4 Myths about Ministry:
- YOU ONLY WORK SUNDAY.
- You get nothing but support from everybody you minister to.
- You earn the total of all the offering money.
- You have it all figured out.
Here is what you can (and can't) expect in Ministry...
- I can't expect it to be EASY. (Col 1:24)
- I can't do it if I am not CALLED. (Col 1:25)
- I can't neglect the MAIN THING. (Col 1:25-28)
- I can't do it in my own STRENGTH. (Col 1:29)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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I'm going to provide one with you please to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
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I'm sorry, Colossians chapter 1.
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Colossians chapter 1.
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It's going to be in verse 24 starting out today.
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If you're visiting with us, like what have you guys been talking about, I'm going to give you a summary statement of every single thing that we've talked about in Colossians so far.
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This is like all of chapter 1.
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All race to the church.
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We are so thankful that the gospel is at work.
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We pray God's will will be done in the church, which revolves around the ministry of Jesus Christ, who is God, and has delivered us and changed us by His atonement.
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That's pretty much everything in chapter 1 so far.
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But notice when we were going through chapter 1, we get to verse 15.
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It's all about Jesus.
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Jesus. Here's who Jesus is.
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Here's the firstborn from the dead. The firstborn of all creation.
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And the fullness of God dwelt in Him.
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And last week He turned to you.
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He said in verse 21, "And you." We were talking about Jesus. Now we talk about you.
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This passage we're looking at today, we see a lot of "I's" and "me's" and Paul's going to be talking about himself.
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Specifically, he's going to be talking about ministry.
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But did you ever notice that some things in life sound easier, and frankly sound a lot better, than they actually are?
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Meaning sometimes we have an idea of certain things that end up being a lot different in execution than they were an idea.
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For example, vacation. When I say vacation to Myrtle Beach, what's the first thing you think of?
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You have yourself sitting on a chair in the sand at the beach, right? Is that what you thought of? Who thought of that?
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Vacation rental beach, right?
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Sitting in the chair, sand beach, the sunny course.
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But when you're actually planning on going on the trip, there's a lot more to it than that, isn't there?
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Like what?
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Like the packing, like you've got to care for the dog, like you have to get things ready in the house, we have to finish up any work that we're doing here, and then what about the actual drive, right?
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and then I'm packing and all the checking in, and then when you get back, you're going to be gone for the cattle, and now you have a week's worth of work that you missed, and now you're going to work for twice as hard the next week.
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You don't think about that stuff, do you, when you're planning your vacation?
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But it's a lot of work.
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How many of us at times really can eat a couple of days rest when you get back from vacation?
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Anybody else? That's totally me.
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When you get back from vacation, Aaron will tell you, I'm just like, "Man, I need a bath." Like that vacation took it out of me.
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And I thought it was supposed to have the opposite effect, but some things actually sound better and easier than they actually are.
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And you know that when you bought a house or you had a child, that there's a lot more work behind things than we realize up front.
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And guess what? That's true of ministry.
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That's true of ministry.
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Now if I asked you, "Is everybody called to ministry?" What would your answer be?
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Your answer should be something like, well, explain that statement a little bit more.
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"Is everybody called to pastoral ministry?" No, not everybody is called to pastoral ministry.
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But do you believe that all believers are called to some type of ministry?
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Do you believe that?
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Because according to the Bible, if you are a born again believer in Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians, which I was thinking about earlier, which is not so long ago, 1 Corinthians 12, 11 says the Holy Spirit has given you a gift to be used for the sake of the church.
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So if you're a follower of Christ, you have a ministry that He's called you to, that he's equipped you for and he's going to empower you to carry out.
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So the question is not, "Am I called to ministry?" But the question is, "What are you doing with the ministry that you've been called to?" We've all been called to something.
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Maybe you haven't been called to get up and preach, or get up and lead worship.
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But you've been called to something.
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So the question is, what are you doing with that ministry?
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What are you doing with the gift the Holy Spirit gave you?
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Are you using it?
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Or more accurately, are you allowing Him to use it?
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And you?
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I'm already sure there's availability, isn't there?
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Well, here's something I wish people would have told me back in 1995, when I first came to Christ.
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Very shortly thereafter, I was called into ministry.
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And here was my idea of ministry.
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I roll into church on Sunday, about 10 minutes to 10, on the service doors.
