Work and the Great Commission (Selected Scriptures)

Kootenai Church

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Welcome to KCC at Old Sunday School and our continuing series in a biblical theology of work.

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Let's open with a word of prayer. Our Father again we come before you with hearts of gratitude that we can gather as the people of God in this place with a great sense of freedom and expectation for what will happen here in these next hours as we come into the presence of the living

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God in a in a way that is unique that when the body scattered becomes the body gathered and that we hear the word.

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Father may you enable us to hear it well this morning. May your spirit apply the truth where it's needful in each of our lives to rebuke, to exhort, to encourage, to instruct that we might grow in the likeness of our

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Savior the Lord Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen. After his resurrection the

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Lord Jesus Christ over a period of 40 days made in a number of how the disciples had a number of encounters with him he spent time with them teaching them and instructing them and giving them what is commonly known as the

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Great Commission. That charge those marching orders were both simple and profound.

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The simplicity of it all is just found in the statement that they are to make disciples.

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It's as simple as that yet it is as profound as the reality that it will absolutely overturn and change everything as life as they knew it and in the subsequent generations life as you and I know it.

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To become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is a new life. It is entered through the new birth and it changes everything.

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It changes everything. That mandate to make disciples, mathetes, translated disciples, carries the meaning of learners.

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To make learners. Learners of whom? Learners of Christ and his ways.

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And it was given to that first group of people and through them to you and I that it is to be of all the nations.

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We are to make learners or disciples of all nations. Open to Matthew chapter 28 where we find probably the most familiar statement of this

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Great Commission, this charge, these marching orders in Matthew 28 and beginning in verse 16.

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But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain in which

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Jesus had designated. When they saw him they worshiped him. Some were doubtful and Jesus came up and spoke to them saying all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

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Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the

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Father the Son the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I commanded you and lo

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I am with you always even to the end of the age. It is repeated in similar fashion in actually all four

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Gospels and it occurs in an abbreviated version in the book of Acts. So if you turn to Mark 16 let's hear it there.

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Mark 16 beginning in verse 15 and he that is

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Jesus said to them go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

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These signs will accompany those who have believed. In my name they will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues.

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They will pick up serpents and if they drink any deadly poison it will not hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.

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Luke 24 and beginning in verse 46.

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Luke 24 and beginning in verse 46. Yeah 45.

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Then he that is Jesus opened their mind to understand the scriptures and he said to them thus it is written that the

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Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem.

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You are witnesses of these things and behold I am sending forth the promise of my

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Father upon you but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

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John's remembrance of it in John 20 and verse 21.

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So Jesus said to them again peace be with you as the Father has sent me

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I also send you and when he had said this he breathed on them and said to them receive the

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Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any their sins have been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any they have been retained.

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A couple of pages over to Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. Oh I can't resist.

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Second I have a verse 6. I'll get a running start at it. Lord is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel.

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He said to them it is not for you to know times or epochs which the

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Father has fixed by his own authority but you will receive power when the

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Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all

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Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest parts of the earth. The Great Commission.

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A simple outline of this Great Commission can be found as follows.

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The right to do this to make disciples to make learners lies in Jesus authority over heaven and earth.

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Matthew 28 verse 18. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

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This is the right for you and I to go and to proclaim the reality that all the world must become a disciple of Christ.

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They must bend their knee to Christ and become his disciple. And that mandate continues in full force all the way up until the end of the age.

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Verse 20. And I am with you always even to the end of the age. So the right to do this lies in his authority that has been granted to us.

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The motivation for this mandate is the love of God. John 3 16.

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For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

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The motivation lies in for the mandate lies in the love of God. That Jesus first came for us from the

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Father and in turn has sent us to carry on what he has begun.

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Luke or excuse me John 20 21. We are to carry on what he has first begun.

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John 20 21. As the

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Father has sent me I also send you. He was sent from the

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Father because of the love of the Father. He sends us because of our love of the

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Father. It is the same motivation. It is the love of the Father. The expanse of the mandate.

