WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.040 Just over 30 years ago, the General Synod of the Church of England commissioned a report 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:13.500 into the state of their denomination. 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:19.839 They were concerned about falling attendances at their services, and the main question they 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:25.480 asked their members was, what do you want from your church? 00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:31.640 In reporting back, the chairman, Sir John Lawrence, said that the members wanted four 00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:35.240 things above all others. 00:00:35.240 --> 00:00:43.159 They wanted churches, buildings that looked like a church, clergy who dressed in a manner 00:00:43.159 --> 00:00:50.760 of which they approve, services of the kind they've always been used to, and to be left 00:00:50.760 --> 00:00:52.560 alone. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:59.520 Now, whatever we may think of those answers, and we have to leave the people questioned 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:02.840 to their own consciences and to God. 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:05.320 There's one big problem there. 00:01:05.320 --> 00:01:08.040 The wrong question was asked. 00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:13.480 We shouldn't be asking, what do we want from the church? 00:01:13.480 --> 00:01:19.800 We should be asking, what does God want from his church? 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:28.959 And in those verses we read from the end of Ephesians 2, the apostle Paul tells us. 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:35.120 It's reasonably clear, and it's understandable. 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:41.439 Paul says in the beginning of Ephesians, as we've heard in detail, he said, look, we have 00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:48.519 to praise and thank the living God because you folk have put your faith in him, you've 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:55.759 had your sins forgiven, you've passed from death to life, you were dead, you're now alive, 00:01:55.759 --> 00:02:01.399 you were strangers, now you're not strangers anymore, you're the children of God, you're 00:02:01.399 --> 00:02:03.159 not enemies of God. 00:02:03.159 --> 00:02:09.359 There's been that great change, and you must keep in communion with God who's done this 00:02:09.359 --> 00:02:17.199 for you, with his Son Jesus, your Savior, and by the help of the Holy Spirit. 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:21.280 He said, you've also got a responsibility. 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:26.399 You don't go to heaven on your own, you don't fly solo. 00:02:26.399 --> 00:02:32.079 There are other Christians, there are other people who have been changed the way you have, 00:02:32.079 --> 00:02:38.959 and you've got to get with them, and you've got to work with them for God's glory. 00:02:38.959 --> 00:02:45.839 And Paul explains this, in essence he's saying what the church should be like. 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:50.080 He's answering the question that they didn't ask back then. 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:56.280 And he's saying, look, there are particular people, the people who are in the church are 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:59.480 of a particular kind. 00:02:59.480 --> 00:03:07.120 And then he said, God has a plan for the church, and they have to follow that plan. 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:10.719 And people outside will see a pattern. 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:16.960 You know, they'll see churches in different ways, but they'll all follow the same pattern. 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:19.159 And we've got to be like that. 00:03:19.159 --> 00:03:22.319 And finally he said, look, it's all for a reason. 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:24.840 There's a purpose behind it all. 00:03:24.840 --> 00:03:30.800 God, Jesus established the church for a particular purpose. 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:34.800 And Paul makes it very clear what that is. 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:38.719 So first of all, in verse 19, he talks about the people. 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:44.879 So then, you're no longer strangers and aliens, but you're fellow citizens with the saints 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:48.400 and members of the household of God. 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:55.240 I think maybe the AV has it better when it says you're no longer strangers and foreigners. 00:03:55.240 --> 00:04:01.400 Because what Paul is picturing there, well, he has two pictures. 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:07.000 It's a picture of a Greek city state, and he's a picture of a family. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:13.759 Now, in the Roman Empire, the old Greek city state was hugely valued. 00:04:13.759 --> 00:04:19.639 It was a big deal to be a member of one of these city states. 00:04:19.639 --> 00:04:24.720 You had great rights and privileges and blessings if you belonged. 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:32.439 And if you didn't belong, well, you weren't really just such a valuable person at all. 