Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / June 7th, 2015 - Hunter Ruch - Week 2

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June 7th, 2015 - Hunter Ruch - Week 2 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it great to be here?
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's finally starting to feel like summer.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: For some that's good, maybe not.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's an exciting time to be here on our church campus.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We've got spring fling, which is happening today after the third service.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you're excited for a sweaty spring fling.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: We just had summer sizzle.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, summer comes before spring, I guess, here at Topeka Bible Church.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: We had our student ministries with an exciting week of ministry there.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And this week, we're looking forward to Kanicuk campout for the children.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a very exciting time to be in and around the church.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And last week, if you were here, I'd promise you that I would show a video that is a great reminder of what we're to be about and why we do what we do.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go ahead and watch this excellent clip, which will explain more about why we're here.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine a church where every member is passionately, wholeheartedly, and recklessly calling the shots.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: I have a busy work week, and by the time Sunday rolls around, I'm tired.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: So how about a church service that starts when I get there?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Can do.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: When you arrive, we begin.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: This guy, he plays by his own rules.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: We want to find a church where if he starts screaming, we're not the bad guys.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Say no more.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: If your baby's screaming, you stay seated.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: The others around you can leave.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, financially, Sherry and I don't give a lot to the church, but we'd sure like to know who does.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: All right, if you join now, you'll know what every person gives in detail.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: When I'm in the church service, can my car get a buff and a wax?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Not just that, but an oil change and a tuna.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: How about tickets to the Super Bowl?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's asking too much.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm serious.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm gonna join, I want tickets to the big game.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, you join now and we'll get you there.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: I like a pony.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Look in your backyard.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Me church, where it's all about you.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Did you enjoy that?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: We showed that about nine years ago, and it's a good reminder, by the way, just if you're visiting here, this is not what we're supposed to be about.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, last week we we said that's not what we're supposed to be about at all.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the church is not about us, it's about Jesus.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: But yet, strangely enough, if I look at my life, and I suspect if you look at your life as well, that might be, even just a small way, not quite so obviously, but maybe in small ways, that might be how you approach your involvement here or your attendance here.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're all guilty of doing that.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Approaching church with more of a consumer mentality that it's about me.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we forget that in the midst of all the different messages and types of churches and denominations, that there really is one clear purpose for which why are we here, that Jesus has called us to as those who are part of the body of Christ.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we've been doing last week and this week is we've been trying to ask and answer some questions that give a little sharper focus and clarity to what we're supposed to be about as the church.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been calling this little two-week series the church, what who, what, and how.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And last week was the who and the what, and then this week is more the how, talking specifically about the purpose for why we're here, for why we even get together, for why we have been called by Jesus to follow him.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're visiting, I hope you have an understanding by the time that we're done.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And oh, by the way, if you're not visiting, I hope you have an understanding too.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: That we we're here for a very important purpose.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And as we look at the book of 1 Peter chapter 2, again, we're gonna dive a little deeper into that purpose.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope to draw some principles of application that will help all of us to live out the calling and the mission that God has us here.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So last week we talked about being living stones, how Christ is the living stone, the cornerstone and the foundation, and how we, amazingly enough, are also called living stones who are shaped by Him, and how we have been called to this important purpose.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And as we get to what we're talking about today, we're gonna kind of answer two questions about our purpose.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And my prayer is that God will stir our hearts to understand how we can carry that purpose out in our lives in the very settings in which he's placed us here in our community.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, the context of 1 Peter, as we talked about last week, you have the Apostle Peter, who is one of the original disciples, a good buddy of Jesus Christ, who is writing to a group of Christians in the area of Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey, and they are experiencing significant persecution.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: As we said last week, ISIS-level persecution for their faith.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're being persecuted by the Emperor Nero, who ruled the Roman Empire at that time, about A.D.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: 64, and they were being challenged to forsake Jesus Christ.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, and because of the torture that they were going through, Peter wrote to these Christians to tell them and encourage them to stand firm as the church, to stand firm in their faith in the face of brutal persecution.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we find a lot of deep theology and richness to this book, but certainly to the chapter that we're going to look at today again, a deep richness that comes to us from the Old Testament that shows us some application in the New Testament.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, just like last week, we we did this, and I'm gonna ask us to do this again.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna stand for the reading of God's Word.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: So let's all stand up together.