SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, thanks for the reminder that you've put a little child on your lap and said, unless you become like this kid, you're not going to get a sniff of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, rescue us from hiding behind our fears and calling it adulthood or maturity or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: We come today with childlike faith.
SPEAKER_01: We come to the Bible and we say, God, say something that has our name on it and say it in a language that we understand.
SPEAKER_01: We're grateful that you've not left us at the mercy of religion.
SPEAKER_01: You came, Jesus, to make possible and available a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: And a relationship with you changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: They had plenty of religion before Jesus was born.
SPEAKER_01: Before God left heaven and came to earth.
SPEAKER_01: And so you didn't come to make more religion.
SPEAKER_01: You came to make possible a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, speak to us today about some words that help inform and influence this relationship.
SPEAKER_01: We pray and we listen in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to 2 Corinthians chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have one in bring one.
SPEAKER_01: There's one on your row.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 969.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you this morning about some old words for the new year.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're a guest, uh typically what we're doing, we preach through books of the Bible, like right now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm preaching through the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: We took a break for Advent.
SPEAKER_01: We'll pick back up in February.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, we're going to do a little series in January on our core values.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to talk this morning about just this old words for the new year.
SPEAKER_01: I read the Bible not just because I'm a preacher.
SPEAKER_01: Mainly I read the Bible because I'm a Christian and I believe it's the truth.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like it's what sustains and nourishes me.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've been reading the book of 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: And so basically, I'm going to talk to you this morning about four words that just kind of jumped off the page to me that I've been kind of thinking about.
SPEAKER_01: In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, I'll read the first six verses, but I'm really going to focus on verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says this.
SPEAKER_01: I wish you would bear with me.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says to them, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness.
SPEAKER_01: Do bear with me, for I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But I am afraid that as a serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these superapostles, even if I am unskilled in speaking.
SPEAKER_01: I am not in knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, in every way, we have made this plain to you in all things.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I read all six verses so you kind of get the flow of thought in the context, but I really want to drill down on verse three.
SPEAKER_01: So let me read it again.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says to these people in Corinth, which is a city there, he says, I'm afraid that as a serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's four words, these old words I want to give you for the new year.
SPEAKER_01: There's four words I want to kind of pull out and invite us to think about.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one is just thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: He says, My fear is that your thoughts will be led astray.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first word is just thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: And let me just ask this question.
SPEAKER_01: You ever notice how random your thoughts can be?
SPEAKER_01: I'm driving back from Florida yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: We left at 4.15 in the morning, and my wife's like, I can't decide if you're excited about leaving or excited about getting home.
SPEAKER_01: To which I just said, Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01: Just sit there and go back to sleep.
SPEAKER_01: Because what happens is I get up, we load the van, my kids and my wife get out of bed in their pajamas, get into the minivan, lay their seats back, and they my wife puts on a hoodie and a sleep mask.
SPEAKER_01: And I took a picture of her and I said to my kids, Your mom's the unibomber.
SPEAKER_01: And my kids had no idea who the unibomber was.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, What?
SPEAKER_01: What in the world?
SPEAKER_01: So we're driving down the road.
SPEAKER_01: It is eight hours and 35 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: I made it yesterday in eight hours, new record.
SPEAKER_01: I don't drive fast.
SPEAKER_01: The minivan is aerodynamic.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot hold back the swagger wagon.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, that thing gets closer to Sugarland.
SPEAKER_01: It starts picking up speed.
SPEAKER_01: We were like bump drafter like NASCAR on I-10.
SPEAKER_01: I had 14 cars piled up, and I wasn't even, I didn't have my foot on the gas.
SPEAKER_01: I was being carried along by the draft.
SPEAKER_01: My wife is mouthbreating.
SPEAKER_01: My kids are laid back back there.
SPEAKER_01: And for eight hours, all I had to do was drive and think.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you something, my man.
SPEAKER_01: My thoughts are all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: And so maybe this is one of the reasons my mind was drawn to this, just this word thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Just, just, do you ever did just take notice of the things that you think about?
SPEAKER_01: I'm driving down the road and I'm looking over, and all of a sudden the car in front of me hit his brakes, and so I hit my brakes, and then my mind immediately went to, I wonder what happened if we had a wreck.
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
SPEAKER_01: Like if we had a wreck and my wife died, would I remarry?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I'd remarry.
SPEAKER_01: I think I'd be great.
SPEAKER_01: But my wife says you should remarry because it's a sign that you had a healthy marriage.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't remarry, people are gonna think you weren't happy.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just kind of like, eh, she's psychotic even when she is asleep.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're driving down the road, and then I see a sign that says Waffle House next exit.
SPEAKER_01: And I think, oh, the Waffle House, you're gonna be good right now?
SPEAKER_01: A bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm ping, ping, ping, bing, ping, ping.
