Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / A Hope, a House, a Hymn │ Msg 1010

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A Hope, a House, a Hymn │ Msg 1010 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Now, if you're like me, you may have noticed that
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  Speaker 1: in an alarming number of churches today, God's people are
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  Speaker 1: being told what they want to hear rather than being
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  Speaker 1: told what they need to hear. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 1: difference between the two. They're being spoon-fed warm milk, not
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  Speaker 1: challenged to digest solid meat. A watered-down teaching ministry that
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  Speaker 1: fudges the truth has zero eternal impact. It results in
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  Speaker 1: no lasting change in a life. Even Jesus lost some
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  Speaker 1: followers by teaching the truth, by refusing to water it down.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with that. In fact, scratching the itching ears
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  Speaker 1: of our postmodern audiences is an exercise in futility, like
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  Speaker 1: eating cotton candy. Remember when you went to the circus?
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  Speaker 1: The experience was at that moment delightful, but there's no lasting,
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  Speaker 1: certainly no nutritional value. By contrast, the Apostle Paul pens
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  Speaker 1: some bold instructions for what the church, the body of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: should do with the truth of God's Word. In light
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  Speaker 1: of that, I want you to listen carefully as I
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  Speaker 1: read Paul's words in 1 Timothy 3, beginning at verse 14.
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  Speaker 1: Just a few verses here. 1 Timothy 3, starting at
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  Speaker 1: verse 14. I am writing these things to you, hoping
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  Speaker 1: to come to you before long, but in case I
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  Speaker 1: am delayed, I write so that you will know how
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  Speaker 1: one ought to conduct himself in the household of God,
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  Speaker 1: which is the church of the living God, the pillar
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  Speaker 1: and support of the truth. By common confession, great is
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  Speaker 1: the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the
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  Speaker 1: flesh was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed
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  Speaker 1: among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up
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  Speaker 1: in glory. Let's put the lights up nice and bright
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  Speaker 1: and we can look at Philippians chapter 3 for a
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  Speaker 1: few moments and then turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 3.
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  Speaker 1: There we go. Philippians 3 has a couple of verses
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  Speaker 1: in it that kept coming to my mind as I
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  Speaker 1: listened to this musical, Kids Under Construction. I thought about
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  Speaker 1: Paul's great words in this grand chapter. Where he says
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  Speaker 1: in verse 12, not that I have already obtained it,
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  Speaker 1: or have already become perfect, but I press on, in
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  Speaker 1: order that I may lay hold of that for which
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  Speaker 1: I also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren,
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  Speaker 1: I do not regard myself as having laid hold of
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  Speaker 1: it yet. That means having arrived. But one thing I do,
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  Speaker 1: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
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  Speaker 1: I press on. I press on toward the goal for
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  Speaker 1: the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: We are so product-oriented in our country and in our
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  Speaker 1: society and in our culture that we get nervous when
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  Speaker 1: we think about a process. I mean, we want to obtain.
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  Speaker 1: We want to reach our goals. We want to have
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  Speaker 1: it built properly. We don't like the idea of being
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  Speaker 1: under construction. We like the idea of having it finished.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I'm a finisher. I
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  Speaker 1: don't like a lot of mess. I don't like a
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  Speaker 1: lot of time it takes to get it done. I
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  Speaker 1: like it done. I like to think about it and
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  Speaker 1: then wake up the next morning and it's done. You
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  Speaker 1: like that? I don't like the process of nails and
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  Speaker 1: sawdust and boards cut the wrong length and going back
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  Speaker 1: down to the lumber yard and starting over. and wrong
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  Speaker 1: color paint, and the trim doesn't match, and starting over,
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  Speaker 1: and forgetting the primer, and sanding. I like having it
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  Speaker 1: all done. All finished. Accomplished. Done. Perfect. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: I have lived long enough to know that we spend
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  Speaker 1: a lot longer in process than we ever spend with
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  Speaker 1: a finished product. In everything. For example, I have finally
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  Speaker 1: come to realize that our home will forever be in
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  Speaker 1: the process of being redecorated. I used to think it
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  Speaker 1: was always once completed, done. But it's not. I've come
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  Speaker 1: to realize that there will always be another idea, another room.
