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How many times must I prove how much I love you? How many times must my love for you I show? How many times must I rescue you from trouble for you to know just how much I love you? Oh, say it again, how many times?

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How many times must I prove how much I love you? And how many ways? How many ways must my love for you I show? How many times?

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Many times Must I rescue you from trouble? For you to know Just how much I

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I love you How many days ♪ Must I be your face all around you ♪ ♪ And how many nights ♪

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♪ Must I wipe your tears away ♪ ♪ Oh and how many storms ♪ Must I bring you safely through for you to know just how much I, I love you. Oh, I'd like to say it again now.

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♪ How many days ♪ ♪ Must I be your fence ♪ ♪ All around you ♪ ♪ And how many nights ♪

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♪ Must I wipe your tears away ♪ ♪ And how many storms ♪ ♪ Must I bring you safely through ♪ ♪ For you to know just how much I ♪

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♪ I love you ♪ ♪ Oh, did I wake you up this morning ♪ ♪ You were close in your mind ♪ ♪ When you walked, when you walked upon a problem ♪

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♪ Did not step right in on time ♪ ♪ Did not step right in on time ♪ ♪ When you were weak ♪ ♪ Weak upon life's journey ♪

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♪ My angel carried you ♪ ♪ So you would know ♪ ♪ Oh yes, you would know ♪ ♪ So you would know how much ♪

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♪ So you would know just how much I love you ♪ ♪ Oh, didn't I put food on the table ♪ ♪ Sure, when the bills were due ♪ When the pains was wracking your body, did not sin healing, healing come to you?

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Oh, when you were lost, lost in sin and sorrow, I died to set you free, so you would know, ♪ So you would know ♪ ♪ So you would know how much ♪ ♪ So you would know just how much I love you ♪

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♪ Oh, did I put food ♪ ♪ Food on your table ♪ ♪ Show up when the bills were due ♪ ♪ When your pain was drinking your wine ♪

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♪ Did not send healing down to you ♪ ♪ Healing down to you ♪ ♪ When you were lost ♪ ♪ Lost and in sorrow ♪

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♪ I died ♪ ♪ I died to save you ♪ ♪ So you would know ♪ ♪ Yes you would ♪

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♪ So you would know ♪ ♪ How much ♪ ♪ So you would know ♪ ♪ Just how much I love you ♪

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♪ So you would know ♪ ♪ Yes you would ♪ So you would know how much, so you would know just how much I love you. Our scripture is in the Gospel according to John, the third chapter, and the first seventeen

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verses. chapter 3, verses 1 through 17. "There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him--" In Jesus' name, amen. "There was a

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man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, who came to see Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do miracles that thou doest, except God be with thee." A man named

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Nicodemus who came to see Jesus by night. And the subject is, "Through Darkness to the Light." Nicodemus shares our Lord's passion. He makes a journey in the night in order to see Jesus. So often, we are in the presence of people, and we do not see

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them. We look at them, but we do not see them. This was the experience of Nicodemus. He heard the words of Jesus, but he did not understand them. He was in the dark. So he makes a journey through the darkness. He comes to see Jesus by night. I

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remember as a college student, a group of us left early in the morning while it was still dark, and made a journey to a particular place, and waited for the sunrise. It was a rather mysterious experience to watch as the shadows of the night

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faded away, and the sun showed its face, announcing the light a new day. Nicodemus is in the dark. He's in the dark about his identity, about who he is. He's in the dark about God's purpose for his life. He's in the dark about who Jesus is. But he has

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courage to travel in the night, in the darkness. He is a seeker. He wants to be more. He wants to do more. So Nicodemus is looking for a better life. He's not satisfied with the status quo. there is a burning desire to be more and to do more, as Tiger

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Woods would put it. He wants to expand his life in meaningful ways. We're all seekers seeking for a better life. On the surface, it appears that Nicodemus has it made. He's a Pharisee, a member of the leading religious party of his

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people. Pharisees were noted for their piety, but he's not satisfied. One may practice piety and not have purity. So Nicodemus is in the dark. He needs to take a journey from darkness to the light. John reports that Nicodemus comes to

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see Jesus by night. Let me say more about Nicodemus standing in the religious community. He was a member of the powerful the Sanhedrin Court, the Supreme Court of the Jewish nation. He was a teacher, a university professor. But as I said before,

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he is a seeker looking for something more. There is a yearning that he possesses, a yearning to see what he has not seen and to become what he is capable of being. Nicodemus, a a teacher, a judge. He's also a secret disciple, secret disciple.

