WEBVTT 00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:15.460 Awesome. 00:00:15.540 --> 00:00:18.740 It is good to be together this morning. 00:00:19.460 --> 00:00:22.660 It is officially the month of August. 00:00:23.380 --> 00:00:24.500 And I'm not going to do it. 00:00:24.579 --> 00:00:26.899 I'm not going to remind us that summer is now halfway over. 00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:28.500 I'm not going to do that. 00:00:28.740 --> 00:00:33.939 Instead, I am going to announce what we are launching this morning: an August campaign. 00:00:34.100 --> 00:00:35.700 It's going to come up on the screen. 00:00:35.859 --> 00:00:38.420 It is called One More Row. 00:00:39.140 --> 00:00:40.579 Or one row more. 00:00:40.820 --> 00:00:43.140 I knew I had those two words mixed up. 00:00:43.460 --> 00:00:44.260 One row. 00:00:44.340 --> 00:00:46.740 That's why I asked for it on the screen, but they wouldn't help me. 00:00:46.980 --> 00:00:47.780 One row more. 00:00:48.019 --> 00:00:50.260 Now apparently this comes from a Le Miz song. 00:00:50.420 --> 00:00:55.700 I don't know the Le Miz song, but in our pre-service meeting, Joel did a great 10 out of 10 rendition of it. 00:00:55.859 --> 00:01:00.180 And so if you don't know it, you can ask him after the service to do that rendition. 00:01:00.579 --> 00:01:03.140 Here's what we know about church seating. 00:01:03.379 --> 00:01:06.340 Everybody loves the back three rows. 00:01:06.820 --> 00:01:11.859 If you're in the back three rows, you are divinely chosen and favored this morning. 00:01:12.260 --> 00:01:16.900 And there is a bubble of protection on the front two rows. 00:01:17.140 --> 00:01:19.460 What we aptly call the spit pit. 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:36.420 And uh what we're asking you to do in the month of August is to serve the Lord and to serve the church, and specifically to serve newcomers to our church by doing something so simple, moving one row forward. 00:01:36.579 --> 00:01:40.180 Now, if you are at the front row, this isn't for you, okay? 00:01:40.420 --> 00:01:43.540 You're already righteous and your place is in heaven. 00:01:43.700 --> 00:01:47.620 But if you are anywhere behind the front row, we're asking you to do something simple. 00:01:47.700 --> 00:01:50.579 For the month of August, just move one row forward. 00:01:50.740 --> 00:01:53.060 And what this does is it's actually really sweet. 00:01:53.219 --> 00:01:56.180 It makes us experience what a family experience is. 00:01:56.260 --> 00:02:03.060 I don't know if you've ever sat with your family at a table too big, you know, and you say pass the mashed potatoes, and they gotta stand up and walk. 00:02:03.380 --> 00:02:05.299 It just doesn't work for your family. 00:02:05.380 --> 00:02:07.219 And there is a sweetness of being close. 00:02:07.299 --> 00:02:08.979 Now, I'm not talking about too close, okay? 00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:13.379 I don't want you to smell, you know, the sweaty armpits of your neighbor beside you. 00:02:13.539 --> 00:02:23.859 But but there is a sweetness to being close, to hearing each other sing, to not feel like you're, you know, in the middle of a football stadium that's deserted singing by yourself. 00:02:24.099 --> 00:02:28.739 There's a sweetness to that, but it also really serves the new people that are coming to our church. 00:02:28.899 --> 00:02:38.659 That you can imagine coming to a new church, how how difficult that already is, and how much more difficult it is when the place that you have to come to is the very front, middle row. 00:02:38.819 --> 00:02:44.739 And so we would ask for you to serve our church, to serve our church family in the month of August, move one row forward. 00:02:44.819 --> 00:02:47.299 And next week we await the song of Joel. 00:02:47.379 --> 00:02:58.099 He's gonna sing it for us next week as he no, he won't, but if you have your copy of God's word, you can open it to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 26 to 31. 00:02:59.060 --> 00:03:09.780 If you don't have a copy of God's word, the ushers are making their way down the aisle now, and you can slip your hand in the air, and they will get one into your hands, which you can keep as our gift to you. 00:03:10.899 --> 00:03:20.019 There are some things in childhood that I'm very glad we left behind, and maybe at the top of my list is Captain's Pick. 00:03:20.419 --> 00:03:21.939 You remember Captain's Pick? 00:03:22.019 --> 00:03:28.099 You lined up on the field, there were two captains picking for two separate teams. 00:03:29.139 --> 00:03:31.699 Now, I was not an athletic kid. 00:03:32.019 --> 00:03:34.419 I had a terrible combination. 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:40.819 I had and still have the competitive fire of someone who desperately wants to win. 00:03:41.060 --> 00:03:45.219 Meanwhile, I had the athletic coordination of one of those camping folding chairs. 00:03:45.299 --> 00:03:46.659 You know what I'm talking about? 