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I just roll in, and I just open my Bible, I say a few words for 20 minutes, and...
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You're like 20 minutes.
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Yeah, right.
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Um...
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Don't laugh while I write that.
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Save so much for later.
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I wish I would have known some things up front.
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I just had this idea.
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Well, here's some myths that were quickly dispelled.
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John Key's done a couple of myths about ministry.
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A couple of myths about ministry.
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The fourth, number four, myth about ministry is you have it all figured out.
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I've been talking with the Lord now for well since '95, so it's been about 15 and a half years or something like that.
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I really thought at this point I'd have everything figured out. Actually, I thought by the time I hit Bible college I'd have everything figured out.
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That's a myth. Sometimes people idealize people in ministry like, "Man, you must have it all figured out." and the Lord continues to teach me.
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But that's a myth.
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Myth number three, this is one that I was gonna kick out of.
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You earn the total out of all the offering money.
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You know some people have that myth still, you know that?
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I had a guy tell me one time, he goes, you know what my problem is with the church?
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Like, no, but I have a feeling we're about to find out.
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He says, so you mean to tell me that everybody in the church is supposed to give 10%?
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I'm like, wow.
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That's not even an easy question to answer, because the way the question was worded, but I'm like, go on.
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So that means if 11 people give 10%, And already, that pastor's making more than everybody else in the church.
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And I'm like...
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What?!
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Like, somebody give me a calculator!
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Does that even write mathematically? Is that true?
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And you're gonna tell me how it is.
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That's the accountant, you're like...
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That's like, that's some kind of form of math I don't understand.
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But, um...
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That was this guy's intention. He thought...
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When the offering goes around, I get to the back of the church, and I just kind of open my pockets, and I'm like, "Come on, Michelle, just dump it in!" And she just dumps it in. I'm like, "It's an extra bag, Michelle. Just dump it in." And that's a myth. Is that a myth, Michelle?
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[MICHELLE] I have tears.
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[BILL] Break a nerve, okay?
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It's a myth. It's a myth. Everybody say it's a myth. Tell Michelle it's a myth.
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Thank you. See Michelle?
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Okay, number two.
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Here's a big myth that I have.
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You get nothing but support from everybody you minister to.
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I thought that when I was a preacher, I was going to be Mr. Rogers.
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Everybody was going to love me.
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Everybody loves Pastor Jeff.
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Everybody agrees with everything that Pastor Jeff has ever said anywhere.
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You're like, yeah, that's a myth.
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Is that a myth?
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That is a myth.
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That is a huge myth.
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We're going to talk more about that in a second.
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But you know number one. Go ahead, what's everybody's favorite joke you say to preachers? Go ahead, what is it?
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Well, I hear Chicago say, "Oh, Merry Christmas." "Oh, Merry Christmas." Did you guys hear that?
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Malarkey?
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That, that...
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Arrrr!
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No!
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Come on!
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It's wrong!
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Don't lie in church.
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It's wrong!
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Do you have any time to hurt that joke?
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You only work on Sunday, can't hurt it.
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You get paid nothing every week.
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Both hours don't differ.
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It's better.
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You only work like a half hour a week.
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Wrong!
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People still hang on to that.
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Like, that is incorrect.
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That is incorrect.
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It's at least, at least an hour and a half every week.
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That's right.
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At least.
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At least.
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At least.
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Those are myths.
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Listen, ministry is not something that I'm going to try because it looks fun.
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Let's get into the text.
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Here's what you can and can't expect in ministry.
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Now, who's called to ministry? Let's review. Who's called to ministry?
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If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, who's called to ministry?
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Everybody.
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A couple of you are convinced of that, the rest of you aren't.
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Who's called to ministry?
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Everybody.
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Everybody, if the Holy Spirit is residing within you, he's giving you a gift to be used in some type of ministry.
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Okay, so here's what you can and can't expect in ministry.
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I'm gonna read through, and we're gonna go back to some of the principles.
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All right, so now, "I rejoice in my sufferings "for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up "with his lacking and Christ's afflictions.
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for the sake of His body, that is, the Church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the Word of God fully known.
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The mystery, hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to His saints, to them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery.
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What's the mystery?
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Here it is.
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Which is Christ in you.
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The hope of glory.
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Can't we proclaim it?
