Episode Transcript
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You would turn with me to Neemiah
chapter three. If you don't know where
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Niemiah's is, open up the middle
of Your Bible. Usually Open the psalms
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and flip back a few pages to
Neemiah. It's right before job in my
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chapter three. It's a delong chapter
with a lot of hard names, so
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we're only going to read the first
twelve versus. This is the word of
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God. Then, Alaship the high
priest, rose up with his brothers,
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the priests, and they built the
sheep gate. They consecrated it and set
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its doors. They consecrated it as
far as the Tower of the hundred,
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as far as the tower of Hananel, and next to him the men of
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Jericho built, and next to them
Zakhor, the son of EM rebuilt.
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The sons of Hassana built the fish
gate. They laid its beams and set
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its doors, it's bolts and it's
bars, and next to them me remote
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the son of Uriah, son of
Hakaus repaired, and next to them Mashilam
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the son of Berachiah, son of
Michezebel, repaired, and next to them
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Zadok, the son of Batna,
repaired, and next to them that to
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Kohites repaired, but their nobles would
not stoop to serve their Lord. Joy
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Ada, the son of Pasca,
and Mushi Lum, the son of Bessodaya,
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repaired the gate of Yashanah. They
laid its beams and set it's doors,
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it's bolts and it's bars, and
next to them prepared Melatia, the
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gibbeon night and jade on the room. The maranathite, the men of Gibeon
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and of MISSPA, the seat of
the governor of the province beyond the river.
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Next to them. Usi All,
the son of Harahia, Goldsmiths,
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repaired. Next to him. Hanna, and I are one of the perfumers,
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repaired and they restore Jerusalem as far
as the broad wall. Next to
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them. Rafaiah, the son of
Hur, ruler of half the district of
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Jerusalem, repaired. Next to them. Judiah, the son of Haruma,
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repaired opposite his house. Next to
him, Hatush, the son of Hashabania,
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repaired. Malquijia, the son of
Hareem, and Hashu, the son
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of Pahat Moab, repaired another section, and the Tower of the ovens next
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to him. Shalam, the son
of Hollowhsh ruler of half the district of
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Jerusalem, repaired he and his daughter's
you may be seated. So when my
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wife and I first got married,
we lived in Saint Luis, Missouri,
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in a very tiny apartment, the
sides of a postage stamp almost. We
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had a tiny bedroom, tiny living
room, tiny bathroom, tiny kitchen with
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a tiny ink and a almost no
counterspace and, most importantly, no dishwasher.
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And that was a big deal because
I don't like to wash dishes.
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I don't mind drying dishes, I'll
dry dishes all day long. I don't
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want to wash dishes because it's kind
of a dirty job, right, it's
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kind of gross, you know.
You're having to clean off all the goop
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and the gunk from plates and cups
and Silverware and somewhere along the line you
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play that little game of find the
sponge in the murky water, right,
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and at the end you're cleaning out
all the the gunk from the bottom of
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the drain. Right, it's gets
gross and I don't want to get my
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hands dirty like that. I know
what you may be thinking, that sounds
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really selfish and petty, and you
would be correct. It is selfish.
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It is petty, but you know, there are many aspects, other aspects
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of my life where I selfishly don't
want to do the kind of work that
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gets my hands dirty. And the
same mystery for you. What about those
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times when we know that that change
is coming and we're not looking forward to
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that change because we know it's going
to task us, we're going to have
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to do some heavy lifting, we're
going to have to get her hands dirty.
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Maybe it's change in or even a
season of change at work. That's
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cool in our families, in the
church. Maybe you are looking forward to
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the benefits of the change but not
the process because it's going to put you
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to work. Or what about those
times when you walk up to somebody and
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greet them, just say hey,
how you doing, how are you,
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and you expect a superficial response.
You want a superficial response, and then,
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instead of saying dude, well doing
good, thanks for asking, they
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actually tell you the truth and they
start to unload all their emotional baggage on
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to you in that moment and you
think, oh no, I didn't expect
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this, I didn't want this.
How'll get out of the situation? You
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start looking around for other people that
you might know that to say, Hey,
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I've been meaning to talk to this
person. I'm sorry, you got
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to go. I don't have time
for this right now. I not now.
