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Would That All Were Prophets · Faith at Work

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, welcome to you this morning.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today as we gather here in the valley,
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  SPEAKER_00: the corn I can see is about the height of a baby rabbit's back.
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  The heads on the winter wheat are forming and there are puddles
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  in the fields.
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  So I am thankful and grateful and excited about the earthly
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  harvest that is coming.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today we are going to be talking about her again.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's right, the Holy Spirit.
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  We're going to be looking at how in numbers the Holy Spirit
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  empowers and fills the 70.
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  We're going to be looking at how that same Holy Spirit on the
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  day of Pentecost
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  fills everyone in the house and we are going to be looking at
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  how in 1 Corinthians
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  the Corinthian church is empowered by the Holy Spirit and given
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  gifts to perform
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  SPEAKER_00: and to continue the work of Jesus Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now you might be thinking
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  is Harry either crazy or very excited this morning well let me
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  tell you I am
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  excited perhaps it is all of the drugs that I am on I have a
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  sinus infection okay
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  so I'm on antibiotics I've got Advil in me I just took a hint
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  of Dayquil and I'm on
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  SPEAKER_00: a thousand milligrams of vitamin C
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  SPEAKER_00: But I am told that the only thing that is contagious in me today,
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  SPEAKER_00: don't worry,
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  SPEAKER_00: is my excitement about faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: The excitement about Jesus Christ,
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  the empowerment of the Holy Spirit here as we celebrate on the
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  day of Pentecost.
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  and God the Father who looks over us and brings not only
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  earthly harvest but
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  SPEAKER_00: eternal harvest in our midst.
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  SPEAKER_00: So, I welcome you.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited this morning.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
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  SPEAKER_00: God of the harvest, we thank you.
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  There is a moment in the wilderness when Moses does something
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  remarkable.
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  not the parting of the Red Sea not the giving of the law not
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  smacking a rock and
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  making water come out of it and this moment as John said is
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  often missed but it is
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  in some ways more impactful than any of those other things in
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  this story Moses
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  SPEAKER_00: shares power
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  He has been wearing himself down with all the weight and the
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  complaining of the
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  SPEAKER_00: people of Israel.
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  SPEAKER_00: His father-in-law Jethro, earlier on in the story, had told him that
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  SPEAKER_00: what he was doing was just not sustainable.
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  SPEAKER_00: So in this story,
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  SPEAKER_00: God instructs Moses to gather 70 elders,
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  SPEAKER_00: people with recognized standing in the community,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then bring them to the tent of the meeting,
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  SPEAKER_00: which was where the presence of God dwelled.
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  SPEAKER_00: There,
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  God would take a portion of the Spirit already resting on Moses
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  and distribute it among the 70.
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  SPEAKER_00: 68 of the 70 show up.
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  SPEAKER_00: Two men, Eldad and Medad, the two dads, let's call them,
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  SPEAKER_00: whose name means beloved, stayed behind in the camp.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this is where the story gets interesting.
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  SPEAKER_00: When the spirit falls on the 68 gathered at the tent, they prophesy.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let's just pause a moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: What does that actually mean?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well,
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  SPEAKER_00: when the Bible uses the word prophesy in moments like this,
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  SPEAKER_00: it does not mean that they started predicting the future.
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  SPEAKER_00: Prophecy in the Hebrew tradition is better understood as foretelling,
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  SPEAKER_00: speaking the truth of God into a present moment.
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  They were given the Spirit and they spoke the truth of God for
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  that moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, we don't know what they said, interestingly enough.
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  SPEAKER_00: The narrator doesn't tell us.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what they said, apparently, is not important.
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  But what seems to be important is that back in the camp,
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  something unexpected is happening.
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  Eldad and Medad,
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  the two dads who never made it to the tent,
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  are prophesying too.
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  SPEAKER_00: Out in the open,
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  among the tents and the cooking fires and the everyday noise of
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  the community,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Spirit found them where they were.
