Episode Transcript
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Let me read you the letter of
Paul to Phi Lehman. Brief context.
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This fi lehman was a wealthy man
lived in the likest valley near Modern Day
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north of Modern Day is mere,
and this was a letter he wrote,
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and will explain the circumstances during the
message. Paul, a prisoner for Christ
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Jesus, and Timothy, our brother
to Phi Lehman, are beloved fellow worker,
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and Aphia our sister, and Archippus, our fellow soldier in the church
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in your house. Grace to you
and peace from God, our father and
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the Lord Jesus Christ. I think
my God always when I remember you in
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my prayers, because I hear of
your love and of the faith that you
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have toward the Lord Jesus at all
the saints, and I pray that the
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sharing of your faith may become effective
for the full knowledge of every good thing
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that is in us, for the
sake of Christ, for I have derived
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much joy and comfort from your love, my brothers, because the hearts of
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the saints had been refreshed through you. Accordingly, though, I am bold
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enough to, in Christ, to
command you to do what is required.
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Yet, for love's sake, I
prefer to appeal to you, I,
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Paul, an old man and now
a prisoner. Also, for Christ Jesus,
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I appeal to you for my child, Anessimus, whose father I became
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in my imprisonment. Formerly he was
useless to you, but now he is
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indeed useful to you and to me. I am sending him back to you,
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sending my very heart. I would
have been glad to keep him with
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me in order that he might serve
me on your behalf during my imprisonment for
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the Gospel, but I prefer to
do nothing without your consent, in order
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that your goodness might not be by
compulsion but Bah of your own free will.
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For this, perhaps, is why
he was parted from you for a
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while, that you might have him
back forever, no longer as a slave,
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but more than a slave, as
a beloved brother, and especially to
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me, but how much more to
you, both in the flesh and in
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the Lord. So, if you
consider me your partner, receive him as
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you would receive me. If he
has wronged you at all or owes you
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anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with
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my own hand. I will repay
it, to say nothing of your owing
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me even your own self yes,
brother, I want some benefit from you
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in the Lord, refresh my heart
in Christ. Confident of your obedience,
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I write to you knowing that you
will do even more than I say.
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At the same time, prepare a
guest room for me, for I am
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hoping that, through your prayers,
I will be graciously given to you.
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EPAPHRATS, my fellow prisoner in Christ
Jesus, sends greetings to you and Sir
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do mark, Aristarchus deem us and
Luke, my fellow workers, the grace
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of the Lord Jesus Christ, be
with your spirit. Amen, as we
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begin looking at scripture this morning,
I want you to imagine it's tomorrow morning
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at seven am, or whatever time
you rise. Some of you may be
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much earlier risers like I am.
You'll wake you maybe you have coffee or
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tea or some kind of beverage to
get the cells working, the brain cells
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alive. Maybe breakfast. Maybe you
check your news feed, your email.
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Your kids are crying for your attention. Your Week has begun. You're re
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engaging with your work week, your
ordinary calling. Maybe, maybe you're just
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re engaging with your children after they
slept for a night, and now you're
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back at it with the little ones. You are involved in your ordinary callings
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and as you enter those ordinary callings, those details of life, errands and
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bills to pay and commuting and work
and paychecks and decisions. Scripture makes this
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very clear. In Christ we can
know that God can be pleased with my
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daily work. I can serve Christ
in these ordinary calling and God wants you
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to wake each day knowing that that
his eye is upon you, that that
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he can be pleased with your ordinary
labors, whether whether it's cooking or cleaning
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or changing diapers or shopping or working
or commuting or getting your oil changed,
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whatever it is, God can be
pleased with that and what you are doing
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can be an honor to Christ.
Now that that's amazingly freeing good news.
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You are not wasting your time for
the rest of the week and looking for
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the time to come here when finally
you get to do something important. But
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there's more to it than that.
That's what I want to talk about today,
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because not only can you and I
serve Christ in our daily work,
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that God has placed you there.
