Episode Transcript
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Reaching of his word. Lord,
you know how prone we are to wander.
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You know how our hearts go after
such foolish things. Lord, we
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are so quick to despair, we
are so quick to give up. We
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look to ourselves and our own strength
and we see ourselves lacking and and then
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we give up. But why do
we look to ourselves when you have called
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us to look to you? Lord, we ask that you would forgive us
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our sins and help us to see
and to know the forgiveness of our sins,
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the strength that we have in you, the debt that has been paid,
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the glory that you have given to
us through the Cross of Christ,
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so that we might die in him
and live to the newness of life.
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Lord, we ask that you would
draw close to us in your word and
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that, as we hear your voice, you would change us and mold us,
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that you would mortify the sinful passions
of the flesh, the selfishness,
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the pride and all the rest,
and that you would bring to life that
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fruit of the spirit and a body
of Christ that is glorifying to you.
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We pray this in Jesus name.
Amen, please remain standing if you're able,
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and let's turn to First Corinthians Chapter
Sixteen and read the last portion of
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this book. First Corinthians Chapter Sixteen, Verse Ten, a through the end.
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Let's hear God's word. First Corinthians
Sixteen, verse ten. When Timothy
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Comes, see that you put him
at ease among you, for he is
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doing the work of the Lord,
as I am. So let no one
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despise him. Help him on his
way in peace that he may return to
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me, for I am expecting him
with the brothers. Now, concerning our
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brother of Paulus, I strongly urged
him to visit you with the other brothers,
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but it was not at all his
will to come now. He will
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come when he has opportunity. Be
Watchful, stand firm in the faith,
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act like men, be strong.
Let all that you do be done in
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love. Now, I urge you, brothers. You know that the household
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of Stephanus were the first converts in
a Chaa and that they have devoted themselves
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to the service of the saints.
Be Subject to such as these and to
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every fellow worker and laborer. I
rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and to
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Fortuna, Fortuna to us and a
Caius CAIACHUS, because they have made up
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for your absence, for they refreshed
my spirit as well as yours. Give
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recognition to such people, the Churches
of Asias and you greetings. Aquilla and
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PRISCA, together with the Church and
their house, send you hearty greetings in
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the Lord, all the brothers and
you greetings. Greet one another with a
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holy kiss. I, Paul,
write this greeting with my own hand.
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If anyone has no love for the
Lord, let him be accursed. Oh
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Lord, come, the grace of
the Lord Jesus be with you. My
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Love Be with you all in Christ
Jesus. Then you may be seated.
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Was Paul gives instructions to the Corinthian
church here, concluding instructions he's been giving
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throughout these sixteen chapters. I'm he
helps us to once again understand what it
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is to live our life together as
a church. He gives us commandments and
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instructions, some which are very specific
to the Corinthian church. Received Trimothy,
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know this about a Paulas and etc. But instructions which apply to all of
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us and all the Churches of Christ
in various situations and in various times and
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places. Throughout this whole book,
Paul has been giving US instructions as a
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church in all kinds of difficult and
challenging situations. You think back about instructions
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regarding the Lord's supper or marriage or
meet sacrifice to idols, questions about conscience,
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questions about doctrine like the resurrection,
all kinds of things and how these
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ought to influence our way of life
together. And in these final instructions we
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see that theme to again, fee
that theme again, we see how it
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is we ought to be living our
life together, what it means to be
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not just individual Christians before the Lord, but individual people, to use a
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metaphor he's given in this book,
who are like members of a body,
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a body that has been put together
as the Lord Wills, to work in
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in accord with one another, to
use our gifts for mutual upbuilding and edification.
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So what are some of the instructions
that we have here? What are
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the some of the instructions that he
gives us on how we ought to live
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together under the Lord? Well,
the summary of it, I think,
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is all, is in verse fourteen. He says, let all that you
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do be done in love. Nothing
we do can be done or should be
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done apart from love. It's let
what guides everything. This, of course,
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makes sense with Jesus Own Commandments.
