Episode Transcript
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Like to begin with that question or
two as we gather here this morning.
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Have have you ever been exasperated with
another Christian? Well, maybe it'd be
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safe to say you've been exasperated this
week with another Christian, maybe your spouse,
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maybe your kids, maybe a friend, maybe a pastor, maybe an
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elder, maybe just another member of
the church. Have you ever tried and
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tried to make a point, to
get them to see your point, only
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to have them meet with have you
meet with resistance? You ever had that
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happened? You've tried and you've tried
to tried. It's going nowhere. Well,
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we all have. At one time
or another, we faced other believers
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who, to use the modern phrase, simply don't get it. Whatever the
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it is, they do not see
the wrong they have done and even if
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they did, they're not about to
change. Well, that is what we
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come to here in two Corinthians as
Paul wraps up this letter. It is
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the closing letter of four letters,
two of which are in scripture, of
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Paul, to a very troubled church. Paul had written for letters that we
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know of, to to scripture,
to outside of scripture. He had gone
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on multiple visits, he had sent
emissaries multiple times to deal with this troubled
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urge, and as soon as one
problem was solved, others rose up.
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They had been fighting with each other, they had rationalized in moral behavior,
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they were denying, questioning fundamentals of
the Gospel, the Resurrection of the Dad,
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they had formed factions around gifted leaders, and the list goes on and
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on. This one shirt seems to
be the collection of all the problems that
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have occurred in all the churches of
history. Well, Paul is finishing off
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this letter. There's some good news
he's celebrating, but he's also concluding the
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second half of this letter, which
is very much an admonition to them.
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And as he's wrapping up this up
this letter, he has the chance to
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say some final words to them.
One one last conversation. When you've said
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all you need to say, how
do you wrap it up? Well,
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if that's you or me talking with
someone, or at least if it's me
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and there been many conversations and they've
got nowhere, I know what I would
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say to wrap it up. Look, get on the bus or get off
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the bus. That's what I want
you to think about as we finish this
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off. or I might admonish,
I might say, what is wrong with
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you? How can anyone be so
stupid? Or we made deployed the shaming
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model? You're making me look bad. So what surprising here is what Paul
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writes. The Apostle, under the
direction of God, says these as his
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final words to the most exasperating,
difficult church in the pages of the New
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Testament. Finally, brothers, rejoice, aim for restoration, comfort one another,
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agree with one another, live in
peace. The God of love and
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peace will be with you. Read
one another with a holy kiss. All
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the saints greet you. The grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love
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of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with you all and all
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God's people. said. What what
that? This is one of those occasions
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when you're pretty convinced the critical scholars
are right. Things were inserted into the
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New Testament by later writers. There's
no chiding, no shaming word, no
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closing rebuke, although there's rebuke in
the letter. There's no close in correction,
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although there is correction in the letter. There's no warning, although there's
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warning in the letter. He ends
with this. Why this end and doesn't?
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Does that kind of water down all
the all the things he said previously
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in this letter, especially the second
half. No, no, Paul ends
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this letter by characterizing their God is
the god of love and peace. He
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ends this letter praying for the blessing
of the Triune God, the grace of
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the Lord Jesus, God Christ,
the love of God and the fellowship of
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the Holy Spirit be with you will. Why does he do that? Why
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does he why didn't he just stand
with the exhortations? Why does he include
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this characteristic, these characteristics of their
God, this prayer for the blessing of
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the Triune God? And I think
it's very simple. Paul knows the only
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hope for change is their savior.
The only the only way their hearts will
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be melted and they will be won
to repentance is by the offer of the
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free grace of God. So after
sharp words of rebuke, after repeated appeals
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to repent, they needed to be
reminded of the Great Savior, Jesus and
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if his generous grace to all who
come to him. So let's look at
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the Gospel words in this passage and
we're going to back up and look at
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the exhortations, because I think they're
grounded in the Gospel. But let's begin
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just by looking at Paul's willingness to
say to them live in peace and the
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god of love and peace will be
with you. He characterizes their God,
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is the god of love and peace. Now, notice there's nothing threatening in
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that. See, if I was
writing this, I would have written aim
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for restoration. Agree with each other, live in peace or God will get
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you. That'll moravate them. Now
Paul says, and the God of love
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and peace will be with you.
He characterizes God. He exhorts them to
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action, but he doesn't threaten them. He tells them what sort of a
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God they are coming back to in
their repentance. The God and father of
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our Lord, Jesus Christ, is
the God of love and the God of
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peace. He hasn't changed, Paul
is saying, even in the face of
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their strife and bickering, God still
remains the god of love and peace.
