Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Equipping Ourselves" by Neal Pollard

Transcript

"Equipping Ourselves" by Neal Pollard · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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Good morning.
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Several years ago, I had the occasion to be up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
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Johnstown, Pennsylvania was the site of one of the most massive floods to ever hit our
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country.
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And I did not really know the full story behind why that flood had occurred in the first place.
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When I was there, I learned that it had happened in 1889 and that it was the result of the
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South Fork Reservoir's dam having failed.
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The city of Johnstown was down in the valley below, down in a sloped embankment.
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That reservoir had been in place for many years, but there had been a lot of problems.
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There had been a regular failure to maintain that reservoir.
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There was a spillway that was partially blocked and certain safety measures had been removed.
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Engineers and locals for a long time had been concerned that under the right or the wrong
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circumstances that that reservoir might fail.
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It happened in late May of 1889, a torrential rainstorm began and it spanned the course
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of several days.
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And then on May 31st, in the middle of the night, that dam broke.
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And an estimated 20 million tons of water broke free from the South Fork Dam and it
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began to plunge down that side hill 40 miles an hour as it went.
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It destroyed everything in its wake and over 2,200 people lost their lives.
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This dam did not break because of the storm, but it failed because of an improper preparation
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to make sure it was ready for the storm.
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You know, the Bible tells us that we have got to be ready for the storms that happen
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in this life.
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And storms are going to come into the lives of everyone and Jesus, as He is speaking in
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that greatest sermon, says that you're building your life on a foundation and whichever foundation
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you build on, there are going to be storms that hit.
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The problem with the foolish man in verse 26 and 27 was that his foundation was not
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adequate.
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When we think about the preparation of life that we must be engaging in, we are preparing
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for the most important event of all time and eternity and that is to prepare ourselves
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for eternity.
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When we think about every part of life, it's true that preparation, equipping ourselves,
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is very fundamental to it.
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The very reason why we go to school and we go from grade to grade and we graduate into
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more complex knowledge is we're trying to prepare ourselves for the career, what we're
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going to do in our life after school is over.
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And that equipping of ourselves doesn't end when we go into the workforce, but we perhaps
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appeal to continuing education or we go into ongoing training.
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We do whatever we can to acquire skills that will help us in whatever it is that we're
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trying to do occupationally to do it better, to equip ourselves to be most effective in
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it.
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And as we think about ourselves, wherever we are in the continuum, unless we've already
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reached that place, if we want to be financially prepared at the last part of our life for
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retirement, we've got to equip ourselves to prepare ourselves to be able to do that.
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When we think about equipping ourselves, the most important task of all, there is a sense
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in which that is to be done individually.
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Nobody else can prepare for you.
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Your spouse can't do that, your children, your parents, your friends, your brothers
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and sisters in Christ.
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As we read from the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 10, we must, every one
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of us, appear before the judgment seat of Christ that we may receive the things which
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we have done in our bodies according to what we have done, whether good or bad.
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But there is another sense in which we help one another.
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It is our job to help to strengthen and equip each other.
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In a series of exhortations in Hebrews chapter 10, the writer of Hebrews says,
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and let us consider one another, how we can stimulate unto love and good deeds,
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not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is,
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but exhorting one another daily, and all the more as you see the day approaching,
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Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24 and 25.
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And I want you to think about how we do that on an ongoing basis.
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Every youth activity and event that's on our calendar has as a design to equip our young
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people when they are beyond our homes to remain faithful to Christ.
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No matter what it is, we pour our energy and our time and our money, and you can go up
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and down the calendar from January to December.
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It has as its focus to equip them for faithfulness.
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We also think about what happened in the hour before this one and what we do every Wednesday
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night at 7 o'clock.
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This is designed to equip us with a better, deeper understanding of God's word as we assemble
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and group Bible study together.
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When we consider what is done by way of service opportunities, it's meant to equip us to do
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all of that better.
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When we think about Sunday night services, did you think of it as being a means of us
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equipping ourselves to deepen our knowledge of the word of God?
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Everything around our life as a community of people is to help each other, to stimulate
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one another, to be able to stay faithful to God.
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Back in 2023, a special effort and thought was put into how we could equip ourselves
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as a people of God to know His word better, but to do more than that, but to be able to
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take the word as it is shared with us and find practical ways to put it into our lives.
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And it's not the only way that we do this, but it's exciting to see what's accomplished
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through the equip workshop.