When he's asked what a summary of
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the entire laws, what does he
say? Love? Love the Lord,
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your God, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. Love
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your neighbor, is yourself. All
of the commandments are summed up in this
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word. To love, to love
God and to love man. We he
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gave us a whole chapter and chapter
thirteen about love. He told us about
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how love is patient and kind,
how love doesn't boast, how love covers
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up wrong and all kinds of other
things. We've seen how love US often
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very practical. In the Book of
First Corinthians we've talked about how love often
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means giving up our rights, things
that brightfully belong to us, things that
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are our do and in some cases
ought to be enjoyed and and fought for,
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but in other cases ought to be
given up and let go for the
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sake of a brother, for the
sake of our witness. Love is hard
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sometimes, because love often encounters people
that aren't always going to love us back,
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that aren't always as lovely as we
might like them to be. Love
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sometimes, as wonderful and beautiful,
it is as Nice as as it is
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to experience, is sometimes so hard
to give, so so difficult. It's
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not surprising, then, that it
follows this sort of warrior image in verse
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thirteen. Like soldiers, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act
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like men, be strong. Let
all that you do be done in love.
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These are not contrasting images. To
do the work of love requires these
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things. It's not just a nice
emotional feeling that we expressed when we feel
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like it. Love is often doing
the right thing, even when it's really,
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really hard. Love is often being
watchful for opportunities and looking for places
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to apply it, looking out for
dangers which would seek to undermine it and
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would would dissolve a union of love
between us and the Lord and us and
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one another, things which break apart
our communion and union with one another.
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We have to be watchful, we
have to be strong, we have to
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stand firm in the faith because,
ultimately, and I'll talk about this more,
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that's where this all springs from.
The command to love, the ability
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to love, to fulfill that command, these come only from Christ and abiding
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in his love for us. So
what are some of the practical ways we
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see that expressed? Here and in
Paul's instructions, and what are some ways
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that we can apply that in our
own lives? Well, first he gives
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this instruction regarding Timothy in verse ten. When Timothy Come, see that you
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put him at ease among you,
for he's doing the work of the Lord,
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as I am. Let no one
despise him, help him on his
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way in peace so that he may
return to me, for I'm expecting him,
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with the brothers, Paul's going to
send this fellow servant, this worker
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of the Gospel. We have a
couple letters in the New Testament, first
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and second Timothy, which are written
to Timothy and giving him instructions on on
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his work as a as a minister. Well, here Timothy and doing that
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work. He's going to come to
the Corinthians. And what does Paul want?
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Paul wants them to put him at
ease. I. He wants them
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to be proactive and think about what
can they do when he arrives that will
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make things easy for him, comfortable
for him, helpful to him. How
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can they support him? How can
they help him? How can they support
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the work that he's doing, which
ultimately will be a blessing to them and
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to others as well. We have
an opportunity to think about this and then
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your future, when I go on
vacation and some study leave. Right Pastor
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Kufus is going to come and and
be here and we can be thinking in
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the same way, exactly the same
way that Paul gives Timothy Instructions. How
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can we help pastor coufus and his
wife as they come and and put them
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to ease, help them to know
that they are welcome, that there is
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love for them here and a love
that comes from Christ. There's all kinds
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of examples and things we can think
about, but we we can start with
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just the basics, right. We
can think about we can put ourselves in
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the shoes of other people. What
would it feel like to be a stranger?
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What did it feel like to not
know all the rules and how the
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community works? What would it feel
like to not know where to go or
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what to do? And how can
we be helpful in those things? How
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can we how can we make things
easier and give that support in the Lord?
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How can we help on their way? So hospitality, strengthening and encouraging
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one another. This is a big
part of life in the church. On
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there's all kinds of instructions, whether
it's to strangers or fellow workers, a
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people who are coming and people who
are going. Paul says in Romans that
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we are to be zealous and pursuing
hospitality. The word pursue there you can
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think of like, you know,
an animal. Maybe watched a nature show
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and you've watched one of these,
you know, giant cats right chasing down
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their prey, pursuing right till I
achieve their end. We're not looking to
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kill anyone in hospitality, but that
dogged pursuit, that being zealous in in
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looking out for another. People.
