WEBVTT

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 Beloved, we have so much to be thankful for.

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 Simply those things that our finite minds tend to label good,

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! If we are attentive, could fill our days with thanksgiving.

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! If it really stopped to really think about all the things that are easy to define as good.

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 We have limitless things to thank the Lord for.

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 And Paul is going to go on and tell us in Romans chapter 8 and verse 28

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 that we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

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 And so he broadens our horizon, not just to those things that are easy to call good,

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 but to everything that happens in our lives.

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 It is good.

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 Paul models thanksgiving for us here in verse 8.

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 And Paul exhorts in his writing again and again that we should be thankful.

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 One example.

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 In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 16 through 18, he says,

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 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances,

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 for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

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 That you would rejoice always, that you would pray without ceasing,

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 and that you would give thanks in all circumstances.

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 It is God's will for you in Christ.

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 However you might feel today,

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 I want to invite you to take a moment to be thankful.

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 Just a quiet moment to thank God for the salvation of your soul.

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 If in fact you are found in him this morning.

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 I believe that often we forget how undeserving we are of the grace of our God to us in Christ.

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 We forget to be thankful for the very salvation of our souls.

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 This is a mine that could be mine forever, and it will be.

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 Thanksgiving for our salvation.

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 Take a moment this morning to thank God for your life.

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 Everyone here at the present moment is alive.

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 Glad for that.

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 You have great opportunity this day to see, to savor, and to glorify your God.

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 Might take a quiet moment to thank God for your family and the blessing they are,

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 even when they're not easy on a Sunday morning.

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 And perhaps like Paul, to thank God for the church.

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 Those that he's saved along with you, that he means to be such a grace to you.

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 We have so much to be thankful for.

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 I pray that it becomes the impulse of your heart and mine to begin.

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 First, I thank my God through Christ Jesus for.

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 And that we would spend our lives completing that sentence.

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 The theologian William Law once wrote.

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 Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world?

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 It is not he who prays the most or fast the most.

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 It is not he who lives the most.

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 But it is he who is always thankful to God.

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 Who receives everything as an instance of God's goodness.

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 And has a heart always ready to praise God for it.

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 Oh, I wonder how many things pass through my life that I fail to praise my God for.

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 However, I'm sure that my life is replete with neglected opportunity for thankfulness and praise.

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 Let's notice, secondly, Paul's obedience.

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 Look at a bit more text for this.

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 Verses 9 and 10 and then 13 through 15.

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 Before I read that again, just like to say, oh, that we would be obedient like Paul.

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 You see, Paul has a desire.

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 And as I'll show you in a bit, it is a God given desire.

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 But he is willing to submit in all things to the sovereign purpose of God.

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 So again, verse 9 and 10, he says, for God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit and the gospel of his son.

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 That without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers.

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 And he gives us the specific asking that somehow by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

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 He wants to be with them.

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 And he tells us for what purpose he wants to do this.

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 Verse 13 and following.

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 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I've often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented.

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 In order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

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 He's talking about saving faith there.

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 He says, I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

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 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

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 Paul is driven to see them, to minister to them, to see Romans come to faith in Christ.

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 It's all wonderfully good things that he desires to do.

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 All of these desires are of the Lord.

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 And yet Paul recognizes the restraining hand of God in preventing his coming.

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 Look back at verse 10.

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 He says, in his prayers, he asked that somehow by God's will, he may succeed in coming to those Roman believers.

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 He recognizes that God has not yet willed it, that he would be there.

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 Why?

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 Because he's not there.

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 Clearly it hasn't happened.

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 And therefore it hasn't been God's will that it would happen.

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 See, Paul only wants what the Lord wants.

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 He is confident that should God intend him to go, that he will at last succeed in coming to them.

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 Many of us wonder what God's will is for our lives and spend much time fretting about it.

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 This happens very often in life transitions.

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 Right, college students?

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 Paul desires to go.

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 He prays that he might and he submits himself to God's will.

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 I think that we would likely be wringing our hands.

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 Oh, to go to Rome or to not go to Rome, what am I to do?

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 We've spent all of our time preoccupied with the question.

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 Asking others what they think we ought to do.

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 Thinking constantly about it.

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 But listen to what Paul says later in this letter about knowing the will of God.

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 This is Romans chapter 12.

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 The very beginning, just after he has finished his systematic theological portion of this letter.

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 When he turns his attention after a beautiful doxology to practically apply all that he's taught so far.

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 He says this.

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 This is verse 1 and 2 of Romans 12.

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 I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

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 That is, submit your whole self to him.

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 Utter submission.

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 Utter obedience.

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 Recall Paul in verse 1 calls himself a servant of Christ, Jesus.

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 He goes on in verse 1, chapter 12.

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 Holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

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 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

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 That by testing you may discern what is the will of God.

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 What is good and acceptable and perfect.

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 Our minds are renewed by what?

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 Now, he tells us this in Romans chapter 8.

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 As he talks about the things of the Spirit and the word of Christ.

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 Our minds are renewed by the word of God.

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 So train yourself and be trained in the word.

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 If you desire to be submissive to Christ.

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 Read it.