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  Speaker 1: I'm trying to live happily in my marriage and in
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  Speaker 1: my home. And It's always beautiful when it's finished, but
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  Speaker 1: it seems like it is continually in process. You have
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  Speaker 1: that same experience? Always something else to be added, done, changed, altered, redone.
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  Speaker 1: But that is life. And even this great apostle said,
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  Speaker 1: I haven't arrived. I'm always in construction clothes. I'm always painting.
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  Speaker 1: I'm always... in the process of being sanded, there's always
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  Speaker 1: something to be filed. There's always another part to be
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  Speaker 1: added or cut off or made complete. I haven't arrived. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this gives me hope. This gives me hope that if
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  Speaker 1: that is true of this great man of God named Paul,
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  Speaker 1: then it's true of us. There isn't a person hearing
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  Speaker 1: my words right now who isn't in some kind of
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  Speaker 1: construction project. And the wonderful part is that God isn't finished.
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  Speaker 1: Wouldn't you hate to wake up in the morning and
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  Speaker 1: have God say from heaven, I'm through. You're there. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I'm finished. I mean, you see all those things that
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  Speaker 1: are yet to be done. Now look at Philippians 1.6.
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  Speaker 1: I am confident, says this great man, I am confident
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  Speaker 1: of this very thing, that he who began the construction
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  Speaker 1: will complete it at the day of Jesus Christ. That's
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  Speaker 1: the promise. I am confident, says the Apostle, that this
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  Speaker 1: Christian life will not continue on being one construction project
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  Speaker 1: after another, time without end, never ending. I know this,
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  Speaker 1: that the one who started the project will see it
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  Speaker 1: through and it'll be complete at the day of Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: So we'll never be what we should be till the rapture.
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  Speaker 1: We are always in process. We are always under construction
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  Speaker 1: and will not be finished until the Lord says, I'm done.
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  Speaker 1: And he takes us home. Now, this ties in amazingly
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  Speaker 1: well with 1 Timothy chapter 3. If you'll turn over
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  Speaker 1: there next. These last three verses of this third chapter
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  Speaker 1: tie in with what we just said. Because Paul was
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  Speaker 1: not finished, he too had needs. You see, I have
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  Speaker 1: the idea that when I picture Paul and Timothy, I
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  Speaker 1: have the idea that, and it's erroneous, that Timothy needed Paul,
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  Speaker 1: but Paul didn't need Timothy. I have the feeling that
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  Speaker 1: the younger one needs the older one, but I forget
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  Speaker 1: that the older one needs the younger. Which explains why
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  Speaker 1: this man would say, In verse 14, I am writing
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  Speaker 1: these things to you, hoping to come to you before long.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't say, I want you to come to me
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  Speaker 1: because you need me. He's saying, Timothy, I look forward
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  Speaker 1: to coming to you. Why would he say that? Because
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  Speaker 1: Paul is still under construction. Because Paul knows what it
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  Speaker 1: is to be lonely. Because Paul also needed a friend.
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  Speaker 1: It's easy for the younger one to think the older
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  Speaker 1: person has it together, has life wired. There are no needs.
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  Speaker 1: And once I reach that age, then I won't have needs.
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  Speaker 1: That's not true. This great man of God says, in effect,
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  Speaker 1: I need this younger friend of mine, Timothy, and I
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  Speaker 1: long to be there. In fact, the passage begins with
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  Speaker 1: his desire. I have this great desire, this longing to
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  Speaker 1: be with you. See in chapter 1 of 1 Timothy,
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  Speaker 1: verse 3, I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia,
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  Speaker 1: to remain on at Ephesus in order that you may
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  Speaker 1: instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. I left
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  Speaker 1: you there and my heart was left with you. I
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  Speaker 1: long to be there. I long to see you. And Paul,
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  Speaker 1: being the man he is, says, I uh, I therefore
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  Speaker 1: look forward to being with you. And I long for that.