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How far does this mandate stretch is determined by God's original promise to Abraham. In Genesis 12 and verse 3.

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In you all the families of the earth will be blessed. That's the extent of this.

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The expanse of this. It is to all the earth. In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

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That means there is no people group that lies outside of the love of God and the mandate to go and make disciples of them.

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The means by which we are to make disciples and accomplish this mandate are threefold.

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It is witnessing. Witnessing. We saw that in Acts 1a. You are to be my witnesses.

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The idea behind the the word translated witness here is is the idea to give us evidence or to give testimony.

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So we are to give testimony of what we have come to know and believe and the transformation that has happened in us.

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The originals were to give witness of his resurrection. We are to give witnesses of his resurrection in reliance upon their witness to us recorded in the pages of the

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New Testament. So it is witnessing is one of the means by which the mandate is accomplished.

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It is also through preaching. Mark 16 15. Through preaching.

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Jerusalem. To proclaim. It is the proclamation of the reality that there is salvation and no other name or no one else for there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

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It is preaching. It is to proclaim the truth. And then as recorded in Matthew 28 and verse 20, it is the twin aspects of baptizing and teaching.

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Baptizing and teaching. Didasko. To instruct.

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To impart knowledge. This is the means by which the mandate is to be filled.

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It is by witnessing, preaching, baptizing, and teaching. These are the means.

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The power to accomplish the task comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit.

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Acts 1 8 again. Who also works in the hearts of sinful people to convict them of their need for Jesus.

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Jesus said in John 16 verses 8 through 11, and he, this is referring to the

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Spirit, and he when he comes will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

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Concerning sin because they do not believe in me. And concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me.

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And concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged. The power comes from the indwelling

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Spirit of God. The power to accomplish the mandate comes through the indwelling power of the power of the

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Spirit who indwells us. Who makes our teaching, preaching, and witnessing effectual by convicting the unbeliever of their need to repent and believe.

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The assurance of our success is found again in Matthew 28 and it's there where it speaks of him, excuse me, 28 18, that all authority has been given on to me in heaven and on earth.

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He is the Lord of heaven and earth. And therefore his mandate to us assures us of that success lo

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I am with you always even to the end of the age. That's a fast, very fast overview of the

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Great Commission. But frequently when we think about the

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Great Commission we think about it in terms of a missionary calling. These passages are typically used to support a missionary calling.

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Or we tend to think of it as something done inside the four walls of a church building.

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Preaching, witnessing, teaching inside the four walls.

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But we need to see the mandate is actually to be fulfilled in small part by each and every one of us as we go about our daily activities of life.

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In Matthew 28 and verse 19 the imperative, the command, is to make disciples not to go.

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It is to make disciples, that is the command, not to go. The implication of that is, and could easily be translated, as you go make disciples.

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The implication of all of that is as we go about life we are to be about the task of making disciples.

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Not just missionaries, not just pastors, not just evangelists, all of us.

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We all have this mandate upon us. Work represents a major portion of our lives.

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It is a major activity of our lives. And therefore it is fertile ground for the mandate to make disciples, to occur in our work.

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Think with me about a few things. America as a nation is becoming increasingly secular, increasingly secular.

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And thus a sizable portion of the population will seldom, if ever, darken the doorway of a church building.

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That number just continues to grow. In our family alone there are now three generations who have never entered church.

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And I don't think we're rare. Beyond that,

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America is very relationally isolated and mobile.

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Relationally isolated and mobile. In other words, people are moving constantly.

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The result of that is that frequently we do not know our neighbors.

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Nor do our neighbors really know us. We might be waving neighbors.

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We might be, hey, how are you? I'm fine, how are you, neighbors? But we don't really know them.

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Nor do they really know us. And what that means is that dramatically reduces the possibility of having meaningful spiritual conversation with them because we do not know them.

