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Andy Stanley - Who Needs Church_ I Did, I Do, and You Do Too Part 1 · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Speaker 1: Today we're starting a brand new series entitled as you
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Speaker 1: just saw, Who Needs Church? And I want to begin
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Speaker 1: with a clarification and then a confession. So the clarification
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Speaker 1: is first.
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Speaker 2: In this series.
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Speaker 1: When we talk about church, who needs Church, we're talking specifically,
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Speaker 1: or we're referring specifically to the assemblies of Jesus followers,
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Speaker 1: the assemblies of Jesus followers, the local assemblies of Jesus
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Speaker 1: followers all over the world, the assemblies of Jesus followers
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Speaker 1: who are committed to the teaching of Jesus and committed
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Speaker 1: to the new Covenant ethic of Jesus. The new Covenant
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Speaker 1: ethic of Jesus is that we are to love one
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Speaker 1: another the way that God, through Jesus loved us. We're
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Speaker 1: to love our neighbors as God through Jesus loved us.
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Speaker 2: We're to love our.
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Speaker 1: Enemies as God through Jesus loved us. So when we
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Speaker 1: talk about the church, that's who we're talking about, because
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Speaker 1: that is the church. It's the expanding assembly that Jesus predicted.
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Speaker 2: And this is amazing.
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Speaker 1: And if you're not a church person or you used
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Speaker 1: to be, I mean just these next three or four
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Speaker 1: minutes are just they're just mind blowing because two thousand
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Speaker 1: years ago, two thousand years ago, Jesus is in the
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Speaker 1: middle of basically nowhere, this region of Cesareah Philippi. That again,
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Speaker 1: most people will never visit there, and even in that part,
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Speaker 1: and even in the first century it was important for
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Speaker 1: some people. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere.
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Speaker 1: And he's standing there with his posse, you know, his disciples,
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Speaker 1: his apostles, and he makes this statement. First, he just
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Speaker 1: asked him, you know, who do people say that I am?
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Speaker 1: And they'd answered the question. Then he says, who do
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Speaker 1: you think I am? And Peter answers the question correctly.
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Speaker 2: You may know this.
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Speaker 1: He said, well, I'll tell you who we think you are, Rabbi.
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Speaker 1: We think you're the son of God. We think you're
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Speaker 1: the Messiah, that God's final king. And Jesus looks at
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Speaker 1: Peter and he says, you're right, and he says, let
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Speaker 1: me tell you what I'm gonna do here.
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Speaker 2: It is. This is amazing. Here is why we're here.
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Speaker 1: He says, guys on this rock, talking about the statement
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Speaker 1: that Peter had just made that he declared that Jesus
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Speaker 1: is the Christ or the Messiah God's final King and
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Speaker 1: the Son of God, he said, on this rock, on
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Speaker 1: that declaration, on the reality of what you have just
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Speaker 1: pointed out, I'm gonna do something big. I'm going to
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Speaker 1: build my ecclesias the Greek term in our English Bibles
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Speaker 1: that says church, But an ecclesia is an assembly of people,
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Speaker 1: and an ecclesia was a congregation. An ecclesia was a
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Speaker 1: congregation with a point and with a that was part
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Speaker 1: of a movement to accomplish something specific.
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Speaker 2: Jesus annalysis kind of.
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Speaker 1: In the middle of nowhere to a bunch of nobodies.
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Speaker 1: I am going to launch a brand new movement, and.
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Speaker 2: The gates of Hades.
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Speaker 1: Hades was basically the place of the dead, just the
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Speaker 1: general place that dead people with. This was Jesus' way
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Speaker 1: of saying, and death itself will not overcome it. He said, Guys,
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Speaker 1: my death isn't going to be the end of it. Guys,
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Speaker 1: your death isn't going to be the end of it.
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Speaker 1: What I'm about to do, I'm about to launch something
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Speaker 1: that will not have an end because it is tied
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Speaker 1: to the will of God for planet Earth and everybody
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Speaker 1: who's ever lived on it. I'm going to begin something knew.
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Speaker 1: We call it the church. In the first century, they
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Speaker 1: had several different names for it, but that's when we
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Speaker 1: talk about church. That's what we're talking about.
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Speaker 2: This onward moving, this expanding.
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Speaker 1: Network of people who are Jesus followers, who were doing
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Speaker 1: what Jesus called us to do and loving the way
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Speaker 1: that Jesus called us to love. In fact, not only
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Speaker 1: did it not end with his death, ultimately the teaching
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Speaker 1: of the church and the growth of the church basically
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Speaker 1: pushed the entire Roman pantheon of God's out the door
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Speaker 1: and replaced it. And eventually the empire that crucified Jesus
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Speaker 1: declared Jesus to be a god. It's an unbelievable story
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Speaker 1: and it's an undeniable story.
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Speaker 2: And we as when we talk.
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Speaker 1: About church, that's the movement we're talking about. So I
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Speaker 1: just wanted to make sure you understood that. And here's
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Speaker 1: the thing again, this undeniable, this movement of Jesus, the
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Speaker 1: ecclessy of Jesus, and not only transfer, you know, transformed
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Speaker 1: first century second third century culture, it circled the globe.
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Speaker 1: In fact, we're going to come back to this, the
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Speaker 1: teaching of Jesus through the Church, transformed Western civilization.
