Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / A Hope, a House, a Hymn │ Msg 1010 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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A Hope, a House, a Hymn │ Msg 1010 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Now, if you're like me, you may have noticed that
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  Speaker 1: in an alarming number of churches today, God's people are
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  Speaker 1: being told what they want to hear, rather than being
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  Speaker 1: told what they need to hear.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of difference between the two.
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  Speaker 1: They're being spoon fed warm milk, not challenged to digest
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  Speaker 1: solid meat. A watered down teaching ministry that fudges the
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  Speaker 1: truth has zero eternal impact. It results in no lasting
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  Speaker 1: change in a life.
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  Speaker 2: Even Jesus lost some followers by teaching the truth by
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  Speaker 2: refusing to water it down. Nothing wrong with that. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: scratching the itching ears of our postmodern audiences is an
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  Speaker 2: exercise in futility, like eating cotton candy. Remember when you
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  Speaker 2: went to the circus. The experience was that that moment delightful,
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  Speaker 2: but there's no lasting certainly no nutritional value. By contrast,
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  Speaker 2: the apostle Paul pens some bold instructions for what the Church,
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  Speaker 2: the Body of Christ, should do with the truth of
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  Speaker 2: God's word and light of that, I want you to
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  Speaker 2: listen carefully as I read Paul's words in One Timothy
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  Speaker 2: chapter three, beginning at verse fourteen.
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  Speaker 1: Just a few verses here. One Timothy three, starting at
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  Speaker 1: verse fourteen. I am writing these things to you, hoping
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  Speaker 1: to come to you before long, But in case I
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  Speaker 1: am delayed, I write so that you will know how
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  Speaker 1: one ought to conduct himself in the household of God,
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  Speaker 1: which is the Church of the Living God, the pillar
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  Speaker 1: and support of the truth by common confession. Great is
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  Speaker 1: the mystery of Godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh,
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  Speaker 1: was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among
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  Speaker 1: the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
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  Speaker 1: Let's put the lights up nice and bright, and we
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  Speaker 1: can look at Philippians chapter three for a few moments,
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  Speaker 1: and then turn over to First Timothy chapter three. There
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  Speaker 1: we go. Philippians three has a couple of verses in
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  Speaker 1: it that kept coming to my mind as I listened
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  Speaker 1: to this musical Kids under Construction. I thought about Paul's
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  Speaker 1: great words in this grand chapter where he says inverse
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  Speaker 1: verse twelve, not that I have already obtained it or
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  Speaker 1: have already become perfect, but I press on in order
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  Speaker 1: that I'm andy lay hold of that for which I
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  Speaker 1: also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus Brethren. I
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  Speaker 1: do not regard myself as having laid hold of it
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  Speaker 1: yet that means having arrived. But one thing I do
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  Speaker 1: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
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  Speaker 1: I press on. I press on toward the goal for
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  Speaker 1: the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: We are so product oriented in our country, and in
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  Speaker 1: our society and in our culture that we get nervous
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  Speaker 1: when we think about a process. I mean, we want
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  Speaker 1: to obtain, we want to reach our goals. We want
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  Speaker 1: to have it built. We don't like the idea of
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  Speaker 1: being under construction. We like the idea of having finished.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I'm a finisher. I
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  Speaker 1: don't like a lot of mess. I don't like a
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  Speaker 1: lot of time it takes to get it done. I
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  Speaker 1: like it done. I like to think about it and
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  Speaker 1: then wake up the next morning and it's done. You
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  Speaker 1: like that. I don't like the process of nails and
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  Speaker 1: sawdust and boards cut wrong length and going back down
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  Speaker 1: to the lumber yard and starting over, and wrong color
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  Speaker 1: paint and the trim doesn't match, and starting over and
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  Speaker 1: forgetting the primer and sanding. I like having it all done,
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  Speaker 1: all finished, accomplished, done, perfect. But you know I have
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  Speaker 1: lived long enough to know that we spend a lot
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  Speaker 1: longer in process than we ever spend with a finished product.
