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Wow, thank you choir for that beautiful number.

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I think we ought to have the benediction go home.

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Amen?

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Who said that?

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Well, as I was saying before I so rudely interrupted the flow of this morning's service, in my

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reading this week I was looking at Revelation chapter 21.

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And what the choir just sang about is what that chapter talks about in part because it

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says there that God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem.

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And John sees the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven.

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And it goes on to say several things about God including the fact that God himself will

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dwell with us.

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Is it not an amazing thing that the eternal God desires, deeply wants to be with you and

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me?

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We see that in Genesis when God created man and woman.

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He was with them in the garden.

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He wanted to be with them and fellowship with them.

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And the whole story of history and sin and redemption unfolds in the Bible until you

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come to the very end of it and once again God is dwelling with man.

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Think of that.

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He says there, behold I make all things new.

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God loves to create things.

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Even now God is creating.

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Now we know that Jesus is in heaven preparing a place for his own.

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And we understand that to be the new Jerusalem that John sees in Revelation 21.

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But did you know that God is also in a construction project here on earth?

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It is not a building project to do with a physical building.

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But God is now building a spiritual temple.

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A building that is composed of people.

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It is a living thing that God is now creating.

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Writing to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul states, you are God's building.

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By the grace God has given me, I laid the foundation as an expert builder and someone

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else is building on it.

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But each one should be careful how he builds.

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For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

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If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones or wood, hay or

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straw, his work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light.

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It will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.

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If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.

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If it's burned up, he will suffer loss.

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He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

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Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?

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He is talking to the church.

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Do you know that how you and I build Los Gatos Christian Church matters to Christ?

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He tells us here that we can build out of things that are worthy or we can build out

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of things that will not pass the test of the judgment seat, and it will be tested.

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It matters to Christ whether our values, our strategies and our methods are biblical, effective

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and worthy of the name of Jesus.

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When that test of fire comes at the judgment seat, the quality of what we do will be exposed.

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How we have built will then be put to the test and we will be rewarded accordingly.

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It matters to Christ how we build his church.

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Of course, the foundation is the most important part of any building.

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Beyond the foundation, the entire structure rests.

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And biblically speaking, the foundation of a local church is whom?

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Jesus Christ.

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For other foundation can no man lay than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.

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Christ himself.

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It is the message of the gospel, the historic death of Jesus Christ for sinners.

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His burial, his resurrection literally from the grave to immortality.

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That message is the foundation that Paul himself laid for the church whenever he preached.

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It was not only true in Corinth, it was also true in Thessalonica.

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We have been studying from the epistles to that church in Thessalonica.

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In Acts chapter 17, we have the historical background to Paul's ministry there.

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When they had passed through Amphipolis in Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where

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there was a Jewish synagogue.

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As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with

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them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from

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the dead.

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And then Luke quotes Paul, this Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ, he said.

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Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas as did a large number of God-fearing

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Greeks and not a few prominent women.

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Paul was absolutely committed to the truthfulness of the message of the gospel.

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He was committed to its uniqueness, that there was no other message like it in all of the

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world.

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The message that God himself came clothed in our humanity and the person of Jesus Christ.

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And that God came to rescue us and to recover us from the damage and the loss and the pain

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of our sin.

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The ones who began to follow Jesus were immediately convinced of the very same thing that Paul

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was convinced about.

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And the message of the gospel reverberated through their lives.

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And as Paul writes the letters to the Thessalonians, that word gospel continues to ricochet throughout

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the writing.

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Eight times he uses the word gospel as he does in our text today that begins in verse

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four of chapter one.

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We know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you

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not simply with words but also with power and with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.

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You know how we lived among you for your sake.

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You became imitators of us and of the Lord.

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In spite of severe suffering you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy

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Spirit.

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And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

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The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, your faith in God

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has become known everywhere.

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Here is a church where the gospel of Jesus Christ resonated.

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It echoed throughout the whole region because it was so real in the lives of those who believed.

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That's the kind of church that I want to join, don't you?

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That's the kind of church that I want to build.

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That's the kind of church I want to be a part of where the authentic gospel is authentically

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presented with resonating results.

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Now in our day and age you can find a lot of churches doing a lot of things and many

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of those things are good.

