Skip to content Freedom Through the Gospel Aug 28 · 48 min ...more
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
156K followers
0:00 That is good to see everybody here. Good to see everybody that's watching online or on our other at our other locations. Everybody in Florida, let all the other locations know that God is good in Florida and God is good0:12 there. Welcome them in with me. Come on. Give them a hand. Alright. Is this gonna work or is this not going to work? I'm trying to get something done here. There no, it's not gonna0:24 work. We're almost there. There we go. Good morning. Good morning. How0:36 does it feel to have a light on you for once? There we go. Oh, this is nice. I like this. Much better. Oh, there we go. Take it out of your eyes. I hold in my hand a flashlight and I wanna make a0:47 point on this flashlight today that is really illustrative of what we talked about last week at other locations, but this 2 weeks ago, if you were here in Apollo Beach, we talked about0:59 the gospel. And we talked about keeping the gospel clear. And and 1 of the main themes about the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ is that the1:11 bible is not about us. The bible is about Jesus. Amen. That there is a message that God has spoken into the world. You know, the scripture says that in the1:23 beginning, God said, let there be light, and there was Light. Light. And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome the light. Ain't that good? And1:35 every person here that knows Jesus knows Jesus because of that message of light. But like this flashlight, the gospel oftentimes can get clouded.1:47 It can get distorted. It can get things in the way of the gospel. Sometimes sometimes the preacher can get in the way of the gospel. How many know what I'm talking about here? Sometimes we can get in the way of the1:57 gospel. And it is important that we understand that more than ever in our in our in history, we've gotta keep the clarity of the gospel central to2:09 the church because the church is not built on a personality, and the church is not built on buildings, and the church is not built on denominations or laws or ordinances. The church is built on the message that Jesus2:20 Christ died, was buried, rose again, ascended to the father, sent the spirit, started the church, and is coming again. But here's the thing, and I2:32 don't want you guys to miss this from last week up at our locations and here 2 weeks ago. The gospel might not be about us, but the gospel is for us. Somebody say, it's for me. It's for me.2:45 And and when we keep it clear, it starts to shine on our lives and helps people see us. When the gospel is clear, our lives2:56 shine. Amen? Amen. This is why Jesus said, let your light so shine. He's not talking about the light that I can produce. He's talking about the light that he produces in my life. That my life is defined3:08 not by what I have produced or have achieved or what even I think of of myself. My life is eternally and permanently3:19 defined by God's love for me in Jesus Christ. And and here's the thing, the the thing about light is a light brings so much confidence when you don't have3:31 light. There's just kinda like it gets a little bit nerve racking without light. We we we think of darkness as having fun but how many know when you're in darkness, you're enslaved. You're held3:43 back. You don't know where to go, where to walk, where to turn. You don't know what what's next gonna hit you, what's what's gonna hurt you but just a little bit of light gives you clarity and here's what the gospel3:53 does, it sets you free to walk in victory through your life. And so while the gospel is not about us, the gospel is for us and that through the light of4:04 Jesus shining on us, We can tell the world that there is a God who loves them and wants to change their lives and lead them in4:16 victory. Amen, somebody. Let's put up those lights in the house now, and I want you to take out your notes at all of our locations. They look like this. Take out your notes. I wanna talk to you about freedom through the4:28 gospel, and we're going back to first Corinthians chapter 15, and these messages on on the gospel, these are foundational messages. We're not in a series right now. This is actually the last. We'll talk about this4:40 for a little bit, But but these are foundational messages because we gotta know what the church is built on if we're gonna build the church that Jesus is building. And so while we clarified the gospel a few weeks ago4:52 or last week at other locations, today we're gonna talk about the benefits of the gospel. Here it is, freedom. Somebody say freedom. Freedom. How many love Braveheart? How many love that story? Oh, when he paints his5:03 face blue when he rides across the field on the horse. They may take our lives but they'll never take our freedom. And everybody goes crazy. Freedom is the heart of5:15 man to call out for freedom. But how many times we get mistaken for what freedom really is? And then we come into the church and we think, yes. God sets me free. But but here's the deal. Freedom wants to go deeper5:27 than just the surface y things that we do. God's freedom wants to go deep into the heart of