Sermon Transcript:
All right before we begin this one, I love to pray for us. Father, we are so thankful for those who gave the ultimate price so that we can sit in a room like this and be in a country like this where we have freedom to, to worship and to move about. And so Father, I just pray for those in the room right now who are hurting, because they know someone, they loved someone who did not come home. And I pray that you just give such peace to our hearts this weekend, as we thank God, for those who loved us and that we loved and who have gone before us. We ask this in Christ's name, Amen. All right, well, let's begin our part. Second part of our first Corinthians series was really just chapter two, we're going to be in this book for a while, but don't worry, there's a lot of variety. And First Corinthians was written by Paul the Apostle, Paul, and you can follow along every week, we'll, we'll have the scriptures up there. But we'll also you can open up your Bible. And so we'll be in First Corinthians Chapter Two today. But this was written to the church at Corinth, and the church at Corinth is a lot like our city that we find ourselves in here in El Paso. And so there's a lot of parallels a lot of similarities. And I'm going to do my best to try to explain the Scriptures to us so that we can then decide what God has for us today. Well, Paul, is all about the message of wisdom today. And we're going to figure out what that means in First Corinthians chapter two. But I think we can all start out and say, Man, I understand what wisdom and philosophers are. And so we think about this in terms of all the way back into school, and some of y'all may have even had a couple of philosophy classes in college or in other intellectual pursuits. And so you might think of kind of the Great's of the Western tradition, which was Socrates, and then Plato and Aristotle. And so they were sort of in a row there. And those would have those kind of thinkers would have been in the background of Paul's message as he begins in First Corinthians chapter two, because he's gonna say, Listen, I know there's all kinds of intellectual arguments out there, all kinds of philosophical arguments out there. But I am here to tell you about Christ. And so he's going to start out first grade, the attempt to beginning in verse one. And here's how he begins this morning.
When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, you see this term of endearment here to the men and women of the church. I didn't use lofty words, and impressive wisdom to tell you God's secret plan. So again, he could have Paul was when he was saw, especially He was educated at the best religious schools, he would have known how to have some sort of intellectual argument and sort of cut everyone down and have them in the floor. But he did not do that, in talking to them about God's plan. For I decided that while I was with you, I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. So again, talks about that last week, if we're going to boast, we're going to boast in Christ, we're going to exalting Christ. That's what Paul wants us all to sort of be on that same page. And specifically, not just Christ, but his his crucifixion and resurrection. And I can do and weakness, timid and trembling. And when you see that, at first glance, you might be asked yourself, what is Paul talking about? What does it mean I came in, in weakness, that's not the way to, to interact or to, to persuade people. Well, think about this, he is following Christ, and he's calling us as he is following Christ to follow him. That's gonna be a big theme throughout this letter. And that whole idea of weakness and also that similar word, meekness, it's that coming and modeling ourselves after Christ, not toughening up in lording our wisdom or power or authority over others. We have to see that in the Scriptures. And for all of us at any given age. We're all tempted to what power up over people in terms of our intellectual prowess, and so he's trying to say, Listen, I wanted to come to you low. I wanted not to rely on my own strength in my own wisdom. I think that's why he's saying, I can be really quite, quite fearful in the good sense of the word. You know how sometimes you have good fear when you go and you stand before an audience and you're not, you're not, you don't want to mess it up. That's really what Paul's saying here. He's coming in that sort of meekness and weakness, and he's coming with a little bit of trepidation because he knows this is a big deal. And I want to get this gospel, right. He didn't want to be clever and persuasive, but he wanted to rely on the spirit. So we'll see this clear in verses four and following and my message and my preaching, we're very plain. That's what that's what we want to do here at Life Church. We want to make sure that the messages that we give are clear to all of us in the room if we have ears to hear and eyes to see right
isn't using clever and persuasive speech, which we've already said Paul could have done, and they would have been used to. They already had Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and many others who would have been hundreds of years before this 300 BC, or so. We're sitting here talking about 55 ad when Paul's writing, I realized, this is Paul, on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so that you would not trust in human wisdom, but in the power of God. First point I want us to think about this morning is, be careful. What you hook people with now this is sort of a word I went back and forth is this really the best word I wanted to talk about in order to apply this section of Scripture, and I'll give you some reasons why I sort of stayed there. Well, another way of saying this is whatever you win people with is what you've got to continue to do to keep them. We used to say this, and I was a youth minister for many years before I was a senior pastor. And one of the things that we used to always talk about, we always had to be careful with even though we'd love to have fun, and we'd love to do things like we've talked about, and that we do here at our church is we didn't want that, that that sort of dog and pony show that sort of three ring circus to be what we lead in our ministries, because we were keenly aware as youth pastors, that it we sort of always sort of had all these bells and whistles. And we always sort of had this show these these plates that we were spinning to try to amaze and wow, we would have to sort of thing up in order to keep the students coming back. That's why I say we need to be careful what we hook people with. We don't want to do this with intellectual prowess. That's what that's what His concern was. Right? That's what Paul's was. He's I don't want to do that.
