Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today I’d like to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that I wanted to tell you a little story.
One day back in the early 1980s, there was a young girl who was playing outside her uncle’s home, located in what we now know as the modern-day Republic of Congo. She was enjoying herself by looking through a pile of rocks that was apparently discarded from a nearby diamond mine. Mixed in with all of the rubble, she laid her eyes upon a large gold colored Stone. What she had found that day would later turn out to be one of the greatest finds in history. She had discovered an 890 carat rough diamond, one of the biggest ever seen that her uncle would eventually sell to some local diamond dealers. It was displayed at Smithsonian’s national museum of natural History, and referred to by many as the largest uncut rough diamond known to exist in the world. Yellow diamonds are very rare to begin with, and to find one that is flawless, is nothing short of miraculous. Throughout its life, this stone went through a few transformations. It was cut into 15 finished stones, one of them resulting in the ” incomparable diamond” which was 407.48 carats. This diamond was eventually cut down, and resulted in the modern day Golden Canary diamond, which is the largest internally flawless diamond that has ever been graded by the gemological institute of America. At 303.10 carats, it was recently auctioned off at a sale in New York City where it sold for 12.4 million.
This reminds me of the Christian Life
In order to take a rough diamond and bring it to a place of absolute perfection, its going to require some work. Certain undesirables will need to be removed, while other parts will need some fine polishing. It is for this purpose that God has provided the church with certain men, who possess certain gifts, for the spiritual improvement of our lives. They correct, reprove and encourage with God’s Holy Word, for the growth and perfection of the soul. Their purpose is to correct the flaws of our human nature and point us towards the divine. For many of us, it requires a lot of patience and hard work to get us to that place of moral and spiritual perfection, but if we willingly submit ourselves to the will of God, like a perfectly cut and polished diamond, we can eventually overcome the sinful nature and become faultless in the sight of God. The responsibility of spiritual leadership in the church is to perfecting of diamonds in the rough.
Ephesians 4:11-15 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Many years ago I had a young friend who really enjoyed bowling. I went to the bowling alley so many times with him, that I eventually started bowling myself, but my game was in desperate need of improvement. When I first started, my friend would raise his dark black eyebrows, and then give a little chuckle, because If you want to be technical, what I was doing really wasn’t what you would call bowling. Most people would identify it as throwing horseshoes. I really didn’t know what I was doing and would throw the ball halfway down he lane, but each week, he and his friends would give me pointers to help correct the things that I was doing wrong, and encourage me in the areas that I was doing right. After many months of practice, I eventually got to the point that I could actually compete with, and beat other bowlers. That could have never happened If I didn’t apply the things that I had been taught, and go on on to perfection. Men of God are placed in the church for the very same reason, to help us to achieve what God wants us to become, by guiding us into the truth, by pointing us down Gods path, and by rigorously polishing us until we are perfect.
1 Corinthians 12:28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
As a child, I grew up hearing the same thing over and over again. People told me that you can never be perfect, so why even attempt to try? When people pound those concepts into somebody’s head, no wonder why so many people are underachievers. If you truly want to begin the Christian walk, you will need to take the things that you have learned in this life, and basically throw them out the window. When you live in the world for such a long period of time, you begin to accept and believe it’s philosophies, but as a Christian we need to reject them. The responsibility of men of God, are to guide, teach and lead the church into biblical truth, so that God’s sheep can become perfected in His sight.
Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection……
As Jesus is perfect, we want to strive to attain the same perfection.
Luke 6:40 The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.
2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
The disciples wanted perfection from the church members.
2 Corinthians 13:9 For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.
Colossians 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Blameless means without fault and perfect, or without any defaults in character or mannerisms.
Philippians 2:14-15 Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke,……
2 Peter 3:14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
To truly claim that you love the Lord Jesus, means to obey and do His, which will result in purifying yourself from sin and attaining perfection
Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Men of God are supposed to feed the sheep consistently with the truth of God’s Word, so that the sheep are not are not deceived by false teachings and heritical doctrine. As I have always taught, the best defense against all the lies of the world is a liberal dose of scriptural truth.
2 Timothy 4:1-4 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Titus 1:3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;
The completion of the Christian faith, is the perfection of the soul.
Colossians 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Like laborers who are working on a diamond, Spiritual leadership within the church are doing the same thing. They are laboring to purify and perfect souls through the preaching of scripture. Each day they spend polishing, God’s……
……. Diamonds in the Rough
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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