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[ Music ] Oh, turn me not away, receive me, though unworthy. [MUSIC] ♪ Give me the one worthy ♪

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♪ Heed all my cry ♪ ♪ Heed all my cry ♪ ♪ Behold, Lord, my distress ♪ ♪ Answer me from thy throne ♪

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[ Music ] Here's the oar to my aid. Thy pity show in my deepest wish. Thy pity show in my deepest wish.

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♪ Let not thy sword of vengeance spite me ♪ ♪ Nor righteous thine anger, O Lord ♪ ♪ Shield me in danger, O regard me ♪ ♪ For ne'er, O Lord, will I be ♪

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♪ Till I trust ♪ ♪ Oh, divine Redeemer ♪ ♪ Oh, divine Redeemer ♪ ♪ I pray thee grant me pardon ♪

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♪ And remember not, remember not my sins ♪ ♪ Forgive me, O divine Redeemer ♪ ♪ My pretty bride ♪ ♪ Be pardoned ♪

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♪ And remember not ♪ ♪ Remember not ♪ ♪ O Lord ♪ ♪ My saint ♪

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♪ Now it gave her own ♪ ♪ I'm not wrong ♪ ♪ Faithful I cry to thee ♪ ♪ Come to my aid, oh Lord ♪

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♪ Hasten on, haste to help me ♪ ♪ Hear my cry ♪ ♪ Save me, Lord, in thy mercy ♪ ♪ Hear my cry ♪

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♪ Come and save me, O Lord ♪ ♪ Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, divine Redeemer ♪ ♪ Oh, divine Redeemer ♪

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♪ I pray thee, grant me pardon ♪ ♪ Be pardoned ♪ ♪ And remember not ♪ ♪ Remember not ♪

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♪ O Lord ♪ ♪ My sin ♪ ♪ Save in the day of retribution ♪ ♪ What on earth should I do, my God ♪

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♪ How can I ♪ ♪ Whatever ♪ ♪ Have mercy ♪ ♪ Tell me my Savior ♪

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- Beautiful. - Amen. (audience applauding) Very beautiful. Thank you.

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crucified Redeemer. We are on the edge of the season that we celebrate as a time when we wait for the coming of the Messiah. We wait for Jesus to Christ who redeems us from the curse of sin and death. It is appropriate that we should focus on this particular passage of Scripture

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because it is called the Passion narrative. It is a version that is found in the Gospel according to Luke and Luke, as he traces the activities of

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Jesus leading up toward his crucifixion, he reminds us of his character and conduct. This is so important for those of us who follow the one for whom we wait.

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So I deemed it appropriate that we should consider the Passion narrative, our crucified Redeemer, the anointed of God, and it is strange that our Savior is the crucified Redeemer. All of the great religions of the world have a way of salvation.

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They are all concerned with delivering humanity. The question is, deliverance from what? And by whom? We have today a conflict involving two great religions of the world, Islam and Christianity.

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And the people of Islam believe that if one really promotes the faith, even though it may be done by force and bloodshed, that if one is a defender of the faith, that one will have happiness. One suffers mardom that this future of harmony and peace is guaranteed.

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Those of us who are acquainted with some of the Eastern religions know that Buddha has a noble eightfold path and Confucianism has its way of giving salvation. And we believe that Jesus Christ is sent from God and that he is our savior to deliver us not only from conflict as we see it in the world, but to deliver us from ourselves.

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And that is important, because sometimes the enemy is us, and we need to be delivered. So the record of history is that we crucify our Redeemers. Think about that. That those who come to save us, we destroy. We persecute the prophets. Those who come to speak for God, we persecute. We slay them.

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So those who would defend freedom are stripped of the luxuries of life. Those who are on some distant battlefield, as I speak this moment, have given up certain freedoms in order to be where they are to fight for what we consider our freedoms. They spend time in caves

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stripped of companionship with friends and family and to put it succinctly they the Redeemers

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who in a sense suffering a form of crucifixion. Ergin Moltmann speaks of the crucifixion of God, the crucifixion of goodness, crucifixion of mercy,

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the crucifixion of the one who comes to save us, the crucified Redeemer. So why should one wait for the crucified Redeemer.