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  SPEAKER_00: So, a young man, seeing what's happening, runs and tells Moses.
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  And Joshua,
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  Moses' right-hand man,
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  hears the report and immediately says,
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  Moses,
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  stop them!
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, Joseph's response makes a certain kind of institutional sense.
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  SPEAKER_00: He is invested in Moses.
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  SPEAKER_00: He has invested in this process.
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  Moses used it to select the 70 and he understands that
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  structures of authority
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  SPEAKER_00: depend on people honoring those structures.
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  SPEAKER_00: If Eldad and Maedad can receive the Spirit without showing up,
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  SPEAKER_00: without going through the proper channels,
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  SPEAKER_00: without being in the right place at the right time,
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  SPEAKER_00: then what does that mean to be chosen?
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  SPEAKER_00: What are the boundaries for?
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not trying to make out Joshua as the villain here.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's just a loyalist.
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  He loves Moses and he loves the order that Moses is bringing to
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  the people of God
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  SPEAKER_00: that kind of need it at that time.
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  SPEAKER_00: His concern is legitimate, but it is also limited.
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  SPEAKER_00: Moses sees something that Joshua cannot see yet.
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  SPEAKER_00: His response is one of the most
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  SPEAKER_00: Stunning things anyone says in the entire Torah.
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  SPEAKER_00: Are you jealous for my sake?
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  Would that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the
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  Lord would put his spirit on them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Moses is not threatened.
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  He is not worried about his position or his authority or the
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  integrity of the
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  SPEAKER_00: system that he has built.
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  He looks at Eldad and Medad prophesying in the camp and his
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  first feeling is not
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  SPEAKER_00: anxiety,
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  SPEAKER_00: it is delight.
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  SPEAKER_00: He wants more of this, not less.
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  SPEAKER_00: He wants it for everyone.
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  We need to ask ourselves,
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  what does it take to become this kind of leader?
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  SPEAKER_00: The kind of church who can feel that way?
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  SPEAKER_00: What kind of security,
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  SPEAKER_00: what kind of identity,
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  SPEAKER_00: what kind of trust in God does it require to say genuinely,
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  SPEAKER_00: I wish everyone could do what I,
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  SPEAKER_00: we do.
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  SPEAKER_00: to experience the fullness of God that I, we do.
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  SPEAKER_00: Would it be that everyone experiences that?
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  SPEAKER_00: Now,
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  fast forward several hundred thousands of years and the
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  disciples of Jesus are
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  SPEAKER_00: gathered in Jerusalem.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is Pentecost.
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  SPEAKER_00: 50 days after the Passover when everything changed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus died, was resurrected, and was lifted up into heaven.
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  And they are waiting as Jesus had told them to wait for
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  something that they could
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  SPEAKER_00: not fully imagine yet.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then it happens in Acts chapter 2.
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  SPEAKER_00: When
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  the spirit formerly concentrated in one person Moses and then
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  distributed and
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  portioned out to the 70 now it is she is poured out without
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  measure on everyone in
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  SPEAKER_00: the room men and women young and old slave and
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  SPEAKER_00: And they begin to speak each in a language that is not their own,
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  that they never learned languages of people from every corner
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  of the known world.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the crowd outside is bewildered.
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  SPEAKER_00: Some of them are mocking.
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  SPEAKER_00: Boy, these folks are drunk, someone says.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is nine in the morning.
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  Peter stands up and gives them the answer for what they are
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  seeing and experiencing.
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  He reaches back all the way to the prophet Joel who said in the
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  last days it will
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  SPEAKER_00: be,
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  SPEAKER_00: God declares,
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  that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and
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  your daughters
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  SPEAKER_00: shall prophesy and your young men shall see
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  SPEAKER_00: Visions and your old men will dream dreams.
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  SPEAKER_00: Even upon my slaves,
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  SPEAKER_00: both men and women,
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  SPEAKER_00: in those days I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.