00:03:47.139 --> 00:03:49.619 It was not a good combination. 00:03:50.259 --> 00:03:53.539 And it doesn't get you very far anywhere in life. 00:03:53.699 --> 00:04:09.139 It certainly held no clout with the captains of the playground who had been handed this sacred task of assembling a team that would lead them to playground victory. 00:04:10.019 --> 00:04:12.739 So I was constantly picked last. 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:18.740 A few times I wasn't picked last, it was only because I got to be the captain that week. 00:04:18.899 --> 00:04:23.379 And when I was the captain, I ran the same brutal calculus that was run on me. 00:04:23.540 --> 00:04:25.379 I picked the strong first. 00:04:25.699 --> 00:04:28.180 I picked the best first. 00:04:28.899 --> 00:04:32.020 And I built the team that would win. 00:04:32.420 --> 00:04:37.620 Now I was nine years old at the time, and I already knew exactly how the world works. 00:04:37.939 --> 00:04:40.980 Strength is what gets chosen. 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:46.740 A few months ago I was on Facebook, and I always say this, that is always a mistake. 00:04:47.140 --> 00:04:52.100 I was there, I found a high school reunion that thankfully I wasn't invited to. 00:04:52.259 --> 00:04:56.340 And I clicked into it and I scrolled up the names, and something shocked me. 00:04:56.500 --> 00:05:00.980 I had totally forgotten, but more than 90% of these people. 00:05:01.140 --> 00:05:05.060 I hadn't even thought about their existence once since high school. 00:05:05.140 --> 00:05:18.020 And it struck me all these people that were the strongest, that were the best, that were the smartest, that were picked first were so quickly forgotten. 00:05:18.420 --> 00:05:21.780 All of them were gone from my memory. 00:05:22.020 --> 00:05:27.220 And there's a biblical principle underneath that that I want you to see this morning and over the next coming weeks. 00:05:27.300 --> 00:05:33.060 And the biblical principle is this that nothing that comes from strength will last. 00:05:35.379 --> 00:05:38.900 Nothing that comes then from weakness will be forgotten. 00:05:39.620 --> 00:05:40.900 You hear that again, loved one. 00:05:41.060 --> 00:05:48.180 Nothing that comes from strength will last, but nothing that comes from weakness will be forgotten. 00:05:50.259 --> 00:05:55.379 Because of that, this is the news I'm praying that you will take hold of this morning. 00:05:55.540 --> 00:05:59.939 That when God picks his team, he picks the weak. 00:06:03.220 --> 00:06:05.300 Wanted the weak. 00:06:05.620 --> 00:06:09.140 God could not be more clear about who he is looking for. 00:06:09.379 --> 00:06:12.180 He chooses the weak on purpose. 00:06:12.500 --> 00:06:19.620 Now, this is the first of three sermons over the next three weeks that will be preached in a new series called Strength Through Weakness. 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:40.180 Over the next three weeks, Adam, Mike, and myself will walk through three passages in 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and by the Spirit's help, draw out a thread that runs through both of these books that your weakness, loved one, is not a barrier to your calling. 00:06:40.420 --> 00:06:44.340 It is the very thing that God is looking for. 00:06:46.180 --> 00:06:48.819 My prayer then for this series is specific. 00:06:48.980 --> 00:06:55.780 First, my prayer is to speak pastorally to a set of phrases that we hear constantly in this church. 00:06:55.939 --> 00:07:06.819 We hear it from people who have embraced belief in the gospel while also embracing maybe what the world says about strength. 00:07:07.379 --> 00:07:12.740 In fact, I want you to see if any of these sayings have ever come out of your mouth. 00:07:12.819 --> 00:07:15.140 This is gonna come up onto the screen. 00:07:15.460 --> 00:07:16.900 Maybe you've said this before. 00:07:17.140 --> 00:07:20.020 I'm not really the leader type. 00:07:22.420 --> 00:07:30.580 Maybe you've been called into something and your response has been, well, once I've got my life together, I'll get more involved. 00:07:31.780 --> 00:07:38.740 Maybe your response is, well, well, there's people here who are more qualified than me. 00:07:40.900 --> 00:07:42.660 I I just don't know enough. 00:07:42.980 --> 00:07:44.259 There are other people who know more. 00:07:44.420 --> 00:07:45.860 I don't know enough. 00:07:46.900 --> 00:07:48.420 I'll just serve in the background. 00:07:48.500 --> 00:07:51.220 I mean, in the background, I can't mess anything up. 00:07:53.300 --> 00:07:57.939 Every one of these sentences, it sounds a little bit like humility, doesn't it? 00:07:58.100 --> 00:08:03.460 Oh, look at me, I am so lowly and despised, and there are other people who are better than me. 00:08:03.620 --> 00:08:05.540 Not one of them is humility. 