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"Here as in Heaven."
For more information visit : garden.church
You're listening to GARDEN CHURCH Podcast. We're in a series called Church on Fire, a journey through the book of Acts. This is the story of ordinary people filled with the spirit carrying the presence of Jesus into every corner of the world. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and in us today. Join us as we step into the call to be people set on fire for his mission.
Darren Rouanzoin:Good morning, 9AM. Good morning. There's a lot of you today. Do we have a lot of first time guests here? Can I just see if you're new at Vanguard?
Darren Rouanzoin:Raise your hand. Let me see all y'all new people. Welcome. Anyone from Vanguard? Raise your hand.
Darren Rouanzoin:Vanguard students? Yep. There's a lot of us. Yep. I'm alum.
Darren Rouanzoin:Alright. Twenty years ago. I met Jesus here. I literally met Jesus at this school. I met Jesus in chapel here.
Darren Rouanzoin:So crazy. I I would scan my card back when you had to get chapel credits, you scan your card, and then I would exit through the back before the service began. And now I'm preaching. God has a sense of humor. I wanna say a couple things real quick.
Darren Rouanzoin:First of all, if we're Garden Church, and if you're checking out Garden Church, here's what you need to know. We love Jesus, we're gonna worship our hearts out. I love the a bunch of grown men physically fit, in shape, dancing for the Lord up here. But they're also here early setting up chairs for y'all, so I just think it's perfect that the ones leading the way are leading the way in all things. So thank you for your service, gentlemen.
Darren Rouanzoin:We worship Jesus, we're gonna teach through scripture. We've been in the book of Acts for a year. We're in chapter 18, so pull up your bibles. Watch what happens when I say pull up your bibles in our church. We don't hang We don't put our phones up because we don't talk about our idols like that.
Darren Rouanzoin:We bring our bibles up. We teach the word of God. We worship. We receive communion. We pray for the sick.
Darren Rouanzoin:Every Sunday, we have space for the ministry right now. But also what you need to know is you have brothers and sisters in in, twenty five minutes away in Huntington Beach that are watching this live right now. So here's what I I don't we don't have a camera up here, but I just wanna say, Huntington Beach, how's it going? We love you. Costa Mesa, wave your hands.
Darren Rouanzoin:I don't know if we can pan. It's just me seeing you. So good job. Because Huntington, I'm so do you have the Bibles up, Huntington? Wanna see how many Bibles.
Darren Rouanzoin:Can we compare it real quick one more time? I just wanna see, is there more in Huntington? I don't know. But but look, at the end of the day, we're we're gonna be all about Jesus pursuing God on mission. We also have house churches in small groups.
Darren Rouanzoin:We have a lot of things going on. Check it out online. But if you wanna just check us out for a few weeks and go to another church, that's fine. Just leave, and then because we'll use your seat. Because there's a whole bunch of people in overflow.
Darren Rouanzoin:So overflow, can I hear you scream real quick? Yeah. Alright. Go to Acts 18. Overflowing.
Darren Rouanzoin:Do you guys like documentaries? I love documentaries, especially like behind the scenes stuff. Anyone like behind the yeah. Oh yeah, big, big time. Alright.
Darren Rouanzoin:This week, I got the opportunity to watch a documentary that's a rough cut of a feature film coming out in the future my friend is producing and directing. And in it, I was just I was wowed by the story. I can't tell details because NDA and stuff like that, but you'll know about it. But let me just He gave me permission to tell you because it inspired some of how I'm gonna approach the text today. In this documentary, you get kind of a glimpse of behind the scenes of a famous Broadway actor who is going back to a role he starred in ten years earlier.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it was Broadway show that broke records. It it launched careers. It's significant, and he was the star of the show, and he he was incredible. And and you get to see his his kind of ten years later going back to play the role that launched him into his career as now a film actor. He's recorded albums.
Darren Rouanzoin:He's incredible. And everyone who's seen the show on Broadway knows this character and watched this character. But what the documentary does is it gives you a glimpse into the struggle. It gives you a glimpse into the man. Have you, you know, you watch a Broadway show, eight shows a week of perfectly curated, choreographed, the best of the best acting and music on the planet.