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the words are gonna be on the screen, and I have to confess, this happened by accident last week.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't intend for everybody to read out loud, but enough people apparently did last week that other people felt like, oh, well, maybe I'm supposed to do that too.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so they read along, and you know what?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was great.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was one of those accidental God things.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually directed the third service people to do the very same thing.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we're gonna do is we're all gonna read out loud together.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Again, thanks to your great example, even if it was by accident or by something that I said by accident.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you can read from whatever version you want, but just so you know, we're all gonna be reading from the ESV, which is on the screen.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I don't want you to say some word differently and your neighbor look at you like, what are you doing?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but that's up to you because it's God's word and we love it.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh let's start reading out loud together.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: The words will be on the screen from 1 Peter chapter 2, starting in verse 1.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: As you come to him a living stone, rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: For it stands in Scripture, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Father, this is intended to be a time that you will use.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: We really can't make any good come out of this, Father, apart from you.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: We know that your Son, Jesus Christ, has died for us and has been raised for us so that we might walk in newness of life.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And apart from Christ, we just can't do it.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know apart from Christ, Father, I can't proclaim anything that will be of ultimate and eternal value to my friends here and to me.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so we appeal to you to make our hearts teachable, and we appeal to you to use this time for the purposes that you would desire because we want to be about your business, but we can't do that apart from you.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: We need you, we love you, and we pray these things in the name of your son Jesus Christ.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Please be seated.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Going back to last week, we had a working definition of the church, and again, if you disagree and don't like it, uh hey, again, Jim at discover tbc.com.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you need to send your complaints.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um but this is what we we talked about last week that the church is a community of people who are founded upon Jesus Christ and led by Jesus Christ in order to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's plain and simple.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and last week we talked about the uh community part and the founding and leadership part of Jesus.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this week we talk more about the purpose in a little more detail.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Our three truths, which also outline last week and this week, in Jesus you are part of something bigger.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just you and Jesus, that's important, but it's you, us together as the church.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: We're the body of Christ.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, in Jesus you have a perfect foundation.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody and no thing should ever become the foundation of the church.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: That place belongs to Jesus Christ alone, because Jesus is the only foundation that is required for the church to be the church.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, number three, in Jesus you have an important purpose, which is why we're here this morning.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: A quotation from Chuck Swindahl in his book Hope Again When Life Hurts and Dreams Fade.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we talked about last week, and this summarizes our three truths today.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Chuck Swindahl writes, He that is God has quarried you from the pit of your sin, and he now is chiseling away and shaping you and ultimately sliding you into place.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: You are a part of his building project.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And his building project is part of why we're here, to talk about purpose and why we exist as the church.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: You may remember last week we talked about the word that's used for living stone of Jesus, but also for us is the word lithos for stone.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's stone is dead by nature, but it's somehow made alive in Jesus Christ because everything about the church is alive.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And how this is not the word that's used for a rock that you simply find when you put your shovel into the ground.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up in Connecticut, and it seems like every time we put our shovel into the ground, we were turning over big boulders because of the rocky soil.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: But those are just rocks that you might find in the ground or on the field.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's a different kind of rock than this word used for stone, lithos, which refers to that which has been shaped for a specific purpose, to be placed in a building for a specific use.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so we talk about that purpose today in a little more detail.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And really, we're gonna be asking and answering two questions.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: What is our purpose and how do we carry it out?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: We begin with talking about our purpose and defining it.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: What is our purpose?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm apologizing in advance.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna jump around a little bit, something that would make some of you and other preaching professors just cry foul, but this is God's word.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think we find value in it.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna begin actually in some later verses, in verses nine and ten of 1 Peter chapter 2.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna find a little bit about our identity and how that relates to our purpose.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: So in verse 9, and we read these words as Peter talks about, you know, he's just talked about those that reject Christ, they stumble.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: But you, he says, are a chosen race.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to press the pause button, slow down a little bit, because again, as we said last week, we kind of read through certain phrases and words that we're familiar with, and you sort of yada yada the Bible, and we can't do that here, and shouldn't do that at any point when it comes to the Bible, because there's some very uh rich language that's being used here to tell us about who we are and what we've been called to.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you, if you've read the Bible, uh, and even if you haven't, you've probably heard these two words, chosen race, used in context of God's chosen people.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that would be the Jews.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if you were Jewish, you'd say, Well, yes, I am one of God's chosen people.