00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:20.980 Each one of them is a confession that we still believe that God works with strength, and that we are waiting to have some strength before we make ourselves available to Him. 00:08:22.340 --> 00:08:32.340 The second thing at the heart of this series comes from something very personal that I watched happen to 12 men in this church and to myself as well. 00:08:32.740 --> 00:08:37.139 In 2025, we began what we call the eldership cohort. 00:08:37.220 --> 00:08:39.379 It consisted of 12 men. 00:08:39.539 --> 00:08:52.740 The whole cohort was built on Paul's challenge to Timothy, where he says, if anyone desires eldership, he desires a noble task. 00:08:53.139 --> 00:09:05.300 And the challenge that we put in front of this man is that Scripture's primary calling to future would-be elders and leaders in the church is not your strength or your talent. 00:09:06.100 --> 00:09:24.740 The primary calling that Paul points to is that you be desirous, that you want the work, that you're willing to be shaped, that you trust that if God calls you into something, He will also equip you for it. 00:09:25.300 --> 00:09:27.220 Now, 12 men heard that call. 00:09:27.300 --> 00:09:29.220 They said yes to it. 00:09:29.700 --> 00:09:32.420 It was an incredibly courageous thing to do. 00:09:32.580 --> 00:09:36.659 Not one of those men was sitting in this room saying, I deserve to be here. 00:09:37.460 --> 00:09:39.539 At our very first meeting, I asked one question. 00:09:39.779 --> 00:09:42.980 I said to each of the men, we ran around the table and answered the question. 00:09:43.060 --> 00:09:50.420 I said, What do you think is the one roadbloc to you as you pursue the path to becoming an elder? 00:09:50.899 --> 00:09:59.220 Now I'm not hyperbolizing when I say that every single man in that room had the exact same answer. 00:10:00.019 --> 00:10:08.340 Our jaws dropped as we went around the room and realized that the same roadblock was true for me, it was true for these men. 00:10:09.940 --> 00:10:11.139 You ready for it? 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:14.100 It was inadequacy. 00:10:15.300 --> 00:10:18.019 It was a sense of weakness. 00:10:19.220 --> 00:10:24.259 It was not time, it was not doctrine, it was not their marriages or their schedules. 00:10:24.420 --> 00:10:33.300 Every man in that room said the same version that the calling is bigger than what I have. 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:39.860 And over the last several months, I have watched God do something fascinating in these men's lives. 00:10:40.100 --> 00:10:50.340 He has taken the exact thing that those men mentioned as disqualification, and he has used it for a as a stage for his glory. 00:10:51.139 --> 00:10:54.580 His strength has then been on display in their weakness. 00:10:54.820 --> 00:11:01.700 Men who never imagined teaching, who, if I had asked them before this cohort, said, Hey, would you ever find yourself in a teaching position? 00:11:01.860 --> 00:11:03.620 They have taught at men's ministry. 00:11:03.779 --> 00:11:07.539 There are several men teaching in our kids' ministry this month. 00:11:07.700 --> 00:11:12.580 They they I'm Lord willing, some of them will be teaching in the pulpit this year. 00:11:14.019 --> 00:11:22.180 There are men who have stepped up to lead their homes in ways that they had convinced they could not do. 00:11:27.460 --> 00:11:35.060 Not that God is gracious to use weak people despite their weakness, that God only uses weakness. 00:11:35.700 --> 00:11:46.259 God chooses weakness on purpose because weakness is the only surface that his glory displays clearly on. 00:11:47.379 --> 00:11:49.300 This then is what I'm asking the Lord. 00:11:49.379 --> 00:11:53.940 In 2027, we will begin another eldership cohort. 00:11:54.019 --> 00:12:00.180 And I'm sitting here wondering which of the men in this church need to take up this calling. 00:12:00.420 --> 00:12:06.259 Maybe right now you're thinking, oh, well, it might be me, but this list of you know disqualifications come. 00:12:06.500 --> 00:12:07.620 I could never do that. 00:12:07.779 --> 00:12:09.220 I would never be enough. 00:12:09.379 --> 00:12:11.139 I'll never be an elder. 00:12:11.300 --> 00:12:30.659 And yet, in the lineup of men that God is choosing, I can tell you that the men he is choosing are the men who answer like that, whose weakness is so clearly on display that their strength can be attributed to nothing other than God's glory. 00:12:31.620 --> 00:12:36.980 My heart then is not just for men that might take up this cohort, it's for every one of us. 00:12:37.220 --> 00:12:50.580 Every single one of us in this room believes that we have something that disqualifies us from taking that next step into ministry usefulness. 00:12:51.700 --> 00:12:55.139 The thing that we would never volunteer to the Lord. 00:12:55.620 --> 00:13:00.259 The area where you are certain you have nothing to offer. 