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Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – Ministry Is a Four-Lette... · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Before I get on the way with what I have
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  Speaker 1: to say, I want to make a few candid comments
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  Speaker 1: about something you may rarely hear from someone who speaks
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  Speaker 1: in our seminary chapel, and that is what goes through
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  Speaker 1: the mind and the heart of an individual before coming
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  Speaker 1: here to speak. As I drive the distance from where
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  Speaker 1: we live, I just happened to check it this morning,
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  Speaker 1: a little over eighteen miles to the north of here,
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  Speaker 1: in the city of Frisco. Between there and here, I'm
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  Speaker 1: thinking about one thing especially, and that is give me
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  Speaker 1: the words to say Lord that will not be forgotten,
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  Speaker 1: so that they are clear, and they make sense, and
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  Speaker 1: they resonate in such a way that these who are
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  Speaker 1: studying here will remember them long after your years of
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  Speaker 1: training have passed. I thought of it when I first
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  Speaker 1: got up this morning, which was very early. I get
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  Speaker 1: up early and usually go to bed a little early,
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  Speaker 1: and last night was a little different, but normally go
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  Speaker 1: to bed early, get up early. And while I was
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  Speaker 1: up early this morning, I thought the same thing I
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  Speaker 1: remembered when I was a student and would come to chapel,
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  Speaker 1: mixing this with a busy schedule. And I know all
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  Speaker 1: of you have that you face that most of the chapels,
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  Speaker 1: I've long since forgotten some of them. Some of those
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  Speaker 1: messages I will never forget. I can almost give them
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  Speaker 1: to you verbatim. And they came sometime from a faculty member,
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  Speaker 1: occasionally from a guest on the campus, sometime from a
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  Speaker 1: former faculty member, and then from doctor Walfard or doctor
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  Speaker 1: Campbell who would occasionally speak. But there was something about
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  Speaker 1: certain messages that stuck. And it isn't that they were
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  Speaker 1: all that creative or eloquent, but they struck a nerve
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  Speaker 1: that was very relevant to life, not just student life,
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  Speaker 1: but life in ministry, life that would be lived on
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  Speaker 1: as I have lived it in the years that have passed.
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  Speaker 1: I am grateful for those messages, especially I am, and
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  Speaker 1: some of the statements that were made. I have repeated
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  Speaker 1: again and again. Haven't always given credit for the source,
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  Speaker 1: though I should have, but they have literally become so
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  Speaker 1: much a part of my vocabulary of my ministry that
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  Speaker 1: they just kind of roll out and everywhere I've served.
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  Speaker 1: I began in Grace Bible Church in Dallas. Then I
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  Speaker 1: went to New England. I was in Waltham, Massachusetts, at
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  Speaker 1: a free church, and I came back to Irving for
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  Speaker 1: about four years, and I went out to California to
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  Speaker 1: Fullerton where we were for twenty three years, returned here
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  Speaker 1: and then began the church here twenty a little over
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  Speaker 1: twenty years ago. And I've been here at seminary now
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  Speaker 1: another these twenty five years and returning. But in all
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  Speaker 1: those years and in all those places, I've not forgotten
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  Speaker 1: something that was said or some things that were said
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  Speaker 1: by various individuals. And I hope today will be one
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  Speaker 1: of those messages. I always hope that, and today I
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  Speaker 1: especially hope this one rings with relevance and a significance
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  Speaker 1: that you take with you because it has everything to
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  Speaker 1: do with your ministry, wherever it will be and with
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  Speaker 1: whom it will whoever it will be, for the rest
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  Speaker 1: of your years. I hope that you wake up some
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  Speaker 1: morning and remember the message of this day. I hope
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  Speaker 1: is your day unfolds, you'll recall on another occasion, I
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  Speaker 1: remember Swindle said so, and so I remember hearing in chapel.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't matter that I said it is that you
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  Speaker 1: heard it here and it again struck a note that
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  Speaker 1: was so significant you couldn't forget it. That's what I
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  Speaker 1: hope will be true today. Now you're a tough bunchs
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  Speaker 1: to talk to because you've heard a lot of things,
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  Speaker 1: and I know your mind is on other things. That's understandable.
