anger and trampled them in My wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My clothes (Isa. 63:13). Jesus robe is dipped in blood to indicate how He intends to deal with the nations that conspire against Him. How will He accomplish this? Look at verse 15, From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron The justice Jesus will execute will flow out of His perfect holiness; it is the kind of judgment described in Psalm 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, Lets tear their shackles apart And throw their ropes away from us! He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will announce the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, You are My Son, Today I have fathered You. Ask it of Me, and I will certainly give the nations as Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware. (Psalm 2:29) Jesus, as the Word of God, is the Promised King. Jesus is the Word of God, a title that is not unfamiliar in the New Testament. It is fitting that John closes his description of Jesus with this title because it gets at the reason why Jesus is qualified to come and judge the nations: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it (John 1:15). However, while on earth, even with all the miracles that include His power over demons, disease, and even death (see Mark 5:1-43) the feeding of thousands with some kids five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:1-14), walking on water (6:15-25), and even His power over storms (Matt. 8::18-27), there were people who still refused to believe that He was the promised Messiah. This is why John continued in the opening statements of his Gospel account something to consider against the backdrop of what you have seen in Revelation 19:11-18, He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God (John 1:1013). Conclusion As I consider this sermon series for Adventespecially what we have reflected on in Revelation 19, I am reminded of the conversation Lucy had with Mr. Beaver in C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when Mr. and Mrs. Beaver tried to help Lucy understand who Aslan was (Aslan is Narnias Christ figure): "Is - is he a man?" asked Lucy "Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion, the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh," said Susan, "I thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." "That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly." "Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy. "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king I tell you." The Lion of Judah is not safe, but He is good. Hes the king I tell you, and His name is Jesus Christ. The question I ask of you is simply this: Who do you say Jesus is and do you really believe it? Have you come to know Him? Do you really believe in His name? Is Jesus a religious icon to you, is He only a baby in a manger, or is He the King? Wherever you are in your thoughts and convictions about Jesus, I leave you with the last two verses of Psalm 2, Serve the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, that He not be angry and you perish on the way, For His wrath may be kindled quickly. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him" (vv. 11-12).

In Revelation 19:11-18 is a description of Jesus that proceeds His reign on earth as promised King who will bring peace on earth. In our passage there are eight descriptions of King Jesus that highlight His authority and character as the Only One who is able to make what is wrong in our world right. Jesus is coming and will come to make peace in our world by waging war on the antichrist who is to come and all the peoples who will align themselves with Him. It will be the realization that perhaps there was some truth that all roads do in fact lead to God, with the major clarification that many lead to Him as judge and only one leads to Him as savior. All I want to do with the time that we have this morning is to show you who He really is. Jesus is a triumphant King. The color white does not symbolize purity here as it does when used to describe garments. The white war horse that Jesus descends from heaven on symbolizes His role as a conquering King, and what is impressive is that, in Revelation 19:1, the battle has not yet begun. Jesus is coming back. You dont have to believe it and you dont even have to live like it, but the fact of the matter is this: Jesus is coming again, and He is not coming to die like He did the first time He came, He is coming to judge! The Bible says, at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11; see also Isa. 45:22-23). The Roman Senate had to give Julius Caesar permission to drive a chariot drawn by white horses through Rome to celebrate his victory in North Africa, but only after he defeated North Africa. When Jesus comes, He comes as a victorious King whose power will be demonstrated in such a way that every living creature will have no alternative but to bow before Him as the Lord. He rides a white horse signifying His victory because none can stay His hand. Jesus is a Faithful and True King (v. 11a). The second characteristic of Jesus is that He is faithful and true. When King Jesus comes to set up His kingdom, He will have no need to boast in a facade of faithfulness and truth because He is the very embodiment of faithfulness and truth. There is a lot of suffering in the world today. Every time there is a catastrophe in the world, governments rush with promises of help and often those who are left in the wake of tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, ethnic genocide, and the like, are left with empty promises of deliverance. Not so with Jesus! My dear brothers and sisters, many of you have been touched by divorce. Some of you have grown up with one broken promise after another. Some of you have been disappointed, have been hurt, have been mistreated, or perhaps taken advantage of. Take a look at verse 11 again, and permit me to ask you, Who is sitting on the white horse? Jesus is planning an eternity with His Bride, and He means to make a home for her that is characterized by holiness and righteousness. Jesus is a righteous King (v. 11b). When Jesus comes, He will come in righteousness to judge the nations. There will be no room to accuse Him as being harsh, rash, or unjust in the execution of His judgment. For many of you, the idea of righteousness and justice is something you have been thinking a lot about because of the politicking we are seeing on television. An election will be coming soon in the United States; promises will be made, and every candidate will claim some measure of integrity while maligning the other candidates. The wars we read about in our history books and the ones we hear on the news often leave a wake of injustice and suffering. Books have been written about The Just War. Whatever your views are concerning war and the one we may find ourselves in the future, one thing is sure: When Jesus comes to wage war on the nations, it will be completely and categorically just, for the Bible says of Jesus: Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make decisions by what His ears hear; but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the humble of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the belt around His waist. (Isaiah 11:15) Jesus is an all-seeing King (v. 12a). This is the third time in Revelation that Jesus is described as having eyes like fire (see 1:14; 2:18); every time He is characterized this way, it is metaphorical of His ability to see all things, including the human heart. As King, Jesus will execute justice on all those who have rejected Him as the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus does not have to pretend at being able to see all things; He is able to see all things; He is all knowing, and the entire world will be held accountable for what they do and think, both in public and private. When He comes to judge the nations, He will do so intelligently, there will be no civilian casualties. Jesus is the King of kings (v. 12b). In verse 12b, John notices something on Jesus head: many crowns. The Greek word for crown is also diadēma (we get the word diadem from it), it also means rulers crown. It is used only three times in Revelation. It is used to describe the crown worn by the dragon (12:3), the beast (13:1), and Jesus Christ. The point that is being made here is that the dragon (Lucifer) and the beast pretend to be what Jesus is. Their authority is temporary and given by God, Jesus authority is absolute and universal (This is why John records that Jesus had many crowns. The use of many is one way of saying innumerable). When Jesus comes, not only does John see many crowns on His head, but John also sees the title King of kings and Lord of lords on His robe and thigh. Every king or ruler that had been born into this world has had a temporal reign limited by age and mortality. When it comes to our lifespan, we are all like blips on a radar flashing on the screen of life and fading out just as quickly as we came in; James 4:14 asks, You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. Jesus reign and authority is eternal and genuine, He does not need to pretend. Jesus is a One-of-a-kind King (v. 12c) There is a lot of debate and theologizing over what name Jesus has that no one knows. There are two things we know about the ancient world of Johns day that may help us understand why Jesus has a name that no one knows. First, it was common in the world of Johns day to believe that both the gods and humans had a hidden name that contained their true essence, that defined their fundamental nature. Second, it was believed that to know a persons name was to exercise some level of control over that person. What is revealed of the Rider on the white horse is that His revealed name is called, The Word of God and what is tattooed on His thigh is the title: King of kings and Lord of lords. What we see in Revelation 19:11-18, Paul described in Philippians 2:9-11, which I believe helps us understand the unknown name that only He knows: For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. What Paul wrote in Philippians 2:9-11 would have given his readers goosebumps because of what is written in Isaiah 45:22-23, Declare and present your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this long ago? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. (Isa. 45:2123) According to Isaiah, only Yahweh has the right to judge the nations, and it is to Yahweh that every knee will bow, and every tongue will swear allegiance. Yet, Paul tells us that it will be before and to Jesus that, every tongue will swear allegiance and every knee will bow. Revelation 19:11-18 described the day when that will happen. The name that Jesus has that no one knows is reveals his absolute authority as God in the flesh who will not nor cannot be manipulated. Jesus is a just and holy King (v 13a). Why is Jesus robe dipped in blood? Is His robe dipped in blood to symbolize what He did at Calvary? I do not think so. I think Isaiah 63:2-3 gives us a clue to the meaning behind what John sees, Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the wine press? I have trodden the wine trough alone, and from the peoples there was no one with Me. I also trod them in My anger and trampled them in My wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My clothes (Isa. 63:13). Jesus robe is dipped in blood to indicate how He intends to deal with the nations that conspire against Him. How will He accomplish this? Look at verse 15, From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron The justice Jesus will execute will flow out of His perfect holiness; it is the kind of judgment described in Psalm 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, Lets tear their shackles apart And throw their ropes away from us! He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will announce the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, You are My Son, Today I have fathered You. Ask it of Me, and I will certainly give the nations as Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware. (Psalm 2:29) Jesus, as the Word of God, is the Promised King. Jesus is the Word of God, a title that is not unfamiliar in the New Testament. It is fitting that John closes his description of Jesus with this title because it gets at the reason why Jesus is qualified to come and judge the nations: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it (John 1:15). However, while on earth, even with all the miracles that include His power over demons, disease, and even death (see Mark 5:1-43) the feeding of thousands with some kids five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:1-14), walking on water (6:15-25), and even His power over storms (Matt. 8::18-27), there were people who still refused to believe that He was the promised Messiah. This is why John continued in the opening statements of his Gospel account something to consider against the backdrop of what you have seen in Revelation 19:11-18, He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God (John 1:1013). Conclusion As I consider this sermon series for Adventespecially what we have reflected on in Revelation 19, I am reminded of the conversation Lucy had with Mr. Beaver in C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when Mr. and Mrs. Beaver tried to help Lucy understand who Aslan was (Aslan is Narnias Christ figure): "Is - is he a man?" asked Lucy "Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion, the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh," said Susan, "I thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." "That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly." "Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy. "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king I tell you." The Lion of Judah is not safe, but He is good. Hes the king I tell you, and His name is Jesus Christ. The question I ask of you is simply this: Who do you say Jesus is and do you really believe it? Have you come to know Him? Do you really believe in His name? Is Jesus a religious icon to you, is He only a baby in a manger, or is He the King? Wherever you are in your thoughts and convictions about Jesus, I leave you with the last two verses of Psalm 2, Serve the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, that He not be angry and you perish on the way, For His wrath may be kindled quickly. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him" (vv. 11-12).

