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Alright. Good morning, family. How are you guys doing on a beautiful Sunday morning? Doing okay? Well as people are coming in, how about this?
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Let's stand together, we'll sing and I've got a good word here from Colossians. It says, let the message about Christ in all its richness fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom that he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. What do you say we do just that?
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Wonderful words of life. Alright. Sing them.
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Wonderful wonderful words, alike. Alright. Sweet Lieko. Sweet Lieko, the God who spoke all wonderful words of life. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words, words, words of life
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Well, good morning, everybody. How are
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you? Good.
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Alright. Y'all can have a seat. We've got a few announcements. What a gorgeous morning. That's the first thing.
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Just give God credit where it's due. My goodness. Creation is screaming forth the glory of God this morning. Monday nights at first b is happening tomorrow night. Carl, do you have a synopsis?
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Yes. Yes. We're on for tomorrow at six. Meal music message. Sam is making chicken Piccata.
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Piccata.
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That's it.
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I've never had it before.
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I'm so excited.
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So anyway, please feel free to join us. 06:00, meal, music, message.
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And message. Alright. Fantastic. Youth group is happening Tuesday, 06:30 in the evening. So it's on this week.
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Youth group, Tuesday night, 06:30 to eight. That's middle school and high school. If you did not notice, Nick with a camera this morning, there he is. Notice him. Yeah, that's him.
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There's another guy who looks kind of like him. He's the one with the camera. Alright, there you go. You're doing it too. They're both gonna have cameras so you can confuse them even more.
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But afterwards, would you have one of them take your picture today? If you're a regular Tinder member, even if you're a guest, confuse us, alright? Let them take your picture today and give them your name, correct spellings, anything
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else? Very
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nice. Yeah. And they're going to pursue. If you do, they're going to pursue, all right? No, seriously, try to see them afterwards.
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They're going be here all during the connect hour and looking for the second service folks too. Anything else? You want to add anything to that? Okay, very good. This afternoon from one to five, there's going to be down at Camp Creek.
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There's going to be a party for Dave and Sarah Gilmore and y'all are all invited. If you want to go down, there will be a meal and one to five hanging out after church today. So, go down to Camp Creek and hang out if you want to to celebrate David and Sarah's marriage. They got married in California but this is the big party for all of y'all to attend. If you'd like this afternoon.
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Amanda McMullen is our intern for the summer and she is doing a project. She's a communications emphasis and she is doing a project on the history of First Baptist Church. So, if you have a story to tell, something historical fact that's fun or interesting, if you would contact Amanda McMullen, she would be grateful because she said last week in the second service, we have the history of this church in a box and it really can't be contained in a box. A lot of y'all have stories. Would you please share em with Amanda?
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We, you can Email em to the church office or you can tell em to her directly and she will write them down. There is going to be a patriotic five ks color run put on by Young Life in Jackson Hole. It'll be at the high school stadium on June 30 at 10:07 exactly AM, alright? So, that's happening. I just wanted to announce that for Young Life and our Vacation Bible School is coming up.
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June 25 through the twenty seventh. I know that's still a couple of three weeks off but Vacation Bible School is happening from nine to noon. Rolling River Rampage is happening. I think this rat, river rat, looks a lot more of rampage than the other little river otter up there for some reason. I think Blake added that.
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But don't be scared. It's going to be fun. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. Isaiah 43 is the theme. Rolling River Rampage, twenty fifth through the twenty seventh is going to be happening here and if you want to volunteer or if you want to sign up children, you can do it online or you can come in and talk to Liz Owings.
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I'm not seeing Liz at the moment but she is around and if there's anything else that I've forgotten, there is. Senior recognition. This is happening today. Come on up, Mike.
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So today is the day senior recognition Sunday where we want to acknowledge those seniors that have completed their high school career and are going to move on into the real world. So I'm going to actually invite up Chris and Richard to come here and stand with me, JJ if you wanna come up or she's gonna hang right there. But this is such a big time, you know? Kids have gone through four years of high school, and this is a big accomplishment to kinda put a bookend on that high school career. So first, if I could invite up Daniel Kaufman.
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If you could come up here. Now yeah. Let's hear it for Daniel. So Daniel is, gonna head to the University of Wyoming where he's gonna be studying botany with a minor in biology. So he's gonna head off there, in the fall.
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Next up, I'd like to invite up Elise. Elise Olsen is gonna come up. Elise is gonna be headed off to Pepperdine to, study marketing over in Pepperdine. Next, if I could invite up Kim Ripley. Is Kim Ripley in the house tonight?
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Kim Ripley? Alright. Perfect. Yeah. Come on up, Kim.
