Published: September 17, 2023 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: Gospel of Mark - Part 84 | Scripture: Mark 12:38-40
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us later on that they conspired among themselves to kill him
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but there were people listening and there are people understanding that there's a there's a I think we can imagine the attention as it's in verse 37 if you
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look just one verse up at the end of verse 37 we're told and the great crowd enjoyed listening to him there is a great contrast between the
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scribes the the Sanhedrin the Pharisees who were there coming to Jesus in his last day in the temple with this and
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again as one has called it this this spiritual tournament Jesus and how Jesus taught
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and taught and watched his manner his presentation we we can't really do justice to this
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passage in Mark without looking back at Matthew 23 and I don't want to preach on Matthew 23 but it's a complete version of what Jesus said that if Mark is condensed for
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us either this is what Mark knew because this is what he was told by some of the disciples perhaps Peter or because these were the things that were written down
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that were transferred to him but we and I don't know that I understand all of why we have the condensed version here and and yet the force of it does come
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through in Matthew 23 there we we meet where where Jesus gives the eight woes woe to you
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and there are many who say well we could find a direct contrast and I'm not going to try to do that exercise today but a direct contrast between Matthew 23 the eight woes
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and how they contradicted in Matthew 6 the eight Beatitudes blessed are the peacemakers blessed are those who mourn blessed are those who
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are Meek and so forth we see a great contrast and I begin again I believe the contrast of the Gospel the contrast of the Life of Christ is Stark
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and it's visible it's palpable in this conversation that he's having and again Jesus is teaching we don't
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know all of what he taught but his language here is the language of beware but it has two aspects to it
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beware of these conduct the conduct and the practices here that you do not fall into the same Beware of the way in which you live your
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life as I am speaking of these things and avoid them avoid them but he's also saying be aware of these people beware of those who practice these
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things beware has a a connotation of be looking away turn your back on these folks and leave them
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so beware be aware of what I'm saying but also be aware of those who practice these things
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these scribes as depicted by Jesus have a love they have a love for these things The New American Standard says be be aware of the scribes who like these things and
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then it adds another like because it continues the way the Greek does we they like to walk around in Long robes they like
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respectful greetings they like the chief seats they like the prices of Honor this is this is a will that we're seeing here this is this is a desire these are the
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things that the scribes take pleasure in and Jesus is trying to illustrate them to those around and
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they've seen them but Jesus is trying to help them understand the thought that is behind them the practice of the heart that
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leads to the practice life they like to walk around in Long roads they're
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they were parade they would parade in their flowing garments at State occasions why because they love to be seen in their official capacity they love the
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attention that they attract they they like respectful greetings in the marketplace they like to be saluted and they like to see other people
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acknowledge them and they like to see other people acknowledge that those people acknowledge them the the ordinary folks in the crowd
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as one commentator put it they they liked giving ordinary Mortals The Grand opportunity to see these distinguished men dressed in their finery they they
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consider this this you know I'm doing you something I mean you don't see this every day folks look at me
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and they love to sit in the chief seats in the synagogues not the cheap seats but the chief seats they were right next to the synagogue rulers and they were they were fronts and and just to the
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side but again so everybody could see them see how prominent they are whoa there they sit by these rulers and they also had is I can understand that this this
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motive uh well we're we're by the rulers just in case they need some clarification on the scriptures we we can we can offer wisdom and insight into things of the
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scriptures that they may not have seen and they love the places of honor at the Banquets and the evening Feasts they were the invited guests and they wanted
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everybody to know it they wanted to feel like you know we we deserve to be here yeah they invited us but you know they they knew that we deserve to be
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there and you know from the scriptures that many of the uh the feasts there there would be not sitting at a table but reclining on a diving and apparently
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again as I can understand from the Jewish uh people who have written about these things they would sit on the extreme left somehow
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reclining so that their Vision was unobstructed they could see down the table down the board and they could wouldn't have to strain
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to see what everybody is doing so they were very conspicuous in these places of Honor
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and again in Matthew 23 and I'd like to just summarize some of these woes as I can understand them why was Jesus saying woe be unto you
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because they opposed Christ they were shutting people out of the kingdom of God he says you're keeping people from coming to Christ because of your behavior because you do not Embrace
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him because you do not know Christ and again I think we can see in the context of Mark the question that he has just asked them in the previous verses