Darren Rouanzoin:And you see the performance, And you see the wow and the wonder and the dancing and the singing and the artistry and it's amazing. But you don't get to see what it takes to put that on. So this actor comes back and he has to relearn his parts. And what you're realizing is that the man he is has changed. Ten years ago, this actor didn't know who he was.
Darren Rouanzoin:He had so much pain and trauma from his past that he fueled that pain and that trauma to perform. He fueled the wounds. His wounds were fuel for his performance of this character who's filled with anger and envy and jealousy. And he says himself, like back then when he was on Broadway, he locked in. His life was pushed to the side and everything was about the performance.
Darren Rouanzoin:But now, ten years later, he's got kids, he's got a wife, he's processed the trauma and the pain, he's healthy, he's whole, he's integrated. So he's coming back to perform the parts, but he's a different person. Sure, can relearn choreographed moments, the choreography, and the lines, and the blocking, and all of those things, but what the documentary does is it shows you he's a different person, therefore the performance is gonna be different. Where he's rehearsing in the past, could lock in, and then it cuts to his kids interrupting his dancing. It cuts to real conflict with family members that are going on.
Darren Rouanzoin:And all that's happening while he's trying to come back to this iconic role that's going to be back on Broadway with him starring. And the documentary shows that he's changed. The documentary shows the wounds. It shows the struggle. It shows his transformation.
Darren Rouanzoin:And from your seat, if you were to watch this as a Broadway show ten years ago with him, or you watched it when they did the rerun just recently, you would see an amazing performance. You would see this amazing Broadway show. You wouldn't see the cost. You wouldn't see the struggle. As an audience, you get the performance.
Darren Rouanzoin:But as a documentary, you got the man. Today I want to teach through the scenes of Acts 18. And I wanna show you the behind the scene footage that we have because of the book, first Corinthians. So there's two camera angles. Luke gives you one, what happened in Corinth for eighteen months, and then I'm gonna flip it and show you inside footage, behind the scene footage from the heart of the man who was there, the Apostle Paul in first Corinthians.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because he reveals to us as disciples of Jesus, not just what happened, but what was happening within him as it happened. And he says in first Corinthians two, I came to you in weakness, with great fear and trembling. So when we pick up in Acts chapter 18 verse one, it says, after this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. That's the verse we get that sets the stage for the documentary, for the show I wanna set. We get Acts 18 verse one.
Darren Rouanzoin:Paul leaves Athens. Remember, he just left Athens. 53 miles away, he journeys to Corinth. Before he gets to Athens, he was beaten in Philippi. He was arrested and flogged in Philippi.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then he's mobbed in Thessalonica. And then he's ambushed in Berea. And then he's laughed at at Athens. And he walks away with a few converts. And he finds himself in the biggest, richest city he's yet to enter into as a missionary.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it says, after Athens, he goes to Corinth. Now, if you're a bible reader, let me just say, in our church, we love scripture. Okay? Can you use do you love scripture here? We love scripture.
Darren Rouanzoin:I have a bunch of rules because I wanna make you great readers of the word. First of all, I want you to say context matters. Matters. Do you know that where you live shapes your world view? Do you know that your digital life shapes your behavior, your belief systems, the things that you know about the way the world works, the values you have are shaped by not just your physical life context, but your digital life context.
Darren Rouanzoin:So when we get to Corinth, you've to understand geography is theology. And so when you're reading scripture, you can't just pass over Corinth and think it's anything else. No. Corinth itself is a backdrop that resonates deeply with Southern California. Let me give you a couple of context clues so we can understand why Paul approaches Corinth different than Athens.
Darren Rouanzoin:Why Paul approaches Corinth as a missionary different than Thessalonica. See, Corinth is a new city. It's been rebuilt. Athens was an old city. It's like a museum with a philosophy department.
Darren Rouanzoin:Only 30,000 people, once built for 250,000 people. Now there's 30,000 people abandoned Athens. But Corinth was the up and coming spot. Rome rebuilt it after it was destroyed, and Corinth was the epicenter for all sorts of things. It had two ports.
Darren Rouanzoin:You see, you had imports and exports coming from Asia, and imports and exports coming from Rome. So, it was a city. I have a picture. This is Rome right here. This is Corinth.