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:40.879 And what he's saying is, look, you have been transformed from being foreigners, strangers, 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:48.360 no rights, no privileges, no blessings into fellow citizens with these people. 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:53.519 And you've got all the rights and blessings that that brings with it. 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:59.199 And of course, Paul, you remember when he was in Jerusalem and been giving a hard time 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:04.399 and there were false witnesses against them, and they were going to hand them over to one 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:11.279 of these Jewish kangaroo courts that the religious leaders, and he would have had a really hard 00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:12.279 time there. 00:05:12.279 --> 00:05:14.920 But he says, I appeal to Caesar. 00:05:14.920 --> 00:05:17.319 I'm a citizen of Tarsus. 00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:23.639 So being a citizen was a big deal, and it meant a big change. 00:05:23.639 --> 00:05:31.120 And the same with the picture of a family, and personally, I can't think of many things 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:40.479 worse than a child who is suddenly orphaned, losing both parents right away. 00:05:40.479 --> 00:05:47.879 But then how wonderful to be brought into another family and treat it just as a child 00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:48.879 of that family. 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:51.519 And this is what Paul is saying. 00:05:51.519 --> 00:05:56.359 Look, that's a similar kind of transformation. 00:05:56.359 --> 00:06:00.399 You're not enemies of God anymore. 00:06:00.399 --> 00:06:08.240 You're God's children with all the blessings and all the privileges that follow from that. 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:17.879 And we oughtn't underestimate the change that takes place in the hearts and lives of men 00:06:17.879 --> 00:06:24.120 and women when they move from being not Christians to being Christians. 00:06:24.120 --> 00:06:29.680 There's a story, I like to read it because I think it pictures that very well in Luke 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:30.680 13. 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:36.879 Jesus is in the synagogue, maybe for the very last time, and he sees a woman. 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:39.879 She hasn't come to him looking for a healing. 00:06:39.879 --> 00:06:46.360 There's no suggestion of that, but she's bent over, has been bent over for 18 years. 00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:52.199 You know, on a no beauty in her frame at all. 00:06:52.199 --> 00:07:00.360 And it says Jesus sees her, Jesus calls her, Jesus touches her, and instantly she straightens 00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:05.920 up, she totally changed and transformed, and she goes on her way rejoicing. 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:15.080 That's the kind of change that the people of God have in their souls when they come 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:17.639 to faith in Jesus Christ. 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:23.800 And they are the kind of people who make up the church, and they can say with John Wesley, 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:27.399 you know, I felt my heart strangely warmed. 00:07:27.399 --> 00:07:34.879 I felt I did trust in Christ and Christ alone for salvation. 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:41.680 So God wants His church to be peopled by men and women who have been changed, they've been 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:42.680 transformed. 00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:49.360 The center of gravity of their lives has moved from self to Jesus. 00:07:49.360 --> 00:08:00.280 They are alive by the power of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit to live original, varied, 00:08:00.280 --> 00:08:03.280 expanding lives with God. 00:08:03.280 --> 00:08:08.759 Those are the kind of people who are to make up the church. 00:08:08.759 --> 00:08:14.680 Paul then moves on in verse 20 to talk about the plan that God has. 00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:20.439 He said, these people, just these people, not others, just these people who have been 00:08:20.439 --> 00:08:26.199 changed, they are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus 00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:30.480 himself being the cornerstone. 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:37.319 Now Paul moves from the image of a city state and a family to the image of the church as 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:40.000 a building. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:42.520 We know what happens with buildings. 00:08:42.520 --> 00:08:49.120 You know, you're very wealthy so you buy a plot of land and you want a house. 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:54.400 So you tell an architect what you want, how many rooms and all that, and he draws a plan 00:08:54.400 --> 00:08:58.720 and then you give it to a builder and the builder builds it. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:04.440 And that's the image that Paul has here. 00:09:04.440 --> 00:09:10.440 The plan here is, he says, the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. 