00:13:01.779 --> 00:13:07.139 The quality that you have been treating as the reason that God can't use you. 00:13:08.340 --> 00:13:13.700 This morning I want you to understand it is the very reason that God chose you. 00:13:14.340 --> 00:13:17.779 God's glory has one stage, loved one. 00:13:18.019 --> 00:13:21.860 And it is not your strength, it is your weakness. 00:13:22.980 --> 00:13:27.379 That brings us then to the church that needed to hear this the most. 00:13:27.940 --> 00:13:31.379 Corinth was a city that was obsessed with status. 00:13:31.539 --> 00:13:54.740 If you walked into the city of Corinth and specifically this had seeped into the church, you would come very quickly to understand that it ran on a currency of how well you could speak, of how great your reputation was, of knowing the right people, and the church, being in the city of Corinth, had absorbed this logic fully. 00:13:55.460 --> 00:14:11.779 They had begun sorting themselves, and and in the context of chapter one, Paul actually says, some of you are boasting about well, listen, I follow Cephas and I follow Paul, and my teacher is better than your teacher, and his reputation is greater than your teacher's reputation. 00:14:11.940 --> 00:14:17.860 And you're sorting yourself, categorizing yourself according to the strength of men. 00:14:20.740 --> 00:14:27.940 Well, Paul writes in six verses in 1 Corinthians 1, 26 to 31, takes the whole thing apart. 00:14:28.019 --> 00:14:29.700 And I want to read it with you this morning. 00:14:29.779 --> 00:14:37.300 And as we do, would you stand with us as we honor this as the true and living word of God being spoken to us? 00:14:42.259 --> 00:14:47.300 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26 to 31. 00:14:48.340 --> 00:14:50.659 For consider your calling, brothers. 00:14:50.899 --> 00:14:58.580 Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 00:14:58.899 --> 00:15:02.100 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. 00:15:02.259 --> 00:15:05.620 God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 00:15:05.860 --> 00:15:17.779 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 00:15:18.580 --> 00:15:28.740 Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification and redemption. 00:15:29.139 --> 00:15:35.220 So that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. 00:15:35.700 --> 00:15:38.340 This is the word of the Lord, you can grab your seat. 00:15:43.700 --> 00:15:48.180 Here's what Paul gives us in these six versions, verses. 00:15:49.139 --> 00:15:57.139 Tells us about the reality of our calling, the reason for our calling, and the reward of our calling. 00:15:57.460 --> 00:16:06.580 Now, before Paul tells you what God is doing through your weakness, he makes you look at what God has already done with your weakness. 00:16:07.860 --> 00:16:12.019 He points at us and he says, Look how God has already chosen. 00:16:12.659 --> 00:16:14.980 It's the first thing I want you to see this morning. 00:16:15.060 --> 00:16:18.580 It's the reality, God chooses the weak. 00:16:19.300 --> 00:16:26.659 Notice this is Paul's remedy for our upside-down assumption that strength is what God wants for us. 00:16:26.899 --> 00:16:32.019 Paul says in verse 26, consider your calling. 00:16:32.740 --> 00:16:34.500 Consider your calling. 00:16:34.659 --> 00:16:42.259 If you want to dismantle this upside-down idea that God wants strength from us, just consider for a moment your calling. 00:16:42.420 --> 00:16:49.700 Now, by this point in the letter, Paul has already talked about the calling of every Christian into the kingdom of God. 00:16:50.500 --> 00:16:52.899 The first time he talks about it is in verse 9. 00:16:52.980 --> 00:16:56.659 In fact, I want you to look up or to flip back and look at verse 9 with me. 00:16:56.820 --> 00:16:57.860 Look at what Paul says. 00:16:58.019 --> 00:16:59.300 Our eyes are on the text. 00:16:59.539 --> 00:17:11.460 God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship, into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:17:11.619 --> 00:17:13.059 What is Paul saying? 00:17:13.220 --> 00:17:22.900 There is not a single Christian in the history of humanity who has ever been called on the basis of their own merit. 00:17:24.420 --> 00:17:31.059 Every Christian is called on the basis of God's faithfulness. 00:17:31.940 --> 00:17:37.059 Your calling, Paul says, is not a statement about your qualifications. 00:17:37.380 --> 00:17:42.099 Your calling, Paul says, is a statement of God's character. 00:17:42.259 --> 00:17:45.299 You are called by God's faithfulness. 00:17:45.460 --> 00:17:47.620 That is the ground of the call. 00:17:47.779 --> 00:17:50.819 You did not make the team on tryouts. 00:17:52.180 --> 00:17:53.460 You are here. 00:17:55.620 --> 00:17:59.700 Because the only thing on your resume was God's faithfulness. 00:18:00.579 --> 00:18:01.940 That's the ground of the call. 00:18:02.019 --> 00:18:07.059 Look then at verse 24 with me, where Paul talks again about the call. 00:18:07.380 --> 00:18:14.180 But we preach, Paul says, we preach Christ crucified, verse 23. 00:18:14.579 --> 00:18:26.980 A stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. 