Darren Rouanzoin:Check it out. Oh, no. That's I'm sorry. That's Fashion Island. Go to the It must be the next one.
Darren Rouanzoin:There it is. That's it. I did that on purpose. Corinth would have seas on both sides, and you got imports and exports too. You have influence from Asia, you have influence from influence from Rome.
Darren Rouanzoin:Nobody was Corinthian. They were all they all migrated there to build something in their life. 80,000 people lived there. But this was also the home of the Ishmaelian Games, which those were like the Olympics held every two years. So athletes from around the world would come to compete in the games.
Darren Rouanzoin:They put their bodies on display. There was an emphasis of strength and beauty. And on top of that, Corinth was the headquarters for the sophists, the philosophers that would wander around bringing their eloquent teaching, bringing their ideas. They're like influencers today with togas on. Like essentially, you had a movement of influencers in the first century that went around teaching people their various philosophies.
Darren Rouanzoin:In order to get their teaching, you had to subscribe. A small monthly payment. This is true. To get their wisdom. And so, this was the epicenter for for rhetoric and or or brilliant teaching and and strength and and physical strength, and athletic power.
Darren Rouanzoin:And so you could say Corinth, what was it about? It was all built on performance. On human perfection. On the ideal body. On sensuality and pleasure, on wealth and success, on pursuit of fame and popularity.
Darren Rouanzoin:You had to hide your weakness, hide your blemishes, show off your strength, overpower people with your communication skills, and win at all cost. 2,000 year old pagan city. Could you imagine living in something like that? That would just be exhausting. And then here comes his ministry.
Darren Rouanzoin:We'll read a couple of verses, verse two. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native to Pontus, and recently came from Italy with his wife's wife Priscilla because Claudius, the emperor, had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. We're gonna talk about them next week. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker, as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and the Greeks.
Darren Rouanzoin:And when Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, from Philippi and Thessalonica, they came to visit him. Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching. Testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent of it.
Darren Rouanzoin:From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. Alright. So he gets kicked out of one venue. Check this out. Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house Titus Justice, worshiper of God, worshiper of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:And Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord, and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized. Church, are you with me? Okay, I wanna break this down because I I love what Paul's doing. Every If you're following along, and I encourage you to go back and check this out. I know Costa Mesa, you're catching up.
Darren Rouanzoin:Huntington Beach, you guys are on fire. But Costa Mesa, you guys are following along as well. We're seeing Paul contextualize the message of Jesus in each context. And he arrives as the most credentialed missionary theologian. He just walked away with his life from the Areopagus, the head of philosophy in Athens.
Darren Rouanzoin:Where Socrates had a similar accusation that he was, at one point, advocating for foreign gods, and was found guilty at the Areopagus, and Socrates was executed for what Paul was accused of. But Paul walks away. He confronts the smartest philosophers, and he walks away. So he could have posted revivals happening. Famous preacher has arrived to your city, Corinth, passed out the flint pamphlets, could have found the biggest venue and brought in the famous preacher to win over with his eloquence of education, the Corinthian people back to Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:But he doesn't do that. He finds a leather shop and goes to work. I'm a preach. The word tentmaker, it was a was a lowly trade. So, and this is what it would have looked like.
Darren Rouanzoin:Paul would have worked with Aquila and Priscilla, and would you go to that picture I generated thanks to the mark of the beast AI. Just kidding, it's not the mark of the beast. So it would have looked like this. There's all sorts of archaeology out there that talked about the dimensions, 13 feet by something else. So Priscilla and Aquila would have stayed up top.
Darren Rouanzoin:Paul would have slept under his workbench. I love it. Paul's in Corinth, the wealthiest place he's ever been. And he goes to work six days a week and he preaches on Sabbath, right? He writes one Thessalonians from Corinth, which is the oldest New Testament letter we have and it probably would have smelled like hide glue from the tent.
Darren Rouanzoin:I mean, this is an apostle with dirt under his fingernails. Paul spent the weekdays at the workbench and Sabbath reasoning at the synagogue until Silas and Timothy brought giving from the Macedonian church. So a church, by the way, Macedonia, comparatively to Corinthians, would be like the mission outpost your church in Southern California goes to visit during the summer with high school students. That church there brought an offering to Southern California. And as soon as they arrive with the generosity, he goes full time into preaching mode.
