Leading in Death to Manifest Life

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Okay, I just realized, as I was thinking as I went to the bathroom before this, that my subject is leading in death to manifest life. Then I realized, wait a minute, is there a hint in here or something? So anyway, let’s pray and then we’ll get going. Father, thank Thank you for this time together. Thank you for the fellowship that you’ve given us and the souls that we have to nourish in our church.

Help us to understand these things and to do that in a better way, life on life as you prescribe in your word. So we thank you for those things and just thank you of course most of all for your son for without his sacrifice we wouldn’t be able to you or worship you in the right way. So, thank you for that. Amen. So, the basic thing in all of this is what Sean said to start with that Christ will build His church. We’re not building it. But we did have a commandment that was given to us in Matthew 28, 19 through 20, go therefore and and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.”

That’s out of the Great Commission. That is what we are to do. And how that’s done, we believe should be demonstrated here in the church by the leaders and by their lifestyle. And basically discipleship is life on life, living through what God gives us all together. And as we do that together and ask questions about what this friend thinks or what that person thinks, and as you do that, that is living the Christian life and discipling each other. And a lot of people think that it’s transferring a bunch of truth, you know, take this theological test or get this book and fill out the blanks and all of that kind of stuff.

And those are ingredients, and you do need to know theology. And you can study that and read books about it. And a little advertisement for theology is it was the queen of the sciences theology back in the day, and then it drifted away that people thought that it shouldn’t be a science. I think it still should be, and it is the queen of science because what is better than to understand who made it all? So anyway, so theology is important, and we want people to have a good theology, but you learn it in a unusual way, the right way to learn. It’s a little bit here and a little bit here, and then all of a sudden you realize, oh, I don’t know something about that.

So then you study that, and then that piece gets put in the puzzle, and then you realize, oh that’s changing my viewpoint of this a little bit. And you grow and you grow and you start understanding there’s all kinds of things to do. So we recommended a few books in the little pamphlet. There’s three of them that I’m gonna talk about that are not in the pamphlet.

One of them was written by John MacArthur in 1988, that’s the Gospel according to Jesus. We talked about that in our Life to Life group two weeks ago now. And Debbie is in our Life to Life group. She got the audio copy and listened to it and she just can’t get over how good this book is. And I think it’s the most important book of the second half of our 20th 20th century from 1950 to 2000. I think this is the most important Christian book. And then this book for elders and pastors I think is one of the best too. Is Brothers Were Not Professionals. And it’s John Piper’s take on the pastorate and what you should be teaching and all of that.

And it totally bashes the corporate model church church and all of that and that you should be living your life as your discipling people. Then this book is interesting because this is what started me off. In 1984, I got saved. And this is one of the first books I got. And Francis Shafer wrote The Great Evangelical Disaster. This is 1984.

He’d been working on it in other books before that in the late 70’s. This is the one where he just says, it’s already a disaster and you have to get back to the fundamentals. And he was crying out for that. And another book that if you guys haven’t read it is Harold Linzel’s Battle for the Bible. And that was a whole discussion of the Battle for the Bible during the early 70’s and late 60’s in the seminaries. And Fuller is the the test case, and then the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church defending the Bible and those. And that background is essential in that you know that what we have here in our church is we have endeavored to get back to the basics. And one of the basics that I’m supposed to talk about today is leading in death to manifest life. But what the heck do we mean about that, right? The problem is the old man as we know, and we are going to read some verses and see what it is, he doesn’t know the truth. Until God opens your heart up you are a dead man, you can’t hear it. Until the Spirit of God opens your eyes and

knows that that can happen then you see it. I’m going to start off with some verses in Matthew and it is Christ talking and in Matthew 7 He says, If then, you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him? So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law of the and the prophets, entered by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter into it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

And later on in Matthew seven, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does, the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built a house on a rock and the rain fell on the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

And everyone who hears these words of mine, does them, does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built this house on sand, and the rain fell and the floods came and the wind blew, and beat that house and it fell, and in great was the fall of it. And when Jesus finished these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, not as their scribes. The whole issue is who is Jesus, right? Always it’s what is His teaching and what is He trying to say to us. Teach them all that I have commanded you to do.