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Each and every year since that time, we're trying to expand our reach and to let more
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people in our community and through a means of advertising throughout our brotherhood
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to know more about the equip workshop as it is about to come to us this weekend.
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And it's exciting to be able to see the registration and see individuals who are spending the time
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to take off from their work and to spend the money and the effort to come to Bowling Green
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and to be with us over the weekend.
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To see individuals coming from places like Soldotna, Alaska, or Quitman, Mississippi,
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or in the vicinity of Denver, Colorado, or Albuquerque, New Mexico, or in Moundsville,
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West Virginia, Jacksonville, Florida, and many other places where people are coming
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because they've heard about the equip workshop and they want to be a part of this weekend.
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And that is in addition to folks in the area surrounding states, several of them coming
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from places like Tennessee and Missouri and Indiana and Alabama and Ohio.
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And as exciting as all of that is, perhaps it's good for us to be reminded that the equip
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workshop was begun primarily as and with the benefit of this congregation in mind.
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It was the foresight of an eldership that said, we want to strengthen the body of Christ
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here and to help us to grow and we realize that one of the greatest ways that we can
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do that is through an event like this.
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As we get prepared for this, I've not preached a sermon like this before, I hope that you'll
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see it as more than an extended commercial for the equip workshop.
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What I want us to do is to see the advantages that the Bible tells us that we gain by equipping
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ourselves.
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And of all the answers that we could give, I want to just see four of them together today.
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First of all, equipping yourself makes you like your teacher.
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Now Jesus is teaching in a passage that seems a lot like the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew
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5 through 7.
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And Jesus says that a student is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is well-trained
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is like his teacher, Luke chapter 6 and verse 40.
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And in that context, this is more of a warning than an encouragement.
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What Jesus is saying here is that if you are spiritually blind and you're following somebody
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who is spiritually blind, in following them, you're both going to fall.
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And so while that's the warning, Jesus says that you need to find a teacher, a guide who
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has spiritual sight who can help you.
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And Jesus says, I am such a teacher.
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If you'll look in the context, Jesus says, I am not one who unrighteously judges and
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neither should you be, Luke chapter 5 and verse 37.
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He would say that as your guide, I am not one who is hypercritical and I'm not one who
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is hypocritical, Luke chapter 6 verse 40 and 41, and neither should you be.
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And I am one who bears good fruits, Luke chapter 6 verse 43 through verse 45, and so you can
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be as well.
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Jesus is saying, if you'll follow me, you will have the vision that you need to complete
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this race on earth.
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It can be very hard for us to listen to Jesus and to follow him in a world that makes that
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very difficult for us.
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And so the event that we are going to have this weekend is just one opportunity for us
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to focus in and listen to Jesus as he speaks to us through his word, and through that get
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better guidance to us and how we can take a portion of God's word and live it out in
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our lives even better than we have.
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I know it's possible for us to come and to be present for every single session this weekend
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to be a hearer of the word and not a doer of it, James chapter 1 verse 21 and 22.
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But if we don't come, we don't even have that opportunity.
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I would suggest to you that the equip workshop is an opportunity for you to have a merry
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moment in a Martha world, to be like her.
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We see her in Luke chapter 5 and verse 39 sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to him.
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We have 45 men and women who are coming to teach us the word in this workshop this weekend
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and while they're not Jesus, it will be obvious to us that they have spent time at his feet.
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And when we look at Luke chapter 10 and verse 42, we can be like Mary and choose the better
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part which will not be taken away from us.
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And so I suggest to you that this event gives us an opportunity to equip ourselves to be
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like our teacher.
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I think every one of us wants to be more like Jesus and this has been constructed in
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a way to maximize the opportunity to do that.
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But then second, I suggest that equipping yourself helps you to serve and to build up
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the body.
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If you think about what Mack read to us a moment ago so well, in Ephesians chapter 4
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and verse 11, he says that he gave some to be apostles and prophets and evangelists and
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shepherds or pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the building
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up of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of faith and to be like Christ
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himself and to be no more like children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
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of doctrine and cunning deceitfulness whereby they lie and wait to deceive us.
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But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him and to all things who is the head,
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even Christ.
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Ephesians 4 verse 11 through 15.
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The writer there, the apostle Paul is saying that we can equip ourselves to serve and to
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build up the body of Christ.
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If you'll allow me for a minute or two to take you through a brief church history lesson,
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not just church history as a whole but the church here, perhaps it will be helpful for
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us.
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It was back in the pandemic that things were so scary and frightening for us to not know
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what was to come, that it was during this particular time that the elders sat down and
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began to do some strategic planning.
