Episode Transcript
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mainstanding. If you're able, let's
turn to First Corinthians, chapter twelve.
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First Corinthians Chapter Twelve, I'm going
to read the whole chapter, but I'll
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focus on versus eight through ten.
Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers,
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I do not want you to be
uninformed. You know that when you were
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pagans, you were led, astrayed, immute idols, however, you were
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led. Therefore, I want you
to understand that no one speaking in the
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spirit ever says curse Jesus, and
no one can say Jesus is Lord,
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except in the Holy Spirit. Now, there are varieties of gifts, but
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the same spirit, and there are
varieties of service, but the same Lord,
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and there are varieties of activities,
but it is the same God who
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empowers them all in everyone. To
each is given the manifestation of the spirit
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for the common good. Four to
one is given, through the spirit,
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the utterance of wisdom, and to
another the utterance of knowledge, according to
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the same spirit, to another,
faith, by the same spirit to another,
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gifts of healing by the one spirit
to another, the working of miracles
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to another, prophecy to another,
the ability to distinguish between spirits to another,
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various kinds of tongues to another,
the interpretation of tongues, all these
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are empowered by the one and the
same spirit, who apportions to each one
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individually as he wills. For just
as the body is one and has many
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members, and all the members of
the body, though many, are one
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body, so it is with Christ, for in one spirit we were all
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baptized into one body. Jews or
Greeks, slaves, are free, and
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all were made to drink of one
spirit. For the body does not consist
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of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because
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I'm not a hand, I do
not belong to the body, that would
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not make it any less a part
of the body. And if the ear
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should say, because I'm not an
eye, I do not belong to the
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body, that would not make it
any less a part of the body.
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If the whole body were an eye, where with the sense of where would
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be the sense of hearing? If
the whole body were an ear, where
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would be the sense of smell?
But as it is, God arrange the
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members in the body, each one
of them as he chose. If all
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were a single member, where would
the body be? As it is,
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there are many parts, yet one
body. The eye cannot say to the
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hand, I have no need of
you, nor again the head, to
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the feet, I have no need
of you. On the contrary, the
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parts of the body that seemed to
be weaker are indispensable, and on those
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parts of the body which we think
less honorable we bestow the greater honor,
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and our unpresentable parts are treated with
greater modesty. which are more presentable parts
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do not require but God has so
composed the body, giving greater honor to
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the part that lacked it, that
there may be no division, but that
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the members may have the same care
for one another. If one member suffers,
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all suffer together. If one member
is honored, all rejoiced together.
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Now you are the body of Christ
and individually members of it, and God
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has appointed in the church, First
Apostles, second prophets, third teachers,
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then miracles, than gifts of healing, helping, administrating, various kinds of
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tongues. Are All apostles, are
all prophets, are all teachers? Do
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All Work Miracles? Do All possessed
gifts of healing? Do all speak with
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tongues? Do all interpret? But
earnestly desire higher gifts, and I will
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show you still a more excellent way. May God be praised and may we
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be blessed by his word. You
may be seated. So, as we
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began to consider last time, this
passage is so much about out the work
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of the spirit, as we are
the body of Christ, and he helps
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us to really understand this. Paul
comes at it from a lot of different
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angles to really impress upon us this
truth. Some of these images are are
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silly, right, an I being
a whole body, right, just blinking,
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of course, not a body,
right? Or various parts saying I
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have no need of you or I
have no idea of you. And of
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course we all need each other,
even though there's some pretty big differences.
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Sometimes finger is not an ear,
a head is not a foot. Pretty
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big differences, and yet all held
together by the Lord. We also noticed
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how this is not undone simply by
our having trouble with this fact. Right,
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just because the I says I do
not belong to the body, or
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because or because a member says Verse
Sixteen, because I'm not an eye,
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I do not belong to the body, that doesn't make it any less a
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part of the body. So just
because the fact that you or I are
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sometimes or even frequently confused about our
place and who we are and what we
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ought to be doing, or even
theologically prideful or a discounting of others.
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The work of the Lord still stands
when he unites us together into one body.
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We are one body in Christ.
It's a work he has done.
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It's not a work we manufacture.
