Latest / Your Network of Praise / Living a Legacy - 2026-10-17 The DNA of the Church Series: Who Are We? part 2

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Living a Legacy - 2026-10-17 The DNA of the Church Series: Who Are We? part 2 · Your Network of Praise

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S1: Discipleship is the willingness to do and become whatever is
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S1: required to introduce people to Jesus, for them to begin
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S1: drawing their life from Jesus and for them to begin
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S1: introducing others to Jesus. Discipleship in the Bible is always
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S1: replication and multiplication.
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S2: This is living a legacy featuring the Bible teaching ministry
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S2: of Doctor Crawford. Lawrence Crawford served as senior pastor of
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S2: Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, Georgia. He's also authored a
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S2: number of books, including leadership as an Identity, A Passionate Commitment,
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S2: and Unshaken. Well, for the past several months, Crawford's been
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S2: leading us in a series called For His Kingdom A
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S2: Study in the Gospel of Matthew. But we're taking a
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S2: short break from that series to look at another topic
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S2: the substance of the church. What is her DNA? Now,
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S2: in this series was originally delivered Fellowship Bible Church was
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S2: being challenged to undertake a new level of spiritual commitment.
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S2: But the principles Crawford shared then, are ones that all
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S2: of us should examine as followers of Christ today. And
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S2: that's why we're bringing this series to you. In a
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S2: few moments, we'll present the second half of last week's
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S2: message called Who Are We? Crawford's making the distinction between
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S2: our great command and our great commission. And we'll find
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S2: these distinctions in Matthew chapter 22, verses 34 through 40.
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S2: At the close of our time together, I'll tell you
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S2: how you can hear other messages in this series. Let's
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S2: join the Congregation of Fellowship Bible Church now again, our text,
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S2: Matthew chapter 22, verses 34 through 40. Here's Crawford on
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S2: living a legacy.
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S1: We don't want this to be some slogan. Well, the
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S1: folks here at fellowship are falling deeper and deeper and
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S1: deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper in love with
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S1: the Lord himself. And this love, this Decalogue, was a
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S1: statement of surrender. Mind you, it was not some sentimental love.
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S1: It was not just a feelings love, but it was
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S1: a possessive love. A love that possessed every fiber of
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S1: our being. That I love him so much. I want
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S1: to do what he does, and I want to say
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S1: what he says. And I want you also to notice
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S1: that they only asked Jesus for one commandment, but he
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S1: gave him two. And I want you to notice how
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S1: he connects them. We might read past this. He says,
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S1: he says this you shall love the Lord your God
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S1: with all your heart, and with all your soul and
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S1: with all your mind. This is the great commandment. This
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S1: is the great and first commandment, and the second is
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S1: like it. Don't miss that. The second is like it.
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S1: You shall love your neighbor as your self. Wholehearted love
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S1: for God means to see people the way God sees them.
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S1: That's why he connects them. He says there's no such
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S1: thing as authentically loving God and not loving other people.
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S1: You can't do it. You cannot do it. John says
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S1: it further, and perhaps he was in the crowd when
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S1: he made this statement. John says it further in First John,
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S1: chapter three. And over in First John he says, how
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S1: can you say you love God, whom you cannot see
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S1: and hate your brother, who you do see? He says
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S1: it is an impossibility. You cannot be authentically vertical in
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S1: your love relationship with God, because if you love God properly, Crawford,
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S1: you're going to be concerned about what he's concerned about.
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S1: That authentic love for God will spill out in compassion
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S1: and love for other people around me. And thus, he says,
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S1: you will love your neighbor as yourself. And they knew
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S1: that too. He was quoting Leviticus 1918 and verse 34.
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S1: Now a little word about neighbor here. Jesus really expands
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S1: and extends the definition of neighbor. If you look at
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S1: it in its context, to the Jew, to the Jew,
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S1: the way they justify their racism is that they always
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S1: understood neighbor to mean fellow Jew. So that could give
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S1: them privilege to be nasty to Gentiles and to hate
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S1: the Samaritans and anybody that wasn't Jewish. Jesus comes and
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S1: he breaks the mold. No, no, no. It's hinted at here,
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S1: but we're going to see it in the second part
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S1: of the message. It's hinted at here, hinted at here.
