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#24480 - 6 Essentials For Serving Jesus - Acts 20:13-24 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Amen. Open your Bibles to Acts chapter
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20. We'll pick up where we left off
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last time, Acts chapter 20 in a Bible study entitled 6
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Essentials. Or you can even put it this way,
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6 Essential Needs for last day Believers learning how to serve
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in the last days. It's so important.
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We're going to look at a few here as we are in Acts chapter
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20. It's a very helpful chapter in
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the Bible in helping us to understand our role in service
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and ministry. God has saved you to serve Him.
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Theologically, of course, we are not saved by works, but we are
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saved for good works. All of us as believers, God is
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wanting to see good works come through our lives, or what the
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Bible may say is fruit from the tree of our lives.
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In Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10, it says we were created in
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Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand,
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that we should walk in them. And although we're not saved by
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good works, we are saved for them.
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And the world needs you and the church needs you and your home
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needs you and your families need you And what what's really
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needed in a world is to reflect the character and nature of
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Jesus Christ through his followers.
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And here we are in Acts chapter 20.
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It's such a pivotal time in the life of Paul.
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Pick up in verse 30. It says, then we went ahead to
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the ship and sailed to ASOS. They're intending to take Paul
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on board for so he had given orders and tending himself to go
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on foot. So Troas to Assos is about 20
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miles by land, about 30 miles by sea.
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They took the ship, but Paul took the land route, which is
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very encouraging to me because although Paul, as we learned
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last time, extremely valued the support of believers, he knew
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that he wasn't a Lone Ranger. We looked, learned, and looked
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at this in our last study. He valued people.
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He knew that he needed others to accomplish the will of God in
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his life and others needed him to accomplish the will of God in
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their lives. And we learned last last week
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that the phrase we like to use here to describe that is we, is
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the language of ministry. It's always we.
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It's never I, and it's never you.
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It's always us. Remember, we thought of that
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superstar athlete and whatever sport that you follow, no
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superstar becomes a superstar on their own.
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They're always a part of a team. I mean, you put the superstar
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out on the basketball court by himself, he will not be a
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superstar. You put the best baseball player
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in the world right now, Ohtani, on the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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You put him out on the field by himself.
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He will not be the superstar that he currently is because he
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needs a team. And then that same idea, we need
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a team. Paul valued that.
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However, we also see today that Paul also valued quiet time,
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Quiet time alone with the Lord. He took the land because he
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needed some time to think. He took the land route because
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he needed some time to sort things out.
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Jesus understood this truth. You can jot it down in Matthew
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chapter 14 and verse 23. It says when Jesus had sent the
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multitudes away, He went up on a mountain by himself to pray, and
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when evening came, He was alone there.
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That's why church I emphasize over and over and over, why I
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emphasize so much, why I repeat it virtually week after week,
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certainly month after month, That it's very important that
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it's extremely vital for you to have a personal private
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devotional time with Jesus alone.
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That you cultivate that sometimes you'll hear it said
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you need to read your Bible and pray everyday.
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The environment for that is alone, privately, just you and
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your Savior, a time to spend invested in perhaps your prayer
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closet with a Bible open and your heart open and your mind
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open to what God has for you. This is so important.
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It's like fundamental. It's the ABC's of following
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Christ. It's not just enough to come to
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church or to have these gatherings with other people,
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but rather it's important and vital.
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Like it's so important that you need to learn how to rearrange
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your life for it. I think about since I just got
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back from a trip, how I think ahead for my plane trips.
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I think ahead and I think, OK, they got security.
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It's a busy time. I've got to get up at this time.
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If I'm getting a ride there, then I can get up a little bit
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later. If I have to drive myself and
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park myself, then I got to do this and I'm thinking it all the
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way through and I come up with a time and I set that time.
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I also view my days like that, like I have a very full life.
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I have a very full life. I have full days.
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I love them. I love serving the Lord.
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I have a full life. So I have to think ahead in
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order to set aside time. For me it's morning and I think
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mornings are the best because it starts things out.
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Doesn't have to be exclusively mornings, but they work the best
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for me because the hot house is still quiet and and I can get up
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early and all that gets sacrificed is my sleep.
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No one, no one else has to pay for my private time except for
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me. And that's just lose a little
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bit of sleep so that I can get some alone time.
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You know, you can start out with five minutes, 10 minutes.
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For me, it takes about an hour. I need about an hour to wrap up
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for the day. And I already get up early.
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So getting up at six might mean getting up at 5:00.
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So I can get my time before my wife gets up, before my daughter
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gets up, before my son gets whatever, whoever is in my home,
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before anybody gets up for their life.
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I need time alone with the Lord because I don't know what the
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day's going to bring. I know what my schedule says,
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but I don't know what the day's going to bring.
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I know it's heavy on my heart. So my quiet times are not only
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to read the Bible, but also to pray and cast my cares upon the
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Lord. I don't want to take them into
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the day. I mean, they end up catching up.
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You know, they're like a boomerang sometimes.
