How Then Shall We Live? | Theocast

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Hi, this is John. Today on Theocast, Justin and I want to answer this question.

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Now that we're saved and the gospel is amazing, what should we do? What's the point of our obedience?

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Why should we be holy? We know that we're supposed to, but what is the motivation behind it?

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Well, we actually have some hope and exciting joy for you because your holiness has a whole lot more to do than you just not doing what's wrong.

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There's a purpose behind it, and it's an eternal purpose, and one I think that's going to bring you hope and joy.

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Stay tuned. Before we jump into the podcast, we want to tell you about a really important announcement. We're doing a one -day conference on suffering and the return of Christ.

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It's going to be January 18, 2024 in Escondido, California. And we're going to be doing it with the

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Bounding Grace Radio with the host, Chris Gordon. And we're going to be hosting it at his church, which is

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Escondido United Reformed Church. We're going to be having four sessions. It's going to start in the morning,

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Thursday morning at 10 a .m. And we're going to go all the way through the evening, and we're going to have a special guest with us that evening,

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Dr. Bob Godfrey, who's going to be joining us in a panel as we discuss the importance of suffering and eschatology and why our eschatology matters.

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Please go and register. It's going to be January 18 in Escondido, California, and we look forward to seeing you there.

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Welcome to Theocast, encouraging weary pilgrims to rest in Christ. Conversations about the

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Christian life from a Reformed pastoral and confessional perspective. Your hosts today are Justin Perdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina.

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I'm John Moffitt, I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee. That was my third intro. It's like I've never podcast before,

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Justin. Well, what the listener doesn't know is that John is trying to throw in about 12 descriptors about the kind of conversations that we're going to have and the perspective with which we're bringing it.

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That's right. If you skipped the intro and this is your first episode ever, this is what we want you to know.

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We're trying to clarify the gospel and reclaim the purpose of the kingdom. That is our mission for the next 45, 40, 30 minutes, whatever, however long this is going to take, something like that.

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That's what we try and do at every episode. Justin, you and I have been doing this, is this correct? Because this is our fourth year.

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We're in our fourth year. Going into our fifth year. We're in our fifth year now.

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Yeah, in our fifth year. We've already crossed over the 200 mark episode. Anyways, it's been a joy.

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A couple of announcements before I throw it over to Justin. We are several months now into our brand new app.

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And in that app, you can listen to all of Justin's sermons, mine, all of our lectures, all of our articles that are on there, all of our past episodes from all of the podcast.

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But more importantly, it's the people in the app. There's about 800 people in there who encourage each other, ask questions, have side conversations.

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There's video chats. It's really exciting. So, theocastcommunity .org, you can go check that out. There's a free version of that.

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We'd love for you to come over and participate. You know what it's like, Justin? It's like Facebook. Without all the ads and the offensive comments and all of the angry people that tend to get on there, it's like Facebook, but better.

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There you go. Thankfully better. Yeah. Than Facebook. And, Justin, we don't have all of the information, but can we say that there is a special event coming up?

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Can we say that? Can we go ahead and just announce that? I guess, yeah.

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I mean, we can retract it if we need to, but I'm just going to go ahead and say it. Coming up in January, you and I are going to be in San Diego hosting a special event with Abounding Grace Radio, Chris Gordon.

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And it's going to be on Thursday, and the date is escaping me at the moment. January the 18th.

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And if you go to our website, most likely the information will be there. So you can go there. It's going to be an all -day event between Fieldcast and Abounding Grace Radio.

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It's going to be hosted in San Diego. And I'm pretty excited. So go there. You can learn more about it.

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And that's all I'm going to say. That's the teaser. That is the teaser. Yeah. Justin, today's episode, my friend,

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I'm going to let you tell us about it. I'm not even going to say anything because this is one where I'm excited.

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So I'm not even going to say anything. I'm just going to let you take it over, bring us in. You've seen the title,

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How Then Shall We Live? I don't mean to come out of the gates punchy, but it might be a little bit, but then it'll turn quickly to not that.

