Latest / Citipointe Church Caboolture / Unity In Diveresity | Ps Graeme Politanski

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Unity In Diveresity | Ps Graeme Politanski · Citipointe Church Caboolture

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Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.
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Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to
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take hold of. So we hope this message inspires
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you and build your faith, but it helps you have more of a God
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perspective for your day. Enjoy.
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If you've got faith to receive today from from heaven, would
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you declare out loud today? My heart is open, my ears are
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alert to grow and change and never be the same.
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Amen. Amen.
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Please be seated. Unity in diversity.
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Unity in diversity. That's the title of my message
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today. Unity in diversity.
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Now from a non Christian or a non biblical viewpoint, unity in
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diversity is communities of many cultures living side by side,
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bound by this, bound by shared values of respect, justice and
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belonging. That's a non biblical idea of
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what unity in diversity is. This view of unity and diversity
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that the world tries to follow is absolutely impossible to
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uphold. It's an impossible concept that
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they are putting on media, that they're putting in, in papers
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and in articles for us as a world to have some sense of
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unity. And it's a unity in diversity
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across cultures that we actually can't uphold as humans without
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God, nation to nation, race to race, person to person will
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never completely uphold the same values or understanding of
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belonging. However, you may get small
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groupings of people to harmonize by dropping parts of their
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identity to obtain momentary peace, and this is what the
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world calls good. But who knows?
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In the Church, as Saints with Jesus Christ, there is an
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everlasting peace that we can obtain in our lives right now,
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and it's found through Jesus Christ.
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Amen. So they've got the right idea.
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They just don't know how to get there without God.
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You know, the book of Acts in our Bible have been doing, we've
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been going through the book of Acts over the last month,
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whether you've seen that or not, we've been preaching out of the
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book of Acts and it holds keys demonstrating the power of and
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the call to unity in diversity. So you find it in your Holy
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Bible in the book of Acts. Now this is a celebration point
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and it's unique to the to Christianity, to us as a church.
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It separates Christianity from all other religions and world
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views because through Jesus it can actually be fulfilled as
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every Christian from every nation embraces our new Kingdom
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of God culture, Kingdom of God culture.
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As an Aussie growing up in, in Australia or in Townsville, one
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of the hottest parts of Australia.
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But it's where the crocodiles live.
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It's a good place. Crocodile Hunter must have come
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from there. And man, we've got real knives
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in Townsville. You know, I feel like I'm
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getting dad jokes. It's not Father's Day yet and I
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don't even know why I said that. That's amazing.
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That's why I said that. You know why?
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I realized that as I grew up in Australia.
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And this would be the same for anyone in any country where you
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grow up in your, in your homeland, you go to church, you
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become a Christian in your homeland and you, you can have
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this sense that our way is the way.
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And I've learned as I've matured in my Christian walk that my way
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isn't the way, Heaven's way is the way.
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And as when as we start to if we are willing to apply ourselves
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to a heavenly way of thinking and under and grass hold of
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throughout all my years. I still need to mature in the
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things of God. That's a healthy way to live.
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And if we could all do this. What we come to realize is as we
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as we allow the heavenly culture over shadow our earthly cultures
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from any country. What happens is that unity in
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the body of Christ starts to form and This is why we call it
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a body of Christ. See, my finger doesn't quite
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understand the importance of my toe, but in the body of Christ,
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when we come, when we come in unity, that we we both belong
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and have an equal level of importance in the body of
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Graham, we then play our part and Graham is fulfilled and more
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powerful in who he is. So you just take my toe away and
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I lose balance and I'm taking my finger away and I can't point.
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I have to use my left hand. And it's a nunco hand, which is
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a talisal word and which means just not very good hand.
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And so there is, there is, there is purpose for everyone from
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every nation, from every culture, and there is purpose
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within your culture. And when we unify in the body of
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the Christ, the body of Christ becomes beautiful, it comes
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powerful, it becomes unified together.
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And in that unity, the power and the splendor of God, the glory
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of God can flow like like humanity has never experienced
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before. Let me tell you, it's a mistake
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to think that there is going to be division in the body of
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Christ and the presence of God is going to move like ever
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before. Miracles are going to move.
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That's a mistake. God is going to unify His body.
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And I love what Pastor Mark says.
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As the world gets darker, the light gets brighter.
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God is bringing unity into His body and as His body across the
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globe unifies like never before, we will see the power and the
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wonder and the glory of God manifest like we have never seen
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before. To be really honest and rule
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with you, I believe that this is part of what is happening in the
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life of this church as the more unity in the things and the
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purpose and the the missio day, the mission of God that is
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coming in into yours and my souls.
