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13: Faith Working Through Love · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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In our current series, Fruitful Work, we're asking
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a question.
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What kind of fruit am I bearing at
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work?
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Because if we're honest, we don't always bear
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the kind of fruit we wish we would
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in the workplace.
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But by God's grace, by the power of
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the Holy Spirit, we can bear fruit that
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is good.
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And this is our second part of our
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three-part finale to the series, looking at
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love, the first part of the fruit of
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the Spirit that Paul gives us in Galatians
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chapter 5.
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In our last episode, we looked at love
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as freedom.
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In this episode, we're looking at love as
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work, which seems appropriate for fruitful work.
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What does it mean for love to work,
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to be work in our lives?
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I want to start with a description of
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someone who is utterly alone.
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This comes from the writer Donald Miller, who
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wrote a number of fascinating books in the
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early 2000s.
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He's kind of doing different stuff now.
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He's a business coach.
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I'm not totally sure what he's up to.
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It seems to be in a different vein.
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But this was kind of his landmark book,
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Blue Like Jazz, 2003, and he's got this
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chapter called Alone.
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I'm going to just read an excerpt from
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it.
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One of my new housemates, Stacy, wants to
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write a story about an astronaut.
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In his story, the astronaut is wearing a
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suit that keeps him alive by recycling his
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fluids.
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In the story, the astronaut is working on
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a space station when an accident takes place,
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and he is cast into space to orbit
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the Earth to spend the rest of his
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life circling the globe.
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Stacy says this story is how he imagines
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hell, a place where a person is completely
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alone, without others and without God.
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After Stacy told me about his story, I
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kept seeing it in my mind.
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I thought about it before I went to
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sleep at night.
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I imagined myself looking out my little bubble
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helmet at Blue Earth, reaching toward it, closing
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it between my puffy white spacesuit fingers, wondering
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if my friends were still there.
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In my imagination, I would call to them,
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yell for them, but the sound would only
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come back loud within my helmet.
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Through the years, my hair would grow long
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in my helmet and gather around my forehead
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and fall across my eyes.
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Because of my helmet, I would not be
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able to touch my face with my hands
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to move my hair out of my eyes,
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so my view of Earth slowly over the
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first two years would dim to only a
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thin line through a curtain of thatch and
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beard.
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Ugh.
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Can you just feel that?
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This is part of why Donald Miller is
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such a great writer.
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He just puts you in that spacesuit, puts
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you in orbit.
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What would it be like to be so
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utterly alone?
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Of course, there are times when it's good
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to be alone, to have restful, fruitful, life
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-giving solitude, but this is something different, something
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more extreme, to be truly cut off, truly
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and permanently alone.
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It's a terrifying image and its power comes
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from that sense of absence, absence of light,
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absence of community, and it's ultimately the absence
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of love.
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We feel that sense of aloneness, even in
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an imaginary form, as so terrifying, because we
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know that we are made for love.
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We were not meant to do life without
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it.
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And this is at the heart of Paul's
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letter to the Galatians and the heart of
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the whole New Testament, the message of God's
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love for us in Jesus Christ and how
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that frees us to love other people.
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And Paul has this beautiful turn of phrase
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in Galatians, chapter five, verse six, so this
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is before he gets to talking about the
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fruit of the spirit, but it's kind of
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leading right into it.
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And it might sound kind of awkward to
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our ears because he's talking about circumcision, but
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circumcision is part of the Jewish Torah tradition.
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It is kind of a stand in symbol
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for the entirety of following the ritual requirements
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of Torah, and that's the context of what
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he's saying.
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So what he says in chapter five, verse
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six is this.
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In Christ, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for
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anything, but only faith working through love.
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Now, this is one of those moments when
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Paul kind of shows his card, so to
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speak, because he says something in very all
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or nothing terms.
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He says, look, this, this ritual stuff, that
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doesn't count for anything.
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The only thing that counts is faith working
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through love.