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You know, you're casting your cares and you throw them and
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then they go around and boom, it hit you in the back of the head.
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They end up coming back and I have to cast them again.
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But in the morning I want to set my heart toward the Lord.
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I have a devotional open. Depending on what my mood is,
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I've got different devotionals that I use.
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I'm somewhere in the Scriptures. I've been spending a lot of time
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in Second Corinthians. I've been spending a lot of time
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in the Gospels. I always try to read a Proverb
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every day and just time unrushed even before I come to service in
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the morning. I get up super early before
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anybody and I just spend time alone with the Lord.
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Paul, he gets some time alone. Some of you might like to take a
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walk and you just want to take a walk or ride your bike to get
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alone time with the Lord. It's super important.
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Church, have I made my point? Yes, No, it's important, super
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important. If you will just take me up on
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this, you will see immediate change within a couple weeks,
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immediate growth and overwhelming sense of peace in a
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world that's chaotic. When my Bible is open, the Lord
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gives me peace. I can't tell you how many times
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that I have come to church here, I've come to serve and teach
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here, and being in the company of believers has calm my heart.
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The songs, the ministry, and even after teaching the Bible
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study, I'll walk away going, man, that was for me.
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God spoke to my heart. That was, that was like, God,
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thank you for that. I, I put my studies together.
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I'm weeks ahead. I'm weeks ahead when I put these
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together. So I'll pull them out the week,
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but prior and I'll edit them and pray over them.
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But I like to get ahead because it gives me free headspace so
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that I can do what's in front of me.
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And so as I'm looking at this and I'm reviewing and I'm like,
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man, Lord, that was so good. So get your alone time, read
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your Bible every day. Remember what Job said in Job
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23? He said, I have treasured the
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words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
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Treat the Word of God like food and you eat once, twice, three
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times a day. You snack here and there.
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Take the Word of God and feast on it.
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Read it three times a day, snack on it here and there.
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Have a scripture in your back pocket that you wrote down that
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you can memorize. You can just pull it out of your
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pocket, review it, but take that alone time with the Lord.
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It's so vital. Even here, He spent time alone
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with the Lord instead of with the people.
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And then we have his travel itinerary here and he sails to
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my lead us. He's on his way to Jerusalem.
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Remember, he's on his way to Jerusalem.
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Originally he wanted to get there before Passover, before
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Passover because that that's where he was going to be.
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That's the high holy day of the Jews Passover.
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But he didn't make it for Passover.
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So now notice he changed in verse 16.
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Now he wants to make it by the day of Pentecost.
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Now he's built in. OK, I'm not going to stress out.
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I didn't make it for Passover. Now he's got 50 days, 50.
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He's got some time and all of these cities and all this
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travel, you know, it's taking some time here.
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We're reading it in seconds, but it's taking days and weeks to
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accomplish this. So now he's packed in about 50
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days where he's taking the stress off.
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And if you like to write in your Bibles in verse 16 next to the
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day of Pentecost, just write the word flexible.
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Flexible. That's Paul here.
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He not only getting quiet time with the Lord, which probably
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God gave him a piece like, hey, don't worry about it.
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You're not going to make it for Passover.
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You can make it for Pentecost. Pastor Chuck Smith would teach
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us often and it's so important you adopt this.
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He said blessed are the flexible for they will not be broken.
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Isn't that so true? Blessed are those of us and just
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stay flexible. Stay open to the leading of the
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Holy Spirit. Don't be so rigid because the
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rigid ones snap, you know, and then you might even work with
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somebody who's like, man, that brother, what happened to so and
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so he snapped. It's because he wasn't flexible.
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Just going with the flow. And remember, he's also going to
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Jerusalem for what? To take the offerings.
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He's got all this money he's bringing back to the suffering
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church, and that's important to him.
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The Gentile churches are doing really well.
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The Jewish church in Jerusalem is not doing so well.
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Paul went around to the churches encouraging them and asking them
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to support the local church. And so he's taking that money
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back now. This section of Acts chapter 20,
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you could say it is a pastoral chapter in the Bible, a pastoral
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chapter because we have seen Paul as the evangelist and we
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have seen Paul as the church planter.
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But here in chapter 20, we now see a part of his pastor's heart
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as he calls from the elders of Ephesus to meet him and might
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lead us. Now you Bible students, you know
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that in the Bible it's broken up into sections, gospels, history,
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the epistles, or the letters of Paul.
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And then there's a section that's referred to as the
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pastoral epistles, the pastoral epistles.
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And if you were in a Bible trivia game and they said, what
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are the pastoral epistles? Most likely you would answer it
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this way. First Timothy, Second Timothy
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and Titus. Those are letters that are
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specifically written from Paul to Timothy as a pastor and to
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Titus as a pastor to help them in their pastoral ministry.
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So often those three are referred to as the Pastoral
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Epistles. I want you to add 1, and we did
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this when we studied through it, but I want you to add 1 to the
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Pastoral Epistles. And that would be probably the
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most pastoral epistle in all of the Bible is Second Corinthians
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because Second Corinthians was written as a pastor.
