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Things We Do That Make Ministry Difficult Msg 23 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: This is the first time I've ever spoken after someone
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Speaker 1: has closed in prayer. First time. That's a great moment, Joe,
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Speaker 1: you handle that beautiful. Before I go any further, let
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Speaker 1: me welcome you who are looking over the school trying
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Speaker 1: to make up your mind regarding where you should go
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Speaker 1: for your graduate school education in theology. You have a
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Speaker 1: big decision in front of you. Make it carefully, decide slowly,
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Speaker 1: and when you do finally make that decision and it
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Speaker 1: happens to be Dallas Seminary. If it does to stay,
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Speaker 1: no plan to come and go, or come and get
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Speaker 1: a taste of it and leave, or you won't know
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Speaker 1: what Dallas Seminary offers. It's a very carefully thought through
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Speaker 1: program put together by minds greater than ours, who were
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Speaker 1: in ministry longer than most of those in this room.
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Speaker 1: They knew what they were doing when they put the
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Speaker 1: course together. It's a whole curriculum that makes good sense
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Speaker 1: that won't early on when you begin. Honestly, I often
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Speaker 1: refer to it as putting a puzzle together. You know
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Speaker 1: how you just dump all the pieces on the table
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Speaker 1: and they're a pile and you try to match the
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Speaker 1: same color areas as you start the puzzle, and that's
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Speaker 1: the first year here, and the second year that was
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Speaker 1: the first year student that just answered it. And the
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Speaker 1: second year you get a corner and maybe another corner
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Speaker 1: of the puzzle, perhaps even three corners, and you're starting
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Speaker 1: to get an idea of what shape it's taking and
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Speaker 1: what the picture looks like. By the third year, it's
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Speaker 1: coming together, and you're always looking back thinking, I'm so
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Speaker 1: glad I didn't act on impulse and quit back when
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Speaker 1: it was really tough to put it together in my
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Speaker 1: mind and figure it out. And then finally, for however
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Speaker 1: long you year. You may squeeze four years into six
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Speaker 1: or seven, I don't know, or your course may be
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Speaker 1: a three year course. Whatever may be the length of it,
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Speaker 1: take your time. You don't eat your heart out because
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Speaker 1: you aren't out ministering. You're preparing for a lifetime of that.
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Speaker 1: This is the only time you will be in the
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Speaker 1: classroom poring over these things at length, in depth, with
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Speaker 1: a lifetime in front of you. Most of the great
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Speaker 1: preachers will tell you that if they could have done
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Speaker 1: anything over they would have prepared better. Many of them
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Speaker 1: prepared longer. I even heard one say if I had
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Speaker 1: three years to minister, I'd spend two of them getting ready,
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Speaker 1: So your time of preparation is invaluable. I look back
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Speaker 1: on my four years and I tell you, to this day,
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Speaker 1: I give thanks, and I draw on what I learned,
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Speaker 1: the habits I formed, the truths. I picked up the books,
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Speaker 1: the authors I became acquainted with, and I filled my
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Speaker 1: library with similar kind of works. And I'm so grateful
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Speaker 1: for those years. So no extra charge for that pep talk.
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Speaker 1: Just keep in mind. We know it's expensive, so don't
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Speaker 1: grouse about that. We know it's hard. As one student
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Speaker 1: would agree, it's hard, but ministry is hard. Part of
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Speaker 1: what I want to talk to you about. Guess who
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Speaker 1: said this, do not enter the ministry if you can
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Speaker 1: help it. It was the great preacher of the Victorian
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Speaker 1: era in Great Britain named Charles Hadden Spurgeon. I'll repeat
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Speaker 1: his words, do not enter the ministry if you can
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Speaker 1: help it. I'm assuming we're here because we can't help it,
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Speaker 1: and some of you are determining if you can help it,
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Speaker 1: and if you can, don't come. Because you are entering
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Speaker 1: into something as permanent as a marriage till death separates you.
