Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Our Gifts for God's Glory" by Neal Pollard

Transcript

"Our Gifts for God's Glory" by Neal Pollard · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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Good morning.
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On Sunday nights, we are sometimes varying our format of
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what we do. We recently had a Bible class format
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for a month as we went through the book of Philippians in what we often
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call Into the Word, and we sometimes vary who it is that is
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leading us in worship. We're grateful to have so much talent among our high school
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and also our young adult men. And so
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there are different ways in which we approach the Sunday evening setting.
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And one thing that we have started to do in the last
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couple of years on a consistent basis is we have a question and answer
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session. I want to encourage you— I don't know if it is your regular
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custom to be with us on Sunday night— to, to come and to be a
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part of that. There— it is significant to me that over
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20 questions were asked, and of such a varying nature,
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not just things that we anticipate and that we have heard before,
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but new things. You ever had any concerns or questions about the Shroud
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of Turin? How do you tell the difference between what's cultural and
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what's commandments? What is Ezekiel talking about with that temple at
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the end of the book of Ezekiel? And there are several others. And so,
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our task tonight is to look at 10 questions that I believe
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that will not only be piquing your curiosity, but will hit where we live in
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our lives every day. The format, Hiram and I, and tonight Chris Young
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will be our moderator, will sit before you and
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do our very best to answer those questions. So we would encourage you to be
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with us tonight because it's very meaningful when we look
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out and we see you there and we see your interest.
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Craig Groeschel wrote a very interesting book called The Christian Atheist,
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in which, in the writing of that book, he talks about a mindset, at least
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among some who profess themselves to be Christians, in their turning
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away from a regular commitment to church.
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Maybe an occasional pop-in here and there, but as far as being committed
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to church, they have turned away from that, and they give various reasons
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why. Or at least there are various explanations.
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One is there's no time. As we look at our
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culture, it seems that Sunday is just another workday. Most restaurants
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and most businesses are open on Sunday, and our kids'
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sporting and other activities are in full swing on Sunday.
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And for many, Sunday is a regular workday.
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And with regard to Sunday, some may say, well, it's the only day that I
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have to stay home and to get my chores done or to get some rest.
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And so some in the Christian Christian community say, well, there's just really no
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time. But others would have just a little bit of
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a different approach, and they would say, at least by practice, there's no desire.
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When I think about church, they would say, I just think about the
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folks that are just a bunch of hypocrites, or the
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church is always asking for money,
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or it's irrelevant to my daily life. And so,
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really just have no desire. But there's another category
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of individuals that would say there's just no pleasing,
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at least by action. They would say, these super spiritual people,
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that no church with its mere mortals could live up to the standards
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that they have set. And so, as they analyze or evaluate the worship
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in song or in music, they would say that it's not
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Spirit-led enough, or it's too loud, or it's too soft.
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Or it's too whatever, or the sermons are too shallow,
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or they're too intellectual, or the church's
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missions program is too peripheral, it's too secondary, or it's
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all that the church talks about, or the church spent too much on the building,
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or it didn't spend enough. And the church with mere mortals
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can never possibly live up to the standards and expectations
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that these have set. And so, the thought, the idea
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is that individuals who take such an approach no
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longer find value in a regular commitment
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to church, time and money and efforts.
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That being the case, and such an approach or a mindset
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being taken, it's out of this that there is a
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mindset that's a consumer mindset.
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The idea is the church doesn't meet my needs, or the
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church does not help me. But such an approach fails
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to understand the purpose and the meaning of the church.
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The church does not exist for us. We are the church,
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and we exist for the world. And the Bible teaches
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that in the New Testament in so many different areas.
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But I want you to think about the text that we're looking at today in
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Romans chapter 12 and how that's the case. In Romans
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chapter 12, you have a turning point in the book, whereas in chapters
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1 through 11, Paul is developing the great truth
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of the Bible that we are saved by our faith in the gospel of Jesus
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Christ. No matter who we are, we can come into Christ, we can have our
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sins forgiven because the sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient.
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It is enough to take care of our sin problem. But out
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of that conversion, out of that being one to Christ, being saved by
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our faith response to him, that we are going to have a living faith,
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not a faith that is dead, James 2:17. So it is a faith that
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works. There's something new about our approach. We're no
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longer doing things the way that we used to. I understand
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that in Rome, Italy, there was once a tradition started,
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I believe it's still practiced in some parts of Italy today, that as
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New Year's Day was approaching, that people would undertake the
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dangerous custom of taking items in their home.
