In this talk, given at the 1989 Leaders’ Conference for Women, Nano Farabaugh described how our sins affect the body of Christ. Then she used 2 Corinthians 7:8-11 to describe the two ways one can respond to the reality of sin: godly grief or worldly grief.
Transcript
This document is a direct transcript of an audio recording and may contain transcription errors and other minor edits for the sake of clarity.
[Tape begins after Nano has already begun speaking.]
NANO: . . . Godly Grief. Godly Grief.
Okay, in this talk I will focus on three things, and those three things Iâve put on the board, the white board here.
First is the mission of Christ, which was to build community, his kingdom, by drawing all men to himself. And along with that, the way he has equipped us as leaders to carry on that work. So the first isâand what Iâve written up here is âthe mission to build communityââthat meaning his kingdom, which is to draw all men to himself; and âthe way he has equipped us, as leaders, to carry on that work.â
Secondâsecond thing Iâll focus on is how our sinfulness affects the Body of Christ and undermines this mission. And what Iâve written here is âhow sinfulness affects the body and undermines the mission.â
And [the] third thing Iâll focus on will be âhow going to the cross, and practicing godly grief for our sins, can be a powerful tool for effecting lasting change in our life.â Iâll say that again: âhow going to the cross, and practicing godly grief for our sins, can be a powerful tool for effecting lasting change in our life.â
And I would further add thatââa change that is founded in the hope we have in the resurrection.â Thatâs very important, that those two go together. And youâll see that in my talk.
[Inaudible request from the audience]
NANO: Sure. The whole thing?
WOMANâS VOICE: Number three.
NANO: Okay. âHow going to the cross and practicing godly grief for our sins can be a powerful tool for effecting lasting change in our life, a change that is founded in the hope we have in the resurrection.â
So, I would like to begin with a passage from Luke, where Jesus tells us of the master aim of his work. And this is Luke 4:18â21. 4:18â21.
After Jesus was baptized in the Jordan and filled with the Spirit, he went to the synagogue in Nazareth. There he stood up among the crowds, and he said:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, âToday this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.â
At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus immediately announced what he was going to do: preach good news, release captives, heal the blind, free the oppressed, proclaim the acceptable year. But he did soâthis is interesting-âthrough quoting a prophecy about the works predicted of the Messiah. And then he begins to do all those works that he said he would, before their eyes. And for three years, he continues. What was all that about?
He was actually outlining for them, and for us, too, his two-fold plan: first, to build community. Thatâs the first one that Iâve identified up there: to build community. And second, to unite people to himself.
So let me deal with the first: building community. He was building his kingdom of heaven on earth. He was building his body, his Christian community. He wanted to make people aware of the presence of God as an urgent reality, and to call them to the proper response, so that they might become members of the new people of God, the new Jerusalemâthe new Israel, actually.
That was the first. Secondly, we learn from this passage that his aim was to minister to the human needs by healing the sick; delivering; giving faith and hope; and leading individuals into new life under the inspiration of a personal attachment to him, in a personal relationship to himself. So heâsâwhat he is doing is inspiring them to come to him. And itâs important for us to understand that that work continues today in our lives. That work was not just for that time. It is for today.
We must see the gospel from the viewpoint of Christ drawing all men and women to himself. And, in fact, drawing all men and women to community. For if we look at it, the Trinity, by its very nature, is community: Father, Son, and Spirit. And as we grasp the truths of Christâs words and life, and we willâletâs see, how shall I say it?âwhen we see the Trinity as community, we will grasp the truths of Christâs words and life. For itâs through these words that he has set before us the way to be united with him in his body in community. Itâs through his words and his work on earth that we will see that.
Now, how did he do this? He broke down the walls of sin that had divided peopleâall the peopleâfrom himself. And through that, through breaking down those walls, heâs beckoning them to himself, and calling them to repentance. He restored people in body and spirit through his healing love and deliverance, and by revealing truth in Scripture.
So itâs like he has called them to himself, called them to repentance; restores them in body and spiritâwhat he said he was going to do: heal these people. And all in that in his love. He delivers them; he gives them his truth. And then he shows them how to love God, and one another, as he lived and walked on the earth. He just did all those things before their eyes, and before our eyes.
And because he lives, now, he is carrying on his mission today in the church, and in a small way in the People of Praise. And we ourselves can testify that this work continues, and he is still calling people into community, and setting them free.
