WEBVTT

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 So for a little while this morning, we're going to look at verses 3 to 5.

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 We looked at verses 1 on its own, then we looked at verses 2, 2 and 3.

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 And now we look to verses 2, sorry, and then now we're going to look at verses 3 to 5.

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 And the trouble with doing something like this is that you feel the necessity of just

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 summarizing the previous weeks.

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 But the trouble is by the end of the chapter, we'll be here for about three hours because

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 you'll just be repeating.

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 Or the temptation is to just be repeating everything that we've looked at so that we

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 get everything in context.

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 But I'm not going to do that.

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 So if you haven't been here then, I'm really sorry.

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 But you're also probably mightily relieved that we'll not be going through two sermons

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 before we actually get to this one.

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 But just to put it in context very briefly, this is a great chapter because it comes at

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 the end of 11 chapters that are full of strong deep theology, truth about God, truth about

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 ourselves, truth about salvation, truth about the nature and character of God.

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 So we've got all these deep theology and then at the beginning of chapter 12 says, therefore,

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 because of all of that, this is how we should live.

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 And so he's making a very strong, God's making a really strong link between knowing

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 Him and then how we live.

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 And that obviously is the case.

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 The less we know God, the less we understand about Christ and salvation and about our own

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 hearts and our need for a Savior, then the less that we're going to live for Him and

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 follow Him and understand Him.

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 So that's really what chapter 12 and indeed the rest of Romans is about.

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 And I think I also mentioned that sometimes there'll be a little bit of overlap so that

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 and there will be today, a little bit of overlap.

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 So if you weren't here last week, that's fine.

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 If you were here last week, I'm sorry, there will be a little bit, just a little bit of

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 overlap because last week, if you saw in verse 2, it spoke about the renewal of our minds.

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 Our whole bodies, verse 1, as a living sacrifice and that came about by the renewing of our

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 minds.

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 And really in some ways, this verse, these verses, verses 3 to 5, explain a little bit

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 about what it means to have our minds renewed as Christians, as followers of Jesus, as people

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 who trust in Him.

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 And one of the things it means is a really good self-awareness.

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 It's important that we are aware of ourselves before God.

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 It's like the Scripture and our relationship with Jesus Christ is, in a sense, it's like

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 a mirror.

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 It's like a mirror to ourselves, and we find it's where we find our identity, and it's

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 where our identity as believers blossoms, as individuals, it's where we blossom.

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 And it also, not only where we blossom in relationship to God who made us, who wants

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 to be in relationship with us, and for whom sin breaks that relationship and why Christ

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 comes, but also in our relationships with one another.

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 So there's this radical transformation of our bodies, of all we are, and of our minds,

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 both in relation to God and in relation to primarily our place in the Christian community,

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 and that's what it's going to be spoken about in the next few verses.

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 Because what Paul is assuming here, and he's inspired by the Holy Spirit for us, is that

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 being part of the church of Christ is simply assumed.

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 It's not even necessarily explained, it's just assumed that if you're a Christian, you're

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 part of the body of Christ.

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 You belong to Christ's family, and that's described and illustrated in different ways.

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 That's the only pattern there is.

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 There's not really any teaching about being rogue Christians or lone ranger Christians

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 galloping away on our white horse, all on our own, because nobody else is good enough.

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 But rather we come into a body of failed and fallen believers who are redeemed by grace,

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 and we're part of that.

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 And so we find the New Testament constantly speaks about the importance of the local church,

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 the importance of the family of God, of the spiritual leadership and oversight, humbly

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 reflect in Christ, the making of disciples and the making of disciples in community.

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 And that's a really hard truth for us to take, I think, is very often very... it's one of

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 the things we'd like to leave behind, especially in the individualistic age in which we live.

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 Church can be so full of angst, it can be so full of tension, we have the ridiculous cult

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 of celebrity preachers, the unhealthy measuring of one another against each other.

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 Who's the better Christian?

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 Who's the better denomination?