And when you read the Gospels, a lot of us get stuck in the reading of the epistles and that kind of thing and going off in that doctrine. It does your heart a great deal believe, to just read Jesus and how He taught and how He showed them the way in His life, that life on life discipleship as they wandered around. He said, what do you think about that? What do you think about this? And then He would tell that story. And through these stories we see, oh my goodness, the big message is how should we live our life. And the thing is the Bible promises that we will, believers will be conformed to His image. It’s going to be the last verse in my message so we’ll talk about that at the end.

Then it goes on in Matthew 10, so everyone who acknowledges me before men I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in Heaven. But those who deny me before men I will also deny before my Father who is in Heaven. Do not think that I come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to being priests but a sword. I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter in law against her mother in law and a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me and whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life, will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

That last little part, whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. When you truly get saved, you become a newborn creature, right? Born again. And John 3 John 3 talks about all of that. But the idea is, I think a good story to this is the man who brought the Gospel to myself and my wife, Gail was at a point where she was going, if I become a Christian I’m going to be out there doing all this stuff that I do, you know, that I’m just, I’m not going to do that kind of stuff, join these Bible studies and do all that thing. And Darryl, the man that that brought the Gospel to us looked at her and said, oh you’ll never do anything you don’t want to do.

And the trick is when God gets a hold of you, he is the one doing through you, so you start doing these things. And she came back to him several months later and said, you tricked me. But the cool thing was that you’re a changed person and you’re doing it. He loved it. He thought that was really good. So another one, Matthew 16, then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. Whoever who loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forvents his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father and then He will repay each worst person according to what He has done.

Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.” For those of you that come from other persuasions than dispensational, this is a favorite verse down here in the bottom thing of some of you here will not taste death see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom, coming in His Glory. We believe that that’s the transfiguration. And so those disciples, John and Peter that went to the top of the mountain, they saw Him in His transfiguration. So, but the point is, you save your life and lose it, whoever loses your life for my sake will find it. And those of you that have been on the Christian journey, that is what happens. You you realize I’m not doing what I really would do in this situation.

I’m not sure where all this is coming from, but I need to do this. I think that’s when you’re really walking in the spirit and God’s spirit is taken over. And as you get better at that and he rehearses that with you, you start being able to recognize those situations and you can do that.

And you also realize you’re not really the teacher God is the teacher and all you can do is you can say things and everything but the way it gets through is God Internally gives them those truths and lets them work it out You can you know Get alongside somebody and help them through the hard times and talk them through it But it’s God who inside of them changes them and while that’s happening. He’s changing you you. You know, I say it over and over all the time, the Christian life is a big paradox because the holier you get the more sinful you know you are. And that’s just the way it works. And eventually you know we’ll be glorified and then we won’t have that problem anymore. But that is what happens. The more you study who God is the more you realize you’re not God and you know on it goes. So then in Luke he’s talking to the crowds again and he says, turns and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and

even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost whether he has had enough to complete it. Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and not able to to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man be began to build and was not able to finish. Oh, what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 the medium who comes against him with 20,000. If not, while other, yet a great way off, sends a delegation to ask for terms of peace.

therefore any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its taste how will its saltiness be restored? It is of no use to either for the soil or the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear let him hear.” All of these things show that once you really get into Christian Christian ministry and living for Christ in your community and all these other places. All these things start to happen and you realize, well I’m not doing that, what’s happening here? What’s happening is God is changing those people to be more like His Son and they then in turn change. And then that family changes another family who has that influence just like Jonathan was demonstrating, that community is the thing.

And that’s why the Kuyperian thought of not one thumbs with God isn’t over, it’s wonderful to go to, I don’t know, an engineering job and you suddenly see, oh, this fits here and we should do this this way. It’s much more stable that way. I believe that’s a great revelation from our creator to you to understand that physical principle that He laid out the way He’s created things, and you have this great joy of all of a sudden, oh, now I’m applying that, and it works. And it, you know, on and on it goes. The interesting thing here is there’s a quote, and I took this out of MacArthur’s book, The Lordship of Christ.

And the, back in the day, that book was written during a time period when I first got saved, I got saved in February and by August I was going to seminary and I was 37 years old so I was much older than most of the people in the class and stuff and I was reading all kinds of books and I just went to one of the teachers that I had and just said to him, I said this whole crazy, I keep reading these theological journals about this lordship controversy. I said, what is the controversy? Either Jesus is Lord or he’s not. I mean, what is this debate? And he looked at me and smiled and said, well, those people need to get their points for their papers and you have to write something new and unique.

