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Church: Vehicle of God's Glory
22 Plays1 month ago
Eph. 3:1-13
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Transcript
The Cosmic Significance of Personal Lives
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I'm going to start with a couple of questions this morning to get your mind working before we dive into the text. Are you stuck in a rut?
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Are you bogged down in your current situation? Are you stuck in a bad marriage? Are you stuck in a bad job?
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Are you stuck with a boss who doesn't listen to you? Or maybe who micromanages you?
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Are you stuck without a job? Is that your current situation?
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Do you feel small and insignificant?
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Sometimes, friends, our lives seem small and insignificant. But I'm here to let you know this morning they're not.
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Our lives are part of something much, much bigger that's going on. Quite often it's something you and I just aren't really tuned in to watch. But it's part of what God is doing in the world.
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Most of us live with little awareness to what is going on around us. Most of us live with little to no understanding of just how important the church, that's you and I, is to what's going on in the world today.
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But happens quite often as you and I, we get bogged down in our current situation. And we begin to feel insignificant. We begin to feel small. We get stuck in a rut and we start telling ourselves, maybe I really don't matter all that much.
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Or worse, we think God can't somehow use me because of my current situation that I'm in.
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Brothers and sisters, that's a lie from the enemy.
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If you only remember one thing this morning, it is this. So those of you who simply would like to tune out and fall asleep after this, I will wake you up at the
The Church's Role in God's Cosmic Plan
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end of service. But just remember this one thing.
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Your lives, your ministry, this church has cosmic significance. Big things are going on in our lives and then the lives of this church.
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God can use you in your current situation where you're at right now, to glorify him and to achieve his purposes. Friends, this is the Bible of truth that we're going to learn today in Ephesians chapter 3. I invite you go ahead and open up your Bibles, if you will, Ephesians chapter 3. We're only looking at the first 13 verses today.
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you were here last week, last week we talked about the shedding of Christ's blood on the cross and what that meant for unbelievers as they placed their faith in Christ.
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Regardless of their genetics, we said, or their gender, whether or not they were black white or Asian, they were all brought into one community, one family. That's what talked about last week.
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And because are this one family, we should promote or broadcast, we said, this one unifying Christian message today. And yes, I said it last week, and I'll say it again, I think there's too many churches in Cameron.
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I might just be known for that in my time here.
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That was all last week. This week's passage to me this morning is fantastic.
Paul's Imprisonment and Divine Purpose
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I simply wrote at the very beginning of chapter 3 in one of my old Bibles that I actually used to study.
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i use this one simply to preach, so I don't mark this one up all too much. But in my other Bible, I simply wrote at the top of chapter 3, ADHD. And it's a mental note for me that this is how chapter 3 starts.
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Paul is writing this fascinating letter to the Ephesian church, and he says this wonderful prayer of thanksgiving. He says verse 1, For this reason, or when I think of all of this, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the benefit of you Gentiles, reek!
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And then he gets off track.
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An ADHD moment. digression. A digression. Verse 2 all the way to verse 13 is a completely separate thought. that's That's what going to look at today, is this digression, which may seem in the big picture it's a little off-kilter, but friends, it's a profound message this morning.
Unity of Jews and Gentiles in God's Wisdom
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I can't wait to give it to you.
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And then if you come back next week, we pick back up in Paul's Thanksgiving message. He does follow through, but today he's a little distracted at the beginning. Let's look must's not real quick with me. Chapter 3, starting verse 1. He says, when I think of all of this, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the benefit of you Gentiles, and then the New Living Translation has three dots.
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Dot, dot, dot. Or the ellipsis. You know, something else is going on, and then he picks up in verse 2 and says, Assuming, by the way, that you know God gave me the special responsibility of extending his grace to you Gentiles.
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As I briefly wrote earlier, God himself revealed his mysterious plan to me. And as you read what I have written, you will understand my insight into this plan regarding Christ.
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God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now by his spirit he has revealed it to his holy apostles and the prophets. And this is God's plan, verse 6 says.
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Both Gentiles and Jews who believe in the good news share equally in the riches inherited by God's children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus.
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By God's grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this good news. Though I am the least deserving of all of God's people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ.
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I was chosen to explain to everybody this mysterious plan, that God, the creator of all things, had kept secret from the very beginning.
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God's purpose in all this was to use the church, that's you guys, to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
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This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Faith and Confidence in Adversity
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Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now boldly and confidently come into God's presence.
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So please don't lose heart because of my trials here. I'm suffering for you so that you should feel honored.