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  Speaker 1: I have a great desire for that. Now back chapter three,
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  Speaker 1: look at verse 15, but in case I'm delayed, that's
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  Speaker 1: also full of hope for me because I have the
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  Speaker 1: idea that when Paul sets his mind on something, he
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  Speaker 1: gets it done. He plans to be there and he's
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  Speaker 1: going to be there. But this man adds now, because
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  Speaker 1: I don't have life put together perfectly and because I'm
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  Speaker 1: still under construction and because I'm a man who has
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  Speaker 1: to trust, I don't have things put together. I have
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  Speaker 1: to face the fact I may be delayed. And so
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  Speaker 1: I'm writing a letter. And in this 15th verse, he
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  Speaker 1: tells us the purpose of the letter. Why did he
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  Speaker 1: write first Timothy? I write so that you may know
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  Speaker 1: how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God. Now,
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  Speaker 1: you don't find this very often, but in this particular letter,
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  Speaker 1: he states the reason he wrote it. I didn't write
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  Speaker 1: this letter just to dangle a lot of theological truth.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't write the letter to fill up time and
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  Speaker 1: give myself something to do. I wrote a letter to
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  Speaker 1: help people know how to behave. By the way, the
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  Speaker 1: you is singular. It isn't plural. It isn't y'all. I'm
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  Speaker 1: writing y'all this letter so y'all know how to behave.
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  Speaker 1: It's not that. I'm writing you singular the letter so
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  Speaker 1: that you singular will know how to behave. So it's
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  Speaker 1: an individual letter written to individual Christians under construction. And
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  Speaker 1: he's saying, I'm writing the letter so that you might
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  Speaker 1: know how you ought to conduct yourself. Notice what he
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  Speaker 1: calls the church. Four things. First, the house of God.
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  Speaker 1: the household, the family, the family unit. Outside the home,
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  Speaker 1: there is only one other family in all the world,
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  Speaker 1: and that's the family of God. When we gather together
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  Speaker 1: in the place of worship, we gather as a large family,
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  Speaker 1: each one of us going through a process of construction,
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  Speaker 1: not one of us having arrived. but we need to
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  Speaker 1: know how to behave ourselves in the family. He calls
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  Speaker 1: it also the church of the living God. This word
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  Speaker 1: church means called out ones. Think of a giant hand
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  Speaker 1: coming down through the roof of this world and reaching
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  Speaker 1: down into the ranks of humanity and finding one person
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  Speaker 1: and calling that person out. That's The church called out individuals,
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  Speaker 1: picked and chosen, selected people, put together in one unit
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  Speaker 1: called the family of God. That's the church. I wrote
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  Speaker 1: this letter so that you might know how to conduct
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  Speaker 1: yourself in the house of God, which is a body
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  Speaker 1: of called out people. And what do they do? Look
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  Speaker 1: at verse 15 again. They are the pillar of the
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  Speaker 1: truth and they are the support of the truth. The
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  Speaker 1: church of Christ is the place where the truth is
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  Speaker 1: supported and modeled. One man wrote, each local church has
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  Speaker 1: it in its power to support and strengthen the truth
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  Speaker 1: by its witness to the faith and by the lives
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  Speaker 1: of its members. Each one of you tomorrow will be
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  Speaker 1: a display of the church. I say tomorrow because that's
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  Speaker 1: when you'll be engaged in your world. Some of you
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  Speaker 1: will be in school. Some of you will be in
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  Speaker 1: an office. Some of you will be in a home.
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  Speaker 1: Some of you will be in a place called a
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  Speaker 1: hospital or a clinic where you do your work or
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  Speaker 1: maybe where you go in for a test or for
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  Speaker 1: an x-ray. Some of you will be in a profession.