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Contrary to popular opinion, John and I care very much about how we live as Christians.

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And we not meaning he and I individually, but how we collectively as the saints, believers in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. We care a lot about how we live. We care about holiness. We care about obedience.

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We care about intentionality. And today's conversation, I'm excited to have it as well.

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In God's providence, where I am in preaching in my own local church has me thinking along these lines.

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In light of Christ, because of him, because we've been united to him, because we've been brought from death to life, because we have an unshakable hope, because God will dwell with us and we'll dwell with him, and all the tears are going to be wiped away from our eyes.

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Because of all of that, because God's faithful and has kept every one of his promises to us, and he always will, how then do we live?

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What do we do with our lives? What should we prioritize? Does God have a plan for our lives?

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The answer is yes, and we're going to talk about that today. We're going to talk about how we as believers in our communities, in our households, in our churches, how do we live?

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My hope for this is that people leave this conversation having a better understanding of what fuels intentional, obedient living.

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And also have a better sense of, man, what the Lord has called us to is really good, and I want to be about that.

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I want to do that. Let's go is what I'm hoping the takeaways are from today's episode, and this is an important one.

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I know, John, you feel the same. This is an important episode to me. As a pastor, first and foremost,

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I care very much about this for my own local church, but even in as much as you and I have this podcast that people are benefited by, people benefit from it,

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I care very much for our listeners that we would never misunderstand the gospel in union with Christ and grace and mercy and all of the things that we herald all the time, the law and gospel distinction, things like that, to then not mean anything for how we live day to day.

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Nothing could be further from the truth. Those accusations have always been raised. They're raised against us even now.

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I'm excited to have this conversation, and I know you are too. I pray that over time people will listen either to historic

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Reformed theology, which is what we're promoting. You don't have to listen to us, but we do hold to the ordinary means of grace, law, gospel distinction, and confessionalism.

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That's what we are. If you agree with that or you think that's orthodox, then that's who we are. One of the statements,

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Justin, the background that I come from, and I know that you have felt this as well, it feels like the

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Christian life is trying to stay out from underneath the king's judgment of my life.

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I don't want to be judged by him. What you learn from our confessions and covenant theology and law and gospel, what you learn about Jesus is that the

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Christian life is about joining the king in his mission. It's not about staying out from underneath his judgment.

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That's gone. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What's going to separate us from the love of God?

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Not my sin. My sin can't separate me from the love of God. There's nothing. Not even death or the principalities of the air.

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Not even Satan himself. That doesn't mean we run headlong into sin. We're trying to get away from it.

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For me, moving from judgment to joining, and I'll explain what I mean by that here in a minute, is amazing.

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To think that the entire Christian life is just me trying not to sin for the rest of my life until Jesus comes back sounds exhausting, in the worst kind of way.

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But me joining the king in his mission and dying for him sounds invigorating. I'll lay my life down for that.

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I don't want to lay my life down to not sin. Maybe that doesn't make me very spiritual, Justin. Maybe I'm not that spiritual.

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But to go and see the power of Christ holding the power of God in my mouth, which is the gospel, and being able to speak it to people and watch them come to life,

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I'll die for that. I'll resist temptation. I'll be as holy as I can so that I can be effective. There's something that is so important about the

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Christian life that I want to bring up here that has really helped shape me since becoming confessional.

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Our confession underneath the providence of God in chapter 5 talks about the way in which

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God functions. This is important when you're understanding holiness and you're understanding your role in God's economy, in God's mission.

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This is chapter 5 .1. It says, God, the good creator of all things, in his infinite power and wisdom, upholds, directs, arranges, and governs all creatures and things.

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As Calvinists and people who believe in the sovereignty of God, we all say, Amen, thank God he does, that no one else is in control.