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Friends, Paul is writing this, irony of this, he's writing this from Roman prison. And he starts by saying, I, Paul, locked in a Roman prisoner, a prisoner of Christ.
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The literal sense he's sitting in the prison, and yes, Caesar is ruling over him. Or somebody under Caesar is pretty much ruling over Paul. But yet he says, although I'm physically in this situation, my relationship to Christ and the love for his Gentiles, that's what's holding me prisoner.
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I put a note to myself. I put 2017 next to mine. That's when I wrote this down, by the way. Bound to the Savior, not to your situation. That's what verse 1 is telling us here.
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Oftentimes we can get so stuck in our situation, so bogged down in our current circumstance that we forget whose we are. We are Christ's.
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We belong to him. And while Paul is indeed a prisoner of Christ,
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He's not just some Christian who had the misfortune of getting stuck in prison. But he was prisoner of Christ first and then prisoner of Caesar second.
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Here he's telling us something amazing about his current situation. And want to be real careful as we walk through this because some of you have walked through some pretty trying times before.
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Sweet Loretta's class today as we were studying Psalm 23. Who wants to share dark valley they've been in? Crickets. Nobody wants to share the dark valley.
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Paul is sitting in a dark valley, y'all. He's in prison, literally sitting, and he's telling these people, this Ephesian church, about a wonderful God, a cosmic God, who is going to consummate all things in Christ.
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How powerful this God is, but look at Paul's situation. He's he's sitting in prison. That's paradoxical. Meaning it's we expect one thing to happen, but something else is really happening.
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Paul serves this all-powerful, all-seeing God, highly exalted over all of the cosmos, but here he's lowly sitting in a prison, Paul is.
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It's interesting because i wrote right here, you and I might be in the now, meaning we're sitting in some situation.
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But God's using you in that situation for a powerful reason.
Embracing the Role in Ministry
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I think this is a mistake a lot of Christians make these days. We think I'm going to become a Christian and then life's going to be so much better for me. Things are going to be great. I'm never going to experience a trial.
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No, you're going to experience trials. The Bible's real clear about that. What we do in that trial, what we do when we're in that situation, are we going be bogged down or are we going to realize who we serve?
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That, friends, is up to us. He goes on and says, though I'm in prison, even though I'm experiencing tribulation, Even though I'm seemingly insignificant and weak and I'm stuck here and I'm suffering, even though my situation isn't great, God is going to do great things.
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Paul would be used, as we know, to reveal this great mystery to the Gentiles. Remember last week we talked about what that word mystery means? It means something which was once hidden and which is now revealed.
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What was that? Well, verse 6 is real clear for us. I hope I accentuated that when I read that.
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And this is God's plan, verse 6 says. Can't be any clearer. Both Gentiles and Jews who believe in the good news share equally in the riches inherited by God's children. Both are part of the same body. Both enjoy the promise of the blessings because both belong to Christ Jesus.
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He's saying, friends, even though I'm experiencing tribulation, God is, in his grace and his mercy, has found it pertinent to give me divine revelation of what's going on.
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Even though Paul's in a bad situation, God is still speaking.
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Maybe that's you today. Maybe you're sitting there in your bad situation, in your bad work situation, in your bad marriage, and you're thinking to yourself, Lord, how in the world are you going to use this for your glory?
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No, today he's still at work. He's still speaking. And I love verse 8. Verse 8, he says, Paul, who's been entrusted with this fabulous message, this truth that's only going to be delivered to the Gentiles,
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He says, I am the least deserving of all God's people. Your translation may read the the less than the least of all the saints.
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The literal translation, if I can say this in the most broken English possible, I am the leaster, that's what he's saying, of all the people of prominence and of importance, I, Paul, am the least deserving.
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Me of all people. Somehow God is even using me. God has given me the grace to go and proclaim the good news to the Gentiles.
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Verse 7 says, By God's grace and mighty power I have been given, and I circled in my translation, the privilege, or the honor might be a better word here. The honor to serve him. The privilege to serve him. The privilege to go out and praise God.
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Give the good news to the lost. By the way, it's the same call that you and I have been given. It's the same privilege that you and I have been given. It's the same honor that you and I get to share it.
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And I thought about that this week. Regardless of our circumstance, regardless of your situation, regardless of whether not you think you're significant or insignificant, whether you have status or you don't, we're all called to play a part in this big picture.
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We're all furthering God's kingdom, if you will, by spreading God's good news. And I just put down, I hope we all consider that a privilege.
