This message is from the teaching
ministry of James Tippins, pastor of Grace Truth Church. More information
can be found online at gracetruth.org and anchoringfaith.org. A people
for His glory, by His grace. I've entitled this message in
a question. What keeps a church together?
Some years ago, as a matter of fact, 2006, the first chapter
of 1 Corinthians became sort of like my motto. The whole idea
that Paul teaches there is something that helps me stay focused on
what is necessary for my life, what is the call that God has
given me as a pastor and a shepherd of the flock of Christ, as a
Christian, as a person who has been redeemed by the grace of
God. It keeps me in check. Paul writes these words as he
begins in verse 18. Follow along with me. For the
word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, But
to us who are being saved, it is the power of God, for it is
written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment
of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise?
Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of the sage?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since
in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom,
it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those
who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks
seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block
to Jews and folly to Gentiles. but to those who are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the
weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling,
brothers. Not many of you were wise according
to the worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many
were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish
in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the
world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised
in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing
the things that are, so that no human being might boast in
the presence of God. And because of Him you are in
Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. So that as it is written, let
the one who boasts boast in the Lord. 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
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 plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God. 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. But we impart a secret
and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for
our glory. None of the rulers of this age
understand this, for if they had, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no
eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him. These things God
has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches
everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's
thought except the spirit of that person which is in him?
So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit
of God. 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 to us by God. And we impart this in words
not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting
spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 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. The spiritual person judges all
things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has
understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? For we
have the mind of Christ. Let's pray. Father, may the mind
of Christ be ours tonight. Father, may the flesh that so
eagerly loves to rise against the truth be put to death this
evening. Father, may this message be paramount
in our lives. May it be a catalyst by Your
grace and mercy and power for Your glory and for the sake of
Your name to change us, to press us, to prune us, to grow us in
unity and love. Father, to put away all earthly
and fleshly pride and to glory only in Christ. For He alone
is worthy of it all. In Jesus' name, Amen. As a younger man, I felt very
confident in my ability to understand things, very confident in my
ability to communicate and to manipulate, if I will. That's
a bad word, but the word works well and that we can argue as
salesmen. Some of us understand we are
manipulating people who have given no thought as to what they
might need that we have never even considered it. Then we tell
them not only that it's available, but we make them consider the
idea that they need it. And then we cause them to believe
that they cannot live without it. Therefore they buy it. That's
what sales really does. And if it's not the persuasion,
it's the lust of the eyes. See, we wipe by the window and
we see that beautiful thing, and we see that illustrious awesomeness
that comes with that which we do not have, that we think if
we did have, it would give us something more. We drive down
the road in a perfectly operating vehicle, but we see the sparkle
of those new ones with that slash over the price tag, and it's
now discounted with $3,000 in your pocket if you buy now. And
we think to ourselves, I think I need a new car. We do not need
much of that which we pursue. The same thing is true in our
spiritual lives. We think we need something more than Christ.
We think we need something more than intimacy around the Word.
We think that the world has told us what is true when it says
we must have this and that and the other for the world to come
to hear what Christ is and who He is. and what He's done. We
must placate to the masses in order to appease the hearts of
the seeker, which the Scripture says no one seeks after God.
So we are playing games at the devil's bidding, at the tune
of his own composition, through which we are composing beautiful
music that draws no one, for the audience does not exist in
itself. and then we are not pleased and
we have no pleasure in that which we've tried to accomplish because
there is no possible way that it will ever come to fruition.
So we begin to manipulate our own thinking because we want
to see fruit in our lives. We decide to make our own God
and our own Christ and our own religion and our own church,
and we create not just a caricature of Jesus Himself, but a caricature
of the entirety of our worldview when it comes to spiritual things.
And we fall prey to not only does our flesh do that in its
imaginative way, but we fall prey to the enemy's feeding of
such things. And it may not be very comprehensible
to you because you may not have a place to put your thumb to
understand what I'm saying, but I'll tell you, by the time we
get through tonight, you will see that there is some aspect
of your life, as there is mine, that has played this game and
may continue to play this game tonight. That is a large portion
of Scripture, and if I were to teach this this evening, it would
take us weeks. But I do want to go through it.
In the sense, as we read through Romans, I will read through this
passage and have, and I will go through it for your benefit,
church. What is it that causes the church
to stay together? And I will say to you that the
answer is very simple. It is the power of God through
Jesus Christ. Some of you might say, well,
what are we talking about? Is our church not staying together?