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 Memorize it.

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 Meditate upon it.

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 Apply it obediently to every facet of your life.

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 If you, by grace, are obedient in increasing measure to all that the Bible commands.

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 Then you need not worry about the particular what and who and when.

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 Because you will find yourself discerning what is the will of God.

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 What is good and acceptable and perfect.

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 Don't become distracted by trying to sort out the details.

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 So that you neglect the very clear commands that God has already given to you.

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 Donald Barnhouse once wrote, this is on your bulletin if you care to reference it.

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 It says, the score of God's plan is set forth in the Bible.

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 In the measure that I learn it, submit myself to it, and seek to live in accordance with all that is therein set forth.

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 I shall find myself in joy and in harmony with God and his plans.

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 So in any circumstance, with Paul's good impulse to want to go, Paul was willing to submit himself to the restraining hand of God at this point in his life.

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 So that was Paul's obedience.

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 Notice thirdly, Paul's longing.

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 See this at the very beginning of verse 11.

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 A significant marker of a mature Christian is his or her love for the church.

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 Note that Paul is longing to see these people, to know and to be in fellowship with them.

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 This is not his local church.

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 This is not the people he knows best, but they are those saved by God in Christ.

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 And therefore, he also loves them.

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 John writes in 1 John chapter 4, verse 19 and 20.

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 We love because he first loved us.

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 If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.

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 For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

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 Show me a person who claims to follow Christ that does not love the church.

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 And I will show you a person who most likely is not a Christ follower.

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 If you love Jesus, then you will love the church, even with all her imperfections.

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 In Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, Paul says that Jesus obtained the church with his own blood.

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 You don't have to love the church's imperfections.

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 In fact, you shouldn't.

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 But you have to love her.

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 You have to desire holiness for her and long to be with her that you might serve her.

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 That you might help to build up this thing that Jesus shed his own blood for.

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 We'll see further in a moment.

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 That's the very drive for Paul's longing.

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 What is it that he longs to do?

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 We'll note here in just a bit.

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 He wants to see the church built up for the glory of God.

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 I fear that too many Christians these days attend a church, perhaps call themselves part of a church for what they might get out of it.

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 They might particularly like the singing or the teaching.

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 It checks particular boxes for them.

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 They aren't really willing to participate in the life of the church.

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 They're not really willing to get in the mix and to help it grow in holiness.

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 Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 1 and following to a people who were eager for gifting and expressions of gifting and being known for that.

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 He has a lot to say about love.

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 What ought to drive the impulse for any service to the church ought not be pride, but love.

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 You may be familiar with some of this, not just a marriage text.

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 Beginning in verse 1, he says,

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 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

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 And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

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 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

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 And I think he's exaggerating intentionally.

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 I think he's saying, you can't do any of these things.

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 You're not going to be this people.

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 But if you even think you can, if you can obtain to this, but you have not love, you're noisy, you're nothing, and you gain nothing.

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 And he goes on.

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 Love is patient and kind.

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 Love does not envy or boast.

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 It is not arrogant or rude.

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 It does not insist on its own way.

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 It is not irritable or resentful.

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 It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

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 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

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 Beloved, we would do well to emulate Paul's longing to be with this church, to love this church, and to impart something to it for its benefit.

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 So in thinking about that into the rest of verse 11 and on to verse 12, notice Paul's humility.

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 Notice his humility.

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 He says that he longs to be with them, to see them, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you.

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 That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

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 Now, from my perspective, if anyone had a reason to boast, it was Paul.

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 But he does not.

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 I feel as if Paul didn't need to write verse 12, but he does.

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 In verse 1, I mentioned previously, he expressed the humility of referring to himself as a servant of Christ Jesus.

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 And here he recognizes the opportunity for mutual encouragement.

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 This Paul, Paul the apostle, right, sees the opportunity for them to also encourage him.

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 In the modern discipling model, you'll often hear things like, everyone needs a Paul and everyone needs a Timothy.

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 In fact, I'm pretty sure I have said something to this effect in the past.

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 And the sentiment is good, right?

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 Find someone who can invest in you and find someone that you can invest in.

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 This kind of assumes some sort of spiritual ranking, doesn't it?

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 Like we just move in degree and every part of our maturity just levels up.

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 And we keep on doing that.

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 Areas of our life do grow and we do get stronger and we do improve.

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 But it's prideful for us to think that we've reached a level where everybody then is below and we invest in them and we have to find that super Christian to invest into us.

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 And it kind of becomes a tragic pyramid scheme.

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 Paul longs to see these Christians because he knows the Lord will use him to strengthen them in the faith.

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 Isn't that astounding?

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 Verse 12.

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 May impart some spiritual gift to strengthen you.

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 Verse 12.

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 That is, he clarifies that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

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 You see, beloved, humility is a prerequisite for growth in faith.

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 And healthy humility yields increased faith.

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 When we realize that we are not the source of all that is necessary for life and godliness, and we are not.

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 We have nowhere to run except to the one who is the source of life and godliness.

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 What a beautiful thing it is when God's people walk in humility with one another.

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 Seeing each other as a grace given by our God for the increase of our faith.