And again, I think it's an okay word. Because I think about what Jesus said when he called his disciples his followers out, remember what he told them, he said, I will teach you to be fishers of men and women. And so it is that idea that God is snatching us out of an environment that we're sort of used to think about this evening, quite literally, I know, it's really hard to go fishing in El Paso, you have to drive many hours in certain directions. But I think you understand the concept of being a fish and you become a fish out of water and you are snatched from the pond or the lake or the ocean, or whatever it is, I think it's a good word. And I think we understand this even in other professions, I mean, people who are in sales and all these kinds of things, they understand that whatever you promised people, you better be able to come through with that or to keep that up. So Paul saying, I want to make sure you understand that what I want to lead with what I want to be in the middle with and what I want to end with is the cross of Jesus Christ. I remember how you said last week, we have to be Christ centered in our understanding of First Corinthians and all we need is the word of God and the power of the Spirit that becomes so important. Because here we are, we're seeing in a great place the air conditionings on the lights are working. You know, there's no leaks in the river away from the winds and the elements. And we, we might begin to think, Okay, this is what we need to do church. And it's just simply not true. You know what you need to, to do church or to be around the people of God and to be edified and encourage it. You need the word of God, and you need people.
And preferably people who know and worship and love God, I think about this in terms of yesterday's funeral, I had the privilege of helping late arrest,
or tutto. Okay. And Terry and Amber, they helped serve here and Kid life and other ways. And so, Terry's father, he passed away recently. And one of the things that was so sweet about that service, is that even though Yeah, we had cushions and we had chairs, we had the air conditioning on yesterday, what made it so great and special. It was the fact that we had gathered, the power was in the fact that we had gathered as family and friends that we worshipped, that we prayed, and that we celebrated. We need power. And it comes from the word of God and the people of God gathering together. And again, I'm okay with some of the things that we use to sort of AMP things up and hype things up. But that that is just the aftermath of what our message and where the power really lies. I'm going to illustrate this now for some of y'all. I've got one movie I'm going to use to illustrate my three points today. And for some of y'all who are not born in the 80s or do not know this movie, I am sorry, I am going to use Back to the Future. Okay, is a great movie Robert Zemeckis 1985. The second one was in 8089. And the third one was in 1990. I tried to use a modern day movie with the DC Comics and Shazam and the Marvel guys, I couldn't figure it all out. So I just went back to what I know. Okay. And so the first thing this is, this is a cheesy illustration, and I'm gonna use it this morning. Go ahead. And so if you remember and back to the future, too. He's got that hoverboard, which all of us are still waiting for the hoverboards to come out. They told us that we were only a couple of years away. We're still a couple of years away evident.