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Paul is opening up his heart and he's hurt and he's frustrated
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and he's wanting to correct things.
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He's also happy because the church discipline they took
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place was successful. Like it is the pastor's heart.
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And add Second Corinthians and then you can add this chapter as
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a pastoral chapter because you learn a lot about serving and
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ministry here. This could be considered the
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first Pastors Conference, Pastors Conference as it says
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right there in verse 17 from Myletus.
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He sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.
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Just like we have refresh in October.
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It is a gathering. It's not exclusive to elders.
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It's for everyone that serves. But this is the same same
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purpose that we have refresh. We're calling people together.
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We're calling those that serve those those that want to serve
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so that we might be encouraged, that we might receive specific
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fresh words for our ministry and for our service and for what God
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wants to accomplish in our lives.
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And remember, when we started Refresh, we started it for this
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church. It was just a gathering for our
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church leaders. We said we need to be refreshed.
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We need to be encouraged. We need to hear from the Lord.
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And again, I, I want to invite you, I want you to be here.
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We're down just to the last 200, less than 200 spaces left.
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And we want you here. We want to serve you.
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We want to encourage you. This is sort of, I think what
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Paul was saying. Tell the elders, I want them
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here. I've got something to share with
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them. I want them here because they
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need to hear from me. It may be the last time I get to
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talk to them. And that's what's happening
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here. This section of scripture is
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also the only recorded message by Paul 2 believers in the book
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of Acts. Most of the time we hear Paul in
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Acts, it's to the unbeliever. It's him proclaiming the gospel.
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We have seen Paul preach, we've seen Paul persuade, we've seen
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Paul plead with unbelievers. And that's what happens.
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That's what unbelievers need. Those that are separate from
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God, they, they need to have the gospel preach to them.
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Perhaps that's you today and you need to know that Jesus Christ
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loves you, God in human flesh. He came and he died on a Roman
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cross 2000 years ago for this, as a substitute for you to
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forgive you of your sins, to bring you into wholeness and
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bring you back into a relationship with God, so that
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today if you repent of your sins and you receive salvation
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through Jesus Christ, you will be saved.
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You know what the Bible says. The Bible says that if you
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confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and you believe in your
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heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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It happens that fast as you turn to God.
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Preaching is important, persuading, good, solid Bible
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answers to good questions that people are asking, pleading.
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That's what unbelievers need. But now in chapter 20, you'll
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find Paul encouraging, You'll hear Paul edifying or building
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up. You'll hear Paul exhorting,
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instructing, correcting because that's what believers need.
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That's what we need. We we need to be built up.
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Remember in Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, it says
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that the Word of God is powerful, it's inspired.
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And then it gives 4 things about the Word of God.
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It's profitable for doctrine, so that means it's going to teach
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you how to believe. It's profitable for correction,
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for reproof, and for instruction in righteousness.
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So I just want you to think out of the four things, three of
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them often are painful. Instruction, correction,
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reproof, which is one reason why many people avoid the Bible
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because you open it up and go, oh, something more to learn.
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Oh, something to correct. Oh, I need to get right.
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I need to ask for forgiveness. I need to change.
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Like these things are in the word of God.
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And Paul is going to remind the elders here of this very truth.
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So now let's get to the six things.
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But before we get there, one more thing I want you to notice
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in verse 17, the word elders. Do you see that verse 17, he
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called for the elders of the church circle that word if you'd
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like to write in your Bibles, and right next to it the Greek
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word presbyteros. Presbyteros, that might sound
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familiar to you because there is a whole denomination that has
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derived the name of their church from this word.
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Have you ever heard of the Presbyterian Church?
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Well, they derive their name from this word because this word
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is taken from a word borrowed from the Jewish synagogue that
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means one who has learned in Jewish law or a leader, a mature
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spiritual leader. It speaks more of the maturity
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of the person than it does the age of the person.
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And this is how Presbyterian Church and other churches
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oversee their churches, where you could say their church
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governance is elder run or elder LED.
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And they get it from this word in various places in the New
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Testament. Jump to verse 28.
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Now I want you to see two more words in verse 28.
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You'll notice it. Paul would tell them has made
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you right there in the middle, has made you overseers.
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Circle that word and right next to it, the Greek word episcopos.
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Episcopos. Does that sound familiar to you?
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Another denomination has taken the name of their church from
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this word, the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church because
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their form of church government is what this word defines.
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This word means someone who is charged with the duty of seeing
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the things to be done by others, that they are done rightly, a
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guardian or a Superintendent. Sometimes this word is
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translated Bishop because that is the order of church
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government within the Episcopal system and other churches where
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there are overseers. So a Bishop would then oversee
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others pastors and leaders and that's a form a portion of their
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church government. You might be familiar with this
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word first Timothy chapter 3. Remember Paul's writing to
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Timothy in verse one he says whoever desires the position of
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a Bishop. Well, it's also overseer or
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Episcopal. It's used throughout the
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Scriptures. The third word I want you to
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notice is also in verse 28, and that's the word shepherd, it
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says has made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God,
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which he purchased with his own blood.
