Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20240626 - Knowing what the Master is up to - Matthew 25:14-30

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#20240626 - Knowing what the Master is up to - Matthew 25:14-30 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co. To learn more about the many
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resources available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune
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into our live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co
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dot Church or download our free Calvary Church.
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App. Now let's open our Bibles and
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study God's Word. All right, hey guys, good to be
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with you. And I am Pastor Jji might look a
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little different. My beard is gone, my Nazarite
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vow is over, and here we are clean shaven.
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But I am the same guy and I do have the opportunity to share
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the word with you tonight. And I'm excited about that for
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many reasons. And it's just always timely, it
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seems like when Pastor Ed invites me to teach and just
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what it is that the Lord's working out in my own life.
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And So what I have to share with you tonight, I'm speaking to
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myself as much as I'm speaking to you guys and getting started.
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If you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and turn to Matthew
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chapter 25. And there, Matthew 25, we're
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going to be going over the parable of the talents.
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And it's verses 14 through 30. And it's a message that I've
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titled knowing what the master is up to, and he wants that.
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God wants us to know what he's up to.
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So I think this section of Scripture is very rich.
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I think there's something for us in it and that our hearts be
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ready to receive. So let's pray.
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Let's pray, and we'll get right into the word.
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Heavenly Father, thank you for your word.
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Thank you for this section of Scripture.
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And I just pray, Father, that as we go through the parable of the
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talents and we look at these servants and we look at what
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they did with what you've given him, Lord, I pray that you give
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us a heart to receive. I pray that for each and every
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person that hears my voice, that they settle themselves inside of
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what you would have inside of the Scripture, knowing inside of
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even your parables, Lord, they're always thrown alongside,
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right? They're always those, those
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accounts and those stories that are thrown alongside of a life
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that's being lived. All for principle, all for the
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right way, the godly way to navigate this life.
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And you speak deep truth to us in those and thank you for that.
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Jesus, bless your word. We love you and praise you.
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Amen. So if you're in Matthew 25, I'm
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just going to read right through it.
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So I'm going to read all of verse 14 through 30 and listen
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and read along. It says here Matthew 2514 For
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the Kingdom of heaven is like a man travelling to a far country,
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who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.
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And to one he gave 5 talents, to another two, and to another one,
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to each according to his own ability.
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And immediately he went on a journey.
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Then he who had received the five talents went and traded
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with them, and made another 5 talents.
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And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.
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But he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid
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his Lord's money. After a long time the Lord of
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those servants came and settled accounts with them.
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So he who had received 5 talents came and brought five other
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talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me 5 talents.
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Look, I have gained five more talents besides them.
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His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, You
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were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many
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things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.
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He also who had received two talents, came and said, Lord,
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you delivered to me two talents. Look, I have gained two more
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talents besides them. His Lord said to him, Well done,
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good and faithful servant, You have been faithful over a few
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things. I will make you ruler over many
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things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.
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Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I
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knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown,
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and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
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And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground.
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Look, there, you have what is yours.
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But as Lord answered and said to him, You wicked and lazy
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servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and
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gather where I have not scattered seed.
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So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and
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at my coming I would have received back my own with
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interest. So take the talent from him and
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give it to him who has 10 talents.
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For to everyone who has more will be given and will have
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abundance. But from him who does not have
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even I lost my place. Even when He has will be taken
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away. Let's see.
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And He will have abundance, but from him who does not have even
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what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable
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servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and
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gnashing of teeth. It's the Lord's word, and as we
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look at this incredible section of Scripture, the first thing
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that I want us to notice is that the Master gives to each
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according to his own ability. Some received more, but everyone
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received something and everyone received a large amount.
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Now we might look at the one talent.
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Oh, it's just one, but according to a commentary on this one
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talent, this one talent would take a day laborer 20 years to
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earn. So they each received something
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and everyone received a large amount.
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So step one in our relationship to the Master is trusting in his
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sovereignty. He's sovereign.
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God gives us our starting parameters.
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He's given you your starting parameter parameters.
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And he has right expectation that each of us are going to do
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something with it. And we're all born right at
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different times. There's some baby boomers in
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here, there's some millennials, there's Generation XI.
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Don't know what the generation after that is.
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There might even be some swing generation in here.
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We all have unique family dynamics.
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We have money or we don't have money.
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Hey brother, we have high Iqs, low Iqs, we have athleticism or
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not. We are handy and good with
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working with our hands or not. We're good at gardening or if
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you're like me, you'll kill every single plant and flower
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that you touch. We have unique personalities and
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ways of interacting with the world.