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What does he mean by that?
Well, let's just take a quick look.
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What do we mean by the God
of love? So easy to lose
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sight of this because we become familiar
with it. The God of love means
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that this God is his love is
not a response to anything in us.
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God's love flows out of the fullness
of his own being. God is of
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such a character that he delights to
do good, to bless him, to
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show kindness. He loves even when
we're offensive, even when we offend him.
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And now in Christ, God has
revealed his love to them. And
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in Christ they are as they are, beloved of God, Saints They are.
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This church is, with all its
problems, beloved of God. That's
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how Paul characterizes them in his earlier
letters. Well, why does the characterize
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God? Is the God of peace. Well, this is not news to
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you, but maybe it is that
the Bible pictures the condition of every human,
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every member of the human race,
is one of hostility to God.
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We mask the hostility behind morality and
religion and manners, but ultimately we resist
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God, the True God, and
who he is and his claims on us.
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We are enemies of God and we
have no reason to be an enemy
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of God. He hasn't done anything
wrong. God does not deserve our en
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matie. He is perfect in all
his ways. So if you're in a
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conflict and wrong as occurred, who
needs to initiate the reconciliation? The person
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who did the wrong right. And
guess what? That's always the other person,
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isn't it? What's the phrase we
use? I didn't start this.
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Who takes the first step to reconcile? We think it's the person who's done
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the wrong who takes the first step
to reconcile man and God, the one
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who is without fault, the one
who didn't start it. God takes the
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first step, and not just the
first step, all the steps, through
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Christ, to bring us back,
to move us from being enemies to being
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reconciled to him, to make peace
between us and him through his son,
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whom he gave to us in love. He is the God of peace and
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Paul is telling the Corinthians who will
meet them in their repentance, the god
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of love and peace. Another way
to say this is is there. God
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was ready, simply by their turning
to him, to welcome them home.
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He's not going to scold them,
he's he's not going to put them on
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probation, he's not going to lecture
them, he's not going to shame them.
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Who wants to go home to that
now? He is the god of
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love and peace. He is like
the father of the Prodigal, the one
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who's looking anxiously for their return and
as soon as he sees them, will
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run to them far off and welcome
them with kisses. That's the god of
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love and peace. That's what will
motivate their repentance and give them hope in
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their repentance and melt their hearts and
repentance, because it's utterly nonintuitive. It's
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not the way we think, but
it is who God is. See,
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it took me years as a pastor
and as a Christian to learn that God
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doesn't work the way I work.
See, I used to think that what
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I needed every day was a good
conviction of sin, and when I first
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became a pastor, I thought what
my congregation regularly needed above all else was
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conviction of sin. I thought that
what they needed every week was a dose
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of shame and guilt that would motivate
them to change, because that's how we
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think, that's how we raise our
kids, that's how we treat each other.
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But God wonderfully sent a man who
gave me a wise reproof and over
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the process of many years his rism
reproof and the help of others, I
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began to see that what motivates people
to change is not a conviction of sin,
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but hope and a savior. See, for many years when I would
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preach, my goal is that people
would leave with their eyes to the ground
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saying woe is me, that's a
good sermon. They thought that was a
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good sermon. They've been conditioned to
think that was a good sermon. Oh,
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pastor, that was so good,
I'm so convicted. And then I
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learned that a good sermon is when
when they leave with their eyes to the
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heaven saying thank you for such a
savior. That's what I need. That's
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what Paul saying to the Corinthians.
You have that kind of a savior,
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that kind of God. He is
the god of love and peace and your
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only hope is that kind of a
god, that kind of a savior.
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Only telling you about this free,
redeeming grace of God is going to melt
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your hearts and win your repentance.
Well, that that's pretty amazing in itself.
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But then Paul turns up the volume. I mean we go from like
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seven DDBES to a hundred and ten
decipls here, because he now prays for
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the blessing of the Triune God.
In them. Paul prays that each person
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of the Triune God, working in
symphony, which they've done from creation through
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redemption, through glory, will be
with them, an active among them,
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son, father and Holy Spirit.
See, Paul knows they can't fix themselves.