I don't know. You're here, so we're together. Praise the Lord.
But friends, as you see the stress in your own life, as you see
the relationship issues, as you see the health and the finances
that continue to just fall a little weak at times, whatever it may
be, maybe it's just your own mind. Friends, there are things
in this world that come up as, what does Jesus say? Weeds, and
choke out unbelievers who think they're believers. There's nothing
we can do about the weeds of life choking out unregenerate
men and women. but there is everything that
has already been done for us who are the chosen, the elect,
those who are truly regenerated by God. There is no weed that
will choke us unto death. There is no weed, there is no
bird that will take away the Word of God, which is the enemy,
the devil, the adversary, Satan. But God has given us a good heart
and inside our heart, though there may be weeds that come
along, the truth of Christ prevails in us. It is the litmus test. in life, that we put our faith
to the test and we prove God in the process. We don't prove
Him in the sense that we show the world that He's true, but
His work and His sufficiency and His power is proven over
and over again in the trials of life. Before we comprehend
what holds the church together, we need to understand what established
the church to begin with, and that is the gospel of Christ.
It is Jesus Christ who, through His blood, purchased a people
who are the church. Those people will gather under
the banner of the gospel, under the banner of Christ, under the
banner of righteousness, who is Jesus Christ, our wisdom and
our sanctification. And if we think it's going to
be easy, we have really bought a lie. Not only is it not going
to be easy, it is going to be overwhelmingly difficult. It
is going to be disastrous. It is going to be dark at times
when we feel as though the light of the glory of the gospel is
extinguished. But it is not, beloved, for nothing
in the darkness can overcome the light. So what else do we do? from a
pragmatic point of view, it's very easy for us to say, well,
we need to seek wisdom. Let's get counsel. Let's read
a book. Let's talk to a friend. Let's
do what we need to do so that we might have the answers that
we need. And we're all, both have been
counselor and counselee. Maybe even today. And it's very easy to listen
and to consider Dr. Field or to consider Oprah or
to consider Plato or any other good philosopher that may have
some common sense. It's very easy for us to use
our own experiences as the pattern through which someone else may
also find the success and the circumstance they're looking
for. Friends, we already know that even if one man does the
same as another and God does not grant the success to one
but does to the other, it does not matter what they do or know.
that even when we sit at McDonald's and order a dollar sandwich and
get the other one free, it is by the mere pleasure of God.
Much less that someone else could eat Kobe beef at a hundred dollars
a plate. It is by the mere pleasure of
God. Where is the wise of this world?
The cross is foolishness to the wise? Friends, sometimes we come
to the place in our lives as Christians where we actually
think we know. We actually think that we've got a cognitive place
of authority in Christendom, in ministry. Oh, what a joke! Satan is a liar. We are not wise. We are not wise. Christ is our
wisdom. Christ is our hope. And to say that is foolishness
in the world. Someone asked me the question
a week before last that, why is it that so many things that
I teach personally seem to be such at odds with the mainline
mass denominations of the world? To which I very quickly pointed
out that most of the time, the majority is wrong. The majority
in Nazi Germany was wrong. The majority in Egypt was wrong. The majority of the world we
live in today is wrong. The majority of the so-called Christianity
today is wrong because they have found their own wisdom. They
have found their own philosophy. They have found everything that
they are outside of the foolishness of the cross of Christ. And there
are some who say that they're not wise, but it's only Jesus,
but they pound their pulpits and they pound their chest and
they say, look at me, I got the truth. And then their arrogance,
they will stand in eternal judgment and damnation forever. Being
able to regurgitate the truth with one's mouth does not prove
they are regenerate in their heart. People will hear that and they'll
go, but I know the truth. If there's anger in your spirit,
the spirit of God is not working in that spirit. I didn't say
He wasn't there. I said He's not working. God
does not give us a spirit of anger. God does not give us a
spirit of frustration. God does not give us a spirit
of selfishness. God does not give us a spirit
of arrogance. He doesn't even give us a spirit
of wisdom. He gives us Christ. Life and the Holy Spirit. And
Christ is our wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. The first
thing we need to know about how the church holds together is
that Christ establishes the church. We don't do it. There are many
congregations around the world today that grow into the thousands
that are no more Christ-centered than the microphone before my
face. How do I know? For they do not preach the Word
of God and they do not hold each other to the standard of Christ
alone and faith alone as our eternal hope. But they're growing. They love each other. It doesn't matter. They are powerless. They think themselves wise. God
says He will destroy the wisdom of the wise and destroy the discernment. He will thwart the discernment
of the discerning. Where are we? Where are the wise
people? Where are the debaters? Friends,
there are none who are in Christ. There is no one wise in themselves
if they are in Christ. There is no one proud in themselves
if they are in Christ. There is no debater of this age. Yet, God has made the wisdom
of this age foolish. That which we think is most imperative
in our lives, that which we decide in our situations and circumstances
and seasons that is wise, and we act therein without thinking
and contemplating and going to Christ and the Word, we have
just become fools. It pleases God, through the foolishness
of the cross, to save those who believe, because the world cannot
know God through wisdom. Neither can the church live in
Christ through wisdom. We must continue to hold fast
to the confession of our hope, who is Christ Jesus, our wisdom. We do not need signs. We do not
need wisdom. but we preach Christ crucified,
the stumbling block. He is the author and finisher,
the perfecter of our faith. He is the one who purchased His
church, and that's why we exist, beloved. That's why we are here.