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: We are the descendants of Abraham, and God gave those promises to Abraham, and we now have those descendants.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd say, Yes, that's true.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: But how true is that now also of the church?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because what we see is that the promises in the Old Testament given to Israel through Abraham have now been expanded to include the church and the New Testament extended through Christ, which is an amazing reality and it should blow our mind.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't believe that the church replaces ethnic Israel.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I still believe that ethnic Israel has a place and a purpose in God's ultimate plan of salvation and redemption, but certainly scripture is clear that the church inherits and participates in some of the promises, so that now we as the church can say that not ethnically, but certainly spiritually, we are part of being God's chosen people.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: That should amaze us as we think about what God promised to his people, his covenant people in the Old Testament, to now have an opportunity to participate in the new covenant in the New Testament.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: It blows my mind.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: But yet we find this reality in several books of the Bible.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: One of Peter's contemporaries, his buddy Paul, a fellow apostle, wrote in the book of Galatians 3, 28 and 29, where he says, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to the promise.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is amazing.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: We see the continuation of the promise made to Abraham that he would be a blessing to the whole world.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: That blessing would happen most fully through his main descendant, Jesus Christ.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And now we experience those blessings of salvation.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Amen?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good thing.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: God, in his foreknowledge and in his sovereignty, has chosen us to be participants in this great thing called his kingdom.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And our salvation is totally a gift of grace.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: These verses in Galatians 3 actually kind of walk hand in hand with the next few phrases that we read about as we turn back to 1 Peter chapter 2.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: The next phrase that we read is, You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is powerful language.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this is taken directly from Exodus chapter 19, verse 6 in the Old Testament, where God is speaking to Moses on behalf of the whole nation of Israel.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: They've just come out of Egypt and they're about ready to receive the Ten Commandments, and God says, You know, this is my purpose for these people, that they would be a royal priesthood and a holy nation and my own possession.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And now he says, in the church we have the same identity.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is outstanding.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Israel was supposed to be a holy beacon for the rest of the world to see, in order that the rest of the world might know Yahweh.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And in the same way, we in the church are called to be a holy beacon for the rest of the world to see, so that all that we say and do reflects Him and points to Him.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you're like me, you might have grown up Catholic.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're in part of the Catholic faith, you know that you have priests who are ordained to carry out specific responsibilities and sacrifices and sacraments in the church.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just part of how the Catholic Church operates.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe if that's part of your background like me, you sometimes look at this priesthood, royal priesthood.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Whoa, that's too much.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I haven't been ordained, I haven't been to seminary, I haven't been officially recognized by the church to be a priest.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: This doesn't apply to me.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the truth is, yes, it does apply to you.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if that makes you uncomfortable, I can't say I apologize.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to offend him, just trying to inform.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: This comes straight to us from God's word.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And anytime that we run across something in God's word that makes us a little uncomfortable, we always have to check our understanding, our expectations, and our presuppositions against what the truth of God's word says, because this says that every last person who has placed their faith in Christ is now a royal priest.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: We mentioned that last week.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we believe in the priesthood of every believer, not just a person who's on a church staff or a church leader, but every person.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we have been ordained to be royal priests, to serve the ultimate king priest, Jesus Christ, and his purpose.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Amen?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: We find this also in the book of Revelation, chapter 1 and chapter 5.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's what God has us here for.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: He also has us here to be a holy nation.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And again, you may look at your life and say, Man, you don't know me.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not holy.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I just have to say, hey, you don't know me, and I'm not holy.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: None of us is.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the whole point.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Is that it's only through the merits of Christ and the grace of God that we are declared righteous and holy.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we have been called out as the church for this purpose of being not an ethnic nation of people, because there's neither Jew nor Greek, but to be a multicultural nation called to a holy purpose.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: A new nation called by Jesus to fulfill the role that He's placed us here on earth.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just as Israel was to be a nation of light, we are, as the church, to be a spiritual nation of light to our community.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, we read that we are his own possession.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: His own possession.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: This speaks of ownership.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe I'm the only one, but if you know if I own something as opposed to renting something, there's this natural tendency to want to take better care of the thing that belongs to me.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's not always good, but it's kind of the natural way things go.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, we look at rental cars, for example.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, aside from Jerry Seinfeld, I don't know anybody else that gets the insurance on their rental car.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: I get insurance on the car I own.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to protect that.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Ownership communicates care and desire.