1 Corinthians 3:5-23 (Christian Dominion)

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

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Good morning again Excuse me Waited to turn the microphone on to do that little cough

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I guess I didn't need to do that well as we begin this morning

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I wanted to give a little bit of a Diatribe if you will on the modern world as Christians in the modern world we often wonder

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How things have seemingly gotten so bad Right we come to church, and we say to one another

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Man things have gotten really out of hand really quickly in our culture. We wonder how a society

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Ironically within each of our own lifetimes always seems to go from the good old days to kids these days

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We all are able to say that somehow with no real end in sight it seems to the madness at times

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This week a few of the men in the church attended a conference being held on a college campus for example

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This college was established in 1899 By the Church of the Brethren or the

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Plymouth Brethren. It's a very small Christian denomination And yet despite its Christian roots

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Elizabethtown College Is now an essentially secular fairly leftist and morally corrupt

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College your bathroom signs that once read bigoted terms like men or women now read things like This bathroom is for those who identify as men non -binary or and or gender -fluid

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And boy if that doesn't make you long for the good old days of about five years ago When those when those terms didn't even exist.

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I don't know what will make it what will get you there Yeah, this is just one example obviously right, but I'm sure you know if we spent our time

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In it we could come up with several others in many different realms of society not just within the dystopia

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That is the modern sexual ethic And while this is obviously immoral Obviously incredibly confusing what

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I find striking about the discourse on topics like this in our society is how surprised? People who hold more traditional values seem to be that things have become this way how caught off guard many

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Many again on the more conservative end not just politically, but I mean morally Seem to be that people in our society could think this way

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You know and to be fair. It certainly is jarring and how quickly things have changed over the past 10 to 20 years compared to other points in history

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But I think much of that is owed to the the speed of information today as opposed to a really different cause for the change in Thinking you know the medium of information spread through the internet and social media has changed and become more efficient

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But it doesn't really explain how the ideas have changed so drastically to the point where truth has essentially stumbled in the streets

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To examine that rather. I think we'd really have to consider How what is generally accepted in society at large can change at all right?

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It doesn't happen overnight. It takes time Right it doesn't happen by accident either Right it takes planning on the part of those who would seek to have the group think be on their side

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But it also takes And I think this is often the the overlooked aspect of why things are the way they are today why things are changing so quickly

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It takes an unalert and unengaged incumbent who slothfully watches from the comfort of a world

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Inherited from diligent and faithful men and women before them Let me say that another way specifically applied to our modern

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American context Biblical morality and a biblical sexual ethic is undergoing wholesale

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Rejection in our culture today and rejected at Elizabethtown College because despite their origins from a

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Christian worldview and presuppositions recent generations of the Christian Church in large part not all but in large part have not worked faithfully and Diligently to expand

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Christian Dominion and preserve biblical truth Rather I think that we as the church has expected that despite our sloth and despite our unfaithfulness

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The good old days are never going to end And what has resulted from this lack of faithful stewardship, but we don't really have to think too hard about that We can look around and and find many examples of the results of that lack of stewardship

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But in our time this morning we're going to consider that call to stewardship that call to Christian Dominion that has been given to us as Christians as Part of God's covenant of redemption the covenant of grace and God's dealings with his people

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And we're going to do that this morning as we pick back up in first Corinthians Chapter 3 so if you would turn with me there to first Corinthians 3

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And to set the table as it were on how we got to this point in the letter Paul You know he started out in chapter 1 addressing their immaturity that has led to their self exaltation to their division and to their dismissiveness of Paul even and then their valuing of Wisdom the wisdom of men over God and then in chapter 2 he's reminded them of the benefits of the gospel their union with God He's reminded of the sufficiency of the cross

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The source of the wise gospel message and the Holy Spirit's role in illuminating our minds to understand the message

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And now at the beginning of chapter 3 Paul Again is setting his sights on issues in Corinth really attacking the root cause of their problem

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Which is their immaturity in Christ their inability to put their faith into practice to be doers of the word which has resulted

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Not only in the lack of visible fruit among them, but in the manifestation of rotten fruit of division

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And much of that division as we explored last time we were in this letter Which was a few months ago is in their improper view of the ministers that God has given to them

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The Corinthians were prone to idolize their ministers and Paul Displays that their error is really rooted in a wrong view of the church

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And how God has blessed his people God doesn't love his ministers And so he gives them people to adore and serve the minister

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God loves his people and so he gives them all things including ministers to serve them

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And ministers do this well And they do it faithfully when they serve as a vessel through which God delivers his abundantly rich grace to his people through his ordinary means the preached word the reading of Scripture the faithful administration of the sacraments of baptism in the

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Lord's Supper and through prayer And with that that's going to get us to our text today

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I wanted to give that a little bit of a recap a reset if you will That's going to get us to our text today as we're picking it back up in 1st

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Corinthians 3 today We're going to focus on verses 10 through 15 But I want us to read what

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I really consider to be the whole unit of this passage of chapter in chapter 3 from verses 5 through 23

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So let's look together here 1st Corinthians 3 5 through 23 What then is a

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Paulist and what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one

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I Planted a Paulist watered, but God was causing the growth So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth

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Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor

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For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field God's building According to the grace of God which was given to me like a wise master builder

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I laid a foundation and another is building on it But each man must be careful how he builds on it

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For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid which is Jesus Christ Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold silver precious stones wood hay straw each man's work will become evident for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire and The fire itself will test the quality of each man's work

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If any man's work which he has built on it remains he will receive a reward If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet.

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So as through fire Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

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If any man destroys the temple of God God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are

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Let no man deceive himself if any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age He must become foolish so that he may become wise

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For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God for it is written He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness.

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And again, the Lord knows the reasonings of the wise that they are useless so then let no one boast in men for all things belong to you whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all things belong to you and you

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Belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God Thus ends the reading of God's Word.

