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#24451 - 12 Biblical Truths That Have Helped Me Serve Well · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's word with pastor and author.
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Ed, Taylor recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora,
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Colorado to learn more about the many resources available,
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through abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream
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Services. Visit us online at Calvary, Co
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dot church or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now, here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Amen. Did you take your Bibles and
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open them to Zechariah Chapter 4, Zechariah Chapter 4.
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This is servants class, number six and I've entitled The Bible
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study today. 12 biblical truths that have helped me serve well,
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I think we could look at these 12 things and even say I wish
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somebody would have told me these things.
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When I was a new believer, they would have helped me so much but
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I've learned And I'm learning them over the years.
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Even as you'll have your own 12, things things that God has
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taught you over the years that will make you a better servant
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in his hands. And I love studying and learning
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about serving Jesus about abiding in Christ serving
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alongside of him being available to him.
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I hope it never gets tired for you.
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And never this is something God gave me very early on in my walk
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with him that Ministry and sir. Service and Leadership would be
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a direction. He would use me in the body and
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I never get tired of this stuff. I love it.
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I love being reminded of it. I love learning it afresh and
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Anew and I hope you don't get tired of it in our studies.
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You have to admit, though they have been challenging at times
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stirring, even stretching, where we must take, what we already
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think, we know and match it with what the scriptures say and make
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A changes where necessary, but at the same time, our Studies
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have also been encouraging and uplifting and have greatly
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prepared Us in serving Jesus. In this church, and in the
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world, a little bit better improving just a little bit
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more, a little bit more. You'll remember, by way of
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review, in our first week, we learn how God uses Ordinary
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People. Every believer is available to
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be used by God and then in week number two we learn how
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important and essential it is to have our pastor's heart and we
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learned that the pastor we referred to, as our great
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Pastor, the chief Shepherd Jesus Christ.
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It makes sense that we would want his heart to serve his
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people in his church, in the work that he's doing.
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And then the third week, we learned that it's important that
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were like-minded with our pastor or under Shepherd, and the
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leaders and overseers that God has put in our lives.
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And then our fourth week we learned from Peter, how to
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Shepherd the flock of God? Well, we learned some insights
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from Peter and then last time we were together, we saw some
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attributes in the life of young. Timothy how he served Paul, well
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serving the lord today. I'd like to share with you 12
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things that I've learned over the years.
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Ears and I'm still learning them and many ways that continue to
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help me serve in this church if we had 12 more weeks.
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Each one of them could easily become a topical Bible study in
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and of itself, we're going to take these and it'll be a new
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season of our podcast lead to serve.
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And we'll talk them out and we'll talk about them in
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dialogue, but my hope is they take root in your heart and help
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point you in the right direction as you And to serve in this
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church, it will make you more usable in the Masters hands.
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It's a very topical study. We're going to start in
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Zechariah. We're going to look at 12
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different passages and 12 different principles.
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So if you're taking notes, Here is number one, not in any
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particular order, but I'm grateful.
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I started with this one. Number one in order to serve.
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Well, we need to remember that, we serve God in the spirit, and
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not in our own strength, we serve God in his spirit.
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It's not in our own strength Zechariah 4:6, so, he answered
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and said to me, this is the word of the Lord to zerubbabel not by
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might not by power, but by my spirit, says, the Lord of hosts.
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Here's why. This is important.
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We've just spent five weeks now. Six weeks with some really
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in-depth practical teaching, practical, insights, a lot of
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practical truths that you can hold on to and apply in your
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life. With practical truth comes
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temptations that we would jump in and try to serve with what we
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think we know and just hey, I learned this and now I'm going
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to do it and I'm going to hold on to how I understood it and
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all this worldly wisdom. But the truth is servanthood is
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to be Spirit lead and spirit empowered.
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We want to be open to the Lord and all that he wants following
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in his Spirit walking, according to his will It's all about
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surrender and being empowered by the Holy Spirit be ye filled
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with the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, we learn in our
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study in the book of Acts to be baptized by the holy spirit that
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you might become Witnesses for Jesus.
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Number two, number two, in order to serve God, we need to
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remember that. We serve god with his wisdom and
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not our own understanding. It's with his wisdom.
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He tells us what he wants and how, How he wants it.
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Done not on our own understanding.
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Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 and 6 trust in the Lord, with all
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your heart. Lean not on your own
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understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will
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direct your paths. A very important key to walking
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in the spirit is living in God's wisdom.
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Far less mistakes would be made far, less people would be
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injured. Far less confusion would be in
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the church far less offense far, less hurt, far less sin would
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happen in the church. If we would just lean on the
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Lord and press into him and not our own understanding being
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flexible. Being open to a fresh work of
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the Holy Spirit. I like to think of it this way,
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you can't just become set in your ways becoming sudden, your
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ways makes you rigid and inflexible.
