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so continuing our discussion on the uh devoting themselves to the apostles teaching in Acts chapter 2 verse 42 I'm going to hopefully finish up with that one today talking in particular
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about how we go about it here at Fellowship Bible Fellowship Bible Church um or at least how we have attempted to go about it over the years and um it has to do
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with two words that that I kind of incorporated into the sermon a few weeks
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exposure and effort alliterating there hopefully to help make it more or easy to remember um the the EXP exposure is is
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kind of our job Mark myself um those who teach Sunday school both the adult and the the the the younger uh folks Among Us that is the
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exposure and um since well maybe the 17th century certainly the 18th century in protestantism for much longer than that
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within Catholicism exposure essentially meant the sermon the sermon and and so you know one of the questions I think that we need to ask ourselves as Believers is is that enough exposure to
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God's word to word to fulfill um Ephesians 4 where we read of the gifts that Christ gave to the church Gifts of
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men and he mentioned some as Apostles this is in verse 11 some as prophets and some as as evangelists and some as pastors and pastors and teachers for the equipping of the Saints and the purpose of that is for
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the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ so we have this kind of called to Arms in terms of the
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Teaching Ministry or the speaking gifts within the church and that is the um the um the purpose is the equipping
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we've talked when we've talked about this before we've talked about the uh the wicked the wicked comma uh in verse 12 right after the
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word Saints um some English versions have a comma there which which indicates that it is the work of the pastors and teachers not only to equip the Saints
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but also to do the work of service and also to do the building up of the church that's that's clericalism that you have a clergy that is responsible for what goes on in the church generally speaking
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protestantism since Martin Luther has rejected clericalism emphasizing the overall Biblical teaching in the New Testament of the priesthood of all
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believers um and in fact you can refute the comma with the apostles own words in Acts chapter 6 it is not suitable for us to to neglect the ministry of the word
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in order to serve tables okay so the work of service is for those who have been gifted with the service oriented gifts the work of teaching is for those
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who have been gifted with the speaking oriented gifts that kind of outlines what we read in both Paul and Peter and also what we see in the early Church in acts so when we look at the the the
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function of the pastor teacher and that those um two words in verse 11 are unique from all of the others in that the phrase he gave some is not in
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front of teachers it's in front of pastors and teachers those two words Pastor pointman teacher uh dcas teaching
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and shepherding are essentially then you find the P the um responsibility of Elders you find those two verbs in association with Elders so this is the
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job of the Elder Ministry the Teaching Ministry is to equip the
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Saints this then is the job of the Saints and I would say it is also the job of the elders as Saints or as sheep within the
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flock so it's not again clericalism it's not that you you uh you as an you know you want to really be an elder because then you don't have to wash dishes uh no
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it's not that type of um separation it's that there's one group within the hole that has been gifted and made responsible for equipping the whole
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including themselves okay and the purpose of both then is this that's a common theme in Paul's letters
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the building up of the body the edification he says in Corinthians when he's talking about the spiritual gifts he said let all things be done for edification which means for building up
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okay so he's talking about tongues versus prophecy whatever it may be if it doesn't build up the body then to Paul it's it's illegitimate within the
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assembly it may be perfectly illegitimate at home okay but it's not he says it himself he said I'd rather you know speak one word of edification than 10,000 words in a
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tongue okay so um I don't know this verse has always been very very important to me in terms of the purpose of gathering why are we here but it
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leads to that question is the sermon enough is one weekly okay and I I put two e there not
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an EA um because that that's an important distinction but it's one sermon enough I love the English
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language um again to to most they would say yeah in fact it's more than enough uh and that's that's the case in in many the lives of many professing
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Christians in our country that um getting a weekly sermon is really above average in today's Evangelical World Yuri and then Ariel I find myself
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messages that maybe that's where you you get a lot of these then yes okay yeah you get you get a lot of the weekly sermons um well now that that's true you're in an environment and that where
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um and some people are in that kind of environment but Ariel what was I was just going to ask if you could expand on the the building up of the body when Paul says that what is his
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thought what is he where is that coming from I don't really remember in the old we read about the building of the Tabernacle and the building of the temple is that what he's bringing
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forward into the new finished work or is it just be positive don't tear each other down which we hear a lot of now in our
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world but what what is the building up well um he he goes into that in Ephesians uh in that same passage our
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goal is the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God which he calls a mature man the measurement or the measure of the statute which belongs to the fullness of Christ now he's already called The Church the fullness