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  Speaker 1: In everything. For example, I have finally come to realize
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  Speaker 1: that our home will forever be in the process of
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  Speaker 1: being redecorated. I used to think it was always once completed, done,
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  Speaker 1: but it's not. I've come to realize that there'll always
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  Speaker 1: be another idea, another room. I'm trying to live happily
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  Speaker 1: in my marriage and in my home, and it's always
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  Speaker 1: beautiful when it's finished, but it seems like it is
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  Speaker 1: continually in process. You have that same experience, always something
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  Speaker 1: else to be added, done, changed, altered, redone. But that
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  Speaker 1: is life. And even this great apostle said, I haven't arrived.
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  Speaker 1: I'm always in construction clothes, I'm always painting, I'm always
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  Speaker 1: in the process of being sanded. There's always something to
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  Speaker 1: be filed, there's always another part to be added or
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  Speaker 1: cut off or made complete. I haven't arrived. This gives
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  Speaker 1: me hope. This gives me hope that if that is
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  Speaker 1: true of this great man of God named Paul, then
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  Speaker 1: it's true of us. There isn't a person hearing my
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  Speaker 1: words right now who isn't in some kind of construction project.
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  Speaker 1: And the wonderful part is that God isn't finished. Wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: you hate to wake up in the morning and have
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  Speaker 1: God say from heaven I'm through. You're there, you know
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  Speaker 1: I'm finished. I mean, you see all those things that
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  Speaker 1: are yet to be done. Now look at Philippians one six.
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  Speaker 1: I am confident, says this great man. I am confident
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  Speaker 1: of this very thing, that he who began the construction
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  Speaker 1: will completed. But the day of Jesus Christ. That's the promise.
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  Speaker 1: I am confident, says the apostle, that this Christian life
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  Speaker 1: will not continue on being one construction project after another,
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  Speaker 1: time without end, never ending. I know this that the
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  Speaker 1: one who started the project will see it through, and
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  Speaker 1: it'll be complete at the day of Jesus Christ. So
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  Speaker 1: we'll never be what we should be till the rapture.
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  Speaker 1: We are always in process, we are always under construction,
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  Speaker 1: and will not be finished until the Lord says I'm
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  Speaker 1: done and he takes us home. Now this ties in
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  Speaker 1: amazingly well with First Timothy Chapter three. You'll turn over
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  Speaker 1: there next. These last three verses of this third chapter
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  Speaker 1: tie in with what we just said. Because Paul was
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  Speaker 1: not finished, He too had needs. You see, I have
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  Speaker 1: the idea that when I picture Paul and Timothy, I
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  Speaker 1: have the idea that and it's erroneous that Timothy needed Paul,
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  Speaker 1: but Paul didn't need Timothy. I have the feeling that
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  Speaker 1: the younger one needs the older one, but I forget
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  Speaker 1: that the older one needs the younger Which explains why
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  Speaker 1: this man would say in verse fourteen, I am writing
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  Speaker 1: these things to you, hoping to come to you before long.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't say I want you to come to me
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  Speaker 1: because you need me. He's saying, Timothy, I look forward
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  Speaker 1: to coming to you. Why would he say that because
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  Speaker 1: Paul is still under construction, Because Paul knows what it
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  Speaker 1: is to be lonely, because Paul also needed the friend.
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  Speaker 1: It's easy for the younger one to think the older
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  Speaker 1: person has it together, has life wired, there are no needs,
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  Speaker 1: and once I reach that age, then I won't have needs.
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  Speaker 1: That's not true. This great man of God says, in effect,
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  Speaker 1: I need this younger friend of mine, Timothy, and I
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  Speaker 1: long to be there. In fact, the passage begins with
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  Speaker 1: his desire. I have this great desire, this longing to
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  Speaker 1: be with you. See in chapter one of first Timothy,
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  Speaker 1: verse three, I urged you, upon my departure from Macedonia,
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  Speaker 1: to remain on at Ephesus, in order that you may
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  Speaker 1: instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. I left
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  Speaker 1: you there, and my heart was left with you. I
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  Speaker 1: long to be there. I long to see you, and Paul,
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  Speaker 1: being the man he is, says I therefore look forward
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  Speaker 1: to being with you, and I long for that. I
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  Speaker 1: have a great desire for that. Now about chapter three,
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  Speaker 1: look at verse fifteen. But in case I'm delayed, that's
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  Speaker 1: also full of hope for me, because I have the
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  Speaker 1: idea that when Paul sets his mind on something, he
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  Speaker 1: gets it done. He plans to be there, and he's
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  Speaker 1: going to be there. But this man adds now, because
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  Speaker 1: I don't have life put together perfectly, and because I'm
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  Speaker 1: still inunder construction, and because I'm a man who has
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  Speaker 1: to trust I don't have things put together, I have
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  Speaker 1: to face the fact I may be delayed. And so
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  Speaker 1: I'm writing a letter. And in this fifteenth verse he
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  Speaker 1: tells us the purpose of the letter. Why did he write,
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  Speaker 1: First Timothy, I write so that you may know how
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  Speaker 1: one ought to conduct himself in the household of God.
