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We're going to begin reading in verse 7 for our text this morning.

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But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

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For it says, When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave

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gifts to men.

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Now this expression, He ascended, what does it mean except that He also had descended

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into the lower parts of the earth?

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He who descended is Himself also He who ascended, far above all the heavens, that He might fill

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all things.

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And He gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors

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and teachers.

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Have you noticed that human beings need order in their lives?

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Now when I say that, you probably think of your basement immediately.

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I do.

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Or you think of that dresser drawer that you've been meaning to get to.

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The fact is that we exist with happiness and security when there is order.

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Life itself requires a certain order to exist as life.

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God has made it that way.

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God Himself is a God of perfect order and His whole creation reflects that wisdom.

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He is not a God of confusion but of perfect oneness and harmony.

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And He has designed that into His entire universe.

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A few weeks ago when we were privileged to hear the messages from sermons from science

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and Dean Ortner, we were reminded of the various laws of creation and how they speak of the

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order in God's universe.

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You may recall the distance from the earth to the sun is approximately 93 million miles.

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That's just enough distance to sustain life on the earth.

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God tilted the earth to a 23.5 degree tilt on its axis to ensure seasonal changes.

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The balance in our atmosphere of oxygen and nitrogen, 21 to 78 percent, is perfect for

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supporting life.

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The ozone layer that we sometimes hear a lot about shelters our planet from the deadly

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ultraviolet rays of the sun.

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We can go on and on showing how God has created perfect order in this world in which we live.

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But not only in that realm but also even in our physical bodies, God has created perfect

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order.

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The older you get the less perfect it becomes.

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But consider with me that our human body is made of 200 bones, more than that, each of

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which is shaped and grooved with exquisite skill to perform important functions.

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To these bones are attached some 500 muscles, some large and some minute, some of them obeying

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the human will, others acting spontaneously.

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But the point is they're all perfectly arranged and in order so that we can function in this

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realm.

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Our skin is an amazing organ of our bodies.

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On the one hand, water cannot penetrate it inwardly and yet to our relief it can penetrate

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our skin outwardly so that we perspire and keep cool.

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Our bones are capable of carrying loads of weight 30 times greater than bricks will support.

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The liver breaks up old blood cells into bile and neutralizes the poisonous substances of

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our body.

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The blood, which we have 10 or 12 pints, is a syrupy substance that distributes oxygen

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and carries away waste from tissues and organs of our bodies and regulates the temperature.

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Our heart weighs less than a pound and yet on the average it pumps 100,000 times every

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day circulating 2,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of arteries, capillaries and

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veins and controlling this body as the brain consisting of 10 million nerve cells, which

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are infinitely more complicated than the largest computer man has been able to design.

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Our eyes have at least 130 million rods and 7 million cones enabling us to see color and

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dimension.

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And so again on and on we could go with details about our human bodies and how God has made

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us with perfect order.

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God does not create confusion and when He called into being the new community, the church,

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He did not create a community of confusion either.

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In fact the church is called, is it not by analogy, the body of Christ.

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His glorified physical body is in heaven where He is at the right hand of God and yet we

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are in a sense the extension of His life and therefore called His body.

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As His body we are a body created with order.

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What is established order in this new community of the saints?

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We must understand God's divine design for our order and learn to live accordingly.

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It doesn't always come naturally or easily for us to do that.

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We must learn to do it.

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When we do it honors God and it brings blessing to our lives.

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The community has one supreme authority.

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That's the first issue of order I want to talk about this morning.

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When God created the new community of His people, He established one supreme authority

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and that's all.

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And our text tells us who that authority is.

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It is Christ Jesus.

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He is the head of the church, a term that's used later here in this very chapter.

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There is a reference to Psalm 68 verse 18 in verse 8.

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Therefore, it says, that is the scripture says this, when He ascended on high He led

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captive a host of captives and He gave gifts to men.

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So here the Holy Spirit writing through Paul brings a verse from the Old Testament and

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in doing that He rearranges and changes a few things which He has the right to do as

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the author.

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And He tells us something about Christ Jesus and the order that He as our supreme authority

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wishes to establish in our midst.

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There is a historical context to Psalm 68 of course.

