Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / God’s Body-Building Program Msg 1922 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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God’s Body-Building Program Msg 1922 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: A typical American family was driving home from church. Dad
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: was fussing about the sermon being too long and sort
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: of boring. Mom said that she thought the organists played
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: a little too loud during the second him we sang Sis,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: who was a music major in college, said that the
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  Speaker 1: soloists sang about a half note off key during most
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  Speaker 1: of the song. Grandma said she couldn't hear very well.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: They were sitting in a bad place. Little Willie listened
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: to all of this and started to fuss about the
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  Speaker 1: woman who sat in front of him with this big hat.
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  Speaker 1: He couldn't see around her. And then he nudged his
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  Speaker 1: dad and he said, but Dad, you gotta admit it
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  Speaker 1: was a pretty good show for a nickel, pretty good
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  Speaker 1: show for a nickel. More people than we would dare admit,
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  Speaker 1: think about those things. When they think about church. They
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  Speaker 1: want to be entertained, and the entertainment stays good, they
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  Speaker 1: keep coming. It begins to weanhe off and get a
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  Speaker 1: little a little sluggish, a little slow, little down beat.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Then they're going to find some other place. Most people
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  Speaker 1: feel completely at ease complaining and fussing about the most
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  Speaker 1: petty of things. You can imagine, and yet you've got
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  Speaker 1: to admit the price of admission is still pretty hard
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  Speaker 1: to beat. All of this is true, unless, of course,
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  Speaker 1: you get serious about this thing called church, and then
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  Speaker 1: strange things happen before you know it on anybody entertaining
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  Speaker 1: you because you didn't come to see a show. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: you find yourself resentful of people who try to perform. Secondly,
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  Speaker 1: you don't feel the freedom to fuss and complain about
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  Speaker 1: petty things because you're now seeing the big issues and
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  Speaker 1: this is life and death stuff. And furthermore, you're investing
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  Speaker 1: in it your time and a lot of your treasure.
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  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, you've begun to see this
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  Speaker 1: is really the only eternal thing you're messing around with
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  Speaker 1: on earth, and it is this thing called church that
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  Speaker 1: in fact gives you a filter system through which you're
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  Speaker 1: able to view all of life with the right perspective.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Do you know that our God is involved in only
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  Speaker 1: two worldwide construction projects? Only two? Only two. The first
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  Speaker 1: is called evangelism, where he reaches around the world with
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  Speaker 1: his big arms and using all different kinds of people
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  Speaker 1: like you and me. He continually every day of every
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  Speaker 1: calendar year. He continues to reach and to win and
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  Speaker 1: to recruit the lost. This is called God's world program.
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  Speaker 1: The church calls it its mission. The second worldwide program
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  Speaker 1: that God is involved in is this construction project called
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  Speaker 1: the Church. And you know, the materials he uses for
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  Speaker 1: building the church were the materials he won when He
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  Speaker 1: reached around the world and won the lost. So these
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  Speaker 1: two programs are like the one two punch. I guess
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  Speaker 1: we could say he reaches the lost and then he
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  Speaker 1: implements those who come to know Christ in this building
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  Speaker 1: project called his Church. Now I don't have in mind
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  Speaker 1: some independent local church. As I talk on it today,
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  Speaker 1: understand that I have no denomination in mind. I don't
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  Speaker 1: have any geographical location in mind. I have no color
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  Speaker 1: in mind, I have no nationality in mind, I have
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  Speaker 1: no language in mind. I'm talking the world wide Church,
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  Speaker 1: the whole world, universal program of God called His Family.
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  Speaker 1: And the longer I live, the more I believe in it,
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  Speaker 1: the more I admire what God has done, and the
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  Speaker 1: more I want to be involved in it till the
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  Speaker 1: last breath out of my lungs passes, because it is
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  Speaker 1: the most exciting thing I have ever studied or do
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  Speaker 1: we anything about. I'm going to come right up front
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  Speaker 1: and tell you before I go any further, that my
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  Speaker 1: hope is to elevate your appreciation for his family, just
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  Speaker 1: in case it's been sagging a little lately, in case
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  Speaker 1: you've gotten a little more involved in the world's system,
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  Speaker 1: and that happens so easily, I understand, In case you've
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  Speaker 1: lost the edge and begun to get a little bit
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  Speaker 1: petty in your view and all. I just want you
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  Speaker 1: to know ahead of time. I want to sell you
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  Speaker 1: on some propaganda because I want you to get back
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  Speaker 1: on target. Now I have to confess to you I'm
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  Speaker 1: a prejudiced spokesman. I don't hide that from you. All
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  Speaker 1: my life I've been involved in church, to be sure,
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  Speaker 1: it's been with local churches. But I cannot remember a
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  Speaker 1: time where our family, my immediate family, or our present
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  Speaker 1: family has spent a week without addressing some time at
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  Speaker 1: length something pertaining to God's world program. I'm in it
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  Speaker 1: up to here, and so I'm absorbed with the thoughts
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  Speaker 1: of it. It is my life. I think of it
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  Speaker 1: in the daytime and I dream of it at night.