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I've got to stop and and carry
their burdens. I don't want to
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get my hands dirty with this.
You've been there. This is where neamiah
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three is so helpful for us,
because Niama three is not just a chapter
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in the Bible with a bunch of
names that are very hard to pronounce,
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and I'm thankful that we chose to
stop at verse twelve, because there's another
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twenty something versus of more hardly pronounceable
names, and I'm not that smart.
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But it's more than just that.
It gives us a picture of God's people
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getting their hands dirty, doing the
heavy lifting, building together and doing hard
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work. But it's good work.
It's good work because the Lord has restored
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them to himself and in the process
he's restored them out of their exile to
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their city of Jerusalem, and that
is good work. When the Lord does
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the Good Work of restoring his people, he also calls his people to good
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work. So let's look at the
work this morning. What is the work
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before us in theemiah chapter three.
Well, at the work you see immediately
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before the people. Is What it's
the building of the wall, the rebuilding
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of the wall of Jerusalem. But
that's not actually the first project that they
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undertook coming out of exile to get
back and read the book of Ezra.
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See, the people of God had
been carried off the southern Kingdom of Israel.
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Judah had been carried off a couple
generations before to Babylond into Persia,
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Ja and their city had been ransacked. And now Cyrus, the King of
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Persia, has shown them some grace
and he he shown them kindness and tells
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the might look, Nemai, you
can go back and you can rebuild the
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city, you can rebuild Jerusalem.
Now, if you are going back to
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a city, your home city,
that had been completely destroyed, the walls
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destroyed, homes destroyed, businesses destroyed, culture destroyed, these people are having
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to relearn their language, families destroyed, lives destroyed by this enemy nation.
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What do you think might be the
first logical step to take in rebuilding the
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city? If it's me, and
if it's probably you, you're probably going
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to build a wall. You're going
to build it fifty feet higher, fifty
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feet think thicker. So hopefully this
does it happen again, that you don't
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get ransacked again. But is that
what they did? Know? If you
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look back at eggs Ezra, you
see that the first project they undertook was
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rebuilding what the temple? They built
the temple. Question. Why were the
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Israelites taken off into exile by this
Animu nation in the first place? It's
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because, generation after generation, they
failed to put the Lord First. But
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now, instead of self preservation,
their priority is to put the Lord First.
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So, God, we want to
engage with what you, we want
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to love you. We now rediscovered
the law. We want to follow you.
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I just wonder, what are the
areas of of all of your lives?
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We're in the same question, is
true for me, obviously, to
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the areas of my life where we
have put the Lord further down the priority
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list, that we haven't made connecting
with him and engaging with him the number
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one priority of our lives. But
now the temple is rebuilt and our movie
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on the phase to the wall and
we look at the wall itself, what
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do we see? Well, obviously
we see that it is that defense mechanism
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right that's what the wall served as. That's its purpose. But it's more
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than that. Here in the my
three, the wall is part of a
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larger work of restoration. Now,
there are many things that would need to
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be restored. Right. We just
mentioned them. That the temple need to
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be restored. Right, it was
torn down. The wall need to be
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restored. Right. Their lives needed
to be restored. Right. Why?
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Why do they need to be restored? Because the people had sinned against God,
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and sin leaves everything in wrongs,
everything. That's what sin does.
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And sure, they will rebuild everything, but it's not going to be the
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same. They rebuilt the temple,
but it's not the same as when Solomon
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built it, is it? They're
going to rebuild the wall, they're going
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to finish the work, but it
is it the same? No, because
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part of what they're using for materials
is the rubble from the previous wall.
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It's not going to be the same. Yeah, they're going to rebuild their
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lives, but they're not the same
people. They've lost their culture, they've
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lost their language, they've intermarried with
other people's, as Ezra tells us.
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But something does remain the same.
Well remains the same is that this God
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is a God who is still intent
on restoring his people to himself and causing
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them to flourish despite their sin.
And that is cause for devotion. That
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is their cause for devotion. They're
devoted to the Lord, but because he's
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restored them, they're devoted to the
work. Look back at verse one says.