you. What does God come to set us free from? So so here's the foundation of the5:39 message and then we'll we'll read the scriptures and unpack it. Write this down if you're taking notes. If you're not taking notes, write this down. If we keep the gospel clear in our minds,5:50 okay, if we keep the gospel clear, it's right on the top of your notes there. If we keep the gospel clear in our minds, it will set us free in our lives. It'll set us free in our lives. But so many times we are only6:01 looking for surface y action oriented freedom. But I believe and I think you know this intuitively that who we are determines what we do. And6:13 more importantly, who we think we are determines what we do. And so in that vein, we're gonna unpack why the gospel changes what we do by changing what6:25 we think we are. Stand with me in our locations, stand with me for the reading of God's word. First Corinthians 15, we read this a few weeks ago here, last week up in the other locations and I wanna read it again. Now6:35 verse 1 of chapter 15 of first Corinthians. Now I would remind you brothers of the gospel that I preached to you which you received and which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the message6:46 that I preached to you unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as a first importance, this is the most important thing. First importance, what I also received that Christ died for our sins6:57 according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised to life on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas and the 12. Cephas is another name for Peter. He appeared to7:08 Peter and the 12. He appeared to more than 500 brothers at once. Most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to the apostles, and last of all, as to 1 untimely born, he7:19 appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles because I persecuted I'm sorry. He's unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church7:31 of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And I love that line, think we should all say it. 1, 2, 3, I am what I7:42 am. Say it 1 more time, I am what I am. By the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. It wasn't useless, it didn't do nothing. He says,7:54 on the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. Though it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preached and8:06 so you believed. This is God's word, let's pray together. Heavenly father, thank you for the time that we have to gather around your word, your word is a light to our feet, it is a lamp to the8:17 pathway of our lives, we ask that you shine through your word into our minds, into our hearts. Help us to see Jesus8:29 and also to see what he has made us. We pray this in Jesus' precious name and everybody said Amen. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a seat. What does the gospel8:41 set us free from? And that's what we're talking about today. 3 things and then we're done. I want you to I wanna give you 3 areas of freedom from the gospel. Number 1 from this passage, the gospel gives us8:52 freedom, write this down, from the identity trap. Freedom from the identity trap. This is huge for our culture right now where people are trying to9:04 define themselves by almost anything. And when you don't have a proper definition of yourself, you'll fall for any definition of yourself. And this is what you're seeing on9:16 social media. This is what you're seeing on TikTok. This is what you're seeing on Instagram where where people don't know who they are anymore. Back in, you know, 50 or 60 years ago, who you were was defined by9:28 who your parents were. Like this is who I am. This is why we used to we take their names. When we get married, the wife takes the man's name and we talk about this is my family. My family tree, even this past couple of9:40 this past generation was seeking that identity through our ancestry. How many remember when we got into that huge thing about everybody's sending their spit in the mail? It's like no wonder why COVID broke out9:52 like seriously. Spit was flying everywhere and we're like tell me who I am. I wanna know where my family comes from. And and that was what we used to believe. Then I think the modern world, the modern10:04 era, maybe about 30 or 40 years ago brought this identity trap of you are what you do. Like you are what you perform. You are what you get. So you are10:16 in accordance to a class, know, socioeconomic class, or you you're defined by your your income, your neighborhood, where you live. And and so we10:27 chased and we chased and we and a lot of people got it and a lot of people got to the top of their profession or lives where they got their preferred, you know, lifestyle and and then they realized that doesn't do10:39 it either. It really doesn't do it at all. And so then the sexual revolution in the 19 sixties produced this, you know, kind of redefinition of everything to do with sex and marriage and identity. And I know you see10:51 this is the problem right now with our young people where there's an increase, a substantial uptick, a rise of transgender identity crises, gender dysphoria. And really, we can11:03 rail about it or we can try to understand that