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When God is doing a new thing, when he's wanting to do a new
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thing. And how will we know?
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Because we've chosen to trust in the Lord, we've chosen not to
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lean on our own understanding and the most popular one.
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When it comes to being set in your ways is something like,
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well, we've always done it this way.
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But what if God wants to do something new You want to lean
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into him and not your own understanding number three, I
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know these are very simple but super important.
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Number three, you want to serve well, be a man or a woman of the
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word of God. Be a person of the Bible.
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How is that hurt around here? It's on.
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Repeat all the time. Read your Bible every day.
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It is the place of wisdom knowledge and understanding of
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God second Timothy chapter 3 in verses 14 through 17, Paul tells
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young Timothy you must continue in the things which you have
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learned and been assured of knowing from whom you have
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learned them that from childhood you have known the holy
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scriptures, which are able to make you wise, for salvation
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through faith, which is in Jesus Christ.
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The Bible Bible makes you wise, you want to be smarter, read the
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Bible. You want to know what to do.
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Read the Bible. You want to set your day in the
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right direction, read the Bible. And then the Bible says this in
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verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is
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profitable. So think about this, every time
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you open the Bible its profitable for you, you will
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profit, you will gain, you will get.
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The problem is we're always. Eating to understand like you
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get so frustrated because you're reading some, I don't understand
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this. I don't understand that
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understanding comes with time and study and even if you don't
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understand everything at the beginning, take what you do
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understand and understand and grasp that God is giving you
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something to your profit. The Bible is more important.
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Listen carefully, the Bible is more important than books about
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the Bible. Sometimes you re your suit your
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whole life. In order by some booking you
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read that is not as important as the Bible.
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You actually need to know the Bible better to be able to tell.
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If that book you read about the Bible is actually even any good.
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You need to read the Bible if you want to serve well here
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because the Bible is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for
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correction and instruction and righteousness.
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Why? So that the man of God, may be
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complete or mature, Thoroughly equipped for every good work.
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Brings us to number four. Not only you to be a man, a
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woman of the Bible but your to be a woman and a man of prayer
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and that's read your Bible and pray every day.
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Here's a very simple scripture. You ready.
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First Thessalonians, chapter 5 in verse 17.
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Pray without ceasing and that's it.
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Your life should be saturated with prayer.
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Just like breathing prayer and the Bible go hand in hand.
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Praying with people, praying for people, praying for help,
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praying for God's wisdom, praying for healing, praying for
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discernment. The key to walking in the spirit
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in accomplishing, the work of God is to be in constant,
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communication with God. You could say this, we're in a
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battle, we're in a spiritual battle, and one of the enemy's
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tactics is to cut off communication, with
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headquarters. If he can divide you from your
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direct and from your commanding officer, then you're going to be
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in chaos. And you got to guard and protect
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that time with the Lord and you have a problem.
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Pray about it. You have an issue pray about it.
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You're reading something in the scriptures.
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Pray over it be men and women of prayer.
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It's so vital number five. Number five, you want to serve.
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Well, especially in this church. You want to serve, well,
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maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
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Let me put it a different way. You want to serve.
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Well, in this church. Be divisive don't be divisive
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Proverbs Chapter 6 verses 16 through 19 these six things.
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The Lord hates. Yes seven or Abomination to him
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a proud. Look a lying tongue hands that
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shed innocent blood, a heart that devises Wicked plans feet
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that are Swift to running to evil.
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A false witness who speaks lies and one who sows Discord.
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Among the Brethren don't be divisive.
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If you're having problems with the person who oversees you
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then, go to them directly and work it out.
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If you have a problem with someone that you're serving next
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to then go to them and work it out.
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If you're having a problem with your posture, then go to him and
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work it out. If you can't, let me just pause
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here, let me add one. If you won't, then you are in
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sin. And the answer is just repent
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and go work it out but if you can't if something happens where
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you just can't work it out, then don't go the route of gossiping
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about them or slandering them or gathering people together to try
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to build a case against them. But go to your prayer closet,
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ask God to work in your life and if it's so, so bad, rather than
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stick around and be divisive, find a Ministry, find a church
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that is more like-minded. Oh, that divisiveness is not a
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part of your daily life and just serve the Lord.
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But I would say leaving your church isn't always the best
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decision, because if you don't, you leave your church without
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resolving the issue. You're just going to take that
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junk to another church. You're just going to jack that
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church up to and then another one, and then another one.
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And then another one, where God as we'll see, in another point,
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he's giving you giving you the provision.