Love the love that Christ gives to us.
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It is not a kind of like
lackadays, a Goil, if I
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feel like it, kind of love. He goes after US right, he
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pursues US until he has us,
and it's in that same sort of love
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and spirit that he calls us to
give to others and to support others.
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He also gives us instructions in in
these kinds of things to think about our
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life together as we are working together. He points to the household of Stefanis
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in Verse Fifteen, the First Converts
in this whole region of a Chaa.
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He says, this is verse for
Verse Fifteen, that they have devoted themselves
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to the servants of the saints.
You imagine being the first convert in an
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whole area, being the first household
that claims the name of Christ, and
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having the opportunity then to spread that
word and then encourage others and support others
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and be devoted to the service of
the saints. What a difficult thing that
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might be in some ways, but
what a lovely and powerful thing it was
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in this case. He calls them
to be subject to such as these and
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every fellow worker and laborer, and
in some ways that means everyone right because
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when we think about we think back
on Paul's instructions about the gifts of the
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Holy Spirit, we are reminded that
the Holy Spirit has given to each and
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every Christian a measure of grace and
a measure of gifts for the mutual upbuilding
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one another. We're all fellow workers
in Christ. We're all supporters of the
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body and upbuilders of one another,
supporting one another in our callings, blessing
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one another, encouraging one another along
the way. Is is so important and
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it's what Paul calls us to do
here. It's what he experiences himself.
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Notice how, in Verse Sixteen,
he says of these people who came to
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him. Say he says they've refreshed
my spirit as well as yours. You
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know what it means to be refreshed
right it's we're coming in on summertime here.
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The heat gets upon us. You
know what it is to be outside,
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whether you're running errands or doing yard
work, and it's tiring. You
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get exhausted and you come inside and
what are you looking for? Refreshment.
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You're looking to get your energy backed, to not feel so tired, so
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down, to have some help.
We need refreshments in our spirits as well,
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not just our bodies. We all
get into places where we're tired,
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get kind of blaise a or maybe
we feel sort of just confused about life.
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What am I supposed to be doing? What is going on? Why
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are things so hard? These kind
of things, and it's so helpful to
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have other people come into our lives
and encourage us, strengthen us, refresh
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us. Be that that, that
cup of lemonade for us, or recliner
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to put your feet up in,
to be a refreshment to our souls when
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we experience those things in the body
of Christ. We ought to give recognition
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to such people. As Paul says, it's not against the Gospel of grace
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to say to someone thanks, brother, thanks sister, that was really,
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really helpful, or to tell someone
else I you wouldn't believe. What's and
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so did for me this week was
so kind, so thoughtful, so helpful.
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We can give recognition to those people
while at the same time seeing that
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it's God's work in them, to
give praise to God and give thanks to
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him for them and to ask his
continuing work in the body of Christ.
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This happens on a large scale as
well. Look at Verse Nineteen. It's
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not just individual to individual, but
the body of Christ is larger than any
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one individual church. This is one
reason we're presbyterians and we enjoy and support
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and believe in this connection that we
have with other churches outside of our own
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local congregation. The Churches of Asia
send you greetings. Even the particular church
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in Aquilla and PRISCA's house send their
hearty greetings in the Lord. These are
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people who are eager to talk to
one another, seek one another, encourage
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one another, even if it's just
through distance and a greeting and writing.
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Paul sends his own greetings in Verse
Twenty One. I send this greeting in
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my own hand. And then he
says this very hard thing. In Verse
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Twenty Two. He says, if
anyone has no love for the Lord,
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let him be a cursed but those
are strong words. It basically means let
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him. Let the curse of God
fall upon that person, let that person
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be damned to hell, let that
person come under the wrath of God.
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And these are strong, strong words. But when we consider the picture that
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he's been giving us, when we
consider the work that God is doing,
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when we consider the love of Christ
for us, this is not out of
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the blue, is it? It's
the flip side of the coin that he's
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been talking about all along. This
life that we have together, this life
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of love, this life of support
and hospitality and upbuilding and peace and and
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nurturing and all of these things,
it's lived out out of love that God
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has given to us and that we
have for him. It's ultimately about our
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connection with him. It's ultimately about
his love, which he loved us even
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before the world began. And to
somebody who says I reject all of that
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I reject the Lord Jesus Christ,
there is nothing outside of that, or
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there is nothing for them left except
for curse. There is no alternative.