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It might be televisions, it might be radios, it might be crockery
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and dishes, and they would throw them out the window,
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symbolizing in their mind that it's out with the old,
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it's time for the new. Now, God doesn't expect that kind of
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a graphic, tangible demonstration, but he says that when we come
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into Christ, there is a new way of approaching things. We no
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longer think the way we did before. We have a different mindset. We dispense
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with old prejudices, old sins. We put it away.
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Our minds. And that's what Paul is saying in Romans chapter
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12. He is saying that in Christ, there's a new attitude,
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there are new actions, there's new thinking.
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And out of this, we no longer see ourselves as
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free moral— free agents who are serving ourselves and
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living for ourselves, but we see ourselves as part of
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a greater whole, that we more specifically as
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Christians see ourselves as active parts in God's
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spiritual body, the church. You know, just grasping
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this concept will dispense with the idea of
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Jesus, yes, but the church, no; that
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there is no attitude or concept that says, I love
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Jesus, but I just don't care that much for the church,
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or, I'm in love with the head, but I'm not in love with
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the body. And so, Paul, in what he says subsequent to verses
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1 through 3, helps us to see that each of us,
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as we have been gifted, that God wants us to use that
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gifts— those gifts for ourselves, yes, but for others,
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for the church, for the good of those who need to be a part of
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the body of Christ. And as part of this, he shares with us 3
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important thoughts from Romans chapter 12, especially verses 4
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through verse 21. The first thing that I want us to notice
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is that the Apostle Paul will identify for us that there
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are the gifts that we all have. He mentions
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the existence of the gifts in verses 3 through verse 6.
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And as we see these gifts, and he's going to walk through them, and we'll
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talk about what they are in just a moment, it's to help us to see
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that each and every one of us have gifts,
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that you possess abilities, temperaments, strengths and
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weaknesses, and opportunities that are unique to you that nobody else has.
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And that being the case, there is no such thing as a useless
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part in the body of Christ. I don't know if you know this or not,
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but evolutionary scientists have referred to what they call vestigial
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organs. They say that in our bodies today that
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there are body parts or there are organs or there are systems
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that seem to make no sense for us. Maybe you think
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of the wisdom tooth. If you've ever had your wisdom teeth extracted, maybe you would
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agree with this. What good do they seem to be serving in my body?
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Or maybe it's body hair. Or it could be the appendix.
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Evolutionary scientists say that maybe our less evolved ancestors
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needed these and we don't need them today. What's interesting
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to me is if you go back into the 19th century, evolutionary scientists
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said that there were 186 vestigial organs in
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the body. There's not a serious scientist that would say that today.
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We just didn't know exactly what they were useful for at the time,
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but as our developments have advanced, we understand that there is
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a use for them. But let's say that you could identify
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that there's a part or two that we still don't know what use that it
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serves in the body physically. There are no vestigial
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organs in the body of Christ. There's nobody who
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can say that there's no need for the thing that I have.
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So the Apostle Paul would tell us that our gifts that we have are unique.
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God gives us talents and abilities
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He's the one who is the source of faith in verse 3, and out of
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that great faith, when we have faith in God working in our lives,
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then we're going to be eager to use those gifts that he has given to
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us in the cause of his Son. There are things that
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you can do that no one else can do, and so Paul
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makes that point here, but he also indicates to us that
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our gifts are uniting. In verse 5, we see
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that not every— that we're all individual parts of the body. And those
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bodies are so important to one another. Think about the unique
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part of that for a moment. In the body, the eye is not
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going to be doing the work of the foot. When's the last time you ever
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heard with your mouth? And so each individual part plays
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its part. And so Paul says the same thing in Galatians 6:10, as you
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have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
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especially unto those who are of the household of the faith. And that household
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that the Apostle Paul is talking about is the church. Maybe we don't
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feel like we need the church, but the church needs us.
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It needs us to be using our gifts for its good.
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Then those gifts are uniting. As we use those gifts together,
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we are accomplishing the will of God together. I want
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you to think about how that's the case. The largest single organism
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on earth is a giant aspen grove known
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as the Trembling Giant. The Trembling Giant is in
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the Fishlake National Forest in Utah.
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And anybody who walks by that would suggest that this was
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40,000 different trees, but it's— they are
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united together. It's over 106 acres,
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5,900 tons. There are 40,000
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individual trunks, but they're all connected to the same root.
