Ordinary Christianity (part 3)

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Clear Thinking About Homosexuality (part 4) - [Romans 1]

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Our Father in heaven, we come before you this morning thankful and mindful of what a wonderful God you are, how you provide for us, how you sustain us, how you grant us all good things.
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Lord, most of all, we're thankful for the best thing that you have granted us, which is the
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Lord Jesus Christ and salvation full and free in Him. Lord, would you bless us as we seek to glorify you, as we seek to be conformed to the image of your
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Son this morning as we look to your word and see how we are called to live.
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And Lord, I pray that you would bless us and strengthen us in Jesus' name, amen. Well, the good news is if there's any feedback this morning from my phone, it won't be from my phone because my phone is at home, so that's good.
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What is it? Well, I started a few weeks ago, and that door's just gonna bother me.
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Started a few weeks ago talking about, now that's feedback, folks. Okay, thank you.
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I know not to wander over here now. Talking about this book, Ordinary by Michael Horton, and it's subtitled
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Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World. And I think, you know,
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I would clarify to say this. Sustainable faith in a radical, restless church, because so many of the things that we see across the evangelical landscape have to do with programs.
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In fact, I was reading last night, one of the things he says about programs is, you know, church, it's kind of commonplace.
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I mentioned, I think, Promise Keepers a few weeks ago. Why do you suppose Promise Keepers was so popular back when it was?
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What was that, 20 years ago? Why was that? You guys had a long night watching football, and I'm talking, of course, about the
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British Premier League. Yes. Okay, Anthony says because they had a set of rules to follow,
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I think that's good. You know what a lot of times happens after you preach a message or something like that?
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People just want a list of things that they can do, right? And they want to just kind of reduce
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Christianity to the seven promises of a Promise Keeper or something like that. So yeah,
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I think that was one of the reasons why it was popular. Just give me something that I can do, and I can sort of measure myself and go, okay,
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I have six of the seven promises down, therefore, I am what? I'm okay or I'm better.
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I'm getting better. I'm turning into a Promise Keeper. I'm no longer a Promise Breaker.
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I am a Promise Breaker. What else? Why else do you think it was popular? Why are programs in general popular?
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Yeah, John. Okay, what John said is because some people feel like the church or within the church, we're not all doing all that much, and so these kind of programs step into the gap.
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There are so -called, what, parachurch ministries. They identify things that the church isn't doing, and so they go into those gaps, and in this case, in Promise Keepers, what they saw was there was a lack of devotion in men,
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Christian men, and how do you measure that? Well, one of the ways you can measure it is, which gets the greater attendance,
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NFL or church on Sunday morning? I can only speak to the
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West Coast. Yeah, Charlie. Well, let me just kind of encapsulate some of that here.
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Summarize it. Yes, I think it was a response to the culture, right?
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The culture in the 60s and 70s was primarily, I think it's fair to say, kind of anti -family.
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If the 50s was all about Ozzie and Harriet, the 60s was all about expressing yourself and doing your own thing and going your own way and not so much about the family, and so Promise Keepers kind of brings the pendulum, as you were saying, on the way back, and I think that's true, but I think there's even a bigger thing that I'm looking at in terms of, why do you suppose something like that would be so popular?
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What is it about, well, if you go into a, the
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Los Angeles Coliseum, for example, and there are 70 ,000 men there, and they're all professing their love for the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and they're all singing songs together. What do you suppose that's like?
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It must have felt like heaven. I wasn't there, I wouldn't know, but it must have felt like heaven, but I think it's kind of like, you're familiar with the term mountaintop experience, right?
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One of the things I like to do because I'm a glutton for punishment, mental punishment, not physical punishment, because I can't do physical stuff anymore, but I watch,
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I mean, I DVR it and fast forward through it. That's kind of like watching it. The Tour de
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France in the summer. And one of the really cool things that they get to do now, you know, because now it's in HD and all that, is they have these aerial shots, and they pass over these, the very peaks of all these mountains, either the
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Alps or the Pyrenees. And it's like, you can just see yourself literally standing on the top of these ranges where you can look either way.
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And you could just see, I don't, you know, as far as the eye can see, right? You can just see and it's clear and it's beautiful.
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And you just go, I wonder what it would be like to stand right up on top of that peak.
