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And again today we have a heart-to-heart talk with Jesus as he speaks with his disciples

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in Mark 16.

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Last words are heart words.

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They express deeply felt emotions, thoughts, and concerns.

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The Gospel of Mark includes, as does Matthew, a recapitulation of the great commission of

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Jesus, His command to His followers to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world.

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But before those words in the Gospel of Mark, there is another conversation recorded.

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The words themselves are not there for us to study, but the occasion is there, and as

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Jesus speaks heart-to-heart with His disciples, let's say it's a difficult conversation.

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Verse 14, afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table,

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and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not

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believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.

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You will notice that this verse follows verse 11, where it says, when they had heard that

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He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.

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Then the report came of Jesus appearing to two men on the way to Emmaus, and it says

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in verse 13, and they went away and reported it to the others, and they did not believe

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them either.

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I think it is instructive that these conversations, this conversation of Jesus with His eleven

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disciples is included in the text where it is, that is given before the Great Commission

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was given.

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For before the disciples were prepared to hear and to obey the commission of the Lord,

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their heart attitudes had to be corrected.

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And of course that is still true today.

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Although we can be used of God in the Great Commission in reaching people near and far

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with the gospel, our heart attitudes also have to be right.

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We are quick to condemn the sins of the flesh.

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We are sometimes less quick to condemn the sins of the Spirit.

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That's probably because the sins of the flesh are visible, measurable, and easy to

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confront in a certain sense.

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But I believe that we can say that perhaps the greatest sins, that is the most damaging

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of sins, the most hindering of sins, are rather those of the heart, of the Spirit, where our

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attitudes germinate and take root.

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These are attitudes that are invisible, of course, at least for a while, and yet these

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invisible attitudes eat away at our spiritual vitality just like cancer does to our bodies.

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These sins are harder than some others to detect, even for we ourselves to detect them.

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Probably the disciples did not realize their heart condition as they gathered in that upper

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room.

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They were there in fear of the authorities.

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They were there in unbelief of the resurrection.

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So much so that when Jesus did appear, it says, they thought at first they were seeing

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a ghost.

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Probably they did not realize the heart condition into which they had slipped, but Jesus knew

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it.

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The apostles had work to do, but first Jesus needed to expose their attitudinal sins that

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stole their energy and their hope that day.

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Like the apostles and like the saints through the ages, we today face the jeopardy of attitudinal

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sins, heart sins, that can rob us also of spiritual vitality and prevent us from being

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used by God in the harvest of the world.

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As I look at the contemporary church today, at Grace Church Roosevelt, and my own heart,

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it seems to me that there are some attitudes that we must examine for.

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The first attitude is that of presumption, presumption that the church can make it without

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everyone's participation.

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There is a subtle attitude that has grabbed the hearts of God's people in our day in particular

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that says, the church will get along all right without me.

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Others will fill the needs.

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Others can give.

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Others can teach the children.

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Others can help out in the services.

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Others can sing in the choir.

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Others can even attend faithfully.

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The church will carry on without me.

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So we have a director of children's ministry whose perpetual job seems to be to recruit

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people.

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Now in a certain sense, that's inevitable when there are hundreds of people to recruit,

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to fill the slots that are necessary in the nursery and in the children's ministry.

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But the job is aggravated because people who volunteer do so for a month at a time, or

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a quarter at a time.

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If someone volunteers for a full year, it's almost a miracle anymore.

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Too much pressure, too much stress.

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The church can't get along without me.

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The Sunday school's always been there.

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It'll always be there.

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The nursery's always open.

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The services are at the church.

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I don't need to volunteer.

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Somebody will do it.

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I'm with these kids all the time.

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I need a break.

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It's too much stress for me to have to come to church and deal with kids there, too.

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Let others take care of it.

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And there is this basic presumption that somehow ministry is just going to happen without everyone

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participating.

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Let others go to the conferences that we have.

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I'm busy.

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Our family has things to do.

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Let others go to the Bible conference.

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I'll be very honest with you.

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I am reluctant to have a Bible conference at Grace Church, Roseville, because of the

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pathetic attendance that we have.

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I'm sorry to have to say that, but it's true.

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I'm reluctant to ask someone of a national stature to come in for a Bible conference

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because on a Monday night we'll be lucky to have 200 people who show up in a church that

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has 1,800 people who claim to be active in it.

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That's shameful.

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We have special events here occasionally at the church.

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Outreach events, we call them.

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We pray for that.

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We ask people to invite others.

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And I'm glad for all who do that.

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But do you know this last Christmas season, if it hadn't been for the guests who came

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and people from the community who came to our music events, it would have absolutely

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been embarrassing because so many people who are a part of Grace Church, Roseville, don't

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come.

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There is this underlying attitude somehow, it's just always going to happen.

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It doesn't count on me.

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It doesn't make any difference if I'm there, if my family is there.

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Some of us are doing serious thinking as to whether we ought to even have Christmas concerts

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in the church.

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We fell far below the financial budget that was necessary to pay this last December.

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And there were hundreds of people in our church who didn't even bother to come, let alone

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invite somebody else to come.