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Speaker 1: You are in it. For your life. That reminds me
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Speaker 1: of a woman who said in my study it's man
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Speaker 1: years ago now. We were in Fullerton, California. She and
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Speaker 1: her husband had just broken up, and she was there
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Speaker 1: to grieve the break up, the number of years of marriage,
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Speaker 1: and two wonderful, very bright children, an older son and
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Speaker 1: a younger daughter. And we were talking about what happened,
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Speaker 1: and she said, when I go back to figure out
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Speaker 1: where the erosion began, I go to my wedding day
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Speaker 1: and I remember Wheaton Chapel standing in the what do
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Speaker 1: they call it an arthax vestibule, standing justin behind the
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Speaker 1: double doors. And when the organ began to play the
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Speaker 1: wedding march, the double doors opened. I took my father's
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Speaker 1: arm and I leaned over and said to my father, Daddy, Daddy,
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Speaker 1: I should not be doing this. I think about that,
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Speaker 1: not only as the bride, but as the daddy. And
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Speaker 1: she said I should not be doing this. I ought
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Speaker 1: not be here. This is not what I ought to
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Speaker 1: be doing. Her. Daddy leaned over and said, just keep walking, honey,
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Speaker 1: just keep walking. I know the daddy well, I know
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Speaker 1: the daughter better, and uh, I understand. I've been the
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Speaker 1: daddy in two weddings with daughters and two weddings with sons,
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Speaker 1: and it's it's it's harder with daughters. I'll tell you,
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Speaker 1: I can hand me over a shred of arius to
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Speaker 1: a gorilla when you when you hand over a daughter
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Speaker 1: to a groom. But oh, I just wish her daddy
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Speaker 1: had said you serious? Are you serious? I mean, is
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Speaker 1: this for real? And knowing her, I think she would
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Speaker 1: have said yes, and he would have walked down there
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Speaker 1: alone and canceled a wedding. Now it's tough to do.
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Speaker 1: You got a living room full of gifts, you gotta
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Speaker 1: chapel half full of people that are looking forward to it.
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Speaker 1: You got both families on the edge of their seat.
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Speaker 1: You got a groom that that just uh, I can't
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Speaker 1: wait for the joys of marriage and the fulfilm and
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Speaker 1: and a and a bride to be saying, oh and
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Speaker 1: I'll be doing this now. Why if I bring that up?
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Speaker 1: Because now's the time. Do you to determine this not
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Speaker 1: a wedding, but a ministry. You determined this? You see,
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Speaker 1: not only is it based on like a wedding, like
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Speaker 1: a marriage, a calling of God, it's also based on
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Speaker 1: the commitment of the couple in your case, the commitment
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Speaker 1: of the one going into ministry. There is no magic
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Speaker 1: in these buildings, in the disks where you sit, in
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Speaker 1: the carols, in the library. There is no magic in
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Speaker 1: the books, no courses offer magic. There's no Aladdin's lamp
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Speaker 1: that you can rob, and all of a sudden, you
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Speaker 1: got it. It is hard, gut level hard work. You
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Speaker 1: will think deeper than you've ever thought. You'll be tested
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Speaker 1: as you've never been tested up until this time. The
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Speaker 1: tests will only intensify part of my message of the morning.
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Speaker 1: But you got to mean business. CYNTHI and I celebrated
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Speaker 1: sixty two years of marriage because we're committed to each other,
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Speaker 1: not because there's any magic in our lives, not because
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Speaker 1: we had some sort of corner on marriage. She was eighteen,
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Speaker 1: I was twenty. I mean, it was just next thing
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Speaker 1: to illegal, how young we were and how ignorant we were.
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Speaker 1: But the grace of God, and you know what else,
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Speaker 1: the absolute determination no matter what, this is gonna work.
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Speaker 1: Now it sounds like I've left out the love part.
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Speaker 1: Of course, that's a big part of it. But it
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Speaker 1: isn't like a there's a popular love song made popular
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Speaker 1: in the fifties. I really like it Matt king Cole
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Speaker 1: saying it when I fall in love, It'll be forever,
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Speaker 1: or I'll never fall in love. But there's a line
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Speaker 1: in the middle of that love song that always puts
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Speaker 1: kind of a chill down my back. Too many moonlight
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Speaker 1: kisses have been cooled in the warmth of the sun,
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Speaker 1: pretty good lyrics. Too many valleys of testing have cooled
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Speaker 1: the impulse of those that just sort of jumped into ministry.
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Speaker 1: You don't jump into this. You think about it, you
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Speaker 1: pray about it, you talk about it, and as time passes,
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Speaker 1: you settle in on This is a spurget. I cannot
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Speaker 1: help it. I'm in it because I cannot help it.
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Speaker 1: I can't imagine being fulfilled doing anything else. Could I
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Speaker 1: be successful doing something else? Maybe? Could I be fulfilled? Never?