there's a disease that's deeper than the external reality of that child. And really the disease is that child does not know who they are.11:15 And so in attempt to make themselves who they are, they're falling for any definition. And I think it's like this, the loudest voice in our culture gets the most attention so often.11:27 That's why we need to amplify more than ever before the message of Jesus Christ that undermines every other identity that people or you wanna put on your life.11:39 That the gospel undermines the identity that you are, who your parents were. That might not necessarily be true and you might not wanna be who your parents were or that the message of what you get is who you11:51 are. Man, sometimes what you get is not what you expected it would be when you got it and and so the gospel doesn't define us on what we have and what we produce. And then most importantly, the gospel does not define us12:03 on what we feel inside because again, I sometimes feel terrible about myself and sometimes I feel guilt and shame and fear, but those things are temporary. The message of the gospel is12:14 eternal and unchanging and never ending that God loves me and sent his son to die for me and brought me into his family and now defines me according to his grace and not my12:26 world or my own preferences. Amen. That's the that's the power of the gospel. Sets me free from seeking every identity and so many other things. And this is what Paul12:38 unpacks for us here in first Corinthians 15. What what does he say when he's talking about his conversion experience? Actually, when he's talking about himself and this is 1 of the things about Paul that you constantly12:50 see is that every time Paul the apostle talks about himself, he has no problem telling you that he's the worst. He has no problem telling you that he's the last or the least or the13:02 most unworthy. Look at the passage again, verse 8. He says, last of all, as to he's talking about when Jesus appeared to everybody after he rose again. He says, last of all, I'm the I was the last 113:13 that Jesus showed up to. I wasn't the first, I wasn't with the 12, I wasn't like third, I was last. And then he says this word, as 1 untimely born. Hey, let me just give you a little Greek word study of that word. It13:25 actually refers to miscarriage. It's the ancient Greek word for miscarriage. He's like, I'm like a miscarried baby. What is a miscarried baby? A miscarried baby, and forgive me if you've been through the pain of this. I13:36 don't mean to stir up any feelings, but let me just unpack what he's trying to tell you. Is what he's saying is I didn't have the full privileges of of full development like the rest of the apostles and followers13:47 of Jesus. I was I was not there. I didn't walk on the I wasn't on the boat when he walked in the water. I wasn't there when he raised the dead or healed the sick or cast out the I didn't see him do any of that stuff. I13:59 didn't have the chance to have that. I was untimely born. I was miscarried and then and then he says verse 9, for I am the what? Next word everybody. The least of the I14:11 don't care about being important. The next word, unworthy to be called an apostle. I don't need to give you my resume. I don't need to defend my identity to you. I it's not about that14:22 because I persecuted the church. I wasn't even seeking Jesus. He came and sought me and found me. And you know listen, this is important for you to understand right now especially in this14:34 generation that when you know who you are in Christ Jesus, you do not have to fight for your own identity and importance in this culture. The gospel sets you free from that.14:46 The gospel sets you free from trying so hard to impress others. Trying so hard to put your best face forward. Like I don't know if you know this about some of the phones that are out14:58 today, but they have the automatic face filter on. Did you know this? The automatic face filter, it takes away all of your grossness.15:10 You know what I'm saying? It it it softens the light, and it makes your face look like you're 20 and no pimples. Like, seriously, like, everybody's dream. And you actually have to go into the settings and you have to15:22 undo the face filter, you have to notch it down to 0. There's like several levels. It's like level 1 for you know people who are mildly attractive, level 8 for a lot of other people, if you know what I'm15:34 talking about. You know, a lot of central Floridians, if you know what I'm talking about. No. No. Just kidding. Just kidding. Anyway, you know, so so there's this face filter to kinda put this image forward that15:46 you're better than you really are, and that's our culture. That's our culture. Put your best foot forward. You know, believe in yourself. Tell others what you15:58 have done. Brag about it. Post it. Storybook. This is who this is what makes you you, is a search for identity. What Paul says is, once Jesus got ahold of me, that16:09 was eliminated. Go to Philippians 3 if you want to in your bibles, I'll just kind of give you the synopsis. In Philippians chapter 3, Paul's writing to another church and he says, before I was in16:21 Christ, man, I was doing the best of all of my peers. I was advancing in school beyond them. I was studying under the most important rabbi of the day. I was a16:33 Jew, but I wasn't just a Jew. Was a tribe of Benjamin Jew. The tribe of Benjamin is where the first king of Israel came from. His name was Saul. Interesting. Paul's name was Saul before Christ. And and and and there's a16:44 definition of Saul's life that he was head and shoulders above everybody else. And so Paul who was Saul was trying to live up in reputation and in in presentation to what Saul represented in the ancient16:56 world. He was trying to do in his generation. He was trying to be the best, trying to be important, trying to have everybody look up to him. And he says, but the moment that I met Christ, all of that stuff, reputation,17:08 image, importance, putting myself up there, advancing beyond everybody else, all that stuff became rubbish compared to knowing that the God of the universe loved me and saved17:19 me. And that's how you know, like that's how you know the gospel's clear because the gospel comes and wipes out all the stupid things that you think make you who you are. And17:31 it defines you by what God has done for you. I'm defined not by what I've produced, but why but but why but by what God has produced for me. It brings humility. Now17:44 on the surface it looks like Paul is just doing Charlie Brown humility here. You know Charlie Brown? Remember Charlie Brown? Very famous statement from Charlie Brown? Nobody loves me, everybody hates me,17:56 I'm gonna eat some worms. Like that's Charlie Brown humility, right? Or a Jan Brady humility. How many remember Jan Brady? Brady Bunch anybody? Man, some of you people gotta get educated on good television. Watch18:07 yourself the Brady Bunch, amen. Here's the story of a lovely lady, right? Alright, so 3 boys, 3 girls, and the middle girl's name was Jan. But she was famous for 1 famous18:19 3 word phrase, it was the same word, it was actually a name. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, the name of her older sisters. Was about Marsha. So Jan Brady, humility. And there's lot of Christians, they18:31 think that humility is putting themselves down. I'm nobody, I'm worthless, I'm a nothing. That's not biblical. That's not appropriate humility for you because you're not nothing.18:43 You're you're the purchased possession of God. You're you're not a nobody. You are now named by your father in heaven. Did you know Revelation says that God's gonna give you18:55 a name that no 1 else knows? At the last day, at the resurrection of the righteous, he's gonna give you a new name. So if you don't like your present name, good news, God's got a new name go going for you when you get a19:06 new body. Hallelujah. He knows you. He's gonna name you. He's gonna identify you. Here's what appropriate humility is. I want you to write this down. Appropriate humility embraces the place God19:18 put you and the timing of God choosing you. Like, is what humility this is what Paul's saying. I I was the last. I'm unworthy. I didn't walk with Jesus. I persecuted the church. And here's the deal.19:30 I can embrace that. I can embrace what I'm not in light of what other people are because I know that even if I seemed to19:42 be these things, God had a reason for it. God had a purpose for where and when he put his hand on you. God had an idea of what19:54 he wanted for you before you even knew you wanted him. And some of you, this is so important because you gotta let go of the past that you define20:06 yourselves by. You gotta let it go, you gotta stop saying, I wish I never went those places. I wish I20:12 I can't tell you how20:13 many times I talk to people and they say, I wish I never went into the bar that night that led to that thing that got me into this mess. And they define themselves by that 1 thing, that 1 moment and they20:25 are always looking over their shoulder at their past thinking, have Could I could I just go and do it over again? Could I go and undo it? Could I not have this life? And Paul's like, that doesn't matter20:36 anymore. It doesn't matter because here's what God has an awesome way of doing. He uses the things of our past, the good, the bad, and the ugly to produce something beautiful20:48 for the sake of Jesus. Some of you gotta look at your past and you gotta say, thank God he brought me through that and he brought me to where I am. I got a guy up at our North Attleboro location. The first time I ever21:00 met him was in prison. I went to the prisons, I still do and I went and I preached and this guy came up to me. Was actually running the chapel but he was a prisoner. And I said, when you are out of here, come to my21:11 church. And he's like, I don't know if I'm worthy. I said, it's not about what you know. It's not about what you think about you. It's about what God has done for you. You gotta come. He came. He started serving. He21:20 found a girl. He's getting married to the girl. He's serving in the church. She's gonna be part of our leadership program, hopefully 1 day. And oh, by the way, he's in the divinity program of Harvard University right21:30 now. And he's going through education to better himself and know the Lord more. And 1 day maybe he might be preaching to you, but that's the power of the gospel. And I said to him, God's gonna take all that stuff that21:42 you think was worthless. He's gonna repackage it and reuse it. You know who God is? He's your grandma who uses the leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner to make it to a casserole that's better than21:53 a Thanksgiving dinner. Hallelujah. That's who God is. He takes the chicken leftovers and the stuffing leftovers and the bashed potatoes, and he puts it all into 1 pot, and then he puts the the onion strings on top.22:05 How many know you gotta have some onion string? Puts it in the oven. In an oven of his grace it comes out and it's a blessing to everybody. Some of you gotta give. Some of you gotta22:17 give your broccoli to God. Hallelujah. You gotta give your leftover mashed potatoes to God. You gotta say God just take it. Make it what you want it to be. I want you to write this down. You don't have to be saved long22:28 to be used greatly. Paul's saying I'm not I'm not the I'm unworthy to be called an apostle but but it's the grace of God. I'm not worthy to be up here22:40 today to preach to you but it's the grace of God. Some of you man, this is why you don't serve in our church because you don't think I'm not good enough. Well no duh dummy. That's why Jesus22:52 died for you. Because he knew you weren't good enough and he's gonna take people who aren't good enough to glorify his name. In fact, he specializes in doing that. Which leads me to point23:04 number 2, write this down, the gospel gives you freedom from the performance trap. So the identity trap, who I am, but the performance trap, what I do and how I do it. The performance trap is23:16 huge today. It swallows us up in a never ending cycle of trying to accomplish things that we can look at and say that's what I am now. Look at the house I've built.23:28 Look at the family I've raised. Look at the children that I have. Look at the Pastors do this all the time. Look at the church that I'm building. Or or look at my looks or look at my outside. The performance trap. Always23:39 trying to keep up with the Joneses, keep up with others and the performance trap puts you on the the never ending hamster wheel of life. It never stops. Just you just run, run, run and it just23:51 never stops. Can anybody ever get to that point where you're like, man, another day of doing the same thing? Another day of just trying my best and put my best foot forward and make people think I'm better than I really24:02 am? And Paul's like, that that's that's not what God wants for you. Here's what he wants you to do. He wants you to rest in the grace of God which is his performance for you.24:14 What did Jesus say on the cross? He said 7 things, but 1 of the last things that he said was it is finished. It is fit. The work, the performance to make24:26 you what he wants you to be is done. Completed. Paid in full. Tetelestai in the Greek. You are you are your your your works are responsive24:37 from that. They are not determinative to get that. In other words, you rest in his finished work and work from that. God's eternal24:49 grace toward you. What would your life look like if if you knew that God could never love you more than he does right now or less than he does25:01 right now? What what would your life look like if you really internalize that? God loves me as much as he's ever going to love me. I25:13 mean, I'm so glad that you're at church right now, but can I tell you, it's not like God is like, no I really love them? Wow. Look at they showed up at church like wow. Good for them. God's25:25 not like us. Amen. He doesn't measure our value on what we have performed. He he measures his love for us on who he is cause he is eternal love. Amen.25:37 So performance trap. Sports Illustrated put on the cover in 2015, a woman athlete whose name you probably know, her name was Rhonda Rousey.25:49 She was an MMA fighter. She was the youngest woman ever to win the gold medal in judo in the Olympics. Up until November of 2015, she had an undefeated26:01 record in the in the UFC women's division. But in November of 2015, she got beat and she got beat bad. Every fight she'd ever been in26:13 up to that moment lasted like seconds. She was the Mike Tyson of women's UFC. Right? But then she lost. And in an interview with Sports Illustrated, she says, shortly after that loss, she said26:25 to herself She said, I was literally sitting there thinking about killing myself. And at that exact second, I thought, I'm nothing. What do I do anymore? No 1 cares about me anymore26:37 without this, end quote. What is that? That's the performance trap. That's the people only will love me if I do this. And the gospel comes26:49 to set you free from that. If you don't get this freedom, you'll try and fail and then that's where the addictions start to come in. You try to accumulate27:01 and achieve and think I've got this, I'm I look like this, but the moment that you have a breakdown or a failure, you might turn to the bottle, you might turn to the drug, you might turn to the whatever27:13 to soothe the pain from the disappointment of your not performing how you feel like you should have performed. You see how the gospel goes deeper than just what we do? Goes deeper than just what27:25 we think. Shapes how we feel about ourselves. Paul says this in verse 10, by the grace of God, I am what I am. By the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace27:37 toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than anyone. Now now it looks like Paul's bragging here. Like, okay Paul. Yeah, we get it. You did great. You did awesome. No. He says, I worked27:49 harder than them all but it wasn't me. It was the grace of God that is with me. What I do is God's grace working through me. And this is so28:00 important for you to get so that you understand what happens in the power of the gospel is that it's not just God's ability to forgive you of your sin, it's God's power that comes within and28:12 fuels everything in your life so that you can look at your life and say that was God's grace. Every good thing in my life is God's grace working through me.28:25 And and and so so when when you get to that point where like, I don't deserve this in my why is God it's his grace. And this should redefine so much for you28:36 about grace. Again, not just his ability to forgive you, that's that's just half the deal. His ability to fuel you, to empower you. So write this down so28:48 I know you're getting it. The gospel empowers and assigns. The gospel empowers us to do what what he wants us to do and then it assigns us to the things that he's assigned us to do. And some of you need to hear29:00 this, every single person listening to me, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you have a a divine assignment right now. You do.29:13 You do. Just everybody turn to your neighbor and say, yep, even you. Okay, just yeah yeah yeah yeah. Every single person who's born again of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ has an29:25 assignment. I give you for Romans 12 3, for by the grace given to me, Paul's saying, God's grace is helping me say this. I say to you, don't think of yourself any more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with29:36 sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has What's the word everybody? Assigned. And then he says this, for as in 1 body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function. And29:47 then verse 6, having gifts that differ, next words, according to the grace. You have a gift. I I love the fact that he's like, some of you have gifts.29:59 No. No. Everyone has a gift. Every Christian has a gift. What we have to do is we have to stop with the flashlight gifts.30:11 And what I mean by that is the gifts that are like on the stage. I thank God for the stage ministry of the church, but it's just 1 of the many gifts that God has given to the church.30:23 I thank God for worship leaders and singers and musicians and all that kind of stuff. Thank God for preachers. Amen? Amen. That was your chance and you failed. Okay. Anyway. But I thank God for the30:35 people who are teaching our kids right now. That they matter to God. That's a gift. How many know you need extra grace to do that gift? Praise Jesus.30:46 How many of you are thankful for the gift of the guy who can build a business and employ others and then run that business according to scripture? Amen. And not just chasing the30:58 almighty dollar. Right? I think we need more Christian CEOs. Amen? I I thank God for the gifts of people who can go into public schools today and teach and not fall for31:10 all the indoctrination and nonsense but stand in the gap and maybe for just a few kids to see that there's another way to live that Jesus defines and not the world. Like31:22 I thank God for that gift. That's the gifts that God has given to the church. I thank God for people, men and women who could stay home and raise children and tell them that they love them and31:34 raise them to fear the Lord. Like that's a powerful gift. And this is why Paul says, having gifts that differ. Your gift is not my gift, my gift's not yours. It's okay but it's the gift that God has given me31:45 through his grace.31:46 He said, don't know if I31:47 have a gift. I'm telling you, you have a gift. First Corinthians chapter 3 verse 10, according to the grace. Again, according to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation. Someone31:57 else is building on it. Let each 1 take care of how he builds. In other words, I only did what I did, Paul says, because of the grace that God poured upon my life. We're in first Corinthians. We're in32:09 first Corinthians chapter 15. But if you back up to first Corinthians chapter 2, Paul tells about when he first came to the church in ancient Corinth. He says in verse 3, he says, I was with you32:21 in fear and trembling, in weakness. This is Paul the apostle. He's like, I showed up at your church. I showed up at your city, but there was no church yet. He said, I showed up at your city and I was32:33 scared and I was weak and I was like, I don't know if this is gonna work. Like can you see the apostle You would think about the apostle Paul, this mighty man of God and he goes to Corinth and he's like, I don't know. I32:44 don't I'm scared. Like, yeah. What what happened? Well, he had just come from Athens. It's actually recorded for us in Acts chapter 17. He goes to the city of ancient32:56 Athens. And ancient Athens was like the the Boston, like New York intellectual capital of the ancient world. In fact, the bible says that at Athens, all they did was talk about philosophies all33:08 day. And so Paul goes into the city of Athens, and he's kinda like probably he's got his chest out because he just came out of the nice growing church in Thessalonica. And He's got his chest out and he goes in there and33:17 he's like, let me tell you about the unknown God. And he starts to preach and then he starts to do some fancy quoting like he quotes from their philosophers and he says, you know, your own writers say this, in him we33:28 live and move and have our being and and we are all his offspring and he he preaches this very intellectual philosophical message. And you know what the bible says the people in Athens did? They laughed at him.33:40 They were like this guy, what is this babbler trying to say? That's literally what they said about Paul. So he left. The scripture says that no church was planted in Athens. And then the next city that he goes to is33:51 Corinth. And so you can imagine on the heels of that terrible event in Athens, he gets to Corinth and he's like, I don't know if I got it anymore. I don't know if I can do this anymore.34:03 I was with you in weakness, in fear, in much trembling. And then he says, and I resolved to know nothing amongst you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He says, listen, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm not gonna try to34:12 impress you. I'm not gonna try to philosophize. I'm not gonna try to sign sound high minded. I'm gonna tell you about a Jewish carpenter named Jesus who died, was buried, and rose again under the Roman empire, he's alive34:23 forever, and he wants to give you new and eternal life. And a church was born immediately. Like people came to hear that message and and what Paul is saying is like it wasn't what I thought34:35 would work that worked. It wasn't what I brought to the table. It wasn't my gifts and my knowledge and my ideas. It was all God. Like that's the grace of God empowering you and even your own34:47 weaknesses. Because he says in the next verse, let's put it up there, verse 4. My speech, my message were not with plausible words of wisdom but in a demonstration of the spirit of power so that your faith might not rest34:57 on man's wisdom, but in the power of God. Can I tell you that God can grace gift even the weakest parts of you? He can power the areas where you think you35:09 don't got it. This is good news for the ungifted. Amen. You're looking at a guy who absolutely hated English class. Hated35:20 it. That was terrible English. Math? Loved it. I was in trigonometry and the other ones that I forgot about, know, all those other classes and I35:32 was I nailed it. In fact, you are looking I don't like to brag, but you are looking at my high school's 19 9435:44 math league captain. Hello. Amen. I was captain of the math league. Yes. I was that much of a35:56 dork. That's right. Yes. No sports, just math league. Anyway, so you know, thought, you know, I'm aiming at you know, engineering or36:08 something programming, something with numbers. That's my gift. That's what I am naturally gifted to do. And God has a sense of humor. Like, this is my minis this is my life. This is my career. This is my calling.36:20 And what I do right now is the very opposite of everything math oriented. Like, I hated English class. I hated researching papers. I hated writing. I hated36:32 sentence structure. I hated all those things. And and this job, that's all those things. Like, every you know what a mess you know what a sermon is? A sermon is36:44 the pastor prepared a paper all week, researched it, put the sentences together, put the set this you know, examine the sentence structure of the words in the language,36:55 not English language, the Greek language. So he's gotta okay. Not just gotta set the structure, an English sentence. I gotta go back and set the structure of Greek or Hebrew sentence and then try to unpack that37:07 orderly for you so that I'm telling you what this book says. What I'm trying to tell you is everything that I hated and I didn't have ability to do, God supernaturally empowered me to do because he takes pleasure in37:19 using the weak areas of your life to bring glory to the name of his son, Jesus Christ. That's what he does.37:31 So it really does just kinda take the pressure off of you. His strength, the bible says, is made perfect where? In weakness. I37:43 don't know about you, I like that 1. His strength is made perfect where I'm not perfect. And then God's grace assigns, and I love what John the Baptist does in John chapter 3. Because in John37:55 chapter 3, you know the forerunner to Jesus' ministry was God, And John the Baptist had this huge church. The scripture says in John chapter 1 that all of the Judean countryside came to hear38:06 John speak. He was that compelling of a preacher. Though I mean, you're doing really well if everyone comes to hear you speak. And then there came a day where Jesus startedShow more
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Guest Message - Pastor Geyser Pastor Tim Hatch
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