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This is the verb form of the noun poemen or poemeno.
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And this means to feed, to tend, to take care of.
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It has everything to do with being a shepherd.
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It's interesting in the Scriptures now how these 3 words
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are used interchangeably to reflect the lead or the
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leadership of a church, what we would refer to as a pastor
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because in Ephesians chapter 4, the word pointman is actually
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translated pastor there that God has given us pastors and
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teachers. It's the word pointman.
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And so we see that as elders, as overseers, as shepherds, to be
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that position of pastor. Now, different words are used to
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describe it, but it was John Corson that put it all together.
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Pastor John Corson, I love the way he did it.
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There's no need to reinvent it. When he sees these 3 words
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referring to the leader of the church or leaders of the church,
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he says this. The word elder refers to the
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man, refers to the man, whereas the word overseer refers to the
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man's ministry, and the word shepherd refers to the ministry
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method. So you have the man, the
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ministry, and the method all come together.
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Now, this is actually the reason I'm pausing on this just in case
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you're ever come across someone that likes to argue about the
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way a church is governed or the leadership of the church.
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Because there are different views.
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There's the congregational view, there is the elder run view,
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there is the pastor LED view, and then there's a few of
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unbiblical views. But those are the main biblical
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views. And again, people like to
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disagree and argue about it and make it a big deal.
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Listen, this is what I have found.
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This is what I have found. If it is a biblical model and
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maybe we disagree about it, but it's still a model that can be
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substantiated in the Scriptures, what I have found that what's
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more important than the model, listen, stay with me on this.
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What's more important than the model is the man that fills the
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role. Because I've been around long
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enough and I've seen men of God do great sinful things and
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disqualify themselves in elder run churches.
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And I've seen great men of God disqualify themselves and do
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great simple things in congregational LED churches.
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And I've seen men of God that have been used greatly of God
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disqualify themselves in sin in pastor LED churches.
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It is always the heart of the matter, is always the matter of
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the heart. It is the character and
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integrity of the men that hold these positions that is of the
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utmost importance. Because if you set up systems to
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try to prevent men from sinning, you will fail.
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The men have to be connected to the Lord.
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And if you're wondering, you go well, Ed, what kind of
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leadership is in this church? If you if this is your church
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home, you're in a church that is pastor LED.
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That is the model we choose to follow here.
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Pastor LED. That's how that's the the way we
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started when we moved out here from Colorado to plant this,
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from California to plant this church.
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And when we were very, very small.
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And now that we're a little bit larger than we were, we're still
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pastor LED, supported by elders and pastors that hold each other
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accountable, where we are collaborative and cooperative.
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And we I've taught Bible studies on that more in depth.
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You can check online for them. But that's the model we hold to.
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We hold to unashamedly. We will continue to hold to it.
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And it's OK if you hold to a different view as long as it's
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biblical. Just make sure the men have a
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good right walk with the Lord. All right, now let's jump in to
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the six things before we leave here.
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As Paul is calling on them, they come to him.
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Notice verse 18. When they had come to him, he
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said to them, you know, from the first day that I came to Asia,
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and again, you Bible students been going with us in our study
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through the book of Acts. Remember, when he mentions Asia
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in this context, he's referring to Ephesus.
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That's where he ends up in Asia, primarily in Ephesus.
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So he knows when I came to Asia, basically when I came to you
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guys, in what manner? I always lived among you.
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If you're taking notes #1 this will help you be a better
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servant, a better leader. If you're a pastor, a better
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pastor. Number one, there is the need
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for authenticity. There is the need for
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authenticity. Pastors and servants, your life
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is to be an open book. Look what he says here.
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You saw me. You saw my life.
24:45
You know me. There's nothing more than what
24:46
you saw. Pastors and leaders are to be
24:50
the same in the church as they are at home, as they are at
24:55
work, as they are on the golf course, as they are fishing in
24:59
the reservoir. We are to be the same.
25:02
We are not to be hiding anything or pretending or living a
25:06
hypocritical life. This is for pastors.
25:09
Answer like this is Christianity one O 1.
25:12
Like this is ABC stuff. It's unfortunate, but this
25:15
becomes a value in our culture. Like people release super highly
25:19
value authenticity primarily because it's been lost.
25:24
Everybody's hiding behind anonymity and social media,
25:28
playing games and trying to be, you know, like setting up the
25:31
absolute perfect picture that you could post that's so
25:34
stinking fake and not real and edited.
25:40
And so authenticity becomes a great value.
25:42
But let me tell you this, authenticity should be normal
25:45
here. We should be really authentic
25:47
and transparent with our lives, especially if you're serving
25:50
other people to be real. I mean, you know, from time to
25:53
time I might mention, I mentioned, yeah, you know, Marie
25:56
and I we got into this big argument, you know, and you
25:59
know, after all these years, she still chooses to disagree with
26:02
me. I don't know why.