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  SPEAKER_00: Moses' wish is coming true at scale.
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  SPEAKER_00: Every boundary the spirit was expected to respect was dissolved.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not just 70 elders,
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  SPEAKER_00: not just recognized leaders with social standing are getting the spirit,
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  SPEAKER_00: but sons and daughters,
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  SPEAKER_00: old and young,
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  SPEAKER_00: slave and free.
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  SPEAKER_00: The people at the absolute bottom of the social order,
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  SPEAKER_00: people who owned nothing,
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  SPEAKER_00: controlled nothing,
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  SPEAKER_00: had access to nothing,
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  SPEAKER_00: are included in the outpouring.
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  And what do the people in the crowd say when they hear these
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  unlearned Galileans
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  speaking in languages of Parthenians and Medes and Allemites in
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  the residence of
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  SPEAKER_00: Mesopotamia?
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  In our own language we hear them speaking about God's deeds of
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  power,
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  they say.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is the definition of prophecy.
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  SPEAKER_00: Speaking the truth of God's power into the present moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not predicting the future.
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  Speaking what is real and alive and true about God into the
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  ears of people who need
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  SPEAKER_00: to hear it in a language that they can understand.
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  SPEAKER_00: Pentecost is glorious.
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  SPEAKER_00: What comes after Pentecost?
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  SPEAKER_00: It gets complicated.
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  SPEAKER_00: We see that in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
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  SPEAKER_00: The community at Corinth forms in the wake of Pentecost.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it is a community overflowing with faith,
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  SPEAKER_00: overflowing with the Spirit,
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  SPEAKER_00: overflowing with gifts,
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  SPEAKER_00: wisdom,
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  SPEAKER_00: knowledge,
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  SPEAKER_00: faith.
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  healings,
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  miracles,
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  prophecy,
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  discernment,
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  tongues,
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  and the interpretation of tongues.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit has been extraordinarily generous among them.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the Corinthians, they've turned it into a competition.
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  SPEAKER_00: They are ranking the gifts,
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  SPEAKER_00: treating the more dramatic ones as evidence of superior spiritual status.
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  The people with flashier gifts are looking down on the people
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  with the quieter ones.
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  So Paul is writing this community that is fracturing because of
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  all of this over
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  SPEAKER_00: the gifts and he says these gifts need to be for building you up.
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  His answer is not to restrict the gifts or to question whether
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  they are real.
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  SPEAKER_00: His answer is to reframe the entire experience and enterprise.
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  SPEAKER_00: He says the same spirit is given to all.
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  SPEAKER_00: No gift is for self-display.
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  Every gift is for building up of the body,
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  and the body needs all of its parts.
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  SPEAKER_00: The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is no hierarchy here, only interdependence.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the Corinthians had Moses' abundance,
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  SPEAKER_00: yes,
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  SPEAKER_00: but they also had Joshua's competitive anxiety at the same time.
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  They had the gifts and they were using them to sort themselves
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  out into winners and losers.
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  Paul is trying to give them Moses' eyes to see what really
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  needs to be happening here.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the pattern across these three texts for a moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: In every one of them, the spirit shows up where she was not expected.
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  SPEAKER_00: In people who were not supposed to be the ones,
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  SPEAKER_00: the two dads who stayed in the camp,
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  SPEAKER_00: the unschooled Galileans speaking languages that they had never studied,
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  the sons and the daughters and the slaves and the foreigners
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  who were supposed to
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  SPEAKER_00: be outside of the circle.
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  And in every case the community has to figure out how to
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  respond to this incredible
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  SPEAKER_00: feeling and empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the responses cluster into a few types.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is the Joshua response.
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  SPEAKER_00: Make them stop.
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  SPEAKER_00: They did it, earn it.
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  SPEAKER_00: They didn't follow the rules.
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  SPEAKER_00: They didn't follow the process.