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How to solve these problems as found in Matthew chapter 18,
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From the lips of Jesus himself, he gives us three steps with the
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very first one. If you just follow the first
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step, 99% of issues will be solved and that is go to your
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brother. If your brother sins against
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you, go to your brother, you and him alone, share your concern
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with them. If your brother hears you, what
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you have won your brother and we'll get to that in a little
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bit later in another part. But listen, nothing kills,
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relationships, nothing, kills churches, nothing kills homes
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and marriages, more. More quickly and thoroughly than
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Division and as pastors and leaders, we are always on the
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lookout for divisive people. Why?
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Because we believe the Bible here, we believe what Jesus
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taught us. And he said that A House Divided
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cannot stand. And for the health of our
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church, we aren't going to allow division to take root here.
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We're going to work with you. Try to get your eyes back on the
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Lord so that you'll be able to be that Peacemaker.
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That's blessed. Jesus.
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I said, blessed are the peacemakers because there will
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be friction for sure. Proverbs Chapter 6.
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Don't be on the side of hatred, the God.
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What? God hates.
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He hates people as sow seeds of Discord.
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Not good. Number six, number six.
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Again, no particular order. But number 6.
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You want to serve well here, then lay aside and crucify, any
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personal Prejudice that you still carry around.
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It is sin, and it's not from Jesus.
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Our Jesus was not and is not a prejudiced, man, even though the
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world that he entered into his creation was and still, very is
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Prejudice, even the spiritual leaders of the day that Jesus
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walked into were very prejudiced, but Jesus came to
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set us back on track. People are people and you happen
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to live in a culture that loves to Keep people against one
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another because it's easier to control you.
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When you hate one another, when you're upset with one another.
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But it's also easier to disobey God, when you label people and
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see people in ways that God doesn't see them, it doesn't
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matter what the color of someone's skin is it doesn't
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matter what language they speak or what country they came from
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or where they live, or what car, they drive or what kind of
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clothes they have or whatever. Their background might be those
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things. Don't matter.
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God loves. People.
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And if you don't learn this and you retain Prejudice in your
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heart, you will not be useful for the kingdom.
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It has no place you you trust me on this you repent of your
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Prejudice and you will see so many more doors open for you and
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Ministry. You know the world wants you to
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look at it this way politically and culturally and this is a
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drain and I don't like none of that stuff matters.
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Don't label people. They're your neighbor.
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Everybody's your neighbor, everybody is your neighbor and
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it makes sense that the world would want to have you.
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Not look at people as neighbors, but as some other category
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because then you can feel better about yourself and look down on
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people and have all this Pride, it doesn't exist in Christ.
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Jesus died for the world in heaven.
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You know, as well, as I do in Revelation in heaven, it says
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that heaven is going to be filled with every tribe.
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Every tongue and every nation. You better get used to it folks.
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This is the work of God on the Earth today.
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And it just needs to be set out loud.
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Repent, your Prejudice is sin, holding you back.
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I would even go so far to say this if you're Prejudiced and
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you're not willing to deal with it, don't serve here, don't
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serve here, you're just not ready, you are just not ready to
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step in and take responsibility to love someone.
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That's different. Love someone that is struggling
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or love. Someone, that doesn't even have
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any control of some of the characteristics and attributes
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of their life. And they're worthy of Love.
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Why? Because people are people the
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scripture I want to share with you on.
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This is first Samuel chapter 16, it's when Samuel.
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The prophet was sent to anoint the next king and he comes to
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Jesse's house and the oldest son was the one that looked like he
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was it and he was going to lay hands on him and we all know if
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you know that part of the Bible that it wasn't the oldest son
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but it was the youngest son that was going to be anointed.
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David was the one being anointed, but listen to how God
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answers Samuel, you ready first six of Saint first?
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16. So it was when they came that he
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looked at. Elia band said, surely the
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Lord's anointed has before him, but the Lord said to Samuel, do
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not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I
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have refused him for. The, Lord does not see as man
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sees for man. Looks at the outward appearance,
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but the Lord looks at the heart. This is where prayer comes in.
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It's like, man, I want to see what God sees.
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I don't want to see what man sees, I don't want to see.
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I don't want to see things that divide me from people.
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I want to be open to be used more and not less number 7
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Doesn't get much better folks to be ready.
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Number 7, you want to serve over here.
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Well here then learn to serve without murmuring and
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complaining. Learn to serve without murmuring
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and complaining. Can I just say at the outset
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complaining helps no one. It doesn't help the situation.
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It only makes the situation worse because you obviously have
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seen something a some concern or something again in the context
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of the church you've seen something.
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But now, instead of trying to help the situation, you complain
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about it now. Guess what?
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You've made it worse. First, we have the Problem that
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you seen but now you're a problem.
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Now we have two issues to take care of and if you start talking
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to other people about it and I can't believe this is.