God has placed you in your ordinary callings
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and he has placed you there to
bring you into what I'm going to call
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today Gospel Opportunities. Now, what
do I mean by Gospel Opportunity? I
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do not mean necessarily an opportunity to
talk about Jesus. That surprise you,
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but I will explain as we go
into this. No, no, I'm
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not talking about an opportunity to talk, but I'm talking about situations and circumstances
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where you have the opportunity to show, to demonstrate, to live out the
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meaning of the Gospel in the midst
of the ordinary callings of your life,
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seven days a week, fifty two
weeks a year, as long as you
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are engaged in ordinary calling. The
main idea what I want to talk about
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today, rooted and finallymen, is
that God sends you, brothers and sisters,
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in your ordinary daily callings, into
Gospel opportunity to live and demonstrate the
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realities of life in Christ. Now
we are going to come back to Fin
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Lehman and look at a new testament
example, but I want to explain a
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little more why I'm talking about this. You can see, for four years
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and I've been a pastor. Why? Don't want to admit this, but
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thirty seven and a half, thirty
seven years this year, thirty eight years
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coming up. It's been a while
and in those years I have I have
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had no ideas getting that old,
but in those years I've heard many,
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many testimonies of people's call to missions
or ministry that sounded something like this quote.
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After ten, twenty, thirty years
being a teacher, engineer, accountant,
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landscaper, soldier, plumber, handyman, whatever it is, God has
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given me a call to do his
work. Now I am finally able to
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do things with eternal value. You
ever heard things like that? Do you
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hear what's being assumed? What's be
assumed is that people in Vocational Ministry are
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serving God and people in ordinary callings
are not so much. And people in
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Vocational Ministry have more opportunities for the
Gospel than people in their ordinary callings,
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more than housewives and engineers and landscapers
and bread makers, more than students,
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and I think scripture disagrees with that. I've not observed that to be true.
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It's a matter of fact. I
would say most of the opportunities to
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live out and Express Gospel Truth are
in your lives, not in mine.
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That brings me to the matter of
lizards. So you may have noticed this
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really weird sermon title with the Word
Lizards in it. But that's the first
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time you've seen the word lizards in
a sermon title. It may be the
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only time you'll ever hear any mention
of lizards, except as an illustration and
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a sermon. Well, number of
years ago I heard a sermon came out
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of an international conference on Evangelism and
world mission and the underlying theme in the
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sermon was frogs and lizards, and
the man based his sermon on the text
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proverbs three thousand and twenty eight.
The Lizard you can take in your hands,
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yet it is in kings palaces.
It's an odd text, but if
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you understand lizards, and we in
Tussa on no lizards, we know that
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that is exactly the case, that
you can trap a lizard and catch a
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lizard and they're not hard to do
that with. But they also end up
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in the most unusual places. They
sneak in, they get into kings palaces,
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they're in your bathroom, they're in
your kitchen, they're all over the
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place. Lizards get into places.
That was the point of his illustration and
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he decided to compare frogs and lizards. You see, they're different. Frogs
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announce their presence when the monsoon rains
come in Tucson and the toads emerge from
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the earth. You hear them,
you know where they are, but lizards
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don't announce their presence, they're just
there. And he said there are two
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kinds of callings God has first people
in the world, frogs and lizards.
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You see, pastors, missionaries are
frogs. We announce our presence as soon
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as people find out what we do, they know what we represent. I
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have spent almost forty years engaging in
conversation where as soon as I tell someone
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I'm a pastor, they change the
subject or they apologize for something they've said.
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I was playing golf here years ago
and and on the a Cole I
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had not told them that I was
playing with it I was a pastor.
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Like I wanted to play low key
about it, and they engaged in the
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usual things golfers say when they're playing
the game of golf. And on the
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eighthole that one man hit a terrible
shot and let forth with a string of
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unusual words that I don't repeat,
and then he turned to me and he
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said, by the way, what
do you do? I said I'm a
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pastor and he said, I am
so sorry now. You've probably never experienced
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that because your lizards now, and
that's not an insult, it's a noble
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calling. I'm a frog. You
are lizards, and that means as lizards,
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you don't wear your Christian identity on
your forehead, it's not on Your
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Business Card. It doesn't mean you
hide it, it just means you don't
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lead with it. You actually have
the opportunity to live out the meaning of
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the Gospel before you tell them who
you are. I have a friend who
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is in commercial real estate who did
that for years. He said I never
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told anyone I was a Christian until
after the deal was closed because I wanted
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to demonstrate integrity and character before I
told them why I was that way.