We do not come here to do anything. We gather here to be something. The foolishness of God, if there
is such thing, is wiser than men, and the weakness of God
is stronger than men. And Paul remarks there in verse 26, Consider
your calling, brothers. None of you were wise. Even in
the world you weren't wise. None of you were powerful. None
of you were noble. But God chose what is foolish
in the world to shame the wise. You see, the end of natural wisdom
is shame. You see, the end of fleshly strength
is shame, destruction. God chose what is lowly and what
is despised in the world, even the things that are nothing,
to bring to nothing the things that are something. Why? So that no human being might
boast in the presence of God. In verse 30 there, and I've reiterated
this over and over again, because of Him you are in Christ Jesus.
Because of God, you are in Christ Jesus. Because of God, the Father,
you are in Christ Jesus. We are in Christ because of the
work of God. The church exists because God
created her. He purchased her. There is no
escape as the church from the work and the satisfaction of
God's justification of his people. You will not escape eternal life,
beloved. Hallelujah. Nothing, as Paul
would say in Romans 8, can separate us from His effectual love. Nothing
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Christ Jesus is our wisdom. He is our righteousness. He is
our holiness. He is our redemption. So that
as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
See, it is about the praise and the glory of God. His glory. His worthiness. That's why we
exist. So who we are and the way we
speak and how we act and what we think and how we process life
and where we are in the sense of things when trials come, it
gives glory to God because we come to our senses when the world's
wisdom comes to our door and knocks and we go, no, it is only
Christ. They mock us and they laugh at
us and we're left holding the bag. of foolishness. But inside that bag of foolishness
is all the beauty and the glory of the divine and the sublime
of God's absolute power to save His people. The church exists
because God has bought us through Christ Jesus. There is no other
message of hope. There is no other counsel. There
is no other therapy. There's no other way to hold
the church together except to proclaim the testimony of God.
We do not do it even with eloquence. We do not do it, as Paul says
in chapter 2 here of 1 Corinthians, with lofty speech or wisdom.
He says, I came and I chose to know nothing among you except
Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you, not in power,
not in glory, not in strength, not in awesomeness, Not with people looking at me
and saying, wow, there's Paul. Woo, let's go see Paul. No, they
hated Paul. He says, I was with you in weakness.
Why? Because our weakness, then God
is our strength. God's strength is prevailing. God's strength is preeminent.
God's strength is forward. He says, and not only was I with
you in weakness, but I was with you in fear and much trembling. He's not just being, I don't
know what's the word I'm looking for. He's not just saying this
in a way that he's using that as an illustration. I believe
Paul adds the word trembling there because he was physically
fearful. Fearful. For he's been given
the charge to lead others through the teaching of the power of
God in Christ. He's been given the call. He's
been given the anointing. He's been given the knowledge
who is Jesus Christ and the wisdom who is Jesus Christ. Paul, as
the apostle, was given the righteousness of God and the message of Jesus
Christ in order for Christ to be redemption for His people.