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And they do not know us. And why in the world would they make themselves vulnerable to hear and talk with us about the state of their own soul?

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There's nothing more private and personal than that. Many of us spend a large portion of our waking hours involved in working outside the home.

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Working outside the home. And it is there, for those so engaged, it is there that we become in contact with people for extended periods of time.

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Extended periods of time. Work is relationally oriented and thus unavoidably evangelistic.

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Work is relationally oriented and thus unavoidably evangelistic.

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In other words, people bring their worldview to work. They bring it with them.

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They think, speak, and work in accordance with that worldview. And thus they are evangelizing those around them whether they know it or not.

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They are evangelizing. Your co -workers are engaged in an evangelistic activity as they speak and work and think in accordance with their worldview.

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A worldview that excludes the very Creator of heaven and earth.

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I'm advocating that as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to become more overt in spreading our worldview at work.

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We need to become more overt in spreading our worldview. And in order to do that, we need a plan.

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In order to do it, we need a plan. So this morning I would like to spend some time here suggesting some ideas for disciple making through our work.

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So that we will better integrate the Great Commission into this important part of our lives.

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So it's some simple ideas. This is going to be not, thus says the Lord, from this point pretty much forward.

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These are suggestions. These are ideas for disciple making through work.

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Now, as we've said, the workplace is inherently relational. Inherently relational.

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In other words, generally speaking, we work alongside the same people for extended periods of time. And conversations naturally occur in those settings.

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We talk about sports. We talk about leisure activities. We talk about families.

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We talk about hobbies. We talk about current events. We talk about many, many things at work with our co -workers.

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In that environment, it is perfectly natural to talk about our faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. To bring up that reality. After all, it is the foundation of our life.

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It is our hope both here and eternally. It is perfectly natural to bring it up.

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So how do we go about doing that? One thing to say it's natural to bring it up.

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It's another idea to have a plan. So ten ideas for disciple making through our work.

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Ten ideas for disciple making through our work. The first is to pray regularly for God's motivation and help to love people.

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To pray regularly for God's motivation and help in order to love those with whom we work.

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The mandate occurs out of a heart of love. For God so loved the world he sent his Son. We are sent out of that same motivation.

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Love of the Father and a thus derivative love of those made in his image.

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And the way to change our heart with regard to the people we work with whom we find often annoying or stumbling or obstacles or just so worldly we want nothing to do with them.

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We can't wait to get home. The sooner we get home the better we like it. Is to begin to pray that God changes our heart and orientation towards them.

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Secondly is to make friends at work. In order to make a friend you got to be a friend.

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So we seek to make friends at work. Friendship takes effort.

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It takes effort. Third we have to live out our faith in our work ethic.

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We've talked about this. We need to live out our faith in our work ethic. In other words we need to we need to work hard and we need to work well.

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We need to work honestly with integrity. Loving others through our work.

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This is how our faith fleshes itself out in our work. Be a hollow gospel presentation wouldn't it?

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When we speak about a transformed life and love of others and by virtue of our work what we what we actually communicate is we care only about ourselves.

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We care nothing about anybody else. So our work ethic has to flesh out our faith.

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We salt our speech with the gospel. Salt our speech with the gospel.

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In other words speak about our relationship with Christ in the church. At lunch speak about Christ.

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People are curious by the way. People are curious about you.

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Because if you are living for Christ at work you are completely different than everybody else.

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And they are curious as to why that is. You can salt your speech with the gospel by by saying to a co -worker hey what would you guys do this weekend?

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Oh you know we went four -wheeling and then we did this and then we did that and man it was great.

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And then I had to come and go to work. Get up and go to work Monday morning. Wow that's interesting.

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We spent Sunday with at church. Sunday morning there with the believers.

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It's being instructed in the Bible and the Word of God. And and we're invigorated to come to work on Monday morning by that reality.