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 Which church is the most converts?

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 So much competition flying about to get nudge further up the church ladder.

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 So many riddles...

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 In churches, so many riddled with guilt because they don't feel that they meet the standards

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 of the people around them or the demands from the pulpit.

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 There's so much stereotyping of what a good Christian looks like, so much unbiblical things

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 go on in church so often.

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 And sometimes the emphasis is on uniformity rather than unity.

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 So there's this pressure all to look the same and act the same and yet not realize that

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 God has made us very different and that we are to be united but not uniform.

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 You see the difference?

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 Not all to be the same but we are to be united in Christ.

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 And so we have that tension but we also have the beauty of the church and the beauty of

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 Christian fellowship and relationship and the attraction of that which is important

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 for us to remember and to consider and to give thanks for in our lives.

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 But what is Paul saying here about ourselves and also about our church or about the church

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 as it were?

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 And I don't just mean this...

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 I don't really just mean the Sunday gathering but rather the reality of a community of believers,

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 whether it's local or whether it's something we have in common with believers throughout

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 the world, which in the summer we get a great sense of in St. Clummas because we get so

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 many visitors from and Christians from all over the world, all over Scotland, England,

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 UK and the world.

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 It's amazing.

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 But what is Paul saying here in verses 3 to 5?

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 For the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of himself

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 but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith God has assigned.

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 For as in one body we have many members and the members do not have all the same function

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 so we though many are one in Christ and individually members of one another.

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 I think he's reminding us it's a message for every believer, every single believer.

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 He says every one of you, you know, every one of you, it's not just to the leaders of

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 the church, it's to every single believer.

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 This letter to the church in Rome, this early church was going out to all the... to the

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 whole church, to the whole family and he's giving foundational truths that apply to every

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 single believer.

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 And so these are truths and the first eleven chapters with all that deep theology, that's

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 for every believer as well.

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 It's for every single believer.

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 And no one is left out.

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 The Holy Spirit brings a message to all of us as believers.

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 And if you're not a believer then the challenge is to consider even the message that goes

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 out because it is still relevant as someone who has been made by God, who deep down recognizes

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 that and who one day will face God.

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 And so we're called to consider him.

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 It's God's breath, God breathed these words in.

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 He has no favourites, there are no exemptions, there's no hierarchy here under the Apostles

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 of authority, Paul is speaking through... God is speaking through Paul to the whole church.

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 And he's saying, only in Christ can we truly know ourselves.

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 He says and reminds us in verse four for as in one body, many members and the members

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 of the same function, so in Christ.

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 So we, though many, are one body in Christ.

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 And that is a really important truth, is he's speaking of this reborn reality that every

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 believer is in Christ, that we've all had our eyes opened and we are beginning to or

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 seeking to live uniquely as we were created to do.

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 And that involves rooting out some of the deadness and the corrosive, destructive ways

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 of selfishness and lovelessness and our sinful independence and seeing our true potential

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 in Jesus Christ.

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 Seeing what it means to live to the full in Jesus Christ.

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 And he's reminding us that it's in Christ that we truly can begin to know ourselves.

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 And he goes on, I think, to explain a little bit of what that means, it involves thoughtful

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 self-reflection for by the grace given to us, to every one of you not to think of themselves

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 more highly than they ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.

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 So we're going back there to the previous verse which is talking about thinking again.

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 There's to be thoughtful self-reflection.

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 Paul's not saying that we are worthless.

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 He's not saying that we are not to think about ourselves.

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 He's saying we're not to think about ourselves more highly than we are than we ought to think.

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 We can think highly of ourselves, but not more highly than we ought to think.

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 So there's a balance to what he's saying and there's a balance to our thinking.

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 There's a right level, in other words, of self-love.

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 It's going to be impossible for us to love anyone else if we don't love ourselves.

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 The Bible is absolutely clear about that, but it's not a love of self that enthrones

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 self and puts self above God or above other people.

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 We're image bearers of God.

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 We matter to God.

