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Please pray with me.

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Gracious Heavenly Father make these words to be your words and not my

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own and open our hearts and Minds what you have to say to us today in

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Jesus name.

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Amen.

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It was January 25th 2020 a Saturday and before covid-19.

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It also happened to be my wife's 24th birthday. My wife loves brunch food

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so we went to the brunch place called the Shack for breakfast.

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If you haven't been there's a couple of them in the area

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very tasty food,

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you should go. Anyway we way we go and we can go to our booth and sit down

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waitress comes by to ask what we'd like to drink.

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And we order our drinks and then also me being a husband who enjoys

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embarrassing his wife on occasions, especially her birthday, and make sure

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to tell the waitress that it's her birthday. A few moments later the

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waitress returns with our drinks and

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a birthday crown.

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It says Shacky birthday happy bacon on it. Brittany took it and plopped it on her head and we continued through the morning

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celebrating her birthday and with crown and everything.

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Today in our Bible passage, we hear about another crown.

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A very different crown than a birthday crown.

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We hear about the Crown of Life.

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What exactly is this Crown of Life?

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I don't think it's a physical object like the 10 pounds of solid gold

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bejeweled crowns at Kings of old used to wear.

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No

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I don't think it's a physical object

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but rather the idea of having life placed upon us. Whatever this Crown

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of Life is certainly marks us has princes and princesses of the

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kingdom of God.

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There's this show on Netflix called the Crown.

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I know fitting and it's about Queen Elizabeth and how she became Queen

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and then all of the things that happened after all the different drama

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and stuff.

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They talk a lot about a crown in that show, but it's more than the

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physical crown the idea of the Crown of England and how Queen

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Elizabeth is in that office kind of like the Office of the President.

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But even more than that, she lives under the crown all of her

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decisions are based on what the best for the Crown.

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Queen Elizabeth lives under the Crown of England and you and I are

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called to live under the Crown of Life. And one day we will fully and

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completely receive that glorious Crown of Life in the presence of

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Jesus.

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But before either of those things can happen

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we need another crown.

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We need the crown of thorns.

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Bloodied, piercing, suffering, painful Crown of Thorns.

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Because only the crown of thorns can keep us steadfast in our trials

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and temptations. Only the crown of thorns can keep us steadfast in

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those temptations that come to us

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because of our desires even our good desires. Like when we desire for

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the nation and world around us to be more Christian.

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But in that desire

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we are tempted to ignore our responsibilities in the church to ignore

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loving our neighbor and caring for our neighbor like Christ would and

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rather just focus on politics. Or the desire for love which is a good desire.

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Could lead to temptations to do disgusting and inappropriate things to

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fulfill that desire even though we know it won't actually fulfill it.

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Or the desire for more likes and shares on Facebook or Instagram could

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leave temptations to post things that are edgy conflicting and painful,

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unchristian just to make likes happen.

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How often do we actually give in to those temptations?

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So that's why we need the crown of thorns because the crown of thorns

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was wore by Jesus.

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And Jesus in his steadfast love for us took our failures took our

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failures to remain steadfast and temptations took that from us and

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placed it on himself. And more than that

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he took death which you and I deserve because we're not good enough

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because we fail he took that too.

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And Jesus

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suffered the crown of thorns in so many other ways and Jesus died.

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He died for you.

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He died for me. Jesus died for us.

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But wait, there's more.

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Of course,

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there's no more we know there is more and maybe the beginning of Lent

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right now, but we know what's to come.

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We know what that light at

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the end of the tunnel is. Easter Jesus burst from the tomb throws aside

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the crown of thorns and everything

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It represents. Obliterating it, destroying our failures destroying death

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for himself and for you and me too and that Crown of Thorns was

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replaced.

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Replaced with the crown of life.

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For Jesus and for me and for you too.

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Revelation 2:10 B says, be faithful to the point of death and I will

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give you the Crown of Life.

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This happens to be my confirmation verse and just a few weeks before

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my confirmation.

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My grandpa actually ended up passing away.

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So as my family and I were grieving the death of my grandpa going to

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his funeral I was also time to decide what confirmation verse I should

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have.

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This is the one that struck out stuck out to me because I reminded of

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my grandpa. I was confident that he was faithful to the point of death. And that the

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steadfast love of Christ for him

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allowed him to live under the crown of life.

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And that now he is in glory with Jesus in Paradise with Christ wearing

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that Crown of Life fully and completely.

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Steadfast love that Jesus has for my grandpa he has for you and me

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too.

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So let's be people who live under the crown of life now while we await

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that day when we receive the Crown of Life fully and completely in

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paradise with Christ.

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Be people who live under the Crown of Life.

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What do you think that looks like?

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What do you think people that see us living under the Crown of Life

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see?

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I can imagine.

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I can imagine they see pastors and deaconesses and future Church workers

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who are uncool.

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A few weeks ago

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I saw this post on Instagram by John Cooper who happens to be a member

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of the band Skillet and he in this post was talking about

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celebrity pastors and how they need to be uncool because they're all

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about making their brand and stuff like that and that's not not good.

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That's not the right thing to do.

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But he also talks about what it means to be an uncool pastor.

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And I think these words really strike really struck me as to what it means

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to live under the Crown of Life as pastors, deaconesses, Church workers.

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My pastor helped change my life in college really who exactly he

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remains faceless, nameless and will never get the adoration of the

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world because his desire was for Jesus to have all of the glory. He

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taught me how to read and understand the Bible.

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He took my midnight phone calls instigated the necessary but

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uncomfortable conversations.

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You taught me the importance of sexual purity and he even taught me

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how to paint a house and balance a checkbook.

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That almost sounds more like being a father doesn't it? Working, serving,

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teaching your kids and never expecting a thank-you or handclap is what

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pastoring is all about.

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Imagine that people who live under the Crown of Life are pastors and

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deaconesses and church workers who are uncool.

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Also

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imagine that people who live under the Crown of Life are people that

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want to make an impact in the world by loving the world by loving

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their neighbor by following Jesus more closely.

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Maybe this looks like being pro-life from the moment of conception

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through death.

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That means when there's an unwanted pregnancy

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we come alongside someone and encourage them not to have an abortion.

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Help me make a decision to not get an abortion.

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Then continue to be in their life continue to love them throughout

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the pregnancy as they have the baby and decide to maybe give it up for

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adoption or keep it. And everything beyond that as well as the baby is

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raised to pro-life from the moment of conception to the moment of

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death. Imagine that that's what people live under the Crown of Life do.

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Today we heard about two different crowns.

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Crown of Thorns bloodied, piercing, painful the crown of life. Because of

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the crown of thorns

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they're going to be granted the crown of life one day and now you're

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called to live under the Crown of Life in our daily life.

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Be people who live under the crown of life because we belong to the

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king because we are princes and princesses of the kingdom of God.

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Cuz we belong to Jesus.

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In Jesus name. Amen.

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Please rise as we sing our hymn.