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Speaker 1: It's the most fulfilling, the most rewarding, the most magnificent
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Speaker 1: life a person can have is to be in the core,
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Speaker 1: in the nucleus of God's will, And for some of us,
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Speaker 1: that's called the ministry. Now, now that I've gotten past
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Speaker 1: the introduction this semester, I'm talking about the things that
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Speaker 1: make a ministry challenging, and I'm centering on pre specific areas.
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Speaker 1: There are more than three, but these three are big ones.
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Speaker 1: Number one difficult people. I talked about that last time.
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Speaker 1: In ministry. You're dealing with difficult people. Folks are troubled,
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Speaker 1: Some folks are angry. Some people make you the scapegoat.
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Speaker 1: Some people are confused, some are just exhausted. Some have
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Speaker 1: come out of legalistic ministries and they are spent having
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Speaker 1: gone through all the rigors of that with no sense
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Speaker 1: of fulfillment or satisfaction. So you're dealing with people like
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Speaker 1: Alexander with Paul, who Paul says, he in so many words,
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Speaker 1: he made my life miserable. So he said to Timothy,
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Speaker 1: watch out for Alexander. And I'm supposing that Alexander outlived Paul.
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Speaker 1: So tell Methy you got to deal with him. Some
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Speaker 1: difficult people. The second area would be the stuff we
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Speaker 1: drag into ministry, that we bring in our old nature.
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Speaker 1: That's what we're talking about today. The stuff that won't
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Speaker 1: change just because you go through Dallas Seminary, the stuff
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Speaker 1: that's still there when you get one of our degrees.
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Speaker 1: If you are selfish when you came and you don't
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Speaker 1: come to terms with that at some time along the way,
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Speaker 1: you leave selfish. So you take selfishness into the ministry
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Speaker 1: with you. If you have a problem with your ego,
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Speaker 1: when you come on the campus and you do fairly
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Speaker 1: well at school and you you feel pretty important to yourself,
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Speaker 1: you'll feel really important when you graduate, and then you'll
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Speaker 1: carry that into ministry and you'll make a mess of things,
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Speaker 1: because the ministry is not for those who see themselves
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Speaker 1: as important. I just was reading again this morning, Paul's
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Speaker 1: frequent reference to himself. His favorite word was servant, a
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Speaker 1: bond servant, I'm a servant. I mean, who is the polus?
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Speaker 1: Anyway he watered? Who is Paul? I planted? God gave
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Speaker 1: the growth. We're just servant. We're just stewards. So if
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Speaker 1: that's your thing, you're gonna struggle. It's gonna take a
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Speaker 1: lot of the joy out of ministry if you don't
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Speaker 1: come to terms with that. And we have some wonderful
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Speaker 1: courses here, thank Goodness, that will help you look into
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Speaker 1: your own life, do some self examining and find out
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Speaker 1: how your roots affected your life and how certain habits,
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Speaker 1: if carried on, are gonna really haunt you in the
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Speaker 1: years ahead. So the stuff we bring to it. And
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Speaker 1: the third would be unexpected circumstances. A tragic car accident
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Speaker 1: that takes the life of your wife or your husband
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Speaker 1: and your son that changes things, or a doctor's report
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Speaker 1: that says, actually it is a malignancy and we got
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Speaker 1: to deal with it. It's an unexpected circumstance. It may
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Speaker 1: be a mother and dad that divorce and all the
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Speaker 1: fallout that comes from that. Every divorce breaks the hearts
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Speaker 1: of the kids, our most every everyone. I could go on.
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Speaker 1: You got the picture. Those are unexpected circumstances. I think
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Speaker 1: it's interesting now as we look at Second Timothy chapter four.
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Speaker 1: Let's go there. First. We're going to get into Second
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Speaker 1: Corinthians four. But first I want you to see one verse.
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Speaker 1: It's a verse you can quote two Timothy four, verse seven.
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Speaker 1: You know it, don't you. I have thought, what the
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Speaker 1: good fight? I have finished? The coorse? What's the last one?
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Speaker 1: I have kept? The faith? The first one in names
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Speaker 1: is the fight we we we jumped through that because
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Speaker 1: it's so familiar, and familiarity really does a number on us,
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Speaker 1: because we miss some great things out of familiarity. So
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Speaker 1: when I come to familiar verses, I deliberately pause and linger.
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Speaker 1: The word fought is the Greek word agona a g
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Speaker 1: o n a. We got our word agony from it.
