WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.819 Well, last week I started the message by talking 00:00:02.819 --> 00:00:06.379 about Greek culture in the first century. And 00:00:06.379 --> 00:00:09.580 the point was to continue to paint a picture 00:00:09.580 --> 00:00:12.679 for you of what Paul was faced with when he first 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:16.519 came to the city of Corinth. And I want to continue 00:00:16.519 --> 00:00:19.260 that theme this morning by just sharing with 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:23.879 you as an appetizer this morning, two snapshots 00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:27.339 of Greco -Roman life. that further illustrate 00:00:27.339 --> 00:00:30.559 for us Paul's mindset at this time in his life. 00:00:30.699 --> 00:00:33.960 The first snapshot is of this particular guy. 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:38.340 His name is Philostratus of Athens. Whoop, there 00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:41.140 it is. Philostratus of Athens. He lived in the 00:00:41.140 --> 00:00:44.939 late 2nd and early 3rd century A .D. He was a 00:00:44.939 --> 00:00:47.140 man who came from a long line of sophists, what 00:00:47.140 --> 00:00:50.000 we call philosophers. And he spent much of his 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:53.539 career moving in elite circles in Greece, sometimes 00:00:53.539 --> 00:00:56.899 even imperial circles during the reign of Marcus 00:00:56.899 --> 00:01:00.439 Aurelius and some of his successors. And in addition 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:03.960 to teaching and being a sophist himself, he was 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:07.140 also a biographer of the people that ran in his 00:01:07.140 --> 00:01:09.799 circles in that day. One of his biographical 00:01:09.799 --> 00:01:11.939 works has come down to us. You see the title 00:01:11.939 --> 00:01:14.540 there. It's called The Lives of the Sophists. 00:01:15.209 --> 00:01:17.590 I'll just give you one example of many of the 00:01:17.590 --> 00:01:19.870 type of men that he spoke of in this particular 00:01:19.870 --> 00:01:22.829 work. He speaks of a philosopher by the name 00:01:22.829 --> 00:01:26.250 of Skopelian. Now Skopelian was a Greek thinker 00:01:26.250 --> 00:01:29.090 that was from the East in Asia Minor. And listen 00:01:29.090 --> 00:01:31.730 to the verbiage that he uses as he describes 00:01:31.730 --> 00:01:35.189 the philosophy of this man. He writes, he was 00:01:35.189 --> 00:01:40.069 clever and quick -witted, skilled in flashy dramatic 00:01:40.069 --> 00:01:44.640 tricks and epigrammatic turns. fond of witty 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.599 paradoxes, striking figures of speech, and smart 00:01:48.599 --> 00:01:54.200 wordplay. That's all. He writes about how this 00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:57.859 Scopelian had enormous drawing power. He was 00:01:57.859 --> 00:02:00.879 able to bring big crowds as a teacher and debater 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:04.739 in the city of Smyrna, attracting catechumens 00:02:04.739 --> 00:02:07.640 from all over Greece and Asia Minor. He talks 00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:10.319 about one famous episode where Scopelian came 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:14.120 to a small city and refused. refused to speak 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:18.719 there, calling it, ready, quote, a cage in which 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:21.180 a nightingale like him could not be expected 00:02:21.180 --> 00:02:25.419 to sing, whereas Smyrna was a proper grove for 00:02:25.419 --> 00:02:29.979 such a bird. Wow. Philostratus even described 00:02:29.979 --> 00:02:33.500 the way Scopalian would ascend to the stage in 00:02:33.500 --> 00:02:35.719 front of his audiences, saying, not with the 00:02:35.719 --> 00:02:38.750 bearing of a timid speaker. but as befitting 00:02:38.750 --> 00:02:42.050 one who was to win glory for himself and was 00:02:42.050 --> 00:02:46.030 confident that he could not fail. It's ridiculous, 00:02:46.210 --> 00:02:49.150 isn't it? It's all ridiculous. I share that with 00:02:49.150 --> 00:02:51.830 you because it helps us to understand just how 00:02:51.830 --> 00:02:55.030 taken the Corinthian people were by the power 00:02:55.030 --> 00:02:58.330 of public speakers in that day, how important 00:02:58.330 --> 00:03:01.289 philosophy and rhetoric was, the tricks and the 00:03:01.289 --> 00:03:04.469 gimmicks, the flourishing of rhetoric, the self 00:03:04.469 --> 00:03:07.990 -glorifying nature. of the culture. As Paul was 00:03:07.990 --> 00:03:11.469 walking into Corinth for the first time, that's 00:03:11.469 --> 00:03:14.629 what he was competing with. Now, the other snapshot 00:03:14.629 --> 00:03:16.110 I want to provide this morning is a little more 00:03:16.110 --> 00:03:18.810 sobering, but it takes place in the exact same 00:03:18.810 --> 00:03:22.530 timeframe as the life of Philostratus. On the 00:03:22.530 --> 00:03:25.310 Palatine Hill in the city of Rome, somewhere 00:03:25.310 --> 00:03:29.250 around the year 200, an unknown student carved 00:03:29.250 --> 00:03:32.569 graffiti. what we would call graffiti, into the 00:03:32.569 --> 00:03:35.409 plaster walls of his schoolhouse. And little 00:03:35.409 --> 00:03:37.349 did he know as he was scrawling this into the 00:03:37.349 --> 00:03:40.650 wall that what he was drawing would become one 00:03:40.650 --> 00:03:42.409 of the most important archaeological findings 00:03:42.409 --> 00:03:46.689 of the 19th century. It's a simple sketch. I'm 00:03:46.689 --> 00:03:47.830 going to put it on the screen. It's going to 00:03:47.830 --> 00:03:50.270 be a little bit hard to see. It's a simple sketch 00:03:50.270 --> 00:03:53.990 that has a few mocking words attached to it. 00:03:54.310 --> 00:03:56.669 Here's what's important about this. This graffiti 00:03:56.669 --> 00:04:01.139 is the oldest artistic depiction we have of Jesus 00:04:01.139 --> 00:04:04.680 on the cross. Sadly, it was drawn in order to 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:07.680 make fun of Christianity, which was, again, normal 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:10.560 in Roman society at that time. And if you look 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:13.120 at that picture, what you see is a man is standing 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:15.639 on the left side, and in the image, he's got 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:18.800 one hand that is raised towards the central figure. 00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:22.579 And that central figure is a man, apparently 00:04:22.579 --> 00:04:27.720 on a cross, but with a donkey's head. And scratched 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:33.670 below it is written in classical Greek, which 00:04:33.670 --> 00:04:42.069 translated means, Christ being pictured as a 00:04:42.069 --> 00:04:46.029 donkey. It's appalling to us today, but back 00:04:46.029 --> 00:04:47.870 then, that is what Greeks and that is what Romans 00:04:47.870 --> 00:04:52.129 thought about the whole idea of a Jewish savior 00:04:52.129 --> 00:04:56.910 dying on a cross for you and me. Even kids in 00:04:56.910 --> 00:05:00.910 that day would mock the cross. So on the one 00:05:00.910 --> 00:05:02.730 hand, you see what's impressive in Greek culture, 00:05:03.329 --> 00:05:05.290 sophistry and rhetoric. On the other, you see 00:05:05.290 --> 00:05:08.470 there is no respect whatsoever for the word of 00:05:08.470 --> 00:05:10.310 the cross and the gospel of Jesus Christ. So 00:05:10.310 --> 00:05:13.689 again, if you're Paul, how do you approach this 00:05:13.689 --> 00:05:17.829 culture? Grab your Bibles, and we're going to 00:05:17.829 --> 00:05:19.610 see some of the things that he says today in 00:05:19.610 --> 00:05:24.649 1 Corinthians 2. Raise your hand if you've seen 00:05:24.649 --> 00:05:27.339 that image before. A picture of that. Okay, you 00:05:27.339 --> 00:05:28.720 might have been taught something about that. 00:05:28.860 --> 00:05:30.980 It's really an interesting archaeological find. 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:34.480 All right, as you're turning there, I'm going 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:36.639 to do something this morning I usually try not 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:38.680 to do. We're going to take a little sneak peek 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:41.980 ahead in Paul's letter because there's something 00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:44.620 in chapter 4 that has a bearing on what he says 00:05:44.620 --> 00:05:47.399 here in chapter 2. When we get to chapter 4, 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:49.720 and I looked at the schedule, we will be there 00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:52.540 late May, early June. Lord willing, we'll get 00:05:52.540 --> 00:05:55.060 there. But when he comes to chapter 4, Paul is 00:05:55.060 --> 00:05:58.360 going to rebuke the Corinthians using something. 