The first Avengers movie (2012) has a special place in my heart for many reasons; the primary reason for why I love this movie is because I kept Nathan from school half the day on a Friday morning on opening day to surprise him by seeing it in Imax. The second reason why I love the first Avengers movie is because it is one of the all-time great movies with great storytelling building up to one of the greatest superhero films on screen. A third reason why I love this movie is because of the theological and redemptive overtones throughout the film. There is a scene in the film when Loki, the primary antagonist in the film, makes his first public appearance in Stuttgart, Germany before a crowd of hundreds where he delivers one of the great lines in cinema on human freedom before he is confronted by the iconic comic book hero symbolizing what we believe about freedom in Captain America. Just before Loki is confronted, he said something that resonated with me: It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity.You were made to be ruled.In the end, you will always kneel. There is truth in Lokis words and the scene in the movie, in my opinion, captures what we believe about freedom with the villains words: You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel. It is as if to say that any powerful person or being that demands the bowing and kneeling of anyone is immoral. Yet, it is from the very words of holy Scripture that say of Jesus: For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:911). So, what do we do with the tension we feel over Lokis words, what history seemingly has taught us, and what we read in the Bible? I believe 1 Samuel 8:1-9 and Isaiah 44:8-10 helps resolve that tension for us, and it is to 1 Samuel we now turn our attention. The King Israel Wanted Samuels story is a fascinating one that we cannot explore today, but there are some things that you need to know to make sense of 1 Samuel 8. His mother, Hannah, could not get pregnant and begged God for a son; in a prayer Hannah offered up to God, she made the following vow: Lord of armies, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your bond-servant, but will give Your bond-servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head (1 Sam: 1:11). When Hannah made that vow, she lived in a time in Israels history when Eli the Priest interpreted her pleading with God for being drunk which sheds some light upon the kind of passionless and empty prayers he was used to experiencing. While Hannah begged for a son that she could give back to the service of the Lord, Elis two sons hung out outside the place where people would come to worship God at the tabernacle where they disrespected the worship of God while they slept with the women who served at the doorway of the tabernacle, and they did this all while Eli, as a priest over Israel, knew about it (see 1 Sam. 2:12ff.). The spiritual climate of Hannahs day was, in the words of the final verse in the book of Judges: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Jud. 21:25). So, Samuel was born to Hannah, and just as she vowed, she dedicated her son to the service of God. Samuel loved God and served Him as His appointed judge, as well as a priest and prophet before all of Israel. Samuel would serve as Israels final judge before Israel demanded a king to rule over them. Which brings us to 1 Samuel 8:1-9. Samuel was a man of God who stands out as being uncompromising in his devotion to God. It would be easy to read 1 Samuel 8 and miss the three paradoxes that surround Israels demand for a king; the paradoxes include the names and location of Samuels two sons, the hypocrisy of everyone surrounding Samuel, and who the people really wanted to rule over them. Paradox #1: Samuels sons were a walking paradox that served as a living parable of Israels relationship with God. Samuels sons were named Joel and Abijah; Joel means Yahweh is God and Abijah means My father is Yahweh. Yet, both of Samuels sons who were commissioned as judges over Israel, were not known for living as though they really believed Yahweh was their God or that they identified as belonging to Him in the same way a son belongs to his father. We are told that they, turned aside after dishonest gain, and they took bribes and perverted justice (v. 3). The elders who represented Israel asked as though they were disgusted by Joel and Abijahs behavior. Israel as a nation may not have been characterized by dishonest gain, receiving bribes from other nations, or perverting justice, but do not miss the indictment upon Israel as a nation given by the same God Samuels sons rejected: Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this dayin that they have abandoned Me and served other gods (v. 8). The takeaways from the first paradox: First, just because you think someone elses sin is ugly does not mean that your sin is no more repulsive in the eyes of God. What matters is not whether your sin looks better than the sins of others, but what God thinks about your heart. Secondly, we do not know what kind of father Samuel was, but you can be the godliest parent on planet earth and even that may not be enough for your child to want to walk in the ways of God. It is important to note that unlike Elis two sons whose sins were before their fathers eyes, Samuels sons lived over fifty miles away and Samuels ways were very different than the wicked ways of his two sons. Paradox #2: Samuels two sons did not live up to their name in the same way that Israel did not live up her name. Remember that Jacobs name means, heel-grabber and that he was known for the ways he manipulated his father and older brother Esau into receiving a birthright that was not his to take. It wasnt until he wrestled with God and was then renamed only after he yielded his life to God, that his name was Israel, and its meaning is simple: He who strives with God. Yet, Israel as a nation was not known for striving with God but walking away from God to the gods of the nations. Many years later following Israels demand for a king, the prophet Jeremiah would declare on behalf of God: Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder, be very desolate, declares the Lord. For My people have committed two evils: They have abandoned Me, the fountain of living waters, to carve out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that do not hold water (Jer. 2:12-13). The takeaway from the second paradox: Israel thought their greatest need was what the world had to offer while ignoring the only source that was able satisfy their deepest longings and remedy their greatest problem, which had to do with the human heart. Sin-begotten kings cannot solve the problems of sin-begotten people. Paradox #3: Israels demand for a king like the other nations was a vote of no-confidence in God as King over their lives. This could not be more obvious. The irony in Israels demand for a king was not the desire for a king, but the kind of king they believed would solve the problem of the heart. We know that the desire for a king was not the issue because in Deuteronomy 17:14-20, God gave Israel the prescription for the kind of king they would one day need; there are seven characteristics listed in Deuteronomy 17 that the king needed to have to qualify to rule over Israel as king. The king would be a person like them who Yahweh would appoint over them. The king would be a person from among their own people. The king would be a person who truly loved Yahweh. The king would be a person whose security and strength rested in Yahweh. The king would be a person who loved the Law and the Word of Yahweh. The king would be a person who would obey the Law and Word of Yahweh. The king would be a person who would seek to serve his people for their good and the glory of Yahweh. Because Israel wanted a king like the nations, they would not get the kind of king described in Deuteronomy 17. The kind of king Israel would get is described in 1 Samuel 8:10-20. The irony is that Israel did not ultimately reject Samuel as a judge, but God as their King. The takeaway from the third paradox: The One Israel needed most is who they seemed to want least. Israel wanted what the nations had and refused the good that God had for them. Israel believed that their rejection of God would give them freedom, but it would ultimately result in a greater bondage and burden that would lead to greater sorrows. The King Israel Rejected It wasnt Israels desire to have a king that was so bad, but the kind of king they wanted. The king that they wanted was one like what the other nations had. They wanted a king they could chose, a king whose splendor and glory came from the strength of his army, a king whose glory rested in his gold and silver, and a king who was attractive just like the kings the other godless nations had. What they ultimately wanted was the same thing Adam and Eve wanted that the serpent offered: they wanted autonomy from the God of Samuel. This is the kind of thing we are warned about in Holy Scripture: Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world (1 John 2:15-16). When Adam and Even looked at the forbidden fruit as they were tempted by the Serpent of old, we are told: When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate (Gen. 3:6). Under the surface of Israels demand for a king like the other nations was the foolish belief in the same old lie, but only with different dressing. After Adam and Eve bit into the fruit what they got was shame and death. According to 1 Samuel 8:10-20, with the king Israel wanted and demanded, he would take from them what they have and give them a greater burden they were never meant to bear. What was Samuel to do with the demand of the people? He brought it before the Lord in prayer. Samuel had faithfully served Yahweh and the people all of his life; it is understandable that he took the demand for a king personally. However, it was not Samuel, as the Lords servant, that they were rejecting: And the Lord said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people regarding all that they say to you, because they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them (v. 8). What kind of King is Yahweh? Oh, we are told of the kind of King He is in Isaiah 44:6-8, This is what the Lord says, He who is the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of armies: I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; And, let him confront Me Beginning with My establishing of the ancient nation. Then let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of none. The One Israel so eagerly rejected was Yahweh as King of Israel. The God who overwhelmed Pharaoh with 10 plagues, parted the sea, and delivered Israel through the wilderness is the One Israel was willing to trade in for someone like pharaoh. Israel demanded a sin-begotten task master in place of the Redeemer. The people demanded something the godless nations produced in place of the One true God whose Israels very existence was owing to Him. Oh, the crazy rational of sin and how it is seen in Israels desire of a man from the dirt in place of the God who is the Rock! So, God gave Israel the desire of their hearts by giving them a man by the name of Saul and boy was he a train-wreck spiritually! If Israel had only waited! If they had only trusted in the One who establishes nations and removes them, who declares things that are coming and events that are going to take place, and had they stood on the promises of the true King of Israel as their Rock rather than on the sifting sand of worldly hopes! Gods intention for Israel always included a King, for hundreds of years before Samuel was born, an ancient promise to one of the tribes of Israel was given: As for you, Judah, your brothers shall praise you; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your fathers sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lions cub; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares to stir him up? The scepter will not depart from Judah, Nor the rulers staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. (Gen. 49:810) If Israel had waited, they would have gotten a king. Not the king of Genesis 49:8-10, but one like him an imperfect prototype, but a king who was a man after Gods own heart. Instead, Israel got 40 years of Saul, just as their forefathers got 40 years in the wilderness for their sin. Eventually Israel got David who seemed to check all the boxes, the kind of king God prescribed in Deuteronomy 17, but he was only an imperfect foreshadowing of a greater King that would come from his descendants. The King We Need The story of humanity is one of broken cisterns that can hold no water, a story of rejecting a Greater Glory for lesser glories, a story about mans desire for the kings of the earth, and every time we end up with shame, 40 years in the wilderness, or worsewe end of with a Saul when we could have had a David. What are you settling for? What wilderness have you found yourself in because you have settled for lesser glories in place of the Greater Glory who is the God you were born to know? What Saul have you settled for when you could have had a David? Can I leave you with something that ought to encourage you? What God had for Israel was greater than even David! King David was part of the plan, but he was not the end-goal of that plan. What Israel could not see was that God was moving time, space, and kingdoms to introduce to the world a greater King. A King who would reign on Davids throne forever (2 Sam. 7:12-16), a King whose light would light up the darkness of sins dark cloud (Isa. 9:2), a King who would come as the ultimate Lamb for the purpose of reigning as the rightful Lion of Judah, and on the first Christmas His voice would be heard in the form of a newborn infants cries: For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6). He would be sent by Yahweh. He would be a descendant of David as fully human (and fully God). He would be the Son of God with a love for Him unparalleled by any other. He would humble with an absolute dependance upon God as His Father. He would live in perfect dependance upon the Law of God with an absolute love for the Word of God. He would be born not to be served, but to serve, to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Oh, dear brothers and sisters that One born on the first Christmas and laid in that manger for lowly shepherds to see and wandering Magi to seek was the One, born King of the Jews (Matt. 2:2); born on Christmas was the Redeemer, the Lord, the One who is the First and the Last the Living One. We were indeed meant to be ruled, but ruled by a Good King. Amen.