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And we are unifying with this and we're saying I don't want to
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live for myself. What's the purpose?
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And we're finding that in the church with God's people, we are
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seeing miracles and the glory of God move like we've never seen
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before. And isn't that amazing church
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love being part of them? This is the unity concept that
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the world longs for but can't grasp without Jesus being the
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Lord of every nation and being the Lord of people.
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Take a break. This is what a church body is,
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to look like Jesus at the centre in heaven's culture as our new
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governance as set out in Scripture and understand,
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understood through relationship, unity and diversity, means that
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God through Jesus Christ brings together people of every nation,
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culture and background and gives them different giftings, roles
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and callings, but makes them one family, one body and one church
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in the Holy Spirit. That's awesome, isn't it?
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And powerful. This is heavenly culture.
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This is Christian, our new culture, this is my new this is
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what I'm part of. You aren't part of my culture
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and you have to just do whatever we do as a church in the
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Australian way. We together collectively are
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part of heaven's culture and we do things and we move and have
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our being in a heavenly way, in one accord, under one God.
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Amen. So today I want to hone in on
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the Bible book of Acts and in Chapter 11, and this is what I'm
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going to do. I'm going to jump from verse to
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verse in this one chapter to exemplify the theme and bring
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forward points as we look at unit unity in diversity
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together. Are we ready for this Acts 11
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verse one? It says Now the apostles and
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brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also
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received the word of God. Now this is a breakthrough
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moment. See, the gospel is no longer
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just for Jews, but also for Gentiles.
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We jump to verse 17 and 18. If therefore God gave them the
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same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus
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Christ, who who was I that I could withstand God?
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Verse 18 When they heard these things, they became silence and
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they glorified God, saying, then God has also granted to the
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Gentiles repentance to life. This is what this means.
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Peter recognizes that God makes no distinction between Jew and
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Gentile. Unity is God's doing here on
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planet earth. It also says that the Jewish
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believers accepted God's inclusion now of Gentiles,
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praising Him for His grace to all people.
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This is a beautiful gospel. This is a gospel for all of
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Caboolture, for every person in Caboolture, not just the ones
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driving nice cars with nicer for everyone.
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This is the same gospel for people who just come out of
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Woodford Prison. This is the same gospel for the
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people living in in the canals and big houses.
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It's the same gospel for the Australians as it is for the non
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Australians that are living in Australia.
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It's the same gospel no matter your upbringing, your education
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or your understanding. It's the same gospel for those
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who can read and can't read the word of God.
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It's the same gospel for those who believe in miracles or don't
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believe in miracles miracles. It's the same gospel for
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Christians and non Christians. It's the same gospel for those
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who are rejecting Jesus and those who are receiving Jesus.
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It's the same gospel because we are all everyone on planet earth
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from every nation and every people and every generation are
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still all children of God. Amen.
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It's a mistake to categorize children of God as Christians.
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I don't think the church has ever done this wrong.
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I just don't think they've just gone deep enough and it's just
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left us wondering sometimes. So no, I love, I don't ever talk
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negative about the church, but sometimes when you leave things
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out, it creates and understand that might not be false.
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Let me true, that may be false. But let me tell you, every
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person, Christian or not, are children of God.
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And if we can see them through that lens, we will not separate
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ourselves in some sort sort of hierarchy, but we would see that
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the heart of God pumps for them just as much as it pumps for us.
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And that is what will drive you and I.
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This is what drives us because they are children of God that
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are yet to come back into their identity of sons and daughters
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of God. Does this make sense?
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And when we view people like this, it will drive you and I to
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share this wonderful gospel that that that crosses all boundaries
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and brings all people in. And when it brings all people
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in, it brings them all into a new heavenly culture, a new
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heavenly way of living, a new heavenly understanding, Amen.
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This is good for all of us. It brings everyone into the
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Kingdom of God, as what we will discover in a moment is a
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Christian, Amen. So verse 20, now it says, but
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some of them were men from Cyprus and Serene, who when they
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had come to Antioch spoke to the Hellenist.
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There's lots of words here preaching the Lord Jesus.
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Verse 21 and the hand of the Lord was with them and a great
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number of believers and turned to the Lord.
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Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to
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Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also telling them the
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good news about the Lord Jesus. Can you see what's happening?
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And the Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of
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people believed and turned to the Lord.
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Let me just show you what we just read.
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Antioch was a cultural crossroads of Greek
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sophisticated sophistication. Sophistication.