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 And we are to be thoughtfully self-reflective.

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 We have a huge task as Christians.

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 Remember it took Christ, the Son of God, to be nailed to a tree, to deal and to face God's

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 wrath with the Father's wrath and the power of hell to set us free.

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 There's a huge task of deconstructing the darkness and disfigurement that sinful selfishness

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 and that God rejection has plunged us into.

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 There's a deconstructing of that and there's a reconstructing in righteousness, putting

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 the love of Christ and the grace of Christ right at the very heart and core of our lives.

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 And that's what we are being encouraged to do, thoughtful self-reflection.

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 So as I mentioned last week, we're to be heart philosophers.

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 We're to be thinkers.

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 Four times in this verse, Paul uses that verb, thinking.

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 If you were translating it absolutely from the text, you could translate it, don't think

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 high thinking, kind of proud, but think sober thinking.

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 So it's four times, he uses that word very good.

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 Don't think high thinking, but think sober thinking.

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 That is sober thinking, there is sound, moderate, wise thinking.

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 And so he's wanting us to think.

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 That's what he wants us to do, his believers.

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 He wants us to be thinking believers.

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 It's so easy, isn't it, to go through life without thinking.

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 And he wants us to stop at least daily, I'm assured of that, and analyze our heart, analyze

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 our thinking, our attitudes, our decisions, understanding ourselves before the living

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 God and what he wants from us in our relationship with Christ.

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 How he wants us to respond, how he wants us to think about Him, and to pray through some

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 of the lack that we may have in our lives and to ask Him for His grace and strength

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 and truth.

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 To consider how we responded in conversation and to consider whether we could have done

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 things differently.

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 And that's a practice, that's an ongoing reality, and there's so many distractions to that.

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 I think I mentioned last week we have access to a whole lot of knowledge, a whole lot of

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 information.

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 There's never been so much information available to the whole world.

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 Our brains are fried with all the information.

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 And we now have the attention span generally of gnats in our lives.

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 But we are losing the ability to think, to stop and meditate.

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 We live so much for the moment and we're asked to consider how we live and the consequences

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 of our thought process, of our conversation, of our responses and to think about our future.

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 So it's important to think.

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 And it's important to think with balance, with a certain perspective.

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 And that is through the measuring lens of the cross.

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 That's what I believe He means here.

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 There's different interpretations where He says, but to think with sober judgment, each

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 according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

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 Now I think what that means is that He's given us a measure by which we are to think.

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 He's given us a standard by which we are to make consideration.

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 And that standard is the death of Jesus Christ, that we have come by faith to believe in and

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 to understand.

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 That's the gospel.

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 That is His only measure.

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 And that measure says we can't do anything on our own.

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 It says, as we've often said here, we're more wicked than we ever could imagine, but

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 we're more love than we could ever hope for.

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 It says that we need Jesus Christ.

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 It says that that is the measure.

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 That's the measure that we use.

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 And it is by faith that we can ask for more of from God that is the lens by which, the

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 balance by which we measure ourselves.

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 And that's so important because it keeps us from pride, doesn't it, from thinking too

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 highly of ourselves, and it enables us to think with sober reflection.

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 And it's a great balance because it reminds us how precious we are as individuals, how

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 important we are that God the Son would leave glory and live the life we couldn't live and

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 die the death we deserve.

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 It makes our lives worthwhile and significant.

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 Even if you come this morning and you think, you just feel nobody has any interest in my

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 life or any concern for me, or would know whether I lived or died.

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 We have a Savior who's gone that far in order to redeem us.

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 That's how precious, that's the balance that we have along with the challenge of the darkness

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 and the rebellion that keeps us from Him and that makes us stick our fingers up at Him

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 and say, I don't need you, I can go my own way, I'm good enough without God.

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 And so it gives us, the cross gives us that balance, the cost that was paid to set us

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 free.

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 It helps us to understand grace and the gospel and ourselves.