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It is thought to be a song written at the time of the procession of the Ark of the Covenant

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from the house of Obed-Edom up to the city of Jerusalem.

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It was a joyous day, a wonderful procession which David led and here apparently is a song

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written for that occasion.

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In the Psalm there is reference to Israel's deliverance from Egypt, to God's supply of

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His people in the wilderness, and His choice of Jerusalem of all of the places for His

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dwelling.

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It is a psalm of victory and what we have here is a historical reference to victory

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that the Holy Spirit brings to the church and applies it to Jesus Christ.

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He has gone out into battle and has now come back in victory and in doing so He has given

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gifts to men.

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Normally when a great king would go out to battle and return victoriously people would

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present gifts to Him in honor of His victory and there were times when He also would distribute

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gifts.

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More normally gifts were given to Him as the commanding general who led the forces to victory.

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Here it says that Jesus upon His return to heaven gave gifts to men.

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Now there is a messianic context to this verse of course.

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It refers to Jesus coming to the earth and ascending back to heaven.

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So the Apostle Paul gives us a bit of his own commentary on this verse in verses 9 and

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10.

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This is parenthetical to his stream of thought but it reinforces that he is talking about

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Jesus Christ being the one supreme authority in the church.

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He says He first descended to the lower parts, this one He is talking about.

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He first descended to the lower parts.

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What is He talking about?

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Well scholars take different approaches to that.

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I think the best way to understand it is that He is talking about the broad work of Christ

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in coming from heaven to the earth, becoming a man like one of us, dying on the cross for

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our sins, going to the grave, being buried there and then being raised from the grave.

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He is talking about Christ coming to earth in His great saving work on our behalf.

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He who first descended, He says, is the same one who then ascended far above all the heavens

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having accomplished His earthly work, having conquered His enemies, having dealt with sin,

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the Savior ascended back to the right hand of God the Father from where He is imparting

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fullness of blessing to His church, His fullness that fills all in all according to Ephesians

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1, 22 and 23.

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The point here is this, that Jesus Christ is the supreme authority in the new community.

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He is sovereign.

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He is Lord of all.

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When we gather, we gather to worship and to adore Him.

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Now if this is true, what is our part in response to it?

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It is that we disown any other authorities in our lives and serve Him alone.

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We disown all other wrong authorities.

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We put them away.

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We discard them.

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And we recognize Him as our final and supreme authority in life.

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He is Lord.

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He is Lord.

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It is easy for us to establish cultural trends as an authority in our lives.

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There are churches doing that these days.

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We do it too as individuals.

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We allow what's happening in the world to affect our thinking, to tell us what to do.

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It happens in churches where because of this trend or that pressure is put on leadership

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to change the doctrines of the church in order to conform to the cultural necessities of

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the age.

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You read about this all the time in the newspaper, particularly as it relates to mainstream denominations.

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Dear people, the culture is not the authority in the church.

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Jesus Christ is the authority.

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Culture can take its curves this way or that way, its ups and its downs.

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It does not change what Jesus Christ has said to His church.

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He is the authority.

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It's easy for us also to place into authority traditional ideas.

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Churches are very prone to do this.

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Once we do something for five years or ten years, we get to feel that that's the way

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it must be done if it's biblical.

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We've always done it that way, right?

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Jesus Christ is the supreme authority, not our traditional ideas.

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Now where our tradition conforms to what Jesus says, that's fine.

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But if our tradition is merely tradition and useful for a time, we must be willing to set

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it aside for what Jesus wants us to do.

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This last week I met a lady from India who happened to be at a Bible study.

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She is the widow of the most recent pastor of the church in Calcutta that was founded

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by William Carey.

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This year the church is celebrating its 175th anniversary.

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Can you imagine the temptation to tradition when a church is 175 years old?

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You can almost hear somebody say, yes, but Brother Carey didn't do it that way.

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But you don't have to be 175 to carry tradition around.

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You can be 12 years old and do that or less.

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Let us remember that in the order of the church, Jesus Christ is the supreme authority.

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He's not stagnant.

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He's not locked into one method of doing things.

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He is dynamic.

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He is living.

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He is vibrant.

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He is vital, working through his church.

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And our job as a people is to understand what he wants of us and to do that because he's

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the authority, just one, in all of the church.