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I can't believe that bum bum mama mama before you even know
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it. Now you got 10 other people.
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They didn't even know as a problem until you complain about
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it and it's odd some of you You just known as complainers and,
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you know, you don't have to be, you can be a part of the
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solution. I want you to think of
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complaining in a little different way because
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complaining comes from seeing something, and when I suggest to
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you, that God has given you a keen sense of observation not to
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complain about it, to be a part of the solution, so that you can
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help. Complaining doesn't help
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anything and it's sad that so much murmuring and complaining
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exist in the church. Today even our church, it
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doesn't help, it doesn't edify, it doesn't solve problems.
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But what it does do is take a perfectly good servant and
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propel them into the Flesh and make them unusable and they
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start to defile other people. If you can't serve in this
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church without complaining, then please don't serve.
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Because as you serve here, you will see all sorts of things.
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One of the things you'll see right away, is that, man, God
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really does use anybody. Why taught you that week one?
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Yes, you don't need to worry about that.
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We all make mistakes. And it's true.
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We're not professionals. I don't want to be a
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professional. I want to be a servant and so
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we're going to make mistakes. There's going to be issues Among
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Us. God uses me as an ordinary
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person who uses you but complaining about it.
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It's not going to get anywhere if you have to step down and go,
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yeah, I'm just got a problem or complaint.
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Then you go to your prayer closet and ask God to do
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business with your heart to God, I don't want to be like this.
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I see what I I see. But how can I be used God,
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instead of murmuring and complaining if you're still yet
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unconvinced, you think this is just a pastor's opinion.
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It's not listen, Philippians. 2:14 In Chapter 2 of
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Philippians, verse 14. Let me see.
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If this is clear enough for you ready?
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Do all things without murmuring and complaining.
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That was an open door for an amen.
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Yeah, yeah. Out of your own lips to the ears
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of God, but it's true. He says do all things without
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murmuring and complaining complaining and disputing that
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you may become blameless and harmless.
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So you do harm, when you complain, you harm people, you
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mess with their heads, you discourage, but instead be
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children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and
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perverse generation just as some Twisted.
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Crooked ways of Of the people, the way people see, things apart
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from Christ you and I we need to go against that by surrendering
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to the Lord and complaining will get you nowhere.
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Number eight, number eight, remember this?
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You want to serve. Well, we in quotation marks, we
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the word. We is the language of ministry
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here at this church. We're in this together which
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requires you to toss your personal agenda You need to be
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careful here because we're the most effective when we are
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together striving after one goal going in One Direction.
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There isn't two visions of this church or three Vision.
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So it's not your vision and my vision, there's one Vision, it's
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very simple. Actually, the vision of our
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church is evangelism with a responsibility to win disciple
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and send that. That is the vision of our
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church. We will follow that direction.
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And what that means is that if you have an agenda, that's
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different than the direction of this church, then you having
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your own agenda doing your own thing.
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That's not a problem. What the problem is is when you
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try to make your agenda our agenda that's not going to
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happen. We already know what God is
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doing in our life. We already know what God wants
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to use this church. We aren't going to be adopting,
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everybody's agenda, everybody's Ministry every that it's it's
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not going to happen here and you got to be prepared That if
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you're stepping in to serve here so that you can gain some kind
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of credibility with people to draw them after yourself or you
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want some kind of power over people.
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This is not the right place for their we just want you to serve
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just serve and your agenda. It's like sometimes people have
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their own Ministry or own doing their own thing and that's fine.
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But then you come and go Ed. We need to do this here.
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Yeah, I don't think we do will pray about it but I don't think
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so. It's okay if you do it, but as a
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church, we don't need to adopt it.
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Well why it? Well because we were already
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doing What we're doing and the vision of our church is super
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simple, it was like that when we first arrived in 1999 and I
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taught my very first Bible study with 30 people in that room and
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that's this, I'm going to teach you the Bible verse by verse so
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I can equip you as the Saints so you can do the work of the
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ministry. That's it.
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We're going to sing together. We're going to study the Bible
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together. Then we're going to leave the
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building and obey God with our lives.
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That's why sometimes you might come and go pastor at bastard.
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Why are we doing that thing at that other churches?
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Doing, they're doing it so well, why don't we do?
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Do it. Well we're not called to do it
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and I want you to consider this. If another church in town is
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already doing it very. Well, that's probably why we're
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not called to do it like that, that is so important to you,
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then that should be the church here in because this is what we
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do here. You want to learn the Bible here
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will teach you. You want to learn about the
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grace of God, we will live in an atmosphere of Grace.
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You want to grow like you've never grown before the spirit of
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God has a tendency to use this church that way in your life if
24:26
that's what you want. You arrived at the right place.