It's not a lego character, right,
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that we all just sort of work
together and create. It's something that God
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himself has done. He's telling us
how things are. I use the analogy
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last time of an ecosystem. Right. This is just the world that God
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has made. It's how it works
and this is how the body of Christ
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works. This is our place in
it. We are individual members of that
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one body through the same spirit who
empowers us all. And so I said
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what I would do this time is
focus in particular on the gifts that are
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listed in versus four through ten,
and maybe even more specifically eight through ten.
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The basic rule that we have and
how the body of Christ operates is
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that each of us are given gifts
by God and those gifts are to be
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used in service to the rest of
the body. That's the basic point.
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Each of us are given various gift, varieties of activities, varieties of service,
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these kinds of things that he mentions
in four, five and six,
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each one, he says in verse
eleven, to apportioned to each according to
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his will, as he chooses.
But what is the purpose of these things?
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One of those purposes or the one
of the the things we should keep
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in our mind as we moved,
as we exercise these gifts, is what
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he says in verse seven, to
eat, just given the manifestation of the
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spirit for the common good. Now
there are other implications of this right,
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as he says, if one member
suffers, we all suffer. My mom
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tells a story that the first date
that she and my dad went on was
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a hike to the Grand Canyon.
This like super big date and they go
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on this high could she twists her
her ankle on the way down and then
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favoring her, you know, trying
to give favor to her ankle, that
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she messed up her hip, but
then fair trying to deal with her hip,
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she messes up the other de and
it's just she was a mess by
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the time it was done. She
thought it was all over. Fortunately for
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me that didn't happen, but there's
this. You know what that's like,
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right. You know you might have
a tiny, tiny little hangnail right and
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you're not going to go to sleep
until you get that taken care of.
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When one member suffers, it affects
everything else. It affects the whole body.
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Likewise, when one of thember rejoices, when something's going well, when
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we find healing and refreshment, maybe
you're sick and your stomach stops hurting.
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Oh you just feel so much better. It's like that in the body of
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Christ as well. Now, true, we're not always as sensitive as we
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need to be to one another's needs
and one another's celebrations and we don't always
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know what's going on, and this
body is a little different in some ways
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than a physical body, but there's
a lot of similarities there too, and
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those similar to their similarities are there
again, because that's how the Lord made
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us. It's just that's the way
it works. It's the way it works.
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It's not something we need to try
to make it work or try to
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manufacture. It's just how it works. Now, of course, in our
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sinfulness and in our fleshliness, we
could do things that go against this,
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and we do sometimes and Paul seems
to have some of that in mind.
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It seems as though some members in
the church were being prideful perhaps about having
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this or having that and not using
their gifts to serve the common good,
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but maybe tear each other apart.
Ultimately he's going to get to some of
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these higher gifts, one of them
being love. Love. There's different ways
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in which love is perhaps a higher
gift. It's also lower, I think,
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in a way to higher and lower
in the sense that it's a foundational
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gift. In another place. Paul
talks about the Holy Spirit knitting us all
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together and love. I love that
analogy. It makes me think of the
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body, to the way our our
veins and the systems within our body right.
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It's it's not like the lego analogy
really doesn't work right, because it's
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not like plug the arm into the
chest, you know, and plug the
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other arm and stick on the legs. Right. It's knit together right.
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There's all of these systems working within
us that are totally intertwined, i.
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totally perfectly working all together and which
you take one out, you take one
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part and it really does affect the
whole. And one of those systems we
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might say, or I might be
mixing metaphors now, but he says that
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love is this thing that holds us
together, the spirit holds us together,
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and these are things we experience and
we see. These are with things that
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this the spirit manifests when he works
in us. So how do we think
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about all of that and big picture
stuff in relation to versus for through ten
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and these specific gifts? Some people
like to think about these gifts like like
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a few crayons. Let's imagine a
waitress comes to the table. You take,
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let's say an elementary school kids out
to a celebrate something and the Racheress
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put some crayons on the table and
then everybody's fighting over which Crayon and who
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gets which Crayon right. It's not
really the point right this, at the
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point of this list is not to
sort of limit what's available or for us
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to sit and look and say,
well, which one do I have and
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which ones don't I have, and
those kinds of things. To stay with
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the crayons for a moment. This
list is more like going into a Crayon
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factory, which the tour guide then
says, look at all of these colors
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available. We've got blue and yellow, Brown, aquamarine, fire engine red.