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Whatever it is. We are to trust His sovereignty
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and our life and not fall into the trap of comparison.
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Our master is sovereign and here in the parable He gives the
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talents and then He leaves for his journey.
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And I want you to notice next that there is a timeline in what
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we are given. There is a time constraint for
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all of us. And it says in verse 19, after a
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long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled
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accounts with them. Now, here's the thing about long
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delays. The long delay could tempt the
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servants to think that they would never give an account for
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their management of their talents.
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Yet they most certainly would because it's in the mundaneness
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of our life, right? It's in the day-to-day of our
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lives that we can be lulled into this false mindset that what
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we're doing doesn't matter, you know, And in those moments,
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sometimes I wish I had maybe like a little AI friend
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connected to my ear, you know, that's kind of attached and
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could pick up on this law and prompt me.
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So they maybe even with the 8 questions that Pastor Ed gave us
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over the weekend, like yo JJ, I see you being lulled into
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complacency. Hear me, hear me.
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Remember who you are. You are a son of the Most High.
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Remember these questions. One, will this help me honor
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God? Will this separate me unto God?
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Will this help my usefulness to God?
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Will this prepare me for every good work?
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Does this build me up spiritually?
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Can this thing bring me under its power?
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Does it give me an uneasy conscience?
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Could it cause someone else to stumble?
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Well, let me suggest to you that I you, we already have something
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that's better than AI. And as a believer, what do we
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have? We have the Holy Spirit now.
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Unfortunately, the spirit at times may not seem as sexy as an
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AI gadget because of how our culture bombards us with the
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short game, the now, the immediate Nah.
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The spirit is interested in the long game.
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The spirit is interested in our character.
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The spirit is interested in your spiritual formation.
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The Spirit is interested in those series of moments of
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failure and victory that are constantly meant to bring us
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into this posture of seeking Jesus, where over time through
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this formation, our will becomes His will and we are just simply
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making Christ like decisions throughout our day.
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That's just what we do. So this long game spiritual
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formation comes through discipline.
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Some of us don't like that word discipline.
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There are disciplines to our faith guys, and Pastor Ed's
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constantly exhorting us in it. Prayer, reading the Word,
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memorizing Scripture, doing what we're doing right now, right,
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The teaching of the Word, fellowshipping with each other,
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eating and celebrating together, sitting with and grieving with
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each other. Disciplines, discipleship.
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Are we being disciples? Are we being an apprentice to
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Jesus day in and day out? Or are we being lulled into
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thinking there will be no account of our actions?
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There's always an account. We are to know that we are to
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live, that there is always an account.
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The master does return. And so verses 20 through 23 we
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see the 1st 2 Sor servants reporting in.
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The servant that was given 10 or excuse me, the servant that was
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given 5 talents sees the master, reports into the master, gives
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him back 10 talents. The servant that was given two
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talents reports into the master, gives back four talents.
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And notice the master's response to these first two servants.
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Well done, good and faithful servant.
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You were faithful over a few things.
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I will make you ruler over many things.
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Enter into the joy of your Lord. Come on, who doesn't want to
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hear that? Well done, good and faithful
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servant. Faithful.
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These servants trusted in the sovereignty of their master,
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trusted in the sovereignty of God and what they had been
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given, and they were faithful to it.
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Now what we didn't hear when the second service, the 2nd servant
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received 22 talents, we didn't hear him, but like golly Gee
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Master, why didn't I get 5 talents?
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Nope, he just got to work with what he was given.
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And we can say many good things about the work of the first two
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servants. They did their work promptly.
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They did their work with perseverance, they did their
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work with success, and they were ready to give an account to the
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master. And because of this, I don't
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want us to miss this word ruler. They were made ruler over many
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things. And this word ruler in the Greek
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is catistemi, which means to set 1 / a thing, to be in charge of
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it to a .1, to administer an office.
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Now this is a transition for the servants.
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They're now being appointed as rulers.
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They are in partnership with the Master.
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And this is exactly what Jesus is inviting us into.
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It's exactly what he's inviting you into.
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He's inviting you into a partnership with him.
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And I can hear in this moment what Jesus said in John 15
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verses 14 and 15. You are my friends if you do
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whatever I command you no longer do I call you servants, for a
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servant does not know what his master is doing.
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But I have called you friends for all things that I heard from
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my Father. I have made known to you.
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They are friends with Christ, given a portion of the Kingdom
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to oversee. Don't you want to partner with
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Christ? Don't you want your portion?
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I know I do. So now let's see the contrast
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with these first two servants and the contrast with the third
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servant. Third servant comes to the
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master and with the same one talent that he was given.