When I was thinking about this talk, I was reminded of a story of a sister who moved to a branch to join the People of Praise. And she was visited, about a year after she had been in community, by an old friend. And when the friend saw her, he didnât recognize her. He said to someone else, âThatâs not Ruth!â
She was a different person, inside and out. Christâs word had freed her; his word had transformed her. She had changed, because she had become united with this body, his body. And, in a sense, her old friend was seeing in Ruth a glimpse of what Paul meant when he said, âIt is no longer I that live, but Christ that live[s] within meâ [Galatians 2:20].
This isnât just true for one person in the body of Christ. In varying degrees, itâs true for every person, for the entire body. Each one of you could give a similar sharing, for yourself as well as for the other women and men in the branch. Every individual in the People of Praise is being restored through our relationship with Christ and his body. âOnce you were no people, but now you are Godâs peopleâ [1 Peter 2:10].
For us to build his body, for us to serve his body as heads, and live in it with him, we must know we have been given everything that we need. Paul tells the Corinthian community [1 Corinthians 1:4â7] that we are âenriched in Christ,â and that they are not lacking in any spiritual gift. We are like the Corinthians: we are enriched in Christ and not without spiritual gifts. And in this truth we should be very thankful, continually thankful, continually having grateful hearts for âthe grace of God which was given us in Christ Jesus.â And Ephesians 1:3 says, âGod has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heaven.â
Jesusâ call for us today is to continually build this body with the gifts he has entrusted to us. And Iâd like to give you an image that will help us understand the work of building a body. The image is like a buildingâlike building a magnificent edifice. Letâs call it similar to a grand church of the Middle Ages. God is the architect, and he holds the blueprint for the structure, this building, which is an image of its designerâGod-âand a dwelling for him, which is to be a perfect structure. Sometimes weâas trusted servants, we may see a glimpse of the plan for the structure, but only when he allows us. And sometimes I think we do get a glimpse.
All the tools for the building are given. Some of the tools are: gifts of the Spirit; teachings on right relationship and right speech, raising children, and roles of men and women; gifts of deliverance and headship; prayer, praise, and intercession; Christian marriage and dedicated celibacyâwhich is kind of like a special kind of discipleship.
And as the tools are distributed, all have a part to take in building the structure. All have a part to take in building the structure. No jobâno jobâis more important than another, because the building wonât be completed until weâve each done our particular assignment. It wonât be completed until each one of us has done our assignment. Each is invaluable to the buildingâs progress.
A headâs role, in this image, is like a foremanâor forewoman [Nano and all chuckle]âI donât like that term, actually [Nano and everyone laugh]âcalling on those with certain kind of abilities and encouraging their progress. So thatâs perhaps some of our roles. But they must sometimes teach and show by example how to do those tasks.
However, if we examine this building, we find cracks in the mortar, flaws in the workmanship, errors in following direction. The structure is already weakened. The workmen are at fault. We have not used the tools.
Rather than follow directions, we have preferred our own way. Instead of repairing relationships through repentance, we gossip and slander, and hold grudges against those who hurt us, and thus produce further division. We gather together with other malcontents and form little factions of resentment and criticism. We frequently ignore the calls to service, and succumb to sloth. We envy one anotherâs good fortune. We desire material gain. We violate purity of mind and heart with worldly entertainment. We are jealous. We complain. And we lose the vision of the project, this beautiful edifice.
I was thinking of an exampleâanother example of this. This is a real example. I guess it was last year, or a year and a half ago, when there was an earthquake in Russia. The buildings in that town that were destroyedâin fact, most of the town that was destroyedâwere built by the Russian people. But they didnât follow the design for the buildings; they didnât use the right kind of material. They didnât build it according to specifications. But at the end, they had a building. They had a lot of buildings. They had a lot of homes. And the earthquake came and destroyed it allânot just the homes, but the people.
So, we can have a building; we can have a beautiful edifice, a beautiful communityâstructurally, looking [at it] from the appearance. But itâll crumble when the earthquake comes.
Now letâs move to the real image: the body of Christ, to which we have committed our lives. As women leaders, or headsâthis, by the way, is a toughâis a rough talk, if you havenâtâI mean, for you to hear [Nano chuckles]. As women leaders or heads, I would ask this question, as I ask it, or asked it, of myself: are we using all the gifts to build this body? Or through our sin, could we be weakening this body?
Imagine the effect on the body of our repeated gossip about a sister, or our unjust anger, or any of the sins we have gotten comfortable with in ourselves. These actions not only affect our personal strivings for perfection, our chances of winning the eternal prize, the eternal salvation. They also pull at the very fiber that holds our common life together.