00:09:10.440 --> 00:09:17.920 And as Derek explained to us this morning, that is the Word of God because the prophets 00:09:17.920 --> 00:09:22.880 didn't come bringing their own ideas or whatever. 00:09:22.880 --> 00:09:30.040 We read again and again the Word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, the Word of the Lord came 00:09:30.040 --> 00:09:34.040 to Joel, the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 00:09:34.039 --> 00:09:35.319 What did they do? 00:09:35.319 --> 00:09:41.319 They went to the people and said, thus saith the Lord. 00:09:41.319 --> 00:09:45.360 What God told them, they told the people. 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:47.480 And it was the same with the apostles. 00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:49.240 Do you remember Paul? 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:53.480 Paul said, look, I didn't come with the words of men's wisdom. 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:57.319 I delivered to you what was delivered to me. 00:09:57.319 --> 00:10:02.679 God told me, God shared this with me and I'm delivering it to you. 00:10:02.679 --> 00:10:06.919 And of course, we have that in the Scriptures. 00:10:06.919 --> 00:10:13.599 The Reverend Sinkler Ferguson in one of his books puts it, I just think brilliantly. 00:10:13.599 --> 00:10:22.599 He says, the words it is written or a similar phrase appear around 90 times in the New Testament. 00:10:22.599 --> 00:10:29.000 These three words, settled matters for Jesus and the apostles. 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:32.320 If Scripture said it, then God said it. 00:10:32.320 --> 00:10:36.679 They regarded the Bible as God's own word. 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:38.720 Through it, he speaks. 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:42.399 To it, Christians listen. 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:45.759 Its teachings, Christians believe. 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:49.240 Its commands, Christians obey. 00:10:49.240 --> 00:10:54.480 Its pages, Christians love. 00:10:54.480 --> 00:11:02.080 The great missionary to China, Hudson Taylor said one time that he'd observed that three 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:05.519 kind of approaches, the building churches. 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:11.440 And he said, the first was, we can make our best plans and try to carry them through in 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:13.840 our own strength. 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:19.000 Or we can make our best plans and ask God to bless them. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:27.519 Or finally, we can begin with God, ask His plans and offer ourselves to carry out His 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:28.519 purposes. 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:36.679 Now, you only have to say those three to know that the first two are nonsense. 00:11:36.679 --> 00:11:39.879 Of course, we must go to the Word of God. 00:11:39.879 --> 00:11:45.600 Jesus himself told us as individuals and as a people, at the end of the sermon on the 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:49.639 Mount, he's covered so much ground, so many areas of life. 00:11:49.639 --> 00:11:57.920 And he says at the end, everyone who hears these words of mine and obeys them is like 00:11:57.920 --> 00:12:02.519 a wise man who built his house on the rock. 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:09.720 So we turn to Scripture, we turn to the Word of God always to build our church. 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:19.720 There's a very sad story, some years ago in a suburb of New York, there was a church, 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:25.160 a congregation that dwindled so much that they closed. 00:12:25.160 --> 00:12:30.560 And on the very last day, when they turned the key in the door, there were only a couple 00:12:30.560 --> 00:12:38.120 of members there, they asked the caretaker who looked after a thing, and they said, look, 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:43.639 get a notice and put it up, let people know there aren't services here anymore, we're 00:12:43.639 --> 00:12:46.240 not operating anymore. 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:51.320 And the caretaker went away and the only notice he could get was a notice that said, out of 00:12:51.320 --> 00:12:52.320 business. 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:55.120 So we put it up on the door. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:13:04.360 And very shortly afterwards, someone had graffitied because they forgot what their business was. 00:13:04.360 --> 00:13:13.440 Now, as we turn to the Word of God day by day by day, we will not forget what our business 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:14.440 is. 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:23.560 And just in case turning to the Word of God and it alone, we become legalistic. 00:13:23.560 --> 00:13:26.639 Paul has a little bit tacked on at the end. 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:32.960 It's not really tacked on at the end of this first, but he says, Jesus Christ himself being 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:34.480 the cornerstone. 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:37.560 And of course, we all know what a cornerstone is. 00:13:37.560 --> 00:13:42.560 I mean, it's such an important part of any building. 