SPEAKER_01: In about four minutes, I had like 60 thoughts, and I was just like, I think I've had too much sleep.
SPEAKER_01: That is my problem, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so we're driving down the road, and I'm just thinking about this, and I'm thinking about, and I just thought, man, this is crazy.
SPEAKER_01: And I knew I was preaching about this today.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, the only other, the only place my thoughts get more away from me than when I'm driving long distance is when I pray.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever started to pray?
SPEAKER_01: You start praying, you're really doing good for about 10 seconds, and then you're like, oh, I need to go to the grocery store.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just jot some things down.
SPEAKER_01: And I even get a pencil and I just jot down and I go back to praying.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're not careful, you're like, your mind will go, your thoughts will get away, and you go over here and you'll be like, oh, grocery store, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Do we have milk and I'm gonna make queso?
SPEAKER_01: Do we have rotail?
SPEAKER_01: And pretty soon you're looking to the kitchen, and 20 minutes later you're like, what was I doing?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I was praying.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, I'm sorry, God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not even a good Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Please don't send me to hell because I'm not good.
SPEAKER_01: I'll do better to pray.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is not prayer, the issue is your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says he understands this, which is why he writes in 2 Corinthians 11, he says, Hey, I'm afraid that as a serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me just kind of say this.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have time to go into it.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm afraid that as a serpent deceived Eve by his cunning.
SPEAKER_01: When he talks about the serpent, he's talking about how the devil appeared to Adam and Eve in the garden in the form of a serpent.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, we believe here at this church that the devil is a real spiritual being, that he exists, and that his plans for you are not great.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the Bible says in the ESV, which is a translation of the Bible I preach from, it says his cunning.
SPEAKER_01: Other translations say his craftiness.
SPEAKER_01: If you go back in Genesis, one of the earliest things the Bible tells us about the devil is that he was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
SPEAKER_01: He has not lost that capacity, beloved, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And the way that he attacked, the place that he attacks you first and foremost is in your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say this again.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to demonstrate.
SPEAKER_01: The place that he attacks you first and foremost is in your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: For example, if you've had a thought this past year that was so shocking that you just thought, I don't want anybody to ever know that I had that thought.
SPEAKER_01: Would you raise your hand?
SPEAKER_01: Hold it up real high.
SPEAKER_01: Above your head is high, people.
SPEAKER_01: Look around.
SPEAKER_01: Leave your hands up.
SPEAKER_01: You could be surrounded by axe murderers for all you know.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know what their thought was.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are looking at your neighbor kind of like, I bet that weirdo thought some really dark things.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, your mind just goes crazy places.
SPEAKER_01: My wife wakes up and she goes, Well, what have you been doing?
SPEAKER_01: Thinking about whether or not to remarry if you died in an accident.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just over here thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Ain't nothing else to do.
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because your thoughts have this capacity to get away from you.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You'll be led astray by your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the Bible doesn't leave us at the mercy of that, kind of like, hey, now, by the way, this is how it happens.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a real life example of the power of your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: It sounds like this, men, your wife's being a jerk.
SPEAKER_01: You think about that girl you dated in college, and you think, well, whatever happened to her?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna get on Facebook just because I'm curious to see if she's still alive.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, she's alive.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, she's kept she's taking care of herself.
SPEAKER_01: I'll send her a private message.
SPEAKER_01: Five thoughts later, the two of you are planning to meet somewhere in Des Moines, Iowa.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: It's just the power of thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Your thoughts are expansive and they're overwhelming and they never stop coming and they have the capacity to lead you astray.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible's not left us at the mercy of our thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: If you look back one chapter in chapter 10, about verse 3, the Bible says this Paul says, For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to demolish, to destroy strongholds.
SPEAKER_01: We destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Be ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that phrase again there towards the end of verse 5, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You have to learn to take your thoughts captive, otherwise your thoughts will take you captive.
SPEAKER_01: And you have this parallel reality with this kind of mental universe that you kind of live and flourish in that nobody knows anything about.
SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of your own private idol going on there, and no one knows, and no one says, and so it just kind of exists up here.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says, hey, the weapons that we fight with, and then they're not of the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: We don't do war.
SPEAKER_01: We live in the flesh, but in other words, but we don't do war.
SPEAKER_01: We don't come at, we don't go about changing our life the way everybody else does.
SPEAKER_01: He says the weapons we use have divine power to demolish strongholds.
SPEAKER_01: What is a stronghold?
SPEAKER_01: A stronghold is a pattern, a mental pattern of the way you think that leads to a behavior.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not careful, it'll get you in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: He says that we demolish arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me give you a visual.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says the standard for you and I as Christians.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a Christian, now if you're not a Christian in the room today, that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: This doesn't apply to you.
