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Welcome to ECB's Weekly Sermon Podcast. ECB is an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,

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with dozens of nationalities worshipping together. We invite you to connect with us from wherever

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you are through our website, ecb.asia, or our mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed

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by this week's sermon. Welcome to ECB. Good morning, everybody. So let me pray before we start.

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King Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, thank you that we can remember that we are not here for ourselves

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on our own. We are following you. And we're asking you as we come together, speak to us through

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your word. Help us see. Bring us to a higher level of following you to a deeper level of intimacy.

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And use me, Lord, in your power, in your grace, in your love. All these things we pray in the

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powerful name of Jesus. Amen. In this series, we learned that when God saved us, it's not that He

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just saved us so we'll die and go to heaven when we die. He saved us now from the kingdom of darkness

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into the kingdom of light. We belong to His kingdom. We have a new citizenship. We are citizens

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of heaven. And as long as we are following Jesus, we are participating with Him in building His

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kingdom. We are making Him known among the nations and we are using all the giftedness and resources

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He has given us just to serve Him in all the capacities of places that He has placed us. And

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we do that with certain things. We learn in the first study that the attitude of this kingdom is

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that adaptability is His plans, His guidance. We just follow Him. And we are adaptable like water.

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We cannot follow Jesus otherwise. We learned last time that the motive of the kingdom is love for

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God. Not fear, not shame, not selfish ambition, but it's our love for God that drives us to pursue

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everything that He calls us to do or to be. And today we're going to be studying the pillars of

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the kingdom. And we have to understand that as we say we are servants devoted to God, we are people

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that love God and serve Him with devotion. That's it. That's what we do. We are His servants. We love

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Him. Therefore we serve Him with devotion. And that's the fullness of the equation. If there's

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only one thing you will remember from all the studies may be this. This is who we are. That's

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what drives us and that's how we serve. We'll discover today that the pillars in this kingdom

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are trustworthy leaders, trustworthy servants. And pillars are very important because they are

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designed to support and sustain everything that is built on them. And as we are building this

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kingdom together and He's working through us to create impact around the world, we need to remember

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that we will be either pillars that He can trust and built on, or we will be faulty pillars that

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will collapse. One or the other. But pillars that collapse are very catastrophic. 30 years ago in

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South Korea in Seoul there was this place that was just known to be like a mall. People would go

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there to buy stuff. It was a department store. They spent about three years building this place

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and people were going out of their normal business. Except that that fateful day of June 30 years ago,

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wow, it collapsed. It became one of the biggest catastrophes in peacetime in the history of

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South Korea. About 500 people died, about a thousand people were injured. And as they started

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researching and understanding, investigating what caused this catastrophe, they discovered that it

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was the faulty pillars. Behind the construction they did things wrong and there was corruption

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and money and different things that happened that sacrificed the integrity of the pillars that were

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supposed to be built and then they collapsed. Some people had to go to jail because of the lack of

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integrity and all the corruption behind it. And some just because of negligence. But you can

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understand that when pillars collapse, it's not just the pillars that suffer. People and families

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suffer too. And in the kingdom of God, as we are God's people and we are building as God leads us

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to build his church, build different initiatives and industries and companies and NGOs, everything

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that God has placed for us to build, it has to be built on the right pillars because it will collapse

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and if it collapses, the damage for God's kingdom and the reputation of Christ is huge.

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Have you ever been hurt by leaders? Have you ever been disappointed, so just disorienting,

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that you had to just leave and it took you a while to kind of recover from it. You know,

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what it looks like when pillars collapse and it's not pretty. And when it comes to the church

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ministry, it's no different. I served in Dallas for 18 years and last year I was reading the New

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York Times and I came across this article that caught my attention and just the title of it

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meant I had to read it. It said this, around Dallas the church scandal seemed to have no end.

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And a pastor with good reputation should not be taken for granted. Now, that's a little bit loud.