00:18:27.220 --> 00:18:30.099 The same message, Paul says, it goes out. 00:18:30.259 --> 00:18:35.299 The same crucified Christ is preached to two different groups. 00:18:35.460 --> 00:18:36.500 What is the difference? 00:18:36.660 --> 00:18:38.980 Well, some are really intelligent. 00:18:39.779 --> 00:18:42.099 And some have grown up in a Christian family. 00:18:42.259 --> 00:18:45.059 Paul says, no, it has nothing to do with intelligence. 00:18:45.140 --> 00:18:45.940 And don't you agree? 00:18:46.019 --> 00:18:49.460 You're not here because you're smarter than your unsaved neighbor. 00:18:50.019 --> 00:18:54.900 And it says, no, no, Paul says, no, it has nothing to do with Christian heritage. 00:18:55.059 --> 00:19:01.460 It has everything to do, loved one, look at the text with that you were called. 00:19:04.579 --> 00:19:06.819 This is what accounts for the difference. 00:19:07.140 --> 00:19:11.940 Paul tells you, to those who are called, it is the power of God. 00:19:12.099 --> 00:19:20.660 It is the single variable in your salvation, the greatest foundation for the only foundation for your salvation. 00:19:20.819 --> 00:19:22.900 It is not how great your church is. 00:19:22.980 --> 00:19:25.059 Listen, I love our redemption kids ministry. 00:19:25.220 --> 00:19:29.220 We have the best redemption ministry in the whole entire world. 00:19:29.380 --> 00:19:30.259 Am I biased? 00:19:30.420 --> 00:19:30.660 Yes. 00:19:30.819 --> 00:19:31.779 Do I believe it? 00:19:32.019 --> 00:19:32.660 Yes. 00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:40.740 And yet, not one single kid in that ministry will be saved because they are part of a great kids' ministry. 00:19:40.900 --> 00:19:49.940 They will be saved because the only variable is this: Are you supernaturally powerfully called by the voice of God? 00:19:50.259 --> 00:20:10.099 Has the same voice that said, Let there be light, and light had no choice but to erupt out of nothing, called into the darkness of your heart, and said, Let there be light, and when there was no spiritual life erupting in your heart was the light of salvation in Jesus Christ. 00:20:13.380 --> 00:20:16.339 It is the effective call of God. 00:20:16.660 --> 00:20:18.660 This is what that means for you. 00:20:18.819 --> 00:20:34.819 If the cross makes sense to you, if you worship God because of the wonder of what a man executed on a Roman cross 2,000 years ago strikes you as, it's not because you're smarter than your neighbor. 00:20:34.980 --> 00:20:44.500 It's not because you grew up with Christian heritage, it is entirely because you were summoned to the cross by the call of God. 00:20:46.740 --> 00:21:04.339 I recently heard the testimony of a woman in our church, and her life had come to a point where she knew and felt with every fiber of her being that what she had been doing her entire life would no longer sustain her. 00:21:05.700 --> 00:21:07.940 She knew she needed help. 00:21:10.980 --> 00:21:13.700 She was not in denial about that, so she went looking. 00:21:13.940 --> 00:21:21.220 She tried therapy, she read books, she she listened to every podcast that the algorithm could find her. 00:21:21.779 --> 00:21:27.460 She was doing what a sensible person does when their life begins to fall apart. 00:21:27.620 --> 00:21:33.940 She was looking for help and gathering the best wisdom available. 00:21:34.339 --> 00:21:42.019 Now, she had heard of Jesus and she had even grown up in a church, but in that church, she didn't know Jesus. 00:21:42.579 --> 00:21:46.660 She knew details about him, she had factual facts about him. 00:21:46.900 --> 00:21:49.140 Have you ever heard that before about a factual fact? 00:21:49.299 --> 00:21:53.140 Well, when you don't know what the word you're looking for is, that's the kind of stuff you make up. 00:21:56.180 --> 00:21:59.220 What she never had was a living relationship with Jesus. 00:22:00.099 --> 00:22:12.500 She sat with me and recounted that every time she would turn to a thing, it would work, except that there would be this unsettling feeling in her that it wasn't the right thing. 00:22:12.660 --> 00:22:14.420 And it would work for a certain amount of time. 00:22:15.059 --> 00:22:17.460 Until it just absolutely wouldn't work at all. 00:22:17.620 --> 00:22:20.019 And she would reach out to the next thing. 00:22:20.259 --> 00:22:29.539 Thing after thing, she turned to trying to find help, but only ever temporarily satisfying the itch of what her soul was longing for. 00:22:29.700 --> 00:22:38.819 And she could not tell you what she was looking for until she sat in the living room of another lady in our church. 00:22:39.860 --> 00:22:43.299 And this lady explained the gospel to her. 00:22:44.339 --> 00:22:46.819 And she met Jesus. 00:22:48.259 --> 00:22:51.460 Now, what can explain a testimony like that? 00:22:51.620 --> 00:22:53.779 She was not looking for Jesus. 00:22:53.940 --> 00:22:54.819 She saw Jesus. 