Sermon: The Church's Revolutionary Arm, Dr. James I. McCord, guest preacher

race beyond the un peace from dada father and the lord jesus christ let us pray we bow before the jesus christ our son of god by grace and wisdom speak to last words of understanding and conviction oh man what i still say today is address to both of you know who do not believe that the church is finished and that her usefulness is exhausted one would take seriously of the promises made by our lord to st peter and the other members of the twelve rock writers prevail against it or are what i shall say is based on the conviction that the church is renewable

but the spirit of god i come rushing mikey whalen and blow through her and transformer so the chick uncomfortably through that spirit a revolutionary movement and every generation this is the secret of the church are about it to be revealed from above and that they come in each generation jesus christ's instrument of reconciliation what an art it growled work i shall say in the context of biblical history but they ask you to return for a few moments but across the centuries in history where israel

became a nation it was at the foot of mount sinai where the law was given as a positive indication of god's will for his people where the covenant that had remained in israel's ancestral memories since the time of abraham was now reviewed closes and the promise was made of a land that would be israel's intelligence it would seem that after this climactic event in the life of the people also recently redeemed from bondage for a moment but israel won't launch for things or some way and in a single stripe assess the promise that had been made but as we're really attract had hardly begun from sinai up again

and when the sky again until my armor against the leadership of moses' adam look back wistfully on the old way of life that have been forsaken it was too much it is yep of a people spiritually in the tour was too great a burden for a one man to back and so it was suggested it up like seventy elders the bear the burden of responsibility with him it is an organization in all the people of god and the time comes for the seventy eight to drop quiet and in the tabernacle du is saved from the hands of miles is the death of ordination but while the ceremony is taking place

out in the tabernacle joe israelites go bad and me dad suddenly begin the profits i in the camp we know of course the profits it means not to be a desire and a crystal ball not to become a soothsayer are a predictor of the future but someone becomes a mouthpiece for the living god but when these two men suddenly began to speak a lab yearning them ran out to the tabernacle and burst into the service and shouted and me that do profits lie in the camp and the friends of moses' were aghast and a well regulated then you don't have competing services even an upgrade at the medical aid so joshua one of moses lieutenants sat my lord bozos for

bad them and in the words of our debt and i say are you jealous or maybe one god that all the lords people were prophets and that the lord would put his spirit on them moses was already at articulating what is ben the prayer of the ministry of the church across the centuries that the tunnel people of god will take seriously the prosthetic mission of the church that every man and wal mart will see all the role of prophet and the death of the spirit of god will be the position i remember when this has happened

in the church has been able to move out of the ghettos where's that then more dramatic than in the first century with that tiny rule clustering around jerusalem in judea suddenly ratings hulk and in the space of a single generation thirty years dating ruled and beginning to irish and the alien in a hostile environment of the roman empire with the church always say instead of the pilot to turn in on ourselves here today mr darnton waller and more inward while the world will saw in a way that is not notice until suddenly communication breakdown relations are broken off and there is the need for the church again to become a revolutionary movement this is why i have

chosen this tax hoping that we might look at it for a moment to see if there are lessons for the church of jesus christ in nineteen sixty seven as we look at a star i embedded in the history of ancient israel in a type of literature art and they all dressed them up where you would least expect it we discover first of all that gaudy new laws as man and every page oh ok the price of decision you know it was a day like any other day in the life of the cat when southern a job presents the cable reality and the lives of two men but rather than trying to trust them back are to weaken law an art to explain game away

but saving presence in their lives there's something the god of the bible is known is not want that draws us out of the world as saab oriental religions teach and as christianity from time to time has attempted to teach as they say that in order to be wholly you must break your relationships and withdraw our responsibilities in order to be alone with the alone in isolation maurice this dog to be found by scattering the heavens are the years looking for a frozen fingerprint that was left from creation as if he wouldn't rule out is no longer to be found dynamic in a related the men and their history

no this is the dog that can come as he did in the camp in the midst of our normal human relations this is the god who did come in the incarnation of jesus christ taking of armor like the form in which we are made standing under the threats that we stand under knowing all of the ambiguity is that characterize our lives using the same language that we you lose in order to make you know the character of the heart of reality this is the dog that can be alone pullouts in the least of these my brethren those that surround us every day

the new president obviously got to us but notice again but when he comes he comes in a way that we have never left alone as we were is a god who refuses to let us remain a move and neutral the demand is always be for us to jewels to make the decision no matter how we become involved in a way of the perplexities that characterizes modern society there still is no escape from the personnel decisions with actual way makes a man want is it'll la gives the whole deal is being for this is the dotcom dot com saying saddam man i've called lead by thy name guard mine and the

decision that we make will determine the bald character of our existence this story god uses that at every age milk and then take that religious faith out of the tabernacle into the camp it will with paula at the ceremony but it reads in the scripture that after moses' laid his hands on the seven day they probably side had been so no more it was shot up within the walls of the tabernacle itself you know our drill man whose names are remembered because they said there were they saying in the midst of the camp that is to say they could take religion out of the church out of the fuel on the main street

and online this is you know it's the great challenge facing the church today we have just come through a period of ideology is characterized the twentieth century up until this point the revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth century were liberalizing then franchise the man they lead to its freedom whereas the revolution of the twentieth century as ben adler planetarium revolution based on ideologies which claimed to explain all of human existence and human history it was in the midst of this ideological threat that the church over the past thirty years was forced to go back and recover the living center of the gospel to answer the question i'm always the church and the additional question that holmes is the

church and the answer it became clear the church belongs to jesus christ are only ahead and she will not listen to the laws of any ideology or the claim of a totalitarian forest she will refuse to heed the walleyes aren't any stranger but moll the ideological period has ended at wimbledon came to aig post ideological age in the midst of this age the challenge to the church gives them will a ways from that living center out raw metal into the midst of the meal world that is developing knowing what the faith means and paying the price of converting that faith and do meaningful existence for the millions

of men and women who now have hopes that they never had before if the church then is to move out of an enclave stamps she will have to produce man and women who can make that transition made by know that and me dad who will be able to break down all the barriers that we have a rack did between different dimensions of existence the tate christianity and the spiritual eyes it the make it not something that isn't a side arm above but something that is central to human existence as we look at this story i'm trying to see the challenge to the church in nineteen sixty seven we discover that god uses man and every age or will bear killed iowa

mayor to innovate to change to do things differently for the team dump site there are down of the seventy poet named the names of jewels are remembered where they were able to more out and to do something so dramatically different that it was remembered the ladies mary atlanta divinity school always claimed that our progress is made on the opposite side of conformity and his right as a day in what other dimension you testing was a leader in business the man who does business today as his grandfather did now that is a man that had to be bailed out during the depression it became throw it a matter of a leader in business is that one of the opposite side of conformity looking for new product is new markets new human needs to satisfy new techniques

this is the one who leads in his profession why then does the church of jesus christ always have to give the opposite picture that she is so i again as vincent van gogh painted or oregon rut you know what i write is a grave open at both ends with people going up and marking time postponing funeral expenses here is where the layman comes in and the life of the church you must become the church is revolutionary army the ministers location and almost by definition cannot be that he stands before you're

week by week not speak he is all the words but attempting to proclaim god's word his whole life is regulated by the dude is what she must perform well in la he would spend much of his life behind the stained glass you have opportunity is every we don't you're going to live in areas that he can never enter in relations it can never sustain advocate with you all a part of reconciliation which is the gift of god's grace what is the ministry of in a church on land that what happens when you come within a sanctuary to be

minister and two no this is important we come together for worship to be built up to be inspired instructed and directed what the ministry is not fulfilled until total congregations move out and the other days of the week in order to make a complete that with jazz band begun on the week's first day and whether you deal as you will enter the israeli shows you literally began to play and all of human existence for jesus christ human existence housewife who can claim moral or christ with a lot of the low of the business man who can claim his business for christ to have a lot of business or the men in government who can claim government

for jesus christ for years also the lord of government and bouse we begin to take seriously as we have not accept it's all right way is the mandate that evolve on all of us to be part of the restructuring but god almighty has already begun in the midst of time the consummation of his own creation and look again at art text in this doll for my sake or you afraid the public will be done too soon ancient people we discover the nature of the gospel and become its revolutionary armed and be equipped

with the power of the spirit do before come on holy spirit gum like the fire to beirut and the clams come like the way to do a blow for like church and to make it the instrument of my glory although it's been it's beans

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