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There are plenty of amazing pastors and leaders and ministries in Dallas, but it is also true that

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there are many that are not. Some have collapsed and become big news. And it is sad. I got to

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experience when I was working there a friend of mine that attended a very respectable church with

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a very respectable team and famous preachers, radio stars, you know, and people that everybody

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respected. And one day they had to let go the worship minister because he had been caught in

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adultery. But as my friend had just come out of that weekend where the church had announced it,

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I made it public. He was sad and we were having breakfast together and he looks at me and he says,

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Pablo, you know, I've been reflecting on this and it's just, I realized that we are all adulterous.

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We just haven't done it yet. And what he meant was I realized that anybody has the potential to

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collapse. You and I have the potential to collapse. We just haven't collapsed yet. And it was a wake

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up call for any of us who are following Jesus to pray that silent prayer that says, Lord, let it

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not be me. Let it not be me. That causes people to walk away from you. That puts your name into

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disrepute. And it's not just a modern crisis. The apostle Paul and the early Christians faced it

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that possible was in prison. For instance, at a time when he writes a letter called Philippians

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and as he's writing the letter to the Philippians, he acknowledges something. He says, it is true

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that some of these people are preaching Christ out of envy and rivalry. What people preaching Christ

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out of envy and rivalry. Yeah. But others out of goodwill, the former preach Christ out of selfish

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ambition, not sincerely. What? These people are going and talking about God and Jesus and they are

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doing it out of selfish ambition and they are fake? Yeah. And they suppose that they can stir up

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trouble for me while I'm in chains. Wow. While you were in prison, there were people in churches

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that were actually trying to do that to hurt you? Yes. Faulty pillars. And then Peter warns the

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Christian says, yeah, false teachers. There will be plenty of false teachers. Many will follow their

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depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed, these teachers will

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exploit you with fabricated stories. What? They will make up stories to get money out of you? Yes.

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That brought memories of my college years. I went to a college called Rio Grande Bible College in

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South Texas that had a radio ministry. So you could work part time if you wanted in the radio

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and different things there. And in that place, in that city, there were lots of plenty of radio

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programs from other places. And I remember this radio program where the person would say, okay,

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send us the desires of your heart. Write it in a list and put money in it and send the envelope.

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And we will pray for the desires of your heart because they call the Bible, delight yourself in

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the Lord and God will give you the desires of your heart. So if you want the desires of your heart,

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send us your money and we'll pray for you. But here's the trick. If you send it a hundred dollars,

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then God will give you 10 times that, you know, a thousand. Well, if you send us a thousand,

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God will give you 10,000. So if you are smart, right, or not, send us more and you will get more

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back. And that was a prosperity theology in that area that was in the radio all the time. Yes,

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faulty pillars. That's why the apostle Paul tells Timothy, Timothy, don't be like that. You be a

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solid pillar for the kingdom. You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

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And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, we need to entrust

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these things to whom? Will you read it out loud with me? Entrust to reliable people who will also

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be qualified to teach others. Will you read that out again? Entrust to reliable people who will

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also be qualified to teach others. Trustworthy, reliable people, trustworthy servants. That is

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what we need. And the servant of God is not a person that is driven by selfish ambition and

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fake and using people for their own financial benefit. No. Paul tells Timothy the servant of

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God is different and the lower servant must not be quarrelsome, must be kind to everyone, able to

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teach, not resentful. The inner health of a servant devoted to God matters because it's that inner

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health that determines the quality of what kind of pillar you are and whether God can entrust you

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with things to build or not. And that goes for all of us. So at the beginning of the church,

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you could see that the need for reliable trustworthy pillars was there and it is even today as I speak.

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This is how the kingdom is built. But as the first Christians, as God started this movement,

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followers of Jesus started spreading and growing, they had to face some challenges and they started

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asking three important questions as they started building these pillars. Let me tell you a little

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bit of that and also a little bit of background first. You might remember that when Jesus ascended

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to heaven, before he ascended to heaven, he met with the apostles and he told them, you know,

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wait for the Holy Spirit and then you will be my witnesses in Judea Samaria till the ends of the

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earth. So they waited, they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and the apostle Peter preached the

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gospel for the first time and there he tells us that on that day, 3,000 people came to know Christ.