26:03
But like we got into this argument and and I'm just
26:06
sharing my life and I might share it in a, in a Bible study
26:09
and somebody will come up and say, well, pastor, pastor, I'm
26:11
so thankful you're so authentic because I have things going on
26:14
in my life and I'm like, bro, I'm not trying to be authentic.
26:17
That's the truth, man. That's my life.
26:20
Like, yes, Marie and I argue and you're like, well, you know,
26:26
honey, we can't come here. Pastor argues with his wife.
26:28
What are you talking about? It's normal.
26:32
It's normal for me to win almost every single.
26:39
She's praying with the ladies right now.
26:41
She's not in here. But I mean, we have those times
26:46
and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not trying to be authentic.
26:50
I'm just being me. And of course, from the pulpit,
26:53
if you're sharing something, I'm not going to share it in such a
26:56
way that might bring us into all the depths of that argument or
27:00
somehow put my wife in a negative light.
27:02
That never, no, but the reality that we live like everyone else.
27:06
We're believers like everyone else, of course.
27:09
Of course, that's not authenticity as much as it is
27:14
reality. And it's important that we live
27:17
in reality. Of course, now there are those
27:21
that would look at ministry and go they see it from the negative
27:24
because there is a negative side to that.
27:25
And it's the idea, well, you know, we just live in a fishbowl
27:28
and everybody knows our business.
27:30
No, no, no, no. Be careful not to look at it as
27:32
negative. It's better to look at it as a
27:34
positive. And no, I want to be authentic.
27:37
And there are parts of my life that are private.
27:38
They'll remain private and that's fine.
27:41
But I'm not hiding anything. I'm not holding back anything.
27:44
That's what Paul says here. This is what made him strong.
27:47
It's what's going to make the elders of Ephesus strong.
27:49
It's going to what's going to make us strong.
27:52
He says you saw me, you watched me.
27:55
If you showed up here in any given day, you should see the
27:58
same thing as I am in the pulpit.
28:00
If you saw me at Safeway shopping, you see the same thing
28:03
that that you see at church. If you, wherever we might be, if
28:07
you were at my house, you're at the park by my house, whatever
28:09
it might be, you will be in a place where I could say to you,
28:14
you saw my life wasn't perfect, made mistakes, But hopefully I
28:20
also demonstrated how to come back from those mistakes, how to
28:22
ask for forgiveness, whatever. Like, like it's real here.
28:26
And because it's, it causes so much problems, people just
28:30
choose not to be real. And I'm telling you, don't do
28:32
that. God will not bless that.
28:34
So don't miss Paul says, hey, you know what, You watch my life
28:37
notice #2 now he says serving the Lord.
28:42
So let's pause there. That's number two.
28:44
That's right there in verse 19. Serving the Lord #2 is the
28:50
that's one of the essentials for living in the last days.
28:52
Being a good servant is the need for a servant's heart, a
28:56
servant's heart. I want you to notice Paul is
28:58
very specific here. He says serving the Lord.
29:02
And we're like, wait a minute, wasn't he serving the elders in
29:04
Ephesus? Yes, after serving the Lord, our
29:09
service is always unto the Lord and not primarily to people.
29:15
Even though our service to the Lord is almost always worked out
29:18
with people, you're not serving people, you're serving the Lord.
29:22
Remember that because you're going to have a lot of different
29:24
people, a lot of different personalities, a lot of
29:26
different things, but the Lord stays constant.
29:29
You, you get your direction from him, you get your strength from
29:32
Him, You get your help from Him. We serve the Lord.
29:35
The ministry is all about serving.
29:38
The word ministry can be translated in the English
29:40
servant. If you're a minister of the
29:42
gospel, you're a servant. And if you get into the ministry
29:47
expecting to be served, you will be greatly disappointed.
29:52
Jesus said in Mark chapter 10, our Savior, he said he came not
29:55
to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for
29:59
many. Mark 10:45 This is not a place
30:02
like the corporate world or like the world where you climb the
30:05
ladder, you put, you pay your dues.
30:07
And the higher you go or the, the less work you do and the
30:10
more people. No, no, no.
30:11
Here it's, it's inverted, it's opposite of the world.
30:16
The more responsibility you get, the higher you go, if you will,
30:20
is actually the lower you go and you serve more people, the more
30:26
responsibility you have, not less.
30:30
It's a place where we learn to deny ourselves and take up the
30:34
cross following Jesus. Matthew chapter 16 back at my
30:38
home church, Calvary Chapel and Downey, where I was saved, spent
30:41
eight years serving there. They had a way, primarily they
30:44
had a way to test both test and train.
30:48
Those of us that believe we had a calling of ministry in our
30:51
lives, and I did from a very young age.
30:54
I felt like I had a calling. I felt like I was called to
30:57
teach. I didn't know what that meant
30:58
exactly, but I felt this heavy burden.
31:00
Burden to exercise leadership in the church like God.
