Book of Colossians - Ch. 1, Vs. 21-25 (01-24-1999)

Park Meadows Church

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And those of you that are not in here don't need to pay any attention. Colossians the first chapter, verse 21.

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Brian is shutting the rest of them out. Alright, last week we discussed the fact that our

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Lord has reconciled everything, all of creation, through the blood of the cross.

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Not just his people. All creation. All of it is under a curse because of Adam.

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Because of what he did. And it is less than perfect.

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The creation is groaning as woman and travail waiting on the rapture of the church.

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Because at that time it will get, or somewhere near that time, it will get a new body.

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Just like we will get a new body. So verses 16 through 20 are very, very important for you to understand.

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John, excuse me, John 3, 16. Please know, just fix it in your little computer in your head, that John 3, 16 does not mean everybody.

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God so loved the world, and you've probably heard most of your life that that means every human being.

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That's not true. And there's lots of scripture to prove that.

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Now come to verse 21 again. I think this is where we stopped. And he is saying, and you, that were sometimes alienated.

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Talking to Christians now, brethren, which includes you and I. That were sometime means in times past you were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works.

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You were an enemy of God at one time. Prior to your notification by God that you now belong to him.

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And notice it is in your mind, that's where everything is. Dennis, everything is first an idea.

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Everything. Ideas then spark thought.

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Greg, thought then generates action. Action, if persisted in, will generate a habit.

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Habits go on to lead to conduct, conduct to character, and character to destiny.

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So we see that the thoughts that we have are extremely important. He says that sometimes in your mind, or at times past, you were that way.

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Yet now he has reconciled you along with everything that is of him.

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He did not and will never reconcile that which is not of him. And of course the only thing that is not of him is sin.

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Please, if you have a thought or a question, speak up. Verse 22.

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In the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblameable, unreprovable in his sight.

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So let me read it all together now. And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.

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Why was it necessary for Jesus Christ to have a human body?

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Dennis, what do you think? You're right.

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Absolutely right. Brian, you got any other thoughts on that?

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Tom? He had to become our priest.

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In order for him to be our substitute and our sacrifice, he had to be able to be a perfect sacrifice.

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In order for him to be a perfect sacrifice, he had to be human and he had to be sinless. And in order to be sinless, he had to be

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God. In order to be human, he had to be a man. Did you hear all that Debbie?

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I heard it. Why do you think he had to have a human body? I guess

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I never thought past the idea that it was just God's plan. And that satisfied me.

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That's all right. He was never tempted from his viewpoint.

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He was from Satan's viewpoint. Okay, then Greg, we could sum it up like this,

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I think. He had to have a human body so he could die. Because we were dead.

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We were separated. We were alienated. And as everyone has said, he had to come to the very room in which we were.

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And this is why he had to be separated from the Heavenly Father, because we were. And he made that statement on the cross, not because he didn't know, but he made it so that we would know that he did come all the way to where we were in a lost state.

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Come in, Jesse. All right, so in the body of his flesh, through death.

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Colossians 1 .22, Jesse. Now he did all of this to present you, to present us, to present the chosen people, holy, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight.

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If ye continue in the faith. Don't let the word if throw you.

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It does not, the if here does not mean that something shall be if something else is true.

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It means that something was if something else is true.

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So to something else that is true is that he reconciled us in the death on the cross.

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So, instead of if, we could say since.

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Since we continue in the faith. Since we continue in this state of saved -ness.

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The state of reconciliation. The state of knowing who we are and where we are.

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We are his. We are not sinners. You know,

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I've asked you two or three times to raise your hand to all of those that believes we are a sinner saved by grace.

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What I was trying to get you to understand is that you're not a sinner saved by grace. You're not a sinner.

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You used to be a sinner, Greg. But you're not now. The reason you're not is because he died on the cross.

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It's because he reconciled you. That means to bring back to the previous state of being.