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Speaker 1: The good fight. That's the word fight. I have fought,
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Speaker 1: the Greek says, puts the fight first, the good fight,
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Speaker 1: I have agonized, the the agona, I have agonizmai. That's
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Speaker 1: the idea, same root word. It was used of athletes
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Speaker 1: in in the midst of their the extreme level of
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Speaker 1: training and the exertion of energy, and often in the
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Speaker 1: case of the Greek wrestler, which was a big sport
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Speaker 1: in Paul's day. Paul was a real sports fan, and
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Speaker 1: he draws on that picture. Isn't it interesting, he calls
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Speaker 1: as he looks back. He's in a dungeon. I call
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Speaker 1: second tim of the dungeon talk. If you read it
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Speaker 1: and forget he's in a dungeon, you won't get as
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Speaker 1: much out of it. But if you realize he's hearing
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Speaker 1: boots above him in the streets of Rome from the
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Speaker 1: mamber time prison or dungeon. And by the way, when
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Speaker 1: you go to Rome, always ask the guy to take
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Speaker 1: you there. It's not in the normal tourist tour. Ask
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Speaker 1: for that part of the tour. And go there and
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Speaker 1: take your time there, and go down the stairs that
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Speaker 1: lead you to the dungeon. If it is the same place.
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Speaker 1: If it is the same one, it certainly would be
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Speaker 1: one like that. It is a dreadful place. And that's
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Speaker 1: where Paul spent his last hours. That's why he would
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Speaker 1: say to his friend, come before winter. There's a lot
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Speaker 1: of emotion in that statement. He missed Timothy. He's there alone,
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Speaker 1: it's cold, he isn't well clothed, he doesn't have his books.
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Speaker 1: He wants to keep his studies up. God bless him.
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Speaker 1: And he looks back over his life and he says
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Speaker 1: it was a fight. Now, yes, he fought with some people,
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Speaker 1: but I really believe that's more reference to his own stuff.
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Speaker 1: Paul had a lot of stuff that he brought into
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Speaker 1: his conversion. He was a terrorist. He had turned thumbs
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Speaker 1: down on Christians. He was on his way to kill
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Speaker 1: more of them, or at least get them arrested so
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Speaker 1: they would be incarcerated and hopefully killed, getting rid of
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Speaker 1: all of these Christians on his way to Damascus. So
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Speaker 1: he is a pharisee of pharisees. He carries all of
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Speaker 1: that with him into ministry. We don't think about that,
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Speaker 1: and he's he's the Apostle of Greece. How good is
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Speaker 1: that which says you could change? Paul is one who
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Speaker 1: wrote in Roman seven, the good that I would do
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Speaker 1: I don't do, and the evil that I don't want
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Speaker 1: to do, I'll find myself constantly doing. That's Paul. So
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Speaker 1: he's fought a good fight. It's been good because he's,
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Speaker 1: by the end of his life, found victory over many
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Speaker 1: of those things that struggles along the way. I want
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Speaker 1: to urge you while in the process of I'm now
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Speaker 1: going to see all of you as seminary students. Okay,
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Speaker 1: not just potential, but I'm going to see you a
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Speaker 1: seminary student while you were here, and you become real
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Speaker 1: good students of yourself. You'll learn about Jesus, You'll learn
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Speaker 1: about the Apostles, You'll learn about the prophets. You'll learn
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Speaker 1: so much about the scriptures. You'll learn great theology. You'll
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Speaker 1: learn such excellent techniquess that will help you. You will
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Speaker 1: be equipped as best as the school can equip you.
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Speaker 1: But it can't. It can't teach you everything. It can't
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Speaker 1: give you self control, it can't grab you and pull
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Speaker 1: you by the collar. Back away from that lustful temptation.
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Speaker 1: And if you're given to lust, you'll really be given
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Speaker 1: to lust in ministry. If you take things that aren't yours,
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Speaker 1: you'll take things that aren't yours in ministry. So you'll
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Speaker 1: be fighting a fight. Remember what you're saying. Am I
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Speaker 1: soldier of the cross, the follower of the land? And
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Speaker 1: shut out, fear to own his cause or blushed to
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Speaker 1: speak his name? Are there no folks from me to face?
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Speaker 1: Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world
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Speaker 1: a friend of grace to help me on to God? Sure?
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Speaker 1: I must fight if I must, writes Isaac Watt. Increase
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Speaker 1: my courage, Lord, I'll bear the toil, endure the pain,
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Speaker 1: supported by your word. I just read watts biography before
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Speaker 1: I got here this morning. His life was a life
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Speaker 1: of fighting. You had to fight his dad to sustain
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Speaker 1: his art. His dad never saw the value in his art.
