Making a Name for Yourself Sermon

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good morning welcome if you're new here among us my name is gene i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor and i heard a story not about me about two brothers i grew up on a farm i don't have a brother so you know it's not about me now their father taught them the value of hard work tilling the soil planting the seeds being patient waiting for everything to grow the humble work of the harvester well time went by the brothers grew up so they had to decide what they were going to do were they going to stay on the farm and continue in their father's work or were they going to go off and do other things like college or another career something else well the older brother decided i'm going to do the humble work that my dad did i'll just continue in this work it's what i know how to do fruitful the younger brother nah i'm out i'm done with this life and that wasn't enough for him he had contempt for his father he needed to make fun of him you see dad he's always all hunched over from all that hard work i don't want to be like that i want to hold my head high i'm going to make a name for myself well the younger brother he played guitar okay i did that but this isn't about me and he went off and he became a popular musician but he became more famous than i was he did really well for himself he made a career out of it and that wasn't enough for him he had to come back to the farm year after year and show off fancy new cars the nicest clothes and watches and stuff and every year a different girl he'd bring with him well the older brother he had a family settled down with his wife kids now the younger brother would come over and make fun of him ah the ball in chain well she's going to get old someday and you're going to be stuck with that old lady making fun of him ribbing him all the time when i'm done with this girl she's out i'll get another one year after year same thing every year well they got older the younger brothers stopped coming by so much years had gone by they hadn't seen him well one day the older brother decides to retire i'm done kids of my own they're going to carry on the work i can just sit here and enjoy and relax a little bit after all these years of hard work well he's sitting on the porch one day looking out over the fields of his kids working the younger brother comes over well he's not so young anymore he's an older man he sits down next to his brother neither of them say anything the wife brings out some lemonade for both of them younger brother starts to talk and he says you know the kids don't dig my music anymore it's not hip neither is that language so he's clearly old right records they're not selling like they used to i don't even know if they make records anymore the girls well they see me as an old man now they don't like me anymore even the girls i used to date i look them up on the facebook and they've got their own families nowadays i'm all alone you know what i regret not having kids now the older brother puts his lemonade down he says you see those stalks of wheat out there you notice the ones that are standing straight up keeping their heads held high well they're like that because there's nothing in their heads you see the stalks though that are bowed low to the ground they're like that because those are the ones that produce the most grain put another way the branches of the tree that are bent lowest to the ground bear the most fruit today we find ourselves in the rest of the story no that was not a funny one you're meant to reflect on that one they're not all jokes i can't do that every single week i can actually we find ourselves in a pretty long series that's because we're going through the whole bible but every once in a while we take a break that's a good thing last week was an example of your leadership being in prayer heather had prepared a whole message but she scrapped it and went with what god told her the church needed to hear and so many people came up to her and said that was exactly what i needed to hear other staff members so she addressed an important topic we've talked about it before the fear there's a lot of fear mongering going on nowadays it's not good for us she also addressed the symptom of that fear which was anger it's too much anger going on we're to live in joy and peace as christians we've learned in the series truly there is nothing nothing new under the sun read your bible if you think things are crazy today it gets worse as we go along so great message we needed to hear it even i needed to hear it i shared that at staff meetings so two weeks ago where we left off in the series we talked about ahab and jehoshaphat and usually those lessons and so i'm not doing it chapter by chapter because sometimes over a broader amount of chapters you get the full picture we saw that there was a lot of chapters two different books of the bible it's usually used to teach people be careful about the alliances you make who you keep company with very true but what about the good company so we talked about that too your real friends don't always tell you what you want to hear they tell you what you need to hear and that's what we do here at c3 church what you need to hear so we'll be looking at the end of elijah's ministry so there's these two prophets that weave their way through the stories of the kings or the accounts of these kings elijah and elisha and it's going to get even more confusing with names you're going to get two ahaziahs two dehorems so i'll help you the best i can to make this easy to understand and hopefully you'll get the point so first let's jump back a little bit in time to israel so this isn't going to be perfectly chronological that's not the way the bible reads so we're going to jump back a little bit now you remember that jehoshaphat he not only made an alliance with wicked ahab but then later after ahab dies it almost gets him killed he makes an alliance with his son a heziah now in second chronicles it says that they build this fleet of ships and they're destroyed and