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So, we are the real us now. I'm not talking about the fleshly body.

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It sins. But the real you. The born -again part of you.

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That part that God has redeemed. That's the part he will recall someday.

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It came from him and it will go back to him. That part is righteous. You remember

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Paul said, those things that I don't want to do, I find myself doing them. And those things that I want to do, somehow

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I don't do them. But then he said, it's no longer

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I that is doing it. It's the old nature that is in me. So, he made it very clear that he himself was a righteous person.

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And it's the old part that does the sinning. Peter said, or John, one or the other, that the redeemed cannot sin.

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Well, can God sin? No. So, can you as a righteous, redeemed, born -again part of God sin?

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No. Now, the fleshly part can. And boy, does it.

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And we take time out, Greg, in our spiritual walk to run over and massage it once in a while.

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So, in verse 23, since you continue in the faith, grounded and settled.

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Are there any electricians here? Anybody that understands anything about,

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Brian, you do, about grounding a circuit? Yes, sir. Grounding a circuit creates a path.

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All right. So, Greg, an electrical, your computer wouldn't work if it wasn't grounded, if it didn't have a path of return.

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We wouldn't work unless it was grounded. If we had, say, a big spotlight here, and Tom sets it up, and he gets all the arc just right, and he turns it on, but nothing happens.

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It's not grounded. He's got the power to it, but there's no place for it to go.

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So, if the circuit would be completed and be what we call grounded, the return path, then the light would burn.

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So, work's not going to be done unless you're well grounded in the word of God.

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Tom, you can study forever. You can learn verse after verse, truth after truth.

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You can have all of the degrees that man can pile upon you. You can memorize the holy word, but unless it has a return path, it'll never produce any fruit.

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And the only way it can get that return path is to be grounded in the word. Just to study it is not grounding.

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Grounding comes about from experience, from practice, from believing and then understanding.

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I had a man in class last week that, even though it had been said numerous times, it was said again last week, that in the world, you have to understand before you can believe.

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And Brian, I really believe it's getting too hot up here. So, in the world, mathematics, anything, you have to at least halfway understand it before you can ever believe it.

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But in the word, in the spiritual world, in God's realm, that's backwards.

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You will never, never understand anything in a word unless first you believe it to be so.

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Those that come to God must believe that he is. We believe that this

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Bible is true. We believe it was inspired of God through men to write down that that he wanted written down.

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I believe that the tectus receptus was absolutely infallible.

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It means the very first writing of it. We don't have the first writings anymore.

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We have translations. And we have some make -believe translations.

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So, to be grounded means that you have begun to grow.

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You won't grow unless it has a completed circuit to it. And settled. Settled.

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Jesse, what's it mean to be immovable? What? Cannot be moved.

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Can you give me a definition without using the word moved or movable? Alright.

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Debbie? Immovable. Alright. Greg?

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Immovable. What do you mean shift?

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Now there you used the word. What? To be anchored.

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Firmly anchored. Settled. Immovable. Cannot be shaken loose from what you believe.

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From time to time I will try to do that with you. So, that tells me what areas in which

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I need to spend more time. Grounded and settled.

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Immovable. And be not moved away from the hope.

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I like the word assurance. Of the gospel. Which you have heard.

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Now let's talk about heard for a moment. Margaret? We all hear the

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Bible read. Most of our lives some of us have heard the Bible read. But did we really hear it?

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Maybe. We heard the words. Just like the man last week.

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I'm sure he had heard that statement. That you have to believe before you understand. But he never really heard it.

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What is it that makes it possible for you to really hear the word?

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The Holy Spirit. So, that's why we have to continue to study and teach and repeat and repeat and repeat.

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Because it is through that hearing that the Holy Spirit works on us. Now, Greg, the

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Holy Spirit will cause each one of us to hear that that we're supposed to hear when we're supposed to hear it.

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I can't do that. I just have to repeat the same thing over and over. So, at some time in there when it's right for you to hear a certain thing, you hear it.

