The Mission of the Spheres - Part III

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Titus 2:11-3:8

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Well, this morning we complete our little detour of sorts into this topic of the mission of God and the spheres over which
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Christ reigns, the spheres being the family, the church, and the state.
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And though we are in one sense completing our series this morning, in another sense we're only beginning as we will spend some time next week reading the opening salvo of chapters from the book of Exodus and then actually dive into the text next year.
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Hard to believe next year is a week away. We'll actually be still chasing down this larger theme of the mission of God and a lot of the application of our time in Exodus will relate to the family, the church, and the state.
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So in many ways this is sort of an appetizer or perhaps laying the foundation for what will come,
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Lord willing, through our time in the book of Exodus. This morning we're hoping to be a little more practical than the past two weeks.
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The past two weeks were sort of the big picture, laying down some really important distinctions and laying down some very important structures for thinking about the mission of God and how that relates to the church.
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We spent most of last week considering simply the church, the church local and the church universal, the church gathered and the church scattered.
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We talked about that being the primary manifestation of God's kingdom, the, if you remember this, the hermeneutic of the gospel, that is the way that we visibly experientially understand the gospel.
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It's in the communal life and witness of the church. One of the things we said two weeks ago is the mission of God is much broader than evangelism.
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The mission of God is broader, is wider than the Great Commission, although that is a vital center of it being fulfilled.
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And we've seen and we will see, we get a broad view of the mission of God when we follow the logic of Scripture from beginning to end, when we don't just dive into the middle, but we begin in Genesis and we end in Revelation.
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It requires a framework, in other words, that begins with creation and also includes with that kingdom and because of the fall into sin, redemption and the great goal, the great telos of that, new creation.
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So from creation to kingdom to redemption to new creation. The mission of God comprises all of these things.
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Now we said the local church, this is last week, the local church is sort of the dawning, the first fruits of the new humanity.
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Of course, Jesus Christ is the first fruits of what we shall be. Because we're united to him by faith through the
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Spirit, we become gradually conformed into his image and in that very image, we are the dawning of a new humanity, a redeemed humanity.
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And as such, we are given not only the task, but indeed the command to go to all people and to share the good news of this gospel of the kingdom and to call them to repentance in faith in the risen
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Lord Jesus, to be reconciled to God through his blood. And so not only do we engage in worship and enjoy this sort of visible experiential community as God's chosen people and all of the benefits and blessings that that entails, but also there's this missional dimension to our worship and our communal life.
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There's a missional dimension to our task, which is go to the very ends of the earth as God's chosen people, as the foretaste of God's redemption in Christ.
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Now flowing out of a church that is aware of this missionary dimension, there's going to be words and deeds.
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This is what we mean by committed participation, which will point to, if not enact, the words and the deeds of Jesus.
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That's deliberate, intentional activity, both in and outside of the church as a witness to the
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Lord Jesus Christ, as a manifestation of the Lord's presence here on earth. We are his body here on the earth.
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And so, as we begin the book of Exodus in a couple weeks, we're going to keep this focus on the mission of the spheres, and this morning we want to tease out initial sketches of practical application.
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We're going to let Exodus guide even more of that, but I just want to lay down some practical beginning points, some practical starter points that, in my mind, are absolutely foundational if we as families, as a local church, and indeed in our presence in the public square and our interaction with the state, if we're to understand our role with the mission of God, there's some things that we simply must have in place.
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So this likely won't exhaust everything that could be said, that should be said, that will be said, but it certainly is something that must be said as we begin the book of Exodus.
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Now since we focused on the church last week, we're going to continue with the church in the first part.
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So we'll go church, then briefly we'll talk about family, and then lastly, the state.
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So the church, where do we begin, as a church, to seek the mission of God?
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Where do we begin, as a church, to seek the mission of God? We read it, let me read it again, beginning in Titus chapter 2, verse 11.
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For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works.
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Speak these things, exhort, rebuke with all authority, let no one despise you, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.
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We ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another, but when the kindness and the love of God our
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Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration, the renewal of the
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Holy Spirit, that having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
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This is a faithful saying, and these things I want to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works.
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These things are good and profitable to men. If you have Titus 3 open, look at the very last thing he says before he closes with the greeting, right?
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Standard boilerplate closing of the letter, but what does he say as his sort of parting command before he gives that final instruction and greeting?
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It's verse 14, and let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful.
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Now what stands out to you reading Titus 2 beginning in verse 11 through 3 verse 8?
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There's many things. Of course, we're seeing this great contrast between who we once were and who we are now because of the kindness and mercy of God.
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We see this higher calling that belongs to the people of God. We should live soberly, righteously, godly in the present age.
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But notice something that's repeated. There's of course a lot of emphasis on the mercy and the grace of God and Jesus Christ.