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And what's really cool about watching it on TV, of course, is I don't have to climb it. But it is that mountaintop experience, right?
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You go into the Coliseum and you're seeing with all these men and there's no hard work.
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You didn't have to climb up. All you had to do was go to the stadium that day. All you had to do was sit there and listen. All you had to do was get involved in the singing and think, this is really cool and I've had a mountaintop experience.
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I feel closer to Christ. Now, why do you suppose that movements like that tend to fizzle out?
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Because after you leave the mountaintop, you need to send back into the valley where real life takes place.
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And hard work has to take place. You've lost the enthusiasm.
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You've lost the momentum. The hard work is what has to be done. And hard work is fun.
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It's enjoyable. The process of being conformed in the image of Christ, that is to say, sanctification, which is basically what we're talking about in a different way, in really kind of a bigger picture way, which then descends into the lower picture.
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But it's work. It takes putting off sin and putting on Christ.
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And he really, he wants us to, Horton's big point is these programs that come along and I mean, it's wave after wave if we look through the last 60, 70 years of American evangelical church history.
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We'd see just program after program, prayer church ministry after prayer church ministry. And it's interesting because they all eventually do what?
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Prayer church ministries have two ends, basically, I think. Yeah, corruption or they fizzle out.
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In other words, one way or the other, they don't meet a good end. When was the last time you had a promise keepers event?
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Or you have something like the YMCA, which is not so much Christian anymore, but it's a great gym and childcare.
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I think that's what it stands for now. Childcare, the YMCA is the childcare thing.
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And swimming lessons, of course. But it is, if you look over the history there, you would just see these kind of programs pop up, but they all fizzle out or they all fade away in one or the other.
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And what he's calling us to is really, well, a few things, but one is the hard work of sanctification.
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But another one is this. And I'll just kind of, I'll put it in this kind of big picture because we'll be here for a few more weeks.
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And I started this series talking about some bigger name
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Christians and some of the successes they've had. And compared to them, our lives seem what?
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Dull. I mean, hey, I've never had to protect my wife and child from especially like, from, what's the word
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I'm looking for? Man eaters, the cannibals. I've never had people throwing spears at me.
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I've never, I mean, there are lots of things. I remember when I was in seminary and some Hindu fundamentalists burned
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Christian missionaries over in India. They burned them in their car, a father and his son.
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And you just think, well, they died for the faith. That's true. But not everybody's called to die for the faith.
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I remember talking to one man who has some financial means. And you say, who is he?
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I'd like to talk to him. And his Christian and he said, he was wondering if he was called into full -time ministry.
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And here was his dilemma. His dilemma was, I think
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I want to do that. But is that the best way I can serve? And I said, well, you might see yourself as one of these guys who goes off and is a missionary to Nepal or wherever missionaries are called to.
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I said, but on the other hand, there's nothing wrong. And this is something only you can know. There's nothing wrong with being the guy who supports the missionary to Nepal.
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It's a fine thing. I mean, rich Christians are not a bad thing. But sometimes we just think, well, that's just not enough.
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I want to do more. Well, the message of this book is to be faithful in what you're called to do.
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You just be faithful. God will keep giving you things as you are faithful to do them. So now we'll spend the next few weeks talking about how that is.
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And I mentioned the, I did enjoy the story of this young man who was probably the most boring person to ever live.
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This was an Onion article who lived, Michael Husmer, you remember that? And an ambitious 29 -year -old who lives an enjoyable and fulfilling life.
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Oh, he's a loser, though. Who leads an enjoyable and fulfilling life and he still lives in his hometown and has no desire to leave.
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He has a job and all these other things, but his friends and the people around him all feel sorry for him because he never did anything exciting.
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I think dull is okay. And may I just say as an aside, I think if you're married, you have kids, dull is pretty good.
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The last thing you want as a father, formerly of teenagers, here would be something exciting.
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You pick up the newspaper in the morning and you see your son or daughter on the police blotter. That would be exciting, right?
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I prefer dull. Dull is good. Dull is very good.
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Okay, sustainable growth. I think the last time we were here, we were talking or we just gotten to this point. Sustainable growth.