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Man you're weird. Yeah we are kind of weird. But but we're weird in a nice way.

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I mean you guys like us right? People are relationally starving.

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Somebody who will actually take an interest in them is unheard of.

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Absolutely unheard of. We need to be authentic in our attempted building relationships.

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Be authentic in our attempted building relationships. In other words we are building relationships because we care about them as a person.

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Not because we view them as an evangelistic project. It doesn't take long for somebody to recognize whether you really care about me as a person or whether this is all about notching your gun with some sort of conversion or something.

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You actually care about me. You've asked about my family.

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You've prayed for me. Invited me into your home. These are the thing the marks of an authentic relationship.

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A relationship involves a two -way. So once we've established a relationship we can begin to build on that relationship for gospel growth.

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In other words to begin the relationship as a person to a person. And then once we have a person -to -person relationship then we can begin to build on that as a platform for the gospel.

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So for example we can invite them over for dinner. That's radical. Invite a co -worker to my house for dinner.

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Like really? Including my wife and children? Yeah including your wife and children. We would like to have dinner with you.

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Would you come? That is exceedingly rare in our culture.

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Exceedingly rare. People don't invite neighbors to their home for dinner.

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They just don't. And there's something disarming about sitting around the table and eating together.

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It is a tremendous opportunity to talk. God has made us that way.

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Food has an ability to separate or bring together even. So invite them over for dinner.

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When they turn you down, if they turn you down, invite them again. Don't one and done.

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Be persistent. Offer to pray for them in their time of need. They come to work and you can tell you see it on their face.

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Their hearts are heavy for something. Ask them, is there something that I can pray for you about?

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You look really down today. Yeah we just found out my son has some illness or something.

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I mean it's just life. Pray. Visit them in the hospital.

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Find out that they're hospitalized. Go see them. You'll probably be the only person who shows up other than immediate family.

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Go visit them in the hospital. Attend their children's big life events.

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Attend their children's big life events. Yeah you know my daughter she has this dance recital. She's been practicing and we're excited and really what time is it?

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Can we come? Really? Yeah we would love to come.

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What do you want from us? We don't want anything from you. We just want to come.

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We want to celebrate with you. Invite them to church.

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Invite them to come to church with you or a church event, an

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Easter celebration, a men's breakfast, a woman's ladies breakfast.

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Invite them to come. Hey you know once a year ladies at our church they have this breakfast, spring tea.

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Whatever it is. Whatever lady things do. Would you come? Well how much does it cost?

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It doesn't cost anything. It doesn't cost you anything. Would you come with us?

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Well what are you gonna do there? Well when you walk in you know we're gonna brand you on the forehead and I mean we're just normal people.

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We're gonna come. We're gonna be a nice meal together. Someone will speak.

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I'll be singing a couple of songs. Will you come? Men's breakfast.

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What are you gonna do? We're gonna eat bacon and hash browns and sausage and biscuits and sausage gravy?

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Eggs? Yeah the guy will talk. Will you come?

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For bacon and eggs? Yeah I'll be there. What will it cost me? Not cost you anything. There's no cost.

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We don't want anything from you. We're not inviting you because we want something. You can notice here there's sort of an increasing ramping up.

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Offer to read the Bible together one -to -one with them. Offer to read the

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Bible just you and this other person together. Hey you ever read the

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Bible? No no never have. Are you curious about what's in it?

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Well yeah maybe sometimes. Would you be would you be willing to get together once a week once every couple weeks and and maybe we could read there's there's this this book it's pretty small within it it's called the

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Gospel of John. We could just like read it together and if you have some questions along the way perhaps

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I can answer them. Maybe not but but it'd be a chance to read it yourself and then know what it says.

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Do you be interested in that? No are you kidding me? I don't know. Yeah yeah actually

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I've been thinking about that. I've been thinking about what's in the Bible. I don't know where to start. Where do I find

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John by the way? Is it in the beginning? The end? The middle? Where do

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I even find it? I don't have a Bible. Can I give you one? How much is it going to cost?