00:05:58.899 --> 00:06:02.199 Paul has a gift of sarcasm in his writing, in 00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:04.360 case you didn't know that. It comes out in both 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:07.459 1 and 2 Corinthians quite strongly. Listen to 00:06:07.459 --> 00:06:09.879 what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 4. I'll 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:12.300 put it on the screen. He says, you, Corinthians, 00:06:12.500 --> 00:06:16.060 are already filled. You've already become rich. 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:19.959 You become kings without us, meaning the apostles. 00:06:20.860 --> 00:06:24.420 You become kings without us. We, the apostles, 00:06:24.579 --> 00:06:28.240 are fools for Christ's sake, but you, you are 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:31.720 prudent in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:34.360 You are distinguished, but we are without honor. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:37.259 And what we're going to see is that the Corinthian 00:06:37.259 --> 00:06:40.019 believers were somehow under the impression that 00:06:40.019 --> 00:06:42.620 the word of the cross that they'd received was 00:06:42.620 --> 00:06:44.959 just like this elementary principle of their 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:47.660 faith, and now they wanted more advanced things. 00:06:49.100 --> 00:06:51.240 In other words, with this pesky problem about 00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:53.500 sin dealt with, they thought, well, look, we're 00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:55.699 filled now. We're rich and prudent and strong 00:06:55.699 --> 00:06:58.220 and distinguished. In fact, we've become like 00:06:58.220 --> 00:07:00.779 kings. And so they were like, well, what's next, 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:03.519 Paul? Give us something interesting. We want 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:06.300 something more advanced. They're still thinking 00:07:06.300 --> 00:07:10.399 like classical Greeks and not Christians. And 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:12.220 so the idea of the weakness of the cross and 00:07:12.220 --> 00:07:14.339 the foolishness of the cross, the humiliation 00:07:14.339 --> 00:07:16.839 of the cross. seems to have drifted from their 00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:18.819 hearts and minds. So what Paul's going to have 00:07:18.819 --> 00:07:20.959 to do here is correct them and rebuke them. They 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:24.420 are baby Christians, and yet here they are asking 00:07:24.420 --> 00:07:27.420 for advanced things. So he's going to have to 00:07:27.420 --> 00:07:30.120 deal with their pride and their focus on earthly 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:33.019 things, their self -reliance, their boasting, 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:35.620 so many things he's going to have to deal with. 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:38.480 And it's going to become obvious as we get further 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:41.560 into the letter that many members of the Corinthian 00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:45.459 church were not all that pleased with Paul. Didn't 00:07:45.459 --> 00:07:48.459 think much of him. Found him to be a little too 00:07:48.459 --> 00:07:51.220 basic, a little too simple. He was lacking in 00:07:51.220 --> 00:07:53.639 the charisma and the charm that they love to 00:07:53.639 --> 00:07:56.800 see and hear in their favorite public speakers. 00:07:58.100 --> 00:08:00.079 So with all that background, let's look at the 00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:02.959 first five verses of 1 Corinthians 2. It says 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:06.980 this. When I came to you, brethren. Now he's 00:08:06.980 --> 00:08:09.899 talking about his first visit, which would have 00:08:09.899 --> 00:08:12.430 been. more than 18 months earlier. When I first 00:08:12.430 --> 00:08:15.649 came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority 00:08:15.649 --> 00:08:19.970 of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the 00:08:19.970 --> 00:08:23.310 testimony of God, for I determined to know nothing 00:08:23.310 --> 00:08:26.389 among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 00:08:26.889 --> 00:08:29.569 I was with you in weakness and in fear and much 00:08:29.569 --> 00:08:32.870 trembling, and my message and my preaching were 00:08:32.870 --> 00:08:36.370 not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration 00:08:36.370 --> 00:08:47.350 of the Spirit. So just five verses, but all kinds 00:08:47.350 --> 00:08:50.870 of practical principles that impact the way we 00:08:50.870 --> 00:08:53.730 operate in the church today, the way we preach, 00:08:53.909 --> 00:08:56.809 the way we teach, the way we listen to sermons, 00:08:56.929 --> 00:08:59.629 the way we prepare to go out and share our faith 00:08:59.629 --> 00:09:02.799 with others who need to hear the good news. All 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:04.980 kinds of interesting stuff in here. So let's 00:09:04.980 --> 00:09:06.360 work our way through it. Let's go back up to 00:09:06.360 --> 00:09:08.860 verse one, where it says, when I came to you, 00:09:08.919 --> 00:09:11.899 brethren, I did not come with superiority of 00:09:11.899 --> 00:09:14.899 speech. Now, I know the ESV says, I did not come 00:09:14.899 --> 00:09:17.740 with lofty speech. And I actually like that better. 00:09:17.860 --> 00:09:20.100 The Greek word here refers to something that 00:09:20.100 --> 00:09:24.279 is elevated. It's higher than normal. So this 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:27.669 idea of lofty speech. And basically what it means 00:09:27.669 --> 00:09:30.509 is that Paul didn't come with the typical sophistry 00:09:30.509 --> 00:09:34.450 in his speech that the Greeks were sort of used 00:09:34.450 --> 00:09:37.429 to. He didn't come with lofty wisdom, he says. 00:09:37.929 --> 00:09:41.190 Instead, what did he come with? He says, I came 00:09:41.190 --> 00:09:44.730 as a witness. Nothing more, nothing less. A witness 00:09:44.730 --> 00:09:49.320 to what? The testimony of God. So what Paul's 00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:51.500 doing here is correcting the mindset of the Corinthian 00:09:51.500 --> 00:09:54.240 believers who think, well, when this guy first 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:57.039 came, he wasn't all that impressive in his communication. 00:09:57.960 --> 00:10:00.299 And he's telling them here, that was my intentional 00:10:00.299 --> 00:10:04.120 posture when I first arrived in Corinth years 00:10:04.120 --> 00:10:07.340 ago. And by the way, in case you'd forgotten, 00:10:07.659 --> 00:10:10.659 it was that humble posture and the very straightforward 00:10:10.659 --> 00:10:13.600 message about Christ that led to your salvation. 00:10:14.539 --> 00:10:17.519 Do you remember that? When you got transformed 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:21.399 from being a pagan to a redeemed saint. But it's 00:10:21.399 --> 00:10:22.980 interesting they'd sort of forgotten about that, 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:25.679 right? And how wonderful that was. See, Paul 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:27.679 realized that when he first arrived in Corinth, 00:10:27.820 --> 00:10:29.820 he was going to have to challenge everything 00:10:29.820 --> 00:10:33.059 that that culture valued. And the vast majority 00:10:33.059 --> 00:10:36.139 of his listeners would just hear him briefly 00:10:36.139 --> 00:10:38.919 and say, that's foolishness. And they would walk 00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:42.360 away. And not many were saved. Scholars have 00:10:42.360 --> 00:10:44.659 looked at this and tried to estimate how many 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:47.340 converts were made in the city of Corinth through 00:10:47.340 --> 00:10:49.860 Paul's ministry. We can't know for sure, but 00:10:49.860 --> 00:10:51.679 based on the population of that city in that 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:54.919 day, it wasn't that many. Scholars have guessed 00:10:54.919 --> 00:10:57.980 anywhere between a few dozen to maybe 200 at 00:10:57.980 --> 00:11:01.200 the most. So victories were hard to come by, 00:11:01.259 --> 00:11:04.179 but still Paul understood that God would draw 00:11:04.179 --> 00:11:07.139 those that he had marked out to be saved. So 00:11:07.139 --> 00:11:09.629 he wasn't going to change the message. And he 00:11:09.629 --> 00:11:12.049 wasn't going to try to depend on his own cleverness 00:11:12.049 --> 00:11:15.070 and communication for the sake of maximizing 00:11:15.070 --> 00:11:18.789 results. And that's an important principle that 00:11:18.789 --> 00:11:21.450 applies even today. Not going to change the message, 00:11:21.549 --> 00:11:24.350 not going to depend on clever communication techniques 00:11:24.350 --> 00:11:29.450 in order to maximize results. He understood that 00:11:29.450 --> 00:11:32.450 his task was to simply confront this people with 00:11:32.450 --> 00:11:35.590 the message and a message they didn't want to 00:11:35.590 --> 00:11:39.379 hear. and then leave the response of the people 00:11:39.379 --> 00:11:42.879 up to God and be able to move on and say, look, 00:11:42.940 --> 00:11:45.559 I've done my job. I've been faithful to the gospel. 