00:22:55.460 --> 00:22:56.660 I've already tried that. 00:22:56.819 --> 00:22:59.700 That religion doesn't make any sense for me. 00:22:59.860 --> 00:23:11.460 Nothing in her search was pointing her that direction, apart from, I believe we can look back and say, the Holy Spirit of God, who gave her this unsettling sense every time she reached something that wasn't it. 00:23:11.620 --> 00:23:20.259 And when the effective call of God called her from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, everything was different. 00:23:23.380 --> 00:23:25.220 It's the one explanation. 00:23:25.620 --> 00:23:27.220 Paul just gave it to us. 00:23:27.460 --> 00:23:31.380 God is faithful by whom she was called. 00:23:31.539 --> 00:23:38.740 And she walked past everything that the world says is wisdom into the world, what the world calls foolish. 00:23:38.900 --> 00:23:53.140 And when she arrived, it was the power of God at work in her life, bringing spiritual life where there was nothing but spiritual death, which is why Paul can then say, Consider your own calling, loved one. 00:23:53.860 --> 00:23:55.380 Consider your own calling. 00:23:55.539 --> 00:23:58.259 Do any of us have a different testimony? 00:23:58.579 --> 00:24:02.420 Have any of us arrived here and said, Listen, I found it? 00:24:03.059 --> 00:24:04.500 It was the Father. 00:24:04.900 --> 00:24:10.019 It was the Father who drew us to him, who called us to life. 00:24:10.900 --> 00:24:12.579 We see it in verse 26 again. 00:24:12.660 --> 00:24:14.180 Look at what he continues to say. 00:24:14.339 --> 00:24:16.099 For consider your calling, brothers. 00:24:16.259 --> 00:24:24.579 Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many of you were powerful, not many of you were of noble birth. 00:24:25.620 --> 00:24:28.660 Now notice here that Paul does not say none. 00:24:29.380 --> 00:24:33.380 Paul says, as I look around this church in Corinth, there are not many. 00:24:33.539 --> 00:24:35.620 Now, Corinth, this was the exact issue. 00:24:35.779 --> 00:24:38.900 Corinth had some people with credentials. 00:24:40.180 --> 00:24:42.019 That was precisely the problem. 00:24:42.579 --> 00:24:49.620 The few who were strong had become the standard the rest were measuring themselves up against. 00:24:49.779 --> 00:24:58.900 And in a church where everyone was called with nothing to bring, people started to have scorecards, measuring the things that they could then bring. 00:24:59.299 --> 00:25:01.140 It was absolutely absurd. 00:25:03.059 --> 00:25:05.059 Look at what they were measuring themselves by. 00:25:05.220 --> 00:25:06.660 Paul says it in verse 26. 00:25:06.819 --> 00:25:08.500 Not many of them were wise. 00:25:08.660 --> 00:25:12.660 To be wise meant you could argue you had a rhetorical ability. 00:25:12.740 --> 00:25:17.700 It is the very foundation to which Paul writes the letter to Corinth. 00:25:17.860 --> 00:25:20.579 He deals with it in the first two chapters. 00:25:21.220 --> 00:25:24.980 Corinth was measuring its ministers by how well they performed. 00:25:25.220 --> 00:25:30.500 They were looking to people who were powerful, they had influence, and people wanted to be around them. 00:25:30.740 --> 00:25:33.620 They were looking towards people who were of noble birth. 00:25:33.940 --> 00:25:38.500 Your family name, you walked into a room and immediately it meant something. 00:25:40.099 --> 00:25:48.019 Now we don't need to leave those categories in the first century to admit that you and I have our own scorecard, don't we? 00:25:48.660 --> 00:25:50.259 Don't you have a scorecard? 00:25:50.420 --> 00:25:54.500 I mean, you probably have never actually printed it out on like an Excel document. 00:25:54.579 --> 00:25:56.900 Some of you guys love Excel, so maybe you have. 00:25:57.539 --> 00:26:06.420 Don't you have a scorecard, though, that you kind of quietly hold up against other people's lives where you say, well, this is what a strong Christian looks like? 00:26:07.620 --> 00:26:14.339 How often, and even in this church, have you looked around the room and asked the question, well, where's the one who has it all together? 00:26:15.779 --> 00:26:16.900 Where's the person? 00:26:17.059 --> 00:26:22.180 I'm looking for the person whose marriage looks from the outside, what I want mine to look like. 00:26:22.819 --> 00:26:25.779 Where's the person who always knows what the Bible says? 00:26:26.099 --> 00:26:35.539 Where's the family whose kids behave, who's financially set, who appears to be running their life in the way that the Christian life is supposed to look? 00:26:37.620 --> 00:26:40.980 We look for that person and we compare ourselves to these people. 00:26:41.140 --> 00:26:43.460 Sometimes these people don't even actually exist. 00:26:43.620 --> 00:26:51.140 Other times they're kind of like these mirages of these people's lives that we kind of imagine, well, this is probably what their life is like. 00:26:51.220 --> 00:26:58.420 But but have you ever looked at yourself and just concluded I am broken in a way that other people just simply are not? 00:26:59.940 --> 00:27:04.819 I struggle in a way that other people do not struggle. 