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 So we look at that through the prism of the cross, through the mirror of the cross, and

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 we find that it gives us the right balance to think about ourselves, not too highly,

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 but with sober judgment, sober reflection.

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 And that's very important.

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 That sober reflection is really significant because it reminds us of our fragility and

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 our need for His protection and strength.

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 If we try and live the Christian life on our own, or intellectually, or ritualistically,

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 or outwardly, then we will be destroyed.

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 It will destroy us.

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 It's just simply impossible.

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 And we'll probably destroy others along the way because we'll be judging them and we'll

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 be comparing ourselves with them and we'll be trying our best or we'll be critical and

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 we'll take that place of judgment.

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 You know what it's like when we rise above our station as it were and fail to consider

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 our vulnerability.

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 When we've done too much in our own wisdom, or we've drunk too much, or we've said too

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 much, or we've lived as if it's just all about me and my needs, my hurt and my abilities,

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 my health and my popularity.

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 He wants us to think with sober judgment in the light of the cross and in the light of

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 God's glorious grace.

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 So that sober judgment, it's a great phrase really.

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 It's a critical eye, grace-filled critical eye, but not at others.

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 It's think of ourselves with sober judgment.

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 It's exercised internally.

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 What we often do is we exercise it externally.

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 We use sober judgment, or we use judgment, maybe not that sober.

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 We use judgment on everyone else's motives and everyone else's behavior and everyone

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 else's hearts.

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 And that allows us to ignore the complexities and the idolatries and the mixed motives of

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 our own hearts, because that's much tougher, right?

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 But the great thing is it's a healing examination, because as we go and as we see what's there

00:18:49.639 --> 00:18:53.559
 and we see our motives, we just cry out to the living God for forgiveness and for challenge

00:18:53.559 --> 00:18:54.839
 and for change.

00:18:54.839 --> 00:19:03.240
 That's why He says that we are be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we live

00:19:03.240 --> 00:19:05.439
 Christ-like lives.

00:19:05.439 --> 00:19:07.919
 It's a lifelong surgery towards healing.

00:19:07.919 --> 00:19:10.839
 That's a great way of describing it.

00:19:10.839 --> 00:19:19.039
 We're forensically, as it were, legally before the judge of all the earth, we are forgiven.

00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:24.759
 We are made clean from the moment we accepted Christ as our Savior.

00:19:24.759 --> 00:19:25.759
 Paid in full.

00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:30.920
 So if I died this moment, I would face the judge and it would look down and he would

00:19:30.920 --> 00:19:33.119
 say, paid in full by Jesus.

00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:44.079
 But there's an ongoing healing in our lives that our circumstances dictate often how our

00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:48.240
 responses will dictate how we deal with these circumstances.

00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:49.599
 We're called to be Christ-like.

00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:52.000
 So that's the first thing.

00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:54.119
 There's only one other thing.

00:19:54.119 --> 00:19:58.759
 Policy and only in Christ can we truly know ourselves.

00:19:58.759 --> 00:20:04.799
 And the second thing he says here, he says it's always in the context of belonging.

00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:11.839
 It's always in the context of being part of the family of God.

00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:22.799
 It's simply not an option to be someone who is living the Christian life individually alone.

00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:29.519
 There must be individual elements, but he says for, in verse 4, for, as in one body

00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:32.440
 we have many members and the members do not have the same functions.

00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:37.919
 So we, though many, are one body in Christ.

00:20:37.919 --> 00:20:41.480
 And individually, yes, members of one another.

00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:45.279
 That is a radical transforming truth for us.

00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:47.079
 It's not optional.

00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:50.639
 It's absolutely critical to our understanding.

00:20:50.640 --> 00:21:00.240
 It was the first desperate, brutal, horrible reality of sin as it was passed down from

00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:02.240
 the beginning.

00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:06.280
 It was a cane set of able.

00:21:06.280 --> 00:21:08.680
 Am I my brother's keeper?

00:21:08.680 --> 00:21:10.759
 Do I care about my brother?

