WEBVTT

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Grace, mercy, and peace

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be unto you from God, our Father and our Lord, and Savior Jesus

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Christ.

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Amen.

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The text is from Luke 24:49, stay in the city until you are clothed

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with power from on high.

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This is our text.

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You may be seated.

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Well after Jesus says these words, he leads them out to Bethany on the

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Mount of Olives where He blesses his disciples in a sentence, or as

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the text put it, he was carried up into heaven.

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He leaves them behind to accomplish the work

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He had set out for them.

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I mean, what was he thinking leaving behind a bunch of unschooled

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fisherman, a tax collector and disciples who would probably be not be

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on most congregations called lists, right?

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Due to their basic, lack of qualifications.

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Then again, I don't think Jesus would make it in some congregations,

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call lists after their self study.

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But in looking at this text I see a few things going on here and just

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to make this a three-point sermon, you know, right.

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First of all, Jesus tells them to stay

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 in the city.

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Secondly, he tells them at some point, they are going to be clothed

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with power from on high.

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And then third not just any power but power from on high.

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So I want to take that next few minutes here to talk about these three

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observations.

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First of all, why stay in the city?

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I mean, I would think that Jesus would want them to get the word out,

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you know, as soon as possible.

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After all, there was no time to lose.

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He had risen from the dead.

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He had given them the authority to forgive and retain sins.

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They even had a power over evil spirits, the snakes and everything

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else, that was dangerous.

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I mean, the disciples were primed, they were ready to go.

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Pumped up before the big game, but he tells them to stay in the

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city

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stay in Jerusalem until. Now what's going on with the this staycation

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that he's ordered his disciples to take. Stay in the city.

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The word actually is more like take a seat, you know, sit down.

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Take some time to process all that you have just seen and heard take

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some time to get your heart ready for what is going to happen pretty

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soon. Take some time to pray

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because you're going to need it.

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So often we just want to rush out and do something and we offer often

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dominated by the tyranny of the urgent.

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We think the email that's bothering us.

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Needs a reply. You know, the insult

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we endured needs an answer.

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This is the 21st century the age of instant

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everything got a deal with it now or it will be too late.

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So, I invite you to take a moment right now to hear Jesus saying to

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you.

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Stay wait.

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Don't be tyrannized by the urgent,

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stop.

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Get off that hamster wheel of your life for just a minute and think

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you know, what are you doing and why are you doing what you're doing?

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Are you tyrannized by the urgent?

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Are you convinced life won't happen without you?

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Jesus has stopped, stay take a minute, take some time to assess the

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situation, figure out what's going on.

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I mean, he told the disciples to stay in the city,

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stay in Jerusalem. Maybe even go back and visit the place where Jesus

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was crucified.

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Have another look at the empty tomb, go to that upper room, where you

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had your last supper with him, stroll, through Gethsemane and remind

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yourselves how you all fled.

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Visit the outer courts, where Peter denied him, what do you learn?

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What should you remember?

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What should you forget?

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What do you need to forget?

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And maybe even have Matthew

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write some of this down.

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Stay in the city until it says until you are clothed with power.

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And the power here is not authority or exigency although do they get that

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too.

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But it's power like dynamite.

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It's denims.

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 Jesus knew what awaited, his disciples his followers.

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And as he told them in John 16, he knew they would have trouble in

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this world.

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He knew that would face opposition.

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He knew they would be thrown into jail and he knew all of them but one

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would face a gruesome death

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just like his.

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This was not something they could face on their own.

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This was not going to be a cakewalk or like, walking on water.

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He knew they were in for trouble, but he had told them previously to

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take heart.

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I have overcome the world

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He said. He had warned them in John 15.

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If the world hates, you know, that it has hated me before you.

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A servant is not greater than his master.

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If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.

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Only a fool would go out on his own into the world.

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This hostile world that they were going to face.

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Jesus had told them they were going to need power. Power from on high.

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Power

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that would be like dynamite breaking through the opposition like a

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fullback with the frontline made up of 300-pound blockers.

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You know, like Bruce Almighty, I got the power.

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And that power, well, that would come ten days later at Pentecost,

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when they would receive the Holy Spirit.

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And as, you know, in the early church Ascension and Pentecost, maybe

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it didn't know, they were originally celebrated together. When they

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connected the power that Jesus promises here, with the spirit, given a

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little over a week later that would set the world on fire.

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I mean, just think about it.

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3,000 people were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins in one

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day.

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And the disciples were able to communicate in languages

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they never had known before, they got the power.

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Jesus said they would be closed with it.

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That's an interesting way to put it.

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They would be clothed with power from on high.