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of him who fills all in all so ultimately it's being built up into Jesus Christ now that can go back to Romans 12 where he says be transformed
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by the renewing of your mind um I think it's you know in a practical standpoint it's learning who God is what God has done and what we ought to do about
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it so in a sense it's it's theology uh soteriology and then ethics how then shall we live Paul Peter asks
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but in terms of the temple that is the connection between the levitical priesthood we talked Thursday night about the the leit the Le levitical priest was responsible to extract the
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precious from the vile Jeremiah in chapter 15 mentions if if you will do this God God says he will bless you if you will extract the precious from the vial meaning there's much that that goes
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on in in life that is vile well that speaks to what Yuri Wasing yeah that the the the the the false uh sermons th those are vile and
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you read about that in the in the period of the English Civil War the the episcopacy and their and their homilies they they were vile and um the folks many of the folks who settled North
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America were fleeing from that they they tried to extract it but they couldn't so they left but that idea of of when we look at it's equipping the Saints to be able to
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perceive the world in which they live while maintaining steadfastly both their faith and their hope but also we've been talking about
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this on Thursday night it is what enables the church to have the prophetic voice that it is supposed to have in in the world okay that's not usually
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something that we talk about in evangelicalism and today you don't see the church with much of a prophetic voice in the world so it it's a lot of things but in terms of the temple if you
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turn over to chapter two of the same book Peter is talking about what God has done in Christ making the two Jews and
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Gentiles one new man verse 15 and he says so you are no longer strangers and Aliens but you are fellow citizens with the Saints so there's there's again the
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coming together that he's going to talk about in chapter 4 and are of God's household and it uses the same phrase having been built upon the foundation of the Apostles and
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Prophets Christ Jesus himself being the Cornerstone in whom the whole building now over in chapter four it's the whole body so it's it's it's two metaphors but
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it's the same thing the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy Temple in the Lord there's that Temple Peter refers to it as living
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stones so the the idea of the temple I think needs to be foremost on Thursday nights we've been talking about the difference between tower building going back to Babel tower
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building is what the world does temple building is what God is doing and we are the living stones of that Temple so in a sense this this equipping of the Saints
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is the shaping of the stones using the word of God as the
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Chisel the building of the body is not a num thing no no it's not a numbers thing but purpose of God from choosing Israel
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hasn't changed for his glory I mean the purpose of us here is for the world to know about him right by our witness purpose of the Jewish Nation him choosing the
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jewi nation is not other for the world to know who he is it was never the Jewish nation's responsibility before God to change the
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world around it it was the responsibility of the Jewish Nation to live faithfully and obediently before their God their God that the world around them might see and
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that God might be glorified that's the same now same today okay it is not the church's responsibility to change the world and I'm going to be a little bit
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Bolder I'm going to say it's not even the church's responsibility to evangelize the evangelize the world that's God's responsibility now the church is an instrument in that process in that
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purpose the preaching of the Gospel and the teaching of the doctrines of Truth are part of that Divine Evangelistic movement but we are not his hands we are
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not his feet he is not helpless without us you know that concept is Blasphemous but it's used very much in modern Evangelistic rallies is that if you
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don't go who will go um read that passage again before you you know quote Isaiah 6 so the the purpose here in the church
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why are we here the idea of a Seeker sensitive church is church is idiotic when Paul has said there are none that seek after God no not one so
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Seeker sensitive churches ought to be empty the idea that a church should be uh structured its liturgy should be structured over what appeals to
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unbelievers again that's not only idiotic that's dangerous okay that's that's Folly um but that that is the guideline for example of Rick Warren if you read his purpose-- driven church
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that's how he organized Saddleback was by interviewing unbelievers and asking them what would you find attractive in a church okay and of course you have a
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coffee bar and you you know you have the things that the world would be attracted by but certainly not Evangelistic gospel centered sermons um so the what the church is doing and and this has been
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prevalent since um Charles Finny in the early the 19th century the idea that the purpose of the church is to evangelize the purpose of the church is
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the building up of the body of Christ we read even in Acts that as they did devote themselves to the apostles teaching and to prayer into fellowship and the breaking of bread who was it
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that added to their number daily those who would be saved God did not Peter not even the pope he didn't have God was adding to their number every every day
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okay now again that that can often be viewed as oh well then you don't evangelize no that that's not the point the point is that's not the purpose that's not the reason for being because as God is adding to the