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Speaker 2: In fact, Bart Ahraman. Some of you are familiar with
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Speaker 2: Bart's books.
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Speaker 1: Bart says that Christianity brought about the most monumental cultural transformation,
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Speaker 1: the most monumental cultural transformation the world has ever seen. So,
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Speaker 1: as we're about to discover, don't leave early.
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Speaker 2: Whether you're a.
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Speaker 1: Jesus follower or not, whether you're a Christian or not,
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Speaker 1: you actually hold certain ideals and certain ideas and certain
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Speaker 1: values to be self evident. Basically that means they don't
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Speaker 1: need any explanation.
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Speaker 2: It's kind of a duh.
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Speaker 1: It's like, doesn't everybody get that that you hold certain ideas,
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Speaker 1: certain values as self evidence, as self evident, I should say,
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Speaker 1: because of the influence of the Church.
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Speaker 2: We're going to come back to that in just a minute.
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Speaker 1: So this is a really, really big deal. So that
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Speaker 1: was the clearification. And now I want to make a confession.
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Speaker 1: So the title of the series is who Needs Church?
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Speaker 1: And so I would like to confess that I did,
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Speaker 1: I needed the church, and I still do I need
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Speaker 1: the church.
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Speaker 2: This is not an exaggeration.
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Speaker 1: The Church saved my life and not because I got
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Speaker 1: into trouble and the church intervened. It wasn't really it
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Speaker 1: wasn't really intervenive. It was preventative.
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Speaker 2: And some of you can relate to this.
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Speaker 1: While I would be tempted to say I can't imagine,
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Speaker 1: you know, what I would be like without the influence
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Speaker 1: of the church, or I can't imagine where I would
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Speaker 1: be without the influence of the church, the truth is
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Speaker 1: I can't imagine.
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Speaker 2: For starters. Sandra. I checked with her last night.
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Speaker 1: She would not have married on the unchurched version of me.
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Speaker 1: She said, no, I would not have married unt Church.
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Speaker 1: I would not have married unchurched Andy. I wouldn't have
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Speaker 1: dated unchurched and dated unchurched Andy. And I'm like, oh,
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Speaker 1: And then she said this, she said, but I might
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Speaker 1: have churched you. So just real quick, okay, everybody, everybody
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Speaker 1: that's listening to all the men, I just want to
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Speaker 1: ask all of the men to be honest for a minute.
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Speaker 1: How many of you men would say, at some point
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Speaker 1: in your life, a woman churched you can I see
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Speaker 1: those hands? Oh look at those honest men.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you got church. And aren't you aren't you glad?
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Speaker 2: I mean, aren't we glad?
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Speaker 1: Yees?
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Speaker 2: So she said, yeah, yeah, I wouldn't have dated you,
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Speaker 2: but I might have churched you anyway.
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Speaker 1: The point of all that is simply this, me minus
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Speaker 1: church equals a mess. Now, when I say things like that,
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Speaker 1: those of you who've been a part of our church
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Speaker 1: for a long time, and if this is your first time,
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Speaker 1: I'm sorry I'm talking so much about me.
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Speaker 2: Well, I'll move off with that in a minute.
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Speaker 1: But for those of you come all the time when
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Speaker 1: I say things like this, because I come back to
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Speaker 1: this every once in a while, you look at me
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Speaker 1: and you're like, no, you're just trying to relate to
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Speaker 1: us mere mortals. I mean, you're not like a regular person,
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Speaker 1: and you're so holy and you're so godly and you
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Speaker 1: know the Bible. You know, I bet you've always been
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Speaker 1: that way. Well, I'll admit it started off good and
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Speaker 1: my parents had very high hopes for me.
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Speaker 2: I mean, they really did right.
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Speaker 1: And then something happened along the way and I started
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Speaker 1: hanging out with people of questionable character. I'll show you one, yes,
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Speaker 1: So I bring this picture out every ten years or so.
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Speaker 1: This is Luis Giglio, the current pastor of Passion City Church,
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Speaker 1: and this is Andy Stanley, the current pastor. Yeah, anyway,
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Speaker 1: So we've known each other since we were in the
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Speaker 1: sixth sixth grade, and honestly, maybe he was the one
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Speaker 1: who was hanging out with people of questionable character. Now
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Speaker 1: let me just tell you about these two sixteen year olds.
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Speaker 2: We're shark fishing.
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Speaker 1: This is the year that Jaws came out, and we thought,
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Speaker 1: how hard could that be? So we're shark fishing at
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Speaker 1: the end of a peer.
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Speaker 2: I won't tell you where.
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Speaker 1: My dad took this picture from the other end of
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Speaker 1: the pier, standing right next to a giant sign that
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Speaker 1: said no shark fishing anyway.
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Speaker 2: So these two guys they.
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Speaker 1: Definitely needed well, they needed a fashion concert to begin with, okay,
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Speaker 1: or maybe this is where Abercrombie got their original ideas.
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Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but we definitely needed help and we
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Speaker 1: definitely let me tell you what we definitely needed in
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Speaker 1: this season of our life. We definitely needed an attitude upgrade.
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Speaker 1: We needed the church and parents. We were so fortunate
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Speaker 1: because our parents insisted that we remain not just attending church,
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Speaker 1: but involved in our local church, and they kept us
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Speaker 1: in church. And it was in church because of the
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Speaker 1: church we attended since the sixth grade.