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He says in verses 24 and 25, Lord, I knew you to be a hard
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man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you
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have not scattered seed. And I was afraid and I went and
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hid your talent in the ground. And this like this moment, I
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don't know how, I don't know what you know what this
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interaction is like. But in my mind it's like, look,
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look, look, look there you, it's yours, have what is yours almost
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like in desperation, like it's yours as if the talent was his
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to begin with. Because remember, God is
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sovereign. So he does almost nothing with
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the masters money. And I say almost nothing because
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he did take some care that it wouldn't be lost by hiding it,
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right? But he did nothing positive with
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his master's money in contrast to the first two servants.
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So what can we say of the work of this servant?
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He didn't think he didn't work. He didn't even try, and he made
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excuses. And FB Meyer expresses the
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thinking of this servant, and it's good to hear.
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Here's what he says. I can do very little.
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So imagine the servant. I can do very little.
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It will not make much difference if I do nothing.
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I shall not be missed. My tiny push is not needed to
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turn the scale. In other words, what I do really
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doesn't matter. We might say that this servant
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did not have a proper fear of his master, for what we see is
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that his real fear resided in the risk of failure, not
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trusting the sovereignty of the master.
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A slave to fear of failure and everything that shakes out from
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that. And some of you know exactly
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what I'm talking about. There's a lot that shakes out
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from that fear of failure. And notice his statement again.
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Lord, I need you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not
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sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
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Don't you think the other two servants also knew that he was a
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hard man? Yes, they knew he would reap
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where he has not sown. They knew He would gather where
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he had not scattered seed. But guess what?
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They went for it. They risked it and had success.
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They partnered with the Master and the reality of the
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situation. So what is partnership?
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There's a whole other study for me inside of this partnership
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thing that I can't expound on, But I do want to touch on our
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principle here. And it said in our partnership
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with Jesus, we're given free will.
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And isn't that right? We're made in the image of God.
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So he gives us free will. And as such, he does allow
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things into our life. But he doesn't move us around
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like chess pieces. He sets about his business and
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he comes to us to give account. What have we been doing in our
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life? What have we been doing with our
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free will? If we know that we are partners
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and we know that He is sovereign, then we know He's
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going to come and He's going to reap where He has not sown.
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And He's trusting you. He's trusting Me to do the
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sowing. So let us sow, Let's use our
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talents and get after it so that we don't experience with the
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fearful, reluctant third servant experienced verses 28 through
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30. Take the talent from him and
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give it to him who has 10 talents.
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For to everyone who has more will be given, and he will have
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abundance. But from him who does not have
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even what he has will be taken away and cast the unprofitable
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servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and
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gnashing of teeth. That's hard and it's no joke.
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And remember this section of Scripture.
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These are red letter, right? If you've got a red letter
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Bible, this is all in red. These are the very words of
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Jesus, and he is not pulling any punches.
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He's speaking here in this form of a parable.
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And again, a parable is a story that's thrown alongside of a
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life as that life is being lived.
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And so in the spirit of the parable, I want to go for a
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moment from the sacred to the secular.
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I want to throw these verses alongside of those who may not
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know Jesus. I want to throw this alongside
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of those who just referenced the events of their life as like,
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yeah, that's just life. The universe.
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The universe is going to look out for me.
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I don't know if you've like, paid attention to what happens
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outside of the atmosphere of Earth, but it's pretty
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merciless. Merciless, right?
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Well, these Kingdom principles apply to you too.
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And this parable is at the very construct, the very matrix, the
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very foundation of life. And all of us, believers and non
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believers alike, I think that we resonate with these verses.
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And why? Because we know that life is
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this way. We know it.
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We've seen people in our lives squander their lives, squander
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their talents, and we've seen them systematically lose out
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over time. We've seen people operate in
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fear and hide. Hide behind substance use, hide
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behind emotions like anger and sadness.
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I'm guilty of that. It's almost as if they are
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living their own version of hell on earth.
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Life is hard and we know it. It is relentless.
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It does not let up and get this, God is relentless too.
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He would tell us to be holy as he is holy.
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He would tell us to be perfect. Like really?
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Yeah, you be holy, be perfect. This is the construct we are in.
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And whether you want to chalk it up to just life or the universe
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that cares nothing about you, or you want to partner with God and
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walk in his Kingdom principles, it is relentless.
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Regardless of the path, it is relentless.
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But here's the deal. In God's relentlessness, we get
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help. We have access to the very power
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that raised Jesus from the from the dead to give us the fruits
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of the Spirit, which give us grace along the way.