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He has followed the movements of the master. He has received regular reports on the activities of Jesus. But much of has come to him has been hearsay, second-handed. So he decides that he wants to see Jesus for himself. So Nicodemus

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comes to see Jesus by night, searching for understanding about the kingdom of God. Nicodemus expects an earthly kingdom, kingdom with the throne in Jerusalem, a kingdom that that restores the glory of the past. Nicodemus expects a

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kingdom with military power. The secret disciple does not want others to know what he does not know, what he's expected to know. You know, when we really don't know, we want to keep that as private as possible. When we don't know what we ought to

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know. And we don't want others to know we don't know. And a secret disciple is one who sits in the council or in the group with others and hears the truth and does not have the courage to witness to the truth. Every now and then, somebody comes and

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tells me about what somebody said about me. I said, "Well, you know that wasn't the truth. What did you say?" "Well, I anything." I said, "Well, why didn't you speak up?" We all feel like that, and we've all found ourselves in situations

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where we know what is true, but we don't witness to it because of what someone else may say. I used to have a dear lady who was an older member of the church who always liked to slip me certain gifts. She didn't want anybody else to know because

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they would say, "What you doing giving that to him?" In the dog, secret disciples, secret disciples. Nicodemus is a secret disciple. He sits in the company of others, and he hears a lot of things said against Jesus that he does not believe in his heart

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to be true, but he doesn't have the courage to stand up. He's secret. He's a secret disciple. So here he comes, this secret disciple, to see Jesus by night, and he arrives in the presence the Master, and he comes now from darkness to the light. He's

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come through the night to the light. He has a vision of the eternal reality. He's been following Jesus secretly, but now he is in the presence of eternal light. And he confesses, "Teacher, we know that you are one who's come from God, for no

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man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." When the light shines on us, we know. And so, in a way, I was saying is, "I'm in the dark on this matter." But when the light shines, we really know. So every now and then,

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says, "Do you know that you know?" There's a light of understanding shown into your life. And when the light shines on us, we know. Before, there is confusion, but when the light shines, there is order, there is misunderstanding before, but

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when the light shines, there is understanding. When the light shines, there is confusion. Before the light shines, there is confusion, but when the light shines, there is certainty." So here He is in the presence of the eternal reality. Now, living

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meeting is meeting. It's meeting, meeting one another. Unless we really meet, there's no living. There's real dialogue. We can sit here far from each other, in some cases one on one end of the pew, one on the other. But unless somehow we

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there is no real meeting. Unless there is dialogue, as Martin Booboo would put it, real dialogue, a meeting, your spirit, my spirit, your spirit, another spirit, unless there is real meeting. There is no real living. So, Nicodemus is a

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student of the law, and he meets the master, the one who is the earthly ruler and, at the same time, the heavenly messenger. Oh, He, along with others, he's seen Jesus perform miracles. He has seen signs and wonders related to the kingdom, but he has not

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experienced the kingdom. The kingdom of God is the rule of God in the hearts of humankind. So Jesus says to him, "Accept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You can be in the midst of the kingdom and not see the kingdom. You can

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be in the midst of the kingdom and not experience the kingdom. I'm talking about the rule of God, the rule of God. Here, Jesus, the master teacher, goes immediately to the heart of the problem that Nicodemus faces because, you see, Nicodemus

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suffers from spiritual blindness. He does not see the things of the Spirit. He talks about them, but he does not them. He does not see with the eyes of faith. He sees with the natural eye, but not with the eyes of faith. He does not see

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the promises of God. Look, the psalmist says, "I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the the land of the living. But Nicodemus does not see with the eyes of faith. He sees with the natural eye, and he does not

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perceive the love of God at work. We seek, we inquire because we really want to know. We don't want to be misled. We want to know for ourselves. No secondhand knowledge is want first-hand knowledge. And Nicodemus wants to get it

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straight from the master teacher. Get it straight. A group of us, when we were talking about going to seminary and we were selecting schools, we said we wanted to go where the professors were writing the books so we'd be sure to get it

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as close to the source as possible. Nicodemus wants to go to the source. He comes to Jesus, not to one of his disciples to say, "What did he mean when he said that?" He goes directly to the source. He comes under the cover of darkness. He

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comes as a secret disciple. But Jesus isn't seeking secret disciples and silent witnesses. Soon after I was elected as president of the Austin School Board, I believe it was in 1978, a group met and they said, "You know, Reverend Griffin has just been elected president of

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the school board, said, "Let's have him out here, and let's give him hell. Preachers shouldn't be involved in politics anyhow." So I went out, and when I appeared before them, they lambasted me. They gave me credit for all of the sins of

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the school board before I was on the school board. But I sat there. But as I looked over the group, I saw one young man whom I had befriended. I'd done many things for him, and here he was with this group. And I can't tell you how I felt when I saw

