Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:04 All right. Village church, happy father's day. He said back to me, it's not mother's day. It was funny on mother's day, I was like happy father's day. And then there's like, crickets. Like, we don't really know what to, what to do with you. Okay. So when our culture celebrates something that the Bible celebrates, we want to make sure that we take a moment and we highlight this. And so dads, we are the most powerful influence in our children's lives. And fatherhood is a great joy, and it is a sacred responsibility. And I want to speak to every dad in this room. And I just want to tell you guys, we need Jesus. We need his spirit. We need help. We need his word. We need his people more than ever before the world is crazy and we need to raise children and show them God, the father in his heart for them and our love for our wife, our love for our family and for our children.
Speaker 0 00:01:05 And this is not an easy task. The dads. Can you give me an amen on that one? Amen. Every dad needs Jesus. And so there's a crazy thought for you. That's been ringing in my brain, especially over the last year that somehow the way I live and the decisions I make are going to reverberate in my children and my children's children for generations to come. That's somehow the way I live and structure my life, my children are watching this and they are taking it in and there will be major aspects of my life that are going to reverberate for generations. And I want to make sure that as I raise my children, as we raise our kids, that we are leaning on the Lord Jesus Christ with all of our might, because we have an awesome, sacred, joyful responsibility. And so dads, what I want to do is we've already fed you a whole lot of bacon.
Speaker 0 00:01:53 And as I hope that you enjoyed that if you came early, that is one of our gifts to dads most years. And, but we also have a small present for you as you head on out after the service. But I want to take a moment. I just want to pray for the dads in this, in this room. As we face this world, and we love our families in the power of Christ, let's pray together, father, I want to thank you for dads. It was you who created the very idea and then imbued fatherhood with unbelievable power. You call yourself father and by becoming a dad, we represent you to our children and our children's children for generations to come our decisions, reverberate with a generational power. We can barely even wrap our heads around. And so today I want to thank you for incredible dads.
Speaker 0 00:02:45 And as a dad, myself, I want to thank you for forgiveness through faith in Jesus for all the times that we have misrepresented you. I want to thank you for your spirit, who is relentlessly transforming us. I wanna thank you for your word that trains us in godliness. I want to thank you for our children. The protective love we feel for them was put inside of us by you and gives us just daily glimpses of your love for each of us. Father, may you help the dads and granddads of village church to love lead and serve like Jesus, may you be glorified? Not just in our obedience, but even in our weakness. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. We are in week three of a four week series called practical evangelism. So each week my goal is to give you one tool to help you be an effective evangelists in your personal relationships in sphere.
Speaker 0 00:03:41 So we can, number one, we talked about bringing the gospel to an ambivalent world and the tool we wanted to remind you of and give you as the power and the tool of prayer. That when you are dealing with people who have an ambivalent heart towards spiritual things, they literally need an intervention of God. And that God most often does this as a result of the prayers of his people. We two, we talked about bringing the gospel to a lonely world, and we talked about the spiritual practice of hospitality. That if you want to see a single person in your life, come to faith in Christ, it probably will not happen. If you avoid this simple practice next week, we're going to be looking at bringing the gospel to a confused world. We're going to be looking at the pure and simple gospel. People are trying to add to it and take away from it all the time.
Speaker 0 00:04:30 And the gospel is the power of God for salvation. So we want to make sure that you are armed with a pure and a simple gospel that, you know, gospel lies when you see them, because you know what the true and pure and simple gospel is. So today we're talking about bringing the gospel to a hurting world. Before I share with you the tool that we're going to equip you with today. I want to ask you a question in your brain, what qualities make for a great evangelist. So when you think about this for a moment in your brain, what qualities make for a great evangelist?