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It's one thing. Each one of those individual trees is
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distinct, but all are connected into that
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same root. When we think about how the body of Christ
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works, it's the same way. There is a sense in which we can speak of
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the church as a single organism. The church
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has mission work. The church has youth
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activities. The church takes care of the needy.
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The church has a work to do. But there's also
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a sense in which the church is not doing that without the individual parts
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of the body doing their part. Acts 4:32
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says that the body of them that believe were altogether of one heart and
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of one mind. But nobody can give for me.
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Nobody can be hospitable for me.
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Nobody can do the work of visiting the sick for me. And so
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each of us, as we are gifted, use our gifts together in
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order to accomplish the work for the Lord.
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Somewhat like a symphony orchestra, when all the players come
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together and as they assemble, maybe as they're warming up, they play their own
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tunes and their own notes, but then the concertmaster comes
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out and as he stands before them, he gets them each to play
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the same chord. And as he listens, he says that there's some that are flat
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and some that are sharp. And so each player has to make their adjustment.
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But having done that, then the conductor comes out and
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he conducts and they play beautiful music together.
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Each of us in our own lives may need to be making some adjustments,
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some changes, and God through his Word is orchestrating
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that for us so that at his direction, we harmonize to do
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his will. In Ephesians 4:12,
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we see that the gifts that we have are for the purpose of building
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up the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith
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and to the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man. That we're
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not like children tossed here and there with every wind of doctrine, but we speak
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the truth in love that we might grow up into Christ in all
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respects. And each individual part in
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the existence of the gifts that we have can help the church to flourish
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and thrive and be what it's supposed to be. And so, the first thing we
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see is the existence of these gifts, but then Paul moves on in
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verses 6 through 8, and he talks about the exercise of these
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gifts. Now you'll notice that he tells us that the
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gifts that exist are meant to be put to work.
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And he mentioned 7 categories of gifts. He says
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that there's prophesying, that there's serving,
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that there's teaching, that there's encouraging, that there's giving,
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that there's leading, and that there's showing mercy.
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And all of these are examples of ways that we are gifted
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in the body of Christ, and we're to use these gifts.
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And in the exercising of these gifts, these are things that
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can be done today. I know we don't have miraculous prophecy today, but if
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prophecy is the explaining and the interpreting of
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the will of God, and we think about serving, it's those who roll up their
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sleeves and they get out there and they do the work for God. And we
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think about teaching as sharing the Word of God, whether in a public setting or
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in a private setting. Or if there are those who are encouraging,
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who see the people who are maybe drooping or exhausted
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in their walk and they reach out to them. There's those who give,
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who have the gift of taking their resources and helping the folks
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who are in need of that. Or if you think about those who
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are natural leaders or even managers and helpers with others to
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help develop them. And those who are natural at providing compassion
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and comfort to those who are in need. Now, there is nothing that
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says that we can't do well in more than one of these regards.
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There's nothing that says that we can't conquer and excel in all of these particular
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areas. But I suggest to you that there are individuals
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that you might think of that you would say, these are folks who are gifted
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in this regard, that when it comes to speaking the Word of God,
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these are those that we would associate with that. Or those who are teachers of
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the Word of God, that they really know how to unfold and to pour out
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what the Word of God is saying. And God uses those in the body.
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But equally so, there are those who you just have synonymous with service.
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If there is a need that needs to get done, no matter how
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busy they are and what else they've got going on, you know that they will
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reach out. And not only do they do it, but they do it so well.
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I once knew a family, a mother and father that
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had 10 children. And that's one of the largest families that
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I've ever seen. But as I thought about each and every one of those children,
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their parents had taught them to serve. And so when you thought of them,
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you thought of servants who were rolling up their sleeves and getting to work.
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And there are those who are natural leaders, the folks who we want to get
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behind and we want to follow because
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they show these gifts. And it's that way with all of these gifts.
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But here's what can happen in our lives. We begin to think about
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the fact that we, or at least we think in our own minds that we're
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not significant, that we don't really have a great talent and
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God can't use us. I want you to think about
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how God started the entire thing. When the church was
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established, you think about who it was that Jesus called.
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Jesus called uneducated fishermen. He called those who
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were tax collectors who were shunned by the whole of society.
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He called dangerous revolutionaries, but not one rabbi, not one priest,
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not one scribe or Pharisee or Sadducee or one
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of the religious establishment. Folks that were forgotten and
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who were overlooked and who were broken, these are the ones that Jesus
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wanted to make his friends and his followers. When you consider
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the fact that the church is thriving and growing in the poorest
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countries in the world, it helps us to understand that we
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may not see ourselves as potential CEOs or geniuses or
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real estate moguls, Or maybe we don't see ourselves as
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potential superstars or supermodels,
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but God will work and use us even
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if we see ourselves as untalented and as simple.