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Then a Liship, the high priest, rose up with his brother as
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the priest, and they built the
sheep gate, they consecrated it and set
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its doors. Here's a lie ship
gathering with his other priestly friends that to
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rebuild the wall, right, to
rebuyl the wall. And what do they
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do? They consecrate the hard work, the hard labor that's before them.
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Now here's why that's very important for
us. It's important because we tend to
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think that hard work, they'll kind
of work that gets your hands during,
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the kind of work that makes sweat
a little bit. We tend to think
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that hard work is the result of
sin. But is it? Now?
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The pain is right. The Pain
is God. When Adam Sin, God
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cursed the ground. Right, he
said that you will, you will,
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you will labor in this. As
you work, it will hurt. But
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when God made man, he put
them in the garden, Adam and Eve
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in the garden, and we what
do you do? He put them to
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work. Work is good, even
if it's hard work, it's good.
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It's a way for us to enjoy
God, it's a way for us to
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express our identity as image bears,
and even hard work is good work and
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it can be joyful work if the
Lord has called you to it. You
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know, I I hate running.
I hate running. I ran yesterday at
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the gym. I hate it so
much, but it's good for me,
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it's good for you. Maybe some
of you really like to run and run
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for fun and I do not get
that. There was a guy named Eric
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Little who died in a Chinese internment
camp in the s. He was a
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Christian missionary to China. But in
the twenties and one thousand nine hundred and
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twenty four he ran in the Olympics
for Great Britain. He ran as a
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four hundred meter runner. He actually
broke the world record at the time.
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I think it was like forty seven
seconds, which the new world records only
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like three seconds off. That's pretty
fast. But he told he told his
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wife, he said God made me
fast and when I run I feel his
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pleasure. Do you feel his pleasure
when you work, even if it's hard
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work? You see the when the
Lord restores his people, he puts them
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to work, and if you joy, enjoy relationship with God, restored relationship
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with God, then you can enjoy
the work that he's called you to.
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The work of the Lord calls his
people to is supposed to cause flourishing and
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yet it often seems so mundane.
You kind of get a sense of that
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in the passage, don't we?
There's a lot of repetition here that the
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priest gate got together and then that
they they built this gate and set its
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doors. It's bolts and it's bars
and then you move on. You can
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just imagine this next group of people
laying some bricks and then putting up some
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mortar and then setting the the gates
doors, and it's bolts and it's bars
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and you move on in next group
of people. They're doing the same work
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all the way around the wall of
Jerusalem. Think, man, how tedious,
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how boring, how mundane? Then, yeah, it is. It's
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just that before I was in full
time ministry, I worked for a public
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accounting firm for about five and a
half years and I hate I hated it.
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I hated every minute of it.
I was good at about hating it
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and I remember sitting it at my
little cubicle. I think the last person
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in the office is about thirty at
night, binders of information in front of
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me, working and just so tired. It been such a long day and
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I just remember praying to God.
God, I know that somehow this is
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supposed to cause flourishing because you've called
me to this, but I don't think
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it can. Surely this can't do
it. Surely this can't help spread your
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kingdom. But I didn't get it. I did not get it. I
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didn't consider that God had called me
to flourishing even what seems ordinary and mundane.
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How you considered that? We considered
asking the Lord that he would show
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us his desire for us in the
work that he has called us to have.
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We asked him, Lord, I
am not looking forward to Monday morning.
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I'm not looking forward to this project. It's hard work and it's boring
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and it's tedious. But Lord,
would would you? Would you help me
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find pleasure in it? Would you
help me enjoy you in it and do
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it with a glad heart? That's
the work. What about the workers?
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What do we see when we look
at WHO's doing the work? That a
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couple things that stand out. First
is the diversity of workers. Look at
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Verse Eight. Next to them USIAL, the son of Harahiah, Goldsmiths repaired.
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Next to him, Han and I
are one of the perfumers repaired and
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they restored the Jerusalem as far as
the broad wall. Did you hear it?