Speaker 1 00:05:07 Now, most
Speaker 0 00:05:08 Of the time here are qualities that I would hear people say, confident, articulate,
Speaker 2 00:05:18 Well, studied a great speaker. Well, don't,
Speaker 0 00:05:24 Don't get me wrong. Are these great qualities to have? Yeah, they'll probably prevent you from looking like an idiot and being a jerk, right? That's probably valuable to most of you,
Speaker 2 00:05:33 But these are
Speaker 0 00:05:34 Not actually the most powerful tools in your arsenal. That they're actually far more powerful tools in your arsenal than just your strength and your confidence and your knowledge and your ability to talk and to argue well. So let me share this week's tool with you. It's one that every single one of us in this room have plentiful of and it, your weaknesses. It is your brokenness. Yeah. It is the part of you that we spend so much time trying to hide from other people as we put a projection of ourselves out in front of the world, which by the way, is the projection often the reality, no, it's not, but, but there is something about the believer who is very, very comfortable with the reality and the weight of their weaknesses and is free to actually speak them out loud to other people. One of your best tools is not how awesome you are and everything.
Speaker 0 00:06:38 It is not your strength. That is not your success. It is not your good looks and your charm, your full head of hair and jealous. That's all. That is one of the most effective tools that you and I have in our tool belt is our weakness. So there's an entire book of the Bible, actually, that is all about leading out of your weaknesses, the book of second Corinthians. So would you open up your Bibles with me to second Corinthians chapter 12, we'll be in verse nine and I need to set up this context because the Corinthian church is very different than what you and I understand Paul, through personal evangelism primarily brought almost every single person to faith in Christ by himself. And so he started preaching the gospel and it was a relationship after relationship and people would hear the pure, simple gospel they would trust in Jesus.
Speaker 0 00:07:25 And then enough people started to trusting Christ that he actually started a church. It was the church in the city of Corinth. He would raise up pastors and elders and he wanted to make sure that this church was solid and strong. Paul was by every stretch of the imagination, their spiritual father. And what you find in the letters of Paul to the Corinthians is that he speaks to them sort of like a kid. Who's really frustrating. You it's sort of like he's really blunt. He's just really honest. He gets aggravated a little bit easier than you would expect. There's very much a fatherly relationship with a kid who is struggling. The Corinthians actually at the time of the writing of second Corinthians are having pretty major relational issues with Paul. And it's not because of how bluntly he speaks. In fact, there's a group of people who were false apostles and they were rising up all throughout the first century after the resurrection of Jesus.
Speaker 0 00:08:17 And they would claim for themselves this authority in behalf of Jesus to teach truth. And what happened is that they weren't actually preaching a true gospel. They were preaching a false gospel. Really what they wanted to do is they would go city to city. They would exploit people to monetize them, just like our prosperity preachers today. They do not have good intentions. They don't love the people. They are looking to get rich off of the backs of poor people, especially. And so these false apostles have come into the city of Corinth and these false apostles are trying to speak negatively of the parcel, Paul of his gospel, of his character and of his ministry. They want him to abandon, they want them to abandon Paul and accept their authority because what do they get? If you accept their authority, they get more and more power and money.
Speaker 0 00:09:08 They strip you clean. And then they go to the next city and they do the same thing. In fact, they claim to be able to do such amazing things that Paul would call them facetiously super apostles. Now, why were they so moved by this? I want you to look at first Corinthians 12, nine. Here's what Paul says. I want to show you why they're so vulnerable to this second Corinthians 12, nine says this, but he, Jesus said to me, Paul, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. Okay. What did the Corinthian church value in their spiritual leaders?
Speaker 1 00:09:54 Eloquence confidence, compelling communication, a good appearance. Why, why
Speaker 0 00:10:04 Would the church have that sort of value set for their spiritual leaders? Well, let's ask a different question. What kind of value did the Greeks have for their spiritual leaders? Philosophers influencers? What do they value the most in them? Isn't it ironic? They valued confidence, compelling communication appearance. Okay. So what kind of, what kind of spiritual leader was Paul? It's interesting because what most of you think of when you think of the apostle Paul is you think of somebody who's strong, who's confident who has it all together, who could get up in front of anybody anytime and fearlessly without anxiety, proclaim, the gospel you have in your brain, that he has probably an incredible, incredible preacher. And I think Paul, if he were standing here and you could hear him preach, you would probably not say any of that about him. The man writes better than he talks.