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Warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
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For this I dwill, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me.
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So there's some things about ministry in this passage that we're going to look at.
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Let's back up here and get to verse 24.
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We're taking those throughout this dialogue.
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I can't expect it to be easy.
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I can't expect it to be easy.
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Look again at verse 24. He says, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings." Funny how that's the first thing that came out of this.
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Oh, how's ministry going?
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It's a lot of suffering.
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However, I'm not complaining about that. I am rejoicing in my sufferings.
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Now, why would you rejoice in suffering?
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That seems a little masochistic, doesn't it?
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Why would you rejoice in suffering?
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That's a whole other circle.
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We're going to look at just one reason in this text.
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There's a whole lot of reasons to rejoice in suffering.
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We'll cover that down the road.
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Hang in there for one second.
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We're going to see the reason for rejoicing in suffering.
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Look at the second part of this verse.
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This is a...
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is a weird verse the first time you read it through until you stop and think about it.
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Because he says, "In my flesh I'm filling up what is lacking in grace and afflictions." Now if you came in this morning and I said, "Is there anything lacking in grace and afflictions?" Your answer would probably be, "No." Like, "Didn't Jesus pay at all?" What do you mean there's something... I mean, I was here a couple weeks ago, man.
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You read Colossians 1, 15, 20, the whole Jesus is first, Jesus is everything, Jesus is God, and now you turn around and say there's something lacking in Jesus?
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No, he doesn't say that something is lacking in Jesus.
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Notice that.
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Does he say it's lacking in Jesus?
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He says there's something lacking in Christ's afflictions.
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I'm gonna explain that to you for a minute.
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First of all, he's not talking about purgatory.
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A lot of people have used this verse to support the doctrine of purgatory.
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Now if you come from a Catholic background, please understand that I'm never trying to intentionally offend anyone or say anything hurtful in any way.
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It's really my job to proclaim the truth of God's Word.
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And the truth is that the doctrine of Purgatory is completely blasphemous.
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It's a teaching that when you leave the earth, you go to this place where the fires continue to refine you and burn off the remainder of sin on you.
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And you can be there for years and years and years and through making the sign of the cross and through praying the rosary or different Catholic teachings, you shave years off, paying your mass, you shave years off of purgatory.
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That is a completely blasphemous concept.
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Jesus Christ when He was on the cross said, "It is" what? "Finished!" So the idea that I pay for my sins after Jesus said He's done paying for my sins is an insult to Jesus for making Him out to be a liar.
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He said it is finished. I believe Him. Right? He's God. He has the authority, He has the power to make such a statement.
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So this verse is not talking about purgatory at all.
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There's nothing in the scriptures actually anywhere about purgatory.
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The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be where?
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Present with the Lord.
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There is no purgatory.
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Okay, it certainly doesn't come from this verse, no someone tried to make it.
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Paul just told us that Christ is sufficient.
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So he's certainly not speaking out of his mouth.
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Now notice he says, "these sufferings are in my flesh for the sake of the church." He's saying what he is doing for the church, this is Paul, Paul's saying what he is doing for the church is resulting in pain from persecutors.
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We see that again because it's the keen understanding of what he means here.
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What all is doing for the church is resulting in pain from the persecutors.
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You're like, "Okay, but what's this lacking thing?" Again, nothing in Christ is lacking, but there's something lacking in the afflictions.
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And here's what he means.
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We live in a world that's completely gripped and ruled by sin.
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Actually, Satan is called the God of this world, the Prince of the Power of the Air.
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Open your eyes, turn on the news, pick up a newspaper.
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Is this world completely gripped in the power of sin right now? It is.
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But where's Jesus? Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father.
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So you see, the world would love to continue to pour afflictions on Christ.
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The first time he was here, you know the story, he was crucified, he was beaten and humiliated before nailing him to the cross.
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That's what the world, the sinfulness of the world did to Jesus Christ and God allowed for our salvation.
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But if the world had its way, Jesus would still be suffering.
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You see, here's the problem for the world.
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They can't get at Jesus.
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So, who does the world target for the afflictions, for the suffering?
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Who does the world go after?
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We can't touch Jesus, so who does the world say we want after?
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After the people that have Christ in them.
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Did you get that?
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The Bible says that Christ is living in us, so since the world can't get at Christ, who's it going after?