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Goldsmiths, perfumers. If you read
on in in the chapter you get
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to verse like Verse Thirty One,
you see merchants repairing the wall. All
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across this chapter you see all these
people, even people from other towns,
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other cultures, like Takoa and Jericho. You see the priests, you see
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Levites, temple servants, city officials, even entire families. Look at verse
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twelve, next to him, Shalom, the son of Hallohesh, ruler of
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half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. He and his daughter's see. Regardless
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of status, regardless of background,
regardless of culture, they're all getting their
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hands dirty because everyone has a part
to play. But some refuse to do
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the work. Look at verse five
and next to them to cohites repaired,
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but their nobles would not stoop to
serve their Lord. They were above this
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kind of work. But did it
sound like any of these people had backgrounds
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and construction work? No, now, surely some didnemia is overseeing this project,
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and surely some were architects and construction
laborers, but most people didn't have
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those kind of skills. But they
weren't above this work. You can even
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see, as you read on an
Emi that they were actually enthusiastic about the
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work because they were called to this
work by the very same God that had
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restored them to himself and restored them
out of their exile, so they could
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do it with joy, even if
they meant getting their hands or even meant
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sweating a little bit. Sometimes,
as pastors we see various Harper tunities to
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serve in the church, to serve
the Lord and serve the body, to
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serve one another, and we hear
things like ass. That's just not my
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thing. Here's some things that I've
heard in my years of ministry. I
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don't really like to work with children
because I've spent years raising my own kids
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and I don't have to do that
anymore. I don't like to talk to
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New People, so why would I
want to be a greeterer. Why would
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I want to get together with just
a bunch of other men or women?
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I'm a pretty private person. I
don't like to share with others. So
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community group small groups are not something
I'm really interested in. How about this
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one, then? This is something
that I have said at various times.
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Why do you need my help?
Things always seem to get done. When
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we say these things, and maybe
many of us have at some point,
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I know I have. We say
these things, how are we any better
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than those who thought that they were
above this work? We're not. But
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something else stands out when you look
at this people. It's not just diversity,
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but you see unity. Right,
we're all equipped to construction. Now
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we've established that right, but we're
all equipped with what they needed to complete
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the work. Yes, what were
they equipped with? They were equipped with
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the knowledge of a God who had
restored them to himself, who saved them,
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who loved them, who was present
with them in the midst of this,
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who would never leave them, who
calls his people together to participate in
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the mission of repairing what was once
torn down. You know, if you
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if you look around at this body, and I know so few of you.
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But if you're anything like my church
or any of the other churches I've
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ever been a part of, if
you look around at other people, you
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see you see priests, you see
Levites, you see temple servants, you
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see a whole lot of goldsmiths and
merchants and perfumers, ordinary folks, but
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all are equipped with what you need
to build the Kingdom of God. He
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has equipped us. The Lord equips
us with a knowledge of his salvation,
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then, all of Jible, knowledge
of his restoration, as it the writer
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of Hebrews says that he is equips
us with everything good in order that we
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might do as will now. Something
we can't overlook as we go through this
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passage is that there's a word that
keeps popping up time after time, verse
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after verse, the most often repeated
word here in chapter three, and that's
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the word repair. That word doesn't
mean to bring back to the way it
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was, but that word means to
make strong or to make stand firm,
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to build up even in the face
of opposition. You see, the work
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that each individual is doing here is
not just to build up the walls,
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not just to make the wall stand
firm, to make it strong, but
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it's to build up each other.
It's to make each other stand firm,
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to make each other strong. I
love how this chapter is lay it out.
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You have this person saying next to
this person and they built a wall,
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and then he get moves on too
this other person, and then his
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family, and then they built the
wall and so on and so on and
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so on, all the way around
the wall of Jerusale. You can imagine
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that each person is acting as a
kind of little personal trainer, because you
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know, people got tired. Right
you see someone sweating and dehydrated and he
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said, Hey, here's some water, but keep going. Five more bricks,
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a little more mortar. You can
do it. It's good work.
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I know it's hard work, but
it's good work. You can do it.
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You know, when we work together, when we take up the work
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that the Lord has called us to, specifically that work of the Great Commission,
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is, Jesus says, go into
all the world baptizing, baptizing people
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the name of the father's son and
the Holy Spirit and teaching them everything that
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I have commanded you. Well,
we do that kind of work. We're
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not just repairing cracks in the wall
with mortar. We're appearing cracks in each
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other's lives with a Gospel and Christ
like love, that love that Jesus called
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us to earlier this morning, that
new commandment to love one another. It's
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the gospel of Jesus. When we
encourage those who've had a rough week of
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parenting or rough week at school,
or maybe we have given our time to
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that awkward new guy, or we
show value and dignity do the single person
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who seems like a misfit often,
or maybe we do something simple like taking
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a meal to a grieving family.