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He knows that only the work of
this God saving them can change them,
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and so he prays that this God
will bless them. Let's look at
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each of those phrases. The grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does
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that mean? Well, grace is
more associated with God, the son and
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his redemptive work than any any other
person of the godhead. And graces is
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such a familiar word. It speaks
of how God responds to people like us
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who deserve condemnation. And in the
words of Pulmot one or three, which
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I read earlier, how does God
deal with a guilty he does not deal
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with us as our sins deserve or
reward us according to our unniquities, or
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we would have no hope. Grace
means that God, out of the fullness
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of his generous being, gave his
son for us. He did not of
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us what we deserve, he did
not reward us according to our sins.
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He freely, gladly willingly gave his
son to be our savior. He freely,
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gladly, willingly forgives, no arm
twisting needed. Paul had previously spoken
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of this grace. He says,
you know, the grace of our Lord
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Jesus Christ that, though he was
rich for your sakes, became poor that
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you, by his poverty, might
be made rich. Such such simple words
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that roll off our tongues, so
stunning. Who Does that? No human
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does that, no one. No
human who is rich becomes poor in order
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to make others rich. But our
God does. He delights to give all
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that he has in his riches so
that we might join him in his inheritance.
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Paul, Praise for the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ to be active
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among them. May the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
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All that, you may say,
but but they're sinning, they don't deserve
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it exactly. Well, they're stubborn. They keep sinning. They don't deserve
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it exactly. Salvation is a work
of God's grace alone, or it is
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nothing. And for people who have
long resisted God's word, which the Corinthians
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had, for people battling in dwelling
sin, for people burden with their own
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weakness and temptations. Paul offers the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, because
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they cannot fix themselves and if they
try to, they will end up in
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despair or in selfrighteousness. John Owen, the Great Puritan theologian who writes the
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most difficult to read books in English
history. John Owen describes it this way.
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He says he wants us to imagine
that grace as a fountain and God
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invites sinners to come and drink.
But the question is, is there enough?
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Is there enough grace for sinners like
us? What if grace runs out?
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What if it what if the Fountain
runs dry? Owen says if all
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the world set themselves to drink of
the free grace, mercy and forgiveness from
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the wells of salvation, they would
not be able to diminish the fountain of
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Grace One hair's breath. That beautiful
millions gather at the fountain and drink of
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the grace and the water level doesn't
drop a hair's breath because says ooh and
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there is enough for millions of worlds
if there were, because it flows into
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it. What flows into it comes
from an Infinite Bottomless Fountain of God's grace.
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Paul Prais that that grace would be
at work among them. Paul Prays
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for the love, that the love
of God would be with the love of
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God, love of God the father. Clearly a Trinitarian text, God is
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often simply shorthand for God the father. Paul wants them to know and experience
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the love of God the father.
What does that mean? Well, for
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most of us, John Sixteen is
given for God so loved the world that
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he gave his only son. But
the New Testament says there's more to it
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than that. Matter of fact,
at the end of his life and John
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Fourteen, fifteen and sixteen, as
Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure,
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as his disciples are about to abandon
him and betray him and deny him,
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Jesus tells them this. He says
in John Fifteen, I want you
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to know that, as the father
has loved me, so have I loved
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you. No, wait a second. What did he say? As Jesus,
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the Eternal Son, has known the
love of the father in eternity,
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past and the infinite fullness of God's
life in himself. So he turns around
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says, so have I loved you. Jesus loves US as the father has
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loved him. John Sixteen Jesus says. I want you to know that the
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father himself loves you. I am
loved by the father as he loves his
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son. That's what scripture says and
the big picture, which we'll talk about
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in Sunday schools, God, the
father, son and Holy Spirit dwell together
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in everlasting and infinite love, and
their purpose as God, the father,
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son and Holy Spirit is to have
us join them in that communion of love
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forever. That's what lies ahead of
us, and Paul wants them to know
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the love of God that passes all
understanding, because Paul knows not only do
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they need to know the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ, but they need
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to know the love of God,
because when we doubt his love is when
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we fight and quarrel and criticize and
gossip and are fearful and anxious, but
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when we know his love and we
trust and rest in his love, all
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those things go away. Well,
last he talks about the fellowship of the
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spirit. Fellowship is a word about
participation. It's most often associated with the
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work of the Holy Spirit, not
only in the godhead in the Triune God,
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been in our communion with God.
The Holy Spirit, Jesus said,
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as the winner, connects us to
himself and to the father. When the
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Holy Spirit comes in that day,
Jesus says, you will know that I
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am in my father and you are
in me and I am in you.