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That's obviously I'm not sophisticated enough for that
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word. For Roman power, Jewish
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religion, sorry, Assyrian tradition and international
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trade. This is the place of the
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Antioch. It was the perfect place for the
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gospel to demonstrate that Christ unites people from every
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culture into one family. This is in the book of Acts.
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Antioch becomes the first multi ethnic church showing the gospel
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flourishing in diversity. Let me tell you church, if we
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want to flourish, we need to embrace each other and our
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differences. That's how we fly.
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We learn from each other. You know, cross today in the and
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when you go out into the cafe, sit on a different table than
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what you normally sit on. And weren't some people around
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us. There is so much diversity and
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so many culture cultures represented in this wonderful
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church that we are in that your life can just be enlightened.
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So much more unity can come into your your world and so much more
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joy as we learn each other, our cultures and we learn from each
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other. Amen.
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And this is what this church in Antioch was experiencing, and
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God was adding to the church all the time.
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Verse 25. Then Barnabas departed for
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Tarsus to seek Saul, and when he had found him, he bought him to
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Antioch. So it was that for a whole year
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they assembled with the church and taught a great many people
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and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
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That's where the name comes from.
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This shows the diverse community in Antioch is where believers
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are first called Christians and a new identity that transcends
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ethnic and cultural divisions. See, when you become a
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Christian, I love this. When you call me a Christian,
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you're not calling me Australian.
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I love it's it's an identity. When you call me a Christian,
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you're calling me a child of the living God, the author of all
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things. You are shifting The Who I am
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and re identifying who whose I am and within that when I call
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you a Christian, I'm calling you by the call of heaven of the
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purpose on your life. I'm not seeing you by your past.
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I'm seeing you through the blood of Jesus.
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How the Father does see when he sees you, he calls you child and
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he says I'm your father. That's an identity moment.
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He's he's saying I have transformed you from darkness
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and into lights. He, he doesn't say when you give
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your life to Christ that you are darkness, but you can now see
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lights. He doesn't say that.
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He doesn't say you are still Graham, but I'm doing a good
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work in you. But he says I have transformed
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you. You are now born again as though
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you never were, because your old Jew was into the sinful world,
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but the new you is into the heavenly world, A heavenly
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culture, a heavenly rule, a heavenly mandate, a heavenly
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calling, a heavenly purpose, and with a heavenly Father.
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Amen. This is why Christianity is life
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to the soul. When you and I become
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Christians, we aren't joining cults or gangs or clubs.
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We are joining a heavenly purpose and call that is divine,
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that is eternal. And the eternal, the eternal
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purpose starts now in our human, human experience.
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This is the power of the gospel. And when we understand that this
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should drive you and I to get out of these walls, man, I'm
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excited to get home. Are you excited to get home
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today? Please say no because this
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message is awesome. But you get stirred, right?
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And you just want to get out into the world and tell people
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about this. God.
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See, we want to see people not just come out of drugs.
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We want that, but we don't just want to see people come out of
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prostitution. We want that.
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We don't just want to see people come out of poverty.
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We we do want that, but we want to see people come into the
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family of gods. This is what no other religion
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can offer. No other God can offer this.
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In fact, there is no other God. Just just settle that deal.
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There's no such thing. They're just all deceptions of
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the devil. There is one God.
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There is one heavenly family and everyone is welcome.
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But when we all come into this heavenly family, we come into a
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new culture, a new way of living, a new way of breathing,
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a new way of thinking. Behold, all things become new
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for you and I Amen. This is good, good, good stuff.
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Gentiles are defined as non Jews, anyone not belonging to
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the ethnic or religious community of Israel.
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And in the modern world, from a biblical perspective, Gentiles
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encompass all people groups who are not ethnically or
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religiously Jew. So when the Bible is talking
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about Gentiles and the message has now moved into the world of
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the Gentiles, he's talking about most people in this room today,
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non Jews, you and I isn't this good?
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The, the, the early disciples took it that way.
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So what does this mean? Unity and diversity means we
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prioritize God's Kingdom values. Listen, lean into this over our
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cultural customs and traditions. I'm going to say that again
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because if you struggle in this area, I want to help you in this
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area this morning. And this will bring a new, a new
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level of life and unity in the Kingdom of God that you've never
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experienced. Unity in God means we prioritize
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God's Kingdom values over our cultural customs and traditions.
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And if we all do this, it unifies us together.
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The Scriptures teach that Christians must place God's
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Kingdom culture over personal, national culture, learning to
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live out heaven's values even when they clash with earthly
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traditions. This is tough stuff.
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This is really tough sometimes for us to do.