And he said so in my speech My message were not implausible
words of wisdom. That doesn't mean that Paul got
up there and just didn't say anything and drooled on himself
and blabbered. But it does mean that sometimes
people would hear him and think, how dumb is Paul to just continue
to teach this gospel message, this so-called good news that
he keeps talking about, this evangel. We've heard about this
Jesus. Move on. Tell us how we can be
successful. Tell us how we can have better
relationships. Tell us how we can be better
missionaries. Tell us how to do something else
for God. How can the church be greater
than she is by holding to the stupid foolishness of the cross
alone? That she might be nothing except
weak and frail so that Christ may be exalted in His preeminence
which belongs to Him alone. He says the Spirit is demonstrated,
not his wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so
that your faith, because listen to this, if the church is birthed
and the church is continually held together, listen, by the
wisdom of her leaders, by the wisdom of your pastor, then she
is nothing. but do not follow Me. By all
means, look past Me, and hear by the power of the Spirit the
truth of Christ, so that you may see Christ alone. Because our faith cannot rest
in the wisdom of men, but it must rest in the power of God.
Friends, there are many buffoons. I will use that word, and it
is the last time I will say it tonight. who heart against men
who have been taught by the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures
because they dare not have the initials after their name. I
scoff at that by the grace of God. Beloved, do not look at
me as one who is wiser than you, but you can have the same wisdom
that is found in Scripture that the Apostle Paul had. The power of God is what is supposed
to be seen. And our faith must rest in the
power of God. Not the learnedness of each other. Not the study.
And it is good to learn. It is good to study. I'm not
knocking that. I believe. I'm a teaching pastor. You know
how I rest and what I think about education. But I believe it is
the duty of the church to educate itself. But he says we do not have my
wisdom, but it is the power of God. In verse 6, yet among the
mature we do give wisdom, see, we do impart wisdom. Though it
is not a wisdom of this age, it is not a wisdom of the world,
it is not a wisdom of the culture, it is not a wisdom of rhetoric
that comes from the community at large, from the masses. It
is a very myopic and focused wisdom that is alien to the world,
see. The greatest thinkers cannot
grasp the gospel because they have not been born again. So
they posit other ways. Beloved, we also, if we're not
careful, can run after those rabbit trails to our detriment.
When? When things are going too good,
we can forget to pray. We can forget to labor before
the Lord's Word. Things are great. God is so good.
God is so good in our mouth when things are so good in our lives. Friends, God is even better when
things are not so good in our lives. The wisdom of this world
tells us that we must tackle our burdens by ourself, The wisdom
of this world tells us to keep our problems to ourselves and
not share them with our brothers and sisters. The wisdom of this
world teaches us that our feelings rule us. When they do not, they
are a liar. Our flesh lies to us. Our mind
lies to us. The wisdom of this world tells
us that we can add to the gospel. And we know what Paul says to
that, that it is no gospel. Beloved, you cannot put your
hope in another gospel, for it is anathema. And you all know
what that means. because he says the wisdom of
this age, or the rulers of this age, are doomed to pass away.
The world and everything in it is passing away. John wrote that
in his first epistle, chapter 2. And then he commands us not
to love the world, which is inclusive of the wisdom of the world. Stop
looking outside of Christ for the answers of life. Do not impart wisdom that is
of this world, but we do impart wisdom, He says, a secret and
hidden wisdom of God. What is that? The wisdom which
God decreed before the ages, listen to this, for our glory. What does that mean? Well, it says there in verse
8, that none of the rulers of this age understand this, for
if they had, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory.
But they did. What does it look like? I wish
I had a whole other hour to just unpack some of this stuff. But
in a nutshell, let's remember that all things work together
for good for those who love God and are called according to His
purpose, Romans 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, what does
he say? All these things are happening to us, but we're not
destroyed. For this light, momentary affliction
is preparing us. Listen to this. What is it preparing
us for? For the weight of glory beyond
all comparison. As we look to that which is unseen,
not that which is passing away, That's not always the tangible,
beloved. Sometimes it's the wisdom of
the world. It's the wisdom of our old man, our old woman, the
way we used to think. But this is the way I used to
deal with these problems. Let me deal with them like this today.
Well, I know what the Bible says, but I know I can handle this
by myself. No eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those
who love Him. Even when we think we're seeking
the wisdom of the Lord and we try to imagine how God would
have us do it, when it's not coming from the gospel of Christ,
it is coming from the wisdom of man. Even if we use Bible
verses to prove our point. these things that we know, this
Gospel that we know, how is it that Jesus is truly the answer?
Because God the Holy Spirit has revealed to us these things.