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Speaker 2: We moved on each other since sixth grade. It's in
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Speaker 2: that church that we met this lady. This is Mary
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Speaker 2: gillerstep She.
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Speaker 1: Was the youth director we called them back then, or
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Speaker 1: the student pastor for us. And this woman saw in
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Speaker 1: Louie and in me something other people didn't see. She
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Speaker 1: invested in us, She believed in us. She gave us
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Speaker 1: opportunities that we did not deserve. She gave us opportunities
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Speaker 1: that we were not ready for.
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Speaker 2: And we visited her.
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Speaker 1: Not too long ago, in fact, a few months ago,
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Speaker 1: to celebrate her one hundredth birthday. That's where this picture
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Speaker 1: was taken. I know, yeah, she deserves a lot of applause.
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Speaker 2: Again, Louie would agree.
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Speaker 1: Without her influence and the influence of the local church,
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Speaker 1: he wouldn't be doing what he's doing today. And I
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Speaker 1: wouldn't be doing I don't think what I'm doing today.
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Speaker 1: And here's here's kind of the point. Some of you
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Speaker 1: can relate to this, others if you can't. But if
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Speaker 1: everything I gained through my involvement with a church, if
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Speaker 1: everything I'd gained through all those years growing up, through
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Speaker 1: my involvement church, if all of that was somehow sucked
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Speaker 1: out of.
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Speaker 2: Me or erased from my memory banks.
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Speaker 1: You know, all my memory is taken away, all my
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Speaker 1: experience has taken away. If somehow all those lessons I
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Speaker 1: learned were taken away, the principles that I learned were
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Speaker 1: taken away, all those relationships were taken away, I would
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Speaker 1: definitely be a different person and it would not be
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Speaker 1: for the better. And specifically, I'm going to hit these fasts.
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Speaker 1: The Church did five things for me. It has the
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Speaker 1: potential to do the same five things for you, and
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Speaker 1: it certainly has the potential to do the same five things.
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Speaker 2: For your children and your students.
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Speaker 1: That's why we're so adamant about having your kids here
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Speaker 1: on a regular basis, so the Church can do for them.
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Speaker 1: Partner with you as parents and grandparents to do what
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Speaker 1: the Church did for many of us and certainly did
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Speaker 1: for me, and Louie would say and did for him
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Speaker 1: as well.
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Speaker 2: Number one, do you know what it did for me?
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Speaker 2: The Church informed my conscience.
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Speaker 1: Now, everybody has a conscience, for most people have a conscience, right,
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Speaker 1: but a conscience has to be informed, it has to
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Speaker 1: be informed, and the Church informed my conscience. According to
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Speaker 1: are in sync with the teaching of Jesus I avoided
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Speaker 1: so many moral and so many ethical land minds because
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Speaker 1: of the influence of the local church. Mean morally, it
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Speaker 1: was where I was taught that I am to treat
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Speaker 1: women and young women like they're my sister, because they's
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Speaker 1: somebody's sister, that they I should treat them like a daughter,
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Speaker 1: because there's somebody's that no one. And I should never
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Speaker 1: mistreat anybody for any reason because everybody is made in
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Speaker 1: the image of God. I'm eyeball to eyeball with somebody
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Speaker 1: that God loves. All of these things were instilled in
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Speaker 1: me young, and they formed and they shaped my conscience.
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Speaker 1: And I struggled like any other teenage boy or any
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Speaker 1: other college young man. But the line of demarcation and
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Speaker 1: the line of struggle was set because my conscience was
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Speaker 1: fine tuned to the teaching of Jesus and the teaching
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Speaker 1: of the New Testament as it relates to those kinds
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Speaker 1: of relationships.
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Speaker 2: The other thing that helped me do that I.
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Speaker 1: Learned from the Church that sin, that every single sin
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Speaker 1: carries a consequence. The sin comes prepackaged with a consequence,
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Speaker 1: that nobody actually gets by with anything. So God is
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Speaker 1: anti sin, but he's not anti me. And I never
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Speaker 1: wrestled or struggled with there's a big, you know, big
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Speaker 1: guy in the sky who's looking for an excuse to
11:54
Speaker 1: come down on me and judge me. I never wrestled
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Speaker 1: with any of that toxic fundamentalist, you know, dreamism because
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Speaker 1: God was presented to me as Jesus presented God as
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Speaker 1: a loving, heavenly father who cared about me.
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Speaker 2: He was an anti andy.
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Speaker 1: He was anti the things that would undermine my future.
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Speaker 1: And I was taught that at such a young age.
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Speaker 2: It became a framework for the way I thought from
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Speaker 2: my whole life that God loves you.
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Speaker 1: That God loves sinners, so of course he hates the
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Speaker 1: things that hurt the people he loved, just like.
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Speaker 2: Any good parent.
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Speaker 1: The other thing it did for me is instilled in
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Speaker 1: me a sense of purpose that I was taught through
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Speaker 1: the Church that God has a plan for my life.
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Speaker 1: That I was created on purpose for a purpose, and
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Speaker 1: I'm not the purpose. That I was created on purpose
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Speaker 1: for a purpose, but the purpose is bigger than.