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Friends, there are people in other countries that are dying for this privilege. And when I think about the Apostle Paul's situation, sitting in a Roman prison, writing this letter to the church,
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I'm reminded that God uses us all regardless of our situation. He can use a prisoner,
Trials as a Path to Glory
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a politician, a policeman, maybe even a school teacher.
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It doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, whether you're educated or not, whether or not you have a job or you don't have a job. Regardless of your position in life, God can use you just where you're at right now.
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You simply have to be willing to be used. And so my first question this morning is, are you willing? Are you willing? Could Paul have simply sat in the Roman prison and sulked about his current situation? You bet he could have.
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But instead he's writing to an Ephesian church. He's willing to be used by God. Are you willing to play va a vital role that God has called you to play in his kingdom work?
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God uses not only the prisoners, the least likely people, He also uses those with the the least status. This is the model I put, model of ministry. this is what This is how God uses you and I in the kingdom work.
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He takes you at your least, at your most broken, at your most vulnerable, and he lets you know, I'm the powerful one. You're the weak one. And I'm going to use you and your weakness to show exactly how great I am.
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R.C. Sproul says, God uses the least to proclaim his greatness every single day.
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What is the purpose of ministry? Well, he tells us here in verse 10. Look with me, verse 10.
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God's purpose in all of this was to use the church, that's you and I, to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
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What does this mean? Friends, this means that he uses the most unlikely people to accomplish the most amazing things. And when he does that, it says it forces the principalities or the unseen rulers in the heavenly places to scratch their heads.
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How in the world did that happen? I didn't see that coming. That's what the heavenly realm is saying right now. Who knew they could take Patrick Ransom, who was from Houston,
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He used to be an alcoholic. And one day I'm going to take him and change him and use him at the pulpit in Cameron, Texas. Who would have thought? And all the heavenly people were scratching their heads.
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What? Didn't see that coming. I think to myself, friends, it's not just the heavenly realms that are scratching their heads. Imagine the Roman soldiers having Paul in prison where he's suffering.
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And friends, it's not like prison that you and I have today. They're not getting HBO and Cinemax. You know what talking about? They're not getting three square meals. They're chained in a dark, dirty place in the Roman prison, and they have to be thinking to themselves, how in the world is Christianity spreading like wildfire?
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This guy is sitting here suffering, and he's talking about how great it is to serve Christ. How does that happen? Well, God's using the most unlikely people to do the most amazing things.
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God's big plan, his grand plan that we talked about couple weeks ago, is to one day come back and fix everything. Remember we talked about that? Broken creation, broken humanity. He's going to come back in the consummation of all things in Christ and fix it all. It's this grand picture, this grand plan, and that you and I as a church play a role, we said, in that plan.
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That's you and and it just keeps going.
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And friends, we have to do this because the world system is constantly against us. So as we are constantly maturing in Christ, as the church, we are moving God's program forward, and it's it's against the world system.
00:18:14
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We are involved in something much bigger than you and I are individually here So if you think to yourself, man, I am somehow insignificant, or man, I am somehow bogged down in my current situation, I can't even make the rent this month.
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How in the world is God going to use me in a powerful way? Well, guess what? That's exactly what he's doing. He's using you in a powerful way if you let him.
Recognizing and Utilizing Spiritual Gifts
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And he's progressing his kingdom.
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And it brings God the glory. That's what he says here. Verse 12. Look with me, verse 12. Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently.
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If you're somebody who highlights or underlines, boldly and confidently might be two words you highlight there. Unlike anything in the past, something which had been unthinkable in Old Testament times, coming into the presence of the Lord Never would have happened, unless you're a Levite, and unless you were a high-end priest that you would get there.
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Now it says we have direct access, and we can come confident and boldly to Christ.
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I put, do we take that for granted?
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The irony is, Paul is telling all his friends, I have the boldness and the confidence to come before God, although I'm kind of in a Roman prison right now. right My situation might not look so great right now, but guess what? God's still doing something amazing through me.
00:19:49
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The church is God's vehicle to bring himself glory. And you and I have a position in that church. so So what do we do with this today? What do we do with this passage? How do we apply it to your life and my life? Well, I simply put, how can we praise God for our purpose and position in ministry? And by ministry, I don't mean church ministry. I just mean in your life as you're living it out as a Christian. That's your ministry.
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Whether or not you're doing it physically here in the church, like I have the honor and privilege of coming before you. I also have another job, a secular job that I do, but but my ministry is there as well.