00:21:10.759 --> 00:21:13.800
 Am I interested in my brother?

00:21:13.799 --> 00:21:22.119
 The jealousy, the division, the anger, the sin that was crouching at his door broke that

00:21:22.119 --> 00:21:27.079
 family in a desperate and brutal way.

00:21:27.079 --> 00:21:32.599
 And that's why I read that passage, because in Christ we are called to be renewed and

00:21:32.599 --> 00:21:41.319
 to not just maybe internal or natural family relationships, which may be very difficult,

00:21:41.319 --> 00:21:49.039
 but we are called to be renewed to our Father and therefore also to His children.

00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:50.200
 We are one body.

00:21:50.200 --> 00:21:54.960
 Christ is our head, Christ is our Father, Christ is our King, and we are all together.

00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:58.679
 Every believer is part of the body of Christ the church.

00:21:58.679 --> 00:22:05.960
 And it's the reversal, not of individualism, because we know we're all individuals, but

00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:13.799
 it's a reversal of divisive, sinful individualism, and it's bringing to...

00:22:13.799 --> 00:22:21.840
 It's the reality that we're calling Christ to live a transformed community, because that's

00:22:21.840 --> 00:22:22.840
 what He's calling us to.

00:22:22.840 --> 00:22:25.600
 That's what we're going to enjoy in eternity.

00:22:25.600 --> 00:22:29.440
 We're not all going to have our own individual pods in heaven.

00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:34.160
 I don't know what I'll be like, but it will be a community.

00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:39.360
 There will not be a lot of closed doors, there will not be a lot of castles, there will not

00:22:39.360 --> 00:22:44.360
 be a lot of selfish, sinful...

00:22:44.360 --> 00:22:47.800
 I'm going down a really difficult path here, because who knows what heaven's going to be

00:22:47.800 --> 00:22:51.920
 like, but it's going to be a community of love and fellowship and joy together.

00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:54.240
 It's beyond what we can ask or even imagine.

00:22:54.240 --> 00:23:00.360
 It's very hard for our remaining sinful heads to imagine it being great, being with other

00:23:00.360 --> 00:23:01.360
 people.

00:23:01.360 --> 00:23:02.360
 Really?

00:23:02.360 --> 00:23:03.360
 Sorry.

00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:06.199
 I just gave away my own heart there.

00:23:06.199 --> 00:23:07.479
 It's going to be great being with Jesus.

00:23:07.479 --> 00:23:10.639
 It's always great being with Jesus, because He'll wipe away every tear, but eternity with

00:23:10.639 --> 00:23:12.639
 every people, whew.

00:23:12.639 --> 00:23:16.839
 There's going to have to be some transformation for me to be there, that's for sure, and for

00:23:16.839 --> 00:23:20.839
 you to love me there even more so.

00:23:20.839 --> 00:23:25.879
 But that sinful individualism looks for ways to repel other people, doesn't it?

00:23:25.879 --> 00:23:29.959
 And to maybe attract people on our own terms, people we're comfortable with, people that

00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:34.680
 we are not overawed by, people that don't make us look bad.

00:23:34.680 --> 00:23:35.680
 And we often...

00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:40.440
 That sinful individual makes the church an optional thing, or thinks of church just as

00:23:40.440 --> 00:23:45.480
 something where you go to with your mates, the people who are like you, and you'll only

00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:47.680
 commit to a church that's like that.

00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:48.680
 And we're all like that.

00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:49.680
 We all feel like that.

00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:52.120
 But Christ is radically different.

00:23:52.120 --> 00:23:56.279
 We're actually all part of one body.

00:23:56.279 --> 00:24:03.759
 And we're not to see the church as a redundant body part, like an appendix, which we wonder

00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:08.680
 what value it has, and if we cut it out of our lives, it wouldn't make much difference.

00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:13.920
 I think sometimes that's how we think of the church of Christ.

00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:15.240
 Christ is our head.

