Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Please remain standing for the reading of
God's word. Are Scripture reading this evening
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comes from Paul's letter to the Corinthians, Second Corinthians, chapter twelve. Second
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Corinthians, Chapter Twelve. Second Corinthians
twelve, beginning in the first verse.
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Now consider it or concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you
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to be ignorant. You know that
you were gentiles carried away to these dumb
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idols. However, you were led. Therefore, I make known to you
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that no one, speaking by the
spirit of God, calls Jesus a cursed
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and no one can say that Jesus
is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
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There are diversities of gifts, but
the same spirit. There are differences of
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ministries, but the same Lord,
and there are diversities of activities, but
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it is the same God who works. All in all, but the manifestation
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of the spirit is given to each
one, for the Prophet of all,
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for to one is given the word
of wisdom through the spirit to another,
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the word of knowledge to the same
spirit to another, faith by the same
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spirit to another, gifts of healings
by the same spirit to another, the
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working of miracles to another. Prophecy
to another, discerning of spirits to another,
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different kinds of tongues to another than
interpretation of tongues. But one and
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the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he
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wills. For as the body is
one and has many members, but all
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the members of that one body,
being many, are one body, so
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also is Christ for by one spirit
we were all baptized into one body,
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whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves
are free, and have all been made
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to drink into one spirit. For
in fact the body is not one member,
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but many. If the foot should
say, because I am not a
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hand, I am not of the
body, is it therefore not of the
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body? And if the ear should
say, because I am not an eye,
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I am not of the body,
is it therefore not of the body?
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If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?
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If the whole were hearing, where
would be the smelling? But now God
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has set the members, each one
of them, in the body, just
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as he pleased. And if there
were all one member, where would the
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body be? But now, indeed
there are many members, yet one body,
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and the eye cannot say to the
hand, I have no need of
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you, nor again the head to
the feet. I have no need of
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you. No much. Rather,
these members of the body which seemed to
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be weaker are necessary, and those
members of the body which we think to
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be less honorable. On these we
but so greater honor, and our unpresentable
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parts have greater modesty, but are
presentable parts have no need. But God
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composed the body, having given the
greater honor to that part which lacks it,
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that there should be no schism in
the body, but that the members
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should have the same care for one
another. And if one member suffers,
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all the members suffer with it,
or if one member is honored, all
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the members rejoice with it. Now
you are the body of Christ and members
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individually, and God is appointed these
in the church. First Apostles, second,
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prophets, third, teachers, after
that, miracles and gifts of healings,
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helps, administrations, variety of tongues. Are All apostles? Are All
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prophets, are all teachers? Are
All workers of miracles? Do all have
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gifts of healing? Do all speak
with tongues? Do all interpret, but
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earnestly desire the best gifts? And
yet I show you a more excellent way.
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Thus farthest reading of God's holy word. The grass withers in the flower
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fades, but the word of our
Lord endears forever. Please be seated,
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Lord Holy Spirit. We pray that
you would illumine our hearts and our minds
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as we give ear to this passage
of this letter. Lord, we know
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that each of us has a great
propensity to think that we are the least
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presentable parts of the body of Christ. Each of us has a propensity,
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Lord, to think that we bring
nothing to the table, that there is
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no way that you can use us, that we are at best near forgotten
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addenda to the body. Some of
US think we're the appendix and of no
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use. But what we pray as
we turn our attention to this passage that
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you would help us to get a
vision. As we've just sung, we
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asked that you would be our vision. You, Lord Holy Spirit, dwell
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in our midst and you dwell in
our hearts. You have made our hearts
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to be as the mercy seat was, and you have taken up residence.
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We pray, Lord, that as
you were building us up into one temple
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and each of us as stones in
that temple, that you would show us
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what honored place you have for each
of us in this your temple, and
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give us the encouragement, give us
the strength to do what it is that
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you're calling us to do, for
we confess that we can do nothing apart
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from you. So we asked that
you would strengthen us. We asked that
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you would give us eyes to see
and ears to hear, and we asked
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that the words of my mouth and
the meditations of our heart would be pleasing
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to you, oh Lord God,
for we ask it in Jesus name.
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Amen. Well, I came across
once upon a time a story from the
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Holocaust that I thought was fairly interesting. The story was told by a fellow
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name Eugene Heinler, who was a
Holocaust survivor. The Nazis, he said,
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used to try all kinds of weird
ex experiments on the concentration camp prisoners.