everything like that first kings doesn't give us as much information about that account but first kings and second kings will give us more on elijah and elisha it's not in second chronicles so we're gonna hop back there we'll get back to judah later but today we'll be talking about israel in the north so first kings 22 51 ahaziah son of ahab began to rule over israel in the 17th year of king jehoshaphat's reign in judah he reigned in samaria two years but he did what was evil in the lord's sight following the example of his father and mother and the example of jeroboam son of nebat who led israel into sin doubling down on aaron's sin the two golden calves if you remember he served baal and worshiped him provoking the anger of the lord the god of israel just as his father had done now if we turn the page second kings 1 1 after king ahab's death the land of moab rebelled against israel one day israel's new king a heziah fell through the latticework of an upper room at his palace in samaria that's why don't go up on the roof here at the church and was seriously injured so he sent messengers to the temple of bel zebub the god of ekron to ask whether he would recover but the angel of the lord told elijah who was from tishbe go and confront the messengers of the king of samaria so that's israel in the north the capital city samaria is there no god in israel why are you going to bel zebub the god of ekron to ask whether the king will recover now therefore this is what the lord says you will never leave the bed you are lying on you will surely die so elijah went to deliver the message so i'm going to summarize this for you the messengers come back too soon and king is like why are you back so early they say wow a messenger gave us this message for you and they repeat pretty much verbatim what elijah said what i just read to you you will surely die you didn't trust god you went to these false gods you're dead it's over so his eye says what does the guy look like well he was a hairy man he wore a leather belt remember that so he says elijah from tishbe he knows who it is so here's what you're going to do he gets 50 men's 50 is going to be an important number it keeps circulating through these chapters 50 men and an army captain to go apprehend to go arrest elijah the picture here is elijah sitting on a hill the army captain comes up to him and he says man of god come down here basically you're going to come see the king with me he says if i am a man of god then let fire reign down from heaven and burn you all up kill you and your men that's what happens they burn up well same thing second captain another 50 men same thing happens same dialogue everything's the same third time the third captain's a little smarter he goes up to him oh man of god please spare my life lives of your servants these soldiers for fire came down and burned them up don't kill me you say so second kings 1 15 the angel of the lord said to elijah go down with him and don't be afraid of him sallahu got up and went with him to the king and elijah said to the king this is what the lord says why did you send messengers to bel zebra the god of ekron to ask whether you will recover is there no god in israel to answer your question therefore because you have done this you will never leave the bed you are lying on you will surely die so a heziah died just as the lord had promised through elijah since ahaziah did not have a son to succeed him his brother joram became the next king this took place in the second year of the reign of jehoram and the son of jehoshaphat king of judah the rest of the events in heziah's life and everything he did are recorded in the book of the history of the kings of israel this is really confusing with names now because joram is ahab's son his eye doesn't have his own son but your bible might mark this differently there are actually two jehoram's there joram is really jehoram so very confusing there are two at the same time we'll talk about it in a bible study if you have more questions so now remember elisha so he is elijah who called down fire from heaven his successor basically like his assistant and briefly summarizing the story first kings 19 we saw how he was chosen the lord told him go anoint him or we would say appoint him and you do with oil they used the anointing all over sheep to stop the bugs from getting in their ears and killing them anyway too much information probably so he anoints him but he does so in a very interesting way he finds him working in the field with 12 teams of oxen elijah's with the last team of oxen elijah walks up to him and throws his cloak over him puts his mantle on him walks away elisha knows what this means so he runs up to elijah and he says let me say goodbye to my parents literally let me let me kiss them let me say goodbye to them okay but think about what i've done to you so then he does an interesting thing he kills all the oxen slaughters them and gives them to the town's people two things at play here maybe more generosity two a complete commitment to this ministry he's done away with the way he used to make his livelihood he's now all in no going back important point there so now from where we were in second kings one if we turn the page when the lord was about to take elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind elijah and elisha were traveling from gilgal and elijah said to elijah stay here for the lord has told me to go to bethel but elisha replied as surely as the lord lives and you yourself live i will never leave you so they went down together to bethel the group of prophets from bethel came to elisha and asked him did you know that the lord is going to take your master away from you today of course i know answered elijah elisha sorry be quiet about it so this is interesting it kind of reminds me of ruth with naomi you know i'll never leave you i'm going to cling to you so it keeps going we're going to have three cycles again then elijah said to elijah stay here the lord's now called me to go to jericho remember jericho but elijah replied again as surely as the lord lives and you yourself