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So you, in your daily callings
and your secular callings, are lizards.
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You are called to make the Gospel
beautiful in your daily well lives. That's
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Paul's language, not mine. Titus
to adorning the Gospel, and you can
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do that in ways I can't.
Your lizards. You you go places I
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will never go and have opportunities I
will never see. Now I've always thought
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that was the case. I can't
give you all the reasons. I've always
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thought that, but I've always thought
that was the case, but now I
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know it's the case. And let
me tell you why. About about five
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years ago I stepped out of being
a pastor for a period of time to
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take classes at Westminster Seminary in California. I've been a pastor well over thirty
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years of that time and I decided
to take some classes at Westminster. And
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I also had a day job and
it had a different title. I was
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the board chair of the Palomar Ymca
and Escondido, California. I had a
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business card. Actually found one in
my suitcase the other day that said Mark
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Lauderback Board Chair of Palamar family why
MCA Escondido. Now my job description was
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to lead the board management, to
recruit new members for the board, to
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work with the executive leadership of the
why and to be involved in fundraising.
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So that put me in touch with
community leaders of Escondido, where we live,
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to make the why a better organization. And I would go to lunches,
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I would take men to lunch,
the coffee tick men and women to
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various meetings and it was the first
time in more than thirty years that I
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wasn't a frog. I was a
lizard. And here's what I found during
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that year. When I told people
my title, they ask questions. They
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didn't shut me off, they didn't
change the subject, they didn't apologize for
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something they had said. They wanted
to get to know me, want to
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know about the why. I had
a lot of time with people in our
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community that year and in that one
year I had more opportunities to live out
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the Gospel and discuss the Gospel than
I'd had in three decades as a pastor.
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I was a lizard for a year, not a frog, and I
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loved it. How much thought I
think? I think I'd rather be a
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lizard. I wrestled with that.
I was a lizard for a year.
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Most of you are lizards all the
time. You're working lizards, retired lizards,
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lizards as you meet other parents at
school, lizards as you go to
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the doctor, the dennist lizards in
your neighborhood, lizards with your classmates and
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teammates. That's why I say God
sends you his people, Lizards, as
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it were, in your daily callings, into Gospel opportunities to show the beauty
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of the Gospel in ways I,
as a pastor, will never know.
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And he's using you to do that
flawed as your example. Maybe your words
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and actions may be a fragrance of
Christ to the people around you. So
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that's the big idea. That's why
we have lizards. And now let's Lo
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look at a new testament example.
Tucked into the Your Testament, one of
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the shortest letters, is this amazing
story of finallyman. So let's talk about
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the story. First of all,
who are the actors in this story?
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WHEW, there's one frog and two
lizards. The Frog is the apostle,
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Paul. He's in prison far away
in Rome. The lizards are two individuals.
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Phi Leeman, wealthy businessman and the
likest valley had come to faith in
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Christ through the Ministry of Paul,
likely a man highly honored in that community.
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He had slaves in his workforce.
Will talk a little bit more about
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that's different than nineteen century southern US
slavery. We would call him probably an
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employer today. He had a large
workforce. He was a man whose identity
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had been remade in Christ. His
wife and his son, who are mentioned
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in this letter, are now serving
Christ with him. They are using their
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resources, their home as a place
for the church to meet. They are
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serving God's people, they are refreshing
the hearts of the saints. That he
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that he is a lizard. He
he is a lizard who is life has
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been changed, whose work has been
changed, who's years, of his resources,
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has been changed, and he is
representing Christ in the workplace, in
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the likest valley, in his community, as he serves Christ. Second character
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in this story, the second wizard, is a Nessimus, and Simus is
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a slave. Now, slavery in
the Roman world was not like the kidnapping
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degrading slavery of recent history. A
slave could become a slave by inability to
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pay debt. A slave could be
set free by paying off a slave could
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be a doctor, could be a
professional it there were limits, but it
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wasn't being owned and dominated by a
slave owner. And this slave, an
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SMS, was a really bad slave. He was, he was a slave,
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but he and he wasn't a good
one. And what we know from
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this story is anessimus ran away,
ran away, and so the story is
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said in that context. So here
are the lead actors, not the FROG,
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but to lizards, a businessman and
an employee. Second thing I want
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to look at is what opportunity appears
here. Well, first of all,
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in Simus runs away, as I've
said, penalty for running away as a
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slave was not nice branding, where
they take a hot iron and mark you
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with the name of your owner,
or death, which ends it right.