Darren Rouanzoin:Macedonia would have no benefit of Paul preaching in Corinth, but that's how the church works. That's how the church works. We don't give for us. We give to Jesus for his purposes and glory. Now, there's all sorts of financial abuse in the church, I completely understand that.
Darren Rouanzoin:But you trying to think that that's not for what this is because you watched a documentary. Get into the word and follow the journey of Paul. He'll write to second Corinthians. He'll write to them saying, hey, I just got a bunch of more money from the Macedonian church. They are poor, but they've given this wealthy gift.
Darren Rouanzoin:So you better get your act your act together, Southern California. So in a city that worship platform, the greatest theologian alive slept under a workbench. He had callous hands to win a city with manicures. And there's Hey, every time you read a name I'm just doing a Bible study. I was sick all week in bed, so you're getting the best version I can give you right now.
Darren Rouanzoin:But whenever you come across a name, you should study the name. So Christmas, he's this guy who's the synagogue leader. He would have organized synagogue in Corinth, and Corinth had a huge Jewish population. So he was a big influential leader for the Jewish community in Corinth, and while he's in Corinth, he keeps handing the microphone to Paul. He was responsible for who gets to read the Torah that week, who gets to give the teaching.
Darren Rouanzoin:And and apparently he keeps handing it to Paul to the point where people kick him out and get abusive, but Crispus was already won over by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I love the venue shift. Just gonna move next door. And that's a pattern for Paul I can't wait to preach on Ephesus. I might preach six weeks on Acts 19, because I love that one so much.
Darren Rouanzoin:But what I love that you're seeing is this journey individuals and cities being taken for Jesus by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the approach is so beautiful. So we're getting a glimpse of the ministry, but we don't really know because of Acts what he's doing. We don't get the recording of his teaching. But he writes in first Corinthians what he did.
Darren Rouanzoin:So go to first Corinthians real quick. This is behind the scenes footage. You wanna see it? So now we're gonna cut to the struggle. We're gonna cut to the man.
Darren Rouanzoin:First Corinthians chapter two, one of the most amazing passages in all of scripture. Let's look at verse one together. I think I have verse one. Yeah. Let's go.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let me drink some tea. I make fun of people that have to drink tea and now I'm drinking it. I'm like, just drink black coffee, know, it's no big deal. Just kidding, giving me hard time. First Corinthians.
Darren Rouanzoin:I could hear the pages, I'm just delaying. Huntington, I know you're already there. Costa Mesa's still trying to find first Corinthians. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. And they grumbled.
Darren Rouanzoin:Have you read that word in the Old Testament, what God does with grumbling? Okay, anyways. And so it was with me, brothers and sisters, I love you guys, when I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God, for I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness, with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.
Darren Rouanzoin:Come on church. You know, people wanna build an entire case for Paul on this text, but can I just say, he also wrote one Corinthians, the whole letter, and two Corinthians, and he wrote the book of Romans? Could he have preached with eloquence and persuasion of words? Yes, but he chose not to. Some say it's because, oh, he didn't really have a successful ministry in Athens.
Darren Rouanzoin:I don't think that's the case at all. I think he knew the idol of Corinth. Paul could have been polished if he wanted to. He could have performed the gospel, but a performed gospel produces performed converts. Win Corinth with eloquence, and Corinth believes in eloquence.
Darren Rouanzoin:And the faith dies the day a better speaker comes into town. So he comes into Corinth weak on purpose, and weakness is not a technique. It's the shape of the message. Because he knew that when he preaches Christ and Christ crucified, the Greeks couldn't handle it. He says, right, Jews demand signs.
Darren Rouanzoin:In first Corinthians one twenty two, it says Jews demand sign, which when the Jews demand a sign they're looking for power. They want to see God's hand move like they read about in Exodus. Like they read about in First Kings with Elijah bringing down fire from heaven. They want signs. And he says, and the Greeks look for wisdom.
Darren Rouanzoin:They want Socrates. They want Zeno. They want Aristotle. They want Plato. But we preach Christ crucified.