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Now, that might seem like a weird thing
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to say, especially given the fact that he
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makes a whole list of things that count
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just a few verses later.
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He gives us all these different things that
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count, right?
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Love counts, but he also says joy counts,
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peace counts, patient counts, and so on and
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so forth.
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So how can it be that the only
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thing that counts is faith working through love?
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Well, I think this question gets us to
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a place of deeper insight about how all
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of those things connect to each other, because
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if the only thing that counts is faith
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working through love, but the fruit of the
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spirit includes all those other things, then somehow
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all those other things must be included under
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the banner of faith working through love.
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I think that's exactly what Paul intends us
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to take away from this.
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So Paul is saying that we are saved
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through faith, that we are justified through faith.
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That comes up again and again in Galatians
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and in other passages as well, like in
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Ephesians chapter two, when he says we're saved
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by grace through faith.
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That means that we believe God and he
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credits that to us as righteousness.
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We are included in God's covenant through our
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belief in Jesus.
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Now, at first, that might sound like it's
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disconnected from the stuff that we do, right,
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because it's like the emphasis is on what
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we believe.
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But what we believe naturally leads to what
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we do.
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So, for example, in fall of 2023, I
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was dealing with a depressive episode.
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I had dealt with depressive episodes in the
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past, but this one was really bad.
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I started seeing a new counselor and I
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said to him, hey, I wonder if medication
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would help?
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And he looked at me and he said,
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Chris, I think medication would help.
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And I believed him.
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So you know what I did?
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I scheduled an appointment with a psychiatric nurse
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practitioner and I got a prescription for Prozac
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and I started taking it and it did
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help.
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It helped a lot.
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Actually, I'm really grateful for modern psychiatric medicine
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and that's been part of God's care for
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me with my struggle with depression.
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But the point is I took the pill.
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I obeyed my therapist, so to speak.
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I obeyed my psychiatric nurse practitioner because I
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believed him.
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I believed my counselor when he said this
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will help.
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And so when we believe Jesus, that naturally
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leads us to doing what Jesus says.
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So Paul, he speaks as an apostle of
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Jesus Christ.
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His entire authority as an apostle is derived
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from Jesus Christ.
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When he says, look, here's the fruit of
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the spirit, he wants us to take it
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seriously because he is a messenger from Jesus.
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It's because we have loyalty to Jesus as
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Lord that we're taking notes from Paul and
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saying like, OK, yeah, Paul, I got it.
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So joy, peace, patience, kindness, uh-huh, uh
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-huh.
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Like it's because of our commitment to Jesus
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that we care about those things.
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And that's exactly as it should be.
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But Paul is saying, OK, so if you
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believe in Jesus, if you put your faith
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in Jesus, that will work through love.
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That will lead to you doing all of
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these things to you becoming the kind of
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person who is characterized by these things.
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So the entirety of the fruit of the
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spirit is under that banner.
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Faith working through love.
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And love in particular, it's the first one
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on the list for a reason.
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Love is the virtue that contains all the
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other virtues.
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And Paul says this explicitly in his letter
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to the Colossians.
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He says it binds them together in perfect
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unity.
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But it's also a concept that's been kind
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of unpacked through Christian philosophy over the years
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with this idea of the unity of the
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virtues.
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So we've got to put our thinking caps
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on to wrap our heads around this.
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But I think it's going to help us
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understand love and the practice of faith working
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through love more deeply.
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So so let's dig into it.
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We're going to go to one of our
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great philosophical minds in the Christian tradition, St.
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Thomas Aquinas, and he writes this.
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This is part of his Summa Theologiae.
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Virtue is ordered to the good.
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The ultimate and principal good of man is
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the enjoyment of God.
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And then he cites a specific Psalm, Psalm
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73, verse 28.
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So I actually want to go to that
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psalm to try and unpack.
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What is Aquinas saying about virtue being ordered
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to the good and the ultimate and principal
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good of man or of human beings being
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the enjoyment of God?
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So Psalm 73 articulates a sense of desire
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for God.