00:13:42.560 --> 00:13:43.560 It's there at the corner. 00:13:43.560 --> 00:13:50.879 If you've ever watched a bricklayer, they take endless bother making sure that the corner 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:57.440 is right because then they build walls by keeping in line with it. 00:13:57.440 --> 00:13:59.639 And we're meant to do that in the church. 00:13:59.639 --> 00:14:07.399 Yes, we're meant to build on the Word, but we're meant to keep in line, always watching 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:13.039 Jesus, always looking to Him. 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:15.759 So there's the plan. 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:17.279 But what will it look like? 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:25.080 This church that's built of changed people who read the Word and who look to Jesus constantly. 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:35.920 Well, in verse 21, Paul talks about the pattern that God wants His church to exhibit in Jesus, 00:14:35.920 --> 00:14:43.160 in whom he says, the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in 00:14:43.160 --> 00:14:44.160 the Lord. 00:14:44.160 --> 00:14:52.520 Now, again, I think the authorized version has a better translation of this. 00:14:52.519 --> 00:15:02.039 Then it says the whole structure being fitly framed together, everything just coming together. 00:15:02.039 --> 00:15:08.960 So Paul stays with the image of a church as a building. 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:15.399 If you ever go to County Antrim, that area of outstanding natural beauty, you'll see 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:21.000 around the countryside at building sites, people building houses and bungalows, and there'll 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:27.440 be piles of sand and stones and cement and bricks and roof tiles and timber, all kinds 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:28.440 of things. 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:32.960 But you didn't see that sort of thing in Edinburgh because they put hoardings around building 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:33.960 sites here. 00:15:33.960 --> 00:15:37.759 I think there are bad people here who would steal. 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:42.600 But you'll see all this stuff let out around the building site. 00:15:42.600 --> 00:15:45.120 And then the builder comes. 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:50.960 And the builder, of course, mixes the cement and he builds the bricks and he puts in a 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:56.080 door and then a window and then roof trusses and then tiles for the roof. 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:57.920 It all comes together. 00:15:57.920 --> 00:16:07.240 And Paul is anticipating here what he'll go on to talk about later and the gifts of the 00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:08.240 Spirit. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:15.480 You see, when God changes us, when he brings us from spiritual death to spiritual life, 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:19.320 it's not to be unemployed. 00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:23.560 There shouldn't be anybody unemployed in the Church of Jesus Christ. 00:16:23.560 --> 00:16:31.480 He changes our hearts and he gives us gifts, spiritual gifts, talents, abilities, attributes. 00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:37.879 They start off in the embryo, but they are to be developed because he wants us to be 00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:46.400 the people who build the Church of Jesus Christ under his guidance and under his leadership. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:51.639 The Reverend John Stott in one of his books has a great illustration for the Church. 00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:55.720 He said, we should think of the Church like a theatre. 00:16:55.720 --> 00:16:59.799 You know, you have the stalls where the audience sit. 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:06.000 You have an actor or actors on the stage and hidden from the audience, but the actors can 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:14.639 see there's a prompter, you know, who's prompting them if they forget their lines. 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:21.720 And I said, the trouble is most people think the congregation is the audience, the minister 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:25.880 is the actor, and God, the Holy Spirit, is the prompter. 00:17:25.880 --> 00:17:28.600 He said, that's all wrong. 00:17:28.600 --> 00:17:39.040 He says, God is the audience, the congregation are the actors, and it is the minister who 00:17:39.040 --> 00:17:44.000 reminds them, teaches them their lines. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:52.920 A building needs all different kinds of things, walls and doors and windows, and it needs all, 00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:55.559 a church needs all kinds of people. 00:17:55.559 --> 00:17:57.880 We're all different. 00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:00.519 You know, each one of us is unique. 00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:06.880 And even folk who have the same gifts of the Spirit have them in slightly different ways 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:08.920 and varieties. 