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number of the church are there any places for these new Believers to actually be fed nourished and built up in their faith
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the Billy Graham organization estimates that 10% or less of those who have come forward in their Evangelistic rallies are still attending a church on a
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regular basis is that evangelism I mean that's the Billy Graham Association itself publicly admitting now what they say is the Fault is the
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churches the churches are not keeping these people so they're they're falling back into the world I would say they were never saved to begin with the fault is on both sides
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the idea of the Evangelistic rally that is disassociated from the local church sews the seed of apostasy as it's
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sewing the gospel but that's neither here nor there as far as our discussion if if this is the responsibility and this is the goal this is not
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enough and during the Reformation that was one of the primary features of the reformed churches is that not only did they have the Sunday service with the
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sermon they would then have weekday lectures and they would have um other services during the week they didn't necessarily have a midweek Bible study
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or prayer service which is what it's often called the Wednesday night prayer meeting um but we've gotten away from the teaching aspect of the uh of
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the church and again most people think that a weekly sermon is enough now they might also say well no that's not all I get because I listen to so and so you
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know as I drive to work every day I listen to um you know the latest Evangelical radio preacher I I I can think of some but I'm not naming any
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um or I go to I go to a Bible Study Fellowship on Tuesday evenings right so it's it's not that people are necessarily ignoring their own
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discipleship and learning it's that it's no longer in association with the local body I would even want to
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ask I would want to ask is investing the weekly sermon with responsibility of teaching the body taking other things away from away from the thepose of
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preaching there there is a a Greek word that shows up in especially in Acts but also in the Pauline letters kma um it it's interesting word it um it definitely does not mean to
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teach that is uh dasas or dcos the different teaching or to teach dactic where we get the word dactic comes from the Greek word to teach it's interesting
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that that in the book of Acts we read of the Apostles doing both preaching and teaching okay um and and I don't think that's just um uh synonyms for
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emphasis and in fact especially in the reformed tradition it's been recognized that the word krima is an exhortative has a has an exhortative
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characteristic whereas teaching has more of of a um systematic teaching is more the idea of of building block upon block building
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knowledge kma or preaching has more to do with the exhortation that companies that teaching that teaching alone without the preaching becomes cerebral
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and intellectual it never you know you've heard it never makes that 18inch Journey from the head to the heart you know you've heard that um but um it the the point here is it never becomes it's
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never viewed as well Paul uses the phrase The Obedience of faith that that our faith is not just intellectual Ascent to the doctrines if it doesn't have the
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component of obedience to God's word then it's not biblical Faith but we leave it to God to make that judgment because so
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often people Sinners who profess faith in Jesus Christ are then never
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taught whatever that word is would that be more like when Paul was talking before the rulers of Rome and basically laying out what they already knew from history and oh by the way Jesus he was
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the fillment of all this yes what what Paul does he was more preaching right Paul's in Paul's defense statements and Paul's defense before the Jews when he's
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speaking in the Public Square in Ephesus um that that would probably be considered preaching and then when Paul says you know day and night for three and a half years I did not cease to
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teach you the whole Council of scripture you could say okay that's teaching that's that's okay you you don't have to be taught to become a
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Believer but as a Believer you have to be taught to survive you're you're a new creation you've been born again and teaching then becomes the the sustenance the
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nourishment but the preaching doesn't again it's so often thought that you know once you've been once you've been saved you don't need the preaching anymore because you're saved that that
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ties preaching entirely with evangelism but it's not I mean most of if you if you look I would say and this has been done I do not equate preaching and prophesying okay many reformed
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theologians say well that's basically what Pro there's no prophets anymore because now we have preachers I don't think so but the preaching does have more of the prophetic
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element whereas the teaching has more of the Priestly element the levitical where they were they were they were scattered throughout the tribes of Israel in order
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to teach the law to the various tribes of Israel that's one of the reasons why they were not granted their own inheritance is that they were to be sown as or or put in as leaven into the whole
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lump of Israel and their responsibility was not simply to sacrifice there were far too many Levites to be needed to kill bulls and that was only the family of Aaron anyhow
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their responsibility was to teach the law to the people okay so that that teaching becomes in a sense even more important than the
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preaching and and that's that's somewhat radical to say as a reformed Theologian because the preaching is is is often viewed as the absolute centerpiece of Christian existence is the
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sermon well it's important yes but I think that's making that's making of the sermon what the Roman Catholic Church made of the mass it really is making an idol of