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Speaker 1: Watts was dripping with the ability to write verse. And
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Speaker 1: most dads don't have much place in their life or
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Speaker 1: a son that quotes poetry or writes it, or as
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Speaker 1: a musician. And maybe you were raised like it by
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Speaker 1: dad like that. You got to get over that. You
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Speaker 1: got to work through that. Most of you don't even
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Speaker 1: know what your sweet spot is. Hopefully you'll discover more
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Speaker 1: and more of that, or much of your ministry will
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Speaker 1: be spent trying to find the fit for you. See
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Speaker 1: what I'm dealing with. I'm talking about. These are very
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Speaker 1: real things. And so as you make a study of yourself,
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Speaker 1: and as you come to terms with these areas that
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Speaker 1: are not under the cross and have not been brought
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Speaker 1: under the control of the Spirit, go there. Not just
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Speaker 1: for the sake of your classmates are your professors you
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Speaker 1: have to deal with you, but for your sake and
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Speaker 1: your future parishioners, and your elders that you'll be serving with,
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Speaker 1: and the people in your church who will be looking
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Speaker 1: to you as something of a model. Now tewod Corinthians four,
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Speaker 1: let's look at that together. Okay, here we go. When
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Speaker 1: I was an intern with mister Ray Steedman at Peninsula
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Speaker 1: Bible Church, I learned from Ray that the most succinct
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Speaker 1: statement of a New Covenant ministry is in the seventy
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Speaker 1: one verses between Second Corinthians chapter two, verse fourteen through six,
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Speaker 1: verse ten. No miss that Second Corinthians two fourteen through
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Speaker 1: six ten The core of those seventy one verses is
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Speaker 1: in chapter four, and I have made a serious, in
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Speaker 1: depth study of four one to ten in my life.
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Speaker 1: I want to sort of pick and choose my way
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Speaker 1: through that right now and show you why it is
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Speaker 1: so valuable as it relates to you and me in ministry,
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Speaker 1: tying it into what I've just been saying. Okay, you
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Speaker 1: got it set in Corinthians four, verse one. Therefore, as
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Speaker 1: soon as you see that, you ought to have a
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Speaker 1: mental errow in your mind that points up to the
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Speaker 1: previous verses. It's a summation connective. Therefore means I've had
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Speaker 1: some things to say before this, and now I kind
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Speaker 1: of want to summarize from this point on. So that's
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Speaker 1: a crucial word. Time doesn't allow us to go back.
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Speaker 1: But remember that when you're doing your own study and
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Speaker 1: you come across a word like that. Now look at
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Speaker 1: the first several verses I'm reading from the New American Standard.
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Speaker 1: Since we have this ministry, as we receive mercy, we
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Speaker 1: do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things
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Speaker 1: hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adult
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Speaker 1: rating the word of God. But that's a connective that's
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Speaker 1: a contrast. It shouts. Most of the butts that appear
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Speaker 1: are saying, go in the other direction. But in light
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Speaker 1: of what we don't do, this is what we should
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Speaker 1: be doing. But by the manifestation of truth, it's a
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Speaker 1: big word for putting on display, living out in your
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Speaker 1: life the truth. We commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in
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Speaker 1: the sight of God. Says something about the lost person
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Speaker 1: who's blind to the gospel in the next two verses.
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Speaker 1: But his thought continues in verse five four, which is
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Speaker 1: the connective of explanation. He's now going to explain what
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Speaker 1: he meant by that, we do not preach ourselves but Christ,
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Speaker 1: Jesus our Lord, and here he is again, and ourselves
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Speaker 1: as your bond servants for jesus sake. Remem my word earlier.
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Speaker 1: His word for himself is most often a bond's servant.
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Speaker 1: And that's how Paul came across to the Corinthians, and
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Speaker 1: how we want to come across in our ministry. Okay,
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Speaker 1: let me point out two or three things that I
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Speaker 1: see in these early verses of Second Corinthians four. First,
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Speaker 1: with every ministry, special mercy is needed. I believe that's
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Speaker 1: what verse one is saying, with every ministry, special mercy
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Speaker 1: is needed. Since we have this ministry, we have received mercy.
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Speaker 1: So I'm passive in that God graciously gives me the
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Speaker 1: mercy that I need to fulfill this ministry to which
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Speaker 1: He has called me, and the process when I allow
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Speaker 1: him to do that, we don't lose heart, got it.