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Some frankly are not so good.

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But the one concern that counts the most is this.

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Does this church authentically present the authentic gospel?

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I want to talk about that question for a moment.

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Let's talk about the authentic gospel.

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Paul describes it here.

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In the first place an authentic gospel is one that originates with God himself.

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In chapter 2 and verse 2 Paul says at the end of the verse, but with the help of our

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God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition.

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And twice later in verses he calls it the gospel of God.

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In other words this news that God loves us, that he came into the world, that he paid

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the price for our sins, rose from the dead and went back to heaven to save all of those

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who believe in him, that news was initiated by God himself.

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It is not a message that was created by Paul or any other human being.

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It is God's gospel.

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It comes out of his mind and his purpose and his character.

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And God originated it before there was even the beginning of things.

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That is so amazing to me.

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In writing to Titus Paul says regarding the hope of eternal life he says God who does

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not lie promised it before the beginning of time.

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Now let that sink into your brain cells for a minute.

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That before there was time and space and matter God had already promised eternal life.

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But he goes on to say, and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through

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the preaching entrusted to me, says Paul.

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This is a message that originated from God himself before history was in reality, before

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time began.

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It is also an authentic gospel, is also one that concerns Jesus, God's son.

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In chapter 3 in verse 2 and then again in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 8 he refers

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to the gospel as the gospel of Christ or the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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In other words it is about Christ.

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He is the core of the message.

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He is the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.

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And Peter reminds us in his book Christ was chosen before the creation of the world but

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was revealed in these last times for your sake.

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Through him you believe in God who raised him from the dead and glorified him so that

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your faith and hope are in God.

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My friends more specifically the authentic gospel is simply this.

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It is the message that Jesus Christ died and rose again.

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To deliver from God's justice all of those who believe.

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And the resonating results of that authentic gospel are laid out for us in the first chapter

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of 1 Thessalonians.

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It results in people turning to God from whatever they've worshipped before in our society,

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usually ourselves.

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Turning to God from self-worship.

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It resonates in our lives also by our serving God and then our patient waiting for Christ

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to return.

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The authentic gospel is a life transforming gospel.

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Have you experienced that transformation?

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Who do you worship today?

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What gospel have you believed?

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Is it the authentic gospel?

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Is that where your faith is resting for your soul's salvation?

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I want to be a part of a church that believes the authentic gospel but one that also presents

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it to others.

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This message is not one to be kept to ourselves.

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This is a message that is to be declared, to be shared in an authentic way.

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What does that mean?

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What is an authentic presentation of the gospel?

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We have all presented the gospel, I presume, in a variety of ways.

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There are lots of tools out there.

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One of the ones that has been used most widely is called the Four Spiritual Laws.

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How many of you have ever heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?

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I heard this morning that the man who arranged the gospel in that little booklet, The Four

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Spiritual Laws, Dr. Bill Bright, went home to be with the Lord last night.

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We've been expecting that news for some time now because he's been in very serious health

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issues.

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So he is with Jesus and has received his reward from the Lord.

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What is an authentic presentation of the gospel?

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I remember what he said very simply.

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He says, it's presenting the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and what?

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Right.

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Some of you are still well up on your training.

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It is presenting the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results with

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God.

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That's simple.

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It's not coursing.

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It's not twisting an arm.

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It's not grabbing somebody by the lapel.

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It is simply presenting the gospel, the good news to them in the power of the Holy Spirit

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and then leaving the results to God, letting God work it into their lives.

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Well, Paul describes in chapter one what an authentic presentation of the gospel is.

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In the first place, he suggests that it is personally owned.

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Notice that he calls it in verse five, our gospel.

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Now Paul in saying this is not saying that he created the gospel, that this is a message

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that originated with him.

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He makes that clear later.

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But he is saying this, I possess this gospel.

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It is mine too.

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It is one that I share in.

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And my friend, before you can authentically present the gospel, you have to own it for

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yourself.

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It has to be in your heart.

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Secondly, he suggests to us that it has to be presented with words.

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Now the way he puts it is not simply with words, and we'll go on from there in a moment,

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but it does include words.