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This is in verse 25.
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Whom have I in heaven but you?
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And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
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My flesh and my heart may fail, but
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God is the strength of my heart and
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my portion forever.
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Skipping ahead to the final verse.
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But as for me, it is good to
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be near God.
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I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge.
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I will tell of all your deeds.
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But as for me, it is good to
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be near God.
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I have made the Lord God my refuge.
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Where do we come into ourselves?
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Where are we most healed most well?
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What is above all others the best place
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for us?
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It's wherever God is.
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That's what Aquinas is getting at when he
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says that the ultimate and principal good of
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humankind is the enjoyment of God.
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God is what's good for us.
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Remember that C.S. Lewis quote about the
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meaning of love, the steadfast wish for the
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other person's ultimate good as far as it
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can be obtained.
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Well, Aquinas is saying any person's ultimate good
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is God and the enjoyment of God.
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For me, it is good to be near
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God.
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And that's what unites all the fruits of
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the spirit.
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So Aquinas also writes this.
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He says to this good, meaning to God,
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to this good man is ordered by charity
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or by love.
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So he's saying we are ordered.
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We are put in our place, so to
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speak.
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We are positioned correctly by love.
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That positions us toward the ultimate good, which
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is God.
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And so if we if we don't have
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love, then all the other virtues get out
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of whack.
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So we can actually kind of break this
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down as we think about the rest of
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the parts of the fruit of the spirit.
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Like, for example, take patience, right?
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Suppose you had patience of a kind, but
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you didn't have love.
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So maybe you're dealing with a client at
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work, right, and you need them to close
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a deal with you.
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But they have a habit of really talking
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that it's just hard for them to shut
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up.
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And you are able to exercise a kind
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of polite, socially acceptable salesman presence towards them
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or saleswoman presence towards them and listen to
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them attentively and help them.
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And and then they're satisfied and they close
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the deal.
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And so, you know, get it signed off
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and it's all good.
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And then you go home and you just
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rant and rave about how this person was
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such an idiot, right?
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Was that real patience?
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Like, obviously, you had patience of a kind.
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You had self control of a kind.
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You were able to communicate politely with them.
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But what was your real motive?
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Your real motive is like you just need
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to close that deal.
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Like you were looking out for number one.
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You didn't actually have a sense of honor
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for that person's well-being in front of
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you.
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Because if you had a desire to deeply
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honor them, you wouldn't go and complain about
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them behind your back as soon as you
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got home.
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You see how patience, if it's going to
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be true patience, if it's going to be
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from the heart, it has to be motivated
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by love, has to be motivated by that
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steady wish for the other person's good as
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far as it can be obtained.
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Same thing with kindness.
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Like, let's say you're kind to your boss
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because you're trying to get a promotion.
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Was that true kindness?
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No, that's more like the niceness that may
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not be true heart kindness.
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But if it's motivated by love, it's a
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sense of, yes, my boss is my boss.
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And yes, my boss has influence over my
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career.
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But my boss is also an image bearer
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of God.
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Then it's different.
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Then it's true kindness.
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Then it's kindness motivated by love.
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Love is what orders us to the good.
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Love as a motive makes all of our
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other virtues become what they're meant to be.
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It orders every part of the fruit of
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the spirit appropriately.
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OK, so that kind of idea of love
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ordering us towards the ultimate good is a
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philosophical idea that Aquinas spells out.
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I'm not saying that Paul has that exact
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philosophical architecture kind of packaged neatly into what
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he's saying in Galatians.
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But I think it is a helpful way
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of understanding how it can be that we
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can fit all of the parts of the
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fruit of the spirit under that one heading,
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faith working through love, because that Paul is
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saying, Paul is saying the only thing that
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counts is faith working through love.
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Then somehow joy must be faith working through
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love.
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Peace is faith working through love.
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Patience is faith working through love.
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Kindness is faith working through love.
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Goodness is faith working through love.
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Faithfulness is faith working through love.
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Gentleness is faith working through love.