31:04
That's how God wanted to use me. And so a person that wanted to,
31:07
quote, go into the ministry would be sent out to the parking
31:11
lot to pick up trash. So hey, I feel like I got to
31:14
call the ministry. You do?
31:16
Yeah. I'm ready to serve.
31:18
You are. Yeah.
31:20
You wouldn't believe how ready I am.
31:21
Where do you want me to teach? In the parking lot.
31:24
Oh, really? Is there an outreach?
31:25
Is there something going on out there?
31:27
No. I want you to teach the trash,
31:31
go start picking up the trash and get this place ready for all
31:33
the people that are going to be here today.
31:36
And on more than one occasion, I'm going to be a little
31:38
dramatic here, but I'm doing I'm being dramatic on purpose so I
31:40
can get your attention. But on more than one occasion,
31:43
the response to a call like that, hey, you want to serve
31:45
here? We need help clean the toilets.
31:46
We're going to go clean the toilets.
31:47
Come with me and clean with me or we're going to go out and
31:49
pick up the trash and we'll come and pick up the trash.
31:52
And in the response to something like this, I am not called to
31:57
pick up the trash. I am called to teach the Bible.
32:02
Well, you know, if you're going to teach, you have a lot to
32:04
learn. So go to the parking lot and
32:05
learn with the trash. I've seen it's time and time
32:10
again. I am not called to lower things.
32:14
Then I don't think you've heard from the Lord.
32:18
This call to teach or to lead doesn't precede a call to learn
32:23
and to serve, and it never supersedes it.
32:26
The greater the servant, the greater the teacher.
32:30
In this church, we all do everything.
32:33
We clean, we serve hospital visits, whatever.
32:37
We all do everything. There's not some class for one.
32:42
And we all do whatever the Lord needs from us.
32:45
And remember, I introduced a word to you last week.
32:47
I want you to always remember it.
32:49
Why would it be such a big deal to go pick up trash or clean a
32:53
toilet or help clean the kitchen or whatever the needs need to be
32:56
done? Or straightened chairs?
32:58
What was the word I taught you last week?
33:00
Proximity. Why is it important?
33:04
Well, the trash needs to be picked up and things need to be
33:06
cleaned. But more important than that,
33:08
proximity, proximity. When you serve on the property
33:12
of a church, it puts you in proximity to who?
33:16
People, let me give you the illustration out in the parking
33:19
lot, you take us up on it. You just go clean and you're out
33:21
there and then you see a car roll in and out of the car comes
33:26
this disheveled single mom. It's already, you can already
33:29
tell just looking. It's just been a hard morning
33:32
trying to get the kids out there screaming and kicking.
33:34
And you would have never seen that and been prompted by the
33:37
Holy Spirit to go help her if you weren't out doing the first
33:42
thing God gave to you. The first thing God gave to you
33:45
was to help clean the property. Property.
33:48
But really, now you see that it's a joy to clean the
33:51
property. But it's really cool that God
33:53
would send me out there at just the right time so I could meet
33:56
this young woman and her kids and help her get into church so
33:59
she could come and worship and on and on that list goes.
34:04
We need to have a servant's heart, which brings US #3 notice
34:08
serving the Lord with verse 19. All humility.
34:12
God is always developing humility in us.
34:15
We can either. There's two ways to deal with
34:17
our pride because pride will always stop ministry.
34:19
It'll always stop us from being connected to God, Pride and
34:23
arrogance. And so our options are as
34:25
believers. We have two when it comes to
34:27
humility #1 we can humble ourselves under the mighty hand
34:31
of God and he will lift us up, or God will humble us, but we're
34:36
going to get there. They're both very painful, by
34:39
the way, for God to take you and me from a place of pride to a
34:42
place of humility. But I have found it is always
34:46
less painful if I humble myself. It's always less humble because
34:51
when God has to do it, it's usually at the wrong time, at
34:55
the wrong place, in front of the wrong people.
34:58
And it's very, it's very humbling.
35:01
And God will get his way with us.
35:03
But it's better to choose humility.
35:06
And humility is important because in ministry, when you're
35:09
serving, especially in the context of a church, it can be
35:11
very dangerous because many people will like you and they'll
35:15
appreciate you because God uses you in their lives.
35:19
Like just say you're sitting down with somebody and you're
35:21
working with them on their marriage and their marriage gets
35:23
saved. There will be a natural tendency
35:26
for them to look to you as the one that saved their marriage.
35:29
You're not the one that saved their marriage.
35:31
God is the one that saved their marriage, but he used you.
35:34
And if you're not humble, you will respond with something.
35:38
I am a marriage saver. Send all of your marriages to me
35:43
because look what I have done and all my studies and I went to
35:46
seminary and I figured out and I know these books.
35:51
Nope. It's time for a little humility.
35:53
It's always God. He gets to choose us.
35:57
It's always by, you know, And the fact that God used you is
35:59
because he saw humility in you. And it's by grace.