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  Speaker 1: That's not a criticism. You've got lots of stuff going
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  Speaker 1: on and some of your thinking about that, and a
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  Speaker 1: number of you are getting closer to graduation and you're
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  Speaker 1: wondering about that. I didn't have a clue where I
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  Speaker 1: would go, what I'd be involved in. Didn't have a
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  Speaker 1: clue certainly for the first three years, and not much
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  Speaker 1: better on that last year until I came pretty close
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  Speaker 1: to the end and some opportunities opened up and I
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  Speaker 1: was then I had to make some decisions. These are notes.
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  Speaker 1: I use notes, by the way. I know you're taught
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  Speaker 1: not to come on you guys. You'll see someday you'll
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  Speaker 1: need them, and right now you don't, so do what
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  Speaker 1: you should do while you're here. And then I started
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  Speaker 1: to say, dump all that and do what you gotta do.
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  Speaker 1: You know, No, I still use a lot of the
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  Speaker 1: things I lord, many of the things I've kind of
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  Speaker 1: taught myself over the years. When you preach a lot,
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  Speaker 1: you better have something there or you'll get it mixed
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  Speaker 1: up with what you were preaching on two days ago
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  Speaker 1: or what you're planning on talking on tomorrow afternoon at
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  Speaker 1: that Yet, anyway, I want to talk to you about
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  Speaker 1: your love life. Jesus talk to his men, in his case,
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  Speaker 1: his twelve, about their love life, and he surprised them.
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  Speaker 1: I think Jesus often surprise those disciples. They weren't the
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  Speaker 1: brightest bulbs in the room to start with, and except
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  Speaker 1: for Judice, he was probably the sharpest of the group,
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  Speaker 1: and they were ready to react rather than absorb and act.
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  Speaker 1: Oh what a change came over them when the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of God moved in at Pentecost and revolutionized them. But
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  Speaker 1: that's another subject. Right now. They're confused because his hour
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  Speaker 1: has come. They don't know that they're going to find
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  Speaker 1: it out. And when they hear that, it troublesome because
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  Speaker 1: all they can think of is how they can go
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  Speaker 1: on without him, or the impossibility of that, because they
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  Speaker 1: watched him all through those years of training, and now
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  Speaker 1: they're hearing what they don't want to hear. I'm I'm
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  Speaker 1: about to leave. But before he leaves, this is what's
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  Speaker 1: on my heart today for you. Out of John thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: Before the feast have passover Jesus knowing that his hour
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  Speaker 1: had come. He's down to the wire. We would say,
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  Speaker 1: it's soon, Curtains, it's soon the cross, and he knows that.
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  Speaker 1: He knows within a matter of hours there will be
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  Speaker 1: torture like he's never known before, and this man of
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  Speaker 1: sorrows will will reach a limit that one can only imagine,
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  Speaker 1: knowing that the hour has come. I love this. Having
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  Speaker 1: loved his own who were in the world, he loved
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  Speaker 1: them to the end. That last phrase I tell us
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  Speaker 1: segopyr sam now toos unto the end he loved them
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  Speaker 1: sounds like to the end of his life. But it's
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  Speaker 1: more than that. I agree with Merrill Tenney, he was
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  Speaker 1: a dean of the graduate school at Wheaton for years,
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  Speaker 1: wrote this, The significance is not that he loved them
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  Speaker 1: to the last of his life, but that he loved
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  Speaker 1: them to the uttermost degree of which he was capable.
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  Speaker 1: He loved them passionately. Our kids would say, he loved
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  Speaker 1: them to the max. He loved them with everything that
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  Speaker 1: was in him. It was an unconditional, concentrated, consistent love
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  Speaker 1: that he had reached one of them. He could have
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  Speaker 1: looked at any moment and said, Peter, I love you, Andrew,
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  Speaker 1: I love you, Matthew, I love you, Judas, I love you, Thomas,
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  Speaker 1: I love you. They never knew when they weren't loved.