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Do you think that pleases God?

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Do you think that Jesus is happy with that?

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This risen Lord who comes to his disciples and severely rebukes them for their unbelief

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and hardness of heart?

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I don't think so.

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Let others support the church's ministry.

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I'm in debt, I have a home to pay for, I don't earn enough money.

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Let others carry the financial load.

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That whole idea has seeped into our church from our culture, our welfare culture.

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And there are a lot of people who are part of Grace Church, Roseville, who are welfare

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Christians, who are depending upon others to pay for the utilities and the building

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and the heat and for the staff and for the ministry and for the curriculum.

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Let them care for it.

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I don't really have enough money.

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I need to pay off my debts first.

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Do you think that those are attitudes that please the Lord Jesus Christ, that free him

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to work in our church to fulfill the Great Commission?

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I don't think so.

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I think that our church, like a lot of churches today, is in need of a severe rebuke by the

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Lord Jesus Christ for our attitudes that somehow ministry is just going to happen.

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We presume it's always going to be there.

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It doesn't depend upon us.

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In the 25 years that I've been in the ministry, I've never seen higher expectations of what

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the church ought to do and less willingness to give and to participate than we see today.

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If we want to talk about worldliness in the church, let's not think about dancing and

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drinking and smoking for the moment.

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Those are external problems.

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Let's talk about the heart problems that really evidence worldliness in the Church of Jesus

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Christ.

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Ministry doesn't just happen.

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Ministry requires dedicated people to cultivate it.

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If those people will not cultivate it, ministry will not happen.

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It will falter and fail.

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The Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ will not be fulfilled, not because he's incapable,

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not because he hasn't given us the power of the Spirit, but because attitudinal sins in

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our lives have robbed us of spiritual vitality.

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There's also an attitude in the Church of Christ today regarding faithfulness and how

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to define it.

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A popular radio commentator says that we have defined deviancy downward.

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In the Church of Jesus Christ, we have defined faithfulness downward.

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Faithfulness used to mean consistency, reliability, and devotion.

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But in our modern church culture, if one is occasional, if one is involved when it's convenient,

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if one keeps his commitments when it's easy to do so, then that's faithfulness.

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We have redefined faithfulness downward.

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What would someone think of a spouse who was committed to the marriage most of the time

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and only committed adultery now and then?

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Is that faithfulness?

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What would you think of a postman who delivered the mail only half the time?

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Sounds like real life, doesn't it?

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Is that faithfulness?

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What would happen to the rain, the hail, the sleet, that old statement?

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What would happen if a minister showed up to preach two or three Sundays of the month

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and the other Sundays didn't come?

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Would he be considered faithful in his charge?

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The attitude that interprets faithfulness in actions that are careless, sporadic, and

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undependable and easily deterred.

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The attitude that interprets faithfulness that way is choking the Church of Jesus Christ.

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What would you think of a new automobile in which almost everything in it worked?

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What would you think about that automobile company?

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Well, you know, I've got power windows and half of them work.

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The two back ones don't, but that's all right.

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What a faithful company.

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You expect it to work.

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You expect it to work all the time.

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What would you think of the furnace in your home that came on most of the time, especially

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in weather like this?

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You know, a couple days a week it didn't work at all, but the rest of the time, that's

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a good furnace.

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That's a faithful furnace, right?

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Of course not.

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And yet why is it that when it comes to the work of Jesus Christ, we excuse ourselves,

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call ourselves faithful when we're here half the time?

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Why is it that we call ourselves faithful when we bring our offering if we have enough

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left over at the end of the month?

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That is not faithfulness.

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That is unbelief and hardness of heart that Jesus rebuked his disciples for.

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Now I am sympathetic and I think that Jesus Christ is sympathetic to the busy and demanding

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pace of life that we have in our world today.

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My question this morning as I address this attitude about faithfulness is, where are

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the priorities that put first the kingdom of God and His righteousness?

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Where are the priorities that put first the kingdom of God and His righteousness?

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Underlying almost all of the other attitudes is this one.

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Well, whatever he says, it doesn't apply to me.

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It applies to others undoubtedly, but I am an exception.

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And here's why it doesn't apply to me.

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Here's why I am not involved in that.

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Here's why that doesn't mean me.

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And we begin to rationalize and excuse ourselves until we sound like teenagers.

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Well, here's why I can't.

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Here's why I don't.

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That doesn't mean me.

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And perhaps it is a spiritually juvenile attitude, I'm not sure.

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We are geniuses at making excuses for ourselves, rationalizing away the demands of discipleship,

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at least those ones that we don't want to meet, those ones that will inconvenience us.

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Now notice what Jesus rebuked in His disciples on this first Easter morning.

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And I need to point out that this was a particularly severe reprimand.

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There is no other occasion that you come to Jesus Christ interacting with His disciples

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when He so severely rebukes them, and it's Sunday and it's Easter Sunday.

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He has just been raised from the dead, having died on the cross for their sins, and it is

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on that day that He finds it necessary to reprimand His disciples.