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I mean it wouldn't just ascend them or possess them or indwell them.

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They would be clothed with it. Kind of like, what reminds me of what

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Paul said in Ephesians 6, when he tells them to put on the full armor

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of God. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand

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against the schemes of the devil,

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Paul says. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against

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the rulers against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over

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this present, darkness. Against the spiritual forces from Evil

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of of evil in the Heavenly places.

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Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to

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withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm.

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Stand

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therefore, having passed a knot in the belt of Truth and having put on

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the breastplate of righteousness.

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And as shoes for your seat, for your feet, having put on the readiness

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given by the gospel of peace. You know, all circumstances, take on the

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shield of Faith with which, you can extinguish all the flaming darts

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of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation.

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The word, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying,

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at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.

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That's what Paul talks about when he says.

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He's talking about being clothed with, I guess that power

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Jesus was talking about. Clothed with God's spirit, that Jesus knew

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they would be engaging in spiritual warfare just like you

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do. You know, day in and day out. And let me tell you about a time when

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Satan kind of showed his hand

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to me. This was concerning the spiritual warfare that were engaged in.

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This was back when I was a seminarian not here, but in St.

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Catharines,

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Ontario. Where I was attending a recital

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my wife was playing at. And my wife, by the way, doesn't like the

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story because I was supposed to be talking about her beautiful music

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and I end up talking about this but it was beautiful music that she

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had played. But for me it was the reception afterwards that I remember

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most vividly.

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Because there was this young woman who started talking to me.

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And then her eyes turned into these cat-like eyes.

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I don't know how else to describe it.

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She wanted to me to know that she was a witch and I told her

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thanks for sharing.

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I was kind of wondering why was she was so interested in the Seminary

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Cemetery out back by the way.

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And at any rate, she wanted me to know that she was praying for me.

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You know, and she was praying for others seminarians, to which I

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thought

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oh, that's nice. Until I found out what she was praying.

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She told me that she and other witches prayed to Satan for the

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downfall of pastors that we would fail.

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And I again thanked, her for sharing and then went to find my

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girlfriend who I later

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married,

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34 years ago.

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Yeah, well I learned two things from this encounter.

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Not everybody was glad that I was going into the ministry.

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There were actually people praying and working towards my failure.

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Now granted they were praying to Satan who has no power because he's

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been defeated but still they were actually praying for our failure

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yours and mine.

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And then it also reminded me that our battle really is not against

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flesh and blood, but against the principalities and the powers of this

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world who joined in rebellion with Satan and our awaiting, the

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judgment they've been defeated.

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Yes, but they're ticked off as hell and hell

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bent.

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on our destruction.

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And thirdly I remember that

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we have a bummer of a birthmark if you remember that Far Side cartoon

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with Cal the dear

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you know who's birthmark is a bull's-eye.

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Yeah, we have a birthmark from our baptism that marks us targets in

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this world. And until Christ comes again

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I'm here to remind you the strife maybe over in the battle won but

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we're still under siege.

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So, let me leave you with two things in conclusion here. On this feast

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day of Saint Jerome

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I'm reminded of how he talks about his time in the desert and the

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spiritual attacks

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he underwent. And he had to say this, he said so long as we're held

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down by this frail body.

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So long as we have our treasure in Earthen vessels.

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So long as the flesh, lusts against the spirit and the spirit against

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the flesh, there can be no sure victory.

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Our adversary

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the devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

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But the devil isn't looking for unbelievers, it is the church that

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he's after. So, let me conclude with this thought.

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I mean, the devil is indeed walking around as a roaring lion seeking

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whom he may devour.

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In these days with hurricane Ian, the pandemic, war in Ukraine, Civil

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War in Ethiopia, the financial turmoil, it may seem like, the very

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Four

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Horsemen of the Apocalypse themselves have been unleashed. Well, I

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mean, it may be a great time to be the church but it is not an easy

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time.

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And it never has been.

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So what can we do?

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Well, when Jesus left his disciples, he told them to wait in the city

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until they were clothed with power from on high.

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Wait in the city.

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Prepare yourself for what lies ahead, in other words and realize that

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you cannot do this on your own.

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You and I we need that power from on high the promised, Holy Spirit.

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And every time we engage his word, every time he return to the

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bummer of or birthmark that we received in baptism.

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Every time we get inoculated with the medicine of immortality in the

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sacrament, we are being clothed with power from on high.

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That Power from on high.

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And so I invite you this morning to pray without ceasing to receive

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that power and it will be granted to you for the battle that lies

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ahead. May, it be

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so for Jesus sake. Amen.

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The peace of God, which passes all human understanding, shall keep our

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hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.

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Amen.