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Your ministry is at Dell as I look over here to my brother over here, right? Your job is a place where you go out and serve and do your ministry.
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How do we honor God? How do we praise him in our position and with purpose? And I simply put two points today. We can express gratitude for the opportunity to serve. That's the first one.
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And the second is acknowledge our spiritual gifts and actually use them. The first is how do we express gratitude and acknowledge God's gift to serve?
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I just simply put, he's called you right now to be exactly where you're at. Where you're at is no accident, by the way. If you have a very difficult boss right now, that didn't somehow catch God by surprise.
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Like, wow, I didn't see that coming. Oh, I lost my job. Oh, God, you weren't watching out for me? How that happen? No, friends, he has it all under wraps. He knows exactly where you're at, and he's called you to be at that exact place at this exact time in your life.
00:21:29
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Praise God for that. Praise him, I simply put, that you have an opportunity to serve here at the church. Praise him that you have a home church. Praise him that you have a place to serve at. Be thankful that you have a choir that comes up and sings.
00:21:45
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that you have a piano player and keyboards that come up and commit their time to make your worship more enjoyable. Be thankful for the choir, for the ushers, the administrators, those that count the money, those that help with the financials of the church.
00:22:03
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God has given you a position within this church, within your ministry, and he's called you to serve in some capacity. If you're not serving in some capacity, brothers and sisters, that's the first step. You need to figure out how can I serve in his kingdom purposes.
00:22:18
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I simply put our position, our opportunity to serve as a gift. That's the other thing we need to remember. It's a gift given by God.
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If you're a teacher, praise God for that. That was a gift he's given you.
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Then I put not everybody's meant to be a teacher. It's just the truth. Not everybody was given that gift. Praise God for your position within the church. Maybe you can express gratitude through prayer.
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Or, you know, my favorite is journaling, if you can journal. Or maybe you do it through song.
00:22:53
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Whatever it is, praise God for that gift that he's given you and serve. Second is acknowledge that you have been given a spiritual gift. The Apostle Peter tells us in 1 Peter 4.10, God has given each of you a gift that from his great variety of spiritual gifts, you are to use them to serve one another well.
00:23:13
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What is that spiritual gift, you say? Well, there's a whole chock full of them if you simply read there. But he's given you a gift, and he's given me a gift.
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At one point, I thought my gift was administration because I'm very orderly and I work on computers. And so I ah felt like, man, God is really going to use me in administration.
00:23:36
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And then this preaching thing came along. And I thought, surely he doesn't want me to be a preacher. And when I went to seminary, I just thought everybody in seminary wanted to be a preacher. And so when they went around the room in orientation at Dallas Seminary, and they were like, what do you want to do? And this lady was like, missions. And some other guy, they were naming all these things. And I was like, oh, a preacher.
00:23:56
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They were like, really? And I was like, doesn't everybody want to be a preacher? Friends, it's a calling. And it's a gift. But we have to exercise those gifts. So I simply put, are we exercising those gifts to build up the body, to edify the church?
00:24:12
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Paul was uniquely gifted.
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He didn't let that go to waste. If you sing or you play an instrument, the choir would love to talk to you. If you're gifted in computers or audiovisual stuff, the crew upstairs would love to to meet with you.
00:24:30
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If you're cheerful or bubbly, cheerful or bubbling The greeters would love to talk to you. The hospitality team is in need of you. If you're crafty with tools, or you're a handyman or a handywoman, the property committee would love to talk to you.
00:24:49
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Shameless plug for all the committees that we have here. Why do i why do I stress that so often? Friends, because just like in your normal family, if you have many people in your family,
00:25:01
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And I can just tell you I came from a family of four. When dinner time came around, everybody was doing something. You didn't just sit around and be like, I'm watching SportsCenter, Bob.
00:25:13
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don't have time. You guys let me know when dinner's ready. No, you all pitched in and you all did something. um I didn't cook, so I just did the manual labor. But friends, there's honor in the manual labor, and there's lots of manual labor to do here at the church.
00:25:29
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We all have to participate in some manner. We all have been given spiritual gifts to help in some manner here at the church. What a better way that we can glorify God is is to recognize that gift and to serve here and in this community.
00:25:44
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It brings him great honor when we recognize our purpose and we glorify him.
00:25:51
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You're not insignificant.
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You're not small.
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He knows the situation you're in right now.
00:26:02
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He's wanting you to rely on him to get you out of that situation.
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And when we do that, the cosmos, the heavens, see his glory. Amen?