The first Avengers movie (2012) has a special place in my heart for many reasons; the primary reason for why I love this movie is because I kept Nathan from school half the day on a Friday morning on opening day to surprise him by seeing it in Imax. The second reason why I love the first Avengers movie is because it is one of the all-time great movies with great storytelling building up to one of the greatest superhero films on screen. A third reason why I love this movie is because of the theological and redemptive overtones throughout the film. There is a scene in the film when Loki, the primary antagonist in the film, makes his first public appearance in Stuttgart, Germany before a crowd of hundreds where he delivers one of the great lines in cinema on human freedom before he is confronted by the iconic comic book hero symbolizing what we believe about freedom in Captain America. Just before Loki is confronted, he said something that resonated with me: It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity.You were made to be ruled.In the end, you will always kneel. There is truth in Lokis words and the scene in the movie, in my opinion, captures what we believe about freedom with the villains words: You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel. It is as if to say that any powerful person or being that demands the bowing and kneeling of anyone is immoral. Yet, it is from the very words of holy Scripture that say of Jesus: For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:911). So, what do we do with the tension we feel over Lokis words, what history seemingly has taught us, and what we read in the Bible? I believe 1 Samuel 8:1-9 and Isaiah 44:8-10 helps resolve that tension for us, and it is to 1 Samuel we now turn our attention. The King Israel Wanted Samuels story is a fascinating one that we cannot explore today, but there are some things that you need to know to make sense of 1 Samuel 8. His mother, Hannah, could not get pregnant and begged God for a son; in a prayer Hannah offered up to God, she made the following vow: Lord of armies, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your bond-servant, but will give Your bond-servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head (1 Sam: 1:11). When Hannah made that vow, she lived in a time in Israels history when Eli the Priest interpreted her pleading with God for being drunk which sheds some light upon the kind of passionless and empty prayers he was used to experiencing. While Hannah begged for a son that she could give back to the service of the Lord, Elis two sons hung out outside the place where people would come to worship God at the tabernacle where they disrespected the worship of God while they slept with the women who served at the doorway of the tabernacle, and they did this all while Eli, as a priest over Israel, knew about it (see 1 Sam. 2:12ff.). The spiritual climate of Hannahs day was, in the words of the final verse in the book of Judges: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Jud. 21:25). So, Samuel was born to Hannah, and just as she vowed, she dedicated her son to the service of God. Samuel loved God and served Him as His appointed judge, as well as a priest and prophet before all of Israel. Samuel would serve as Israels final judge before Israel demanded a king to rule over them. Which brings us to 1 Samuel 8:1-9. Samuel was a man of God who stands out as being uncompromising in his devotion to God. It would be easy to read 1 Samuel 8 and miss the three paradoxes that surround Israels demand for a king; the paradoxes include the names and location of Samuels two sons, the hypocrisy of everyone surrounding Samuel, and who the people really wanted to rule over them. Paradox #1: Samuels sons were a walking paradox that served as a living parable of Israels relationship with God. Samuels sons were named Joel and Abijah; Joel means Yahweh is God and Abijah means My father is Yahweh. Yet, both of Samuels sons who were commissioned as judges over Israel, were not known for living as though they really believed Yahweh was their God or that they identified as belonging to Him in the same way a son belongs to his father. We are told that they, turned aside after dishonest gain, and they took bribes and perverted justice (v. 3). The elders who represented Israel asked as though they were disgusted by Joel and Abijahs behavior. Israel as a nation may not have been characterized by dishonest gain, receiving bribes from other nations, or perverting justice, but do not miss the indictment upon Israel as a nation given by the same God Samuels sons rejected: Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this dayin that they have abandoned Me and served other gods (v. 8). The takeaways from the first paradox: First, just because you think someone elses sin is ugly does not mean that your sin is no more repulsive in the eyes of God. What matters is not whether your sin looks better than the sins of others, but what God thinks about your heart. Secondly, we do not know what kind of father Samuel was, but you can be the godliest parent on planet earth and even that may not be enough for your child to want to walk in the ways of God. It is important to note that unlike Elis two sons whose sins were before their fathers eyes, Samuels sons lived over fifty miles away and Samuels ways were very different than the wicked ways of his two sons. Paradox #2: Samuels two sons did not live up to their name in the same way that Israel did not live up her name. Remember that Jacobs name means, heel-grabber and that he was known for the ways he manipulated his father and older brother Esau into receiving a birthright that was not his to take. It wasnt until he wrestled with God and was then renamed only after he yielded his life to God, that his name was Israel, and its meaning is simple: He who strives with God. Yet, Israel as a nation was not known for striving with God but walking away from God to the gods of the nations. Many years later following Israels demand for a king, the prophet Jeremiah would declare on behalf of God: Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder, be very desolate, declares the Lord. For My people have committed two evils: They have abandoned Me, the fountain of living waters, to carve out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that do not hold water (Jer. 2:12-13). The takeaway from the second paradox: Israel thought their greatest need was what the world had to offer while ignoring the only source that was able satisfy their deepest longings and remedy their greatest problem, which had to do with the human heart. Sin-begotten kings cannot solve the problems of sin-begotten people. Paradox #3: Israels demand for a king like the other nations was a vote of no-confidence in God as King over their lives. This could not be more obvious. The irony in Israels demand for a king was not the desire for a king, but the kind of king they believed would solve the problem of the heart. We know that the desire for a king was not the issue because in Deuteronomy 17:14-20, God gave Israel the prescription for the kind of king they would one day need; there are seven characteristics listed in Deuteronomy 17 that the king needed to have to qualify to rule over Israel as king. The king would be a person like them who Yahweh would appoint over them. The king would be a person from among their own people. The king would be a person who truly loved Yahweh. The king would be a person whose security and strength rested in Yahweh. The king would be a person who loved the Law and the Word of Yahweh. The king would be a person who would obey the Law and Word of Yahweh. The king would be a person who would seek to serve his people for their good and the glory of Yahweh. Because Israel wanted a king like the nations, they would not get the kind of king described in Deuteronomy 17. The kind of king Israel would get is described in 1 Samuel 8:10-20. The irony is that Israel did not ultimately reject Samuel as a judge, but God as their King. The takeaway from the third paradox: The One Israel needed most is who they seemed to want least. Israel wanted what the nations had and refused the good that God had for them. Israel believed that their rejection of God would give them freedom, but it would ultimately result in a greater bondage and burden that would lead to greater sorrows. The King Israel Rejected It wasnt Israels desire to have a king that was so bad, but the kind of king they wanted. The king that they wanted was one like what the other nations had. They wanted a king they could chose, a king whose splendor and glory came from the strength of his army, a king whose glory rested in his gold and silver, and a king who was attractive just like the kings the other godless nations had. What they ultimately wanted was the same thing Adam and Eve wanted that the serpent offered: they wanted autonomy from the God of Samuel. This is the kind of thing we are warned about in Holy Scripture: Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world (1 John 2:15-16). When Adam and Even looked at the forbidden fruit as they were tempted by the Serpent of old, we are told: When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate (Gen. 3:6). Under the surface of Israels demand for a king like the other nations was the foolish belief in the same old lie, but only with different dressing. After Adam and Eve bit into the fruit what they got was shame and death. According to 1 Samuel 8:10-20, with the king Israel wanted and demanded, he would take from them what they have and give them a greater burden they were never meant to bear. What was Samuel to do with the demand of the people? He brought it before the Lord in prayer. Samuel had faithfully served Yahweh and the people all of his life; it is understandable that he took the demand for a king personally. However, it was not Samuel, as the Lords servant, that they were rejecting: And the Lord said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people regarding all that they say to you, because they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them (v. 8). What kind of King is Yahweh? Oh, we are told of the kind of King He is in Isaiah 44:6-8, This is what the Lord says, He who is the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of armies: I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; And, let him confront Me Beginning with My establishing of the ancient nation. Then let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of none. The One Israel so eagerly rejected was Yahweh as King of Israel. The God who overwhelmed Pharaoh with 10 plagues, parted the sea, and delivered Israel through the wilderness is the One Israel was willing to trade in for someone like pharaoh. Israel demanded a sin-begotten task master in place of the Redeemer. The people demanded something the godless nations produced in place of the One true God whose Israels very existence was owing to Him. Oh, the crazy rational of sin and how it is seen in Israels desire of a man from the dirt in place of the God who is the Rock! So, God gave Israel the desire of their hearts by giving them a man by the name of Saul and boy was he a train-wreck spiritually! If Israel had only waited! If they had only trusted in the One who establishes nations and removes them, who declares things that are coming and events that are going to take place, and had they stood on the promises of the true King of Israel as their Rock rather than on the sifting sand of worldly hopes! Gods intention for Israel always included a King, for hundreds of years before Samuel was born, an ancient promise to one of the tribes of Israel was given: As for you, Judah, your brothers shall praise you; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your fathers sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lions cub; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares to stir him up? The scepter will not depart from Judah, Nor the rulers staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. (Gen. 49:810) If Israel had waited, they would have gotten a king. Not the king of Genesis 49:8-10, but one like him an imperfect prototype, but a king who was a man after Gods own heart. Instead, Israel got 40 years of Saul, just as their forefathers got 40 years in the wilderness for their sin. Eventually Israel got David who seemed to check all the boxes, the kind of king God prescribed in Deuteronomy 17, but he was only an imperfect foreshadowing of a greater King that would come from his descendants. The King We Need The story of humanity is one of broken cisterns that can hold no water, a story of rejecting a Greater Glory for lesser glories, a story about mans desire for the kings of the earth, and every time we end up with shame, 40 years in the wilderness, or worsewe end of with a Saul when we could have had a David. What are you settling for? What wilderness have you found yourself in because you have settled for lesser glories in place of the Greater Glory who is the God you were born to know? What Saul have you settled for when you could have had a David? Can I leave you with something that ought to encourage you? What God had for Israel was greater than even David! King David was part of the plan, but he was not the end-goal of that plan. What Israel could not see was that God was moving time, space, and kingdoms to introduce to the world a greater King. A King who would reign on Davids throne forever (2 Sam. 7:12-16), a King whose light would light up the darkness of sins dark cloud (Isa. 9:2), a King who would come as the ultimate Lamb for the purpose of reigning as the rightful Lion of Judah, and on the first Christmas His voice would be heard in the form of a newborn infants cries: For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6). He would be sent by Yahweh. He would be a descendant of David as fully human (and fully God). He would be the Son of God with a love for Him unparalleled by any other. He would humble with an absolute dependance upon God as His Father. He would live in perfect dependance upon the Law of God with an absolute love for the Word of God. He would be born not to be served, but to serve, to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Oh, dear brothers and sisters that One born on the first Christmas and laid in that manger for lowly shepherds to see and wandering Magi to seek was the One, born King of the Jews (Matt. 2:2); born on Christmas was the Redeemer, the Lord, the One who is the First and the Last the Living One. We were indeed meant to be ruled, but ruled by a Good King. Amen.

At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9–11). We praise you, Lord.

In our study today, a demonic spirit is causing a distraction when Paul and the others are preaching salvation in the name of Jesus. Dr. Luke tells us, “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17,18). It is then read, “but Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour” (Acts 16:18).Beloved, demonic spirits are real. The apostle Paul confirms this with the words, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Who are the “we” that wrestle not against flesh and blood? It's the church of Jesus Christ. These demonic spirits are as alive and well today as they were in the book of Acts. But praise be unto God that there is power and authority for the child of God over those demons in the name of Jesus Christ.In the account of the 70 disciples mentioned in the gospel of Luke we read in verses 17&19, “And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven”. Satan and demons are not mythological characters; they are real entities who are wreaking the same chaos, confusion as they always have. They feed fears and phobias. They lie, masquerade and distort the truth of God, and often as angels of light. Demonic possession cannot be cast out with medication, therapy rehabs. There is only one name that is powerful enough to cast out demons just as true as there is only one name under heaven whereby we must be saved, and that name is Jesus Christ.“Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” (Acts 19:13) There is a full blown war for souls on planet earth today beloved, and even demons know the difference between a sheep and a wolf. There are demonic entities who oppose the work of God and the people of God. Many are religious counterfeits. Others are pseudo spiritual who seek to control your minds. “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10).Praise God that there is salvation, deliverance and healing in the name of Jesus today just as much as it was in our study this morning. “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt 1:23). “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:9-11). Reader, do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior? Call upon His name in times of darkness. Resist the devil and he will flee. Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. SELAH

(0:00-15:00) On MNF, Aaron Rodgers gets hurt for the Jets and it is announced that he will be out for the whole season. What should the Jets do? Should the Jets call Father Phil? Bolt City reacts. (15:00-27:20) The Chargers had a very tough loss in week 1 against the Dolphins. Such a tough loss that Josh, Dave, and Mario can't get the taste out of their mouths. So they finish up on their thoughts about the game. (27:21-End) Besides Rodgers and the Chargers loss in Week 1, the guys dive into other surprises in week 1. Bolt City looks at the Niners, Bills struggles, and are the Rams back? To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On MNF, Aaron Rodgers gets hurt for the Jets and it is announced that he will be out for the whole season. What should the Jets do? Should the Jets call Father Phil? Bolt City reacts. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hour 2: Michael Jackson's “Don't Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” will always be special to Gio because it was the song when he was a contestant in Pittsburgh's version of Dancing with the Stars. The woman who trained him left her husband for her priest. That reminds us of Father Phil and Carmela from The Sopranos. The Yankees had another bad loss last night in LA. The pitch clock is helping but baseball still isn't like it used to be. Why was Anthony Volpe swinging for a HR when he needed a single? Jerry says Griffin Canning of the Angels had a very slow delivery. Giancarlo Stanton for Max Scherzer: who says no? Gio would love to have time to rewatch The Sopranos. Thursday Night Football hasn't caught on and is a problem. Do we even need Sunday Night Football? CLo returns for an update but first Gio asks Fliegs a Taylor Swift question, Diet Coke is considered dangerous by some and Russell Okung lost a lot of weight. Gio looks back at some of his diets. Men in the Hamptons are demanding penis injections. Gio would do it if he was a single man. Looking into penis enlargement methods online. We get to hear Wayne Randazzo again with the Yankees in Anaheim. Chris McMonigle fell into an old-timey voice. Is there such a thing as a penis that's too big? John Sterling got mad at the Angels PA announcer. Running backs across the NFL are not happy. In the final segment of the hour, Gio needs to give a gift to his neighbor that helped him fix the A/C last night. Eddie has the answer.