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And in the same way, God shows us that we are his precious possession.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's shown us so much that we belong and are special to him by sending his son to die for us.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: God loved the world in that way.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: God saved us, but he didn't save us for us.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: He saved us for himself.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the purpose, and here's why we're here.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: This gives a little more teeth to our understanding of what our purpose actually is.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the second half of verse 9.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: He said, We've been called to these things of being a chosen race, royal priesthood, a holy nation, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're here.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Say, wow, that sounds fancy.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds important.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: But what in the world does it mean?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, it communicates much.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Just like Israel was called out of the darkness of exile to be a light to the nations, so you too have been called out of the darkness and the depth of sin and life apart from God.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Graciously he's reached down and called you out of that darkness into his marvelous light.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we are to proclaim this to the world.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Not just in how we speak, but in how we live our very lives.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that we do is to proclaim the excellencies of him who's called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so you begin to have to kind of analyze your life and ask yourself this question Is what I'm about to say to my children, to my spouse, to my neighbor, to anybody gonna proclaim the excellencies of him who's called me out of darkness into his marvelous light?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is what I'm about to do, where I'm about to go, who I'm about to See, gonna proclaim the excellencies of him who's called me out of darkness, away from that to his marvelous light.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna irk some people, but it's what I'm about to post on Facebook.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, had to go there.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm about to say about that person over Facebook, which by the way, Facebook becomes a very interesting litmus test for our spiritual maturity.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll include myself there.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've made posts that I regret.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: But is that going to proclaim the excellencies of him who's called me out of darkness into his marvelous light?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Everything about what we should do and be.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: We should ask that question.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: And this reminds us of what we said last week that we are we are called to make spiritual sacrifices as a holy temple, as the church, meaning everything we do in our lives is to be done to the glory of God.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: That is our calling as living stones and royal priests in this world that desperately needs to know our Savior, Jesus Christ.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Peter moves on in verse 10 to talk about our identity, diving in a little deeper here, to remind us about where we've come from and now where we are, in order to set the stage for why we're supposed to be here.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 10, once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter pulls very clearly, if you go back to the book of Hosea in the Old Testament, chapters 1 and 2.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the story there behind Hosea is that God had told his people over and over, I want you to love me and love me alone.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: I am like a husband to you.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And God's people said, No, we don't want to be your bride.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be the bride to this God and to this God and to this false worship.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: And God finally said, You know what?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to let you run that pattern for a while and see where that takes you.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you won't have, you won't be my people and you won't have mercy.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it seems in the moment that God abandons his people, but it was just for a season of discipline because God is so faithful and so gracious and so willing to fulfill his promises that he can't help but do that.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so because he made a promise to his people that he'd never forsake them, he calls them back one chapter later and says, You know what?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: You are my people once again.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: You are a people that have received mercy.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the same is true for us.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: At one point in life we were dead in our sins, we were far from God.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: And yet he said, You were not even a people, but now you are my people.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: At one point we hadn't received mercy, but now through Christ we have received mercy.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: God in his infinite grace and his unparalleled mercy has extended salvation to us.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when we receive the message of faith of Christ crucified and raised for our sins, we become part of this church called to an important purpose.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: We find this written in another way in Ephesians 2, 4 and 5, and verse 10.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: As Paul writes, But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: By grace you have been saved.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And a little bit later in verses eight and nine, he says the same thing, for by grace you have been saved, not as the result of your own works.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that that's the premise of the gospel, that we could never save ourselves.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: We could never do enough or be good enough to get to heaven, so heaven had to come down to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we love to talk about that part of the gospel because that is the part that we love.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, God loved me, he sent his son to die for me, and that's true.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we forget to go one verse more in verse 10 to find out why he did that.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're not careful, we can think that God saved us with a me church mentality for me.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: But he didn't do that, he saved us for him.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: The principle that comes to mind is this.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, a lot of times, we focus so much on what we've been saved from that we forget what we've been saved for.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: We focus so much on God save me from my sin and oh, I love Jesus.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: But we forget that he saved us for a purpose, which is to proclaim him, which is to live a life that glorifies him.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if we only remember what he's done, we forget that he's called us to do something, to have a purpose, to fulfill it.