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Right, this is not the point
in which you say I want fire
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engine red. Or how come there's
not? I don't know what didn't I
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not list pink? Right, how
come there's not pink? But no,
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he's not saying that, he's not
dlimiting, he's not saying these are the
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only gifts and now we need to
fight over them or figure out everything specifically.
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He's just trying to help us to
see that there's a lot of colors
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and that the Lord in the variety
unites us all together. The list is
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not exhaustive, it's representative. Not
all the gifts are listed here, in
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other words, nor are all the
shades of color, and those are two
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points that I want you to hold
this morning and take with you. Not
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all are here and not all shades
of those colors are here. There's lots
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more indeed. You might even say
that they could be considered an analyzed from
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difference perspective, as you could,
like colors, mix them. Right,
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you could take this gift of faith
and this gift of encouragement and mix them.
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And what does that look like in
a person's life? Certainly good.
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What about faith and an act of
service? Or what about gifts of healing
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and love? Right, these things
are not, you know, sort of
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tight sealed categories that can't be seen
one from another. They they're a whole
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mix, a whole rainbow of beautiful
things that God gives to us. Now
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I'd like to offer some proof for
that, so you don't have to just
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take my word for it. If
you would turn with me to another list
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of spiritual gifts in Romans, chapter
twelve. I'll read from Romans twelve versus
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six through eight. So here,
Paul says, I'll read start starting verse
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four. This will sound very familiar. He says, for as in one
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body, we have many members and
the members do not all have the same
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function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually
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members of one another. Right,
almost exactly the same. Then, he
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says, having gifts that differ a
to the grace given to us, let
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us use them. If prophecy in
proportion to our faith, if service in
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our serving, the one who teaches
and is teaching, the one who exhorts
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in his exhortation, the one who
contributes and generosity, the one who leads
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with zeal, the one who does
acts of mercy with cheerfulness. And then,
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unsurprisingly, he goes on to talk
about love. He says in Verse
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Nine, Let love be genuine,
abhor what is evil, hold fast to
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what is good, love one another
with brotherly affection, out do one another
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and showing honor. Do not be
slothful and zeal, be fervent in spirit,
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serve the Lord, rejoice and hope, be patient and tribulation, be
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constant in prayer, contribute to the
needs of the saints and seek to show
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hospitality. So one reason I read
these next few verses, in nine through
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thirteen, is to see the connection
with love. The other thing to see
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is that so it seems as though
maybe he's stopped talking about gifts right in
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verse eight and transitions and talks about
love more in general. But notice how
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he ends contribute to the needs of
the saints and seek to show hospitality.
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These are things that are mentioned as
gifts just before when he talks about those
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who give, giving generously, those
who serve to serve. If that's connected
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with hospitality, perhaps, and I
think it is the point, then to
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see that in verse thirteen, even
though we're not in a list of spiritual
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gifts, he's still talking about spiritual
gifts, which means we can find gifts
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even outside of the lists that he
gives. The Holy Spirit pours out love
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on a church. He knits us
together in love and it's manifest in all
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kinds of ways. Sometimes they're specifically
identified as gifts and sometimes not. Sometimes
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it's just a command. Seek to
show hospitality, be generous. Where does
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that come from? From God?
Do we deserve it? No, so
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what do we call it a gift? Right? So we have this gift.
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The second thing to notice in this, that I want you to notice
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in Romans twelve here, is that
some of these things are not listed in
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First Corinthians twelve. Where we are
now, there might be some overlap.
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Right. So he talks about gifts
of teaching. Does that perhaps relate to
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gifts of utterance, of wisdom or
gifts of uttering knowledge? Probably sounds a
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lot like teaching to me, but
are are those very distinct and separate gifts?
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Probably not. What Paul has in
mind is again he's just expressing,
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from different angles and different perspectives,
with different words, the kinds of things
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that we see in the life of
the church. Let's look at one more
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passage, first Peter Chapter Four,
and this does not cover all the passages
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in scripture, but let's look at
one more. First Peter Four, versus
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nine through eleven. How about eight? Above all, keep loving one another
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earnestly, since love covers a multitude
of sins. Show hospitality to one another
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without grumbling. As each has received
a gift, use it to serve one
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another as good stewards of God's vary
grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks
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oracles of God, whoever serves as
one who serves by the strength that God
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supplies, in order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
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To him be the glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. So
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here right we see similar things mentioned, but things that we don't want to
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divide against the things that we saw
in Romans twelve or in First Corinthians twelve.