And I said, well, that’s straight from the pit. Even those days I like that saying. And he looked at me and he said, yeah, that’d be true. And I said, well, how come they keep publishing it? This is rank heresy. He’s either God or he isn’t. And he said, yeah, but it’s a big subject right now. And so hence then, let’s see, it would have been five years, well, four years later, John MacArthur wrote that book. And we happened to be in leadership of a church that we went to and he came to speak to us during that time.

came he said, I’ve just written this book about the lordship of Christ and that’s kind of on my heart that’s what I’d like to talk about is the condition of the church. Well he stood up and talked for like 15 minutes and he could tell the room was getting quieter and quieter. There was like 300 people at this dinner. The church had 3,000 people in it and he said, I can tell I’m offending some people and he said, I’ll stop right now if you want me to. And we were sitting at a little front table and we were all, had listened lots of tapes he has done. No, go ahead, go do it. Well for 45 minutes he went on. It ended up that the whole room emptied and the first thing all these people were asking him, can you sign my Bible? And he was looking at him and like that. And then as soon as he started doing that they said, but what you said is totally wrong. This church had been doing almost everything that he was saying that was wrong.

wrong. And so we went to him and asked him when is a good time to leave the church. And he said, well you find out if the elders want to move it in the right direction do that. If they don’t leave you’re the factious man. Well, went through a period of year of meeting with everybody and all of that we ended up having to leave. But John Stott who is a Christian Arthur back in, he wrote Basic Christianity in 1958 became quite a speaker and so forth in Christendom. And he, this quote is in the book, and I think it is really a good quote to think about building these empires and all of that kind of stuff. The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict half-built towers. The ruins of those who began to build were unable to finish. For thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so.

The result is a great scandal of Christen today, the so-called nominal Christianity. In countries which Christian civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent but thin vernier of Christianity. They allowed themselves to become somewhat involved, enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable. there is a great soft cushion. It protects them from the hard unpleasantness of life while changing its place and shape to suit their convenience. No wonder the cynics speak of the hypocrites in the Church and dismiss religion as escapism.”

And that whole system of not answering the hard questions and not being honest with people that if you become a Christian Christian, you will be a different person. If God lives inside of you, which he does if you are a Christian, right, the Holy Spirit indwells you, you have the Creator of the universe living inside of you, that should change you. And when you know that, you realize that the old man is dead, but the new man is the most alive you can ever be because God is enabling these things. So then the problem comes, well Dave, I accepted the Lord 20 years ago and some things I haven’t been doing too well or whatever. And no day like today to change that and move ahead. Stop doing that and do this. Great counseling verses we’ll read them in a little bit here in Ephesians is stop doing that and start doing this. And it’s that simple, most of those things. So, in Romans 6 there is the whole discussion of this death and resurrection and all that kind of stuff. So then it starts off, what shall we say

then? Do we continue to sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin live in it? Who died to sin? We are the ones that are dead now to sin if we are believers. Do you not know that all those who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin. For once, once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ Jesus. The whole issue is once you kill the old man you need to keep killing him. Because what happens is, as I discussed before, and other people have said it, it’s like peeling that onion. You get that layer off and you go, wow, I’m really doing good in this now.

And then all of a sudden you bark at your wife or your kids and you realize, oh, oh, I’ve got to ask forgiveness for that. So now I peel the onion another little layer. Oh, that’s this, on it goes. But that’s the joy of the Christian life. And the thing is that all you’re looking for is a little bit upwards and to the right. Don’t, you know, if you’re doing this, you’re doing good.

You’re getting there. You’re stopping this behavior and replacing it with that behavior. That’s the way to do it. You want to be dead to that old man. And once you’re dead to that old man, you truly live the real life you should be living, which is in Christ. And that life gives you, you know, endless joy. And it makes a lot of things worthwhile, even if you have come to Christ late in life. Like I was 37 years, I mean I was one of these typical Baptist kids. I got baptized at nine and lived like hell till I was 37. And then I realized oh my goodness you know and just reading first John I got to that verse that if you’re doing these things you’re not one of his and it just hit me like a brick. I realized I’m doing those things so that means I must not be one of his. Got on my knees and said God if this is true show me and bam. I had no idea what happened to me but all the people around me said that you’ve really changed.