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S1: If you love God with all that is within you.
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S1: Then then you're going to have to love all of mankind.
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S1: Because you've gotta love the way God loves. No, no,
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S1: you you don't get the privilege of just loving folks
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S1: who are like you. No you don't, you don't. Let
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S1: me tell you something. And I just bear my soul
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S1: with you here for a moment. I have been in Christ.
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S1: You've heard me say this before. I've been in multi-ethnic
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S1: ministry and all this kind of stuff my whole life.
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S1: I was doing it before. You know, I grew up
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S1: in Newark, new Jersey, and back in the 50s and
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S1: early 60s, believe it or not, it was it was
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S1: an integrated, working class neighborhood. Play ball with John San
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S1: Giovanni and Rocco Bonavita, and also with Gerald Adams and
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S1: Lloyd Cotton and Freddie Gaines. We just kind of like
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S1: grew up together. So my whole life and my dad's
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S1: one of his best friends was an Irishman by the
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S1: name of O'Sullivan, and he's called him Uncle Sully. They
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S1: worked together. And so I grew up in that environment
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S1: enters the 60s where and but I also grew up
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S1: in a environment where I knew who I was as
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S1: an African American. I knew the stories of my. My
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S1: great grandfather, Peter the Slave, and how proud and what
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S1: my parents had gone through and, and in the Jim
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S1: Crow that they experienced. And so I had these two
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S1: rivers flowing in me. So growing up, I never, I never, um,
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S1: I never knew that I had to make a choice
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S1: about who I should love. I, you know, I didn't,
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S1: I didn't, and I don't say that to sound anything
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S1: other than what it was. I'm not saying, but that's
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S1: just the way it was. I grew up never knowing
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S1: that I had to make a choice about who I
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S1: could hang out, who I should hang out with, and
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S1: who I should love. enters the 60s and early 70s
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S1: and stuff. You know, big Afro and this kind of thing.
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S1: I couldn't grow one if I wanted one now. But,
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S1: you know, all that stuff came about and I come
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S1: on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ back then, predominantly
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S1: white organization, knowing who I am. And all of a
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S1: sudden there is this movement of ethnocentricity in our society.
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S1: And if you're authentically black, then you don't need to
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S1: be hanging out with some white organization. You need to
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S1: come back home and all this angst and stuff in
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S1: the 70s, the early 70s, middle 70s, and even the
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S1: early 80s was hell for a lot of us who
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S1: were ministering in cross ethnic, uh, context. And y'all, y'all
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S1: don't even know anything about that. But we went through that.
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S1: It was a painful, joyful journey. But coming out of that,
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S1: coming out of that was a deep conviction that God
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S1: gave me. And I made up my mind somewhere in
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S1: the mid 70s. Nobody's going to tell me who I
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S1: should love. Nobody's going to define who I should be
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S1: associated with. And there's a ruthlessness about that in me
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S1: that sometimes probably is not too healthy, to be honest
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S1: with you. But having gone through all of that, I've
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S1: made some decisions. I've told my sons, don't you ever
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S1: let anybody tell you who your friend should be? Anybody
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S1: tell you who you should associate with ethnically? You don't
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S1: sell your soul out for someone when those spitting contests
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S1: stop that nonsense. And we won't tolerate that here at
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S1: this church either. We're the peoples of God. We love
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S1: one another. And we need to put to death this
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S1: this categorical, even generational nonsense. Uh, arrogance. Older folks always
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S1: bashing on the younger crowd and the younger crowd, always
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S1: thinking that they're the they're the only moment in history
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S1: that really matters. And we need to have, we need
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S1: to have this unity of the spirit. Why? Because we
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S1: are neighbors. And we need to love people. And that's
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S1: the sign of authentic Christianity. And that's what Jesus is saying.
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S1: Saying in this text. And then finally, there's a focus
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S1: of our lives. And Jesus turns to the lawyer and says, hey, buddy,
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S1: you forgot something. On these two commands, commandments depend all
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S1: the law and the prophets. Now, he's not saying that
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S1: these two commands say everything the law and prophets say.