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And boy, don't we need grace. Amen.
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Yes, and get this, we have a community.
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We have a community around us who are what?
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Striving for, for perfection, a community that's learning and
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growing in love, right? These fruits of the spirit,
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learning and growing in joy, learning and growing in peace,
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in patience, in kindness and goodness and faithfulness, in
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gentleness and in self-control. I call this the mechanism.
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It's the fruits of the spirit, but I just call it the
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mechanism. And we have a mechanism given to
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us to move in this relentlessness of life given to
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us by Jesus. For example, as a thought
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experiment, consider if the 1st 2 servants invested their
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talents and failed, right? They succeeded.
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But let's say they failed. I'm certain that the mechanism,
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the fruits of the Spirit, the mechanism of their faith amidst
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their community of faith, would have given them the buffer to
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keep it all, or to keep at it, to keep risking, to keep giving,
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and to keep loving profoundly through all of it.
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But the third servant hid his talent.
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He was afraid to risk and invest, and what he had was
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taken away and given to those who were stewarding their
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talents. And even worse, after losing it
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at all, losing it all. What did we read?
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He was cast out unto the outer darkness where there is weeping
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and gnashing of teeth. This points to hell.
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Both the hell on earth inside of the consequences of a life thus
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lived and also an eternal hell. Hard news.
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And when it comes to hell, I got to go with my man CS Lewis.
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Lewis understood the disastrous consequences of the modern mind
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trying to exclude the spiritual. He would say, I know lots of
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people who believe in heaven but don't believe in hell.
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It's not a popular doctrine. But here's the deal with Lewis.
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He didn't back off, and I want to quote here.
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He says there is no doctrine. When he says doctrine, he's
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Speaking of hell. There is no doctrine, which I
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would more willingly, willingly remove from Christianity than
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this if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of
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Scripture and especially of our Lord's own words.
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It has always been held by Christendom, and it has a
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support of reason. If a game is played, it must be
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possible to lose it if a game is played.
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How often do you guys hear that in your normal life?
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Life is a game, Life is a game, We hear it all the time.
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And if life is a game, then it can be lost.
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Or we learn from this parable and we know that our Master will
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harvest where he has not sown yet.
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Even regardless, we will trust that he is sovereign, and we'll
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get busy in our partnership with Him, investing what He has given
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us. And as we invest in His Kingdom
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with other believers, we're operating in the glorious
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mechanism of the fruits of the Spirit.
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And what we're on this eternal adventure together.
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That's what we're on. We're on an adventure in this
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community of faith. I was talking with a friend the
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other day and I, I just got to share a little bit about
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Abraham. And I've just been in this
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meditation in my own life of like, what would it have been
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like to be Abraham? Like really?
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No kidding. There was no tradition.
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You know, he's stepping in and it's just like, this guy's
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getting dreams, this guy's getting visions, this guy's like
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going for it. And like, do you think there
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were people in his life that thought he was crazy?
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You betcha. Like, what are you doing?
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I'm following God and that's where our faith is connected to.
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Our faith is connected to Abraham.
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And so this is what you're a part of, believer, this
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community of faith. This is what you're part of as a
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friend of Jesus. With this context set, we know
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the game we're in. So what is it that keeps us from
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going for it? What is it that keeps us from
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risking it with the talents that God has given us?
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To get practical and into the application of this, I give you
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a one word answer. You know what it is?
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Pain. Relationships are painful.
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Stepping into the unknown, painful, failure, painful.
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Experiencing the relentlessness of life, painful.
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One author said this. It is the genius of wicked men
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to lay the blame of their miscarriages.
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I say pain the the blame of their pain upon others,
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oftentimes upon God himself. In our pain we can lose
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perspective. It's in this most crucial time,
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this time of pain, where proper perspective is paramount, where
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the search for meaning is at its greatest.
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So where is it that we go for truth?
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Where do you go? As the author said, we lay the
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blame on others and oftentimes upon God Himself.
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But we are to know the Master, rightly so.
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What is the truth about our pain?
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To get to the truth, I want to point out a few things.
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I think we have to be aware of a few things.
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First of all, we need to be aware of how we deal with our
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pain. Frederick Buchner breaks down
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how we deal with pain into 4 categories.
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One way we can deal with pain is by taking a kind of grim.
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Let me take a step back as I'm reading these.
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Here's my ask of you guys. My ask of you guys is I want you
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to listen, and I want you to see which one of these categories
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you identify with in terms of how you handle your pain.
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So let me start over. One way we can deal with pain is
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by taking a kind of grim, awful pleasure in it.
24:13
One flavor of this is I deserve it.