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Just the day of the opening. How would you like to have a business like that? You have your business

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idea, you're in the process of implementing it, you open the business, 3,000 clients right there,

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first day, nice, except that you're not prepared for that growth and it creates crisis and how do

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we deal with so many people and that created a workload that required pillars, trustworthy

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pillars that could support it. And then in the New Testament theology there, therefore, one of the

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things that emerged is that there were two kinds of roles within the Christian community that

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started taking shape. These were people that God had called to take the load and build and lead in

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different ways. One of those pillars had to do with the aspect of governance and the other one had

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to do with the aspect of execution. One is direction and where we're going with all of this,

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with the church and the other one was how do we keep executing all these needs that need to happen.

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And these two different pillars, whether it be governance or execution, became formalized in the

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early church and there were very specific words that were used to describe these roles. Right here

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in this slide, the Greek word, so actually you can see it, this is the original language in which the

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New Testament was written. And in the aspect of the leaders that God was calling for governance,

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there were three words that were used to describe the same group. One of the words was poiment.

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Poiment was a shepherd, a shepherd that cares for the sheep. And the Greek word for pastor is that,

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it's shepherd. In Spanish, pastor in Greek, pastor in Spanish is the same and you're able to

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understand, oh a pastor is the person that takes care of the sheep. But in English you don't,

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a pastor you don't call a shepherd, a pastor. So sometimes it's lost in translation but that's

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the idea. Shepherds, people that would take care of the flock. The other word was episkopos.

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Episcopos means overseer. People that could oversee the whole organization and make sure

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that it's healthy, organizational health. And then the next word was presbuteros. Presbuteros

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mean elders. These were mature, godly men that were seasoned faith servant. In fact,

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Jesus is called a diaconos at some point. It's not just a word to describe an office but it's

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like someone who serves is a servant, is a diaconos. And here that word became a word to

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describe this function of this group of people that were just people that God was calling to

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help in the execution of things. And therefore these two pillars developed at the beginning of

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the church community. You have the elders that worked in organizational health, doctrinal

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integrity and shepherding. And then you had the servants or the diaconos that worked in support,

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mobilization, administration of all of these things. And that is what took shape at the

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beginning of the ministry of the New Testament. These were the pillars that were established.

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Now there's a lot to say about this topic but I cannot address all of it in this study but I can

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lead you to some literature about it. If you have questions about this, there's a book that's

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actually called 40 Questions about Elders and Deacons. And it's written to help you understand

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what is the biblical teaching about it, what are the different views about, can women be

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deacons or elders, what about the requirements, what about divorced people, what about this and

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that. It's like it answers lots of questions. You may agree or not with it but at least it gives you

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an answer. Look at that if you have questions. But go back to the study now. As we go back to the

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book of Acts and understand how this emerged and how these pillars took shape and how the church

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started building the kingdom, they face these three questions. The first one, do we have the

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right structure? Because if they didn't have the right structure it will collapse. And the

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beginning of how this worked was right there in Acts chapter 6. It says, in those days, at the

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very beginning of the church, when the number of disciples was increasing, no joke, 3,000 people

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in one day, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because

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their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. Oh, it was a problem. As the

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first Christians started growing, there were some widows that needed help with food and some other

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people that lacked resources that needed help with food. Many of them had come to Jerusalem from

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other parts of the empire during that time of Pentecost and the national celebrations. So there

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were lots of people in Jerusalem at that time. And now you have all these Christians in this

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community and they realize we need to help with food. Okay, let's start helping the people. But

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there were two types of Jews in the early community. Jews like the Apostle Paul that says,

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I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I'm the real pedigree. And then you had the, those were the Hebraic

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Jews and then you had the Hellenistic Jews. These were Jews as well, but they were much more

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influenced by the Greek culture. Maybe they spoke Hebrew with an accent, you know, their names was

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not Ishmael. You know, they had Greek names and among that community, like it happens in many

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other countries, sometimes there's like divisions, whether social divisions or ethnic divisions. So

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it's like, you're not a real Jew like I am. It's like, yes, I am, you know, and they had all those

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tensions. Well, those were coming up at the beginning of the church because the people that

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were the Greek Jews, the Hellenistic Jews, said like, how come all those women, all those widows

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have food first, but I don't have any yet. Oh, but look, it happens that all of them are Hebraic

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Jews. Huh, I feel overlooked here. So they started having all those cultural tensions as well.