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Speaker 2: Me, it's outside of me. It was the Church where
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Speaker 2: I learned to pray in every major decision of my life.
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Speaker 1: God, show me your will for my life. Show me
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Speaker 1: your will for my life about school and college and
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Speaker 1: majors and friends and decisions. Show me your will for
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Speaker 1: from life. Show me your will for my life. I'm
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Speaker 1: so grateful for that. The third thing that the church
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Speaker 1: did for me is it serves us a context for
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Speaker 1: so many lifelong friendships.
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Speaker 2: Again, I just introduced you to one. Louis and I
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Speaker 2: met in.
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Speaker 1: The sixth grade at a church camp, and we've been
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Speaker 1: friends ever since. The fourth thing and this is huge,
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Speaker 1: and I'm so grateful for this. And Sandra and I
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Speaker 1: share this because we were raised in similar types of churches.
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Speaker 1: The church is who taught me and what taught me
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Speaker 1: to be generous. I've always given ten percent of my
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Speaker 1: money to a local church always.
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Speaker 2: That's what I was taught from the beginning.
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Speaker 1: I got ten dimes, my parents will give me allowance.
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Speaker 1: The church gave me these envelopes, and I was supposed
13:41
Speaker 1: to put my tithe in the envelope. So for my
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Speaker 1: whole life, I've given ten percent of my money away,
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Speaker 1: ten percent plus as I got older. And the point
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Speaker 1: of all that is not to brag. The point is
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Speaker 1: I learned that so young. I've never not lived that way.
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Speaker 1: It is very easy for me and for Sandra to
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Speaker 1: be generous, not just to the Church, to anybody, because
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Speaker 1: because learning to tide and learning to give so early,
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Speaker 1: it keeps our hands wide open.
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Speaker 2: And I've shared the stories.
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Speaker 1: I won't share the whole story, but I remember the
14:09
Speaker 1: first time, when I was in high school, I was
14:11
Speaker 1: challenged internally, not a voice. Nobody asked me to do it,
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Speaker 1: to give one hundred dollars to somebody and need it.
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Speaker 2: I mean one hundred dollars would.
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Speaker 1: Be like, you know, being a middle school or giving
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Speaker 1: away five hundred dollars today.
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Speaker 2: And I just wrestled with that.
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Speaker 1: And I just remember, because the Church taught me Andy,
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Speaker 1: it's not yours.
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Speaker 2: It's not yours.
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Speaker 1: Everything in the heavens and earnest belongs to God.
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Speaker 2: You're just a steward.
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Speaker 1: You're not giving away anything you own. You're just passing
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Speaker 1: it along to somebody who needs it. And I remember
14:37
Speaker 1: writing that check. Remember checks there, Yeah, anyway, we back then.
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Speaker 1: It's a long time ago.
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Speaker 2: Okay, the Earth's crust had just hardened.
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Speaker 1: Okay, anyway, I remember writing that check for one hundred dollars.
14:49
Speaker 1: I'm making minimum wage at whin Dixie, cleaning the meat department.
14:52
Speaker 1: But I'm telling you those lessons were so valuable.
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Speaker 2: But that's my point.
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Speaker 1: My conscience was so tied into some of those teachings
14:58
Speaker 1: that that's the level at which I wrestled. It's where
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Speaker 1: I learned what I've taught you for years, the habit
15:04
Speaker 1: of give, save and live. You give first, you save second,
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Speaker 1: and live and live on the rest. This is giving
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Speaker 1: first is a keystone habit that impacted all of my finances.
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Speaker 1: So basically, the church taught me how to manage money.
15:19
Speaker 1: The other thing the church did for me and one
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Speaker 1: of the things we want our churches to.
15:23
Speaker 2: Do for people. The church served as a window to
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Speaker 2: the world. It was served as a window to God's
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Speaker 2: activity in the whole world. It exposed me to a world.
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Speaker 1: Bigger than my neighborhood, bigger than my local school, bigger
15:37
Speaker 1: than my circle of friends.
15:39
Speaker 2: And there's so many examples of this.
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Speaker 1: I got to just share one with you, and I've
15:42
Speaker 1: shared this before in the past. When Louie and I
15:45
Speaker 1: were probably twenty or twenty one, I can't remember exactly
15:47
Speaker 1: we were in college. I do remember that we got
15:50
Speaker 1: invited to go to Canada to meet with a group
15:53
Speaker 1: of pastors, when neither of us remember.
15:55
Speaker 2: Why we got invited.
15:56
Speaker 1: Everybody there was forty years old, I think, and older,
15:59
Speaker 1: and here we are were the oly two younger guys.
16:01
Speaker 1: And it was pastors from all over the world. And
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Speaker 1: this would be the last time this group of pastors
16:04
Speaker 1: would ever meet because several of these countries were closing
16:07
Speaker 1: down and they weren't going to be able to get
16:09
Speaker 1: out again, they didn't think, and several guys couldn't make it.
16:12
Speaker 1: So we get to Canada. It's a five day get together.
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Speaker 1: They were all part of the same organization. And every
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Speaker 1: morning we would go outside and when the weather was good,
16:19
Speaker 1: and the weather was good that part of the part
16:21
Speaker 1: of the year, and we would pray. And I'll never
16:23
Speaker 1: forget the first morning that we decided that they called
16:26
Speaker 1: this prayer meeting. We're outside, there's all these benches, everybody
16:29
Speaker 1: kneels down.