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it so um I don't want to go there but I do think it's important especially as reformed Believers to realize that well yeah the sermon needs to be good it
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needs to be have biblical content and it really should and not not by means of as Paul says not by means of eloquence but by the Holy Spirit it should stir us to
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love and Good Deeds it should stir us to adoration and worship it should stir us to obedience and to sacrifice I mean it it is important because it does tend to
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to touch a part of our psyche that is not taught by the chemistry teacher okay the the part I I don't know I've I've never had a student that got
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you know started shouting Hallelujah when although when they finally balance their first equation they got close but uh but that's not you know there's a difference between presenting material
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in a systematic logical connected manner that's teaching but that is the foundation for preaching and for raising up those who will continue the ministry
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or preaching but also it's the foundation of all worship it's the foundation of prayer because Jesus says if you pray according to his will you
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will have what you ask well you got to know what that will is I'm all about mid listen other I'm sure you read
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people that you might agree with or disagree but it Canad some people to doubt what their p is saying and move to a different church or create some kind
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of an Amal in their head that doesn't fit any church because they they have an idea like constru IDE
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preacher and they'll never be able to well yes yeah they they kind of amalgamate the different preachers um that they listen to that that's true um and they end up listening to you know
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like da waser or something like that like no no no it's a two different people um and and I I can say just just recently an issue that was was not a
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matter of of Faith or Fellowship it was I thought a quite Mo modern minor issue but Mark and I both had lengthy discussion with with someone who had
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been attending our church and and then I found out we were we were basically trumped by a pastor they knew in Texas you know so yeah that that happens you you get you get and I'm not saying that
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you should never listen I don't I don't believe that I think you're fine reading and listening when it's entirely outside the context of the local Fellowship there's none of this going on that's my point
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you you might actually be um building up your own understanding and that and the people you're listening to may be good and godly and spoton in terms of what they're
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L because Doan your speak probably yeah and that's the spirit of Corinth you know I am of Paul I am of sephus I am of Apollos um and it is easy with a modern
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with our technology you know with with the earbuds and we can listen to to just about anybody anytime now and there's nothing wrong with that
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inherently but what is it doing here I don't agree that that's not a good thing because we need to look at the goal the body is not just the local
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body it's the fullness of Christ and so I'm put in mind of first king 6 told that no work no chisel was used on the stones of the temple on the Temple Mount
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so here we are the kingdom isn't here yet but we're being shaped as stones for the fullness of Christ that new Temple and I think that the
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stones they need to get worked they need to get worked in the church the difference is and we've talked at length about that concept I mean does this really mean the local church every one
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of Paul's letter was to a local church it wasn't to the church in general the concept of The Universal Church what's that they got circulated yes to local churches the nothing I mean
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the idea that the universal church is what Paul is addressing um is is actually an impractical concept because what he's saying is incredibly practical what he
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then exhorts people to do he is for example in Corinth he exhorts that congregation to do both in terms of edification and of discipline it's
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always the local body so we we know that God is building Church Christ is building his church worldwide and ages
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wide so if we are that and I will fully agree that that that does mean that I can benefit from the Teaching Ministry of people who are not part of my local
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body I do and I can also benefit by the Teaching Ministry of people who are no longer alive I do okay um but I do not see where the purpose of that can be
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anything practically speaking and Pauline speaking can be anything other than the local congregation
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Church the generational aspect is very important um we we often talk about second Timothy 2 verse two that which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and Trust to Faithful Men Who will then teach others after
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them that passing along of the generational um it could be said well that's again that's the respon responsibility of the parents and it is
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but the purpose of the church is to equip those parents and also to come alongside through the Teaching Ministry and ass assist the parents in teaching
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the doctrines of Faith to their children so I so I I on the one hand I I fully accept and embrace the the catholicity of the
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church and and again I I've told people if if you know you could look at my library and see that I embrace the catholicity of the church I have lutherans I have episcopalians I have
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Catholics because God has not he's never isolated truth and knowledge to one denomination even though many
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denominations claims that he has he has not um in addition I think there's much to be learned from the unbelieving world you know there's the we have not been
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given all knowledge we've just simply been given awareness and comprehension of God's Redemptive plan but there are some Greek and Hebrew Scholars