Really, and so a member he gets over water and he gets stuck in these, these these pumps, they're sort of saying you need power. And so then they come in the, the antagonists, you don't have to know much about this movie to know that the antagonist is going to come in and sort of punch his lights out. And so he has this, this this power hoverboard and he actually says students, you know, little hinge men and women hook on right, so so they hook on, and I'm using this to say, I want you to think about the power. And the idea that where is the true power found this is just illustrations, all illustrations break down if you push them too far, so I'm not gonna push it any further. This is maybe so you can remember it when you go home. The power is that we need Jesus and we need the Spirit of God living in us. That's where true power is found. If you and I try to move in the world, and persuade people with the claims of Christ, King, anything else besides Jesus, and Him crucified, we will fail is so important because it's not hard to gather a crowd with, with tricks and with simple things. And if you make it comfortable enough, and if the coffee is good enough, and if the people are beautiful enough on stage, or if there's healing going on, or the money's flowing, high number, there's all these different things that you and I could do in order to gather a crowd. But I'm here to tell you history. And Bible tells me that that will ultimately fail. If our emphasis if our power is not on Jesus Christ and Him crucified, it looks like you're succeeding for a little while. But
it is not where the power lies. And we have to realize that what we're talking about here, and this is gonna become clearer as we continue to unfold this passage is the idea that we were not smart enough to somehow discover these things. Remember how Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and all the philosophers and and thinkers think they're like, Hey, I'm going to kind of help you navigate how to view the world self helps all that way, all these kinds of things. And where this is saying, Oh, my gosh, there was came a day there came a time in your life and in mind where God snatched us from the fire, from the idea that we were going the wrong direction, it is not something to be discovered. It is something that is revealed and illuminated to our hearts and minds. That's where the power lies. That makes what we'd said last week, make a lot of sense that there are people who hear the claims of Christ the death, burial, resurrection, say, Yes, I want that Jesus, there are others who think that's foolishness. There are others who find it as a stumbling block. Let's continue on in our passage this morning, verse six says, this right here. Yet, when I am among mature believers, this is Paul saying that listen, when I'm around you, I really want to kind of help you think through these things, these deep things of God. I do speak with words of wisdom. So I'll elevate my language. We all do this. We all have times where I teach academic classes, sometimes I'll teach a small group and the language might be elevated. But when I do that, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world, or the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. No, the wisdom we speak of, is the mystery of God, his his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory,
before the world began, but the rulers of this world have not understood it, if they had they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, No, I have seen no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him. Second point I wants to see this morning is God has given us future promises. God has given us future promises. And that last verse there I'm just gonna tell you, that's my favorite verse. That's my life verse I, I really picked that out of the scriptures. I believe God kind of showed that to me at first Corinthians two nine, some people have lied versus some people don't, I think you don't want to make too much of it or too little of it. But I want to show you the next picture there, where
I have taken a picture of this, this is this is little brands, handwriting. favorite verse 16 years old, and I read it right here on this Bible, I still have my Bible. This is a circa 1997. This was the student Bible that I began to read at 16. And really, God began to speak to me and this was one of the verses that spoke out to me. Now, why did I love that? Well, I can tell you, I think back and I can tell you, I loved it as a young kid because to me, it was all forward looking. I don't know how you are when you are a young man or young woman, but I was ready to take the world by the horns, right? I was ready to lasso the world. I mean, you know, I'm just ready to go I'm ready. Launch me out. And I'm ready to take this on. I don't know who's done what, but I'm gonna make my mark on this world and God is with me and there's nothing that's going to hold me back then. I can't even imagine right
If that's what these words say, I cannot conceive or imagine what God has prepared because I know that I love him. And I don't think that was a wrong way to think because as I walked with Christ, I really do believe that God blessed me in my efforts forward. But now I'm reading as a middle aged 42 year old man, and I'm thinking this verse is still true, I still love it, I still hold to it, in some ways, even still cling to it. But I'm seeing it to the idea that God has chosen and he did reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to me, I'm looking at this sort of now, what is this all mean, this whole idea of, of? No, I have seen no ear has heard. And I think it's true for anyone that's a believer, obviously, the claims of Christ are yes, in Christ Jesus, when we see this, whether they're Old Testament, this is an Old Testament quote from Isaiah 64. Four. But all the promises of God are yes, in Christ Jesus. But what does this mean, this encourages me in my middle age of life that he's not done with me yet. And then I'm beginning to see this and I wanted to sort of break it down to what does this actually mean? Theologically? It's that whole idea that, that that things were hidden, and I say hidden, it's not a mystery to be discovered, right? Sometimes when we think hidden, we're saying, okay, like Sherlock Holmes, like, let's get an investigation, let's go find out. And if we do the right steps, we have enough logic, we'll get to the end. No, it's more the idea that there's a curtain that's been pulled, and that curtain is opening up, God's plan is being revealed. And it's the same way with our minds in our hearts, that God is revealing and showing things to us more and more and more, more revelation, more illumination, as we walk in him as we have faith in him as we look to him. That's why the negative sense of the idea that people who couldn't see and couldn't hear who were they in the New Testament, those were the religious leaders, and those were the people who just couldn't get there. But he's saying to you, and to me, this verse can be true, no, I see, no, yes or no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those of us who love him. Now, I've also sort of gone one step further. And I can imagine it 70 or 80, because I think about this, this was early on in life, I had this verse, I still have it here at 42. I'm thinking about myself at 70, or 80. And I'm speculating here, but I've talked to and listened to some older people and wiser people than me. I think I'll still love this verse. But I think the meaning will probably be most focused on glory on heaven. People who are in the last chapter of life who've been walking with Christ, their whole life or for a season are starting to think, oh, my gosh, God, you've got something prepared for me that's more glorious than I could ever imagine. And thank you, God, and you're beginning to prepare your heart for what's next, you see how a verse like this. And this is a good biblical interpretation moment for you. A verse like this has one interpretation that we're trying to get at. I tried to use Old Testament New Testament, and I tried to show you what I think it actually means in terms of something that's hidden that's now revealed. And I can also get that from the context. But also it has a myriad are numerous applications. So you could read this verse, my verse, If I want to say it that way, my favorite verse, and you may have a different way in which God is using that in your life. Beautiful, great. That's what's so amazing about following Christ is that there's a numerous amount of applications that can come from the scriptures once we begin to understand and ask God to give us wisdom, and illumination to even understand what this means.