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I'm sure most of us have probably
read about that at some point or
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watch some informational documentary about it.
Mr Heimler tells of one experience in particular
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in which the Jews who'd been working
in this particular camp were, without explanation,
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suddenly ordered to go from and get
this huge pile of sand that was
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at one end of the concentration camp
and move the entire pile of sand to
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the opposite end of the concentration camp. And then, after they had done
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that, they were ordered to move
it all, every last grain, back
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to its original location. And this
process was repeated day after day, week
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after week, moving the sand back
and forth. And eventually many of the
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prisoners who'd been able to cling to
life even while performing more difficult tasks for
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the Nazi concentration camp officers, lost
their minds. Some of them went berserk
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and a bunch of them killed themselves, either by throwing themselves on the fence
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or making sure they got shot by
the guards, or hanging themselves. It
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drove them out of their minds.
And the reason for that, the reason
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that that drove them nuts, is
because God made us to live purposeful lives.
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God did not put us here on
this earth simply to take up space
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or to use up oxygen. He
made us with a need for purpose and
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meaning hardwired into our psyche. And
when we don't live lives of purpose and
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meaning, we, like those poor
prisoners, end up miserable. And this
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is true for our spiritual lives as
well as it is for the rest of
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our life. When we come to
know Christ, we discover this wonderful truth
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that the Holy Spirit has a purpose
for us. He has a purpose for
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each of us, and important,
meaningful purpose for every single one of us.
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And until we discover what that purpose
is and until we begin to live
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that purpose out, we will find
that we are spiritually depressed. Now,
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with that in mind, let me
ask you a question I want you to
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be thinking about this evening. How
do you feel about your spiritual life?
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Do you feel like your spiritual life
is meaningful? Do you feel like you
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have a purpose in the kingdom,
like you are bearing fruit and you're seeing
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purposeful forward momentum in your life as
a Christian? Oh or does your spiritual
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life feel kind of like you're moving
sand back and forth and back and forth?
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Or, to put it a different
way, do you feel like you
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would be content if the current direction
of your spiritual life and its pace perhaps
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we're to continue for the rest of
your life? What you to think about
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that, and I want to think
about that this evening in two parts.
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First, I want us to look
at this passage from the Old Testament and
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see a parallel to what I'm discussing. And then later on I want us
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to see a pattern from this chapter
of First Corinthians that Paul gives us that
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I hope can point us in some
positive directions. So first, the parallel.
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When Jesus began his public ministry,
he came preaching that the Kingdom of
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Heaven had arrived. Remember, when
Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven is
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at hand, he doesn't mean it's
right around the corner, just down the
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street or just out of sight.
That's not what at hand means. This
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hymnal is at hand. I can
touch it, I can grab it.
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This hymnal is present, it is
with me. So when Jesus came preaching
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that the Kingdom of Heaven was at
was at hand, he meant that the
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kingdom had arrived. And among an
number of other good definitions, we can
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rightly say that the Kingdom of Heaven
is a new community or a family.
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The kingdom Jesus announced is a new
community defined by the father's will, where
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people experience the presence of God as
they live among God's family. Peter and
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Paul describe this family in terms of
a building. They describe the people of
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God as a temple in each one
of us as a living stone in that
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temple. And what's interesting about our
relationship to this temple, if you think
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about it, is that we,
as God's family, are described as both
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the builders as well as the building
materials. We are both the stones and
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the stone masons of this people of
God. And what's I think that's really
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interesting, because there's an implication there, then, and that is that God's
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purpose for each of us is both
to be built up into a dwelling place
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for the spirit as well as to
be active in the building up of this
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dwelling place for the spirit. We
need to both be active as stonemasons,
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fitting others for the temple, even
as we allow them to fit us for
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the temple. Therefore, I would
submit to you that if there is something
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lacking in your spiritual life, if
your spiritual life feels like you're just hauling
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sand back and forth from aid to
be and back again, that therefore you
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might need to ask yourself if you
are active in the process of building up
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God's House. Now, the Old
Testament parallel that I have in mind is
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the passage we read a few minutes
ago from Nehemiah. And in Nehemiah we
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find that God's people had lost sight
of their purpose. As in Jesus is
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parable of the SOWER. The cares
of this world and the deceitfulness of riches
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had crept into their lives like weeds
and they'd become unfruitful. God had returned
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his people from their exile and Babylon
back to Judah, but they'd lost sight
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of their purpose. Life had intervened, so to speak, and they'd gotten
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distracted from the meaningful work that God
had for them to do. And so
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God sent Nehemiah with a mission to
refocus his people on God's purpose for their
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lives. And if you remember,
the purpose that God had set for them
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was to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Some sixty years earlier, Ezra had
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led a bunch of the people back
from the exile and when they'd arrived they'd
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gotten to work right they built the
temple, but then they stopped. They
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hadn't finished the job of rebuilding the
city as a whole. They had a
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place of worship, but they had
no community, no city of God's people
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around the place of worship. At
the center of Jerusalem was the temple but
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all around it was ruins and debris. It was a temple without a community.