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S1: I like to think what what he's saying is this
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S1: if you love God wholeheartedly and rightly, and you love
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S1: people wholeheartedly and rightly. You're not going to come short
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S1: of your spiritual responsibilities. And I believe that. I believe
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S1: that with all my heart. If we love God according
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S1: to this book, we love others passionately, unconditionally, according to
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S1: this book. I don't think we have to do a
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S1: whole lot of coercing and that kind of thing to
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S1: get get any of us to do what's right spiritually.
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S1: You're going to want to do that. I didn't say
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S1: it was going to be easy, but the inclination is
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S1: going to going to be there. So when we say
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S1: that we exist to glorify God by making disciples of
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S1: Jesus who love God passionately, it's a good term. Not casually,
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S1: but passionately, meaning not necessarily emotionally, but passionately in the
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S1: spirit of what Deuteronomy six five says. But Jesus said passionately. Meaning.
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S1: Meaning completely without reservation. Of necessity. We have to love
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S1: others unconditionally. It's a certain humility about love, isn't there?
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S1: We tend to love much because we've been forgiven much Shh.
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S1: And when we realize how much God has tolerated in
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S1: our lives, it dissolves the arrogance in our hearts. That's
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S1: the first part of our mission. The second part of
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S1: our mission is this. Now that is our great commandment. Secondly,
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S1: is our great commission. I want you to turn to
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S1: that extraordinarily familiar passage of Scripture in Matthew 2818 through 20.
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S1: There are three things that I want us to move
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S1: quickly through in this passage here. There are three words
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S1: that I think we need to understand in this order,
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S1: beginning at verse 18. There's a word authority. The idea
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S1: of assignment and the idea of assurance, authority, assignment and assurance.
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S1: Now again, again, again, again. We gotta, we gotta push
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S1: these two together. These, although it's over in chapter 22,
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S1: the the concept, the ideas of loving God passionately and
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S1: loving others unconditionally gives us the motivation to fulfill the
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S1: assignment that God has given to us in the Great
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S1: Commission and in our mission statement we put to make
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S1: disciples first. Even though I'm going to this second because
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S1: the end game is that we want these disciples to
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S1: love God passionately, love others unconditionally, which drives them to
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S1: do the same. So here we have it. Verse 18 says,
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S1: And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in
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S1: heaven and on earth has been given to me. His authority.
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S1: Now you gotta understand this. Please. I always beg you
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S1: to always read the Bible in its emotional context, not
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S1: just as words on the page. These guys have been
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S1: with Jesus three and a half years. The crucifixion and resurrection.
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S1: You know, they'd walk away from somebody. They hardly emotionally
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S1: knew who they were, and they had eaten with Jesus
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S1: and touched him. And now he's standing there and he
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S1: tells them what they're going to do to change the world.
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S1: And he begins this by saying before he gives the assignment, he.
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S1: He gives them a statement about his authority. Very interesting.
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S1: Don't pass this over. Don't just think that Jesus stood up.
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S1: And that was a line that says, hey, hey, hey,
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S1: give me your attention. That's not what it's for. There's meaning.
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S1: There's a reason why he says, all authority has been
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S1: given to me in heaven and earth. The word authority
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S1: is a Greek word exousia. Exousia. What that word means.
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S1: It literally means the official right of power. The official
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S1: right of power. Now, what he means by that, when
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S1: he says, all authority has been given to me in
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S1: heaven and earth. It's a couple of implications. One is this.
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S1: Now go with me on this one. Go with me
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S1: on this one. The limitations that apply throughout his incarnation
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S1: no longer apply to him. We know by progressive revelation.
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S1: In Philippians chapter two, Paul tells us that Jesus laid aside.
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S1: I promise you, I'm going somewhere. Jesus laid aside the use,
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S1: the use of his attributes. Now it's heresy to say
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S1: that Jesus became less God. He did not become less God.
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S1: He laid aside the use of some of his prerogatives
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S1: for the sake of identifying with our sinfulness, not our.
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S1: He didn't. He wasn't sinful himself, but identifying with our
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S1: sinfulness in dying on the cross. So when he says,
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S1: now in his post-resurrection Jesus on his way up to heaven,
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S1: he says, I no longer have those limitations. I have
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S1: and I will exercise my supreme authority throughout the universe.