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And distribution of food for all this large community is not a simple task. So the Apostles

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get together, it says the 12 gather all the disciples together and said, guys, it would not

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be right for us to neglect the minister of the word of God in order to wait on tables. It's like,

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we don't have time to be doing all of that. I have a sermon to preach. And they started

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realizing that the needs of the community and building the kingdom were expanding and they

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could not do it all alone. They had to bring other people that will be servants devoted to God,

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people that were trustworthy, that could join the work. So that's when they realized we don't have

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the right structure. We need to do something about it. And they were right. I mean, this whole idea

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of waiting on tables for the distribution of food is much more complex than it sounds. They need a

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people that could do these things with cultural intelligence to address the cultural tensions

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that were happening. Just think about it for a second. You have to find food for all these

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people in a time in Jerusalem where everybody has shown up here in Jerusalem. It's like the

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highest time of the year. And now you have to start thinking about financial management. How

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are we going to afford this? Where will the money come from? Is it going to be donations? Or people

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are paying for it? How much do we charge? What is the financial system here? Supply chain. Where

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are we going to get the food from? Are we buying ingredients, cooking it ourselves? Is it already

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made? Where do we get it from? Facilities. Where are we going to cook this thing? We need to cook

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it. Where are we going to serve it? Teams. Who is going to serve it? Who is going to cook? Process.

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How are we going to organize all these things, including schedules, to make sure that everybody

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gets to eat? We don't have enough tables and chairs for everybody at once. Maybe we need to take

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turns. How is this going to be? And then on top of that, do all of that with cultural intelligence.

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CI. Oh, complicated, isn't it? And that's why the apostles say when they are assessing all of

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this, it's like, we cannot do both. I want to have a heart attack in the middle. And good thing that

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they realized that and they had the humility as leaders to say, we cannot do everything

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ourselves. We need to trust others. Because not all leaders have that level of humility. They

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want to do everything themselves. They want to control. So that's why they realized first, we

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don't have the right structure. Let's build the right structure. And this is how the second

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pillar of servants or diaconals was established. This was the first case ever. And therefore, the

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second question they had to ask is like, do we have the right people? Who can do this? And that

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is where they came up with this idea. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are

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known to be full of the spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and

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will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word. If we could find guys that have

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intimacy with God, that love the Lord, that that are known to be spiritually mature, then we can

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entrust that kind of pillar with this task. Because financial management, working with people,

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you know, bad things can happen if you don't put the right people with the right heart. So the

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word says that this proposal pleased the whole group and they chose Stephen, who became the

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first martyr. This was the guy that was killed a few chapters later when the apostle Paul before

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he became a Christian was standing there giving his approval. Stephen, one of the first martyrs,

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here is where he was chosen. And it says Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,

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a mature, solid pillar. But also they chose Procarus, Nicanor, Tymon, Parmenes, and Nicholas

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from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. He was not even a Jew descended of Abraham. He became

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converted to Judaism from being a Gentile. So now you have this group of people. And one of the

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things that you notice as you are doing the study is their names. All of these names were

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Hellenistic names, which means that they chose people that understood the tensions that were

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happening. They understood the culture. They understood the nuances of how people perceive

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things so they knew we can entrust this to them. It's like imagine for a second that I say, you

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know, elders here at ESB, I'm feeling like I'm being misjudged because I come from, you know,

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Latin America. I represent the Latin world, South America here in Asia. And you know, I feel like

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I'm being overlooked. And the elders say, okay, don't worry, we'll establish a team to work with

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you to make sure that you are well taken care of. So then we published the names and it says

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Jose, Juan, Jorge, Carlos, Mario, you know. I said all those names are like Spanish names. Yeah,

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exactly. That's what's happening here. If you are reading this list, you say, well, Stephen,

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Philip, Prokary, you know, they were all Greek, Hellenistic people, Hellenistic Jews. So they

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made sure they had the right people with the right experience, the right skills, the right