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May he write it on our hearts by faith. Let's pray God we do thank you for your word where we thank you that this morning as we learn from your word that we know that we are not here as as mere men seeking to learn from one another, but we are here as Mere men seeking to learn from you

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Or that we know that you accompany your preaching through the power of your spirit or that your word never returns void to you

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When it is sent forth God, so we do pray in this time that as the word is preached that you would accompany it with power

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Or that you would help me and my weakness Lord as I deliver this word to To also be impacted by these words or not not as myself preaching to myself

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But your spirit preaching to me And helping me to be conformed to your image Lord helping us all to be conformed to the image of your son

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Christ we pray in his name Amen a title of my message today is

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Christian Dominion and we're going to see in our text the Obligations of the Christian in light of the grace that his

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God has shown to him in Jesus Christ And with that in mind I've organized the message into three main parts the first We're going to be examining that current the current state of Christian stewardship, which we already touched on briefly in the introduction but it examining that current state of Christian stewardship how we're doing in light of where we're at Which isn't good.

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I'll give you that little teaser To second we're going to understand we're going to seek to understand the why and the how of the biblical command to establish dominion and then third we're going to make clear at the end that this

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What the substance of our message is and again I could tease that as well This is

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Christ. He is a substance of the message of Christian Dominion And so the key things we'll notice in this text today they all relate to work specifically to the stewardship of the blessings from God given to his people as We discussed previously in a prior message the work of the ministers of God's church is particularly in view in this passage in 1st

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Corinthians 3 ministers of the gospel of Christ are engaged in the work of the ordinary means of grace the preaching of the word the

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Administration of the sacraments and prayer and all of this is to the benefit of God's church as he works in them through these means of grace

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Again, this was the focus of the last sermon delivered in this passage And so today we're going to look at this from a slightly different perspective a different angle

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In these verses Paul is displaying the importance of this work or stewardship by means of an illustration

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He's comparing the work of the ministry the work of the building up of the body in the faith With the work of building a building we see that in verse 9 and specifically building a temple

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So let's look again at verse 10 to see the opening of the illustrations It was in verse 10 that he begins this illustration

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But so Paul says verse 10 according to the grace of God which was given to me like a wise

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Master builder I laid a foundation and another is building on it, but each man must be careful how he builds on it

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This is the first point. I want to make this morning that growing in grace takes work

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The emphasis of the passage here is in regards to the ministry of the church But the point remains true as we cross into different areas of our lives, right that growing in your

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Christian faith takes work and Each man must be careful how he builds

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The mysteries of God belong to him But it is our duty as Christians to search out these mysteries

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Proverbs 25 to says it is the glory of God To conceal a matter, but the glory of Kings to search out a matter

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It's the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of Kings is to search out a matter

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Right our knowledge of him and our trust in him is a gift of grace in the work of the Holy Spirit in us But as we've read before from the

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Westminster Confession 16 3 chapter 16 article 3 There is required an actual influence of the

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Holy Spirit to work in Them in us to will and to do of his good pleasure yet. Are they not here upon to grow negligent?

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We are reliant on the Spirit of God But we are not here upon to grow negligent In our duty as if we as if we were not bound to perform to work any duty unless upon a special motion of the

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Spirit We're not sitting around waiting for the right sense of goose the right mixture of goosebumps before we'll

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Adhere to what God has called us to They ought to be diligent the Confession States We ought to be diligent to work in stirring up the grace of God that is in them

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We are we are utterly dependent on God's Spirit and yet it's our glory to search things out

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Not because there's anything special within us, but this is the work of God in us work is an integral part of the

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Christian life With that in mind, you know again We want to apply this to churches because this is the primary focus of the passage of 1st

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Corinthians 3 with that in mind a church Can be as Calvinistic and their theology is John Calvin himself

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Believing that God will bring the growth to his people. It's actually in this passage as well in 1st Corinthians 3 God brings the growth

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We can believe that with all of our all of our heart all of our strength But we're still obligated to work to labor in faithful ministry trusting that God will work in those means

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Imagine if Kendall and I because of our convictions regarding the doctrines of grace, you know, we decided that sermon prep is rather extraneous

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It's a waste of time that the real work of ministry is in, you know fundraising and meeting with people if we decided that the best way to grow and strengthen the church is with more money and being such good friends with everyone in the congregation

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Because we know God's going to take care of the growth He'll grow his people so there's no need for us to spend hours in preparing sermons just enough to slap together

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You know a few coherent statements that tug on the heartstrings and reinforce that we're all best friends, you know

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That would be a that would be a pretty foolish thing to do. I mean, you know, we laugh because of how utterly foolish it is

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You know that the truth is that most all of us here are here because of frustrations with that approach

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You know churches that didn't prioritize the preached word They didn't prioritize the work that should be the emphasis for gospel ministers

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And that's Paul's point here that Christian ministers are builders and they must work in the ordinary means

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To steward what God has called them to do and to do it well But this doesn't only apply to churches again as much as that is what's in view here in this passage

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It doesn't only apply there if we stop and apply it only to our churches as Christians We're I think we're we're letting ourselves down a little bit.

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There's more to be gleaned from this passage I think we can quite reasonably bring application to ourselves

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I assume most would agree that if if you as individuals hope to grow in your Christian faith

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You're going to need to make an effort to do so you need to be willing to work to grow in grace

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Again, I'll have to qualify and this is the last one because I've really made a conceited effort lately to not over qualify

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We live in such an over qualifying culture This is the last one. Maybe I don't know. I can't I can't remember but again,

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I'll have the qualifier that again We're always in utter reliance upon the grace of God for our growth But we need to be willing to work if you're not willing to devote time and energy and effort to reading the

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Bible To reading other books or listening to teachers that help you to understand the Bible You're not willing to devote time to discipling others or being discipled

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To prayer to accountability what whatever possess us if we're not willing to do those things Whatever possess us to think that we're going to grow in grace by accident

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Again we all look at these churches that have abandoned the pulpit and we wonder what they're thinking But then in our own lives we haven't labored to grow in grace in weeks or months or years or decades

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And we don't really even think twice about this We think back to that one day at summer camp, you know

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I made a decision and and now I go to church Just about every week maybe a little bit over 50 % of the time and we say hey

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I don't I don't believe in work when it comes to this stuff. You know, I'm not a Catholic. I don't believe in work Can you can you imagine do we even need to do you even need to imagine is this the reality?