When we do those things, we are
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declaring to those people that that we
serve a Lord who loves to restore his
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people, who loves his people.
Well, you know, just a few
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months ago we celebrated Easter, we
celebrated this person of Jesus Christ, the
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God man, that, even though
he was fully God, he humbled himself,
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taking on the form of a servant
and he became man and did the
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work that no one else could do. Jesus never said this is above my
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pay grade or below my Pagret,
I am above this work. He never
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said that he came to restore his
people, that was his mission. He
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never said that's just not my thing. What did he do? This prince
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of peace, carried a cross on
his back through this city, this city
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Jerusalem, the city of peace,
so that he could bring these people,
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and you and me peace that Jesus
was driven outside these same city walls built
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with these same hands, as an
exile. He was driven out with that
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cross on his back, so that
he can make these people who had been
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exiled, he can make those people
citizens of a greater city of God.
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And he's done the same for us. Through his death and his resurrection.
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He has repaired us, he has
made as strong, he has made us
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to stand firm against all opposition,
their greatest enemy, our greatest supponent of
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sin and death. Jesus has taken
all that away for good. He is
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restored what was torn down in Adams
Sin, the promise that was made in
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the garden by God himself that he
would alone restore relationship between God and man.
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That is what this restoration in em
three points to. That is the
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greater restoration. That's what united them
together to build and fulfillment of that promise
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is the finish work of Jesus.
That unites us together to build his kingdom,
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together to encourage one another to continue
that good work, to make disciples,
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to build community, to love people, even those people that we don't
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really like, for the people we
love, to ignore, to love the
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city in our neighborhoods and as we
stand together, as we build together,
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that work that the Lord has called
us to, that work is worship.
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It's worship. What is worship?
It's describing worth to the Lord, ultimate
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worth to the Lord will. When
do we worship? Well, we obviously
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worship in times like this, right
when we gather together and we lift up
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our voices and sing praises to the
Lord, when we pray together, when
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we fellowship together, when we eat
together, when we party together, we
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cure each other's burdens, like having
those conversations with people and we just want
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to know all they're doing and then
we end up being stuck. We worship
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him when we say, Lord do
you have restored me to yourself through Jesus.
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You have shown me value and dignity
and you have given me worth.
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And so, because of that,
Lord, I want to stop and I
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want to talk to this person.
He's had a really tough week. I
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want to carry their burdens, I
want to serve our kids. We also
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worship when we encourage one another,
even in the things that seem very mundane
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and ordinary, like most of life. Most of life seems very ordinary,
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it seems very Monday, and at
least it can be. We can encourage
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one another is we wash dishes,
as we change dirty diapers, you can.
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You worship God when you change diapers. Yeah, you can, doing
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it all for his glory, when
we grade papers, we stay at work
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late, all our ordinary activities,
but something the Lord has called us to
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in that moment, in that season
of life, to enjoy him and to
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glorify him and to build up his
people. But we don't do it to
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loane. We aren't living in isolation
right. We each have each other to
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build together, other to encourage one
another, to say, I know it
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seems mundane, I know it seems
ordinary, but the Lord has called you
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to this and you can enjoy him, you can flourish in this, you
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can take pleasure in him. Even
though it may be hard work, even
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though we may get our hands dirty, we can do it together with a
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joy of Christ because he has called
us to it. He's restored us to
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himself. He's called us a good
work. I wonder what the next coming
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days, very hot days, next
coming weeks and even months, might look
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like for you and for me as
we labor in the work that God has
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called us to in our families,
in our neighborhoods and our workplaces. Is
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it going to be hard work?
We know it is. We're going to
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have to get our hands dirty.
Yeah, but we can look forward to
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it and do it with joy.
We can worship God in it, because
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he's restored us to himself with a
blood of Jesus. He says, I've
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given you a new purpose, I've
given you new commandment. Love one another,
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build together, go into the world, proclaim my name. Be About
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Grace, all for Jesus. Let's
pray