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Speaker 1: Paul loves to refer to not losing Hearty says it
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Speaker 1: in Galatians, says it again in Ephesians. Says it again
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Speaker 1: to the Thessalonians. We don't lose heart. We don't lose heart.
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Speaker 1: We don't give up, we don't quit. Trust me, In
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Speaker 1: every ministry you serve, you'll be tempted to quit. There
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Speaker 1: will be days you or your spouse if you're married,
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Speaker 1: we'll have to really do some self talk here to
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Speaker 1: keep you at it so you don't lose heart. Because
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Speaker 1: something great is to be said for those who have
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Speaker 1: long term ministries and they stay at it, they stay
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Speaker 1: at it year after year after year after year. It
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Speaker 1: takes special mercy. So with every ministry sustained by mercy,
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Speaker 1: we're able to continue it without losing heart. Whatever ministry
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Speaker 1: God calls you to, and you do not know what
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Speaker 1: that is. If you're already engaged in it, obviously you do.
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Speaker 1: But those of you are still students. Keep an open mind.
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Speaker 1: You don't know what his plan is, but you can
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Speaker 1: be sure when you wind up there, mercy will come
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Speaker 1: with you. You'll have plenty of it. You'll have mercy
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Speaker 1: to deal with the people. You'll have mercy if you
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Speaker 1: happen to be in another culture to handle the culture
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Speaker 1: and the language, You'll be given mercy to face whatever
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Speaker 1: is your responsibility. Talk about that. How about those ministering
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Speaker 1: right now in Las Vegas? You thought about those pastors?
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Speaker 1: I know several. I can only imagine what they're going through.
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Speaker 1: And one wonders how many of their own people were
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Speaker 1: killed by that savage last Sunday night. But you'll not
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Speaker 1: lose heart. With every ministry, special mercies needed. Here's the
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Speaker 1: second comment from the second verse. In every ministry, the
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Speaker 1: same things must be rejected. In every ministry, the same
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Speaker 1: the same things must be rejected. Where do I get that?
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Speaker 1: Verse two? We have renounced the word means to forbid.
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Speaker 1: We have forbidden three areas. They're right here in the text.
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Speaker 1: Look at them. We have forbidden things hidden because of shame.
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Speaker 1: We don't do shameful things and hide them from those
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Speaker 1: to whom we minister. We've renounced that, so we're not
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Speaker 1: hiding shameful things. Second, doing deceitful things. See how he
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Speaker 1: puts it, not walking in craftiness. It's used of satan
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Speaker 1: in on Grinton's eleven as he with craftinness timpted eve
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Speaker 1: a great. A great technique of our enemy is deception.
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Speaker 1: He's a great salesman and he will deceive us. So
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Speaker 1: the apostle writes that he doesn't walk in in uh
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Speaker 1: trickery pon her Geel interesting w it has to mind cunning.
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Speaker 1: It's the lack of sincerity, basically, the lack of integrity.
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Speaker 1: We are who we say we are. We keep our word,
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Speaker 1: We acknowledge when we have done wrong, we ask forgiveness
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Speaker 1: when we have offended. It's all part of not walking
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Speaker 1: in craftiness. Again, I repeat, there's no magic. It's just
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Speaker 1: a lot of its common sense. He says, we have
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Speaker 1: rejected doing deceitful things. And third, we don't corrupt sacred
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Speaker 1: things see how he puts it, or adulterating the word
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Speaker 1: of God. We allow the word to speak, we don't
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Speaker 1: rationalize around it to make it fit our lifestyle. I
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Speaker 1: was in a church where I watched it happen as
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Speaker 1: a pastor was simply talking himself into an ability to
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Speaker 1: have an affair as he developed the whole nonsense of
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Speaker 1: the doctrine of privacy. Doctrine of privacy? Where is that?
36:26
Speaker 1: I could never find the doctrine of privacy. It doesn't exist.
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Speaker 1: You can do that. We sit here, and it's also
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Speaker 1: easy to take this in because we're all together. We're
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Speaker 1: all pretty much, you know, agreeing on these same things.
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Speaker 1: But when we're out there alone, it's a horse of
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Speaker 1: a different wheelbase, I'll tell you, and you, uh, you
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Speaker 1: can't believe what you'll think about doing, especially when you
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Speaker 1: get a little authority and everybody starts really respecting you.