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God demonstrates that the power is in him.
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But what excites me is that when you think about the Cumberland Trace Church
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of Christ, this is a congregation that is filled with people who are
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talented. And God not only wants us to have these talents,
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but he wants us to leverage those to cause his church to
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grow and to thrive and to meet the goals that he has for us.
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You know, the Lord gives 3 broad works for the church.
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He has us to win lost souls, to strengthen the saints,
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and to meet financial needs. And God wants to work
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through each and every one of us to do that. But then third, as we
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look at our text, we see what's the heart. This is what Grant read to
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us a moment ago. This is the effectiveness of the gifts
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that God has given in the body of Christ. There's no denying
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that as God has given to each a proportion of faith, that there
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are gifts, nor is it something to be denied that
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God has us to be using those gifts, not just to possess them
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and not just to use them in our secular lives, but to use them spiritually.
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But what happens when we preach and
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we teach and we serve and we lead and we encourage and
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we give, And we comfort those who are in need. I think
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this is what Grant was reading to us a moment ago in verse 9 through
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21, in the bulk of the chapter, that there are 8 objectives,
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8 things that can get done when we use our
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gifts for his good. First of all, it sharpens our moral
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compass. In verse 9, Paul says, let love be
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without hypocrisy. We are to eschew
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what is evil. We are to cling to what is good. Think back to
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Craig Groeschel's example in the beginning of our lesson this morning. There are people
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who are turned off from church because they say that the church is full
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of hypocrites. But God says that when we embrace the gifts
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God has given to us and we use them in order to advance the cause
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of His Son, then in our own lives, it makes us more
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sensitive to the truth of God's Word. And we are very sensitive not to
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want to be an inconsistency in the eyes of the world.
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That the things that are good and right in God's eyes, we want to hold
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closely to those and we want to hate those things that are evil.
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And so Paul says, as you exercise the gifts, this is something that you
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can do to help the cause of the Son, but it also
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builds our relationships with one another. We are
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to in honor prefer one another. We are to practice our brotherly
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love for one another in a very intense way. When we
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are united in trying to do the work that the Lord has given
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to us here, it has this effect of bringing
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us closer together. We are shoulder to shoulder in the work
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of the Lord, but it also increases our dedication. There are
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6 individual things that the Apostle Paul mentions here,
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things like not being lagging in our diligent,
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being fervent in spirit, being devoted to prayer,
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There is— when we are exercising our gifts and we are active
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and involved, and we're not just those that come and consume, but we
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are trying to produce for the Lord, it creates an atmosphere,
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an excitement. It's an attitude that says, the best
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is yet to be. Things keep getting better and better. We're on fire.
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We're passionate to do the will of the Lord. And so Paul says, in the
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exercise of these gifts, here's how you're going to be running.
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You're going to be giving your— a maximum output for
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the Lord. And then it opens our hearts and our homes.
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We're going to be concerned about one another. We're going to practice hospitality with
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one another. We want to be together, and we long to encourage one another.
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But then it thickens our skin. In verse 14, it helps
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us to understand our role with regard to the culture and the world.
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Even when there are those who are persecuting us and who are cursing us,
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we're going to bless those who persecute us, that the world
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can't cause us to stop our service.
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It may be that someone has criticized something that we have attempted to do
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for the Lord, and maybe our response to that has been, I'm just not
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going to do anything anymore. But as we come to understand that
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God wants to use each and every one of us, then we
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don't get so sensitive. We rise above and we see the bigger picture,
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but it also shows our empathy for one another.
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Rejoice with those that rejoice and weep with those that weep.
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There are other events in the life of a church than weddings and
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funerals. There's other good news and there's other bad news.
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But as we grow in our activity and our involvement,
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driven by a new mind, a new thinking, a new attitude, a new outlook,
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then it causes us to be aware of what's going on in the lives
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of those around us. And it also unites our
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church family. In verse 16, we aren't arrogant,
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we associate with the lowly. We don't have too high of an estimation
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of ourselves. When we put our focus on the church
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as a whole, our desire is to try to help as many people
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as possible and to bring into the fold, help and encourage
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maybe those who aren't as connected to the body as we are. Maybe those who
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don't seem to have as many friends and relationships in the church,
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we're aware of them and we say, you're just as important in the body
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of Christ as those who are more visible and maybe those who have more
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refined roles of leadership. And it
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also overcomes our enemies. Verse 17 through
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verse 21. Here the Apostle Paul says we're never to take revenge.