00:18:08.920 --> 00:18:17.519 So what we're being challenged here in this is that do we know what our spiritual gifts 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:18.519 are? 00:18:18.519 --> 00:18:21.440 I think Scottish folk are a bit like Ulster folk. 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:23.680 We tend to be inherently modest. 00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:28.640 We've been brought up, you know, not to push ourselves forward. 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:32.920 So we do maybe need a little bit of help. 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:37.759 So if you're a young Christian this evening and you maybe don't know what your spiritual 00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:44.480 gift is, well, go and talk to Derek, go and talk to Katrina, talk to your elder, talk to 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:51.160 somebody in your city group who's experienced whatever and say to them, look, what do you 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:52.160 think? 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:55.279 And of course, above all, ask God. 00:18:55.279 --> 00:19:01.319 And if he's putting a thought in your head day after day, week after week, you know, that's 00:19:01.319 --> 00:19:08.159 a fair old indication that you need to consider that sort of thing very seriously. 00:19:08.159 --> 00:19:12.559 And when you do know what your gift is, use it in the church. 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:19.399 It's not given to you for your own personal good, although it will do you good when you're 00:19:19.399 --> 00:19:23.480 serving in the church of Jesus Christ. 00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:27.159 Derek said this morning he was the only minister. 00:19:27.160 --> 00:19:33.920 Now what he meant by that was he was the only teaching elder. 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:36.200 But of course, we're all ministers here. 00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:44.800 We all have a role to play because we all have a spiritual gift. 00:19:44.800 --> 00:19:52.640 And then Paul finishes in verse 22 with the purpose of the church, what it's all for. 00:19:52.640 --> 00:19:59.560 And him and Jesus, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by 00:19:59.560 --> 00:20:00.560 the Spirit. 00:20:00.560 --> 00:20:02.240 What's it all for? 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:05.120 Why does God change people? 00:20:05.120 --> 00:20:10.440 Why does he reveal himself in his word to us? 00:20:10.440 --> 00:20:16.720 Why does he give different people different gifts to build up the church? 00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:20.080 Because what at the end of the day is it all for? 00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:24.559 Well again, Paul stays with this image of a building. 00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:29.799 And of course, a building is somewhere to live. 00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:36.960 It's meant to be a dwelling place for God by his Holy Spirit. 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:46.919 And when the people of God has changed, build upon his word and look constantly to Jesus 00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:55.720 when they develop and devote their spiritual gifts for the good of the church, the congregation, 00:20:55.720 --> 00:21:02.039 maybe even the wider church in the world, then God comes. 00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:07.920 It's a dwelling place that's fit for purpose to use the modern phrase. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:14.120 It's a place where God can come and can dwell. 00:21:14.119 --> 00:21:22.119 And if you'll forgive a personal reminisce, I suppose it is, after I retired at Mary, 00:21:22.119 --> 00:21:26.399 I moved back to live in Northern Ireland. 00:21:26.399 --> 00:21:32.759 I got asked to preach in a lot of places, not because I was any good, but there were 00:21:32.759 --> 00:21:34.759 a lot of vacancies. 00:21:34.759 --> 00:21:39.039 And I once went to a church just to let you know. 00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:42.719 I don't know how they got in contact with me, they rang me up and I was free. 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:44.680 And so I went, I did the service. 00:21:44.680 --> 00:21:46.880 And I said to them, how did you know about me? 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:48.559 How did you get my name? 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:52.680 And that voice is, I don't know, he said, but we were stuck. 00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:54.039 We were desperate. 00:21:54.039 --> 00:21:56.519 We would have taken anybody. 00:21:56.519 --> 00:22:05.799 And the sad thing was a good number of those congregations that I went to, I hadn't been 00:22:05.799 --> 00:22:10.799 before, I haven't been since, they were dead. 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:14.279 You could sense it once you went in the door. 00:22:14.279 --> 00:22:17.039 There obviously hadn't been prayer. 00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:19.799 There hadn't been a faithful Bible ministry. 00:22:19.799 --> 00:22:22.960 There hadn't been, no one was really concerned. 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:25.960 People were just going because it was part of the social round. 