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The one who speaks oracles of God
is not someone who is totally different
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than the one who speaks prophecy or
the one who teaches or the one who
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utters knowledge and wisdom. They're just
different perspectives and different angles on expressing a
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similar things. All this to say
that when we compare these lists, what
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we see is that there's a lot
of overlap. Gifts of healing are a
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kind of of us, which is
a kind of generosity. Right. We
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have teaching and other kinds of things
mentioned as well. So with so in
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this we can see that Paul's intention
is not to list out of everything but
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help us, help us to see
the variety of these things. Now a
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second thing to notice here, as
we go back to how we see this
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list in First Corinthians twelve, is
that there are some distinctions between these things.
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Some of them, he mentions,
are quite extraordinary and some seem more
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ordinary. Some people want to categorize
this list especially and sometimes the others,
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in terms of those gifts that are
continuing and those that are not continuing.
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And what I want to try and
argue here is that while there are forms,
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or shades, to use the word
I used earlier, shades of these
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gifts, are forms of these gifts
that are extraordinary and we don't expect to
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see in a regular basis continuing,
it doesn't mean that the gifts themselves have
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stopped. So the gifts, and
other words, have ordinary forms and extraordinary
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forms. The extraordinary forms, by
definition, are extraordinary and perhaps, and
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there are reasons why, we can
expect them to see them in certain times
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and places and not in certain times
in places. But just because we don't
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expect to see certain extraordinary things now
doesn't mean that the gift all together is
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gone. Let me see if I
can show that to you. The first
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thing to recognize and affirm is that
God can give different gifts at different times.
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That's just something that we should believe. One reason is it kind of
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says it right here in First Corinthians
twelve. He gives different gifts two different
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people. Another reason, as we
see it, all throughout history, Adam
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and Eve God to live in the
Garden of Eden. No one else has
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ever lived in the garden of Eden, just them. Israel had the opportunity
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to live in the land of Canaan, a landflowing with milk and honey.
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We do not. We have greater
access and freedom in worship. Israel does
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not. The people of God throughout
time and history have experienced God's gifts in
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different ways, different times and places, often suited for that particular work in
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the things that he's doing. It
should, and God is, of course,
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a god of great diversity. A
God of variety. You just look
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at creation right, look at the
world around us, look at our own
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bodies, look at the body of
Christ, and you'll see this everywhere.
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And so it should not be a
difficult thing for us to affirm that God
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may choose to give certain gifts at
a certain time and not choose to give
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them an another time, that he
might choose to give to one person one
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set of gifts and a portion to
them as he chooses, and not choose
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to give it to another person or
choose to give to them something different.
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That's exactly right what Paul is saying. So given that fact, we shouldn't
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come at the question demanding that everything
that happens at one in one era and
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one time happens in another. Doesn't
mean it can't just means we can't demand
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it of God. So then it
comes to the question, well, are
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we in another time? Are we
in an era in which certain extraordinary forms
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of the gifts have ceased? And
I think there's reasons to believe that.
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One reason is that we don't see
some of the things that we read about
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in the very early days, in
the Apostolic Era of the Church, in
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acts nine Peter Raises Tabitha from the
dead. In Acts Twenty, Paul Raises
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Utechus from the dead. I've never
seen anybody raised from the dead. I've
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never met anybody who saw somebody raised
from the dead. It doesn't mean it's
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not impossible for God, it just
means it's extraordinary. It's very rare now
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in a time in which, even
in the early days of the New Testament,
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it's seem to be a more common
we have this with other things as
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well. Speaking of languages, for
example, or tongues, is described being
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able to speak a language which is
not known to preach the Gospel, being
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able to interpret a language just not
known, to see the Gospel go out
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in this miraculous way. I'm certain
kinds of healings and these kind of things,
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these were quite extraordinary. One reason
to think that they are extraordinaries because
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we simply see less of less of
them. Then that gets us to this
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question. Well, why do we
see less of them? What's the reason
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for that? Some people say it's
because we just don't have enough faith,
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we don't pray enough, we don't
believe enough, we don't desire them enough.
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I don't buy this one. Reason
I don't buy this is I don't
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think that there was any time of
the history in the Christian Church whhere there
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was a golden age in which,
just across the board, people were way
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more faithful. Look at the current
church and Corinth where these, perhaps some
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of these extraordinary gifts are present.