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It's going after the people who carry the Spirit of Christ in them.
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See, Christ is exalted and glorified, but now the persecutions of Christ fall on the people that He is working through.
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Does that make sense?
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So understand, he's not saying anything is lacking in Christ.
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He's saying the world is still altogether.
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And they're coming after his people.
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Okay?
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So where does the suffering come from?
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Well, we talked about the world.
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Certainly the scripture talks about the devil.
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The glory blind and seeking whom he may devour.
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But sadly, A lot of times the worst kind of suffering in ministry comes from within the church.
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Right? And there's nothing new under the sun.
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Eric can tell you some of the sufferings that we've been through in ministry.
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You know, when we've been, whether it's ridiculed or lied about or whatever, in the world, how much does that bother us, Eric?
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Zero.
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Like, worldly people act like worldly people. Sinful people act like sinful people.
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Why don't they make the wolf right to make the wolf?
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That doesn't bother me.
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But I can tell you how many times that we are agonized when the suffering comes from people within the church.
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You know?
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The church rewards against that.
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Over and over and over.
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Sometimes the worst case of suffering comes from either brothers and sisters in the Lord, or wolves among the sheep.
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And this would be like, "Oh, so you're trying to talk me out of ministry." No, remember, this is a glorious thing.
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Suffering and ministry.
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This is a glorious thing, and it's worth rejoicing in.
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So the world's getting at Christ by attacking us. Why is that worth rejoicing over? Write this down.
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It's about identifying and understanding Christ's suffering.
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There is something glorious for us as a church.
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You know the early church considered it a privilege to suffer for Christ?
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There's something glorious about that.
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Listen to this verse. Philippians 3.10 Paul says that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.
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All in favor of knowing the power of Christ's resurrection?
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Oh, I so can't wait.
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You know, for the ultimate day, for that ultimate glorified, marvelous resurrection.
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He says, I want to know the power of the resurrection.
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You know what the next phrase is.
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And they share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.
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There is something glorious Church about identifying with Christ in this way.
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That is why Paul says he is rejoicing.
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He is rejoicing. Suffering is part of the deal.
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It is just part of the deal.
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So you want to be a ministry? Well, don't expect it to be easy.
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I found this online this past week.
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I'd love to share, but there's a whole long list here.
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I just wanted to share a couple of things with you.
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It says, "Why Pastors Leave the Ministry." Here's a couple of things that stuck out to me.
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80% of these pastors were polled.
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This is by the Fuller Institute, George Barnum, and Paschal Care Incorporated.
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80% of these pastors that were called believe that pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families.
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90% of these pastors that were called, 90% feel that they are inadequately trained to cope with the ministry demands.
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I want to be honest with you.
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There have been times in my ministries, even very recently, where I've been praying, "God, I don't know why you thought I could do this." And you know what God's answer to that is?
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God's like, "You can't do this." Thanks for acknowledging that.
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Right?
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But sometimes in my flesh I feel that I can't do this.
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I can't do this.
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70% of pastors do not have someone they consider a close friend.
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40 % have poured serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month.
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50 % have considered leaving the ministry in the last month.
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50% of the ministers starting out in the last five years.
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Listen to this.
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One out of every 10 ministers will actually retire as a minister in some form.
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One out of 10.
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So as you drive around and you see 10 churches, it's going to get that in your mind.
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One of the pastors in these churches statistically will finish as a pastor.
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94% of clergy families feel the pressures of the pastors ministry and family stuff.
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I haven't been to that whole other sermon, but this one really struck me.
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Over 1,700 pastors left the ministry every month of last year.
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Just, I'm done.
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I am done.
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This thing says, "Number one reason pastors leave the ministry." Anyone wanna take a guess what that is?
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The number one reason pastors leave the ministry?
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Because the pastor has a vision to go one way with the church and the church isn't going for that.
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That's the number one reason.
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Pastors leave the ministry.
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Now, this is for people who their vocation is ministry.
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So how much easier is it for a volunteer to quit?
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See what I mean?
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I can read that list.
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I go, that's a pastor.
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That's a pastor.
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That's a pastor.
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That's not a pastor.
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It's a lot easier to quit something when you're a volunteer.
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And it's amazing.
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You know, when ministry gets hard, it's amazing how easily some people quit.
25:30-25:32
It's just, it's amazing.