SPEAKER_01: But for the Christian, the knowledge of God, what the Bible says, what God has made clear about any and everything is the standard.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at me.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a culture that everything gets raised up against the knowledge of God and kind of appeals to us and says, hey, hey, look over here.
SPEAKER_01: This stuff over here is old and antiquated and outdated.
SPEAKER_01: How about this stuff over here?
SPEAKER_01: This is what you ought to be thinking about.
SPEAKER_01: And your mind drifts and moves towards that.
SPEAKER_01: And so Paul says, hey, I'm afraid that like Eve, your mind's going to be led astray.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You drift in your thoughts before you ever act in your behavior.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: You drift in your thoughts before you ever act in your behavior.
SPEAKER_01: And so one of the words I want to give us to think about as it goes into the new year is just your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, hey, we take captive everything that's raised up against the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me get nerdy for just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: There's two kinds of knowledge when it comes to God, okay?
SPEAKER_01: When it talks about there's intellectual knowledge and then there's what's called moral knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Intellectual knowledge, this informs and influences your thoughts, just in the realm of how you think.
SPEAKER_01: That's intellectual knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: It's like knowing the answers to a test.
SPEAKER_01: Moral knowledge informs and influences your actual living.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question this morning.
SPEAKER_01: When I my knowledge about God, the things I know to be true about God, is it more intellectual or is it more moral?
SPEAKER_01: Does it just inform what I think, or does it inform and influence what I actually do in my everyday life?
SPEAKER_01: The first word I want us to think about is thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Now, boys and girls, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you in the room and you're like, uh, I miss children's ministry right now.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: You can understand this.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want you to do, okay?
SPEAKER_01: If you're under the age of 18, because old people, they don't have this problem at all, but if you're under the age of 18, I want you to say to your mom and dad, sometime between now and let's say New Year's Day, I want you to finish, just say this to your mom and dad.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, here's some things I've been thinking about lately that I haven't told anybody.
SPEAKER_01: And just finish that sentence.
SPEAKER_01: A friend of mine said to me, he was at our house, and he said, Hey, your kids seem to really enjoy you and they really like talk to you and engage with you.
SPEAKER_01: I can't get my kids to talk.
SPEAKER_01: My kids don't open up about anything.
SPEAKER_01: How do you get your kids to talk?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I ask them questions.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't just ask questions, I demand answers.
SPEAKER_01: Like I go into my kids' rooms every once in a while and I say to them on a consistent basis, hey, what's something you've been thinking about lately you haven't put words to?
SPEAKER_01: Now my oldest is like, oh my God.
SPEAKER_01: 48 minutes of word vomit.
SPEAKER_01: It comes out like the exorcist.
SPEAKER_01: My 15-year-old, it's like, why are you asking?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just curious.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's why I'm asking, boys and girls, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Because all of us, okay, old big people like Pastor Neil and little people like you, if you're eight, you can think things in your head that feel true and right and everything, and they're not true.
SPEAKER_01: They're not true.
SPEAKER_01: Like you can hear your mom and dad get into a discussion in the kitchen, and all of a sudden your thoughts get away from you, and you think, oh, my mom and dad, oh my gosh, oh, like for example, my oldest, her name's Madison, when she came home from the second grade one day, boys a girl, she was sad.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Man, I said, Well, what's going on, baby?
SPEAKER_01: Look heavy, look sad.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Daddy, I am sad.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, tell me what you're I didn't say, don't be sad.
SPEAKER_01: I said, tell me what you're sad about.
SPEAKER_01: I may want to be sad too.
SPEAKER_01: And she looked at me and she goes, You don't get sad.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Sure I do.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay to be sad.
SPEAKER_01: Being sad is not a sin.
SPEAKER_01: You just can't just stay there and find your identity in being sad.
SPEAKER_01: What are you sad about?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm sad because uh a friend of mine at school today, she said she was sad, and I said, What's wrong?
SPEAKER_01: She wouldn't play at recess, and and and and and she told me her mom and daddy are not gonna live together anymore.
SPEAKER_01: They're they're getting this thing called a divorce.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I said, okay.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think about that?
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Well, it made me wonder if you and mom are ever gonna get a divorce.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, You think your mom's ever gonna leave this?
SPEAKER_01: And and my second grader said, Well, mommy says sometimes you're hard to live with.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, your mom drinks a lot and plays Indian bingo, but I stay with her.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, No, she doesn't, Daddy.
SPEAKER_01: I said, No, she doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Here's the deal, but you don't have to worry about that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now, some people get divorced, doesn't mean they're bad people, it just means their relationship didn't work out.
SPEAKER_01: But I said, What are you afraid of?
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, I'm afraid that you and mommy are never gonna live together.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna live together forever.
SPEAKER_01: I said, not the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Your mom's stuck with me, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The two became one, we're stuck, we're not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: So take that off the list of things you worry about.
SPEAKER_01: What's something else you can worry about?