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  Speaker 1: My creative energies are all poured toward the work of
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  Speaker 1: the church because I believe in it one hundred percent,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore my hope is to sell the product everywhere
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  Speaker 1: I go. And the price is right, it's free. But
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  Speaker 1: once it gets a hold of you, I have to
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  Speaker 1: warn you you're addicted, and compared to it, nothing, nothing
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  Speaker 1: seems that important. I notice by the way, that people
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  Speaker 1: who look upon the church is a pretty good show
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  Speaker 1: for a nickel spend a lot of time thinking about
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  Speaker 1: what people wear and what kind of car they drive,
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  Speaker 1: or how they look, or color of skin or background,
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  Speaker 1: or problems they have in their life or sins, and
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  Speaker 1: they haven't lifted their vision above that level to see
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  Speaker 1: the big picture where those all of those things, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: all of those things become insignificant. So as I share
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  Speaker 1: with you that objective, I think of the words of
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  Speaker 1: Lewis Sperry Chaffer in one of his fine books, Major
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  Speaker 1: Bible Themes. Listen to what he said, next to salvation truth,
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  Speaker 1: it is vitally important for the believer to know the
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  Speaker 1: Bible doctrine of the Church. That is quite a statement,
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  Speaker 1: right next to our salvation and knowing our salvation, having
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  Speaker 1: it firmly entreched in truth is the knowledge of the Church.
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  Speaker 1: Let's learn a little history together. Let's keep it interesting, okay,
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  Speaker 1: So I'll keep it brief. The church in the first
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  Speaker 1: century was a pristine object of God's love. It was
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  Speaker 1: purified by persecution. It was on the move like a
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  Speaker 1: like a sweeping flame across a wheat field in Nebraska.
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  Speaker 1: It just permeated every little nook and cranny of the
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  Speaker 1: known world. The Roman Empire, much to the embarrassment of
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  Speaker 1: its emperor, began to buy into it. And before long
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  Speaker 1: there were pockets of believers here and there, none of
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  Speaker 1: them with edifices, but all of them with a heart
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  Speaker 1: for God, and spokesman that had walked with Jesus and
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  Speaker 1: had heard his words, and had been handed the mantle
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  Speaker 1: or the torch. And now they ran the race till martyrdom.
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  Speaker 1: Many of their followers became the spokespeople of the of
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  Speaker 1: the of the Church, and they too were martyred. And
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  Speaker 1: that went on into the second century and somewhat into
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  Speaker 1: the third century. And something strange happened in the third century.
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  Speaker 1: Church became became a formal thing. It took upon itself
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  Speaker 1: an organization that that changed authority into power. Power causes
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  Speaker 1: someone to force other people to do something because they
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  Speaker 1: are intimidated. Authority creates a following because people respect the leaders.
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  Speaker 1: But the authority was shifted to power, and before long
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  Speaker 1: there was a there was the voice of the church,
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  Speaker 1: and people were manipulated and intimidated, and finally the church
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  Speaker 1: lost its excitement and its zeal, and before long it
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  Speaker 1: was shrouded in the dark ages, and the Bible was
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  Speaker 1: chained to the pulpit in the language of the clergy.
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  Speaker 1: Great edifices were built that pushed people away from the
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  Speaker 1: pastor and kept them at bay, kept them ignorant, stone ignorant,
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  Speaker 1: so that before long you could live your life and
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  Speaker 1: die and hardly hear the scriptures ever declared in your
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  Speaker 1: own tongue. Men could stand that only so long. And
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  Speaker 1: by the fourteenth, fifteenth and into the sixteenth century, a
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  Speaker 1: band of straight thinking, tough minded men, called today the Reformers,
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  Speaker 1: broke with that decided to bring authority back in place
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  Speaker 1: of power, and they broke with tradition, and they spoke
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  Speaker 1: for God. God and the doctrine of soteriology. Salvation began
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  Speaker 1: to take its place again in the mind of many believers,
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  Speaker 1: and these reformers became again martyrs. As history repeats itself.
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  Speaker 1: But their vision caught on, and before long this growing
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  Speaker 1: body of people who protested against the Church and became
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  Speaker 1: the Protestants. Protestants stepped into their own rank and began
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  Speaker 1: to move in another direction, and to the frowning and
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  Speaker 1: dismay of the prelates of the Church, they became a
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  Speaker 1: body that had to be dealt with, couldn't be ignored.