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A hearing with an understanding. We're in Genesis. And I was studying chapter 3 verse 17 this morning.

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And the Lord God said to Adam, because you hearken unto your wife. Now, everybody laughs about that and tries to get by without really studying it.

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But the word hearken means to hear with the object of obeying.

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To hear with belief. He believed his wife more than he believed

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God. So, we are to hear. Now, Dennis, we cannot of ourselves decide today

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I'm going to hear something new from the Bible. We can hope we do.

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We can come with the purpose of learning something. But, you know, even we that are studying, we that are listening, we that are looking to hear something new.

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If we hear it, it's not because I wanted it. It's because the Holy Spirit gave it to you. Or me.

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You understand that? Hearing. The real hearing is at the discretion of the

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Holy Spirit, Tom. So, be not moved away from the assurance of the gospel which you have heard.

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And which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof

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I, Paul, am a minister. So you have heard because the

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Holy Spirit opened your ears. In Revelation, we see repeated over and over. He who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

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It doesn't mean everybody is going to hear. It doesn't mean everybody that has ears will hear.

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It means those that the Holy Spirit opens will hear. And that happens right here this morning.

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Somebody will hear something and understand it for the first time. Twenty -four.

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He had just said, I, Paul, am a minister who now rejoiced in my sufferings for you.

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Uh -oh. Tom, am

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I to rejoice in my heartaches and sufferings? That was a deep theological answer, wasn't it?

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Debbie, in all of them, what?

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Jesus, that God said in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God.

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All right, but are there some, Greg, are there some sufferings that I should not rejoice in?

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Spiritually, I'm talking about. Who said that?

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The suffering as a consequence of sin, don't look to God to bless you for the suffering.

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It's true, he's guided everything. The lesson we need to learn is that we cannot, as some have, purposefully harmed themselves and then try to use that as a tool to praise

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God. You can't do that. The suffering that is the profitable suffering is that which is brought on by your belief, by your steadfastness, your immovability in Christ, to know who you are and where you are.

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And if you are walking as you should be, as we all should be each and every day, people will not like us.

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Now, he told us that himself when he was here. But Margaret, he also said that I want you to know they do not like you because of you.

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They do not like you because of me. And it's the spiritual warfare that's going on.

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It took me a long time to get that soaked into my head and I still forget it.

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Because when somebody does something to me, I usually get immediately angry with them.

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And that doesn't help anything. It causes my hair to fall out.

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So, it is the spirit where the war is.

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Paul says, I rejoice in my sufferings. He was talking about the fact he was in prison because he was a

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Christian. He ultimately lost his head because of that which he taught and believed and knew that it was

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God's foreordained pleasure that this happen. Rejoice in my sufferings for you.

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And fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake which is the church.

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Now, and I fill up in my flesh for his sake.

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And his body today on earth is the church. The head of our body is in heaven.

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We then are the body and the feet of Christ. But the little words fill up.

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Paul says, I now fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.

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Someone explain that to me. What does fill up mean?

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People in service station used to you could tell the attendant fill it up. What does that mean? Make it full.

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Put in all you can get. Okay, here he says, and I fill up that which is behind.

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What is it that is behind? Greg, what?

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No, that's not what he's talking about here. He says fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.

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What was the afflictions of Christ? Alright.

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Were there any prior to that? Any afflictions of Christ before he went to the cross?

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Okay. Now we're getting close to it, Debbie. See, he's just been talking about sufferings.

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And now he says, I fill up that which is behind, that that is left.

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How old was Christ when he left this earth? How old was Jesus? Christ is eternal. How old was

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Jesus when he left? Who in here is 33 years old?

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What did he say?

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If Jesus had lived, even at that time, a normal length of years, he would have been older.

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And would he have suffered more? Sure. Now, Paul says that which he did not do because he left,

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I do. That's why we suffer. We're filling up that which is left behind of him.