SPEAKER_01: And she looked at me and she said, That's it.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought to myself, oh, to be in the second grade.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just simple.
SPEAKER_01: So, boys and girls, here's the thing: you're gonna have things that get in your head that stick in your head, and they kind of start falling down in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: They go from what you think about to what you kind of feel about things and people and yourself and life and God and the world.
SPEAKER_01: Like I watch the news every night.
SPEAKER_01: And I notice my kids like to watch the news with me.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when things come on the news that are kind of foreboding, there's a big adult word.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta circle back and check on my kids and kind of go, hey, you know we're gonna be okay, right?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that was kind of scary, Dad.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the thing, boys and girls, between now and January the 1st, which is just a couple of days, I want you, or mom and dad, you can ask them, hey, what's something you've thought about lately you hadn't put words to?
SPEAKER_01: Because we need to air our thoughts out with people that we know that know us and love us and we can trust, because they help us get perspective on it.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever had the thought, like, I've been sick for two weeks?
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm better.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm hacking up a lung, but I'm better.
SPEAKER_01: But I don't do well being sick.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was laying in my bed sweating.
SPEAKER_01: My doctor gave me four prescriptions, I'm laying there with the pills all around me.
SPEAKER_01: And the thought just went through my head if I just took all of these, what would happen?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is such a cruel world.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sick of being sick.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's why being sick is so hard for men.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's a threat to our necessity.
SPEAKER_01: The world moves on without you.
SPEAKER_01: It just does.
SPEAKER_01: Your family does well without you.
SPEAKER_01: Your family will flourish.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if your wife gets sick, everything's over.
SPEAKER_01: But if you get sick, they just close the bedroom door and go on about it.
SPEAKER_01: My kids are out there playing weed with their mom.
SPEAKER_01: I'm laying in there dying.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, hello.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have a void.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, and I can hear them laughing, playing Smarty pants, and I was like, I might as well just off myself.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even matter to these people anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they got insurance, that's all they care about.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm in a dark place, and my wife walks in and I'm just staring at her.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, hey, babe, what's up?
SPEAKER_01: What's up?
SPEAKER_01: You didn't hear me yelling?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, you don't have a voice, we can't hear you.
SPEAKER_01: I like this.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, You actually sound like your mom who smoked her whole life.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we're going there, huh?
SPEAKER_01: What are y'all doing in there?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we're having fun playing weed.
SPEAKER_01: The girls want to play some weed games.
SPEAKER_01: We got out the old weed and we're just playing, oh, y'all just playing.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're dying.
SPEAKER_01: You're not dying, baby.
SPEAKER_01: You're just sick, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And we don't want to be around you because we think you're contagious.
SPEAKER_01: This was my thought.
SPEAKER_01: I've loved this woman for 26 years, and this is the way she respects me.
SPEAKER_01: Tell you what, I ought to leave you tomorrow, woman.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, What are you thinking?
SPEAKER_01: I said, You don't want to know.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, You're right, and closed the door and went back and played games.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Your thoughts do not create your reality.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Your thoughts do not create your reality.
SPEAKER_01: And every one of you in this room, you need to say to somebody over the next couple days, hey, here's a couple things I've been thinking, I haven't put any words to.
SPEAKER_01: It will transform your relationship with people because you see that a lot of people, most of us I would say, we think things that aren't really based on reality.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a second word I want us to take into the new year.
SPEAKER_01: It's just the word simple.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, I I'm afraid that the serpent, is he deceived Eve by his cunning, that your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The word is sincere in the ESV, but the literal rendering is just the word simple.
SPEAKER_01: Sincere sounds like, oh, I should try to be more earnest.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the right rendering of the word.
SPEAKER_01: It's simple.
SPEAKER_01: It simply means this it's not effort, but integration.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it really is what it means.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say this, I'll come back to it in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible is replete with simplicity, it's not a difficult book.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, it's all about simplicity.
SPEAKER_01: But we have an aversion to this word in our culture because we love complexity.
SPEAKER_01: We love things to be nuanced.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so words like simplicity are easy for us to stumble over.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, this is how Paul describes himself to these people in Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: This is 2 Corinthians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: I told you I've been reading the book of 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I do.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just get in the book of the Bible, I'll just read it over and over and over.
SPEAKER_01: I'll get to the end, I'll go back, I'll remember something, I'll go read that part.
SPEAKER_01: And just not because I'm a pastor, I'm not going to preach through 2 Corinthians anytime.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to understand what it says because it's really not hard.
SPEAKER_01: It really is simple, but I have to train my eye to see the simplicity of it.
SPEAKER_01: Paul introduces himself.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: If there's a 2 Corinthians, it stands to reason that there is a 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, there's there's 1 Corinthians, and then he wrote a letter to them where he kind of got after them, and we don't have that letter.