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  Speaker 1: Now you don't find this very often, but in this
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  Speaker 1: particular letter, he states the reason he wrote it. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't write this letter just to angle a lot of
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  Speaker 1: theological truth. I didn't write the letter to fill up
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  Speaker 1: time and give myself something to do. I wrote a
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  Speaker 1: letter to help people know how to behave. By the
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  Speaker 1: way that you is singular, It isn't plural. It isn't y'all.
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  Speaker 1: I'm writing y'all this letter so y'all know how to behave.
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  Speaker 1: It's not that I'm writing you singular the letter so
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  Speaker 1: that you singular will know how to behave. So it's
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  Speaker 1: an individual letter written to individual Christians under construction, And
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  Speaker 1: he's saying, I'm writing the letter so that you might
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  Speaker 1: know how you ought to conduct yourself. Notice what he
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  Speaker 1: calls the church four things first, the house of God,
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  Speaker 1: the household, the family, the family unit outside the home.
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  Speaker 1: There is only one other family in all the world,
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  Speaker 1: and that's the Family of God. When we gather together
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  Speaker 1: in the place of worship, we gather as a large family,
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  Speaker 1: each one of us going through a process of construction,
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  Speaker 1: not one of us having arrived. But we need to
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  Speaker 1: know how to behave ourselves in the family. He calls
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  Speaker 1: it also the Church of the Living God. This word
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  Speaker 1: church means called out ones. Think of a giant hand
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  Speaker 1: coming down through the roof of this world and reaching
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  Speaker 1: down into the ranks of humanity and finding one person
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  Speaker 1: and calling that person out. That's the church. Called out individuals,
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  Speaker 1: picked and chosen, selected people, put together in one unit
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  Speaker 1: called the Family of God. That's the church. I wrote
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  Speaker 1: this letter so that you might know how to conduct
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  Speaker 1: yourself in the House of God, which is a body
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  Speaker 1: of called out people. And what do they do? Look
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  Speaker 1: at verse fifteen. Again, they are the pillar of the truth,
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  Speaker 1: and they are the support of the truth. The Church
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  Speaker 1: of Christ is the place where the truth is supported
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  Speaker 1: and modeled, one man wrote. Each local church has has
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  Speaker 1: it in its power to support and strengthen the truth
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  Speaker 1: by its witness to the faith and by the lives
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  Speaker 1: of its members. Each one of you tomorrow will be
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  Speaker 1: a display of the church. I say tomorrow because that's
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  Speaker 1: when you'll be engaged in your world. Some of you
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  Speaker 1: will be in school, some of you will be in
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  Speaker 1: an office, some of you will be in a home.
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  Speaker 1: Some of you will be in a place called a
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  Speaker 1: hospital or a clinic where you do your work, or
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  Speaker 1: maybe where you go in for a test or for
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  Speaker 1: an X ray. Some of you will be in a profession,
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  Speaker 1: some of you will be in a shop, but you
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  Speaker 1: are on display demonstrating either the support of the truth
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  Speaker 1: or the tearing down of the truth. I found, interestingly,
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  Speaker 1: in another city on the advertisement page of a newspaper
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  Speaker 1: an interesting ad. This ad is right under a series
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  Speaker 1: of films and movies and whatever. And this happens to
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  Speaker 1: be a church ad which attracted my attention because it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't in the religious section of the newspaper in this
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  Speaker 1: particular city. It was in the advertisement section of the
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  Speaker 1: movies and the plays going on in that city. And
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  Speaker 1: it says, if all you want from church is held
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  Speaker 1: fire and brimstone, burn this ad. And then it says,
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  Speaker 1: in smaller print, hell fire and brimstone you won't find
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  Speaker 1: in it names the church, you won't find that here.