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And what does he mean by, what does Horton mean by sustainable growth? Let me just kind of explain what
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I mean so that you don't have to answer. Sustainable growth means instead of these mountaintop programs all the time, you just be faithful to what the
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Bible calls you to do. That's sustainable. That's doable. That's something that week in, week out, you can just say, okay,
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I'm going to study the word. I'm going to serve in the local church. I'm going to teach my family.
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I'm going to submit to my husband. I'm gonna submit to my parents. I'm gonna do all the things that the
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Bible calls me to. Those things are sustainable. Why? Because it's not based on emotion.
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It's based on the fact that in Christ, I've been given all these blessings, including the forgiveness of all my sins.
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And in light of being in Christ, how should I live? How should
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I live in light of the gospel? Michael Horton wrote, said, we've taken the ordinary and made it extraordinary.
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And the ordinary has lost its own charm. And that's kind of what
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I've been saying here this morning. The idea of just having an ordinary life, of just doing what you're called to do, seems dull and boring.
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You know, it has to be, and what does he mean by just having that view makes it extraordinary?
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Can you think of an example of where the ordinary just kind of looks extraordinary? Because I have several examples.
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If I'm not being clear, I'll give you a few. I think about missionary families over in Germany.
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If they have four or five or six kids, what does everybody think? What's that?
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They think that's a lot of kids and they think, I remember one of the missionaries saying they thought we were a school field trip because they'd never seen, you know, and why is that?
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Well, if the average person has one child or zero children or two children, then if they see four or five or six kids, they just go, what's going on?
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That just seems crazy. In my line of, former line of work, being a policeman, if you were married for five years, that was pretty extraordinary.
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If you had kids that weren't getting arrested, that was a little bit extraordinary.
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I remember one deputy, his son, every time in the area that we lived in, every time that there was a burglary, a robbery or something, his son was like always like one of the top suspects.
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And you just go, well, how could that be? Well, because it just kind of goes with the territory.
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If you're spending all your time doing what deputies do, then maybe you're not so good on the home front. The ordinary becomes extraordinary.
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You know, when Ozzie and Harriet were the norm, then being Ozzie and Harriet didn't seem so strange.
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But now what do you see? Well, you know, here's a good example. A TV show I've never seen before.
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What's it called? Ordinary, ordinary people, ordinary family, whatever it is.
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And I've just seen the advertisers for it. I'm going, it's anything but ordinary. They're bizarre by biblical standards.
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But by today's, you know, worldly standards, if, you know, two homosexuals are married, quote, unquote, that's perfectly normal.
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The ordinary, just, you know, mom, dad, kids, being faithful to the Lord, that's just extraordinary these days.
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Yeah, I actually wrote this. Why do a lot of couples today get dogs instead of having children?
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I mean, have you noticed that? There's this growing trend. They get dogs and they actually give their dog's name like, you know,
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Steve. Steve, come here. Why is that?
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Why do you suppose they do that? It's easier. I mean, what emotional needs does your dog have?
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Well, he has two needs. To eat, to have some affection. And people say, well, that's all kids need too.
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Yeah, yeah, it's a little harder. And you know what?
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Ultimately, dogs are just, they're a little bit cheaper than children. But I mean, this is really, this is a thing.
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Because people don't want the responsibility of children. They don't wanna buy into all that.
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Now, here's a really easy question. Is the Christian life a sprint or a marathon?
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It's a marathon. And what's the difference in the mentality? What would be the difference in the mentality?
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What's the difference between training for a marathon and training for a sprint? Okay, you wanna train appropriately, right?
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How many of you have ever seen a picture of or a video of Usain Bolt, the sprinter from Jamaica?
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Can you imagine Mr. Bolt, it's quite a name, Mr. Bolt running a marathon?
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Well, okay, running it in less than five hours. I mean, he might make it on sheer will and determination, right?
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But running it well, why would he have a hard time? He needs that gratification after 10 seconds.
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Okay, he's, I mean, he's trained for 10 seconds. Go ahead, yeah. I'm sorry.
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Heartbreak Hill would be a problem for him. And the reason it would be a problem for him, you ever see his arms, his upper body?
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He's huge. Well, why is that? He's built for speed. It's a whole different thing.
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Like I mentioned the Tour de France earlier. You will never see a bike rider who weighs like 190 pounds.