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Point two. All things come to pass unchangeably and certainly in relationship to the foreknowledge and decree of God, who is the first cause, meaning that it is

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God's will and he is the one that's moving history. We're so thankful that it's true because without that, we do not have the hope of the gospel.

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We have the hope of humans only. Thus, nothing happens to anyone by chance or outside of God's providence.

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Yet by the same providence, God arranges all things to occur according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or in response to other causes.

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Let me reword it this way. God has determined before the foundations of the world that he's going to redeem sinners.

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Praise God that I am one of those sinners. But, Justin, he says that he does it through second causes, meaning that we are the second cause.

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Our actions or the lack thereof is the cause by which his will will be done because he decreed it would be so.

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The two examples that I could give you is the proclamation of the gospel and prayer. James says, you have not because you have not asked.

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God uses prayer and God uses our obedience. This is nuts. This is absolutely nuts.

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God uses our obedience, our acts of obedience, to fulfill his divine will of saving the world.

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What a nutty thing to think about. I am joining God because he called me, not because I am worthy or capable or that I have some value in me.

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God looks at these weak creatures and says, it's through you the kingdom of the world will be transformed from darkness to light.

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I wake up in the morning and go, I was a failure yesterday and all I did was sin.

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But for whatever reason, God is going to put mercy and grace upon me. In my failure, as I pursue obedience, he's going to continue to use it to bring people to life.

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That is a wonderful reason to fight against my flesh and pursue holiness. God is a

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God of means, not just ends. He has ordained the end, but he's also ordained the means.

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That's what you're talking about. The agencies and the causes and the means that the Lord uses to accomplish his wonderful plan to save for himself a people that he has determined from eternity past to save.

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That is massive in terms of our motivation and thinking about the purpose that we have for our lives.

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We're going to talk more about it. I'm just going to go ahead and maybe get us rolling in this direction. So often in the contemporary church, all of the focus and the discussion about obedience and about holiness and about our living really kind of begins and ends with me.

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It's a very inward -looking thing, certainly. We talk about that a lot, but it's very selfish in a way.

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It's self -centered, right? It really is about my personal holiness, my personal obedience.

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Can I say this? It's my personal spiritual experience. Oh, sure. We're going to go here in a minute.

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Even the ways that I've been given gifts and I'm called to use them. So often, even there, it becomes a lot about my own personal sense of fulfillment.

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It's just a wrong perspective. Our obedience and our pursuit of it, our holiness and our pursuit of it, our serving and our loving and our giving and all those things, they are not first and foremost for us.

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They actually are not directly for God in this sense. Our obedience and holiness and serving and loving do not cause

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God in any sense to love us more. I mean, that's bristle, pause, repeat. They don't.

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Obedience, holiness, loving, serving, all the things that we do and are called to do and should do, none of those things cause

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God to love us more. He has already told us how he feels about us. None of those things contribute to our righteousness because Christ is that.

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Only Jesus is the forgiveness of our sins and our righteousness and our eternal life.

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We will be found just on the last day and welcomed into God's eternal kingdom because we stand in Christ.

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Those things could not be more clear from the scripture. They could not be more plain. That said, right now in terms of our lives on earth, in light of the world to come, what is the purpose of our obedience and our holiness, our loving and our serving and our giving?

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I trust it's pretty clear at this point that the purpose of those things is for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.

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It is for the good of my brothers and sisters. It is for the good of my neighbor. It is for the building up of the body of Christ.

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It is so that people will taste and see that the Lord is good and that Christ is a Savior. John, you and I were talking before the podcast today even about our own pursuit of holiness and obedience or even the ways that we might study the scriptures or theology.

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We're not doing these things as an end in and of themselves. We're not doing these things even primarily for our own sake.

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Like, oh, well, I am going to be personally holy. For what purpose?

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Just so that I can feel good about myself when I approach the Lord? No. I want to pursue holiness so that I can be used of God.

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I want to pursue holiness so that I'm useful to my brothers and sisters and I'm good for my neighbor.