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CI, cultural intelligence. But did you notice that was not the core requirements? The core

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requirement was internal. How is your relationship with God? Do you have intimacy with the Holy

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Spirit? Why? What's interesting is that this group, therefore, is entrusted with this role,

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and they do it well. And the outcome of building the kingdom of the right pillars is that God can

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keep building on it. And that's what we are told right here. They presented this man to the

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apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the word of God spread. The numbers of

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disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to

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the faith. Even the hard fish were the ones that were coming to know Christ. That was the

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outcome of having the right pillars in place. Why is it so important that the right people are

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defined not by just their skills and abilities, but by the inner life of being full of the Holy

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Spirit and wisdom? Why? Because pillars that are designed to bear the load have one function.

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They have to transfer the load they're supporting into the foundation. That's what a pillar like

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that is designed for. It's not that it's just strong. It's that the energy it takes can pass

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it down to the foundation. And whether you are leading a team in your company, in an NGO,

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whether you're leading your children at home, whether you are leading a church ministry,

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whatever role of influence that we have, if you are leading in any capacity, it will make a

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complete difference whether your foundation is the Holy Spirit or your foundation is just you, from

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a place of self-reliance. I'll tell you why. Because when you are leading in any capacity,

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you will always experience circumstances and challenges that go beyond your experience or

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your knowledge. You will require wisdom. What do I do in this situation with these things? How

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do you connect the dots? You require wisdom. The Holy Spirit gives wisdom. The Bible says,

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any one of you needs wisdom, ask God and he will give it to you. But if I'm not relying on the

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Holy Spirit as my foundation and I rely on myself, I start freaking out and I just become reactive.

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I'll just do this. I'll just do that. I don't pray. Why? I'm the man. I'm going to do it as I think.

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But then you start leading from a place of being reactive. There are moments in which you will

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need clarity for direction. Where do you take this place for this year, the next year? Do you wait

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on some initial plans or you pursue them? Direction. The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth.

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He will direct you. But if the Holy Spirit is not my foundation and I'm my foundation,

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then I want to make sure that I'm controlling. Because who ensures that this thing is going to

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go the right way? Me. And who else? Me. Therefore, I become controlling. And the type of controlling

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leaders that are micromanaging everything is a pain to work for. And then there are moments in

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which you are going to face situations in which you require provision. Finding the right person

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to join the team. Finding the right resources to be able to address the need that you have.

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Well, the Holy Spirit is going to provide what you need. Jesus said, seek my kingdom first and

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all these other things will be added unto you. But when I think that I depend on myself and only on

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my resources, I start freaking out. And then money really matters. Because without money,

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I can do nothing. Forget about in Christ I can do all things. No. Without money,

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I can do nothing. So now I become greedy. And then plenty of times it will be mistreated,

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misjudged, undervalued, underused, falsely accused. And then people hurt you. And when they hurt you,

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you need to forgive because you don't want roots of bitterness in your heart and open yourself to

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spiritual oppression. So it's like, where do I find the strength to forgive when I feel so hurt

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and disappointed by people? Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that gives the fruit of love,

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joy, patience, faithfulness, self-control. But if the only thing I have is me, I'll become bitter

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and vindictive and manipulative. If my foundation is not intimacy with the Holy Spirit, I cannot

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lead from a place that I call a place of flow. I'm just a channel for God to work through me.

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Instead, I'm going to be leading from a place of lack of health. And the lack of health,

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when I'm that kind of person that is reactive, controlling, greedy, bitter,

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that building, no matter what you're building, will collapse. It's just a matter of time.

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Because you cannot support the weight. Your marriage will collapse. Your home will collapse.

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It's just a matter of time. Now, that's why you see that the priority of looking for people,

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not just have the right experience and cultural intelligence, but they had the right foundation

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was essential. And that became core in the kingdom of God. If we ever entrusted spiritual

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leadership of any form to anybody, we needed to have people that were characterized by intimacy

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with God. And it became codified in the New Testament. For these two pillars, in the case of

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the elders and the servants, the deacons, this passage in 1 Timothy 3 is the one passage that

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lists the requirements for both functions right there. And pay attention to it. I want to read

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it to you so that you understand how the Bible emphasizes all of this. Here is a trustworthy

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saying, whoever aspires to be an overseer, episkopos, one of these people that are in

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the governance side of the church, whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.