Darren Rouanzoin:A stumbling block for the Jew because it's self sacrificial love. God didn't smite our enemies. He took our place on the cross. That's not power. That's weakness.
Darren Rouanzoin:But it's a different kind of operating system. The kingdom of the world operates with a different kind of power. I'll show self sacrificial love and it will overpower every power out there. It disarms the powers, he writes in first Corinthians. And foolishness to the Gentiles because they don't believe in the resurrection of the dead.
Darren Rouanzoin:They have a world view of gnosticism. The physical's evil and corrupted. Spiritual life, that's where it's at. And he's saying, wait, the Messiah is crucified and raised from the dead. The Messiah chooses weakness.
Darren Rouanzoin:The Messiah chooses death. The Messiah chooses to lose only to win. Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. You see, this is contextualization. Paul recognized how to minister to Corinth.
Darren Rouanzoin:And today, if your faith today is built on performance, then the best show in town will sweep you away. But when the show stops, so does your faith. I'm gonna stay here for a second. Need to say something. At some point, church, you need to decide it's Jesus and nothing else.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because at at some point what you've done is you've curated this faith that requires, that gives you faithfulness by doing all these things for Jesus. That's not the gospel, and it's performance. And you haven't learned to process life with Jesus when everything goes to hell. So go to the Monday night. I love Monday nights.
Darren Rouanzoin:Go to Thursday night. I love Thursday night. Come to Sunday. Go to other churches on Sunday. But at some point, your faith has to be strong enough to endure in the tent shop.
Darren Rouanzoin:Your faith has to be just as resilient when you're a barista doing the 4AM shift. God bless you 4AM shift baristas. I don't know why coffee shops open at eight. I go to, you know, other cities and I'm like, what do you mean it's a coffee shop? 8AM?
Darren Rouanzoin:I've had two by then. My point is at some point, your faith has to release all the ways you've tried to hold it up. Parents see, I don't know if there's parents visiting dropping their kids off. You're releasing your kid into school, And that's scary. But let me tell you, if they're here, they're in good hands.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're gonna help shape them to make school shake. To let workplaces be overwhelmed by the presence of Jesus in your son or daughter. Where their faith is resilient and strong. When emotions rule the day in our culture, we say submit your emotions to Christ. When ideologies shape a worldview and create a chaos in culture, we say, no.
Darren Rouanzoin:We submit our thoughts to Jesus, and we hold all these arguments against the way of Jesus, and they will bow to truth, which is a living being, Jesus Christ. And we try our very best to raise them up as resilient disciples. And what I think Paul's doing in this case is he's simply demonstrating God's power through his weakness. Let me keep going, church. You good?
Darren Rouanzoin:Huntington, are you good? Great, I thought so. Here we go. Can I keep going? Verse nine.
Darren Rouanzoin:Oh, I love this. Acts 18 verse nine. One night, the Lord, who's the Lord? Great. Good job.
Darren Rouanzoin:Do you want me to say that one again? Who's the Lord? Spoke to Paul in a vision. Do not be afraid. Keep on speaking.
Darren Rouanzoin:Do not be silent for I am with you and no one is going to attack and harm you because I have many people in this city. So Paul's staying in Corinth for a year and a half, eighteen months, teaching them the word of God. Longest day so far. I love this text. I'm a break it down.
Darren Rouanzoin:Jesus speaks to Paul in the middle of the night. How many times have we seen the middle of the night or at night show up in the book of Acts? Why do you think Luke records that? Because what happens to you at night? Anxiety, sickness, gets way worse, your body throbs at night, right?
Darren Rouanzoin:Isn't that weird? Just could you not hurt in the middle of the day? That would be I could have taken, you know, Tylenol AM and not have to get out of bed at 2AM. Anyways, that's just me complaining. And in the middle of the night, your mind races with all the possibilities.
Darren Rouanzoin:Yes? You know what mean? You're replaying, you're rehearsing the previous day or the previous week or you're contemplating the future, the future that's coming. And in the middle of the night, Jesus says, do not be afraid. Why does he say that to Paul?
Darren Rouanzoin:He was afraid. How do we know? He said it in one Corinthians. I started with my message saying, he enters into one Corinthians, I came to you in weakness, with great fear, and trembling. Jesus seizes fear and doesn't say, shame on you Paul.