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him in that group. I saw--you sort of have an idea of how Judas and his relationship to Jesus--how Jesus must have when he saw Judas in the group. And here he was, and after the meeting was over and I saw him, I said, "Man, why were you in

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that group?" "Well, all of--we've been to each other, and what I've done for you, why would you be in that group?" He said, "Well, Reverend, I was there as a secret disciple. I wanted to out what they were planning and what they were thinking so I

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could tell you." Well, most of us don't cherish those kinds of disciples. So here he is. And there's always a struggle, a for us to be willing to declare ourselves. You know, every--so often a person brings a problem to me and said, "Now, Reverend,

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you go up and you tell them," say, "I can't afford to do that because this involves my bread." And so the secret disciple thinks not of what witness he must make or she must make for the truth, but the secret disciple thinks of how this is

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going to affect my bread or my future." So Jesus looks at him and he says to him, "You need to be born from above." And I suppose that's a word that is addressed to every one of us in the hearing now. So I gave my hand to the preacher. I had been

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baptized years ago, Reverend, but we need to be born anew. Almost every day, we need to be born from above. And God needs to come into our lives in a different way so that we'll be willing to witness for what we know in our heart of hearts is

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the truth. You must be born again. Modern theologians have a term for it. You must be a new being, a new being, a new humanity. The old humanity is represented in Adam. But you must be born from above. "Born from above" means to be born of

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Spirit. For Jesus comes from the world above to the world that is below, so that he might get together with us in this world." That's--some people never attain the greatness that they're of because they stopped growing.

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They stopped moving forward. They become static and stale. Others continue to be creative and innovative, fresh and vigorous, ever seeking and ever searching.

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I had a history professor whose notes were yellow with age. I don't think he had changed them in the last 10 or 15 years. They're still using the same old notes. "But life is determined by growth and the presence of the Spirit." Doesn't

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matter how old you are as far as your years are concerned. What really matters is whether or not you are a channel of the Spirit of God. That's what really matters, whether one is born from above, and the Spirit--the Spirit keeps us seeking. In

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other words, seeking to know more. More and more about Jesus I would know, more of His saving fullness know, more--more about Jesus, more. So the Spirit--the Spirit lifts us to a higher level. And that's why we can sing, "I'm pressing on the upward

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way, new heights I'm gaining every day. Still praying as I onward bound, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. Lord, lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven's table, land, a higher plane than I have found. Lord, plant my feet on higher

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ground." Now, Nicodemus comes in the darkness, and he comes out of the dark into the marvelous light. And we read about him again in the 7th chapter of John, and now he's back there with his colleagues, and they're talking about Jesus. And they're

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some unkind things, and they're talking about how they may take steps to put him to death. And Nicodemus speaks up. He's a changed man now. "When we come from darkness into the light," whenever we are afraid to speak the truth, we're in bondage.

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Whenever we are afraid to do what we know is right, we're in bondage. But when we come into the marvelous light, we're able to express the liberating presence of the Master in our lives. So he speaks up now. He doesn't know what they may

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think. He really doesn't care what they may think because he is now in the power of God's liberating spirit. And then he goes a step further when we read about him. He goes with Joseph of Arimathea. They go to Pilate after Jesus has been crucified,

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And he's dead now. And they go and say, "We'd like to have his body so that we can bury it." And he's going to the enemies, to those who've done this

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dastardly deed, and yet they want to be identified with Jesus and they have the courage, no matter what they may think, they have the courage to go and to get the body of Jesus and to bury it.

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KENNETH: Well, Nicodemus is one from whom we can gain lessons. This is the one around whom this wonderful Word is spoken. "God so loved the world--" (Audience Agrees) "--that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not

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perish, but have eternal life." The Spirit of God, Spirit of freedom, Spirit of liberation, Spirit of God. And this is a mystery. This is a mystery. This is why our ancestors said, "Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will

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pray." It's a mystery. And in fact, Nicodemus, he said, "Well, "Can I be born as old as I am?" Yes, you can be born, but not of the flesh. Spirit is like the wind.

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Wind blows, can you see it? No, you can hear it, but you can't see it. It's a mystery. So the wind needs to blow upon us.

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The wind of the Spirit needs to blow every day, no matter what may be the condition or circumstance, the wind needs to blow. Springtime, wind needs to blow. Summer, wind needs to blow.

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Autumn, winter, the wind needs to blow. And we need to begin the day by--to the eternal, blow wind. Blow on my life, blow wind. Blow and refresh me and energize me for this new day. day blow, blow wind. And that's taking a journey, a journey from

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darkness into light. Jesus says, "I am this dark world's light. Look to me, and thy morn shall rise, and all your day be That's good news. That's good news.

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And as we sing the hymn... [ Silence ]