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historians that are not Believers but what they know and what they teach sheds light on the truth of God's Redemptive history so I I'm not I'm not in any way
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negating who you listen to during the week um what Bible study you might go to I think the challenge is and and of course of course you do have to answer it on your own I can't answer it for you
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but what is it that conduces to the building up of the body and the building up of the body is more than just the Assembly of the families that families that attend we're not just attending as this
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family that family we're attending as children of God brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ and as one another the metaphor is we are the household we are
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the body we are the family and that's something that's hard for many uh Believers to to to transcend the thought of my responsibility as a father
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or as a mother versus my responsibility as a Believer as a living Stone within the Holy
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Temple and when these letters were being written they were being WR
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yeah build it local know local I no it right we're not local we're spread out a whole lot further you know we used to have a
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map um of the area and you know the pins is showing in and people from Simpsonville people from Slater Marietta people from traveler's rest um Lyman
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yeah we have people from a lot of different places so the word local and and you add in technology I mean if you you look at these satellite churches are they local
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they local churches when they're they're basically coming together to listen to a preacher who might be in Charleston or in Portland or no not Portland Oregon they
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don't they don't have those things in Portland Oregon Portland Oregon um but I mean the building of the body are the exact words right not the
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building of the local no that it's not the building up of the local body no um it the word local is not there I mean so we are we are extrapolating and
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interpret interpreting but what we're what we're seeing here about the localness of it is that most of his letters have individual greetings and speak of the churches that
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meet in their homes of these people um also when you when you look at what we are exhorted to do it's not possible to
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do it talk people churches believe in house churches were just talking about the guy that runs that's part of his philosophy
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written books about right yes I don't know that's what they were doing back then right maybe I don't know well that um I think that that will be a
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good the the House Church movement started in around back around the 1970s it has been chronic throughout the history of the church because it it was apparent that they met from house to house but they also met in the temple
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okay so you you don't necessarily throw the baby out with the bath water here it it's very easy to see some of the things they did and say that's what we're going to do they also you know did they wash one another's feet well Jesus did that
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but they apparently didn't you know so they met day by day do we do that do they meet day by day at their house if they don't then they can't really claim that they're doing it their way because
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they're only doing one part of it their way so that gets tricky Abigail I think we see in the rest of chapter that what he means by the body fellow belever that you interact
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with on aily basis go to build up the body putting away false speaking truth your neighbor not sitting against one another
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not letting the son go down on your anger not speaking corrupting talk but building up and this is stuff that you do with the people that you interact
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with day in and day out it's not stuff that you do with a pastor from the other side of the world that you like to listen to so I think local body not
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everybody who's living in the sameish the same neighborhood but the fellow believer that you actually intera but that Parish notion is interesting
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that the for the vast majority of the history of the church the parish idea was the was the church's response to the Pauline letters and that is that the the
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church would then divvy up the community the city into parishes each one would get a parish priest or a Rector and that those families were
37:04
expected to attend church at the Parish Church the point being is that it has been largely recognized throughout the history of the church up until the modern era in the
37:15
west that the practical application of what we learn in Doctrine is among a relatively local body of believers what
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we have done is we have separated doctrinal uh views to geographical position right does that make sense we now attend churches that
37:39
we agree with in terms of their Doctrine and their liturgy versus our forefathers who attended churches based on that's the one in our community
37:53
geographically what do you think our mechanism within the church is to par through all this my concern is that listening to these people from all over the place it's just so passive
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right I'm just taking all this information in often while I'm driving or doing other things and I don't have I don't have the time to validate these things and I find it creating these
38:15
weird ideas that I don't ever have the time to check out so I've had to be diligent about really cutting back on that these are people who don't know me they don't was leadership so I'm just curious
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what you think the mechanism for us as we kind of take all this stuff within
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correcting passive well it's it's a i it's a huge Challenge and and I I do I did preach a sermon earlier this year on be careful how you listen um because
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there there is an extent I frankly the the availability of good Bible teaching and with it bad Bible teaching
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but just the availability of all sorts of media makes the Pastoral job almost impossible okay it's just a realization
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and I remember saying this in in seminary I was at a presbyterian Seminary and these these young men were and I was older than them I was in my 30s they were usually um not shaving yet
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scene but they just had such a polyana view of how they were going to preach and all their parishioners will say amen and everything they would teach they would