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  Speaker 1: Some of you will be in a shop. But you
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  Speaker 1: are on display demonstrating either the support of the truth
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  Speaker 1: or the tearing down of the truth. I have found, interestingly,
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  Speaker 1: in another city, on the advertisement page of a newspaper,
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  Speaker 1: an interesting ad. This ad is right under... a series
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  Speaker 1: of films and movies and whatever, and this happens to
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  Speaker 1: be a church ad which attracted my attention because it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't in the religious section of the newspaper in this
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  Speaker 1: particular city. It was in the advertisement section of the
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  Speaker 1: movies and the plays going on in that city. And
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  Speaker 1: it says, if all you want from church is hell, fire,
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  Speaker 1: and brimstone, burn this ad. And then it says, in
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  Speaker 1: smaller print, hell, fire, and brimstone you won't find in,
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  Speaker 1: it names the church. You won't find that here. But
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  Speaker 1: if it's warm fellowship and the love of a forgiving
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  Speaker 1: and understanding God you want, join us in worship this Sunday.
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  Speaker 1: Then it names the church, gives the address. Talks about
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  Speaker 1: when it serves communion and tells you when there's Sunday
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  Speaker 1: school for children and adults. And in tiny, tiny print,
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  Speaker 1: the name of the minister. I thought as I read that, now,
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  Speaker 1: that's not fair. That is playing on the emotions of people.
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  Speaker 1: Because I want to tell you straight, One of the
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  Speaker 1: truths that the church supports is the truth concerning a
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  Speaker 1: literal hell and a literal heaven. And you see, this
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  Speaker 1: ad comes on a page of fun and games and
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  Speaker 1: the advertisement and excitement of life and so-called things that entertain.
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  Speaker 1: And it says, and do you want a church that'll
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  Speaker 1: talk about hell and fire and brimstone? Or do you
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  Speaker 1: want a Either or, get that? Or do you want
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  Speaker 1: a place of warm fellowship? Well, then you want us
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  Speaker 1: if you don't want all that hell, fire, and brimstone.
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  Speaker 1: When the church displays and supports the truth, that truth
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  Speaker 1: includes the message of hell. Unhappy and grim though it
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  Speaker 1: may be, it's true. And if you go to a
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  Speaker 1: church that doesn't talk on occasion about hell, fire, and brimstone,
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  Speaker 1: you're not hearing all the truth. Maybe all you're getting
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  Speaker 1: is warm, comfortable fellowship. It is a place that supports
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  Speaker 1: the truth. And so while on the subject of the truth,
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  Speaker 1: Paul presents one of the earliest songs of the Christian church.
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  Speaker 1: Did you know that? It's believed by most New Testament
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  Speaker 1: students that the 16th verse is one of the early
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  Speaker 1: hymns of the church, not from the Psalter or the
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  Speaker 1: book of Psalms. And I find it interesting that the
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  Speaker 1: entire hymn revolves around Christ. By common confession, great is
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  Speaker 1: the mystery of godliness. The way he begins is a
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  Speaker 1: sort of a way of saying, by a unanimous vote
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  Speaker 1: or by common agreement, we Christians stand together in one
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  Speaker 1: great credo. That's the idea. We have one grand message.
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  Speaker 1: And this hymn has... One, two, three, four, five, six
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  Speaker 1: lines to it. Doesn't sound like songs you'll hear today.
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  Speaker 1: Doesn't even sound like most of the hymns that you'll sing.
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  Speaker 1: But it's part of the truth of the church. To
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  Speaker 1: be sung by people under construction. People with whom God
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  Speaker 1: is not yet finished. What is the hymn? Just read along. First,
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  Speaker 1: There is one who was revealed in the flesh. Sometime later,
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  Speaker 1: the manuscripts included the word God. God was revealed in flesh.
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  Speaker 1: So the very first truth declared by the church that
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  Speaker 1: tells you the truth is that God came in flesh.
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  Speaker 1: And Sarki is the Greek way to say it. God
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  Speaker 1: did not simply come as a spirit. But when God
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  Speaker 1: came from heaven to this earth to begin his construction
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  Speaker 1: work in the lives of people, he came in human form.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't that an amazing thing? He came in the form
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  Speaker 1: of a little baby in Bethlehem's manger. God put flesh
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  Speaker 1: around his person. Now, who was that person? Christ. Is
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  Speaker 1: it true? Well, look at the next line. It says
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  Speaker 1: he was vindicated in the spirit. The word means endorsed.
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  Speaker 1: When the Lord Jesus became flesh and visibly presented God
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  Speaker 1: to this world in flesh form, his spirit endorsed the truth.