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Now the second issue of order that comes from our text is that the community has all gifted

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saints.

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That's not a terrific sentence.

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I wasn't real well pleased with that, but I didn't know how else to say it.

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The community, all of us, we're all gifted saints.

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Verse 7, to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

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There's not one exception.

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As God orders the church, as He lays it out in order with His arrangement, His plan is

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that every single person who's a member of the church be a gifted part of that church.

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That means that He wants universal participation in the church.

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About one is to be on the fringe or on the outside looking in or to use the common metaphor

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that describes too many churches these days.

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We're not to be in the stands.

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We're to be out on the playing floor.

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God's plan is for all of us to be involved.

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We're all gifted for that, universal participation.

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Each of us has a divinely designed role in the community, in the local church.

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Now if you don't know what that role is, it doesn't mean God doesn't have one for you.

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He does.

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And just again as in our human bodies, there are some roles that are hidden.

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Even I have never seen what my liver does because it's inside me that I would die without

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it.

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So there are some roles that are completely hidden.

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And we don't see them in the church.

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And yet if somebody isn't doing them, the body suffers from it.

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One of the grand examples of that is the nursery where we have people who are dedicated and

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committed to that work.

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And we don't see the people in the nursery.

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They're hidden behind those walls in there, but they're caring for the babies while we

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worship here.

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Absolutely vital to our having a worship service with minimal distraction.

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I thank God for them.

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And for all of those who are doing hidden things that we don't see but which are important

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to what we're doing right here now.

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On the other hand, there's my nose.

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And every morning I get up and I see my nose.

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It just sticks out there.

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And so there are some of us who are more public than others, like the nose.

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And no matter what's happening in the church, we seem to be there, sticking out.

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Does that mean the nose is more important than the liver?

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Hardly.

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That's just its function.

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Do you understand my point here?

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I don't know how God has gifted you.

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I don't know what He wants you to be doing in the church, but there is something that

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you must be doing.

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You must be doing.

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For God's order isn't being fulfilled.

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Because you see, God's order is that everyone be involved in ministry within the context

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of the local church.

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Now sometimes that's going to be on Sunday mornings in a program of the church.

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Other times it's going to be outside the walls of the church and maybe not even an official

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program of the church, but an extension of the life of the church, a Bible study in the

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neighborhood or whatever.

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But the point is that we're doing something.

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We're involved.

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We're not just receiving, we're giving.

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That's healthy.

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He calls this God's grace to us.

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To each one of us grace was given.

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This isn't saving grace He's talking about.

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He's talking about serving grace.

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The ability to serve God is called here a grace from Him.

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There's no such thing in God's order for a working minority and a watching majority

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as happens in too many churches.

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God's plan is for all of us to be involved in the work of His church.

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And He's going to get to that in the next part of this paragraph that we'll cover, Lord

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willing, next Sunday.

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Now if this is true, what is my part?

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What is your part in it?

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It is this, to discover our place and to succeed there.

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Did you know that God wants you to succeed?

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He does.

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Now success has to be carefully defined.

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Success in God's mind is doing what we're supposed to do in the power of the Holy Spirit

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faithfully.

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Now we may not see the kinds of results that we expect to see, but results are not really

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the measure of God.

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God's measurement is faithfulness.

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It's understanding our place and then in the power of the Holy Spirit filling that spot.

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Now it may be that as a new believer you don't know where you fit in.

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Well, there are lots of ways to find out.

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One of the best ways is the welcomeers class, as we keep trying to tell you.

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If you don't know where you fit into the church, start there.

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Get an overview and then you'll know better how to plug into a piece of the whole.

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Or talk to one of the pastors or a leader in your small church or your cell group.

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But come to understand, discover that spot that God has prepared you for in this community.

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And because this is His order, His arrangement, begin to fill it.

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And you'll find your own life growing with excitement in serving Him.

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Where each one does his God-designed thing, there's going to be order and harmony.

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Now the third issue and the final issue I want to talk about this morning that relates

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to God's order in the new community is this.

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That the community has some assigned leaders.

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God's plan is not that all be leaders.

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That's unnecessary.

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God has assigned some to the responsibility of leadership.