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believe I believe I said 90% of your parishioners are getting their eschatology from Tim Le okay this is a fact now we might say
39:51
JK Rowling I don't know but you know it it's just you got to realize from the from from the POS from the position of a pastorate there's just so much information out there and we are a
40:03
society of information consumers so we can float back and forth there's a church on uh between here and Paris Mountain State Park where they put up a quote not one of the their own I
40:15
mean somebody famous in the church but they'll quote um they'll quote JC RI and then next week Watchman knee I'm like they're all over the place
40:27
there these quotes if they had any idea of who they're quoting they would realize that they are advocating schizophrenia you know and that's what but that's what's happening in the churches and that's an excellent
40:38
question how do we parse this and I'm going to get to it in a moment but Lauren had her hand up so I'll
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mention well it takes a village to raise a family doesn't it right right
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there the the family metaphor and being baptized into a body the the the body metaphor is also very localized when Paul talks about when one member suffers all suffer he's
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using the metaphor of of the body and so to to to to atomize That Into You Know The Universal Church well you know
42:09
frankly I don't suffer for the suffering of the church in Indonesia like I suffer when a member of my local congregation is suffering I
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don't even I'm not even aware of it but there's been mentioned also just kind of Illusion but I want to point out also that the elders are those who must give
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an account for those who have been entrusted to their care so even the idea of a flock is once again localized yeah we are all the sheep of the Lord Jesus
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Christ but we are in a flock that has Shepherds and those Shepherds must give an account for the souls within that flock I'm not called upon to give an
42:57
account for The Souls of First Baptist or third Presbyterian or they're they're not within my charge or Mark's charge so again I think the overall true the word
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local isn't there um and our but I think we have to realize that it is it is really our ultramodern culture that has made the world such a
43:21
small place that throughout most of the church's history this wouldn't even be a discussion because most people didn't travel more than 15 miles from the place where they were born in their entire
43:33
life okay now I'm not saying we go back to that I'm not saying that at all we live in the world that we live in providentially God raised us up for just such a time as this and I'm not saying
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that there's no benefit from these other teachers I also listen and read okay and I I think it's actually a greater danger of being too in
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olated to where you begin to all collectively stare at your navels and that's not good either because if if falsehood does get in it will have
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almost a petri dish to grow in and that's the that's the uh characteristic of a of a cult so you know I I think there is some balance here but to parse it it's it's
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this right here what am I doing and what what am I eming and then what impact does it have on the other believers around me okay Yuri don't we suffer when
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someone says something stupid to the media yeah well I suffer but that's not this not you know when when something is said you know stupid in the Name of Christ that's kind of painful
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yes we're Evangel theyel so when we say we're of that yeah but that but but unfortunately because that's not the local body there's nothing I can do about it there we're not divorced from the rest of the body when when when we have
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a movement that we might call jerks for Jesus clearly spouting hatred and violence or just saying things that are stupid that's painful because we know
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that that that impacts the cause of Christ and of the church everywhere so that you know and when and the same thing is true when a a preacher or a
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pastor um Falls in sin the whole church suffers that's true so there so there isn't there's an absolute element that we are a universal
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church there's a positive side to that in that when we do encounter Believers even from other countries there's almost an immediate Union of heart even if
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there's a difference in Doctrine we we are you we are brought together by The Same Spirit but I'm not again I'm not as a pastor responsible before the Lord for
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their soul okay and their Doctrine is also not my responsibility we're not saved by saved by Doctrine but my
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responsibility is to equip Saints they hopefully if they're a pastor they have the same responsibility but in a different flock and how we discharge that responsibility
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is according to the wisdom God gives us but I think fundamentally according to the word God gives us Ariel I guess then go back to your question that you is one weekly
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that that question is not really for us to answer as the body but for the pastors to answer sermon and teaching based on what their flock needs yeah back to the stones if you got stones
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that are working they're squaring up nicely great if you got stones that are resisting you and they're pitted and they you know they've tumbled a lot you
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have to work them more right the goal is to create those stones that are square and ready for the kingdom yeah however that's not the only uh Factor
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uh Factor anymore um that that used to be for example in Geneva that was all that was important because once the consist which consisted of the some of the city
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council and the pastors once they decided which how much is enough it was then required of everybody in the city to have
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to have enough okay on penalty of fine or imprisonment so that there was there would been times in the church's history that it was entirely up to the pastors to determine how much is enough because
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they had the Civil sword to enforce that we don't have that anymore and I wouldn't want it okay so it's it's now I think as it has always been because most
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of what Paul writes is exhortative and and very few of the churches to which Paul write wrote were doing it the way he would like them to