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  Speaker 1: What was it that endorsed him as God? Well, his miracles,
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  Speaker 1: the raising of the dead, the healing of the sick,
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  Speaker 1: the giving of sight to the blind, the changing of
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  Speaker 1: people from one process to the next, his faithfulness, his consistency,
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  Speaker 1: on occasion, the flashes of omniscience, and omnipotence that he displayed,
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  Speaker 1: all of that caused people to gasp and say, he's
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  Speaker 1: not just like any other human being. He is God.
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  Speaker 1: Remember when the Pharisees dispatched someone to arrest him and
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  Speaker 1: the men came back empty-handed, they said, no one ever
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  Speaker 1: talked like he talked. His spirit vindicated that he was God.
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  Speaker 1: His spirit endorsed that he was God in the flesh.
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  Speaker 1: So when you sing the hymn, sing that as well.
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  Speaker 1: And then there were angels. who beheld him. I made
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  Speaker 1: a little notation in my Bible from place to place
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  Speaker 1: of the places where the angels vindicated or endorsed him.
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  Speaker 1: At his birth, at his temptation, at his baptism, at
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  Speaker 1: his crucifixion, and at his resurrection, there were angels there saying,
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  Speaker 1: it's happened. It's true. And that supernatural appearance of an
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  Speaker 1: angel was God's way of saying, this is not just
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  Speaker 1: another one. This one is my son. Great is the
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  Speaker 1: mystery of God likeness. God was manifest in flesh, endorsed
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  Speaker 1: by spirit. He was beheld by angels. He has been
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  Speaker 1: proclaimed among the nations. Thank God you and I are
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  Speaker 1: in a land where his name is proclaimed. What a privilege.
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  Speaker 1: You can go from radio dial from one part to
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  Speaker 1: another and you can hear several different stations proclaiming Christ.
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  Speaker 1: You can even go to your television and turn from
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  Speaker 1: channel to channel, and you will hear the name of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ displayed, portrayed, and presented. To be sure, in
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  Speaker 1: a strange way in some places, but nevertheless displayed, nevertheless presented.
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  Speaker 1: And we are allowed in this land to do that.
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  Speaker 1: There are many places where that isn't allowed. We are
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  Speaker 1: among those few nations that allow that name to be proclaimed,
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  Speaker 1: but the message of the gospel is to be proclaimed
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  Speaker 1: all around the world. And in this early church, it
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  Speaker 1: was a part of their hymn, not a hymnody proclaimed
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  Speaker 1: among the nations. And the grace of it all is
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  Speaker 1: that he has believed on in the world. And he's
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  Speaker 1: taken up into glory. I see three things when I
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  Speaker 1: think about this passage of scripture and I think about
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  Speaker 1: our lives still under construction, still in the process of
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  Speaker 1: being developed. The first is this. Our conduct is based
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  Speaker 1: on scriptural principles. not on what we desire. He says
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  Speaker 1: this in the early part of the passage. I write
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  Speaker 1: so that you may know how to conduct yourself in
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  Speaker 1: the house of God. Our conduct is based on scriptural principles,
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  Speaker 1: not on what we desire. The second thing I see
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  Speaker 1: is that our church is to confirm and model the
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  Speaker 1: truth that not invent its own message. It's to confirm
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  Speaker 1: and model the truth, not invent its own message. Let
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  Speaker 1: me pause here and add something. There are a number
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  Speaker 1: of different methods in which we can present this message.
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  Speaker 1: Some of those methods are in the form of music, drama.
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  Speaker 1: Some of those messages come in the form of quietness
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  Speaker 1: and meditation. The proclamation of the gospel by preaching Or
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  Speaker 1: the proclamation of the gospel. In a worship experience. But
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  Speaker 1: whatever the method. The church is to present. The message
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  Speaker 1: of the truth. Not tell people what they want to hear.