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:48.240 and then leave it in God's hands. Now, we know 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:50.519 from reading Paul's letters that he was a very 00:11:50.519 --> 00:11:52.960 deep thinker, right? He was capable of making 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:56.059 strong, logical arguments. He was capable of 00:11:56.059 --> 00:11:58.799 using language in powerful ways, right? We know 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:00.720 from his background, he was a man of intellect 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:04.200 and wisdom, and he could have used all kinds 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:07.240 of philosophical arguments in order to sell the 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:11.360 gospel. And there are many people in the church 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:13.379 today who would say, Paul could have done a better 00:12:13.379 --> 00:12:18.090 job of this. Honestly, you could read people, 00:12:18.110 --> 00:12:20.009 you could see people actually writing that. Well, 00:12:20.210 --> 00:12:22.009 you know, he could have used this technique or 00:12:22.009 --> 00:12:25.470 done this or done that in order to maximize results 00:12:25.470 --> 00:12:29.049 to sell the gospel. But Paul understood where 00:12:29.049 --> 00:12:33.049 the true power lies. And he knows the difference 00:12:33.049 --> 00:12:35.669 between winning disciples to Jesus versus winning 00:12:35.669 --> 00:12:39.710 followers to himself. So he comes to this Greek 00:12:39.710 --> 00:12:42.570 city, this notorious... for its love of philosophy, 00:12:42.730 --> 00:12:45.769 knowing that if he just employs all of his strong 00:12:45.769 --> 00:12:48.690 rhetorical skills, he could become a really popular 00:12:48.690 --> 00:12:53.009 teacher. He could draw really big crowds. And 00:12:53.009 --> 00:12:54.809 we see this happening all the time in the church 00:12:54.809 --> 00:12:57.529 today, right? Preachers and teachers with strong 00:12:57.529 --> 00:13:00.669 communication skills, with charisma and personality, 00:13:01.049 --> 00:13:03.830 and they're carefully choosing topics to preach 00:13:03.830 --> 00:13:07.899 on, carefully crafting talks. Not necessarily 00:13:07.899 --> 00:13:10.659 sermons, but talks that move the emotions and 00:13:10.659 --> 00:13:13.279 create experiences for the audience. And we know 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:16.779 that kind of high -level skill does draw crowds. 00:13:17.759 --> 00:13:20.279 We see it all the time. It can very easily build 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:25.019 a big, prominent church if that's the goal. And 00:13:25.019 --> 00:13:26.860 for too many Christian leaders, that is the goal. 00:13:27.720 --> 00:13:30.539 And that's a sad thing. But then when that happens, 00:13:30.740 --> 00:13:34.620 when it's built on that model, who gets the attention? 00:13:35.660 --> 00:13:38.759 And who gets the glory? Is it the man in the 00:13:38.759 --> 00:13:40.940 pulpit or is it God himself? Paul says, look, 00:13:41.059 --> 00:13:45.039 I've only come as a witness to the testimony 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:49.299 of God. I'm a herald and an ambassador. I'm not 00:13:49.299 --> 00:13:52.960 a salesman. All that matters to a herald is that 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:56.840 he takes a message and passes it along. All an 00:13:56.840 --> 00:13:59.539 ambassador does is represent the message that 00:13:59.539 --> 00:14:02.159 the one who sent him gives to him. Nothing more, 00:14:02.200 --> 00:14:05.080 nothing less. But for the sophist of that day, 00:14:05.179 --> 00:14:07.720 the focus was always on impressing the audience. 00:14:08.419 --> 00:14:10.940 And that means the message could be tweaked a 00:14:10.940 --> 00:14:12.419 little bit here and there. It could be changed 00:14:12.419 --> 00:14:15.559 and adapted in order to generate the right response 00:14:15.559 --> 00:14:19.879 and the big result. But that's not true of the 00:14:19.879 --> 00:14:23.399 gospel, is it? Now, it's true that a good evangelist 00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:26.000 will approach his audience in a unique way based 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:28.919 on who he's talking to, the culture and traditions, 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:31.559 because he wants to be sensitive to his hearers 00:14:31.559 --> 00:14:33.779 so that the message of the gospel can penetrate 00:14:33.779 --> 00:14:37.620 the heart. But the content of the gospel message 00:14:37.620 --> 00:14:43.080 does not and cannot change. It does not and cannot 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:45.820 change. So here in verse 1, Paul is simply reminding 00:14:45.820 --> 00:14:48.299 the Corinthians, look, when I came, I wasn't 00:14:48.299 --> 00:14:51.340 trying to impress you. If you're discouraged 00:14:51.340 --> 00:14:53.240 with me, you don't think I'm all that impressive, 00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:57.100 I didn't come to impress you. I didn't come to 00:14:57.100 --> 00:15:00.340 bring you my spin on the message given to me. 00:15:00.360 --> 00:15:03.220 I only came to give you the testimony of God. 00:15:03.500 --> 00:15:07.600 Simple and straightforward. Now, good time to 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:11.440 ask the acorns. Acorns, are you out there? What 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:19.659 is the gospel? Who remembers? Okay, that works. 00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:21.960 The good news of Jesus Christ. Say it again. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:26.899 What is the gospel? Well done, well done. Okay, 00:15:27.019 --> 00:15:29.139 so what is the gospel? What is the testimony 00:15:29.139 --> 00:15:32.000 of God? What is Paul a witness to? Look at verse 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:36.039 two. He says, I determined to know nothing except 00:15:36.039 --> 00:15:39.659 this one thing, which is what? Jesus Christ and 00:15:39.659 --> 00:15:43.620 him crucified. In spite of the temptation that 00:15:43.620 --> 00:15:45.779 he must have felt, because he's a human being, 00:15:45.820 --> 00:15:48.919 right? He's fallible. to roll into town and to 00:15:48.919 --> 00:15:51.039 try to compete with the skilled philosophers 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:54.720 of the day, Paul was not going to engage in their 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:58.700 bag of tricks. He wasn't going to use flattery. 00:15:58.700 --> 00:16:01.299 He wasn't going to emotionally manipulate people. 00:16:01.500 --> 00:16:03.679 He wasn't going to try to produce applause or 00:16:03.679 --> 00:16:08.700 create a big following. In fact, Paul didn't 00:16:08.700 --> 00:16:11.600 mind coming across as unimpressive. He didn't 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:15.210 mind coming across as weak. He knew exactly what 00:16:15.210 --> 00:16:17.529 the Corinthians wanted to hear, but he was not 00:16:17.529 --> 00:16:21.590 going to give it to them. Now that is not seeker 00:16:21.590 --> 00:16:24.269 sensitive, is it? That goes against everything 00:16:24.269 --> 00:16:27.350 the rule book says about doing church. I know 00:16:27.350 --> 00:16:29.529 what you want to hear. I'm not giving it to you. 00:16:30.629 --> 00:16:33.750 Because what you want will not transform you. 00:16:33.809 --> 00:16:36.309 It will not change your heart. So I won't give 00:16:36.309 --> 00:16:39.149 it to you. I'm not going to stoop that low. So 00:16:39.149 --> 00:16:42.009 he made up his mind before he arrived about how 00:16:42.009 --> 00:16:44.269 he would communicate. The word there in verse 00:16:44.269 --> 00:16:47.990 2, he determined his method. That's krino in 00:16:47.990 --> 00:16:50.149 the Greek. And it has a wide range of meaning, 00:16:50.230 --> 00:16:54.090 but it's often rendered as to judge or to pronounce 00:16:54.090 --> 00:16:58.529 an opinion. So Paul judged beforehand, before 00:16:58.529 --> 00:17:00.370 he arrived, that he would know nothing in their 00:17:00.370 --> 00:17:05.710 midst except Jesus and the cross. And here's 00:17:05.710 --> 00:17:11.089 the key. That simple message didn't produce results 00:17:11.089 --> 00:17:15.529 because the results aren't up to us. Did you 00:17:15.529 --> 00:17:19.250 know that? The results of preaching are not up 00:17:19.250 --> 00:17:22.509 to the guy in the pulpit or to you when you're 00:17:22.509 --> 00:17:24.650 sharing your faith. The result is not up to you. 00:17:25.650 --> 00:17:29.049 That's too heavy of a burden for us, right? That's 00:17:29.049 --> 00:17:32.930 the work of God alone. Okay, speaking of the 00:17:32.930 --> 00:17:37.839 cross, acorns, acorns. What did Jesus show us 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:44.140 on the cross? His love for us. Well done. Excellent. 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:47.200 Good. Now, understand the language here in verse 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:50.200 2. Don't take it too literally. Paul's not saying 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:52.519 that, okay, well, the cross was the only thing 00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:55.900 I ever mentioned to anyone during 18 months with 00:17:55.900 --> 00:17:58.940 you. Okay, that would be silly. Paul believed 00:17:58.940 --> 00:18:00.680 that there were many things that needed to be 00:18:00.680 --> 00:18:02.660 addressed in the church. In fact, this letter. 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:05.160 is proof of that, right? He's going to go on 00:18:05.160 --> 00:18:07.579 to talk about all kinds of things. What he's 00:18:07.579 --> 00:18:10.039 doing here is speaking comprehensively, meaning 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:13.519 in everything he taught, and there's all these 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:16.119 topics in this letter, in everything, he would 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:19.420 always come back to gospel basics. That's an 00:18:19.420 --> 00:18:22.019 important principle. Coming back to the idea 00:18:22.019 --> 00:18:25.500 of sin, coming back to our need for forgiveness. 00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:28.579 coming back to the mercy of God and the love 00:18:28.579 --> 00:18:31.400 of God, coming back to the atonement for sin 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:34.200 that was purchased on the cross, and so on. So 00:18:34.200 --> 00:18:37.420 for Paul to preach Christ crucified is to constantly 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:40.759 speak of his identity, right, as God incarnate, 00:18:40.779 --> 00:18:43.200 and to speak of the work that he did on our behalf, 00:18:43.460 --> 00:18:47.059 the person and work of Christ. By the way, that's 00:18:47.059 --> 00:18:49.900 still the model and the goal of preaching and 00:18:49.900 --> 00:18:52.180 teaching in the church today, right? Even if 00:18:52.180 --> 00:18:54.420 we go out and we explore a variety of themes 00:18:54.420 --> 00:18:56.839 in scripture, or if we focus on applying certain 00:18:56.839 --> 00:18:59.420 biblical principles to modern day situations, 00:18:59.740 --> 00:19:02.779 we must never lose sight of Christ crucified. 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:05.599 Never lose sight of the basics and the essentials 00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:09.200 of the gospel. And listen, I realize, and I've 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:13.019 heard this before, people are like, I kind of 00:19:13.019 --> 00:19:14.839 feel tired of hearing the same thing all the 00:19:14.839 --> 00:19:18.000 time. You know, it's always about sin and Jesus 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:20.660 and the cross and as if that message could ever 00:19:20.660 --> 00:19:24.220 become tiresome. But that is the model that we 00:19:24.220 --> 00:19:27.140 see in preaching in the New Testament. And we 00:19:27.140 --> 00:19:29.019 should acknowledge that if Christianity ever 00:19:29.019 --> 00:19:31.640 loses that focus, the centrality of the cross, 00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:35.400 then we put ourselves in serious danger. Serious 00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:37.660 danger. And by the way, history tells that story. 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:40.299 You can go out there and pick from any number 00:19:40.299 --> 00:19:43.680 of... in the world today who still call themselves 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:46.839 Christian, air quotes, Christian, everything 00:19:46.839 --> 00:19:50.220 from United Methodist Church to the Mennonites 00:19:50.220 --> 00:19:53.619 to Episcopalian to AME churches, and you will 00:19:53.619 --> 00:19:57.579 find an interesting history. You will find a 00:19:57.579 --> 00:20:00.319 time when people in those churches believed the 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:03.440 gospel, that it was central to what they believed, 00:20:03.539 --> 00:20:06.059 right? Christ crucified, Christ raised from the 00:20:06.059 --> 00:20:09.359 dead. But in the next generation, What happened 00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:12.799 after that is those gospel essentials began to 00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:16.779 be mixed with things like social work and cultural 00:20:16.779 --> 00:20:20.079 issues and political positions. And the theology 00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:23.000 of Christ crucified began to take a little bit 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:27.460 of a backseat to activism. To activism. Based 00:20:27.460 --> 00:20:29.500 on things that Paul would call human wisdom. 00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:32.440 And then in the next generation, guess what happens 00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:35.799 after that? Folks begin to equate Christianity 00:20:35.799 --> 00:20:38.559 and life in the church. only with those cultural 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:42.680 and social issues and yeah there might be a smattering 00:20:42.680 --> 00:20:44.940 here or there that sort of remember their original 00:20:44.940 --> 00:20:47.920 creed or confession but for the most part people 00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:49.740 in those churches in the third or fourth generation 00:20:49.740 --> 00:20:52.700 they don't know what the theology is they don't 00:20:52.700 --> 00:20:56.349 even care most of them don't believe it And that 00:20:56.349 --> 00:20:58.210 can happen, guys. When you lose sight of the 00:20:58.210 --> 00:21:00.750 essentials and you start focusing on peripheral 00:21:00.750 --> 00:21:03.849 issues, it's only a matter of time before those 00:21:03.849 --> 00:21:07.029 peripheral issues become the central issues. 00:21:07.690 --> 00:21:10.829 And what should be essential gets lost in the 00:21:10.829 --> 00:21:13.190 pages of history. So we have to be careful with 00:21:13.190 --> 00:21:15.490 this. So Paul says here, look, all I did was 00:21:15.490 --> 00:21:18.910 I zeroed in on Jesus and the cross and I stayed 00:21:18.910 --> 00:21:22.630 there. I stayed there. And if Paul could walk 00:21:22.630 --> 00:21:24.190 in the door and we could ask him a question, 00:21:24.289 --> 00:21:26.170 I think he'd say this as well. He said, look, 00:21:26.269 --> 00:21:28.670 I did talk about other things, but when other 00:21:28.670 --> 00:21:31.349 issues came up or questions came up about how 00:21:31.349 --> 00:21:33.910 do I apply Christian principles, I was happy 00:21:33.910 --> 00:21:36.690 to address all of those things. But eventually, 00:21:36.829 --> 00:21:39.210 I always came back to the gospel, back to the 00:21:39.210 --> 00:21:42.829 cross. That is our home base. That's where we 00:21:42.829 --> 00:21:46.630 have to sit and stay. Does that make sense? And 00:21:46.630 --> 00:21:48.349 look, there's a reason for this. It's obvious. 00:21:48.490 --> 00:21:50.970 Without the cross, without a savior being sent 00:21:50.970 --> 00:21:54.009 to us, without his atoning death, without the 00:21:54.009 --> 00:21:56.309 father's gracious drawing, not one of us would 00:21:56.309 --> 00:22:00.150 be here this morning. None of us would be here. 00:22:00.250 --> 00:22:02.509 We'd all be sons and daughters of disobedience 00:22:02.509 --> 00:22:04.970 like everybody else. We would still be in our 00:22:04.970 --> 00:22:07.309 sins. We would be living and dying under the 00:22:07.309 --> 00:22:10.369 wrath of God Almighty. So when people say, I 00:22:10.369 --> 00:22:11.990 don't understand why we keep saying the same 00:22:11.990 --> 00:22:15.809 thing. Guys, it's because without that, there 00:22:15.809 --> 00:22:21.289 is no Christianity and there is no church. Acorns, 00:22:21.309 --> 00:22:24.450 one last question. Speaking of the cross, why 00:22:24.450 --> 00:22:29.490 did Jesus have to die? Do you remember? So our 00:22:29.490 --> 00:22:33.269 sins can be forgiven. Well done. So we love the 00:22:33.269 --> 00:22:36.630 cross, don't we? I said it a couple Sundays ago. 00:22:36.650 --> 00:22:38.950 I'll say it again. We love to read about the 00:22:38.950 --> 00:22:41.710 cross. We like to talk about the cross. We love 00:22:41.710 --> 00:22:44.269 to teach about the cross. We love to pray in 00:22:44.269 --> 00:22:46.710 fellowship in light of the cross. And we even 00:22:46.710 --> 00:22:51.109 love to sing hymns about the cross because that's 00:22:51.109 --> 00:22:53.490 where God's wrath was satisfied for us, right? 00:22:54.309 --> 00:22:56.650 That's where peace was established between us 00:22:56.650 --> 00:22:58.769 and our creator. That's where the righteousness 00:22:58.769 --> 00:23:04.069 of Christ was imputed, given, reckoned to our 00:23:04.069 --> 00:23:07.490 spiritual accounts. So the cross is our delight 00:23:07.490 --> 00:23:09.670 and our joy and our hope. It is everything to 00:23:09.670 --> 00:23:12.269 us. And it grieves us when we look around our 00:23:12.269 --> 00:23:14.450 world and we see all these people. Remember Paul 00:23:14.450 --> 00:23:17.970 said they're perishing. Sometimes family and 00:23:17.970 --> 00:23:20.809 friends, they're perishing apart from the cross 00:23:20.809 --> 00:23:24.490 every single day. And that's got to be our urgency. 00:23:24.650 --> 00:23:26.730 It's the same urgency that Paul had when he came 00:23:26.730 --> 00:23:30.289 to Corinth to share the testimony of God, to 00:23:30.289 --> 00:23:33.150 speak of Christ crucified with everybody that 00:23:33.150 --> 00:23:37.480 God puts in our path. Amen? So let's take a look 00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:43.799 at verses 3 and 4 now. Paul says, hey, Corinthians, 00:23:43.980 --> 00:23:47.259 I was with you in weakness and in fear and much 00:23:47.259 --> 00:23:50.160 trembling, and my message and my preaching were 00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:53.140 not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration 00:23:53.140 --> 00:23:56.279 of the Spirit and of power. And more simply, 00:23:56.420 --> 00:24:00.490 in demonstration of the Spirit's power. Now, 00:24:00.549 --> 00:24:02.369 we talked about Paul's state of mind when he 00:24:02.369 --> 00:24:04.069 first came to Corinth back in our introductory 00:24:04.069 --> 00:24:08.170 sermon in this series. The backdrop of his entry 00:24:08.170 --> 00:24:11.009 into Corinth comes from Acts chapter 18. And 00:24:11.009 --> 00:24:12.569 do you remember what happened before he came 00:24:12.569 --> 00:24:15.130 to Corinth? Well, let's see, he was in Philippi 00:24:15.130 --> 00:24:17.890 and he got run out of town there, his life under 00:24:17.890 --> 00:24:20.589 threat. And then he went to Thessalonica and 00:24:20.589 --> 00:24:23.150 the same thing happened there. And then he went 00:24:23.150 --> 00:24:25.289 down to Berea, but some people from Thessalonia, 00:24:25.369 --> 00:24:28.150 they tracked him down in Berea and they chased 00:24:28.150 --> 00:24:31.440 him out of that city. So his life has been threatened. 00:24:31.500 --> 00:24:34.460 Everywhere he's gone, he decides to leave Macedonia 00:24:34.460 --> 00:24:37.980 completely, travel south into Achaia. He goes 00:24:37.980 --> 00:24:40.559 to Athens. We covered that a couple weeks ago. 00:24:40.759 --> 00:24:43.960 He has no positive response there. And then he 00:24:43.960 --> 00:24:46.579 hustles off to Corinth. Now, with that backdrop, 00:24:46.839 --> 00:24:49.500 put yourself in Paul's sandals for a moment. 00:24:49.799 --> 00:24:52.119 See if you can feel what he would have been feeling. 00:24:52.940 --> 00:24:56.119 His life is under threat. He is having to look 00:24:56.119 --> 00:24:59.099 over his shoulder. look around every corner expecting 00:24:59.099 --> 00:25:02.740 to be jumped, expecting to be attacked. And now 00:25:02.740 --> 00:25:04.420 he comes to the city of Corinth. And this was 00:25:04.420 --> 00:25:08.700 the big city in that day. And he's alone. He 00:25:08.700 --> 00:25:10.940 is alone. That's something that often gets overlooked. 00:25:11.380 --> 00:25:14.279 He's alone at that time. And there's no doubt 00:25:14.279 --> 00:25:17.180 he's feeling very discouraged. You'd be like 00:25:17.180 --> 00:25:19.700 you or I having a really hard time in ministry. 00:25:19.900 --> 00:25:22.480 We've been evangelizing. We're finding no success. 00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:25.660 And we suddenly have to go to Chicago or New 00:25:25.660 --> 00:25:28.700 York City. right? The big city. And we look around 00:25:28.700 --> 00:25:30.700 and we can feel the pulse of the wickedness of 00:25:30.700 --> 00:25:33.160 the city. And it's just overwhelming to think 00:25:33.160 --> 00:25:36.059 I've got to speak up in the midst of this environment. 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:39.619 So Paul says in verse three, look, friends, you 00:25:39.619 --> 00:25:42.140 remember what I was like when I first came to 00:25:42.140 --> 00:25:44.700 your city. He says, I came in weakness and in 00:25:44.700 --> 00:25:49.220 fear and with much trembling. So there's no swagger 00:25:49.220 --> 00:25:52.500 in Paul. There's no overconfidence in him as 00:25:52.500 --> 00:25:55.119 he begins to share the gospel there. He intentionally 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:58.390 chooses to preach in a way that is opposite of 00:25:58.390 --> 00:26:01.869 all the other traveling sophists, not in persuasive 00:26:01.869 --> 00:26:05.170 words of wisdom. Now, this is an important distinction. 00:26:05.309 --> 00:26:07.549 That doesn't mean that he lacked confidence in 00:26:07.549 --> 00:26:10.730 the message. Paul himself was feeling shaky. 00:26:10.809 --> 00:26:13.670 He was feeling fearful. But he still knew that 00:26:13.670 --> 00:26:16.589 the content of the message would be effectual. 00:26:17.089 --> 00:26:20.029 How do you know that? Remember we talked about 00:26:20.029 --> 00:26:21.990 this weeks ago. The Lord appeared to him in a 00:26:21.990 --> 00:26:25.900 dream. The Lord appeared to Paul in a dream and 00:26:25.900 --> 00:26:29.400 said, do not be afraid any longer. Do not be 00:26:29.400 --> 00:26:31.740 afraid. Go on speaking. Do not be silent, for 00:26:31.740 --> 00:26:35.079 I am with you. How reassuring would that have 00:26:35.079 --> 00:26:38.180 been? I am with you, and no man will attack you 00:26:38.180 --> 00:26:42.440 in order to harm you. Look, for I have many people 00:26:42.440 --> 00:26:46.519 in this city. I have marked out many to be saved. 00:26:47.400 --> 00:26:49.660 And so the Lord brought him comfort in this moment 00:26:49.660 --> 00:26:51.640 of need. And by the way, we should note as well, 00:26:51.680 --> 00:26:54.000 not only did he get a vision from the Lord, this 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:57.599 dream, but then he also was given friends, Christian 00:26:57.599 --> 00:27:00.940 friends, Aquila and Priscilla, right? That he 00:27:00.940 --> 00:27:05.240 lived with and made tents with. And that's important. 00:27:05.339 --> 00:27:07.839 Then Silas and Timothy come as well. And all 00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:09.859 this is such an important principle. Listen, 00:27:10.039 --> 00:27:12.440 you ready? Even the greatest of Christian servants 00:27:12.440 --> 00:27:16.240 can't do it alone. We need fellow believers. 00:27:16.299 --> 00:27:19.480 We need backup, right, to encourage us. When 00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:21.500 things get hard, we need fellow believers who 00:27:21.500 --> 00:27:25.420 will exhort us to keep going. And God provided 00:27:25.420 --> 00:27:27.599 for that, first in the dream, but then through 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:30.140 these friends that came and strengthened him. 00:27:30.619 --> 00:27:34.240 In his commentary on 1 Corinthians, Calvin writes 00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:35.940 this, and I think it's so insightful because 00:27:35.940 --> 00:27:39.119 it speaks to the human aspect of Paul's ministry. 00:27:39.480 --> 00:27:42.359 We sometimes think of him as some kind of superhero, 00:27:42.700 --> 00:27:46.400 but he's a man. And so Calvin says, the servants 00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:49.759 of the Lord are not so dull as to not see threatening 00:27:49.759 --> 00:27:53.900 dangers. Okay? We don't live in a bubble thinking 00:27:53.900 --> 00:27:55.980 everything's going to be just fine. No, we do 00:27:55.980 --> 00:27:59.400 see the dangers out there. Nor so insensitive 00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:03.059 as not to be affected by them. Again, we're human 00:28:03.059 --> 00:28:06.140 beings. It's going to affect us. And in fact, 00:28:06.140 --> 00:28:09.480 they must be seriously apprehensive for two main 00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:12.359 reasons. First, that humbled in their own eyes. 00:28:12.859 --> 00:28:15.900 they might learn to lean and rest completely 00:28:15.900 --> 00:28:19.140 on God alone. So even in the threats, even in 00:28:19.140 --> 00:28:21.740 the dangers, God has a purpose, doesn't he? To 00:28:21.740 --> 00:28:25.700 cause his servants to lean into him. Next one. 00:28:25.819 --> 00:28:29.099 And second, that they might be trained in true 00:28:29.099 --> 00:28:32.700 self -denial, denying self. Paul, therefore, 00:28:32.740 --> 00:28:35.819 was not without a sense of anxiety, but he controlled 00:28:35.819 --> 00:28:39.480 it, such that he continued to be undaunted in 00:28:39.480 --> 00:28:43.460 the midst of crises. So Calvin notes, Paul's 00:28:43.460 --> 00:28:47.619 weakness, you ready, is actually good news. It's 00:28:47.619 --> 00:28:49.819 actually good news. It causes him to have to 00:28:49.819 --> 00:28:53.920 trust in God alone. And to trust in the promises 00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:57.460 he got in that dream. Hey, I'm with you. I have 00:28:57.460 --> 00:29:00.480 many in the city. Keep going. And we know that 00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:03.079 God delights in working through men and women 00:29:03.079 --> 00:29:06.180 who are in weakness, who trust him, who have 00:29:06.180 --> 00:29:08.890 to trust him. But the most important thing Paul 00:29:08.890 --> 00:29:11.490 has going for him is shown here in verse 4. In 00:29:11.490 --> 00:29:13.910 spite of his fears, he knows that the Spirit 00:29:13.910 --> 00:29:17.930 of God is in him and with him. And he knows, 00:29:17.970 --> 00:29:20.690 if I'm just faithful to the message as a herald, 00:29:20.710 --> 00:29:22.930 that the Spirit is going to take my preaching 00:29:22.930 --> 00:29:25.930 and draw the hearts of those that God has marked 00:29:25.930 --> 00:29:28.549 out for salvation. Friends, that is the beauty 00:29:28.549 --> 00:29:32.170 of trusting in God's sovereignty. It guarantees 00:29:32.170 --> 00:29:36.779 success in evangelism. Did you know that? God's 00:29:36.779 --> 00:29:39.740 sovereignty guarantees success in evangelism 00:29:39.740 --> 00:29:42.799 because if God has chosen that person and if 00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:46.220 he's actively drawing them, he can use your very 00:29:46.220 --> 00:29:48.980 feeble words, even your really poor presentation 00:29:48.980 --> 00:29:52.220 of the gospel, he can use that as a tool to save 00:29:52.220 --> 00:29:55.500 somebody that he's marked out. It doesn't depend 00:29:55.500 --> 00:29:57.579 on us. We just have to be faithful to get out 00:29:57.579 --> 00:30:01.200 there and talk about it, right? Beautiful. So 00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:04.059 this is Paul's superpower, if we could use that 00:30:04.059 --> 00:30:07.109 term. that the Holy Spirit is in him and is with 00:30:07.109 --> 00:30:09.769 him and is active in his preaching and teaching 00:30:09.769 --> 00:30:13.309 ministry. And this is what he desires more than 00:30:13.309 --> 00:30:15.190 anything else. It's right there in the verse, 00:30:15.289 --> 00:30:17.670 that his words will come with a demonstration 00:30:17.670 --> 00:30:22.009 of the Spirit's power. Remember our call to worship 00:30:22.009 --> 00:30:24.170 passage from earlier, what Paul wrote to the 00:30:24.170 --> 00:30:28.630 Thessalonian church. Our gospel came to you Thessalonians, 00:30:28.670 --> 00:30:32.849 not only in word. Not only in word, because words 00:30:32.849 --> 00:30:34.890 won't get us to where we need to get to, right? 00:30:35.309 --> 00:30:39.170 Not only in word, but also in power and the Holy 00:30:39.170 --> 00:30:41.710 Spirit and with full conviction. That is what 00:30:41.710 --> 00:30:44.710 Paul is trusting in. Listen, apart from the Spirit's 00:30:44.710 --> 00:30:50.069 work, nothing eternal happens. I can talk to 00:30:50.069 --> 00:30:52.730 somebody at Starbucks about all kinds of topics. 00:30:52.930 --> 00:30:55.549 Look, I can even talk about the gospel. I can 00:30:55.549 --> 00:30:58.130 talk about the cross. If the Spirit isn't active 00:30:58.130 --> 00:31:00.650 in drawing that person, nothing eternal is going 00:31:00.650 --> 00:31:02.849 on. It might be a good discussion. It might be 00:31:02.849 --> 00:31:05.470 the first step in a longer discussion, but nothing 00:31:05.470 --> 00:31:08.329 eternal is happening if the Spirit of God isn't 00:31:08.329 --> 00:31:13.009 operating to draw that person to salvation. But 00:31:13.009 --> 00:31:16.160 when the Spirit does move, using our witness, 00:31:16.380 --> 00:31:19.720 using the word, the message of the cross, that 00:31:19.720 --> 00:31:23.160 is when true power is unleashed. That is when 00:31:23.160 --> 00:31:25.339 it's unleashed and when miraculous things begin 00:31:25.339 --> 00:31:27.380 to happen. And listen, I don't know if you've 00:31:27.380 --> 00:31:28.839 ever thought about this before, but maybe we 00:31:28.839 --> 00:31:32.420 should. Our faith is built on the supernatural 00:31:32.420 --> 00:31:36.339 and the miraculous. Did you know that? I know 00:31:36.339 --> 00:31:38.839 in our sort of tribe of Christianity, that makes 00:31:38.839 --> 00:31:42.180 us a little uncomfortable because we're so intellectual 00:31:42.180 --> 00:31:45.930 at times about our faith. But our faith is built 00:31:45.930 --> 00:31:48.829 on the supernatural and the miraculous. The scriptures 00:31:48.829 --> 00:31:53.450 are clear about this. Every time a sinner hears 00:31:53.450 --> 00:31:56.630 the gospel and repents and puts his faith or 00:31:56.630 --> 00:32:01.210 her faith in Christ, it is a miracle. Do we believe 00:32:01.210 --> 00:32:04.190 that? Or are we in the person that we just talk 00:32:04.190 --> 00:32:07.230 people into the kingdom with our rhetoric and 00:32:07.230 --> 00:32:10.230 with our logic? No, it's a miracle that that 00:32:10.230 --> 00:32:13.009 happens. It's a supernatural move of the Holy 00:32:13.009 --> 00:32:16.009 Spirit that honestly we can't explain. All we 00:32:16.009 --> 00:32:17.349 can do is point to the Word and say, well, this 00:32:17.349 --> 00:32:20.910 is what the Word says about it. But I don't have 00:32:20.910 --> 00:32:23.690 a tangible understanding of how the Spirit brought 00:32:23.690 --> 00:32:27.269 me to salvation. I just know He did. It's wild, 00:32:27.390 --> 00:32:30.930 isn't it? If you take the supernatural power 00:32:30.930 --> 00:32:33.089 of God out of life in the church, what do you 00:32:33.089 --> 00:32:36.910 actually have left? Remove the supernatural, 00:32:37.130 --> 00:32:39.250 remove the spirit. What do you have left? A gathering 00:32:39.250 --> 00:32:41.650 of men and women going through the motions of 00:32:41.650 --> 00:32:44.049 religion and trying to be good people in the 00:32:44.049 --> 00:32:47.849 eyes of the world. Maybe you enjoy hanging out 00:32:47.849 --> 00:32:49.849 together, but all that is is rearranging the 00:32:49.849 --> 00:32:53.609 deck chairs on the Titanic, right? Without the 00:32:53.609 --> 00:32:56.990 supernatural. So for us, yes, we want to stay 00:32:56.990 --> 00:32:59.369 balanced. We don't want to fall into emotionalism. 00:32:59.509 --> 00:33:02.359 We don't want to gin up our experiences. But 00:33:02.359 --> 00:33:04.880 listen, we should not be afraid to glorify the 00:33:04.880 --> 00:33:08.240 work of the Spirit among us. We should look forward 00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:10.380 to that. We should all long to be filled with 00:33:10.380 --> 00:33:13.099 the Spirit and led by the Spirit and sanctified 00:33:13.099 --> 00:33:15.640 by the Spirit and worship and pray in the Spirit 00:33:15.640 --> 00:33:18.059 and be taught by the Spirit and to bear fruit 00:33:18.059 --> 00:33:20.700 by the Spirit, to preach, teach, and listen in 00:33:20.700 --> 00:33:24.039 the power of the Spirit. Not be afraid of that. 00:33:24.380 --> 00:33:27.000 Because if Paul needed it to empower his ministry, 00:33:27.160 --> 00:33:31.660 why would we be any different? I can see the 00:33:31.660 --> 00:33:34.500 wheels turning in your guys' faces. It's important. 00:33:34.779 --> 00:33:38.759 Okay, last verse, verse five. And this builds 00:33:38.759 --> 00:33:42.539 off verse four, caps it off, so to speak. In 00:33:42.539 --> 00:33:44.500 demonstration of the Spirit's power, verse five, 00:33:44.640 --> 00:33:47.099 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom 00:33:47.099 --> 00:33:50.660 of men, but on the power of God. So look, when 00:33:50.660 --> 00:33:53.710 we preach the gospel or we share our faith, If 00:33:53.710 --> 00:33:56.049 we are trusting in our own methodologies and 00:33:56.049 --> 00:33:58.750 gimmicks, or if we're relying upon our own personality 00:33:58.750 --> 00:34:01.650 and our logic to win souls, then we are depending 00:34:01.650 --> 00:34:05.089 on the flesh. And again, the wisdom of the flesh 00:34:05.089 --> 00:34:08.670 cannot change a human art. We have to reject 00:34:08.670 --> 00:34:10.570 that. Spurgeon once said this. He said, the power 00:34:10.570 --> 00:34:14.070 that in the gospel does not lie in the eloquence 00:34:14.070 --> 00:34:16.670 of the preacher. Otherwise, men would be the 00:34:16.670 --> 00:34:21.130 converters of soul. May it never be. Right? If 00:34:21.130 --> 00:34:23.349 the power of the gospel lies in the eloquence 00:34:23.349 --> 00:34:26.289 of the preacher, men would be converters of souls. 00:34:27.110 --> 00:34:30.230 We might preach, he says, until our tongues rotted, 00:34:30.309 --> 00:34:33.170 until we would exhaust our lungs and die, but 00:34:33.170 --> 00:34:38.630 never a soul would be converted. There are churches 00:34:38.630 --> 00:34:40.389 all over this world that don't believe that, 00:34:40.409 --> 00:34:42.929 by the way. They believe the power is in the 00:34:42.929 --> 00:34:46.369 communication. The power is in talking people 00:34:46.369 --> 00:34:50.039 into faith. But that's not what scripture tells 00:34:50.039 --> 00:34:52.760 us. If any man's faith rests solely upon the 00:34:52.760 --> 00:34:55.559 persuasive words of men, it is destined to fail 00:34:55.559 --> 00:34:59.539 at some point. It's destined to fail. It's just 00:34:59.539 --> 00:35:03.199 a matter of time. And here's why. If an evangelist 00:35:03.199 --> 00:35:06.760 like Paul can talk somebody into making a decision 00:35:06.760 --> 00:35:10.199 for Christ through his style, through his lofty 00:35:10.199 --> 00:35:12.800 speech, what happens when somebody rolls into 00:35:12.800 --> 00:35:16.280 town who's a better preacher than Paul and has 00:35:16.280 --> 00:35:21.309 a better argument than Paul? Well, I'm abandoning 00:35:21.309 --> 00:35:23.130 what Paul says now. I'm going to get talked into 00:35:23.130 --> 00:35:26.989 this new thing over here, the false gospel, right? 00:35:27.409 --> 00:35:30.349 There's always a better preacher. There's always 00:35:30.349 --> 00:35:34.070 a better communicator. So if it rests on what 00:35:34.070 --> 00:35:37.650 the man does, it's destined to fail because somebody 00:35:37.650 --> 00:35:41.849 better is coming along. Leon Morris, who's a 00:35:41.849 --> 00:35:45.280 New Testament scholar. says this, a faith that 00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:48.219 depends on clever reasoning may be demolished 00:35:48.219 --> 00:35:51.340 by a more clever argument, but the faith which 00:35:51.340 --> 00:35:53.900 is produced by the power of God can never be 00:35:53.900 --> 00:35:56.780 overthrown. Do you see the difference? Do you 00:35:56.780 --> 00:36:00.619 see it? It's a big difference. So Paul says, 00:36:00.699 --> 00:36:02.539 look, I don't want your faith to rest on my words. 00:36:02.840 --> 00:36:05.679 There's no power there. Let it rest in the power 00:36:05.679 --> 00:36:08.380 of the Spirit. Not only can the Spirit transform 00:36:08.380 --> 00:36:12.460 you, He can keep you. And that's important, right? 00:36:13.329 --> 00:36:15.769 So unlike many preachers and evangelists of today, 00:36:15.929 --> 00:36:18.449 Paul refused to play the Holy Spirit in the lives 00:36:18.449 --> 00:36:20.969 of his audience because it would empty the cross 00:36:20.969 --> 00:36:23.849 of its power. He wants people to run to Christ, 00:36:23.909 --> 00:36:31.389 not to him. Okay, great passage, right? Lots 00:36:31.389 --> 00:36:33.030 in there for us. Let's talk about some application 00:36:33.030 --> 00:36:36.250 here. What does this specifically tell us about 00:36:36.250 --> 00:36:38.869 our preaching and our teaching today? What does 00:36:38.869 --> 00:36:40.909 it tell you about how you should approach lost 00:36:40.909 --> 00:36:43.269 people in your lives, whether that's at work 00:36:43.269 --> 00:36:45.409 or at school or whatever? How do you do that? 00:36:45.530 --> 00:36:48.570 Well, let's start with an important observation. 00:36:50.170 --> 00:36:53.750 Because we are fallible human beings, we are 00:36:53.750 --> 00:36:56.610 always under the temptation to play around with 00:36:56.610 --> 00:37:01.150 the message that we're given. We're easily distracted, 00:37:01.429 --> 00:37:04.250 easily fooled, and so we start manipulating the 00:37:04.250 --> 00:37:06.789 message. And by the way, this temptation hits 00:37:06.789 --> 00:37:10.329 church leaders. and it hits those of you doing 00:37:10.329 --> 00:37:13.550 personal evangelism. We tend to think if I just 00:37:13.550 --> 00:37:16.369 package the message in this way or that way, 00:37:16.489 --> 00:37:20.250 if I make it a little bit less offensive and 00:37:20.250 --> 00:37:22.269 dress it up to make it a little more attractive 00:37:22.269 --> 00:37:25.849 or maybe strategize on how I can get my presentation 00:37:25.849 --> 00:37:31.610 just right, then people will respond. We've all 00:37:31.610 --> 00:37:33.809 been through that. It's okay to nod and go, yeah, 00:37:33.869 --> 00:37:37.559 I've thought that before. I did. I get it. But 00:37:37.559 --> 00:37:39.679 that is not what scripture tells us. Jesus himself 00:37:39.679 --> 00:37:42.199 was really clear about this, right? In John chapter 00:37:42.199 --> 00:37:47.059 six, he said, no one can come to me unless the 00:37:47.059 --> 00:37:55.179 message is packaged just right. Red flag, right? 00:37:55.360 --> 00:37:58.360 The uneasy laugh there was great. No, he said, 00:37:58.400 --> 00:38:01.639 no one can come to me unless the father who sent 00:38:01.639 --> 00:38:06.989 me draws him, right? So that's what we rely upon 00:38:06.989 --> 00:38:10.190 in preaching, teaching, evangelism, the drawing 00:38:10.190 --> 00:38:13.230 and regenerating power of God. So how does this 00:38:13.230 --> 00:38:17.690 impact church? We'll get practical. First of 00:38:17.690 --> 00:38:19.849 all, it impacts everybody who stands in this 00:38:19.849 --> 00:38:22.769 pulpit at Oak Hill to make sure that we have 00:38:22.769 --> 00:38:24.670 the right mindset about our preaching. And boy, 00:38:24.829 --> 00:38:27.130 whether it's Adam or Jeff Steele or myself or 00:38:27.130 --> 00:38:29.550 anybody, I can tell you that we take this really 00:38:29.550 --> 00:38:32.429 seriously. And we know the power is not in our 00:38:32.429 --> 00:38:36.190 words. We're not that good. We know that God 00:38:36.190 --> 00:38:38.650 has to move for any change to happen, whether 00:38:38.650 --> 00:38:41.130 that's bringing somebody to salvation or growing 00:38:41.130 --> 00:38:43.449 in sanctification and maturity. The power is 00:38:43.449 --> 00:38:46.469 not in what I say up here. The power is with 00:38:46.469 --> 00:38:49.329 the spirit moving. So it impacts those of us 00:38:49.329 --> 00:38:51.230 who preach and teach, but also impacts those 00:38:51.230 --> 00:38:54.349 of you listening. How do you listen to a sermon? 00:38:54.690 --> 00:38:58.250 Do you listen from this perspective? We know 00:38:58.250 --> 00:39:01.010 from scripture that the natural man wants only 00:39:01.010 --> 00:39:04.880 to have his ears tickled. He wants. sermons that 00:39:04.880 --> 00:39:07.239 he enjoys, sermons that make him feel good. So 00:39:07.239 --> 00:39:09.900 what he'll do is he'll go from place to place 00:39:09.900 --> 00:39:12.440 and look for some guy who's gonna preach what 00:39:12.440 --> 00:39:14.699 he wants to hear and the way he wants to hear 00:39:14.699 --> 00:39:17.639 it. Or maybe he'll gather other people who are 00:39:17.639 --> 00:39:20.039 like -minded and they'll say, let's find a preacher 00:39:20.039 --> 00:39:22.260 who will. preach what we want to hear, and preach 00:39:22.260 --> 00:39:24.079 it in the way we want it. And there's always 00:39:24.079 --> 00:39:26.659 some willing pastor dude out there who says, 00:39:26.800 --> 00:39:29.360 ooh, I see a need, and I see a possibility of 00:39:29.360 --> 00:39:32.119 success, and he will go to those people, and 00:39:32.119 --> 00:39:34.179 he will change the message, and he will adapt 00:39:34.179 --> 00:39:36.639 it in a way that meets the needs of the audience. 00:39:39.699 --> 00:39:42.639 And that ministry ends up being based on what? 00:39:42.719 --> 00:39:45.539 The preacher's style? The preacher's philosophy? 00:39:46.840 --> 00:39:49.539 possibly on his charisma, his personality, maybe 00:39:49.539 --> 00:39:52.420 his good looks, his communication skills, his 00:39:52.420 --> 00:39:55.840 ability to project confidence and success. And 00:39:55.840 --> 00:39:57.800 you know what? That church may grow really, really 00:39:57.800 --> 00:40:01.599 big. Because again, that stuff will draw a crowd. 00:40:02.139 --> 00:40:04.659 On the outside, it's going to look big and successful, 00:40:04.679 --> 00:40:07.460 but on the inside where it matters, it is a church 00:40:07.460 --> 00:40:11.539 built on the foolishness of human wisdom and 00:40:11.539 --> 00:40:15.869 human cleverness. And those churches are... more 00:40:15.869 --> 00:40:20.250 common than you think. We literally have a test 00:40:20.250 --> 00:40:22.809 case for this. Raise your hand if you've heard 00:40:22.809 --> 00:40:26.230 of Willow Creek Church. Some of you have. The 00:40:26.230 --> 00:40:28.829 younger generation, maybe not yet. Willow Creek 00:40:28.829 --> 00:40:31.710 Church is still around, located in the suburbs 00:40:31.710 --> 00:40:34.250 of Chicago. If you've never heard of it, you 00:40:34.250 --> 00:40:35.670 should look it up. It's an interesting story. 00:40:35.750 --> 00:40:43.900 Back in 1985, 1985, Willow Creek became the groundbreaking 00:40:43.900 --> 00:40:47.280 model of what we call the seeker -sensitive movement, 00:40:47.400 --> 00:40:49.460 and it swept through megachurches all over the 00:40:49.460 --> 00:40:51.960 country. And I will spare you all the ugly details, 00:40:52.179 --> 00:40:55.159 but this church was literally built on every 00:40:55.159 --> 00:40:57.360 single thing that Paul warns us about in this 00:40:57.360 --> 00:41:03.000 passage. All of it. Shapeshifting every message, 00:41:03.420 --> 00:41:06.659 shapeshifting every aspect of ministry based 00:41:06.659 --> 00:41:08.940 on what? The wants and desires of the audience. 00:41:10.090 --> 00:41:12.369 Based on the wants and desires of unbelievers. 00:41:13.789 --> 00:41:16.469 I kid you not. In fact, their whole ministry 00:41:16.469 --> 00:41:19.869 for, I don't know, 40 years was built on doing 00:41:19.869 --> 00:41:22.969 surveys among people who were unbelievers. And 00:41:22.969 --> 00:41:25.309 the question was asked, why don't you go to church? 00:41:25.969 --> 00:41:28.789 And they took the survey results and they said, 00:41:28.909 --> 00:41:30.769 well, here's the top 10 reasons people don't 00:41:30.769 --> 00:41:32.690 go to church. Well, and they said, well, let's 00:41:32.690 --> 00:41:39.780 adapt the church message to those things. That 00:41:39.780 --> 00:41:43.039 should shock you. And it was wildly successful 00:41:43.039 --> 00:41:46.960 because it was appealing to the flesh in every 00:41:46.960 --> 00:41:51.460 way. That's what people wanted. And to make matters 00:41:51.460 --> 00:41:54.800 worse, every single pastor in pastoring a church 00:41:54.800 --> 00:41:57.880 of 100 people and struggling looked at that and 00:41:57.880 --> 00:42:01.199 said, I guess I need to do that too. And this 00:42:01.199 --> 00:42:06.050 was a disastrous trend in the so -called seeker 00:42:06.050 --> 00:42:08.730 -sensitive evangelical church for some 40 years. 00:42:08.869 --> 00:42:12.949 Now here's how the story ends. The leadership 00:42:12.949 --> 00:42:15.750 of this movement has now admitted after 40 years 00:42:15.750 --> 00:42:18.550 that the whole model was flawed from the beginning. 00:42:20.010 --> 00:42:22.210 They've come out and they've had to admit it. 00:42:22.269 --> 00:42:24.730 Just recently, the former senior pastor, Bill 00:42:24.730 --> 00:42:27.190 Hybels, came out and said the whole thing was 00:42:27.190 --> 00:42:31.650 flawed. It was built on human innovation, not 00:42:31.650 --> 00:42:34.869 on the word of God, not on the cross. And because 00:42:34.869 --> 00:42:36.869 it wasn't built on the power of God, you know 00:42:36.869 --> 00:42:39.750 what? So many people who went into this building 00:42:39.750 --> 00:42:44.289 and thought they were saved later on fell away 00:42:44.289 --> 00:42:46.150 from the faith. They actually never had faith, 00:42:46.230 --> 00:42:49.210 but they completely walked away for obvious reasons. 00:42:49.730 --> 00:42:52.489 It wasn't built on the power of God. Quite a 00:42:52.489 --> 00:42:54.530 few members of the senior leadership of this 00:42:54.530 --> 00:42:57.849 church have deconstructed, walked away from Christianity. 00:42:58.349 --> 00:43:01.989 Some of them were literally prosecuted for misconduct. 00:43:03.570 --> 00:43:07.030 It's an absolute mess. It's a disgrace. But it's 00:43:07.030 --> 00:43:09.650 completely predictable based on the passage we're 00:43:09.650 --> 00:43:12.909 reading this morning. Predictable. Because the 00:43:12.909 --> 00:43:15.469 essential gospel message, the testimony of God, 00:43:15.590 --> 00:43:18.230 was completely missing from that place. It was 00:43:18.230 --> 00:43:21.030 a hollowed out church with no life in the spirit. 00:43:21.309 --> 00:43:25.269 But boy, did it look good on the outside. Man, 00:43:25.429 --> 00:43:31.889 25 ,000 people a weekend at this church. Satan 00:43:31.889 --> 00:43:35.730 rejoices. when we do this, when we leave the 00:43:35.730 --> 00:43:37.789 Holy Spirit and the power of God out of the equation. 00:43:38.010 --> 00:43:40.349 He would love for us to believe that it's our 00:43:40.349 --> 00:43:42.630 models and our strategies that can transform 00:43:42.630 --> 00:43:45.489 lives. When we do stuff like this, we're helping 00:43:45.489 --> 00:43:50.710 Satan devour people. So here's the thing, friends. 00:43:51.449 --> 00:43:53.489 We have to think about these things. Whether 00:43:53.489 --> 00:43:55.769 you're at Oak Hill or someday you move out of 00:43:55.769 --> 00:43:57.170 the area, you're looking for another church, 00:43:57.309 --> 00:44:02.630 this matters. The question of our motives, why 00:44:02.630 --> 00:44:05.869 do we do what we do, is unavoidable in this issue, 00:44:06.030 --> 00:44:08.889 both in church life and in the way we do evangelism. 00:44:08.969 --> 00:44:11.329 We have to ask ourselves the hard questions. 00:44:11.530 --> 00:44:15.389 What are we really after? What's the goal? And 00:44:15.389 --> 00:44:17.329 to be honest with ourselves, what is the goal? 00:44:17.469 --> 00:44:21.110 Are we trying to get worldly success or are we 00:44:21.110 --> 00:44:23.110 seeking to please God according to his word? 00:44:24.480 --> 00:44:27.380 Do we truly care about the souls of people, or 00:44:27.380 --> 00:44:29.539 are we just manipulating things so that we can 00:44:29.539 --> 00:44:35.380 boast about numbers? Are we willing to risk offending 00:44:35.380 --> 00:44:37.639 with the truth in order to preach the truth of 00:44:37.639 --> 00:44:39.940 the gospel, or are we just people -pleasing? 00:44:42.159 --> 00:44:44.440 Ultimately, are we seeking our glory or God's 00:44:44.440 --> 00:44:46.780 glory, His praise, or ours? We have to ask those 00:44:46.780 --> 00:44:50.760 questions. Now, one final caveat, and I promise 00:44:50.760 --> 00:44:52.889 I'll be done. Because if we're not careful, we 00:44:52.889 --> 00:44:54.730 can get out of balance with this. The principles 00:44:54.730 --> 00:44:57.210 are true, but let's look at the balance. It is 00:44:57.210 --> 00:44:59.250 true that we don't want to put our trust in human 00:44:59.250 --> 00:45:01.769 wisdom, but at the same time, we shouldn't ignore 00:45:01.769 --> 00:45:04.929 the role that wisdom can play in effective ministry. 00:45:05.969 --> 00:45:08.489 And this is a touchy thing, right? So what does 00:45:08.489 --> 00:45:11.489 it mean to employ wisdom and to think strategically 00:45:11.489 --> 00:45:14.329 while at the same time embracing the offensiveness 00:45:14.329 --> 00:45:16.769 of the gospel and trusting only in the power 00:45:16.769 --> 00:45:19.309 of the Spirit to transform lives? We have to 00:45:19.309 --> 00:45:22.159 be able to answer that question. Paul didn't 00:45:22.159 --> 00:45:24.099 preach to entertain people or to get applause, 00:45:24.340 --> 00:45:26.739 but there's no question that he preached to persuade 00:45:26.739 --> 00:45:30.300 people, right? So he had a strategy to persuade. 00:45:30.400 --> 00:45:33.159 He says that in 2 Corinthians 5 .11. He says, 00:45:33.159 --> 00:45:36.599 we seek to persuade men. So here's what I'm saying 00:45:36.599 --> 00:45:38.860 about this. The passage for this morning does 00:45:38.860 --> 00:45:41.639 not give us a rationale to just preach boring 00:45:41.639 --> 00:45:47.019 sermons, right? It doesn't give us a reason to 00:45:47.019 --> 00:45:50.760 be lazy in our preparation. or to not think about 00:45:50.760 --> 00:45:53.300 how we can approach somebody who needs to hear 00:45:53.300 --> 00:45:56.039 the gospel. We should always strive to give God 00:45:56.039 --> 00:45:58.780 our best and to work hard at these things and 00:45:58.780 --> 00:46:01.159 to think carefully about how to approach the 00:46:01.159 --> 00:46:03.780 work that God has given to us. So I have to think 00:46:03.780 --> 00:46:06.219 every week about how do I lay out a sermon in 00:46:06.219 --> 00:46:08.619 a way that is not going to mess with the content, 00:46:08.679 --> 00:46:11.099 but is going to be delivered in a way that draws 00:46:11.099 --> 00:46:16.929 your attention to the cross. And if you're evangelizing, 00:46:16.989 --> 00:46:19.409 you need to think and pray about how can I best 00:46:19.409 --> 00:46:22.010 approach that person at work that now seems open 00:46:22.010 --> 00:46:25.409 to the gospel. It's not bad to strategize is 00:46:25.409 --> 00:46:28.449 what I'm saying. But we don't mess with the message, 00:46:28.550 --> 00:46:32.289 right? The content remains fixed and the strategy 00:46:32.289 --> 00:46:35.590 is personalized. Above all else, always, always, 00:46:35.670 --> 00:46:38.469 always, we remember what the determining factor 00:46:38.469 --> 00:46:41.880 of our effectiveness is. Right? It's not going 00:46:41.880 --> 00:46:43.800 to be our method. It's not going to be our approach. 00:46:43.980 --> 00:46:46.780 It is a demonstration of the power of the Spirit, 00:46:46.960 --> 00:46:51.239 period. Period. We faithfully preach, we teach, 00:46:51.400 --> 00:46:54.199 we witness, and we trust Him completely for the 00:46:54.199 --> 00:46:57.460 results. We trust that He is going to use us 00:46:57.460 --> 00:47:00.039 and move according to His sovereign will so that 00:47:00.039 --> 00:47:03.119 anybody who ever comes to saving faith through 00:47:03.119 --> 00:47:05.980 our ministry or through our evangelism, that 00:47:05.980 --> 00:47:08.920 his or her faith rests on one thing and one thing 00:47:08.920 --> 00:47:12.980 only, on the power of God and not on us. Amen? 00:47:14.679 --> 00:47:16.900 If you have any questions about this or you're 00:47:16.900 --> 00:47:19.440 confused, if I've confused you this morning or 00:47:19.440 --> 00:47:21.980 you want to bring up a scenario to me, that practical 00:47:21.980 --> 00:47:25.260 scenario, please find me after the service. I'd 00:47:25.260 --> 00:47:26.920 love to talk some more. Let's bow our heads. 00:47:31.789 --> 00:47:34.510 Father, thank you for the challenge of this text. 00:47:36.889 --> 00:47:40.150 I praise you for Paul and for his discipline 00:47:40.150 --> 00:47:44.989 in the way that he approached this difficult 00:47:44.989 --> 00:47:48.230 issue which is so tempting for fallible men and 00:47:48.230 --> 00:47:51.989 women because we want applause and we want to 00:47:51.989 --> 00:47:55.530 please people and we want to see results in the 00:47:55.530 --> 00:47:57.789 things that we do. And it's so tempting, Lord, 00:47:57.889 --> 00:48:00.780 to mess with what you've given us. Thank you 00:48:00.780 --> 00:48:03.039 for Paul's discipline. Thank you for the promises 00:48:03.039 --> 00:48:05.659 that you gave him. And Lord, I ask now for us 00:48:05.659 --> 00:48:10.019 here at Oak Hill, as you work in and among us 00:48:10.019 --> 00:48:11.920 in this local body, that you would give us that 00:48:11.920 --> 00:48:16.579 same discipline to understand what it is that 00:48:16.579 --> 00:48:19.099 brings about true effectiveness in the ministry, 00:48:19.280 --> 00:48:24.019 true, true effectiveness in our evangelism. that 00:48:24.019 --> 00:48:26.099 we would constantly be looking to your spirit, 00:48:26.199 --> 00:48:28.880 that we would not trust in ourselves or our methods, 00:48:28.980 --> 00:48:30.760 but we would give that to you and say, Lord, 00:48:30.880 --> 00:48:33.840 your will be done. And we praise you that you're 00:48:33.840 --> 00:48:36.579 sovereign in salvation, that we can just strive 00:48:36.579 --> 00:48:40.159 to be faithful and know that you will work. Lord, 00:48:40.219 --> 00:48:42.360 don't let these things slip from our minds and 00:48:42.360 --> 00:48:44.559 hearts as it was already slipping from the Corinthians 00:48:44.559 --> 00:48:47.199 in the first century. Keep us focused on the 00:48:47.199 --> 00:48:50.860 essentials. Christ crucified. And Lord, we pray 00:48:50.860 --> 00:48:52.880 that you'll keep glorifying yourself through 00:48:52.880 --> 00:48:55.400 us as we strive to be faithful. Thank you for 00:48:55.400 --> 00:48:57.679 our time this morning. We praise you in the name 00:48:57.679 --> 00:48:59.780 of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.