Are they this sort of amazing example of
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a church right that we should all
just aspire to be? No, all
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over this letter we see people who
are struggling in major and basic phays to
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affirm basic Christian doctrine and live according
to basic Christian piety. This is not
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the top, the tip tops zenith
of spirituality, and we all go wow
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and because of that we can see
all these extraordinary gifts the Corinthians had and
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if only we could get up that
high, we could be like them.
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It's just not the picture and I
don't think we can point to any church
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or any place in the aid,
especially in a big Broadway, where we
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can say, well, obviously they
had these extra gifts because they were so
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much extra faithful, they believed so
much more. It's also true that we
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teamed to struggle with the same things
generation after generation. The things that the
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Corinthian struggled with their things. We
struggle with to affirming basic Christian doctrine,
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living according to basic Christian pious hard
stuff, right. Another thing that bothers
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me about saying if you just had
enough faith, and I grew up in
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churches like this, if you just
had enough faith, if you just believe
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hard enough, is that it accuses, without proof, mature, godly people
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of purposely trying to stay out of
step of the spirit, and this just
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doesn't make sense to me. You
can bring call to your mind now people
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that you admire, people you say
that is a godly man, that is
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a godly woman, that is someone
I want to be like. They love
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the Lord, they're constant in prayer, they give generously, they they show
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hospitality, they take care of the
needs of the saints, they study God's
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word, they live for him,
they love for him, they've zood him.
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You see his glory in their lives, except for this one thing in
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which they do not want the gifts
of the spirit. People that are mature,
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godly. He's Christian role models and
saints. These are people who love
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the spirit, who seek the spirit, who desire the spirit. They're not
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rebellious, obstinate, and people.
On what basis do I have a like
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what what possible accusations could I level
against these people, people who have done
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amazing things in the history of the
church, translating the scripture, dying as
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martyrs, right, all kinds of
things to say. Well, if they
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just had a little more faith.
Sure, burned at the stake, sure,
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you know, devoted their entire lives
to giving to the poor. Sure,
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institute a great forms at every level. Sure, gave us great documents
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of doctrine and knowledge and wisdom,
all focused and pointed on the Lord.
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But really, if they had tried
a little harder, maybe then they could
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have received the gifts of the spirit. That just doesn't feel fair. What
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proof do we have? What accusation
can we level against these saints and say
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that they were denying the spirit,
that they were sinful in some way in
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which God was not would, was
not willing to reward them? So I
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hope that with me, you could
take that option off the table. The
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reason, in other words, that
that we don't see extraordinary gifts today is
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not because people just don't care or
don't have faith or don't love the Lord.
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So back to our question. What
is the reason, and I think
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scripture gives us a pretty coherent reason. If you turn to Efhesians, and
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this is only one of many places
that it's expressed, but it's expressed clearly
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here. In effesians chapter two,
Paul gives testimony to this doctrine, that
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there was a particular era of the
apostles and prophets that served a particular role
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and function at that time, and
he puts that teaching, that doctrine,
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into the form of a metaphor.
So in verse nineteen he says to the
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Ephesians, so then, you are
no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow
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citizens with the saints and members of
the household of God. By that he's
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referring to their status as gentiles,
but now belonging to the Church and to
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the Covenant Community, to the household
of God. All right. Then he
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goes on and he says that you
are built on the foundation of the Apostles
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and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being
the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure
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being joined together, grows into a
holy temple in whom you also are being
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built together, into a dwelling place
for God by the Holy Spirit. So,
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in a way, similar to First
Corinthians, twelve and Peter, First
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Peter and these other passages we've seen, we see that there is a body,
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in this case a building, that
is all one. The Holy Spirit
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dwells in the whole thing. It's
all empowered by God. And yet there
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are distinctions. First and most importantly, Jesus, Christ. Jesus in the
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body is the head of the body, right in the then, in the
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metaphor of the building, he is
the cornerstone. No one else is the
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cornerstone. He's the cornerstone. That's
a distinction that's made. And the cornerstone
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is this important built brick stone in
the foundation that sets the angle, sets
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the position of the building. Right, he's the foundation of the foundation in
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a way, but since we don't
have two foundations, very cleverly and helpfully,
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the Apostle Paul uses this metaphor of
the cornerstone, the chief and most
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important part of the foundation. So
there's a distinction. Right, Jesus is
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a part of the body. We
are in his body, we are defined
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by him, but he's distinct within
it. Another distinction he makes is of
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the apostles and prophets what does he
talk about them? As he says,
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they are the foundation of the building. They are distinct from Jesus, and
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yet they belong to that foundation.