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  Speaker 1: There is every temptation to do the latter. Third. Our
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  Speaker 1: confession of faith. Verse 16. Revolves around the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: And not anyone else. Our confession of faith revolves around
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  Speaker 1: the person of Christ and not anyone else. I want
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: you to do something kind of special for me right now.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I want you to think back to the first church
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: you can remember that told you the truth. I want
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: you to just sit and think. Think of the first
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: place where you heard the truth. My mind goes back
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: to a little, a little church in South Texas where I,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: as just a little boy who used to lay down
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: on the bench and And count the squares in the
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: ceiling of the church. I think there were 158 this
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: way and 210 that way. I don't know how many
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: all together because I couldn't multiply. And I couldn't put
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: that together. But I did remember there were just a
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: lot of squares on the ceiling. And I know the
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: people who heard me sleeping must have wondered if I
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: would ever amount to a thing. But I remember as
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: a little boy. going to sleep on the bench aside
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: my mother and dad in that little church, I remember
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: hearing a pastor who told the truth. And I remember
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: that he included in his message the reality of a
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: hell and the hope of a heaven. I remember that
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: he loved this family of God that he had been
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: called to, and he loved us enough to talk straight
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: about life. I remember he went through a deep trial
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: in the loss of a child. I was too little
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: to understand the feelings of that. I had a brother
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: and a sister that at that time, I wouldn't have
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: mind losing to tell you the truth because we didn't
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: get along that great. I'm so glad I didn't. But
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: back then, it didn't seem to be such a terrible
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: thing to lose a brother or a sister. But I
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: remember this pastor who continued to tell us the truth,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: even though he was in that deep trial of his life.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: And he faithfully presented the truth. It was there that
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the seeds were planted. That God came in the flesh.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: That the spirit of God endorsed his presence. And that
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: angels accompanied his message. And that the gospel was presented.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: And that it could be believed on in the world.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: For he was indeed taken up into glory. And I believed.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: I believed it. I didn't come because I was afraid.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: I came because it made sense that the God who
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: presented himself in a manger loved me enough to have
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: that same one die for me. And if I would
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: only believe in him, I could have everlasting life. Where
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: were you? Who was the person who told you the
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: truth first? Maybe it wasn't even in a church. Or
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: maybe the church didn't even realize how lost you were,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: but you heard it. I think it is appropriate that we,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: at this moment, as we close these moments we've had together,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: just to give God thanks for the many places all
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: around the world that tell people the truth about Christ.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Let's bow. Shall we do that just for a moment?
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Maybe I speak in conclusion to a couple of three
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: people who find themselves a little uneasy and impatient with God.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Seems like his construction work will never end. Well, it won't.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: But it may seem to you that he's a long
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: ways away. Well, he's not. Remember the old hymn? The
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: flame will not hurt you, I only design you. your
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: dross to consume and your gold to refine. For some
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: of you, the paint isn't yet dry. For others of you,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: it seems as though you're a long, long ways from completion.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this. Have you ever personally turned
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: your life over to Christ? And you remember the time
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: when you said, yes, Lord Jesus, come into my life.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Take charge. Clean me up. Make me one of yours.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: I believe in your son. I take him now. If not,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: do that now, please. Thank you, dear Heavenly Father, for
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: that moment in our lives when we stepped away from
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: the things that we knew were wrong, from the lies
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: of the world, from all of those who had told
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: us other stories that were not true to your word,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and we came to you. Some of us were children.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Others were teenagers, adolescents, moving into adulthood, and some were adults.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: But regardless of age or place, we have all come
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: the same way by faith in Christ. I am very
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: grateful that having come to you, you take up the
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: work of constructing us into the kind of men and
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: women you want us to be. I'm so grateful that we,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: like Paul, can be confident that what you have begun,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: you will finish. Give us patience during the construction. Give
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: us grace to endure the hammer and the file and
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: the furnace, the saw, the pain, the long days, the
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: difficult nights. Show us that since you are not finished,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: we are important to you. And you give your energy
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: to those things that are significant. Encourage us with the
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: fact that we're a long ways further along than we've
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: ever been before in our lives. And we may be
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: very near the end. Thank you for Christ, for Christ's church,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: the pillar and support of the truth, for the message.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: we have for the world. We believe it, and we
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: take it as our challenge to proclaim it. In Jesus'
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: great name, amen. All rights are reserved worldwide.