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  There is the Jerusalem crowd response,
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  confusion,
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  bewilderment,
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  and for some,
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  ridicule.
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  SPEAKER_00: They must be drunk.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're crazy people.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is the Corinthian response, pride and competition.
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  SPEAKER_00: I have the gifts that matter.
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  SPEAKER_00: My manifestation of the Spirit is more impressive than yours.
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  SPEAKER_00: Watch what I can do.
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  SPEAKER_00: And there is the Moses response.
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  SPEAKER_00: Would that all the Lord's people were prophets.
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  SPEAKER_00: More of this.
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  SPEAKER_00: Please.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here's the calling then for us.
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  The church can give off the vibe without quite ever saying it
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  that the spirit stays
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  SPEAKER_00: inside our walls,
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  SPEAKER_00: honors our processes,
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  SPEAKER_00: works through our approved channels,
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  and doesn't show up at people who don't participate in our
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  particular ways of
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  SPEAKER_00: gathering or believing.
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  So the question for us today is not whether the spirit is being
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  poured out.
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  SPEAKER_00: The spirit is being poured out all across the world, I assure you.
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  SPEAKER_00: The question is,
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  what kind of people are we going to be when we encounter her
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  outside of our
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  SPEAKER_00: expected places?
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  SPEAKER_00: Are we going to be Joshua,
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  SPEAKER_00: anxious about the boundaries,
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  SPEAKER_00: worried that if the Spirit moves too freely,
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  SPEAKER_00: the whole system will come tumbling down?
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  SPEAKER_00: Are we going to be the crowd,
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  SPEAKER_00: the bewildered crowd,
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  just sort of standing outside the door and able to make sense
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  of what we're seeing
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  SPEAKER_00: and defaulting to dismissal?
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  SPEAKER_00: They're just drunk.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're just crazy.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's not God's
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  are we going to be the Corinthians measuring and comparing and
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  competing and making
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  the gifts into a winner and a loser situation or are we going
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  to grow into become
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  little Moseses who looked at two men prophesying without
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  permission in the middle
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  SPEAKER_00: of the camp and felt no threat only joy
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  SPEAKER_00: who looked at the free movement of the Spirit and said,
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  SPEAKER_00: yes,
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  SPEAKER_00: more of this,
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  SPEAKER_00: everywhere in everyone.
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  SPEAKER_00: Would that all the Lord's people were prophets.
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  SPEAKER_00: And let the church say amen.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let the church say amen again with a bit more enthusiasm and excitement.
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  SPEAKER_00: Amen?
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  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
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  Now I have said a lot and I'm being told that I'm saying a lot
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  in a very condensed
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  SPEAKER_00: manner here in church.
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  That is because I want to get you out of here by 1130 and still
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  give you time to
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  SPEAKER_00: pray and share about your concerns and needs.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I've also been asked, you know, how do we go deeper?
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure that you're aware that you can go deeper.
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  Every week I prepare a five-day devotional and a study guide
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  and I put that on the website.
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  SPEAKER_00: It has a sermon on it.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's got a lot of wonderful things.
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  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to go deeper each week,
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  you can go there you can download the study guide you can use
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  that in your life
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  groups or in your Sunday school classes or perhaps in a group
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  of friends or family
• 20:48
  that you're meeting with and you're wanting to talk and go
• 20:50
  deeper with some of
• 20:51
  these things so please go there and please use that and or you
• 20:58
  can join me for
• 20:59
  coffee I had a taker this morning I already got it lined up
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  with Jerry Ruff the
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  SPEAKER_00: Ruff man
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  SPEAKER_00: Can I call you the rough man?
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  SPEAKER_00: The rough man.
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  SPEAKER_00: Brethren rough man.
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  SPEAKER_00: All right.
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  SPEAKER_00: So meeting with him.
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  But I would love to get together with you for coffee or tea and
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  just talk about
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  SPEAKER_00: spiritual things.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I will even pick up the text.