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And his body here is this church. Not the earthly church.

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It is his church, those that are redeemed. Don't get the idea we're the only group on earth that are redeemed.

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There's some people believe that they're the only ones, but we know better than that. So he says,

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I rejoice in the sufferings that are coming upon me. That's hard.

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That's just real hard. Now, Dennis, I can look back 50 years and see how, yes, that was good.

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But at the time, you could not have convinced me that that was good. So, Paul can see it at the time, at the moment.

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I hope I can see it a little closer in 50 years now. I rejoice because of my sufferings for Christ.

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And I realize, he says, I know that I am filling up the afflictions which were not poured out upon him because of his death, his ascension back into heaven.

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Therefore, that leaves me here as a representative of his, in the church of his, to suffer the things that are really pointed at him.

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And that's each one of us. In the spirit, the world hates us. Again, in Genesis 3 .15,

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the Lord God, talking to Satan, said, I shall put enmity between you and a woman.

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Imperative statement. Greg, that means that it is going to be. He did it.

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God said, I put that state of war between Satan's seed and my seed.

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So, filling up the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, this is why you suffer.

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Because it is ordained that we do. Philippians 1 .29, it not only has been given to you to believe, but also to suffer on his behalf.

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That's just part of the package, Margaret. Part of the suffering. Margaret, do you think that we today in Corsicana, living now, are suffering very much spiritually compared to other ages?

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Say that again. In what way? Well, I mean, we read of the martyrs.

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We read of Paul. We read of Polygate. We read of so many that gave their life.

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They were tortured to death, burned. They lived in poverty. We're not suffering like that today, are we?

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What? No. You're right there.

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Don't we suffer equal to what they suffered? And what

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I mean by that, that back in that time, in that city, when they suffered and they were martyred and killed, and today, we suffer from things that they didn't suffer from.

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We suffer from things that were the things that we see in everyday living through television and things of that nature.

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Those same afflictions that Satan brought out of their suffering to cause those guys to suffer for Christ's sake, we still suffer.

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To me, we're just as much of a martyr today as they were in prison of the things that bombard us each day.

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Two, if we're truly walking for Christ, we're grounded. We're set up to achieve what we can through living for Christ.

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All right, in a way, you're right. In another way, you're not, because we have not yet suffered under blood and death.

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They did. They did not have the tools by which

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Satan could cause them to suffer that we do today. I would have to say that we are not suffering as they did.

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And, Jesse, maybe it's because there's such a long distance between now and then, but I do know this, that we have not suffered anything like we're going to, especially those of you that are younger than I.

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Satan has a positive pressure system, and any little crack, he'll be in.

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We look back at the times of the medieval age and back before that as those great men of God that really suffered.

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I would hope that there are some today that are suffering mentally and spiritually as much, but I know this, that what one generation tolerates, the next generation demands.

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And I grew up in a time where divorce was not even mentioned, where the sex life, and it still bothers me to say the word, was not mentioned, even in private.

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And now it's flaunted every place, publicly. That doesn't make it right. But the more we're bombarded with all of that, the more we ignore it, the more we condone it, the more we seem to slip into the same mold.

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If my great -grandfather, whom I never met, I've heard stories about him,

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I have his Bible, he was a circuit -riding preacher in the Indian Territory, preached many a sermon with a .45

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laying on the side of the pulpit, I'm told. If, Debbie, he should rematerialize right now and sit there by you, and could see us and hear us, he'd want to go back to wherever he was.

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It comes about in such a nibbling process, very, very slow, that we seem to not pay much attention to it.

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But it's like the frog in the pot of boiling water. So the suffering is real, and it is going to get more real.

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Some of us have suffered more than others, simply because we're older than others. But don't think we're going to escape it, because we're not.

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You don't need to go looking for it. Just walk by faith, and plenty of it will come.

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Yes. That's right.