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  Speaker 1: It swept across England in a great awakening, and it
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  Speaker 1: came across to America. As our forefathers believed in the
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  Speaker 1: scriptures and in the God of the scriptures, and the
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  Speaker 1: Savior as the Son of God, and children were again
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  Speaker 1: taught the things of God, and in a wonderful time
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  Speaker 1: of enlightenment came again as the Church began to right itself,
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  Speaker 1: as it began to develop its ecclesiology, the doctrine of
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  Speaker 1: the Church that history is. It seemed like history is
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  Speaker 1: acting out Chafer's thoughts right next to souteriology, there ought
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  Speaker 1: to be ecclesiology. What I observe in our day of
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  Speaker 1: a lot of fuzzy thinking about the Church, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of critics, most of them on the outside, not really
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  Speaker 1: churchmen and church women, but from the outside throwing rocks
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  Speaker 1: and taking shots at the church. However, there is also
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  Speaker 1: at the same time a growing body of men and
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  Speaker 1: women committed to this church, this project, and all through
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  Speaker 1: the years, God's program has been like a crescendo mark
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  Speaker 1: on a musical score. From the point which would be
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  Speaker 1: the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God came
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  Speaker 1: right up to the present day. It is ever expanding,
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  Speaker 1: ever enlarging, and you could even put a little dotted
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  Speaker 1: line for the future it will continue to enlarge. The
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  Speaker 1: church is larger today than it was yesterday. It'll be
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  Speaker 1: larger tomorrow than it is today, because even this day
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  Speaker 1: God is reaching into lives and bringing them into his family.
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  Speaker 1: I'm getting ahead of myself Matthew chapter sixteen. Not only
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  Speaker 1: is the church developed late in history as far as
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  Speaker 1: doctrine is concerned, it appears late in scripture. Never once
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  Speaker 1: in the Old Testament, and not until Christ is well
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  Speaker 1: underway in his ministry does it appear in the scriptures.
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  Speaker 1: Matthew sixteen is one of the earlier references to the
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  Speaker 1: word church. It appears at the end of a dialogue
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  Speaker 1: between Jesus and his disciples. The dialogue starts at verse
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  Speaker 1: thirteen of Matthew sixteen. Now, when Jesus came into the
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  Speaker 1: district of Cesarea Philippi, he began asking his disciples, saying,
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  Speaker 1: who do people say that the son of Man is?
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  Speaker 1: And they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah,
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  Speaker 1: and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Jesus said
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  Speaker 1: to them, plural, but who do you who do y'all
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  Speaker 1: say that I am all of y'all? What is what
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  Speaker 1: is you all's opinion of me? Now? The reason I'm
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  Speaker 1: emphasizing the plural is because Peter speaks. We take a
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  Speaker 1: lot of shots at Peter, and he has to handle
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  Speaker 1: a lot of our flack and comment. But but Peter's
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  Speaker 1: never been, never been more right, and he stands alone
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  Speaker 1: at this moment, even though the question is addressed to
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  Speaker 1: all of them. Peter's response verse sixteen, you are the Christ,
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  Speaker 1: the son of the Living God. Jesus' response is first
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  Speaker 1: a blessing and then a promise and then a prediction.
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  Speaker 1: The blessing is blessed, are you Simon's son of John?
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  Speaker 1: Bar Jonah, son of John? Blessed? Are you Simon? Flesh
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  Speaker 1: and Blood did not reveal this to you. You've been
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  Speaker 1: talking to my father. You got that in prayer, Peter,
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  Speaker 1: that came right from heaven. Blessed are you Peter for
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  Speaker 1: that insight. You didn't get that information from other people,
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  Speaker 1: but from my father who was in heaven. Now look
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  Speaker 1: at this. I say to you that you are pet
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  Speaker 1: tross By. That must have been wonderful for Peter to hear.
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  Speaker 1: We can't appreciate it today because we don't talk that language.
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  Speaker 1: But he gave him a nickname. All of his life,
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  Speaker 1: he's known as Simon, which I guess if you pressed
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  Speaker 1: it to the limit, would mean vacillating, one shifting, moody changing.
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  Speaker 1: And now Christ says, good job, Rock, that's the way
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  Speaker 1: to go. That's the right answer, Peter. You're like a rock.
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  Speaker 1: And upon this Petra he plays on that nickname, not
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  Speaker 1: the same word. Some have taught it to mean that
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  Speaker 1: Jesus built his church on Peter. No, Jesus built his
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  Speaker 1: church on a rock like truth, which is Petra. Upon
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  Speaker 1: this rock like truth, which is what you are, Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: You are Messiah, the son of the Living God Verse sixteen.
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  Speaker 1: That's the Petra. Good for you, Simon, that's Petros. And
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  Speaker 1: upon this truth. I will build my church, and the
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  Speaker 1: gates of Hades shall not overpower it. The risk of
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  Speaker 1: a little pedantic let's just dissect that prediction. I will
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  Speaker 1: build my church. Note first, to whom the church belongs, Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: I will build my church. You say, come on, Chuck,
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  Speaker 1: how elementary can you get? I can probably get more
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  Speaker 1: elementary than that, And sometime I need to, because it's
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  Speaker 1: easy to forget that. The church is not the work
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  Speaker 1: of the pastor. The church is not the work of
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  Speaker 1: a body of elders. The church is not the work
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  Speaker 1: of a body of seminaries. The church is not the
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  Speaker 1: work of a denomination. The church is not the work
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  Speaker 1: of the pope. The church is not the work of
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  Speaker 1: any person on earth. It is Christ's body. Those who
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  Speaker 1: are weak at this point are weak in their ecclesiology.