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We're never to be overcome by evil, but we leave
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that with the Lord. The world is not expecting this, and maybe others
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aren't, that we, as we understand our purpose
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and the reason that we're here, we don't let the bad that others do
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overcome. We leave that in God's hands, and we know that he'll take care of
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it in the end. Now, when I mention all
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of these— these works that we can do,
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our shepherds, our leaders, want us to be leveraging all of
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our preachers and our teachers and our encouragers and our
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servers and our leaders and our givers to be accomplishing
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the work that God has given us here. About 5 years ago,
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the elders rolled out the church's
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vision, and out of that established 7
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vision groups. If you want to know what those vision groups are today,
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by the way, there's 17 of those. These are
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ways that the elders say that they want to put to work our preachers and
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our teachers and all the other groups that Paul mentions in verse 3 through verse
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8. We want this to be the priorities. And these are
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ways in which you can be involved in the work of the church. Maybe you
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have an interest in media and technology, or maybe your talents are
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in the area of working with young adults or with our college
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students. Or maybe you have a great passion for missions, or it
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could be that you wanna strengthen the church family, and there are about 12 others.
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These are ways and areas in which you can pour out what God
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has given to you. There are those who lead these that are
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identified for us in these books that you can reach out
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to and say, I'd like to know more about how I can be involved,
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because there are no vestigial organs in the body
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of Christ. God has each and every one of us in the
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body of Christ to use the gifts that he has given to us so that
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the church can grow and to be what God wants it to be.
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This is a church that is growing. It's exciting. I don't know if you ever
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look at the church attendance figures as they exist, and it's
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a wonderful thing to see. And what that represents are
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some people who are so involved, there's really nowhere else for them
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to add anything to their schedule. There are some who are actively
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doing what they can to help the body of Christ to grow.
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But God wants us, all of us, to find a way
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in which we can be a part of the body of Christ here.
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If you're someone who has placed membership, you're somebody who
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has been attending here and maybe identified with
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and working under the oversight of the elders here, and you've
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not yet found that place in which you can work,
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we want to encourage you to see how you can be a part of
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the work here. In Romans chapter 12, there are 10 imperatives.
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An imperative is not just information to know, it's a call for action.
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And what's interesting about the imperatives here, that 8 of
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them are set up as, do not do this, but do
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this. In other words, don't live this way, but Live this
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way instead. For example, in verse 2,
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do not be conformed to this world, but be
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transformed by the renewing of your mind. And then, don't curse,
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but bless those who persecute you, verse 14.
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Do not be arrogant, but associate
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with the lowly, verse 16. Do not be overcome with evil,
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but overcome evil with good, verse 21. And all of
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these are saying there's a way to live and a way not to live.
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And Paul's general approach in Romans chapter 12 is the way
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you live as a Christian is as an active member
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who is doing the— your part to help the cause of Christ
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to go forward. There is a condition
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out there known as BDD, body dysmorphic
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disorder. It is a psychological issue where
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someone is obsessed with a part of their body. It's a negative obsession.
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It's an obsession that they will spend much of their day engrossed
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in. There is a particular part of their body and they think negative thoughts
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about it. And out of that negative thinking,
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there is depression and anxiety and shame and
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other negative emotions. The thought is it's not
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natural for us to look at our body and to have such a
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negative thought about, about that, at least not to
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obsess to that degree. But what we're talking about today
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is the body of Christ. The church is the body of Christ.
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We love our head and the church is his idea.
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It's his design. And he wants us not
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to think negatively, but positively.
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And that begins by understanding that within the body of Christ,
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there are gifts that God wants us to use. And when we do,
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there's no stopping the good that God wants to do in this
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community? Will you think about what he's done already
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and think about what more he wants to do? But the question this
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morning is, are you a part of the body of Christ?
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He has shown us, 1 Corinthians 12:13, that we're baptized into
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that one body, but that's preceded by understanding that Jesus is to
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be Lord in Christ, Acts 2:36. And out of that conviction, that faith,
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we repent of sins and are baptized to have them washed away, Acts 2:38.
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Perhaps you desire to do that today. Or maybe you're a child of
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God who needs to be restored to fellowship, or perhaps you need the
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help and encouragement of your church family. If that's where you find yourself today
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and you need us to pray with you and for you, if you need to
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respond, won't you come right now as we stand and sing?