So, it doesnât just affect our self, but it affects the entire body. And with each subsequent failure, the whole fabric of the community is weakened; the entire structure is affected. Our personal failure hinders the growth of the body. Our personal failure.
Sometimes, I find it so easy to look at those whom I may have some pastoral care for, and look at their personal failure. Iâm quite good at seeing theirs! [Nano chuckles]. Too good. The reason I can see it is because I have those problems myself.
Besides the body being weakened, and its progress impeded by our sin, there are other even greater effects. Our sin, our sinsâit would be nice if we only had one, wouldnât it? Not so! [Nano chuckles]. Our sins hurt the body, and they injure Christ.
And Iâd ask you to recall the personal hurt on a sisterâs face when we wronged her. Her expression of pain is an immediate indication of our mistreatment. And as Christ lives within each one of us, when we hurt a sister, we are hurting him. When we insult the body of Christ, Christ is insulted. We are at fault. When we injure the body of Christ, Christ is injured. And, as Scripture says, when we fail to give a drink to one of the least of these brothers, we fail to give it to Jesus.
His injury leads him to grieve. Christâs injury, that we have done to him, leads him to grieve, not so much for the pain of the injury, but for the way our faults, as women leaders, affect the body. Thatâs what he grieves for.
He needs us as heads to assist him in building this body. He needs us, now, to take our place before God, to put aside all the works of the flesh: âsexual immorality, impurity of mind, sensuality, worship of false gods, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, bad temper, rivalry, faction, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousingâ [Galatians 5:19â20]. We must realize our sin cannot be minimized as to the degree it affects the body, Christâs body. In giving us the gifts of leadership, he has charged us to be pure and holy, without sin, in our duties. And this is what we must be.
Yet, havenât we heard these words before? So many times. And our sin persists. We allow ourselves to be estranged from God, from our brothers and sisters. Is there no end to our sin? What will it take for us to alter our course, to fully assume the duties he has given us to live free in him? Where are we to go for our solutions?
As Paul says in Corinthians [1 Cor. 2:2 JBP], âYou may as well know now that it is my secret determination to concentrate entirely on Jesus Christ himself and the fact of his death upon the cross.â It is at the cross, with Christ crucified, we will find our answers.
It is there Paul tells us, âChrist gives us comfort in all our trials, so that we, in turn, may be able to give the same sort of strong sympathy to others in their troubles that we receive from God.â How we long to do that; for on the cross, Christ took the burden of sin from us. Itâs on the cross Christ suffered for these sins and, in doing so, paid the price.
Where do we find the strength to confront our sins, our failures and vices? We find it at the cross of Christ. It is at the cross that he says he âwill draw all people to himselfâ [John 12:32]. All of us. And it is there that he will realizeâwe will realizeâthe effect of our sins on the body of Christ.
His body is bruised. Our sins of pride, envy, judgment pierce his sacred head as a crown of thorns. Our sins of the fleshâlust, gluttony, drunkenness, slothâpuncture his flesh as the nails.
We hold him there, immobile, by our refusal to reach out in love. Our denying him, our profanity, our turning our backs on him, mar his face with spittle. Our disunity spits in the face of all he is trying to accomplish. The sins of our tongueâour gossip and slanderârip his backs [sic] and side as a whip.
This is where we find the answer. It is here, at the cross, that we come to true repentance for our offenses and a true sorrow, a godly grief.
Do we not see our part in the crucifixion? Listen to what Peter says on Pentecost in Acts [2:23]. He says these words to us: âHear these words. This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified.â The crowd saysâthat Peter was addressingâactually, the crowd that Peter was addressing, they werenât even there! They werenât at the cross! But Peter says they were. Thatâs remarkable to me. He was right!
And the remarkable thing, besides that, is that they took responsibility for that, too. They knew he was right, because they were facing their sins. They took responsibility for their sins. Scripture says, âWhen they heard this, they were âcut to the quick. They cried to Peter, âWhat shall we do now?ââ [Acts 2:37.] Of course, he told them to repent [slight chuckle by Nano].
This demonstrates, also, our part in the crucifixion. And our response needs to be the same. We have to face the reality of our sin. But perhaps we donât like the cross. Itâs too painful. But, sisters, there can be no full understanding of the reality of the resurrection unless we understand the reality of the cross.
However, the horror of sin isnât the only thing we realize at the cross. And Iâthis is really important, too: we have to also realize, and come face to face with, the overwhelming love and forgiveness of God, who, as we know so well, gave his only Son for us, for our salvation. It is here we know the reality of Paulâs words [Colossians 1: 21â22]: âAnd you who were once estranged, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present us holy and blameless, irreproachable before him.â
This is what we desire: Jesus. And this is what we, as women leaders, need more than anything else, is to be as he was: holy, blameless, irreproachable.
The workers are few, the harvest is plenty. There is much to be done. We must not get discouraged, for as we go to him on the cross, we will find love that is beyond compare, a love that is freeing us. And we have to take that also with Paulâs words [2 Cor. 4:16]: âSo we do not lose heart; our inner nature is being renewed every day.â
It is being renewed by Christ who, for our sake, became sin, even though he âknew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of Godâ [2 Cor. 5:21].
Going to the cross, facing our sins, repenting, are not the actions that should turn us inward, pitying ourselves, and leading us to dwell on all our failures, and then concluding that weâre losers. Rather, going to the cross should turn us to God, and lead us to a true sorrow for our sin, a godly grief.
It wasnâtâletâs see: Danâs taking Part 3, chapter 29 on grief, and my talking about this actually wasnât planned [Nano chuckles]1. It was Godâs plan, I think.
This consideration of the seriousness of our responsibilities as heads, and all that Iâve been talking about, the understanding of the effects of sin, could beâI would say, probably is, or perhaps should beâI donât know if itâs âshouldââcould be, maybe, a hard message for us. And if youâre anything like me, when I realize my sin, I get turned inward; I get discouraged; Iâm self-concerned; Iâm kind of a mess [Nano chuckles].
I may be sorry, but the sorrow is more focused on the way the wrong made me look than the way I offended others. Thatâs a worldly grief: the way it made me look, not the way Iâve offended others. And any idea of my sins really hurting God are just that, theyâre just oftenâitâs an idea. I donât know, I donât realize the effect of hurting God. But if I ever hope to change, I need to confront this reality, and approach it as Scripture says, with a godly grief.
But I myself, as well as the rest of usâthe rest of youâdonât have to live under the scourge of self-pity, self-negativism, every time we fall. Instead, Christ intends us to realize the true freedom of repentance. The true freedom of repentance. A freedom that comes from what Paul calls godly grief, not a worldly grief.
Now I want to read a passage from youâfrom you! [Nano chuckles.] Somebody have a passage? [laughter] . . . to you, that is, from 2 Cor. 7:9â11. This from the Phillips version ofâtranslation of the Bible [JBP]. Paul has sent a letter out to the Corinthians. And itâs obvious, from this passage that I read, that he has corrected them for something. He says: âI can see that the letter did upset you. . . .â
Now just think of yourselfâyou know, as a head, perhaps. âI can see that the letter did upset you, though only for a time, and now I am glad I sent it.â Doesnât that sound familiar? You know, first youâooh, you didnât want to; then you did. You were glad.
â . . . not because I wanted to hurt you, but because it made you grieve for the things that were wrong. In other words, the result was to make you sorry, as God would have you sorry.â Thatâs the godly grief, âas God would have you sorry, and not to make you feel injured by what I said. . . . The sorrow which God uses means a change of heart . . .â Thatâs Godâs sorrow: it means a change of heart! â . . . and leads to salvation, without regret.â
Godâs sorrow leads to salvation without regret. Thatâsâdo we experience that in our repentance? Or . . . ?
âItâs the worldâs sorrow that is a deadly thing.â Thatâs what I experience sometimes: worldly sorrow. It is a deadly thing. Itâs my death.
Then he says, âYou can look back now and see how the hand of God was in that sorrow.â Godâs hand in that sorrow. We have to reflect on it.
And, listen to the effects: âLook how seriously it made you think.â It really got your attention, didnât it? âHow eager it made you to prove your innocence, how indignant it made you, . . . how afraid. Look how it made you long for my presence, how it stirred up your keenness for the faith, how ready it made you to punish the offender! You have completely cleared yourself in this matter.â
My sisters, godly grief is sorrow we experience from seeing the effect of our sins on the body of Christ, on our sisters and our brothers. It is the desire we have to turn again to Christ and his body. And it is the action, or deeds, we do to comfort, to soothe the wounds we have inflicted through our sinsâto comfort them, to soothe their wounds, to soothe Christâas well as the action we take to fully restore the relationship with the body.
And the key to this kind of sorrow comes from being at the cross, seeing Christâs love for us and knowing the power of his forgiveness.
Now, justâI briefly want to go through those seven things in that passage. This is 2 Corinthians 7:10â11. There are seven things that godly grief should makeâshould produce, the fruit of forgivenessâthe fruit of repentance, that is.
First: He says, âHow seriously it made you think.â Grief makes us stop and really look at our actions. We stop dead in our tracks.
Second: He says, âHow eager it made you to prove your innocence.â I would interpret that to mean: eager to seek forgiveness and restore a relationship. Thatâs why I think, in this Scripture passage, they really were eager to see him again. They wanted to be reconciled with Paul. They got this letter, and they knew they had done something wrong, and they really needed to do something about that, restore the relationship.
Third: âHow indignant it made you.â In other words, godly griefâwith godly grief, we are troubled by the injustice of our actions. Weâre indignant. Itâs troubling. We ought to be troubled.
Fourth: âHow afraid.â Afraid of the effects of the sin.
Fifth: âLook how it made you long for my presence.â You kind of got the sense, when you read this passage, and meditated on it, how much they longed to see Paul again, see him in person, be reconciled with him, and tell him of their love.
Sixth: âHow it stirred up your keenness for faith.â This grief ought to lead us to pursue God even more than before. Often I think we feel the ef- âwhen we really have this grief and repentance, we move on even more in the Lord. Itâs like we turn around, and we really do make changes in our life. Thatâs what should happen.
And finally, seventh: âWhat readiness to see justice done.â This sorrow gives us, perhaps, the steam to move us into the position to correct the wrong. If weâre not very sorryâwe donât have this kind of sorrow-âweâre not going to take the action to correct it. This sorrow will do that for us.
Now let me share with you about worldly grief. This is probably more familiar to us. Well, itâs more familiar to me [Nano chuckles]. Scripture says that it leads to death. Death! And we can see how. And, I think we can see how in our own lives, as well as the lives of those we care for. We see how itâs hampered our life, and we can see how itâs just resulted in ourselves feeling sorry for ourselves, or for them feeling sorry for themselves.
Let me give you an example, how it leads to death. Letâs say, Iâm in a womenâs group of the People of Praise, and I speak wrongly about a sister, whoâs not there, in the front of all the other women. I feel bad for my little faux pas in speech. The bad effects were apparent from the way the conversation changed, immediately.
I was sorry that I had said it; but, actually, my true sorrow was how it affected me, how it made me look. I felt miserable. I considered myself the groupâs flunky. My feelings and thoughts were actually confirmed when the head of the group privately corrected me.
My wrongdoing led me to a death spiral of feelings. First, there was the embarrassment, the sickness in my stomach. And then, of course, self-pity: âOh, poor me!â Self-centeredness: âEveryone must think Iâm a terrible person.â Withdrawal: â . . . so I decided, thatâs the last time I share in this group.â Self: I put myself down, discouragement, depression, despair. And then, the old stray thoughts: âIs community life really worth it?â [Laughter.]
Then I get even further: âIs life really worth it? Whatâs wrong with suicide?â This is ungodly grief. Scripture says it leads to death. Orâthatâs worldly grief; pardon me. Itâs ungodly; it leads to death. Godly grief leads to life. Butâthis worldly grief usually doesnât end in suicidal thoughts, but there is a deadlinessâdeadlinessâto it, that separates us from Christâs real life gained through repentance.
Worldly grief makes us feel sorry for ourselves, not for the damages weâve done to the body of Christ. This sorrow, turned inward, is like a cancer cell eating away at usâeating away, destroying us.
In Scripture, we see evidence of worldly grief in a passage of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus [Luke 24:13â35]. Theyâre walking along, deep in conversation, about everything that had happened at Jerusalem. Jesus joins them. âWhat is all this discussion you are having on your walk?â he says. They stop; they look like, âWho are you? Donât you know what has happened in Jerusalem?â Scripture says: âTheir faces drawn with misery. . . .â Here they were, still under the shadow of the cross, miserable, filled with a worldly grief, a self-centeredness.
We may be just like those on the road to Emmaus, when we have a worldly grief: a sorrow for our sin that makes us merely see how dreadful we are. But our grief doesnât have to be like that, like âthe rest of the people that grieve and have no hope,â as it says in 1 Thessalonians 4:14.
It doesnât have to be like [the grief of] the rest of the people who grieve and have no hope. For our hope is in the Christ resurrected. And, as we read in Peter [1 Peter 1:3â6],
Thank God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that in his great mercy we have been born again into a life full of hope, through Christâs rising again from the dead! You can now hope for a perfect inheritance beyond the reach of change and decay.
You donât have to live in this kind of stuff! Reach for the kind of inheritanceâ
a perfect inheritance, beyond decay, reserved for you in heaven. . . . This means tremendous joy for you, even though at the present, you may be temporarily harassed by all kinds of trials.
Isnât that the way it is? [Crowd laughs; Nano chuckles.]
Now if we take to heart the freedom that comes with godly grief, our repentance will lead to salvation, and, as Scripture says, âtruly, bring no regret.â And I firmly believe that it is this kind of repentance that will give us the longing, the zeal, for God which will empower us to build his kingdom no matter what the odds, no matter what the cost, because we love Jesus, and we want to relieve his pain and his disappointment.
As women leaders, we must have the conviction of Paul, who said to the Philippians [3:8â10],
I will go further: because of the supreme advantage of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, I count everything as loss. For him I have accepted the loss of all other things, and look on them all as filth, if only I can gain Christ and be given a place in him.
And he further says,
. . . that I may come to know him and the power of his resurrection (thatâs what weâre talking about, the power of his resurrection), and partake of his sufferings by being molded to the pattern of his death, striving towards the goal of the resurrection from the dead.
Jesus is asking us to relieve the suffering in his body. The body is suffering. Heâs asking us first to do that by going to the cross ourselves. Weâre never going to get those we care for to the cross unless we go ourselves.
Second, heâs asking us to appropriate the life that comes from godly grief. Our grief has got to be godly; it cannot be a worldly grief.
And, third, he is asking us to draw those who are alienated from the body by their sins into a full awareness of his resurrection. Let them know the truth of the resurrection. Teach them about godly grief. Why is it that we have to persist in feeling sorry for ourselves when we sin? Everybodyâs concerned about âpoor self-esteems.â Theyâre feeling sorry for themselves because they donât know how to grieve.
And Paul finishes this passage from Philippians [3:15â16]:
This is the way in which all of us who are mature should be thinking, and if you stillâif you are still thinking differently in any way, then God has yet to make this matter clear to you. Meanwhile, let us go forward from this point we have attained.
As women leaders, it is our task to call people to repentance for their sins. Millions of people are fleeing the cross. Theyâre fleeing by the droves. Theyâre running down the hill from Calvary with their back to the cross. They donât know the salvation, they donât know the resurrection, of the cross.
People in the body are fleeing the cross. They donât know of life that exists at the cross and the resurrection. We have got to call them back to the life, the hope, that exists in the resurrection. We have to call them back, and let them know of the salvation and perfection that awaits them in Christ Jesus. And for some, we have to call them to heroic sacrifice for Christ.
As trusted servants of the Lord, we should be asking ourselves: âWhat else, Lord? What else is required?â Let us ask the question like the rich young man: âAll the commandments I have observed. What do I still lack?â And Jesus saysâoh, we could say that âWell, Iâm pretty good. Iâm obeying all these commandments.â
âIf you would be perfect, go sell what you have, what you possess, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.â
However, let us not be like the rich young man who âwent away sorrowful, for he had many possessions.â Christ leads us to seek treasure in heaven, not on earth Christâs call is for us to be allâgive our all to God, to seek after his will first, put all that we own at his disposal. For we are really only sojourners on a pilgrimage to the kingdom of God.
And finally, it is a call to be pure, and holy, and chaste in all of our relationships, no matter what state in life.
And in summaryâif we can ever summarize one of these talks [Nano chuckles]: we are to continue the mission of Christ to build community. Thatâs our task: to draw people to him. We must make use of the gifts he has given to us. We have to stop sinning.
He has given us the tools to do this, through the cross, godly grief, and an invitation for us to give all to him. And this call is also extended through usâas women leaders, as headsâto all those that we pastor. And in all that, so that we can bring to God all these people. So that God will be glorified through this body, through his body, the People of Praise.
[Recording ends here.]
Endnotes
1. Likely, Nano refers to a talk given by Dan DeCelles on Gregory the Greatâs Pastoral Care earlier during this conference. Part 3, chap 29 of Gregoryâs treatise is titled: âHow to admonish those who have evil deeds to grieve for, and those who have only sins of thought.â Return to text
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