Verse 10. The Holy Spirit. We heard this
past Sunday that the Spirit, these words that I give to you,
as Jesus said a week before last, are the Spirit in life. The Spirit
of God brings life through the words of Christ, through the
hearing of the text of Scripture. It is the divine work of God,
the Holy Spirit. Why does it matter? Well, who
is the Spirit? He is God. The Scripture says
the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God, so that
the Spirit who teaches us the things of God knows the depths
of God. So that we are able to learn
and to grasp and to hold to Christ Who knows a person's thought
except the spirit of that person which is in him? We know what we are
truly thinking no matter what we say. So also no one comprehends
the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now the same Spirit
teaches us the things of God through the Word of God. Now
the same Spirit that we have received is not of the world,
but the Spirit who is from God. In order that we might understand
the things freely given us by God. You see that? Friends, I
didn't tell much of my testimony because it's not important. This
set me free. This set me free. Seeing this
in its context, God the Holy Spirit taught me the truth of
my wisdom and the foolishness of the cross and it set me free
from continually trying to figure out how I was going to communicate
how I was going to teach, how I was going to make people see,
how I was going to be wise and smarter and more professional. It was these words that we impart,
these words that we impart, not taught by human wisdom, but taught
by the Spirit. So even as I teach these things, there's nothing
that I can say to cause you to see There's nothing that I can
teach and no methods that I can employ, though I have hundreds
of hours of education on education. I've written numerous papers
on the differential classroom, which I really like, but that's
not going to help you understand Christ. Human wisdom taught by the Spirit.
What is that? It's not by human wisdom, but
taught by the Spirit is what I meant to say. And because of
this, we have the ability to interpret spiritual truths. God
gives us interpretation of spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. Who are spiritual? Who are those
who are spiritual? Those are the believing ones.
They're the believing ones. The natural person does not accept
the things of the Spirit of God. but we who are regenerated accept
them." Friends, this is why we can go back. It's not necessarily
what I want to say tonight, but it's there. This is why we can
go back to understand that regeneration is required for salvation. And if one is regenerated, they
no longer have the natural mind of looking at things. The granting
of repentance is a work of God, whereby now the natural mind
that does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, because
they're foolish, accepts the truth of Christ, and faith is
gifted to those who are born again. Why? Because the spiritual can
understand things that are spiritually discerned. Jesus tells Nicodemus
this in John 3. What's this got to do with the
question on the table? How does this church stay together? How does the congregations of
the world stay together? By the wisdom who is Christ.
Not by the wisdom of man. Not by the well-planned. sermon,
not by the well-organized leadership, not by the continual and purposeful
and perfect plan of church discipline, not by anything except the foolishness
of Jesus Christ. And we who are spiritual can
discern these things because they are spiritually discerned.
The spiritual person judges all things, but he himself to be judged by
no one. For who has understood the mind
of the Lord so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
We have the mind of Christ. Beloved, the church stays together
because we all have the mind of Christ. The church stays intimate because
we all have the mind of Christ. What does the mind of Christ
do? Glad you asked. Have this mind among you, which
is yours in Christ Jesus, Paul writes to the Philippians. Though
he was equal with God, did not take equality with God, something
to be grasped, but he made himself nothing, a slave, obedient unto
death, even death on a cross. Oh, I'm offended. Christ was
offended. He died on a cross. Husbands,
love your wife as Christ loved the church who gave himself up
for her that she may be without spot or blemish. In the same
way, husbands, lay down your life for your wives. My wife
aggravates me. I think I need to put a plan
together to straighten her out. Have the mind of Christ. Die
as Christ has died. Sister so-and-so was gossiping
about me the other day. I heard her in the foyer. She
was talking trash about my trashy house. Can't believe she can't keep
the living room clean. I'm offended. What should I do? Have the mind
of Christ. Who, while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. Christ died for the ungodly.
That's the love of God. For the wicked, for the enemy,
for the hatred, hateful people that we were. And the list could go on. The church that cannot maintain
unity does not have the mind of Christ. But what does that
mean for us this very moment as a congregation? It means that
no matter what befalls us, no matter what stress may come,
no matter what tensions and what wicked, as Ephesians 6 talks
about, warfare that is brought upon our homes and our relationships
and our economy or whatever else may call strife, that nothing
we do except what the Scripture shows us to do will work. Nothing. Not well-played counseling,
Not intervention, nothing. Only what the Scripture says
to do. And the Scripture says that in order for us to be in
unity, we must know the gospel of grace. And we must have one
mind in Christ. And that mind is not diverted
and divided. It is not tossed to and fro.