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The prophet Isaiah says, he was despised and rejected by others. A man of suffering and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom others hide their faces,

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why should we wait for him? I'll tell you why. Because He suffers to save us. He is the suffering servant of history. He goes through hell and high water

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to save us. He brings heavenly waters with which to put out the fires of hell and He makes a path through the dark demonic waters of oppression. That's why we must wait for him. We cannot make it by ourselves.

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He is our way. He comes and invites us to be with him in our darkest night. We need no purse. The currency of this world will not suffice. No bag

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because human resources are not sufficient. no sword, because the battle is not determined by carnal weapons. In this conflict, our close allies

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deny us, our friends often betray us, but we are not alone. The crucified Redeemer is with us.

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The Bible tells us they laid his cross on Simon of Cyrene. They made him carry his cross behind Jesus. So we follow the crucified Redeemer in carrying our cross. He speaks saying, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."

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The cross, the emblem of suffering and shame, to bear the cross is to be made a fool of. The cross is the most humiliating death inflicted by Romans upon others. The crucified Redeemer is crucified on a cross. On a cross.

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This word "redeemer" describes God's saving activity toward humankind. He redeems us. He redeems us. His saving activity in the midst of humanity. God's saving activity.

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Well, this word suggests that there has been some alienation. Some theologians call this estrangement. But the old-fashioned word for it is sin. Sin has entered the world.

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God created a beautiful world. He looked at it and said, "It's good and very good." But there was a serpent in the garden. And this serpent caused Adam and Eve to disobey God

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and sin entered the world. And when this happened, this couple that had walked with God in the cool of the day and rejoiced in hearing his voice and his footsteps in the garden

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are now hiding from him. This is estrangement. Wherever there is sin, there's an estrangement. Whenever something comes between you and your relationship with somebody else. The old folk used to say, "We feel it as a funny feeling." Sin has ended. And so this estrangement has occurred in the human family and we find

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ourselves separated from God. Every one of us can attest to that experience because sometimes God seems so far away. And there are other times when God seems so very near. the crucified Redeemer comes, that we may have this union with God, that this that was taken away in what happened in the garden with Adam and Eve and that

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serpent, that this which was taken away may be restored. So the alienated that we talk about in this world, it may be property, it was in the Old Testament that there was property. If one was about to lose his property, going to be repossessed as we call it, then this relative might step in and

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and redeem the property. Yes. If a couple married and remained for a number of years and the man passed away and there was not a child,

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then there was the close of kin who was expected to come in and marry that person and with the hope that a child would be born. A redeemer.

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If the person were in jail and unable to pay his or her debt or fine, then there would be maybe a relative who would come in and deliver that person from jail by paying the fine. would be considered the redeemer. And there are many instances of this happening in the

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Old Testament scriptures. As far as family law is concerned, the next of kin would step in and sometimes it would be others who might perform this particular act of deliverance from captivity. Deliverance from captivity, being redeemed, being delivered. The Babylonians took the Israelites into captivity, they took Judah

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into captivity, and after taking Judah into captivity, after a period of years, they were delivered from the Babylonians. They were able to return to Jerusalem. They were delivered. So this idea of the crucified redeemer, Jesus sort of fulfills all of these. We have found ourselves in prison, we found ourselves in debt that we cannot ever repay,

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And Jesus comes, and he comes among us as the crucified Redeemer. Isn't it wonderful that there is one who cares so much for us? To be crucified for us, to suffer the greatest humiliation for us, this is the crucified redeemer. This is the one for whom we wait as we approach the

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celebration of a few days, the crucified one. And as he faces this experience, Pilate is there to judge him. And Pilate, after asking him many questions and examining him, Pilate says to the crowd, "Shall I crucify your king?" Your king. It's sort of derision here that we get in the language of Pilate.