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Yes. Yeah. That's right.

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Well, you're absolutely right. Yes. Yes.

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We, as Jesse said, we bring so much of it on ourself. So there's two types of suffering,

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I want us to understand. That we bring on ourself, peer pressure and whatever. But then there's a suffering like Paul is talking about, simply because he was forceful in saying what he believed.

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That's right. That's right.

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If you want to get your eyes open, take a vacation to the northwest part of this country, in the

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Mormon section. Me and I spent quite a few vacations up there because of family that's been there.

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And we have one or two Mormons that are real good friends, but just in the flesh, not in the spirit.

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You cannot, as a Baptist, as a Christian, go to that part of the country and open up a business and expect to succeed.

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Because you just can't do it. Now, that's nothing compared with what

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Dennis was talking about. Christians are being killed all over the world today simply because they believe in Christ.

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Well, we live in a very protective society and it's breaking down.

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You really believe that? I know you don't.

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But, that's right. In every way. So, what is the remedy for us?

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Do what? In the Word of God. That's the only hope you have is in the

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Word of God. The time will come in your life when this church will have to meet in homes.

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Probably not before me and I leave, but it's coming. That's where it started and that's where it'll go back.

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Well, Paul was a most unusual man. He was sold out completely unto the

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Lord. He says, My spiritual sufferings now, which bled over into his physical sufferings,

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I am filling up the afflictions of Christ and I'm doing it in my fleshly body for the body's sake, for the church.

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He says, Whereof I am made a minister. I am made is a passive verb.

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What's the difference between passive and active verbs? It's being done to you actively.

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That's right. So, when he says, I am made, it means somebody else did it.

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He didn't do it. You cannot make yourself to fill one of the positions of Christ.

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He does it, not you. So, I am made a minister, a representative according to the dispensation of God.

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The dispensing of God. He did it, which is given to me for you to fulfill the

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Word of God. Each one of us, each one of the children of God, have a position in the body of Christ here on earth.

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You have a certain position in which you fit. Think of it as a big jigsaw puzzle.

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Did you ever work a jigsaw puzzle? Anybody never work a jigsaw puzzle? Did you ever try to take a piece that was almost right and make it fit?

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Did you ever get a knife out and carve it to where it would fit? When you do that, what have you done to the puzzle?

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There's a piece someplace that's supposed to be there. Now, what's it going to do? Somebody's going to have to work on it with a knife.

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So, each one of his people have a particular place. Don't worry about what it is or where.

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He'll see that you're there. So, whatever he brings to you, whatever's immediately in front of you, handle it.

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That's all we have to do. Don't spend forever trying to figure out what your gift is or what you're supposed to be doing.

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Just do what he gives you to do. Make the most of whatever you have, wherever you are, right now.

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That's what he requires. So, don't try to outguess him and figure out, well, maybe

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I'm supposed to preach. Maybe I'm supposed to do this. Maybe I'm supposed to do that. All of it's important.

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And he'll see that his people do what they're supposed to do, where they're supposed to do it. We certainly can't figure it out.

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So, it was given to me for you. There is nothing ever given to you to hoard.

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Every truth that is revealed to you, you are to share with others. That's why it was revealed to you.

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Tom, I have to watch myself real close because studying, sometimes I have an idea that just explodes.

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And I get so excited about it. And I make all kinds of notes. And I just can't wait for the next class because it concerns their study material.

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And I just want to explain this to them so much. And, finally, they get there.

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And, finally, we get started. And, finally, I've tried to very casually work up to this point that I want to explode in their mind.

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And I do. And they say, so what? See, it wasn't revealed to them as revealed to me.

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But it was revealed to me to share with them. My teaching is just as much for me as it is you.

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Maybe more so. I need it. Same way with you.

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Paul says, I'm a minister of that because he made me so. We've got to stop.

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We're past time. Mercy, we've run out of time already. Somebody make a mark at the end of verse 25.