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There's references to God, to Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit. There's of course a repudiation of works of righteousness that we have done, which is a way of saying we have not done works of righteousness.
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The focus is on what God has done for us and in us and through us. But there's only really one thing that's repeated throughout these verses.
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Do you know what it is? Good works. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great
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God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works.
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Chapter 3, beginning in verse 1. Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work.
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At the very end in verse 8, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works.
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That's a faithful saying and Paul repeats it in verse 14. Let our people learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs so that they will not be unfruitful.
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So what do we need? Where do we begin as a church to seek after the mission of God?
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Well, here's something we need first. We need zeal, readiness, and care for fruitful good works.
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We need zeal, readiness, and care for fruitful good works.
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We need to be zealous for good works, ready for every good work, careful to maintain good works so that we will not be unfruitful.
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The mission of the church begins with this great redemptive zeal. Paul assumes the church understands that the reason they have been purified is in part so that they will be zealous to do good.
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God has done good for them despite them. And therefore, having received that redemption of God, they will be zealous to do good to others, despite others, despite how they're treated, despite how they're used or abused.
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They will seek to do what God has done for them. They will seek mercy and peace and justice and grace.
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They will seek to magnify the Savior's name. They will be zealous for good works, ready for good works, careful to maintain good works.
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So we need zeal, readiness, and care for fruitful good works. And I think fruitful is an important qualifier there.
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It ends the letter, right? Maintain good works to meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful.
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The question is, is the kind of work we're seeking, the kind of work we're pursuing as a local church, as believers assembled together, are these things that are bearing fruit, not only in our lives and in our church, but in lives outside of our church, in places beyond our church.
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The mission of God in terms of the church is, first of all, to be this contrasted people, right?
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You're not this way anymore. You once were this way. You were once deceived and hateful, but God, in His mercy, has delivered you, has redeemed you.
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And so first and foremost, we're this radiant demonstration of the grace of God. We're a people who are contrasted from those who have not received the grace of God.
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And Paul assumes, and he wants to repeat this again and again and again in the letter to Titus, you have been redeemed so that you will be zealous and ready and careful to do the good work of God.
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So we need zeal, readiness, and care for fruitful good works. We need that flowing from our corporate life as words and deeds, meeting urgent needs, both physical and spiritual, deeds that point to Jesus, that embody the mission and ministry of Jesus, even as Jesus made
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His own kingdom known and His own message understood in His words and deeds.
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This is how God intends for the local church to operate. So what does He do? He calls people into this local assembly.
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They've come from all different walks of life. They have all different backgrounds, different temperaments, different personalities, different giftings that are given to them by the
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Holy Spirit. And He puts them all together into one place for Romans 12, 4 and following, as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function.
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So we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.
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This radical union between the believer and the Lord and therefore between the believer and other believers.
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Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.
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We've been given gifts. It's a good morning to think about the giving of gifts.
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What does Paul say? What's the point of having received these gifts from God? Paul says, let us use them.
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Let us be zealous to use the gifts. Let us be ready to use the gifts. Let us be careful to maintain the gifts.
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Zeal, readiness and care for fruitful good works. We as a local church will not be able to seek the mission of God unless we have what
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Titus 2 and 3 is describing. This reality of the fact that we have been redeemed leading to a zealous pursuit, looking not just ready but looking.
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Some of you guys are all into EDC and tactical holsters and if this fails,
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I go for this and use the back site to do that. There's a readiness, right? So I know,
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I go to breakfast with some of you guys and I know that I'm always going to have to sit with my face to the corner because you guys all want to sit in that back corner and you want to be ready.
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You want to look for who's coming in and going out. You're at the gas station pump and your head's on a swivel. You're ready.
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And Paul's saying in Titus 2 and Titus 3, that's how it looks spiritually. You're ready.
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You're looking for opportunities to do good in the name of Jesus, zealous, ready, careful so that you will not be found unfruitful.
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Well second thing that's needed and perhaps in some ways the bedrock even of that but the second thing that's needed is prayerful vision and visionary prayer.
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And let me, that sounds somewhat mystical so let me unpack it. I don't mean it in that way.
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So he said first we need zeal, readiness, and care for fruitful good works.
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Secondly, we need prayerful vision and visionary prayer.
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The gathered and scattered people of God are presently involved in the mission of God whether they realize it or not.
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They are part of God's larger work, the sort of cultural task that God has for the world and therefore their lives are intertwined with God's purpose to the very ends of the earth.
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Remember that God's mission, we saw this in Genesis, in the logic of Genesis, in the logic of the Abrahamic promise.
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God's mission is to make known His good news, the promised seed's arrival, the good news to all peoples of all tribes of all tongues, to the families of the earth that will be blessed in this promised seed.
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And as a local congregation, even as a relatively small local congregation, we must take up our responsibility to that great task.