Hour 1: We had another frustrating Yankees loss, there's a frustrated Giants running back and Gio is shaking off a rough night on the golf course. He lost and the A/C was not working at home. Like Saquon tweeted, “it is what it is”. Gio thinks Saquon should have taken the Giants offer. Jerry believes there's only one way the valuation of running backs will ever change. CLo is in for Jerry and begins with the Yankees blowing another late lead, this time to Shohei Ohtani and the Angels. Jerry joked that Griffin Canning could throw a no-hitter against the Yankees. He didn't, but he did strike out 12 batters. Gio and Jerry have no problem with the Yankees not walking Ohtani before his game-tying HR. We may have seen the last of Josh Donaldson. Jerry wonders if some under-performing players should kick back some money to the owners paying them. Le'Veon Bell considers himself a prophet. The Jets don't want Hard Knocks to air when players get cut at the end of camp. Gio and Jerry say that's fine, we've seen that same scene a million times. Joel Embiid might want out of Philly. James Harden is a piece of work. In the final segment of the hour, we discuss the songs we can play as rejoins in the two hours we are off TV after Eddie chose a deep-cut from The Beatles. What songs did The Beatles play when they first played at Shea in the 60s? Gio gained some respect for Kirk Cousins watching him in “Quarterback”. Hour 2: Michael Jackson's “Don't Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” will always be special to Gio because it was the song when he was a contestant in Pittsburgh's version of Dancing with the Stars. The woman who trained him left her husband for her priest. That reminds us of Father Phil and Carmela from The Sopranos. The Yankees had another bad loss last night in LA. The pitch clock is helping but baseball still isn't like it used to be. Why was Anthony Volpe swinging for a HR when he needed a single? Jerry says Griffin Canning of the Angels had a very slow delivery. Giancarlo Stanton for Max Scherzer: who says no? Gio would love to have time to rewatch The Sopranos. Thursday Night Football hasn't caught on and is a problem. Do we even need Sunday Night Football? CLo returns for an update but first Gio asks Fliegs a Taylor Swift question, Diet Coke is considered dangerous by some and Russell Okung lost a lot of weight. Gio looks back at some of his diets. Men in the Hamptons are demanding penis injections. Gio would do it if he was a single man. Looking into penis enlargement methods online. We get to hear Wayne Randazzo again with the Yankees in Anaheim. Chris McMonigle fell into an old-timey voice. Is there such a thing as a penis that's too big? John Sterling got mad at the Angels PA announcer. Running backs across the NFL are not happy. In the final segment of the hour, Gio needs to give a gift to his neighbor that helped him fix the A/C last night. Eddie has the answer.  Hour 3: We are getting ready for CBS Sports Network to join us after the soccer friendly they were airing wraps up. How can the Angels let Shohei Ohtani walk away as a free agent? Jerry says the Mets best hope of landing Ohtani long term is to trade for him and sell him on New York while he is here. Gio says the Dodgers can just sit back, wait and land Ohtani in free agency. If a team trades for Ohtani and loses him in free agency it would be one of the biggest trade busts ever. Will the Mets pursue Ohtani at some point? Is there a case for the Mets mostly running it back next year? CLo returns with an Ohtani highlight to beat the Yankees and Jerry notices his hair is getting grayer. Running backs have been devalued. Are wide receivers next? Gio says no way. Greg Olsen says there's a lot in the game of football that looks or sounds like penises. Is Joel Embiid just trolling everyone? A man on TikTok was not happy when his wife told him she is pregnant with their 4th child. Failed vasectomy stories. In the final segment of the hour, Bebe Rexha shared a text from her boyfriend on Instagram. He texted her that she gained weight after telling her the same in person. Jeff Passan broke his back. Hour 4: Rookies for some teams, including the Giants, are reporting to camp today. Everyone for the Jets reports tomorrow. We need football with these baseball teams. Gio got help with his slip yesterday. The marina owners who don't follow sports or know about Gio and WFAN helped out after someone played them the clip of Gio saying they don't know who he is on yesterday's show. They loved it and were happy to help. Gio has to give more “man baskets” now. One of them will get the vag-ankle. We can make better “man baskets” or “man crates” than the ones that are available online. CLo returns for his final update of the day. John Calipari has Kentucky practicing at Drake's house. Ohtani and the Angels beat the Yankees in the series opener last night. The Mets are back in action tonight. Joe B talked about golfing with Robert Saleh filling in with Evan yesterday. How long did it take for Saleh to regret golfing with Joe? Dog is returning to Bar A for the first time since he left WFAN. He faxed in his WFAN resignation from Bar A. In Moment of the Day, penis enlargement is “exploding” in the Hamptons. In the final segment of the day, Gio reads an interview with Evan Fournier in which he references Dragon Ball Z (thanks Anthony Gallo for explaining what he meant) and trashes Tom Thibodeau.

Palmarum Processional Gospel: Matt. 21:1-9       or John 12:12-19 Introit: Ps. 22:1, 7-8, 11; antiphon: Ps. 22:19, 21 Gradual: Ps. 73:23b-24, 1 Old Testament: Zech. 9:9-12 Psalm 118:19-29 (antiphon: v. 26)       or Psalm 31:9-16 (antiphon: v. 5) Epistle: Phil. 2:5-11 Tract: Ps. 22:1, 4, 5 Gospel: Matt. 26:1-27:66       or Matt. 27:11-54 The Cross and Passion of Our Lord Are the Hour of His Glory  "Behold, your King is coming to you . . . humble and mounted on a donkey" (Zech. 9:9-12; Mt. 21:1-9). Our Lord rides in this humble fashion because He is entering Jerusalem to humble Himself even to the point of death on a cross (Phil. 2:5-11). His kingly crown will not be made of gold but of thorns, the sign of sin's curse. For His royal reign is displayed in bearing this curse for His people, saving us from our enemies by sacrificing His own life. The sinless One takes the place of the sinner so that the sinner can be freed and bear the name "Barabbas," "son of the Father" (Matthew 26 and 27). It is at the name of this exalted Savior, Jesus, that we bow in humble faith. With the centurion who declared, "Truly this was the Son of God!" (Mt. 27:54), we are also given to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11).

“Live as children of light: for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.” (Eph. 5:8-9)Paul is writing to the community in Ephesus, a large and imposing city where he had lived while baptizing and evangelizing. He is probably imprisoned in Rome in about the year 62 AD. He is in distress, yet he writes to these Christians, not so much to solve problems within the community, but to proclaim to them the beauty of God's plan for the developing Church. He reminds the Ephesians that through the gift of baptism and faith, they have gone from “being darkness” to “being light,” and he encourages them to behave in a way that reflects this. For Paul, it is about pursuing a journey, an experience of continuous growth in the knowledge of God and his will of love. Furthermore, it means starting again each day. Therefore, he wants to encourage them to live always according to the call they have received—to be “imitators of the Father” (Phil 2:15) as “beloved children”: holy and merciful.“Live as children of light: for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.” As 21st-century Christians, we are also called to “be light,” but we may feel inadequate and conditioned by our limitations, or overwhelmed by external circumstances. How do we walk with hope, despite the darkness and uncertainties that sometimes seem to assail us? Paul continues to encourage us. It is the lived Word of God that enlightens us and enables us to “shine like stars” in this lost humanity. “As another Christ, every man and woman can make a contribution ... in all fields of human activity: in science, in art, in politics,” Focolare founder Chiara Lubich wrote in a Gospel commentary in 2005. “If we welcome his word we become more and more attuned to his thoughts, his feelings and his teachings. “It illuminates our every activity, straightens and corrects every expression of our life... But our ‘old self' (Rom 6:6) is always ready to affect our personal private lives and, consequently, we may be drawn to cultivating our own interests and forgetting about the people who pass us by. “We may even remain indifferent before the common good and the needs of humanity around us. Let us therefore rekindle the flame of love in our hearts and we will have new eyes with which to see what is going on around us.”“Live as children of light: for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.” The light of the Gospel, lived out by individuals and communities, brings hope and strengthens social bonds, even when calamities like Covid cause pain and exacerbate poverty. Jun who lives in the Philippines recounts that at the height of the pandemic, a community he knows was devastated by a terrible fire. Many families lost everything. “Even though we are poor, my wife Flor and I really wanted to help. I told the members of the motorcycle group I belong to about this situation. Even though I knew they too were struggling as much as we were, this did not stop my friends from taking action. We collected tins of sardines and packets of noodles, rice and other food items that we donated to the victims of the fires. “Often, my wife and I feel discouraged at the thought of what the future may hold, but we always remember the phrase in the Gospel that says, ‘For those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for the sake of the Gospel will save it' (Mk 8:35). “Even though we are not rich, we believe that we always have something to share out of love for Jesus in the other person, and it is this love that motivates us to continue to give sincerely and to trust in God's love.” It is therefore a matter of allowing this light to shine out from the depths of our hearts. The fruits of this way of life—goodness, justice and truth—are pleasing in the eyes of the Lord and perhaps bear greater witness to the Gospel than other words we might use. And let us not forget the support we receive from all those with whom we share this holy journey of life. The goodness of others, the mutual forgiveness we experience and the sharing of material and spiritual goods are a valuable source of help that enables us to be witnesses of hope. Jesus promised, “Remember, I am with you all days, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). He, the risen one, the source of our Christian life, is always with us in prayer and mutual love, warming our hearts and enlightening our minds. By Letizia Magri and the Focolare Word of Life team

God - An Intentional Father All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.Ephesians 1:3-6 NLT ·         An intentional Father ·         Some men plan to have Children·         Some have them by accident·         Some have them and then decide they don't want to be fathers after all·         Some have them but don't know how to be fathers  7 Truths from these 3 verses  1.   Even as in His love 2.   He chose us, actually picked us out for Himself as His own 3.   in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy consecrated and set apart for Him and blameless in His sight, 4.   even above reproach, before Him in love. 5.   For He foreordained us, destined us, planned in love for us to be adopted as His own children through Jesus Christ, 6.   in accordance with the purpose of His will because it pleased Him 7.   and was His kind intent Ephesians 1:4-5 AMPChttps://bible.com/bible/8/eph.1.4-5.AMPC   Questions ·         what's your relationship like with the Father? ·         do you know the love of the father and his acceptance like Jesus did? ·         What truth from the list is easy to believe and hard to believe?·         How do they affect your relationship with the Father?

Palmarum Processional Gospel: Matt. 21:1-9       or John 12:12-19 Introit: Ps. 22:1, 7-8, 11; antiphon: Ps. 22:19, 21 Gradual: Ps. 73:23b-24, 1 Old Testament: Zech. 9:9-12 Psalm 118:19-29 (antiphon: v. 26)       or Psalm 31:9-16 (antiphon: v. 5) Epistle: Phil. 2:5-11 Tract: Ps. 22:1, 4, 5 Gospel: Matt. 26:1-27:66       or Matt. 27:11-54 The Cross and Passion of Our Lord Are the Hour of His Glory  "Behold, your King is coming to you . . . humble and mounted on a donkey" (Zech. 9:9-12; Mt. 21:1-9). Our Lord rides in this humble fashion because He is entering Jerusalem to humble Himself even to the point of death on a cross (Phil. 2:5-11). His kingly crown will not be made of gold but of thorns, the sign of sin's curse. For His royal reign is displayed in bearing this curse for His people, saving us from our enemies by sacrificing His own life. The sinless One takes the place of the sinner so that the sinner can be freed and bear the name "Barabbas," "son of the Father" (Matthew 26 and 27). It is at the name of this exalted Savior, Jesus, that we bow in humble faith. With the centurion who declared, "Truly this was the Son of God!" (Mt. 27:54), we are also given to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11).