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And that's a good thing. But first you have to understand this. The overseer is to be

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about reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable,

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able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not

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a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him and

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he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. Because let's face it, if anyone does not

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know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church? He must not

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be a recent convert or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.

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Pride. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders so that he will not fall into

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disgrace and into the devil's trap. In the same way, deacons, servants, diaconals are

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to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine and not pursuing dishonest gain.

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They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. In the

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same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious stalkers, but temperate and

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trustworthy in everything. A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children

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and his household well. Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great

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assurance in the faith in Christ Jesus. That is the list. Did you notice how much emphasis

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is placed on the private life of the person, the inner life of the person? Because that

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is where you see the person's true colors. So I have to ask you, are you seeking intimacy

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with God? Or you have disassociated your role from your foundation? Because it is not uncommon

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as we follow God that we say, yeah, I'm doing this for God, I'm serving God this and that.

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While at the same time, in the same breath, you say, yeah, but I feel distant from God.

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It's like, then why are you doing what you're doing? Your motive is going to be something

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else, maybe fear, maybe shame, maybe trying to prove that you are worthy of God's love.

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I have no idea. But if you are doing things for God while at the same time you feel distant

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from God, then it's a matter of time before things collapse because what you need comes

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from Him. And I learned the connection of all these things earlier in my marriage because,

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as you know, the first year of marriage is a year of adaptation. For those couples that

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are going through their first year of marriage and say, oh, everything is great, it's fun,

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it's lovely, they're lying to you. Lots of adaptation on things and personalities and

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how you do things and love covers a multitude of faults, right? But I remember that early

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in our marriage, as I started pastoring the church, there were some Sunday mornings that

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unexpectedly we had one of those interactions that's like, nyan, nyan, nyan, nyan, nyan,

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kind of interaction. And it's like, you get to the church and not only you're attending

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church, you are the preacher. And in those moments I realized that I felt like the phone

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that is like on the red line, you know, the battery is just not full, like the computer

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that goes like before the mouse moves, you know. I was just feeling like not fully there.

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I was not in the zone. I'm right. Because the Bible says you cannot separate the two.

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The health of your marriage has direct impact in the health of your leadership. And that's

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not just for pastors. That's leadership, period. The health of your home affects the health

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of your leadership. Because if your home, if your marriage is not in a good place, chances

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are that you are not in a good place. Therefore when you try to lead outside, you cannot lead

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from a place of flow. You have toxicity within you. Therefore it's a matter of time before

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toxicity comes out in your leadership. That's why one of the things that we said in Dallas

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and we put it in writing was, our first ministry is our family. Do you have intimacy with the

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Holy Spirit? Can we see that in your marriage and in your home? If God is calling you to

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be a pillar that he can trust, trustworthy servant, start paying attention to how you

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are doing, not to what you are doing. And then you will see that if it's in that place, you

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find healing and you encounter the Lord and now he starts transforming you from within,

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everything that you need will be there, found in him, not in your smarts.

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The third thing that they had to discover and ask was do we have the right accountability?

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Because you know, the guy looked good on paper and the interview was awesome and the first

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week was great. Until then the person was hired and now you cannot fire them so easily.

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And now you start realizing that things are not as you thought they were. And what do

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you do? Do we have the right accountability? They started wondering about these things

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and they put them in place. Also, just like the requirements, they put in place what do

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you do once you bring these kind of leaders into the church? How do you keep accountability

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going? And this is what they wrote. The elders, the presbuteros now uses that other

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word, remember I told you earlier in the study, the elders who direct the affairs of the church

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well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.

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If you have leaders that are leading the church well and on top of that they are teaching

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the word, they are preaching the word well, then treat them well. Don't take it for granted.