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I want to pursue holiness so that I don't bring reproach upon my Savior, so that I am not a hindrance to the growth of the church and to the plan of God.

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That's why I pursue holiness and obedience. My wife needs it. My children need it. My church needs it.

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My community needs it. God is honored in it. This is a reorientation of perspective that I think is really important for our listeners and, more importantly, for our churches.

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You and me as pastors, but anybody out there, your local church needs this from you. Jon Moffitt That's right. Jesus shows up as the

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Messiah and comes into His ministry. He keeps talking about the thing they're anticipating and they're excited about, but He keeps changing it on them and they don't like it.

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He's talking about the new kingdom. They're like, yeah, we're excited. You're going to sit on the throne.

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He's like, no, no, no. You think the kingdom is going to be taken by sword, but it's not. You think we're going to be taking it by violence.

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You think we're going to push back on Rome. The way they were thinking about the kingdom and the position that they were going to have on it was all physical and it was for temporal benefits.

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Jesus is like, you do not understand my kingdom. My kingdom was not of this world.

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It's going to be here, but it's not here yet. He kept trying to explain it to them.

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Obviously, Peter is not understanding. He chops off a guy's ear and Jesus is like, Peter, at what point are you going to get this?

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He goes to the cross as he's trying to explain to them, gentlemen, I must die. For the king to sit on the throne,

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I must die. They all scatter. It's chaos. It's a mess. All the teachings of Jesus on the kingdom are now to not.

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They're all huddled in a room. What am I going to do? Jesus finally raises from the grave, which is this epic moment.

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The king, then what was prophesied of him, because where the king goes, so the people go.

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Jesus not only provided the righteousness that we needed, but then paid for our righteousness and is now seated at the right hand of the

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Father. This is amazing. I want you to pay attention to something. When Jesus raises from the grave, it's not ethics from this moment forward.

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It's like, all right, now that I've raised from the grave, I cleaned your slate and I provided your righteousness. Now let's talk about your ethics and how you're going to live until I come back.

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That's not what he says. Listen to this. This is Acts 2. Jesus' resurrection.

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Luke's describing what the new kind of life flow is going to be for these people. Acts 1 -2, it says, until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the

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Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen, he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking to them about.

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This is what I love to question. What does he say next? It's fascinating that we don't know.

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Jesus spent 40 days proving, I'm alive, guys, and because I'm alive, this is what now matters.

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You know what he says? Speaking to them about the kingdom of God. The last 40 days Jesus has with them, he spends giving them proof.

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I am the guy, and this is what you are to be about, the kingdom of God. Which makes sense because you go back to Matthew and what does

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Jesus say in the early parts of his ministry? Guys, what I need you to be thinking about is seeking first the kingdom of God.

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Don't be like the Gentiles. They're going after food. They're going after clothing. They're going after money.

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We're not laying our treasures up here. We're not trusting in that. I love this, 2 Peter 1.

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Everything that you need for life and godliness has already been provided to you through Jesus Christ.

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Now you can be a living sacrifice. Now you can lay your life down. Now you can pursue the kingdom. Justin, we were talking about this beforehand.

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I struggle with this in my own life. If we're just going to be vulnerable here for a moment, I wake up every day and the advertisement of the flesh gets me.

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I get sucked into it. I start thinking about how my life could be easier and better and with more pleasure if I went ahead and just became worldly.

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It's the renewal of the mind on the things of the spirit. The spiritual nature that allow me to go, but it is a lie.

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The real joy comes from the gospel and pursuing his kingdom, not in pursuing the pleasures of my flesh.

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Hey guys, real quick. Some of you are listening to this and it's encouraging to you, but you have questions. So where do you go?

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How do you interact with other people who have the same questions and share resources? We have started something called the

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Theocast Community. We're excited because not only is it a place for you to connect with other like -minded believers, all of our resources there, past podcasts, education materials, articles, all of it's there.