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The word is used elsewhere in Mark 15, verse 32, where in this case it is the crowd saying,

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Let this Christ, the King of Israel, come down from the cross so that we may see and

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believe, and those who were crucified with Him were casting the same insult.

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That's the same word as the word reproach in the next chapter.

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Jesus insulted His disciples.

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That's how strong a term this is.

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On another occasion when He was speaking to the cities who had had His ministry and rejected

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it, He pronounced a roll upon them.

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He pronounced judgment upon them, and Matthew says He reproached them.

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The very same word is used here when Jesus severely rebuked His disciples.

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Two broad categories were on His heart that day as He spoke to them.

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One was unbelief, failure to accept the truth, failure to act upon it, repeated reports of

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His resurrection had been disbelieved, and hardness of heart.

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The word is sclerocardium.

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Sclero is the word for hard or hardness.

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You may be familiar with the term sclerosis of the liver.

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It is a hardening of the tissues in the liver, or we sometimes speak of multiple sclerosis.

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It is a hardening that takes place, and what Jesus is concerned about with His disciples

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this first Easter Sunday is the hardness of the heart, sclerocardium.

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This is not the only time Jesus rebukes His church.

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It is interesting that by the end of this century Jesus writes seven letters to seven

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churches, and in five of the seven it is necessary to rebuke them.

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Let me just remind you of what He rebukes them in the first century and see how these

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apply to the church of Jesus Christ today.

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In Revelation chapter 2, the church at Ephesus, He rebukes them because of the loss of fervency

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in their lives.

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He says, You are involved in all these nice, good things, but you have left your first

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love and rebukes them for it.

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In the same chapter, another church rebuked for compromise with false teaching.

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They have allowed a false belief system to creep into the church and they were adopting

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it.

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In the same chapter, He rebukes the church at Thyatira for accommodating an immoral lifestyle.

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They were allowing immorality in their own midst.

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In the third chapter, in Sardis, He rebukes them for satisfaction with just being external

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and living on their reputation.

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He says, You have a name that you live, but you are dead.

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Now Jesus is speaking to the church, not to the world.

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He says, You have a reputation, you have a name, but the truth is that you are dead.

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Repent.

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In the last church of Laodicea, we have a church that is self-sufficient.

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Jesus rebukes them for their spiritual arrogance.

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He says, You think you have it all together.

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The truth is that you are poor, you are naked, you are blind, you are miserable.

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Repent.

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So when we talk about the church repenting, we are talking about the church doing something

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that it has needed to do since the first century.

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When we talk about Jesus having a heart-to-heart with His disciples, we are talking about something

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that He has had to do again and again and again throughout the age.

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Jesus having one this morning with Grace Church Roosevelt and its people.

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I recognize that in a certain sense on an ugly day like this I am preaching to the choir.

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That is, I am preaching to people who are faithful, who are here.

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I understand that.

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I thank God that you are here.

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You are bearing the brunt for those who are not here, I guess.

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But the fact is that all of us, even those of us who come on tough days like this, need

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to examine our hearts.

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We need to dig out the unbelief and the hardness that is there and the ways that we have compromised

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and accommodated and redefined faithfulness and say, God, bring me back to the basics.

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Lord, I want my heart to be the kind of a heart you can use in fulfilling the great

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commission.

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So the best of us today needs to repent, to repent for our own sins, not for the sins

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of our brother and our sister, but for our own sins.

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But when we have repented for our own sins, we can also repent for others.

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What does that mean?

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I think, for example, of the godly Ezra, a man who was without reproach the servant of

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God in the Old Testament, but he stood up to pray with the people and very rarely in

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his whole prayer of confession does he say, I.

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He says, we.

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He repents for the whole nation.

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Today we can repent for ourselves.

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We can also repent for our church, for Grace Church Roosevelt.

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We can repent and change our hearts.

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We can ask God to change the heart of our church and to forgive us for our unbelief

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and hardness of heart.

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It really is useless for us to talk about the great commission until our heart attitudes

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are right, for the heart attitudes that are sinful preclude the possibility of the great

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commission being fulfilled through us.

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And so even the most mature and experienced of Christians who are here today, like the

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apostles, must carefully and sincerely examine our hearts to uncover any attitudes that are

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squelching the Spirit of God.

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On this Sunday, as we remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ as we do the first day of

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every week, Jesus comes to us and he meets with us.

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Before he can get into the job we have to do, he needs to talk to us about our heart

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condition.

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I invite you to pray with me.

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Lord Jesus, some of us don't even realize you're here this morning.

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Our hearts are hardened.

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There's unbelief in our hearts as there was in the hearts of these disciples that we read

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about in Mark.

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We as a Church have said that we are a mission center and we have the commission to fulfill

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and we want to be busy doing that, and yet you have a prior concern.

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Speak to us about that today, and wherein our heart attitudes are sinful, may we repent.

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Repent for ourselves, repent for our Church.

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Let's remain for a moment in the attitude of prayer.

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I'm going to ask that we have a music instrument play for us, number 371, the words of which

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are familiar.

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If you want to learn more, script the voice, prayer, and ask us where we are where everyone

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is located on, infrastructure, or officer.