Pastor Dale Goddard, What is your ambition this morning?
- Conference Yesterday
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- Good changes at Calvary Chapel
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- Knowledge has increased greatly
- God stands by His Word
- Bad changes too
- I try to get away from green rooms
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- Sometimes it becomes about who is there instead of the Lord
- The body of Christ is often first concerned about who will be there.
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- If God’s Word stands alone, then go!
- It doesn’t matter who is there, or who is sharing, as long as the Word is there.
- Eliteness, superiority
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- Misled ambition
- Ambition can be good, but not always
- Example of Romain, pointing out pastors who were gathered together and not available to the people.
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- Just think what would happen if those older pastors allowed the younger pastors to glean from them.
- What is your ambition this morning?
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- What do you want to accomplish?
- Why do you want to accomplish it?
- Where do you want to be?
- This is a sin that can subtly ensnare you.
- Example
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- Gathered all the servants, gave them titles, deacon and elder
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- Everyone loved it, thought it was great.
- Next day, people used their new titles to demand others to obey them.
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- They wanted badges with their names…
- If you have elders in your church, they know they are, because they know the Word.
- Unapproachable ministers
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- The way they dress changes
- Air of superiority
- They started serving in humility
- It is What they have become as a result of their ambition.
- God never intended that anyone be unapproachable
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- If you want to be the greatest, be the servant of all
- You need to take time to read the Bible and be reminded that you are nothing.
- Philippians 3
- v1
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- Same thing again and again, because we don’t get it
- What are you doing purposely to keep your people safe?
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- When you spend 45 minutes telling jokes, what will keep them safe?
- What is your concern for the people you teach?
- You have to teach them to keep them safe!
- Yesterday’s conference
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- Some got standing ovations….they are the ones who entertained.
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- If you look for that standing ovation – misled ambition.
- More jokes than content and weight
- Principles and truth are here to stay
- Fools eat up the entertaining messages/speakers
- Some of the greatest expositors pastor churches of 50, 60 and 70
- Sad to say…saw no prayer in the green room.
- We get a lot of slack about not letting high schoolers have a separate service on Sunday
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- Norman Geislure
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- 70% of high schoolers who do not sit in the main sanctuary, do not keep going to church after high school. Of the 70% who leave, 20% will come back.
- If high schoolers sit in the main sanctuary, 70% will still leave, but 50% will come back
- v2-3
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- No confidence in the flesh
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- Don’t try to be somebody you are not.
- When you let God use you the way you are, that is a sign you are not confident in the flesh.
- v4-7
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- These I have counted loss
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- What the world counts as good, I count as nothing at all.
- v8
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- Paul’s goal: the knowledge of Jesus Christ
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- v9-10
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- Correction Ambition: That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering…
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- That I May Know Him
- You can pick out someone who knows the Lord in ministry
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- You can pick them out by this: they are approachable
- Ways To Know Him
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- Know Him In History
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- Don’t just say you know Jesus
- 50 people got saved!
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- I’m worried that you think it is all real
- Maybe 1 out of 50 truly received Christ
- Many are called, few are chosen
- History of Christ is the gospel
- Know Him from Genesis – Revelation
- Know Him As He Is Today
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- Know He is alive and well
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- Same yesterday, today and forever
- You have to know Him today to approach God
- You can’t get people to heaven by having them attend your classes
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- People do not feel like they are saved because they do not know the Jesus of today
- Know Him In A Familiar Way
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- Do I know the Christ of Ephesians and Galatians?
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- Christ in us
- Christ with us
- Are you familiar with Christ that way?
- Get the stickers off your car, unless you are willing to live with Christ in you and with you
- If you do not, you will not depend on Him
- People act differently at church, because they do not know Christ in them and with them
- How is it possible for me to know Jesus?
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- Frustrating to see leaders and people live as though Christ is a name, or picture, or someone in the past
- Writers today do not go deep
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- Our ministers and pastors are relying on their peers instead of what God wants to give them
- Know Him because He is alive
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- Bodily, John 20
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- More doubting Thomases today than ever before
- Victoriously, Revelation
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- He exists because He overcame death
- Active
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- Do you see Him every day?
- See Him working in others? In correction? In His grace?
Today was a blessed day at Calvary Chapel South Bay for the annual leadership conference! They finished off the conference with Pastor Chuck sharing a very encouraging message. My notes are below.
If you would like to see my notes from the other sessions, you can always find them here: https://www.evernote.com/pub/pastorjerrys/takingnotes
- Chuck Smith – Habakkuk
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- God has a ministry for each of us.
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- There are so many opportunities.
- Habakkuk 1
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- Have you ever had the problem, where it seems like God is not responding when you call out to Him?
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- Prophet was concerned as the nation was going down
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- Became a violent society
- Legal system corrupted
- Enforcement of the law was broken
- Habakkuk’s complaint, why do you let me see these things?
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- I’d rather be ignorant than to see them and not see you doing anything about it
- God says, if I told you what I am doing, you would not believe it (v5)
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- Habakkuk questions, why would you use a worse nation than us to being judgment?
- Habakkuk 2
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- You are not going to understand God’s plan, but the just shall live by faith
- It is going to get worse, you are going to have to trust God through it
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- The end result is going to be good
- Habakkuk 3
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- The prophet expresses his victory of faith
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- I’m terrified, I don’t understand, but keep doing Your work
- I may complain, but don’t listen to me
- Our problems arise because our reasoning is in conflict with our faith
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- Our reasoning is flawed because we don’t have all the facts
- Jacob – concluded Joseph was killed because he saw his coat with blood…grieved for years over his death…but he did not know all the facts
- We often make mistakes in judgment because we don’t have the facts
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- Don’t draw conclusions until you have the whole story
- In our reasoning we often leave God out of the equation
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- God is working behind the scenes, even though you cannot see what He is doing
- It takes real faith to say, God I don’t know why this is happening to me, but I believe you are working
- The victory and triumph of faith
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- v17, cannot get more desperate than that
- v18, yet I will rejoice in the Lord
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- Rejoice – ahlaz – to jump up and down
- Joy – I will spin around
- Real faith jumps for joy at the promises of God
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- Even in the darkest situations
- The prophet is now including God in the equation, so he can rejoice even in the same situation
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- God in the equation makes all the difference in the world
- The Lord has resources that you know nothing about
- We usually try to figure it out, and then direct God how to do it
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- We panic when God doesn’t follow our directions
- Not for me to figure out how He can do it, but just trust that He will do it
- We can’t always rejoice in our situations
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- Many times our situations call for mourning
- But we rejoice in the Lord, not our situations
- The outlook may be bleak, but the uplook is glorious!!
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- He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can think!!!
- If you look up you will discover that He is still on the throne
This week we began our journey through the Bible In 3 Years. Already it has been an exciting week as many people have engaged and participated.
As I have been answering the questions that are coming in I found myself figuring out and trying to communicate different levels confidence or belief in the subjects at hand. Some ideas are speculation while others are essential doctrines.
Speculation can be fun and interesting, but those ideas do not hold the weight of other truths. So I put together a Sound Doctrine Scale to easily communicate this when I am answering questions.
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This means that the Bible clearly refutes the idea. It is unbiblical, false doctrine. |
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This means that the Bible does not address the idea. It could be true, or not, but we have no basis for determining the truth. |
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This means that the Bible leaves room for the idea to be true. It may be true, it may not be, but we do not have enough information to know for sure. |
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This means that there is some Biblical evidence for an idea. There is not enough to be dogmatic, and there are other views, but it makes sense to me. |
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This means that the Bible clearly teaches the idea. It is an unshakable truth and essential Christian doctrine. |
You can sign up to receive the questions and answers by e-mail at this link…
The Bible In 3 Years List
The Bible In 3 Years: www.cclivingwater.com/3
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