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You will be brought into this communion
of love. It is by the spirit
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we have fellowship with God and with
each other. So think about that for
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a second. The father, son
and the Holy Spirit live in eternal and
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infinite love as three persons of the
Triune God. God the father gives his
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son for us and God. The
father gives the Holy Spirit to us that
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we might be united to the son, and being united to the son,
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we are brought into that circle of
divine love in fellowship with God. Paul
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ends this letter by reminding them of
the nature of their God as the God
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of love and peace, and then
he tells them and he prays for the
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blessing of the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the love of God,
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the father and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit to be with them, because
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Paul wants the Corinthians to know that, as difficult as they are, their
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savior hasn't changed. God's grace has
not changed. They had been brought into
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the communion of father, son and
Holy Spirit. That has not changed.
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They had been fully accepted through Christ. That has not changed. They are
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beloved of God. That has not
changed. What they need is not nagging
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and lecturing and prodding and guilt and
shaming. They need to dive more deeply
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into the riches of the Gospel,
because that will change them. Now this
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works out in very practical ways,
sometimes and different illustrations. My observation,
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almost forty years as a pastor,
is that most of God's people live with
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a nagging sense of guilt. They
know that if God were to inspect their
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lives, they would never measure up. They trust their progress in sanctification for
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their justification and therefore they either think
that their embarrassment to God or they misjudge
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themselves in their self righteous and they're
doing pretty well. They think what they
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need is more guilt, as I
once thought, more shame, more conviction.
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Paul disagrees. Paul said what people
like that need is a savior to
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trust, not a moral improvement effort, but a savior who's grace and love
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and fellowship is unchanging for them in
their sin. Now I have this played
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out many, many years ago,
forty one years ago almost, because we've
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almost been married forty one years.
We were married in nineteen seventy eight and
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as we moved into our life as
newly weds, early one thousand nine hundred
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and seventy nine, as is all
too common with newly marriage, we got
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married and I I began to notice
my wife had flaws, she had weaknesses,
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she sinned and I thought it was
my duty as her husband to point
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those out comprehensively, and that was
not being well received. Can you imagine?
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Well, I had a mentor WHO's
now in his S and I would
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sit down with him once a week. I was as intern in the church
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in Oregon and I we would just
talk about life and he was always saying
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how is marriage going, and I
would bring him all the daily details of
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my life and and I told them
that I didn't know what was going on
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that Rondi was becoming tense and defensive
and he said why, and I said
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well, I'm trying to bring her
critic critique and trying to help her repent
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of her sin. And I'm trying
to help her see your sin. And
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I told her I was just trying
to help her be godly. And he
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told me something that day that changed
our marriage. He said, Pete,
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people don't change until they know their
love just as they are, just like
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with God. He said, your
wife is terribly afraid that if you came
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to know the secrets of her life, you would cease to love her.
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If you know her deeply, you
will no longer love her. She's scared
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of that, and he said so
are you, but you may not see
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it yet. So he said your
goal is to show and Tell Rondi that
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you love her just as she is
and to tell her if she never changed,
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you would still love her just as
she is. He said your goal
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is to imitate God's love for your
wife, because God knows her to the
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depths and has loved her fully as
his own daughter and as fully accepted her
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just as she that was a bit
of a shock to me and it became
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a daily effort to restrain my criticism, to offer words of affirmation and love
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and even that phrase, I love
you just as you are, honey,
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if you never change. And God
worked in me and he worked on her
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and what we noticed is throughout that
first year, as we both practice that
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with each other, the defenses dropped, the argumentedness about discussing our faults dropped,
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our ward hiding diminished, our resistance
and avoidance of being known diminished.
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And what was interesting is as she
became convinced and I became convinced that we
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knew each other deeply and loved each
other just as we were, God began
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to changes. Paul knows that that's
what this church needs is to be convinced
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that they are fully accepted by God
in Christ just as they are, to
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know that they are beloved of God, to know that father, son and
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spirit are all that they need for
their redemption. Will meet them joyfully in
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their repentance and then they'll change.
The fact, I think the reason Paul
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does the exhortations he does in this
letters it concludes, as these are all
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Gospel grounded exhortations. I imagine as
I as I tell you the history of
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this church, and then I give
you his final words like rejoice, comfort
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one another. You're thinking, why
is he saying that? Because these are
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all the ways you respond when you
know you are beloved of God. Rejoice,
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for example, be glad in God's
grace and your unchanging acceptance by God
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in Christ. If you know that
is true and you're resting in that grumbling,
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complaining, finding fault, knitpicking,
criticizing and moaning, go away.
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Aim for restoration, aim to make
whole, set the bone straight that's broken.