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He says, I presented the gospel in word, not hollow words, not fancy rhetoric, just words.

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As you go back to Acts 17, you notice that there are certain words that Luke uses to

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describe the way Paul approached it in Thessalonica.

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He says he reasoned with them.

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And so there were times when Paul dialogued.

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He had a discussion group with them.

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He says he explained it, which means that he opened their minds through teaching.

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Luke says he proved it.

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He proved that Jesus was the Christ.

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That word is a very picturesque word.

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It means to lay things beside one another.

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And so apparently what Paul did is he presented his words as he told about what the Old Testament

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prophesied concerning the Christ, and then he presented what was true from the life of

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Jesus.

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And just side by side, he would lay out the facts, demonstrating and proving that Jesus

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was in fact the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Christ.

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Luke uses the word proclaiming, which means that he stood in public and made an announcement.

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And then there's another word that he uses here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 when Paul

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speaks about his exhortation.

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And so Paul at times would use very persuasive speech.

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You see, there are lots of different approaches in presenting the gospel, but they all require

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us to open our mouth.

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The gospel is a message that requires articulation.

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It's not something you get by osmosis.

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Jesus is the Word, the logos of God, and for us to communicate His message, we also must

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use words.

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Words mean something.

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They are potent.

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That's why the way that we use our tongues is so important to God.

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And then an authentic presentation is one that is presented with power.

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Paul says that.

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He says not simply with words, but also with power, with power.

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In other words, he and his team were quite aware of God's involvement in their presentation.

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They knew the reality of God working through them.

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They could sense that.

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We don't always have to sense it for that to be true.

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In fact, when you and I share the gospel, there's power just in the message.

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Did Paul say that in Romans 1.16?

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For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the what?

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The power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.

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And Paul, as he was presenting the gospel, was aware that it was not just with words,

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but there was power there.

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He also says that it needs to be presented with the Holy Spirit.

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And of course, that's part of the power too.

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Dr. Paul Brand, a Christian physician and author who wrote a book a number of years

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ago along with Phil Yancey, passed away this last week as well.

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Dr. Paul was speaking in India on an occasion.

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And as he was speaking there at the pulpit, there was a shallow bowl in front of the pulpit

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filled with oil, and there was a wick sticking out of the oil.

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And as he continued to preach, the oil got lower and lower and lower, and finally the

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oil was gone.

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And so what happens?

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The wick begins to burn.

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And as the wick began to burn, it produced this acrid smoke that got into his nostrils

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and he began to cough.

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And he recovered himself from the coughing and he said, some of us here are like this

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wick.

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We're trying to shine for the glory of God, but we stink.

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That's what happens when we use ourselves as the fuel of our witness rather than the

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Holy Spirit.

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He says wicks can last indefinitely, burning brightly and without irritating smoke if the

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fuel, the Holy Spirit, is the constant supply.

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It's a waste of time for me to share the gospel in my flesh.

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When I share the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, just trusting Him, allowing Him

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to fill me, then it is with the Holy Spirit that it is shared.

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And the Holy Spirit begins to convict the heart and enlighten the mind and then to impart

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life.

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An authentic presentation is also one that is with deep conviction, deep conviction.

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Paul and his team possessed a perfect confidence in their message.

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They had an assurance of the truthfulness of their message.

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When you and I share the gospel of Jesus Christ, an authentic presentation is one that is filled

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with conviction that this is the truth, and God uses that.

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And then we notice that he says that it was presented with personal integrity.

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An authentic presentation of the gospel has to have the integrity of the life of the person

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behind it.

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Paul says, you know how we lived, and he begins to explain that in the second chapter of this

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book, and we don't have time to look at that this morning.

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You and I need to present the gospel with an integrity about ourselves.

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And finally, an authentic presentation of the gospel I find in chapter 2 and verse 4.

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I want you to look at that verse with me.

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Where he says, on the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the

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gospel.

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An authentic presentation of the gospel is one that is presented with a personal sense

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of privilege.

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The word entrust here is the Greek word believe.

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It means that God has believed in Paul, literally, or God has confidence in Paul and has entrusted

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to him therefore the privilege of sharing the gospel.

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May I tell you something, my fellow believer?

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God entrusts it to you too.