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But how confused do we have to be to think that because we don't work to earn our salvation that that means that we don't Work at all to grow in our

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Christian faith. We would never expect that excuse to fly at our vocation at our job

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At least not for others people other people's work we might we might be tempted to do it for ourselves but not for other people As I was thinking about this,

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I thought of a sports example We look at you know for the men in the room who like sports or the women in the room who like sports

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Sorry, don't mean to be sexist Anybody who likes sports

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You know, we look we often watch Sports and you know We look at athletes who don't perform up to their potential or how well we want them to perform

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I think of like Nikhil Harry any Patriots fans in the room Yeah, you say things like I catch myself saying this about him all the time gifted with all the size and the talent in The world, you know if I was that big boy

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Just doesn't put in the work, you know pats need to get rid of them. Yeah Boy, I mean look in the mirror right look in the we have to look in the mirror when we when we think like that It's not that he's maybe he's not putting in the work.

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That might be true But how often do I let excuses fly for me at work? Or in anything in my

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Christian walk, how do I let excuses just build up for why I'm not putting in the effort

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But if we accepted a job and then hardly showed up and when we did we spent the time daydreaming on our phone

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Or daydreaming or on our phone and never got better at doing the job never grew in our Understanding of the work that we're doing.

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Well, what would happen if you did this at work? You'd be fired. There you go. See you later You'd be fired and yet when it comes to the one living and true

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God We think that we're good because we acknowledged him Once and we said the right words and we come to church over 50 % of the time

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But God says in Revelation 3 verses 15 through 18 I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot.

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I wish that you were cold or hot So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold

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I will spit you out of my mouth Because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked

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I Advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich in white garments so that you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your

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Nakedness will not be revealed and I salve to your and I salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see

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That's a letter from Revelation chapter 3 a letter written from the Lord Jesus Christ to one of his churches

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They had lost sight of the work they were lukewarm We've lost our understanding of work as Christians I think and in our foolishness again, we've actually come to think of it as taboo to work again

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We kind of say well this rather Catholic, you know, kind of we're not we're not Romish here, you know That's a sad state of things.

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I think when we have such a distaste for work it speaks to not only our foolishness, but also our laziness and What's worse our low view of God to think?

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to think that he doesn't care if we treat him and his grace like a boss that we don't care to steal a paycheck from While we do nothing

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How dare we? Sadly, there are other areas.

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I think where we've ignored the call to work as well It's clear that there's a requirement upon the leadership of the church to work

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There's no doubt about that in order to care for and teach God's people and I think it's pretty clear that as individuals that same

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Requirement exists that we we must work to know God and yet both our weaknesses and rarities in Christendom today laboring churches and laboring

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Christians hard to find but I think Even more glaring of an issue or at least a more glaring manifestation of this same issue is within families

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People underestimate the impact and importance of family life on the life of the

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Christian Church not only for today, but for generations to come in the church,

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I think particularly young people children and teenagers and Women suffer in the church because of this

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One of the hardest things for me about being involved in the leadership of the church The pastoral ministry of the church is seeing the pain and difficulties that families

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Must endure because of the lack of commitment by men to work in their families

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I don't mean to work at their job for their families. I mean to work at home in their families

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Now part of me wants to think that this is an awkward topic for me to discuss Something I'm not really qualified to talk about being a younger man.

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Haven't been married for decades. I have only younger children But I praise God That truth isn't bound by the age of those who speak it

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The truth is that many Christians today have forsaken their responsibilities at home

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And the result has been a culture that we all look at and discussed and we wonder how can people say and and do and think?

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The things that they do Well, and when we look at the rise of the sexual revolution in the homosexual revolution and the transgender revolution and we think how could they?

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When we should be thinking What can I have done differently? What what am I not doing?

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That's allowing this to happen and now to be clear I'm not blaming the Christian Church for all the sin in the world today.

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Not even close. That's never my intention What I am saying is that the predominantly evangelical America of the early to mid 20th century didn't have the culture stolen from them

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They gave it away by a lack of effort and it started in the home And what do

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I mean how have Christian families right specifically Christian men husbands and fathers given away the culture by a lack of effort

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I Think generally we just look just observe our homes for a moment. How much TV are our children watching?

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How much time do they get to be on the internet and social media? All right, are we taking their education seriously, or we sent them off to government schools to be indoctrinated?

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Have we pushed our wives and mothers out of the home and into the workforce to support a certain standard of living?

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And you say, you know, that's too practical too personal stay in your lane pastor. Let's talk Bible here. Okay? Okay, I can do that too.

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All right Ephesians 5 25 through 27 Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her

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Having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word That he might present to himself the church and all her glory having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing

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But that she would be holy and blameless Husbands it is your

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Christian duty Your duty before God to be washing your wife with the Word of God and I guarantee you

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That your Christian wife is starving for this. I promise you your wife is Christian She is starving to be washed in the water of the

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Word of God He said well, what if my wife is ignoring the commands to her in Ephesians 5, you know to be subject to her husband

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You didn't read that. I noticed you left out that those verses So why should I have to do my part right?

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I you know what I say to that repent brother Lead your wife Trust that by washing her in the word the

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Spirit of God will minister her towards obedience through his means of grace for parents

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Especially fathers again. How are your children who's discipling them? You notice I didn't ask are they being discipled because they're being discipled by someone

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But who is it who's doing it is it the government the TV is it influencers on social media their friends

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Ephesians 6 for Fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the

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Lord The command is to you men To raise your children up in the discipline and instruction of the

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Lord. Are you teaching your children sound doctrine? Are you living righteously before them as an example of godliness?

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Are you praying with them not just for them praying with them teaching them to participate in the life of the church?

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Are we doing these things Or are we saying well, we'll let them grow up let them decide for themselves

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Well, we see what the result of that is Try to go to a bathroom at Elizabethtown College. You won't know which one to go into I Joke, but it's serious

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This is a serious thing and these are simple things that Christian husbands

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Christian fathers Must be doing these are really simple things. I think in our minds we can elevate how hard and difficult this is going to be

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But what are we talking about? We're talking about teaching the Word of God to your wife Teaching the Word of God to your children and walking in godliness before them

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No, I love my children Yeah Again these are simple things that Christian husbands and fathers must be doing not only as we obey

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Christ ourselves But as we love our closest neighbors our wives and our children these are our closest neighbors that God has given to us and Blessing them for generations

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And so the current state of things as I mentioned before is not great All right, but God has given us means of improving these things when we trust him

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We obey him and when he accompanies that work with the power of his Holy Spirit Again though you might be thinking to yourself

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Derek You're telling me a lot about what I should be doing Seems to be bordering a little bit on a self -help message at this point

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And you could be right at this point. It may seem like that. It may be that at this point And in light of the crux of this passage dealing with ministers rightly administering the means of grace to God's people

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I'd have to be pretty foolish to not do that for you here this morning I haven't rightly stewarded my office this morning until I've demonstrated to you that this command is from God That it's fulfilled for you in Christ Jesus and also made possible for you to walk in by his

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Holy Spirit And so at first let me show that this is commanded of us by God himself And I'll demonstrate this by touching on a few key aspects of a robust covenant theology that should inform our lives

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Covenant theology really helps to inform this this part of our lives first of all for definitions sake

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Covenant theology is simply a term that describes our hermeneutic and who is hermeneutic.

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I'm just kidding Hermeneutic is not a person a hermeneutic

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It's a term that describes our hermeneutic or the interpretive framework That we use for understanding the

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Bible and the way it's organized, right? So our hermeneutic is an interpretive framework, right helps us understand the

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Bible and our hermeneutic is covenant theology Right in covenant theology. We understand the

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Bible and God's dealings with humanity is happening According to the administration of certain covenants that he has made with man throughout history

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I don't have time to go too deeply into this today, obviously But essentially we understand that God has communicated his will to us through two main covenants the covenant of creation

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Also known as the covenant of works which was made with Adam originally at the creation And the covenant of redemption also known as the covenant of grace made initially with Adam after the fall

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But with several administrations which followed including to Noah to Abraham Moses and David Before finding full fulfillment and revelation in the

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God -man Jesus Christ So you have the covenant of creation the covenant of redemption and all of human history and all the

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Bible can be understood in Light of these covenant dealings between God and man Anyways before I start chasing that rabbit, and it's a beautiful rabbit.

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I really love that rabbit. I Would I would commend to you a sermon that pastor

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Kendall preached on covenant theology on our website from John chapter 7 It would give you a good a good summary and synopsis of covenant theology and its importance if you'd want to learn more on the topic, of course, you could always connect with Kendall or myself or If you'd like to learn more as well, but returning to the focus that we have here this morning

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We understand that our covenant theology that every covenant is structured according to certain principles right every covenant has three elements

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Provisions there's always provision There are stipulations and then there are consequences.

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So every covenant three elements provisions stipulations and consequences With that in mind for our purposes today.

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I want us to look at God's initial covenant with Adam and Adam the covenant of creation And again before you say in your heart that this covenant is not for me or I have no obligations under it

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Because it's it was the first covenant. Remember that although we're unable to fulfill the covenant of creation in ourselves

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We know that this is an aspect of God's redemptive plan that that we've been brought into and that we do well to serve

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Our father in his purposes. So so don't dismiss this just because we're talking about covenant of creation It's actually very important to understanding of the covenant of redemption so turn with me to Genesis chapter 1 or the words will also be on the screen behind us, but Right there at the beginning of your

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Bible Genesis chapter 1 and we'll look at verses 26 through 29 then

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God said Let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them Rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth

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And over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth God created man in his own image in the image of God.

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He created him male and female. He created them God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and Rule over the over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth

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Then God said behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed

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It shall be food for you So some of the key things I'd like to point out to you here in these three or four verses first we see provision

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Right in verse 28 when we read that God blessed this man and woman he created that's provision

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God is providing blessing to them in verse 29 We see a form of that blessing that he's given food that would strengthen them for the work

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And what what is this work? We said in verse 26 God is stipulating what the work is to them, right?

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So he has given provision, but he's also provided stipulation. This is what you are to do verse 26 man is to rule over the creation and In verse 28.

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He also stipulates that man is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and to subdue it Essentially what we're talking about here is dominion man is to have dominion over this world that God created as co -regents

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God has created them to rule over his creation And then we go to chapter 2 verses 15 through 17

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We read then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it

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The Lord God commanded the man saying from any tree of the garden you may eat freely But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat from the day that you eat from it

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You will surely die Again, we see stipulations from God for the man first in verse 15 God put him into the garden to cultivate and to keep it

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These are stipulations of his covenant obligations before God Second in verse 17 we see a specific prohibition

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That's part of the stipulations that the man shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

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So we've seen several stipulations. This is really the first negative one You shall not eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil

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But that's not the only and I think we often when we think about the fall right and Adam sin We often think that his only obligation before God was don't eat of that tree

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No, his obligation before God was to cultivate and keep the garden His obligation before God was to be fruitful multiply fill the earth and subdue it

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To rule and have dominion over the world. It wasn't only don't sin It was have dominion.

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How often do we do this in our Christian life? My responsibility as a Christian is just don't sin Your responsibility as a

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Christian is to have dominion because God has given all things to you. I don't wanna get too far ahead of myself Anyways, so we've seen provision we've seen stipulations.

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We also see consequences Right first that being or the first consequence again

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I just mentioned it that in the day that you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will surely die That is a consequence for disobedience to the

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Covenant for not living up to the stipulations And of course, we recognize by inverse that the alternative consequence if the man does not eat of the tree

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Is that there will be ongoing dominion and ever -expanding dominion over the garden in God's work

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God's earth and fellowship with God So there's consequences here Very clearly.

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It says that if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will surely die consequence other consequence being ongoing fellowship with God in an ever -expanding dominion

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And now you know, what is the point of all this as far as what we're talking about? What we're seeing here what we see in this Passage in Genesis 1 and 2 is what is often called the creation mandate or a cultural mandate in modern

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Christianity Essentially the point point being that God in his creation of the world and everything in it

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He created man with the specific intention of establishing this creature made in his image to be a co -regent a

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Representative of him on earth. That's what it means when we says we're made in the image likeness of God We are made we are representatives of God on earth as in our creation

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In giving man God gave man supreme earthly authority over the rest of the creation

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In creation man has been given given or provided again going back to our terms of provision stipulation and Consequence in creation man has been provided dominion over all the earth as has been commanded or stipulated to rule according to God's design and to his standards and he has been told of the consequences of Obedience or disobedience right either continued dominion in fellowship or death

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Christians today, you know We often will point to the location of this text in our Bibles as a reason why these mandates are no longer relevant to us

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You know, do you mind showing me this in the New Testament, please? Well, I don't believe

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I actually need to do that, but I'll do it anyways as As Adam was assigned the representative of man in the creation of the world

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Adam was assigned as represent the representative of man in the creation of the world and Thus assigned with a certain authority as covenant head

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Christ Jesus has been has come as the true and better Adam to be the head of a new covenant

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Right. He is the one who rules over all the earth God had commissioned and called Adam to do that his he failed in the new covenant the covenant of redemption

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God has established Christ the Son as the covenant head who rules over all the earth and who works in his church

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Towards the rule and dominion and expansion of the kingdom of God look no further than Matthew 28 18 through 20

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We read this earlier before the baptism because this has Baptism has is a great expression of that continued dominion of the

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Christian Church Matthew 28 18 to 18 through 20 and Jesus came up and spoke to them saying all authority has been given to me in heaven and on Earth go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you in low.

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I am with you always even to the end of the age Jesus Christ the God -man has been established as the ruler of all humanity the new covenant had all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to him and We now work under his rule to fulfill the commands of the creation mandate

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Amen, and so we see that stewardship and work are not just something that we do if we choose to do them in our

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Christian freedom All right, Christ has redeemed us from the penalty of the law, but not from our obligations to him

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Let me say that again Christ has redeemed us from the consequences of our inability To meet the covenant obligations where Adam failed to meet his covenant obligations

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Allowing the serpent to sneak in and deceive his wife deceive his family.

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We should take note of that We don't want to be we don't want to be like Adam in that respect Christ has redeemed the people out of that fallen humanity and brought them into a new covenant relationship with God through him

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But he has not said that we because of this no longer have obligation to him It's actually quite the contrary

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We remain under obligation to him as Lord yet. We do so through the provision

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Provision of his spirit in light of his covenant not to establish a covenant

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We are obligated to him in light of his covenant We are not obligate obligated to him so that we can form a covenant

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He has formed that covenant and now we are obligated to him Galatians 5 13

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Again on this on this idea of freedom Christian freedom freeing us from obedience to Christ Strange concept but Galatians 5 13 for you were called to freedom brethren only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh

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But through love serve one another for the whole law is fulfilled in one word in the statement You shall love your neighbor as yourself

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Freed from punishment freed from ceremony. Yes, but not freed from adherence adherence to God's perfect moral law

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The whole law is fulfilled in one word the statement. You shall love your neighbor as yourself The whole law is fulfilled in that statement, and we're still bound to that statement

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We are still obligated to that statement to love our neighbor as ourself We're freed from punishment free from ceremony not freed from our obligation to obey

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God And so we have been and we remain commanded by God to steward what he has given to us well

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And he has given us all things We read this earlier. So I believe this passage is so important to see in its whole from 5 through 23 in particular

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Even though we're not don't have that in focus today but in 1st Corinthians 3 21 through 22

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We we see that God has given all things to his people So then let no one boast in men for all things belong to you whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life

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Or death or things present or things to come all things belong to you in Christ Under him all things belong to us and therefore we must steward all things well

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With great power great knowledge comes great responsibility God has given

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God has given so much to the church. It is not a it is not a an opportunity now to indulge the flesh, but it is a call a summons to serve him as We've already talked about though.

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Of course we do this imperfectly, right? We don't steward ourselves well first and foremost Which we talked about earlier all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and thus

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All are deserving of death as a righteous punishment for our sin for our failure to keep our

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Obligations under the Covenant and further under Adam. We're all conceived in iniquity We're guilty before God before we're even born into the world for the inherited guilt from Adams disobedience

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Still further we Christians even continue to fall short in sin right even after we become become Christians We're still falling short in sin.

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We're no longer ruled by sin and death But we do still fall and stumble in our lives

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None of us have attained nor will attain a level of perfection in this life in our walk with God And because our families and our churches in our society are made up of bunch made up of a bunch of imperfect people

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Even imperfect Christians. We also fail to steward in those areas. We fail to be good stewards and To those areas to the perfect standard of God There are no perfect husbands.

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No perfect wives Not in this room at least No, no perfect parents or children.

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No perfect pastors or church members. No perfect politicians or world leaders We all are either sinners living under wrath or imperfect believers living under grace and thus unless we look to the perfect one

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Jesus who did perfectly fulfill all righteousness on our behalf then there is no hope this is foundational this is the fundamental truth of Christianity that though the perfect that through the perfect obedience and fulfillment of Jesus to the obligations of the covenant of creation and his bearing of the

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Consequence for our failure in his death on the cross Because of the that those objective realities we have been given the basis for the new covenant of redemption through which we now know

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God and we have been given the right to be called children of God and If children then heirs also heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him and So our confidence in our justified standing before God is not in our ability to steward

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Well, our confidence is in Christ who fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf

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And it's because of what we have now been given in him that we see our responsibility to steward our

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Response to God's adoption of us of his provision of Christ for us is Our responsibility tell my children that all the time

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Your response is your responsibility. I don't care what your brother did you your response is your responsibility? And it's the same thing in our

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Christian faith our response We are not responsible for our salvation We are responsible for how we respond to the salvation and for Christians though We recognize the commands given to us by God again.

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We stumble We're imperfect stewards. And so we look to Christ And trust in him to make possible our obedience and he does this through the ministry of his

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Holy Spirit So we understand the why why is important that we that we understand our obligation before God now getting into the how

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He does this through the Holy Spirit again going back to Romans 8 verses 12 through 17

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We read this So then brethren we are under obligation Not to the flesh to live according to the flesh for if you are living according to the flesh you must die

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But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body you will live For all who are being led by the

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Spirit of God These are sons of God for you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again

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But you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out Abba father The Spirit Himself Testifies with our spirit that we are children of God and of children

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Heirs also heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him

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We are under obligation to obedience to our Lord We don't do this perfectly as has been said, but the same hope that redeemed us

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Bought us out of the punishment for our sin namely the life death and resurrection of Christ this same hope is the same hope that we look to be built up in as We walk in obedience to him as children to their father and though we aren't perfect We trust that God will continue his work in us through his spirit because by his spirit

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We are putting to death the deeds of the body and living in and through him

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Do you believe this? Do you believe that God the Father has adopted you out of a life of sin and fear that leads to death?

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And he's brought you into life in him that leads to righteousness and glory for you

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And as you work it leads to righteousness and glory in the world around you your children your spouse that the

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Lord works in these things That as he rules and reigns in you and you work and establishing his dominion to the ends of the earth all the families of the world we blessed

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That's from Genesis 12. That's the gospel proclaimed to Abraham That as the rule as the

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Lord rules and reigns in us and we work in obedience to him He is establishing his kingdom in such a way that all the families of the world will be blessed.

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I Pray I truly pray that this would be That we would believe this as a church and that we would be transformed by this

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I think that this is one of the most important things that we can be Focusing on and thinking about as a church as Christians in our modern world, especially

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But really time when it's a timeless truth in my opinion That we'd be focused on the work of establishing the dominion of Christ his kingdom in all the world beginning especially at home

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May we do this and we may we do it well and urgently as a people So now as we prepare to close this morning,

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I want to return to our main text in first Corinthians 3 and I just want to walk through How all this really fits together here and what

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Paul is teaching to the Corinthian Church again in verse 10 first Corinthians 3

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He writes according to the grace of God which was given to me As we just said right all this work all this stewardship is possible only by grace

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The only means by which we can possibly hope to steward well in work to establish and expand the dominion of the kingdom of God Is by the grace of God in Jesus Christ his son

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We won't get there just by doing the right things or being innovative and clever It's by grace and by grace alone.

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So according to the grace of God, which was given to me like a wise master builder I laid a foundation and another is building on it, but each man must be careful how he builds on it

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So as we work according to the grace of God each man must be careful how he builds again avoiding the trappings of world

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Worldly wisdom and instead relying as Paul has stressed throughout the early parts of this letter Relying upon the wisdom of God and his

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Spirit's power Another point we see here is that the work is not ours as individuals

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Right too often. I think we look to individualize our faith It's just about me and the Lord me and the

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Lord me and the Lord and there there's areas of value there But I think that we do that we go too far when we make everything an individual

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Thing as opposed to looking at it looking at it from a corporate perspective The people of God, but the work of Dominion is a team effort.

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I Wish I could have said there's no I in Dominion, but there's two Even the eyes there's multiple there's a plurality of eyes, but the work of Dominion is a team effort as they say

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All right, Paul Paul says he laid a foundation right and another is building on it

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Oftentimes I think churches and individual Christians, you know We can fall into the trap of living in the present only Sunday to Sunday and they'll fair a lot of churches

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It's certainly better to live in the present than live in the past I'll see that point and it's wise not to get too caught up in what the future holds

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We can get distracted and by those things, but we often let that get too far. I think

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And in doing so I think we lose perspective on the beauty of God's work through all of human history and the part that We each can play in it

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For example, did you know that the the Westminster Abbey? So we reference the Westminster Confession of Faith Westminster Abbey Church in England It took 500 years to build the

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Westminster Abbey from the laying of its first cornerstone to the completion of its two towers

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You know you can imagine the generations of men that went to work on that building You know day after day week after week year after year only to be born

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Live their whole life and then die and see the work still not done Imagine if they let that discourage them to the point, you know, where they just stopped working on it

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I'm not gonna be able to finish this thing. I'm just not even gonna start. I Used to say that about cleaning my room

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You know But we live in a time when we we certainly Are not the foundation layers of Christianity, right?

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We're not we're not starting anything new even here like this is a church plant But we didn't start something new the

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Apostles laid the foundation of the Christian faith Under the authority of Christ that was their role.

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We're not foundational layers We don't but we don't know when the work will be done will be completed and the end is going to come

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That's not for us to know Are we gonna let that? Obscurity cause us to be apathetic to the work that we're doing

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Oh the world's in such a bat in such bad straights like I can't wait for Jesus to come back. I agree with you there

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I can't wait for Jesus to come back, but that doesn't mean I can't wait for Jesus to come back I'm just got the world going to hell in a handbasket

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Now we work Are we gonna see that the work that we're doing today is ushering us a step closer to the rule of Christ over all the earth

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Our work today is not in a vacuum This is why we cherish the historic Christian faith. You know, that's especially here.

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We Value the the work of men who've come before us to help us to make sense and to organize our faith

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So we value and cherish the historic Christian faith here. We appreciate the builders who came before us

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And it's also why we should work today to leave a legacy for future generations our children and our grandchildren

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And their children and right on down the line that they can build upon we work today to help them

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To be able to build more and more when they when their generation comes our perspective is important You know and again you can imagine, you know

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Westminster Abbey walking by two men who are working You know, they're cutting and piling the stones of the

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Abbey and you can imagine ask them like what are you guys doing? And you know one of them says I'm cutting and piling stones.

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Obviously, can't you see that? And then you look to the other and you say and he says I'm building the

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Cathedral of the Living God Won't you join me in this work? What a far more compelling message that we're sending to our children and to all those who are far off Right.

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Yeah, dad. Why do we do all these things? Oh because we're Christians. Oh Okay How about like dad?

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Why do we why do we devote one day each week to God? Why do we do family worship every day? Why do we pray so often together?

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Why do we homeschool? Why do we do this? You can go on and on with all sorts of things because we serve the

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Christ the Son of the Living God and if we're working to establish and we are working to establish his dominion over every square inch of This earth.

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We don't know when it's gonna come but it will and he has commissioned. He has called our family to do the work

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Our perspective is important That's compelling And we wonder why children walk away from the faith when they get older why the statistics are so bad in that respect

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Because they've been given a told that there's this Christianity It's like, you know self -help and all this sort of stuff and you know

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It's a good way to just go through life and these are good morals All those things are true, but he's just doesn't the perspective is lost

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We're engaged in and you know an ongoing Battle to expand the kingdom of God this work of dominion to expand

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The influence of God the built the the church of God until he returns That's that's an important perspective for us to maintain and I think that that should in Inform how we work today that motivates us more not just our children.

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It motivates us more continuing in 1st Corinthians 3 verses 11 through 13

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Paul writes for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid which is Jesus Christ Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold silver precious stones wood hay straw

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Each man's work will became will become evident For the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work

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Faithful stewardship and work can only be defined as that which places Christ at the center of it all if The crux of our message is moralism

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Now homosexuality is wrong. Abortion is wrong Transgenderism is nonsensical obviously all those things are true, but that's the crux of our message

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We're missing the point of our work. The point of Christian stewardship is not to it's not the spread of Christian morality

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That's a byproduct of the point of Christian stewardship Christian stewardship has the sole aim of filling the earth with the praises of Jesus Christ her

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King Habakkuk 2 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea

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That's the point of Christian stewardship of Christian dominion. And so we labor with this end in mind in all things

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How we preach how we administer the sacraments how we pray how the church functions How we parent?

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How we treat our spouse how we teach and discipline our children how we work in our vocations at our job all of those things

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Everything is impacted by this truth that we belong to Christ and we owe all of our lives to him

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Into the expansion of his kingdom on earth We don't reply rely upon the worldly means of wood hay and straw

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Which we burned up those things don't last moralism doesn't last Pragmatic culturally accommodating churches don't last they rise up for a time and they fall

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Christian families that aren't properly discipled through the means of grace for families again Very practically if you're looking for ways to do this in your home

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This is participating in Lord's Day worship every week. You want to disciple your children be at Lord's Day worship every week family worship

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Teaching your wife teaching your children the scriptures raising them up and the nurture the admonition of the Lord and not expecting a youth pastor

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To do it for you. That's why we don't have one of those here Families that don't do those things those

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Christian families don't last for generations But the

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Word of the Lord endures forever We can't look to things that God has not prescribed to be the building blocks of his church and Hope that he'll let us use it that he'll allow us to cut our stones a certain way to fit into his building

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He has said what we are to use gold and silver and precious stones the means of grace and we must use them

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This isn't a matter of Christian freedom Ultimately all of this work will be tested as we saw in verse 13 and the results of that testing we see in verses 14 and 15

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If any man's work which he has built on it remains he will receive a reward If any man's work is burned up he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet.

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So as through fire We could see results in this life that we're quite pleased with even if we ignore the call of this passage to use

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God's materials You know if we even if we rely on wood hay and straw we could still see results that we that we rather enjoy

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Our disobedience really at the end of the day is not enough to thwart the sovereignty of God Pragmatic churches could see genuine conversions

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Unengaged parents could see their children come to genuine faith lazy Christians can still be true

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Christians and Yet when the fire of God tests the quality of each man's work

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The wood hay and straw will be revealed and it will be consumed by the fire and the joy that we may have had in this

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World over those results will be lost. We will not know that joy Though we ourselves may be saved right?

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That's the Texas that though he himself will be saved assuming true a conversion There is the loss of this this glory and joy of the rewards the reward of God And we're not talking about a medal, right?

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Like oftentimes we can think of God God's just gonna give me a medal That's what they do at the Olympics Imagine what

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God will do imagine the reward that God has in store for those who faithfully serve him and love him

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Paul explains this concept further in 1st Thessalonians 2 19 and 20 He says for who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation?

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Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming for you are our glory in joy?

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Their their reward is to know that they worked faithfully labored faithfully and God used it

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That's a reward And God God will reward his people for that forever

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What an encouragement man, just I can't even picture what that reward would look like God being as as Abundantly rich in his grace and his goodness.

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We can't even imagine How good that reward God would have in store as we love and serve him and use the materials

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He's called us to use and so the substance the materials with which we build matters to God It matters to him it reveals much about where we ourselves have placed our hope and how we understand

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God's command to us today as his church first Peter 2 4 and 5

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Says in coming to him as to a living stone, which has been rejected by men But his choice and precious in the sight of God you also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house

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For a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ Christ is the chief cornerstone.

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He is the substance. He is choice and precious in the sight of God If he is not at the center of all things

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Then we are doomed to stumble because of our disobedience to the word verse 8 of first Peter 2 and a stone of stumbling or in a rock of offense for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word and To this doom they were also appointed

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We are doomed to stumble because of our disobedience to the word when Christ is not the substance of our work

01:00:02

To further illustrate this and this is I promise this is the last about the last of it I want to share a little story into the children in the room if you're still with me

01:00:11

You might want to pay particularly close attention to this one Because I want to use a story that many of you will be familiar with it's a story of the three little pigs

01:00:21

I won't I won't tell the whole story of course But to summarize right you have three little pigs Each living in their own homes, which they each built themselves as a form of protection against the elements and any potential predators

01:00:34

What we see in this children's story though is a great analogy for our day and the importance of not just being willing to labor

01:00:40

Willing to work and build but to build with the right materials Again, you most of you will know the story, but they're one pig

01:00:47

You know the lazy one doesn't want to work and so he built his house out of straw Fitting for our passage another pig slightly less lazy, but still fairly slothful

01:00:56

He built his house house with sticks wood again fitting for our passage and the two of them

01:01:01

You know after making fairly quick work Of their humble abodes they're able to spend the rest of their day singing and dancing and playing together

01:01:09

That's why they didn't want to work too much. They wanted to be able to just have fun Boy, that's to me.

01:01:15

That's just the story of modern Christianity churches more interested in playing and having fun than with right doctrine

01:01:22

With building up God's people and the strength and power of the Holy Spirit Christians more concerned with showing the world that you know we know how to have fun, too

01:01:31

We can make movies and music and all that sort of stuff that sounds sounds good More concerned with those things than with participating in Lord's Day worship

01:01:40

With family worship and discipling our children even our own devotions There is one pig though right who understands the importance of diligent work and the use of the right materials

01:01:51

All right, the third pig redeems the time and he works all day he took the whole day to work building his house with bricks a sturdy home

01:02:01

Able to withstand every strong wind of doctrine every enemy who would seek to plunder the home and destroy.

01:02:07

What's been built You know, I'm sure some of the others the other pigs and maybe other people in the forest looked at that pig

01:02:14

It looked as strange right a little eccentric. Maybe a little paranoid maybe crazy depending on who you asked others

01:02:20

I guess, you know even considered him egotistical Right thinks he knows everything.

01:02:25

He's so dogmatic or pigmatic. He thinks He thinks he knows everything, you know, he's always warning us, but why we should do things differently

01:02:36

Who does he think he is hasn't he ever heard of Christian freedom before? Again, I this this is really the heart, you know the story, you know, what happens

01:02:48

It turns out that a big bad wolf would come along and he'd find these pigs first He found the pig in the straw house and then the pig in the stick house and for both

01:02:57

What's striking though? It's obviously as a children's story. I don't think that they meant it's to do so it was very interesting But the wolf didn't even need to use his full might

01:03:04

To destroy what had been built in those two houses He only had to use a huff and a puff and he blew the whole thing down And I asked the rhetorical question who bears who bears the responsibility

01:03:16

That those houses were destroyed. Is it the wolf who's acting according to his nature or is it the pigs?

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Who ignored the realities around them and chose to take their chances and have fun instead of working not having much fun anymore

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In the same way whose fault is it that truth has stumbled in the streets of our society Is it the pagan who acts and thinks according to his nature or is it the

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Christian Church? Who lazily allowed the world to creep into the church and to destroy right doctrine pure fellowship the family

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And the education of our children The serpent and his seed would seek to destroy

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God and his people We should never be surprised by that We shouldn't we shouldn't take a day or generations even of peace to mean that the efforts to thwart the truth of God are over We've won

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Dear Christian, you have been summoned by Almighty God himself to be a laborer

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Not not just the ministers All Christians have been called to the work of ministry and the building up of God's Holy Temple Will you work

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Will you work every day even if you don't know what exactly the final product will look like or when it's going to be done

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Or it's discouraging at times. Will you work as unto the Lord knowing that he has given you that work to complete and Will you build with the materials that he's given?

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Will you build with the ordinary means of grace that he's given to the corporate church? Will you build with the means of grace?

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He's given to your family Husbands washing your wife in the word Parents raising your children in the discipline and instruction of the

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Lord not the means the world is using to turn your children against you in the church If you're a

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Christian you've been called by God into covenant with him by grace through his son Jesus Christ With this covenant you are an heir of the blessings of God yet You are also a commissioned servant to his commands to work in the expansion of his victorious kingdom

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Will you heed the call to have dominion over the world and subdue it? Or will you sit idle as the world creeps into the blessings that God has given perverting what he's given to you

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Into those who would come after you It's my prayer that we would be a church committed to the work of dominion

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Right that we would have a reliance upon God's means that we'd be made up of families who are doing the same thing

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We're not absolving ourselves of our responsibilities to one another and to our children but embracing and Rejoicing in the work that God has called us to working in all those things today for the benefit of those who will come

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Generations after us working in faith that God will bless the work for generations to come

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Because we see just like that third pig He worked to build his house with precious stones and because of his labor not only was he spared himself

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From the workings of the enemy outside, but he was able to be a blessing to and provide shelter and protection to the others as well

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Striking story again. I don't know if that story was was written with This passage in mind, but it may have been for for all

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I know But let us let us go in thinking about this. How are we engaged in the work that God has called us to?

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Are we building with the right materials? Are we are we building at all? And if not, let us repent and ask

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God to help us to be men and women who build his kingdom Establishing Christian dominion over all the earth.

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Let us pray God we thank you for your word and thank you for this time.

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We've had together this morning to consider the truths of 1st Corinthians 3 10 through 15 in particular

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Word, but truly the truth of your entire scripture that you have called your people a people to yourself

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You have redeemed us from our failure from the penalty of sin and death Lord through the precious blood of our

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Lord Jesus Christ We thank you that we can have such utter confidence in you Lord that not only is our salvation our justification secure

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Where but as we work we work knowing that you are with us always even to the end of the age

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Where and you have been? established as king forever Lord in that as the church works as the church labors all of your enemies are being put underneath your feet

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Lord such that Paul could say in Romans 16 That we work in the hope with the expectation that you

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God are placing all the church's enemies underneath our feet To crush all of your enemies where you are

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Ministering to us Lord and helping us in this work May we have that reliance upon you help us in this build us up in the faith and in the work that you've called us