All right, here's my next Back to the Future. pic. So this was at the very end of Back to the Future three. And again, illustrations break down if you push them too far, but this is when doc says to them, because really, it's just it's one of those coming of age stories. It's an adventure story. And Marty is supposed to be 16. And he's gotten his car and he's gotten his girl and he's trying to figure all these things out. And he's got his own insecurities about people calling him names and all these kinds of things. And so an accident is avoided. And he's thinking about his future now. And he's wondering, you know, has it all been written? Is it all just fate is it all sort of planned out? Whichever way I'm gonna go, and he sort of says, you know, guess what, you know, your future hasn't been written yet. So make it a good one. And so again, they're thinking about it from a purely movie secular perspective. But I think in Providence, we can understand this in a good sense of the word to say, lean into what God has for you. No matter what mistakes you have made, or think you've made in the past, God's not done with you and me yet. And if we lean into him, and we love him, there is nothing that we can think or imagine, that he may want to do with us. I want to give you one last thing to think about in this section of verses here. Because in our quest, to live for God, viewed put back up the application point in our quest to live for God. Again, what's what's our application when he was a god has given us future promises. In our quest to live for God and the life God has for us we can be tripped up and seduced by the wisdom of this world. You think about this, what we've already here in verse six yet when I'm among
mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world, or the rulers of this world who will soon be forgotten. What is worldly? How do I know if my pursuits are worldly, and I just think about sort of the classic things that have tripped, major leaders up and people in their homes and everybody in between. And that is that sort of a law or that sort of going after power, sex money. If these kinds of things are your aim and my aim, one combination, there are just one of them.
Rest assured, they all make terrible gods and idols right, how many of us could testify over and over again, it may look like people of this world are winning, who are pursuing those things, or who have got those things in some combination or form thereof, but they make for terrible gods and idols and age old sins trip us up. That was true for the religious leaders in Jesus's day. That's true for government, governmental leaders, who served Caesar think about this in terms of how he's saying, that's how Jesus himself got crucified, he's referencing the religious leaders, and the governmental leaders who serve Caesar whom they had to bring Jesus to in order to crucify him. And it's true of our governing leaders. But guess who else this is true of guests who else can get seduced by the lies of greed or power, or sexual promiscuity?
And you write these things that can be whispered in our ears. So we have to have power, we have to have something else that we're combating. That's why we have to hold out to ourselves, the future promises of God that what he's given to us, but who are we? Who are we, we're the ones who are messed up, we're the ones who are screwed up, you're gonna see this true for the Corinthian church, you're gonna see it true for your life, and in my life as well. We are the ones whom Christ has revealed and illuminated our minds to him and our hearts. And what you remember that and were to be woken up by that, and then we're to walk in that second,
here this morning beginning of our sin. But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. Now I want you to notice capital S spirit is a referencing to the Holy Spirit here is a lot of times this word is used for his spirit. Second time searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit. Now that lowercase spirit is somehow what you and I have is like our inner man or inner woman,
and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own spirit. Third time and we have received God's Spirit for time, not the world spirit. So we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, either fifth or sixth time using these spirits words, some time to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. I mean, we're up to eight, I don't know how many times I can count, it all sounds foolish to them, and they can't understand it for only those who are spiritual. Understand what the spirit means nine, those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves can be cannot be evaluated by others, for who can know the Lord's teaching, who knows enough to teach him.