24:17
I know ladies in relationship that are rationalizing stuff out
24:21
the wazoo. Why?
24:24
For some reason they think they deserve it.
24:26
Do you? Another way is by dealing with
24:30
pain as if it is the biggest thing that has ever happened to
24:33
us, making it a justification for existing.
24:36
That was mine when my mom passed away three years ago.
24:40
That was all me. And then like to that it's like,
24:43
where's the joy? Where's the possibility?
24:48
Some of your jokesters. Then there's the making the joke
24:51
of our pain, Hiding our pain behind a joke.
24:55
Why? Because pain's uncomfortable, so
24:57
we sidestep it and make light of it.
25:00
But the pain is real. And finally, there is
25:03
competitive pain where pain becomes an accomplishment.
25:08
Something like how you think you've suffered.
25:10
Well, let me tell you how I've suffered.
25:12
That's a bit of the pull up your bootstraps Sergeant type.
25:17
So I had an ask of you and I'm going to ask you to raise your
25:21
hand and if you would just please indulge me just for the
25:24
sake of like knowing that we're not alone.
25:29
Raise your hand if you identified with any of those
25:31
categories on how you deal with pain.
25:35
All right, now I want everybody to look around, keep your hands
25:37
up, look around. You're not alone.
25:39
It's a reality, right? Which category are you?
25:46
And then secondly. So first, I wanted us to be
25:48
aware of pain. Secondly, we need to be aware of
25:50
the categories of pain. I want us to be aware that there
25:53
is a mutual influence between us as an individual and our
25:58
environment. Whether it be the family you're
26:01
in, the broader community you're in.
26:03
We shape and are shaped by the people and experiences around
26:08
us. So as soon as you step out to
26:12
invest your talents, as soon as that happens, you're bringing
26:16
your story, you're bringing your social context, you're bringing
26:19
your past, you're bringing your present into someone else's
26:23
story, someone else's social context, someone else's past,
26:27
and someone else's present. And there's some big
26:31
implications here in this dynamic.
26:33
You know, it's like, here's a little old me with all my little
26:36
connections and all my bondings and all my little filters and
26:38
stuff that I bring to the table. Here's yours.
26:40
And, and here we are interacting with each other and here we are
26:44
interacting with each other. And there's some big
26:46
implications to that. And I want to capture these
26:49
implications so that we land on a proper perspective of our
26:53
master as we set out to invest our talents.
26:59
And to do that, we've got to talk about emotions because
27:04
here's the thing with emotions, we're rolling through this
27:08
bonded world with an operating system, whether we like it or
27:11
not, that is emotional in nature. iPhone has the iOS,
27:16
Android has their operating system and we have ours.
27:19
And it's emotional. And we are fully online to our
27:23
environment as we move through it.
27:25
And it's like we're moving through and we're assessing.
27:29
And as we're assessing, you know what we're assessing for love
27:33
and trustworthiness and how we are loved teaches us everything
27:41
we know about our identity. Hear that How you have been
27:46
loved, how you are loved is what's teaching you about your
27:50
identity. Now, as you as a believer, when
27:53
you hear me say the word identity, every internal radar
27:57
inside of you should be like identity, he said.
28:00
Identity. Yes.
28:01
And where do we find our identity as followers in Christ?
28:04
Yes, our identity is in Christ. And here's what's up.
28:09
As we're interacting with our world, there are non believers
28:13
whose history of being loved have given them their identity.
28:16
And even as we interact with believers who know, who knows
28:19
where they're at inside of their own reconciliation and their
28:22
identity in Christ. But yet here we are bumping in
28:24
into each other. Here we are trying to do things
28:26
together. Here we are investing our
28:28
talents. Here we are sharing our giftings
28:30
together and it's the same with trustworthiness.
28:36
So if love teaches US identity, trustworthiness in relationship
28:41
teaches us everything about safety in relating to others.
28:45
So we're walking around assessing our environment.
28:47
Love identity is this is, this is, can I trust this person?
28:51
Can I trust the situation? Am I safe?
28:53
It's like we, our radars, are up constantly testing for safety,
28:59
and if we're not careful, we will take the results of our
29:03
interactions with people and we project those onto God.
29:10
You see, there's this metaphor that we use in relationships
29:13
called the horizontal and the vertical.
29:16
The horizontal being all the people interactions that we have
29:20
and the vertical being our relationship with God.