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See, they've gotten distracted from God's
purpose for them, and I'm sure
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that if you'd asked any of those
people they would have said that they were
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busy doing important things. They were
farming, they were shepherding, they were
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growing their orchards, they were running
their shops, they were provided for,
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providing for their families, they were
doing all kinds of really important stuff.
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But in a sense they were allowing
the good to be the enemy of the
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best. And as the book of
Nehemiah Opens, were told the result,
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as I read and then reread,
they were miserable. Nehemiah describes them as
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in great distress and reproach. Now
to make the parallel, let's return to
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the image of the family of God
as a divine building project. They had
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a temple right, they had the
centerpiece where God dwelt. But then,
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having established the center, they stopped, they didn't build the walls, they
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didn't finish the job, and the
resulting of Maya tells us is that they
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were spiritually depressed. In the same
way, a great many of us Christians
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establish the center, we establish a
relationship with Christ. We make time to
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go up to the temple, in
our case the worship service, but then
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far too often we stop, we
don't finish the job and, as a
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result, we find that we have
this lack in our spiritual lives. We
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have this sense of meaninglessness, this
sense of going through the motions, of
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hauling the sand back and forth and
back and forth. You know what I
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mean when I'm describing this. Can
you relate to what I'm saying? I
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mean, don't you ever have this
sense that sometimes you think to yourself,
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what Jesus died to give me has
got to be more than what I'm experiencing?
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You look around for that abundant life
that were promised and you say it
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doesn't seem very abundant. Or you
catch yourself thinking that all the promises are
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for the Pie in the sky and
the by and by, that I've got
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my ticket to heaven and I just
have to sit here and wait in this
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lousy airport until Jesus comes back,
when you want to be out there doing
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the things that you've been called to
do, you want to go with Jesus,
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but you feel like you're just sitting
here, suffering and hauling the sand.
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I know that you can relate.
This is a universal experience of the
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Christian life. You See, God's
purpose for you and me isn't simply to
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get saved and then go about our
business. It's not simply to get saved,
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get your ticket and then get your
rearin kicked until Jesus comes back.
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It's not that. It's not the
pie in the sky and the by and
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by. It's just not. And
it's not that, just as his purpose
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for the Jews wasn't simply to rebuild
the temple, he wanted them to build
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a city, a community, he
wants his people to live as a city
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on a hill, shining forth as
the light of the world. He wanted
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them to build a city, and
he wants us to build his church.
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And the way that we do that, the way that we build the church,
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is twofold, two signs of one
going. First, we do it
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by building relationships, by investing in
other people, and second, and perhaps
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more importantly, we do it by
letting other people invest in us. We
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invest in others and we let other
people invest in us. Remember, we
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are both the builders and the building
materials. We are both the stones and
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the stone masons. And so if
we're going to be built up into this
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city of God, this community of
Christ, we need to allow others to
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fit us for the building, even
as we are fitting them for the building.
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But, as was the case in
Nehemiah's Day, there is so much
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to distract us. There is so
much busyness in our business, and so
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the good crowds out the best.
And if you ever wonder why so many
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of us have this lack of meaning
in our spiritual lives, the reason very
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often is that we aren't taking time
to invest in other people, we aren't
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taking the time to let other people
invest in us, and as a result,
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the walls never get built. We
were Maine, a people with a
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temple right here, even though we
don't own this temple, HMM, but
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we have no community around it.
You look around and you wonder where's the
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city? Well, that's the parallel
to what I'm talking about. So what,
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then, would be the pattern that
Paul gives us to address that?
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What does it mean for us to
invest in others? What does it mean
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for us to allow others to invest
in us? What does it mean?