16:30
Speaker 2: We're all kneeling down about to pray.
16:32
Speaker 1: It's quiet, and the pastor from Burma begins to pray
16:37
Speaker 1: in his language, and Louis and I's heads popped up
16:41
Speaker 1: and we looked at each other, and that's when it
16:43
Speaker 1: dawned on us for the first time. Even though we
16:46
Speaker 1: didn't have these words, that English is not God's first language.
16:54
Speaker 1: And suddenly God got bigger, and all of these gentlemen
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Speaker 1: prayed in.
16:59
Speaker 2: Their own language, and we couldn't understand.
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Speaker 1: A word, and it was so excuse me emotional.
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Speaker 2: And don't be offended.
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Speaker 1: It's when I first began to understand that the United
17:12
Speaker 1: States of America isn't his only territory, that God is
17:18
Speaker 1: active in the entire world. We roomed with a guy
17:21
Speaker 1: from Sudan named Naji Kanaji, and I kept up with Naji.
17:25
Speaker 2: For years and years and years after.
17:26
Speaker 1: That as he talked about what he did in the
17:29
Speaker 1: Sudan and how difficult it was to live there anyway,
17:32
Speaker 1: and some of you have these same experiences because of
17:34
Speaker 1: global extrips. The Church is what introduced me to people
17:38
Speaker 1: with less stuff, more joy, way more gratitude, and way
17:46
Speaker 1: bigger faith. The Church taught me that ultimately, if not immediately,
17:51
Speaker 1: that ultimately that following Jesus made.
17:56
Speaker 2: My life better. It's why we talk about this all
18:00
Speaker 2: the time.
18:00
Speaker 1: It has certainly made me a much better father, and
18:03
Speaker 1: a much better husband, and honestly a better citizen. So
18:08
Speaker 1: I am so grateful for the influence of the local
18:11
Speaker 1: church who needs church. I needed it, I still need it.
18:15
Speaker 1: I will be forever and ever grateful for it, and
18:17
Speaker 1: many of you will as well. But moving on, it's
18:21
Speaker 1: not just me that needs the church, and it's not
18:24
Speaker 1: just you that needs the church. Our nation desperately needs
18:28
Speaker 1: the church, and our world desperately needs the church. Now
18:32
Speaker 1: I'm circling back to where I started for just a minute.
18:34
Speaker 1: Whether or not you're a church person or not, whether
18:37
Speaker 1: or not you're a person of faith, or maybe you're
18:38
Speaker 1: from a different faith background, every day of your life
18:42
Speaker 1: and you can resist this and disagree, but maybe go
18:45
Speaker 1: home this afternoon and check it out for yourself.
18:47
Speaker 2: Every day of your life.
18:49
Speaker 1: You benefit from the presence and the influence of the
18:52
Speaker 1: Church and our nation and in the world. And here's
18:55
Speaker 1: why I say that, because what is self evident to you,
18:59
Speaker 1: and what self evidence to all of us regarding the
19:02
Speaker 1: dignity of the individual was not self evident in ancient
19:07
Speaker 1: times and in ancient cultures. And the truth is, you
19:10
Speaker 1: know this, it's not self evident in many parts of
19:14
Speaker 1: the world today.
19:16
Speaker 2: This is why you watch the news or you look.
19:17
Speaker 1: At some things happening in different cultures, different parts of
19:20
Speaker 1: the world, and you're like, how can they treat people
19:22
Speaker 1: that way?
19:22
Speaker 2: Here's what you think. Don't they know that's wrong?
19:27
Speaker 1: No, it is self evident to you because you have
19:30
Speaker 1: been Christianized, whether you are a Christian or not. And
19:34
Speaker 1: what is so self evident to you is not self
19:37
Speaker 1: evident to them. And that they don't feel like what
19:39
Speaker 1: they're doing is wrong. The way they treat people is wrong.
19:42
Speaker 1: They've not been Christianized. That's the difference in culture. That's
19:46
Speaker 1: the difference of what's happening in the world.
19:48
Speaker 2: That is the impact of the.
19:50
Speaker 1: Teaching of Jesus of Nazareth from two thousand years ago.
19:55
Speaker 1: And when it comes to the difference, the big differences
19:58
Speaker 1: are the most pronounced differences are the relate to the
20:01
Speaker 1: dignity of ascribed to women and the dignity ascribed to.
20:05
Speaker 2: Disabled children in the world.
20:09
Speaker 1: Rodney Stark, I've read several of his books. He's fabulous author, historian, anthropologist.
20:14
Speaker 1: In his book The Rise of Christianity, which is a
20:16
Speaker 1: fabulous book, he writes the following.
20:19
Speaker 2: He says this. He says Christianity offered.
20:22
Speaker 1: A new conception of humanity. In fact, bart Ehrman says
20:27
Speaker 1: that Christianity redefined for billions of people what it meant
20:32
Speaker 1: to be human.
20:35
Speaker 2: Rodney goes on and.
20:36
Speaker 1: Says this Christianity offered a new conception of humanity, emphasizing
20:40
Speaker 1: the inherent worth and dignity of all individuals, regardless of
20:44
Speaker 1: their social status or their ethnicity. And this explains why
20:49
Speaker 1: ultimately the teaching of Jesus through the influence.