00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:29.000 But there were other congregations. 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:34.599 We came to St. Columbus and it was certainly one of them, where as soon as you came, you 00:22:34.599 --> 00:22:39.200 knew the spirit of God is here. 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:46.240 And that is how we bring glory to God because people come and they watch and they listen 00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:50.360 and they say, you know, see those people up there in that church. 00:22:50.360 --> 00:22:56.200 They have the same problems as we have, but you don't hear them complaining. 00:22:56.200 --> 00:22:59.000 They don't have any more money than we have. 00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:02.720 And yet they're giving it away, they're sharing. 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:08.799 They have the same time pressures, but they seem to be able to find time to help people 00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:11.680 who are needy. 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:14.319 The same family worries, but they don't get anxious. 00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:16.559 They live in the same world, but they're not fearful. 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:24.680 And whenever you ask them, all they say is, oh, well, Jesus is my Savior and my Heavenly 00:23:24.680 --> 00:23:27.399 Father looks after me. 00:23:27.399 --> 00:23:34.399 And when people hear that, they say, well, you know, their God must be a great God. 00:23:34.399 --> 00:23:37.200 And of course, so He is. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:44.039 And that is how we bring glory to Him. 00:23:44.039 --> 00:23:45.039 Not that it's easy. 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:53.680 There's one very famous Christian magazine that was called The Sword in the Trial. 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:59.640 And it's an image that comes from the book of Nehemiah when the children of Israel returned 00:23:59.640 --> 00:24:02.080 to Jerusalem and were building up the walls. 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:08.720 Their enemies were trying to stop them, and so they were building with a trial in one hand, 00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:12.240 but a sword in the other, their enemies. 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:13.240 It isn't easy. 00:24:13.240 --> 00:24:19.559 Oh, but the blessings that come are just unbelievable. 00:24:19.559 --> 00:24:25.039 Let me finish with a story that I think puts it well. 00:24:25.039 --> 00:24:32.279 Toni Morrison is an American novelist. 00:24:32.279 --> 00:24:37.399 She was very anxious to explain that although she was receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature, 00:24:37.399 --> 00:24:42.759 she'd come from an ordinary background and that, but she hadn't allowed circumstances. 00:24:42.759 --> 00:24:48.599 In other words, she'd taken personal responsibility for her life. 00:24:48.599 --> 00:24:56.919 And as she was accepting that prize, she began her acceptance speech with a story about a 00:24:56.919 --> 00:25:04.799 very old black woman who lived in a shack on the outskirts of a town in the southern states 00:25:04.799 --> 00:25:06.599 of the USA. 00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:13.199 She was the daughter of a slave, and she had a reputation for wisdom and sagacity. 00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:19.039 And one day, a group of college students came out and part in the clearing in front of where 00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:20.640 she lived and called her. 00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:27.640 And when she came onto the porch, they took out a bird cage from the car, and there was 00:25:27.640 --> 00:25:33.680 a little songbird in it, and one of the men grabbed it and put it behind his back, and 00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:39.120 he said, old woman, tell us this, is the bird dead or alive? 00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:45.559 And of course, she knew that if she said it was alive, he would crush it to death and 00:25:45.559 --> 00:25:48.559 show that she was wrong. 00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:53.359 But if she said it was dead, he would open his hand, let it fly away, and show that she 00:25:53.359 --> 00:25:56.759 was wrong again. 00:25:56.759 --> 00:26:03.399 And she said, well, I don't know whether the bird is alive or dead. 00:26:03.399 --> 00:26:08.079 All I know is, it's in your hands. 00:26:08.079 --> 00:26:10.720 It's in your hands. 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:18.439 And in a way Paul is saying this, yes, God has done great things for us, and He has given 00:26:18.439 --> 00:26:21.879 us so much. 00:26:21.879 --> 00:26:34.679 But the building up of His Son's church is in our hands, and we have to obey His command. 00:26:34.679 --> 00:26:35.679 Let's pray. 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:43.600 Heavenly Father, we thank You again for Your Word and for all that it teaches us, and we 00:26:43.600 --> 00:26:51.920 just pray that You would put within each of us the desire, the longing to bring glory 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:58.200 to You by faithful and obedient living. 00:26:58.200 --> 00:27:01.160 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:27:01.160 --> 00:27:07.160 Amen.