live i'll never leave you so the same thing happens with the prophets but they're there do you know that the lord is going to take your master away from you of course i know but be quiet about it i want to talk about it third time and again like the 50 soldiers there's 50 prophets then elijah said stay here i'm going to go to the jordan river no as long as the lord lives and you yourself lived i'll never leave you but this time 50 group of prophets doesn't ask them the question they watch them go down to the river and you get an interesting scene first of all elijah says to elisha this is going to be important tell me what i can do for you before you're taken away now we get the scene that everyone remembers where he slaps his coat that's before that all right so he's going to say that i want you to remember that so first he folds up his cloak the mantle the cloak was important he slaps the jordan river with it and it parts they cross over on dry crown sounds like joshua right so then he asks him the question keep this in your head tell me what i can do for you before i'm taken away and elijah replied please let me inherit a double share a double portion of your spirit and become your successor you have asked a difficult thing elijah replied but if you see me when i'm taken away from you you'll get it if you don't you won't so as they're walking along and talking a chariot of fire comes and divides them just like the waters were divided and then all of a sudden elijah's taken up to heaven in a whirlwind now as he's disappearing he says my father my father i see the chariots and charioteers of israel and as they disappeared remember this he tears his clothes in grief he's grieving he's upset his master's gone then elijah picks up the cloak that had been left behind and does the same thing to get back across the river second kings 2 15. when the group of prophets from jericho saw from a distance what had happened they exclaimed elijah's spirit rests upon elisha and they went to meet him bowed to the ground before him sir they said just say a word and fifty of our strongest men will search the wilderness for your master perhaps the spirit of the lord has left him on some mountain or in some valley no elisha said don't send them but they kept urging him until they shamed him into agreeing and finally said all right send them so the fifty men searched for three days but did not find elijah elisha was still at jericho when they returned didn't i tell you not to go he asked now elijah was a forerunner to elijah and we'll see that he literally gets a double portion elijah is taken up into heaven one of two people so far in the series that happened to remember in genesis enoch gets taken up as well now not sure about enoch but the word of god says that elijah would come back where does it say that the last book of the old testament in fact it's the last line that tells us that in malachi he's one of the prophets that probably came prophesied during the time of ezra that's why he's last one of the latter prophets malachi is an interesting book you've probably been in church your whole life heard malachi 310 to get you to tithe totally and completely taken out of context every single time i'll give you the context here's what's happening and there's a more interesting line than that the pastors leave out i'll share it with you anyway the whole picture we're supposed to get here is that the israelites are offering up worthless sacrifices and god's done with it he's not counting it as worship so literally it says they're bringing god the lame and blind sheep so what they're doing is something that might sound a little familiar to some of you anyway what they're doing is they're making sure that they're all set first and then they're giving god the leftovers that's the context malachi 3 10 will say hey you know make sure there's plenty in the temple of the lord and you know your storehouses will overflow it says the magic formula formula right but it's all about the heart so that's the crux of malachi there's a thing about divorce in there a little digression they're divorcing their israelite brides which is why i say hate divorce and they're marrying these foreign women not good adopting their practices this is what happens over and over and over again so that's the context of malachi my favorite line is when it says i'm going to rub poop in your face that's actually in there go ahead and read it you can find it and tell me where it was the context this is the context right this is what's going on in the midst of that context it says this malachi 3 1 so before the whole tithing thing the pastor's like look i'm sending my messenger and he will prepare the way before me then the lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple the messenger of the covenant whom you look for so eagerly is surely coming says the lord of heaven's armies now if we turn the page it will identify him malachi 4 5. look i am sending you the prophet elijah before the great and dreadful day of the lord arrives his preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers otherwise i will come and strike the land with a curse and that's the way it ends and so we're left there in the old testament waiting for elijah a lot of people don't realize this they don't put that together they're just like here we go but they're waiting for elijah there's an expectation one of the things that kind of makes it confusing is because if we turn the page or a couple pages you'll get a page that says new testament right and if you turn that page you get matthew chapter one and we go through this big old genealogy and then we go through some stuff about when jesus was a kid then we get to the important part now a lot of scholars will say that mark was written first not matthew so it was mark matthew luke and john maybe but traditionally matthew is said to have been written first but what's interesting is if you go to mark first so if you just read that line in malachi about elijah and then you go to mark an interesting thing happens mark 1 1. this is the good news about jesus the messiah