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And the reason why it can be tough is let's say you give your
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life to Jesus at 20 years old. You've had 20 years of living
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with a perspective that has been shaped by your culture, by where
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you have been brought up. And when you come into the
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Kingdom of God, there is a a new way of thinking.
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And This is why I love calling it a journey is because the, the
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wonderful grace of God and the beauty of God is he doesn't
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expect anyone to just flick and just go, Oh, I don't do that
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anymore. I now do this.
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We're all growing, learning, doing what we call getting it
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wrong. You know what I mean?
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Which just means we're expanding and we're, we're learning new
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things. It's good.
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It's good for us. It's good for our minds.
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It's good for our souls and our bodies to be in learning new
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things like this, just like in schools or diversities or Bible
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college. Man, we got a lot of Bible
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college students in the house this morning, which is just
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awesome. But when we learn, we grow.
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And when you come into the Kingdom of God, it's a, it's a
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journey that we walk together. This is why it's so, so
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important that we don't judge each other, but rather we
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sharpen each other. Now you can't sharpen a person
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if you don't understand a person and you won't sharpen or
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understand a person if you don't go deeper.
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Then hello, where do you live? Oh, we all live in Caboolture.
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So we all have Australian culture.
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We're missing a few things, right?
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And so we have our after church coffees together and you shout
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someone and you, you start asking some real questions.
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Where were you brought up? What was that like?
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Where was your family? And you find out that they were
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brought up in a place and their family was up on the hills and
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you're like, wow. So what was the community was a
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small community. Oh wow, that must have been a
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strong community. And we learn each other.
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But in that talking and that communion together, we are both
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focused on the heavenly culture. And so iron can sharpen iron.
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Oh, well, I love that about your, your upbringing.
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But you know, the thing of heaven and the way God thinks
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that we find through his word is this.
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We go, wow, that is so awesome. And so we we move each other
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together towards the ways of heaven.
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Amen. It's beautiful, beautiful stuff.
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Philippians 320 says this for our citizen.
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I'm struggling with words though.
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Our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait
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for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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I like that because there's there's two ways of looking at
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those few words. One is, is we're eagerly waiting
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for such a thing, but we already have the citizenship off.
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And so it's kind of to me, it's like I grew up in in Townsville.
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And so sometimes I might eagerly wait to go and visit Townsville.
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Now that's very rare, but it might happen.
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And so I'm eagerly waiting to go back, but I already understand
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what I'm going to find. Does this make sense?
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And so if you can identify yourself Christian as as a
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citizen of heaven, although we're waiting for that great
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wonderful day, our citizenship does this ready.
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It draws heaven to earth. And see, sometimes we cry out,
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God, would you pour heaven out on earth?
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And God's God must be saying to himself with the angels
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sometimes, do they not realize they're citizens?
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They already carry heaven within them.
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And we realize this the more we unify together, because the more
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we unify, there's a freedom in the atmosphere.
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Signs and wonders start to happen.
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Did you know that every time a miracle happens, that is heaven
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on earth? It's not a visitation of God's
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power. It's not a momentary thing of
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God's power. God's power is flowing through
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His Saints. Anyone that wants this God's
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power is flowing. Why?
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Because we are citizens. I often use the term conduits,
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which just means no glory to me, but all glory to God.
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I'm just a conduit, OK, But I understand that I can be a
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conduit, and I stand in the place of a conduit, wherever
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that is. But I stand in that place and I
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say God use me. Why do I do that?
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Because I understand I am a citizen of heaven.
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I belong to heaven, and heaven belongs in me.
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Amen. So we are citizens, Christian.
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You are a citizen of heaven. When we hold tight to earthly
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cultural traditions, values, language and behaviours, our
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relationship with the rest of God's people becomes under
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immense tension. When you or I hold on to our
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past, our traditions, our cultures over the graces of God
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for people around us, we just formulate tensions, not freedom,
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but through our cultural understanding.
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When we were in communion or talking with people, if we're
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our gaze is on the heavenly, well, God, what does your word
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say? God, would you flow through me?
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Not through me and my cultural filters, but God, would you use
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me as a conduit because I'm a citizen of heaven?
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Heaven, would you flow through me?
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In this conversation, you'll find unity comes into that
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moment, and liberty and freedom, not divide.
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The transformative work of what Jesus has done in US becomes
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watered down because our witness of God's Kingdom and our
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behaviours don't line up. You can't witness the freedom
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that we find in Jesus Christ and then hold on to behaviours and
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traditions that bring disunity or division.
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Does this make sense? Sometimes we speak about the
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love of God and the gospel, and we speak about Jesus, but then
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we hold so true to a traditional fact that it's secluding the
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same person. Does this make sense?