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And in the context of Ephesians 4, He calls these leaders His gifts to the church.

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It says to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

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It goes on to quote from Psalm 68 where it says, and He gave gifts to men.

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Skip the parenthesis.

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And He gave some as apostles.

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So the emphasis here in this part of the text is not on the fact that each of us is gifted.

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That's verse 7.

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But the fact that God then gives gifted people to the new community, to His church.

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Some are appointed to leadership.

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There are some apostles and some prophets.

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Now the apostle in writing this is writing 1st century, number 1.

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And so there were apostles and prophets.

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Number 2, He is writing about the gifts to the whole church this whole age.

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As we understand the New Testament, apostles and prophets are not around anymore.

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Now in some generic sense they are, but not in the technical sense.

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Apostles were those who had seen Jesus Christ face to face.

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And were appointed by Him to the office of apostle.

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The prophets were those who filled in before there was a New Testament, receiving revelation

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from God and passing it on to the church.

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And Jesus Christ gave us apostles and prophets and they are the foundation of the church,

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Ephesians 2.

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But He also gave some evangelists.

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Now we understand evangelists as being those who are church planting missionaries.

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Those who are going out, whether it be in their own culture or cross culturally, to

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win people to Christ and to establish new communities of believers.

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Those are evangelists.

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And then there are some whom He calls pastors slash teachers.

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These are the ones who Christ gives to the church after the church has begun to teach

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and to guard and to feed the church, pastors and teachers.

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Some are more gifted in the shepherding, some are more gifted in the teaching.

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But there is usually a combination of those two abilities in the pastor-teacher.

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Now again, as we understand the New Testament, the pastor-teacher is synonymous with elders.

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Those two words, two ideas are used interchangeably.

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And interestingly, whenever the word pastors or elders is used, it's always in the plural,

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not in the singular.

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Therefore we believe that in God's order of things, in the new community, there is to

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be a plurality of elders.

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Their responsibility is to lead God's people, to oversee God's people as shepherds, to

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lead with delegated authority from the supreme authority, Jesus Christ.

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There is a terrible temptation in our day to diminish proper authorities in our world,

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in every realm.

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And it's true also in the church.

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And this is where we have to lay aside our cultural trends, our traditional ideas and

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come back to the authority of Jesus Christ who has delegated His authority to elders

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in a local assembly of believers, a new community.

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Now these elders are never to be proud dictators to the people of God.

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They are disqualified if there is pride.

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But they are on the other hand to be humble servants who must carry the responsibility

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of oversight to the church.

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They are not better Christians than others.

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Hopefully they are godly men.

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But it doesn't mean they are nearer the Lord than anyone else in the church.

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But it does mean that in His ordering of the church, Jesus Christ has given pastor teachers

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and elders to the church to oversee Him.

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Now that being true, what is our part in this order?

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It is to discern their role and submit.

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It is to understand who they are, what their authority is under Jesus Christ, and then

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to submit ourselves to their leadership.

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Paul has a great deal to say about this in the New Testament.

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First Thessalonians, for example, in chapter 5 he says, but we request of you brethren

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that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the

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Lord and give you instruction.

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You see, he is talking about pastor teachers.

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And that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

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Live in peace with one another.

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You see, where God's order is being followed, there is peace.

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Again, in the book of Hebrews, the writer says in verse 17, obey your leaders and submit

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to them for they keep watch for your souls as those who will give an account.

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Let them do this with joy and not with grief for this would be unprofitable for you.

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So what is our God-designed part?

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It is to discern the role that Jesus Christ has given to these gifts to the church and

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then to submit to their leadership as they humbly serve in overseeing God's people.

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Now losing sight of God's order will create confusion, disharmony, and lack of direction.

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It will cause discord and unhappiness.

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Losing sight of God's order does not honor Him.

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It does not bring blessing to our lives.

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So why do we struggle with it so much in the church of Jesus Christ?

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A local church, the New Community of the Saints, has been given an order, an arrangement by

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its supreme authority.

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One that understands God's divine order for the New Community and conducts itself accordingly

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receives His blessing.

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What are the blessings that come to the communities and for that matter the families and the individuals

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that follow God's order?

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Let me suggest three of them before I close.

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Number one, security.