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  Speaker 1: Now that's a real security. I don't know if you
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  Speaker 1: heard your folks tell you that. I don't remember my
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  Speaker 1: dad telling me. I know he did, but he was
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  Speaker 1: of the generation that didn't talk, didn't say it, and
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  Speaker 1: your dad may have been the same. My mother said it,
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  Speaker 1: and so I was loved, but it wasn't this kind.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know that I ever knew this kind of
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  Speaker 1: love till Jesus began to mean more to me than
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  Speaker 1: life itself, then began to tap into it. But these
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  Speaker 1: disciples have never known a time when he didn't love them.
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  Speaker 1: He loved them to the extent of his ability to love.
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  Speaker 1: Incredible thought. During supper, John moves to that low lying table.
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  Speaker 1: They're all reclining around the table, and he notices that
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  Speaker 1: all their feet are dirty. Nobody appointed himself as a
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  Speaker 1: servant at the door when it came into that upper room.
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  Speaker 1: So he decided it's time for me to get these
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  Speaker 1: feet clean.
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  Speaker 2: So he.
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  Speaker 1: Drew water in a basin and he put a towel
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  Speaker 1: around himself, and verse four, he got up from supper,
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  Speaker 1: so he didn't finish his meal, and he poured the
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  Speaker 1: water in the basin and began to wash their feet.
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  Speaker 1: He washed the feet of the one who would doubt him,
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  Speaker 1: named Thomas. He washed the feet of the one who would,
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  Speaker 1: on three occasions in public deny him. He washed the
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  Speaker 1: feet of the one who would deceitfully kiss him and
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  Speaker 1: betray him. He washed all their feet because he loved them.
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  Speaker 1: And Peter, of course resisted. And you know the story,
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  Speaker 1: You know this passage well. But what happened afterwards is
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  Speaker 1: significant for us. Verse twelve. So when he had washed
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  Speaker 1: their feet and taken his garments and reclined at the table,
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  Speaker 1: so he's finished the foot washing, and he now reclines again,
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  Speaker 1: he said, do you know what I've done to you?
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  Speaker 1: Do you understand? You realize? His point is, do you
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  Speaker 1: realize the significance of this act, this demonstration of my love?
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  Speaker 1: You call me teacher and Lord, and you're right, for
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  Speaker 1: so I am. Now watch this verse. There's a surprise
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  Speaker 1: in it. If I then the Lord and the teacher
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  Speaker 1: washed your feet. Now, what would you think would follow?
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  Speaker 1: You would think it would. He would say, you should
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  Speaker 1: wash my feet. I've washed your feet, now you wash mine.
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  Speaker 1: But the surprise was that they ought to wash one
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  Speaker 1: another's feet. I don't know of a true believer who
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't stand in line to wash the Savior's feet. I
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  Speaker 1: stand in line for days, however long it took to
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  Speaker 1: get to him, and when my turn came, I would
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  Speaker 1: just probably weep the whole time I washed his feet.
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  Speaker 1: But that's not what he asks, or that's not what
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  Speaker 1: he's what he states, I've left you an example that
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  Speaker 1: you do this with one another, and I don't know
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  Speaker 1: that he is deliberately requiring a foot washing regularly of
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  Speaker 1: one another. I would venture to guess most of you
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  Speaker 1: have ever washed anyone's feet. And I don't mean that critically.
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  Speaker 1: It's just usually not a part of our style of
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  Speaker 1: a ministry. Or maybe you do, maybe you have, but
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  Speaker 1: most of the people that I minister to would not
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  Speaker 1: have done that. So it's not just the act of
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  Speaker 1: getting water and washing feet, though that is a wonderful
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  Speaker 1: thing to do. It's very meaningful. Sometime it's a sort
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  Speaker 1: of the crowning part of a conference. And I've been
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  Speaker 1: to them and you can rarely do it without tears.
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  Speaker 1: It's very touching. But his desire was that they would
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  Speaker 1: learn to excuse me to really serve one another verse fifteen.