the son of god it began just as the prophet isaiah had written look i am sending my messenger ahead of you and he will prepare your way also that's malachi 3 1. he is a voice shouting in the wilderness prepare the way for the lord's coming clear the road for him isaiah 43 but that's the greek version not the hebrew version of the old testament the messenger was john the baptist he was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to god to be forgiven all of judea including all the people of jerusalem went out to see and hear john and when they confessed their sins he baptized them in the jordan river his clothes were woven from coarse camel hair and he wore a leather belt around his waist for food he ate locusts and wild honey gross he even looks like elijah like now you may take me to john and you might say wait a minute in john 1 john the baptist the baptizer does he says i'm not the messiah but they ask him because they're expecting elijah i'm not elijah he says he's not but mark says something different and so does the angel gabriel if we go to luke's gospel account luke 1 12. so zechariah explain it to you in case you don't know is elijah's right john the baptist father all right so he's his dad he's a priest he's on his turn to burn incense in the temple he's a member of the priestly line of abijah so that's what he's doing he's in the temple that says they're old him and his wife elizabeth they're blameless according to the law but they're really old they can't have kids this is what happens zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw the angel appearing to him but the angel said don't be afraid zechariah god has heard your prayer your wife elizabeth will give you his son and you are to name him john you will have great joy and gladless and men gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great in the eyes of the lord he must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks kind of like a nazarite vow is what they would call that he will be filled with the holy spirit even before his birth and he will turn many israelites to the lord their god he will be a man with the spirit and power of elijah he will prepare the people for the coming of the lord he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly so that sounds exactly like what we met right in malachi so now it's not just here jesus clarifies it as well i'm gonna tie a bunch of things together for you really quickly remember everything's a foreshadowing all right so it's pointing to jesus eventually everything it's all it's all happening here so when the law is given exodus 19 we saw like all those elements remember the earthquaking the lightning the fire it's this big loud event the trumpet blast getting louder and louder and louder then later remember elijah he sent 40 days to mount sinai he fast just like moses did 40 days on the mountain he gets to mount sinai what are you doing elijah tells them to stand at the foot of the mountain then we see elements again very similar a wind blast there's an earthquake and then there's fire but it says here god wasn't in any of those elements he spoke in a whisper so things are changing a little bit now when you put the whole thing together then you hop on over to acts during pentecost which is where they're celebrating what happened on the mountain with moses the giving of the law now the spirit is given it's a replacement or a fulfillment in jesus giving the holy spirit here and it says tongues of fire what was important about that remember the contest on mount carmel it says that the tongue of fire like it licked up the water so now there you get a fulfillment of that or you get a little preview of what was going to happen amazing it all comes together but something else happens regarding elijah and moses we're both doing this stuff on mount sinai we get the transfiguration jesus takes peter james and john up on the holy mountain as peter later will call it and moses and elijah up here jesus's face becomes radiant and bright really really white and this is how john later writing revelation not john the baptist john the disciple writing revelation that's how jesus appears to him so it's a preview of this bam moses and elijah are there disciples freak out peter's like should we build three tabernacles or memorial shelters for you they don't know what to do god the father speaks this is my son who brings me great joy listen to him they freak out and fall down jesus says get up but then this happens matthew it's one of the accounts one of the places mark nine's another as they went back down the mountain jesus commanded them don't tell anyone what you've seen until the son of man has been raised from the dead and his disciples asked him think about it why do the teachers of religious law insist that elijah must return before the messiah comes they know he's the messiah wait a minute elijah just appeared jesus replied elijah is indeed coming first to get everything ready but i tell you elijah has already come but he wasn't recognized and they chose to abuse him and in the same way they will also make the son of man suffer then the disciples realized jesus was talking about john the baptist he's saying john the baptist is elijah at least in spirit and in power that was a lot but you can see over the last few weeks how all of this comes together in an amazing amazing way that's what being in the full counsel of god's word is all about it's amazing when you can see the big picture here and how it's all perfectly and beautifully connected flawless unreal now here's the thing a lot of people don't understand this about john the baptist not just the elijah thing everyone don't get that but they don't understand who he was he was a really really big deal in fact outside historians write about him like josephus you see he had a lot of followers a really really big big following he was preparing the way for jesus now here's the thing on our application today even though he had a lot of followers take a look at what it says so background there's a debate among his disciples john chapter 3. see we stop at 3 