And it was just amazing, you know. But that kind of thing, for those of you that have lived the Christian life, some of you, like my son, five years old, we believe he got saved. Sean believes he was saved very early. Some of you don’t have that dramatic thing. That’s a joy. You don’t have all that baggage. You’re in the camp and then you can, your onion doesn’t have a lot of those layers to peel off, which is really good. So don’t think because you don’t have this great testimony that you, you know, it’s horrible. You’re actually, that’s what we’re striving for so that less and less people have to be plucked out of the sewer.

We wanna make a glorious place, right? So then in Romans 7, this kind of discusses that whole pulling and going, likewise my brothers, you have also have died to the law through the body of Christ. So say, you may belong to another, belong to another to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may be a fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the the law, where it worked in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us capy, so that we serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the Spirit.

What then shall we say? That is the law of sin by no means, yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.

I would not have known what is to covet if the law of said, you shall not covet, but sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetness, apart from the law, sin lies dead.” So again, that master instructor as the reformers all said, you know, teach a little bit of the Old Testament, then you teach the New Testament and the Gospel, you know, that formula in Lutheran churches still followed today in certain part is the Old Testament, da da da da. But that is the thing. The law points out the need for the Savior. And most people that if you’re witnessing to them or they come, they know that they’re not God. You know, there is a God and you’re not Him. So, most people know that. So, then he gets to Romans 8 and he said, those of you who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. In fact, the Spirit of God God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. So, right there you have the

Spirit of God, that’s what lives in you, obey that Spirit. You know, bow the knee, bend the knee. Jesus is Lord, worship Him. Romans 10, but what does it say? The Word is near you in your mouth and your heart. That is the Word of faith we proclaim because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, the God raising from the dead, you will be saved. For your heart, the one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. So you’ve changed your stony heart for a heart of flesh, and then you’re in the camp. Now, that previous man is dead. Now the new man comes along, and you do these things, and then all of a sudden you realize, oh, I’ve gotta stop this, that’s not right.

So what are you killing? Are you killing the new man? Are you killing that sinful desire in you that’s happening in there? What is that struggle? Are you saved if you are saved? Get forgiveness for that. Get on your knees. Ask forgiveness for that. And then don’t do it again. Okay? So this time maybe you go two days before you do it again. All right? That’s two days that you didn’t. Get on your knees. Ask for forgiveness. Do it again. Stop doing it. Maybe you got three days the next time. Maybe you got four days. It’s one day at a time, one step at a time. Kill that thing. And through killing that is when you really live.

And it’s amazing how enough time in your life goes by, you realize, I’ve killed a lot of stuff, this is good. You know, and of course the next day, you do something really stupid and get slapped up to the side of the head. But that is the Christian life. And we’re never going to be like God. Well, we will understand Him in a better way, but we’re not going to be Him. So therefore, we’re never going to be perfect. We will live in a sinless condition in heaven, but that’s a whole nother realm. But right here, you can actually get glimpses of that as you go along with this. you have that power in you. That’s the other thing is that if you’ve got God living in you and you surrender to Him those things will get taken care of. It will happen. So then in 1 Corinthians 9 Paul talks about an athlete exercises control on all things. They do it to receive an imperishable wreath. But we an and imperishable.

So athletes get this perishable prize, but we get an imperishable prize. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control lest after preaching to others, I should myself be disqualified. Keep your act together. Keep trucking, you know. And it’s hard. And those days when it’s hard, ask for help. again, on your knees. Prayer is the communication and the line ain’t never busy as Fred McDowell said. You know, Jesus is on the main line. It’s a great blue song. So, 1 Corinthians 15, 31, I protest brothers that my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day.

So Paul, at the end of the letter, 1 Corinthians says, He is dying every day for them. But that death is also a strengthening of your real life in Christ. 2 Corinthians 13 says, For if He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God, for we also weaken Him, but in dealing with you we live with Him by the power of God. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. test yourselves? Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you unless you indeed fail to meet the test? I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. So the old thing is people say, how can I know I’m saved?

