Partners in the Gospel - (Philippians 1:1-5 John Lasken)

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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org Partners in the Gospel

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Good morning, everybody. We are going to get started. We're right on time.
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So I told the early service that it was a great week for me. It's a great week for a lot of reasons.
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But yesterday was a very interesting day. It was a two -turtle day for us. And we are those kind of people that when we see a turtle on the road, especially right in the middle of the road, hunkered down, not knowing what to do, we will stop.
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So if you're following us on the home from church, make sure you don't follow us too close, because we might lock them up and then try to save Mr.
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Turtle. But I told the early service to us that, you know, before I came to know the
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Lord, His creation really didn't interest me that much. I didn't even have eyes for it. But to be a
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Christian, to be a believer, to understand that He is the creator of all things and to see the wonder of what
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He has done is just a glory to His name. And I rejoiced. And I rejoiced in those turtles yesterday.
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I thought as well when I was picking up those turtles because they didn't realize the danger they were in.
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And I came along and grabbed the turtles and removed them. But I thought, you know what, I may have walked past some people that I didn't say anything to because they needed to be saved.
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They don't realize the peril that they're in. And John's going to talk about the partnership and the gospel today.
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And I did think about that as well as I hope I have as much of a heart for the lost as I do for a little turtle on the road.
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And I thank you all because all of you guys in sharing your faith is a great encouragement to me.
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I want to read the beginning part of Psalm 8. It says, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is
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Thy name in all the earth, who has displayed Thy splendor above the heavens. From the mouth of infants and nerthing babes
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Thou hast established praise. And He certainly has, hasn't He? Because of Thine adversaries to make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
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When I consider the heavens, the works of Thy fingers, the moons, stars, which
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Thou hast ordained. What is man that Thou dost take thought of him?
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And what is the son of man that Thou dost care for him? God is an awesome God. And we owe
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Him all our praise and glory. And we do so this morning. What a wonderful God we serve. So I have a few announcements to bring forward.
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One is tomorrow night the men's study will happen at 7 o 'clock. We're going over Book of Spurgeon.
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And it's on prayer. And we're just going to study prayer. And then we're going to move to faith.
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Then we're going to move to the Word of God. But this book basically covers Spurgeon's thoughts on all those things.
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And it's been a joy to go through it. We've only gone through one little section so far. But men, if you want to come out to that, that's great.
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Ladies, Monday night is a big night for the ladies too. The ladies aren't going to start until July 10th.
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If you are interested in that, please see Cindy Randall because she has the books for that class.
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That's July 10th. That would also be at Monday night, 7 o 'clock for the ladies as well.
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I said we're going to go over prayer in the Spurgeon book. Well, we're going to have prayer time tonight. So at 6 o 'clock tonight we have prayer here at the church.
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So if anyone would be interested in that, we will be here. And we'll be lifting up many of the things from the church and our own personal lives to the
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Lord. So we'll be glad if you come. Now John is going to talk about our partnership in the gospel today and his message quite a bit.
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I didn't know that in the first service. But it's very apropos because we have a partnership together as a body for Vacation Bible School, coming all together to minister both to the children in this church, the children in our community, to get the gospel message out.
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But we also have a partnership with a church called The Rock, which is our sister church.
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Their VBS starts tomorrow. They have 65 children registered online right now, 65.
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And if you know that church facility and church building, they're going to have quite a time of it over there. But in addition to praying for all of the logistical things, they do need helpers.
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Because of the influx of children, if you would like to help at their VBS, please see me or please see
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John because we can direct you to who to talk to over there. You can just show up over there tomorrow.
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And they would appreciate just helpers that could help with the children in some way, maybe crafts or whatever it would be.
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In addition to that, they're thinking that the rain is going to be a possible problem for them this week.
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So they're asking as well, if anybody in this ministry has a picnic tent, you know, small tents or maybe a little bit of a bigger tent, they would be very interested to see if you could help them with that this week.
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So again, if you could maybe talk to me or John or if you know folks at The Rock. So we want to team with our partners in the gospel or with The Rock.
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Now, is Tim Robinson here next Sunday?
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Oh, we're going to do it next Sunday. Okay, thank you. Thank you because I was looking around. What we're talking about here is we're going to honor the graduates, the children that have graduated for either grammar school or high school or beyond.
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It could be adults too, by the way, if you've gone back to school. So also July 7th is a men's dinner and movie night.
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Next week is the last time for the sign up for that. So if you're interested in going to that men's movie night on July 7th, please contact
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Bob Nichols, who's back at the door right now, or on the church calendar there is a place to click on and sign up.
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So if you're interested in that, please do so. Also, we had a big week with the
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EFCA, and Jeff and John went out to Fortin, California, and they had a wonderful time.
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There were some things that happened that John is going to let you know about. But Jeff now, after that meeting, he is on what is called a sabbatical, which means our pastor is going to be – vacation is not the right word, right?