20:52
Speaker 2: Of the Church collapsed are collapsed.
20:54
Speaker 1: Paganism in the Western world because as Christianity grew and
20:59
Speaker 1: grew and grew in the Church grew and grew and grew,
21:01
Speaker 1: people all over the world recognized what the Church was
21:05
Speaker 1: offering was better. What the Church was offering was better
21:09
Speaker 1: for everybody. What the Church offered equalized people in the
21:13
Speaker 1: eyes of God, because at the core and the center
21:15
Speaker 1: of Christianity was the idea that that was taken obviously
21:19
Speaker 1: from the Jewish scriptures, that everyone has made in the
21:22
Speaker 1: image of God. Therefore, everyone has dignity because they reflect
21:26
Speaker 1: the image of God. Everybody has a divine spark, regardless
21:30
Speaker 1: of where they live, what they have, the color of
21:32
Speaker 1: their skin, where they are in any kind of spectrum
21:35
Speaker 1: as it relates to the social economic spectrum, regardless of what
21:38
Speaker 1: they have, where they've been, what they've done, or what
21:40
Speaker 1: they haven't done. That everybody has inherit inherent value, which
21:44
Speaker 1: to most of us would say, well doesn't everybody know that.
21:47
Speaker 2: No, you learned that, you were taught that.
21:51
Speaker 1: That's part of Western culture because of the teaching of
21:54
Speaker 1: Jesus exported.
21:56
Speaker 2: Through the local church. So who needs the church?
22:00
Speaker 1: You need it, We need it, the world needs it,
22:02
Speaker 1: our nation needs it.
22:04
Speaker 2: That Western civilization.
22:06
Speaker 1: Again, it's not an exaggeration that Western civilization is better
22:10
Speaker 1: because of the teaching of the Church, as it reflects
22:13
Speaker 1: the teaching of Jesus. Again, as a result, you live
22:17
Speaker 1: in and I live in a very Christianized society, not
22:21
Speaker 1: a Christian nation, not a Christian world, a christianized society.
22:26
Speaker 2: And here's the warning. And then I'll move on.
22:30
Speaker 1: Those who seek to undermine the influence of the church,
22:34
Speaker 1: the people who seek to undermine the influence of the Church,
22:37
Speaker 1: or worse, if I can talk to insiders for just
22:40
Speaker 1: a minute, Christians who seek to distort the first century
22:45
Speaker 1: message of the Church, they do so at their own peril.
22:51
Speaker 1: You may not like what you get, you will not
22:55
Speaker 1: like where it leads. We have been so Christianized. We
23:00
Speaker 1: don't even recognize the source of why, the source of
23:04
Speaker 1: why we view the world and view people the way
23:08
Speaker 1: that we do. Philip Yancey, again extraordinary author, in his
23:11
Speaker 1: book Vanishing Grace, he says it this way.
23:14
Speaker 2: He says, those.
23:14
Speaker 1: Who condemned the church for its blind spots, and the
23:17
Speaker 1: church definitely has blind spots, right. Those who condemned the
23:21
Speaker 1: Church for its blind spots do so by Gospel principles.
23:25
Speaker 2: Here's what he means.
23:28
Speaker 1: There are things that we assume should be true, and
23:30
Speaker 1: there are things that we assume are right and wrong.
23:33
Speaker 1: And those things that we assume oftentimes actually come not
23:36
Speaker 1: because we're such good people, but because we've been Christianized.
23:40
Speaker 1: And he says, people who are critical of the Church,
23:42
Speaker 1: they don't know it. Sometimes they're actually leveraging the teaching
23:46
Speaker 1: and the principles that come from the Church. Because of
23:48
Speaker 1: the teaching of Jesus. To judge and criticize the church,
23:52
Speaker 1: we start over. Those who condemn the Church for its
23:54
Speaker 1: blind spots do so by Gospel principles, arguing for the
23:58
Speaker 1: very moral value use that the Gospel originally set loose
24:05
Speaker 1: in the world. I love that phrase set loose in
24:09
Speaker 1: the world. And then he goes on and he lists
24:12
Speaker 1: some of these values, He lists some of these rights
24:14
Speaker 1: and freedoms that we take for granted because there's so.
24:17
Speaker 2: Self evident to us.
24:18
Speaker 1: Human rights, minority rights, civil rights, women's rights, the things
24:24
Speaker 1: that we just assume. And whenever the church, whenever the
24:28
Speaker 1: Church starts to diminish or seem to diminish civil rights
24:31
Speaker 1: or human rights or women's rights, people in secular society
24:35
Speaker 1: condemned the church in Philippins, he says, yes, by the way,
24:38
Speaker 1: by the way, what you're condemning the church for, you're
24:41
Speaker 1: condemning the church leveraging the very principles taught by Jesus, the.
24:46
Speaker 2: Very principles of the Gospel.
24:49
Speaker 1: Then he says, this the success, this is so important,
24:54
Speaker 1: the success of these modern movements. His point is that
24:58
Speaker 1: human rights, still rights, women's rights, all the things we
25:01
Speaker 1: take for granted, those are modern movements. Before the time
25:06
Speaker 1: of Jesus, and even in the centuries following the time
25:08
Speaker 1: of Jesus, until it finally took hold in Western civilization, nobody.