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Well, it's been said, and
I think it's been rightly said, that
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every Christian needs a pall, a
Barnabas and a timothy. Each of US
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needs a Paul, an older brother
or sister in the Lord who invests in
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us, who mentors us in the
faith, who imparts to us the lessons
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that he's learned from the Lord.
And each of US needs a Barnabas,
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a brother or sister in the Lord
who walks with us as a peer and
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a friend, sharing our burdens as
we share his. And third, each
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of us needs a timothy, someone
whom we mentor and Teach Christ to whom
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we are able to impart the lessons
that God has learned, or as get
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has taught us, and his poll
makes clear here in First Corinthians, chapter
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twelve, every member of the body
has been given something that other people need.
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Now, if I when I say
that, does that strike you as
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odd? Perhaps? Did you know? Let me put it this way,
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did you know that there is something
about you? As I said this morning,
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I'm not talking to the person next
you, I'm talking to you.
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There is something about you that other
people in God's family need. I'm not
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talking about a little extra on the
side, I'm talking about something they need.
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Were you aware of that. And
if you were, do you believe
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it, even if you know it? See, there is someone there,
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maybe many someones, out there,
Timothy's, who need you if they're going
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to be mentored in the faith.
There's nobody else to do it. That
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person needs you. And there is
someone, some Barnabus out there, who
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isn't going to make it without you
to walk with him as his friend and
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whom you may not make it without
yourself. And there is someone, there's
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some Paul out there, some mentor
for you, who you need to open
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your self up to, to learn
from if you're going to become what Jesus
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wants you to be. And that
person, that Paul, needs you so
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he or she will have someone to
invest in. Now what I think is
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so great about how Paul addresses this
as he takes our naturally low self image
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head on. Beginning in Verse Fifteen
of First Corinthians. Twelve, he takes
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our naturally low self image head on. He says, if the foot should
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say, because I am not a
hand, I am not of the body,
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is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say,
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because I'm not an eye, I'm
not of the body, is it
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therefore not of the body. If
the whole body were an eye, where
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would be the hearing? Can you
imagine that? Just some eye floating along
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that? That wouldn't work. If
the whole we're hearing, where would be
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the smelling? Now God has set
the members, each one of them,
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in the body just as he pleased. And if they were all one member,
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where would the body be? But
now, indeed there are many members,
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yet one body. What Paul saying
here is that we ought not compare
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ourselves to others. He says the
foot shouldn't say because I'm not the hand,
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I'm not of the body, I'm
not important because I'm like I'm like
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this hanging nail on my pinky finger. That's my part of the body of
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Christ. I'm useless or, as
I said in my prayer, I'm the
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appendix. Doctors have hunted and hunted
and they've never yet found a purpose for
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me. Right, he's saying,
you can't do that, and he says
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that because he says this because most
of us tend to compare ourselves to others.
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But you know how we compare ourselves
to others? We look at other
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people and we hone in on their
greatest strengths and then compare that to our
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own greatest weaknesses. You know,
I mean that's what we do. And
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you know who loves it when we
do that? The Devil. The devil
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loves it when we do that because
it gives him opportunity to tell us that
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we haven't got anything that other people
need. Or we can look at our
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at other people, and we can
say, oh my gosh, you know,
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that person's got it all together,
and we think if I tried to
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reach out to that person, if
I tried to invest in that person,
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they wouldn't appreciate it, they wouldn't
want it. They be like, who
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are you? What you know?
Kind of like how I felt before I
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asked Jamie out the first time.
I was like, man, this girl's
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got it all together. What does
she want with a loser like me?
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But you know, I discovered she
thinks she's a loser too and she thinks
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I've got it all together. And
that's the way it works with people.
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Right. We compare ourselves that way. But scripture says that there's something about
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you that others in the church need. You have some ability, some interest,
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some knowledge, some insights, some
experience, some gift that other people
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need. Now want you to listen
to a little story that I came across
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in a book. It's the comments
of an unchurched woman in San Diego,
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and she was asked how open she
would be to someone sharing their faith with
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her. So she says that she
has these two friends that she worked with
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at a brokerage firm. She says
Mike and Jenny. That's her coworkers and
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I make more money than any of
us ever dreamed, but we've all talked
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about how the money hasn't really made
us happier. I know that they go
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to church regularly, so I sometimes
hint to see if they'll say something about
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it. One time we got into
this real serious discussion about the important things
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of life, she said, I
decided just to ask them out right if
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church was important to them. You
should have seen how red their faces turned.