Speaker 0 00:11:06 So what kind of spiritual leader was he? He was not eloquent, but he was definitely unskilled. Here's what happens in second Corinthians 11, six. He says this, even if I am unskilled in speaking, I'm not. So in knowledge, in fact, one of the biggest criticisms of the apostle Paul is that when he talked, he didn't talk well, when he spoke, his words seemed to be jumbled in his thoughts were all up in his head and there maybe he had a speech impediment, but when he got up in front, nobody would ever say about the apostle Paul. Now that guy is a good talker. In fact, what people would say about him is, man, that's your leader. Like, he's not very clear. It's not very eloquent. It doesn't have all of his words together.
Speaker 2 00:11:47 That's your leader. Paul was
Speaker 0 00:11:49 Definitely not confident in the way that you and I would think of confidence, but definitely anxious and fearful. And first Corinthians chapter two, verse three, he says to them, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, when you think of Paul ministering to and teaching non-Christians and the Corinthian church, do you ever think of him as weak and fear and trembling? In fact, there's something about his general communication style that left people saying is that getting nervous, that guy, that guy seems to be kind of overwhelmed, that there some kind of emotional instability in Paul, that whenever he's spoken, he was training people. People were pretty clear about it. And they understood that this guy, he might have some emotional issues. Paul was not strong and handsome, but honestly he was pretty weakly looking. The dude had been beaten multiple times.
Speaker 0 00:12:42 The dude have been shipwrecked. The dude had been all over the place. And in fact, one of the, the accusations of the super apostles against Paul was the dude just looked pretty sick. Second Corinthians 10, 10. He says, here's what they say. His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak. And his speeches have no account. I mean, like some of you relate to this, how many of you are better writers than you are talkers, right? I mean, most of you would rather die. Literally stats say than actually come up here and preach a sermon and speak publicly. But it's interesting that those who sometimes are the most afraid and anxious to speak, they can write really, really well. Paul was a very smart man. And the duke had pen, a letter that was moving, but you put them in front of a group of people and he was filled with anxiety and fear and trembling is that, is that the notion that you have usually had of the apostle Paul, when you read what he does in the book of acts and you see how boldly he proclaims the gospel or your expectations also that it is one of the most eloquent and clear and compelling sermons that you've ever heard.
Speaker 0 00:13:46 It actually probably wasn't what gave Paul his power was not his eloquence, but it was the spirit of God. Do you hear that? Like, they all want eloquence. They want a handsome man. They want somebody who's strong. And yet that's not where any of Paul's power lied. In fact, if he was sitting here, he would say, you're right. I'm not eloquent. I fumble all over my words. You know that thing you have, like when you're in a debate with somebody who's a really good debater and your brain gets really fuzzy and you just can't get your words out is a gas. Sometimes my brain gets all, all messed up. Sometimes I try to talk in and I just, I start stuttering and stumbling all over myself. You're right. Honestly, I am very weakly looking. There are days and weeks that I would go without eating.
Speaker 0 00:14:30 I've been beaten to a pulp multiple times. There's something physically going on inside of me that I've prayed to the Lord to take away from me. And he hasn't you're right? Like I am not the specimen of a great God that you would all hope your spiritual leaders would be so villas church. Can I just give you a great gift in practical evangelism? You don't have to be a good talker. Can I get an amen from someone in the room on this one? Amen. You do not have to be a Peter. Peter could get up and preach a sermon. Like no one's business. What the world needs is not more Peters. We need more pulse.