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a tragedy when we do this as a church because we come very uh self-centered and introspective when it comes to our salvation, failing to see that we should, first of all, look to Christ, but also then look out and see the opportunities he has.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Bill Lawrence, who is a former professor and mentor and friend, who is uh founded an organization called Leader Formation International, writes these words Church members often think that the church exists for them.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's their church, and without their money, it could not exist.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Many pastors, deacons, elders, and church members all seem to think that the church is their church, designed to meet their needs, and distressingly few take Jesus seriously when he says, I will build my church.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: The church is his church, responsible to fulfill his purposes in the world.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: After all, it is Christ's body.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes, and I'm guilty of this too, we have this me church mentality.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have to get out of that mentality and realize that it's not a me church.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: And to a degree, it's not just a we church.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's important that we're here, but it's a he church.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's his church.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if he is the owner and the leader and the head and the foundation, then he is the one who gets to dictate why we're here and what we do.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to remember that.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: That we are his people, we are part of his priesthood, part of his nation.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this is simply consistent with some of the last words that Jesus spoke to his disciples at the end of Matthew's gospel, a passage that we like to call the Great Commission.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as Jesus is commissioning his men, and then through the Holy Spirit also commissioning us now to fulfill this mission.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 28, 19 and 20, Jesus says, Go therefore and make disciples.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's the mission.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're here to spread the gospel of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited in a few weeks we get to celebrate that as a church family, celebrating people who proclaim Christ and are getting baptized.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't just end there, remember?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just uh, hey, by grace you've been saved, wonderful, but there's an actual uh responsibility we have.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus continues in verse 20, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Here at Topeka Bible Church, we have refashioned the Great Commission into our mission, which is a little shorter and pithier.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've seen our logo, you see what looks like a cross, but we also intended for that to be sort of like the connection of a street corner, an intersection, where wherever people are, wherever they are spiritually, whatever road they're traveling, that we have the opportunity to lead them to life in Christ.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are a Christian and you've been following Jesus for years, we hope to lead you to a deeper life in Christ.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you are someone who has no care for who Jesus is, we hope to at least explain to you that he is worth thinking about.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are at least thinking about Jesus, we hope to explain to you that he's worth trusting in as your Savior so that you might have eternal life.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we we articulate our mission in this way here.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Other churches articulate differently elsewhere, and that's okay.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: The main point that we get is that our purpose and our mission are clear.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: To proclaim him so that others may know him.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: But the specific way in which you apply that is as varied as you are.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna sit here and tell you you need to go proclaim Christ uh here or there.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: You may choose, like some people do, to start a Bible study at your workplace, start a Bible study in your neighborhood.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: You may decide, like some people do, to proclaim the excellencies of Him by serving the needs of our children on Sunday mornings or the children in our community on Wednesday nights in Iwana.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: You may decide to go proclaim those excellencies by serving some of the needs of folks in the High Crest neighborhood through NetReach, as our church partners with that organization to reach folks, uh to take part in the programs they have there, or maybe to serve people like this Tuesday morning through our harvester's food distribution.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Another opportunity to proclaim the His Excellencies by meeting a need.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: We don't just go out and do things, we do things with purpose.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the purpose is to proclaim Christ in all that we do.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you, I believe, should specifically build friendships with people that do not know the Lord.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's hard.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Man, we could share stories of people that we know and that we care about that don't know the Lord, that, man, they just are difficult.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Difficult to be around at times, but but you know what, we love them.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we pray that they'll understand that why we love them is because Christ loves them.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe like kind of our students did this past week, they did service projects around uh the Topeka community from serving the folks in uh the elderly in nursing homes to going to downtown Topeka, Kansas Avenue, and handing out bottled water to anybody that walked by during the lunch hour simply to tell them Jesus loves you.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what this looks like.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: But what I can say is that you don't have to go across the world to fulfill your mission.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you just need to go across the street.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe one of the reasons why you don't have the opportunity to go across the world is because you haven't yet gone across your street.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: The mission field is ripe all around you, and you have the privilege of carrying out the purpose that God has for you here, of proclaiming him to the world that needs to know him.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're here.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I'm not gonna tell you you gotta go do this, but I'm just gonna simply say, ask, yield yourself to the Lord, ask what he would have you do, and then by his power and grace, go out and do it.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because I believe he'll lead you as he leads all of us to partake in this great mission.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and that really leads us to asking this question of how do we carry out our purpose?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: How do we do it?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: We've been called as a royal priesthood and a holy nation, God's people.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: How do we do this?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: What are some essential things to remember in order to carry this mission out successfully?