25:12
Speaker 2: Saw the world that way.
25:14
Speaker 1: That's why slavery permonated, the permeated the entire world. It
25:19
Speaker 1: was part of every culture. Well, when we think slavery,
25:21
Speaker 1: were thinking what?
25:23
Speaker 2: But once upon a time people didn't think that way.
25:26
Speaker 2: What brought about the change? It was the Church, It
25:29
Speaker 2: was the teaching of Jesus, He says.
25:31
Speaker 1: The success of these modern movements reflects a widespread empathy
25:34
Speaker 1: for the oppressed that has no precedent.
25:38
Speaker 2: In the ancient world.
25:40
Speaker 1: He Fast says, in fact, classical philosophers, some of you
25:43
Speaker 1: know this, considered mercy and pity to be character defects
25:50
Speaker 1: contrary to justice. Not until Jesus did that attitude change.
26:00
Speaker 1: What once upon a time was not self evident. The
26:05
Speaker 1: intrinsic value of the individual became self.
26:09
Speaker 2: Evident because of the Church as that export of the
26:12
Speaker 2: teaching of Jesus. So who needs the church?
26:17
Speaker 1: You need the church, I need the church, Our nation
26:21
Speaker 1: needs the church.
26:22
Speaker 2: The world needs the church. And let me say it
26:24
Speaker 2: a different way.
26:25
Speaker 1: You see our government, every government, we'll just talk about ours.
26:28
Speaker 1: Our government prescribes to us how low we can go
26:31
Speaker 1: before we go to jail.
26:33
Speaker 2: That's what the government does.
26:34
Speaker 1: The government has laws, laws are saying a law is
26:38
Speaker 1: this is how low you can go. It's when you
26:39
Speaker 1: were a kid, Just like what time do I need
26:41
Speaker 1: to be home. They weren't saying, well, here's a range,
26:43
Speaker 1: just like no, no, no, I want to know exactly if
26:46
Speaker 1: it's at eleven o'clock ten fifty nine, I'm going to
26:48
Speaker 1: come rolling in. How low can I go before I
26:50
Speaker 1: get put on restriction?
26:51
Speaker 2: Right, that's the.
26:52
Speaker 1: Nature of a law, a rule, the best our government
26:54
Speaker 1: can do it. It's not a government's proa. It's just the
26:56
Speaker 1: nature of laws. The government tells us how low you
26:59
Speaker 1: can go before you get trouble. Then the media informs
27:02
Speaker 1: us on a daily basis about how low we've gone,
27:06
Speaker 1: how bad things truly are. Because nobody wants to read
27:10
Speaker 1: about good news, it's kind of boring.
27:12
Speaker 2: And the church is different. This is the role of
27:15
Speaker 2: the church. This is why we need the church.
27:17
Speaker 1: The church, informed by the teaching of Jesus, is where
27:22
Speaker 1: we are taught to live above the letter of the law.
27:27
Speaker 1: The government says, don't steal, but the government can't make
27:30
Speaker 1: you be generous. The government says, don't hurt anybody, but
27:34
Speaker 1: the government can't make you help anybody. This is why
27:37
Speaker 1: what Jesus taught was so revolutionary. It's why ultimately the
27:42
Speaker 1: Empire decided this is the way forward.
27:45
Speaker 2: This is better.
27:48
Speaker 1: The gospel, the teaching of Jesus, is what teaches us
27:51
Speaker 1: to exercise self exercise self control, not just for our
27:54
Speaker 1: own benefit, but for the benefit of others.
27:57
Speaker 2: To do the one thing. And I know we talk
27:59
Speaker 2: about this all the time. We're going to keep talking
28:01
Speaker 2: about it. To do the one thing.
28:03
Speaker 1: Only the teaching of Jesus instructs us to do the
28:05
Speaker 1: one thing that would change everything, the one thing that
28:08
Speaker 1: changes families, that changes relationships, that changes nations and communities
28:12
Speaker 1: in the world. Only the Church has the message regarding
28:15
Speaker 1: the one thing that would change everything.
28:18
Speaker 2: To love one another, not as we want to be loved.
28:21
Speaker 2: That's the golden rule.
28:23
Speaker 1: To love one another as Christ loved us. This is
28:29
Speaker 1: the game changer. This the church is the steward of
28:34
Speaker 1: this message. Who needs church? You need church, I need church.
28:39
Speaker 1: The world needs church because this is the change agent.
28:42
Speaker 1: I love what Crawford Laurisz said when he was with
28:44
Speaker 1: us a few years ago.
28:45
Speaker 2: I interviewed him. He said this.
28:46
Speaker 1: He said, the church when the church is hitting on
28:49
Speaker 1: all cylinders, the church when the church really reflects the tone, posture,
28:53
Speaker 1: and approach of Jesus. The church, he says represents the
28:56
Speaker 1: destination at which culture needs to arrive.
29:02
Speaker 2: That is, the.
29:02
Speaker 1: Way we treat each other should be a reflection of
29:06
Speaker 1: what God wants for the entire world. Another way of
29:10
Speaker 1: saying it is this that the Church is God's catalyst
29:14
Speaker 1: for change. The Church is God's catalyst for change personally.