29:23
And again, if we're not careful, we'll take all the horizontal
29:25
relationships, all the baggage from those relationship and
29:28
relationships and let them define our vertical relationship
29:30
with God. When it's supposed to be just
29:32
the opposite. When it's supposed to be that we
29:35
take the vertical relationship with God and we allow God to be
29:39
sovereign in that relationship and for him to define all of our
29:43
horizontal relationships. So right now I want to, I want
29:48
to sear an image into your brain and heart.
29:51
I want you to imagine that you're driving down Arapahoe and
29:54
you're driving down Arapahoe. You look over on the sidewalk,
29:57
maybe you recognize it's me, but I'm just walking down, doing a,
30:00
doing a walking exercise down Arapahoe.
30:02
And you're just looking at me. And I'm like, yeah, just just
30:06
doing it for you. And what you don't know is what
30:08
I'm doing is I'm just meditating.
30:09
I'm praying. I'm like Lord, vertical,
30:11
horizontal, vertical horizontal, Lord, let your let my vertical
30:17
relationship with you, let that define my horizontal, my
30:20
horizontal relationships. I'm not going to let my
30:24
horizontal relationships define my vertical relationship with
30:27
God. But we do.
30:33
We do. And this is not the proper
30:34
perspective towards our master. Back to pain, the root of our
30:43
pain has come from our interactions with others on the
30:47
horizontal, on the horizontal plane, and with regard to
30:52
identity and sense of safety. This pain becomes solidified as
30:56
we grow and develop. Some of you have had some very
30:59
painful lives even within your own families.
31:04
Those things are real. Those things have an impact and
31:09
we continue to play out similar or same pain patterns, not only
31:14
with regards to the past, but also in current relationships
31:18
and even with God. So let's put some feet on this.
31:23
You can pull up the slide again. We're investing talents.
31:32
We set about to invest our talents and what are we doing?
31:35
Again, We're it's there. It's like 2 antennas.
31:39
Love and trustworthiness. Love and trustworthiness.
31:41
Oh, love is our identity. Trustworthiness is his safety
31:45
and we're moving through the horizontal plane of our people
31:47
relationships. And along the way there is a
31:49
violation of love. And I wanted this slide up
31:56
because I'm going to read some details.
31:58
And as I'm reading details, just like I had asked you, when, you
32:00
know, considering the pain, I wanted this slide to be up so
32:04
you at least kind of have a structure of where I'm at and
32:06
what's going on. Because this love and safety
32:10
deal is a big deal in terms of pain, in terms of how we
32:13
interact inside of our pain, in terms of how we're interacting
32:16
with each other as brothers and sisters.
32:18
And the Lord would just want us to firmly be planted in his
32:20
identity. The Lord would want us to be
32:22
drawing on our vertical relationship with him.
32:24
The Lord would want us to know that we're absolutely safe with
32:27
him. So then we can just spill all of
32:28
that over and bring that to our horizontal relationships.
32:30
But that's not always how it goes.
32:32
But we're constantly bumping into it as we're out in the
32:34
world trying to invest our talents, even amidst fellow
32:37
believers, as we're trying to bring our giftings and exercise
32:39
our talents, right. So as we're moving to the
32:43
horizontal plane, maybe you're not unloved, Maybe you don't
32:47
feel loved, maybe you don't feel safe.
32:49
So we'll call this a violation. Something happens.
32:52
You're like, man, I didn't feel very loving.
32:55
I don't feel very, very safe right now.
32:58
This causes pain and confusion of who you are as an individual.
33:08
If there's a violation of love, hear some words and just hear
33:11
them and see where you land in this.
33:13
I feel unloved, unworthy, insignificant, alone, worthless,
33:23
devalued, defective, inadequate, rejected, unaccepted, unwanted,
33:33
judged, unappreciated, hopeless, disrespected, and discouraged.
33:41
And guess what you do when you feel that way?
33:44
You cope. Left in your flesh, left in your
33:48
way, you cope. And how do you cope?
33:52
Well, if you're feeling unloved, you're going to do one of two
33:53
things. You're going to blame others or
33:56
you're going to shame yourself. And, and as I'm even as you're
34:00
hearing my words like you might be like, whoa, that's exactly
34:03
what I do. If you cope by blaming others,
34:07
here's some words for you. Angry, sarcastic, arrogant,
34:11
fault finding, harsh, impatient, aggressive, discouraging,
34:17
threatening, grudge, holding, retaliatory, and all of us
34:22
withdraw in our coping mechanisms mechanisms.
34:24
But check this out in the blaming others.
34:27
You withdraw to punish. Your intent is to punish others.
34:31
Now if you cope by shaming yourself again, we're over here
34:34
unloved, right? We're coping in pain.
34:37
If you cope by shaming yourself, here's some words for you.