But we understand these things for we have the mind of Christ. What are we talking about here?
All right.
Third and final point this morning, we have a mind that is different because Christ has been revealed to us. I hope you've seen that throughout this hope as you don't just take my word for is that really the application point for this? It absolutely is. Because if you kind of follow the train of thought of Paul's argument this morning, it's exactly where he's heading. You and I are different. Not because we're smarter, not because we figured out how to piece worldly wisdom together, not because we had great teachers or mentors, or we were born in a certain time or culture or city, but because God has chosen to bestow His blessing, love and mercy on you and me. Now we can see. Now we can know what God has for us. All right, this is a really stretched third and final Back to the Future clip this morning. Thank you all for your timing on this. This was a third one or second one fifths there. A lot of people think that they were trying to make him look like Donald Trump. That's the sermon for another day. But here we got Biff here. Marty has to go to him to find out exactly when he took the Grays Sports Almanac Back to the Future, which was in the past, they had to find out a certain date. And so only he knew that date. And only he could reveal that to Marty and then he tries to shoot him and he throws a Frisbee at him. So I told you it was loose. I told you illustrations break down, but you're gonna remember this one I think you're gonna remember about the power. You're gonna remember about understanding and elimination. So please get back to the to the third and final practical point this morning which is we have a mind that is different because Christ has been revealed to us
Spirit was mentioned I told you about 10 or 11 times there more than anywhere else in the book. And this is important because those of you who have read first Corinthians or perused it and are interested in sort of things of church and how the spiritual gifts and all the prophecies sort of all works together, that's going to come up. And we're going to address that in first Corinthians chapter 12, in First Corinthians 14, but the spirit is used more hear that actual word, Holy Spirit, capital as Spirit, then those two places at all, because those places are concerned about gifts and service. And like I said, we'll get there in chapter 12. And chapter 14 of this book, here, the Spirit's work is around what I'll give you three things, I think it's around lowercase revelation, that God is revealing stuff to us knowledge, and discernment. This is so important. And Paul's being so intentional here with his language, as you would expect him to be very careful theologian that God has eliminated himself to the heart of the Spirit's work is to make much about Jesus, Jesus told us this right, that he would go, and then the Holy Spirit would come Trinity action here, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Jesus would be what he would ascend up into the heavens, the Holy Spirit would come down, and that Spirits work was to make much of Jesus. Do you ever find yourself in a setting where they're all about trying to always worship and uplift the spirit, that's not the Spirit's job to make much of Jesus, Jesus told us that would be the case, it will lead
us away from division and pride and towards humility and unity, this is so important. If we really tap in to the very spirit of God that lives and reigns in us and moves throughout the earth, we will find ourselves moving away being led away from division and pride and towards humility and unity. How can I say that? Read the whole book, just the chapter before the chapter, we're in the chapter afterwards. And you're going to see that Paul is so concerned about these kinds of things, that he wants us to be united, he wanted the Corinthian church to be united. He wants us to be humble. He wanted the Corinthian church to be humble. That's where the power lies. See, we think the power lies with with money and capital P power that we can lord over people, or with sexual promiscuity, or whatever. And he's saying no, listen, that's not what Jesus modeled for us. That's not what I tried to model for you. If you want, what you say you want, which is peace, love, and joy, and all these fruits of the Spirit, keyword, their spirit, the way to achieve that is to lean into one, lean into humility, and unity and push away division, and pride, we cannot just follow our heart.
I hate to say it, I'm a child of the 90s that was over and over again told us and still in some form is a lie that's out there, we have to understand that there's the true self and the false self. You and I were creating the image of God. And the whole point of Corinthians is he's trying to call say, remember who you are, I know you're way off base. But remember who you are. The true self and the false self, the Spirit's work in the flesh is work. We can make choices every day, am I going to lean into what God has me with by the by the Spirit of God? Or am I going to resort back to what my flesh wants? Or the wise and the foolish? Remember our series on James, I know it was a while back. But if any of us lacks wisdom, what do we do? We are to ask him God who freely and generously grants all things and it will be given to him or to her, James one, verse five. Not only is there wisdom and foolishness, but we understand that there's evil hanging out there, too, I get that. It's not a secret code sort of reserved for a priestly class. But what I'm talking about here is the power, the elimination, the revelation that we would want to live our lives God honoring, it's not some sort of secret code that's reserved for the super spiritual, these truths are able to be found and to walk in for you and for me, is able for a little, little brand at 16 years old to grab his Bible and, and to understand and God was speaking to me get then nameko right now at 42. God's still speaking to me, he's still using me, but by God's grace, and I pray that he uses me until he takes me home. But it's revealed to those of us who just have faith, who have believed if you want the ticket, if you want the ticket, it's believed it's faith. Want to have a mind that is different because Christ has been revealed to us. Those people can't see it.