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S1: And the second reason I really believe why he makes
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S1: his statement to those followers of all authority is given
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S1: to me in heaven and earth is because he wanted
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S1: them to understand what he's about, ready to tell them
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S1: that he has the power to do whatever it takes
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S1: to fulfill. Jesus has the authority and the power to
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S1: do what he wants to get done in human history.
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S1: Nobody's going to stop him. No despot is going to
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S1: stop him. No atheist is going to stop him. No
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S1: antagonistic government is going to stop him. No power monger
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S1: is going to stop him. No amount of discrediting who
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S1: he is. And all this stuff is going to stop
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S1: King Jesus from doing what he wants to get done
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S1: in human history. And he was telling his disciples, listen,
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S1: I want you to I want you to know something,
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S1: the power and the pressure and all that stuff to
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S1: get this done is not on your shoulders. It's on mine.
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S1: And I hold the world by the power of my word,
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S1: and I can do whatever I need to get done. Amen.
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S1: And fellowship. I want us, we want us. The elders
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S1: want us to be a confident, whole, humble, confident people. Now,
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S1: having said that, he now says, look, here's a command,
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S1: here's the command, here's our assignment. Therefore I don't mean
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S1: to get so detail oriented here, but sometimes we skip
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S1: over very important connectives. That word therefore is very important
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S1: in this passage, because that therefore brings his authority up
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S1: close and personal to the command. What Jesus is really
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S1: saying to his disciples, and he's saying to us here
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S1: is that the his authority has consequences for those who
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S1: follow him on earth. Meaning we are under his authority.
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S1: He says, now all authority is given to me in
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S1: heaven and earth. He establishes this. Therefore. Okay, there are
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S1: consequences meaning there implications of my authority. You. What I'm
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S1: telling you to do is not a hobby or a suggestion.
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S1: My authority and their consequences. Let me let me say,
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S1: I think I think that there are three consequences implied.
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S1: Number one, we are accountable. We are accountable. We are accountable.
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S1: All authority is given me in heaven and earth. Therefore,
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S1: therefore meaning there is an accountability here. No, no, no,
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S1: this is not a great suggestion. You, Crawford, you're going
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S1: to make disciples. And if you don't make disciples, you're sinful.
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S1: You're disobeying me. If you don't lead this church and
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S1: help this church to multiply, uh, the life of Jesus
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S1: in the hearts and lives of other people. You guys
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S1: have failed. You failed. No, no, no, you're accountable for that.
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S1: Number two is that we're responsible. Respond. We own this.
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S1: And again, we're the steward of all authority is given
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S1: me in heaven and earth. Therefore make disciples. And then thirdly,
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S1: I think we're privileged. We're privileged. I think the idea
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S1: of authority and him having that authority and calling us
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S1: to do this, I think it is not a burden.
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S1: It's a great privilege for us to replicate the life
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S1: of Jesus. Notice he says, make disciples. That's the command
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S1: in this. In this verse, Make disciples. Make disciples. He
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S1: didn't say reproduce converts. You've heard me say that a
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S1: thousand times. A disciple is a learner and a follower
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S1: who is attached to Jesus. And that's what we do.
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S1: Um it is discipleship is the willingness to do and
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S1: become whatever is required in order for us to introduce
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S1: people to Jesus, for them to begin drawing their life
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S1: from Jesus and for them to begin introducing others to Jesus.
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S1: Did you see the threefold process? That's what discipleship is
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S1: all about. Discipleship in the Bible is always replication and multiplication.
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S1: Discipleship in the Bible is always replication. In multiplication, it's
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S1: always introducing people to Jesus. Okay, then you help them
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S1: to get grounded in their walk in relationship with him,
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S1: and then you challenge them to do the same thing.
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S1: This is the plan that God has to reach and
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S1: win the world. A study of the Book of Acts
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S1: really is a study of discipleship. A study of the epistles, and,
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S1: in the grander scheme of things, really is a study
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S1: of discipleship. It is never about us. It's not about fellowship.
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S1: It's not the vision here is never, ever, ever, ever
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S1: to get 20 or 30,000 people. Now, I'm not knocking that.