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  Speaker 1: If I'm a use today's terms, Christ is our boss. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: if I use the terms in the first century, Christ
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  Speaker 1: is our Lord curios, and we are his servants. That
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  Speaker 1: has never changed those centuries it passed. He holds the
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  Speaker 1: patent on the church. It was his genius that originated it.
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  Speaker 1: He deposited it into the truth of Heaven, and he
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  Speaker 1: revealed it to Peter, and he carried it out through
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  Speaker 1: the lives of the disciples, and it's still going on.
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  Speaker 1: It's his church. That's why you will never I seldom
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  Speaker 1: say never. You will never hear me call you my people.
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  Speaker 1: You're not my people. That's ownership. Christ owns you. We
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  Speaker 1: are his people and the sheep of his pasture. He
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  Speaker 1: is our Lord and we are his people. That's his
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  Speaker 1: right to call us my people, not a pastor's right.
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  Speaker 1: It's helped me a lot to change that habit that
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  Speaker 1: I fell into early in my ministry. As long as
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  Speaker 1: I owned them, I was responsible for them. But it's
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  Speaker 1: God's responsibility this church. What a relief I will build?
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Look at the next one. The dictionary says to build
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  Speaker 1: means to form by uniting materials by gradual means into
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  Speaker 1: a composite hole. To construct another definition, to develop by
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  Speaker 1: a definite process. Now that's what's going on right now.
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  Speaker 1: It's been going on since the first century. It will
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  Speaker 1: never stop until Christ comes for his own and we've
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  Speaker 1: studied that in days past. You remember that we are
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  Speaker 1: called the bride. He has called the groom. Sounds a
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  Speaker 1: little humorous to say it, but the bride's getting heavier
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  Speaker 1: waiting for the groom to come. She's enlarging her size
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  Speaker 1: every day. She's getting bigger and bigger and bigger, waiting
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  Speaker 1: for his arrival. And the groom will someday come and
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  Speaker 1: say to the bride your mind, come on home. Until then,
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  Speaker 1: he's in the building process. It's made up of all nations,
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  Speaker 1: all cultures, all creeds, all languages, all colors. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: the White Church, if we could call it that, known
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  Speaker 1: in America is fast becoming the minority as His work
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  Speaker 1: is being built all around the world. You talk about
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: being exciting in some particular program, get involved in the
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  Speaker 1: mission program of Christ, and you are on the front
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: edge of what he's doing. He calls us the church.
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  Speaker 1: I will build my church. You've learned a little history,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: and I learn a little Greek. The reason you're gonna
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  Speaker 1: learn a little Greek is because I don't know a
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  Speaker 1: lot of Greek, so I'm just gonna give you a
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  Speaker 1: little bit of Greek. Okay. This word church, ec lacia,
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  Speaker 1: comes from two words k, which is a little particle
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  Speaker 1: meaning out from among e k. If you pull a
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  Speaker 1: credit card out of your wallet, you pull the credit
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  Speaker 1: card ek, your wallet out from among twenty other credit cards.
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  Speaker 1: You pull one out. Okay, that's ek out from among
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  Speaker 1: Claycia is from a verb o ka l eo, meaning
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  Speaker 1: to call, to call forth, to call out, to call aloud,
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  Speaker 1: Various ways of saying it, but it means to call
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  Speaker 1: out from among this word ec lacia, I will build
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  Speaker 1: my called out ones. What a wonderful thought. Since the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of the church, our Lord has been reaching down
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  Speaker 1: into the ranks of humanity, selecting, choosing, calling, drawing to
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  Speaker 1: himself people, men, women, boys, girls, teenagers, older, folks, all
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  Speaker 1: different sizes, all different kinds. He continues to call them
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  Speaker 1: out from among, and he places them where he places
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  Speaker 1: them in his family. Remember the little chorus, I'm so
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  Speaker 1: glad I'm a part of the family of God. I've
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  Speaker 1: been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His blood, joint
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  Speaker 1: heirs with Jesus. As we travel this sod, I'm so
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  Speaker 1: glad I'm a part of the family of God. Every
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  Speaker 1: person who was in the family can sing that, because
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  Speaker 1: we've all come the same way. That means the group's exclusive.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: Since it's exclusive, the only way you become a member
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  Speaker 1: of this body is to believe in Jesus Christ. Sincerity
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  Speaker 1: won't get you in. Church. Going won't get you in.
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  Speaker 1: Paying your bills won't get you in. Being a good
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  Speaker 1: leader in your community won't get you in. This group
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  Speaker 1: is reserved for believers in Christ. If you're a believer,
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  Speaker 1: you're in. If you're not, you're out. It's exclusive. How
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  Speaker 1: permanent is it? Is it going to fade as time passes?
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  Speaker 1: Look at what he says. The gates of Hades shall
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  Speaker 1: not overpower it. Some times like that, I wish I
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  Speaker 1: had a deep voice. It seemed like that fits the
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  Speaker 1: voice of many waters, doesn't it? Because it has such authority.