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So an MS has runaway, I
and he's run away to Rome to get
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lost in the big city. That's
the people always run away to the big
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city. They don't run away to
the small town, they run away to
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the big city. A third of
the residents of Rome where by legal status,
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slaves at the time, and he
was there for a fugitive from the
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law, and Roman society was a
law and order society. So God has
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a runaway slave in Rome that he
is now going to turn into Gospel Opportunity.
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The first step of Gospel Opportunity is
a Simus runs away. Is Guess
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who he runs into in Rome.
Just happens, just happens in a big
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city to run into into Paul,
who is under house arrest. It's not
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like he ran into him in the
street, he ran into him under house
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arrest. Paul is the man through
whom finally man, his owner, came
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to faith. Paul is someone Anssi
Mus, probably new anessimus comes to faith
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through Paul, as Paul is in
prison. First Step in the Gospel Opportunity.
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Look at what God has done.
Who would have who would have thought
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that God's way of converting a man
is to haven't run away from home fleet
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to the city illegally and run into
the apostle? That God is very creative
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in his mean second step in this
is this now has created a situation.
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As we say, what do we
have here? We have a situation.
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What kind of a situation? We
have a very complex situation. Well,
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what makes it complex? Well,
you now have a runaway slave who is
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in Rome, has been converted by
the Apostle, Paul, whose owner is
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a Christian. He is first of
all inviolation of the law. So their
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legal issues. Here you have employer
employee issues, a breach of law.
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Bring Your questions arise. Like his
Paul obligated by law to send an Ess
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in this back to slavery? Or
is Paul now able to free an essamis
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because a Sims is a Christian?
What a complex things come here. Is
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Phi Lehman, if anessimist comes back, obligated to punish him? Or is
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there some other way to go through
this? You have community issues. If
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an S SIMIS goes back, Phi
Lehman isn't just a private man, he's
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a community leader and whatever he does
influences all the other slave owners in the
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likest valley. You you have relational
issues. You Have Phi Lehman who has
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been wronged by Anessimus and there needs
to be reconciliation. You have a betrayed
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trust that needs to be resolved.
You have economic issues. Phi Lehman has
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lost human capital and he's it's affecting
his bottom line. You you have human
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rights issues, we would add today
you have the issue of slavery, humans
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owning other humans. You have church
issues. How does the Kingdom of God
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in the Gospel play out here?
Now, what I want you to see
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here is that this is about lizards, not frogs. This opportunity rests with
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God's people in their ordinary calling.
A doesn't take place within the walls of
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the Church and it is complicated.
But the question is, does it make
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a difference that Phi Leman is a
Christian and Anessimus is now a Christian?
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How does that play out? Well, enter the FROG, Paul. Paul
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is the frog and he ends up
being a coach on the sidelines. He's
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not the main actor. He just
coaching. He's helping them interpret and understand
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what to do. So Paul works
with an s Simus, so that dn't
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Nessimus is willing to go back.
Paul writes a letter to Phi Lehman,
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hands it to anessimus and says take
it back, and in that letter Paul
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Coaches Phi Lehman. So here's what
Paul offers in this opportunity. Paul first
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of all wants Phi Lemen to know
that this is a gospel opportunity when it's
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interpreted from a Gospel perspective. This
whole situation has to be interpreted from the
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right perspective. There lots of ways
to interpret what's going on here. We
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have the facts that we we interpret
facts, don't we? You can almost
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hear the debates in Washington, can't
you? Over these kinds of issues.