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The church has a local mission. Amen. That local mission is essential.
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That local mission is primary. But that local mission exists for the sake of the universal mission, the global mission.
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We are simply faithful to our part where we've been planted, much like a platoon or a division of the military has a certain locale and their mission is primarily where they are and what's in front of them.
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But they'll be short -sighted and perhaps lacking all sorts of necessary regimen and discipline and zeal if they don't recognize that they're holding and maintaining that ground.
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Their locale is ultimately for the sake of the larger war, the larger operation, the larger military endeavor.
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And so it is for the local church. We recognize that our local mission is essential. But if we're going to be a healthy church, a godly, pure bride, we must also maintain a vision for mission globally.
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We must maintain a vision beyond our neighborhood, beyond our community. Sadly, throughout much of church history, this was not the case.
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This is a relatively recent development in church history. There's a lot of historical factors to that.
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Well, where does this vision begin? It begins in prayer. This vision, this ardent desire, it begins in our prayers.
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I don't think it's anything we can manufacture. I don't think we're there.
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And I don't think we will be there until it begins to spontaneously manifest and snowball in our prayer lives, both as individuals and then from that leading into our corporate prayer life.
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Foremost, we need prayerful vision, and that prayerful vision goes hand in hand with visionary prayer.
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I mentioned to you a little bit last week, robbing the thunder for today, the Moravians.
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Michael Hagen had a wonderful article on William Carey, who's sometimes called the father of the modern missions movement.
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And of course, he preached a very famous sermon from the first seven verses of Isaiah 52, attempt great things for God, expect great things from God.
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And that was his call to foreign missions there in England. It seemed that finally all the vicissitudes of the church and state and all that repression that had finally been dealt with, and there was peace and tolerance, and then everything turned toward, let's spread, let's advance the cause of Christ in the world.
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William Carey, he wrote a treatise where he sort of gave a miniature overview of missions up to that point.
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He was using that to stoke the flame. Why should there be missions renewed and sought after that had hitherto for not been sought after?
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And so this famous treatise, 1792, an inquiry into the obligations of Christians to use the means of conversion for the heathen.
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And in that work, especially as he recounted a sort of history of missions, he made a special note of the
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Moravians, who I mentioned last week. He said, none of the moderns have equaled the
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Moravian brethren in this good work of evangelism. He's zealous for good work, ready for good work, careful for good work.
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This community led by Ludwig von Zinzendorf, I mentioned him, began with an around the clock prayer meeting.
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And so people would come in shifts to pray, and it was a prayer meeting that never ended. And before they even set a foot in a foreign land, they just began to gather and pray, praying to pray for a heart for missions, praying to feel
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God's own compassion and desire for the families of the earth, praying that God would do what seemed impossible.
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That around the clock prayer meeting was later called their Moravian Pentecost by their own historians.
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And then finally, after five years of around the clock prayer, after five years of around the clock prayer, they sent their first missionaries abroad to the
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West Indies. And the prayer meeting continued around the clock, unbroken, for the next 100 years.
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Moravian missionaries literally went out to the four corners of the earth. After the West Indies in 1732, they sent to Greenland in 1733, to a colony of the nation of Georgia in 1734, to Suriname in 1735,
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South Africa, 1737, Algeria, 39, Native Americans, Sri Lanka, Romania, Persia by 1747.
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All of this was fueled by this little group of Christians in Hernhut praying visionary prayer.
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William Wilberforce, such an influential Christian, said of the
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Moravians, they are a Christian body who have perhaps excelled all of mankind in unequivocal proof of the love of Christ and of active zeal in his service.
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It is a zeal, I love this, it is a zeal tempered with prudence.
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You see, it's not off the handle zeal. It's not foolish lightning strike zeal that fizzles and burns out after three days.
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It's a zeal tempered with prudence, softened with meekness, supported by a courage which no danger intimidates and a quiet certainty that no hardship exhausts.
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What a description. We need prayerful vision and visionary prayer.
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We need our prayer lives to be so saturated by the spirit of God and his work in this world that our hearts begin to break and our imaginations begin to spin about the possibilities of how
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God may use us and our resources, even when we're essentially a little circle of Moravians in Hernhut.
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And that leads to visionary prayer. That leads to unrolling the maps in that little hut and pointing to nations that had never heard the name
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Jesus and praying for years until someone was ready to go and was called to go.
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First John is very clear, right? We go back to this, the church as a people of contrast. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him, right?
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If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. But in a different sense of the word world, we could say if anyone does not love those who are in the world, the love of the father is not in him.
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I remember I was, I'm mentioning him later this morning, but Wang Yi, a very important dissident pastor in China who's currently incarcerated, and he came to Baltimore and he gave this talk and it was attended through a sort of conference of Chinese Christians here that were stateside.