The King of Israel comes into His royal glory by the path of humble obedience “to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). He “goes as it has been determined” (Luke 22:22), according to the Scriptures, willingly submitting to His Father's plan for the salvation of sinners. “Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). His suffering and death open the way of repentance for the forgiveness of sins because He goes to the cross bearing the sins of the world. In His resurrection, God the Father vindicates His people and has compassion on His servants (Deut. 32:36). He kills to make alive; He wounds in order to heal. In remembrance of Him, we praise God, confessing “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:11).-----Visit our website: https://www.trinitysheboygan.org/​​​​Trinity Lutheran Church, School and Child Care have been "Making Known the Love of Christ" in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and throughout the world since 1853 as a congregation gathering around God's Word and Sacraments to receive forgiveness and life everlasting. Trinity is located in downtown Sheboygan, only one block from the Mead Public Library and the Weill Center for the Performing Arts. We invite you to visit us in person!Trinity Lutheran Sheboygan is a proud member of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit their website: https://www.lcms.org/​​​​Music for this production was obtained through a licensing agreement with One License, LLC. The copyright permission to reprint, podcast, and record hymns and songs is acquired through ID Number: 730195-ASupport the show

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Father Phil Salois, served in Vietnam with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, 7th Infantry Regiment. In his first months there, he saw his fair share of combat. His unit spent a lot of time trudging along the rice paddies, looking for an elusive enemy who chose when and where to encounter his American adversaries. After a fraught time in the country and earning the US Silver Star, Father Phil came back to the different United States. With his perennial faith unshaken, Phil became a Catholic priest and a spiritual advisor to his fellow veterans. Suffering from PTSD himself, he's worked tirelessly to help not only Vietnam veterans but also those affected by recent conflicts, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Read 'Eating Smoke: One Man's Descent into Crystal Meth Psychosis in Hong Kong's Triad Heartland.' Paperback UK: https://amzn.to/2YoeaPx Paperback US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0993543944 Support the podcast at: https://www.patreon.com/christhrall (£2 per month plus perks) https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-our-veterans-to-tell-their-story https://paypal.me/TeamThrall Sign up for my NON-SPAM newsletter and FREE books: https://christhrall.com/mailing-list/ Social media Links: https://facebook.com/christhrall https://twitter.com/christhrall https://instagram.com/chris.thrall https://linkedin.com/in/christhrall https://youtube.com/christhrall https://discord.gg/yqvHRUN https://christhrall.com 

WNRI 2021 Veterans Day Hour 4 Featuring Vietnam Veteran Father Phil Salois, - REPEATED FROM 2020 Veterans Day Program P.O.W. Raymond Noury, - REPEATED FROM 2019 POWMIA NEVER FORGET the story of M.I.A. James M. Ray - REPEATED FROM 2019 POWMIA NEVER FORGET Knights Of Columbus Jeff Gaulin on Fundraiser REMEMBER OUR VETERANS AT CHRISTMAS

First Baptist Delray with Steve Thomas

Season 1, Episode 5 of our journey with Sopranos Redefined! If you like what you hear, please reach out and follow us on Twitter @SopranosRe & Instagram @sopranosredefined P.S. Sorry about Dan, I know he's not very good. Would you mind sliding into @FilmFloggers Dm's with your co-hosting credentials? "No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the truth."– Nathaniel Hawthorne. Topics discussed during the episode: Does this episode birth the concept of the so-called anti-hero? Is this what my dad was doing during my College/Uni open day? (And the previous 10 years?) Father Phil comes round to eat out Carmela (again)...Out of house & home ofc. Would you choose what is easy over what is right? It turns out Dr Melfi is a woman played by Lorraine Braco. Tony's in troubleeeee The ducks pop back for a flying visit. Has Tony moved on? A massive shoutout in this episode to Gaz & Danger over at The Insanely Dangerous Retro Podshow! Follow them here - https://t.co/zudBeu4NqY?amp=1 They were even nice enough to have Dan on for a recent episode on Se7vn! Poor blokes. Come to think of it; Dan does give off some Kevin Spacey vibes...From his character in Se7en ofc. Se7en Episode (if you dare) - https://tinyurl.com/a2as7782 Socials

Wetwork Dreams Felix Biederman of the Chapo Trap House podcast joins Matt & Vince to talk about The Sopranos season five episode twelve, “The Test Dream.” As the title of the episode suggests, the improbably named Brian Benben would feel right at home, as Tony is Dream-ing On through much of the runtime. Dream sequences are a polarizing topic on this podcast, but even Vince has to agree with Felix that while it may run long, it does feel like an actual stress dream. Teeth are falling out, there's a thing Tony needs to do that he can't get done, and wait, who was he just having sex with? Classic dream stuff. If you're less interested in what your brain is up to at night, and more interested modern murder techniques, stick around for a digression about the practicality of the garrote as a killing device. Seems hard to use. Like you'd have to practice at home. Imagine that — a little practice garrote next to the Bowflex adjustable dumbbells in that corner of the garage you call the weight room. It's all just collecting dust and then one day you're trying to take out a rat and your arms are shaking and you're all out of position and you think, man, why did I buy all that gear? What would be your weapon of choice if you were to murder one of us? Let us know in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe to Pod Yourself A Gun on Apple Podcasts. Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030 Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want, AND if you sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier, you can bask in the glory of hearing your name on the podcast like this week's newest members: Giving Tree, Skates, Father Phil, Smokey, & Dilly Pickles. -Description by Brent Flyberg.

Our guest today on the Brett Allan Show is the amazingly talented actor Adam Korson. Adam can be seen currently in the SYFY streamer, "SurrealEstate" as Father Phil Orley! We talk his role on the show, career beginnings, his keys to success, what drives him as a creative, his acting story, getting into the creative space, having the support of family in a very tough business and much more.Give us kind rating and review!https://ratethispodcast.com/brettallanshowEmail us!openmicguest@gmail.comBe sure to follow us on social media for all the latest podcast updates!Twittertwitter.com/@brettallanshowIGinstagram.com/brettallanshowFacebookFacebook.com/brettallanshow

Father Phil returns to his old stomping grounds at the Church to help the team dig into the mystery of this week's stigmatized property. A young rapper and his team rent out a house wanting to make use of the fully outfitted studio inside.  Luke and his team clear the house of it's previous owner, but soon realize that someone else was left behind. Hit play and listen in as Brad and Cort Ep 1x05, “Ft. Ghost Child”. At what point in this episode were you reduced to a giant puddle of sobs? We've watched the team deal with malevolent spirts and even got a hilarious bit of that at the top of the episode. The young ghost though pulled at all the heartstrings. The entire team did an epic job with this episode. We learned more about Father Phil past and Susan eclectic taste in music. No wonder she's such a badass closer. Give us a listen and then be sure to drop a comment or in our Facebook group with your thoughts on Ep 1x05, “Ft. Ghost Child”. You can also send us an email at bradandcorttalk@gmail.com.

In the maelstrom of our age, when wars erupt, and tyrants strut, and treacheries abound, what place is there for grace? It seems a gentler, weaker virtue, made for temperate times.   But what could be stronger than the forgiveness that finally heals the blood feuds of the past, or thoughtfully agrees to end the decades lost to vengeance? Negotiated peace is still the longest-lasting kind.   And what is weak about the calm deliberation that stares stark evil in the eye and resolves to love it to death? Those who choose to lay aside their swords are those whom history blesses and God rewards. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Matt 5:9).   Grace reverses all our estimates of power, for grace comes from God, and He rules everything. “God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And He chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful“ (I Cor 1:27).   When we choose grace, we choose the power that need not brandish all its strength. Grace is God's strength in us, and through us to our world. It heals wounds; it beats back wrong; it builds relationships that last. And it will triumph in the end: “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11).   Grace wins—both now and when all struggles cease. So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

In the maelstrom of our age, when wars erupt, and tyrants strut, and treacheries abound, what place is there for grace? It seems a gentler, weaker virtue, made for temperate times.   But what could be stronger than the forgiveness that finally heals the blood feuds of the past, or thoughtfully agrees to end the decades lost to vengeance? Negotiated peace is still the longest-lasting kind.   And what is weak about the calm deliberation that stares stark evil in the eye and resolves to love it to death? Those who choose to lay aside their swords are those whom history blesses and God rewards. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Matt 5:9).   Grace reverses all our estimates of power, for grace comes from God, and He rules everything. “God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And He chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful“ (I Cor 1:27).   When we choose grace, we choose the power that need not brandish all its strength. Grace is God's strength in us, and through us to our world. It heals wounds; it beats back wrong; it builds relationships that last. And it will triumph in the end: “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11).   Grace wins—both now and when all struggles cease. So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

In the maelstrom of our age, when wars erupt, and tyrants strut, and treacheries abound, what place is there for grace? It seems a gentler, weaker virtue, made for temperate times.   But what could be stronger than the forgiveness that finally heals the blood feuds of the past, or thoughtfully agrees to end the decades lost to vengeance? Negotiated peace is still the longest-lasting kind.   And what is weak about the calm deliberation that stares stark evil in the eye and resolves to love it to death? Those who choose to lay aside their swords are those whom history blesses and God rewards. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Matt 5:9).   Grace reverses all our estimates of power, for grace comes from God, and He rules everything. “God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And He chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful“ (I Cor 1:27).   When we choose grace, we choose the power that need not brandish all its strength. Grace is God's strength in us, and through us to our world. It heals wounds; it beats back wrong; it builds relationships that last. And it will triumph in the end: “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11).   Grace wins—both now and when all struggles cease. So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Wherein we wrap up Season 1 with rats getting whacked, Livia getting (acting?) wackier and egging Artie on even as the Feds tip Tony to her egging on Junior to whack Tony, Carmela whacking Father Phil upside the head about his schtick, and Tony vows to have his satisfaction until the Feds bust Junior and Livia has a stroke...?

   Paul was a member of the SUNY Purchase Mafia and talks about his college days with Edie Falco, Hal Hartley and Wesley Snipes. He originally auditioned for the role of Mikey Palmice, but after his audition David Chase asked him to read for Father Phil. Strangely, Paul’s real life dad was a bit of a flawed priest himself so Paul knew exactly how to play that part.      Then Jason Minter joins the podcast. Jason started out as the locations manager for the Sopranos but David Chase quickly took him on as his own personal assistant. Jason saw the entire Sopranos operation from the inside out. He knew what was going on before the actors, producers or directors did. When someone on staff leaked secrets about the show, Jason was the one who did some digging to figure out who it was. Turns out the guilty party was making hundreds of thousands of dollars selling story lines to the tabloids.      After that Michael and Steve break down this week’s episode. It was directed by Peter Bogdanovich and a big one for both Steve Buscemi and Edie Falco. Check out Talking Sopranos #59 “Sentimental Education” S5 -Ep6. Make sure to subscribe to the Talking Sopranos YouTube channel and go to the Talking Sopranos website to ask Michael and Steve questions and buy official merchandise. https://www.talkingsopranos.com  

In Don't @ Me (2:01), Tom tells the story of Father Phil and why he was responsible for Tom choosing education as a career. Then, Tom is joined by LaVonna Roth (16:26), Founder and Lead Presenter at IGNITE your S.H.I.N.E.™ for a discussion about student strengths, SEL, and neuroscience. Finally, in Assessment Corner (1:08:36), Tom, in part 2, explores homework and suggests six important questions every teacher should ask about their homework routines.   LaVonna Roth on Twitter: @LaVonnaRoth IGNITE your S.H.I.N.E.™ on Instagram: @igniteyourshinenow IGNITE your S.H.I.N.E.™ Website: www.crsli.org   SUMMER SERIES GOOGLE SURVEY https://forms.gle/GALud6yogvVnu81K9   FREE Webinar (April 27)  "Meeting the Challenges of Classroom Assessments Today" Achieve Virtual Institute (August 16-18, 2021)   Email the Podcast: tomschimmerpod@gmail.com Follow the Podcast on Twitter: @TomSchimmerPod Follow Tom on Twitter: @TomSchimmer Instagram: tomschimmerpodcast Facebook: Schimmer Education Website: www.tomschimmer.com

On this episode we are joined by Kim and Krista, current and past presidents of the La Vernia Education Foundation to discuss this organization and their upcoming events that benefit LVISD teachers and students. We also feature Father Phil of St. Anne's Catholic Church of La Vernia in our Church Spotlight segment. For more information on the La Vernia Education Foundation please visit their website at https://laverniaeducationfoundation.org/. For more information on the Waggin Trails Dog Park visit their website at http://ioby.org/project/waggin-trails-dog-park-phase-2 or email Gretch at lvwaggintrails@gmail.com

GOSPEL POWER | FEBRUARY 22, 2021 MONDAY | THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER, APOSTLE Gospel: MT: 16:13-19 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” REFLECTION Throughout the ages, the Church has withstood attempts to stamp it out, to tarnish its reputation and to discredit and malign especially its leaders. Today, there are even those who claim that the Church is outdated and irrelevant in our complex and ever-changing world. But the Church lives on and has never ceased to carry out its mission amidst the storms that batter it. Today's Gospel attests that the Church's continuing existence is backed by a divine promise. Until God's plan is fully accomplished, the Church will stand firmly on its rock-foundation, Peter, to whom God has revealed Jesus' true identity — “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It is the mission of the Church to make known this divine revelation, so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11). PRAYER Lord Jesus, we trust in your promise, for you are the embodiment of God's faithfulness. Amen.