And who are we? We are those
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who are being built on that foundation. We are not like the apostles and
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prophets, and yet we are like
the apostles and prophets. They are distinct
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from us in some ways and yet
they are part of us in some ways.
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In this building metaphor instead of the
body metaphor, and that's exactly what
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we see in the acts of the
apostles. In that book and in other
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books. We see the apostles doing
this foundational work in which the new covenant
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is established, in which a new
household is being built up. And without
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getting too much into all of how
apostolicity works and that era, I just
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want you to note some things,
like the correspondence between the twelve of tribes
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of Israel and the twelve apostles.
God was laying a foundation, he was
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doing something on which the rest would
be built. Think about the way in
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the Great Commission that Jesus commissioned the
apostles and sent them out in the world
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in some ways to complete his mission
to do what he had not failed to
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do, but had begun to do. Jesus ministered in a tiny little portion
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of the world and now it was
time to send it out to the whole
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world. Go, therefore, he
says to them. And they went,
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and as they went they showed the
signs that that Jesus was with him.
385
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They showed the signs, they brought
the proof that they were ambassadors. And
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having done that, once the foundation
was laid, you don't need to lay
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third, fourth fifth foundations. The
building is then built. We don't keep
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the Lord doesn't keep providing US new
foundational scriptures, because he built the foundation.
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And now what do we do?
We live on it, we build
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on it, we we keep going
back to the word over and over again,
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as one example of that. All
this to say that the scriptures point
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us to a specific era. After
Christ came an era of the apostles and
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prophets, in which they did work
that testified and was a part of that
394
00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:30.320
found it, testified to their place
as foundation builders, that brought signs and
395
00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:35.280
sealed that work, gave testimony to
it and also did it. was did
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that work of founding it itself.
And so that's my my brief case for
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for saying that. This is why, though God can work at any time
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in any way he wants, we
have reasons to expect him to work at
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a certain time and in a certain
way with the apostles and prophets, and
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reasons to expect that he will not
continue working in those same ways, that
401
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we live in a different era,
in some ways better. We have more
402
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scriptures than some of the early Christians. Have a bigger church, more experience,
403
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more testimony to the work of God
in the new covenant, more things
404
00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:28.440
that we can point to, more
clarity and doctrine those early years, those
405
00:35:28.440 --> 00:35:34.519
first first centuries, and which so
much was handered hammered out, doctrines,
406
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which was Christians struggled for and died
for, that we now just sort of
407
00:35:37.960 --> 00:35:43.320
take for granted a lot of times. The apostles creed in the nicene creed.
408
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What a blessing it is. Not
We shouldn't take him for granted,
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but you know what I mean.
What a blessing it is to come and
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say this is the truth and we
know it because we put a lot of
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hard work into it collectively. Is
the Church of Christ by God's grace,
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to not have to reinvent the wheel
and figure it out over and over and
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over again. These are blessings that
we have now. They didn't have them
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all that to say, God works
at different times and in different ways.
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Well, I want to finish with
one more thing, and right now I'm
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really happy I didn't try to say
all this last time, so thank you
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for ticking with me here. So
the last point I want to make is
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that now, as we look at
these different gifts, what I want to
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encourage you to do, as while
we will recognize that there are extraordinary forms
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of the gifts, to not simply
take away some of the things that are
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mentioned here and say, well,
that gift itself no longer exists. An
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easy way to start at that and
explain is and give an example of that,
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is with the gift of healing.
Okay, but the gift of healing
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in First Corinthians, in First Corinthians
twelve, when he lists this, I'm
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he says in verse nine to another
gifts of healing by the one spirit.
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Now these are likely, we could
say not the gift of healing, because
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he doesn't say that in the other
part. He doesn't say, for example,
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the gift of utterance, the Gift
of knowledge. Right, it's just
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this one, but I think he's
saying there is he's talking about. We
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could put it another way. We
say healing gifts to another. He gives
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healing gifts or the ability to heal. I want you to think about this
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healing and think about how you have
both extraordinary forms, like Tabitha being raised
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from the dead, uticus being raised
from the dead. That's healing right.