36:05
You're sustained by grace. It is not a place to exalt Jesus
36:13
below exalting yourself and humility will help you with
36:17
that. You have to learn how to
36:18
deflect. Paul did that, remember back in
36:21
Lystra. It's been a while since we were
36:22
in Acts 14, but they tried to worship him in Lystra and he
36:26
said no, no, no, no, no, no way. I don't want anything.
36:29
Don't worship me. I am not God.
36:32
And how careful we need to be. Jot it down in Isaiah chapter 42
36:36
and verse eight. It's a life verse for anyone
36:39
that serves God. But in Isaiah 42 it says I am
36:42
the Lord. That is my name and my glory.
36:46
I will not give to another nor my praise to carved images.
36:50
God will not share His glory with anyone.
36:53
The quickest way out of ministry is beginning to think it is you
36:58
and that you deserve the praise and adulation.
37:03
Now, the fact that someone expresses appreciation is not
37:05
bad. It's good that we should
37:07
continually express thank you for the time you invested.
37:10
Thank you. That was a, you know, for
37:12
example, after a Bible study, someone may come up and say
37:15
thank you for that message. It really ministered to my
37:17
heart. You know, if I'm not careful.
37:18
I was like, oh, you don't know how long I studied.
37:21
It was so hard. Oh, I stayed up all night and I
37:24
had to go buy a new book and get this great.
37:27
And yes, all of my hard work paid off.
37:31
That's just nonsense. If you will receive anything
37:36
today, anything at all, it's because of the Lord.
37:41
It's His Word, it's His Spirit. And if you walk out and go
37:45
ahead, you got about two more minutes.
37:47
I haven't received nothing, then that's my fault, and I'll have
37:53
to just go seek the Lord and how I can be more useful for the
37:55
Kingdom. But Paul, he's the apostle, and
37:59
he's like, you know, guys, you've seen it.
38:01
Humility can be seen. And he says, you guys know I
38:06
served you. I served the Lord with all
38:07
humility. Notice now let's get to #4 so
38:10
we're running out of time here. It says with many tears.
38:14
This is verse 19 and trials which happened to me by the
38:18
plotting of the Jews with many tears.
38:23
And so in this is number 4, you want to be effective.
38:26
This essential quality is needed and that is the need for
38:29
perseverance. Sometimes that's translated
38:34
endurance. It's the Greek word.
38:36
You remember Hoopa Monet, You're going to need a lot of it
38:41
because ministry and serving life of ministry requires
38:46
courage and resolve. Why?
38:47
Because there are many trials and tears, not just a few, many,
38:54
many, many, as we read in the Psalm today, crying so much
38:58
because people don't follow your law.
39:01
Many trials and tears. Paul had his fair share, and
39:06
often the idea was, well, I'll just quit and I'll go do
39:09
something else. And I don't like this anymore,
39:11
OK? You're just at a place where you
39:13
need courage and resolve, where the Lord can give you the
39:16
strength to get through this one trial.
39:19
And then you get through the one trial, you go, OK, that's it.
39:21
Never another trial. It's not going to happen.
39:27
This is part and parcel. Jesus was a man of sorrows,
39:30
acquainted with grief. And a person who is wholly
39:33
committed to Jesus will not be easily moved, as we'll see in a
39:36
moment. Pick up in verse 20.
39:39
He says, and how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but
39:43
proclaimed it to you, taught you publicly from house to house,
39:47
testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God
39:51
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
39:55
Which brings us to #5 And that is the need for unselfish
39:59
honesty. If you're in your quiet times
40:02
and one of the things I like to do is read a chapter of the
40:05
Proverbs everyday. Yesterday's Proverbs.
40:07
This is what it said in verse five.
40:10
Open rebuke is better than love. Carefully concealed faithful are
40:14
the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful
40:20
honesty. We we need to not keep anything
40:23
back. My goal as a pastor is to tell
40:25
you the truth. Like Paul said in love, a friend
40:30
that lies to you is not the friend you thought she was.
40:35
Did you hear that? A friend that is dishonest for
40:39
you doesn't tell you the truth is not the friend that you
40:42
thought he was. And that requires a conversation
40:46
because in our friendships and our relationships, we want the
40:49
truth. I want the truth.
40:52
I'm not speaking about opinions. I'm not speaking about how you
40:54
view the truth, but just the truth.
40:56
I'm going to tell you, hey, look, you, you shouldn't be
40:58
living with your girlfriend and say you're a Christian having
41:02
sex with her. That's not from the Lord.
41:04
That's not. Don't, don't even pretend that
41:07
you're OK. Don't even pretend that that you
41:10
think that's fine. Don't even pretend that the
41:12
Bible approves it. Don't even pretend that this
41:14
church approves it. It doesn't.
41:17
That was the truth. And I'll give you a hug and say
41:20
I love you though. But don't you think I'm going to
41:24
tell you the truth? It's ruining your life.
41:25
It's hurting our church, and we can go on and on.
41:28
If you came to me and asked me a question, you should expect
41:31
you're going to get the truth and then you get there.