Darren Rouanzoin:The apostle Paul, who got kicked off a horse and blinded, and you got converted. No. Paul was just beaten and flogged and imprisoned. And then a mob followed him, and a decree, a policy was made in Thessalonica. He can't go back.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then he goes to Berea, and the mob follows him there. And he gets ushered away in the middle of the night to Athens where he's brought before a court that's gonna kill him. Do you see this? Paul found a strategy that could be a temptation. Just be a tentmaker.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm a preach. Right? What what does he say? Don't be afraid. Keep on speaking.
Darren Rouanzoin:Don't be silent. Isn't this the temptation of this moment? Let's make Jesus private. Let's make our faith private. Let's stop saying.
Darren Rouanzoin:We don't wanna be weird. We wanna be cool. We came to it. We have a new start at Vanguard. Let's just be the cool Christian.
Darren Rouanzoin:We don't wanna be the weird one. Devil doesn't need to stop you and make you an atheist. He needs to make you turn your faith into a private experience. And this is what we've done in Southern California. This is the false gospel of consumerism.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is the false gospel of convenience. This is the false gospel of you at the center of the throne. Make it easy on me. So Paul, with recovering from his wounds, is afraid. Is it justified?
Darren Rouanzoin:Yes. He's found a good gig. He could figure it out. He could talk about Jesus in the tent shop. He can reason at the synagogue.
Darren Rouanzoin:But Jesus says to him, keep on speaking. This vision came to a man in a leather shop who couldn't sleep. And here is the most consistent thing God gives us in scripture for what gives people courage. It's not five techniques, it's not three practices, it's not a detailed vision of the future with all the questions answered in the middle of the night. I'm with you.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is Exodus three language. This is Abraham language. Genesis language. Exodus language. This is Joshua language.
Darren Rouanzoin:What creates courage? Is it the lack of fear? It's the right sight. Brothers and sisters, you're gonna need courage this year, but you're not gonna feel courageous. And can I tell you a secret?
Darren Rouanzoin:You don't need to feel courageous to be courageous. You need the right vision of Jesus in your heart and in your mind. You need to fix your eyes on the God who says, I will never leave you or forsake you. Wherever you go, I'm with you. May that be the strength that empowers you to take your faith public.
Darren Rouanzoin:To take Jesus to the workplace, to the dorm, to the hallway, to the classroom, to the school, to your students, to your teachers, wherever you find it. Courage is not a temperament, it's a response to his presence. Some of you need that courage. God's gonna give it to you today. A couple more things.
Darren Rouanzoin:Was gonna say I'm running out of time, but I don't care about the clock anymore. The one thing our team keeps telling me because they are upset that I'm talking a lot. They're not upset. There's complications. Y'all have kids?
Darren Rouanzoin:At some point, you gotta go get your kids. Right? If you all parked out here, at some point you gotta give us parking spots for the 11:00. There's a lot of you at the nine. I don't know if there'll be anyone at the eleven.
Darren Rouanzoin:Jesus says, oh, oh, this is so good. No one's gonna attack or harm you in this city. Thanks thanks Jesus. But what about the other ones? That's why I stayed for a year and a half.
Darren Rouanzoin:Why? Because I have many people in the city. The Greek word for people here is the covenant word. Wait, wait, wait. What is he saying?
Darren Rouanzoin:He's saying in present tense to a bunch of pagans, I have God's people here. Woah. Unconverted pagans with divine foreknowledge of what Jesus is saying. Not in, I hope to have, I have them here. Oh, this is so good.
Darren Rouanzoin:What does that mean for evangelism? Can I just speak to the evangelist that got released last week? Anyone here? Yeah? You know what evangelism is?
Darren Rouanzoin:It's delivering adoption papers that have already been signed. Come on. You didn't even know you were a child of God. Welcome to the family. What are you talking about?
Darren Rouanzoin:Let me tell you about Jesus. Paul is empowered by Jesus that there's there's people here that that Jesus has. And they're his. So he's gonna work until he finds them. Come on church, how great is that?