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Why? Because they have to take that thing, you know, their body up those massive mountains and every single ounce counts.
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That's why I had to, you know, stop riding the Tour de France. If you're going to,
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I mean, there are some guys, I mean, it's like, look, if you're a jockey riding horses, you know, they're not, there aren't too many 250 pound.
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I was just thinking about Shaq and I go, well, three, 350 pound jockeys.
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I mean, it's just not practical, right? The horse would be like, what are you joking? He isn't, yeah.
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Yeah, that's right. Somebody get on his back and see how that goes. This is,
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I mean, you have to train appropriately. Is this a sprint or a marathon? It's a marathon. Well, what does that, what does that change?
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Well, again, it gets to this picture of mountaintop experience, standing up on the mountain and just kind of peering around and seeing things and thinking how wonderful this is or being down in the valley and absolutely having to do some work.
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Now, what are some biblical images used of the ordinary Christian life? Biblical images of the ordinary
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Christian life. Charlie, okay.
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Well, I mean, yeah, you have to finish the race, right? Well, here, let's just, let's just, and I didn't really think about this until you mentioned
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Timothy, but let's look at 1 Timothy chapter three for a minute. And I want to just read, starting verse eight.
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Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double -tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.
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They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience and let them also be tested first, then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.
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Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober -minded, faithful in all things.
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Let deacons be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also a great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
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Now, is that a picture of an extraordinary life or an ordinary life?
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It's A or B, folks. What's that?
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Right, right. If we're looking at it from a worldly perspective, then that would be extraordinary. If we're looking at it from a
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Christian perspective, then it's fairly ordinary or it should be ordinary.
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And, you know, we could read that and we could say, well, you know, I struggle with this, that, the other thing. Well, that's fine, but just understand that deacons, and I love the deacons here, and I love the elders here, too, and I love the rest of you, too.
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I don't wanna leave anybody out. It's not an extraordinary
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Christian life. You know, sometimes we, now, don't get me wrong. I can remember it. Now, this is how personal things were at Grace Community Church.
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You know, people say, what was it like to have John MacArthur as your pastor? Let me just give you some insight into what it was like. I remember the first time this happened.
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And I go to the mailbox and I have a letter from Grace Community Church. What's your first thought when you have a letter from your church?
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That's what I thought. I just go, man, man, okay, I'm in trouble. I don't know what's going on, but I'm in trouble.
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And so I open it up and it says, you know, dear, and it's all printed out. Dear, and my name is like written in there or something.
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Dear Steve. I'm like, okay, you know, what is it, a fundraiser? Although they never did that, so I don't know why
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I was thinking that. But I'm just reading this and, you know, you have been identified, you know, as somebody who serves and then, you know, the ministry is written in again.
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And, you know, here are the qualifications for a deacon. And, you know, if you don't think you're qualified, then please contact us and let us know or something like that, you know, and I'm reading it.
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And what's your first thought when you read, just read through that list. I mean, if you really, if you understand what this all means, like here's something, and let them also be tested first, then let them serve as deacons if they prove blameless.
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You know, you read that and you just go, blameless.
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I think that's a pretty good standard. Here's the point, you know, when you're reading that or when you're reading the qualifications for elders, there ought to be just a moment where you just kind of take a step back and go, so it is a high standard, but it's not so high that everyone shouldn't say, that's how
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I ought to be living. And if I'm not living like that, then, you know,
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I need to repent, I need to have a change of mind and just get to it. That is a biblical image of an ordinary
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Christian life. And you just say, well, that's a high standard. Well, yes, ordinary doesn't mean mundane.
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Ordinary doesn't mean no effort, you know, included. Ordinary means a sustainable standard, sustainable.
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We just strive for these things and we just keep pushing and this is just how we live our lives.
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It's not some crazy thing, you know, it's not nuts to think, well,
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I don't want to live like everybody around me lives. It's not nuts to think, you know,
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I'm not going to, well, let's put it this way.
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If I find myself, you know, with two car payments, a house payment, four credit cards, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all these other things that everybody else around me is living under, you know, can
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I think, well, I've really got my household in order. If I go to, and I'm not, if I go to a movie for, that I know is going to be inappropriate and I see myself surrounded by all my neighbors and coworkers that I know are not saved, then what should
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I be asking myself? Why am I here? How am I separate, you know, what's the difference between me and everybody else?
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I ought to be involved in godly things, God honoring things, not in a legalistic sense, but just in a sense where if there's no difference between how
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I'm living and everyone else, then I'm actually not ordinary. I'm not even, you know, living this 1
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Timothy 3 life. I'm living a sub ordinary life. I've been called to this and I'm choosing to live here.
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Now, Horton doesn't say that there's anything wrong with adrenaline racing, exciting things, but he does note, he does note this problem.
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He says, our values are changing. And he's talking about as a church and they are wearing us out, but they are also keeping us from forming genuine longterm and meaningful commitments that actually contribute to the lives of others.
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He says, you know, pursuing all these programs, pursuing these mountaintop experiences, stop us from doing what we need to be doing, from forming the kind of friendships, discipleships, other things that are going to impact our lives and the lives of others.
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Oh, now this is interesting.
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This question here, what are we doing to foster society and a church in which boredom is more feared than failure?
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Boredom is more feared than failure. Let me just read this from,
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I think this man, well, I know he's a journalist. Let me just read what he says here. He says, it's easy to think about what you would do in wartime.
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Or if a hurricane blows through, or if you spent a month in Paris, you know, in other words, to let your mind wander these things and try to figure out what you would do in them.
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Or if your guy wins the election, or if you won the lottery. I don't even know what that means.
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Or if you bought that one thing you really wanted. It's more difficult to think about how you're going to get through today without despair.
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What's the point? Ordinary is a lot more difficult than chasing your dreams.
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Dealing with what is right in front of you is more difficult than, you know, kind of laying the foundation for some far off pursuit.
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Horton noted a sign on the wall of a monastery that read, everyone wants a revolution. No one wants to do the dishes.
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What does that mean? Everyone wants a revolution, no one wants to do the dishes. Revolution, my people say, everyone wants something stirring, something exciting, something motivating, something they can get behind and shout about.
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Nobody wants to do the dishes, meaning nobody wants to do the ordinary things that actually contribute to our lives.
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It's not, is it fun to do the dishes? But somebody has to do it. Yep. Well, that's true.
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So there's nothing wrong with the mountaintop experience to just kind of summarize the 10 minutes a little quickly. There's nothing wrong with mountaintop experiences.
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Okay, there's nothing, you know, some people say, I just wanted to get my batteries recharged. I don't, I don't know,
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I don't have batteries. There's nothing wrong with the mountaintop experience. The problem is, what do you do afterwards?
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You know, if it motivates you to go and do what you should be doing, great.
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If it just leaves you longing for the next mountaintop experience, then what? It is like an idol.
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And it's almost like I would, I think I could argue from not necessarily personal experience, it's almost like a drug, right?
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All I want is the next high, the next fix. So yeah,
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I could see that, that would be a problem. And by the way, when it comes to, you know, meeting your wife, being a mountaintop experience, let me just tell you about my meeting my wife.
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I found out who she was. We were in Okinawa. I found out who she was, and I happened to see her on base one day. And so she went into the
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PX and I thought, well, I'll just walk up and introduce myself. So I said, hi, Janet.
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And she ran out. So mountaintop experience, I don't know. I'm not even joking.
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She ran out. That was, did you run out? Yeah, she already purchased whatever she was, yeah, and she ran.
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She was throwing things at me as she ran. It was terrible. Okay, let's go ahead and turn to Galatians five.
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You know, again, when we think of these things, I think it would behoove us,
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I just wanted to say that this morning, behoove us to kind of think, you know, about what we do and what we say and just think, okay, is this the lens that I'm living my life through?
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Is my life, can it be characterized by these things in Galatians five, verses 22 to 24?
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And would somebody read those three verses, please? Galatians five, 22 to 24. Yeah, go ahead,
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Mark. Now, you know, when we say, when we write, when we think things, you know, are we thinking, well, you know, which of these fruits of the spirit am
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I exhibiting right now? Is it love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control?
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Or is it something else entirely? And if it's something else entirely, well, there may be a call for something else entirely.
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Maybe. But if our life is not marked by these things to some extent, then we ought to be questioning what's going on, because this is what the
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Holy Spirit does. You know, and here, I want to make this clear. The Holy Spirit is not a force.