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Honor that. But then it says, for scripture says, do not muzzle an ox while it's treading

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out the grain. That's a quotation from the law of Moses. And the worker deserves his

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wages. And here the point he's making is you need to pay these people well. Because the

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confusion at the beginning of the church is like, okay, what do we do? We need these pillars.

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We need them to do this job. And they start doing the job. They're doing it well, but

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it takes time. It's like, I cannot be working here and doing that at the same time. And

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then they start realizing, okay, so what do we do? Do we pay them? Do we pay them a salary?

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All that was at the very beginning of the church. They did not know. So as they started

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coming up with this philosophy, they realized, yes, if these are people that are trustworthy

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pillars, value those trustworthy pillars. But what happens when you see cracks? Ah, do not

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entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses.

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Because sometimes cracks will appear. And when you see a crack in the pillar, somebody

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has to notice it and notify the authorities. So that can be addressed. Because if it is

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not addressed, that pillar will collapse. And then the collateral damage happens. One

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of the things that I will remember when I served in Dallas those years that attending

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some of these legal conferences with accountants and lawyers to help nonprofit organizations,

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that as I discovered through those sessions that one of the reports, the legal reports

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that the lawyers will give for all the nonprofit organizations at churches, they will always

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say these are the top legal cases that we had last year. And always without a fault,

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typically the first top reason why churches will get sued was sexual immorality. And that's

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just not there. You could say that could be the whole world. Lack of accountability. But

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one of the things they said is like, remember the session where they were telling us, look,

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if you're in a church or you have children's ministry, youth ministry, put cameras there.

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Make sure we have the technology now. Protect your ministry. Cameras everywhere. Why? Two

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reasons they said. First was because you protect your children. In that way something happens

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is documented. But also you protect yourselves from false accusations. Like what? Yeah. They

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explained to us, you know, some people go to churches and they say, oh, this nice building.

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These people have money. And they will present false accusations with the goal of suing the

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church and then getting money out of them. You have no camera. You have no proof. It's

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your words against their word. And if you read the article from the New York Times last

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week, you already believe the person. So there could be false accusations. That's why the

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system is to make sure that we're looking at the information and protecting everybody.

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Just look at the witnesses. And if it shows to be true, then those elders who are sinning,

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you are to reprove before everyone so that the others may take warning. That's how you

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do it. In that way, there's clarity. We don't play politics. Everything is transparent.

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And that's what my friend experienced that day he went to his church. One day they had

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to announce we had to let go of this person because this happened. Why do we do that?

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Right here. That's why at the end of this section, the apostle Paul tells Timothy, Timothy,

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this is so important. The integrity of the pillars in the kingdom is so important that

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I'm going to ask you and I'm going to charge you in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and

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the elect angels, keep these instructions without partiality and do nothing out of favoritism.

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Don't look the other way. See the crack? Address it. Because accountability in the kingdom

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matters. So I have to ask you, are you resisting accountability? There are two ways of resisting

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accountability if you realize. The first one is like, I don't want to be accountable. I

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don't like you telling me what you think. I don't want to do a 360 evaluation and have

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all these people tell me what they think of me. I don't like that. So people resist accountability.

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Or when somebody comes and criticizes them about something, it's like, who do you think

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you are? They get defensive and attacking. It's like, oh, okay, I'm not going to say

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anything then. The other way of resisting accountability is when I see something, it's

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like, oh, it's going to be okay. Oh, it's not a big deal. Oh, I think I'm misinterpreting.

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And they don't say anything. And then the news appear in the newspaper. And you knew

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all along, we are responsible for ensuring the integrity of the pillars. Accountability

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matters. So if you are in a place in which you are resisting accountability for yourself,

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or you're overlooking things that should be addressed, think again. Because when there's

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no accountability, it's a matter of time before collapse happens. And hear me right, it's

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not that we do not trust the leaders. The person we don't trust is Satan. And Satan's

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like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. So we have to have things in place

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for accountability like that in the kingdom. This is what trustworthy servants, the pillars

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of the kingdom look like. Are you a trustworthy servant? Can God build on you? Will you be

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able to support that because you have the right foundation?

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I would like to conclude the study then by telling you these couple of things. First,

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these are common symptoms before the collapse. If these are your symptoms, pay attention

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to it. The first one is stiffness. The resistance to change, the resistance to do anything differently.