25:33-25:39
Some of the reasons that people give for either quitting their ministry or leaving their church.
25:41-25:49
One big bucket, I don't know, about 7 or 8% complains that the reasons people quit their ministry or leave their church all the way to the most dumb subject like this.
25:50-25:52
Everything in the church isn't exactly how I prefer it.
25:55-25:59
Everything in the church isn't exactly how I prefer it.
26:00-26:03
The marriage I want to have is welcome, it's human life.
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What about this one?
26:08-26:10
If it's so and so since you really mean things to me.
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Oh, you mean like they did to Jesus.
26:14-26:15
He dealt with some of that.
26:17-26:22
But you don't understand. I feel like I was betrayed by a positive friend of that church.
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You mean like Jesus?
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So you mean there is in some small grain of sand on the seashore a proportion, you've experienced something that Jesus might not have?
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Let's rejoice in that instead of bailing.
26:44-26:47
So what hardships are you facing in your ministry right now?
26:47-26:55
You're like, "Well, you know, Pastor Jeff, I really just kind of started this church only a couple months old." Starting is not easy.
26:56-26:58
Talk to anybody that was in our core group.
26:59-27:00
Starting is not easy.
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And there is some silly, stupid part of me that thought once the church gets launched, things would be a little bit easier.
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[laughs]
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Did it get easier to work through?
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We're not saying nothing.
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Alright.
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As long as sin exists, the afflictions are going to continue and it's going to follow us.
27:28-27:28
Alright?
27:29-27:30
So it's not going to be easy.
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I can't expect it to be easy.
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Number two.
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John 5. I can't do it if I'm not called.
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Look at verse 25.
27:40-27:45
He says, "of which I became a minister," that's a servant.
27:48-27:57
"according to," listen to this, "according to the stewardship from God," that was, what's your Bible say?
28:00-28:09
given to me, for you, to make the Word of God fully known.
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Now this word "stewardship" comes from a compound word.
28:14-28:17
The two Greek words that go together make stewardship.
28:18-28:20
Literally, it's "house manager".
28:21-28:22
That's literally what it means.
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It's talking about someone who's in charge of managing somebody else's possessions.
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That's what Paul said ministry was.
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That's why I certainly try not to say if I were you, you have permission to smack me in the mouth.
28:38-28:43
But my ministry, our most biblical chaplain, is my ministry.
28:43-28:46
I try so hard not to say it, sometimes it slips out of my mouth, and I just want to correct myself.
28:46-28:49
This isn't my church. This isn't my ministry.
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Who's is it? Point to who's it is. Whose church is it?
28:52-28:54
Yes, thank you. It's God's church.
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Because the church of Jesus Christ bought with His blood.
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It's not my church. It's not my ministry.
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It was given to me in the sense of a stewardship.
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God says, "This is mine, but Jeff and Aaron and Sammy and Amanda and the Arnolds of..." You people are going to be house managers.
29:23-29:23
Right?
29:27-29:33
So, John F. Stauber, ministry on some level, ministry should feel like a compulsion.
29:35-29:36
Okay?
29:36-29:38
Ministry should feel like a compulsion.
29:38-29:40
Now, I don't mean it like a bondage way.
29:40-29:43
Like, "I don't know to church and serve.
29:43-29:47
God's probably going to be mad at me today." That's not what I mean at all.
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Here's what I mean.
29:50-30:05
When the Holy Spirit is residing within and has given you a gift, there should be something within you that says, "I just gotta do that ministry." "I just gotta do that ministry." You know, maybe you're doing this kids ministry.
30:06-30:17
There should be something in you, if you're not involved in our kids ministry now, there should be something in you that's just like, "Man, I wanna get involved in teaching kids." "I just love kids and I love teaching kids." There should be something in you.
30:18-30:30
Or maybe you're a musician. There should be something in you that says, "You know what? I'd like to come up and be part of the theater of worship." I can't wait to talk to Sammy about that. There should be some kind of compulsion in you.
30:35-30:37
So, what ministry gets you fired up?
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You know, what ministry, we're all called to something.
30:43-30:44
What ministry gets you fired up?
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That's why I have a bulletin again, we put different areas of ministry you can get involved in right now.
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And I encourage you, we put emails on here.
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I promise you, the people that are listed here that you're supposed to contact, they would love to talk to you, and they would love to get you talked to.