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You have your have narratives being woven
and there lots of ways things are interpreted.
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This could have been interpreted as a
law and order discussion, keeping slaves
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in line. This could have been
interpreted as a prosperity of the righteous discussion.
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See, fi leman's a righteous man
and God has rewarded him by bringing
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a slave back. This could have
been interpreted as a human rights issue,
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which was not fully present in the
Roman world, but it was somewhat there.
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However interpreted, it's a pivotal moment
for Philemen and Anesimus, and Paul
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has to help them interpret what God
is doing here. So here's what Paul
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says. Fi Lelyman, fifteen and
sixteen. Look at it. Paul writes
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to Phi Lehman and he says this, perhaps after telling him that an Essimus
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has come to faith. This perhaps
is why he was parted from you for
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a while, that you might have
him back forever, no longer as a
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bond servant. Been More than a
bond servant, as a beloved brother,
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especially to me, but how much
more to you, both in the flesh
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and in the Lord. You hear
Paul's doing, de Phi Lehman, he
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saying, Finallyman, I want to
help you interpret this in light of God's
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eternal timeline. Paul doesn't know,
or he's being very tactful when he says
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perhaps, perhaps this is why he
was parted from you for a while.
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But Paul suggest that this is a
situation God has designed it's not random,
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it didn't just happen. God has
designed this whole situation where he has taken
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the sin of a terrible employee who
has fled his master and gone as a
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refuge or a fugitive to Rome and
has now come to faith, and God
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has turned used that to bring about
salvation. Not a short term departure,
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but an eternal brotherhood has now come
about. He parted from you for a
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while that you might have him back
forever, no longer a servant but a
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brother. See, Paul is helping
fin lyman interpret what's going on here.
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He's saying to FY Lehman, this
is this is not about law and order,
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it's not about human rights, it's
not about God's blessing of you.
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This is about the Gospel, and
the Gospel has gone out and a man
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has been saved and God has over
ruled humans sin saving of a man.
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that. Where does Paul get a
crazy idea like that? Well, we
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go the Old Testament. Let's see
Joseph. These brothers sold them into slavery
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rather than kill him, and God
sent Joseph to Egypt so that the old
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descendant, descendant line, descending line
of Jacob might be rescued. You intended
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for evil, God intended for good. We we might wait, might go
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to Paul and Philippians, who said, yeah, I'm in prison, but
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this imprisonment has resulted in the advance
of the Gospel, or might simply go
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to the death of Jesus, who
was put to death by the hands of
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wicked men, falsely accused, found
guilty of crimes he did not commit and
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then put to death, and that
has brought the redemption of accountless multitude.
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So Paul's not making stuff up here. He Sang Finallyman, this is about
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God's work, this is about the
advance of the Gospel, this is about
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redemption, this is about the Kingdom
of God, whatever else you're thinking,
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Fin Layman, as Simus is now
your brother forever. Let that control the
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narrative. And then he calls him
to live out the Gospel and its meaning.
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And then say speak it out,
to live it out. What do
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I mean by live it out?
So here's here's what Paul says to finallyman
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for seventeen and eighteen. So if
you consider me your partner, receive him,
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receive Anessimus, as you would receive
me. And if he and es
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Simus has wronged you it all or
owes you anything. Charge that to my
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account, to Paul's account. Wrongs
have been done, yes, says Paul.
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What do you know about it?
It? This is what Paul says.
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You're going to do about it?
receive him as though he is me,
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treat me as you would treat him, and what he owes you.
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Where did Paul get that idea?
Sounds like the Gospel, doesn't it?
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Isn't that what Jesus says to the
father. For us, father received mark
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as you would receive me, and
whatever mark owes you. Put that to
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my account, because it's been paid
in full at the cross. That's what
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he says of each of us.
And Paul is saying here Philema, and
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you are called to say that to
Anessimus, as Jesus has said it to
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you. To what what crazy idea? See this is, this is the
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power of the Kingdom of God.