You’ll know. If you don’t think you are, get on your knees and and say, God, help me. Help me understand this. Another interesting story I’ll tell this on Gail. We had been saved probably a year and we went to a Bill Gothard convention. And if you guys have ever gone through that, it’s an interesting kind of thing. Very Baptist, very, you know, all eyes closed, all heads bowed, you know, I see that hand kind of stuff. and Gail during one of those things, she was getting ready to raise her hand and then she thought to herself, she told me after we left the thing, went home. She said, I sat there and I went, why do I have to do that?

I believe, what is the story? That was the moment when she realized that, oh, I have done this transaction, I do this, you know, so that if you don’t feel that, tell God again, again. Don’t let some theological point you only ask one time or something get in your way. If you don’t think you’re connected up, ask God to help you and help you understand all of that and get connected. Because once you’re connected, then you’re going to—he will reveal these things to you through your Bible reading, Bible listening, through a sermon, through friends, all that kind of stuff will start happening. And then you you go, oh, that was a God thing, that one, or that arrangement showed us how we needed to do this.

And all these things that you do, as long as you understand God is in control of all these things, you start really realizing, oh, I’m in the river, the flow of the river in the right way, and I’m not paddling upstream anymore, I’m going down with the current and I’m seeing all this stuff, it’s all good. And if you don’t feel that, you may not be one of his you need to ask, you know, Repet and be baptized and get saved. It’s that simple. And don’t get mad because it’s not happening to you. You know, let Him help you do that. So in Ephesians 2, 1-9, And you were dead in your trespasses and sin. Now, this is the real death, the dead dead.

Those that don’t know Him are dead. they have no ability to do anything, they’re dead. But then God touches them in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air and the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved. Even when you were dead in your trespasses God made us alive together with Christ. So that’s that moment of transaction. And once that’s happened you’re one of His. He’s not going to turn loose of you. He’ll make you miserable. You want to try to buck that thing or fight against that and that is not good. Just repent and change your way and move on. Repent and move on.

Keep doing that. And by grace you have been saved and raised up with Him and seated us, the believers, with Him in the places in Christ Jesus so that the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing, it is a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.” Now, after you’re saved all these things you’re doing are great works but because you are an instrument for God that’s That’s another crazy thing that happens for you, is that you’ll do something, and you may think it’s very simple, helping somebody clean their kitchen, or helping them move, or whatever it is.

Just holding the door open for somebody sometimes. And they go, well, thank you. And you can start up a conversation, or make somebody’s day a little better. Just all of that works together for that. And then further in Ephesians, it talks about, difference I believe in our church. So we will talk about that when we get here. He who descended is the one who ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure and stature of the fullness of Christ. He gave the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip who?

The saints, all of you to do the work of the ministry. We totally believe that you are the ones doing the work of the ministry. The pastors don’t do the work of the ministry, we We’re doing the work of the ministry also, but we’re training you guys up to do it. And the joy of this church, and this is different than any other church I’ve been involved in, the body life here is doing the counseling and all of that. All this interweaving is happening in this church. And we find out, you know, somebody needs a little help in a certain area, help us with this situation, help us with that situation. And most of the time the body is already attempting to do things or has been meeting with somebody or notices something is wrong and then talks with somebody and all that kind of stuff.

All of this to help you. This isn’t like the secret police, oh we know that guy is doing this sin and we have to go get him and that kind of stuff. No, we don’t want you to fall down the rabbit hole and be out there where you shouldn’t be. And if you’re one of his, you don’t wanna be there either. You wanna be safe, so that helping hand is happening, and it happens because the body is doing that work of the ministry, and that is a real joy. And that’s why we like books like The Trellis and the Vine. We don’t build much trellis, because you as the body are out there doing that kind of stuff. And if you see a need for something, do it.

you know, meet with people if they want to talk about this or that or start a group or help somebody. Josh Walton started a pancake kind of breakfast to feed the homeless in Everett when we first got started. It was very interesting. I talked with Josh about it and I told him, I said, okay, go right ahead. I’d seen things like this before in previous churches, but I didn’t know, maybe this is something God wanted. And so they started it, and we were fairly faithful doing it. You did it probably six months, right?

Two years, yeah. When your old time flies, you know. Two years worth, I don’t think anybody got saved, And some homeless guys got fed, and some homeless guys got to really spew the BS when we talked to them. And it just, now, was that wrong? Absolutely not. I think that’s a great thing for us to attempt and see. And well, that didn’t work so well. But does that mean if you are driving down a highway and you see some guy and he looks like he needs something or whatever, you don’t wanna help him? If God prompts you to help that guy, I say stop, pick him up, help him. Buy him a burger or something and help him. But I don’t think that you should just help somebody to be a freeloader.