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Because this isn't my church, and it's not the church of, you know, The 25 or 30 of us that we're working on helping plant this church, this is Christ's church and we are all members of this body, all doing what he's equipped us to do.
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So, what's your ministry?
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How would you answer that question?
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If I was standing at the back door and you were on your way out, I was going to grab your arm and say, "Hey, what's your ministry?" What would you answer?
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I don't really have a ministry. I don't really get to do anything.
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Well, you need to come to my door.
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because when you know the Lord, He's giving you ministry.
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Right?
31:45-31:46
So please, I encourage you.
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Don't be shy, send an email saying, hey, I'm so and so, I'm visiting harvest.
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I'd like to know more information about how I can get involved in this ministry.
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Maybe you'd like to audition to be on the worship team.
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Maybe you'd like to apply to be in our children's ministry.
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Whatever it is, get plugged in.
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And that's not only me serving Christ, We're also making relationships, we're making disciples.
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That's what the church is about.
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So in times of time when you feel like failing, like we talked about before, here's something that I always have to remind myself.
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God has put me in this job.
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This is a stewardship.
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God says, "Here, you're managing this.
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I'm going to be with you every step of the way.
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I'm going to give you the strength, and I'm going to give you the perseverance.
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And I want to encourage you to, let's get back to those days when we were kids, that responsibility was actually the truth.
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Do you remember those days, anybody?
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I think if I got up here as kids, that's longer ago for some of us than it is for others.
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Right?
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Do you remember when you were kids?
33:06-33:08
I remember this so clearly.
33:08-33:09
Eric and I were just talking about this.
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When you were in elementary school and they give you a job to do, how did you feel?
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I was adults.
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If somebody said, "Hey, I need you to do this."
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(mimics grunting)
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It wasn't like that when we were kids.
33:25-33:32
I remember one of my friends in sixth grade, I had to go down to the freezer in the cafeteria bring up the freeze pops.
33:33-33:37
And I'm sure for the teacher, it was like, I need somebody to come down there.
33:38-33:44
When I was asked to do that, I was just like, sir, yes, sir!
33:45-33:47
And I was just like, hey, check out me.
33:49-33:50
I was pissed.
33:52-33:53
You get the freeze pops.
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Try it with a cup.
33:59-33:59
That was my job.
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The point is, it was a privilege in my mind to do it.
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And you see, working for Christ in the Church, I've got to tell you, it's a privilege to stand up here every week and say, "Check out what God said!" "God wrote a book and He told us everything He wants us to know about Himself and about God has sought and how you can have a relationship with Him because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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That is a privilege.
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I cannot wait to get here on Saturday.
34:37-34:40
Aaron will tell you, "How do I sleep on Saturday night?" I don't.
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I'm like, "Yeah, well, sure. Talk to Sam and Hector. You guys like doing this?" They're not like, "Oh, I guess we're going to be doing worship again." They are so stoked about doing this.
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What are you stoked for?
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Get the game, Matthew.
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Do what Paul's called you to do.
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Number three.
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Number three is this.
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I can't neglect the meaning of that.
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Here's something else that's interesting.
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I can't neglect the meaning of that.
35:19-35:25
I can go in a dissertation about how a lot of churches are getting away from the gospel and exposing the word of Christianity.
35:25-35:31
I'm not here to tear down anybody else's ministry or try to make myself look good or Harvey's look good.
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That's not my goal.
35:32-35:37
But if we can be honest and step back, we realize that there are a lot of churches that are neglecting the main thing.
35:37-35:38
Is that true?
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Is that true?
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A lot of churches neglecting the main thing.
35:45-35:50
Like, "Well, what's the main thing?" Well, look in your Bible. In verse 28, here's the main thing.
35:51-36:10
"Him we proclaim." We're talking about Jesus next week.
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Maybe I'll come back and visit in the spring.
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Guess who we're moving on to next?
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Anybody?
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Jesus!
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Why?
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Because Jesus is first.
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And in everything He might have the pre-evidence.
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So what's His main thing?
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Just draw these notes down.
36:38-36:40
The scope.
36:43-36:46
We're talking about proclaiming Jesus and we proclaim Him.
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The scope, first of all, it's at the end of verse 25.
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Making the word of God fully known.
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That's the scope.
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Or do you want us to make the word of God fully known?