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They said a few things like well, of course it is, but
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you could tell they weren't comfortable at
all talking about religious issues. I just
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can't understand it. I think I'm
really searching for something, but no one
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seems to want to talk to me. Now bear in mind that this woman
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was not a Christian at the time
she was interviewed, and yet she was
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desperate for somebody to talk to her
about Jesus. And I bet if you
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saw this woman, you would have
seen a woman who is this hard,
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charging, competent, twenty one century
woman who seemed like she had it all
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together. And yet she tells us
that she longs for someone to invest in
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her spiritually. Listen, this woman, who was at that time unconverted,
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knew at some level, she knew
that these Christians had what she needed.
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She didn't know what it was exactly, but she longed for someone like you
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or me to invest in her,
to share with her what we have learned
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from the Lord. And I can
guarantee you that she is not alone.
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And it's not just unchurched people.
A lot of us in the church,
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I hate to tell you, have
a lot of issues still and we really
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wish somebody would invest in us.
It's true, people need to benefit from
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what God has given you. So
what are we waiting for? What are
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we waiting for? When Paul wrote
to the Corinthians urging them to invest their
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spiritual gifts in one another, he
was not writing to people who had it
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all together right. He was not
writing to people who had the key to
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holiness or who are smart or wise
or accomplished. Paul was writing to a
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bunch of people who are up to
their eyeballs in issues. Right, the
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church at Corinth had all sorts of
problems. They had interpersonal sins, sexual
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immorality, selfishness, drunkenness, it
goes on and on and on. And
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at the beginning of the letter he
wrote this, he says God has chosen
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the foolish things of the world to
shame the wise. He's talking to them
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and he has chosen the weak things
of the world, but to shame the
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things which are mighty and the base
things of the world and the things which
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are despised. God has chosen and
the things which are nothing, to bring
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to nothing the things that are something
that no flesh should glory in his presence.
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But if him, you are in
Christ Jesus, who became for us
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the wisdom of God. A couple
of chapters later he says this in chapter
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six. Do you not know that
the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of
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God? Do not be deceived,
neither for indicators, nor idolaters, nor
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adulterers or homosexuals, nor sodomites,
nor thieves, nor covetous nor drunkards,
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nor vilers, nor extortioners who,
that's a long list, will inherit the
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Kingdom of God and such were some
of you. But you were washed,
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you were sanctified, you were justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and
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by the spirit of our God.
He tells them, he reminds them,
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that they don't have it all together. These were people who were not particularly
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wise or strong. These were people
who had backgrounds as thieves, homosexuals,
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prostitute drunks, you name it,
that was their background. They were the
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great unwashed before they were washed by
Christ and in the eyes of the world
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they didn't have much. In their
own eyes, they thought, I'm sure
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that they didn't have much. If
I were one of them and I looked
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at myself, I would say,
you know, what do I have to
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offer other people? Those people don't
have much, but you know what they
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do have? They have a relationship
with Jesus. They have a relationship with
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Jesus. And when you come into
a relationship with Jesus, whatever it is,
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whatever it is that makes you less
than, whatever it is you're ashamed
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of, whatever it is that you
have tried to hide. Whatever it is,
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you can't even look at your own
self in the quietness of your heart.
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Whatever it is, Jesus uses it
all in Christ. Everything that made
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you a loser is what now makes
you a winner. Everything that made you
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a loser is turned into something that
you can use to build up the faith
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of other people. There is nothing
for us to hide, because Christ has
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washed it away and he has turned
every bit of it into tools for the
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building up of his people. And
if all of that stuff is used by
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God to qualify you to be someone's
pall or Barnabas or Timothy, how much
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more the stuff that you're actually good
at? Through all of your failures,
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you have learned about the forgiving grace
of God, and through all of your
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successes you have learned skills and abilities
and talents that other people need. But
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be forewarned, the devil does not
want you to engage your spiritual guests.