Forgive him, welcome him as a brother,
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and Paul says, send him to
help me, which means free him
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from being a slave, set him
free. And I don't want to miss
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the silent partner in this, an
Essimus, and Andes Simus is carrying this
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letter and Animus is going back to
Philem and knowing that by law he should
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be branded or killed. But Paul
has helped anessimus in term British situation in
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the same way so that he is
willing to go back and represent this to
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Phi Lehman from pole. Phi Lehman
and Inestimus have an opportunity here to live
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out the Gospel and its meaning.
And let's just be clear. Those of
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you in the workplace HR would never
come up with this solution, would they?
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Lawyers would never imagine this solution.
But the Gospel Calls Phi Lehman and
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an Essimus to do what is unthinkable. And by the way, this this
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would be costly. It will offend
the law and order crew. It will
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partially satisfied the human rights people.
They won't like the reasons but they'll be
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okay with the outcome. It may
encourage other slaves to do the same.
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But see, Paul is saying to
Phi Lehman and an Essimus, resist all
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other cultural narratives, don't be coopted
by secular narratives, resist all other cultural
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narratives and lived by the narrative of
the Gospel in the Kingdom of God.
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You are called not to serve Rome, not even to serve your fellow citizens
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or fellow slaves, but to serve
Christ because you are part of his kingdom
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and that's what lizards get to do. And you, brothers and sisters,
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are lizards who will have opportunities like
this, maybe not this dramatic, but
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like this in your daily lives that
I will never see. And I think
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about this. I think, I
think back through history and I don't know
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if these things happened or not,
or should have happened or not, but
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I imagine the difference Christians as lizards
might have made when the first slave ships
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arise, arose from the middle passage
and landed on the shores of the colonies.
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And if the Christians had said we
will not be part of this,
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might have changed history. We could
go on through history and talk about those
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moments when Christians, as lizards,
make a huge difference. Course, you
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would probably reverse the one on slavery
and talk about William Wilberforce, who was
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a member of parliament, who's frog
was John Newton, who encouraged him,
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but who, as a lizard,
fought the battles for the abolition of the
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slave trade. So let's switch gears
here for a minute. You said that's
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all fine and good, but I'm
not a slave holder, I don't live
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in the Roman Empire, I don't
have slaves, I'm not I'm not an
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Ess and mess, I'm not a
runaway slave. What does that look like
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for us today? I want to
offer a few thoughts about that as we
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conclude. I think there are many
opportunities for God's people, as lizards and
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their daily callings, to embody the
beauty of the Gospel in very practical ways.
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Let me give you a few suggestions
and hopefully these will help you think
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out others. Number One, faithful
work. I have a friend who was
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an executive with one of the major
silicon valley technology companies and had vast experience.
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He was considered the best manager of
people in all of Silicon Valley during
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the dotcom boom, and he went
around giving a lecture called how to be
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in the top five percent of the
workforce. Well, you can imagine,
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people flock to hear them. I
mean that's this guy was fabulously successful and
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they want to hear how to be
in the top five percent the workplace and
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he'd say. He got up and
he'd say, well, here's what you
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got to do. Come to work
on time, leave work on time and
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only take the amount of time allowed
for your breaks, and they'd write it
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down that to look up for more. He'd say, that's it. That's
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how to be in the top five
percent. Pretty simple, calling as God's
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people as lizards in the workplace.
Pay Your bills on time, pay a
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fair way to show up on time, just basic things. You represent Christ
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in that and it makes you shine
compared to others. Number two years in
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your influence to do good. I
learned a lot of this from my dad
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and I'm going to give a very
brief illustration. My Dad was in management
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for many years and he was trained
to believe that he served Christ in his
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work, but he thought the way
he did that was to use his influence
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to do good to other people,
and his greatest joy was giving people jobs.
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He'd find a way to give a
guy a job who couldn't find a
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job. If he's willing to work, Dad would do everything he could form
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and one day he was in Chicago. A friend of his had developed Alzheimer's
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and asked Dad to come out and
help him with his Family Company and Dad
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went out moved with my mom to
help out his friend. I don't say
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the kind of daddy was, the
kind of person he was, and he
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went out to help him and he
was in the factory and he ran into
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a guy cleaning the restrooms whose name
was dawn and he met him talk to
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him and he kept running into him
out there in the rest rooms cleaning.