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When you and I share the gospel out of a sense of legal obligation, it is often a very ineffective

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sharing of the gospel.

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Now you and I know that there is a responsibility involved, but the very best, the most authentic

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way to present the gospel is to see it for what it is, the greatest privilege you can

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have because it means that God has put His stamp of approval on you and says, I can trust

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you to share this message.

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God trusts you with it.

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He has approved you as His spokesman.

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He has granted to you the privilege of sharing the only good news there is in this world,

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God's good news.

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When the authentic gospel is presented in an authentic way, the results resonate in

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the life.

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I grew up in the Midwest where we had lots of thunderstorms.

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We were supposed to have thunderstorms in our area this weekend.

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I haven't seen or heard any yet.

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Have you?

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Maybe we're not in high enough elevation for that.

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I think they had some in the Sierra.

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I love thunderstorms.

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I'm sorry, that's weird, isn't it?

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That's like saying I love earthquakes, I know, to some of you, but I love thunderstorms and

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I like to sit out on the porch when the thunderstorm is coming, when it's happening, and then after

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it's over.

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I love the sound of that thunder and the roar, how it reverberates across the sky.

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Once you hear it in the distance, just the rumble, it sounds like cannon fire.

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And then as it gets closer, it gets louder, it becomes more frequent, it begins to overtake

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your senses and there's the flash of lightning, there's the smell of the fresh rain, there

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is the sound echoing of thunder.

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And then the storm passes on beyond you and then you begin to hear the echo of it all.

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That is the picture that Paul uses when he says, as he does in verse 8, the message echoed

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out from you.

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The message thundered.

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It rolled like thunder out from you to touch the whole area around you.

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What are the resonating results of the gospel?

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Well, first of all, those who hear it welcome the message.

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And even though they may face suffering for believing it, they welcome it, they embrace

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it into their lives.

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Their belief is filled with a supernatural joy.

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They are willing to suffer for Christ's sake and they imitate Paul and the Lord Himself

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in being willing to suffer for the gospel.

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They themselves then become model followers of Christ who reproduce the gospel in the

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lives of others because that thunder, that echo continues to reverberate in them and

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through them to others.

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That, my friend, is the authentic results of the authentic gospel.

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It resonates.

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It reverberates.

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We live for a time in an area of Covington, Kentucky where a Christian church actually

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was nearby called Runyon Memorial.

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The church was noted because it was a very historic church in that community, but also

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because someone at some time had donated to the church a carillon.

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And there was someone who would come to that church every day at a certain hour and they

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would play on the carillon.

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As I recall, it was about five or six o'clock in the evening.

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If you were in a several block radius of that church, you would hear hymns being played

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on the bells of the church.

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It was a marvelous experience.

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No matter what you were doing, there was the sweet sound of gospel songs and hymns that

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would echo into your life.

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It would make a difference.

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That's the kind of church I want to be a part of.

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One whose carillon is not necessarily in a tower with bells, but who because of its authentic

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living out of the gospel and presentation of the gospel, sends out a message to the

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whole community.

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A message of hope.

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A message of salvation.

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A message of eternal life.

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A message of rescue.

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We have a group in our church that helps us understand what our resonating gospel looks

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like.

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I'm going to ask the group from the Kusher Camden ministry to come forward.

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Would you do that please?

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Ken and Alba Robertson are part of this group and are going to share with us this morning

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something what God has been doing in a neighborhood through the ministry of some people in Los

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Gatos Christian Church.

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And I know that there are other neighborhoods where this is true, but this is the one I

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heard about this weekend, so I wanted to have the opportunity.

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Come on up here on the platform.

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These folks and some others have been doing some ministry in apartments in that part of

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our neighborhood that is just north of here, maybe what, a half a mile, something like

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that.

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And Ken, are you the spokesman?

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Are you the guy that's going to tell us?

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Or is it?

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They pushed me forward.

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They pushed you forward.

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I didn't volunteer.

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Well, we're going to volunteer you just like they do in the army.

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There you are.

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You took a step forward.

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I cut my hair too.

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What are some of the things that have happened?

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Tell us what you've done there in the apartments at that corner and in the neighborhood.

