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Let's pray together, shall we? Gracious, loving

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God, as we've heard your word read and now we

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pause for a few minutes just to hear what you

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have to say to us through that word. As we unpack

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it together, may you speak to our hearts and

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our minds. Encourage us, for we pray in Jesus'

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name. Amen. Imagine yourself five or ten or fifty

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years from now. You know your own vulnerabilities.

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What is the situation that's most likely to knock

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you off your perch? To stop you walking with

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the Lord? To stop you in your own ministry and

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your Christian life? Just a moment. You know

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your vulnerabilities. It's different for different

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people. Just a moment to think about that. For

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some, it might be that sense of exhaustion. All

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those efforts for the Lord, and there seems to

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be so little fruit. Or perhaps just the exhaustion

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of so many demands, so many plates needing to

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be spun. It might be discouragement. You've poured

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your life into somebody or to people, and you've

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watched them wander away or make some dreadful

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decisions and mistakes. It might be feelings

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of isolation. There's no one else around you

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in the parish or the church that you're in who

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shares that same zeal and passion. It might be

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frustration. There's so many roadblocks. It might

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be relational challenges. Those you minister

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with or to and all that comes from that. It might

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be that you've invested so much, you've moved

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on, and someone comes after you and the whole

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thing unravels. You think, what was the point?

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For me, early in my pastoral ministry, after

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I'd been ordained, it was the crisis of seeing

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Christians, people who'd drunk in the rain of

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God's Word day by day, week by week, over many

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years, behaving so bad they couldn't make sense

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of it. Today is an incredibly special day. It's

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a new thing, a commissioning service all together

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like this. And it's, I hope in one sense, a really

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joyful day. This is what you're going out to

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do. We're commissioning you, notwithstanding

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Thomas's point about baptism, to go and serve.

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This is why you're here. But of course, it's

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also a sad day. It'll be coming soon, I know.

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Sadness of farewells, goodbyes, and we'll miss

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the friendship and fellowship. You know, I think,

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James, why on earth on this day have you chosen

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such a downbeat way to start? I might change

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my mind if you say it was a really bad idea.

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In a few weeks' time, I'm heading to Namagongo.

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I don't terribly enjoy injections. But before

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I've gone to Namagongo, I've had some injections

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for typhoid and polio and hepatitis. Unfortunately,

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I'm exempt from yellow fever. To get ready for

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then, now. To be ready for that moment, now.

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And as I've been preparing and praying, reflecting

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on this, I've come back to this wonderful little

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verse at the end of 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians

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15, verse 58. Do you remember the scene? Corinthians

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letter as a whole Paul's planted this church

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he started this church he's invested his life

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in it but there are all kinds of issues and problems

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that have been going on in the church family

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and this particular chapter chapter 15 he's focused

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very much on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus

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Jesus has been raised And so he continued. Do

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you notice he starts in verse 58. Therefore,

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in the light of all I've been saying to you,

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says Paul, in the light of all I've been saying

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to you. And then he continues with this lovely

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little phrase. I think it's in our versions here.

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My dear or dearly loved. Really, Paul? They were

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a wretched lot, weren't they? Do you notice how

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his heart, even for those who cause pain, is

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about love? Never, never lose sight of love for

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the people that we're serving. Never instrumentalise

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people. And then he continues. Stand firm. Let

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nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully

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to the work of the Lord. Because you know that

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your labour in the Lord is not in vain. In Ecclesiastes,

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you may remember, everything is sometimes described

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as vanity. It's foggy vapour. It's hevel. It's

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futile. It's temporary. It's transient. It's

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pointless. Something like that. The translation

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is not easy to capture. In Mark 15, Christ has

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been raised from the dead. So there's a whole

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bunch of things through this chapter that are

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no longer in vain. In verse 2. the corinthian

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faith is not in vain christ has been raised from

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the dead god's grace to paul is not in vain verse

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10 christ has been raised from the dead verse

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14 paul's preaching is not in vain christ has

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been raised from the dead and then verse 58 our

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labor in the lord is not in vain christ has been

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raised from the dead extraordinary our labour

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in the Lord our work done in union with him our

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labour in the Lord not even death can erase Christ

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has been raised from the dead what is this labour

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in the Lord do you remember in Romans 16 Paul

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does this great big shout out for a bunch of

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people including a number of prominent women

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There's Trophina and Trophosa. They're those

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who've worked hard in the Lord. They've laboured

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in the Lord. Or in Greek Persis, who laboured

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much in the Lord. This speaks of the effort,

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the investment in the cause of the gospel and

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making Christ known. But alongside that effort,

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you can see the work of the Lord in this verse.

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Because it's not just the labour in the Lord,

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it's also work of the Lord. This is a singular

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work. It's not work that each individual person

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does. This is this one work that we collectively

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are invested in, giving our lives to, serving

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in. this work of the Lord to make Christ known

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and you can see that this work of gospel ministry

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of building the church up and seeing it grow

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from later on in chapter 16 verse 10 when Timothy

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is himself described as carrying on the work

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of the Lord and the message renders it like this

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nothing you do for him is a waste of time or

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effort nothing The New Living Translation, nothing

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you do for the Lord is ever useless. Although

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the force here is about the gospel ministry that

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continues, the same logic actually applies to

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all of our lives, our painting, our sport, our

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business, our music, whatever it might be. That's

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not the focus here, but the logic is exactly

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the same. Everything endures. Because Christ

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has been raised, nothing that you or I do for

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him is ever futile, is ever in vain. Let's go

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back to that scenario as you slumped on the sofa

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in 5, 10 or 15 years' time. You're tempted to

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think, was it all worth it? Is it all worth it?

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Is it worthwhile? Or is it just futile, a waste

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of time in vain? And the Apostle Paul, the Lord

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says, absolutely not. Not even death. Nothing

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can make that worthless. Because it is work in

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the Lord, in union with him, and that endures

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for all eternity. We don't know how exactly in

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some cases, but we know that it does. And so,

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see how Paul finishes? Stand firm then. Sit tight.

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Don't drift off. Don't wander off. As so many

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do, sadly. Sit tight. Stand firm. Let nothing

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move you. Don't get knocked off your perch. Don't

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get swept to one side. Don't drift off into either

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things that take you away from the Lord or take

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you away from the ministries entrusted with you.

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Instead, give yourselves fully. to the work of

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the Lord, says Paul. Why? Because our labour

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in him is not in vain, it's not futile, it's

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not wasted. So I hope this is maybe more palatable

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than inoculation, but may the Lord write those

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words on our heart. Nothing that you're doing

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is wasted, whatever people may say. Amen.