     This special episode features two of the most memorable and law-abiding characters from the series.      First up Lola Glaudini. She actually played two parts on the show, Agent Deborah Ciccerone and Danielle from Whippany. Lola tells Michael and Steve about her unconventional childhood and what it was like growing up surrounded by actors, artists, and lots of parties. She also talks about how she got the gig on the Sopranos and how excited she was to land a role on her favorite TV show. She tells us about her first day on set and how she thought Michael was a bit stand off-ish…Hummm Steve’s definitely gonna have something to say about that.     Then in part two of this law enforcement special Matt Servitto (Agent Dwight Harris)  joins the show. He talks about his early days at Julliard and what it was like attending such a prestigious and respected school. He originally auditioned for the roles of Father Phil and Agent Grasso. He didn’t get either but ended up with something even better, the role of Agent Harris. David Chase actually sent him to FBI school to learn the tricks of the trade and often had real agents on the set who said they “liked what he was doing”.      After that Michael and Steve get onto this week’s episode which is a great one. Michael also tells an exciting story about going to Saratoga to watch Tony Sirico’s race horse, Carmineuch, win his first race. It’s a packed episode you won’t want to miss. Talking Sopranos S4-E5 "Pie-o-My". Make sure to subscribe to the Talking Sopranos podcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can also ask Michael and Steve questions or buy merchandise at htttp://www.talkingsopranos.com

Isaiah 9 gives us remarkable verses which describe the incredible authority given to a baby. In this talk, Phil Duncalfe explains what it really means for Jesus to be a 'Everlasting Father' - the third description Isaiah gave to the child born of a virgin in Bethlehem. Over this series, we'll look at how Jesus embodies and fulfils these prophetic words, and why it matters to us and how we can trust in Jesus today. If you would like to know more about us, you can visit our website at HopeChurchGuildford.com and contact us via email at Hello@HopeChurchGuildford.com Or why not check out our Social Media pages: Facebook - facebook.com/HopeChurchGFD Instagram - instagram.com/hopechurchguildford

In this, the finale to Edge of Darkness, the team finally starts the ritual to hopefully banish the entity that seems to no longer be bound to the Boon Road Ranch. Nevada has another night of bad rolls, Wentworth just keeps chanting and Father Phil does some essential filling in. join us in this our final episode, of Call of Cthulhu.   --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/therolledstandard/support

In this Father’s Day teaching, Phil Comer outlines how God, the perfect father, fathers us. As a loving, wise, good, faithful father, God adopts us, molds us, blesses us, and will never leave us. And as the perfect father, He gave us the greatest gift, Jesus.    Join us live every Sunday for our online gatherings by visiting westsideajc.org/online 8AM | 10AM | 12PM | 6PM

Welcome to Gabagool & Roses, the ONLY leftist Sopranos podcast. John has seen HBO's "The Sopranos" a bunch of times, Ben and Rachel have never seen it. We're watching it episode-by-episode and talking about it from a leftist perspective. Follow us on Twitter: @PodSopranos, Rachel is @whatshakesloose, Ben is @esentialcnsltnt, and John is @johnnyawful. This week on the podcast we talk about Season 1 Episode 13 "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano", also, does Artie deserve the truth?, John & Ben's Law Corner - 5th Amendment Edition, Angie & Janice Dickinson, Father Phil gets owned, and of course What Do You Want In Your Mouth?, Who's Horny? our Stans of the Week, and THE DIALECTIC. The closing song this week is Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos". Support us on Patreon! Until next week: take your meds, go to therapy, and organize for the Revolution. We love you. Find out more at https://gabagool-roses.pinecast.co

Sopranos S1 Ep 5 – Michael and Steve breakdown one of the most incredible Soprano’s episodes ever. This was the one HBO was worried about and David Chase had to fight for what he felt had to be done. Plus what the heck is the deal with Father Phil. Talking Sopranos #5 “College”. Remember to subscribe and send your Ask Me Anything” questions to Michael and Steve at talkingsopranos.com.

Rev Fr. Phillip Schmitter, currently assigned to Christ the King Catholic Church.  He has spent nearly 50 years of his life serving Flint's catholic community at a variety of churches.  His career has been marked by his passion and devotion to serving the poor. In the finest of Catholic traditions, Father Phil has been a fierce advocate for Flint's minority community on such issues as environmental racism, poverty, hunger and seeking dignity for those who are the least among us.  His work is legendary in Flint's minority community.  He lived in public housing in Flint for three decades to be closer to the people he wanted to serve.   Father Phil currently serves at Christ the King Catholic Church in Flint, Michigan, a church founded by Father Norman DuKette.  In this interview Father Phil discusses his life and his career as a priest. He was raised in Mason, Michigan where coincidentally Malcolm X was sent to live as a teenager.  Father Phil recounts that his inspiration to serve the minority community by reading the best selling autobiography of Malcolm X.  His life history is the epitome of a devoted priest whose love for the people he serves drives him to serve their spiritual needs as well as advocating for social justice.     More on the life story of Father Phillip Schmitter'  https://www.thehubflint.com/lessons-malcolm-x-made-father-schmitter-champion-diversity-racial-tolerance/  https://nypost.com/2019/12/09/us-catholic-priests-overworked-beset-by-isolation-and-scandal/  http://www.oleantimesherald.com/meditation-gratitude-keep-priest-going/video_b93cbaea-1c60-5460-938a-62255a18dacd.html   More on Christ the King Catholic Church and Father DuKette the first black priest in Michigan:   https://faithmag.com/black-history-diocese-lansing --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/radiofreeflint/message

Today's Bible Readings: Numbers 1; Psalm 35; Eccl. 11; Titus 3Psalm 35 is one of the psalms given over to the theme of vindication (see also the meditation of April 10). They make many Christians uncomfortable. The line between vindication and vindictiveness sometimes seems a little thin. How can the line of reasoning in this psalm ever be made to square with the teaching of the Lord Jesus about turning the other cheek (Matt. 5:38-42)? Isn’t there an edge of, say, nastiness about the whole thing? After all, David does not just ask that he himself be saved from the ravages of those who are unjustly attacking him (e.g., 35:17, 22-23), he explicitly asks that his enemies “be disgraced and put to shame” (35:4), that they be ruined and ensnared by the very nets they have laid for others (35:8).Two reflections:(1) On some occasions David is not speaking only out of a sense of being threatened as an individual, but also out of a sense of his responsibilities as king, as the Lord’s anointed servant. If he is being faithful to the covenant, then surely it is the Lord’s name that is on the line when God’s “son,” the Lord’s appointed king, is jeopardized. For the Lord “delights in the well-being of his servant” (35:27), and David recognizes that his own preservation is bound up with the well-being of “those who live quietly in the land” (35:20). At issue, then, is public justice, not personal vendetta, against which the Lord Jesus so powerfully contends in the words already quoted.(2) More importantly, although Christians turn the other cheek, this does not mean they are slack regarding justice. We hold that God is perfectly just, and he is the One who says, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (Deut. 32:35). That is why we are to “leave room for God’s wrath” (Rom. 12:19). He is the only One who can finally settle the books accurately, and to think otherwise is to pretend that we can take the place of God. All David is asking is that God perform what he himself says he will ultimately do: execute justice, vindicate the righteous, defend the covenantally faithful.The last chapter of Job is not an anticlimax for just this reason: Job was vindicated. The sufferings of the Lord Jesus fall into the same pattern. He made himself a nobody and suffered the odium of the cross, in obedience to his Father (Phil. 2:6-8), and was supremely vindicated (Phil. 2:9-11).  We, too, may suffer injustice and cry for the forgiveness of our tormentors, as Jesus did — even as we also cry that justice may prevail, that God be glorified, that his people be vindicated. This is God’s will, and David had it right.This podcast is designed to be used alongside TGC's Read The Bible initiative (TGC.org/readthebible). The podcast features devotional commentaries from D.A. Carson’s book For the Love of God (vol. 1) that follow the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan.

Snow days, sacraments, and strangulation--OH MY! All topics Cat and Cassandra discuss in Episode 5 of The Sopranos, 'College.' Meadow is on a father daughter trip with Tony to visit colleges, where they're served a side order of MURDER. Back at home, Camilla is spreading her ziti all around with Father Phil. Cassandra's using her pent up rage to throw axes, and Cat reveals her secret twerking powers. On that note...

One of the great failures into which even believers sometimes fall is the tendency to underestimate Jesus (Matt. 17:1-8). Jesus takes the inner three of his twelve disciples—Peter, James, and John—to a high mountain, just the four of them. “There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light” (17:2). Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared, “talking with Jesus” (17:3). It is as if the ultimate identity of the eternal Son is allowed to peep through; the three disciples become “eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). It is hard not to see here also a foretaste of the glory of the exalted Son (cf. Rev. 1:12-16), of the Jesus before whom every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, every tongue confessing “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11). But Peter misunderstands. He rightly recognizes that it is an enormous privilege to be present on this occasion: “Lord,” he says, “it is good for us to be here” (17:4). Then he puts his foot in his mouth: “If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He entirely misunderstands the significance of the presence of Moses and Elijah. He thinks that Jesus is being elevated to their great stature, the stature of the mediator of the Sinai covenant and of the first of the great biblical prophets. He is utterly mistaken. Their presence signified, rather, that the law and the prophets bore witness to him (cf. 5:17-18; 11:13). God himself sets the record straight. In a terrifying display, God thunders from an enveloping cloud, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (17:5). By the time the three disciples recover from their prostrate terror, it is all over: “When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus” (17:8)—a pregnant conclusion to the account. Jesus brooks no rivals. There have been, there are, many religious leaders. In an age of postmodern sensibilities and a deep cultural commitment to philosophical pluralism, it is desperately easy to relativize Jesus in countless ways. But there is only one Person of whom it can be said that he made us, and then became one of us; that he is the Lord of glory, and a human being; that he died in ignominy and shame on the odious cross, yet is now seated on the right hand of the Majesty on high, having returned to the glory he shared with the Father before the world began.  This podcast is designed to be used alongside TGC's Read The Bible initiative (TGC.org/readthebible). The podcast features devotional commentaries from D.A. Carson’s book For the Love of God (vol. 1) that follow the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan.

In the middle of the carol, or the middle of the night; when the parties all are ended, and the sales all suspended; when our hearts are warmed by kindness never earned and not deserved—then we sense again the rescue that is Christmas. We were the people sitting in darkness, and on us the light has dawned. We were those aching for deliverance—from ourselves, from our stuff, from our sins, from our sadness. The gospel every Christmas—and each day throughout the year—is amazingly adapted to our shadows and our pain. For “the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5). For once—for now, forever —darkness doesn’t get to triumph. The empty will be filled; the broken will be healed. Eyes and minds will both be opened; icy hearts will start to melt. At Christmas, we recall that He was once delivered, and deliverance always is His plan. One tiny hand is stronger and more powerful than all the tyrants who have ruled. Never underestimate this Child: before Him every knee will bow—not only wise men and some shepherds. At Christmas, we may sing with joy what we will one day say anyway: “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:11). Light grows. Hope rises. Grace will have the final word. So stay in grace. -Bill Knott Note: If you are blessed by GraceNotes, we invite you to subscribe.