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S1: Some people have that vision and they do a great
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S1: job of discipleship. The test of our success here is
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S1: the replication of the life of Jesus. It's you embracing
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S1: God's call for your life and you taking the step
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S1: of courage and boldness in the name of love, to
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S1: share the gospel with your neighbor and and then develop
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S1: them in their walk in relationship with God. That's how
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S1: we're going to be blessed as a church. We have
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S1: zero zero vision just to build buildings. If we build anything,
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S1: it's because we have to in order to see discipleship
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S1: take place. But this is the core of what we're
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S1: really all about. And he says, of all the nations.
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S1: He uses the Greek term ethnos. They understood it better
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S1: than we do today. I didn't say they did it
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S1: any better, but they understood it better than we do today.
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S1: He's talking about various peoples. Various peoples, and wherever the
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S1: Church of Jesus Christ is. And there are other cultures
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S1: and ethnicities there. It's sinful disobedience to not reach out
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S1: and to include. We need to be the peoples of God.
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S1: This church needs to be a place where black folks, Hispanic,
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S1: white folks, whatever ethnicity is. We. Not only do we
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S1: sit at the table together, we love one another and
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S1: we learn from one another, and we nurture one another.
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S1: And they're not condescending attitudes and, and that kind of thing.
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S1: We are the people of God. We're, we're rich people
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S1: are learning from poor people. And poor people are learning
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S1: from rich people. And we bring what we have to
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S1: the table. And we are the people of God. We
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S1: don't let sociological barriers determine the level of our theology
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S1: and obedience. We let this book guide us in all
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S1: things and in the name of Jesus, we let the
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S1: supernatural take place. Will it be messy? Yes. Will it
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S1: be hard? Yes. Is it right? Absolutely. And so that's
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S1: what our vision has to be. And then then finally
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S1: there's the assurance. And I don't want you to skip
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S1: over that. He tells them how to do it, baptizing, teaching.
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S1: But that last line he says, and I am with you.
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S1: I am with you. Go back to his statement. All
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S1: authority is given to me in heaven and earth, and
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S1: I am with you. Everything you need to do, what
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S1: I've called you to be and to do. It's in Jesus.
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S1: He's with you. When I look at how God has
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S1: used my life through the years. I scratch my head
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S1: and I say, ain't no way in the world that
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S1: should have happened. Not qualified. Didn't have the resources. Nowhere
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S1: near competent. I am with you. There are three important
21:39
S1: questions that are very, very obvious. But I think we
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S1: need to ask and answer ourselves. One. Do I really
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S1: love God? The second question I want us to ask
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S1: is this. If so, do I really love people? And
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S1: the third question is this. AM I making disciples?
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S2: Doctor Crawford Lawrence here on Living a Legacy, part two
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S2: of his message Who are we? A look at the
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S2: DNA of the church. Now, although a large part of
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S2: this message was directed to the church that Crawford pastors,
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S2: I think you'll agree with me that the principles reach
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S2: out to all of us. During the past several months,
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S2: we've been featuring Crawford's long running series for His Kingdom,
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S2: but we're taking a short break to present this series
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S2: on the DNA of the church. If you found today's
22:42
S2: message helpful, you can hear it again online at living
22:45
S2: a legacy.org. CDs and MP3 downloads are also available. Living
22:50
S2: a legacy.org. Thanks for your emails. Sharon recently wrote to us.
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S2: She says, I was really impacted by what you said
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S2: at the end of a recent program. You mentioned, Crawford,
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S2: that your heart was heavy because of the casualness of
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S2: how we share the gospel, and that we've forgotten about
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S2: the consequences of rejecting the Lord. I'm in the process
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S2: of establishing contact with workers in nursing homes across the U.S.
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S2: to urge them to make sure to have one on
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S2: one contact and to clearly present the gospel to individuals.
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S2: Many elderly people are coming to know Christ because we're
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S2: making it our task to approach them individually. Your words
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S2: were so refreshing to me. Thank you for your faithfulness
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S2: to the word. Thank you Sharon, and we'd love to
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S2: hear from you too. Contact us at living a legacy.org.
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S2: Living a legacy.org. This program is listener supported. Thanks for
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S2: the role you play in helping to keep it on
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S2: the air each week. For more details, follow the link
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S2: on our website. For Crawford Lawrence, I'm Bill Davis. Thanks
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S2: for being with us today. This program is a production
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S2: of Moody Radio and is a Ministry of Moody Global Ministries.