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Kim's gonna be moving to Texas in the fall and headed down that way. So good morning. Katie Ripley. Katie Ripley, everybody. Katie Ripley is here.
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Sorry about that. Robert Girling, if you wanna step up. Yeah. And I'm actually gonna invite Richard to say a little something about Robert. Robert, come here.
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Robert is one of my most favorite kids here. He he reminds me so much of myself when I was his age. He's one of the most mechanically kind kids that I've ever met. And Robert's going to attend Michigan State in the fall to study mechanical engineering with hopes of getting a graduate degree in automotive engineering and working for General Motors designing power plants for vehicles. His parents are Mary Gurling and Philip Gurling.
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Syed here? Did he make it? Did Syed make it?
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He is here.
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Yeah. Come on up here, dude. Yeah.
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So Richard and I had the pleasure of teaching high school boys Sunday school, and Syed's been one of the regular attenders. Thanks, buddy. He wrote his own bio, so let's toot his horn here. He's a young entrepreneur looking for ways to solve world problems with a passion for cooking. You also went to this nationals with the high school cooking team.
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Good. Okay. Future plans include attending CWC in Jackson, studying culinary and business, becoming a world known chef, opening four successful restaurants around the world. And not just McDonald's either. We're talking Burger King.
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And opening a small restaurant in Jackson living in Paris for six years. His parents are I cannot say your parents. What is that? Zao? Zao.
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And. Alejandra. Thank you. I'm sorry. I didn't even try.
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But these these guys have been great, and it's been a super honor to have them in our high school class.
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Next up, we have Ricardo Garcia Gasper. I I think he might take his award. You're welcome to come up. If you wanna take your award sitting down, that's fine too. Alright.
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Yeah. Let's hear it for him. So up to now, everything's kind of been set. You wake up early. You go to school.
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You come home. You do your sports, but everything's been pretty well set. Now you guys are launched out in many different directions and as a church we just want to pray for you. Before we send you out, I know that gosh some of you when I got here seven years ago you guys were and now you're and it's so cool to see you guys all grown up and headed out into the real world. So let me just pray for you guys and church if you guys wanna just join with me and let's ask God to just protect them and guide them.
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Lord we love you God and we thank you God for the time that we've gotten with each one of these students God and as they go out into the world God I pray that you protect them, you guide them, God you'll provide for them, you give them wisdom and guidance Lord God to lead themselves and also to lead those around them. God we need you. They need you. I just pray that you'll protect them against the evil one and anything that's gonna come against them. We ask this in Jesus name.
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Amen. And I have one verse I want to send you with and this is just so powerful. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your path. Just hang on that verse.
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You've got some a Bible here and some of God's promises. I just want you to lean into that. And when times get tough, know that God is there. He is with you and to lean into that. Amen?
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Amen. Alright. Thank you guys. You guys are just listening. I'll invite Ray back up.
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Go ahead.
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Sure. Okay. Just a quick reminder again, daily devotions. They're here. The new quarter has started.
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This one has a a yearly reading through the Bible and then the other secret place is a daily devotion to get your day started. So, they're in the back when you first come through the doors to the right. Pick one up. All the large print are gone. Sorry for those visually challenged but you're just going to have to put your specs on.
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Okay. Thank you.
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Thank you, Clay. And would you all stand and just greet one another for a minute? And we'll bring you back together with a song.
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I hope it's my hope is still on the other land. Jesus, there I could just stand. I dare not trust the sweetest phrase, but only trust in Jesus' name. Let's sing that again. My hope is built.
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My hope is built on When darkness seems too hot in space, I trust in his unchanging grace. Darkness you give hold. You bring You restore every eye that is broken.
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Broken.
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Great are you, Lord. It's your breath and our lungs. Let's sing that. It's your breath and our lungs. So we pour out our praise.
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We pour out our praise. It's your bread and our lungs. So we pour out our praise to you only. You give light, you are love, You bring light to the darkness. You give hope.
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You restore every hour that and our lungs. So we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise. It's your bread and our lungs. So we pour out our praise to you only.
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Let's sing all the earth
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and shout your praise. All the earth will shout your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will sing. Are you, Lord.
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Listen to that again. The earth. All the earth will shout your great Hearts will cry, these bones will sing.
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Would you pray with me? God, you are deserving of our praise, more than deserving of our praise. We can praise you just because you you've given us the breath in our lungs to do so, and I I I pray that that we would, that throughout the day, through whatever we're doing, that we could sing your praises declaring the the glory of God because you are good, because you've made us, because you love us, because you care. Thank you, God, for being that firm foundation under our feet. Thank you, God, for being peace in the storm.