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And many, of course, were from mainland China and had settled here in the states and had ministries or had gone to seminary and they had finally peace and comfort and freedom.
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And he was coming to speak to them to encourage them to go back. One of the things he said in that address was, you say, well,
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I hate the culture and I hate the corruption. I hate the ways of China. How could
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I go back to it seeing as I don't really have a heart for it? I don't love it. And he would say, do you think that God raises up someone who's in love with Rome to be sent as a missionary to Rome?
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He actually will send the people that hate the corrupted ways of a people but has the father's heart for those people.
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That's what he's getting at. If we don't love those who are in the world, the love of the father is not in us.
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So part of this prayerful vision is having a tenderness toward the lost. So much of the tenderness of our soul is simply between us and God as our heavenly father.
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This is sort of classic Puritan piety that we only think of spiritual affections in terms of our relationship with God.
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We rarely think about it in horizontal terms. It's almost exclusively in vertical terms.
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Bunyan, consider Christ did use no means to harden his heart against you, and he undertook every suffering and sorrow which was necessary for your redemption.
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In his love and in his pity, he has saved you. He loved you and gave himself for you. Learn then of Christ to be tender and to endeavor to keep your heart tender to God for the salvation of your soul.
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So he's saying Christ has been tender toward you, therefore you should be tender to Christ.
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But by extension, if Christ has been tender to you, how tender should you be to the lost? How tender should you be for those who are outside of Christ?
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This ultimately manifests in prayer. Quite simply,
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Michael Goheen, from his book, A Light to the Nations, quite simply, a church that does not pray fervently and corporately will never be a missional church.
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We may build a large crowd of excited Christians with marketing techniques and attractive programs, but this will not necessarily be a community that embodies the power of the gospel.
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There is nothing glamorous or novel here. Prayer is simply central to the mission of the church.
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And we know this, but what happens is we sort of have this default, this penchant to assume prayer and then go on with our planning.
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And our planning is what makes a difference, not our prayer. Take note that the Moravians prayed for five years before they sent missionaries.
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They prayed. We may not know what it looks like, but it's not going to be the result of our efforts and our planning.
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It's going to be the result of God hearing our prayers, God giving us prayers to pray,
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God breaking our hearts in prayer, God giving us a vision, a hunger through prayer.
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And then in those prayers, we begin to pray with vision, pray with imagination, pray with a zeal and a readiness and a care for good works.
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So that's the second, a prayerful vision and a visionary prayer. Third, we need willing commitment and committed willingness.
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Willing commitment and committed willingness. There needs to be a sort of overflow, an abundant, a sort of generous willfulness when it comes to our commitment, right?
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Not dragging our feet, not ho -humming and being, I can't wait till this is over.
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There needs to be something willful in our commitment, but at the same time, our willingness needs to be committed because sometimes it's easy to be on the sort of downswing of the roller coaster and it's all just so exhilarating and encouraging, but then the climb begins to slow things down and you begin to lose heart and it's not as fun.
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And so you need to have that willing, exhilarated commitment, but at the same time, your commitment must be willing.
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You must have a committed willingness. You're in it, whether it's thick or thin, whether it's long and hard, whether you spent years laboring and praying after something and still have very little fruit to show for it.
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Part of the problem with the church as this sphere is a shift from a sort of missional thinking, a missional way of being to a consumeristic way of being.
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The idea once was that churches would be missional, would be seeking to persuade and win those to Christ, and so churches in the vein of being missional became seeker sensitive.
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We're going to hand out gas cards and we've got the big bouncy house. Bring your kids over.
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We're going to be everything that you could want. The church resembles more of a circus than a place of worship or a house of prayer for the nations.
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Here, the idea is mission began to be seeker sensitive, and once mission became seeker sensitive, man -centered, toward man's ends, then the church lost its mission and became simply consumeristic.
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It became a business using better means and strategies to attract potential customers.
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Sadly, the idea of mission fell out of view altogether. Tactics from the marketplace became streamlined to attract customers to the church, consumers that would then hop from body to body when services weren't as fulfilling as they used to be.
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So the only thing that grew was not spirituality, not holiness, not zeal and readiness and care for good works, but simply consumerism.
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Let me go back to Wang Yi for a minute at this address for Chinese Christians in Maryland.
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Remember, he's seeking to persuade them, go back to this hard land, go back to China where you're under the thumb of the government and life is difficult and supplies aren't ready and there's all sorts of hindrances and difficulties that you are spared while you're here on American soil.
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And he's trying to persuade them to essentially leave safety and comfort and return to the work that God had called them to.
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And this is what he says. Everyone wants to meet someone else in their best season of life.
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He relates this just to human relationship. We don't want to be treated by the doctor in training. We want the pro.