24:29
If you want to do anything short of sin to reach the lost your
24:33
home. This is it.
24:35
But be careful. Because if you don't see
24:37
ministry as we and you only see it as me then you're not going
24:42
to make it very well here because we won't allow Division.
24:45
And here's the question, I'm going to read it to you from the
24:47
Scriptures. It is a question.
24:49
So I want you to answer out loud.
24:52
The answer to this question, what you think it is?
24:55
It's in Amos 3:3. And so I'm inviting you to
24:59
respond after I finish reading this you ready.
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This is what Amos 3:3 says can two walk together unless they
25:05
are agreed. Okay.
25:08
That was not what I was expecting.
25:10
Remember back to the study and like-mindedness.
25:13
Let me ask it again. Can two walk together unless
25:15
they're agreed. No, no, it's not possible.
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So, it's better to be in a Ministry where you can agree and
25:23
not always be disagreeable. Let me just say this Most of the
25:28
time. This is a problem for Christians
25:32
that have been walking with the Lord for a while.
25:34
It's not an issue. New Believers deal with new
25:36
Believers. Don't care about this stuff.
25:38
They just want to follow the lord, they loved the church.
25:40
They know that God brought them, I think you need to remember,
25:43
this will help you a lot. This might be a number 13 but
25:46
it'll help you a lot. If you just come to the
25:48
conclusion that God brought you to this church, you didn't, this
25:52
wasn't your big decision, this wasn't you trying to figure out
25:55
where you supposed to be You are where you are by the will of God
26:00
and he wants you here as long as he wants you here.
26:03
If you accept that, then you'll be able to say okay Lord,
26:06
whatever you have for me. You want me here.
26:07
I'm here. I landed.
26:09
I'm going to plant my feet down a movie like a tree by the
26:12
rivers of Living Water firmly rooted, so I can give forth my
26:15
fruit in the season. But if you take all the credit,
26:18
well, you know, I found this church and I'm the if you take
26:21
all the credit, then it's going to be on your shoulders.
26:23
And the first time, a big issue comes up, you are ill-equipped
26:26
to handle. But if you know, the Lord has
26:29
you there and you can get through anything.
26:31
And you can grow together in your church family were
26:34
co-laborers like-minded, number nine, number nine.
26:38
Remember this he want to serve. Well remember this God raises up
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one and he puts down another Psalm 75 in verse 7, but God is
26:48
the judge. He puts down one and exalts.
26:51
Another Why is that important? Well, the ministry here, the
26:58
positions that might exist the titles.
27:01
We may use their responsibilities that are handed
27:04
out, they come from God and not from man.
27:08
He's the one that raises up and he's the one that puts down it
27:13
is not another way of looking at is the roles and titles and
27:17
positions, don't, I don't give them out.
27:19
They don't come from me, God. Our responsibility as pastors is
27:25
to watch what God is doing in the church and to ratify the
27:30
gifts that are in your life to see the fruit from your life or
27:34
the lack thereof and to obey God in either the raising up and you
27:39
know when it comes to some 75, everybody likes the first part.
27:43
It's always exciting. Let's step into something new,
27:46
let's step into new ministry. Let's do something great.
27:49
The second half isn't always so exciting where you have to be
27:52
sat down. Or you have to move on, it
27:54
doesn't even have to be sin. It's just time for a change.
27:57
It's time to move on. We're going to go in a New
27:59
Direction. It doesn't even have to be sin,
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but what happens is people take ownership of things that don't
28:05
belong to you, they don't belong to you.
28:09
The ministry existed before I got here, and before you got
28:12
here, and it will exist after we are gone.
28:15
After we're in glory, they don't the titles, the positions, the
28:20
church doesn't belong to us. Belongs to the Lord, and we're
28:24
just stewards. If we learned in previous
28:26
studies were just stewards of what belongs to him.
28:30
Don't try to canvas for position here or try to climb whatever
28:33
ladder you think there is or to gather a little following or any
28:37
of the other little things that people try to do to gain power
28:41
in the world. It doesn't work here, it won't
28:44
work because this isn't the world.
28:46
It's the kingdom, we live by the kingdom principles.
28:50
Very different than the way the world operates.
28:53
The best thing you can do here at Calvary is just serve be a
28:57
servant you don't need to worry about anything else just serve
29:00
the Lord, give yourself completely over to him and allow
29:04
his hand in your life to move you from moat you remove you as
29:09
he sees fit number ten. Number ten, almost done, number
29:14
10. You want to serve well here,
29:16
learn how to handle your conflicts biblically.
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I would even add handle your conflicts biblically.
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Do it step in and do it as servants and leaders in our
29:29
church. The expectation is that you and
29:33
I handle conflicts and issues, biblically not unbiblical e.