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  Speaker 1: But if it's warm fellowship and the love of a
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  Speaker 1: forgiving and understanding God, you want, join us in worship
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  Speaker 1: this Sunday. Then it names the church, gives the address,
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  Speaker 1: talks about when it serves communion, and tells you when
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  Speaker 1: there's Sunday school for children and adults, and in tiny,
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  Speaker 1: tiny print the name of the minister. I thought as
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  Speaker 1: I read that, now that's not fair. That is playing
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  Speaker 1: on the emotions of people, because I want to tell
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  Speaker 1: you straight, one of the truths that the church supports
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  Speaker 1: is the truth concerning a literal hell and a literal heaven.
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  Speaker 1: And you see this ad comes on a page of
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  Speaker 1: fun and games and the advertisement and excitement of life
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  Speaker 1: and so called things that entertain, and it says, how
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  Speaker 1: do you want a church that'll talk about hell and
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  Speaker 1: fire and brimstone or do you want to either or
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  Speaker 1: get that, or do you want a place of warm fellowship?
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  Speaker 1: Well then you want us if you don't want all
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  Speaker 1: that hell, fire and brimstone. When the church displays and
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  Speaker 1: supports the truth, that truth includes the message of hell,
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  Speaker 1: unhappy and grim. Though it may be, it's true. And
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  Speaker 1: if you go to a church that doesn't talk on
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  Speaker 1: occasion about hell, fire and brimstone, you're not hearing all
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  Speaker 1: the truth. Maybe all you're getting is warm, comfortable fellowship.
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  Speaker 1: It is a place that supports the truth. And so,
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  Speaker 1: while on the subject of the truth, Paul presents one
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  Speaker 1: of the earliest songs of the Christian Church did you
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  Speaker 1: know that it's believed by most New Testament students that
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  Speaker 1: the sixteenth verse is one of the early hymns of
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  Speaker 1: the Church, not from the Psalter or the Book of Psalms.
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  Speaker 1: And I find it interesting that the entire hymn revolves
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  Speaker 1: around Christ. By common confinate Great is the mystery of Godliness.
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  Speaker 1: The way he begins is the sort of a way
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  Speaker 1: of saying, by a unanimous vote or by common agreement,
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  Speaker 1: we Christians stand together in one great Credo. That's the idea.
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  Speaker 1: We have one grand message. And this hymn has one, two, three, four, five,
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  Speaker 1: six lines to it. Doesn't sound like songs you'll hear today,
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  Speaker 1: doesn't even sound like most of the hymns that you'll sing.
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  Speaker 1: But it's part of the truth of the Church to
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  Speaker 1: be sung by people under construction, people with whom God
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  Speaker 1: is not yet finished. What is the hymn? Just read along? First,
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  Speaker 1: there is one who was revealed in the flesh. Some
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  Speaker 1: time later the manuscripts included the word God, God was
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  Speaker 1: revealed in flesh. So the very first truth declared by
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  Speaker 1: the Church that tells you the truth is that God
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  Speaker 1: came in flesh. N SARKI is the Greek way to
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  Speaker 1: say it. God did not simply come as a spirit.
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  Speaker 1: But when God came from heaven to this earth to
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  Speaker 1: begin his construction work in the lives of people, he
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  Speaker 1: came in human form, and an amazing thing. He came
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  Speaker 1: in the form of a little baby in Bethlehem's manger.
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  Speaker 1: God put flesh around his person. Now who was that person? Christ?
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  Speaker 1: Is it true? Well? Look at the next line. It
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  Speaker 1: says he was vindicated in the spirit. The word means
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  Speaker 1: an endorsed. When the Lord Jesus became flesh and visibly
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  Speaker 1: presented God to this world in flesh form, his spirit
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  Speaker 1: indorsed the truth. What was it that endorsed him as God? Well,
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  Speaker 1: his miracles, the raising of the dead, the healing of
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  Speaker 1: the sick, the giving of sight to the blind, the
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  Speaker 1: changing of people from one process to the next, his faithfulness,
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  Speaker 1: his consistency on occasion, the flashes of omniscience and omnipotence
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  Speaker 1: that he displayed. All of that caused people to gasp
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  Speaker 1: and say, Oh, He's not just like any other human being.