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We don't want to be served by an intern. We don't want to commit to an immature church. We certainly don't want to live in a corrupt or unfree society.
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When it comes to our relationships, we always hope the other person is ready and is at their best.
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And this is how most people in the world today define happiness or romance. But this is not how the
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Bible defines love. This is simply a consumer's idea of love. It does not include within it the desire to grow and suffer with the other person.
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You see, speaking about the church here, he's saying, you want the church to be at its best, triumphant in its best season with all of its doctrinal ambiguity cemented and to have that impact, kind of like you feel in the security and safety of what the
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U .S. church is. Then you want to go to China. He's saying that's not biblical love. Biblical love is this desire, not only what is, but what would be and what that means for you and what that requires of you, a desire to grow with and to suffer with the other.
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That's what he's saying. Come to China and grow with us. We're in a mature church. Come grow with us. Come suffer with us.
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We need to encounter people who are learning how to commit to a church when it is still imperfect, to stay in a country when the government is still corrupt, to serve a world while it is still falling apart because the church is the mother of all believers and it's the manifestation of the kingdom of God.
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And then he goes into a note that one of his elders sent to him. Remember, he was raided by Chinese authorities this month.
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Yeah, this month, I believe, he began serving his nine -year sentence. This is what one of his elders at his church,
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Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, this is what one of his elders wrote to him. The greatest thing that I can think of.
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It's actually, he actually says the most romantic thing, but I think that's a translational issue that we have.
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The loveliest, most passionate thing that I can imagine, this co -elder.
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The greatest thing that I can think of is to grow old with you in the smog, in the pollution, sharing the gospel of Christ alongside you.
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The greatest thing that I can think of is to have chemotherapy with you years later and to pray to God with you.
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The greatest thing that I can think of, my very flesh and blood, is to share the same faith as you so that I can preach and live according to a true understanding of the gospel.
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That is a committed willingness and a willing commitment.
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So let's talk about the family briefly, briefly. These are three things that the church needs, but the church is the mother of all believers, and though the family is a separate sphere of Christ's lordship, the church has a lot to do with that sphere.
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The church is the family of God made up of brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers in the faith who are older than us, our sort of spiritual co -heir, our brother, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, the heir of all of God's promises, and therefore we in him receiving all of God's promises.
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Well, certainly there's something to say about that family of God being composed of families. So the spheres overlap, the spheres always overlap.
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We want to keep in view the fact that the local church is the family of God, that's very, very important, but the family of God is comprised of different members of different families.
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And as a church we follow patterns for worship and discipleship, and as families we follow patterns for worship and discipleship and hospitality.
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Reformation and revival, remember we said two weeks ago, what we need is reformation and revival, begins with the reformation of the family.
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It's an important point here. We occupy this space as a gathered family of God, we occupy this for a few hours.
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In a given week, a handful of hours, we are gathered together as brothers and sisters in the Lord. But the whole of our lives is taken up in the home.
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So the reformation and revival of the church begins with the reformation and revival of the family.
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And the reformation and revival of the family begins with the reformation and revival of a godly marriage.
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Marriage, family, church. Abraham Kuyper, we've talked about him now for several weeks, wrote a very important book,
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Practical Christian Living, the second volume of his book called Pro Rega, or For the
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King. This is what he had to say in his articles on the family. He says, the church, the sphere of the church, the church has a most solemn task to fulfill for and in the family.
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Do you notice the overlap? The church has something to fulfill for the family and in the family.
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It may not abandon the family to its own lot. We don't gather as generic individuals.
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We gather in the logic of the New Testament as widows and mothers and fathers and young men and young women and children and slaves and masters and whatever season or walk of life we're in, that dynamic is taken up into the church.
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And the church, therefore, has a task to fulfill. It may not abandon the family to its own lot. It does not have to pass through locked doors.
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The church has a right to enter in the name of him who is the king of the church, but also the king of the family.
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The church and not the world. Must tell the family how to be.
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In order to honor Christ, the mission of Christ is as broad as the lordship of Christ.
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Christ is lord of the sphere of the church. Christ is lord of the sphere of the family. Christ is lord of the sphere of the state.
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The church, the prophetic task of the church must tell the family how to be, how to live, how to look, how to operate in order to honor
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Christ. It has to guard against the desecration of marriage. And this is
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Kuyper with the help of the state. A little harder in 2022 here in the West.
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But you can see, you know, things weren't always this way and things will not always be this way.
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The church rightly understanding the spheres and its obligation, the church with the help of the government must oppose every wicked notion circulating in the public mind concerning polygamy and divorce so as to protect marriage in the life of a nation as the foundation for all society.
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The church must find avenues to fight against sexual immorality, which in all kinds of ways attacks the family, uproots its very foundations and consumes with its curse whatever falls into its clutches by the power of the words of the church.