00:27:05.299 --> 00:27:11.140 I mean, other people they have their anger, they have their appetite, they have their phone. 00:27:11.299 --> 00:27:12.660 It's all under control. 00:27:12.980 --> 00:27:13.940 I do not. 00:27:14.980 --> 00:27:18.579 Other people are consistent in their devotions. 00:27:18.660 --> 00:27:25.220 Like they started a Bible reading plan in January, and they're on August 2nd today, and I cannot believe that because that's not where I am. 00:27:28.980 --> 00:27:31.220 Other people get over their sin. 00:27:31.539 --> 00:27:34.019 I've been struggling with this sin for so long. 00:27:35.460 --> 00:27:37.779 We each have that instinct, don't we? 00:27:37.940 --> 00:27:43.620 We assume everyone else is the standard and we are the exception. 00:27:46.259 --> 00:27:52.579 That their struggle is normal, that our struggle is somehow disqualifying. 00:27:54.339 --> 00:27:58.339 This is the thing about that instinct that Paul wants us to understand. 00:27:59.059 --> 00:28:00.579 It's not neutral. 00:28:01.299 --> 00:28:10.740 Every time you scan a room and rank it, every time you hold up your scorecard against a Christian, you are doing the exact same thing the Corinthians were doing. 00:28:10.900 --> 00:28:13.860 You are deciding who the strong ones are. 00:28:14.019 --> 00:28:15.460 And then, you know what you do? 00:28:15.620 --> 00:28:19.220 You then rank yourself on a leaderboard against that person. 00:28:19.299 --> 00:28:22.019 And guess who's always at the bottom of the leaderboard? 00:28:22.339 --> 00:28:22.980 You are. 00:28:25.380 --> 00:28:26.740 You with me, church? 00:28:26.980 --> 00:28:28.180 I mean, do we do this? 00:28:28.339 --> 00:28:29.539 Is this part of our life? 00:28:29.700 --> 00:28:32.980 Is this part of our regular thinking? 00:28:33.700 --> 00:28:46.740 Paul is challenging this this morning, and he is saying something enormously freeing that demolishes the version that you've created of everybody else in your head. 00:28:47.220 --> 00:28:49.220 He says it in verse 27. 00:28:49.380 --> 00:28:51.220 In verse 27, the subject changes. 00:28:51.380 --> 00:28:53.299 Verse 26, okay, consider your calling. 00:28:53.460 --> 00:28:57.700 Think about yourself for a moment, but in verse 27, notice the subject changes. 00:28:58.019 --> 00:28:59.140 Let me read it for you. 00:28:59.380 --> 00:29:04.019 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. 00:29:04.259 --> 00:29:07.140 God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 00:29:07.299 --> 00:29:08.099 Verse 28. 00:29:08.339 --> 00:29:14.259 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. 00:29:14.500 --> 00:29:18.339 God chose, God chose, God chose. 00:29:19.059 --> 00:29:23.299 Three times in two verses, Paul is saying, is it clear? 00:29:23.539 --> 00:29:26.660 Redemption church, is it clear, loved one? 00:29:26.900 --> 00:29:40.420 What God is choosing, the foolish, the weak, even those that are not. 00:29:46.900 --> 00:29:50.099 God is so radical about looking for weak people. 00:29:50.420 --> 00:30:04.019 Did you notice that as Paul tries to categorically find things that are weaker in his list, eventually he cannot find something so weak to be able to describe. 00:30:04.180 --> 00:30:06.579 He ends, love where he ends. 00:30:07.140 --> 00:30:09.779 Even the things that are not. 00:30:11.140 --> 00:30:20.740 Even the nobodies, Paul says, even the nothings, even the people that the the world rank doesn't even rank, that never come up. 00:30:21.940 --> 00:30:24.579 I mean, there's no category under non-being, right? 00:30:24.740 --> 00:30:32.180 But Paul is pretty much saying here, hey, listen, even if you don't exist, if you're in Christ, God chose you. 00:30:33.860 --> 00:30:39.539 Paul's talking about God's choosing, and he's going so much deeper than you go, than you know your inadequacy. 00:30:39.700 --> 00:30:42.819 I mean, you probably think at least you have something to offer, right? 00:30:43.140 --> 00:30:47.460 Paul says, listen, even if you have nothing, that is what God is choosing. 00:30:47.620 --> 00:30:51.299 Again, the foolish, the weak, the low, the things that are not. 00:30:51.539 --> 00:31:01.460 Now, listen, I cannot help but to realize that many of us struggle with the doctrine of God's choosing in salvation. 00:31:01.700 --> 00:31:10.900 And underneath that struggle is this uh uneasiness with believing that God would choose based on a system of merit. 00:31:12.180 --> 00:31:22.019 We say, well, it's not fair for God to choose someone for salvation, for someone to be elected to salvation, because what are you saying? 00:31:22.339 --> 00:31:24.900 Because I'm a Christian, that I'm better than those who are not? 00:31:25.059 --> 00:31:30.500 And scripture categorically says, no, it is not based on a system of merit. 