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That's why we're going through a book.
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That's why I felt just like, "What are you really preaching on this week?" We're going through a book of the Bible.
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Let's see what God is communicating to us.
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That's the scope.
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Making the word of God fully known.
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What else is the main thing?
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He says the mystery.
37:19-37:25
Now we think of mystery, we think about when we think about some kind of detective show who is a mystery, who doesn't.
37:26-37:28
That's not what the Bible means by mystery.
37:28-37:29
Here's what the Bible means by mystery.
37:30-37:35
In the Old Testament times, there were certain things that God had not revealed.
37:37-37:42
God's like, I'm gonna reveal some stuff, But it's common way that God has this timetable, right?
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God has this like calendar.
37:43-37:50
God's like, "I have some other things I wanna "teach these people I created and reveal." And not yet.
37:53-38:01
And then we get to the New Testament times where we realize after the incarnation, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God is, he's like, "Okay, now here's the whole story.
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"Let me pull the curtain back and show you Something that I never showed you before.
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That's what the Bible means by mystery.
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Previously unrevealed, now revealed.
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What is the mystery?
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Well, He says one of those.
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You see it?
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The mystery which is Christ in you.
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That's the mystery.
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God's love.
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So it's going to come to that.
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That I am going to dwell in my people.
38:32-38:34
In the Old Testament, where was God?
38:34-38:37
Where is this unique presence I should say?
38:37-38:40
His unique presence was in the temple, in the tabernacle.
38:41-38:46
But then when you get to the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, where was the unique presence of God?
38:47-38:50
It was in the person of Jesus Christ.
38:51-38:51
Right?
38:52-38:56
And if I said to you now, where is the unique presence of God?
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We know God's everywhere, we talked about that.
38:58-39:00
But where does God choose to dwell?
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So, the Bible It usually involved giving a particular manifestation of a gift.
39:37-39:38
But it was a temporary thing.
39:40-39:44
If God says there's going to come a day, I'm going to believe Him.
39:45-39:47
And that's not a temporary thing.
39:49-39:50
Permanent Residence.
39:52-39:55
The reason, that's the mystery.
39:55-39:56
What's the reason we complain to Christ?
39:56-40:01
I think we covered that one in verses 15-20, chapter 1, right?
40:02-40:05
Why do we proclaim grace? Jesus is first.
40:06-40:17
The means, look back at your text, the means, if we proclaim, verse 28, "warning everyone and teaching everyone," that's the means.
40:18-40:22
There's going to be times that I get up and just teach, like we did, about the person of Jesus.
40:22-40:24
Here's what it says, here's what it means.
40:24-40:40
"There's times it's our job in ministry to warn people." Listen, if you step into eternity apart from Jesus Christ, you're going to live out the rest of eternity separated from God in a place called hell.
40:40-40:42
That's a warning that the Bible gives us.
40:43-40:44
He says we are to warn.
40:45-40:49
We warn everyone and we teach everyone, but always then that's unrequited.
40:50-40:51
What's the goal?
40:52-40:55
Our goal is to present everyone mature in Christ.
40:56-40:58
To present everyone mature in Christ.
40:58-40:59
You see that in verse 28?
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That's our goal. Why is that our goal? Because that's God's goal.
41:05-41:10
Romans 8, 29. God's goal for you as a believer is to be conformed into the image of his Son.
41:10-41:12
So that's our goal as a church.
41:12-41:13
That gets back to our mission statement.
41:14-41:16
Our goal is to make disciples.
41:19-41:20
And you see, that's a goal of the Pope.
41:21-41:29
Our goal is to make disciples and the goal of discipleship is conformity in the image of Jesus Christ.
41:30-41:31
So that's the goal.
41:34-41:35
Number four.
41:38-41:40
I can't give an advantage to him.
41:41-41:43
I can't give an advantage to him.
41:43-41:44
Look at verse 29.
41:44-41:58
He says, "For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." The word struggling is from a Greek word from which we literally get the word agonized.
41:59-42:02
He says it's a struggle, we're going to talk more about that next week.
42:03-42:05
But you understand there's a double sided aspect of ministry.
42:06-42:09
If I say who does the work of ministry, is it me?
42:12-42:14
Or is it the Holy Spirit? What's the answer?
42:16-42:17
The answer is yes.