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how is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David if he is also his Lord they reject Christ they oppose him and therefore shut other people out
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of the Kingdom because of their covetousness and their hypocrisy and we can see it here they they say one thing and yet do another
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because they made their converts Jesus said twice the sons of hell as you yourselves are yourselves are see they would convert people to their religion and then they would teach them
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to do the very same things that he is speaking of here they had a moral blindness they they had this excessive
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and I guess in many cases arbitrary
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desire for vows and o's and we know of their burden some minuteness when it came to tithing and omission and omission of faith of faith of judgment and mercy
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and because of their hypocrisy that Jesus describes it the purifying of the outside of the cup
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was the visible and what and what we know we know is that the filling of that cup could have been by extortion it could have been used for excesses
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and yet they wanted to point to the outside of the cup and not what filled it and while they were preparing or appeared outwardly righteous
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their hearts and their minds were full of iniquity it was not a spiritual repentance but they were motivated by national
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pride Jesus said the same self-sufficiency the same Pride the same impenitance that made your father's murderers you are now
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doing woe to you who do these things besides the pleasures indulged in Jesus tells us the pretenses that they
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displayed the cover-ups that they used for outward appearance they devour widows houses and for appearances sake offer long prayers
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some of your versions say they eat up widow's houses widow's houses as I can understand it perhaps legally perhaps with some
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motive of good they were taking advantage of the widows by and I if I was given to air quotes I would use that here helping them as
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administrators they were pretending to preserve their Estates but they were slowly devouring the funds the slowly devouring the value
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as one commentator wrote they were seeking the fleece rather than the flock Jesus perhaps uses the word devouring or as I said eating up
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he may be alluding to a practice that was given in those days where the the women the widows would make elaborate feasts for the scribes and they would put on
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these feasts while the men were telling them you know I'm the director of your conscience I will help you with your decisions I will help you with your
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estate I will help you figure out these things and Jesus said no all you're doing is just eating up their living
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and they were making a pretext of interceding for them but in actuality they made considerable sums on these widows of the money that they gave them
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used it for themselves instead of the widows and we can go back in the scriptures we can go back into the levitical laws and we can see God's attitude towards these
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things those who would afflict the widows and the orphans what does he say about them he says to the men
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I'll make your wives widows I will make your children orphans if you afflict these who come to you in need
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for appearance's sake for appearances sake they offer long prayers right out of Matthew 6 is it not Jesus said they love to stand and pray in the
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synagogues and on the street corners so that they will be seen by people there is a desire to impress there's a desire to impress with what you see oh he's
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been there a long time a desire to impress by what they hear boy that's that's a man of Prayer but they have no sincerity toward God
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they consider themselves in the end above reproach I mean how how could this Pious man who
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represents the meaning of scripture how could you ever accuse them of taking a single penny from a poor with a
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but what is Jesus verdict besides the fact that in Matthew he says you know you know they have their full reward
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condemnation and condemnation is a word that has both the sentence and the execution of the sentence in it they were condemned the penalty is more for severe we learn
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in scripture for the Hypocrites than for the pagans they have no hypocrisy they live a life that they know but these men knew God
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knew God they were experts in the law they knew they knew what God had said about the Widow about the orphan about
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their own behavior and yet and we go back to what Jesus said they liked they loved to do these things they were practicing their own will not God's will
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Jesus words in Matthew 23 and these condensed words in Mark and Luke as farewell to the temple
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we know from the scriptures and we'll see it in Mark in chapter 13. this is the end of Jesus time in the
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temple these are the last things that he's presenting to them these are the last things that he's teaching in the temple and and we get this sense in Matthew 23
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if we just stopped at the woes that Jesus is just saying everyone here is condemned and I'm done
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but we hear in Matthew 23 the compassion in our Lord's voice doesn't he say Jerusalem Jerusalem
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yeah like a hen with her chicks I would have gathered you but you would not I have called you you have seen me you
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have heard me you have been listening to my teaching but you would not come
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and as I've struggled with this we don't see that here and yet we have seen that he has presented himself as the Christ and we'll see in the episode just after this
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of the Widow who came with her two cents to put into the offering the gospel the gospel and Jesus embodying that gospel has come
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in contrast to the life of hypocrisy and
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way but you he writes to the Ephesian Christians but you did not learn Christ in this way if indeed you have heard him and have
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been taught in him just as truth is in Jesus it it sounds like a negative statement doesn't it but you did not learn Christ