00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:22.519
 We are organically, spiritually related to one another as those who are Christians.

00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:27.000
 And it can be such a beautiful place, and we're called to be such a beautiful place.

00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:32.799
 You know, one of the core foundational realities we've always sought here, and it's going to

00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:35.359
 be even more core and foundational.

00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:40.799
 I hope and pray, but when I move to leaf, is the importance of community, Christian

00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:41.799
 community.

00:24:41.799 --> 00:24:45.000
 Now, people say, ah, there's that net, there's other things.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:52.720
 But today, it's such a powerful indicator of our radical, transformed community, is

00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:58.119
 what a Christian community, with all its diversity, with all the differences, who still love one

00:24:58.119 --> 00:25:05.559
 another, who forgive one another, who don't bitch at one another, who talk courageously

00:25:05.559 --> 00:25:10.920
 and comfortably and encouragingly, but honestly, with one another.

00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:15.960
 It's not shallow, and take it or leave it.

00:25:15.960 --> 00:25:26.640
 I think there's a world of isolated, lonely, desperately sad people in this world looking

00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:30.120
 and searching for it in all kinds of ways.

00:25:30.120 --> 00:25:34.240
 But it will be found when we reflect Jesus Christ.

00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:41.680
 And in that community, Paul's not naive, God is certainly not naive, we all have different

00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:42.680
 gifts.

00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:48.920
 We're all very different, and we'll speak about that more in the coming weeks, though

00:25:48.920 --> 00:25:53.880
 we are many, and we all have different gifts, he says, we are members of one body.

00:25:53.880 --> 00:26:01.440
 It's like an orchestra, it's like the body parts, different roles, different gifts, different

00:26:01.440 --> 00:26:06.720
 faces, different characters.

00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:12.440
 It's so easy for us to shoehorn one another into something we're not stereotyping, typecasting

00:26:12.440 --> 00:26:17.200
 Christians all to be the same, keeping guilt on them when they're not, not recognizing the

00:26:17.200 --> 00:26:21.440
 wisdom needed to see what some people will think and do differently from us.

00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:23.519
 We don't all have the same gifts.

00:26:23.519 --> 00:26:25.039
 We're not all leaders.

00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:27.360
 We don't have the same levels of faith.

00:26:27.360 --> 00:26:29.360
 We don't all have the gift of hospitality.

00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:31.639
 Some of us do, some of us don't.

00:26:31.639 --> 00:26:34.119
 We're all called to love people.

00:26:34.119 --> 00:26:35.619
 We're not all evangelists.

00:26:35.619 --> 00:26:40.279
 We're all called to share the faith, but not all of us have the gifts of evangelism.

00:26:40.279 --> 00:26:42.319
 We're all called to give a reason.

00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:47.279
 We're not all theologians, but we're all called to know God and to learn about God and to

00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:52.199
 value the diversity that God has placed within our community.

00:26:52.200 --> 00:27:01.600
 It's important to stop grading one another and keep the judgment for our own hearts and

00:27:01.600 --> 00:27:08.720
 for the transformation that's needed in our hearts because if the church is rubbish and

00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:15.480
 if the preaching is rubbish and if your experience is rubbish, probably the most important thing

00:27:15.480 --> 00:27:21.680
 to do is to ask God to help you deal with that, to change your attitude towards it,

00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:31.840
 to start praying maybe, more about being receptive to even the frail exposition of the word or

00:27:31.840 --> 00:27:38.360
 to be forgiving of those who don't treat you as you think you should be treated as a Christian

00:27:38.360 --> 00:27:40.320
 or whatever it might be.

00:27:40.320 --> 00:27:51.120
 As we start living out the Christian life, then that measure of judgment is much more

00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:54.399
 challenged to ourselves than to other people.

00:27:54.399 --> 00:28:03.319
 And I think that's important because today, if a church community is critical and divided

00:28:03.319 --> 00:28:13.799
 and unwelcoming and unspiring and dull, then if it's shallow, if it's not self-aware, if

00:28:13.799 --> 00:28:21.000
 it's not reflective, then it'll just be another community jockeying for position and popularity.