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Thank you for the joy that you give. Thank you, God, for purpose in life. Thank you, God, that this isn't all there is. This is wonderful, but this isn't even all that there is. There is more.
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There is greater. There is glory. And I thank you, God, for the hope that we have in you, that eternal hope that we have in you. Amen.
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This is my prayer in the desert, and all that's within me feels dry. This is my prayer in my hunger need. God is a God who provides. This is my prayer in the fire. Weakness or trial or pain.
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Their beers will fit through the more worthy gold. Find me, oh Lord, through the flames. Sing I will give praise. I will give praise. I will give praise.
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No weapon formed against me shall remain. This is my prayer in the battle. A triumph is still on its way. I give a conqueror in cool air with Christ. Firm on his promise, I'll stand.
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I will pray because I won't bring praise. I won't bring praise. No weapon formed against me shall remain. I will rejoice. I will be glad.
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God is my victory in here. Alright.
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All my life and in every season. Let's sing that.
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To worship. So true. Let's sing that again. All my life. And all of my life in FC season, you were still gone.
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I have a reason to say. I am a reason to worship. And I will bring, and I won't bring praise. I won't bring praise. No weapon formed against me shall remain.
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I will rejoice. I will be there. God is my victory, and he is here. And this is my prayer in the harvest when favor and providence flow. And I know I'm filled to be emptied again.
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I'm gonna invite the the frontline team to come forward. You can have a seat, and let's pray, and and we'll give thanks. God, it is so true. All of our life in every season, both good and bad, there there's still a reason to sing. There's still a reason to pray.
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There's still a reason to worship. Thank you God for refining us through through trials. Thank you God for times of of great joy. Even God for for times of of sadness and and despair. All of these things really are meant to draw us in and closer to you.
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Thank you God for every good gift, every good and perfect gift that comes from you. I pray that we wouldn't be holding on too tightly to whatever we have because, yeah, there's more and we could be storing up treasure in heaven that doesn't rust. It it doesn't grow old, doesn't grow. It doesn't doesn't fade away. Thank you, God, for the eternal hope that we have.
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I pray that you'd use these gifts and these resources to build up your build up your church here in Jackson and all over the world. In Jesus' name, amen.
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Jesus is overcome and the great is over. On eagle's wings before my, like, I fall on my knees and rise. I will rise. There's a day strong in here when the stars sprays to light And the shines disappear And my face should be my eyes Jesus is overcome. In the gray in his overwhelm, as you cross my name.
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No more sorrow, no more pain. I will rise on eagle's wings before my God fall on my knees. Ride, I will ride. No more sorrow, no more pain. I will rise on eagle's wings before my God.
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Fall on my knees and rise. I will rise.
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There's no cavalcade this morning. Do you hear that? There's no children's church happening and so they're not getting up and going out of here. I'm used to that. Well, I'm putting the base up.
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Everybody's running out of here. We are glad to have so many volunteers and teachers that put that on but they take a break off for the summer. For the rest of the summer, we're not going to have a children's church but there are still a couple of things going on during this service but there's a Sunday school class down. If you'd like to come to eleven, there's a Sunday school class that happens down the hall But, yeah, it's good to have you all in here. And I thought about this late in the week.
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Thought, oh, Greek grammar. This is gonna be fun for a for a kindergarten through fifth grader. Yeehaw. And I have a clicker somewhere. Here it is.
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So, first Timothy, you'll see on the back of your bulletin, you'll see first Timothy five one through six two and that's the next section. It's several paragraphs. I'm not going to go that far today. I'm only going up to about verse 10 but that's what's on the back of your bulletin. If you want to, this week, read that and wrestle with it.
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The way I've been reading it and wrestling with it for the last two or three weeks. It's tough. It's actually really tough. The first part, I like a lot and I'm going to camp out here for a little bit this morning. First Timothy five one says, do not rebuke an older man.
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This is, you know, Paul writing to his true son in the faith, Timothy and he has left Timothy in charge of the church in Ephesus or sent him to be in charge of the church or churches really because they're house churches in Ephesus and when you do that, when you're thrown into the position at 30 or in his 30s probably, Timothy is going to come up against a lot of guys who are older than him and older in the faith, maybe. Although, Timothy had known the scriptures from his grandmother and his mother, Lois and Eunice and they taught him since he was young and they were believers, Jewish background believers. Now, Timothy's dad was Greek and so, he has grown up in this kind of a multicultural surrounding which makes him perfect for being in charge in a place where they have a kind of a multicultural church. They've got some Jewish background believers and they have some pagan background believers and Timothy is walking into this situation as a younger man and he is going to be tasked with in some ways correcting and instructing these people especially we see in this book that there were certain persons, false teachers who were leading people astray, saying that they should not marry, that Jesus, that the resurrection had already happened.