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Speaker 1: None of those things change. That I just read, because
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Speaker 1: in every ministry the same things are rejected. I came
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Speaker 1: across a great statement from John Stott in an old
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Speaker 1: book called Between Two Worlds. Listen to doctor Stott's words
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Speaker 1: now gone. Unfortunately, nothing is more nauseating to contemporary youth
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Speaker 1: than hypocrisy, and nothing more attractive than sincerity. Jumping ahead,
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Speaker 1: he says, he writes, I'm convinced that in our day,
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Speaker 1: simple sincerity has not lost any of its power to
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Speaker 1: appeal or to impress. It was back in nineteen fifty
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Speaker 1: four that Billy Graham first hit the headlines in Britain
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Speaker 1: with his Greater London Crusade. Approximately twelve thousand people came
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Speaker 1: to the Haringey Arena every night for three months. Most
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Speaker 1: nights I was there myself, and I looked round that
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Speaker 1: vast crowd and I could not help comparing it with
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Speaker 1: our half empty churches. A Why do these people come
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Speaker 1: to listen to Billy Graham, I asked myself, when they
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Speaker 1: don't come to listen to us. Now. I'm sure that
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Speaker 1: many answers could have been given to that question, but
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Speaker 1: the answer I kept giving myself was this, There is
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Speaker 1: an incontrovertible sincerity about that young American evangelist. Even his
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Speaker 1: fiercest critics concede that he is Sincere. I really believe
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Speaker 1: he is the first transferently sincere Christian preacher. Many of
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Speaker 1: these people have ever heard. What a statement? He, being
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Speaker 1: brit would know what he's talking about. I really believe
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Speaker 1: he is the first transparently sincere Christian preacher many of
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Speaker 1: these people have ever heard today. Twenty five years later,
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Speaker 1: as he's writing the book I've found no reason to
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Speaker 1: change my mind, sincerity has become an even more vital
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Speaker 1: quality in the television an age, and he goes on
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Speaker 1: into that I agree. You disarm your congregation, you disarm
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Speaker 1: your classes, you disarm whoever may be the realm of
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Speaker 1: your ministry with your absolute, unquestionable sincerity. You're not hiding anything.
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Speaker 1: You're not doing something behind the scenes that's shameful. You're
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Speaker 1: not faking it, you're not trying to impress, you're not
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Speaker 1: putting on a show. You just yourself, filled with the spirit,
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Speaker 1: armed with the word of God, quick to get out
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Speaker 1: of the way so that God can get the glory.
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Speaker 1: When lives begin to be changed, I'll tell you they
40:57
Speaker 1: will come to be a round you because they don't
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Speaker 1: see that. That is rare, rare, even among those in ministry,
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Speaker 1: which is why there speaks with such impact. In every ministry.
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Speaker 1: The same things must be rejected. There's a third point
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Speaker 1: through every ministry, a consensing example must be modeled. That's
41:46
Speaker 1: in that's in verse two and verse five. No yes,
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Speaker 1: verse two, by manifestation of the truth, by display of truth,
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Speaker 1: by living out the truth by putting that on display
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Speaker 1: before everyone and in the sight of God. And in
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Speaker 1: doing so verse five, we don't preach ourselves, but Christ,
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Speaker 1: Jesus is Lord, and ourselves as your servants for jesus sake.
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Speaker 1: I love that statement. It's all said and done, and
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Speaker 1: Paul is finished, and he rolls up the scroll and
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Speaker 1: he walks away, and the crowd begins to disperse. They
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Speaker 1: talked about Jesus. It wasn't how impressed they were with Paul.
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Speaker 1: He loved it that. That's what happened, and that's the
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Speaker 1: way it ought to be. So remember this, Men and
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Speaker 1: women guard against cultivating any habit of hiding shameful things,
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Speaker 1: doing deceitful things, corrupting sacred things. Part of that happens
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Speaker 1: by just plain old familiarity. You can sort of serve
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Speaker 1: the lord's table while yawning. You can quote the verses
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Speaker 1: right out of one Grinton's eleven without looking, and before
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Speaker 1: you know it, you could do a wedding and hardly
43:38
Speaker 1: even know the bride or groom's name. You get good
43:42
Speaker 1: at it. Don't get good at it if it means
43:49
Speaker 1: you're enamored. And you began to have that polished style
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Speaker 1: I wonder how I would close this, and I came
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Speaker 1: up with a simple, little list of things you cannot do.
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Speaker 1: It's not a legalistic list, it's simply the truth. That's
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Speaker 1: what I've learned over these almost fifty five years before
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Speaker 1: the public. These are things I've learned that there are
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Speaker 1: eight of them that I cannot do. Number One, I
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Speaker 1: cannot control. We cannot control everything. So if you're a controller,
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Speaker 1: leave that at the door. Come to terms with that.