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  Speaker 1: If Christ were to open the gates of Hades and
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: let all the evil powers pour out of that one source,
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  Speaker 1: it wouldn't hinder, it wouldn't interrupt, it wouldn't stop. It
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  Speaker 1: would never destroy the church. It's a permanent building process
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  Speaker 1: that will never be shut down. Now, then, what we
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  Speaker 1: really need is is a definition. Having said all of
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: those things, my definition will last about twenty five minutes,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: So get ready, no, not really, here's the definition. A
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: definition the ever increasing body of born again believers. This
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: is the church, the ever increasing body of born again
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: believers who comprise the universal Family of God, over whom
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Christ reigns as Lord. That's the Church, the ever increasing
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: body of born again believers who comprise the universal Family
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: of God over whom Christ reigns as Lord. It's universal
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: in scope, it's continually in process, it's exclusive in membership,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: and it's impervious to destruction. I want to be a
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: part of that kind of project. Had a wonderful conversation
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: with an engineer several months ago who had decided in
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: recent months to change his whole career. He got excited
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: about God's World program. He was prompted by his particular
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: local church, not ours, but another. We were at a
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: conference together. He had made a big decision regarding his future.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Was going to move into another whole realm. And I
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: asked him why would he do it? He said, well,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: to tell you the truth, I had to face the
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: fact that everything I was building was going to be
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: burnt up. Every project I was involved in had a
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: termination point, but this one was eternal. Said, it just
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: turned my whole mentality around. I'm not saying God leads
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: everyone that way. I'm saying he led him that way.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: When he got that perspective, you see when you began
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: to realize this is why I started like I did.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: When you begin to realize it isn't just a pretty
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: good show for a nickel, but it's a passion for living,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: it revolutionizes your whole frame of reference. Your world suddenly
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: changes from this tiny little tube called today and where
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: I live, to His world, and you're a part of it.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: It's ever growing, ever increasing. Let me show you the growth,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Acts chapter two. Okay, let's go from Matthew sixteen over
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: to Acts chapter two, Verse forty one. Now moved in
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: time from Jesus' prediction to the point where the church begins.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: This is the day of Pentecost. His spirit has come.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: He has ignited that small body of people in that
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: upper room, and they've come pouring down into the streets
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: of Jerusalem. And the Peter has become their spokesman. And
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: this is the result verse forty one. So then those
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: who had received his word were baptized, and they were
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: added that day about three thousand souls. That's the first
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: little body of people. Three thousand souls. Here they were
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: out in the streets of Jerusalem. I love the thought
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: of this. They have no church building, they have no pastor.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: They have no constitution, probably the reason they got along
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: so well in other constitution. They had no board members,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: They had no direction, They had no understanding of what
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: the future held for them. They had christ enthusiasm, of
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Christ's presence in their lives. He was now bringing their
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: inner beings to a boil. As they heard the message
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: of Christ's love and forgiveness and his resurrection following the Cross.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: They believed. And they're baptized. And here they are verse
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: forty two, continually devoting themselves to teaching and to coinonea.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: That's the word for fellowship, sharing things in common, sharing lives,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: caring for one another. They took the bread and broke
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: it together, and they were involved in prayer. These are
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the essentials of a church, teaching, fellowship, the ordinances, and prayer.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Previous verse mentions they were baptized. Well, that's quite a
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: sheep dip, isn't it? For a three thousand souls? You
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: imagine that community. When these people were in the river
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: being baptized one after another after another. They have no hymnal,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: they have no direction, and they're standing there getting dry,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: wondering what do we do next? They fellowship, They are taught.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: They are breaking bread, and they pray. Before long they
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: begin to take movement. The momentum grows. Look at chapter five,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: verse twelve. At the hands of the apostles, many signs
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and wonders were taking place among the people verse thirteen.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: None of the rest dared to associate with them. However,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: the people held them in high esteem verse fourteen. All
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: the more believers in the Lord. Multitudes of men and
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: women were constantly added to their number. That's growth. Look
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: at verse seven of chapter six. Next chapter, verse seven.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: The word of God kept on spreading, and the number
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: the faith. Look at that breakthrough. All these months, the
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: priests have been standing back with their hat in their hand, thinking,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: what's happening to these folks, what's this momentum, what's this
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: change that's come over them? And they begin to listen,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: and then they get involved. And then of all things,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: these formal religious leaders tear away the masks of religion
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: and they turn their lives over to Christ. And even
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: the ranks of the priests are invaded with believers. Again,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: we can hardly appreciate that today, But in those days,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: that was a wonder that was amazing. Yet again, in
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: chapter eleven, verse nineteen, it now spreads beyond Jerusalem because
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: of persecution eleven nineteen. Then those who were scattered because
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen made
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: word to no one except to Jews alone. But there
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: were some of them, men of Cyprus and Syene, who
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks, also
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: preaching the Lord Jesus. Let me interrupt our thought here
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: for just a moment. We've all seen televised pictures of
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: volcanoes that have erupted, and this molten lava pours over
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: the lip of this volcano and runs as bright red
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: as a poem, setup right down into the valleys and
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: crevices of the world around them, and wherever it goes
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: it makes an impact. Wherever it goes, there's this smoldering, smoking,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: It's as it were, living stuff, moving and changing, pushing.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: I think of that when I think of this, and
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: the persecution was Stephen stoning. It looked at the moment
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: like a terrible tragedy. But it forced the Church out
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: of itself and into the ranks of humanity. That's the
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: heartbeat of church. It's not something we keep to ourselves.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: It's something we release sometime. It requires persecution to burst
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: our own little balloon and to send us outside our