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This Way but it's not meant to be a negative statement he's not saying stop what you're doing you've got to bring yourself up by your own bootstraps you
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you have to just turn your life around this is what you need he doesn't say that he says but you you did not learn Christ this way it's a
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positive statement it's meant as a statement of Thanksgiving and joy because everything that man has tried to do to improve himself or to improve his
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world the social gospel our brother on Thursday night is is speaking of you know now and again we're in an election cycle the Cycles get way
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too long okay I mean I mean I've read a book Alexander Hamilton in his day the the political campaigning for a
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November election began in October of the same year not October two years ahead sorry but there there is especially in America
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a political gospel the the Savior who would be elected
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that's not what the but you means the but you means be thankful be joyful because you have been chosen you have been transferred in the context of Ephesians 3 you have been transferred
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from one Kingdom to another kingdom you're not under the master and the powers of this world you're under a new master so the but you is a positive you
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did not learn Christ in this way you Believers know what God has done it comes from above it is Supernatural it
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is divine is divine but you yes the context in Ephesians 3 the the is the other gentiles
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and in the passage we're reading in Mark it's the other Jews but you know the neither the Jews nor the Gentiles
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the Gentiles have it all to themselves when it comes to sin to sin we they're all in darkness Paul says
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they're under the power of Darkness they have darkened minds they have hardened Hearts but you have been delivered from the power of Darkness you've been translated
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into the kingdom of God's son in Philippians Paul writes I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I
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was even taken hold of by Christ I I think that's a good way to look at it I have not done this myself I have
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not achieved this I have I'm not on a performance basis with God he did not choose me for what I have done I've been laid hold of you've been laid
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hold of hold of God has gotten your life and he's translated you to the kingdom of light later on in that same passage Paul
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writes for many walk of whom I often told you and now tell you even as I weep that they are enemies of the Cross of Christ that's that's one of the woes
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you're an enemy of Christ and you keep others from knowing the gospel whose end is destruction that's their condemnation whose God is their appetite and whose
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glory is in their shame who have their minds on Earthly things but what does he tell
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us what is the meaning of the but you he says for our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for a
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savior the Lord Jesus Christ Martin Lord Jones wrote in his commentary on Ephesians the business of Christianity is not to improve the world
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no it is to take men out of the world we were we were called out of Darkness we when we proclaim the gospel we
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tell them that it is God who called us out of Darkness we are being separated from this world this is not our home we
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are not citizens of this Earth of this Earth but of the new Earth the essence of who we are the the way we
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look at life as our brother prayed that that we would be freed from the cares of this world
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and we learn who we are in this world because it is not our home because the truth the truth that we cling to is not the truth of the politician it's not the
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truth of some one who would say I've got the corner on this it's the truth as it is in Jesus so my message does not change yourself
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my message is not improve yourself the translation has taken place it is the knowledge and understanding of
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the Lord Jesus Christ it is understanding that he is the Christ the son of God it's the understanding that he is the anointed one he is the king of
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kings he is Lord of lords and we've been transferred we no longer live in darkness we have the light
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in thy light we see light the psalmist says our hearts are no longer hardened they've been softened by the gospel
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by the Regeneration of the Holy Spirit we should no longer have an ignorance of the truth as it is in Jesus
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but it is more than learning a Doctrine it is more than receiving instructions about Christ it's more than some vague nebulous feeling uh or experience that I
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go through go through but our will unlike these that we see they like these things they like their sin our will has been altered
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because again in Philippians 3 we read the apostles saying but it is God who works in you both to Will
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and to do because we're able to see Jesus who said I am the way I am the truth I
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am the life we are to be a complete contrast to the world we're to be Salt and Light because we have been regenerating we have become
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New Creations by the power of the Holy Spirit through our Lord Jesus Christ let it spray
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scriptures that teach us of these things and yet father we we tend to forget or we tend to think that yes but we have to
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we have to do all the work ourselves but father help us to understand these things that you have made a way that you have called us out of Darkness
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into your Marvelous Light I pray that we would walk in that light as children of light and honor and glorify you in Christ's name we pray
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amen could you please rise for the benediction
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from Ephesians 3 now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us
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within us to him be the glory in the church and in Jesus Christ to all generations forever and ever amen