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It's not going to cost you anything. I'd be happy to give you one. Start a short investigative

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Bible study before work or at lunchtime with your co -workers. Again would you would you be interested in actually studying the

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Bible together? Yeah yeah you know ever since our kids came we you know we had nothing to do with church my wife and I but but now that our kids have come we're we've been talking about you know maybe we need to provide some some moral ethical spiritual upbringing for these children.

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I mean we look around us. Society's a shambles. So could you help us?

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Yeah I would love to have a simple Bible study. Well what am I signing up for?

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Six weeks. Six weeks. Let's get together at lunchtime or before work.

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Maybe you know see if we can get a few people. We'll get together like for an hour before work for six weeks. That's all yeah that's it.

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Just six weeks. Memorize a clear gospel presentation.

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Memorize a clear gospel presentation so that when you have an opportunity to speak you don't remember that you can in a matter of a couple of minutes you can lay out the gospel.

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I think that was number six of the ten by the way. Number seven get biblical and theological training so that you can answer people's questions.

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As you begin to engage with people you will find they have questions. You will undoubtedly find they have questions that you do not know the answer to.

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And that will ramp you up. It will motivate you to begin to look for those answers.

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In other words you need to read. Teaching. Baptizing in the gospel.

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Teaching. Teaching. And that means a teacher has to have something to teach.

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So that means you need to have a growing edge on your own spiritual understanding.

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So read books. Take an apologetics class so that you can answer basic objections to the

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Christian faith. Not motivated to read? That'll change.

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Once people start asking you questions you can't answer. You'll all of a sudden get motivated. Organize other believers at work or in the surrounding area to meet twice a month to pray for and strategize how to reach your industry or your area for Christ.

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Enlist the help of other believers. Maybe someone else at the company. Maybe someone that you know.

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You work downtown for example and you know somebody else who works downtown or close to downtown so you could get together twice a month for the purpose of prayer.

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Asking the Lord of the harvest to grant a harvest of souls.

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Strategize. Hey you know is there some way we could do a Bible study together maybe? You know you invite some people that you know through work.

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We'll invite people we know and you know maybe something can happen here. Again pray and get out praying.

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Number nine. Invite people of common interest to gather together at your home to work on their hobby and then weave

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Christianity into that relationship. So find people of common interest.

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Share a hobby. Quilting. That's you know that's your hobby not mine. It's your hobby. Now quilters seem to find each other.

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So get together as quilters and as you're you're quilting and talking because I think that's what happens.

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I'm not by personal experience but I think that's what happens. You have a platform to talk about Christ.

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You see how when okay I'm making it up as I go here but you know when you're quilting you got to stitch a straight line and precision and so you know why is that important?

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Why is order important? Well because God created an ordered world.

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God is a God of order. Can I tell you about him? All right you make up your own entree.

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That was my on -the -spotter. I have a friend who lived in Arkansas and he loved to play the guitar.

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He loved to play the guitar. And he by visits to the music store and so forth he met other people who liked to play the guitar in the area.

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Unbelieving people. And so he invited them and they would come to his house once a month and he called it

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Pickers Ridge. And they would come for about three hours and his wife made some you know snacks or whatever and they would just jam.

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They would just play guitar together. And in the process of that building relationships and speaking of Christ.

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Again I don't know what I know about music you put the thimble and have room left over but I think that music theory and all of that wonderfully reflects the mind of Christ and becomes a means and a mechanism to transition to speak about the gospel.

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Number 10. Those of you who have are home with your children maybe you're thinking oh this is all well and good but it leaves me out but actually it doesn't.

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It doesn't. If your workplace is at home raising your children then this is your primary area of discipleship.

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You would never want to neglect that. But you can also use the natural relationships with other stay -at -home moms and build friendships out of which you can make disciples.