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There were other problems with wealthier people kind of excluding poorer people. There were lots of issues in this church and so Timothy is going in and he's the one that's going to be facing this day to day. So, he starts off, do not rebuke an older man and rebuke is actually stronger than rebuke. It is, do not harshly admonish or do not scream at, yell at, fuss at an older man. Now, I've said many, many, many times that we've got the good old gospel way right here and then we've got this ditch over here that is legalism and legalistic.
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We've got a ditch over there that is licensed where you feel like you can do absolutely anything you want to and it'll be fine. The good old gospel way is not legalistic and it's not licentious. There is freedom in Christ in this good old gospel way. He's dealing with people who are on both sides of that ditch and so Paul has instruction varying throughout this letter dealing with one group or the other. Do not rebuke harshly, scream at, fuss at, yell at an older man but encourage him as you would a father.
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Oh, now, when I was studying this this week and Tanya and I were actually studying talking about this together, she said, you're to have to stop right there because in this day and time, people knew that a father was due respect. Do we know that? Do you hear people in the grocery store? Do you hear people at ball games? Do you hear people talking to mama and daddy like, oh my goodness.
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I just cover my mouth and go, wow. I'm waiting for the backhand. I'm waiting for some instruction. Really, it goes on. So, here we go.
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Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, your father. Encourage younger men as you would your brothers, older women as mothers, Timothy. Think about this and younger women as sisters in all purity, in all purity. So, no bad intent, right? All purity.
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He's saying that we are a family. We are a family and thus, we should act like a family. We should treat. I have come into this church. I came in when I was 40, little older than Timothy probably.
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There are plenty of y'all that are older than me. There are plenty younger too obviously But in fact, there's one person here that's one day older than me. In the South, I would say yes ma'am to her because she was born fifteen minutes before me. I say yes ma'am. All right, I honor her.
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But we're family, okay? We're a family and we should act like that. And I love, I I actually really like this. In my time here, I have had folks come from both ditches to me either can you help please? Can you show me how Jesus can get me out of this ditch?
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Or can you tell all those people over there how to get out of their ditch? Okay? I've had both since I've been here. It's really hard when an older man comes to me and says, you need to do your job. You need to do your job.
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You need to get that guy out of that ditch. Until that guy's ready to come out of the ditch, I can't do anything for him. I could treat him well as I would my brother and love him and try my best to act out of Christian love and service to God by making that way open and available. Come to me, please. Yes.
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But I can't do anything for it and actually, the hardest time I've had is with people in this ditch quite honestly. And how I would continually encourage that man as I would my own father because I don't want to correct my father. He's my father. Honor your father and mother. That's what we're supposed to do, you know?
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It's tough, tough situation. For Timothy, can be a tough situation for me. Actually, this is general for all of y'all. I think too is to respect your elders. Pay attention and the ones that are younger, treat them like you would their brother.
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Would you protect your brother? You might fight with him. Now, don't get me wrong. But would you protect him? Would you look out for them as best you can?
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Yeah. Younger women as sisters in all purity. I heard somebody say earlier in the week, so I'm looking forward to who might show up this summer. And I believe the guy was in all purity, don't get me wrong. But I've heard that before when I was in college like, who's the new crop coming in?
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It wasn't actually purity that they were thinking about. Was like, maybe this is the one. I get, yeah. Like I said, I'm camping out here for a minute. Let's concentrate on how we treat one another and we should treat each other with respect and honor and find a good way of talking to somebody.
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Now, notoriously quarrelsome is this ditch and these days, notoriously quarrelsome is this ditch too. Right here in the good old gospel way, you have to be willing to take a lot, right? And that's for all of y'all, not just me. You have to be willing to take a lot And continually love the way that a father and a mother love their kids. But you need to treat them like you would your own father or mother.
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Are you with me? Yeah. That's that that actually knocked me back on my heels just a little bit this week because we do, I think, struggle in our society with that. We have become so discriminating is a bad word. Discrimination is an absolutely awful word.
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Discriminating is paying attention. Paying attention to the differences and rightfully so. Does that make sense? It's such a bad word that most of you all just sitting there still like, I'm not sure discrimination is ever good. Discriminating between good and bad between those who are older than you and those who are younger than you is one particular place.
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We're family. We need to act like a family. We need to be willing to love and reprove one another but with respect. I have used this slide a lot of times. I'm going to keep on using it.
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I love the timeline because we are people that were born into time and space and the only way we can process life a lot of times is by thinking about either moving forward or feeling like we're going backwards but we're going forward. So, God chose from the beginning. This is the way that God established. He created us in his image. Why he did that?