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  Speaker 1: He is God. Remember when the Pharisees dispatched someone to
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  Speaker 1: arrest him and the men came back empty handed. They
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  Speaker 1: said no one ever talked like he talked. His spirit
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  Speaker 1: vindicated that he was God. His spirit indorsed that he
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  Speaker 1: was God in the flesh. So when you sing the hymn,
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  Speaker 1: sing that as well. And then there were angels who
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  Speaker 1: beheld him. I made a little notation in my Bible
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  Speaker 1: from place to place of the places where the angels
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  Speaker 1: vindicated or endorsed him. At his birth, at his temptation,
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  Speaker 1: at his baptism, at his crucifixion, and at his resurrection.
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  Speaker 1: There were angels there saying it's happened. It's true. And
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  Speaker 1: that supernatural appearance of an angel was God's way of saying,
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  Speaker 1: this is not just another one. This one is my son.
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  Speaker 1: Great is the mystery of god likeness. God was manifest
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  Speaker 1: in flesh, endorsed by spirit, He was beheld by angels.
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  Speaker 1: He has been proclaimed among the nations. Thank God, you
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  Speaker 1: and I are in a land where his name is proclaimed.
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  Speaker 1: What a privilege. You can go from radio dial from
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  Speaker 1: one part to another, and you can hear several different
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  Speaker 1: stations proclaiming Christ. You can even go to your television
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  Speaker 1: and turn from channel to channel and you will hear
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  Speaker 1: the name of Jesus Christ displayed portrayed and presented, to
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  Speaker 1: be sure in a strange way in some places, but
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  Speaker 1: nevertheless displayed, nevertheless presented. And we are allowed in this
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  Speaker 1: land to do that. There are many places where that
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  Speaker 1: isn't allowed. We are among those few nations that allow
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  Speaker 1: that name to be proclaimed. But the message of the
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  Speaker 1: Gospel is to be proclaimed all around the world, and
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  Speaker 1: in this early church it was a part of their
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  Speaker 1: hymnot a hymnity proclaimed among the nations. And the grace
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  Speaker 1: of it all is that He is believed on in
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  Speaker 1: the world, and he is taken up into glory. I
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  Speaker 1: see three things when I think about this passage of
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  Speaker 1: Scripture and I think about our lives, still under construction,
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  Speaker 1: still in the process of being developed. The first is
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  Speaker 1: this our conduct is based on scriptural principles, not on
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  Speaker 1: what we desire. He says this in the early part
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  Speaker 1: of the passage. I write, so that you may know
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  Speaker 1: how to conduct yourself in the house of God. Our
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  Speaker 1: conduct is based on scriptural principles, not on what we desire.
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  Speaker 1: The second thing I see is that our church is
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  Speaker 1: to confirm and model the truth, not invent its own message.
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  Speaker 1: It's to confirm and model the truth not invent its
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  Speaker 1: own message. Let me pause here and add something. There
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  Speaker 1: are a number of different methods in which we can
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  Speaker 1: present this message. Some of those methods are in the
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  Speaker 1: form of music drama. Some of those messages come in
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  Speaker 1: the form of quietness and meditation, the proclamation of the
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  Speaker 1: gospel by preaching, or the proclamation of the Gospel in
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  Speaker 1: a worship experience. But whatever the method, the church is
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  Speaker 1: to present the message of the truth, not tell people
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  Speaker 1: what they want to hear. There is every temptation to
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  Speaker 1: do the latter. Third, our confession of faith verse sixteen
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  Speaker 1: revolves around the Lord Jesus Christ and not anyone else.