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There are times in which things need to change because we don't have the right structure

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anymore. Like the kid that no longer has the right pants anymore because it has outgrown

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them. So there are moments in which you will have to completely change. And if you are

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stiff like this, it's like, no, I'm not moving. I'm doing it my way. Especially if you are

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the founder of the organization. So this is my baby. Nobody's going to touch it. It's

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just a matter of time and you will see collapse. First, by seeing your best leaders leave,

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nobody can work with you anymore. Secondly, superficiality. When I am trying to serve

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God, while I'm disconnected from God, you're not going to last. You're going to be burnt

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out. You're going to be depressed. You won't be able to last. We cannot serve God as servants

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devoted to God without that foundation. So superficiality, pay attention to it. And third,

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compromise. If you are ignoring what the Bible says about requirements, if you are hiring

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people for roles in your organization, in your church, in your ministries, and you are

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not paying attention to this and you say, yeah, but the person has lots of experience.

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Yeah, but the person has all these academic degrees. Yeah, but the person, yeah, that's

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a matter of interpretation. You know, are you really overlooking this? This is where

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the secret of stability is. So don't confuse academic credentials with spiritual power.

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They're not the same. So if you see any of these signs where you are, pay attention to

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them and make sure that there's no cracks that are appearing in your foundation, in

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your pillar. And finally, how do you know if you're a trustworthy pillar? Three simple

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things. I know I'm a trustworthy pillar, not because I think I'm trustworthy or not because

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people say, hey, I like how you preach. No. The only reason I'm a trustworthy pillar is

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because God says, I can trust this guy. That's what makes us trustworthy, right? Right. So

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first thing, can God trust your heart? Does God know that you love him? Does God know

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that you fear him? That even though you have opportunities to do the wrong thing, the first

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thing that comes to mind is how could I do this against God? And what will be the impact

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in the kingdom? This will damage the integrity of the kingdom and his reputation. How can

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I do this? Are those the thoughts that God sees in your heart? Can God trust your heart?

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If God cannot trust your heart, chances are that you're building your kingdom rather than

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his. Secondly, can God trust your hands? Will you do what he has entrusted you with diligence?

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And you're going to do it no matter what. You're going to do it well because you're

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not doing it for people. Even though they disappoint you, even though you may feel misjudged

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or not valued, it doesn't matter. God, I'm doing my best for you. Can he trust that?

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And thirdly, can he trust your feet? You are following him after all, not the other way

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around. So when he says, I need you to step up in this position, new calling, new role,

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do this, are you going to go like, no, I'm too comfortable here. I don't really want

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to do that. Or me, but who am I? I don't think I have what it takes. Can God trust that you

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will step up when he's calling you? But also, can God trust that you will step down when

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he's calling you? Even though it was your baby, your organization, your idea, and now

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God says, your job is done, but you're not dead yet, but your job is done. You're not

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retired yet, but your job is done. What will you do? Can God trust your feet? If God can't

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trust your heart, your hands, and your feet, we have become trustworthy servants. And trustworthy

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servants from the very beginning until today have never ceased to be the pillars of the

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kingdom. If in this study, God reveal any cracks in your pillar, if he revealed to you

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that it's time you pay attention to your marriage, to your family, if he reveals to you that

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it's time to step down or step up, whatever the Lord is speaking to you, don't hesitate

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for a second to follow him. That is always the best place to be. Father, we know that

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all of us who are standing here in your presence, we are far from perfect. We don't always get

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it right, but you did not call us to be perfect. You called us to be trustworthy. And even

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when we fail, acknowledging how we failed, asking for forgiveness, shows trustworthiness.

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Lord, even when we do not know what we've done right or not, and we realize it wasn't

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the best decision, even acknowledging that we made a mistake shows trustworthiness. Lord,

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you are calling us to be trustworthy servants. Build us up, heal the cracks, strengthen the

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foundation because we know what it takes. We pray in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen.

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Thank you for tuning in to the ECB Sermon Podcast. Whether near or far, if you are looking

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