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I don't know. He could've done anything but he did choose from the beginning to make us in his image. He throughout all the Old Testament, it shows people trying, trying, trying after the fall in the garden. Of course, shows them trying, trying, trying to please God through various methods and it all fall short. God promises a Messiah, a chosen one, an anointed one, and it was his choice from the beginning that the sinless one would be the savior and would die on a cross.
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So, including Jesus's life, his death, his burial, his resurrection, Christ work. That's represented on that timeline. That was sometime in the past for us. It was a couple thousand years ago but since then, has been going forth with the church that Jesus said he would build. This gospel witness.
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There is witness to the good news. There are testimonials of God's transforming power, his saving power, and his transforming power and so when that gospel witness goes forth, sticking true to the work of Christ that God chose from the beginning, there will be those who will accept that message and believe and believe in the gospel, they will have life in Jesus name, okay? That's the way that that works. Now, there will be those who reject it. They're not on this timeline.
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But the gospel witness goes forth and whenever it does, people either accept it or reject it or wait a while. Belief is where one is saved and I could call it actually salvation. This next portion right here is sanctification. So, after you believe the gospel and you are immediately transferred, the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. But walking that out, there's some gray in between because we do not always walk out our light.
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We walk in darkness sometimes. We do. We sin but the process of sanctification is where we yield our life to the will of God and if we will yield our life to the will of God, we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds, okay? Everybody with me. I know this is repetition for some of you.
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Kids hadn't heard this though. They're downstairs all the time. Salvation is when you believe. Absolutely. We're going to call it belief right there because the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
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Remember my message of the cross slide that says, it is foolishness to those who are perishing but it is the power of God unto salvation for those who are being saved. So, we're trying to walk it out and as we yield our life to God, he will sanctify us. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. Until that great and mighty day of the Lord when we are ultimately saved, okay? And then ultimately saved, I mean, we are glorified, completely perfect.
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Are you completely perfect? When you accept Christ? No. In fact, if he were to reveal all the sin in our life at that immediate, I think it'd kill everyone else. He's he reveals to you your shortcomings and your faults and he helps you deal with them and get out of So, that is one of my timeline slides.
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I like that. It helps me to see where we are. We're between the already and the not yet. For those of us who are believers, we're between the already saved and not ultimately glorified and perfected. So, we're walking it out.
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Already not yet. That's there's another way of looking at this. The already Christ work has already happened but his kingdom and his kingdom is here on Earth. For those of us who have accepted it but it's not in its completion until that great and mighty day of the Lord where we'll see that incorruptible hope. The between the already and not yet, I think is really helpful.
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It's all a work of God's grace. It's all a work of unmerited favor towards us. He didn't have to create us in the first place and since he did, he doesn't have to have relationship with us but by his unmerited favor, if we accept it, he graciously brings us into the family. So, there it is, grace. Another way of this between the already and the not yet.
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I want to look at something. So, X, this is something that's kind of hard to explain but X is the original culture to whom these Bible books are written. I spend a lot of time when we're going from book to book on, okay, this is the situation in Corinth or this is the situation in Philippi or this is the situation in Ephesus and right now, the original culture is Ephesus and so, Ephesus going forward, cultures do shift and change. Events in history change it, great teachers change it, bad teachers change it, people change it. Cultures do shift and change and Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit right here, he gives his view under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to how the folks who are being called out of their cultures whether it's Jewish background culture or called out of pagan cultures or just their local football team culture.
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Calling everybody out, right? He's calling them from every tribe, tongue, and nation. So, Paul's view, he expresses looking for this ultimate ethical application. Are you with me? Is there great confusion in the masses?
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So Paul writes at a time specific to history about a specific situation that's going on in the original culture and context. We don't know exactly everything that was involved with the widows in Ephesus or the rich and the poor situation in Ephesus. We don't really know. We're putting it together here in one side of a phone call, one side of a letter, you know, one side of a correspondence. But there is an ultimate ethical application that he's pointing towards.
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When he says like, in Christ, there is no Jew nor Greek nor slave nor free barbarian, Scythian, male or female. Ideally, we are all absolutely equal and in Christ, we are but the fact of the culture that surround us is the way that it is Paul is working us. Our culture I'm giving the example right now. Our culture is somewhere past original culture and it's past the point of Paul writing to that original culture. Do you get me?
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So we've gotten to hear. So we look back on Paul and go, what a chauvinistic, misogynistic, sorry, joker he was. But what Paul said was, let the women learn. You know how revolutionary that was? Let the women learn.