42:19-42:21
Wait a minute. Back up.
42:21-42:22
The answer is yes.
42:25-42:27
I'm going to explain that here in a second.
42:27-42:29
1 Corinthians 15.10 says the same thing.
42:29-42:41
Paul says, "I worked harder than any of them, meaning the other apostles, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." Paul's like, "I've been working so hard in ministry." That is really God working through you.
42:42-42:43
You see that over and over and over again.
42:44-42:48
"I've worked so hard." That's not what it means. It's God in me.
42:50-42:53
The Holy Spirit gives the gift. It gives the strength.
42:53-43:03
You know, I was thinking about this. How can we understand this whole "Who's doing the work?" Is it you or is it God in you?
43:06-43:10
I brought something today. Don't let me leave without these.
43:11-43:11
These are precious.
43:13-43:16
These are my wife's garden gloves.
43:19-43:31
Now, aside from beauty, grace, and sense of humor, something you may not know about my wife is she runs a little farm on our three-acre-hook cross-field.
43:33-43:36
You gotta see, I've never seen anybody maximize space the way she does.
43:37-43:42
We could feed this entire room for like eight months on the stuff that she does.
43:42-43:44
If you like that, do it.
43:44-43:45
Okay, but anyways.
43:45-43:46
(audience laughing)
43:47-43:49
No, she does a fantastic job, she really does.
43:49-43:53
But these are the gloves that she'll use when she's out working.
43:54-43:58
Now let's suppose these gloves were on Larry King.
43:59-44:00
Is Larry King still with me?
44:01-44:03
I think everybody else has him, okay.
44:04-44:06
Let's say that we sat down and interviewed these gloves.
44:08-44:09
And we're like, "Tell us, gloves.
44:10-44:12
"Tell us what your life has been like.
44:13-44:19
"You look well worn." And they would say, "Oh yes, I am well worn, actually.
44:19-44:23
"I've spent a lot of countless hours out working.
44:23-44:25
"I've spent a lot of countless hours out leading.
44:26-44:27
"You can see the dirt on me.
44:27-44:35
"You can see, you can probably smell some sweat on here, and I've really worked so hard.
44:37-44:39
Look at the crop that we've produced.
44:41-44:42
Me and my team.
44:44-44:48
Look at the crop that we've produced because we've worked so hard.
44:53-44:54
But what's the reality?
44:55-44:56
Did these blobs actually do the work?
44:58-44:58
Did they?
45:00-45:01
Who did the work?
45:03-45:09
The work was done because my wife's hand was in the glove.
45:11-45:22
So if you came to my house and you said, "Aaron, these tomatoes are fabulous, you must have amazing gloves." She would slap you.
45:25-45:26
The gloves didn't do the work.
45:29-45:31
But they were part of the world.
45:33-45:34
But they didn't leave the world.
45:35-45:36
Do you know what you are in ministry?
45:37-45:38
Do you know what I am in ministry?
45:41-45:41
That.
45:44-45:45
We're just a part of the world.
45:49-45:51
And the only way anything gets done.
46:00-46:01
So you want to be in ministry?
46:05-46:06
You have to check your expectations.
46:09-46:10
And it's worthless.
46:11-46:12
You die with a great cause.
46:15-46:19
God, I thank you for what you've promised me.
46:27-46:31
And God, I thank you for the reminders you've given me that I can't do this.
46:32-46:40
Father, I confess to you how many times have I said I can't do it. I feel inadequate.
46:43-46:48
How many times have you reminded me that it's not about me.
46:52-46:53
Jesus said I will build my church.
46:55-47:02
So Father, it's just my prayer as we move forward in ministry.
47:04-47:07
It's my prayer this morning that we would move forward with great expectations.
47:13-47:24
I pray, Father, for those here who maybe have felt it's time to step up and use the giftedness, maybe even use some of the talents that you've given, but they haven't done it yet.
47:24-47:26
I pray for those people today.
47:28-47:48
And I pray the Holy Spirit will continue to be at work and bring them to that place where they say, "The gift the Holy Spirit has given me is to be used to glorify Jesus Christ in His Church." You are awesome.
47:50-47:54
Let us serve you in gladness.
47:56-48:01
We ask that you would be the one to work with us.
48:03-48:04
In Jesus name.
48:05-48:05
Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Colossians 1:24-29
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.