16 right and that's it we don't want to read any more than that for god so loved the world he gave someone and that's it that's the verse of the day and that's why we don't understand this stuff because that's what you do you read the verse a day and you stop i hate it anyway good that you're reading something but then getting it all wrong so if we keep reading here's what happens there's a debate there's a lot of stuff about john the first three chapters of john different john right so john the disciple writing john the baptist i know it's confusing a lot of people have the same names anyway there's a debate what's the debate about nobody talks about this think about it john has this huge following it says all it's hyperbole in the beginning mark all of judea like every single person but he wants to make a big deal about it everybody's coming to john we don't think about that so this is a guy with like a mega church think about it in a modern context right not going to name any names he's not going to name any names not going to name it so you get this mega church right preaching is a giant in a modern context so the people in the church come up to the pastor and they say everybody's leaving our church to go to the church across the street what are we gonna do so this is what happens everybody's leaving to go to jesus to go to the messiah they're leaving you john so what's the response john 3 27 john replied no one can receive anything unless god gives it from heaven you yourselves know how plainly i told you i am not the messiah i am only here to prepare the way for him it is the bridegroom who marries the bride and the bridegroom's friend is simply glad just to stand with him and hears vows therefore i am filled with joy at his success he must become greater and greater i must become less and less he must increase i must decrease say pastors never right we want to grow our churches really big that's what it's all about elijah was again a forerunner to elijah and then later john likewise john is a forerunner to jesus but jesus is a forerunner to no one john 3 31 he jesus is john has come from above and is greater than anyone else we are of the earth and we speak of earthly things but he has come from heaven and is greater than every one else just in case you didn't catch it the first time jesus is greater than john jesus is greater than elijah jesus is greater than elisha he is certainly greater than me this is the posture we must have as christians baby jesuses now don't get me wrong elijah elisha they did some pretty cool things some denominations venerate them for this reason but they weren't looking for that elisha followed elijah loyally serving him as his assistant important to remember that when he was taken up in the whirlwind what did he do told you to remember this he grieved he tore his clothes he didn't want him to go he didn't want his job the prophets do you know what's going to happen to your master of course i know i don't want to talk about it he wasn't going after his own fame or trying to make a name for himself he asked for that double portion so that he can more successfully do the lord's work not his own that was the point also unlike jesus they're just people you'll be short-sighted to over-venerate them and get stuck on them and miss jesus that's what happens sometimes you see a herald is what they are is someone who draws attention temporarily to themselves in order to get them to someone else or something else that's the point i've done this chinese proverb before not because i know a lot of stuff about chinese proverbs not going to try to sound smart it's because it's in a bruce lee movie so that's how i know this and he says it's like a finger pointing at the moon if you focus on the finger you miss the moon and all its heavenly glory interesting we do that though don't we it's stuck on the finger a lot now if we go a step beyond that proverb just beyond it think about it the moon doesn't produce light on its own it's just reflecting the sun alone it's dark all alone we're dark we are to just simply reflect christ that is our job especially in this very dark world now here's the thing i know where some people will try to get me they're gonna say okay pastor gene i've seen your instagram and there's a lot of followers on there again a herald gather like john the baptist you can gather a following but you must always point them over to jesus when it's time to hand them over yes go he must become greater and greater that's the thing look at the posts they're all about jesus every single one of them it's all i talk about it's important right i'm great but don't follow me follow jesus he must become greater and greater and that is remarkable if you go to john 1 he says look there is the lamb of god people start following him one of them's andrew that's simon peter's brother get simon peter and peter follows him people are leaving john john is losing followers to jesus go follow him he's greater than me so fine build up a social media account build up a church but the point is you must be telling people follow jesus follow jesus i'm just trying to be something like him so in that way be like me but follow jesus don't be a follower of me we went over the whim the woman at the well john four very famous account that's another example where people know this story but then they don't know an important one right after it so there's this encounter with a woman at the well jesus is tired he wants a drink of water samaritan woman's there we talked about that opposition to the samaritan jews and samaritans don't like each other in the series we learned why you jews normally don't have anything to do get me a cup of water and so he goes into this dialogue about the water i have living water that leads to eternal life and how she says how can this water from jacob's well here be better than what you have i have the water that leads to eternal life you drink from that well you're just going to keep getting thirsty again then he goes into a dialogue about true worship worshipping in spirit and in truth on this mountain gerizim