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Speaker 1: Stop the controlling. You don't control the church you serve.
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Speaker 1: You don't control the decisions that are going to be made.
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Speaker 1: When you try to do that, you're walking in the
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Speaker 1: flesh and you're going to regret it. See, you cannot
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Speaker 1: control everything. Number Two, you cannot fix any one. And
44:56
Speaker 1: you're looking at the number one fixer in the city
44:59
Speaker 1: of Fritz Go I fix And that's a dumb thing
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Speaker 1: to think I can fix anybody. Just dealt with the
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Speaker 1: guy yesterday. It's very difficult to deal with. And Cynthia
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Speaker 1: quietly reminded me. If you're trying to fix him, remember
45:18
Speaker 1: we're not able to do that. He's got to take
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Speaker 1: care of himself. You got to do whatever you can
45:25
Speaker 1: to help him. See it. But the fixing of him
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Speaker 1: is not your job. You cannot fix anyone. Third. You
45:36
Speaker 1: cannot be somebody you're not and get away with it.
45:44
Speaker 1: You cannot four. You cannot meet everybody's expectations. Took me
45:52
Speaker 1: half of my ministry to learn that, because I like people,
45:56
Speaker 1: and I want him to be pleased, and I want
45:59
Speaker 1: him to be happy, and and I also want every
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Speaker 1: day to be seventy degrees. And I don't want it
46:08
Speaker 1: to put any acid in my pool, and I don't
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Speaker 1: I don't. I don't want to ever get a rash,
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Speaker 1: and I don't want any of the kids to ever disobey,
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Speaker 1: and I on and on and on, and I want
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Speaker 1: Cynthia to keep saying yes, darling, yes darling. So that's
46:29
Speaker 1: that ain't gonna happen. You cannot be somebody you're not. Okay,
46:35
Speaker 1: number whatever number it is, five four five, that's it.
46:40
Speaker 1: You cannot dodge the tough questions and the difficult issues.
46:48
Speaker 1: You can't. You just can't. You got to deal with them.
46:56
Speaker 1: You'll stay up late at night because you're real, this
47:00
Speaker 1: is beyond you. We're all in way over our head
47:03
Speaker 1: because it's God's work. So we have to say on
47:07
Speaker 1: rather frequent occasions. Lord, Please take this, Please handle this,
47:14
Speaker 1: Please give wisdom that I don't have. Please change such
47:18
Speaker 1: and such because I can't change it. Next, you cannot
47:23
Speaker 1: concern yourself with who gets the credit. If you're the
47:28
Speaker 1: type that likes to get the credit, don't go into ministry.
47:33
Speaker 1: There's enough of them like that already. You're going to
47:38
Speaker 1: be surrounded by very faithful servants who deserve the credit.
47:42
Speaker 1: Learn to give it to them. Learn that when you
47:46
Speaker 1: do that, God honors that kind of thing. Very few
47:52
Speaker 1: things are ever done so long, very few things number whatever.
47:59
Speaker 1: You cannot let criticism get to you. That's enough. I've
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Speaker 1: already given you more than I'll ever live up to.
48:13
Speaker 1: But I want to Dear Father, we are just fragile
48:25
Speaker 1: clay pots. We crack easily, we struggle, We have limited knowledge,
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Speaker 1: and with all of our training, it isn't long before
48:49
Speaker 1: we come up against something that we never dream would
48:52
Speaker 1: be dealing with. So we thank you for your constant attention,
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Speaker 1: your mercy, which is new every morning, and that's why
49:11
Speaker 1: we adore you. You never write us off, you never
49:15
Speaker 1: walk out on us, you never throw us away. You
49:27
Speaker 1: just have a wonderful way of showing us how we
49:31
Speaker 1: can keep going, and we thank you. Finally, Lord, make
49:40
Speaker 1: it clear to these men and women what they ought
49:44
Speaker 1: to do, and then may they do it and never
49:48
Speaker 1: look back and second guess because it gets tough, or
49:55
Speaker 1: because they run out of money, or because something happened
49:59
Speaker 1: that they didn't think would occur. May they be faithful
50:06
Speaker 1: like your in the name of Jesus, everybody said.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message, Things we do that make ministry difficult
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Speaker 2: was copyrighted in twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen, and the
50:27
Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in twenty eighteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
50:32
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50:37
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