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And you can share it and ask questions. You can go check it out. The link is in the description below. Yeah. And to set your mind on the things of the spirit first and foremost, it's that you receive the righteousness of Christ by faith.

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You don't try to establish your own. And then you're living in light of the world to come that the Lord has promised you.

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Between here and there, we are about the mission and we live together in outposts of the kingdom of God called local churches.

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And there is a purpose for the ministry of the church. It is to sustain, nourish, and protect the saints. And it's also to bring others in.

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That's very plain. I mean, even at the end of Matthew's gospel, with all of the talk about the kingdom up to the end of it, there is the great commission that we all know and what the

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Lord tells us to go about doing. And he does that through the church. For a lot of people,

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I think the great commission—maybe this isn't true for our listeners, I don't know—but a lot of people, for the great commission, it just sounds so ethereal. It's so massive in scope.

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It's like, well, how do I even get involved? Well, let's start at the most basic local level.

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Your local church is an outpost of the kingdom of God on earth. It is an outpost of the kingdom of Christ on earth.

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And God has a plan for your life. And it's called the local church. And how you're going to serve where you are with these people with whom you've locked arms to love each other and to love your neighbors.

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And then, inasmuch as the Lord gives us this opportunity, we seek to advance the cause of Christ elsewhere. And that's going to look different for each church and for each ministry and all that stuff.

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And we trust the Lord in all of that. So, go ahead. I may want to pivot a little bit more to thinking about putting some flesh on that bone a little bit.

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Yeah, go ahead. Let's do that. That's where I'm going anyways. Okay. All right. So, I'm preaching in Romans.

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I'm in Romans 12. I'm not going to spend forever on this. But many people are familiar enough with the letter that they know that the first 11 chapters are just robust doctrine.

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Effectively, Paul is expounding the gospel. It points to the law and the gospel. Not altogether different from Ephesians, like 1 to 3.

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And then he pivots to, all right, well, then how do we live? How did the redeemed live? Ephesians 4 is instructive.

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I feel like we cite it about every third or fourth podcast. In terms of living a life worthy of the calling, commensurate with the gospel of Christ, has everything to do with pursuing unity and love in the body.

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The gifts the Lord gives to the church, those are used. We love each other. And when the body of Christ functions as it should, it builds itself up in love.

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That's Ephesians 4. Romans 12, 1 and 2 are pretty well -known verses, John, that I, for me anyway, bro,

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I feel like are so often ripped out of context and individualized in a way that is not helpful.

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Meaning it becomes all about personal, private, devotional life first.

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And then maybe secondarily it's about life in the church with the saints.

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But Romans 12, 1 and 2, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. We could talk about that for an entire show.

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On the basis of everything that he's written. The gospel, right? The union with the

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Lord Jesus Christ. The sinner -saint reality. The fact that there is no condemnation for us and we have an unshakeable hope and God's kept every promise he's made.

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Go ahead. I got to jump in here. Please. Make a comment. It's a little bit of a side comment, but it matters. I don't care. Make it.

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There's books that have been out there. Kevin DeYoung and there's some pastors and they've been taking a little bit of a shot at us about our emphasis on motivation being love for Christ.

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Listen, there's a lot of motivations in Scripture. And I would agree to that. But the predominant motivation,

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Justin, the overwhelming predominant motivation is the mercy and love and grace of God. No kidding.

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It's undeniable. I mean, I could get really worked up. I needed to make that reference. We're not saying that, listen,

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I don't like the consequences of my sin. That is a motivation. But it's not what actually gives me the capacity to obey him.

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Fear has its limits. And mercy and grace is limitless. All right. Let's keep going. Mercy of God, grace of God, Jesus, our union with him, the fact that he's got us, we're not condemned in him, nothing could ever take us away from him.

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God is utterly faithful. He is all wise, and he is saving a people in a way that sometimes breaks our brains, but we can trust him, and he is worthy of all praise and honor and glory.

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Having said that, how then do you want to live, saints? If that's not a motivation for you, we're not reading the same book.