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The Greeks weren't doing it. The Romans weren't doing it. They were having some free time finally. There was there was some wealth and profit and things like that going on so that it allow for some free time. Let the women learn, he said.
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We key in on but let them be silent. What a chauvinist. Well, had just said, all of you need to be silent. We key in on, wives, submit to your husbands when there's not even a verb in that sentence. The verb is from a few verses, two verses ahead where it says, all of you, be submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ and we pick up that verb and say, now, wives, please do submit to your husbands but I'm saying it's not as mean and chauvinistic as it sounds.
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It sounds that way because of this. Where we are in culture today, our Judeo Christian background of this country and America especially but our background of Christianity has brought so many good ideas and so much good to the world that we frame our society around it. In some ways, because of the discrimination principle that I'm about to talk about, in some ways, we've removed everything with the equal process or equal process under the law. Are you with me? The men and women are supposed to be treated exactly the same.
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Why is there a pay gap? I don't know. It's illegal. It shouldn't be. Ultimate ethical application is that it would all be the it would be the same.
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Now, we do have different roles as per first Timothy. They're not as mean. Jesus says, my commandments are not burdensome. Paul doesn't spend as much time on that. Peter says, Paul's confusing.
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I'm saying that if you will trust in the authority of scripture in your life and he directs you, God, Holy Spirit, directs you by this. You're not going to go wrong listening to him. Does that make sense? Okay. So, there we go.
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Here we go into honor widows who are truly widows. This is very next verse after we are family. Don't rebuke a man harshly but encourage him gently as you would a father. Redirect as best you can the way you would with the father. Don't have a screaming mini fit with somebody even if they're just dead wrong, okay?
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Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, in all purity. Don't be looking for selfish gain. Timothy and all of us. Honor widows who are truly widows. So, this first one is a principle of honor.
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The reason I'm putting principles up there this time, usually, I just go through straight through, right? There are so many details in this passage from five:one to six:two, and they're so it's like an instruction manual. It is an instruction manual. It's like an instruction manual like you're reading VCR instructions to get that clock from blinking, right? Press this, do that.
50:50
The principle of honor is very clear right here. Honor widows who are truly widows. So, we have some that are not truly widows apparently. We don't know exactly how that is but he's saying, honor widows. We all know that a widow is someone who has lost her husband to death.
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This is very fresh, quite honestly, still for me because I lost my best friend. March the twenty fifth of last year and his wife is a widow and it breaks my heart every time I think about it and she's a younger widow. So, before we get the younger widows, I'm stopping. I'm not going through that today. I can't handle it myself today but I want to talk about honor widows who are truly widows.
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Be honoring. It's progressive action. Be in a state of always honoring those who are truly widows but if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household. He's saying honor em. That means support em.
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Help em. Financially, help em but if they do have children or grandchildren, then, let em first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents for this is pleasing in the sight of God. So, it's a general instruction to the church to Timothy specifically but general instruction to the church and then, it's a general instruction to that particular one who's lost her husband. Take care of the children. Take care of the grandchildren.
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And have them help support her. She who is truly a widow so it's it's going truly again. There was some problem in Ephesus that we haven't completely recovered and everybody argues about. Exactly. Who these widows were and what they were doing or who was pretending and wasn't really a widow.
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She who is truly a widow, she they just said honor widows who are truly widows. She's left all alone. So, she doesn't have family around that is able to help her. That one has set her hope. We're talking about in the context of church.
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That one has set her hope on God and she continues in supplications. That is asking and prayers, just communication with God. Night and day and then he goes into but she's who self indulgent. She's dead even while she lives. Would you agree that when people chase after the things of the world whether it's money, sex, fame, power, drugs, anything that those are their own punishment.
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She's dead even while she lives as she's self indulgent. He gets away from that and says, well, command these things as well so that they may be without reproach. Now, they truly true widows so that they may be without reproach. Then, he gets to verse eight but if anyone does not provide for his relatives, I said, we're family, right? We're family.
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Here in church, we are family. We're the family of God. Brothers and sisters but this one specifically points back and says, if anyone does not provide for his the ones who are blood related to him or by marriage, whatever and especially for members of his household. So, it's everybody that we have charge over. If he does not provide for me, he's denied the faith.
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He missed it completely. He has missed the gospel. He's missed the faith that is in Christ and he's worse than an unbeliever. To pretend like you're a Christian and not help your family. That's worse than an unbeliever, Paul says.
54:08
That's a rebuke too. Would you agree? Be honoring is the only principle that I've come to so far but there are several rebukes about the way that we treat one another and the way we treat our families and it's something that we can take to heart and can change today. The way that you treat your parents. I know that there are some of you.