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I don't think vacation is the right word. He is going to be off. He is going to be reflecting. He is going to be praying for this ministry.
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He is going to be examining what the Lord would like him to do as a man and with their family going forward, but also this church and what the
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Lord would have for this church. I've heard rumors that he might try to write another book. He can do a lot of things, but we want to pray for our pastor.
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We're going to miss seeing him around for a little while, but we're with him in spirit, and we're so joyful that he can take this time off and be refreshed in the
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Lord. So let's go before Jesus now. Go before our God and Savior and pray.
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Father, thank you so much for this ministry, this time we have, Lord. We came here to worship you today, and that's exactly what we want to do,
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Father. We are so just grateful for all the things you've done in your son,
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Jesus Christ, to give us a fellowship with you that we could never have earned, Lord, but you have done so through the blood and the sacrifice of your son.
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We thank you, Lord, that you would watch over this ministry and keep us firm in your word,
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Father, that, Lord, you would make us ministers of the gospel of Jesus and that we would partner with those of like faith,
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Father, and that we would help those who are proclaiming your word and truth. Father, we uplift the worship band to you,
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Father, and we're so thankful for them. We thank you, Father, for the worship over at the
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Rock Church this morning as well, and we pray for them. We thank you for Pastor John, and we lift up John to you, and we're so grateful that John is here and ready to minister the word of God to us this morning,
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Father. We thank you for our Pastor Jeff, and we pray that you would be with Jeff and his family as he does many things over these next eight weeks,
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Father, yes, visiting family, yes, doing some things as a family together and enjoying that time, but also,
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Father, so many things just as he sits before you, Father, and reflects on your greatness.
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Lord, that you would lead him perfectly, Father, in some of the things that he has on his mind and his heart. And we're thankful,
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Father, that we can be here now worshiping you as he is worshiping. Father, I don't want to take a guess at where he went this morning, but,
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Lord, I know that he is worshiping somewhere and just enjoying you for who you are.
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We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, let's all stand and sing a few songs.
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Good that you said I believe there are scars in your hand
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That your goodness is good without end And you'll never change
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I will tell of your wonders Sing of your grace
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The God of creation Knows me by name The Lord is faithful Yesterday, now, and always
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Always Your mercy is mighty
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Age after age And all generations Bow down in praise
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The Lord is faithful Yesterday, now, and always
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Always I believe you will come in the clouds
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You are here even now In your presence
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I know there is power Power to save I will tell of your wonders
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Sing of your grace The God of creation Knows me by name
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The Lord is faithful Yesterday, now, and always
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Always Your mercy is mighty
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Age after age And all generations Bow down in praise
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Yesterday, now, and always You are
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Yes, you always will be God Your mercy is mighty
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Age after age And all generations Bow down in praise
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The Lord is faithful Yesterday, now, and always
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I shared at the first service a couple of verses
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This is Isaiah 60, verse 19 It says the sun shall no more be your light by day
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Nor for brightness shall the moon give you light But the Lord will be your everlasting light
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And your God will be your glory And Isaiah 24, 23 says
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Then the moon will be confounded And the sun ashamed For the Lord of hosts reigns
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On Mount Zion in Jerusalem And His glory will be before His elders And I just shared that I have been this week kind of just doing a study of heaven and the new
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Jerusalem and just the book of Revelation that chapter 21 and 22 and I was just so, so struck by in the last days at the consummation of all things when the sun is no more and the moon is no more
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I don't know what God exactly has in store for us but it says that His light will be the glory that lights everything that we see and it just reminds me of in Genesis chapter 1 how before God created the sun and the moon and the stars
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He said let there be light and there was light and it just struck me that even as even as the beginning so it will be in the end that God's light will be all things and I just wanted to encourage you with that this morning
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It seems like several of the songs at least in my perspective a lot of the songs that we're singing this morning have kind of that heavenly, eternal perspective
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This next song is Be Thou My Vision and every time I think of this song it reminds me of Matthew 5, 8 where it says
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Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Amen Say that there's love by day or by night or sleeping
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Thy presence my light My wisdom and Thou my true word
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I ever with Thee Thou with me
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My Father and I Thy true son
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Thou in me dwelling And I with Thee one
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Riches I need not Nor man's empty praise
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Thou my inheritance Now and always
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Thou and Thou only Be first in my hoping of heaven
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My treasure, my victory won
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May I reach heaven's joys Bright heaven's sun
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Heart of my own heart Whatever befall
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Still be my vision Oh ruler of my own heart
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Still be my vision Oh Every blessing
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To my heart to sing I bring Streams of mercy
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Never ceasing Call those songs of loudest praise
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Teach me some melodious song
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Some thy flaming tongues above Raise them now
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Lift them high Here I raise my heavenly song
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Hither by thy help to come And I hope by thy good pleasure
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Safely to arrive at home Jesus sought me when a stranger
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Wandering from the fold of God He to rescue me from danger
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Interposed his precious blood Oh the day when free from sin
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I shall see thy loving face Full of rain
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Blood washed thin How I'll sing thy wondrous grace
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Come my Lord no longer tear me
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Bring thy promises to pass For I know thy love will keep me
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Till I'm home with thee at last
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Oh to grace how great a debtor
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Daily I'm constrained to be Let thy goodness like a fetter
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Bind my wandering heart to thee Prone to wander
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Lord I feel it Prone to leave the
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God I love Here's my heart Lord take and seal it
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Seal it for thy courts above Here's my heart
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Lord take and seal it Seal it for thy courts above Let's all be seated.