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I hope you'll choose to accept the mission, but you need to know some foundational things.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: One thing that's very foundational and the other thing that's practical, in order to carry this mission out with success.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to be unprepared for what God calls them to do.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why God can give us some very clear direction on how we can be prepared.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I want you to remember really these two principles.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the first is that remember your foundation is strong, and you need to keep it that way.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: You need to keep your foundation strong.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: The foundation is strong because of who Jesus is.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's never going to change.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: But what changes is our recognition of that foundation.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: And our spiritual lives have ups and downs, sometimes due to things that are in our control.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, a lot of times they do, but sometimes things that are out of our control.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: But no matter what, how firm our foundation is depends on how we remember that our foundation is firm in Christ.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the most important thing that you can do to keep that foundation firm is to spend time consistently in the Word of God.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Peter outlines this very clearly in verse 2 of chapter 2.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I'm jumping back, but forgive me, this is really good.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 2, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Peter drawing there from Psalm 34.8.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: So he's talking about, he's appealing to the sense of taste here.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: Milk and infants that need new milk, newborn infants.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, they don't just need the milk because uh they like the taste, you know, whether it's milk or formula, but they need it because that's the only thing that they can have.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: You don't take a banana, which is a normal, healthy food for any individual of our age, and just shove it in the mouth of an infant.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's bad.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: They need milk.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's essential for their development.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter is saying in the same way, the word of God and the truth that's found in the word of God is essential for your spiritual development as well.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: And folks, I know the difficulty that it takes and the challenges that get in the way of spending time in God's Word.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: A recent uh Barna, George Barna does studies of uh American church, and a recent study showed that one out of every five churchgoers never read their Bible outside of the time spent during the worship service.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's 20% of churchgoers in America, which I'm glad it's not 80%, but that's still a lot of people.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I can say, even being in ministry trying to do this work for Jesus, I get lots of distractions that keep me away from consistent time in the word of God.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I can say this that if you want to grow in your spiritual life, the number one catalyst for moving you from point A to point B to C and on in your spiritual journey with Christ, it's been shown is time in the Word of God.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Even if it's just five minutes, it is spiritual, life-giving truth that will change your life.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to develop that, even just a small amount of time each day, to develop that to taking in the Word of God.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's why this is so important.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a friend in between services graciously remind me of why this is so.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot carry out the mission of Christ apart from the power of Christ.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot just grit our teeth and love our neighbor and share the gospel and have it be fruitful for the kingdom.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's what's called legalism.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Legalism is attempting God's requirements apart from God's resources.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: We need to avail ourselves to the life-transforming truth of the Holy Spirit in order that we might be made available to carry out the life-transforming mission of Jesus Christ.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I really believe that as you allow God to speak to you from this word, he will change you from the inside out.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta keep your foundation strong and grow close to Christ every day by spending time in the Word every day.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the second point to remember, and this principle is one of more of a conviction, I think, for me, is that we need to watch what we do.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because after all, the rest of the world is, whether or not you think it or not, the rest of the world is watching how you live as a follower of Christ.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: We find this in uh verses 11 and 12.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, as my good friend Tim Collins said about a month ago when he was preaching here, this world is not our home.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're just passing through.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: And yet I want to hold on to it and hug it real tight because I thought it seems so nice and comfortable.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe if my Christian walk is too comfortable, I'm not doing it right.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: But we're sojourners and exiles, and we are to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: It literally wage war is doing battle as a soldier.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: We find ourselves, as we pass through this life, in the middle of a great battle.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: The battle which is being fought is for our transformation and for the hearts of humankind.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's a spiritual battle that oftentimes manifests itself in the physical reality of how we're tempted, of how we are tempted to respond to certain situations.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: But Peter says, you know, don't do that.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's not your ultimate heavenly calling.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: But what we find is that our conduct and how we love our lives really does matter.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Keep your conduct among the Gentiles, that would be the non-Christians, those who don't believe, honorable.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: The day of visitation, the term it could be translated the day of oversight or the day of inspection.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's debate on what that means.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think it means that when God appears again, that he's going to collect all those that have loved him and have come to knowledge of Christ.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: And what Peter is saying here is the way you live your life will point people to Jesus Christ.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about that?