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They wanted to know how could we kind of sharpen our vision, even with the challenges that
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we were facing, what can we do in order to be what God wants us to be.
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As a part of that strategic planning, they sat down and they said, well, let's build
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a bridge from now to then, from the present to the future.
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And on April 24th, 2020, we all met at John Gott's house and were appropriately socially
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distanced there and began to talk about what we could do.
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And it was very early in this process that Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 through 16 was
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chosen.
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And we asked for the congregation to kind of give us some ideas and Taryn Hammer was
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the one who came up with that particular logo.
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If you go to our website and you'll look, you'll see that tree.
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And Ephesians chapter 4 is using a different imagery than the tree.
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If you go there and we just saw it, it's talking about us being individual parts of the body.
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But the tree was chosen because we as disciples are followers of Christ.
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And as such, as branches on the vine, we want to bear fruit.
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And if we're going to bear fruit, if we're going to do our part, we're going to help
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the body to grow.
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And so we mix those two metaphors together.
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And so as this meeting took place, it started in April and it continued to be fleshed out.
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The thought was we want to equip the congregation in every good way.
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This continued on until the fall in which deacons and elders and preachers and a few
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others who were leading in other ministry areas came together and we articulated a vision
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statement that at the time, the Lehman Avenue Church of Christ, as we were called, is striving
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to be an authentic, growing family who is trying to empower our whole community to please
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God and to go to heaven.
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And so as a part of that, strategies were given and objectives and it was even a part
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of the budget presentation on January 3rd, 2021 to say what can we do to help us to take
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our strengths and our opportunities in this community and as a church and to reach forward
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and to turn Warren County upside down in order to take the gospel to others.
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And I want you to think about what came out of the elders' foresight and their wisdom
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and their use of Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 through 16.
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These facilities are an extension of their vision, of their seeing the importance of
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equipping the television program was a direct result of the vision and the foresight and
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the strategic planning, Ephesians 4 being the text.
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The addition of the camps was a direct result of that vision that was set forward and the
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equipped workshop was a direct result of the planning and the vision groups and all that
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was done by way of goals and objectives was to try to get us stimulated to do the work
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of God in each one of us as individuals to do our part.
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When we think about this equipped workshop, I want you to see it.
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It's not the only way that we have that will help us to be a part of the body and to fulfill
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Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 through 16.
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But in terms of time and talent and treasure, I can't think of anything on the calendar
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that in the most compact way will do this very objective.
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I did the math.
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I'm a number nerd and as I thought about Thursday night to Sunday night, there are 26 hours
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of teaching opportunity, not just information but practical lessons that will tell you how
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to take what the book of Genesis has to say and how you can put it into your life each
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and every day.
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26 hours, I began to think, there are 52 Sundays in a given year and so you can get six months
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worth of Bible education from Thursday night to Sunday night through this.
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And how will this help to build you up and to serve in a way that pleases God?
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There are going to be sessions that are designed to answer some of the troubling questions
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around the Genesis account with regard to the existence of God and creation and Christian
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evidence matters.
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There is going to be through this event lessons that are aimed at helping people who want
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to grow in their spiritual leadership to be better leaders for Christ.
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There are going to be lessons that are geared to look at the unique challenges that women
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face and that our young people face.
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And a feature that we began last year that we're going to expand this year is a variety
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of discussion forums in which people with great years of experience, really from their
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20s all the way to their 70s, looking at marriage and family and spiritual growth and a lot
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of other things.
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But at the bottom of it all, what we are seeking to do through this event is to help you to
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be a better servant of Christ, which we sang about today, and to build up the body of Christ.
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But then as we think about what we're trying to do in Scripture, equipping us gives us
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other advantages.
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Equipping yourself helps you to do every good work.
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In 2 Timothy chapter 3, we read the Apostle Paul saying some of his final words to his
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son in the faith, Timothy, and he says,
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And from a child you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation.
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All scripture is God-bred and given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine,
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for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may
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be complete, thoroughly equipped to every good work.
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When you break down what that text says about the Word of God, that's at the heart of the
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equipped workshop.
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We're looking at one book primarily, the book of Genesis, but we're looking at a different
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book every year.
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But it's all a part of that overall, that comprehensive guide of the Bible.
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And what's true of the other books is true of the book of Genesis.
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First of all, it's simple.
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Paul says from childhood you have known the holy scriptures.
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Jesus on one occasion in Matthew chapter 11 and verse 25 says,
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I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden this from the wise and
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intelligent but you have disclosed it unto infants.