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In other words, when one rejects
the love of the Lord, when one
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rejects the Lord Jesus Christ and this
beautiful city he is building, this beautiful
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kingdom that he is giving to us, there's no plan be. There's no
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place to live, no alternate city, no kingdom that you can settle down
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into and say, well, I
won't have Christ, but instead I'm going
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to have this other happy thing,
because there's no happiness outside of him.
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There's no pleasure and no love,
no joy, no satisfaction, no peace,
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nothing that's final anyway, nothing that's
truly satisfying, nothing that's everlasting.
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The alternatives that we choose when we
reject the Lord, when we refuse to
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love him and follow him and be
a part of him and his people,
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the alternative is only cursing. It's
to live and in a place that is
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cast out of his love, to
live in a place that is outside of
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His grace. It is a dark
place. Jesus describes it as a place
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of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Paul is not just presenting a really nice
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option that you can take or leave. And if you choose not to take
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it, well and you'll find something
else. There will be some other way.
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There is no other way and it
has to be that clear in our
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minds when we choose to follow the
Lord, when we say yes, I
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will follow the Lord Jesus, no
matter what and at any cost. We
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of course get to enjoy all of
these things, in these blessings that he
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promises us, some now in a
in for an a foretaste kind of form,
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in this life, and one day
completely when he returns. As Paul
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says, our Lord come right.
There's a longing for the fulfillment and consummation
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of those things. That's what we
receive. But if we reject that,
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if we reject the Lord, we
reject life itself. Jesus says, he
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is the way and the truth and
the life, and there's no way to
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the father, there's no way to
glory, there's no way to abiding in
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the love of God except through him. So this is of course a warning
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to all who see this great grand
loving project of the Lord, a project
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of Salvation, a community of love, and says it's not for me.
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Be warned, because there's no alternative
place to go, nothing which will satisfy
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your heart. It will only bring
curse and death. But to those who
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were do receive the Lord Jesus.
We can look to him and his coming
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with strength and hope and life.
Our Lord Come, Paul says in Verse
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Twenty Two. This ought to be
always on our hearts, always looking forward
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to the future, having a hope
that is strong, having a hope that
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is unfailing, because he is unfailing. This is, of course, difficult
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to do at times, because the
church isn't always what we would want it
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to be. The church isn't always
what God would want it to be,
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at least as he commands it to
us in his as he exhorts us in
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our callings. The church often struggles. You get a little bit of a
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sense of this, I think,
in in verse twelve, when Paul says
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now, concerning our brother Apoulos,
I strongly urged him to visit you with
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the other brothers, but it was
not at all his will to come now.
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He will come when he has opportunity. Why didn't Paul get what he
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wanted? I want to know why
didn't apolos want to hear, listen to
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Paul, when Paul was not commanding
him but strongly urging him. Can you
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imagine? And yet apolos has some
reason for this, a reason which Paul
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submits to and says he will come
when he has an opportunity. We're not
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always going to agree. We're not
always going to be able to find an
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easy, in a smooth path to
walk together. Sometimes we're going to bump
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into each other a lot. Sometimes
we're going to say things that we regret.
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Sometimes we're going to regret not saying
things when we had an opportunity to
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do so. Sometimes we're going to
do the wrong thing. We're going to
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be prideful, boastful, to trusting
in ourselves, to despairing in ourselves.
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Sometimes we're not going to be there
when we should have been, or sometimes
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will overstay our welcome. There's a
lot of ways in which we can fall,
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in a lot of ways in which
we do fall, and sometimes it
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can get quite bad. Sometimes are
our sins become so overwhelming, in our
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divisions becomes so tangled up that you
get a church like the Church and Corinth
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where Paul writes to them and it
seems like he's banging his head against the
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wall. Sometimes this is why are
you doing this? This doesn't make any
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sense. How can this be?