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  Speaker 1: I gave you an example that you should do as
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  Speaker 1: I did to you verse seventeen. If you know these things.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, we're really good at that verb. Here
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  Speaker 1: at this school, we're big on knowing. And that's good,
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  Speaker 1: everything right about it. But the great tendency is to
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  Speaker 1: stop there. Jesus never stopped there. He always went on
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  Speaker 1: to the doing blessed or you, if you do them,
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  Speaker 1: that's where real fulfillment takes place in your life, when
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  Speaker 1: you really serve others. Now, I think he gets to
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  Speaker 1: the major point because after he has the last supper
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  Speaker 1: with them and Judas leaves into the night, we begin
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  Speaker 1: to pick up the story at verse thirty one. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: when he had gone out Judas, Jesus said, now is
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  Speaker 1: the son of Man glorified, and God has glorified in him.
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  Speaker 1: If God has glorified in him, God will also glorify
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  Speaker 1: him to himself in himself, and will glorify him immediately,
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  Speaker 1: little children, here it comes. Now here's our part. This
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  Speaker 1: is for the disciples, and indirectly it's to us little children.
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  Speaker 1: I'm with you a little while longer, and so where
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  Speaker 1: I'm going you cannot come. Verse thirty four. But a
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  Speaker 1: new commandment, the vulgate reads mandateum noblem, a new mandate.
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  Speaker 1: This isn't just a neat idea. This isn't an option
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  Speaker 1: among other things. This is a mandate. This is essential
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  Speaker 1: for ministry. And to these eleven he says, this new commandment,
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  Speaker 1: I give to you that you love one another. He
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  Speaker 1: even says, as I love you, remember how you loved
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  Speaker 1: him passionately to the max. He loved him full on.
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  Speaker 1: And then he goes further to say, by this verse
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  Speaker 1: thirty five, all will know your disciples if you have
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  Speaker 1: love for one another. One of the greatest of all
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  Speaker 1: defenses of the faith is love of the brothers and
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  Speaker 1: sisters in the family. I want to challenge you in
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  Speaker 1: this this area, because I think if you attempt to
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  Speaker 1: minister without love, you're going to hit bottom really quick,
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  Speaker 1: and you'll learn to fake it. You didn't get even
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  Speaker 1: good at that. But if you really want to serve
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  Speaker 1: flocks that God sends you to, and people God has
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  Speaker 1: you touch, and individuals who come to you across your path.
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  Speaker 1: Love is the ticket. It's a commandment, a new commandment.
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  Speaker 1: It's a fresh touch in ministry from this time on
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  Speaker 1: loving God all the way through, all the way back.
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  Speaker 1: You can trace it to the Shemah. But here it's
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  Speaker 1: loving one another. It's loving your brothers and your sisters,
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  Speaker 1: loving your congregation. One of the best things we ever
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  Speaker 1: did at Stonebriar is to ask both doctor stant Toussaint
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  Speaker 1: and doctor Howie Hendricks to join our elder team and then, graciously,
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  Speaker 1: without hesitation, we're willing to do that. I didn't know
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  Speaker 1: if they could or if they would, but we needed
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  Speaker 1: them at that time. I won't going to the reasons why,
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  Speaker 1: but their presence was a benediction not only on our
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  Speaker 1: church but on our team of leaders. And one of
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  Speaker 1: the great things about it is I got to spend
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  Speaker 1: private time with each one of them. And on one
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  Speaker 1: occasion I said to doctor two Saint, what's the secret.
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  Speaker 1: You've ministered all over the world and you've touched lives
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  Speaker 1: and everybody loves you, and you just have away with people.
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  Speaker 1: And they smiled and said wow. He said, I can
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  Speaker 1: boil it down to two simple statements. Maybe you, faculty,
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  Speaker 1: memory will remember his words. He said, Chuck, teach the
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  Speaker 1: truth and love the people. Teach the truth and love
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  Speaker 1: the people. And I said to him, am I doing that?
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  Speaker 1: He said, you're doing that. I said, sometimes it's tough
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  Speaker 1: to do that. He said, I didn't say it was easy.