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The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 3 expressed his concern that the Corinthians
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might be led away from the simplicity in Christ.
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When you think about our modern translations, many of them are written on a junior high
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or a younger level.
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God wants to make sure that we understand it, and so we read in Psalm 19 and verse 7
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and Psalm 119 and verse 130 that the Word of God is understandable even for the simple.
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God's Word, there are things hard to be understood, 2 Peter 3, 16, but for all of that, so much
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of it is simple, but he says it's also knowable.
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He says from a child you have known the holy scripture.
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When we began to look at the scripture itself, Paul would say in passages like Ephesians
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chapter 3 verse 3 and 4 that Paul had written down the mystery of Christ and he says when
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you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.
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Peter would also say in 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 20, if after they have escaped the
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pollution of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and they
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fall away, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning for it had been better
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for them to have never known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn away
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from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
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It would make sense that if God wants us to comprehend his will that he would make it
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knowable so that we could grasp it, but it's also holy.
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That's its nature.
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Paul says that from a childhood you have known the holy scripture.
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The Bible speaks of God, it says that he is holy.
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Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 3 and 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 14 and if it's true of God, it's true
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of his word.
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You can't separate the one from the other and you can't trust in the one without the
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other and we see that that word is written.
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It's the holy script.
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Do you hear that?
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Scripture.
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And God had his will written down and so John for example in Revelation chapter 1 and verse
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3 says blessed is the one who reads the things that are written.
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Here is Jesus the perfect son of God pushed to the limit in his temptation and you'll
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see where he says in Matthew chapter 1 beginning at verse 4 when he's tempted it is written.
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God wants us to read and to understand and know his word and so it's there in written
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form.
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Nine times in the book of Genesis in chapter 1 the Bible says that God said when God speaks
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it's powerful and things happen.
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Then we see attached to that that the word of God is powerful.
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It's able to make you wise unto salvation.
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How powerful is it?
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Here is Peter and his co-workers are going to Cornelius and his household and as they
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go and teach them at the end of Acts chapter 10 to show that the Gentiles were to receive
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the gospel the Holy Spirit comes on all those who are present in Cornelius' household but
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that's not what saved them in Acts 11 and verse 14.
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Peter recounts this and he says that they were told words whereby they would be saved.
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James chapter 1 and verse 21 says that the word of God is able to save your soul.
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The word that we study is powerful but it is also soul saving.
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He says it's able to make you wise unto salvation and we've already seen that.
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It's said of the word, Romans 1 and verse 16 tying the power and the soul saving says
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I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation.
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Hebrews 4 and verse 12 says that that powerful word gets down to the heart and the intention
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of a person.
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In 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 18 to those who are saved the word is the power of God.
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It is soul saving.
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It's able to make you wise unto salvation.
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It is also God breathed.
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That's what inspiration means.
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When we think about the Bible, the Bible is like Christ and the church.
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It has a human side and it has a divine side.
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Jesus is as divine as God and as human as Mary.
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With regard to the church, there is a divine side.
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It has a divine guide.
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It has a divine builder but it is also made up of people.
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The Lord added to the church those who were being saved, Acts chapter 2 and verse 47.
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And when we think about the word, the word is the product of God's breathing through
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the Holy Spirit, his word.
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But he does so through human agency, through the different personalities and the temperaments
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of the individuals who faithfully received that word and accurately through the transmission
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and the superintendents of the Holy Spirit gave us the Bible.
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It's God breathed.
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We also see it's profitable.
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We find ourselves, and Genesis addresses a lot of this, in a place where we are given
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a lot of different answers to how we ought to live life.
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And as we're given those answers, so many of those are worthless.
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Paul here says it's profitable for doctrine, for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
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for instruction in righteousness, to cut it straight.
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We also see that it's complete.
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Thoroughly equipping you for every good work.
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You know, people are looking everywhere and anywhere but the Bible.
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But Peter says in 2 Peter 1 and verse 3 that anything related to life and godliness is
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to be seen through the knowledge of him.
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It is that word that is going to be examined and studied throughout this weekend.
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And finally, equipping yourself helps you to do his will and to be pleasing in his sight.
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This is toward the end of the book of Hebrews.
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The Hebrews writer says that the God who brought the great shepherd of the sheep from the dead
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through an eternal cut blood of his covenant equipped you in all things to do his will
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and to be pleasing in his sight.