In the middle of the carol, or the middle of the night; when the parties all are ended, and the sales all suspended; when our hearts are warmed by kindness never earned and not deserved—then we sense again the rescue that is Christmas. We were the people sitting in darkness, and on us the light has dawned. We were those aching for deliverance—from ourselves, from our stuff, from our sins, from our sadness. The gospel every Christmas—and each day throughout the year—is amazingly adapted to our shadows and our pain. For “the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5). For once—for now, forever —darkness doesn’t get to triumph. The empty will be filled; the broken will be healed. Eyes and minds will both be opened; icy hearts will start to melt. At Christmas, we recall that He was once delivered, and deliverance always is His plan. One tiny hand is stronger and more powerful than all the tyrants who have ruled. Never underestimate this Child: before Him every knee will bow—not only wise men and some shepherds. At Christmas, we may sing with joy what we will one day say anyway: “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:11). Light grows. Hope rises. Grace will have the final word. So stay in grace. -Bill Knott Note: If you are blessed by GraceNotes, we invite you to subscribe.

In the middle of the carol, or the middle of the night; when the parties all are ended, and the sales all suspended; when our hearts are warmed by kindness never earned and not deserved—then we sense again the rescue that is Christmas. We were the people sitting in darkness, and on us the light has dawned. We were those aching for deliverance—from ourselves, from our stuff, from our sins, from our sadness. The gospel every Christmas—and each day throughout the year—is amazingly adapted to our shadows and our pain. For “the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5). For once—for now, forever —darkness doesn’t get to triumph. The empty will be filled; the broken will be healed. Eyes and minds will both be opened; icy hearts will start to melt. At Christmas, we recall that He was once delivered, and deliverance always is His plan. One tiny hand is stronger and more powerful than all the tyrants who have ruled. Never underestimate this Child: before Him every knee will bow—not only wise men and some shepherds. At Christmas, we may sing with joy what we will one day say anyway: “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:11). Light grows. Hope rises. Grace will have the final word. So stay in grace. -Bill Knott Note: If you are blessed by GraceNotes, we invite you to subscribe.

The Apostle Paul wrote -If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved- -Romans 10-9-. He further declared that ultimately -every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father- -Phil. 2-11-. How does your life reflect your confession of faith in the Lordship of Christ- How is your faith being tested even now by the Sovereign God- And how should you respond-

This week on Pod Yourself A Gun, we're discussing episode 13, "I Dream Of Jeannie Cusamano," the season one finale of the Sopranos and thus the season one finale of Pod Yourself A Gun. In this episode, all of the Sopranos biggest season one storylines come to a head, and many to a resolution. Tony finds out his mother and uncle conspired to try to have him whacked. Carmela realizes Father Phil is a fuckboi. Dr. Melfi puts her cards on the table and tells Tony what she suspects about his mother. Tony becomes a physical threat to Dr. Melfi. Tony removes a suspected snitch from his crew and comes clean to his remaining guys about seeing a shrink. In one of season one's best episodes and arguably one of the best season finales of any show, we get a culmination of the themes introduced with a few intriguing questions left to explore. It seems to come from a time when prestige TV seemed to think it owed us more in terms of catharsis and closure. It ranges from dramatic and thrilling (Jimmy Altieri's death, Tony flipping the table on Dr. Melfi) to introspective and psychological (Carmela calling out Father Phil, Livia's psychosomatic dementia) to the kind of comedy that really only the Sopranos could do and maybe hasn't been done the same since (Mikey Palmice's death scene, one of the greatest in TV history, and one of the best lines in the show, "cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this!"). To discuss this week's episode, our guest is Laremy Legel, former critic at Film.com, author of Film Critic, long time friend of the pod and Matt and Vince's co-star in Whoop Dreams, a documentary about the Gathering Of The Juggalos. He joins your regular hosts, Matt Lieb from Good Mythical Morning, The Star Wars Show, and Newsbroke on AJ+ and Vince Mancini, Senior Film And Culture writer at Uproxx. Please enjoy, but if you don't, as always, va fongool.

In this episode of Pod Yourself A Gun, we're talking episode six of The Sopranos, "Pax Soprana," released February 14th, 1999 (happy belated Valentine's Day to all the lovers out there). At Tony's suggestion, Junior is made acting boss after Jackie dies. In therapy, Tony surprises Dr. Melfi with an admission. Carmela and Irina (Tony's mistress) both suffer as Tony's libido takes a nosedive. Lots of topics to dive into in this episode, including Tony's most overt come on to Dr. Melfi to date (ever?), and some of his creepiest interactions with his poor goomar, Irina. Meanwhile, Junior is torn between being a Godfather and being a grumpy ass Fox News grandpa, Livia is manipulating Junior, Junior is taxing Hesh, Carmella is sweating Tony, Mikey Palmice is throwing people off of the bridge at Patterson Falls to make it look like a suicide, and Father Phil even gets a brief bit of screentime, reprising his role as the king of all f*ckboys. Our guest this week is New York Magazine television critic and RogerEbert.com editor at large Matt Zoller Seitz, who co-authored The Sopranos Sessions with Alan Sepinwall and originally covered the series for the Newark Star-Ledger. Enjoy and please give us a review and rating on iTunes! (Unless you hate it, in which case don't do that).

In "College," The Sopranos basically became the critically acclaimed blueprint for future prestige TV dramas that makes it worth doing a whole podcast about. It's when the show first came into its own. After a series of sitcommy, lighter-but-solid episodes, Tony takes Meadow to tour colleges in Maine, where he sees an infamous snitch. Meanwhile, Carmella tries to come to terms with the guilt of being a mob wife during her emotional one-night stand with Father Phil. Francesca Fiorentini from The Bitchuation Room and The Young Turks joins Vince Mancini and Matt Lieb in the studio this week to discuss the episode, with all your favorite segments: the Wayback Machine, It's the 90s, Bada B-Stories, and Gabba Va Fongool. We get an explanation of "Ugotz" from Stevie B, and for the first time ever on Pod Yourself A Gun, your voicemails. You can leave us a voicemail at 415 275 0030, support us at Patreon.com/Frotcast, and don't forget to rate and review on iTunes! It really helps our visibility. Thank you all for listening, and as always, va fongool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7q1phGcChI

Uncertainty is everywhere, Father Phil continues to offer bad advice/Rolling Stones lyrics, Ralph really builds on lessons learned by calling Ginny Sack "Shamu," oranges and eggs mean bad things and Pie-O-My's goat friend makes an appearance.  Alex and Val (Obsessive Analysis) dive into the deeper issues of The Sopranos episode by episode immediately after watching.  New episodes come out Mondays and Thursdays at 2:30pm.  Email us at inattheendpodcast@gmail.com and please rate and review!

There had been revelations in the past, but no word from God for 400 years. Malachi was the last prophet of the OT. No prophets received instruction. Had God forgotten his people? Had he forgotten his promises? Then there are four appearances of angels first to Zechariah, then to Mary, Joseph and the shepherds. God had not forgotten. He spoke again. • Gabriel appeared to Zechariah to announce the birth of John the Baptist • Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce the birth of Jesus • An angel appeared to Joseph to explain the virgin birth and to name Jesus • One angel and then a multitude of angels appeared to shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus Matthew 1:18-25 18. Mary was betrothed to Joseph – usually for a year, when the girl would stay with her own family, but the couple was legally committed. Second part of marriage was when the man took the woman into his home. “she was found to be with child” on the outside, a reason for divorce Matthew does not explain more, just that this was “from the Holy Spirit” 19. Joseph was just – and merciful – did not want to put her to shame but divorce her quietly. 20-21. An angel appeared to him in a dream and explained: • The virgin birth – the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit • That Joseph was to name the boy Jesus The virgin birth: God did this. This was no act of man. You will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Jesus is from two Hebrew words: Ya, short for the name of God, Yahweh, and Hoshea which means “salvation.” “Yahweh saves.” God begot a son and a savior. The Bible says much about the name of Jesus. The name of Jesus • When you believe in him, you have life in his name (Jn 20:31) • There is no other name whereby we can be saved (Acts 4:12) • Whatever we do, we do in the name of the Lord Jesus (Col 3:17) • God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:9-11) There is no magic in the name of Jesus. The power in the name is the person behind the name. In biblical times, names meant something. They told others who you were and what purpose God had in your life. Adam was the first man. Eve was the mother of all living things. Abraham was the father of many nations. Benjamin was the son of his father’s right hand Moses was drawn from the water. Peter was the rock. Barnabas was the son of encouragement. What about Jesus’ name? “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” He is more than a great teacher, more than an enlightened man, more than a worker of miracles, more than a political liberator, more than purpose for the purposeless. Jesus is the Savior of sinners. 22-23. All to fulfill what the Lord spoke by the prophet – God kept his promises. God has not forgotten his people. He has provided for us a Son, a Savior, just as he had promised by the prophets From Isaiah 7:14 – “they shall call his name Immanuel” Transliterated Hebrew for God with us. We marvel about the child that was born; the miracle is that God has come to us. Joy in Jesus’ Coming • God is faithful to his promises • Jesus, the Savior, has come for sinners • God himself, Immanuel, has come to dwell with us

It’s a rare thing, particularly in our American culture, to fall on our knees, isn’t it?  It is reserved for very special occasions.  And rightly so.  It is not something to be done lightly.   I remember one occasion when I knelt before another.  It was a beautiful spring evening, lit by the glow of a full moon.  I knelt before a beautiful young woman named Nell.  I knelt there as a sign of my respect and love for her.  On bended knee I made a commitment to her that night that now spans more than thirty years.   There is someone else before whom every one of us should gladly fall on our knees.  Because of who he is and what he has done on our behalf, we should willingly kneel before the Lord Jesus as a sign of our respect and love for him.  We should make a commitment to him that will span all of life and eternity.   The beloved Christmas carol, “O Holy Night,” reaches a crescendo as it calls on all to “fall on your knees” before the Savior.  This Sunday we will hear the challenge of that carol and the scripture that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10b-11).    Join us at Istrouma this coming Sunday as worship on bended knee and with humble heart the newborn King!   The Thrill of Hope “Fall on Your Knees” Philippians 2:5-11   Because of Jesus’ equalitywith God   . . .Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped(2:5b-6).   He is God   He is gracious   Because of Jesus’ emptyingas God   but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c]being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (2:7-8)   He became our servant   He became our sacrifice   Because of Jesus’ exaltationby God   Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (2:9-11).   He is sovereign   He is savior

Alex and Val talk about one of their favorite episodes of all time - how a bunch of characters are impacted by the flu, the connections the characters have to nature, Dr/Father Phil and Meadow's amazing 90's fashion.   Alex and Val (Obsessive Analysis) dive into the deeper issues of The Sopranos episode by episode immediately after watching.  New episodes come out Mondays and Thursdays at 2:30pm.  Email us at inattheendpodcast@gmail.com and please rate and review!

Jesus and the Father - Phil Brown by Hills Baptist Church

Derek Hill, a Santa Monica native, comes from an automotive family that has left their marks around the world. He is the son of Phil Hill, America’s first World Champion in Formula 1. Derek pursued a career in motorsports for over 10 years, taking class wins in the Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring 12 Hours, and many other driving for the factory BMW M3 Team. Today Derek is active in vintage racing and is a judge and MC at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Derek, along with award-winning motor racing historian and author Doug Nye, and American photographer Steve Dawson, have created and published an exceptional new biographical book titled Inside Track that chronicles his father Phil Hill’s racing career and features hundreds of his father’s color photographs. This massive book has been a ten-year collaboration and is now available for enthusiast to enjoy.

Ps Phil Pringle

Phil Pringle preaches on the spiritual benefits of connecting with one another within the church. He explains that we are not supposed to live in isolation and gives examples of how powerful it is when two or more are gathered in agreeance with one another.

A frequent and popular guest in the SMUUF pulpit, the Rev. Phil Mason is a native of Austin and a 1996 graduate of The Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest. He was ordained in the Diocese of Colorado and served there as priest and rector for 13 years. In 2002-2003, Father Phil studied with the Interim Ministry Network of the Albin Institute and was certified by the IMN.