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  Speaker 1: I said, that's the calling. Teach the truth, love the people. Now,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to learn the teaching part here. I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to lay it on the line. You're not going to
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  Speaker 1: learn the loving part here. You got to learn that
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  Speaker 1: on your own. And the avenues God uses to teach
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  Speaker 1: you about loving others will be very unique to each
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  Speaker 1: one of you, as it has been for me, because
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  Speaker 1: loving God's people, since it is such a apologetic in
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  Speaker 1: our world, since it is one of the ways the
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  Speaker 1: unsaved realize Jesus's Lord and that he makes a difference
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  Speaker 1: in lives. Is how we love each other. The enemy
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  Speaker 1: goes to town when we fight with each other. He
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  Speaker 1: just the devil loves it when there are church fights
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  Speaker 1: and squabbles, and there's just a history of that. But
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  Speaker 1: how great to be around congregations that love each other
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  Speaker 1: and are loved by the pastor and art and love
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  Speaker 1: him in return, and there is a dynamic that accompanies that.
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  Speaker 1: There is an affection, there is a warmth, There is
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  Speaker 1: a willingness to forgive, to work with, to serve, to
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  Speaker 1: spend time alongside. You don't feel like it's a sacrifice.
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  Speaker 1: You feel like it's a privilege to be there with
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  Speaker 1: them because you love them. Love does that love get
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  Speaker 1: you past the barriers of the flesh, and Jesus knowing
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  Speaker 1: that gives them a command to love one another. While
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  Speaker 1: I was at the seminary, along came a very interesting
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  Speaker 1: character and he spoke one day in Chapel and as
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  Speaker 1: a first grown man I've ever seen wear nickers, and
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  Speaker 1: he wore nie socks and nickers and spoke with kind
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: of a brogue. And I wasn't as red up on
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  Speaker 1: him as some of my class mates were. His name
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  Speaker 1: was Francis Schaeffer, and LaBrie wasn't even in existence at
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  Speaker 1: the time, or if it was, it wasn't talked about.
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  Speaker 1: And he came as a very unusual voice from God
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  Speaker 1: to us. As he spoke to us, hit a marvelous
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  Speaker 1: way about him that just sort of disarmed you. There
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  Speaker 1: was such an acceptance, and there was back in an
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  Speaker 1: era in the seventies, sixties and seventies, when people were
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  Speaker 1: often judged for the length of hair they wore, or
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  Speaker 1: the way they looked, or how they came across. And
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  Speaker 1: he was there to cut across all of that and
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  Speaker 1: to urge us to love each other. Finally, he put
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  Speaker 1: together a little kind of like a booklet called the
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  Speaker 1: Mark of the Christian. The Mark of the Christian? What
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  Speaker 1: is this mark? Right Schaeffer. At the close of his ministry,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus looked forward to his death on the cross, the
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  Speaker 1: open tomb, the ascension. Knowing that he was about to leave,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus prepares his disciples for what is to come. It
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  Speaker 1: is here that he makes clear what will be the
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  Speaker 1: distinguishing mark of a Christian. Then he quotes from John
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  Speaker 1: thirteen thirty three or thirty five. This passage reveals the
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  Speaker 1: mark that Jesus gives to label a Christian, not just
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  Speaker 1: in one era or in one locality, but at all
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  Speaker 1: times and in all places. Notice what he says here
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  Speaker 1: is not a description of a fact. It is a command.
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  Speaker 1: It includes a condition, a new commandment. I've given to
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  Speaker 1: you that you love one another. I've loved you that
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  Speaker 1: you love one another. So that all known to know
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  Speaker 1: that you are My disciples. If you have love for
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  Speaker 1: one another, and if it is involved, if you obey,
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  Speaker 1: you will wear the badge Christ gave. But since this
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  Speaker 1: is a command, it can be violated. The point is
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  Speaker 1: that it is possible to be a Christian without showing
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  Speaker 1: the mark. But if we expect non Christians to know
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  Speaker 1: that we are Christians, we must show that mark. And
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  Speaker 1: the distinguishing mark is love. I challenge you today to
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  Speaker 1: begin to give serious thought to your love relationship with others.
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  Speaker 1: To begin with others in your class, the others who
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  Speaker 1: serve on this faculty, the others who can really not
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  Speaker 1: do that much for you. And you know what I'm saying.