00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:24.200
 It'll not be radically transformational.

00:28:24.200 --> 00:28:26.519
 It'll not be grace-filled.

00:28:26.519 --> 00:28:29.640
 And it'll not be powerful in the kingdom of God.

00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:31.359
 And that's what we're looking for.

00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:32.759
 And each of us are looking for that.

00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:40.599
 And I know it's a great challenge in St. Columba's because we're a city center gathered community.

00:28:40.599 --> 00:28:43.319
 We don't rub shoulders with one another all week.

00:28:43.319 --> 00:28:46.839
 We don't interact with one another all week.

00:28:46.839 --> 00:28:51.799
 That easily, it has to be intentional.

00:28:51.799 --> 00:28:55.359
 And you've done a marvelous job at that over the years.

00:28:55.359 --> 00:28:59.319
 And you've to continue to do that with all the change, with all the transformation, with

00:28:59.319 --> 00:29:02.839
 all the transience of the congregation, with new people coming in.

00:29:02.839 --> 00:29:05.319
 We keep living that way.

00:29:05.319 --> 00:29:10.039
 We keep pointing others and pointing ourselves to Christ.

00:29:10.039 --> 00:29:15.720
 And to this truth, this transformational truth, it's radically different.

00:29:15.720 --> 00:29:19.480
 We need Christ to live this way.

00:29:19.480 --> 00:29:23.960
 And that is how we will live lives that are honoring to God.

00:29:23.960 --> 00:29:27.640
 And we will live our best life that way.

00:29:27.640 --> 00:29:33.319
 Because that is how Christ intends us to live in relationship, in dependence on Him, thinking

00:29:33.319 --> 00:29:44.720
 people, rational, thoughtful, considerate, dependent people on the Holy Spirit.

00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:45.720
 Amen.

00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:46.720
 Let's pray.

00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:52.480
 Father God, we ask that you would help us to live this way.

00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:58.839
 We're kind of repeating ourselves a lot in these early verses of Romans when we look at

00:29:58.839 --> 00:29:59.839
 it in such detail.

00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:06.200
 But yet, we feel, I feel we could look at it forever and learn new things.

00:30:06.200 --> 00:30:13.640
 And there's so much to take in and so much to be challenged by in our own lives to allow

00:30:13.640 --> 00:30:20.280
 your word to transform us, the truth, to change us, to be people who fall in our knees and

00:30:20.280 --> 00:30:23.320
 cry out, Lord, please.

00:30:23.320 --> 00:30:25.560
 I'm not coming to you with the answers.

00:30:25.560 --> 00:30:30.520
 I'm not coming to you with my life and with my example and with my effort and with my

00:30:30.520 --> 00:30:31.520
 faith.

00:30:31.520 --> 00:30:36.720
 I'm coming to you in weakness and in need, crying out for help.

00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:41.520
 And Lord, we rejoice that in our weakness that You are made strong and that our strength

00:30:41.519 --> 00:30:51.279
 is indeed paradoxically revealed in our dependence, childlike, not childish dependence on You.

00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:56.240
 So Lord, help us, we pray, speak into our lives today, speak into the life of everyone

00:30:56.240 --> 00:30:57.440
 here today.

00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:00.059
 You know our hearts.

00:31:00.059 --> 00:31:01.759
 You know our needs.

00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:03.160
 You know how we have come today.

00:31:03.160 --> 00:31:06.359
 You know what we face tomorrow.

00:31:06.359 --> 00:31:12.919
 You know what we need to consider and to think about and to deal with in our lives.

00:31:12.919 --> 00:31:17.799
 Lord, we thank You, we come to You that You know, and we rejoice in that.

00:31:17.799 --> 00:31:23.399
 So help us to be encouraged and built up under Your Word, we pray, in Jesus' name.

00:31:23.400 --> 00:31:39.440
 Amen.