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And by its influence, the church must resist every form of evil that would undermine marriage and thereby rob the family of its greatest honor.
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See, the church has an obligation to the family. Because of the spheres and God's mission for the spheres.
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This isn't something novel or new to Abraham Kuyper. It's a great series of sermons by the
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Puritan John Brinsley, who gave just such a charge. He said, would we have the church's floor purged?
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Let every one of us purge his own floor. Every man must sweep before his own door.
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This is the next way to make the street clean. For everyone to purge his own floor is the next way to have the church's floor purged.
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Home reformation is the first step and a good step to reforming the church. Here we begin the work, everyone at his own home, the reforming of ourselves and those who belong to us.
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It is our Savior's speech, after all, to those women who lamented and bewailed him, going to his passion.
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Remember what Jesus said? Daughters of Jerusalem, I tell you, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves.
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Well, here this church, Brinsley says, speaking in like language to her daughters, the church saying this, daughters, daughters, reform not me, but reform yourselves.
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Not that only private Christians may have an eye to public reformation. But the main business which they should be most intent about is home reformation.
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Do we want reformation and revival? Do we want prayerful vision and visionary prayer? Do we want this participation in God's mission?
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It begins at home. It begins in a marriage overflowing to the household, and then we gather as a body.
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Kuyper says for a family to be a Christian family, three things must be present in it through the
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Spirit of Christ and a result of his work. The first is to restore what sin and misery has corrupted.
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The second is to elevate that family life to its original ideal.
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I like that he distinguishes those two. First, just look at what sin, what all this dysfunction from the fall has brought into marriage and brought into family life.
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See that, own that, repent of that. But as you're seeking to restore what sin has marred and corrupted, remember that it's not just about putting away, but it's putting on.
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It's not just about what shouldn't be there. It's about what should be there, what a godly family should look like.
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So restoring or elevating family life to its ideal. Third, in order that this blessing might not be passing, but rather have fixed roots, the family must sanctify its altar and give
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God the honor and worship he is due and ask him to bless its life.
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So family worship, the altar in the home. Only in this way can
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Christ exercise his dominion as our king, not only in the church only, but also in the family as well.
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Now let me say this, that third point about the family altar, that third point about devotion and worship and discipleship in the home, that third point is what leads to the first two.
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It's out of worship, it's out of devotion that sin and corruption is revealed, that the family life and all that it was ever meant to be can be glimpsed.
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It's because of it. So don't think of it as the last part, but rather the beginning that leads to the rest.
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Well, third and last, let's talk about the state.
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We talked about the church, some applications that are immediate. We talked about the family and how all the work of God and really the success of our church hinges upon reformation or revival in the home.
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But then let's talk about the state. Here's this other sphere of Christ's lordship. Let me just read
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Psalm 96 to you. Again, just wanting to highlight things that are easily read past and easily missed.
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Psalm 96. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the
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Lord, all of the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.
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Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised.
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He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols.
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But the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
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Give to the Lord. Oh, families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength.
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Give to the Lord the glory to his name. Bring an offering. Come into his courts.
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Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Tremble before him, all the earth.
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Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. The world also is firmly established.
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It shall not be moved. He shall judge the peoples righteously. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad.
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Let the sea roar in all its fullness. Let the field be joyful and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the
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Lord, for he is coming. He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth.
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What's the focal point of Psalm 96? I know it's so tempting to say
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God. And you're theologically correct. But looking at the text, what is the central emphasis?
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Let me highlight a few words here. The earth, the nations, all peoples, all the peoples.
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Oh, families, peoples, all the earth, nations, peoples, the earth, the earth, the world, people.
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That's the emphasis. It's the nations of the earth. It's the states.
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Go and proclaim to them the Lord reigns. Go to them knowing that he is coming to judge them.
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He will judge them. All of creation is enraptured by his coming.
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All the trees of the woods will rejoice. All the seas and the ways within them will shout. He is coming to judge the families of the earth.
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The nations, the families, the states. It's always central to the mission of God.
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The mission of God is not about generic individuals, irrespective of location. Just as we said, the church, as a gathered and scattered people, is also made up of people in families, in households, even broken households.
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Still, there's something there that corresponds to God's purpose and mission for humanity.
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So it is with the state. We come and we are gathered and scattered as subjects of certain nations, with certain languages, certain authorities placed over us.
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God's mission comprises also that. So the church is not generic. Christians are not universally generic.
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Christians are made up of families of the earth, even as individual believers are made up of physical families.
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So what does that correspond to for us to seek the mission of God in terms of the state?
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Really only one point here. It calls us to faithful obedience, and because of that, it calls us to faithful disobedience.
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It calls us to faithful obedience, and because of that, it calls us to faithful disobedience.