Episode 59 Spiritual Warfare What is spiritual warfare? This term is often used today, but the meaning behind the term is quite different in many cases. Are we involved in a war? If so, what is the war and what are the weapons of this war? Let us turn to the scriptures for guidance in this matter. It is very easy for us to take bits of scripture here and there and construct our own idea of the conflict based on our own reasoning as relates to our current situation. It is challenging to step back from the immediate conflict and gain God’s view. But I believe this is the right way to come to God’s answer. Then we can view our current situation properly and know how to go forward in God’s grace. • The war is between God and Satan o The conflict originated in heaven o The conflict is a conflict in authority (who will be God) • The conflict was brought to earth when Satan deceived Adam and Eve o God gave Adam authority over the earth o Satan usurped that authority through deception o Satan is called “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4) • Christ won the conflict with Satan at Calvary o Now is Satan cast out (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11) o Jesus won by submission to the Father (Phil 2:5-11) o In the resurrection the triumph was complete (I Cor. 15) o All authority has now been given to Jesus (Matt. 28:18-20) o Satan is now a defeated foe, waiting for his final doom o God leaves him loose for His purpose • Our victory is “In Christ” o We enter into union with Him in the Spirit o We are now seated with Him in heavenly places by faith (Eph. 2:1-10) o His victory is now our victory as we abide in Him • Some key elements in our warfare—having done all we stand (Eph. 6:10-20) o Truth o Righteousness o Gospel of peace o Faith o Salvation o The word of God o Prayer • Additional resources at  http://www.ntchurchsource.com/ • Theme song “Will Your Anchor Hold” sung by J. Ashley Milne • Comments and questions welcome. Email David@AnchorOfTruth.com  

PintsWithAquinas.com Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Pints-Aquinas-Thoughts-Angelic-Doctor/dp/0692752404/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478524461&sr=8-1&keywords=pint+with+aquinas --- THE ANGELIC SALUTATION by Thomas Aquinas translated by Joseph B. Collins “Hail Mary” We must now consider concerning the first part of this prayer that in ancient times it was no small event when Angels appeared to men; and that man should show them reverence was especially praiseworthy. Thus, it is written to the praise of Abraham that he received the Angels with all courtesy and showed them reverence. But that an Angel should show reverence to a man was never heard of until the Angel reverently greeted the Blessed Virgin saying: “Hail.” In olden time an Angel would not show reverence to a man, but a man would deeply revere an Angel. This is because Angels are greater than men, and indeed in three ways. First, they are greater than men in dignity. This is because the Angel is of a spiritual nature: “You make your angels spirits” [Ps 103:4]. But, on the other hand, man is of a corruptible nature, for Abraham said: “I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes” [Gen 18:27]. It was not fitting, therefore, that a spiritual and incorruptible creature should show reverence to one that is corruptible as is a man. Secondly, an Angel is closer to God. The Angel, indeed, is of the family of God, and as it were stands ever by Him: “Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him” [Dan 7:10]. Man, on the other hand, is rather a stranger and afar off from God because of sin: “I have gone afar off” [Ps 44:8]. Therefore, it is fitting that man should reverence an Angel who is an intimate and one of the household of the King. Then, thirdly, the Angels far exceed men in the fullness of the splendor of divine grace. For Angels participate in the highest degree in the divine light: “Is there any numbering of His soldiers? And upon whom shall not His light arise?”[Job 25:3]. Hence, the Angels always appear among men clothed in light, hut men on the contrary, although they partake somewhat of the light of grace, nevertheless do so in a much slighter degree and with a certain obscurity. It was, therefore, not fitting that an Angel should show reverence to a man until it should come to pass that one would be found in human nature who exceeded the Angels in these three points in which we have seen that they excel over men—and this was the Blessed Virgin. To show that she excelled the Angels in these, the Angel desired to show her reverence, and so he said: “Ave (Hail).” “Full of grace” The Blessed Virgin was superior to any of the Angels in the fullness of grace, and as an indication of this the Angel showed reverence to her by saying: “Full of grace.” This is as if he said: “I show you reverence because you dost excel me in the fullness of grace.” The Blessed Virgin is said to be full of grace in three ways. First, as regards her soul she was full of grace. The grace of God is given for two chief purposes, namely, to do good and to avoid evil. The Blessed Virgin, then, received grace in the most perfect degree, because she had avoided every sin more than any other Saint after Christ. Thus it is said: “You are fair, My beloved, and there is not a spot in you” [Sg 4:7]. St. Augustine says: “If we could bring together all the Saints and ask them if they were entirely without sin, all of them, with the exception of the Blessed Virgin, would say with one voice: ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.’[1 Jn 1:8]. I except, however, this holy Virgin of whom, because of the honor of God, I wish to omit all mention of sin” [De natura et gratia 36]. For we know that to her was granted grace to overcome every kind of sin by Him whom she merited to conceive and bring forth, and He certainly was wholly without sin. Christ excelled the Blessed Virgin in this, that He was conceived and born without original sin, while the Blessed Virgin was conceived in original sin, but was not born in it. [as in Summa, but otherwise in I Sent., c. 44, q. 1, ad. 3]. She exercised the works of all the virtues, whereas the Saints are conspicuous for the exercise of certain special virtues. Thus, one excelled in humility, another in chastity, another in mercy, to the extent that they are the special exemplars of these virtues—as, for example, St. Nicholas is an exemplar of the virtue of mercy. The Blessed Virgin is the exemplar of all the virtues. In her is the fullness of the virtue of humility: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord” [Lk 1:38]. And again: “He has looked on the humility of his handmaid” [Lk 1:48]. So she is also exemplar of the virtue of chastity: “Because I know not man” [Lk 1:34]. And thus it is with all the virtues, as is evident. Mary was full of grace not only in the performance of all good, but also in the avoidance of all evil. Again, the Blessed Virgin was full of grace in the overflowing effect of this grace upon her flesh or body. For while it is a great thing in the Saints that the abundance of grace sanctified their souls, yet, moreover, the soul of the holy Virgin was so filled with grace that from her soul grace poured into her flesh from which was conceived the Son of God. Hugh of St. Victor says of this: “Because the love of the Holy Spirit so inflamed her soul, He worked a wonder in her flesh, in that from it was born God made Man.” “And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God” [Lk 1:35]. The plenitude of grace in Mary was such that its effects overflow upon all men. It is a great thing in a Saint when he has grace to bring about the salvation of many, but it is exceedingly wonderful when grace is of such abundance as to be sufficient for the salvation of all men in the world, and this is true of Christ and of the Blessed Virgin. Thus, “a thousand bucklers,” that is, remedies against dangers, “hang therefrom” [Sg 4:4]. Likewise, in every work of virtue one can have her as one’s helper. Of her it was spoken: “In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue” [Sir 24:25]. Therefore, Mary is full of grace, exceeding the Angels in this fullness and very fittingly is she called “Mary” which means “in herself enlightened”: “The Lord will fill your soul with brightness” [Is 48:11]. And she will illumine others throughout the world for which reason she is compared to the sun and to the moon. “The Lord is with you” The Blessed Virgin excels the Angels in her closeness to God. The Angel Gabriel indicated this when he said: “The Lord is with you”—as if to say: “I reverence you because you art nearer to God than I, because the Lord is with you.” By the Lord; he means the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit, who in like manner are not with any Angel or any other spirit: “The Holy which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God” [Lk 1:35]. God the Son was in her womb: “Rejoice and praise, O you habitation of Sion; for great is He that is in the midst of you, the Holy One of Israel” [Is 12:6]. The Lord is not with the Angel in the same manner as with the Blessed Virgin; for with her He is as a Son, and with the Angel He is the Lord. The Lord, the Holy Ghost, is in her as in a temple, so that it is said: “The temple of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit,” [Benedictus antiphon from the Little Office of Blessed Virgin], because she conceived by the Holy Ghost. “The Holy Ghost shall come upon you” [Lk 1:35]. The Blessed Virgin is closer to God than is an Angel, because with her are the Lord the Father, the Lord the Son, and the Lord the Holy Ghost—in a word, the Holy Trinity. Indeed of her we sing: “Noble resting place of the Triune God.” “The Lord is with you” are the most praiseladen words that the Angel could have uttered; and, hence, he so profoundly reverenced the Blessed Virgin because she is the Mother of the Lord and Our Lady. Accordingly she is very well named “Mary,” which in the Syrian tongue means “Lady.” “Blessed art you among women” The Blessed Virgin exceeds the Angels in purity. She is not only pure, but she obtains purity for others. She is purity itself, wholly lacking in every guilt of sin, for she never incurred either mortal or venial sin. So, too, she was free from the penalties of sin. Sinful man, on the contrary, incurs a threefold curse on account of sin. The first fell upon woman who conceives in corruption, bears her child with difficulty, and brings it forth in pain. The Blessed Virgin was wholly free from this, since she conceived without corruption, bore her Child in comfort, and brought Him forth in joy: “It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise” [Is 35:2]. The second penalty was inflicted upon man in that he shall earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. The Blessed Virgin was also immune from this because, as the Apostle says, virgins are free from the cares of this world and are occupied wholly with the things of the Lord [1 Cor 7:34]. The third curse is common both to man and woman in that both shall one day return to dust. The Blessed Virgin was spared this penalty, for her body was raised up into heaven, and so we believe that after her death she was revived and transported into heaven: “Arise, O Lord, into your resting place, You and the ark which You hast sanctified” [Ps 131:8]. Because the Blessed Virgin was immune from these punishments, she is “blessed among women.” Moreover, she alone escaped the curse of sin, brought forth the Source of blessing, and opened the gate of heaven. It is surely fitting that her name is “Mary,” which is akin to the Star of the Sea (“Maria--maris stella”), for just as sailors are directed to port by the star of the sea, so also Christians are by Mary guided to glory. “Blessed is the fruit of your womb” The sinner often seeks for something which he does not find; but to the just man it is given to find what he seeks: “The substance of the sinner is kept for the just” [Prov 13:22]. Thus, Eve sought the fruit of the tree (of good and evil), but she did not find in it that which she sought. Everything Eve desired, however, was given to the Blessed Virgin. Eve sought that which the devil falsely promised her, namely, that she and Adam would be as gods, knowing good and evil. “You shall be,” says this liar, “as gods” [Gen 3:5]. But he lied, because “he is a liar and the father of lies” [Jn 8:44]. Eve was not made like God after having eaten of the fruit, but rather she was unlike God in that by her sin she withdrew from God and was driven out of paradise. The Blessed Virgin, however, and all Christians found in the Fruit of her womb Him whereby we are all united to God and are made like to Him: “When He shall appear, we shall be like to Him, because we shall see Him as He is” [1 Jn 3:2]. Eve looked for pleasure in the fruit of the tree because it was good to eat. But she did not find this pleasure in it, and, on the contrary, she at once discovered she was naked and was stricken with sorrow. In the Fruit of the Blessed Virgin we find sweetness and salvation: “He who eats My flesh... has eternal life” [Jn 6:55]. The fruit which Eve desired was beautiful to look upon, but that Fruit of the Blessed Virgin is far more beautiful, for the Angels desire to look upon Him: “You are beautiful above the sons of men” [Ps 44:3]. He is the splendor of the glory of the Father. Eve, therefore, looked in vain for that which she sought in the fruit of the tree, just as the sinner is disappointed in his sins. We must seek in the Fruit of the womb of the Virgin Mary whatsoever we desire. This is He who is the Fruit blessed by God, who has filled Him with every grace, which in turn is poured out upon us who adore Him: “Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with spiritual blessings in Christ” [Eph 1:3]. He, too, is revered by the Angels: “Benediction and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, honor and power and strength, to our God” [Rev 7:12]. And He is glorified by men: “Every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father” [Phil 2:11]. The Blessed Virgin is indeed blessed, but far more blessed is the Fruit of her womb: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” [Ps 117:26].  

The Name Father