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I mean, with all due respect. And so he then appeals on the basis of all of that to present your bodies.

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This is all plural exhortations. To present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Then he says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

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Now, we'll talk about this for a minute, and then I'm going to talk about where he immediately goes. You've heard the phrase, the priesthood of the believer.

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Well, so much of what that means is encapsulated here, that we, through our union with Christ, like the language of 1

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Peter 2, are literally like living stones that are being built, and we are a holy priesthood.

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In Ephesians 2, we're being built into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. So we are living sacrifices as priests in God's house, and we should live according.

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We now live a life where the focus is, I'm going to render love and service to my covenant -keeping

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God. That's what I'm going to do. And then, not being conformed to this world.

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We can talk about this for a minute. What does that mean? Well, think about what we were. Ephesians 2, 1 and following.

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When we were dead in our trespasses and sins, we followed the course of this world. That's what he says.

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We lived according to it. We were enslaved to our passions and cravings. We were in bondage to the evil one.

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And so now, we do the opposite. We're not conformed to this world, but our minds are renewed according to everything that he'd been writing for 11 chapters.

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We can talk in a minute how God's going to realize this plan, but in short, we're not living for this world.

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We're not just trying to get as much pleasure as we can, be as successful as we can, have as much fun as we can, make as much money as we can.

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That's not our primary focus at all. Our focus is on the kingdom of Christ and the world to come, and we live in light of that today.

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It's all related to this faith we have in Christ and what he's done for us and who we are to him and then his plan for our lives in his church.

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We live like that. Justin Perdue I love what you're saying there. There's two things.

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First of all, I'm preaching through 1 and 2 Peter. 2 Peter 1 says that everything that you need for life and godliness has already been given to you, and that includes your inheritance, which is 1

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Peter. It's preserved without fading and will not fade away, meaning that your obedience or the lack thereof will not cause the inheritance to go up and down because you're inheriting

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Christ's treasure, not your own. So we're not working for treasure.

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When he says lay up your treasures, he's saying go ahead and realize where the hope of your future is, which is with me.

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Don't worry about your future down here. What's interesting, Justin, when we're thinking about... I just started 1

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Peter, and I'm already loving it. What's interesting about the book is that it's written during a really complicated time.

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They believe it's like 62, 63 AD. Well, that's at the height of Nero's reign.

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Nero was just a... Justin Perdue Persecution. Justin Perdue The guy was horrendous, murdering both of his wives, his mom.

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Justin Perdue Christians are lit on fire and used basically for street lights. Justin Perdue They're thrown into wild animals.

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The reason is, if you go back and listen to my first sermon on the intro, I'll explain it to you, but they're worried that these

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Christians are going to make the gods angry because they're rejecting the gods. They didn't want this war between the gods.

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They're like, we believe in all gods. We don't want any of them to be unhappy. Your god, Yahweh, is causing a problem. Nero's like, get rid of them.

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Let's start. It's horrendous. Peter's writing to these

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Christians who are dispersing out into the outskirts of Rome. They're on the outer side of Rome.

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In the midst of their suffering, Peter says something that's interesting because you could think like, God, this is horrendous.

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I don't want to do this anymore. Even your suffering becomes a moment of purpose.

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Listen to this from Peter. This is 1 Peter 3 .14. But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.

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Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy.

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He gives them the reason. Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

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Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good works in Christ may be put to shame.

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Do you know what was happening in Rome? These Romans were watching Christians being tortured, and they started to see that they weren't reviling.

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They were being gentle and kind, and it was causing the Romans to convert.

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They were converting because they were watching what was happening to these Christians. And he was saying, be ready to give a defense because these people would be like, why aren't you repenting?

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Why don't you just give up? And they said, because I have a hope that you don't have. That's the motivation that we...

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You see, it's the hope of Christ and His kingdom that got them through that.

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Not the hope of their holiness. They were holy because of the hope of Christ.