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Resurrection extraordinary. But though we admit
that raising some from from the dead is
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a healing gift or a gift of
healing, do we want to then deny
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that getting some medicine is not a
gift of healing, or maybe even getting
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some flowers is not a gift of
healing? Who here hasn't been encouraged by
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00:38:17.960 --> 00:38:24.199
a BANDAID? Who here hasn't been
encouraged by a some flowers by your bedside,
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00:38:24.239 --> 00:38:30.000
a card in the mail? Who
hasn't literally felt better because a brother
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00:38:30.280 --> 00:38:38.880
or a sister brought healing to you
through a play to lasagna or a or
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00:38:38.960 --> 00:38:47.039
a or a or a or a
vase of flowers or maybe medicine? These
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are gifts that we give the Anglican
Church. One wrote once wrote all true
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wholeness, health and healing come from
God. That sounds like something we'd want
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to affirm. Right. All true
wholeness, health and healing come from God.
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We do not therefore regard divine healing
as always being miraculous, because then
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it would say all this other non
miraculous healing is not of God. Right.
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We don't want to say that.
So, while we look forward to
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the resurrection of the dead, knowing
that only then shall we be finally and
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fully freed from sickness, weakness,
pain and more mortality, at the same
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time we welcome the recovery by the
church. Are we welcome the recovery by
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the Church of a concern for healing, but also which to express caution against
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giving the wrong impressions and causing unnecessary
distress through making it appear that it is
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sinful for a Christian to be ill, linking a stress and responsibility upon the
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faith of the individual who is seeking
healing. All that to say, they're
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trying to say something there about about
illness and sin and these sorts of things.
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But in the first part of that
they're saying what gifts of healing are
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from God and when Christians Minister Them, even in ordinary forms. That's a
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00:40:06.480 --> 00:40:10.800
blessing, that's a gift and we
shouldn't say man doesn't matter, not important,
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just because it's not of an extreme, because it's not resurrection. Of
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course it's important, of course it's
huge. It's a gift of the Holy
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Spirit to apply medicine, to study
medicine, to apply that with love for
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the body of rice. Our deacons
are officers that are devoted to that task
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of caring for the temporal needs of
the church. Is that not the gift
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of the Holy Spirit? So you
see the point here? In this one
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example of healing, or, I'm
sorry, of gifts of healing, there
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are shades right, a spectrum of
from ordinary to extraordinary, with all kinds
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of expressions of it. What we
don't want to do is say, well,
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it's only talking about the miraculous.
Therefore we can't do that and this
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doesn't apply to us. It does
apply to us. There are gifts of
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healing, they still continue and we
ought to be thankful for them when we
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receive them and when we have healing
gifts to give, we ought to use
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them in love for the common good. Now we're getting laid on time so
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I won't go through deeds of power
and prophecy and discerning the gifts, discerning
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the spirits and all of these others, but I want to encourage you to
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begin looking at these other gifts this
way. I'll give you a few quick
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examples. Have you ever met somebody
who was very skilled in languages? They're
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00:41:42.920 --> 00:41:46.840
just fast. I remember this in
seminary. I was not fast. It
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00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:51.320
was really hard. I worked and
then I forgotten and I worked and then
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00:41:51.360 --> 00:41:53.559
I forgotten that. I worked and
I forgot and there would be these other
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00:41:53.599 --> 00:42:00.320
people. They just got it.
It was so fast. They would learn
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00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:04.639
these languages and they would ply them
and they would use them for what?
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00:42:05.440 --> 00:42:13.559
Translation, exposition, writing commentaries,
giving US articles. What an enormous blessing
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00:42:13.639 --> 00:42:19.679
to the church. The gift of
languages, which is what the Scripture says,
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00:42:19.719 --> 00:42:24.440
tongues, is another translation for it
absolutely does. The gift of tongue
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00:42:24.480 --> 00:42:30.639
still apply today. Absolutely, and
the ordinary hard work of studying and learning
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00:42:30.760 --> 00:42:36.760
foreign languages so that people can come
into our church and we can translate for
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00:42:36.840 --> 00:42:39.440
them, so that we can receive
the Gospel in our own tongue, so
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00:42:39.480 --> 00:42:44.800
that the people can go out into
the world and reach those who are lost.