Darren Rouanzoin:What if that was your mindset? Jesus, show me your people. This new job that I have, show me your people so that I can go find those kids that don't know they've been adopted into a heavenly family. That I can go find those kids that have been trying to prove their value and worth this whole time like Corinth, and I can show them that their worth doesn't come from what they do, but who they are in Jesus' image, in the name of Jesus. Okay, keep going, here we go.
Darren Rouanzoin:Almost done. Just kidding. Twenty more minutes. The rest of the chapter, I'm gonna walk you through it. While Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment.
Darren Rouanzoin:What? Jesus just said no one's gonna come after you. The very next verse eighteen months later is the proconsul, the governor of the region is is brought to Paul's brought to that guy's attention. And this is what they said. This man, they charged, is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.
Darren Rouanzoin:Just as Paul was about to speak, I'm about to speak to you governor. Galileo said to them, if you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law, settle the matter yourselves. I will not be judge of such things. So he drove them off.
Darren Rouanzoin:God uses an unjust king to bring justice to Paul. Paul doesn't have to say a word. Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes, the synagogue leader, so the replacement for Christmas, and beat him in front of the proconsul, and Gallia showed no concern whatsoever. Come on. This is a wild story.
Darren Rouanzoin:Crispus leaves with Paul, they try to turn on Paul, the guy's like, you figure it out, and then the new leader of the Jewish synagogue gets beat up. Hold on. Go to first Corinthians real quick. Chapter one. Oh, you're gonna love this.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let's let's go to the documentary. Right? Cut to a chair, no one's sitting in, and then who sits down? Paul called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and our brother, Sophenes. What?
Darren Rouanzoin:Isn't that good? You see it? The second leader becomes a follower of Jesus. He's with Paul on a missionary journey, writing a letter back to his hometown. You can't make this up.
Darren Rouanzoin:I love Do you love it? I love it. The documentary's so good, you gotta watch it. I've been thinking about why Paul, why Luke doesn't include the sermon that he would have preached to Corinth. Because if this is the longest stay up until this point, why didn't he include the message to Corinth?
Darren Rouanzoin:You know, he's kind of cherry picking. He's got Jesus the Messiah. We go off on what that looks like to Thessalonians because that Jewish community would have understood what the Messiah meant. But then he moves over and he preaches to Athens and he doesn't quote the Old Testament. He uses the Sorry, not the prophets, the the poets of the Greek philosophies to make a case for the wisdom of God and Jesus in the resurrection.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then he gets to Corinth and we read, and there's not really a sermon. We see he's in the synagogue preaching the same message, but then a year and a half you don't get anything. You just know that he's disrupted it so much that he's brought before the governor of the region. And then I realized, no, Paul, sorry, Luke gave us the message. It's weakness.
Darren Rouanzoin:The longest ministry up until this point that Paul had, Luke records no sermon because in Corinth the contextualization was not a speech, it was his life. In Athens, Paul quoted their poets, in Corinth he picked up their tools. He moved into the economy, he worked with his hands, He sweated in a shop. Earned nothing off the gospel in that city other than what was given to him by another church from another region. Every message he prayed, he had was free.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it says that he stayed there with fear, experiencing abuse, eighteen months of ordinary Tuesdays, and ordinary Wednesdays and ordinary Thursdays, and I thought that's what preaches. That's what we need because the crucified message was carried by a cruciformed man. Corinth didn't read Isaiah, but they read Paul. And in Corinth, smelling like hide glue in a tent shop, He writes in First Thessalonians two:eight, Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well. There it is.
Darren Rouanzoin:He shared not just the gospel, but his life. This is what we have to come to see, our role in our context. To carry a message in our life. This is what Jesus said would happen. Not because you figured out all the right practices, or you mimicked the behavior of your rabbi, or you memorized all the good passages of scripture, but because power was given to you from the Holy Spirit, so that you would be a witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and go into the ends of the earth carrying what transforms you, a life from God.
Darren Rouanzoin:Not on merit, not on strength, not on beauty, not on capacity, not on performance. Paul modeled this to a city like ours. And he says in first Corinthians nine, I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I have, I might save some. God's plan to reach this county is not a better performance on a bigger platform. It's through you.
Darren Rouanzoin:Embodied. Integrated. Embedded. Unimpressive on purpose. In your cubicle.