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Didn't even have a high school diploma, work and clean the rest rooms.
394
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Blue Collar Guy, south Chicago family, no one and his family had gone
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to college ever. And Dad got
to know him and he liked them and
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he saw leadership potential in him and
invited him into the management training track for
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this little company. And the guy
resisted tooth and nail, like no,
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no, no, Mr Lauderback,
you don't understand. I'm from South Chicago.
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I'm a white Sox Fan, where
blue collar we just you know,
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I'm a custody and that's what my
family does. You don't understand. That's
401
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not the kind of people we are, and dad would you didn't say no
402
00:33:52.619 --> 00:33:57.089
to dad finally persuaded none to come
in while the lawn in the short of
403
00:33:57.170 --> 00:34:02.410
it is dawn as now a PA, he teaches on the Faculty of one
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00:34:02.410 --> 00:34:07.250
of the universities in Chicago and he
is chairman of the Board in Chief Executive
405
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Officer of that company, all because
somebody said I'm going to use my influence
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to encourage somebody. Another way is
showing the Gospel Truth by Living Out the
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Gospel in the workplace. Tim Keller
tells the story of a young woman who
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first came to redeemer when he was
starting, and she would appear and then
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leave as soon as the service was
over. And one week he intercepted her
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said tell me why you're here.
She said, I'm trying to understand Christianity.
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He said why are you interested and
she said well, I moved to
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New York to work for a company
here and not long after starting I made
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a big mistake and it should have
cost me my job. But she said,
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quite to my surprise, my boss
went to his superior and took responsibility
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for what I had done and as
a result he lost some of his reputation,
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that he protected my job. And
she said I've never seen anything like
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that. I was used to boss
as taking credit for what they hadn't done,
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but never taking blame for what they
hadn't done. So she said I
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went to him and said can you
explain this? She said he put me
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off for a while and finally he
said look, I'm a Christian. This
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means, among other things, that
God accepts me because Jesus Christ took the
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blame for things that I have done
wrong. He did that on the Cross
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and that is why I have the
desire and sometimes the ability to take the
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blame for others. And she told
Tim Keller. She said I looked at
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him and said, where do you
go to church? That's what people ask
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when you live out the Gospel in
that kind of beautiful way. Last example,
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you might not be in the workplace, might be a mom at home
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working very hard, not being paid
for it, but you have opportunities to
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represent the Gospel. And number of
years ago there was a story written up
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about a church in one of the
major cities in the United States and the
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suburbs of that city, a church
that had a desire to grow and reach
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New People with the Gospel and their
first step was to map out all the
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membership in the church. So they
got a map of the community. They
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put pins on the map for all
their members and they color coded them as
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to how long they've been in the
church. Well, they noticed a particular
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neighborhood where fifty percent of the newer
people in the church were in that neighborhood
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and they didn't understand it until they
got out the directory and they looked up
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the names of these people and in
the midst of that neighborhood was one of
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their members and in the midst of
that family was a mom who loved to
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bake cookies and cakes and they had
lived in that neighborhood for about ten years
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00:36:59.130 --> 00:37:02.960
and she had very simply for about
ten years gone through that neighborhood and brought
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00:37:04.000 --> 00:37:07.079
her bake goods as gifts to people, to showed up at the door and
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said Hey, would you like some
chocolate chip cookies? And over those years
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her doing good, demonstrating Gospel Good
Works, Created Opportunities for Gospel conversations.
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And those are the people that heard
about Christ, came to Christ and came
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to church. Pretty Simple, isn't
it? Relationships, conversations, Gospel opportunities.
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So I want to encourage you today, lizards. The commissioning of the
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lizards will have a new liturgy.
God has placed you in your schools,
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neighborhoods, vocations with your doctors and
dentists, with your co workers and customers,
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with your classmates and teammates, with
opportunities to represent Christ and to show
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the beauty of the Gospel in ways
that your pastors never will. And God
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is pleased with that and God wants
you to be encouraged that through you,
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Second Corinthians three, he is making
known the fragrance of the beauty of Christ.
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Would you pray with me?