or in the temple in jerusalem but he's getting to a point i am the messiah he says i know the messiah will come and explain everything i am the messiah well he blows her mind because he knows she's promiscuous you have had five husbands and none of them are your husbands so she thinks oh you must be a prophet anyway after the messiah comment she goes away but not in time for his disciples to see him hanging out with a woman but they don't dare ask him why it's kind of weird so here's where people stop or right before that so they say to him why don't you eat something he says i have a food you know nothing about so they figure well someone must have fed him john 4 34 then jesus explained my nourishment comes from doing the will of god who sent me and from finishing his work you know the saying four months between planting and harvest but i say wake up and look around the fields are already ripe for the harvest the harvesters are paid good wages and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life what joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike you know the saying one plants and another harvest and it's true i sent you to harvest where you didn't plant others had already done the work and now you will get to gather the harvest you see we are to be seed planters for the sake of the gospel i'll wrap up with a little context here for you first corinthians paul's writing to a messed up church i'm gonna give this challenge probably today to some people but i talked about a bible study it's worth remarking on the book is made up of a lot of different books and they're all different kinds of literature they're not the same we have poetry literature in there you have the psalms you have history books like we're looking at and you have letters epistles there's things written to different churches and different literally different people that's important to remember so when you look at paul's letters 13 books of the bible most of them are not general he even mentions very specific people in them all right so if i write a letter to lonnie about something going on in church it's going to be different to the letter i write to rey he might be doing something i don't like right you might be sleeping so you gotta wake up in church you know whatever it is i might use some hyperbole like hey put some toothpicks over your eyes and here's what happens two thousand years later everybody's sitting in church with toothpicks on their eyes and they don't know why it's a thing called context really important so be careful about taking paul literally you end up doing some bad things to yourself or other people but there are church-wide they call them catholic epistles don't be scared they're not literally like denominationally catholic it means universal right so it's to all churches in general james first john well first second peter first first john's a challenge i told everybody listen before you listen to the other stuff you got your church message which is where your pastors they pray about what you need to hear keep listening to that even if you're online from far away good but outside of that a lot of you listen to other sermons from other people nobody vets anybody and they come back to me with a bunch of weird questions annoying anyway so instead of listening to that stuff turn it off and just listen to god's word trust me it's better alright so god's word and read those books james first peter ii peter first john seven times before you listen to anything else and you'll discover something if you're smart the bible doesn't read like most people preach so first corinthians had to do that one through four this is the first messed up issue in a messed up church but really probably not even as bad as us first corinthians one through 4 is all about a topic i like to call pastor worship like 2 000 something years later we still do this today it's the first problem that paul addresses so first he says i heard a report from chloe's household that some of you are saying things like i follow apollos and if you go to acts 18 you learn that apollos is a really eloquent great great speaker so some of you are saying i follow him some of you are saying i follow peter some of you are saying i follow paul has christ been divided he gets angry right out the gate i'm glad i baptized none of you because then you might say you were baptized in the name of paul imagine a pastor saying i'm glad i ain't bap oh except crispus gaius and stephanus's household right so you know it's hyperbole those guys are cool you're not another thing someone tells on the people there chloe's household that's pretty awesome anyway so that's why he's writing the letter think about it i'm glad i baptized none of you because you might say you were baptized in the name of pastor gene that's not good he gets really upset about it he ends that segment there are no chapter numbers in the original chapter four should i come at you with love like a father or with a stick watch me saying that like man i'm gonna beat you that's what he's saying so now do pastors get permission forever to beat their congregation i'm sure that's where the nuns got it i don't know some of your my age or older the celebrity pastors finger stuck there missing you know the moon or the sun they're short-sighted so in the midst of this this is what paul says first corinthians 3 5 after all who is apollos who is paul we are only god's servants through whom you believe the good news each of us did the work the lord gave us i planted the seed in your hearts and apollos watered it but it was god who made it grow it's not important who does the planting or who does the watering what's important is that god makes the seeds grow we are simply planting seeds and through our humility it is through our humility that we then begin to assume the right posture of worship and that is how we live our lives we must always remember god causes the growth it's not about our legacy it's about his to him all glory and honor forever and ever amen you

Making A Name For Yourself

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