54:28
When I look out, I see the ones of you who are taking care of aging parents and I think of that and it breaks my heart or I see younger widows or I see a young lady whose husband has abandoned her and we are to be like family to her and to take care emotionally with all purity taking care. This says, for your family though and your members of your household, you've denied the faith if you don't provide for them. Don't rebuke an older man. Encourage him as you would a father. Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women and sisters, and all purity because we are a family.
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We used to sing often in my church. I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. Do y'all y'all know that song? Yeah. I've been washed by the spirit.
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Cleanse by his blood. Join heirs with Jesus as we travel this side because I'm part, I'm part of the family of God. Then he goes into the instruction manual again. Let a widow be enrolled if she's not less than 60 years of age. Wow.
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That seems so specific. It's so, it's to me, it's just like, really? What if she's 59.5 and she really needs it? I'm going for principles again and this is be distinguishing. I I don't think that he's it's an absolute.
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It's 60. Forever at 60. Medical care changes. Society changes. Insurance adds, you know, financially helps.
56:00
Be distinguishing though. There is a difference in someone who is younger and someone who is older and I had be discriminating but I can't say that today. Discriminating is actually the process of paying attention to the differences in different situations. So, everyone exactly what is needed for them. Follow the spirit.
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Pay attention but be distinguishing. We do have to have some parameters. Let a woman be enrolled. The enrolled. So enrolled is either one of two things, and there are camps that believe either of these.
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It is let a widow be enrolled on the welfare system, the dole, the safety net. Let a widow be enrolled if she's 60 and then he has other qualifications or in the early about two hundred AD. So, a hundred and forty years later after this one hundred and thirty five years later, there was an actual part of the church. It was the elders, the deacons, the deaconesses or wives, and the widows and widows had a specific function in about two hundred AD and thereafter, widows had a specific function. So it could be enrolled either for the dole, the welfare, or enrolled for this specific function and we'll get to that in a minute.
57:20
Let a widow be enrolled if she's not less than 60 years of age. Be distinguishing. Having been the wife of one husband, that's what it says in the ESB, a one man woman. I know a couple of widows here who had a husband, their husband passed, and then they remarried. This is not saying, don't honor them.
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This is not saying, don't enroll them. Don't ask them for help. Don't don't help them and don't ask them for service. It's saying faithful to her husband, alright? Does that make sense?
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Alright. And having a reputation for good works. This is starting to look like the list for elders and for deacons. It does look like it. If she has brought up children, she knows what it's like.
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Has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. So, that brings on a principle of service, I think. Now, before it was just a general statement but this is, let a widow be enrolled, I think, for service. If she's 60 years old. We have a lot of ladies here in the church whose husbands have now passed and they help.
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All the time they help. They volunteer in Awana. They volunteer to vote bulletins. They volunteer to do different things around here and if you need somebody to tell you about Jesus, they'll tell you about Jesus. They will make food.
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They will entertain people. They fit this list exactly and it's saying, be serving to all of us, not just widows but all of us. We can take that principle away from this. This week, miss this lady's name is really zany. That's her name, Zany Bennett and she's from the church that I grew up in in Shiloh.
59:16
I remember her husband, LG or Lawrence Bennett. He was a locomotive engineer and she was, you know, in the auxiliary of wives of locomotive engineers or whatever for a long time but I want to read a bit of her obituary. She died Tuesday and while I was preaching a funeral yesterday here, they were doing miss Zaney's funeral back there. It's been an emotional week. Miss Bennett was born 07/17/1930 in Manchester, Georgia.
59:45
Daughter of Sally Emma blah blah blah. And Murray Parrott, she was a homemaker and a devoted member of the Shiloh Baptist Church. She was a Sunday school teacher which she was my Sunday school teacher. She's the first person that said, do y'all have a favorite verse? To me.
1:00:01
And I thought, I thought they were all good. And she pointed out that John three sixteen is an invitation to come to Jesus and believe. And I thought, wow, that is a good verse. And she led me down that path. She's a Sunday school teacher.
1:00:19
She's a vacation Bible school worker every year. Member of the praying ladies of Shiloh which is an little group that's still going. She always loved to arrange flowers, was in charge for many years with arrangements at church or special functions. She was a member of the Grand International Auxiliary of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Her most important job was caretaker.
1:00:49
She was not idle ever. She was always on top of anything that happened anywhere. She was bringing something, casserole or whatever, to help out. She also, they had a farm and after Lawrence Bennett died, she kept running the farm. So, she was, she did not eat the bread of idleness as Proverbs 31 says.