29:39
I assure you. You will have conflict in this
29:43
church. I assure you, you will face
29:45
problems in this church. It is a part of the package.
29:50
Were you have people together? There will always be friction
29:53
and when you have a lot of people together there will be a
29:56
lot of friction but the friction and difficulties don't need to
30:01
lead to disaster but rather can be learning opportunities the
30:05
best way. And the really the only way
30:08
relationships grow is through time and testing it.
30:13
Time allows us together to get to know each other to talk to
30:17
spend time together and leads to more opportunities.
30:20
To test our relationship. Sometimes a test is friction,
30:24
disagreements. How we handle them.
30:26
Will determine the future of our relationship.
30:29
It happens in every single relationship including the
30:32
church. The Bible has Jesus has given us
30:35
very clear, instruction on hand-to-hand how to handle
30:39
conflict and that is number one, Matthew chapter 18, go to the
30:43
purse of a person's sin against you.
30:45
Go to the person. You and him alone, share your
30:48
grievance with them. If he hears you.
30:50
As you you've won your brother. That's the whole point.
30:53
You want to win your brother, you don't want to destroy your
30:55
sister or destroy your brother. You want to save the
30:58
relationship 99% of the time? It was a misunderstanding.
31:04
And once you hear is like, oh man, brother, I didn't mean to
31:06
do that. I'm so sorry.
31:08
That was not my intent and then there are sometimes tears and
31:11
prayer and it's over. It's done.
31:13
You forgive and you move forward and the friction is gone.
31:17
But the Bible says, if that didn't Work.
31:20
Then you get two people, independent of the situation
31:24
involved and you go do it again and if that doesn't work then
31:28
you get the leadership of the church involved to try to help
31:31
resolve it. And then if that doesn't work,
31:34
then church disciplines necessary, if there's real Sin,
31:37
and if it gets that far, there probably is real Sin on one or
31:40
both of your parts. And the whole point of the
31:43
church, the whole part of the leadership is not for church
31:45
discipline but for reconciliation.
31:48
That's how you always step into it.
31:49
Can we solve? Of this.
31:51
How can we solve this? And almost, always it requires.
31:54
Humility a dying to self. Like a lot of times, when
31:58
there's conflict, someone tries to involve me right away, I'll
32:01
get an email. Pastor Ed.
32:02
You won't believe it on, and on, and on.
32:04
And I'm just tell you right now, I'm let me answer that email for
32:07
you, so you never have to send it to me.
32:08
Ready? Because I am the wrong person
32:11
unless it's with me personally, I'm the wrong person to send it
32:15
to if you send me a problem with someone else in the church or
32:18
something else and you send it directly to me, I'm going to
32:20
Tell you already how I'm going to respond.
32:21
You ready? You ready?
32:23
Have you spoken to the person? Because if you haven't spoken to
32:27
the person, this is the wrong timing to get me involved.
32:31
And neither is the second part from time for me to get involved
32:35
and if I have to get involved or the Elders of the church, have
32:37
to get involved at the very end, it's got to be super serious by
32:41
then and I yeah, I don't really want to be involved in something
32:44
that more serious. And over the years I can count,
32:47
you know, I was thinking maybe on one hand but maybe on to
32:50
where we have enacted church that we believe in church
32:53
discipline here. We believe that if you want to
32:56
live as an unbeliever and call yourself a believer in an
32:59
unrepentant State, you can't be in Fellowship.
33:03
So what the Bible says, but that's our heart is not for you.
33:06
It's not good for you. Not to be in Fellowship.
33:09
It's not like, we want you to leave.
33:11
We want you to get right with the Lord.
33:13
That's the key. That's God's heart for your
33:15
life, and you on a much smaller scale, may never get to this
33:19
case, but you will have little skirmishes little problems,
33:22
little misunderstandings and real.
33:24
In someone who really sent against you, and the way to
33:27
handle it is to go to them, not to gossip about them, not to
33:31
slander about them, not to hold it inside.
33:34
And B have the lot of people don't do this because they have
33:36
a fear of man, and they just don't handle it.
33:38
So they got this problem. This problem, this problem, this
33:41
problem before, you know, it, they're all messed up.
33:44
And it's better just to go to the person and resolve it.
33:48
Give yourself completely to the Lord.
33:50
So not only Matthew 18, but also second, Timothy Chapter 2, and
33:54
verse 24 and 26, it says, a servant of the Lord must not
33:58
quarrel, but be gentle to all able to teach patient in
34:03
humility correcting, those who are in opposition.
34:07
If God perhaps would grant them repentance.
34:09
So that they may know the truth and that they may come to their
34:12
senses and escape the Trap of the devil having become taken
34:16
captive to do his will. So of course, we want someone to
34:19
be rescued from that. Number 11, you want to serve?
