Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E129 | Everyday Eurasia |  Chad Gibbons

Transcript

S1-E129 | Everyday Eurasia |  Chad Gibbons · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  Hello and welcome to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Faith for Every Day. Each day we are on a journey
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  with Jesus in our churches, our homes, our workplaces, and in so
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  many different places around the world.
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  Is it beautiful that no matter where we are, we can walk with
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  him every single day? Jesus is the one who connects us
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  all and stands at the very center of our lives day after
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  day. Through this podcast, you'll
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  hear voices from across the region sharing devotionals that
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  reminds us of God's presence in our everyday moments.
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  This week, we'll be journeying together with Chet Gibbons.
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  Chet serves as the Neswing Discipleship International
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  Coordinator for the Eurasia Region.
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  As a missionary, he lives and serves alongside his wife
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  Crystal From the regional office in Businger, Germany.
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  You will take a look together at the five core principles of NDI.
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  Well, as we look at the five core principles of NDI Nazarene
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  Discipleship International this week, today on Friday, we're
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  looking at our fifth principle, and that is compassionate
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  outreach. If our goal is to be made to be
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  transformed into the image of Christ, to be made holy, to be
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  sanctified, then our discipleship process is going to
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  have to include serving others. Now, you might not like that,
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  but if we look at Jesus, what do we see?
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  We see him serving others. Sometimes as a pastor, I ask
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  people to serve in the church or outside of the church.
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  And part of me always feels guilty when I do that.
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  I think, oh, no, I'm putting some kind of burden on somebody.
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  And I always feel bad. And people talk about how the
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  church burns people out. And so sometimes pastors feel
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  bad asking people to serve. But service is an integral part
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  of discipleship because service is what Jesus did.
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  You cannot follow Christ and not serve.
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  You cannot look like Christ and not serve.
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  Following Christ means you're going to have to be serving.
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  One of the things that God has always intended for his people
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  was that his people would be a blessing to the world.
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  When God created the world, he said it was good.
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  When God created humanity, he said it was very good.
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  And then sin crept in and things began to fall apart.
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  But God said, I'm not going to abandon my people.
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  I'm going to begin to fix the problem because I want my people
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  to be a blessing to the world. That was always our intention,
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  to take care of the world, to bless the world, to be God's
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  representatives in the world to other people, to creation, to
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  ourselves. And as God begins to redeem
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  humanity, he draws out the person of Abraham.
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  It says, come out from there. I'm going to set you apart.
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  I'm going to tell you who I am. I'm going to want you to tell
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  your children and their children who I am so that you can be a
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  blessing to the nations. He says to Abraham, I will make
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  you a great nation and I will bless you.
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  I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
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  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I
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  will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through
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  you. Sometimes we think of blessings
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  from God as selfish things. We want to receive things
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  because we like to get things from God.
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  We like to be blessed by God. It makes us feel good.
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  And who wouldn't want to be more blessed than less blessed?
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  But when God blesses us, when, if He has given us anything,
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  it's not for our sake alone. It's so that we could pour it
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  out to the world that God so desperately loves.
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  I remember when our children were going to school and it was
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  their birthday. Where we lived at the time, it
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  was tradition that on your birthday, if you were a kid
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  going to school, that you would bring in some kind of treat or a
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  baked good for the rest of the class to share and celebrate
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  your birthday. And our daughter was kind of
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  upset with this. She said it's my birthday.
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  I feel like the rest of the class should be giving me
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  something on my birthday. Why do I have to bring something
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  for other people? And I think that's how sometimes
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  Christians feel. We go into the world and we
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  expect the world to give us something.
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  We look and see how people should be treating us
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  differently and treating the church differently.
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  But the concern of God is that we would go out to the world and
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  bless the world. That's why he has created a
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  people. That's why he set people apart,
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  so we could bless us and that we'd be sent into the world.
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  And so compassionate outreach is one of the core principles of
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  NDI. It's one of the core principles
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  of being a disciple of Christ. Let's go to him in prayer.
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  Lord, as we're tired today from all of the things that we have
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  to do, and we're tired from all of the burdens that are placed
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  on us in this life, help us not to become burnt out or tired of
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  service. And Lord, the only way that that
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  would happen is if we would serve not in our own strength,
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  but in the strength that you give us.
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  And so, Lord, before we try to go out and bless and serve in
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  our own strength, Lord, let us be set apart so that you could
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  fill us with Your Spirit, so that we would go in your
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  strength to love and serve others in your name and for your
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  glory. Amen.
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  Thank you for listening to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Faith for Everyday. This was the last episode of
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  Season 1. For the announcement of Season 2
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  and more everyday stories, follow our socials, Facebook and
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  Instagram or our newsletter snapshots.
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  For our newsletter and further information about the Eurasia
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  region, go to our website, eurasiaregion.org.