29:17
Speaker 1: That's my story, that's some of your stories as well,
29:20
Speaker 1: catalyst for change personally, culturally, and ultimately globally, because the
29:26
Speaker 1: church is the custodian of the agent for the exporter
29:30
Speaker 1: of the teaching of Jesus. So, like many of you,
29:36
Speaker 1: I can imagine It doesn't take much imagination. I can
29:39
Speaker 1: imagine where I might be without the influence of the church.
29:42
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. You can look around the world
29:46
Speaker 1: today and see firsthand where the world might be without.
29:50
Speaker 2: The influence of the Church. The Ecclesa of Jesus.
29:56
Speaker 1: The assembly of men, women and students who are devoted
30:02
Speaker 1: to living out His kingdom values, his kingdom values that
30:07
Speaker 1: go like this on earth.
30:10
Speaker 2: As it is in heaven.
30:13
Speaker 1: So like me, you may love the local church like me,
30:17
Speaker 1: you may have benefited from the church like me. You
30:19
Speaker 1: would say, yeah, I can't imagine where I'd be without.
30:22
Speaker 2: The influence of the church.
30:23
Speaker 1: It's why you're here, it's why you're listening, it's why
30:24
Speaker 1: you're watching, it's why you have your kids here. Or
30:27
Speaker 1: like most Americans, unfortunately, you may just take the church
30:31
Speaker 1: for granted.
30:32
Speaker 2: You know, I'm not really involved.
30:33
Speaker 1: We show up every once in a while, but you
30:35
Speaker 1: know what, I'm just assuming it'll always be there if
30:38
Speaker 1: I ever need it. That is a dangerous assumption. Or
30:44
Speaker 1: perhaps you don't love it, and perhaps you don't take
30:46
Speaker 1: it for granted, perhaps you despise it. Perhaps you're a
30:50
Speaker 1: person that hopes the influence of the church goes away faster.
30:55
Speaker 1: And let me just say this to you. If that's
30:57
Speaker 1: your situation, and I mean this with all my heart,
31:00
Speaker 1: if i'd seen what you saw, and if I'd experienced
31:04
Speaker 1: what you experienced with your brother or your sister, or
31:07
Speaker 1: the way the church treated your mom perhaps, or maybe
31:09
Speaker 1: the way a church treated you, if I had seen
31:12
Speaker 1: what you've seen, and if I had experienced what you experienced,
31:15
Speaker 1: I'm sure I would feel exactly the same way. And
31:19
Speaker 1: here's what I want you to hear me say today.
31:20
Speaker 1: Whatever that was, that is not what we're talking about.
31:24
Speaker 2: Whatever that was, you don't need more of that, but perhaps,
31:33
Speaker 2: just perhaps.
31:34
Speaker 1: There's more to the Church than has met your eye
31:37
Speaker 1: or is intersected with your experience. And it's why it
31:42
Speaker 1: took a moment at the beginning of the message to
31:44
Speaker 1: define what we're talking about when we talk about church.
31:48
Speaker 1: An authentic ecclesia of Jesus. An authentic ecclasia of Jesus
31:53
Speaker 1: is a community of Jesus followers, assembly of Jesus followers
31:58
Speaker 1: who are committed to the kingdom teaching of Jesus.
32:01
Speaker 2: And here's what I mean by king teaching. In the
32:03
Speaker 2: Book of Matthew is so clear.
32:05
Speaker 1: Jesus says, the Kingdom of God has come because the
32:10
Speaker 1: King has arrived, the King that came to reverse the
32:16
Speaker 1: order of things, The king that will not require his
32:19
Speaker 1: subjects to die for him, but who has come to
32:22
Speaker 1: die for his subjects.
32:25
Speaker 2: The king who.
32:26
Speaker 1: Says, even the son of Man, even the King, did
32:29
Speaker 1: not come to be served.
32:30
Speaker 2: Who ever heard of.
32:31
Speaker 1: A king who didn't come to be served, but to
32:33
Speaker 1: serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
32:38
Speaker 1: We're talking about a group of Jesus followers who understand
32:42
Speaker 1: that that is to be our tone, our postor, and
32:45
Speaker 1: our approach a group of Jesus followers who are committed
32:47
Speaker 1: to Jesus' New Covenant ethic that we are to love
32:52
Speaker 1: the way He loved us, and when we get it wrong,
32:55
Speaker 1: and we will get it wrong, we will be quick
32:57
Speaker 1: to apologize and ask for your forgiveness, because we are
33:02
Speaker 1: forgiven people, and we are recipients of.
33:05
Speaker 2: The grace and mercy of God.
33:07
Speaker 1: And we are to be dispensers of the grace and
33:11
Speaker 1: mercy of God. So, if you've given up on church,
33:16
Speaker 1: and you have every reason in the world to give
33:19
Speaker 1: up on church, I hope perhaps that you'll have just
33:24
Speaker 1: enough curiosity and honestly enough courage to give church another chance,
33:32
Speaker 1: because it would be a shame to miss the Jesus
33:34
Speaker 1: who launched the church because of a poor reflection of
33:38
Speaker 1: the Jesus who launched the church. So perhaps this year
33:43
Speaker 1: you'll give church another look. But for sure, I hope
33:47
Speaker 1: you'll join us next Sunday for part two of Who
33:52
Speaker 1: Needs Church