34:40
Negative, hopeless, egocentric, unhappy, disrespectful, anxious,
34:48
inconsolable, manipulative, whining, needy.
34:53
You withdrawal too, but you withdrawal to pout.
34:56
So that's love. Now for trustworthiness.
34:58
And again, remember, trustworthiness gives us our
35:01
sense of safety. So on the right top right,
35:03
unsafe, same thing as before. We're moving through the
35:06
horizontal plane of all of our people relationships and along
35:09
the way there's a violation of trust.
35:12
You, you, you. It ain't safe.
35:14
You ain't feeling it. It's not with you.
35:16
This causes pain and confusion over safety of relationships.
35:19
So here are some words to capture this feeling of pain and
35:22
confusion. OK, violation of trust.
35:25
Unsafe. You feel unsafe, insecure,
35:29
unsure, used, guilty, helpless, powerless, out of control,
35:36
controlled, vulnerable, disconnected, unknown,
35:39
abandoned, failure, invalidated, not measuring up and out of
35:44
pain. You cope.
35:45
We cope. How do we cope?
35:48
Hey, if it's if it's unsafe, I'm going to control what's up.
35:51
You go into controlling behaviors or I'm out.
35:54
I'm escaping, get a little chaotic, I'm out.
35:57
And if you cope by using controlling behaviors, hear some
36:00
words entitled, perfectionistic, invulnerable clothes, critical,
36:05
judging, isolate, nagging, demanding, closed, suspicious
36:11
withdrawals to defend. And if you cope by escaping or
36:16
chaotic behavior, here's some words irresponsible,
36:19
disconnected, addicted, numbed out, out of control,
36:22
provocative, unreliable, secretive, impulsive, avoidant,
36:27
selfish withdrawals to escape. So this is what it looks like to
36:31
allow our horizontal relationships to dictate our
36:34
actions. We experience the reactions of
36:37
others and we get into our feelings and we cope.
36:41
Or we get a proper perspective of our Master, standing in the
36:44
truth of His love and our identity in Him.
36:48
Standing in the truth that we can trust Him and with Him
36:51
there's safety. So now when we experience the
36:56
reactions of others as we step out to invest our talents, we
36:59
step out to share our giftings, we don't feel and cope.
37:03
We stand in truth and we act. Feeling and coping.
37:08
Nope, standing in truth and acting.
37:13
We stand in the truth of our Master, knowing that we are
37:15
partners, knowing that He is sovereign, knowing He will come
37:19
and reap where He has not sown, knowing He is trusting us to do
37:23
the sowing. You could with what I'm sharing
37:26
with you, you could continue your own Bible study.
37:29
And as you're reading Bible studies, just all of the
37:31
scriptures that you bump into, where it's just like you're
37:33
being reminded of God's love, all of those scriptures where
37:36
you're being reminded of your safety in Christ, his
37:39
faithfulness, the trustworthiness, it'll give your
37:41
own. It'll give you your own library
37:43
of beautiful promises. And they're already yours
37:46
anyway, believer. So I encourage you to receive
37:50
them and make you make them yours because this is the truth.
37:55
The truth is you are loved. Receive this.
38:04
You're priceless, you're treasured, you're appreciated,
38:08
you're adequate, you're accepted, you're significant.
38:11
You're never alone. You're valued, you're able to
38:14
make choices, you're valuable, you're known, you're full of
38:18
worth, you're celebrated. God delights in you.
38:21
You're wanted. You're fully capable of
38:24
self-control, connected. Now standing in truth.
38:29
When it comes to love and identity, there is that peace
38:31
beyond all understanding and confidence in who you are in
38:34
Christ and who you are as a person.
38:36
So no longer feeling and coping, but rather standing in truth and
38:39
acting. So I just want to go over this
38:41
quickly. So now in truth, forget the
38:42
pain. We're acting in peace.
38:44
That is where actions are coming from.
38:46
And guess what? When you're loved now instead of
38:48
blaming others, you're nurturing others.
38:50
Instead of shaming self, you're valuing self on the safety side.
38:55
You're not trying to control. It's a balance to give and take
38:59
and then instead of escaping and chaotic behavior, you're just
39:02
connected. Connected.
39:04
And I want to give you some words in that.
39:10
So for nurturing others, here's some words.
39:12
Loving, encouraging, supportive, accepting, inclusive, kind,
39:16
gentle, patient, forgiving, just to name a few.
39:18
If you're valuing self standing in truth, acting in peace,
39:22
positive, humble, respectful, settled, self aware, and I don't
39:27
mean like, you know, the world's robbed us of self-awareness.