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Titus 3 .1, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work.
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We seek to be subject to rulers and authorities. We seek to obey because this is a legitimate sphere, and we find our place within it.
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God has a task for his people, whether in the sphere of the state, in the family, or in the church. This all corresponds to God's larger mission for the world.
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But what we know from history is it's sometimes because you're seeking to be ready for every good work that you cannot obey or be subject to rulers and authorities.
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The good work that God would have you do actually means you must faithfully disobey and not be subject to rulers.
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This is part of maintaining good work. So we go back to Wang Yi.
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It was published just a few weeks ago. It's a very important book that was translated from his writings over the past five or six years.
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He's actually a relatively recent Christian, used to be a human rights lawyer, and then also, I think, a prominent party official in the
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Chinese government, and then he was converted. He became pastor of Early Rain Covenant Church.
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He began, not, sorry, it wasn't this month. It was two years ago this month that he began his nine -year prison sentence for coercion and undermining of the state's authority.
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And IVP published just a few weeks ago this book of his collected writings, not only his, there's other
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Chinese martyrs and scholars that have contributed. But the book is called
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Faithful Disobedience, Writings on Church and State from the Chinese house church movement.
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So the house church movement is basically a way of saying the underground church. And that's in contrast to the official established state church.
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You're a student of English church history, you'll know it's the same thing that the Baptists face. The Baptists were the house church movement of the 17th century.
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We weren't the established state -sanctioned Anglican church. So we often were persecuted and repressed for that very reason.
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Well, Wang Yi is a pastor within this underground church. So the house church movement is set apart from the state church, which is called the
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Three -Self Patriotic Movement. The Three -Self Patriotic Movement.
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This is going back to the years of Mao Zedong. This is the established state church. And it's meant to basically be a puppet arm of the state that somehow legalizes or tolerates a certain form of Christianity that Wang Yi would say is no
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Christianity at all. And that's why he's in prison. This is what he had to say.
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The house church has always strongly emphasized that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. He's the head of the family and the head of the state, too.
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And that the church cannot unite with or be held in bondage to worldly powers, lest it fall into spiritual promiscuity.
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Therefore, the house church has maintained the principle of this separation of church and state. He sees this
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Three -Self as essentially the combining of the state and the church. And he's saying as an underground church, we're against that.
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We don't want an established state church. The state simply needs to bow down and recognize the authority of Jesus Christ over the state and also not entangle in the affairs of the church because Jesus Christ is
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Lord of the church. Yet in the practical application of this principle, it has approached the issue, meaning the underground church has approached this issue, from the angle of individual faith rather than directly confronting the issue of the relationship between church and state.
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You see what he's saying? It's the same thing Western Christians have been tempted to for the past century. Well, what can we do in the public square?
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Let's just privatize faith. Let's just make all of Christianity an individual commitment, something in the privacy of your own mind and conscience that has nothing to do with the public square or,
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God forbid, the state. And Wang Yi's saying, this cannot be. We're fighting for the separation of church and state, but let's understand why and what that means.
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So then he asked the question, why should believers not join the state church, the three self church?
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Because, he says, behind the three self is a submission to government control. Therefore, participation in the three self is to acknowledge the government's power as head and not
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Christ as head. And this kind of church is no longer a virgin, but a prostitute who's joined herself with a worldly regime.
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He's using Matthew 25, the virgin with the lamp and Revelation 17, the prostitute.
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If there is long term neglect of this issue of the relationship between the church and the state thinking that, oh, that's all just politics, what will be the result?
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This is Wang Yi. The church will completely give up its rightful place in society and in the public square.
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The three self submits to the government. Therefore, it abandons its mission.
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It dares not, it cannot, it will not enter the public square. You just let us go about our individual lives in comfort and tolerance, and we'll jump through any hoops the state sees fit to provide.
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And when he says it cannot be, that is to abandon your mission. And don't think your mission then is, well, we're discipling people in our midst.
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We're helping people come to Christ. We're helping them make commitments and privatize their own spiritual life. And he says, no, you're actually using that to help assuage your guilt for abandoning your mission.
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The state is not the head of the church. Jesus Christ is the head of the church. We see this in our own day, brothers and sisters, this shift from public faith to private faith.
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It was not that long ago when faith was obviously public. And now it's anything but.
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It's seen as something rude or offensive to show your faith. And so faith has become something not objective, but subjective.
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It's become something inward and private. I just need more faith rather than the faith, the content of the kingship of Christ and his saving work on the cross.
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So we've lost something of the faith of the gospel because it's become a private faith. To understand mission and how that relates to the state, we must understand the objective nature of the gospel.
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This is a concrete, objective declaration with content, with entailments at every level of life.