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00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:45,760
Well, I think it all started a couple years ago.

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And we were invited to come to Becky's class, Becky Jones.

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She's a fourth grade teacher.

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And she is a fourth grade teacher at Leets Elementary School, which is right near our

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apartment.

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And she came to our Sunday school class, Wayne and Janet Niblox Sunday school class, and

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asked us if some folks would come and help her one day a week.

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So the Lord put that on Elma in my heart.

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She started going.

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And we built a relationship with the kids.

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And then at the end of the year, Becky's evangelical zeal came out in her.

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And she said, would you folks be interested in having a backyard Bible club at your house

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because it's right near the school?

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And so Elma and I said, OK, we'll do that.

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And one day we had about 39 kids came.

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And a lot of them came from the Arbor Apartments, which a lot of those kids went to Becky's

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school at Leets.

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So we had, I think, 16 children came to the Lord.

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We built a lot of relationships.

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And then at the end of that year, the church had a Christmas outreach for neighborhood

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folks.

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I think the Worship Choir had that up, didn't they?

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Yeah, it was very good.

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So they were going to have it at the apartments on Blossom Hill Road in Camden.

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And Elma said, well, why don't they have it at Blossom Hill or Camden and Couser?

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That's the apartments we already had an inroad in.

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So she called the church and the church said, sure.

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So we had that.

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And many of the kids came.

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Some of the parents came.

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And then after that, we started inviting them to church, Sunday school.

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And they came.

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And then we had a lot of the families came to Easter breakfast.

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And then we had a Valentine's outreach there in the rec club.

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And then Dean came with some musicians.

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And they had a concert for them.

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So we're building relationships all the time with them.

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But one thing I do want to mention before I forget, it's been a team effort.

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It's been a body ministry.

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No one person or two have pushed it forward.

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It's just been nine of us.

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And it's incidentally Misha is not here, Misha Hecock, because she's in a missionary journey

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in Africa this summer.

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But she's part of the group here.

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Well, let me tell you, we rejoice in what God is doing there in that part of our community

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and how the gospel is echoing out.

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You see how that ties in with what we've been talking about in Thessalonians.

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Isn't that exciting, folks?

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You see boys and girls in Paris coming to faith in Christ.

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Thank you for sharing that with us.

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God bless you guys.

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I share scripture.

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00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:36,480
I like to share scripture.

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That would fit in here.

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00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:52,040
First Corinthians 1558 says, therefore, my beloved brother, and be ye steadfast, immovable,

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00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:56,200
always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil in the Lord is never

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in vain.

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Amen.

435
00:32:58,200 --> 00:32:59,200
Amen.

436
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:00,200
God bless you.

437
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:01,200
Wow, how exciting.

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00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:12,560
And I know that there are other ways in which we could get folks from neighborhoods and

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00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:16,480
workplaces up here and just talk about the resonating gospel.

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That's why I'm excited to be here.

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00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:22,200
That's why I'm excited about the future, because I believe that there are so many of us who

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are committed to seeing that the gospel continues to resonate from Los Gatos Christian Church.

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When that happens, the message radiates to the surrounding area.

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And even though we may face opposition like the Thessalonians did, we continue on persevering

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in sharing the gospel.

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And the example of that encourages others.

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And the result of that is a reverberating result for the kingdom of God.

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I don't know about you, but I want to be a resonator.

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I want to be a resonator, somebody in whom the gospel is authentically at work.

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And so that when I share that gospel, it begins to move out and it begins to echo and thunder

451
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and change lives one person at a time.

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And that's what it's about.

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That's what it's about.

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Let's pray together.

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Father, I pray in Jesus' name that the gospel will always be proclaimed in the people of

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00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:24,200
Los Gatos Christian Church, the authentic gospel.

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And that it will be authentically presented.

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And then we wait upon you to bring the results.

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For Lord, the power is yours, as is the glory.

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00:34:36,180 --> 00:34:41,040
And we feel like that songwriter who wrote, oh, for a thousand tongues.

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00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:47,560
God, we pray that you'll help us to use the one tongue we've got.

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And then may there be a thousand tongues and more to proclaim our great Redeemer's praise.

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In Jesus' name I pray, amen.