How can that be? Sometimes things are
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very difficult. Sometimes we forget the
fundamentals. Sometimes we get too attracted to
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the things and the powers of this
world that we we lose sight of who
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we are, who were called to
be. In life in the church can
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sometimes get very tangled, very messy
and not at all kind of loving place
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that we desire it to be.
Sometimes that's outward difficulties that we experience.
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Sometimes we're at the center of the
problem. Usually it's a mix. We
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also have a situation in which we
don't always know what's best for us.
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Sometimes it's hard to know what the
right thing to do is and you feel
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like you're just sort of shooting in
the dark, just trying to do the
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best you know how to do given
the information you have. Sometimes it seems
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like there is no one right way
or that there might be multiple right ways
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or multiple wrong ways. Sometimes we
feel really limited, like we want to
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be somewhere, or maybe we even
know what the right thing is to do,
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but we just can't do it.
We feel like we can't be everywhere
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we need to be or do everything
we need to do or know what we
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need to know. Sometimes the dynamics
in church life are changing so fast.
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Sometimes it feels like we barely have
control over this thing at all. And
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you know what, that's all really
true. We don't have very much control,
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not over other people, not over
the church, even over our own
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lives. We struggle to have control
over many things. This makes it very
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difficult, is what I'm trying to
point at. God calls us to this
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very high calling and it's a beautiful
and wonderful thing when we experience that.
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But it's not easy. The Devil's
working against us, the less of the
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flesh are working against us, the
world is working against us. So what
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do we do? Well, we
need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
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to be with us. That's how
Paul ends all of this in Verse Twenty
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Three. The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ be with you. My Love
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Be with you all in Christ Jesus
on. Then, where does Paul's love
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come from? Despite Paul's UNAB inability
to be everywhere and to know all things
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and to do all things, how
does he continue to exercise love? How
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does he press forward, even when
he's banging his head against the wall about
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these Corinthians, and he'll write to
them yet another letter? He roots his
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love for them in Christ, Jesus. He's looks to the Lord Jesus,
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Christ and His grace, and he
remembers, as we almost remember, that
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the church, though we are a
part of it and though we have a
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part to play and we have gifts
that have been given, ultimately it is
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called the body of Christ. It's
his body and he's the head. The
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life that we have together is lived
in the Holy Spirit, who is the
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one who regenerates us, who is
the one who gifts us, is the
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one whose glory rests upon us and
who knits us together in this beautiful mystical
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union. He is the one who
is he is tying us together and working
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at our individual lives so that the
hand doesn't try to be the foot and
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the foot doesn't try to be the
eye and we're not just meeting ourselves up
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all the time. The only reason
we aren't totally falling apart, the only
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reason that there is evidence of grace
in us, evidence of fruit in us,
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is because the Holy Spirit is at
work, because Christ is interceding for
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us and meeting, mediating for us
because, as Paul said, he was
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crucified for us and he rose again, victorious over all the things that would
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threaten to undo us. It is
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
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his loving grace, that holds us
all together, and that's why it's ultimately
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to him and not to ourselves,
that we have to look all the time.
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We will stand firm when we stand
firm in the faith, in the
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faith we stand firm in Chris Fist, believing in Him, knowing him,
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trusting him, accepting his love.
Jesus is strong enough. Jesus is everywhere
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at all times. He does know
all things, he can do all things,
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and he can take ungodly people,
broken people, limited people, and
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pull them together in a body that
shines his light forth into the world.
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He can do that and he does
do that and he's been doing it for
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thousands of years and he will continue
to do it, never failing, until
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he comes again, at which time
is he's promised us in this very letter,
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we will raise from the dead,
glorified in him and living as a
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body, as a people forever in
that love that he has called us to.
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When we put our faith in him, that's where we get our strength
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from, that's where we get our
love from, that's where we get our
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hope from, that's where we get
our peace from, that's where we get
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our our our sanctification from, that's
where we get our justification from the forgiveness
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of our sins, so that we
can know when we stand in him,
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we spand strong. It's when we
depart from him that we begin to fall.