34:23
Well here learn to live generously withhold, nothing
34:28
from the Lord, a common trap of those who serve in the church.
34:33
Is the idea that since I serve. I don't have to give another ER
34:37
areas because my giving is serving.
34:39
Don't I do enough? I serve for example some might
34:42
even say I serve God here so I don't have to give him my tizen
34:46
offerings anymore because my service is my tithe.
34:50
Let me just tell you biblically serving.
34:52
God is not your tithe, it is your reasonable service.
34:57
That's what the Bible says, present yourself as a Living
34:59
Sacrifice which is your reason, it's not unreasonable.
35:02
It's reasonable but on more than one occasion, I've talked to
35:05
someone about their Giving an about where they are in life
35:09
their generosity and their answer is well, you know, I
35:12
don't have to give because I serve no no your you've got it
35:15
all backwards like tithing, I mentioned tithing because it's
35:19
an easy one. Tithing is one of those things
35:21
in the Bible that I call. It's a gimme.
35:23
It's like a slam dunk. It is so easy.
35:26
It is not difficult. It is one of the easiest things
35:29
to do, but so many people disobey in this area and they
35:34
find that find all kinds of convenient.
35:36
Ins, but am I my admonition to you?
35:39
As you serve as that you don't let convenient good reasons.
35:42
Become bad excuses for sinful Behavior.
35:46
Like of course you're going to give your tithes and offerings.
35:48
When are you going to stop that? What once God stops, giving you
35:51
the increase, then you can stop. But your whole life is an
35:54
increase. So generosity should be a part.
35:57
You want to serve well be generous so it's not just money,
36:00
money is easy and by the way, you might even be asking.
36:03
What do you know who gives here? I don't 4.
36:07
Years. I made a conscious decision.
36:09
I don't know who gives and who doesn't give here and I don't
36:12
want to know because I don't want to serve anybody
36:14
differently, whether you give a lot, you don't give it all.
36:17
That's none of my business that's between you and the Lord.
36:21
But I'll tell you this, I don't need a list because over time
36:26
and testing, it's easy to tell who's generous.
36:28
And who's not, it's very easy to see who has a generous spirit
36:33
with The Lord At thy nothing even to do with tithing, just T,
36:37
just a heart to give and learn what Jesus said.
36:40
It's better to give than to receive.
36:43
It's a little more obvious than you, may think to see who the
36:47
takers are in a church, and who the givers are, and it's just
36:51
one of those things but I don't know.
36:52
I don't want to know, I know who gives.
36:55
I'll tell you how. I know I used to know five
36:57
people that give because my kids are used to give through us and
37:00
we would help them, tie them their little Banks, but my kids
37:03
are far grown up now. So I know who gives from My Wife
37:06
and Why that's it? That's who I know and that's all
37:08
that concerns me because I'm the overseer and the priest of my
37:11
home but you know, you know your own generosity and if you think
37:16
living in a way where you're disobedient, you're not
37:18
generous. It's going to help you serve God
37:20
better. You just deceived It just is
37:23
going to chain. Every let's set aside money for
37:25
a second. All the Monies and easy thing.
37:26
It's the easy one. How about the talents?
37:29
You have the education? You've been given like some of
37:32
you that this room is filled with some of the most smartest,
37:36
most well-educated, talented women and men in this whole
37:40
city. I mean you have degrees, you are
37:44
so good at what you do, you are known as the expert in your
37:48
field but you're not using it for the Lord.
37:52
You're not using it for the Lord.
37:53
You might be a witness in your workplace, perhaps, but like
37:57
when there's a need because you're not a generous person,
37:59
you don't even offer yourself. But instead while do it, if you
38:03
do this and you're just in that place of give-and-take instead
38:05
of just just giving it away. Well Ed you don't know how much
38:08
I work for this. Yeah.
38:10
But who gave you the strength to work?
38:12
You know how much I studied who gave you a brain?
38:16
You don't know how much I paid for the they look where does
38:19
that money come from to begin with like listen there's so much
38:22
Freedom Avail for you if you just realized everything Belongs
38:25
to the Lord. And if you use your talents,
38:28
like your plumber, or you're fixing some single some single
38:32
Gauss, some widows car or you're fixing a fence like so much can
38:37
be done. If we were just generous, you'll
38:40
be a much better servant being just live with Open Hands, not
38:43
tight. Fisted hands at, I'm not giving
38:46
any away. I'm going to be taken advantage
38:48
of will close Hands like that. Don't get any more but Open
38:51
Hands. You're going to learn something
38:53
as a follower of Christ, you can never out.
38:57
Give God never ever never in a million years.