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  Speaker 1: Others you will study with, others you will learn from,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Others you will admire, and others you will look past.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: And when you move into ministry, you will find yourself
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: in a context, in a whole, brand new setting where
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: you get to know people you never met before, and
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: you now are called to serve them in whatever the
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: capacity of that calling. And they will know the sincerity
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: of your heart because they will read your love. They'll
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: be able to tell it. I administered in places where
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I didn't love the people. The ministry was not that effective,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: and I look back on it with deep regret. I
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: was young, I was in a hurry. I had an
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: agenda that wasn't necessarily the Lord's agenda, and I sort
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: of moved through their lives in a rather perfunctory fashion.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: And I certainly opened my Bible every time I preached
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: and all that, But I just have to say I
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: didn't really love them. Hard to love someone you don't know.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: You can love someone you can't see. Blind mothers prove
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: that all the time. But you got to get to
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: know people for that love to begin to flow, and
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: that takes time. In fact, I spill out the acrostic
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: of love, and I remember this regularly. I call it
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: to mind Elle. When I love someone, I listened to them.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I hear what they have to say. I listen. There
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: are those you don't listen to. You don't love them,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: you're not even listening to them. It's amazing how you
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: can shape your life so that you have room for others,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: and is revealed in how you listen to them. I've
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: learned to listen to whoever walks down front in our
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: flock following a service and some of them come to
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: say things that I wouldn't have expected to hear, and
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: I want to be sure that I hear them well.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Elle Is listen, oh is to overlook every person you love,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: you must overlook things that are irritating, that can be offensive,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: things that they may do or say, or have done
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: that you must look past. In every disciple, every one
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: of them had a past, and Jesus was willing and
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: calling them to overlook much of that, as he extended
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: to them this maximum love, overlook VIA's value. When I
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: love someone, I value what they say, I value their opinion,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: I value their presence. That goes with respect, and I've
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: learned over the years the importance of respecting those to
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: whom I minister and with whom I minister. I've served
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: with elders I didn't love, and it never worked well.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: I now serve with a team of elders, and I
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: will tell you the love relationship is off the chart.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: I look forward to the meetings, and I didn't think
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: i'd ever say that. I mean Pastor's dread elder meetings.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: I honestly say I do not dread Tomorrow morning. I'll
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: have one. Can't wait these are great guys I served with.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: They accept me for who I am. I'm totally accountable
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: to them. I have no secrets, and my life is
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: an open book and theirs is as well, and we
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: value that with each other. It's a marvelous thing to
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: be around that with in this case, adult men who
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: whose lives are all different from my life and mine
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: different from theirs, and yet there's this mutual sense of
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: respect and value is express Now. This is an important
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: part of it. You don't hold it back. Texans are
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: grated seeing I love you, you know like you I
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: love a dog. I love you. Sit down, I love you.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: When you love someone, you use the first person singular
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: to start with, I'd venture to say you've not said
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: that to most people in your class. I love you.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: It's different. When you put an eye in there, you
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: express it, you demonstrate it, shure it. My wife has
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: been through an intense illness with her spinal surgery, and
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: I chose to be her caregiver and it's gone into
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: months of caregiving, and neither she nor I knew all
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: that it would include. But my love for her is
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: such that I do not care what time of the
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: day or night she needs me. I do not care
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: what the need is, how intimate, how personal, how otherwise
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: embarrassing it may be for anyone else. But when you
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: love some one, all of that set aside, and your
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: expression is usually when the act of helping or assisting
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: or caring showing mercy, there's usually an embrace. And we
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: are closer now than we've ever been in our almost
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: sixty four years of marriage. I don't tell you that
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: for any other reason than to say, if God can
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: do that in my life, and believe me, that's not
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: the way I was brought up. But I've learned this,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: and you finally learn after a while that this love
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: that Jesus says is a command is just invaluable. Teach
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: the truth and love the people. Frankly, it's a lot
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: easier to just teach the truth, But to love means
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: you give something of yourself away, give it away, give
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: it away for goodness sake, and they will. Frankly, chances
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: are really good they will have never seen thing like it.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: I want to end by looking quickly at the first
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: three verses of one Corinthians thirteen, and when I do,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: we're moving ahead in the scriptures, but we're moving back