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Phil, I want to thank you for highlighting a double truth in scripture and one is that before God even created the sun, the moon, and the stars, he created light.
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Light just comes from him. And at the end in the new Jerusalem there will be no sun, moon, and stars.
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He will be our light. Our God is eternal. Our God is sovereign.
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Over the last ten days, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands, but over the last ten days how many people have been praying for Pastor Jeff?
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I said don't raise your hands. I don't want to make anybody feel bad.
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But how many people have been praying for Pastor Jeff and for everything that was going on?
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How many prayed for him? I want you to know that your prayers are felt and your prayers are ascended to the throne of God.
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And the prayers that you gave and are continuing to give are powerful. We need to be continually praying because whatever has happened in this past week, this is a launching point for where God is taking us now.
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You see, it's God's will. And your prayer, I pray that your prayer was,
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Lord, be with Pastor Jeff, yet your will be done. Yet your will be done.
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You see, that was his heart through all of this. Can you put that slide up please?
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We just got done singing this song. Heart of my own heart.
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And this now takes us into a mode of prayer that goes beyond just the repetitiveness of something that is said.
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Heart of my own heart. We do know from Isaiah 1 that all prayers are not necessarily heard by God.
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In fact, he says in Isaiah 1, even when you pray, I will not listen. Why? Because their prayers had lost their heart.
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Their worship services had become meaningless. So as we, in the last 10 days, and hopefully going forward, are praying, it comes from our heart.
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Our heart that has been remade by God, by the power of his
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Holy Spirit. Our hearts that are attuned to him. And we pray, not my will, but thine.
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Be done whatever befall. We're going to talk a little bit about Fullerton and from the world's perspective, this was an unfortunate occurrence.
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But from God's perspective, he is sovereign. Whatever befall, heart of my own heart, next slide, still be my vision.
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When our hearts are so turned on to God, so tuned into God, and we're praying to him with a heart that worships him, and our prayer is that it's all about you, that whatever befalls,
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I still see God. O ruler of all.
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That is what we are. You know, this church, we call it
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Cornerstone, is part of the greater God's church.
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He is in control. Matthew 16, Jesus is with his followers, and they say, who do people say that I am?
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And there were answers like John the Baptist, Isaiah, Moses, one of the prophets. And Jesus turned and he looked right into his eyes and he said, who do you say that I am?
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That becomes personal. And Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living
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God. Jesus said, blessed art thou, Simon Bar -Jonah, for man has not given you this information.
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It was revealed to you by God the Father. Thou art Simon, and upon this rock
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I will build my church. That is not Simon the rock is the rock of the church. That is the profession of Simon.
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Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And he built his church on that.
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And then he says, the gates of hell will not prevail against it. There is a feature in Israel, if you were to take a tour to Israel, you might get to see this.
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My sister went there. She gave me insight on this. There is a place that is like a cave.
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It's called the gates of hell. It is a place where pagans, appeasing their gods, would offer their children in sacrifice to the pagan gods.
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What that passage says, that the gates of hell will not prevail, there is no evil that can be designed by man that can be influenced by Satan.
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There is no evil that will trump over my church. Thou art the
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Christ, the son of the living God, stands supreme. His church stands free.
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Cornerstone is protected by that promise. The gates of hell are not going to prevail against it.
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Ephesians 2 gives a picture of mankind walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the depth of our sin.
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But God, in verse 4, salvation by grace through faith in verse 8, and the story goes on to the end, and it says that we are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
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Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, the cornerstone of a church is that which everything is built around, everything is measured from.
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The cornerstone establishes the location. It gives you north, south, east, west. It gives the dimensions for every feature of that building.
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Jesus Christ is our cornerstone. Everything about us is defined by him, measured from him, based on him.
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1 Peter 2 is going to say that we are a chosen people. We are
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God's own possession. My brothers and sisters, God owns you.
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God owns me. He owns his church. He owns Cornerstone.
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We don't own Cornerstone. Pastor Jeff does not own
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Cornerstone. Pastor Jeff is called as a shepherd, and he's an amazing shepherd, but this is
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God's church. Gates of Hell are not going to prevail against it.
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So this past week we went to Fullerton. We spent three days there. There were probably 700 to 800 people there.
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About half of them were what's called delegates. A delegate is an individual that a local church registers as an official representative of that church and then is vested with the power to vote in the business meeting.
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Everybody else is there to participate, but the delegates then vote. Only half of those people were actually pastors.