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So for example in your neighborhood there are families and friends of your children's playmates.

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Families and friends of your children's playmates. That is a place to go to establish relationship to make relationships.

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Invite them into your home for a meal. Invite them in. You go to the park you take you take your children to the park.

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There are always others at the park watching their kids. You know does everybody just stand there and say nothing while they watch their kids or is there an opportunity to talk?

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Yes there's an opportunity to talk. And so build that relationship. You know what I'm saying? We come here every

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Wednesday at whatever 10 o 'clock. Yeah we do too.

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After a few Wednesdays then you you know you say hey would you after after a park would you like to come home and have a you know have a sandwich together?

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Invite them over for coffee. You know if inviting them for lunch is too much invite them to come coffee. Have coffee after the park.

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Invite them to the neighborhood children to adventure club or Sunday school.

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And then offer to pick them up. Offer to pick them up.

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Not just hey you know would your kids like to come to adventure club? Well what's adventure club? Well you need to be able to have an explanation of what adventure club is.

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But don't leave it there because that's it's so foreign to them.

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Make the extra step. Hey you know what it's Friday night it starts at 6 I think or something.

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6 o 'clock is that what it is? 630 starts at 630. Can we swing by at 615 and pick your children up?

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Would you like to come? Can we pick you and your children up? You know come. Watch it. Observe it.

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I mean we live in a time when people are naturally suspicious. Okay I get it. You know you don't want to release your kids to me immediately. That's fine.

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Would you come? We'll pick you up. Even if we have to take two cars. We'll pick you up.

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As your children get older, invite their friends to come to your house. Make your home the safe place.

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Again most children are raised in relationally starving environments. Relationally starving environments.

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So make your home the safe haven. Your children have a have a group project at school or some other thing then you know hey come to let's do it at our house.

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My mom is an amazing cook. She will have brownies that will knock your socks off. Come to our house.

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The kids will come and they'll come back. Because it's a safe place. It's a it's a place where there's relationships happening.

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It is very appealing. Very appealing. Make relationships at your kids activities, sports events, dance recitals, music.

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Get involved. Invite other moms to park day.

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Plan a park day. Invite other moms to join you. Put a little effort into it. Go to the same cashier whenever you go to the market.

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Go out of your way to go to the same cashier when you go to the market for the purpose of establishing a relationship with this person.

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This invisible person. Because that's essentially what they are. Don't look for the shortest line.

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Look for the person that you want to establish a relationship and then do it. Go through the line.

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They see your face constantly. You see theirs. Then at some point you can begin to ask them about themselves and take some measure of personal interest in them.

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Then they go from the invisible banana scanner to a real person. That's a step towards the gospel.

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Now you have no doubt noticed in all of these ideas a strong emphasis on relationship.

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A strong evidence or emphasis on relationship. And that is because the fruit of the gospel grows best in the soil of relationship.

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Say it again. The fruit of the gospel grows best in the soil of relationship.

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If we were to conduct a poll, a survey of this crowd or any other, as to how many came to Christ through a relationship, it would be the vast majority of us.

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Somebody, somebody cared enough about me, cared enough about you, to step out and share the gospel with us in a relational context.

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That is a virtually unanimous testimony of the believers.

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Does that mean God doesn't save at stadium events? No, of course he does. But even there, there's probably somebody who invited you to come.

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Relationship is the soil in which the gospel grows best.

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From all eternity, you, our Father, have been in a loving fellowship relationship with your

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Son and Spirit. And it is out of an overflow of that loving relationship that you both created us and sent your

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Son to redeem us, that we might have relationship with you. That which

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Adam lost is recovered in Christ. And so, our

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Father, we know this. Implicitly, we know this.

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But we let the busyness of life, the activities, the have -tos, so often interfere.

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May you help us to slow down long enough to look around and to see the fields are white for harvest.

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may you enable us to do our part. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.