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  Speaker 1: Our confession of faith revolves around the person of Christ
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  Speaker 1: and not anyone else. I want you to do something
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: kind of special for me right now. I want you
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: to think back to the first church you can remember
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: that told you the truth. I want you to just
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: sit and think. Think of the first place where you
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: heard the truth. My mind goes back to a little
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: church in South Texas where I as just a little
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: boy who used to lay down on the bench and
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: count the squares in the ceiling of the church. I
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: think there were one hundred and fifty eight this way,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: and two hundred and ten that way. I don't know
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: how many altogether, because I couldn't multiply, and I couldn't
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: put that together, but I did remember there were just
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: a lot of squares on the ceiling. And I know
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the people who heard me sleeping must have wondered if
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: I would ever amount to a thing. But I remember,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: as a little boy going to sleep on the bench
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: beside my mother and dad in that little church. I
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: remember hearing a pastor who told the truth, and I
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: remember that he included in his message the reality of
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: a hell and the hope of a heaven. I remember
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: that he loved this family of God that he had
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: been called to, and he loved us enough to talk
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: straight about life. I remember he went through a deep
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: trial in the loss of a child. I was too
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: little to understand the feelings of that. I had a
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: brother and a sister that at that time I wouldn't
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: have mind losing, to tell you the truth, because we
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: didn't get along that great. I'm so glad I didn't.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: But back then it didn't seem to be such a
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: terrible thing to lose a brother or a sister. But
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: I remember this pastor who continued to tell us the
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: truth even though he was in that deep trial of
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: his life, and he faithfully presented the truth. It was
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: there that the seeds were planted, that God came in
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the flesh, that the Spirit of God indorsed his presence,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: and that angels accompanied his message, and that the Gospel
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: was presented, and that it could be believed on in
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the world. For he was indeed taken up into glory,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and I believed. I believed it. I didn't come because
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: I was afraid. I came because it made sense that
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the God who presented himself in a manger loved me
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: enough to have that same one die for me, and
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: if I would only believe in him, I could have
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: everlasting life. Where were you who was the person who
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: told you the truth first? Maybe it wasn't even in
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: a church, or maybe the church didn't even realize how
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: lost you were, but you heard it. I think it
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: is appropriate that we at this moment, as we close
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: these moments we've had together, just to give God thanks
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: for the many places all around the world that tell
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: people the truth about Christ. Let's bow, Shall we do
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: that just for a moment. Maybe I speak in conclusion
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: to a couple of three people who find themselves a
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: little uneasy and impatient with God. Seems like his construction
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: work will never end. Well it won't, but it may
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: seem to you that he's a long ways away. Well
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: he's not. Remember the old hymn. The flame will not
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: hurt you. I only design your dross to consume and
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: your gold to refine. For some of you, the pain
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: isn't yet dry. For others of you, it seems as
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: though you're a long long ways from completion. Let me
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: ask you this. Have you ever personally turned your life
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: over to Christ? Can you remember the time when you said, Yes,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, come into my life, take charge, clean me up,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: make me one of yours. I believe in your son,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: I take him now. If not do that now, Please
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: thank you, dear heavenly Father, for that moment in our lives,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: when we stepped away from the things that we we
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: knew were wrong, from the lives of the world, from
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: all of those who had told us other stories that
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: were not true to your word, and we came to you.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Some of us were children, others were teenagers, adolescents moving
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: into adulthood, and some were adults. But regardless of age
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: or place, we have all come the same way by
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: faith in Christ. I am very grateful that, having come
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: to you you you take up the work of constructing
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: us into the kind of men and women you want
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: us to be. I'm so grateful that we, like Paul,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: can be confident that what you have begun you will finish.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Give us patience during the construction. Give us grace to
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: endure the hammer and the file and the furnace, the saw,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the pain, the long days, the difficult nights. Show us that,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: since you are not finished, we are important to you,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: and you give your energy to those things that are significant.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Encourage us with the fact that we're a long ways
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: further along than we've ever been before in our lives,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: and we may be very near the end. Thank you
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: for Christ, for Christ's Church, the pillar and support of
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: the truth, for the message for the world. We believe
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: it and we take it as our challenge to proclaim
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: it in Jesus Great name. Amen.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: The preceding message, A Hope, a House a Hem was
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: copyrighted in nineteen eighty four, and the sound recording was
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: copyrighted in twenty fifteen by Charles R. Swindall inc. All
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: rights are reserved worldwide