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The rest were perhaps delegates like a church officer. Just as an observation, about 40 % of the people at this conference were women.
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The other 60 % were men. We were there.
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We worshipped. The worship time was just uplifting. There's something about God's people together in a room praising and worshipping.
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Thank you, Phil, for leading us that way today. When we sing songs, they can't be songs.
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They've got to be prayer. They've got to be prayer. We worshipped. We had teaching times. There were sermons given to us.
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We were given equipping in the Word of God. We were given equipping in tools to use.
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Times of fellowship were so rich. Jeff, if he were standing here, would tell you how many people came up to him, both before and after the business meeting to encourage him, to put their arm around him, to pray for him.
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The time of fellowship was so, so rich. We had testimonies.
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We had a half of a day of hearing the things that are going on and around the
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E -Free Church, whether it's on the mission field, whether it's here in the States. I want to tell you, and Jeff and I talked about this, don't think that the
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E -Free is broken. Please don't think that. We both agreed maybe 98 % pure.
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Now, Mike, you've got a cup there. Hold that cup up so everybody can see. If that cup were filled with water, pure water, 2 % arsenic, would you drink it?
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We're praying for whatever is wrong. And there has not been a giant step in the wrong direction.
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There's been some leanings. We're praying for God to resolve those leanings.
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We're not here to tell you that E -Free is broken. After all of these testimonies and everything, on Wednesday afternoon was the business meeting.
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And I firmly believe that there were people praying Wednesday afternoon because just the strength that Jeff had during that time was otherworldly.
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And then came the vote. And I do need to let you know there was a motion brought out by an organization called
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BOM, Board of Ministerial Standings. They interview and offer credentialing to pastors, but they also monitor what's going on, and they have the authority to revoke if need be.
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And so they put out a motion that Jeff's ordination would be put on trust, not revoked.
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It will be put on trust with discipline. They want his approach to change.
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I don't. The support that he got from pastors both before and after was...
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I was blown away. Right after the vote was done, the meeting was called. A cobble of pastors came around and put their arms around Jeff and prayed with him and for him, for our church.
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And we know the support that came from here. The testimonies of text messages and emails that he gave me were just awesome.
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Thank you. Thank you so much. And I want to encourage you, without any reservation,
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Pastor Jeff stood without compromise. He is standing by truth in all ways.
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He did not accept the opportunity to compromise. Now, we do hurt for Pastor Jeff, but as you hear so many times in and around memorial services, his mother -in -law,
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Loretta, we grieve, but not as those without hope. This is his church.
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This is his church, and he is going to do it according to his sovereign will. And so while we were there for those three days,
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Jeff's spirits were high the entire time. It is a testament to the reality submitting to God.
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And we know, in the end, God wins. Our call now is to move forward.
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It's good to be aware, and it's healthy to understand what is transpiring.
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And I invite anybody that wants to talk to me to go to a deeper dive.
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It's good to do that. But our focus is forward, not back.
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Kevin Kamplein is the president of the EFCA. He gave an amazing message on Wednesday morning before the business meeting took place out of Romans, and he had this statement to say, we are better together.
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And that is so true. We are better together. My message this morning is going to come out of Philippians.
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I had chosen Philippians months ago, knowing that Pastor Jeff would be away, and boy,
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God is awesome how he puts things together. The first five verses is going to conclude with the topic of my message, partnering in the gospel.
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And here we are talking about partnering in God's church. We are better together.
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Now here's some absolutes. We are called by God. We are
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His children. We are His church. There's nothing that Satan can do to change any of those truths.
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We have the Holy Spirit, and that is not going to change. We are given the
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Great Commission, and that is our calling. Make disciples of all the world.
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After that, the power of the Holy Spirit has come upon you. We must keep our eyes focused on Him.
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Keeping our eyes focused on Him makes us go forward. Matthew 5, verses 13 to 17, talk about you are the salt of the world.
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You are the light of the world. Nobody puts a lamp under a bowl.
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Instead, they place it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. And then verse 18, In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works.
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Now get this, and praise your Father who is in heaven. My brother and sister, this is our call.
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We've heard some of the testimony. We've prayed. We understand things have happened in Fullerton.
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Our focus is on a sovereign God. This is His church, and what we do should be giving glory to God.
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Won't it be amazing, in eight weeks when Jeff comes back, to be able to tell him the wonderful things
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God has done in these past eight weeks. This is His church.
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He is sovereign. He wins. We keep our eyes on Him. That is our calling.
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Now Paul is in prison at Rome. And in prison, he remembers his brothers and sisters at Philippi.
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So he writes a letter of encouragement to them. Starting this week and the next several times,
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I get to take the pulpit. I'm going to preach out of Philippians. There are some amazing, amazing things.
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It's basically a book about living the Christian life. Philippi was not the center of religious studies.
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But the church got planted, and so he's going to say, to be partners in verse four. In verse six, he's going to say, he who began a good work in you is going to complete it, until the day of the
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Lord. We're just getting better and better. You haven't seen anything yet. He's got more in store.