And we look like fools to the world and we want to be real clear here. What are we doing right now? We're gathering together on a Sunday morning. Many of our community in our city has slipped in. That's why it's always so easy to get to church. The Highways are free, except for construction because they say well, no one's on the roads. We'll do construction at this time.
Or we're the ones who give our money to the church.
or to the cause of Christ, it looks foolish to the outside people Wow can leave you do that, where the time people that come to other gatherings besides Sunday morning, we take elements of bread and wine. And we're gonna do that until Jesus returns that was still scoffed at in the first century, no doubt, scoffed at today were the ones who believe in the resurrection from the dead. And we believe the grave is not the end again, that was questionable in the first century. That's questionable today, even though we have to be in adherence of Christianity or so around the world. We can't live and think and submit ourselves anymore to the moral ambiguity of unbelievers. That's why he says in that in that verse there, I don't know if you if you saw that, verse 15, those who are spiritual, can evaluate all things, but they cannot be evaluated by others. You see what he's saying that he's saying that like, it makes no sense for us to submit ourselves in terms of understanding our moral responsibilities to those who don't have the mind of Christ, you don't have the Spirit of Christ. That's why Paul, he's going to address things like sleeping with relatives later on in the book, he's gonna address things like shooting people in the church, by what, by dragging them into a governmental authorities, because I hear you deal with this because we can't or I can't make some sense. Why? Because spiritual spirituality, which is what he's talking about here, what you really means clinging to Christ is something that God has done in your heart and mind, and those who are outside Christ, they don't get it. Now, we don't want to use spiritual like the world's definition, like, Oh, I'm open, I'm spiritual. I'm not committed to any one religion. Now, again, there's nothing wrong with seeking, we've all been there. But at a certain point, we won't ask God, what do you want to do in my life, I want to believe helped me in my own belief, we've all been there in terms of seeking but we're not meant to stay there.
But that's not what Paul's talking about here. He wants you and I to see that we are either seeing with the eyes of Christ or either having the mind of Christ as you were he closes this morning.
Or we don't, and that makes the difference for everything. But if you find yourself thinking, Man, I get this. The more you talk, the more I come around your church and other churches, the more I listen about God and things of God through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm beginning to get it things are beginning to click, I think it's good. And I think it's in fact, good news. Beautiful. That means God is working in your life, by grace through faith, but get this realize, you and I didn't come to Christ, or you're not even being drawn to Christ right now. Because one day you and I got smart enough to figure it out. No, it is because God in His mercy revealed Christ to you and to me, I go back to where I began. First Corinthians two nine, no, I've seen no ears heard. no mind has conceived or imagined what God has prepared for those of us who love him. If that is hooking you this morning in the good sense of the word, if that's drawing you this morning, that means Jesus is calling right connect the soil we learned last week and what we're going to learn next week, some will think this is foolish, that we cling to this word to this Christ. Some you may be included, might find this a big stumbling block, I just can't I can't get over whatever aspect it is of Christianity, but to some. And I know for many of you, maybe some of you are considering this morning, it is the power and the wisdom of God. Oh, may that be true for us this day, in all the days of our life. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank you how you didn't leave us wandering or wondering what you have for us but you have revealed your place and your plan to us in Christ. We ask that as we continue to consider your claims and that we desire to walk in wisdom that you began to give us more and more elimination revelation. The father were keenly aware that as we have received you as Lord, we are called to walk in you. So Father, give us give us right now, right now in our seats, where we got to come to the altar give us the grace and the belief and the faith to walk in obedience to that which you've revealed to us thus far. And we trust that that faith and that belief will carry us home. We ask this in Christ's name and for your glory. Amen.