00:31:30.660 --> 00:31:36.500 And if it is based on a system of merit, you should be incredibly offended right now. 00:31:36.980 --> 00:31:47.059 Because Paul is on the uh God is on the schoolyard looking at the team and he's saying, essentially the equivalent of this for a nine-year-old, I'm looking for the nose pickers. 00:31:47.860 --> 00:31:54.900 I'm looking for the outfielders that whenever a plane goes by, they're incredibly distracted and they miss the fly ball to left field. 00:31:55.299 --> 00:31:59.940 In fact, I am looking for the people in this lineup that aren't even in the lineup. 00:32:00.099 --> 00:32:04.259 They are in the forest and nobody can see them because they're not even on the field. 00:32:04.420 --> 00:32:05.620 That's who I'm looking for. 00:32:05.779 --> 00:32:07.460 It's not a system of merit. 00:32:07.620 --> 00:32:11.299 If God chooses according to merit, it is according to dismerit. 00:32:11.460 --> 00:32:13.220 That's what Paul's saying. 00:32:17.940 --> 00:32:28.980 You know, loved one, I cannot help but to believe that many of us still operate as though God chose us because we are something special. 00:32:29.779 --> 00:32:33.860 Now we don't do that by walking around and beating our chest and saying, hey, look at me. 00:32:34.019 --> 00:32:34.900 Look how amazing I am. 00:32:35.059 --> 00:32:37.700 I'm setting up this chair on a Sunday morning. 00:32:37.940 --> 00:32:41.140 I'm not usually here when they set up chairs, but I don't think that they do that. 00:32:41.539 --> 00:32:42.420 Setup team? 00:32:42.819 --> 00:32:44.019 Someone confirm, yes, sir. 00:32:44.259 --> 00:32:45.140 I don't think they do that. 00:32:45.299 --> 00:32:48.339 And no one in kids' ministry is saying, Oh, look at me, I'm serving. 00:32:48.500 --> 00:32:51.299 Hello, everybody, look over here, how great I am. 00:32:51.460 --> 00:32:52.420 None of us do that. 00:32:52.579 --> 00:32:57.380 We have a much more sneaky way of operating as though God chose us because we are special. 00:32:57.539 --> 00:32:58.740 You know what we do? 00:32:59.299 --> 00:33:04.579 We constantly feel a low-grade guilt that we're not doing enough for God. 00:33:05.460 --> 00:33:08.980 And loved one, that's believing that God chose you because he's special. 00:33:09.140 --> 00:33:11.779 I feel guilty because I just don't do enough for God. 00:33:12.259 --> 00:33:14.259 Did God choose you because of what you do? 00:33:16.980 --> 00:33:23.940 We do it when we believe that his opinion changes of us based on how well our devotions are going. 00:33:26.259 --> 00:33:35.380 We believe that God chose us for something special whenever we can't take a compliment about our service without first thinking about in our mind whether we deserve that compliment or not. 00:33:36.579 --> 00:33:43.860 We do that whenever we face a criticism and we wonder whether this will be the one that finally disqualifies us. 00:33:45.700 --> 00:33:51.700 Paul says, God chose you because you were a thing that was not. 00:33:52.019 --> 00:33:57.940 He is not telling you that he found something in you, and he is not telling you that he is looking for something in you. 00:33:58.180 --> 00:34:02.339 He is telling you I found nothing in you, and I picked you anyway. 00:34:04.579 --> 00:34:05.940 You feel that in your life? 00:34:07.700 --> 00:34:11.940 You feel areas in your life where you are less than nothing? 00:34:13.460 --> 00:34:16.659 You feel inadequate, you feel unworthy? 00:34:17.299 --> 00:34:20.900 Love one, it is so important what you do with that feeling. 00:34:21.139 --> 00:34:28.099 Because there is a response that will take you far away from the kingdom of God, and there is a response that makes you fit for it. 00:34:30.019 --> 00:34:32.659 If you're weak, you're fit for God's choosing. 00:34:33.219 --> 00:34:33.860 Why? 00:34:34.500 --> 00:34:36.179 Why does God work like this? 00:34:36.420 --> 00:34:39.940 Well, I want you to notice, secondly, here, the reason. 00:34:40.420 --> 00:34:42.820 The reason so that no one may boast. 00:34:42.980 --> 00:34:44.340 Paul does not leave us guessing. 00:34:44.420 --> 00:34:46.420 Look down at verse 29 with me. 00:34:47.300 --> 00:34:49.380 So that, here's the purpose. 00:34:49.539 --> 00:34:50.659 Why did God choose? 00:34:50.820 --> 00:34:52.099 God chose, God chose, God chose. 00:34:52.340 --> 00:34:52.740 Why? 00:34:53.059 --> 00:34:58.579 So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 00:35:00.260 --> 00:35:02.579 Look how Paul has been building to it. 00:35:02.659 --> 00:35:04.900 God chose the foolish to shame the wise. 00:35:05.059 --> 00:35:09.059 God chose the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are. 00:35:09.300 --> 00:35:16.500 Every choice has an aim, it has a purpose, so that no one may boast. 00:35:17.139 --> 00:35:22.740 God did not choose you because he loves an underdog story. 00:35:23.300 --> 00:35:23.940 You know that? 00:35:24.019 --> 00:35:25.380 He's not in heaven rooting for you. 00:35:25.460 --> 00:35:29.780 I mean, this I chose this person because there's no way they're gonna make it, but but come watch this. 00:35:29.860 --> 00:35:31.699