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We are starting a new series at Calvary called "Homecoming" and I'll be putting them on each Monday. This episode is on the Palm Sunday story. It gives us a look at this reality. Often when Jesus comes into a city, a neighborhood, a school, he comes in with tears in his eyes and a fire in his heart. He comes in with tears in his eyes for those who are missing their encounter with him, and a fire in his heart for those who let it happen.

Which one do you need to see? The tears in his eyes, or the fire in his heart?

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What are you filled with? What fills your life, right now? We can be filled with a lot of stuff, good and bad. What are you filled with today? In John 14-17, Jesus begins to talk about the Spirit of God. If you remember back in John 7, he talked about the Spirit of God so filling us up that rivers of living water flow out of our souls! It's an uncommon call to be filled with the Spirit. We may not exactly be sure what it means. But we do know what it's like to be filled with something.

If someone says they are filled with grief, or filled with fear, or despair or anger or ambition or joy, or filled with love. We know what that's like. We know that what we are filled with dominates our thoughts, dictates our actions, perhaps even describes who we are. So what fills you up?

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John 14-16 is an amazing piece of scripture. Jesus is sharing his last thoughts before he dies on a cross, and changes the story of the world. It's his locker-room talk before his team goes out to play the most important game of their lives. And he is talking to them about life, about what they need to thrive in the hard times to come. In the space of a few minutes, he will use the word "remain" at least 8 times. That's the word that I want us to hang onto. "Remain" or some of your translations say "abide." The greek word translated remain can mean to take a stand against difficult circumstances, but it was also used to refer to close personal relationships.

So maybe the sense of the word is to stick close even when it's difficult. When trouble comes, stick close to Jesus. When it's hard to hope, stick close to Jesus. When you want your life to make a difference, stick close to Jesus!