SPEAKER_01: He references it, references it in 2 Corinthians, but this is the way Paul, he has a relationship with his people, and this is the way he describes himself in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For our boast is this.
SPEAKER_01: Get a load of this, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we have behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God, and supremely so towards you.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: Our boast.
SPEAKER_01: Our boast and the testimony of our conscience, the deepest parts of us know this to be true.
SPEAKER_01: Here's our boast that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity.
SPEAKER_01: When you go home today, go in your garage and ask yourself, have I behaved in the world with simplicity?
SPEAKER_01: I stood in my garage last night and I was like, I'm getting rid of most of this.
SPEAKER_01: And then my wife came out and said, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm just thinking some thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Like what?
SPEAKER_01: Like I'd like to defrag our life and get rid of all of this?
SPEAKER_01: No! This is my craft stuff! You don't do crafts anymore, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You have a job now.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that's the wrong phrase.
SPEAKER_01: We just have racks in my garage with storage tubs, and no one knows what's in them, but it's all essential for life and godliness.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Why don't we just get rid of all this and park our cars in the garage?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, I don't think you're feeling any better.
SPEAKER_01: You should go lay down.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Simplicity.
SPEAKER_01: We behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: I have some friends in the therapeutic community, I mean counseling, and they're always giving me a hard time because they say, Neil, you're very binary.
SPEAKER_01: Can I confess to you, I had no idea what that word meant?
SPEAKER_01: I looked it up, and it means basically black and white.
SPEAKER_01: Yes and no.
SPEAKER_01: And they kind of mock me because they talk about counseling issues and they act like, well, it's so complex and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, yeah, some things are nuanced and complex, but a lot of life is really simple.
SPEAKER_01: We just don't like the answer to the problem.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible, I said a minute ago, that the Bible's really simple.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: And there's a guy named Solomon in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you an example of what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon in the Old Testament, he sets out Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you think, woo.
SPEAKER_01: One is enough.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're visiting today, I love my wife.
SPEAKER_01: She's the best thing that's ever happened to me.
SPEAKER_01: And I think after 26 years of marriage, I think I deserve a hall pass.
SPEAKER_01: I've yet to get one.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, that crazy woman woke up driving back from Florida yesterday for 10 minutes and she said, I want us to talk about the state of our marriage sometime.
SPEAKER_01: Why we gotta do a dumb thing like that?
SPEAKER_01: I love you, you love me, oh how happy we shall be.
SPEAKER_01: Go back to sleep.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, our anniversary is coming up on January the 9th, and we have to have a state of the marriage talk.
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go to dinner and she's gonna talk about our marriage, and she wants to set goals for the new year and for our marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my confession, man.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't got no goals.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, hey, let's just, this is going good.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you want to screw it up with a bunch of details?
SPEAKER_01: She said, Why are you so averse to that?
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like you want to build a standard of failure so you can say, Oh, you said this, this, and this, and you didn't do any of it.
SPEAKER_01: Are you happy?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Of course I'm happy.
SPEAKER_01: And why do we want to rock the boat?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to rock the boat, I still want to coast.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't say anything about coast.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's great.
SPEAKER_01: 26 years, you look pretty happy to me.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I can't imagine being any happier.
SPEAKER_01: Then why are we gonna do anything?
SPEAKER_01: Let's just go to dinner and just do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: No, I have some goals for our marriage I want to share, and I want you to have some goals.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't say that, I was driving.
SPEAKER_01: I just looked at her and I said, Oh, that sounds like a great idea.
SPEAKER_01: I can't wait.
SPEAKER_01: And then in my thoughts, I prayed, Jesus, can you come back before January the 9th?
SPEAKER_01: Think I'm a good man?
SPEAKER_01: I don't beat you, I pay the bills, I'm a good father.
SPEAKER_01: What more do you want, lady?
SPEAKER_01: She's like, pulled her sleeping mask up and said, I look forward to that conversation.
SPEAKER_01: I don't.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's replete with simplicity.
SPEAKER_01: It's got Solomon, richest man in the world, smartest man in the world.
SPEAKER_01: He set out, there's a book in the Bible called Ecclesiastes where he set out and he said, I want to see what's worth doing during your few days under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, while you're here on the earth, what's worth doing?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I denied my heart no pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: You can read it for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: It's in Ecclesiastes chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: I denied my heart no pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: If I saw something and I wanted it, I got it.
SPEAKER_01: If I saw a woman, he had thousands of them at his disposal.
SPEAKER_01: He gets to the end of it.
SPEAKER_01: This is why I say the Bible is very simple.
SPEAKER_01: He gets to the end of it and he says, This.
SPEAKER_01: The end of the matter is this.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, in conclusion, you know what he comes to?
SPEAKER_01: He says two things.
SPEAKER_01: Fear God and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: What if Christianity really is that simple?