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: own world. And here's an example. Here are some people
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: who decide that the Greeks need to hear also, so
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: they preach the Lord Jesus to them Verse twenty one.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: And the hand of the Lord was with him. A
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: large number who believed turned to the Lord. The news
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: about them reached the ears of the Church of Jerusalem,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: so they sent Barnabus off to Andioch. Look at twenty three.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: When he had come and witnessed the grace of God,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: heart to remain true to the Lord. He was a
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Look at this last sentence. Considerable numbers were brought to
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: the Lord. And it's still going on. I By time
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: I'd read to you from chapter chapter nineteen and on
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: into the twenties, you'd see it again and again. This
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: spreading flame. When you trusted Christ Jesus as your savior,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: many things happened to you. But these two significant things
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you were automatic and immediate. First,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: something happened within you, and second, something happened to you
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: within you. Second Corinthians five seventeen, you became a new creation,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: a new creature. If any man is in Christ, he
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: is a new creature. All things are passed away, all
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: things have become new. You have new motivation, you interests.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Your mind is no longer blinded to the truth of Scripture.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Your interests shift from yourself and often from a body
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: of people who aren't doing you any good at all,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: to the things of God. And a new group of
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: people come on the horizon of your life. You begin
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: to be more vulnerable, more open, more willing to confess
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the wrong of your life. You keep short accounts with
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: God from whom you were running all the other years
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: of your life. Why you're a new creature. It happened
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: to you down inside, down within your life. Second, you
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: were automatically and instantaneously placed into the family of God.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: You didn't feel any different. You didn't hear something, you
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: didn't see something, But that happened to you the moment
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: you believed. First Corinthians, chapter twelve is where I want
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: to spend the balance of our time, because that develops
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: the whole theology of the church, as far as my
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: emphases are concerned. Sometime I have people say, do I
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: have to join a church to become a Christian? My
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: answer is no. But God always joins you to his
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: He always joined you to His church. You don't have
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: to join some local church that comes later on. As
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: He leads you he wants you to be. But you
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: don't have to be a member of a local church
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: to become a Christian. But you do have to be
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: a member of the universal Church. Before you can say
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: you are a Christian. That happens when you believe. I
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: remember when my mother died. My father called me and
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: spoke in sort of staccato fashion. He briefly said to
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: me that he thought my mom was dead. He said,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: siss is on her way. Can you come? And of
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: course I jumped in my car and by the time
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: I got there, they had already covered my mother up
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: on the sofa. She died, and a very quick death,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: and it was no pain at all, and looking back.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: It was a beautiful way to go. Seemed premature. Who
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: was at the time, of course, anyway, I said to them,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: have you called the doctor? And they said, no, no,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: we haven't. We didn't really know what to do. So
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: we got on the phone and called her physician and
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: he said, Charles, there are some vital signs you need
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: to look for. Let's make absolutely certain while the paramedics
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: are on their way that she is in fact dead.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: So he gave me three or four or five signs
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: to check, and we did all of them, and they
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: all proved that she was gone. When the paramedics got there,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: I stepped back and they did the very same thing,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: much more professionally, but they did the same thing, and
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: it was clear she was gone. Now, when I think
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: about a body and vital signs, I remember that in
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: my past. I want to apply those vital signs to
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: the church body, to the family, because I use that
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: illustration because Paul uses it in one Corinthians twelve. I
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: want you to think of the Family of God as
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: an enormous body that reaches around the world, made up
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: of millions of tiny members organs part of the body.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: If you think that way, you'll have no trouble understanding
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: his analogy. In this passage, I want to show you
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: six vital signs of a healthy universal Church verse twelve,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Verse Corinthians twelve. There's the presence of unity and harmony.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: The presence of unity and harmony even as the body
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: is one and yet has many members. And all the
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: members of the body, though they are many, are one body. Soul.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: Also is Christ. First time I read that verse, I
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: thought it sounded like a tongue twister. I remember distinctly
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: as a young Christian wondering what that was all about.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: And then I was told to change the word member
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: to organ, like the organs of the body. Let me
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: do that for you. You'll see how much clearer. Even
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: as the body is one and yet has many organs,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: and all the organs of the body, though they are many,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: form one body. So is Christ's body. That's the idea.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: The point I want you to see is the harmony
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: and the unity of the body many many, many members,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: but one body. Secondly, another sign of good health is
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: the absence of favoritism and status Verse thirteen. For by
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: one spirit, where we all baptized into one body. See
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: that happened when we were saved. We were identified with
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: the Body of Christ by one spirit. Whether we were
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Jews or Greeks, whether we were slaves are free, we
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: were all made to drink of one spirit. In the
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: Roman world that was much more significant than it is today.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: And that day there were definite casts, still familiar to
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: the people of India, but not familiar to the people
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: of America. In those days, there was nobility, and there
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: was slave. There was the slave owner, and there was
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: the tool of the owner a slave. And these people,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: when they read from Paul's letter in Christ, you are
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: neither slave nor free, set an enormous amount to them.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Galatians three says there is neither male nor female significance
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: in the body. God doesn't take you according to the
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: priority of your gender, or of your color, or of
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: your financial status. There is an absence of favoritism and status.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: It's true in this organism, and it's probably true in
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: no other on Earth. You get a number of human
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: beings together, you're going to have prejudice, You're going to
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: have favoritism and status, but not in the Body of Christ. Third,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: an emphasis on individual dignity and mutual variety an emphasis
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: on dignity, individual dignity, and mutual variety. Now you'll find
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: this in verses fourteen to twenty. I love this passage.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: There's a little humor in it, and I think it's
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: supposed to be humorous, Paul writes, with a little humor
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: in mind, So don't miss it. Think of the body. Now,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: listen to him describe it. The body is not one member,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: but many. That's true the human body. It's true of
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: Christ's family. But think of the human body for a
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: little while. If the foot should say, that's a little funny.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Feet don't talk. But let's say the foot were to say,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: because I'm not a hand, I'm not gonna be a
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: part of the body. It is not for this reason
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: any the less a part of the body. Feet can't
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: go on striketh. They're gonna stay there. They're gonna be
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: a part of the body. If the ear should say,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: because I'm not an eye, i am therefore not that significant.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not a part of the body. It is not
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: for this reason any the less a part of the body.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: And now he goes to the ridiculous. If the whole
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: body were an eye, I just picture that six foot
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: three inch eye. How useless, how unattractive. You couldn't kiss it.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't have anything to kiss with unless you bat
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: each other. When you got up close, you get dirt
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: in your eye all the time. You couldn't move around.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: Think of trying to drive a card. There's a lot
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: of things you could just imagine if the whole body
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: were an eye. Where would the hearing be if the
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: hole were hearing. Here's another one, five foot nine inch ear,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: just an ear, Where would the sense of smell be.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Now you're laughing about this, and you're supposed to, but
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: the point is obvious. We make six foot three inch
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: eyeballs out of people. We make five feet nine inch
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: ears out of certain people. We make them are stars, celebrities,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: big time folks. They're just ears, just noses, they're just lips.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: No one person in the body is the whole body.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: Stop making idols out of people in the body.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Just stop it.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: Just talk straight to yourself about that. We need heroes,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: people we admire and love and respect, But we don't
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: need six foot eyeballs. We need a body. God Verse eighteen.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: I love this. God has placed each member in the
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: body just as he desired you came into his family.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: He said, you'll be a nose. You're going to be
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: a foot. You're going to be a toe, part of
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: a foot inside a sock, inside a shoe. Oh shooe.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: I wanted to be an eye. Ever try to operate
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: without a toe? Ever had a little problem with just
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: a little part of your foot, just a little tiny corn,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: just a little callous. I know a lady that can
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: hardly get around because of a very very tiny part
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: of her foot that needs attention. And the longer she waits,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: the more pain she feels. And sometime it hurts so
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: badly she just has to sit down. It isn't just
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: her foot, it's her whole body that hurts. You know
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: that's true. Ever, try to walk with a little pebble
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: on your shoe, you take it out, your shirt's that big,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: and you drop it out. It just goes clink, little
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: tiny speck, little tiny thing, But your whole body hurts.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: God has placed the members, each one of them, just
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: as he desired. And if all were one member, where
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: would be the body? Now there are many men members,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: but one body. The eye can't say to the hand,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: now here we go to the fourth one? A de
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: emphasis on independence and self sufficiency. That's another mark of
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: health in the body, a de emphasis on independence and
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: self sufficiency. Hear this. Western minded Christians listen to this.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Pioneer stock entrepreneurs, strong will leaders listen to this. The
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: The head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: On the contrary, it's much truer that the members of
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: the body which we which seem to be weaker, are
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: necessary members of the body that we deem less honorable.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: On these we bestow more abundant honor, and our unseemly
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: members come to have more abundant seemliness. My daughter has
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: a little trouble with her pancreas. It's called pancreatitis, and
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: the little duct that leads into the pancreas is too tiny.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Never once in a while, something will plug that up
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: in colleen and a little tiny it's a stone maybe,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: or something gets in that tiny little duck and her
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: whole body goes into a kind of a spasm of pain.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: And you'd think it wouldn't be that big a thing,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: you know, I often want to know it's it's not
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: big why is it a problem little tiny thing. Just
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: poke a toothpick in it and open that thing up,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: aren't you glad? I'm not your surgeon tooth thick in
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: there and open that thing up. So the doctor goes
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: in there, and he goes down the throat and works around.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: He gets into this little area and just tries to
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: get into it, and he says, I can't even even
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: get my scope in there to see. That's what happens.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: And you would think a pancreas would be that big
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: a deal. I don't even know where it's located in
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: the body. It's down somewhere between the neck and the
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: other parts down there. It's standing there somewhere, but on
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: that little tiny part of the body, our whole family
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: has happiness or sadness because he's a tiny little duck
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: that gets plugged up, plugged up the middle of the night,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: trips to the emergency room because of a tiny little duck.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: Some of you are the little tiny ducks on the pancreas.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: You don't feel like much. You don't think you're that important,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: But when you don't function, we hurt. We have come
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: to value you, and if we don't, it's our problem
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: de emphasis on independence and self sufficiency in the body
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: of Christ. Nobody has a right to flex. Try to
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: imagine a strong person doing this. Nobody has a right
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: to say, look hot, big, I am, cow significant I
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: am in Christ's body. We're all the same size, and
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: we're equally people of dignity. This brings us to twenty five,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: the support of others, whether we're hurting or being honored.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Look at twenty five that there should be no division
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: in the body, but that the members should have the
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: same care for one another. If one member suffers, why
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: all the organs suffer with it? If one member is honored,
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: all the organs are honored with it. Isn't that great? Does?
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: Is it happening? You're at school, a classmate of yours
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: on the same level. As you get to the office
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: you're running for, you applauded. I hope. So your roommate,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: who hasn't been all that great, shakes, starts to hurt,
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: has real pain you hurt. I hope. So one member
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: is honored, all of us are honored, all of us applauding,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: all of us rejoice. One member suffers, We're all sad.
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: That's the way it is. In the body. This is
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: God's universal program, and when it's healthy, it works like
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: that verse twenty seven, exaltation of Christ as Head and Lord.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Now you are Christ's body, individually, members one of another. Hey,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: I wish I had more time to tell you about
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: the diseases. Maybe I could just kind of wrap it
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: up quick. I don't want to be medical about medically
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: sophisticated about this, because I am not, so I'll just
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: put it in simple layman's terms. Some of the contagious
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: diseases that affect the body. The head gets swollen with pride,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: the heart grows cold and indifferent because of sin. The
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: digestive system gets clogged by sterile theory and unapplied theology,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: so the body can't digest and eliminate what needs to
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: be released from it. It gets clawed theory and theology,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: and it's all sterile, and we start to fight within
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: ourselves about it. Let me get even more specific. Eyes
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: that feed on lust and greed, tongues that wag, and
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: ears that listen to that petty stuff from someone else.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: That's a disease in the body. I don't know of
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: any disease that's hurting the body worse than a wagging tongue.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: Needs that seldom bend to the lordship of Christ, hands
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: that applaud the work of man more than the work
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: of God, Minds that are closed to new ideas, Emotions
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: that are either out of control or under rigid wraps,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: muscles that are not exercised, mental muscles that have stopped
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: being stretched, financial muscles that have stopped relief. He generously
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: God's riches to the church, involvement muscles, faith muscles. Where
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: are you in that physical analysis of the church? What's
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: your temperature? He's the great physician. He's looking in your throat.
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: A couple of questions I think ought to be asked,
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Am I even in this family? Am I even in
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: the family of God? Second question might be, since I'm in,
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: is he really my sovereign? Is he really my lord?
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: Call the shots? Is he my boss? I guess you
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: could put it all under one question. My part of
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: the problem or part of the answer. The second would
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: be a statement of commitment. I wrote mine out today.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: As a member of Christ's body, I recommit myself to
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: his goals for his glory. It's my commitment I publicly
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: stated today as a member of God's family. I recommit
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: myself to my Lord, to his goals for his glory.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: Will you do that too? Please do that. When you
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: do that, really you won't want to even go to
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: the show for a nickel. It'll mean your whole life.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: Let's about together showing.
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: Father, thank you for the work you are continuing to
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: do in the Body of Christ. Thank you for building
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: it up. Thank you for the way you have gifted
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: individuals to fill certain roles and to be significant others
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: in our lives. Thank you that no one person represents
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: the whole body. Thank you that your son Jesus Christ
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: remains the head of the body. We've thought about all
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: different dimensions of this subject, and today it is a
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: pleasure to turn to you and to find in you
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: a reassurance about life now and life beyond. I pray
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: that you would continue to work through your body to
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: encourage others, to build up others in love, and to
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: give strength to those who need comfort and encouragement. Thank you,
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: Father in Jesus' name, for what you have taught us
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: today and how you will use it in our lives
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: in the future through Christ, our Savior.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: The preceding message God's bodybuilding program was copyrighted in nineteen
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: eighty five, nineteen eighty seven, two thousand and five, twenty eleven,
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: and twenty twenty two, and the sound recording was copyrighted
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc. All
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: use is strictly prohibited