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He is a person, and when he takes up resonance in us, he absolutely will produce some of this fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.
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He will do that. And if there's none of that fruit in your life, then you have to kind of wonder where you are.
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Are you indeed indwelt by the Holy Spirit? But this is not extraordinary.
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You know, sometimes we just read that list and we think, well, you know, these things are not mine entirely.
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I'm not, my life is not entirely marked by these things. Okay. But these are the ordinary fruits that we ought to see.
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In other words, not meaning they're plain, but meaning this is what the Holy Spirit ordinarily produces.
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He does this. Now, let's just take a few minutes here.
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I want to talk about the difference between quality time and quantity time.
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When do you hear those phrases, by the way? Quality time and quantity time?
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Talking about your kids, right? And most often, kids in terms of, right after a divorce, that's how
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I would think of it. But today, I think it's even, you know, when you have, and maybe Flo, you would be more familiar with this, where you have two parents that are, you know, hard -charging professionals, right?
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They're both, you know, I mean, they're making big money and, you know, they've got 50, 60, 70 -hour -a -week jobs.
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And, you know, so they don't have time for quantity with the kids, right? But they have time for quality.
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What is that, really? What's that? It's hooey.
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Edited for the tape, thank you. Justification of guilt, the thing that you're feeling for not getting.
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It's justification. Yeah. For not having, you know, it's a rationalization.
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And we understand that. I think we understand that. Now, do you have quantity time with the
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Holy Spirit or do you have quality time? You know,
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I'll just be, you know, I can only speak of me in my life, that is.
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Because I don't know what you guys are all about. But I know for me, you know, like here, let me give an example.
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What does pray without ceasing mean? I know what it means for me. Those times when they're not often enough, but I can remember even having times like this while I was on the job.
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And I would be walking from my office to the gym in the middle of the night, three o 'clock in the morning, there's nobody out there, right?
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And I could just remember praying while I was walking, just having an attitude of prayer, just feeling that kind of, you know, intense relationship.
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So I don't really think it's about exactly where you are, although that can be true too. You know, if you're in your prayer closet or wherever, you know, if there are things that you do that kind of set that apart.
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But the idea that we can have this attitude with us,
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I know that we can do that. And I'm not just speaking to you, I'm speaking to me too. I know that we can do that.
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But it has to be intentional. And we have to decide that we're not just going to settle for quality time because we don't have time.
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We do have time. My wife likes to tell me, you know, what we're really saying when we say that we don't have the time is what?
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What is it that we're saying when we say we don't have time? It's not important to me.
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Other things come first. I mean, seminary was, you know,
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I learned, I like to say I learned two things while I was in seminary. What were those two things?
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I'm going to write them down. Here they are. You know, I feel like Bob Newhart right now. The two things
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I learned. Number one, how much I have to learn because I really don't know that much.
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Number two, how much time I waste. Because while I was in seminary, you know,
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I was able to do things and I'm like, looking back on it, I have no idea. I mean, obviously the
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Lord blessed me and my wife blessed me, but I have absolutely no idea how I was able to do those things because right now
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I just think doing that kind of thing would just do one thing for me. You know, going to seminary and working all the time, doing all this other stuff would do one thing for me and that is make me
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Mr. Grumpy Pants as we like to talk about with our grandkids. Are you
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Grumpy Pants? I don't know how you do that.
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But here's what I do know. I do know that if we're intentional about having quantity and quality time, and it doesn't,
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I'm telling you, you can pray while you're driving. In fact, you ought to be praying while you're driving here.
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I've seen those surveys, you know. Worst cities in the
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United States. I think Boston was number one and Worcester was number two or vice versa. We ought to be praying.
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With your eyes open, by the way. But if you think about it this way, which one lends itself to sustainability?
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Quality of time or quantity of time? Which is the easier to do? Well, I think you could say it's quality time, right?
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It's easier to say, well, I'm going to do this and I'm going to block everything out, I'm going to do that.
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And I think that's fine. But I think the idea, the ideal for me anyway, excuse me, is that I think we ought to be thinking in terms of quantity in this sense.
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Our attitude should be, how can I, every moment of the day where I'm not working and having to be focused on my job or focused on something else, how can
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I possibly spend more time with the Lord? How can I possibly spend more time meditating about him, praying to him, drawing closer to him?