SPEAKER_01: Fear God, not like I'm afraid, but have a deep, abiding respect and awe for God and do what he says.
SPEAKER_01: It's not complex, it's not nuanced, it's not so hidden we can't really understand it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we really can't know.
SPEAKER_01: No, we can know.
SPEAKER_01: So, two words thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Second word, simple, third word, pure.
SPEAKER_01: Pure.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Now, we hear the word pure in our culture, we all take a step back and kind of go, well, that excludes me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the simple and pure devotion to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This refers to a devotion that's uncluttered by an ulterior motive or a hidden agenda, not contaminated with anybody or anything else.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a little background.
SPEAKER_01: The people of Corinth, a very cosmopolitan city, very hip city, uh uh they live with this fear that they were kind of missing out.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, if I just kind of go all in on Jesus, what about this other stuff over here?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I read the Da Vinci Code.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what about that?
SPEAKER_01: That sounded like it made a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we do is we take a little bit of that and we fold it into our Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: And then, oh, well, what about, I mean, what about these Hindus?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, 700 million people can't be wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just take a little bit of that and fold it in.
SPEAKER_01: And pretty soon, what you end up with is a gospel that is no gospel at all.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what happened to the people at Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: Because they they they weren't simple and they and and and and and they weren't pure in the way they related to God.
SPEAKER_01: The background was that whoever came along talking, they said, okay, we believe that too, which is why Paul says what he says in verse 4, look at it.
SPEAKER_01: He says this, he says, for if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it ready enough.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that last part.
SPEAKER_01: You put up with it ready enough.
SPEAKER_01: One of the reasons I want one of our words we take into 2019 to be pure is that we don't put up with some things we shouldn't put up for.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: My doorbell rang last Saturday.
SPEAKER_01: I opened the door, I look at my wife, she goes, You expect me?
SPEAKER_01: I said, No.
SPEAKER_01: Open the door, and there's two men standing there.
SPEAKER_01: And I just opened the door, stepped outside, closed the door, and I said, Yeah, what can I do for you?
SPEAKER_01: They said, Hey, is anybody how speak Spanish?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah, my oldest daughter's bilingual, but you're not talking to her.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy said, Well, we're looking for Spanish speakers.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I know who you are.
SPEAKER_01: You're Jehovah's Witnesses, right?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: He said, We're trying to reach Hispanic people.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, You're preying on the Hispanic people with a false gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy went, Excuse me?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't raise my voice, I didn't yell, I didn't scream, I said, I I'm not letting you.
SPEAKER_01: He said, We'd like to talk to your daughter.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You ain't talking to my daughter.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't getting into my house, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at y'all.
SPEAKER_01: We fundamentally disagree.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a Christian and you're you're Jehovah's Witnesses, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, we've we disagree about our Christology.
SPEAKER_01: And one guy goes, What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: What we believe about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Like you think Jesus and Satan were brothers.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's the dumbest thing in the world.
SPEAKER_01: I think Jesus was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: You don't believe that.
SPEAKER_01: And essential to your salvation is going around ringing doorbells on Saturday.
SPEAKER_01: This is part of your works ethic of how you get into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy said, Yes, yes, we have to do this to show God that we're we're earnest.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm sitting on my couch eating queso.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't ringing no doorbells today.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna go to heaven when I die.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy said, Oh, can we show you some stuff?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Not because I'm rude, because I want to be doctrinally pure.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Oh, we believe the same things.
SPEAKER_01: I said, No, we don't.
SPEAKER_01: Let me see your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Took, turned to the Gospel of John, showed him a few things.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Well, I mean, and I said, You even got this New World Order translation or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: This is y'all change some things where it says what you want it to say.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just get a copy of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Well, uh, have we been here before?
SPEAKER_01: I said, it wasn't you two, it was some other catch.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, uh, uh, I uh and I said, by the way, I said, here's the thing, I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: I think you should think about what you believe because your eternal destiny depends on it.
SPEAKER_01: And the young man said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, You cannot believe things that are totally against what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: One of my neighbors, you know, they they she was raised Buddhist, and she said at the mailbox the other day, well, you know, Buddhism and Christianity basically teach us the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Let's all be nice to each other.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, we live in a moralistic, we live in in a multicultural environment.
SPEAKER_01: I don't hate all other cultures.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm one of the few Christians on my cul-de-sac.
SPEAKER_01: And I got everything.
SPEAKER_01: I got everything on my street.
SPEAKER_01: And I I don't, I'm not gonna apologize.
SPEAKER_01: And and I tell people, now you say, well, why is that?
SPEAKER_01: You just want to be right?
SPEAKER_01: No, because I love those people.
SPEAKER_01: I love those people.
SPEAKER_01: And for me to sit there and kind of go, ah, well, you know, I I yeah, yeah, all roads lead to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: No, they don't.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_01: No man comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_01: So we talk about a simple and pure devotion.