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When we think about what we're examining in scripture, God has given us his word so
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that we can know what he wants us to do and in doing that be pleasing to him.
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I mentioned Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12 a moment ago.
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Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to
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the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and joints and marrow and is a discerner of the
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thoughts and the intentions of the heart.
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God has given us a word that can help us and I think that all of us want to please
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him and to do what his will is.
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Equipped gives you at least three opportunities to do that.
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First of all, it equips you to be a part of, a servant, a producer as we get ready for
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and as we go through this weekend.
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I think I've heard it this morning.
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I know it's been announced in a lot of different ways.
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But maybe there's some way that you want to be involved in greeting or being a part of
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the various activities that are going on throughout the sessions.
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Mike Thomas is somebody that you can reach out to for that.
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Kelly Nix has ways in which you can be involved in other parts.
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Alicia Pennington is someone else you can appeal to.
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Caitlin King, there are areas in which if you want to be involved, there are ways for
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you to do his will and to be pleasing in his sight in that way.
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A second thing is that as we've already mentioned, a lot of people are coming from near and far
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to be a part of this and we'll have an opportunity we have every time the doors are open and
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that is to reach out to one another and to encourage one another and to speak to one
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another.
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But there's going to be a lot of low-hanging fruit throughout this weekend.
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There are going to be a lot of visitors, there are going to be a lot of strangers.
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We have a wonderful opportunity to be hospitable, to open up our hearts and our lives and to
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make friendships and to build lasting relationships.
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But third, you'll have the opportunity that we mentioned a moment ago.
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From Thursday night to Sunday night to come and to take notes and to dig deep and to listen
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to God's word and to go out and to see on your own, how can I put this into my life
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and you'll have plenty of guidance in that regard.
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This is a means provided for you in a concentrated way to do his will and to be pleasing in his
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sight.
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When I think about the equipped workshop, we've created some customs, some traditions
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and I love so much about that that now for the last few years that we always begin the
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workshop with Andy Baker leading us in congregational singing.
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One of the most talented song leaders in our entire brotherhood and he'll be here throughout
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all the keynote sessions on Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night and to lead us
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in worship on Sunday.
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And then that'll be followed by our first session on Thursday night.
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Steve Higginbotham, who was in this area for so many years, is going to preach a sermon
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entitled In the Beginning.
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Kind of a primer, those nighttime sessions, a general session for all of us to look at
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Genesis in some special way.
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And then all day Friday and all day Saturday, you'll have the opportunity to pick a track
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in which you can go and listen and learn.
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There'll be some old favorites here, some that many say, hey I hope they're coming back.
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Individuals like Dan Winkler will be back again this year and Mike Vestal and John Moore
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and Glenn Hitchcock, the shortest preacher in the brotherhood.
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There's also going to be some new folks here and I believe that those new folks in a short
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period of time are going to be old favorites.
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We have the opportunity regardless of your age, we're trying to reach into your demographic
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in your life stage and to give you information that's practical and helpful and faith building
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for you.
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I know that a great many of you have already made the determination that you're going to
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be here, you've made the sacrifices, but maybe you're on the fence and you're trying
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to figure that out.
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Really in the grand scheme of things, it's a small ask of time.
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It is a great sacrifice of treasure from the budgetary standpoint and it's a great use
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of talent, not just those who are coming in, but those of you who can put your talents
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to work to help to grow and strengthen this church.
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A lot of great things were said in the opening prayer this morning, but one of the things
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I thought was the greatest was that we want to grow not just in number, but in spiritual
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strength.
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This weekend will help to do that.
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And thus ends perhaps the strangest sermon that I've ever preached, but I wanted to speak
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to your heart.
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I wanted to appeal to you that this is for you and we want you to gain and benefit because
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we believe that as you do, others are going to benefit from what you gain by being here.
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With your hearts and your minds open, ready to learn and ready to be a doer of that word.
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But perhaps in response to the word, your first act that you need to do is to be obedient
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to the gospel.
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Maybe you need to respond to the great love that's evidenced in the scripture by being
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obedient to the gospel, believing that Jesus is God's son, repenting and being baptized.
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We want to help you to do that.
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How much rejoicing we did when we heard that Emma did that this past Wednesday, perhaps
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you're ready to do that.
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We'd love to help you.
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Or maybe you're a child of God and you're struggling and you need us to pray with you.
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Let's help each other on that journey toward home.
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If this is a day and a need in which you have to call upon God's help and our help, we would
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love to be of service.
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If you need to respond to heaven's invitation, won't you come as we stand and sing.