39:02
Will you be able to out, give the lavish gifts that God has
39:06
bestowed on us, finally, or the scripture here?
39:08
Second Corinthians 9 verse 6, he who sow sparingly will reap
39:13
sparingly. And he used those bountifully
39:16
will also Reap bountifully is not great.
39:19
Second Corinthians, 9 6 & 7. Makes a lot of sense.
39:22
You put a little seed out, get a little back, you put a lot, you
39:25
get a lot. Then find the number 12.
39:30
You want to serve well, in this church.
39:33
Remember that you need to be in the service.
39:35
Receiving the word of God from your pastor.
39:39
Or let me put it a different way.
39:41
If you start serving here you can't stop coming to church with
39:46
some have done. Well, I come to church, I just
39:49
come to serve. No serving comes out of the life
39:53
of the church. It's not separate so that you
39:56
start serving. Well, I don't need to go to
39:57
church anymore. Just catch it online.
39:59
Or listen on the radio? No, no, that doesn't work.
40:03
That way, here you ended up starting to serve in to begin
40:07
with through the life of the church like-mindedness is built.
40:11
As we all hear the same thing and study the same thing.
40:14
You're not going to be able to talk about the message with your
40:16
spouse or with your kids, if you're not in the service,
40:20
that's why we have multiple service, you can serve it a
40:22
service and then you can come to a service but you can't skip out
40:25
on church. If you can only come to one
40:28
service, then choose to come to church for your own spiritual
40:32
health then Serve, remember what we learned in a previous study,
40:36
God cares, more about the minister, then he does the
40:39
ministry. Do you can't disconnect
40:42
yourself? It just doesn't make any sense.
40:43
I don't know how people do this, but it's happened here so many
40:45
times where you disconnect from the life of the church.
40:48
And you think you can still serve well, when you're not
40:51
receiving the word, of course you can hear something on the
40:53
radio but that's like a vitamin you can't live on vitamins if
40:56
you miss a day because you're sick or something watching
40:59
online, catching up later, of course that has its Place but it
41:04
doesn't replace and neither. Does your serving replace coming
41:07
to church? You got to come to church.
41:10
I know these are all elementary things, but they need to be set
41:12
out loud so that you can have them planted in you.
41:15
So if you're tempted to do it one day, you're like, no, I need
41:17
to come to church and center the teaching of my pastor, pray with
41:21
the person next to me, be the example to my kiddos.
41:26
And the scripture here is in Mark, chapter 12, in verse 37,
41:30
where it says, the Common People heard him gladly which means
41:34
they wanted to hear him. You want to be a part of the
41:38
life of your church over the last six weeks.
41:41
Much of what we studied reflect things.
41:44
I wish somebody would have told me as a new believer, I kind of
41:47
think they would have helped me but I've learned them in the
41:49
perfect timing that God has had for me and over the years in
41:53
pastoring, our fellowship here. I've learned that the Or I can
41:56
prepare you the more four-armed you are, you know, the more
42:00
forewarned you are the more for armed and prepared for Ministry.
42:04
You can be. I know these things are very
42:07
simple yet. We tend to forget the simple
42:10
things, as life, gets busy and more complicated.
42:13
I pray that you grow through this that fruit from your life
42:16
will be sweet solid and Lasting and that you will experience the
42:22
utter Joy of serving Jesus with your life.
42:26
There is really nothing greater than to present yourself to
42:29
Jesus as a Living Sacrifice. Holy and acceptable to God,
42:33
which is your reasonable service.
42:35
It is a good thing to serve the Lord in your local church and
42:39
also in life, amen. Father, thank you for the word
42:43
here. As we prepare our hearts for
42:44
communion that we might wind down a little bit, receiving
42:49
your word growing in your Grace today.
42:52
And I'm just so grateful, you've allowed me to serve you Lord.
42:55
And I don't want to take it for granted in any way.
42:58
I want to be faithful, I want to finish my race.
43:01
Well, I desire to take as many people to heaven with me as
43:05
possible. I want to be a good husband, a
43:09
good dad, a good friend, good, pastor a good man, that wants to
43:16
follow after God's heart. And I pray that over our
43:19
congregation today, God, that we would follow you.
43:24
Taking those Steps of Faith, trusting you with our lives.
43:28
Jesus name, amen. We pray that you've been
43:32
encouraged by this Bible. Study delivered live from the
43:35
sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
43:38
Call us at 877, 30 Grace. That's eight 77304, 2:53 to
43:47
listen to this message in its entirety or to join us for our
43:50
lives dream Services. Visit us online at Calvary.
43:54
Co dot church or download our free Calvary Church app be
43:58
blessed as you worship Jesus this week.
43:54
Co dot church or download our free Calvary Church app be
43:58
blessed as you worship Jesus this week.