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Nothing else. That's not what... It's like we can't miss this, right? I love this later on in 1

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Peter. He says to... I love that. They're holy because of their hope of Christ.

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That's right. That's right. It's not the other way around. And they want others to have the hope. Exactly. Right. That's right.

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He's like, be sober minded, be alert, set your hope fully on the grace that is to come. Yeah. Right? Because the flesh can...

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It can draw us out or the world can draw us out. I mean, I love this even going back to Romans 12. It's like, don't be like the world.

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And how is it we're not like the world? Renewing your mind in what? The hope of Christ. Set your hope, you know, laying aside the weight and the sin that easily besets us, looking unto

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Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. You're renewing your mind in the hope of Christ, right? So holiness is based on hope of Christ, not anything else, right?

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Some kind of relational status or rewards in heaven. I'm sorry, but there's just nothing in the text that leads us to that.

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I'll say a couple of things just because I think this is pretty practical for people in terms of how should

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I think about this in using my life well. We just talked about Romans 12, 1 and 2 and those really lofty exhortations that Paul calls us to.

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It's like, okay, well, how is this going to play itself out and what could get in the way? It's immediately where he goes.

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He immediately goes to the church, the local church, God's design in the church, and how all of this is going to be accomplished through the church.

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But he begins by telling us, do not think more highly of yourself than you should, but think with sober judgment, right?

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According to the measure of faith that God has assigned. And then he's going to talk about how, just like the human body has all these parts and every part is needed, right?

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And each part has its function. One part doesn't do what the other part is supposed to do.

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There's a whole beautiful arrangement. The reality of the whole, but the need for each individual and how if each individual part is not doing its thing, the whole thing suffers and the other parts can't do their function.

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It's all that. That's where he goes. And then he gives examples of gifts. The kinds of gifts are diverse and they're listed there, but the point is not to extrapolate out five principles on what each of these gifts are.

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The point is verse six, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

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That's the point, right? And so what does this look like? How are all of these things going to be realized in our lives?

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How are we going to have our minds renewed? How are we going to present ourselves as living sacrifices to God? How's the mission going to be accomplished?

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Well, you're going to engage in your local church. You're not going to think more highly of yourself than you should.

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Obviously, everything that you have, you've been given by God. It's all a gift of his grace. Amen. You're going to think moderately about the gifts that you have.

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You're not going to think too much of them, but you're not going to act like they don't exist either. And you're going to acknowledge that they are what they are, and you're going to walk into this thing saying,

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I am going to play the part that God has called me to play. And I am going to not resent other parts and the roles that God has called them to play.

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I'm not going to resent other people's gifts. I'm going to use the ones I've been given for the good of these people and for our collective good and for the cause of Christ.

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And then as we do that, the Lord does his thing. He builds his church.

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He grows us, matures us together, and he saves his people. And he keeps us unto life in the new heavens and the new earth.

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Last comment. I think sometimes people hear the language of renewing our minds, and they hear us talk about the ordinary means of grace and how the

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Lord's going to use the church to do this and the word and sacrament and the fellowship of the saints and all that. And sometimes people could hear that, and it can sound kind of ethereal and mystical.

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It's like, well, okay, so God's going to do that, but what do I do? It really is not complicated.

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Yes, both of these things can be true. God is the one who will do the work of the renewing. Amen. Only he can.

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But then we, at the same time, have to make conscious, intentional decisions to live in a way that is commensurate with the renewing.

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We decide things and choose things and do things and plan our lives in such a way where we're going to live in accord with what the

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Lord says he's going to do in his plan for our lives. And so both are true. We trust the

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Lord to do it, and we live consciously and intentionally, and we live in a way where the means the

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Lord has given and the things that the Lord has said are good, we pursue those things. Amen. It's not complicated.

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So I'll end with this from Paul. And every time I say this, my heart is just like, ooh,

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I kind of cringe. Like, ooh, how can this be? God does not need us.