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And then in 121, he says, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Whatever happens, he wins.
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If I'm living here, I'm living in Christ, for Christ. But should he call me home,
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I get to be with him in glory. But 129 says not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake.
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We get to be a partakers with him in a world that is dying, that is dead.
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And if we suffer, we suffer for him and with him. In chapter two, things about our approach to life in verse three, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind.
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We look to the other, not into ourselves. And 2 .5 says, then have the mindset of Christ.
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He surrendered all, left heaven, came to earth. He willingly went to the cross. Have the mind of Christ.
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2 .13 is going to tell you that it is God who works in you for his will.
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If we went to Fullerton wanting our way to occur, we weren't following, he wants us to be doing his will.
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He works in you according to his will. Chapter three has a focus for us and it says, do nothing from selfishness, empty mean.
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Think of the other person. Whatever gain you have, can your benefit to the other person occur?
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That's the better. Press on to the goal of knowing him in verse 14 and 20.
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I just love this one. We are citizens of heaven. Your passport's changed, folks.
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It doesn't say citizen of the United States with an expiration date. It says citizen of heaven, no expiration date.
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By the way, there's a rebirth date on that passport. Chapter four is our response to life.
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Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice in verse four. And in six, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
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Let your requests be known to God and the peace of God would pass with all understanding. 4 .13,
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do all things in Christ. This is the letter of Philippians. It gives us such a message of direction.
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It's didactic teaching and how we live the life. And he starts out in the introduction talking about how do we really launch into this.
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And he starts out by encouraging us to be partners in the gospel. Let me read this.
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Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day till now.
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I want to explore two truths. One is that partnership is God's design. And it's necessary.
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Philippians is going to identify the partners. First of all, Christ Jesus is clearly in there.
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Partnerships without Christ Jesus doesn't really matter. But he says
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Paul and Timothy. Who are Paul and Timothy? Well, Paul's an apostle. Timothy is his companion, missionary, church planter.
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They're an authority. God has called them to this elevated role.
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To the saints. This now is everybody who has bowed the knee.
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It's not everybody at Philippi. There are people who perhaps were participating with them who had not yet bowed the knee.
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They're not partners. I'm going to step back for half a second.
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As we sit here today in the sanctuary, those who are watching online, that's the first question.
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Are you part of Christ's body? Have you surrendered to who he is?
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Do you acknowledge that he is the Lord of all? Do you repent and confess of your sins? Do you submit to him as the
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Lord of your life? Are you truly his child? You're part of this partnership.
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If you have not done that, do that today. Be part of this partnership. But he writes to the saints, and that's everybody.
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But then he starts to specify, and he says to the overseers, the episkopos. Sometimes that word is translated bishop.
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Other times it's pastor, elder. It's to those that are spiritually leading and teaching and responsible.
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And it's a high calling. And to the diakonos. Some passages are going to call it ministers because it's the ministry of service.
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Others are going to call it deacons. It's those who are called by God with a specific role, whether to teach or whether as an axe to care for the widows and orphans, those who are meeting the needs of the church.
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All of these people are identified in totality. And then in verse says, we are all partners.
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The partnerships have roles. The partnerships have equality in that we are all in this together.
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What is a partner? I want to say that a partner starts out by saying it's somebody that you fellowship with.
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Somebody that you meet physically with. Somebody that you care about emotionally and spiritually.
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Somebody that's on your radar scope. And you say, I need to touch base with Tim because I want to make sure that he's prepared for his classes.
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By the way, pray for Tim. He's got his last classes coming up this fall. Do you know somebody well enough that you can go up to him and you say, hey,
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Bill, I'm praying about how's things going in your marriage class? And he says, fine.
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I said, Bill, I asked you a question. How are things going in your marriage class?
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Because you really want to know. And then two weeks later, you go up to him. Bill, you had told me such and such.
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How did that go? That's partnering. That's partnering and fellowship one with another, which would be then praying for one another.
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To be so desirous that the health of your brother and your sister, the ministry, the issues that are going on, you hurt along with them.
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You rejoice along with them. I just touched base with a friend from a few years ago.
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Hadn't seen her for a while and met her soon -to -be fiance. I can't wait to talk to her and see how things are going.
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We rejoice with each other. By the way, your prayers for Pastor Jeff over these past 10 days.
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We train and we exhort. We hold each other accountable. What a sad thing it is to not have somebody who's got your back.
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Whether it's to teach you or whether it's to say, I think you went off course a little bit here.
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We got each other's back. That's a partner. You know we have strength in numbers.
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It's good to be solitude and alone with Christ. It is good to do that.
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It's important to do that. Jesus, the night before he called his 12, he's
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God. The night before he called his 12, went alone and prayed to the
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Father all night so that he would know that he was doing the right thing the next day.
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That's good. That's important. But it's also great. Come back tonight for our prayer meeting.