1:01:09
She was industrious. Most important job was caretaker. She was a loving mother, grandmother. She loved to cook and feed everyone. Proceeded in death by but that list right there where is that list?
1:01:24
It looks a lot like miss Bennett to me. Now, there are ladies in this church. I I I don't want to put you on display and embarrass you but there are some ladies in this church that I don't know and if if you find yourself in the situation of being a widow and just being here and nobody knows that, please let us know. We would love to honor you, not in front of everybody unless that's what you need. We love to honor you.
1:01:50
We would love to help where we can and we'd love for you to know what needs to happen around here to be able to help with and I know that that happens. Miss Bennett, this week, I was reading not just obituary. I mean, that's, you know, somebody printed that up. The internet's an amazing thing to be able to hear Julie and family. Julie is miss Bennett's daughter.
1:02:18
Heaven has gained one of the most precious angels this week. Miss Zany was just that. As a youngster in Shiloh, she loved all of us as if we were her own. I remember thinking when I grow up, I'd like to be just like miss Zany. You see, she set an example as Christians should, she loved God and it was abundant clear that he lived in her heart as well as in that radiant smile she wore on her face.
1:02:45
I grew up and got married and miss Zany gave me a book for one of my wedding gifts and it remains in my library today. It says, love God with all your heart and always put him first in your marriage. Signed, I love you, miss Zany. She did her part here on Earth. She touched a lot of souls including mine.
1:03:03
That's Vanessa Carlisle. Miss Zaney gave me this book and it is the everyday Bible and I was thinking about this. She gave it to me in 1991. It wasn't for a graduation present. I was in my second year of college at that point.
1:03:20
She gave it to me just because and it's the everyday Bible. It's a new century version, I think. It's written on a fifth grade level. I was in my second year of college. She was not the least bit condescending but I'm going to finish out the chapter with this because the next part of this, I said, I can't deal with it.
1:03:39
I'm going read it to you. I can't can't deal with it because I know younger widows that are so brokenhearted right now. They need to be honored in a way that makes sense. They need to be loved. They need to be served.
1:03:54
I can't read it. Sorry, I'll do that next time. I can't do it. Miss Zany Bennett, she she that what I just read from Vanessa reminded me of this reputation and that actually goes forward into the rest of this. The the next section where it is talking about younger widows and the possibility of going after other pursuits.
1:04:14
The reputation principle. Be concerned about Christ's represent reputation. If you are a regular tender, a member, if you are someone who claims Christ, in your online discussions, For example, be concerned with Christ's reputation when you rail against someone. You're not distinguishing whether they're older or younger or thinking about it and you're just going off. Por favor.
1:04:47
Please, be concerned about Christ's reputation. Ask yourself this question. What could an outsider come in here and rightfully criticize? It says, have a good reputation among outsiders. This already said it twice in this book.
1:05:03
So, if an outsider were to step in the doors of this church, would they see people that acted like the family of God? That honored one another and respected each other and loved one another well, spoke to each other carefully with concern. What can an outsider come in here and rightfully criticize? Okay, I think that's the end of the sermon. Is that the last slide, Blake?
1:05:26
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Drop that in your lap. Hey, if you went five more verses, it'd be even worse. So, with can I get Carl and Florine back up here? They are going to know that's outsiders.
1:05:42
They are going to know that we are Christians by our love, not by the purity of which branch of theology or systematics we subscribe to, okay? I think that there are good and bad there. Yes, I'm distinguishing between the two but we are called to unity. We are called to be one just like Christ and father and the spirit are one. That's what Jesus prayed for.
1:06:06
That's what we're walking into, walking toward that. So, they're going know where Christians are love. Would you stand up and sing this along with
1:06:34
And we pray that our unity may one day be restored. And they'll know we are Christians by hunger, by hunger. Yes, I know we are Christians by hunger. We will walk with each other. We will walk any day.
1:07:01
We will walk with each other. We will walk and then and together we'll spread the news that God is in and then. And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, and know we are Christians by our love. We will work.
1:07:28
We will work with each other. We will work side by side. We will work with each other. We will work side by side. And we'll guard each one's dignity and save each other's pride.
1:07:46
And they'll know we are Christians by our love. I'm done. Yes. They'll know we are Christians by our love. Alright.
1:08:00
I'll praise. All praise to the father from whom all things come. And I'll praise to Jesus, his only son. And all praise to the spirit who makes us one. And they'll know we are Christians by other, by honor.
1:08:26
Because they'll know
1:08:37
The one for the graduates was a very good one. So, as you go out this week, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own, understand it but in all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths and may your path lead you directly by either Chris or Nick Stern as you leave this building, alright? In Jesus name, amen. Praise God.
