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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

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who brings us life.

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Amen.

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You are dust, and dust by itself is nothing.

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Today we begin our sermon series, Christ in All Times, and our first Christ figure is

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Adam, and these words were spoken to him when he received his curse.

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You are dust, and a dust you shall return.

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And this curse goes to the very core of who Adam is, for he was created from the dust

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of the earth, but dust by itself is nothing.

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God took the dust of the earth, he took the clay, and he took all the muck of creation,

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and he formed and built Adam, but dust by itself is nothing.

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So God breathed life into Adam, and from his side he formed and crafted Eve.

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God looked at his creation and he said, it is very good.

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And Adam and Eve, while they were created individually from one another, they lived

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in perfect relationship with one another.

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They were one flesh, but more importantly, they were in perfect relationship with God,

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for they were in perfect communion with God.

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They dwelt in his presence in the Garden of Eden.

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But as you and I know, that didn't last long, for Adam and Eve disobeyed the word of God,

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and they ate from a tree.

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They ate from a tree that brought death.

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For in the moment that they ate from the fruit, they died.

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Their relationship with one another began to wither and die.

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No longer were they one flesh.

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Now they were separated and turned away from each other.

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Now they were isolated from one another.

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And their relationship with God, it began to wither and die as well.

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No longer were they in perfect communion with God, for in their sin they were separated

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from His presence and cast out of the Garden of Eden.

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They were isolated from him.

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And just like Adam, God formed you.

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And He took the same care and precision he took with Adam when He formed you.

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And each one of us is uniquely made from the other.

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You have your own gifts and talents, your own hobbies.

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You have your individual thoughts and opinions.

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And you and I, we love to be individuals.

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But we let our individualism get the better of us.

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Because we put the needs of ourselves over the needs of the community.

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But this kills our relationships.

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It kills our relationships with one another.

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And it kills our relationship with God.

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Because too often, we let our own individual attitudes, our individual wants, and our individual

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needs above the community.

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Too often we decide to not go to a community event because we would rather stay home by

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ourselves.

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And too often, you and I sit in church or in chapel, and when the sermon starts, you

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have no interest.

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Also you begin to craft your own sermon, which you might be doing right now.

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Because you think that you could do it better.

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Or you look at the daily announcements and you see the list of preachers for the week.

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And in your own independence, you decide whether or not chapel is worth going to that day.

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And this kills our relationships.

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Call day is 68 days away, and the countdown is on.

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But no matter where you are in the process, no matter where you are in the countdown,

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are you counting down the days until you learn where you will serve and live with God's people?

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Or are you counting down the days until you can leave the seminary behind and do things

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your own way?

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Independent and free from everyone else, you are free to create a ministry named after

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yourself.

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So you begin to form your own thoughts and opinions about the pastor down the road, because

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he doesn't do it exactly the way that you would do it.

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But it's good to think critically about things.

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But too often, we let our thinking, our individual thoughts, our individual opinions get the

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better of us.

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And we start to disparage the other.

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And this kills your relationship with one another.

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But it kills your relationship with God.

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So remember, you are dust, and dust by itself is nothing.

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In our text, in the midst of death entering into creation, God speaks a promise.

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And the promise that He speaks is one of life.

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God could have easily wiped the dust away.

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He could have easily rebuilt creation.

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But God's way is a way of life.

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And just as he used the first Adam, He used creation to form the first Adam, God would

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use creation to restore life back into creation.

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So Christ, the greater Adam, took on flesh and became a part of his own creation.

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Just as the first Adam ate from a tree, the second Adam ate of a tree as well.

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And Christ ate of a tree that brought him death.

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But it is through His death that He restored life.

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Whereas, the life of the first Adam brought death, it is through the death of the second

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Adam that life is restored.

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The first Adam disobeyed God, but the second Adam listened and obeyed God to the point

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of death.

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In your place, Christ alone went to the cross.

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He alone took on your individual sin.

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He alone died, and He alone laid in the dust of the earth for three days.

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But dust is nothing by itself.

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But God alone can take nothing and turn it into something.

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He created you with your distinctive opinions, with your distinctive thoughts, with your

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individual thoughts, gifts, and talents.

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And when you were still dead in your sin, God breathed life into you in the moment of

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your baptism.

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And God continually breathes life into you through the reading and the preaching of his

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word.

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Through the studying of His Word, God breathes life into you continually.

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It is through Christ's death that He restored life to you.

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He restored life to your relationship with him.

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In Christ, you have perfect communion with God, the body of Christ given for you.

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And living in perfect communion with God, then you and I can now live in perfect relationship

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with one another.

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No longer are we turned away from each other.

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No longer are we separated and isolated from one another.

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No longer are there withered and dead relationships.

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For in the death of Christ, you and I are united in life.

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And this is a glimpse of the last day.

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On the last day, after you have become dust, Christ again will come and He will take the

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dust of the earth.

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And He will rebuild your body.

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He will breathe life back into you.

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And He will look at his creation and he will say, it is very good.

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Here, you and I will live for eternity in perfect communion with God and in perfect

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relationship with one another.

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So live that out now.

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For you are dust.

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And dust by itself is nothing.

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But in Christ, you are no longer dust.

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Amen.