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When God's order is being followed then there is security, there is safety from spiritual

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enemies.

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There is nothing that gives Satan a foothold in God's people more than disharmony in their

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fellowship.

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It is a wide open door and the people are waving the enemy on in when there is a lack

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of order in the church.

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When that order is in place there is security.

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The doors are shut, the bars are up, and God's people are protected.

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Secondly harmony.

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There is unity of purpose.

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There is singleness of direction.

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And instead of everyone doing his own thing, everyone is following the supreme authority

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Jesus Christ who has delegated His authority to the pastor teachers.

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Harmony results when God's order is being followed and finally there is joy.

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Why is there joy when there is order?

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Well, it's just natural.

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Don't you find that in your home that when there is disorder, when there is a lack of

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oneness, when the husband is not loving his wife as Christ loved the church, when the

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wife is not submitting to her husband as unto Christ, as the church does to Christ, when

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that terrible condition exists, is there joy at home?

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Uh-uh.

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Ain't nobody happy at home when that's the case.

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When the husband is loving his wife, when the wife is submissively to her husband in

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the New Testament context, what happens?

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There is joy in that home.

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And it's true in a church too.

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Because when there is order, we know we belong, we know where we fit, and we know that our

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contribution is going to make a difference for God, whether we're visible or invisible.

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It makes no difference.

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We know that we're in God's order doing what He wants us to do, and that brings great joy.

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So, the most important question is, are we today living a life ordered under the lordship

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of Jesus?

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In our marriages, in our other relationships, and in this new community, is Jesus Christ

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truly the supreme authority?

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Or do we just give lip service to that and live like we want to?

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Our concern today needs to be that we bring our lives under His order, knowing that He

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has arranged things for our good, for His glory.

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And if we will live under that arrangement, He will be glorified.

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We will be blessed.

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Would you pray with me, please?

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Lord Jesus, You are the supreme authority.

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To You is given the highest place.

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At Your name alone, every knee will bow.

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Every tongue will confess Your worthiness.

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We need to bring our lives under Your order.

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We are so prone, because of the influence of the world and our culture, to live other

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ways, to be doing our own thing, to insist that nobody is going to tell us what to do,

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not even you.

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Forgive us of that worldliness.

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Forgive us of that great sin of autonomy and rebellion.

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Lord today we would get into step.

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We would submit ourselves to Your order in the new community.

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With our heads bowed, I wonder if there's someone here who would say, Pastor, my life

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has not been in God's order.

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And today I'm convicted of the Holy Spirit that there are some things that in fact are

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out of order.

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I wish You'd pray for me.

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Now I don't know what realm it may be in.

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It may be in your home.

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It may be in other relationships.

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It may be in the new community, the church.

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But if things are out of order today, will you acknowledge that and your need for prayer

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just by lifting your hand and putting it down?

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God bless you.

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It's when we begin to see the problem that the answer begins to develop.

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We have to first see that our lives lack order.

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Is there anyone else?

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Yes.

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God bless you.

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Yes.

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My life lacks order because it's not under the Lordship of Christ.

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Pray for me.

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Father, for these who have lifted their hands, I pray.

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I don't know the specific issues.

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You do, and obviously they do.

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And so I pray that they will be able to deal sufficiently with those matters to bring their

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lives in obedience to Jesus Christ's Lordship.

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And may all of us live there, Lord.

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Make us one together in our homes.

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Make us one together in our fellowship in this new community.

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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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Bind us together, Lord, bind us together With cords that cannot be broken.

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Bind us together, Lord, bind us together Bind us together with love.

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There is only one God.

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There is only one King.

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There is only one body.

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That is why I sing.

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Bind us together, Lord, bind us together With cords that cannot be broken.

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Bind us together, Lord, bind us together Bind us together in love.

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And that's a prayer, and I know that God delights to answer that prayer.

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It depends upon our own hard attitude.

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If we're yielded and surrendered to Him, then He will knit together those cords that

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have been frayed in relationships, and He will make us one.

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Father, make us one.

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Make us one together in Jesus Christ, one in our lives.

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We know that we are doctrinally and spiritually, but in our practice, may we be one and live

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under the authority of our Lord Jesus, the Christ.

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In His name we pray, amen.

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God bless you.