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Don't punish, hold on probation,
harm or hold grudges, because that's
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not how God treats you. Comfort
one another, speak to the hearts,
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length and build faith. Draw close
to each other, because that's how God
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treats you and therefore you won't tear
down so suspicion, cause others to fear
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or doubt or keep say agree with
one another. Clarify. Paul is not
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saying agree on everything. The New
Testament never commands that. It's agree on
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what is most important. Not Every
picky. You in detail. And if
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you agree with one another in that
way on what is most important, you
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want quarrel, contend and demand your
way and be petty. Live in peace,
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because God is the God of peace. And if God is the God
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of peace, that means that pride, censoriousness, gossip, withdrawal and criticism
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go away. Greek one another with
a holy kiss. Affection shows unity and
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warmth doesn't end. Don't show the
cold shoulder, turn your back or give
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a phony smile. Greet each other
but the holy kiss. Who Behaves this
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way? Paul knows, the people
who behave these way, this way are
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people that know that they have a
God who is a god of love and
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peace and they have tasted of the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
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love of God, the father in
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Done
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just apply individually, it applies to
churches. I conclude with this. William
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Willeman was a methodist pastor and professor, now retired from teaching a Duke University,
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and he tells the story of his
first pastoral call. Seminary degree in
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hand, he moved on to his
PhD in Atlanta at Emory University and while
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a PhD candidate, he took a
call to a rural Georgia church a couple
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of hours out of Atlanta and he
was going to commute out there on the
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weekends and preach and visit on Sundays
and then returned to his schooling. Well,
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he said, fresh with a determination
to be a good pastor for his
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first role. He arrived his first
Sunday to discover that the front door of
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the church had a padlock and chain
on it. And as he stood there
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looking at those doors with padlock and
change, the local sheriff pulled up,
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got out of his car and said
glad your hair. Mr You're the pastor,
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right he said Yep. He said. Can I ask you, Sheriff,
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why is the padlock and change on
hit chain on here? He said.
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Well, last weekend things got out
of hand at the board meeting.
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Folks started ripping up carpet, dragging
out the peers they had been given in
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memory of their mother's got real bad. Said I had to come out here
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and locked the door until the new
preacher could come and settle things down.
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God bless him. Drove off.
Willeman stood in the parking lot, rookie
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pastor, thinking what have I gotten
myself into? And for the time he
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was there that was his experience of
that church. said he would drive out
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there on Sundays, sometimes praying for
a snow storm in October so he would
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not have to go and preach.
He said he tried everything, but the
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arguments, the pettiness, the fights
in the parking lot after meetings continued and
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they were more than he could take. Well, he finished his course,
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he was done, finished his PhD, completed his student pastor at there and
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he said as he drove off from
the church his last Sunday, he thought
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to himself, Hugh, call yourself
a church and off he went. Well,
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what does the church like that need? What? What would change a
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congregation so filled with bitterness? Well, the story continues. He said a
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number of years later he was back
at his Grad School for a conference with
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pastors and he met a young man
who introduced himself and said, Oh,
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Dr Williman, I'm now serving that
church. He said. He looked at
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him. He said he was a
young man, only twenty three. In
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his heart went out to him.
Well, the young man said they still
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remember you out there. Williman replied, I will never forget them either.
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Remarkable bunch of people, the young
man said. That's one way of putting
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it, I replied. The young
man continued. Their Ministry to the community
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has been a wonder. They are
now supporting more than a dozen troubled families.
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They run a Free Day Care Center
and there one of the few interracial
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congregations in the area. Williman was
floored, amazed, curious. What happened?
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was there a program that irremediator?
Did you blow the place up and
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start all over again? Now?
The young pastor said there was simply a
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Sunday when the Holy Spirit came down
and assured everybody that they were loved by
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God in Christ, and when they
left that Sunday there was peace. God
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loved them, Christ died for them
as they were. The Holy Spirit was
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in them. Everyone left in peace. It's all it took. Williman's comment
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is I think that Church got intruded
upon. Someone greater than I or that
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young pastor knocked the lock off the
door, kicked it open and offered them
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the peace of God. I would
simply say that that church, in those
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moments, came to drink, drink
deeply of the grace of the Lord Jesus
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Christ and the love of God in
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. That
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is what that church needed, that
is what the Corinthians needed and that's what
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you and I need every day.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
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the love of God, the father
and the fellowship, Fellowship of the Holy
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Spirit being with us and working in
US would you pray with me?