Guy wants work and you got a job, you can take him to the job. I used to try that when we had a store down towards California, I’d pick up people and I’d say, I got a job, get in the car. I’ll give you a job. Well, how much does it pay? I said, well, you’re standing there begging. I tell you, I got to give you a job. What’s your problem? A couple of them would get in the car. They wouldn’t last more than two or three hours. And all of them, I put them, we had a blasting cabinet where you put on these rubber gloves and you sandblast parts and clean them up. This is too much like work. I can make more money begging.

I said, get out of here. So anyway, my heart isn’t too soft for those kind of people. Now, if somebody knows somebody needs help, or we can help them, that’s a different thing. But anyway, all of that happened. So the equipping of the saints, we want you guys to do the ministry. That’s the real church. If you’re developing that, think how strong it gets in the community, and that’s when the community really changes. In 2 Timothy this is a trust worthy, this saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with Him we also live with Him. If we endure we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him He will also deny us. If we are faithless He remains faithful for He cannot deny Himself. Notice that life hinges upon his life. It’s not you, it’s God doing the work. You surrender, you’re the slave to God, he does the work, he’s the one that makes you alive. You know, people get all hyped up and, I’ve got to work, I’ve got to do this. Yeah, in a human sense, but in the real theological sense it’s not you, it’s God who’s doing it, who gave you life, who created you.

God did. And when you bend your knee to Him and ask Him to make you into that new person, He is the one that is going to do that. James 2.26, for as the body apart from the Spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. So once we are alive in Him, what happens? He will make us do those works. Those works just naturally happen. They are not works to to get saved there works because you’re saved, right? And then 1 Peter 1, 20 through 25, he has foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in this last times for your sake, who through him are believers in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love.

love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not a perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God, for all flesh is like grass, all is glory like the flower of the grass, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So that is the ultimate thing, right? That we are imperishable now.

forever. That’s the other crazy thing, you know, people that don’t believe in God. Once they’re born, they actually have eternal quote life. They are eternal beings. Do they want to spend eternity with God or away from God? But once they’re born they’re eternal beings. And when you, I’ve told several people, you know, I’m an atheist, I don’t believe that, that kind of sobers them up sometimes when you mention that to them. It’s not a question of are you going to live, it’s a question of who are you going to live with. So anyway, that’s that. Then in the last verse is the verse that I always use for people to know that He is conforming you to the image of His Son. 1 John 3.1, see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who

thus hopes in Him purifies Himself as He is pure. So it’s a promise to us. The last little thought, and this also is a quote out of the Lordship Salvation Book, a true disciple tends to follow the Lord even at the expense of his own self. Now notice there’s a couple of fudge words in there. The true disciple tends to follow the Lord. In other words, that’s his habit of life following the Lord, even at the expense of his own self. And a lot of times you get up in the morning, you’re raring to go, you know this is going to be a great day, and five minutes later the phone rings or you get a message and you realize everything you planned is not going to happen that way.

You’re going to do something totally different. And what you do at that point is you throw up that quick prayer like, God, you know my heart, you know how I’m feeling right now, and you know that I think it’s really important what I’ve got to do. this seems more important, what should I do? Follow that instinct, know that. And sometimes it can be a wreck. And sometimes you quote, waste your whole day. You didn’t waste your day. You were, you know, you were an integral part of what’s going on trying to help somebody. And in those days there’s that 70 times seven. How many times do I have to forgive my brother? 70 times 7, you know.

Okay, that’s a lot. So when you reach 490, then complain to me. Anyway, all right, so be dead to the old self, obviously, and be dead to the new self if the new self wants to become the old self. But when the new self is being encouraged by God, live it to the fullest. And when you do that, you are building up His body. You’re building His church. You’re building the disciples that you created for which you were sent out on your commission. So do all of that and have a good time and laugh too. Laugh and feast as we like to say around here. So that’s it. Father, thank you for this time. And we thank you for the food and the preparations that have been made and help us to stay on track now with the schedule and have a good time and learn what you would have us learn from these times in your son’s name, amen.