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00:42:44.920 --> 00:42:46.719
That's a gift of the Holy Spirit. We ought to thank God for
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00:42:46.840 --> 00:42:52.159
it. Discerning spirits all, finish
with this first John for says, beloved,
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00:42:52.199 --> 00:42:57.480
do not believe every spirit, but
test the spirits to see whether they
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00:42:57.519 --> 00:43:00.599
are from God, for many false
prophets have gone out into the world.
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00:43:00.599 --> 00:43:04.800
By this, you know, the
spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses
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00:43:04.800 --> 00:43:07.760
that Jesus, Christ has come in
the flesh, is from God, and
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00:43:07.760 --> 00:43:10.920
every spirit that does not confess Jesus
is not from God. This is the
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00:43:10.960 --> 00:43:15.360
spirit of the antichrist, which you
heard was coming in is now in the
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00:43:15.360 --> 00:43:25.960
world already. This is not some
like supernatural inside into the demonic spiritual world.
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00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:31.800
Could it be an extraordinary form of
that? Perhaps Jesus seemed to exercise
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00:43:31.920 --> 00:43:37.320
gifts like that. The Apostles and
prophets seemed to exercise gifts like that.
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00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:42.000
But according to John and other places
in scripture, is there not an expectation
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00:43:42.159 --> 00:43:46.119
within the body of Christ that we
be discerning of spirits? Absolutely, it's
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00:43:46.159 --> 00:43:52.760
exactly what it says should. Are
there people among us who are really good
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00:43:52.800 --> 00:43:57.400
at seeing things for what they are, who are clear headed, can kind
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00:43:57.440 --> 00:44:00.800
of pick it out fast, who
can get to the point of a problem
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00:44:00.920 --> 00:44:07.519
quickly. Yes, and thank you
for being you. We need you.
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00:44:07.519 --> 00:44:13.199
You're so helpful to us, having
clarity about what is and what isn't,
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00:44:13.280 --> 00:44:16.840
about the things in this world.
That's a good thing and a blessing thing,
508
00:44:16.880 --> 00:44:24.519
even if it doesn't carry an extraordinary
form. Well, I've made my
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00:44:24.559 --> 00:44:31.960
case, and that is and I
hope that this gives ultimately glory to God
510
00:44:32.039 --> 00:44:38.760
and encouragement to all of you.
The Lord Jesus, our Savior, came
511
00:44:38.840 --> 00:44:44.840
into this world to die on a
cross to bring us into one body,
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00:44:45.239 --> 00:44:49.639
a body that's not fighting and angry
at one another, a body that is
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00:44:49.679 --> 00:44:53.119
blessed, a body that he has
poured his gifts out on, and when
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00:44:53.159 --> 00:44:59.239
we read what's like this, we
ought to be really encouraged. What I'm
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00:44:59.280 --> 00:45:02.480
trying to tell you today is there's
not a single thing that's mentioned here that
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00:45:02.519 --> 00:45:08.159
you can just that you should just
ignore or throw out. Every single thing
517
00:45:08.199 --> 00:45:13.199
here has an expression some way in
the body of Christ, and for that
518
00:45:13.239 --> 00:45:16.519
we can be thankful and we can
embrace it. And when we don't have
519
00:45:16.639 --> 00:45:22.360
it ourselves, it's okay, because
God's given you exactly what you need and
520
00:45:22.400 --> 00:45:27.679
he's given someone else exactly what they
need. And at this very moment,
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00:45:27.760 --> 00:45:32.119
at this very time and place,
God has given covenant exactly what we need.
522
00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:38.280
Praise God and will blet, will
grow and we'll change and there's things
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00:45:38.280 --> 00:45:42.320
we want to do, and all
of that. He calls us to grow
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00:45:42.320 --> 00:45:46.800
and grow in our sanctification. But
God will always be there with us this
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00:45:46.920 --> 00:45:52.199
change is happen, as needs change, he'll always provide for us. We
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00:45:52.239 --> 00:45:55.079
can look at a passage like this
and we ought to see the spirit of
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00:45:55.079 --> 00:46:01.519
God graciously at work, the one
who has forgiven our sins now sanctifying us
528
00:46:01.559 --> 00:46:09.280
and making us more and more useful
to him. So let's conclude with prayer
529
00:46:09.320 --> 00:46:14.280
and ask that God would do this
work in us, even as he's already
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00:46:14.320 --> 00:46:15.239
begun it. Our have