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Christ is risen. He has authority on heaven and on earth and under the earth. So Wang Yi, going back to him from an essay in that book
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I mentioned called Why We Are a House Church, Why We Are the Underground Church. We're an underground church because our sovereign
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God has given the church the rights and responsibility to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. You notice, even though his heart is for local mission there in Chengdu, there in China, it's fueling his desire for the very ends of the earth.
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He recognizes that if he doesn't have a heart for the ends of the earth, he will not have a heart for what's in front of him. Vice versa, if he doesn't have a heart for what's in front of him, he'll never have a heart for the ends of the earth.
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The church needs to have both. Then, of course, he's reflecting on this. Without Western missionaries, where would
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Chinese Christians be? It was only in 1801 that the first Protestant missionary entered
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China, Robert Morrison, 1801. Hudson Taylor, a few decades later, the
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China Inland Mission. A century and a half of men and women praying and supporting and seeking out souls in China has resulted in men and women like Wang Yi.
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Therefore, he says, we oppose religious freedom guidelines. The state says, oh, you can have religious freedom.
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Just sign here. Check here. Abide by this. Note this. He says, we reject that entirely.
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You are not the one to give us religious freedom. We have religious freedom because of Christ's Lordship.
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Do what you have to do. The half century, three -self patriotic movement, the state church, is an antichrist movement precisely because it does not recognize a public faith.
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It does not speak of the existence of a kingdom that is above every state. And therefore, it even attempts to set up a national church through the regime.
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But this is a scheme of Satan to use China and the Chinese state to destroy the church of the
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Lord. But God meant it for good. Genesis 50, verse 20.
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God meant it for good using a half century of persecution to raise up and fulfill and protect
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His church. The bride only has one husband. The church only has one head.
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The soul only has one king. For believers to truly understand the first commandment and take it seriously in the face of anything or any person that craves dominion or obligation over our lives whether it's as spouses or parents or as a nation or a political party or as a local congregation.
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No matter if that request is accompanied with tears or with guns, our response will always be this.
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Thus says the Lord, you will have no other gods before me. As long as the government maintains viewing religious affairs as internal state matters, it violates the church's keys to the kingdom.
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It prevents the church from being independent. And we are determined to follow in the footsteps of the saints who trod before us, holding to our position even unto death.
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On the one hand, we obey the government's legitimate and common governance. He's saying
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Titus 3 .1, where you have legitimate authority from the Lord Jesus, where you have that legitimate authority.
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We submit ourselves. We seek to be subject in every way. We respect
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Wang Yi. We respect the power of your sword. But on the other hand, through non -violent civil disobedience, we will preach the word whether in season or out.
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People can be chained, but the gospel can't be chained. Servants may be killed, but the
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Lord has risen. After Wang Yi was imprisoned, he wrote to his wife.
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The shell shock of all that. What do we do now? And this is what he said in part.
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I'm still a missionary. You're still a minister's wife. The gospel is our life yesterday.
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The gospel will be our life tomorrow. Do you see? At every level, he recognizes.
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In his family, in the church, and in the state. He is participating in the mission of God.
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What that means for his family. What that means for early reign covenant church. And what that means for the
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Chinese state. At every level, he understands the lordship of Christ makes demands on the spheres.
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At every level of the spheres, God has a mission. He is working out in history.
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Because the Lord reigns is to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth. To all the families of the earth. And so as we come to an end, brothers and sisters.
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When we begin the book of Exodus, we want to pay careful attention. To how God used families.
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And the nation. In the wicked state. To bring forth his promises that he made to the woman in Eden.
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To Abraham, when he called them out of Ur. The promises that are yes and amen in Christ Jesus.
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We want to understand how God is on mission. In relation to the family, the church, and the state.
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Fundamentally, our mission. If it is biblically informed and validated means. Our committed participation as God's people.
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In whatever sphere. At God's invitation and command. In God's own mission.
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Within the history of God's world. For the redemption of God's creation. Let's pray.
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Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for faithful brothers and sisters.
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Whose names are not known to us. But they're written in the book of life. They're known to you.
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And they're precious to you. Even this very morning. They're suffering for your sake. And for the sake of the gospel.
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Let us learn from their example. And their committed willingness. Their steadfast participation in your work in them.
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Through them. For this world. Let us learn not only from them. Our contemporaries.
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But also from saints who have gone on before us. Especially we think in this regard of the Moravians. Let's understand what
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John Calvin said. About prayer being like a shovel. That digs up the treasures of the gospel.
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Let us be a prayerful people. Bless our marriages. And the work of revival and reformation in our homes.
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So that we can be a godly church. We can be a church that gathers in fervent prayer.
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Patient prayer. A church that is zealous for good work. Ready. Looking for every opportunity.
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Both near and far. Forgive us, Lord. We've been slack in this regard for too many years.
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May 2023 be fruitfulness. And blessing from your spirit.