Darren Rouanzoin:In your on your drive. In your commute. Your through your weakness that causes you to rely on Jesus. That becomes the most credible sermon you give the world. It's the shape of the cross.
Darren Rouanzoin:Paul teaches us how to reach a Corinth city. Perhaps this is how we learn to come to Jesus and reach our context. Remember Corinth was all about performance, human perfection, ideal bodies, sensuality, pleasure, wealth, success. Fame, popularity, hide your weakness, hide your blemishes, show off your strength, overpower and communication, win at all costs. Paul says in second Corinthians, three times I pleaded with the Lord to take away from me.
Darren Rouanzoin:But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. You know what that passage reminds me of?
Darren Rouanzoin:The last rap battle in eight mile. It's good. What's he gonna do, b rabbit, Eminem, facing Papa Doc? And his little buddy is like, what are you gonna rap about? And he lists all of his weaknesses.
Darren Rouanzoin:All the things that were done to him. You know what Eminem does at the last rap battle? He starts. In the past, he was responding. They would say something and he would say something smarter.
Darren Rouanzoin:Right? Or you try to insult each other. I don't know the underground rap movement. Okay? I know it might look like that.
Darren Rouanzoin:But what he does is he begins and he spends the whole verse, first part of the verse, confessing everything shameful about himself. He lives in a trailer park. He lives with his mom. His girlfriend left him. He shot His friend shot himself.
Darren Rouanzoin:He got beaten up. He's broke. He owns all of it. He owns it so loud because what the enemy wants to do is weaponize your weaknesses. And in a city that's all about performance, the cross reverses it.
Darren Rouanzoin:And what eight Mile reveals that Paul reveals earlier in second Corinthians is the same thing. That when you confess it, when you say, I'm struggling with lust, I'm struggling with addiction, My marriage has fallen apart. I hate myself. I look in the mirror and I don't see what's real. I have defined myself by other people's thoughts of me.
Darren Rouanzoin:I have been so desperate for boys' attentions or girls' attentions that I have compromised my convictions living a holy life in every relationship that I've lived in. When you begin to confess the weaknesses, the sin, the brokenness, the pain, the trauma, it loses power. It doesn't become a weapon the enemy uses to create temptation and shame and accusation. It becomes fuel for worship. Because when you strip back and go, I got nothing.
Darren Rouanzoin:He goes, I know. I'll take it from here. And he meets you, not with judgment of a disapproving father who's hyper fixed on the mistakes. No, he meets you as the running dad that sees you way off there, takes off running, and says, welcome home. See, this is what Paul reveals to us.
Darren Rouanzoin:That power moves through weak people in the kingdom of God. You can't perform weakness. You can't fake it. I mean, sure, do a little Instagram with no makeup, that's not the same thing. Here's where I'll land and I didn't have like a clear landing spot because the documentary is unfinished for you.
Darren Rouanzoin:Luke gives us the big story of what happened, first Corinthians reveals the man underneath it. But the invitation is the same, Jesus is Lord. Repent and believe. But here's what I want to say because this is what was crushing me all week. We are Corinth and you're exhausted.
Darren Rouanzoin:Aren't you tired of trying to hold it all together in the church? Aren't you tired of having to pretend like you have your act together? This is the one place that we don't have our act together, and we celebrate it because it's Christ crucified, not me. It's Christ crucified, not merit. Christ crucified, not performance.
Darren Rouanzoin:Christ crucified, not my bible memory verses. It's Christ and him crucified. And through that, I am saved. I am healed. I am delivered.
Darren Rouanzoin:I am made whole. I am integrated. I am freed. And brothers and sisters, stop performing. Here at GARDEN CHURCH, we will take the masks off.
Darren Rouanzoin:No more religious performance. It's idolatry. Call it what it is. No more comfort persuasion. That's idolatry.
Darren Rouanzoin:No more thinking that you can't come in here and be where you are. God will only meet you where you are. Everything else is fake. He can't interact with your false ego. He can only meet the true beloved son and daughter that you are, so accept it.
Darren Rouanzoin:Say thank you, and be ambushed by the love of God that loves you without condition, without performance, and loves you as you are, not as you should be, because you're never gonna be as you should be. And so we say, praise God, hallelujah, thank you, Jesus. Amen? Would you stand?
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