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Do not be deceived. We are
invested, we are involved in a great
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spiritual conflict. The devil is not
a figment of your imagination. Demons are
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not interesting foils of in a literary
fashion in scripture. This is a real
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thing. We are at war with
powers and principalities in the heavenly places,
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and the devil and his minions will
do whatever they can to tell you that
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people don't want what you have to
offer. They will tell you that other
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people have it all together and that
you, you are the only screwball in
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the house, so you better keep
your mouth shut. The Devil doesn't want
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you to step out and invest in
others or bless others with the gifts that
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God has given you. He doesn't
want us to build up the walls,
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as it were, and when you
believe the lie, you are resisting the
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work of the Holy Spirit. Because
the Lord does want you to step out
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of your comfort zone. He wants
you to join the work of building up
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his new community, his new family. And though you probably don't believe me,
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you may want to, but you
really don't believe me, let me
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00:34:01.690 --> 00:34:07.210
assure you that you have something other
people need. You have some gift,
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some strength, some wisdom, some
ability, some insight, some something that
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other people really do need, and
you may not know what it is yet,
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but you've got it. And you
may not believe me, but let
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00:34:27.510 --> 00:34:31.750
me assure you, contrary to what
you may think. Other people really do
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want you to invest in them.
They want you to invest in them,
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to share with them what God has
taught you. Let me read you another
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little story out of this same book. It's a great book. I'll recommend
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it to you after the service if
you're interested. But this guy tells this
386
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other story and the woman in this
story is telling us a telling, a
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tale about sharing your faith with with
other people. But what she's talking about
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can apply just as easily to anything
God has given you that he wants you
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to share. This is this is
what. This is. The little anecdote
390
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here. He says Marian is a
one year Christian from Indianapolis. We ask
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her to share with us what Church
members and Christians should hear from someone who
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was lost without Christ for the first
forty one years of her life. Tell
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them, Marian begins, that the
world and Satan will give them many reasons
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not to be bold and telling others
about Jesus. They will even have many
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reasons not to invite somebody to church. She pauses with obvious intensity in her
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face. But tell them never to
accept those excuses. The unchurch do want
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to be invited to church. The
lost do want to be told how to
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be saved. Marian's now holding back
tears. She continues slowly. But what
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if Paula, that's her friend,
had not cared enough to invite me to
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church? What if no one had
been there for me during my divorce?
401
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What if no Christian had the guts
and the conviction to tell me about Jesus?
402
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Tell them, Tom to stop listening
to the lies of Satan and the
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world and to be obedient. There
are many millions of people who were like
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me, waiting on someone like them
to be unashamed of what they believe.
405
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What is it that God has given
you that others need? And who?
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Which Paul, which Barnabus, which
Timothy? Does he want you to share
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it with, to invest in?
You know, there's a reason that every
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church has fellowship activities. There's a
reason we have Sunday school. There's a
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reason we have Bible Studies and pot
lucks and prayer meetings and picnics and whatever
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else that we do. These things
aren't just so that we can have a
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good time or hone the Orthodoxy of
our presbyterianism. It's not so we can
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get full bellies, although all that
stuff is great. We have these sorts
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of things so that we can schedule
into our lives as a congregation opportunities for
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us to use our spiritual gifts and
to build one another up, because,
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unless we are intentional about finding opportunities
to employ our gifts, I can assure
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you that life will intervene and that, like the people that Neemiah led,
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we will get distracted and not finish
the job of building up the city.
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And whether you make the most of
all of the opportunities God gives you or
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not, I would encourage you to
discover what your gifts and abilities are and
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to employ them. Listen, we
live in the fourth most unchurched metropolitan area
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in the United States. Ninety five
percent of Twussonan's do not attend church more
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than once a week. Ninety five
percent. That's a lot. We are
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surrounded in this congregation. We're surrounded, and not a lot, but we
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have people all around us. This
congregation is surrounded by a neighborhood. We
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have our own neighborhoods, we have
our workplaces, we have our friends,
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we have our families, we've got
people on the bus, we've got people
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all around us who need what you
have. God created us to live lives
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of purpose. He didn't create us
to take up space or to spin our
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spiritual wheels or to go through the
motions feeling meaningless. He meant each of
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us to be used powerfully in his
hands to build up his family, his
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new community, his kingdom. If, at times, you feel like your
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spiritual life is just hauling sand back
and forth from one end of the concentration
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camp to the other, then I
would encourage you, I would plead with
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you, to ask the Lord to
use you, to lead you to someone
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to whom you can be a pall
or a Barnabas or Timothy, because,
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believe it or not, there is
something about you that God will use powerfully
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if you will step out in faith
and just let him and that it's good
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news, and then