SPEAKER_01: Just this purity is just uncluttered and uncontaminated.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last word I want to give you.
SPEAKER_01: It's just the word Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Just Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Hey, that your thoughts would be led astray from a simple and pure devotion to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now, our devotion, I uh you would think I would have to say this.
SPEAKER_01: It may be strange for me to bring it up in church, but it concerns me that we've lost Christ and our passion for culture and even for Christianity and for politics and all these other lesser things that we kind of fixate and focus on.
SPEAKER_01: And we phrase it differently so that it sounds more modern and hip and a bunch of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, it's all still less than Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of these cheap trinkets that kind of infatuate and occupy, but pale in comparison.
SPEAKER_01: Let me demonstrate what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Got a call probably a month or so ago, six weeks ago, from a friend of mine, that uh he lives in a college town and he said, Hey, we're looking at going to this church, and we checked out the website, and I want you to look at the website and give me your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: And I went to the website, and right there on the website, it said the name of the church, and it said, for the city.
SPEAKER_01: That's their big thing, it's for the city.
SPEAKER_01: And I got digging into it, and all it was was social activism.
SPEAKER_01: It's just the social gospel of the 70s.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, when I say social activism, here's my concern: the church in America produces social activists, not Christians, because this church is all about helping the poor and helping the needy and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Now stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: Think just for a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Are we supposed to help the poor?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: And we do, but the church of God does not exist for the city, the church exists for God.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in Ephesians that the church is the manifold wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I got a call.
SPEAKER_01: So I said to my friend, I said, My concern is with their ecclesiology, their doctrine of the church.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you this church basically says we exist to run errands for the city.
SPEAKER_01: And so the city you guys are in will use the church for its own ends, but it will never believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Why should it?
SPEAKER_01: They can live like they want and get the church to pay their bills.
SPEAKER_01: The church's got to be more discerning than that.
SPEAKER_01: And he said back on the phone, McClendon, that's kind of a different take on this.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, first of all, my name's Neil.
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, I know, I, and I know this all got started.
SPEAKER_01: It got started a church in Manhattan, great church that has a great strategy for blessing their city.
SPEAKER_01: We want to have a strategy for blessing our city, but our primary reason for existence is not for the city, it's for God.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus Christ gets lost in all the errands we're running.
SPEAKER_01: I got a phone call from the school, uh, from a school in our city not long ago and said, Hey, I was kind of wondering if the church would be willing to help us out with this.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, We'd be glad to help.
SPEAKER_01: What can we do?
SPEAKER_01: And the more they talk, we're very involved in our schools.
SPEAKER_01: My children go to public school.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not down in public school.
SPEAKER_01: But I do not believe that the school gets to say, hey, we want nothing to do with God.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, we're gonna mock that every chance we get, and then when we don't have any budget, we're gonna call the school, we're gonna call the church and say, Can you pay for this?
SPEAKER_01: And the lady used a lot of politically correct language that came around.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Ma'am, tell me this.
SPEAKER_01: What do you want from me?
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Well, I was hoping that you all could pay for this.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Can we share the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, No.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Then I'm not interested.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, what about Pastor Minton, Don Minton?
SPEAKER_01: He was there.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah, he quit.
SPEAKER_01: I think he's drunk on a beach in Jamaica.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what happened to that guy.
SPEAKER_01: That little midget is gone.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what happened to him.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, By the way, we partner with schools.
SPEAKER_01: We're very involved in schools, but here's the thing: we do not exist to pay the bills that you can't afford to pay because you can't run a school.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, is there another pastor I can talk to?
SPEAKER_01: Nope.
SPEAKER_01: They're all in rehab.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, So you're not going to help us.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, ma'am, it's not my job to help you.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all put it in the ditch.
SPEAKER_01: You got the inmates running the asylum over there.
SPEAKER_01: And you want to come over here and me pay for that?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: That's bad gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's social activism.
SPEAKER_01: We are not responsible.
SPEAKER_01: It's like me calling, if you'll pay my mortgage this month, I'll pay for that.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Your mortgage ain't my responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: I said, then your bills ain't my responsibility either.
SPEAKER_01: Anything else you want to talk about?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, this wasn't the response I was expecting.
SPEAKER_01: I expected, you know, when I grew up, and she told me about the church she grew up in.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Listen, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest thing that the church can do for the city and for the school is contend for the sufficiency of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And you guys have taken God out of the school and it's kind of gone to hell in a handbasket.
SPEAKER_01: And you're trying everything else.
SPEAKER_01: You're endorsing everybody else, every identity politics.
SPEAKER_01: You guys are just broadening the path that leads to destruction over here in the name of higher education.
SPEAKER_01: And then you want to come to God's people and say, hey, pay the bill.
SPEAKER_01: No, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I tell you, well, I wasn't expecting this.