James says if we lack wisdom, we just ask for it, and then
God grants wisdom to all who ask, and then we don't walk away
from that wisdom. Well, I wonder if it's really
the wisdom that I wanted. No, we walk straight to the place
where God has shown us. Where do we confirm the wisdom
of God in the Word? If it's not from the Word, it
is from the world, and the world has nothing to offer but dead,
rotted meat that's not edible. We want the bread of life, who
is Jesus Christ. Beloved, we are going to walk
according to the Spirit by the mercies and grace of God, and
we are going to do so gently and lovingly and mercifully and
compassionately and kindly, but we will not apologize. We will not apologize for having
the mind of Christ. When we make decisions in this
life without considering how it affects our brothers and sisters
in this congregation, we have sinned against them. Did you
hear that? When we make decisions in this
life without considering how our choices affect our brothers
and sisters in this congregation, we have sinned against them.
When we sin, thinking that it's just our personal choice to do
something that is opposed to the righteousness of God, we
don't realize, but it hurts each other. If my arm is caught on
fire by an electrical short here at this podium, it's not like
I can continue to preach because the arm is hurting. Oh, but I'm
fine over here. No. I am on fire. If I have necrosis in my left
pinky toe, my body is dying. If I have cancer in my eyelash,
my body has cancer. Beloved, everything we are rises
and falls with each other. And that's foolish to the world.
The world says, look out for me, I've got to take care of
my house. My house exists for your house. If you don't know what 21 years
in the ministry looks like to that, just ask my wife. We take our time. For the most
part, we know that everything that we are and everything that
we do is for the sake of you. And everything you do is for
the sake of each other. When we allow our personal things,
struggles, trials, desires, and passions to cloud out the Gospel,
we have grabbed hold of the world's wisdom, which is foolishness
and stupidity. and we are playing with the lives
of one another. And God has been gracious to
us, but beloved, we're a young people. We haven't been around
very long. And I get emails every few weeks
from people who pastor churches that have been established for
a while and it's just one catastrophe after another catastrophe. I think the record is that a
pastor's average tenure in ministry is three and a half years. Because the church is not the
church. Beloved, we're the church because
Christ has purchased us with His blood. We're the church because
God has bought us. We're the church because we've
been given repentance and faith. We're the church because we've
been made anew Alive. I've got to make sure that my
words are more precise. We've been made alive in Christ. We've
been regenerated. We are a new creation, because
we've been made alive in Christ. We've been given the Word of
God, and by the Spirit of God we understand the things of God,
and by the grace and the mercy of the Holy Spirit, who works
in us and indwells all of us, when we are taught the Scripture,
we submit to the Scripture. And when we don't, we correct
each other with gentleness, patience, and love. And the Lord is gracious
to restore us to one another because Christ has restored us
to the Father. The last thing I'll say is that
everything that we are as a people, as the church, is a small, microscopic
picture of the macrocosmic reality of Jesus Christ and the redemption
of His church. So as we relate in our homes
to each other, it's supposed to emulate the opportunity that
Christ had to die for us. As we relate to each other in
this church, in this fellowship, whether it be personal tensions,
whether it be marriage tensions, whether it be financial tensions,
whether it be health, whether it just be depression, or just,
we're hot and tired. It is supposed to emulate the
power of Christ, not just emulate, it is the power of Christ, it's
supposed to reveal the power of Christ in us as we continually
die to ourselves so that we may live to Christ and in doing so
we live for one another. So be encouraged in this church.
As we move through this summer, it's a weird season, be encouraged. Because it is so easy to be discouraged. It is so easy for our flesh to
just poke us in the ear and give us all reasons to just throw
our hands up and wash our hands of every circumstance and every
relationship and everything. But Christ is sufficient for
these seasons and for these times. There is forgiveness with the
Father through Jesus Christ, so there is intimacy and unity
and the affection of Christ for all of us. Let's pray. We thank
You, Lord, for the truth of Your Word, Father. I pray that that
grand text, this large depository of verses, Father, would be sufficient
for us. I pray that as I send this to
the prayer group on Facebook in a moment, Lord, I pray that
You would just continue to grow us deeply in love with each other.
Father, that my burdens would not overwhelm me, but I would
cast them upon the shoulders of my Savior. I thank you, Lord, for this wonderful
day. No matter how bad it might have
been in the world, it's been a wonderful day in the hand of
grace. It's been a wonderful day to
know that we stand because Christ laid down His life for us. And
it's in His name we pray. Thank you for listening. We hope
that this message has encouraged you in the faith. Subscribe to
these messages and other teaching resources and podcasts at anchoringfaith.org. More information about the church
can be found at gracetruth.org.