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"Shall I crucify the one who is your king?" Well, the Jewish people had looked for a king to come who would be greater than Herod, a king that would be greater than Caesar Augustus, a king that would come among us and be strong enough to defeat the kings of this world. King, king. And he asked the question, "Shall I crucify your

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king?" This is your hope. This is the one for whom you have looked. This is the one for whom you've waited. "Shall I crucify your king?" - Yes, yes. - And they say to him,

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"We have no king but Caesar." Can you imagine this people who is supposed to be waiting for the coming of the Messiah and waiting for one to deliver them from Roman oppression

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But to say in answer to the Roman governor's question, "We have no king." But see, then another occasion, Pilate comes back and he says on the sign, "Jesus, King of the Jews." Jesus Christ, King of the Jews.

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King of the Jews. one that you say is king here, this king that you have expected, well this is one that we're crucifying to let you know what we will do with your king. The crucified Redeemer. And Jesus goes through all of this in order to deliver

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us, to deliver us from depression. When you look at the life of Jesus Christ and you say we say we are his disciples and we see what he went through and he is our comrade in the struggle and that's the wonderful thing about it is that he goes with us even through the dark valley of the shadow of death. He goes with us. He is our King. For that crowd that stood around the cross

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did not honor Him as King, but nevertheless Jesus Christ is King. He's King, not just for a day, but He's King forever.

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- Yes Lord. - He is King, and He leads us. King of my life! I crown you, Lord.

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And every one of us ought to be able to crown him in our daily living as king. King in the decisions we make! King in the ideals that we follow.

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King, Jesus Christ is king. Well, when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, It is said there that they were driven out of the garden. They were driven out of the garden.

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You can't stay here anymore. You violated the rules of the eternal. And so they are driven out of the garden. And the Lord God put cherubim and a flaming sword

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so that they could not enter the garden again and eat of the fruit of the tree of life. That's what happened. That's a sad story if it ends there. But it doesn't end there. Our King comes and goes outside the garden and is crucified on a scarred shaped hill called Calvary.

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And there he dies and he rises again and he comes back into the garden through the flaming sword. He comes into the garden and there he is with us

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and he takes us and leads us back to the Father. Brothers and sisters, that's good news. That's good news in the world of bad news that is King. King, yes, over all of the difficulties. King over all of the anxieties that threaten us.

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King over all of the absurdities. Yes, King over all of the ambiguities of this life. Thanks be to God. He is our King. He is the crucified one, but He is the one who is risen to be with us always. And you see Jesus, our King, paid it all! All of it! He paid it, not, He didn't make a down payment on it. He paid it all! All to Him I owe! Sin had left the crimson stone, He washed it!

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White as snow. So as we sing the hymn, we extend the invitation to accept Jesus Christ, the one who is our crucified Redeemer, as King. The door of the church is open.

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You may come by letter, by Christian experience, or on professional faith. Come. Come. Come.

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Come. Door of the church is open. I hear the sages say, "I swear in the age long, Child of weakness, once afraid, Forgive me, I know the cost.

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You have stripped me of my rights. I will give my own. We were left on crimson stains, we were washed in white as snow. ♪ The dark cloud ♪

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♪ In the sky ♪ ♪ The world ♪ ♪ In the dark ♪ ♪ Is getting darker ♪

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♪ As night ♪ ♪ The hand that held ♪ ♪ For I am strong ♪ ♪ Jesus paid it all ♪

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♪ All to Him I owe ♪ ♪ Sin had left a crimson stain ♪ We washed it white as snow I dreamed it all along

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I swear it is my dream ♪ Chains you, my soul you shake ♪ ♪ That I may self-steal with thee ♪ ♪ Jesus be divine ♪

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♪ Unto him I owe ♪ [MUSIC] Amen. As the organist continues to play softly,

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those persons who indicated to work with the advent candle lighting would you come right here for just a moment please. Brother Patterson I remember you are one and you do that right now please others who indicated your willingness to work with that candle lighting.

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[music] [MUSIC] (soft music) [MUSIC PLAYING]

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[MUSIC] [MUSIC] Would you bow your heads for the benediction? Lord, we thank you that as our elder brother, you are the crucified Redeemer.

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To give us victory in the midst of our defeats, hope in the midst of our despair. Be with us, never leave us we pray. Grace, mercy, peace be with you from God our Father in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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