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And he says here, Horton does on page 27 of his book, he says, we need to recover not only, and I think this is good and right thinking, we need to recover not only sound doctrine, which is good, but sounder practices that serve to deepen us and succeeding generations in the new creation that God has called us into being.
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We need to question not only false teaching, but false values, expectations, and habits that we have absorbed, taken for granted, and even adopted with a veneer of piety.
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Let me read that last sentence again and then we can discuss it for a few minutes before we close. We need to question not only false teaching, but false values, expectations, and habits that we have absorbed, taken for granted, and have even adopted with a veneer of piety.
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What sort of false values, expectations, and habits can you think about that maybe you have, not you personally, but maybe you've even seen in the church that we've adopted or that we've kind of absorbed that we just sort of take for granted, that we've just come to think of as good and maybe aren't good.
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Can you think of anything? Yeah, okay. The idea that going to church every Sunday makes us better, right?
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On the other hand, I would, you know, I think we could easily argue that the idea of skipping church, forsaking the assembly of the saints, that would be wrong too, right?
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Have you ever heard anybody say this? You know, well, I don't really need to go to church because, you know,
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I've heard a lot of sermons. I can worship God just as easily at the beach, in the forest, on the back of a motorcycle, you know, riding horses, whatever, skiing.
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I'm worshiping the Lord. There are some problems there.
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But what other kind of things have just kind of crept in? I mean,
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I think there are some things that we see in the church today. I mean, I'm a major opponent, this is no big deal, but I think it is a big deal in some places, of Saturday services.
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And not just because I think the Seventh -day Adventists have it wrong, but because I think the primary, what's the message that we're to absorb when we have a
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Saturday evening service, you know, in lieu of Sunday morning? You know, the
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Saturday night service is just like the Sunday morning service. What's the message there? Get your obligation over.
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So it gets back to what Andrew was saying, you know, the church is an obligation. Well, I think the church has kind of inculcated that in our minds by having things like Saturday night service.
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Why? Because, you know, if all I care about is getting my time card out and getting my time stamp, then
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Saturday night is just as valid as Sunday morning. But that's not, that's not right.
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They met on the first day of the week, which was Sunday, that's why we meet on Sundays. And why do you suppose
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Saturday night services are so popular? I think it gets back to promise keepers, gets back to this whole idea of serving men.
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Because if you can get rid of it, if you're a family guy, I mean, you're not gonna do anything on Saturday night anyway. Maybe you go out to dinner, but you can take the whole family out to dinner after service.
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And then guess what? Sunday is free to do what you really wanna do, which is worship the
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NFL, all praise. I mean,
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I joke, but it's sad. And I think that's the truth.
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Why would you do such a thing? Why would you have Saturday night services? Because you really want to reach people that can't be bothered to come on Sunday morning.
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And that would be the American male. I can't get up on Sunday morning, you don't know what it's like.
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How do you get up Monday through Friday? Is there something that's special about Sunday that you just can't get out of bed?
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Sad, very sad. Well, next week, we're gonna be talking about ordinary, isn't mediocre.
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We're gonna be talking about the actual practical things that we need to do in our
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Christian life. Let's pray. Father, again, we just thank you this morning.
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Thank you for your word. Thank you for the things that it says. Thank you for the promises that are true. In Christ Jesus, even thinking about the work of the
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Holy Spirit. Father, we may feel like we fall short and we certainly do, but your spirit resides in us.
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Your spirit is fully God and is sovereign, capable of producing fruit and does produce fruit in those who love you and are called according to your purpose.
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Lord, I pray for each one of us that we would examine ourselves to see if we're in the faith, not based on how we feel, but by what we see, knowing that the spirit produces fruit even if we're not perfect.
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The spirit gives us these evidences as it were. Father, draw us nearer to Christ, driving us to good practices, having an attitude of worship in all things, looking to pray at all times, leaning on you not just in the moments when we're in our prayer closet, when we're thinking rightly, but even when we're doing the mundane things of life, find ourselves in an elevator by ourselves, just walking around just in every aspect.
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Lord, would you just teach us to commune with you, to want to be in a closer relationship with you each and every day, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.