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: That the way you relate to your spouse and to your kids and to those around you in your neighborhood, in your workplace, that God uses that to draw people somehow, irresistibly, to the Savior.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we can't do it apart from him, because we need him in order to live the life that he calls us to live.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of people will never read a Bible, but they'll look at your life.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Stated in another way, you may be the only Bible that some people ever read.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's convicting.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: But what's found in the book needs to be lived out in us.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's our purpose, and that's why we're here.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: Not only in what we say, but what we do.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 5.8.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: For at one time you were darkness, talking about before Christ.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: But now you are light in the world.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: Walk as children of light.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's how we proclaim his excellencies, by walking as children of light.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 5.16, towards the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, Let your light shine before people so that they can see your good deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because through your good deeds they can come to an understanding of who Christ is.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen this happen.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: When I was in college, a friend named Jake, who was an intellectual atheist, you know those, some of us used to be like that, uh, too smart for our own good.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this guy, Jake, uh, had spent time around a lot of Christians.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: He just found them irresistible.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: He found their fellowship so desirable.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: And by the end of his first year of college, he trusted Christ as his savior.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I was talking to one of my good friends who was a part of that process, and I said, What happened?
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how did that happen?
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is exciting.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he said that Jake at one day, at one point, looked up at these friends and he said, You know, guys, I look at how you love each other, the message you proclaim about Jesus, how you love me and include.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, I can't help but believe, based on what I see in your lives, that there is a God in heaven and Jesus has died for me.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome! That's what it's about.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: People are watching how you live your life.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: People in our community who want to see what truth is are looking to see Christ through you and in you, proclaiming his excellencies.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the world is desperate to know that truth.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: We need to remember this purpose.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: Tom Constable in his resource, great, excellent resource online, soniclight.com.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for a great Bible study resource, you need to go there.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says that Christians, generally speaking, do not understand or appreciate God's purpose for the church that Peter presented so clearly here.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: Consequently, many Christians lack purpose in their lives.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Evidence of this includes self-centered living, unwillingness to sacrifice, worldly goals, and preoccupation with material things.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Honest confession, folks, that is how I have operated and continue to struggle to operate sometimes in my life too.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: The same is probably true for you.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I have to remember, and we have to remember, that he has called us for a purpose that is so much greater than that.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Savior is important and essential to be introduced to everybody.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: Our world needs the Savior, and our Savior needs us to carry out his mission, and we need our Savior in order to do it.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: Amen?
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're here.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: In conclusion, we go back to our working definition of the church, that we're a community of people who is founded upon Jesus Christ and led by Jesus Christ in order to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we've talked about the nature and the function of the church last week and this week, and hopefully you have a deeper understanding of why you're here.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about how in Jesus you're part of something bigger, the body of Christ.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you have a perfect foundation, which is Christ alone, and how you've been called to an important purpose.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a me church, but it's a he church.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: In order to carry this purpose out, we need to remember to keep our foundation strong.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we finally need to remember that we need to watch what we do because everybody else is watching as well.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe when we do this, we will we will be able to carry out our mission wherever he calls us to be.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let's watch one more final video and then I'll pray and close.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, to be royal priesthood and a holy nation, a people that is called by you to proclaim your excellencies because we've been called out of darkness for that purpose.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: God, may you send us and use us in any way that we need to be used for your glory and your kingdom on your mission.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be available and we need your help.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name we pray.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're dismissed.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week of carrying out your mission.