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It's good to strengthen numbers and our combined skills working with each other.
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Somebody has the gift of singing. Hope I love it when you're up here singing. Some don't.
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Some... Why are you laughing? God knows what he's doing.
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He's equipped you the way he wants you to be equipped. And use that equipping for the church.
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Use that equipping for the church. Coordinating activities. A couple of Saturdays ago, watching people planting flowers and tearing down and rebuilding a shed.
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This is awesome. Awesome fellowship combining our skills together. And then that phrase from Kevin Kamplein, we are better together.
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We are better together. The didactic teaching of being a partner is important.
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It has so many applications to it. In sports, you have a quarterback who gets a new receiver and they spend the off season getting on the same page.
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Tennis, you have tennis partners who know what the other person is doing before they do it.
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But how about prayer partners? Isn't it nice to know that individual that you know when you talk to them, they're going to be praying for you?
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And like I said, isn't it a blessing if you can remember what somebody has told you? I have to write it down.
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I can't remember. And you pray for it and then you see them two weeks later and you say, how did that surgery go?
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Because you're praying for prayer partners. It goes to the throne of God. It encourages one another.
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Missionaries is an amazing example. I had the blessing a few years back to go with Ryan Maneri as he was getting his indoctrination weekend down in Tennessee.
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He was going to be a missionary with Team Missions. And the question on the table was, who's your sending church?
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And if somebody was there, say came out of college, they were in Campus Crusade, on fire to go to Missions, and they came to that weekend and they didn't have a sending church, please go back, get associated with a church, get a sending church, then come back to us.
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It was so, so bought into the fact of missionary partners. Having a church that's got your back.
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Next Sunday, hopefully we're going to get to hear from Ronnie Jacobs. What's Ronnie Jacobs doing?
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Come on, guys. Ronnie Jacobs, we prayed for him. He is in Malawi. He is in Malawi walking alongside
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Hamilton Banda. It's going to be exciting to have him come back and hear what's going on.
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Prayer partners in the missionary. And then you've got Pastor Jeff.
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Things were happening. Three years ago, he had the elders together and handed out the preliminary manuscript for his book,
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Woke Free Church, and wanted the elders to read it and to critique it and to give him advice on how to proceed.
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And the elders had his back. The elders had his back. He didn't do this alone. He did this with partnership.
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And then all of those pastors who have read his book and have been joining with him month after month after month on a
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Zoom call, understanding what's going on, praying, encouraging. And then those pastors that were there at Fullerton, praying and encouraging him.
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And then this church that had his back, leading up to it, praying and encouraging.
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And the text messages, the emails, that's partnership. So we went to Fullerton.
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But we didn't go alone. We went in partnership. Scripture teaches us that all
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Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable. So let's take a look at Scripture, what it has to say about partnership.
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Let's start in Genesis. As God created, six days.
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I believe, Jeff believes, literal six days. And he looked each day and it was good.
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And then on the sixth day, he created Adam. It was very good. Put Adam in the garden to work the garden.
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And he was alone. But he had unfettered fellowship with God.
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Sin had not entered yet. He had direct fellowship with God. But God had a heart for Adam.
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And so he bought every creation, every created being, bought them before Adam. But no suitable helpmate was found.
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So he put a deep sleep, took a rib, created Eve. And he came up and he goes, whoa, man.
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I'm sorry. The helpmate, the partner.
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Do you realize that even being in the garden with fellowship directly with God, Adam still needed a partner.
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Ecclesiastes 2 tells us that two are better than one for the return of their labor. The work is done so much better.
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Two are better than one. If one falls, the other is there to pick it up. Proverbs 18 warns us that he who seeks to be by himself seeks his own desire.
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The risk of not submitting yourselves in partnership could be the risk of having your own self -perception define the way you're going.
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But two are better than one. Nehemiah in the building of the wall, the workers had a trowel in one hand, a sword in the other, but there were workers every spot along that wall.
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The entire wall was covered. They were in partnership on this work together. You're in a spiritual warfare, do you know that?
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There is spiritual war going on because Satan has said I will make myself like the most high
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God. And you have bowed the knee to Yahweh. Satan can't take you away from Yahweh, but he can do everything he can to minimize the ministry effectiveness that you've got.
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You're in war. Here's three things you need. You need the truth of his word. You need him.
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You need his Holy Spirit. Don't try this on your own. Don't try this at home without it. You need one another.
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We really do. Now partnership without the gospel is doomed to fail.
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It's got to be more than zeal. It's got to be more than high -intensity excitement.
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Partnership without the gospel is going to fail. Paul was in partnership with the religious leaders of the day.
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They gave him letters of authority, and he with great zeal did what he wanted to do in going after the church.
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What did he accomplish? Of lasting value? See, God said the gates of hell are not going to prevail against my church.
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And so although Paul did what he could, he could not overcome that proclamation from Christ.
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Gates of hell are not going to prevail. Okay, Paul, what did he do? He tore things down. He brought fear, no hope.