41:33
Well, I didn't want you. I didn't want to hear that.
41:35
Well, what did you expect? When you come to the pastors and
41:39
the leaders of this church, I'm telling you right now, they're
41:42
going to tell you the truth. That's what you're going to get
41:45
here. And I pray that we're better at
41:47
delivering it in love. And I pray that we're taking you
41:50
on a journey. But sometimes believers in
41:53
churches, they get all offended for the wrong reasons because
41:57
somebody told them the truth and they got all beat out of shape,
41:59
bent out of shape about it. It's like, well, I'm just
42:02
offended. Well, why?
42:03
What? Wait, let's slow down.
42:04
Slow your roll a little bit. Why are you offended?
42:06
Well, I don't like what you said.
42:08
Well, don't get mad at me. What's the phrase?
42:11
I'm just the messenger. Don't shoot the messenger with
42:16
the message. Unselfish honesty.
42:20
And you know, one of the hard things he had to share was
42:22
repentance, talking to somebody about their sin, which brings us
42:26
to number six. And that's there in verse 22.
42:30
And see now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing
42:34
the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy
42:37
Spirit testifies in every city saying that change and
42:40
tribulations await me. But none of these things move
42:44
me, nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish
42:48
my race with joy and the ministry which I received from
42:51
the Lord Jesus. I testify to the gospel of the
42:55
grace of God. Number six in our six essentials
42:58
today is the need for unswerving dedication.
43:02
Unswerving dedication. Paul's headed to Jerusalem, not
43:06
quite sure what will happen to him, but he sensed it was going
43:09
to be more chains and tribulations.
43:11
The Holy Spirit speaking to him, giving him those impressions.
43:14
People are telling him it's going to be hard and he comes to
43:18
that conclusion. None of these things move me
43:21
now. I think on a micro scale, I
43:23
think with certain situations we could say the same thing, Like
43:26
we got this situation, we know it's going to be hard.
43:28
We say no, man, I'm, I'm going, I'm going for it.
43:30
I know it's going to be hard. I know it's going to be
43:32
difficult. None of these things move me.
43:34
But on a macro scale, hey, let's be honest, a lot of things move
43:38
us. A lot of things.
43:40
I just want you to think of a few right now.
43:42
The way the economy is going, that moves us.
43:44
The politics of the day, that moves us.
43:46
We wake up to the news stories, that moves us.
43:49
What's happening in our neighbourhood, that moves, moves
43:52
us. The changes that are going on at
43:53
work that moves us. The layoffs, the money
43:56
situation, on and on the list goes.
43:58
A lot of things move us. And church, Here's the word we
44:03
need to learn how not to be easily moved and with unswerving
44:10
dedication, keep our eyes on the Lord.
44:12
Remember Hebrews 12 looking on to Jesus, the author and
44:17
finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured
44:22
the cross. Hoopa, Monet, they all go
44:24
together. This is Paul as he opens up.
44:27
We'll have a couple more weeks in this section, but this is
44:30
Paul opening up to the leaders, opening up to us as a church,
44:34
looking at these ingredients, these six things.
44:37
There's plenty more. I could have developed it
44:39
bigger, but authenticity, transparency, a servant's heart,
44:43
humility, perseverance, unselfish honesty, speaking the
44:47
truth and love, unswerving dedication.
44:50
God will bless those. And when I go through
44:53
difficulties and I'm not sure what the future holds in my
44:55
life, I almost always revert back to starting repeating doing
45:00
the things that God blesses. I may not know what the future
45:04
holds. I may not know how things are
45:05
going to turn out, but I know if I'm I align my life with the
45:09
things that God blesses, I'll be OK.
45:13
I'll be OK. We'll get through it for
45:16
homework. So we ran out of time.
45:18
The worship team can come up here.
45:19
I want to give you Matthew Chapter 7 right there at the
45:22
end, verses 24 through 27. As Jesus is teaching about
45:27
building your house on the rock, God is calling us as a church
45:31
back to the rock. He's calling us to a place to re
45:37
examine how we are building our lives and where we are building
45:43
our lives because one's going to lead to great success and one is
45:47
going to lead to great fall. The beautiful thing is, is you
45:51
have the choice. And so, Father, I thank you for
45:54
your word today as it speaks to our hearts.
45:57
I know that you have much to stir up in us just in a simple
46:01
Bible study with six simple things.
46:04
And yet at the same time, they're not so simple.
46:06
They're the reality of our lives.
46:09
They're the reality of what you're working out in our lives.
46:12
And we're praying that you, God, would minister to us, drawing
46:16
many to yourself this morning, that you might pour out your
46:19
spirit in a powerful way, and that God, you would have your
46:24
way among us in Jesus name. Amen.
46:29
We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
46:32
delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church for
46:35
prayer, call us at 87730 grace that's 877-304-7223.
46:45
To listen to this message in its integrity or to join us for our
46:48
live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
46:53
or download our free Calvary Church app.
46:56
Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.