John 3:9-15 • A Journey to the Ends of the Earth

 

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

 
In John 17, Jesus is, after the Supper that we are about to honor as we celebrate Communion here, praying to His Father.
And He is praying specifically for His disciples in order that they be equipped to go into the world and minister in His name.
John 17, as we'll look at verses 15 through the end of the chapter, Jesus is praying specifically for His disciples that they would be enabled to serve Him in this global calling.
Let's stand as we read the Lord's Word:  John 17 verses 15 through 26.
Jesus, praying to His Father, says this:  "'I do not ask that you take them,'" that is My disciples, "'out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will 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 have sent me.
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.'"
Let's pray together.
>>> Father, what a wondrous prayer that He who made the universe, created all things, would now pray that He would indwell His people.
And by their lives so indwelled they would be witnesses in one generation and then in generations to come:  that we would be the beneficiaries of such ministry and then we, too, by that ministry of the indwelling Christ would be made disciples for others as well.
Teach us what that means today.
What would be the mark of such disciples?
Teach us that we might be those who show the world the name of Jesus by how He marks us.
This we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
A very international population in South Florida these days, as you may know:  Some people think of it as the capital of Latin America.
Many populations, many nationalities, different languages and lots of needs.
We witnessed one of those needs as we were at a particularly busy intersection.
And as we were waiting, there was a man who obviously was in a very troubled life.
He was trying just to beg for money at the intersection as cars would stop at the light.
And as he moved from car to car, it was with a very painful limp.
It was obvious that whatever had caused it was recent, because the large brace that was around his ankle seemed to be quite new.
And as he seemed to be moving from car to car, he lost track of the time at one point and the light changed.
And suddenly everybody waiting at the stoplight recognized at the same moment he did that the light was green and he was in a lot of trouble.
Everybody, you could almost feel the mutual gasp as he suddenly was the deer in the headlights going, "Oh, no."
And so what he did was he hugged the few dollars that he had to his chest and then immediately ran.
I mean, he sprinted back to the corner.
[Laughter]
No evidence of a limp at that point.
[Laughter]
And then we all knew that the mark was false of his need.
What is the mark of a disciple?
We need to know, because you recognize there are people who gather in the church as they did in Christ's name who think they are disciples, but the one actually being fooled the most is they themselves.
What would be the mark of a disciple that is not false at all but absolutely necessary to be those who take the name of Christ into the world?
Curiously enough, we might learn from that man at the intersection who was faking it what the mark of true discipleship is.
True disciples, after all, are marked by limping well and hugging well and ultimately running well.
You want to see the need for the limp, you have only to look at the calling in verses 15 and 16.
Jesus here describes what His disciples are called to do by the way in which He prays for them to the Father.
He says in verse 15, "'Father, I do not ask that you take them,'" that is My disciples, "'out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.'"
What is the calling of a disciple of Jesus Christ?
A disciple of Jesus Christ is to be in the world; He doesn't pray that we be taken out of the world.
To be in the world but not of the world.
For those of you who know something of our nation's history, that is what is known as the Puritan Dilemma.
How do you live in the world, to have influence upon it as a disciple and at the same time not be so influenced by it that you do not become a negative example?
How do you get in the soup of a broken, sinful world and not soak it in so that you become unusable for the purposes of the testimony of Christ?
How do you be in the world but not of the world?
The difficulty of being in the world but not of the world is explained in the same passage if we just back up one verse.
One of the reasons it's so hard to be in the world but not of the world is that the world hates us.
Verse 14, Jesus says of His disciples in His prayer, "'I have given them your word, Father, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.'"
The hatred of the world, its opposition, its pressures, its crises, its trials tempts us to flee out of the world, to go into isolation, to protect ourselves, to get into a little Christian huddle and to so isolate ourselves from the world that we will not be hurt by difficult people, evil people, people who don't share our values:  The great tendency is always to retreat out of the world because they don't like us and that causes us not to like to be among them.
It's difficult to hear the language of people like Abraham Kuyper, one of the great Christian theologians, who said, "What Christ is reminding us as the Creator of all things is there is not one inch of the world over which Jesus does not stand and say:  'This is mine.'"
Where you are, but where the enemy is, where difficult people are, where sinful society is:  That's still Christ's world into which we are called to take His name and His glory.
We are to be stretching the boundaries, as it were, of the church.
It's part of what we say is our calling now as a church ourselves:  not just to be attracting people here but to be sending people into communities, into neighborhoods, into other places where we might say, "But it's hard there."
The temptation, of course, is for the world's hatred to turn us inward when disciples are moving outward.
But the world's opposition is not the only difficulty.
In order to be in the world but not of the world, we have to face verse 15 as well.
Jesus says there, "'Father, I do not ask that you take the disciples out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.'"
The opposition of the world makes us want to retreat.
The temptations of the evil one make us want to conform lest they hate us.
We want to be like them.
We don't want to be ill thought of.
In fact, we find that so many things in the world actually attract us as the evil one actually wants to spoil our testimony and make us like the rest of the world instead of being separate and different from it.
I don't have to tell you; you already know this.
We recover the statistics over and over again.
While we are called to be in the world but not of it, the reality of those who identify themselves as Bible believing, evangelical, born again Christians, which, by the way, in our culture right now are at the highest percentage of any time in our nation's history, those who identify themselves as born again.
And at the very same moment among those who survey us, they will say, those who say they are born again differ very little from the rest of the world around us.
Our divorce rates are not much different.
Our abortion rates are not much difference.
Our entertainments are not much different.
Our wealth priorities are not much different.
Our pornography use is not much different.
We're just not much different.
We have been in the soup but soaked it in.
It's extremely hard to be in the world and not of it.
And the first limp that Christians make is when they just say that to one another.
It is hard to live out the calling of being in the world but not of it.
And so we confess that we need help.
And some of that help that we need is identified in verse 17.
Jesus, praying for these disciples, prays to the Father, "'Father, sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.'"
How am I going to live a sanctified, pure, holy life in a world that is not sanctified, pure or holy?
"Lord, sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth."
Wouldn't it be awful if God say, "I expect you to go out and live a separated, sanctified, holy life," and we'd say, "Great, Lord, how?" and the Lord were to say, "I'm not gonna tell you"?
[Laughter]
He didn't do that.
He gave us His Word, a reflection of His own character and care.
So often we think of the standards of the Word of God as some eternal killjoy's commandments instead of recognizing that when God is calling us to purity, to faithfulness, to fidelity, to honesty, what He is saying is here's a reflection of His own holiness that He is now outlining for our lives so that we who want to protect our families, we who want to have our integrity, our character protec--, He's saying, "Here is the way; here is the safe and the good path that I am giving for you."
And our God is, by His great mercy and grace, giving us His Word that we might know the path of sanctification.
Sounds easy; you and I know it's not easy at all.
And so the very same God who says that He would give us the Word that would tell us how we might be sanctified gives us something even more that we will need.
Verse 19, Jesus prays, "'Father, for their sake I consecrate myself, that they may also be sanctified in the truth.'"
Isn't that amazing?
Our God gives us the guidance of His Word, but then He gives us the grace of His Son in order to be sanctified.
Having said, "Here's how you are to live," He then says, "But what you will ultimately need, Father, is to sanctify them by My consecration."
Do you remember what consecration means?
It's something that is set aside for a holy purpose.
What has God the Father set aside Christ for?
His hour has come.
He will come to suffer and to die for His people, because the sanctified lives they were supposed to live they do not live, and, therefore, He would take upon Himself the penalty of our sin that we might be sanctified in Him.
Ultimately what God is saying and what we will soon celebrate in this meal is that you need Him.
Our efforts, our goodness is not enough.
We actually depend upon the grace of God.
And the first great limp that we take as those who testify of the goodness of Christ in the world is we say, "I need Him."
While I want to walk in a path that glorifies my God, while I desire the sanctification that I know is good for myself and for my family, over and over again I find myself soaking in the soup of the world, and its evil and its difficulty challenge me and its crises move me into isolation.
I am going to need some mercy and forgiveness as much as I try, and this is what God says:  "I consecrated My Son for that."
I so appreciate that:  that God is not saying to you and to me, "The way in which you will be sanctified is by your work;" instead He is saying, "The way in which you will be sanctified is by the work of My Son in your behalf."
This frightens people always:  that we at the same moment that we talk about the requirements of the sanctification of the people of God we talk about the grace of God in Christ Jesus providing for their holiness.
And the reality of that is people say, "Well, if the grace of God is so great, why should I strive to be pure and holy at all?"
After all, there's a math of the mind that says, "If God is going to be gracious, why bother to be good?"
The answer is that there is a chemistry of the heart that is stronger than the math of the mind.
When the math of the mind says, "Why don't I just take advantage of the grace of God?" the chemistry of the heart says, "If He loved me enough to die for me, if the grace of God is so great and so beautiful that He would send Christ, His only Son, to die for me, I want to walk with Him.
I want to live for Him."
In so many Sunday School classes as you've invited me to talk about some of my priorities and goals as a new pastor, I've told this account.
It's regarding Kathy, my wife, and because she's not here today, I can tell you it again.
[Laughter]
The very first church that I pastored was a little church.
I mean, Easter Sunday, a really good Easter Sunday, would be about 25 people.
Easter Sunday, by the way:  It's coming up.
If we're going to be an invitational culture, it may be time to be thinking:  Who are you going to be inviting?
At any rate, in that church on an Easter Sunday, there weren't many people.
It was a little church.
But I was invited to kind of learn to pastor while I was in seminary.
And I would go over on weekends and I would teach and preach at that little church.
Preaching was a good place to learn.
It was also great for me to be in the college and careers class.
The reason it was good to be in the college and careers class as the teacher there is because there were two people in the college and careers class:  Kathy and her sister.
[Laughter]
They were both single at the time, as was I.
[Laughter]
One day after church, Kathy's father, an elder in that church, asked if I wanted to go on a picnic with the family.
Now, did you catch it?
I'm single and food is being offered.
What did I say?
[Laughter]
Sure.
And so there in Southern Illinois, some of you may know the area, where all the major rivers of the Midwest gather, there is a road called the Great River Road where the river runs a mile wide, the white limestone cliffs line the highway, and on a beautiful fall day I was asked to go with this family on a picnic.
And we drove up the Great River Road, up to a place called Elsa, which is a restored Victorian Village.
Remember, all the Victorian homes with all the gingerbread and the different colors on the filigree, just absolutely beautiful.
And after this beautiful lunch together, this wonderful young woman said to me, "Would you like to take a walk with me?"
[Laughter]
Alright, let me describe this again.
The sky is blue.
[Laughter]
The sun is shining.
The leaves are turning colors.
She's got blond hair, green eyes, red sweater.
She says, "Would you like to take a walk with me?"
I said.
[Laughter]
"You bet."
[Laughter]
She's beautiful.
Why wouldn't I want to walk with her?
Why does the gospel tell us the beauty of the grace of God?
To tell us that He who is King from all creation would be willing to offer Himself on a cross for your sin and for mine.
When He knew the worst about us, He would sacrifice Himself for us.
When we see the beauty of His grace and He says, "Do you want to walk with Me?" what does the chemistry of the heart say?
"You bet."
If that's how beautiful Your heart, if that is how great is Your love for me, then I know that I want to walk with You.
We are called to limp, to say, "I can only do it by His grace," but He calls me now, and I need Him.
This is what I need.
I need His grace to forgive my sin.
He's called me to holiness.
I don't live it.
I need this.
And I declare it to the world by participating in communion, saying, "These elements represent the grace of God that I need to be right with Him.
It is not in my hand.
It is my faith in what He has done.
And I affirm it by participating in this communion meal with others."
But is that notion of doing it with others that's also in view for us here.
Do you remember that what Jesus is doing is He is calling His disciples not only to limp well but, if you will, to hug each other well?
In verse 21, Jesus just begins by saying that He wants all to be one, "just," He says, "as Father, You're in Me, and I am in You."
Further explanation is in verse 22.
Jesus says, "The glory that you have given me, Father, I have given to them, my disciples, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.'"
What's the mark of a disciple?
Not only that we would be in the world but not of it by the grace of God:  but also that we disciples would be one; that the love that Christ and the Father share would be reflected in us; that love would be here.
Now, I say it and I automatically having said it feel kind of the sentimental, sacra notion of saying what all preachers everywhere say:  There ought to be more love in this place.
You know, I feel like I'm somehow quoting something from "The Princess Bride" that some of you have seen fourteen hundred times, right?
[Laughter]
"Wove is a beautiful thing."
You know.
[Laughter]
See, some of you have seen "The Princess Bride" fourteen hundred times.
[Laughter]
It's not only a beautiful thing:  It is an amazingly powerful thing.
When people who face difficulty with each other, when they face hurt with each other, when they face differences among each other nonetheless love in the name of Jesus Christ, the world knows.
That is what Jesus says.
The world knows something is different there, that Christ has come, that He indwells, that the Father who is in Him is now in us and that there is something unique among God's people.
And when it is gone, there is no evidence of the gospel, no matter how good our truth and how formal we live our lives.
No one has said that better than Francis Schaeffer, the great Christian theologian, who wrote the book "The Mark of a Disciple."
And Francis Schaeffer who surely believed in the importance of theology, certainly believed in the importance of righteous living, nonetheless said that "love among believers was the indispensable mark of a Christian."
And he spoke out of experience.
Francis Schaeffer's ministry was largely formed during that portion of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s in which American evangelicalism was engaged in this culture and what was known as "the battle for the Bible."
We were trying to stand firm to say that what the Bible says is true; that Jesus was born of a virgin; that He lived a sinless life; that He died upon the cross the pay the penalty for our sins and then He rose physically in victory over that.
And that if we do not believe that, "we are all men most to be pitied," said the apostle Paul, "because if Jesus Christ did not rise, we are yet dead in our sins."
And, believe it or not, there were churches across this nation who were saying, "You should be good to one another," and "you should be kind to other people" but were no longer affirming those truths.
And Schaeffer stood with others who said, "We will affirm the virgin birth; we will affirm the substitutionary atonement; Christ died for our sins; we will affirm that He rose physically from the dead," and having stood in that battle almost lost his faith.
Do you know why?
Because he was with other people who so much were zealous for those arguments that they became completely unloving in the way that they expressed it, not only in separating from liberal church movements but in being unwilling to love those in the church who differed with them even a little bit.
I mean, one of the things that we have talked about as a church now as a desiring to work and cooperate with other churches just because we know:  It's part of the testimony to the world.
If we who believe the same things about the essentials of the gospel are so arrogant or selfish or turned in that we will not work with it, the world knows that.
And it says, "There's something wrong with you.
I thought you said you were on the same team.
I thought you said Christ was in you.
I thought you shared something."
But, of course, it's not just cooperation with other churches that becomes the difficulty; it's cooperating other people in the church that's sometimes so hard.
After all, remember what Jesus is saying here.
He's asking for oneness with these disciples, verse 18, that are to be sent into the world.
Jesus says to the Father, "'As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.'"
Who are "they"?
He's already predicted that Peter will betray Him.
He's already predicted that the other disciples will abandon Him.
Part of the difficulty with love in the church is that church people are so difficult.
[Laughter]
I tell you about Francis Schaeffer almost losing his faith.
Do you remember what happened?
He left the church that he was in in St. Louis, Missouri, and he went to establish a place for young people in the United States to go to Switzerland to ask hard questions that they felt they could not answer in the churches of their parents.
What you and they may not recognize in that kind of wonderful story of L'Abri and the setup of that movement was that the reason that Schaeffer left was he's not sure he believed anymore himself.
Why?
Because of that church in St. Louis, which has been my church for the last thirty years where my family has worshipped.
Now, just so that you get the story, I mean, just so happens, it's not like this church at all.
 I mean, there are people in that church who are actually unlovable.
[Laughter]
I mean, it's not like this church at all.
And in that church, there's actually people who hurt each other.
I mean, it's not like this church at all.
There's people in that church who actually don't always live consistently the Christian life.
Actually, it's just like this church.
[Laughter]
And every church you'll ever meet.
And what Christ is calling His people to do is to say, "You want to be a testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ?
Just start loving people in the church."
You know why that's so hard?
I'll tell you:  because some of the most beautiful things that have ever happened in my life have happened in the church.
And at the very same moment I will tell you:  The most painful things that have ever happened in my life have happened in the church.
And some of you know exactly what I'm referring to:  the people, the difficulties, the judgments, those who do not live their principles, those who hurt your families, those who come apart from you and don't have reason to, all those things.
If we can forgive and love past differences, something supernatural is among us.
And that is why Jesus says, "The world will know Me if My people are one."
Schaeffer said it even more strongly.
He said it this way.
He said, "God has given to Himself alone the right to judge in righteousness, but He has given to the world the right to judge His disciples for their love."
After all, they are making that judgment.
Remember?
Verse 23, "'Father, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you love me.'"
The words here are amazing.
I mean, you recognize that there's a double indwelling being talked about:  Christ in us and the Father in Him.
And what is in Christ is the glory that the Father gave Him before the foundation of the world.
The glory of God is in Jesus.
Have you heard that language before?
The glory of God.
Do you remember what descended into the tabernacle when it was made in the Old Testament?
What descended into the tabernacle?
The glory of God and the Shekhinah glory as a cloud of glory came into the temple and it filled that tabernacle.
And yet we are told in this same book in the gospel of John that when Jesus came, He came and tabernacled among us; that the people of that time were, as it were, the temple in which the glory of God dwelt in Jesus Christ.
He came and tabernacled among us.
And yet now He is saying that He will come and He will make us His tabernacle; that Christ would indwell us and indwelling Him would be the glory of the Father.
So that you and I become receptacles of the glory of God.
And the reality of what Jesus is saying if we believe that, not just theologically but actually believe that, that those who have named the name of Jesus as their Savior, not because of their perfections but because of their knowledge of their sin, have said, "I believe that I depend upon Jesus Christ in my heart," that they are tabernacles of the Living God.
And for us now to say, "You hurt me; you sinned against me, and I will not forgive you," is actually to be guilty of the betrayal that Peter himself did.
I deny Jesus; He's in you, but I deny it.
If we are being called to the unity that is here, we somehow look beyond the eyes that are angry at us, we somehow look beyond the person who has hurt us or our family, and we believe profoundly that they are sinners in need of the grace of God.
And if they have acknowledged their reality of the need of Jesus, then Christ is in them.
And I don't love them because of them:  I love them because of Christ in them.
I'm loving them because of Christ, not because of them.
It is why when we partake of this meal together we are not talking about "it is my union meal":  It is our communion meal.
That we are acknowledging Christ in one another and we are trying to, in humility before one another, say, "I need this, the grace of it, but I need you, too."
Sometimes to open my heart to my need, even to learn what forgiveness really means because I've held things against you, and I'm struggling so to deal with difficult people and difficult things.
And it's going to get harder, folks.
I mean, remember what Jesus said.
It wasn't just verse 18.
In verse 20, He's saying, "'I do not ask for these only, the one who are present, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.'"
Man, we're not just being called to love the ones who are here.
There are going to be new people with new problems and new difficulties who don't know the code here and don't know.
And we're supposed to love them, too.
Why?
Because they are also tabernacles of the Living God.
Because if they have depended upon the grace of God, Jesus indwells them and the glory of God indwells Him.
They are receptacles of the glory of God.
And it's out of respect for Him, not the person ultimately.
It's our respect for Christ ultimately that I pray, "God, help me to love and help me to forgive beyond my weaknesses."
And the first step of that, just the first step of that, why we do it so often is we partake of communion together.
As I say, you need this and I need this and we need each other, to be one, so that the name of Jesus will be known to be supernaturally in this place.
Because if we are one, only Jesus can do that.
We are to limp well and to hug well.
One more thing:  We are to run well.
After all, what is all this limping and hugging about?
I already read it to you.
Verse 20, "'Father, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.'"
What's going to happen to disciples?
The world is going to oppose them.
The evil one's going to try to tempt them, sometimes through relationships, sometimes through other temptations.
There are going to be all these things that challenge us.
And, yet, Jesus is saying, "I'm not calling you into isolation:  I am sending you right into the teeth of the trial, sending you into the teeth of the people who are temptable to you.
I am sending you into the world, that you would be My witnesses, My disciples, taking the name of Jesus with you."
And I know that whenever I say that, the great concern in any church is that the fear is there would be people all around who kind of, "Oh, no, I don't, I'd rather sit and soak."
Right?
Actually, I don't fear that in this church at all.
I do not fear that at all.
Because if one is designed to limp well, I need the grace of God and to love well I need you to help me understand and live out this grace of God, too.
Then I will assure you that you don't even have the opportunity to sit and soak.
After all, every trial that we face is part of the sanctification process, isn't it?
Tempting us away from Christ, tempting us away from our faith, tempting us away from our hope.
Whether or not we move out into others, we will be Christ's disciples if we are in the world but not of it.
He will use us.
He will use us.
When I was in South Florida this week, one of the pastors that I was ministering to told me his story afterwards.
He said just a few months ago, he, having been away from a church for a decade or so, had a good friend who was in hospice care.
And so he drove back to that town that he'd been away from for a decade, just to be with that friend as he was in his last days.
And he said as he was in the room there ministering to the person with the hospice care, a stranger came into the room.
And as soon as the stranger came into the room, she said, "Oh, pastor, hug me, hug me, hug me."
And he'd go, "Who are you?"
You know.
[Laughter]
Did not know what to do with this stranger coming in the room just kind of saying, "Hug me."
And so, you know, she was kind of unavoidable.
So he got suddenly in the hug.
And then began to recognize her.
He said, "Jackie, is that you?"
A decade before, his wife had been in hospice care, dying of A.L.S., Lou Gehrig's disease, and all the horror of all the body functions closing down slowly over time.
And this had been the hospice nurse.
But the pastor said, "When I knew her, she was calloused and crude and hard.
And here she was joyous and gentle and tender toward him."
He said, "Jackie, what happened to you?"
She said, "Pastor, when you and your wife were going through so much suffering and pain with such joy and faith, I knew that I needed your Jesus."
He said, "It's not the path that I would have chosen.
But our affliction led to her eternity.
And even for one it was worth it."
And, folks, because I tell you now that story, maybe there will be one or two or three or four or a thousand more.
Because they were in the world but not of it, not letting it characterize them but letting their faith in Jesus Christ characterize them.
They just lived a life that said, "I need this.
I need Jesus in my behalf.
And I need you.
Those who group with me to help me understand the gospel and to forgive beyond my own hurt, to love as Christ love and by that to understand Him more."
And not only do I need you, as we run to the cross and run to its signs, we say to the world, "You need this, too."
After all, when you partake, you do show forth His death until He comes.
Even here, you run into the world and say, "Look, look, I need this and you need this; we all do."
That's why we are one in Christ Jesus.
>>> Father, we pray now that You would prepare our hearts for this meal.
We recognize You call all of Your disciples to partake.
And when they do, they accept this meal with a limp.
They are not standing proud.
They are saying, "Father, You call me to holiness.
And as much as I desire to walk that road with You, I fail, and so I need Your grace to get me up and to get me going again, to forgive me and make me right with You."
And, Father, I need to partake of this meal with others, to be reminded that the grace the world needs to know will be known as we love past our differences and our hurts and our pain and our unforgiveness.
And so we partake together to say to the world, "We are one by the grace of Jesus."
And we proclaim it to the world because the world needs to know it, too.
So help us partake as disciples:  with a limp, with a hug and with running to the cross that others might run, too.
This we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.

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John 3:16 • The Gift that Lasts and Lasts

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John 3:1-8 • You Must Be Born Again