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That's what Paul did. Until that day, on the road to Damascus, in the bright light,
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God says, Paul, Paul, why are you kicking against the goads? Now if you don't know what that means, the goads were an implement that a shepherd or somebody would use like a rod to smack the side of an animal to get them to go in the direction you want.
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Paul, why are you kicking against the goads? I'm trying to get you going in this direction. Quit kicking against it.
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Paul heard that. Paul heard that. He responded.
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He was changed. He chose God, and the meaning behind his work completely changed to now he is working in partnership with God.
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And then when he would go, he went with Barnabas. He went with Timothy. He would go with people in partnership on his journeys.
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By the way, he was sent by the church. What did he accomplish?
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My goodness, it's amazing what he accomplished. But partnership with just strength isn't going to do it either.
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Rome, the powerful empire that it was, was all of that. They had built, they had taken the city of Philippi, which was already about 300 years old.
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In about 146 BC, they took the city of Philippi and made it the main military center of the
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Macedonian sector. There is a place in what we now know as England called
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Hadrian's Wall. It almost is on the border between what we know as England and Scotland.
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It's just below it. It goes all the way from the North Sea to the Irish Sea. And the wall was built to protect the
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Roman Empire from those heathen pagans, barbarians, that lived up north.
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In the middle of it was this fortress called Vindolanda. And that was the main garrison.
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There were some 10 ,000 soldiers that manned that wall to protect it.
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Where is that wall today? It's in ruins. You can see it. You can see pieces of the wall.
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You can see the foundation of Vindolanda. And you can see the plaques that say this was the commanding officer's place and this was where the blacksmith was.
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But it's all in ruins. Just north of the
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Hadrian Wall, what we now know as Scotland, in the highlands of Scotland, there's a city,
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Canoosie, Scotland. And in the middle of that city is the Bainach Free Church of Scotland.
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Planted a lampstand. And Pastor Alistair Wilson, every
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Sunday, is preaching truth. Where's Hadrian's Wall today?
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It's in ruins. Where's the church today? The lampstand is lit.
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The word is proclaimed. Philippi wasn't even on Paul's radar scope.
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He was on the second missionary journey, what we know as Turkey, Asia Minor. Wanted to go to Bithynia, but the spirit said no.
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And so at night he had a dream with a man saying, come over to Macedonia. And so they went.
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And they ended up in the Philippi, a city which was a military powerhouse.
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Not a lot of Jews. There was no synagogue. So he went to the riverside where there would be a prayer meeting.
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And we know the stories of Lydia and her household. And we know the stories of Paul being arrested in the jailer in Philippi.
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We know these stories. The church was planted there.
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And what would happen from that planted church would have more impact than this military outpost in Philippi could ever have.
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What does this mean? Adam had fullness of everything, direct fellowship with God in the garden.
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But he was not complete until he had a partner. God's pattern for you and for me is to be in partnership, one with another.
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Saul had to become Paul, and he had to surrender to the gospel before his power became complete.
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And Philippi had to have a lampstand before their power was realized. Your life, my life by itself, according to yourself, it needs to become a life in partnership with the gospel.
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That's what we're called. I want to go back to Philippians, and I want to look at five aspects of this partnership.
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I'm going to read it again. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and the deacons, grace to you and peace from God our
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day till now.
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The first observation there, as this is written to saints, the partnership begins with a call and a surrender in salvation.
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We are taught in Romans that with the mouth you confess and with the heart you believe.
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Get it beyond your thoughts and into your heart. Titus 2 is going to say, say no to all unrighteousness.
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Turn away from wherever you are and turn to the righteousness of God because Ephesians 2 and Titus 3 are going to say it's by faith, not by righteousness, not by works of righteousness.
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We are saved. Ezekiel is going to tell you when this occurs, he's going to give you a new heart. The old heart of stone will be replaced by a new heart.
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2 Corinthians 2 is going to tell you when that happens, you will be able to understand things of God. Then you will understand things of God because 1
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Corinthians 1 is going to say even the cross is foolishness. For those who don't believe, start out with the right place, the right foundation, which is your relationship with God.
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The second one is to recognize your unique gifting. Paul was an apostle.
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Paul was a missionary. Paul always traveled with a companion missionary. They planted churches.
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They had the authority. And at the churches, there were episkopos appointed.
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There were diakonos put in place. But there were saints. Everybody had their call. Know your position here at Cornerstone.
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And according to God's glory, use what he gives you so that the world can rejoice and praise
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God who is in heaven. Ephesians 2 says that we are created to good works.
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That's his design for you. 1
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Corinthians 12 says we have different gifts. We all do. Romans 12 says that though we're many members, we are one body.
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And 1 Corinthians 14 says these gifts are for the edification of the church. When you're in partnership, don't consider yourself a different level than somebody else or less gifted than somebody else.
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Are you saved? The answer is yes. Is the Holy Spirit within you? The answer is yes.