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And that's why, Paul, throughout
this letter, even as he has
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given us so much instruction, so
much wisdom and indeed many things that we
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ought to go back and reflect on
and think over and over and over again,
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he continues to call us to faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
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how it is that this whole body
exists and it is how this whole body
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will one day be glorified in him. So, as we look to obey
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the commands of the Lord it to
love, let's look to Christ. When
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we fail to obey his commands to
love, let's look to Christ, and
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when we look forward to the future
and his work that will finally be accomplished,
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let's look to him. Put our
faith in him and stand firm in
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it, and let us always call
out to the Lord Jesus to come,
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to come quickly, and to believe
that he will. And as we do
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those things, that's how we live
our life together as the body of Christ,
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as a people in him. Let's
pray now and ask that God would
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do these things in us, even
as he has begun to do. Lord
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Jesus Christ, that is because of
your grace for us, and you are
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coming into this world that we can
know that we belong to you and to
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one another. You have come into
this world and taken on flesh and blood
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so that you could be a perfect
sacrifice for our sins, so that we
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would no longer be enslaved and captured
and held to our our selfishness and our
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pride and our worldliness, so that
we could no longer look to the things
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of this world for our salvation in
our life, but instead you have freed
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us. You have freed us to
trust you, freed us to love you
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and freed us to belong to a
community of Holy Ones, of saints,
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people, a great family that has
been adopted in your name that we might
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live together and forever with you.
Lord, we see this work even now,
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in this letter, in our the
on our own lives. We see
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you at work, we see you
changing lives. We you see you changing
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our own lives, maturing us,
helping us to grow. You give us
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more and more unders standing of who
we are and you more and more understanding
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of your commandments, more and more
understanding of your gifts of love as they
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come into our lives, often through
other people. Lord, we thank you
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for the brothers and sisters who are
sitting around us this morning. We thank
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you for the fathers and mothers who
have gone before us and and who've passed
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down this faith to us. We
thank you that you have given us all,
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apart, to play in the body
of Christ. You have given us
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all gifts that we might support one
another and encourage one another. We've asked
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that you would help this love,
that this love that you have given to
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us, to be on display and
to be exercised and experienced in this church,
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help us to love one another,
help us to know how to put
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each other at ease, especially visitors
and guests and those who are new to
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our body. We asked, Lord, that you would help us to be
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a helpful people a serving people,
to be watchful and looking for opportunities and
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all these things. Lord, help
us not to rely on ourselves, to
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be prideful and think that our strength
comes and comes from from our own resources
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and not yours, because when that
happens, Lord, we always fall and
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we despair and we lose heart.
So, Lord, instead, we asked
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that you would help us to trust
in you, to stand firm in you
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and to be strong. Let us
not give up, let's not give in,
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despite no matter how things are,
how difficult things are in our lives
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or in our world. Let us
learn to look always to you. And
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in that, Lord, we do
pray for some of the specific things in
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the life of our body. We
pray for our worship services, we pray
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for our various service teams, we
pray for our fellowship groups and the various
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opportunities that we have to get together
and and and and be built up in
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your word. We asked that you
would be with these different things in the
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life of our church and that you
would bless them, that through them we
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would come to know you a better
and better and that we would grow in
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your love. And when we fail, Lord, and when we struggle,
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we ask that, by your word
and the power of your spirit, you
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would help us to grow, help
us to learn how to forgive, how
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to lay down our lives, how
to how to give to others what you
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have given first to us. Lord, we also pray for our brothers and
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sisters outside of this particular local church. We pray for our other other churches
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and our denomination throughout Arizona and our
presbytery and and even around the world.
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We ask that this work, this
work that you are doing, would go
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forth in that we would grow in
our unity and love with one another.
405
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We also ask, Lord, that
you would continue to bring in your people,
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that through the message of the Gospel
and the work that you are doing,
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more and more would come to see
how great and wonderful you are,
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that they might not be cursed and
forever cast into darkness, but would instead
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be brought into the light that we
might join together in following after you.
410
00:38:04.079 --> 00:38:06.840
We pray these things in Jesus name. Amend