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It would be like God without grace.
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God without grace He gives us the Word and without grace it
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would become law. But because of the grace of God,
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I just exampled this. I became a Christian and then
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God had the grace for of me to be on my journey of learning how
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to transform my life, my mind, my behaviors, to walk in the
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ways or the culture of heaven. And I'm still till the day I die
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or go to heaven or Jesus comes back, which should have been
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last week but it wasn't. But so don't worry about that.
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Depends how much YouTube you watch.
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But until that day I am always being transformed and that is a
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beautiful process. And so this, without the grace
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of God becomes law. But the grace of God we see
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exercise through the life of Jesus Christ.
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Amen, became our Saviour. People need to see that there is
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a transfer of culture and traditional grounding and that
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there is a transformation in you and I when we give our lives to
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Jesus. People need to see that there is
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a transfer, a transaction that happens in our lives because
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it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives through me.
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Amen. So this is insane.
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Have no cultural traditions, values, language or behavior,
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but rather all of us from every culture.
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Now as citizens of one heaven under the lordship of one God,
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and save through the one person, Jesus Christ, we allow the Word
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of God, the Holy Bible, reshape our beautiful cultural cultural
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life foundations so that our differences become our unifying
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strengths. CS Lewis said Christianity does
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not replace or abolish our natural lives, but it must
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subordinate them to something higher, the culture of heaven
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breaking into earth. What that word means Subordinate
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is means come under or be redefined or be realigned by the
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new culture of heaven. In this church we exist to see
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spiritual and social transformation of our city.
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This great church is made-up of people from diverse nations and
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different cultures. We are unified through Jesus
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Christ, our new heavenly culture that transcends every earthly
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culture and is to unify every earthly culture.
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Our new identity as children of God, all of us in the same
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heavenly family that work our differences for the one purpose,
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the mission of God, the vision of this church to see spiritual
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and social transformation of our city.
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This is our unmistakable influence as a church.
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Amen is when you and I have this mindset and understanding, we
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become a unified group of people, a unified ecclesia, a
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body of Christ in one accord, you working in one accord as
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your body does. And we bring the body and the
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message of Jesus Christ to our great city, the Morton City and
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the Bribie Island and everyone around us.
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And we exemplify the goodness of God across all the agricultures.
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Amen. That's amazing stuff.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He said the church is the church
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only when it exists for others, not dominating, but helping and
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serving. It must tell men of every
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calling what it means to live for Christ and not for the
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nation. I do not live for Australia.
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I love Australia, I think we're in the great self land of the
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Holy Spirit, but I live for the Kingdom of God to shine the
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light that only heaven has, to bring the gospel that only Jesus
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is to bring the transformation that can only happen through the
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saving grace of our God. This is our purpose as a church.
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Listen, if you're in this church and you're part of this church,
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this is your purpose is to bring Jesus to the nations, not to
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uphold our family traditions or hold higher what we believe and
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think in our preferences and our understanding and and all of
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that stuff. But to get into the word of God
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and bring the life of the word of God that transcends anything
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that I could possibly make up or think or have learnt in my own
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experiences. Amen.
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Biblical unity and diversity is Christ centered truth or Bible
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governed and sacrificial. Our culture and heritage plays
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an important part in our mission for Jesus, our vision as a
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church and purposeful living where we do in this great city
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of ours and as citizens of heaven.
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We must submit who we are to God so that He can shape and
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redefined who we are so that we are unified as one people in one
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cause and that of Jesus Christ. Our differences are our
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strength. We are strengthened together.
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Trust me, you don't want a lot of Grimes going around.
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Unity and diversity is a dream for the world, yet a reality for
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God's Kingdom and for God's people in Christ.
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Many nations become one people, many cultures become one family,
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and many gifts become one mission.
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Here's our action point for today, and the band can come.
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If you're not already here with me, here's our action point from
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today's message. As we live out our heavenly
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citizenship, we are to choose Kingdom values over cultural
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divides so our city sees the unmistakable influence of Jesus
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in you. You received that today, Church.
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And as you go out into the cafe, can I encourage you to chat with
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someone new this morning to have a conversation that goes deeper
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than Hi and Hallows and where do you live?
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Why don't we just get deep with our brothers and our sisters?
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Who loves that? We're called brothers and
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sisters in Christ. You know, I've grown up always
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knowing that, but never really understanding that.
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And you can only really understand that we are brothers
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and sisters in Christ if you understand that we all have the
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same citizenship and that of heaven, Amen.
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And that of heaven only found through the 1 Lord and Savior
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Jesus Christ.