SPEAKER_01: I said, ma'am, all you're saying to me is you expect us to be non-discerning.
SPEAKER_01: We're not.
SPEAKER_01: We woke.
SPEAKER_01: We woke over here across the street.
SPEAKER_01: We fully awake.
SPEAKER_01: Well, okay, I guess.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the thing, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: My concern in with this is that we've forgotten how to make Jesus and Jesus Christ in the shuffle of doing stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Now, again, if you're visiting our church, this is a generous church.
SPEAKER_01: This church helps people, this church supports missionaries.
SPEAKER_01: This church, we're invested at the school down the street down here, two elementary schools, high school across the street, the middle school right over there, heavily invested.
SPEAKER_01: All about public education.
SPEAKER_01: This is not about public education, what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: This is about ecclesiology.
SPEAKER_01: This is about your doctrine of the church.
SPEAKER_01: Why does the church exist?
SPEAKER_01: The church exists primarily, first and foremost, for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the church exists.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to finish here on this, as we'll get ready for the new year, just kind of reminding you of this Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He says, hey, that your thoughts would be so take that word thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You have this simple and pure devotion to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Christ you were created to be devoted to.
SPEAKER_01: This is how the Bible describes him.
SPEAKER_01: This is John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, the word was God.
SPEAKER_01: He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him.
SPEAKER_01: Without him was not anything made that is made.
SPEAKER_01: And in him was life, and the life was the light of men.
SPEAKER_01: The light shines of the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
SPEAKER_01: There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
SPEAKER_01: He came as a witness to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
SPEAKER_01: He was not the light.
SPEAKER_01: He came to bear witness about the light, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
SPEAKER_01: He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
SPEAKER_01: He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
SPEAKER_01: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Glory is the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: John bore witness about him, and he cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me.
SPEAKER_01: For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_01: The law was given through Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
SPEAKER_01: And this from Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
SPEAKER_01: For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
SPEAKER_01: All things were created through him and for him.
SPEAKER_01: And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
SPEAKER_01: And he is the head of the body, the church.
SPEAKER_01: He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
SPEAKER_01: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
SPEAKER_01: And from 1 Timothy, there's one God, and there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
SPEAKER_01: And from Acts, this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone in their salvation and no one else.
SPEAKER_01: There's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And then Isaiah, who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
SPEAKER_01: For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
SPEAKER_01: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
SPEAKER_01: And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised.
SPEAKER_01: And we esteemed him not.
SPEAKER_01: Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
SPEAKER_01: But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, and upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
SPEAKER_01: And with his wounds we are healed.
SPEAKER_01: All we like sheep have gone astray.
SPEAKER_01: We have turned everyone to his own way.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
SPEAKER_01: He was oppressed and he was afflicted, and yet he opened not his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shears is silent.
SPEAKER_01: So he opened not his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, from Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
SPEAKER_01: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others.
SPEAKER_01: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.
SPEAKER_01: So that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Christ that you and I were created to have this simple and pure devotion to and towards.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thank you for the privilege of just hearing your word just kind of wash over us.
SPEAKER_01: Let it wash off of us all the unnecessary so that only the necessary remains.
SPEAKER_01: Wash off all the untruth so that only the truth remains.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, Jesus said when you come and you're here now, that you would lead us into all truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so we want to just take a moment and marinate in what you've said to us today.
SPEAKER_01: Lead us into the truth about our thoughts, about simplicity, about just a pure devotion, and about Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We finish this new year in a posture of gratitude, and we want to take these words with us into the into the new year.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, just kind of brood over us and our thoughts for just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we want to say what the Bible says and we want to experience what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: We were created to experience.
SPEAKER_01: Central to that is a life that brings you glory.
SPEAKER_01: So I pray, God, as we think about things like our thoughts and just simplicity and purity in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That those words would not just be words, but realities that would invite us into a more intimate posture with you.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray for anyone here today that's yet to begin a relationship, that they'd be provoked to think about that.
SPEAKER_01: And to think about it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: This is our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We offered up in Jesus' name, and everyone said, If you're a guest, let me say again, thanks for being a part of our service.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, you've had a chance to fill out one of those guest cards and on your way out here in just a minute, if you just drop it in a wooden box by the door.
SPEAKER_01: If you consider this your church, and today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity when it comes to giving, that's where you would take care of that as well.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about anything you heard, myself and some of our pastors and elders will be available down front.
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to answer any questions, pray with you about anything you got going on.
SPEAKER_01: If you're like, hey, my thoughts are just getting the best of me.
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to help you take those things captive and make them obedient, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: God loved you so much, He didn't make this hard.
SPEAKER_01: He made it available.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus said it is finished, what he meant was everything necessary has been accomplished.
SPEAKER_01: And now you get to experience it.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and live in what was accomplished on your behalf and for God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.