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 And laboring, working to bring about that in others as well.

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 That we might be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.

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 Both yours and mine.

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 Church is a beautiful community project of faith.

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 Progressing together.

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 Growing in holiness together to the praise of our God.

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 Paul expresses this very idea in Ephesians chapter 4.

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 It's one of my favorite church texts.

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 So you spend much time with me.

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 I will reference it once again.

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 Here in chapter 4, Paul talks about Jesus ascending and descending and giving gifts to men.

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 And he lists those beginning in verse 11.

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 Where he says, and he gave the apostles, the prophets.

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 Which I will argue just for two seconds.

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 I think he's referring to the Bible there.

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 I think he's referring to the writing of the Old Testament and the writing of the New Testament.

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 Then he says, besides the point.

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 Then he says, the evangelists and the shepherd teachers.

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 Why?

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 Why did he give these gifts to the church?

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 To equip the saints for the work of ministry.

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 This is verse 12.

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 And here's the work of ministry.

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 For building up the body of Christ.

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 So catch what he's saying there.

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 Here's that mutual encouragement of faith.

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 All of us working together to build up the body of Christ.

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 Verse 13.

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 He says it has a goal.

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 Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

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 To mature manhood.

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 To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

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 So that we may no longer be children.

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 Tossed to and fro by the waves.

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 And carried about by every wind of doctrine.

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 By human cunning.

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 By craftiness.

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 In deceitful schemes.

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 Rather.

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 Speaking the truth.

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 In love.

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 We are to grow up in every way.

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 Into him who is the head.

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 Into Christ.

00:21:01.980 --> 00:21:04.339
 From whom the whole body.

00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:05.759
 Joined and held together.

00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:08.019
 By every joint with which it is equipped.

00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:11.259
 When each part is working properly.

00:21:11.860 --> 00:21:12.900
 Makes the body grow.

00:21:13.420 --> 00:21:14.720
 So that it builds itself up.

00:21:15.460 --> 00:21:16.079
 In love.

00:21:17.079 --> 00:21:18.120
 Isn't that beautiful?

00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:19.920
 Each part.

00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:20.860
 Every part.

00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:22.160
 Necessary.

00:21:22.680 --> 00:21:22.799
 Right?

00:21:22.980 --> 00:21:25.460
 Not ranked in spiritual order.

00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:26.839
 But necessary.

00:21:27.099 --> 00:21:28.360
 And working properly.

00:21:28.360 --> 00:21:30.180
 When the body is doing this.

00:21:30.180 --> 00:21:32.039
 We speak the truth in love to one another.

00:21:32.460 --> 00:21:33.519
 We encourage each other.

00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:34.500
 In the scripture.

00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:36.740
 To grow up into Christ likeness.

00:21:36.840 --> 00:21:37.460
 For the praise.

00:21:37.720 --> 00:21:39.560
 Of our great God.

00:21:40.500 --> 00:21:41.220
 And beloved.

00:21:41.400 --> 00:21:42.039
 All of that.

00:21:42.600 --> 00:21:43.640
 Starts with humility.

00:21:44.440 --> 00:21:45.640
 All of that begins.

00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:46.320
 Believing.

00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:48.820
 That others can invest.

00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:49.539
 Into you.

00:21:49.640 --> 00:21:50.460
 And be used as a grace.

00:21:50.580 --> 00:21:51.440
 By our God.

00:21:51.539 --> 00:21:52.160
 To grow you.

00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:53.299
 In the faith.

00:21:54.700 --> 00:21:55.220
 Paul.

00:21:55.880 --> 00:21:56.940
 Paul thinks that.

00:21:56.940 --> 00:21:58.600
 Surely we should think.

00:21:59.460 --> 00:21:59.980
 That.

00:22:00.180 --> 00:22:03.019
 So we see.

00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:04.000
 In this text.

00:22:04.100 --> 00:22:05.860
 As Paul expresses his desire.

00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:07.220
 He's writing them to say.

00:22:07.420 --> 00:22:08.799
 I've longed to come to you.

00:22:08.860 --> 00:22:10.700
 I've been prevented from coming to you.

00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:11.720
 I hope someday.

00:22:11.720 --> 00:22:13.500
 I'll get to come to you.

00:22:13.900 --> 00:22:15.299
 These character qualities.

00:22:15.299 --> 00:22:15.900
 In him.

00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:17.019
 These dispositions.

00:22:17.019 --> 00:22:17.920
 As he writes.

00:22:18.460 --> 00:22:19.360
 These verses.

00:22:20.580 --> 00:22:21.539
 This text.

00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:22.519
 Paul expresses.

00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:24.840
 His thankfulness.

00:22:25.320 --> 00:22:26.299
 His obedience.

00:22:26.299 --> 00:22:27.500
 His longing.

00:22:28.460 --> 00:22:29.519
 And his humility.

00:22:29.519 --> 00:22:31.559
 Let's pray together.

00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:32.559
 For the grace.

00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:33.519
 To emulate.

00:22:33.740 --> 00:22:34.440
 These qualities.

00:22:34.440 --> 00:22:36.840
 To be with us.

00:22:36.840 --> 00:22:36.840


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