39:31
You know, it's, it's no, we're to be self aware in Christ,
39:33
joyful, hopeful, good, optimistic on the trust and
39:37
safety side, the controlling, escaping chaotic behaviors.
39:41
No, we're in peace. We're standing in the truth.
39:43
We're acting out of that. We're in balance, give and take
39:46
in connection. Here are some words for balance,
39:48
Give and take. Open balance and giving and
39:51
taking. Known, engaging, accepting of
39:53
imperfection. You're connecting.
39:55
You're reliably connected, responsible, reliable, self
39:58
controlled. This is encouraging stuff.
40:05
And all of this out of exploring the parable of the talents.
40:09
And why? Because it's real.
40:13
There's a reality to bringing your redeemed self to the world.
40:17
There is a reality to the reaction of others.
40:19
There is a reality to the relentlessness of life.
40:24
And if you walk away tonight with anything, walk away with
40:27
this. Jesus wants you to partner with
40:32
Him. He has designed you for today,
40:36
for such a time as this. He truly is sovereign in all
40:40
things and He truly is equipping you for every good work.
40:44
He wants you to go for it. He wants us to go for it.
40:47
He wants you to invest your talents.
40:48
He wants you to take risks and be willing to fail while abiding
40:52
in Him, disabiding. And where else can we go for
40:56
truth, guys? Where else can we go for truth
41:00
on how deeply we are loved outside of Jesus?
41:04
I mean, what's the verse we could say together?
41:07
Which John 316 on the count of 3123.
41:10
For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son,
41:14
that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have
41:18
everlasting life. That's the love that He has.
41:23
Where else can we go for that deep abiding safety?
41:27
Proverbs 1810 The name of the Lord is a strong tower.
41:31
The righteous run to it and are safe.
41:38
And when it comes to being snatched away, Jesus has
41:42
something to say about that. And John 10 again, speaking to
41:45
safety, He says, I give them eternal life and they shall
41:48
never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my
41:52
hand. My father who has given them to
41:54
me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out
41:58
of my father's hands. I and my father are one.
42:04
So we're deeply loved, friends. We are deeply loved, and we are
42:09
deeply safe in the hands of a good, good father.
42:15
And so as the worship team comes up, I do want to ask.
42:19
I want to ask, are there any of you here tonight who realize
42:25
that, you know, you may be in the places of that flesh, right?
42:29
You're in the place of coping and pain and you need prayer to
42:32
be reminded of who you are in Christ, to be established in
42:37
truth, to operate from a place of peace in the fruits of the
42:40
Spirit. So if that's you, I would ask
42:43
you to stand up. Be bold, stand up.
42:51
See you guys in the back. All right, I see Pastor Bob's
43:04
already gone and I and I love that.
43:06
So the folks that are standing up, if if those around, if you
43:09
can just come and pray. We want to pray for you and
43:13
maybe there's some of you that haven't stood up.
43:15
And so, Lord, we do come before you and just through your word
43:20
to us tonight of what it is, Lord, to be faithful inside of
43:24
your sovereignty, to be faithful with what you have given us.
43:30
Lord, we want that, Lord, we want to, we want to give.
43:36
We want to give ultimately what is yours anyway?
43:39
We want to give it. And Lord, we acknowledge that in
43:41
the giving of that, it doesn't always go our way.
43:45
We interact with others, they have their own opinions.
43:49
The results may not be what we we, we imagined or even what we
43:52
wanted. And Lord, we get in our flesh.
43:57
And I think of Paul in this where it's just like, oh, I
44:00
don't do what I know I should do and I'm doing what I know I
44:02
shouldn't do. But I think he was right in the
44:04
heart of this. Just just what it is in our
44:06
flesh to cope. Like how is it that we cope?
44:09
And so my brothers that are standing up, Lord, I just pray
44:11
for you to establish them and who you are and your identity,
44:16
Lord, for them to just stand in your truth, knowing exactly who
44:19
you are, Lord. And, and just as we talked about
44:21
to, to, to, to, it's to get away from that feeling and coping,
44:25
but to, just to stand in your truth and act from there.
44:28
Let the actions speak from there.
44:30
Lord, you love them deeply. You hold them in the palm of
44:34
your hand and no one can snatch them out.
44:38
Minister to them. Lord bless them in your name, in
44:40
the name of Jesus, Amen. We pray that you've been
44:44
encouraged by this Bible study, delivered live from the
44:46
sanctuary of Calvary Church. For prayer, call us at 87730
44:52
Grace that's 877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
44:59
integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
45:03
online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
45:09
Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
45:11
this week.