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Self-control is faith working through love.
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And again, the ultimate good news here is
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that we have that already in the Holy
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Spirit.
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When we put our faith in Jesus Christ,
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the love of God is poured into our
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hearts through the Holy Spirit.
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That's what Paul says in Romans 5.5.
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And so we know that that we have
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the love that we need.
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Circumcision doesn't count.
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Uncircumcision doesn't count.
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Only faith working through love.
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And we already have that love in the
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power of the Holy Spirit.
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Okay, so when Paul says it's the only
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thing that counts, you might think, well, does
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he mean it's the only thing that counts
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in salvation?
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But I think it's actually more broad.
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I don't think he's just talking about salvation.
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I think he's talking about all of life.
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He's saying faith working through love is the
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only thing that counts period in all of
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life.
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This is the only thing that counts.
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And if that's true, that's actually really radical
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for our whole life, including our life at
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work.
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It's actually very practical, right?
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Because it means that our work can become
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love.
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If the only thing that counts is faith
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working through love, then our work can become
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love.
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Everything we do in the workplace can be
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about loving somebody else.
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If everything can somehow come under that heading
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of faith working through love.
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So again, when we're interacting with another person,
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when we're getting a project done by ourselves,
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when we're clocking in for the day, we
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can always bring that attitude of like, oh,
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in this moment, this is faith working through
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love.
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I'm trusting in God.
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I'm putting my faith in Christ.
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I'm believing Him.
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I'm staking things on Him, and then I'm
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doing what I'm doing in order to seek
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the good and the well-being of everybody
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around me.
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Oh, yeah, that's faith working through love in
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every moment of our day.
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Our whole day can be saturated and interwoven
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with the purposes of God.
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So that makes work really practical in spiritual
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terms.
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And that's part of how God continues to
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deepen and form that love in our hearts
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over time.
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Sometimes people get confused about this and think
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that we only grow spiritually when we're doing
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specifically spiritual things like you're only growing spiritually
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when you're reading your Bible or when you
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have a set aside prayer time, but you
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can also grow spiritually just by doing your
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everyday work as faith working through love and
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God will deepen your maturity in your heart
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as you do that.
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This is also really practical in terms of
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ethical discernment.
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It's not the only thing we need for
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ethical discernment, but it is really helpful for
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ethical discernment.
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If you ever asked to do something at
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work and you just don't feel right about
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it and you're trying to figure out, is
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this the right thing to do or not?
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Like my boss asked me to, but I
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have misgivings.
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I'm not sure why.
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Just ask, is there a way that this
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can be faith working through love?
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And if the answer is no, don't do
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it.
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And I've had experiences like this.
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Like I had a situation in a workplace.
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It's kind of a gray issue.
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It wasn't super black and white, but I
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just didn't feel right about it.
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So I called my friend Josh and I
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was like, Josh, can we talk about this?
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Can we pray about this?
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And I just realized, like, I can't do
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this.
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Right.
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This, whatever it is that I'm being asked
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to do.
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It's just it would not be faith working
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through love.
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It would not be seeking the good of
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the people who I'm supposed to be serving.
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It would somehow be seeking something else.
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And that was helpful.
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That provided the clarity that I needed.
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And thankfully, the project got assigned to somebody
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else that, you know, I didn't even have
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to do it in the end anyways.
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So again, it's very practical, this idea of
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faith working through love.
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It encompasses all of our work experiences.
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It gives us a kind of a simple
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heuristic, a simple shortcut for ethical discernment, figuring
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out is this faith working through love or
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not?
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And it wraps our work into our life
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with God.
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It helps us see that every moment of
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our day is a place where we can
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find God at work.
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Lord Jesus, you are the one that we
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put our faith in.
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We want to let your love work through
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us.
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Give us that confidence.
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Give us that inspiration in your Holy Spirit
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to see every moment of our day as
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an opportunity for faith working through love and
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do your work in us.
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As we do our work with you.
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Thanks for listening.
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17:44
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17:47
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