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do it they were choosing other things and other paths and and much of what he's writing is saying that is that he doesn't say this but but that is friendship with the world which means
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enmity with God so it is a two-way street now Mark and I are responsible for establishing what we feel is is the best
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exposure currently we do not have a Sunday evening service and that is the reason we there is possible to have too much exposure it's
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also possible to as as you can exasperate your children you can exasperate your congregation too not the job
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anything but but that is God's work through the life of that person as he molds that person you cannot mold me but through the ministry of teaching he is molding
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you no I I don't think that you have that ability I think you can expose me to the word of God that's why I use that word about yeah but it is the work of God himself that brings experiences and
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life things to me to Mo do you have any part to play in it that do you have any part sure sure that's this right here I don't know if it's AER conception to think that your responsibility is
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to me I don't I don't think I don't think that's what Ariel meant I you know I think we we accept that Mark and I cannot change
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cannot change anyone as much as we would want to but that's also true of parenting I mean there's a there's a there's a point at which you you cannot make your
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child be exactly what you want him to be or her to be that's not given to you it's not given to Mark or to me to make you into what God intends for you to be
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our our purpose is to expose okay now in doing that we are instruments in God's hands I think that's what you would you would agree with with that you have what
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I was trying try to say was that if any Elders looks out at their flock doing their job and they see that the flock is being wooed led astray by
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falsehood then it would make sense for the elders to choose to expose the flock to more teaching more correct teaching well that and that and that often guides
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Us in both preaching and teaching as to what we perceive the flock needs in terms of of ification nourishment but also to perceive what dangers the flocks
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are in you know the the the dangers in the world around us but what what I'm trying to say is we can make the exposure but and we're not going to get
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to this to this today we all have to make the effort okay so even as I said earlier even the one weekly sermon is more than
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enough for many professing Christians so to go beyond that and to say a Sunday evening service a Wednesday evening service a Thursday evening theology class or in Geneva morning lectures
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afternoon lectures you know that that is Way Beyond what Christians in the United States would do would do today right so um I I still think the
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question is both pastoral and personal okay the the Pastoral side of it and perspective is to to expose sufficiently without
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exasperating and we're going to get into that I I wanted to get into age appropriate teaching and the idea of milk and meat okay that that's a Biblical concept that is being lost in
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evangelicalism that that the human body is not immediately prepared to ingest solid food but that the older human body must
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have solid food for survival okay we've Blended that now to where there's no practical distinction between milk and meat left in either
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there's no meat at all or everybody bellies up to the table for a for a T-bone and there's a danger in that and I want to bring that out but it has to
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do it's pastoral in the sense that we don't want to exasperate overexpose I think frankly Calvin Overexposed the people of
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Geneva by by having the authority through the consist and through the city government to enforce attendance on multiple multiple multiple teachings it
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basically overwhelmed people more than they could process okay so that there's that side of it but then there's the personal side of it and that is how much is enough for
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me as a believer but we'll have to stop with that well Ed go ahead and we'll stop
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dois how do we now um that's really where I was headed how do we navigate that um but it's uh very brief answer it depends on the format so for example the sermon because we're all
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gathered together the sermon has to have both milk and meat because there's going to be people there will be people in the congregation who need the milk they need the they
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need the EST The Establishment in in the doctrines and then there will be those that have been established in the doctrine and they need to be taken deeper that's the meat so they have to
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there's a there's almost there's more of a schoras board in a in a sermon but then we offer other types of teaching including Sunday school but Thursday
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night Sunday school for the younger people where we've developed curriculum that is geared more milk or meat me I
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don't think there's a lot of milk on the table Thursday table Thursday nights that's basically we're trying to get into the word and learn the meat of
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it so that's that's that is that is our responsibility in the exposure next week Lord willing we'll talk about our responsibility and the
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effort let's close in prayer father we thank you that you have given us a desire to learn and even to learn how to learn learn what to learn
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and even how often to learn and I do Rejoice that there is there is so much interest in this body in your word and I pray that that would
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continue I earnestly desire that that would be characteristic of this building this body so long as it meets together wherever it meets would be a hunger for
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your word and not only to build up our understanding but to motivate us to worship and to obedience For Your Glory
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and for our good we pray that this would continue by your grace through Jesus