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: thirty five years before John wrote what he wrote thirty
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: to thirty five years before Paul wrote from Ephesus to
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: the people in charrint this first letter, and he wrote
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: them this great treatise on love. Fit it right in
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: between this twelfth and fourteenth chapter. And you know about that.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: So I'll not get into all of that. I'll just
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: look at these three verses with you. Just listen again,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: listening so well. And I'm very grateful for your willingness
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: to do that. If I speak with the tongues of
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: men and of angels, but do not have love, I
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. If you
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: will please do this, Just act like you've not heard
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: it before. Some of you are very gifted. As you speak,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: and when you speak, people listen because you're gifted, and
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: God's given you that tongue or that mind, that ability
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: to shape words and to formulate a message so that
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: it captures attention. But if you could do that like
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: an angel could do it, but lack love. If you
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: lack love, you become like a clanging symbol. The next one,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: if I have the gift of prophecy and know all
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: mysteries and all knowledge. And if I have all faith,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: all mystery, all knowledge, all faith, so as I could
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: remove mountains, but don't have love, zip nothing, He's not true.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: If I give all my possessions to feed the poor,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: and if I surrender my body to be burned, this
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: is a willing martyrdom. But lack of love it profits
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: me nothing. That's not hyperbole, that's not extreme kind of exaggeration.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: That is the truth. Eugene Peterson paraphrases it. So, no
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: matter what I say, what I believe, what I do,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: I am bankrupt without love, bankrupt, I got nothing to offer.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I'm an empty shell with a respectable degree from a
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: fine school. That's the envy of many a person who
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: can't afford to come here or can't for whatever reason
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: attend or take our courses. And you've taken, you're taking them,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: and you'll get the degree. Without love, you can burn it.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: But I'll tell you, when you've got this great, great attitude,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: this quality, they'll knock the doors down to get to you.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: You're the one they'll want to talk to for they
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: take their last breath. You're the one they'll share their
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: secrets with before they'll even tell the one they live
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: with that secret. You're the one who means more to
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: them than can put it into words. You'll really minister,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: not in the sense of becoming an idol or something
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: that's not it. That's not it. You will just become
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: for them someone who cares about them. And our world
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: is so empty and broken and confused and in disarray.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: They'll just long to have someone like you model that.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: It's a beautiful thing to behold how God uses that
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: kind of love in their lives. You will endear yourselves
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: to them and they to you in a bond that's unbreakable.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: You know what else, those without Christ in your neighborhood
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: will not need any convincing that Christ is who he
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: said he is, because they're witnessing Christ in this relationship.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: I've got a dozen stories I can tell you, but
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: I'll just stop there. You with eloquence, and with prophetic utterance,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: and with remarkable faith, and with compassionate benevolence, all the
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: great things that are so impressive. I simply plead with
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: you to remember that the commandment is to love one another,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: and you can go through the motions without it. Jonah did,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: and they got saved. He couldn't have cared less by
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: the way. I haven't even touched on it. But there's
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: another dimension that's loving people in general. Longer I live,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the more I realize the value of this quality, and
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: the more it melts me when I'm around it. I
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: wanted for you more than I think anything I could name,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and I fear when you're all through with your studies,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: you'll have everything, but at that and you'll be bankrupt.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: That's no way to get going in ministry. Lord. I
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: want to thank you for your patience with me over
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: the years. I want to thank you for your blessings,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: which have been enormous and frequent. I want to thank
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: you for the crushings in life that have been frequent
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: enough to just drop me to my knees and make
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: me remember that without you, and without these things I've
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: talked about, I'm just absolutely bankrupt. Thank you in advance, Father,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: for the way you're going to cement this in the
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: hearts of some, hopefully those who need it the most.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: May it make a difference in the way they treat
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: their mate, their children, their children in the future, their
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: future parishioners, those whom they will serve in whatever capacity,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: in whatever work you call them to, May they become
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: ministers of love. And may your Spirit ignite that in
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: us so that we are filled to overflowing with it.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: So we don't even have to mention it. We just
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: do it through the power of your Spirit. In the
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: name of Jesus, we pray. Everybody said, Amen Amen.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: The preceding message ministry is a four letter word, and
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: the sound recording We're copyrighted in twenty nineteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited.