2:1 And I, when I came to you, brothers,1 did not come proclaiming to you the testimony2 of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men3 but in the power of God.
Wisdom from the Spirit
6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.4
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Footnotes
[1]2:1Or brothers and sisters [2]2:1Some manuscripts mystery (or secret) [3]2:5The Greek word anthropoi can refer to both men and women [4]2:13Or interpreting spiritual truths in spiritual language, or comparing spiritual things with spiritual
2:1 And I, when I came to you, brothers,1 did not come proclaiming to you the testimony2 of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men3 but in the power of God.
Wisdom from the Spirit
6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.4
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Footnotes
[1]2:1Or brothers and sisters [2]2:1Some manuscripts mystery (or secret) [3]2:5The Greek word anthropoi can refer to both men and women [4]2:13Or interpreting spiritual truths in spiritual language, or comparing spiritual things with spiritual
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
Invite you to open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians Chapter 2. 1 Corinthians Chapter 2. Last week, we looked at the message of the Gospel. In particular, we looked at the power of the Cross, and this week we're gonna look at the presentation of the Cross. How can the communication of the Gospel represent actually the content of the Gospel?
Joel Brooks:
1 Corinthians chapter 2. I'll be reading from the first five verses. And I, when I came to you brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Joel Brooks:
This is the word of the Lord. I do. If you would, pray with me. Our father, we ask that as we come to proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified, that you would indeed come in this place in power and that you would change hearts. May we see your son, Jesus, as beautiful, as full of glory.
Joel Brooks:
I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. A number of years ago, I was asked to speak at a youth conference, which I'm I'm always a little shocked when I'm asked to speak at a youth conference, but I'll do that from time to time, And this conference was similar to the other youth conferences that I have been to.
Joel Brooks:
It was really loud. It was really energetic. There was lots of colored lights, streaming through, smoke from the smoke machines. At one point, the worship leader, he came forward and he's trying to get people's attention, which is a little hard because the words that were on the screen also had all these video images that were going behind it, but he gathered everybody's attention and said, Hey, for the next few moments I want you to just really focus on the Lord. I want you to to not think about the lights, not think about the music, to not think about all the people here.
Joel Brooks:
It's just you and the Lord, and I want you to focus on Him and His holiness. Those weren't His exact words, but he he said something similar to that effect, and I remember thinking, but it's not just me and the Lord. It's like me, the Lord, and a 1,000 other people. And if you didn't want me to pay attention to all of this, why did he bring it? I mean, why bring all of the lights?
Joel Brooks:
Why bring the smoke? Why bring all the video images? Why bring all that and then ask me not to pay attention to it? By nature, they're actually demanding my attention. And I I began thinking, well, maybe, you know, this is all part of it, that this is actually the test.
Joel Brooks:
It's a test for us out there to see who can really concentrate. I remember at the time, I even thought the matrix. It's kinda like thinking, there is no spoon, you know, and I'm supposed to say there is no lights, there is no smoke. It's just it's just me and the Lord and somehow that would be a reality. Is that what worship is supposed to look like?
Joel Brooks:
Is it? Why do conferences like this, and perhaps you've been to many others, think that this is necessary for worship and that this is what worship is supposed to look like? Where do we get the ideas for these things? Is it okay? Is it is it alright that we would do this?
Joel Brooks:
And what about preaching? What should preaching look like? Is my role as a pastor, is this supposed to wow you? Is this supposed to entertain you? How are you supposed to view what happens from this pulpit and what you're supposed to receive when you're part of the congregation?
Joel Brooks:
There's a lot of places that we could look to in scripture for answers for these things, but I think one of the best places is the text that we just read in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. As we saw last week, there are a lot of similarities between 1st century Corinth and 21st century America. Corinth was young. It was a thriving, growing city. It had over 500,000 people.
Joel Brooks:
It was the melting pot for the Roman Empire. People were flocking into it from all over, bringing with them their different philosophies, their different religions, their different views of sexuality, the different views of social classes and they came from different social classes. It was a land of opportunity, full of ambitious people, ready to make a name for themselves, ready to make a quick buck. And since this was one of the, the only cities within the Roman Empire that your social class wasn't fixed, people actually became obsessed with their social standing and what the world thought about them because they could actually rise up or they could go down the social ladder. And so they cared greatly what people said about them or how people viewed them.
Joel Brooks:
And it was in in this midst, in this setting that Paul planted a church, this this small but this growing church. A church, however, that was very much like the Corinth around them, also obsessed with, what does the world think about us? How do they Do they view us as wise? Do they view us as influential? Do they view us as obsolete?
Joel Brooks:
What is the world thinking about us? And so Paul had to be thinking of all these things when he first came into the city to proclaim the gospel. And Paul comes into Corinth differently than he comes into many cities he went to. Paul typically would enter into a city and he would go straight to the synagogue and he would preach if they had a synagogue. If they didn't, he would go to what we would call the city square or the city gate and there he would begin to proclaim the gospel to people.
Joel Brooks:
But when he came to Corinth, he had to be super careful about this, because they already had clear expectations for what a speaker should look and sound like when they came and they preached at the city gates. You see at that time they had a group of people, of speakers that were called Sophists. They were the orators of the day, the rhetoricians. They were actually the rock stars of the day. They were these self proclaimed wise men who would enter into a city with great pomp and circumstance and fanfare, and they would give these magnificent speeches and people would be wowed by them.
Joel Brooks:
I know it's hard for us to like get that now, you know, because we have TV, we have Netflix. When we're bored, we can just pull out our phone, play games, whatever. They didn't have that then. Speeches, these hearing these magnificent public speaking, that's what really drew their attention and was their form of entertainment. And even more than entertainment, it's what they valued.
Joel Brooks:
And we actually have numerous records of all these different prophets coming in and how they would draw such enormous crowds to hear them speak. They had great physiques. They would work out. They would even oil their bodies, shave their hair, so when they would come and speak, they shone like gods to the people. They wanted the physique to match their actual rhetorical skills.
Joel Brooks:
And one of the first things they would do when they entered into a city was they would give a prepared speech, in which they would often flatter the people listening and the city that they were in, and then they would kinda give their resume. They would tell why they were so important, how they were so wise, the education they came from, and they would wow people with their speaking skills. They would boast about their nobility, their power, their wisdom. And if they really, really were good, if they were really good, they would do a little improv. They wouldn't just give their prepared speech, but they would invite people to give them a topic to talk on.
Joel Brooks:
And so once again, you can read about this as you go through history, but people, they would nominate all different types of topics. Speak on the politics of the day and instantly the Sophists will begin speaking politics. I recently I read one where they asked him to speak on a flower that only grew near that town and instantly the sophists began speaking about this flower. Anything, any topic, nothing was off limits, but they could come and they could wow you with their presentation. And the reward was great if they could impress people.
Joel Brooks:
If they were accepted into the city, and not all were accepted into the city, but if they were, parents would pay a lot of money to have their children educated by them, and these students would fall completely under this Sophist leadership. There was often heated competition between both the teachers and their disciples. You get more than a hint of that as you go through 1st Corinthians. I don't know if you noticed that last week, but as people were going, I follow Peter. Well, I follow Apollos.
Joel Brooks:
Well, I follow Paul. They're treating these evangelists, they're treating the apostles like they would any other teacher speaker who came in. These sophists would instantly become one of the elite in society. They'd often be given a government position, maybe become a lawyer, and people were in awe of them for everything that they embodied. It is crucial for you to understand this, if you're to understand how Paul came in and how he decided to preach the gospel, because he was aware of what they were expecting.
Joel Brooks:
He knew they were expecting somebody could come in and wow them with worldly wisdom. Wow them with a vast expanse of knowledge, how they could talk on any subject. Wile them with speaking ability and persuasive skills. A really good speaker would elevate their social standing. It's what they wanted.
Joel Brooks:
We haven't outgrown this. I mean, think of this today. I mean, why is it that churches just crave having, like, a celebrity come and speak at their church? I mean, I remember 15 years ago, there was a local church here that was advertising a supermodel that was coming and preaching at their church. It's like, we have a supermodel.
Joel Brooks:
We don't know what she believes or what she's gonna teach, but come. Why is it that everybody wants Tim Tebow? Like, Tim Tebow come. Because it's like, no, this is a guy who's respected in the world, somebody everybody looks up to, and if we could bring him in or some actor or actress in, then people will think we're relevant. They'll have to listen to us.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, I remember when Deion Sanders, he became a Christian. And when Deion Sanders became a Christian, a week later, he was in an Atlanta pulpit preaching at one of the largest congregations. A week later. Why? Because, like, it's Deion Sanders.
Joel Brooks:
And if he could come, people will have to listen to us now. So we we we haven't outgrown this as a church. Here's the thing, Paul could have been those things to this people. He was extremely intelligent. There was no one who was more educated than him.
Joel Brooks:
And just before he showed up in Corinth, he had come from Athens where he had taken on the educated elite, and he was toe to toe with them. Never backed down. He was an extraordinarily gifted speaker. Matter of fact, he could go before judges or rulers or take on entire mobs speaking and He wouldn't flinch. But He doesn't come that way to Corinth.
Joel Brooks:
Once once again, let's read these verses. Now that you know that, I want you to listen to these verses maybe in a different light. When I came to you brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or with wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul says, when I came to you, I intentionally came as the anti sophist.
Joel Brooks:
I intentionally went against everything you were expecting to see in a preacher, a speaker. He first tells them that, and when I came, I wasn't gonna let you nominate a topic. I wasn't gonna do any improv and say, come on, what would you like me to talk about? No. I came and there was only one thing that I was going to talk about and that was Jesus Christ in him crucified.
Joel Brooks:
He doesn't say he doesn't know anything else. He says, I decided when I was with you to know nothing else except Jesus Christ, him crucified. No other topics will be nominated. And then he goes on to say, in my my presentation, I wasn't trying to impress you with some kind of dynamic presentation of the gospel. I wasn't trying to ooze confidence to be really smooth.
Joel Brooks:
Instead, I showed weakness. Don't you remember? I shook like a leaf when I was with you presenting the gospel. He tells them, he goes, I actually refused to use all of those means of persuasion that I had available. I refused to just sway people through some emotionally charged stories, or by being entertaining.
Joel Brooks:
I was actually a speech major in college. I don't know why it was considered a speech major. I gave 3 speeches in college, and somehow I was able to major in it, and one of them was on why Elvis Presley was king of rock and roll, so I'm not even I'm not even sure why that one counted. I pretty much use nothing of what I learned from the pulpit. I I use nothing now, but I do remember studying rhetoric, and I got to study Aristotle and his, he wrote about the art of persuasion, and so of course Paul would have been familiar with this.
Joel Brooks:
And Aristotle, he wrote, he said, there's just 2 things you have to do if you really wanna persuade people. He said, first, you play to their feelings. Play to their feelings, and then second, use high minded words. In other words, play to their emotions and then speak over them to where they can't understand. So they'll be emotionally moved, but they don't wanna think that they're stupid by saying they don't understand you, and then they'll follow you wherever.
Joel Brooks:
It's it's a common technique to persuade people, play to their emotions, and then just kinda speak some kind of jargon over them. Paul would have certainly been familiar with that, and Paul says, I'll have none of it. I'll have none of it. I'm not gonna use any of those methods when I proclaim Christ. I don't want you seeing me as one of these guys.
Joel Brooks:
I don't want you seeing me as a celebrity. I don't wanna I don't want you to confuse with confuse me with that junk that they are doing. Alright? As a matter of fact, Paul, when he goes through 1st Corinthians, he refuses to use the word teacher. He refuses to use the word leader, even when he's talking about teaching and leading.
Joel Brooks:
Why? Because they have such messed up notions as what a teacher is and what a leader is. They have no concept of somebody teaching or leading out of weakness, and so he won't even use those terms when he's talking to them about this. And it wasn't only in Corinth that Paul spoke this way. He spoke this way in many of the cities when he entered into into Thesalonica.
Joel Brooks:
He says this in Thessalonians 2. He says that we, the apostles, we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came to you with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed, nor did we seek glory from people. Paul said when he came into a town, he really didn't care what you thought about him. He wasn't trying to look impressive or to seem important.
Joel Brooks:
He simply, with fear, with trembling, he just tried to say, this is Jesus. This is Jesus. Don't be distracted by the messenger. I just wanna tell you about him. He's the glorious one.
Joel Brooks:
Now, why did Paul choose to preach this way? Why did why did he go at great efforts to actually not be like all these other people? Once again, let's read. Start at verse 3. Kinda hammer these words in us.
Joel Brooks:
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and in power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul wanted these people's faith not to rest in his ability to persuade, or to rest in his ability to emotionally move the masses, or because he physically was impressive. He wanted people to be moved by the power of God. In other words, the spirit of God doesn't need tricks. He doesn't need help.
Joel Brooks:
The Spirit of God simply needs the truth there in which you will come and in our hearts will go, yes. That's what I was waiting for. He he says this in verse 17 in chapter 1 when he says, Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. That is strong language Paul uses here. He says, if I came to you all eloquent, I would strip the cross of its power to change you.
Joel Brooks:
The power of God is revealed in weakness, not in strength. So the Spirit of God lives to make much of Jesus, and and when you go to people who don't know Jesus, and to the best of your ability, you simply wanna say, this is who Jesus is, and you wanna draw attention to him and not yourself, the Spirit of God says, yes. This is what I've been waiting for, and he moves in power. He comes and he speaks through those messages, because He wants to lift up high the name of Jesus, and He's gonna take those simple words, that simple declaration of who Jesus is, and he's gonna use them to work powerfully in the lives of people. He's gonna make Jesus known.
Joel Brooks:
Paul did not want the people of Corinth This is what he feared. He did not want the people of Corinth to go home inspired, but not converted. Just inspired by a message, but not transformed by the spirit. I mean, God forbid that some of you could actually walk away from this place having been wowed by some kind of rhetoric or having been somehow emotionally moved and you confuse that with actual conversion. That's not what we're after.
Joel Brooks:
That's not our aim. I still remember when I was in college, I was at a church and the pastor decided to have an open mic. Big risk there. Sometimes big risk, big reward, but or terrible disaster, but he he had the open mic, and a guy went up there to share named Tom. Tom had, he was a nobody.
Joel Brooks:
He had a hairball or hairball? Had a terrible haircut. Herable. It's a new word. Feel free to throw that around.
Joel Brooks:
He had a terrible haircut. I know because I used to cut his hair. He would never look people in the eye. He'd always mumble his words. He was one of those people who everybody was friendly to, but he had no friends.
Joel Brooks:
Alright? It was more like that pity kind of friendship. You probably know people like him. Well, he got up to share, and it was weakness and it was fear and it was trembling, and all he simply did was just tell us who Jesus was, why Jesus was beautiful to him, and how much Jesus loved us. And it was profound.
Joel Brooks:
It was just like the spirit of God said, thank you very much, and just he came on that place in such power, through such kind of foolishness, such simplicity, and I always have that in mind when I think of, what is preaching? There it is. There it is. That's what the spirit of God is looking for. If you remember a couple weeks back when we were winding up Esther, I talked about the word gospel.
Joel Brooks:
The Greek word is the euangelion, where we get the word evangelize. And I talked about how originally that word euangelian or gospel meant a royal decree. So a king would declare his gospel and he would send it forth into the kingdom, into all the towns of the kingdom through these messengers, and they would go into the towns and they would say, hear ye, hear ye, thus saith the king. And then they would say that royal decree. And because the king was good, it would be considered good news, powerfully good news.
Joel Brooks:
That's where we get this notion of the gospel being good news. Now hear me, If that messenger who was sent to the city stuttered, if he didn't really look the part, he wasn't very impressive in his stature. If his voice quivered as he was sharing this gospel, Do you think it mattered? Do you think in any way it kept the word from going forth with power? No.
Joel Brooks:
Because the power of the gospel is not in the messenger. The power of the gospel comes from the king who's proclaimed it. And we just simply go and we present the message. And the power comes from the king, not from us. All we have to do is to be faithful to present the exact message that we have been given, And then the Word of God does not return void, but it goes out in power.
Joel Brooks:
Hear me church, there is a lie that has been whispered to many of you by the enemy, a lie that many of you have believed, and the lie is this, and it has kept you from sharing your faith. You're gonna mess it up. Who's gonna listen to you? You're gonna stumble over your words. Your presentation's gonna be terrible.
Joel Brooks:
You don't know all the arguments. You're gonna look like an idiot. It's probably best to leave this to the professionals, and that is a lie from the pit of hell. We are called to share our faith simply to present who Jesus is and then watch the spirit of God work. Think of your own conversion.
Joel Brooks:
When you think of when you came to know Jesus, you'll realize how much of a lie that that Satan has been whispering to you to be silent is when you think of your own conversion. Because you were not converted because you were really impressed with the person who was talking to you. You were not converted because somebody gave you the perfect argument. You're like, well, I'm gonna poke holes there. Nope, I can't I can't poke holes there.
Joel Brooks:
Well, I guess you got me. You know when you became a Christian. That's not how you came to believe. You came to believe because somebody simply told you about Jesus and it clicked. Somebody came to you and they said, do you know who Jesus is?
Joel Brooks:
God loved you so much that he sent his Son Jesus to repair this entire broken world and to fix the complete mess you have made of your life. You're not too far gone even though you have committed massive sin and you have rebelled against him, he can change you. He lived a perfect life you should have lived, and then he took on your punishment. He died the death that you were supposed to die and he has risen from the dead and if you believe in him, you will rise from the dead too and you will live with Jesus forever. And we present that, and sometimes it clicks.
Joel Brooks:
Not because of the perfect argument, not because of the presentation, not because of the messenger, but because the spirit of God comes and he works in power. I did not come to you with persuasive words of wisdom, but I came to you in weakness and fear and in much trembling. That your faith might rest in the in the wisdom of not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Do we believe that, church? I mean, I pray even as I was sharing the gospel just a second ago, that for some of you it finally went click.
Joel Brooks:
I've had more conversations in the last month from people who've been coming to the church who said they've been going to church their entire life, but for some reason, they're like, I'm not sure exactly what you were saying. It wasn't even the best presentation of the gospel, but it's like it all just came together. It all made sense. I just I feel like everything's different now. Joel, what's happened?
Joel Brooks:
I'm like, well you got converted, that's what happened. New life came to you, that's what happened. It's not just being won over by an argument. Many years ago, when I was in seminary, I took a class on 1 Corinthians. I had a great professor.
Joel Brooks:
He actually was, he taught at Cambridge, but he would come and he would do January terms at Beeson. He used to lead excavations in Corinth every year. We actually were able to get a good friendship that endures to this day. He would even stay at our house instead of staying at the place that Beeson would provide for him, and he told me, whenever you become pastor of a church, whenever you do that, start off with 1st Corinthians, 1st 4 chapters. The congregation needs to know what to expect from its preacher.
Joel Brooks:
They need to know what the gospel is, and they need to know what the power of God is, and how the Spirit of God moves in our midst. And so when we started Redeemer about 9 years ago, I preached through 1st Corinthians, And I hope we've never strayed from the gospel. We should never stray from the gospel, because it's not only the message that we are saved by, it's the message we continue to live by. We would continue to determine to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now I know as a as a preacher, you're you're probably thinking, alright, but how does this work out?
Joel Brooks:
Aren't you supposed to preach on some other things? I mean, aren't aren't you supposed to preach on marriage or on giving, or serving one another? Aren't there other topics? And I would say, yes, but all of those topics flow from the gospel. If I don't have no flow from the gospel, I'm just teaching you behavior modification.
Joel Brooks:
Alright? But instead, what I'm gonna do is I'm going to preach to you from giving, and so I am gonna say things like, alright. We should give. We should tithe our money, but I'm not gonna preach it like Creflo Dollar in Atlanta. Alright?
Joel Brooks:
It flows from a completely different mindset. I will preach you to to give, the same reason Paul told the Corinthians. He exhorted them in giving. He said, why should you give? Because he who was rich became poor.
Joel Brooks:
So that in his poverty, you might become rich and share in the inheritance of Jesus. He tied in our giving to the gospel. Yes, I'm gonna tell you how your marriage, husbands, you need to love your wives. Why? Because look at how Christ loved the church.
Joel Brooks:
He gave himself up for the church. Yes. I'm gonna tell you how you need to serve one another. Why? I'll go to Philippians 2, because look at Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
He at one point, he had equality with God, but he didn't consider that something to be grasped. Instead, he let that go when he humbled himself and he became a servant. Not just any servant, but one who went to the cross. When we look at communion, and we know that the Corinthians had all these issues with taking the Lord's Supper. So you know what Paul reminds him?
Joel Brooks:
He goes, Guys guys, remember what we do when we take communion. We proclaim Jesus' death until He comes again. So let's serve one another. All of the topics that we are to preach and we're to listen to as a church, they all flow from the gospel. If they don't, it's just behavior modification.
Joel Brooks:
It'll just make you good little moral legalists going to hell. That's not what we want. We want real heart change and that comes from the power of the gospel. The challenge for me as a pastor, the challenge for us as a church is to believe in the power of the gospel alone and that it doesn't need any help, doesn't need any tricks, doesn't need us to dress it up, to somehow make it pretty. Jesus is glorious.
Joel Brooks:
His gospel is glorious. And we come and we have weakness and fear and trembling, we just wanna, here's Jesus. And the Spirit of God says, thank you, and he begins to glorify Jesus and work real change through that message. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. Pray with
Jeffrey Heine:
me.
Joel Brooks:
Our Father, gospel centered has been something you hear a lot now, but I think few of us know what that means. But may when we hear gospel centered, we think, oh, this is a life flowing morality. This is this is a morality that comes from a changed heart through Jesus, so we do have gospel centered giving, gospel centered community, gospel centered marriages, because we have been profoundly shaped by the cross and the resurrection of Jesus. I pray for every person here. First, I pray for those who don't know You.
Joel Brooks:
Maybe in this moment, right now, Spirit of God, work and change their hearts. May it just click. May you regenerate that heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh. And I pray for those of us who do know you, we would not believe the lie, the lie the enemy has whispered in our ear for so long, that we need to be better prepared, better presentation, that we would just simply go to people and we just say, this is who Jesus is. And you will work powerfully through that for our joy and for your glory.