Speaker 2 00:15:04 We need people who are real. We need people who,
Speaker 0 00:15:07 Weaknesses and anxieties and fears and frailties and other weaknesses. We need people who are willing to overcome them and not be fearless, but be bold. We don't, we don't need to be preachers. We need you to be people who love well and who are armed with a clear, simple gospel. You may stutter your brains out when you give it. But the gospel is the power of God for salvation, to anybody who would believe let's go back to verse nine. He says this to Paul Jesus. My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. How is Jesus his grace and power most effectively activated through your success, through your amazingness, through your intelligence, through your knowledge know, through your weakness. I want to give you two categories of weakness that the apostle Paul particularly dealt with. And I think everyone in this room to a degree house, here's the first category. Frailties. Those parts of you that are emotionally, psychologically or physically not strong.
Speaker 0 00:16:28 These are the parts that you hide and you project confidence. When the reality is emotionally, psychologically, or physically, you are frail and weak. Here's the second category of failures of weaknesses and its failures. This would be your past struggles and sins. Guys know those things that you are actually really ashamed of. And you hope nobody ever finds out about, do you know what I'm talking about? Most of you have one or two or some of you 10 or 15 things going on in your brain for some of you, those failures and struggles are right now. Those sin issues, you're in the throes of addiction. You're in the throws of something else. And you so badly want to hide this from other people, you are projecting something that is not real or true, because you cannot allow people to see weakness in. You non-Christians do not need to see stories of your success, but they need to see stories of redemption.
Speaker 0 00:17:36 The gospel is not about how good you are. It's not about how great you've been. It is not about how much you have accomplished. It is that you and I are broken, frail, weak sinners who have fallen short of God's standard. And that we had no ability in of ourselves to make ourselves right with God. But God loved us so much that he would save us in our lives. Our stories, our stories of God's intervention in our life, redemption stories are the stories that people need, where honestly, they look at our lives and here's what we say. Only God, only God, some of us are testimonies are, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me. And our testimonies need to be ones of only God. Only God, only God, if you knew the frailty of this man and the weakness of this man, only God, that's it.
Speaker 0 00:18:33 If I stand before you today, with any level of righteousness, let it not be said that I have unbelievable self-will and self control. Let it be said that apart from the spirit of Christ, I am nothing. I have nothing. And I would be given over to my sin. If there's something admirable, somebody sees in you let it be said of this only God, when people need to see is the fact that God is at work in your life. And when we celebrate all of our awesomeness and our strengths, we make much of ourselves and we make less God.
Speaker 0 00:19:04 People are desperate to see that guy can and will move and redeem other people's broken stories. Let me just give you a quick Panorama of what almost everybody in America is dealing with right now. There are physiological and emotional needs like addiction, anxiety, anger, depression, and more, you know, these things, Christian that you're attempted to hide and not talk about because we're afraid. What will people think if they know what I'm actually working through, what people actually need to see is a real, authentic human who struggles, who doesn't project, that they are better or worse than they are, who is allowing the power of God daily in their life to redeem them authenticity. That's what they need. Spiritual means like guilt, shame, regret. Purposelessness are plaguing people. People are overcompensating trying to hide all of these deep spiritual emotions that they are wrestling through. Intellectual needs.
Speaker 0 00:20:07 The worldview that most people have given their entire lives to is failing them right before their eyes. Things they thought true are proven to not be true. And they are watching the insanity of our cultural worldview unfold before them relationship needs. They might have a rebellious child, a distant spouse, broken friendship, a terrible boss. People do not need to see how awesome you are. Here's what Paul says in verse nine. He says this, therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses. Why? So that the power of Christ may rest upon me guys. There's so many lies. We've believed. Let me just share with you a handful of lies. Christians, believe all the time pertaining to this number one, Christians all need to be great communicators, true or false, false. Paul wasn't Christians need to have all the answers. Now, have you ever been afraid to not have the answer? I feel this way all the time. And the reality is half the time people ask me questions. I'm like, can I get back to you? And then you'll listen to our Q and a podcast and think 750 episodes of answers. That was all after a lot of research. Very rarely do we say, oh, I have the answers to all of your questions right here. Cause I'm not that smart.
Speaker 0 00:21:30 Christians need to be perfect. No, they don't in what world. Gosh guys, we're Christians. Cause we're not perfect. Literally by declaring that you're following Christ is your declaration that you are broken and deserve hell. How is that a good person? Christians need to have it all together. If I show weakness, they won't respect me. Have you ever seen anybody humbly reveal weakness, and then you lost respect in them? No, I never have. When somebody is honest and not bragging about a struggle, they have my respect for them goes through the roof because there's something about authenticity that draws our hearts to that person.
Speaker 0 00:22:20 Look at verse 10, verse nine. He says this so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Why does he lean into his weaknesses? Why when you read Paul's letters, do you hear him talk about all of the things that he is not good at? His emotional struggles, his physical struggles, his speech struggles, because he wants everyone to know if your life has been changed. May no one ever give me credit, but may we give all credit and honor and glory to God because it is his power at work. I will boast all the more in my weaknesses. Now, verse 10, he says this for the sake of Christ. Then I am content with weaknesses,
Speaker 2 00:23:04 Insults, hardships,
Speaker 0 00:23:07 Persecutions, and calamities. This list was probably a response to the super apostles who would say, look
Speaker 2 00:23:15 At your leader. He's actually kind of a loser. Let's take these one at a time. Weaknesses.
Speaker 0 00:23:22 I imagine the super apostles might say something like right, Corinthians, listen up.
Speaker 2 00:23:27 Paul, can't talk.
Speaker 0 00:23:28 He's nervous. He's definitely long-winded and he's small. And he's weak.
Speaker 2 00:23:34 Is this your leader? Don't you think God would
Speaker 0 00:23:37 Have chosen someone more competent than this guy, those church, even we describe weaknesses. Doesn't it kind of remind you of Jesus. I mean, think about this. Jesus
Speaker 2 00:23:54 Was murdered. Jesus wept in the guard. Hookah Semini
Speaker 0 00:24:00 Like Jesus fully. God never sinned once still had human flash, but listen to the is on insult. And I just want to show you how much light Paul is, how much Paul is like Jesus. The, the super apostles might say to him in terms of insults, listen, Corinthians everywhere we go. non-Christians insult him. If he was blessed by God, wouldn't he have more favor with people. Okay? Philip's church. Wasn't Jesus insulted and slandered. It's interesting because the more, the super apostles accused him. The more he actually looks like Jesus. Let's look at the next term hardships. Imagine the super apostles would say, Hey listen, Corinthians Paul's life is just hard. He's physically struggling. Always seems to be sick. He keeps getting arrested. Does it sound like God is trying to tell you he's not okay. He feels church. By the way. Doesn't this kind of describe what happened to the people who followed Jesus after his resurrection
Speaker 2 00:24:59 Hardships. Here's
Speaker 0 00:25:01 Another one persecutions. The super apostles might say, okay, listen, Corinthians. I want to try to make my point in a different way. Paul has been beaten to a pulp multiple times. Would God ever let a true messenger of his experience pain? Like this was Jesus. A messenger of God. Did he experience pain like this? For sure. Calamities. The super parcel might say, all right, listen, Corinthians. Did you hear about the riots? He started the Christians who were arrested because of him, the people who died because of him. Okay. Mr. Super apostle. You were literally describing what happened to all the people who followed Jesus after his death and resurrection come on.
Speaker 0 00:25:43 So Paul gets this, he gets something. The Corinthians don't get. He gets something. The super apostles don't get for when I am weak, I am. What strong, let me show you how this played out. In some of his letters, he did not try to hide his past failures or his present struggles. And one example of this is Paul's fear and anxiety. Go back with me to second Corinthians chapter seven. And I want to just show you a little glimpse into this second Corinthians seven, five. Here's what he says for it. Even when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn fighting without. And then what does he say next and fear within, okay. Superheroes are unafraid. Real heroes are afraid and overcome that. Now this is not normal for a spiritual leader, philosopher influencer and the first century to lead with their weakness.
Speaker 0 00:26:45 But what you're going to find is that Paul is regularly talking about his fear and his anxiety in verse six. Here's what he says, but God who comforts the downcast, the spiritually depressed, the spiritually discouraged. Here's what he says, comforted us by the coming of Titus. And here's what he's telling them. I was spiritually frustrated, discouraged, maybe even depressed. And I had the spirit of God in me and God knew what I needed. And he sent my buddy Titus over to me because I needed it rent. How many of you would be willing to talk about your spiritual depression, your anxiety, or your fear? And Paul keeps bringing it up over and over again. Jump with me for chapters to second Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 28. He says this and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me, of my anxiety for all of the churches.
Speaker 0 00:27:37 Very few people are this honest, you go to the book of Philippians. The theme of his anxiety comes up again. You go through all of his letters and this dude is leading regularly with fear and anxiety. And he's telling them the truth you guys might from my letters, see boldness and strength, but I'm telling you when you get me in person, I am not eloquent. I am fearful. I am anxious. And I am not like the standard preacher that everybody else in this world is going to celebrate. This is not who am not who I am. And you know what? I've gone through a lot hardships and persecutions and calamities and insults. I'm going to boast in all of them because by the world's standards, all of this discredits me. But if anything good happens from anything I do. Let it be said, it was the power of God and not my eloquence, not my strength, not my awesomeness, not my victories, not my success, whatever it is. Let it be said that if anything good happens, it happened not because of me, but because of the power of God,
Speaker 2 00:28:34 Where in the world DePaul learned this, Jesus,
Speaker 0 00:28:40 I have shared with you many times that the story of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, I think is one of the most important stories for our day, fully God, fully, man. And you see an aspect of Jesus's humanity on display God in the flesh was filled with so much anxiety that he sweat blood. His body was so overwhelmed by anticipation of what he was about to experience that he was having physiological reactions. He was filled with so much anxiety at the prospect of enduring the full weight of the wrath of God on his body and his soul and his emotions that he begged God three times, if there is any other way to accomplish salvation, could we do it now? He was so transparent that he invited three of his disciples to come near him and to pray with him, to witness him in the most anxious moment of his entire life.
Speaker 0 00:29:39 He was so vulnerable that even though they were about a Stone's throw away, he prayed so loud that they could hear him and pen down his prayers later so that all of us could hear what happened to Jesus in the garden of necessity. You tell me, where did the apostle Paul learn to lead with vulnerability, authenticity, and weakness. He learned it from Jesus who never had to project a false version of himself fully God, fully, man. And here's where Paul is at. I'm going to boast, not in my strengths, but in my weakness, because in my weakness, the power of God has made manifest. You're sitting down with somebody and you want to see them come to Christ. What do they actually need from you? A braggadocious spirit, no weakness, authenticity, transparency. When you lead with your weakness and then you can share only God's stories that gives them hope for what God can actually do for when I am weak, then I am strong. I'm going to share with you three. So what's embrace your frailty because God allowed it for a reason.
Speaker 0 00:30:47 God has allowed ordained or permitted, whatever your physical, emotional, or psychological weaknesses in your life the most. So if you, if you were to stop and say, what is my physical, psychological, or emotional weakness, this thing that I am trying to hide and overcompensate by projecting strength, which is not a real reflection of what's going on inside of me. I think some of the most effective evangelists in the world are going to be able to get very comfortable with our frailties. Let me, let me give you a warning about frailty in today's culture. People use frailties to gain social power. This is a very real thing. If you're over 40 or 45 years old, this might sound like nonsense to you. But the younger you are, there is a very quick and easy way for those who don't have social power to get immediate social power and to move up your social status.
Speaker 0 00:31:48 And that is to brag about and proclaim your frailties to become a victim. And I want to just say something to every believer in this room, as followers of Jesus Christ, whatever our frailties are, psychological, emotional, or physical, we are not victims. We are overcomers. That is who we are. We do not have victim mindsets. We do not use our frailties to gain social power. We use our frailties to display the power of God in our lives. We do not brag randomly about our emotional, psychological, or physical frailties, but we use them like a sniper to make much of Jesus and to show his power in our life. You may not understand how victim culture is working itself out, but as Christians rise above this and we use these frailties for the good of other people and the glory of God.
Speaker 0 00:32:48 Number two, talk about your failure because it is not your identity. I think for many people, as you think about the big thing you did, or the big sins in your life, you are petrified of people finding out. And I've got really amazing news for you. If you have personally trusted in Christ, whatever that failure was, it is not your identity. The blood of Jesus has cleansed you. If we had Adolf Hitler in this room and he came to true, genuine faith in Jesus Christ, the blood of Christ is powerful enough to cleanse that evil man of all of his sins. If you had every desperate and dictator in the world throughout all of human history in all of them, profess faith in Christ that was genuine and ask for God's forgiveness. The blood of Christ is powerful enough to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. It is that powerful. Can I, can I tell you that one of the most regular phrases I have heard is somebody will say to me, I believe in Jesus. I do. I get it. God could never forgive someone like me. And my comment is always the same. You far underestimate the power of the blood of Christ. If he can forgive those people, can you not forgive you
Speaker 2 00:34:17 100%?
Speaker 0 00:34:19 That's not a legitimate excuse anymore. If you believe trust in Christ and the blood of Christ has the power to forgive you. Your identity is no longer in your past failure. That identity has been removed from you. You are now a son or daughter of God through faith in Jesus Christ, your present struggles. Now I have to, I have to warn you. You have to be wise with how you share your present struggles. There are some people where it is not a good idea for you to lay out for them, the depth of your addiction, depression, anxiety, fear. They don't know what to do with it. It's for some people it's not everybody's business, but we have to be wise. And for some of us to be authentic and transparent about what's happening right now, what is real is one of the most powerful stories.
Speaker 0 00:35:04 You can tell someone, because in this story, you're in the process of redemption. You're in the process of God working through this and healing you and making things better. But is that a fast process? No way to bring somebody into the middle of that story to be so authentically transparent that you can look at somebody and say, listen, this part of my life's pretty broken, and I'm trying to bring the gospel of Jesus into this. And I want you to have a front row seat to it because I want you to say what only God could do talk about your failure, because it's not your identity. Number three, confess to those you sin against, especially non-Christians. I don't know where this idea came up. People are like, well, can I say, sorry, because I'm a Christian. And then they're going to,
Speaker 2 00:35:49 What does it even real? All the more you're a Christian
Speaker 0 00:35:54 Big, because you're broken because you hurt people. How many of you have sinned against someone in the last year? Raise your hand. No, of course you have to guess what, when you apologize to somebody, that's not a surprise that you're capable of doing much, much stupidity. You are capable of being mean and selfish and inconsiderate, and you're capable of being harmful with your words. So when you do the things we already know we're going to happen, may we be quick to confess? We confess easily. We don't need to be coerced. The gospel already declares to us that I'm a sinner. When God saved me, he saved me knowing every single dumb thing I had done was currently struggling with in that moment and all the ridiculous things that was going to do from this point to the day I die. And he said, might have all that knowledge.
Speaker 0 00:36:54 I'm still going to save you because I made a promise that anybody who comes to me through faith in Christ, I will save. We can fast easily. We confess quickly when we know we are wrong, we move quickly. We confess clearly with biblical words, we assign biblical categories to it. I deceived you. I manipulated you. I lied to you. I tricked you. I slandered you. I gossiped about you. And I want to ask for your forgiveness. We do this clearly, and we do this humbly prideful. People need to be seen as godly. Humble. People love for God to be seen. After the first service I shared this whole sermon and someone came up to me and they said 35 years ago, I sinned against somebody. And this has been wrecking me lately. And this person showed up to church. The 9:00 AM service. She goes over to the person apologizes for what happened 35 years ago.
Speaker 0 00:37:58 Apparently it's just been, you know, those things that you did a long time ago, and you try to like shove them down and like that you hope they go away and they kind of never do, right. It was, it was that thing went up to the person, apologized. The person had probably no recollection of that in any way, shape or form and that crazy. And yet how gracious of God think about this to orchestrate this moment after this point and this sermon after he had been bringing this memory up in her mind over the last couple of weeks,
Speaker 2 00:38:29 Like, isn't God good freed
Speaker 0 00:38:31 From that. And she said, I know God's forgiven me, but it's just been in my brain. When I see them again, I feel like I need to make this right. And here they are. Now both families attending village church. God's hilarious. Confessed to those you sin against, especially non-Christians telling you, your humility is much more powerful than your awesomeness. Your authenticity is way more endearing than your successes. Your ability to not be defined by your worst failures, but allow yourself to be defined by Christ. What a gift you bring to people in this world who are defined by their worst moment for the rest of their lives, those shirts. I think one of the greatest gifts that God's given us is this freedom to be fully known and yet still fully loved. I think it's funny because we try to hide ourselves from God, but he already knows all of it, right? We definitely hide ourselves from other people, but, but when someone is allowed to be fully authentically themselves in front of you and not rejected for it, what a beautiful glimpse that we give people into the love of God that broken people, people have done terrible things. People have harmed. People have the freedom to come to God and they will be welcomed and accepted as they are through faith in Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:39:57 And when you are
Speaker 0 00:39:58 Able to lead authentically to be just honest about your life appropriately and wisely for the glory of God, you create spaces where people are able to do that. And I'm telling you, there are not a lot of safe spaces in this world. May it be said of the people of God that we can take whatever you have to dish. Even more God can take it. And the blood of Christ stands ready to forgive you. So we celebrate communion village church. And this is a reminder of all of the ridiculous things we have done. We are reminded that they are cleansed by the blood of Christ. You might be here and you might still be struggling with something you've done. And I want to encourage you as we partake of communion here today. God offers you forgiveness through faith in Christ. The blood of Christ is powerful enough to cover your sin.
Speaker 0 00:40:50 And when we partake of communion, we, we make as Christians, nonverbal declarations, here's the declarations we make. We declare that we are sinners who are loved by God. We declare that we believe Jesus is our God. And he died on the cross for our sins in our place. When we partake of communion, we declare that Jesus is coming back. We declared that he was raised from the dead. We declared that we are not saved because we accrued good works, but because Jesus was good for us. These are big declarations and you might be here today and you believe those things, but you've never yet trusted in Jesus personally. I am not going to make you stand up and raise your hand. All I want to ask you to do is this. When we partake of communion and a little bit, would you partake together as your first declaration that you are trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of your sentence? And if you're not ready to do that, there's no pressure on you. But I can say this, that future, you will say thank you for the day that you personally trusted in Jesus Christ. And you'll be given the holy spirit and his process of redemption where only God can work, can beginning your life.
Speaker 0 00:42:03 So here's how we do communion at village church. We're going to have a time of silence. And after the time of silence, we're going to worship together. And there are elements at the back corner by the beam there in the back by the doors to my left, your right is another beam. And if you didn't get any of the communion elements on your way in, you can get up in the middle of the song and you can go grab those after the song, I'm going to read some scriptures and then we're going to partake together as a symbol of our unity in Jesus. So let's have a time of silence together before the Lord for about the next minute or so.