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I am his creature. He is my creator. And he says, dear child, I hate this world.

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It's just crazy. He's like, I partner with you. I partner with you. This is nuts.

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Like, why does the king want to do that with me? So this is 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18.

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All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

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He's like, I reconciled you, and then I gave you the ministry of this. Like, this is now what you're going to do. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

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Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

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We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God for our sake.

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He made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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Listen to this. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

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He's like, you're ambassadors. You have the ministry of reconciliation. You partner with God.

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Your life has significant meaning here. Yeah, it's like, and Lord, you know

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I'm a miserable wretch. But I love it because we are reconciled.

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And then we run to people and say, I was reconciled. You, too, could be reconciled.

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Do you know what gets in the way of this? Our sin, our selfishness, our laziness, right?

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We become self -centered, self -focused. Instead of disciplining ourselves and making sure we're a part of his people, which is the body of Christ, doing the work of the kingdom, we find ourselves, even in pietistic situations,

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Justin, we find ourselves introspectively ignoring the work of the king because we're trying to make ourselves better.

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And the Christ says, look to what I have done to you. Let that be your motivation to go work.

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Don't look to what you're doing. No, amen. This is my final thought, and I sought to encourage our people with this even this past Lord's Day.

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It encourages my soul to think about it, and I hope it does for the listener out there. In all of this, like you just said, what an astonishing thought that the

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Lord would use us and partner with us in his mission to save his people. It's mind -blowing, right?

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Remember, in the midst of all of these things that we're talking about, effectively pouring our lives out for the good of others and for the cause of Christ.

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Even when we think about our own stamina and our own rest, we need some diversion from the task so that we can keep going in the mission.

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That's how we should think about a lot of things. That's another pod for another day. I don't want to get distracted. This is a lofty thing, and it's like, this is a real change of life trajectory, and it is so unlike life in the world.

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It is not at all how my friends in the world live. It's true. But I think what we have to do is take heart and know that the

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Lord is with us in this whole thing. The image of Jesus in John chapter 10, he is our good shepherd.

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Saints feel this and be encouraged and be comforted that he knows us, and he's called us all by name, and he's led us out into good pasture.

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He says, you've heard my voice. You follow me, and I give you eternal life, and nobody will ever pluck you from my hand.

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What a great image. We are all sheep just trotting along together, following after him.

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There's scary stuff going on. There's all kinds of things. What do we keep saying to each other? It's like, there he is.

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Keep looking at him. Keep following him. Brother, I know it's so easy to get distracted by that thing over there, but don't be distracted by that.

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Keep your eyes on him. Let's keep following him. Let's keep doing this thing. Sister, I know you're afraid. I know that what you're going through is terrible, but look, there he is.

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There is our good shepherd, and let's keep going. Let's keep following after him together.

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Let's just do the things that he says are good. Let's avoid the things that he says are bad, and let's remember how much he loves us in it all and how he's got us, and he's going to bring us safely home.

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That's why we need the church, and that's why we need each other. We all collectively are just trotting along together as sheep as we all look to the

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Savior and the shepherd of our souls. That's a comforting thought to me.

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It's a joy and a privilege to be able to walk with other sheep of Christ's pasture and to be able to do this thing together.

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Jon Moffitt You know, we don't do this a lot, but my 30 seconds of application for you then is, Jon and Justin, what does this look like?

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Love others by looking at Christ's love for you. Two things happen. The Bible says the world will know that you're my disciple by the love that you have for one another.

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Jesus says, Let your light shine that men may see your good works and glorify your Father. That means you understand that your work of the kingdom has significance in your home, in your neighborhood, at your job, in your community, because you carry a light that can liberate them for eternity.

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Don't forget that. It's more important than your personal holiness. It's eternal for that person, and it's joy for you.

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Hopefully this has been encouraging. Please take time to share this. Join with us on social media or in the community.

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Be a part of this ongoing mission of taking the light of the kingdom into the world. Thank you guys for listening.