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Is he wanting to use you for his kingdom glory? The answer is yes. You might have different gifts, but we all use them together.
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It says in verse 2, grace and peace, grace to you and peace from God our
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We walked the hallways and into the rooms at Fullerton for three days.
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And what the world could have projected as a very difficult time to come was not that for Pastor Jeff.
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The grace of God was all over that man. There were no views of despair or fear.
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The grace of God gives it to him. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, by the grace of God we are what we are.
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Pastor Jeff is who he is by the grace of God. You are who you are by the grace of God.
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Equipped perfectly and ready to go by the grace of God. Then in John 14, it says that we receive peace not as the world gives.
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Partnership is going to involve spiritual warfare and difficult times.
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I think of my brother and sister back from Mozambique looking perhaps at the work that is still going on there.
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But they can have peace because they know that those that are behind them are God's chosen workers behind them.
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Have the peace of God. I tell you what, Jeff had peace. We had one guy come up to us on Tuesday at lunch.
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We were sitting by ourselves at a table at that time. This guy comes up and he sits down and he goes, are you the pariah?
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Jeff's heart was just filled with joy because he's not. He's not.
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He's got peace and he's got the grace of God and the partnership that he was working with out there with you,
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I was by his side with God, was not going to be defeated by any thoughts of the world.
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My peace I give you not as the world gives. Verse 3 and 4. I thank my
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God in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy.
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Two things in there, prayer and all. How often are those two words in there? We pray for each other.
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It says that the Lord hears the prayers of the godly. That is you. The Lord hears the prayer of godly.
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Revelation says that our prayers ascend to the throne like incense. So as times are happening for your partner, perhaps it was
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Jeff, perhaps it's somebody else, perhaps it's you. The prayers that are offered go up to the throne like incense.
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God hears them. Jeremiah says, find when you seek with all your heart.
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Our opportunity to be in prayer one for another in partners ensures
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God's gracious hand with us. The call to partnership is first and always a call to gospel ministry because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day till now.
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Romans 1, 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes to the
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Jew first and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed for faith to faith for as it is written the righteous shall live by faith.
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Our partnership is assured to succeed.
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There is no doom to failure because God is sovereign. He wins.
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So how do we do with this? This call to partnership was really on display this past week.
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Your involvement in it and Jeff's unwavering obedience to who
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God is. It all starts with surrendering to the sovereignty of God.
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We are all called to do our part. Jeff, to stand true. The leaders at Cornerstone to spiritually stand behind Jeff and to read him, assess him.
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Critique if necessary but encourage him along the way. And you my brothers and sisters the saints at Cornerstone your prayer and your emails and your texts encouraging him.
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That was partnership. This partnership allows all of us to experience the true power of God.
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Gates of hell are not going to succeed in overcoming his church. So we are blessed to look forward not to dwell on the past.
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Philippians 1 .6 He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Christ.
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My brother says we ain't seen nothing yet. He's got more in store for us. And like I said
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I would love in eight weeks when Jeff comes back for us to be able to give him accounts of God's great work here in Mount Laurel.
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So for the next eight weeks Jeff gets a chance to rest. Spiritually be in front of the Lord. We need to pray for him.
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God is still giving us the opportunity and the calling to be his partner. We don't rest for eight weeks waiting for Jeff to get back.
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But we just keep moving forward. William Carey was a young man desiring to go to the mission field out of England.
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And at that time the church had a I would call it an extreme Calvinistic view.
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They said young man this is my paraphrase young man if God wants to reach those heathens he doesn't need you to do it.
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To which William Carey's response was expect great things from God.
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Attempt great things for God. He went to the field. Let's be partners in the gospel.
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Our call is to have this light here at Cornerstone shine so that God gets the glory.
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Amen. Let's rise up for one more song.
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You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart. Amen. Amen. We will know you as we lift our voices one till that day.
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We will praise you for your never ending grace. We will keep on singing on that glorious day.
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What a blessed hope though now tired and worn we will spend eternity around our
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Savior's throne. Though we grieve our losses we grieve not in vain for we know our crown of glory waits beyond the grave.
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On that day we'll see you shine brighter than the sun
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On that day we will know you as we lift our voices one till that day.
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We will praise you for your never ending grace. We will keep on singing on that glorious day.
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A day it will be for at home with you my joy is complete as I run into your arms hoping wide
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I will see my Father who is waiting for me.
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What a day it will be for at home with you my joy is complete as I run into your arms hoping wide
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I will see my Father who is waiting for me.
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My Father who is waiting for me.
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On that day we will see you shine brighter than the sun
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On that day we will know you as we lift our voices one till that day.
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We will praise you for your never ending grace and we will keep on singing on that glorious day.
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On that day we will see you shine brighter than the sun
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On that day we will know you as we lift our voices one till that day.
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We will praise you for your never ending grace and we will keep on singing on that glorious day.
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And we will keep on singing on that glorious day.
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Philippians 4 verses 6 and 7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
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The peace of God, which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds.