Romans 12 (A Successful, Faithful, and Effective Church)

The Shepherd's Church

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Good morning to the Shepherd's Church today is going to be just a little bit different because unless something catastrophic happens

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We're gonna be Sending in our comments on the lease to a landlord on Monday.

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Yes, that means That we are hoping by this week to finalize a lease

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To sign a lease and by October the 1st God willing We are gonna have our own brand new building that we're gonna have 24 7 access to and it's gonna be really the beginning of a new chapter for the

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Shepherd's Church a Chapter that I'm hoping will bring three things

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I'm hoping that we will be successful in raising up disciples

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Faithful in preaching the gospel and effective in reaching lost people. Those are the three things successful Faithful and effective

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And I want to just Thank every single person who's been a part of the Shepherd's Church because it's not easy to be a part of a church plant

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It's not easy to be a part of a church that is Seeking to take on its own building for the first time and and it's not easy to be a part of a church

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That's not an established church. That would be easy If we wanted that we could have just attended a church somewhere or we could have just showed up on a

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Sunday morning At a particular church and and we wouldn't have had to invest very much of ourselves in that we could have joined a small group somewhere if we wanted to and that would have required, you know, little sacrifice if not if sacrifice at all

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But we didn't do that We joined together One year ago.

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This is our 53rd week as a church. We joined together to see a brand new church come to life in New England We agreed to put our comfort aside in order to see a brand new church born

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And that is to me an incredible thing in a region of the country that has so few churches all of us together have united and Banded together to make a truly eternally significant decision

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By just attending this church you and I are saying that we want to be part of New England experiencing revival and Again, church planting is not easy but I think it is absolutely necessary for the survival of this nation for the survival of this culture and For Christians to be able to have healthy churches in the future to be able to attend our grandchildren are going to be reliant upon movements just like the

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Shepherds Church Because if new churches aren't planted we will have no churches to attend but what

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I'm interested in is not just planting a church you can plant anything and It doesn't necessarily mean that it's gonna be healthy

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You can plant a seed in the ground but if you don't water it and if you don't do the kinds of things like putting it in the sunlight if you don't do

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The things that are necessary for that thing to grow then it's not gonna grow to be successful or faithful or effective

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What I'm interested in today is that we would be a healthy church and As we press into this next chapter of our existence.

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I don't want us just to survive I want us to thrive and if we're gonna do that if we're gonna make it if we're gonna be a healthy

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Church And if we're gonna do what God is calling us to do. It's not just because all of us attend this church

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It's because you and I are united together to be the church Let me explain

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For the last year you and I've been able to meet together on Saturday evenings and then now

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Saturday mornings and that's been a tremendous blessing, but that's kind of all that it's been

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We've had a four -hour time slot once per week where we can do gatherings and services and don't mishear me at all

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That's been great. I think that God has used that to unite us together in the purpose that we're called to But I believe

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God is calling us to so much more. I Don't believe that we're just called to be an event

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I don't believe that we're just called to have a four -hour time slot once a week with a couple of small groups

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I believe that we're called by God to plant a church and for the next couple of moments

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I want us to describe what that means You see today we're gonna tackle an entire chapter of the

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Bible and we're doing this not in our series in John This is this is a one -off message on how to be the church

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From the chapter of Romans 12 so what I want us to do is I want us to read that entire chapter and Then I want us to pull four major themes out of that chapter that is gonna help us

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Understand what it means for us to be the church as we approach this next critical chapter of our churches life if we want to be successful faithful Effective and healthy then we have to be a

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Romans 12 kind of church So let's read that together and then let's examine the four areas

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That we need to examine. This is what Paul says Therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God Which is your spiritual service of worship and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind

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So that you may prove what the will of God is That which is good and acceptable and perfect For through the grace given to me

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I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think but to think so as to have sound judgment and God has allotted to each person a measure of faith

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For just as we have many members in one body and all our members Do not have the same function so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another

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Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace that's been given to us. Each of us is to exercise them accordingly if prophecy according to the proportion of his faith if service in his serving or if he teaches in his teaching or If he exhorts in his exhortation if he gives with liberality if he leads do it with diligence if he shows mercy do it with cheerfulness

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Let love be without hypocrisy and a poor what is evil cling to what is good be devoted to one another in brotherly love

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Give preference to one another in honor not lagging behind in diligence fervent in spirit serving the

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Lord rejoicing in hope persevering in tribulation Devoted to prayer and contributing to the needs of the

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Saints practicing hospitality Bless those who persecute you Bless and do not curse

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Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep Be of the same mind toward one another do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly do not be wise in your own estimation never pay back evil for evil to anyone and Respect what is right in the sight of all men if possible so far as it depends on you be at peace with everyone

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Never take your own revenge beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God for it is written Vengeance is mine and I will repay you says the

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Lord But if your enemy is hungry feed him and if he is thirsty give him a drink for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head

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Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good This is

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God's Word. Let's pray Holy Spirit, I pray right now that you would help us

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Members of the Shepherd's Church to understand what it means to be a church that that lives and follows these words

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Lord, I pray that we would see the things that you want us to see today in your Word and Lord, I pray that as we approach this next season of having a building

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And the responsibilities that are going to come along with that Lord, I pray that you would band us together and that you would unite us together and that we would

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We would all participate in the mission that you have called us to Lord I pray that you would use us to disciple you would use us to evangelize

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You would use us to have an impact for the kingdom It's in Jesus name that I pray.

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Amen. I believe That Romans 12 is the perfect chapter for you and I to be looking at as we move forward into this next chapter of our ministry together in this text

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Paul Was writing to a struggling church plant in Rome and he was writing them a theological treatise chapters 1 through 11 really is some of the best and greatest theology that's ever been written and chapter 12 really begins the

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Practical steps of what does it mean now for you guys to live all these things out? and in this chapter we can see four fundamental principles that a church must have if She's gonna be a successful faithful and effective church in the culture to which

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God has called them to and I believe these four postures or these four attitudes or these four approaches

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To being the church are gonna be critical for you and I as well. So the first one is that we must approach

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God rightly, we must rightly approach God. That's the first thing most critical thing. We have to get that, right?

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If we're gonna be a church that makes it into the next season Then we have to make sure that we're approaching

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God in the right way Paul says it this way I urge you brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice

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Acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship He's saying that based on everything that God has done for us then we must present our bodies as a living sacrifice to him and Notice that he says brethren here

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He's not just talking to men that word means congregation Because he's not just talking to the pastors and the elders and the deacons or just men or just women or he's not talking about Any fractured group of people he's talking about all of them that every single person in this congregation

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Needs to devote their bodies to the God who gave up his body to be broken for them

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To sacrifice for the one who sacrificed for them That's what Paul's saying that we must live a sacrificial life for Jesus because that is what he has done for us

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We must be willing to lay our lives down our time down our talents down our abilities down and yes

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Even our resources down so that we can see the church that Jesus died for Succeed and be faithful and be effective for Jesus And why would we do this

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Because Paul says it's our spiritual act of worship Because Paul says that this

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Christ who sacrificed for us has now invited us into The opportunity of a lifetime to now sacrifice for him

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He's talking to a church of people He's teaching them how to approach God rightly through a sacrificial and humble spirit

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And he's telling us that we have the opportunity now as a body of believers to lay everything down for the cause of Christ and If we do that We'll be faithful successful and effective church.

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That's the first thing We must have a right approach to God The second aspect is that we must understand how to approach the world rightly

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We live in a world That is corrupt. That is wicked. That is evil

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And we live in a world that's trying to convert us into their ways of thinking and The church the true church is supposed to live in the world

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Try to reach the world But to not be overcome or Conformed to the world you see being the church is not about Once a week going to hide away in your little religious

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Cloister where you pray and sing and listen to sermons and then it does absolutely nothing To impact the larger world around us

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Church is actually that's not what church is Church is not a hidden gathering of the

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Saints. It's a training center for missionaries You see you and I come here to be trained and equipped and Encouraged in order to be sent back out into the world

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Because that's where we live That's who we're called to reach and if a church is not about equipping you to reach the world for Christ Then it's just an event

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That we attend. It's just a worldly event that we attend That has absolutely nothing to do with how we're gonna reach the nations for Jesus that that's the point of the church is

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To train and equip you so that you can be missionaries to reach the world for Christ Think about it like a missionary school if you wanted to go be a missionary in Zimbabwe, well, you would go to maybe you would go to school for that you would learn the language

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You would learn certain techniques about how to be a missionary You would start raising money and funds and you would do whatever you could to alter your life

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Around the mission of going to be a missionary in this Foreign country and you would go to school to be equipped and trained in order to do that.

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Well, that's what the church is See your life is not about you and you're

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Building a castle in a kingdom your life is about being a part of Jesus's kingdom already and helping to build that That's what your life is about as a redeemed blood -bought member of the

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Bride of Christ So the church is supposed to train you for that now You're gonna experience wounds.

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That's why a second metaphor for me is helpful It church is not just a missionary school, but it's also a medical tent in the middle of a war zone you think about Bullets are flying soldiers are are getting hit and then they they bring the soldiers into the medical tent

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And then it's the job of the army officers to patch them up get them back in Good and proper health as quickly as possible so they can send them back out into the fight

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It's no good. If you just have a bunch of soldiers who are lying on the ground wounded. You need a medical tent

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You need a medical tent to patch them up and send them back out so that we can have healthy soldiers in a

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Fierce battle so that we can win the war being the church Is not only about training you how to be a missionary in society

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It's also a place where you can find encouragement when you're hurt and when you're broken and when you're wounded And the gospel can be preached over your life so that you can enter back into the world from a posture of health

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Encouraged as a soldier of Christ to continue fighting for the kingdom of God. That's what the church is supposed to be about You may also think about it like a marriage counselor

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If we are the bride of Christ, that means that we are the spouse of Jesus then coming to marriage

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Counseling is learning how to be better married to Christ That's what the church is kind of like you don't go to a marriage counselor in order to stay there and live in their office

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Because man think about it this way Spouses generally get along better in the marriage counseling office than they do on the ride home afterwards.

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I remember if there was this time where Shannon and I went to a marriage counselors early in our marriage and We would we would get out of The the counseling session we would get in the car and we would just be at each other's throats because of things that we talked about in the in the counseling environment also because that particular counselor had a

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Very very annoying habit of smacking his lips while he chewed his chewing gum, and it was frustrating

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But my only point is is that we don't go to marriage counseling in order to in order to live there

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We go to marriage counseling in order to be equipped so that we can go live out our marriage and health Moving forward.

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That's what the church is. It's a missionary school to help. You know how to be a missionary in this world

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It's a medical tent that's gonna help preach the gospel over your life so that you will be able to enter into the fight every single week with health and And with passion and joy and with all of that and it's a marriage counseling event where where the church is helping you understand what?

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It means to be wed to Jesus what it means to love Jesus What it means to worship Jesus so that you can go out and you can live that out

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Monday through Saturday You see all of this is kind of pointing out the simple fact that the church is actually not the ministry

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The church is not the ministry you are The Shepherds Church exists to train you for the ministry.

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The Shepherd Church is not the ministry We're not the end goal here. We're not an event.

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We're a sending agency That's what the church is and Paul confirms this in Ephesians 4 chapter 2 when he says and this is in a chapter that's talking

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About what the church is He says the church is for the equipping of the

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Saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ we the church exists to equip you as Ministers of the gospel to go out into the world and take the gospel of Jesus Christ to build up Jesus's kingdom and this is so critical to understand when it comes to Romans 12 to Because we not only approach

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God with sacrificial spirit How can we give our lives to you because you gave your life for us?

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we also must understand how do we approach the world that we live in and Look at what

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Paul says. He says do not be conformed to this world But be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is

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That which is good and acceptable and perfect if we're gonna be a successful church

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If we're gonna be a faithful church, and if we're gonna be an effective church in the season that we're stepping into Then we must not only equip you to be sacrificial to God which was the first point that we talked about today

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But we must also Equip you to be able to face the world Paul's saying do not be conformed to this world

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But be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove the will of God He's giving two commands to the church.

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Don't be conformed to the world be transformed by the gospel Why? So that you will know the will of God for your life

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Do you know the will of God for your life is to be conformed into the image of Christ? It's to have your mind renewed by the gospel and you may be asking yourself, well, how can

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I how can I do that? Well Reading your Bible is helpful spending time in prayer.

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It's helpful Being together with other Christians is helpful. All of those things are good, but I Think the church has a unique role

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Because the church is where you go every week that it's a place that preaches God's Word That teaches

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God's Word that applies God's Word that sings God's Word And it's a place where you get to hear God's Word and learn how to do

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God's Word so I believe that the church is one of these is one of Jesus's blessings to Christians who are called to not be conformed to the world but to transform the world

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The church is one of those places of blessing where you get to go and you get to be equipped to think and act and Approach this world biblically

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So over the next season of our life as a church Where we're moving out of First Baptist Church, we're moving out of Saturday mornings and into Sunday mornings

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We're moving out of one day a week ministry into hopefully 24 -7

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Access to a building that will give us so much more access to being able to do ministry as we're moving into that season

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I want the Shepherds Church to be that a place where those two things happen Where we the church are committed to you to help you do everything you can to live a sacrificial life for Christ and Helping you be conformed not to the image of this world

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But instead to the gospel of Jesus Christ so that you will be transformed

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Renewed in your mind understanding the will of God and ready and able to face this world as a missionary for Jesus Christ That's our commitment to you and we want to do those two things well in the years that follow the third thing that we must consider

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If we're going to be a successful faithful and effective church, it's not only what the Shepherds Church Especially from a pastoral and Elder commitment to you is going to be we also need to consider what all of our shared

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Commitment has got to be if we want to be a successful faithful and effective church, then we have to make certain commitments

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We have to understand how you and I all of us are going to approach this thing called the church we need to understand how that we're gonna treat the church or how we're gonna interact in the church or participate in this thing called the church and To do that.

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I want us to first understand. What is the church? It's not a building It's not a time slot in our calendar and it's not just a collection of programs.

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The church is the people of God If you're a Christian then you are a member of the church the church universal it's the community of the redeemed saints who gather together to glorify

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God and who scatter as Sent ones on the mission of God. That is what the church is supposed to be a gathered and a scattered reality

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Let me say this again, and I want you to remember this the church has a twofold purpose the church is to gather together to glorify

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God and the church is also to scatter as Sent ones who've been sent out on the mission of God Both of those elements are absolutely critical if we're gonna understand what it means for us to be the church

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Because when you attend a weekly service Or whether you go To whether you go home afterwards when you go to work when you pray when you sleep

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All of these things you're doing as a member of the church. It might not feel like that It might feel like that you're participating in church

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When you go to a weekly service But what I'm telling you is that you are a participating member of the church 24 hours a day seven days a week because Jesus purchased you to be a member of his church both gathered and scattered for instance

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We gather together to hear the gospel We gather together to sing the gospel We gather together to read the gospel and we gather together to learn the gospel through the preaching and Teaching of the gospel.

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Those are things we do when we gather But that's not all there is to being the church we also scatter as Members of the church we go our separate ways in order for you and I and all of us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth together

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Which means that we take the gospel into our lives and into our Relationships and into our work and into our play and into every single square inch of our lives the gospel goes with us because we're members of the church every day of the week and Since the church is so vitally important to who we are.

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I believe that the next two points We need to understand what it means to be the gathered church and we need to understand what it means to be the scattered church as well

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Paul addresses the gathered church in verses 3 through 13 when he says For through the grace given to me.

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I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think But to think so as to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith

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For just as we have many members in one body and all members do not have the same function

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So we who are many are one body in Christ and Individually members of one another since we have gifts that differ according to the grace that's been given to us each of us is to exercise those gifts accordingly if prophecy use that gift to the proportion of your faith if Service use it in your serving if your gift is teaching use it in your teaching

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If your gift is exhortation then use it in your exhortation if it's giving do it with liberality

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If it's a leadership then do it with diligence if it's showing mercy then do it with cheerfulness if it's love then let it be without hypocrisy because We are supposed to abhor what is evil and cling to what is good and be devoted to one another in brotherly love and to Give preference to one another in honor not lagging behind in diligence, but always fervent in spirit serving the

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Lord Jesus Christ Rejoicing in hope persevering interest tribulation devoted in prayer and contributing to the needs of the

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Saints practicing hospitality Now, there's no way That we can talk extensively about each of these things, but these

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Relate and these are for us as the gathered Church of Jesus Christ Because a

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Christian is not just one who responds to God with sacrificial love To God's sacrificial love of the sacrificial life.

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That's true. And a Christian is not only one who lives in the world But it's not conformed to the world. That's true. A Christian is one who loves and participates in the gathered

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Church of Christ It's not enough to be a Christian and have a low view of the church

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Jesus does not allow for that You go all throughout the Bible. He does not talk about the church as if it's a preference he doesn't talk about the church as if as If it's just something that you do when you have time

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He doesn't talk about the church as if is that you know, if I get around to it, I'm gonna participate in it

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He says don't think too highly of yourself, but with the gift that God has given you serve the church. That's a command

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And he does that command Based off of what Christ has done for us. There's no legalism here

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Jesus Christ has given everything for his church and he expects us to give everything we have for him

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It's because of what Jesus did that we love and serve one another

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Not to gain the love of God. It's because of the love of God And he describes this level of commitment

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Through the metaphor of the human body again, I want to reiterate this the shepherds church is committed to you

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To help you grow and sacrificial love for God and help you grow so that you're not conformed to the world

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But transformed by the gospel we're committed to those two things But this passage is telling all of us that if we want to be a successful healthy effective church

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Then all of us have to be committed to one another we have to be and he does that through this metaphor of the body

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He says that there are many various parts That make up a body and in the same way, there's many various parts that make up a church

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For instance, there's pastors who preach and pastors who lead worship But that's not the full measure of the church any more than a floating head

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That's disconnected from a neck is the full measure of being a human You can't be a human if you're just a floating head

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Because people are a collection of parts a healthy thriving successful effective human

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Has all their parts in working order The biblical expectation is that in the same way every single person would be involved

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So that the church can be healthy and in good working order both when we gather and also when we scatter

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You see just like you and I have an expectation that all of our body parts will be working from The top of our head to our tiniest pinky toe

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Well, Jesus also has an expectation that every single Christian will find some way to work and serve in his body for the benefit of his body to not serve

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To not contribute our resources and our time and our efforts to not participate in the local church is as painful to the church as an amputation is to a

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Person now say this Because there really hasn't been a ton of opportunity for you and I to serve at the

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Shepherds Church over the past year and I believe that needs to change.

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I Believe that actually must change And it will be changing as we approach having our own space it's gonna have to Because number one we believe the

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Bible And if our church is not giving every single person a meaningful opportunity to get involved

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Then we need to grow in that because that's not a picture of faithfulness and trust me.

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We're not gonna get this figured out overnight There's gonna be some trial and error here There's it may take some time in order to figure out how to get every single person in this church meaningfully involved but if the goal of Every Christian should be to serve in the church just like Paul is saying here

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Then it's a church's responsibility to find a role for every Christian to be able to serve in the church

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My vision for what the Shepherds Church could be like It's just a biblical church and if we're a biblical church, then

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I believe this with all my heart every single person who goes to our church is

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Participating in the church is giving to the church is serving in the church and is scattering to the glory of God To be the church.

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That's the biblical vision and that's what it means to be a Romans 12 Kind of church and Paul lists out some various options for his people

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In order to be able to think about what it means to be the gathered church. He lists out a bunch of them He says prophecy which means expounding scriptures if that's your gift

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Meaning if the Holy Spirit has given you the gift of being able to teach and preach the

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Word of God Then you need to do that. You need to get with Derek and I need to learn some things about preaching

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You need to go through some character training so that you'll be called and qualified for the office But if your gift is that you need to be set apart to do that If your gift is serving

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Well, then you need to serve Jesus in your serving and you need to find a place in the church where you can serve where you can just be sacrificial if Your gift is teaching.

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Well, then serve Jesus in your teaching if It's exhorting and comforting other people then find a place in the church where you can use that Empathy that you have in order to be able to encourage someone else if your gift is giving then give liberally

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If your gift is leading other people then do it with diligence if it's showing mercy Then do it with cheerfulness.

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He also gives some generic examples as well. He says Love and don't do it hypocritically

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He says a poor what is evil? Cling to what is good. Those are ways that you can serve the church

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He says be devoted to one another Have brotherly love for one another that's a way that you can serve

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Jesus in the church He says show each other honor Do it diligently fervent in spirit.

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That's a way that you can serve the Lord. He says rejoice in hope That's a way you can serve the Lord He says persevere through trial be devoted in prayer contribute to the needs of the

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Saints There's so many opportunities for that and I've seen all throughout my life different examples of that whether it's taking meals

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To people who just had a baby or whether it's you know, loving and caring for a family. They just lost a loved one

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There's all kinds of ways that we can practice hospitality and clearly

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Paul I would think would say this is not an exhaustive list, but it's a good list and as you

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You know read this list and meditate on this list I would actually recommend that you read this list as many times as you can and Meditate on it.

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Just ask the Spirit of God. Where have you gifted me to serve? Is that hospitality?

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Is it is it you know being a prayer warrior? Is it persevering? Is it rejoicing? Is it all of the different things that he lists in 3 through 13?

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Where has he gifted you uniquely to be able to serve in the body of Christ, you know go back to the body metaphor

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Are you a toe? Are you a finger? Are you a nose? Are you an eye? We're all called to work together Not one member of the body is more important than the other.

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Well, what are you called to be? Where are you called to serve? How are you made by God to contribute?

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How are you gifted? Once you understand that Then we the church can begin plugging you in and helping you get connected to serving

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Not just in the gathered church, but the gathered church is incredibly important Now in this next season of our existence where we move out of First Baptist and we move into the

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The new building that we are praying to the Lord that this goes through In this next season for us.

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We're gonna have to get better at this again, we've been able to meet for an entire year and there's been very little opportunity for serving and You know,

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I just want to say that that's okay But we have to get better at that and there has been wonderful examples of serving that I've seen and I'll just point out one

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Do you Justin and Manita? have been recently coming to the Shepherd's Church and One of the things that's warmed my heart so much is they never even asked how can

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I get involved and how can I serve? They just started serving every week while I'm Running my mouth and talking to people and Connecting with people.

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I look up and Justin Manita are just humbly and joyfully serving they're grabbing microphones or they're or they're running cables or they're taking things downstairs or they're packing things up and It's been a joy for me to be able to see that So there has been examples of it for sure

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But the future need that we're gonna have is gonna require all of us all of us together

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And I think it's gonna be an awesome opportunity for us to be faithful to This vision that Paul is laying out for what the church is

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And I'll just go through a couple of examples. We need people who will greet guests when they come to the space.

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We need greeters We need men and women who will set up signs in the morning. We're gonna buy signs

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We haven't been able to do that yet because this the space that we're at won't allow us to have a sign

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We're gonna have signs that we put out so we need someone who will go Early in the morning You know probably around 6 30 or 7 and put some signs out so that men and women who drive by will know

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That a church that preaches the gospel exists and they'll know how to find us You wouldn't believe how many people at?

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The former church that that we were at or some of us were at how many people actually found that church by those signs

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We're gonna have signs, but we need some people to put those out in the morning We need kid workers who will love and care for children and teach them the gospel in a way that they can understand on their level

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We need facilities workers who would help us clean up the space and help us keep the space in good working running order

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We need people who will do slides with excellence Now, you know, my loving daughter has been doing that but we need someone

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Who can step in and do that with with precision and with accuracy We need people who read the

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Bible every single week So that it's not just Kendall and Derek up front, but it's a community of people doing a church service together

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We need people who will set up communion and pray over communion and clean up communion Afterwards because we're not gonna be using these pre -packaged communion things that we've been using forever

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We're gonna we're gonna do real communion And we need someone who will take that job seriously and set it up and clean it up afterwards we have we have jobs that we don't even know about yet that that will be

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Needed in order for us to do the ministry as a gathered Church of God. And the only point is is

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That we all have to be committed to this vision The Shepherd Church is committed to helping equip you to live a sacrificial life for Jesus Christ And so that you won't be conformed to this world but transformed by the gospel

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We're committed to do that every single week We're committed that this church would be a training and missionary Sending church that you could come here and you could be equipped to do ministry

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That's what we're committed to but what I'm asking is over the next year. Will you be committed to participating?

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Will you be committed to sharing your time and attending the gathering as often as you can?

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Will you be committed to giving to the gathering financially so that it can succeed? Will you be committed to serving in this gathering sacrificially so that we can be an effective church on mission for Christ and I believe that when all of us share our time our resources and our

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Holy Spirit giftedness I believe that we're gonna be a faithful church. I Believe that we're gonna be one step closer to being a stable

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Church and I believe that as we think about this final aspect

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We're gonna be those three things that we talked about before successful faithful and effective

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The final thing that Paul points out is not just how we serve in the gathered church

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But also how we serve in the scattered church and that for me that means we need to understand how to approach this moment

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We've talked about how to approach God we've talked about how to approach the world We've talked about how to approach the church now.

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We need to understand how to approach this moment In time as the scattered Church of God and this is how

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Paul concludes he says Bless those who persecute you Bless those and do not curse rejoice with those who rejoice weep with those who weep be of the same mind

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Toward one another do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly Do not be wise in your own estimation never pay back evil for evil to anyone respect what is right in the sight of all men if Possible so far as it depends on you be at peace with all men

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Never take your own revenge beloved but leave room for the wrath of God for it's written vengeance is mine says the

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Lord But if your enemies hungry feed him and if he's thirsty give him a drink For in so doing you will keep burning coals upon his head do not be overcome

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By evil but overcome evil with good now as we close

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Again we cannot cover this topic exhaustively. There's too many verses. There's too many commands

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There's too many things for us to make any sort of extensive treatment of this But I do want to make a few remarks

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When the Shepherd's Church Has committed to equipping you to live a biblically and sacrificial life and when the

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Shepherd's Church has committed to equipping you to be Conformed to the gospel and when you have committed to participating in the church gathered with your time resources and abilities

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Then we're gonna understand how we can do ministry as the scattered church scattered

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Church of God We will bless those who persecute us because we understand what it means to be the

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Church of Jesus Christ We will rejoice with hope because we understand what it means the Church of Jesus Christ We will weep with those who are wounded.

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We will have unity without pride. We will help the hurting We won't be revengeful But we will be at peace with all men because we know that we've been made at peace with God through the through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and The final line of this section will be true for all of us

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We will not be overcome by evil as we scatter together to do ministry in this world but we will overcome evil with good because of What Christ has done in this gospel?

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That's what it means to be a Romans 12 kind of church and that's what I'm praying for all of us

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That this church would be a church that equips you to live a sacrificial life For the one who sacrificed it all for you that this church would be a place where you could be equipped to be conformed

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To Christ so that you will know the will of God for your life and that we would all be committed

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To participating in the gathered church with our time our resources and our abilities so that we could preach the gospel disciple the

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Saints and evangelize those who are lost and finally that we would all commit to scattering together into our towns and into our

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Neighborhoods and into our relationships and into all the world for the glory of God so that the kingdom of God would grow

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That's what we're committed to We are committed to two things the church all of us together are committed to two things

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So that we will not be overcome by this world, but by the power of the gospel we would overcome it

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That is what Romans 12 is all about and I pray that that would be what you and I are all about too.

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Let's pray Lord Jesus, I want us to be a

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Romans 12 kind of church. I Want us to be a church that?

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that equips the Saints Empowers the Saints encourages the Saints Hey Lord, I want all of us every single one of us who are here to make the decision right now to participate in this church and To practice using their gifts and To practice being sacrificial not just with time but also with resources and with Our talents and abilities and gifts

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Lord You died to purchase all of us so that we could give all of us back to you and Lord I pray that for us as a church.

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I pray the church would give all of its Energy and effort to the mission that you've called us to I pray that each and every single one of us would give all

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Of our energy and effort to the mission of God that you've called us to and Lord I pray that this neighborhood that we're moving into and this

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Opportunity that we're stepping into Would look different because of what you've called us to do and that we had done it faithfully

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Lord, I pray for the three things that we mentioned in the beginning that we would be a successful Church That we'd be a faithful Church and that we'd be an effective