[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Preaching Ministry of the Agape of Abdish Church in George South Africa.
[SPEAKER_01]: Alright, thank you Josh, thank you Bryant, thank you Agape.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I thought I'd start out just by giving a couple updates about us.
[SPEAKER_01]: For those of you who remember the last time I was here, I do not always wear a rope when I preach, so those of you who were here the last time will remember the I think it was Joseph.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was Joseph.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did that time I love doing that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was a lot of fun to see your faces as I walked up here in a dress But God is good and things are going very well Probably the thing that would be the most exciting to most of you
[SPEAKER_01]: is we have started taking off for cons lessons.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I know there are several people last time I spoke because you really have to try.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm trying.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's slow.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think my mouth is meant to make those sounds.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I just feel really rude constantly up on people.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm learning.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm learning.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a favorite offer, Comments Word, which is Valk.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just such a great word.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just go around town yelling that at people.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's a wonderful thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we are learning.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's coming along slowly, but we're learning.
[SPEAKER_01]: The ministry is going really well.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord has blessed.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord has opened doors.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're trying to keep up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're thrilled to see what the Lord is doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just telling Mike this morning, the Lord has blessed and we've been able to run to space here in town that we're going to move into as a small group in the next couple of weeks, if everything gets renovated and everything gets set up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's really exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody's kind of pulling together, but there's a lot of going on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're thrilled with what the Lord is doing and how the Lord is blessing and how he is providing
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been here in Georgetown for three years.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We hate going back to the States.
[SPEAKER_01]: We much rather just stay.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the Lord is good and the Lord continues to bless.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's an honor to be here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Brian.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Josh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, a copy, for allowing us to come and share with you what the Lord is put on our heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: So why don't we pray first, and then we'll get into his word.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, we thank you for your truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, it's the same yesterday, today forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, what was written to a church 2,000 years ago is still accurately describes everything that we feel and we run into and we struggle with here in South Africa and around the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I thank you for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, thank you that every word is packed with what we need to know from you, how you desire to reveal yourself to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to thank you for the opportunity it is to share your truth with your people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to thank you for it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's in your precious and holy name, we pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, we are going to be in first Corinthians, first Corinthians, or one Corinthians, as I've been told, I need to work on.
[SPEAKER_01]: One Corinthians, chapter one, and we'll be there in just a moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the, they call it the epidemic of loneliness.
[SPEAKER_01]: At first, I thought that term was an exaggeration.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was trying to get headlines.
[SPEAKER_01]: The epidemic of loneliness.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you read more and you understand more and as you grow and you get to meet people, one of the leading causes of mental health issues in this world is loneliness.
[SPEAKER_01]: That feeling of desperation, a being by yourself,
[SPEAKER_01]: that there's no one for you to have a friend.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no friends out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no relationships out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Life takes on a complete lack of meaning because you feel alone and by yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now some of the great stretch tragedy of loneliness is the people who are most surrounded by other people often tend to feel the most lonely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because there's people, there's busyness, and I should be able to connect with them somehow, but yet that desire for meaningful, intense, purposeful relationship continues to evade.
[SPEAKER_01]: And people are left feeling desperate, hopeless, without any goals, without any belonging,
[SPEAKER_01]: and they drift, they disappear, they come into a shell of themselves, they retreat inside, when they left with nothing but their thoughts, which is a dangerous place to be, because they feel alone and without relationship.
[SPEAKER_01]: Destroyed the church 2000 years ago is destroying the church today because you have people We're all together we're all in the same place But yet we're feel alone If you're stranded, we feel like we're an island by ourselves What I want to talk about today is How do we find meaningful relationship Among the body of believers should be the easiest place to find it
[SPEAKER_01]: But it often is the place that is one of the most elusive places to find true meaningful caring relationships.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're looking for a thesis or a big idea for the day, here it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul's relationships with the people of the Church of Corinth are deep, meaningful because
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the foundation of it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if you look in your scriptures, the first in Acts chapter 18, which we're not gonna spend time there today, I'm just gonna kind of overlooking it, or overview it, I should say, not overlook, that's the wrong word.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna overview it, which in Acts chapter 18, we have Paul coming to the church in Corinth.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was no church in Corinth at the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was just coming to the city of Corinth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Connecting northern Greece and southern Greece, this little tiny stretch of land, it's only 10 kilometers wide.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's right where the church accorded this.
[SPEAKER_01]: So all the teachings and all of the wealth and all of the goods of that area came right through their land, right through their town, along with all the teachings, along with all the ideas, and one of those times Paul himself comes
[SPEAKER_01]: And he does what he always does.
[SPEAKER_01]: He starts in the synagogue.
[SPEAKER_01]: He goes to the synagogue and he starts preaching about the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Christ who would come that the Jews were waiting for and hoping for that would come.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he comes and he speaks and he tells.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what happens?
[SPEAKER_01]: The Jewish people get angry.
[SPEAKER_01]: They kick him out of the synagogue.
[SPEAKER_01]: However,
[SPEAKER_01]: what they called the ruler of the synagogue, or the guy who's in charge of the synagogue, the teacher, the administrator of the synagogue, a man named Christmas, comes to Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he follows Paul as Paul goes to House to House to House, to House, preaching the gospel, and eventually a church has started.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Paul stays at that church for a year and a half.
[SPEAKER_01]: Continuing,
[SPEAKER_01]: to preach the gospel until God calls in the elsewhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in that year and a half, he develops relationships.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because they're centered around something bigger, something more important.
[SPEAKER_01]: C.S.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lewis, in his book, The Four Loves, describes friendship.
[SPEAKER_01]: As a group of people or two people, headed together
[SPEAKER_01]: something outside of themselves that gives them meaning, that gives them hope, that gives them excitement.
[SPEAKER_01]: It can be something as simple as a rugby team.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure it wasn't rugby back then, but it can be now.
[SPEAKER_01]: That brings you together, that gives you commonality.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as you individually strive towards that thing, you begin to build relationships with each other.
[SPEAKER_01]: because you're going in the same direction.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're looking at the same thing and you have the same goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is what Paul found in the church coin.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what we're going to do is we're just going to walk through the first nine verses of one Corinthians.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to see how Paul describes his relationship and what it's based on to this church.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you look here in verse one,
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul, called by the will of God to be in a apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother, sauce the knees.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I mentioned Christmas.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're all over the synagogue.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we talk about the sauce the knees gotty.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is he?
[SPEAKER_01]: He was Christmas's replacement.
[SPEAKER_01]: He took over as ruler of the synagogue as Acts 18 tells us, and what happens to him?
[SPEAKER_01]: He becomes a
[SPEAKER_01]: But he talks about how he is in a possible of Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what you're going to see on the screen is as we go through this text.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every time it talks about God or Christ or references him, the board will be underlined.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you need to see how often it continues to show up over and over again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Another thing I want you to look for is the amount of
[SPEAKER_01]: commonality words, like, are.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just my brother's awesomeness.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's our brother's awesomeness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you will see this over and over and over throughout the text.
[SPEAKER_01]: Speaking of the mutuality, now in this text, it also talks about Paul being in a possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a very controversial term here in South Africa.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does it mean to be in a possible?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, how can Paul claim to be an apostle?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, in Acts chapter 9, Paul is met by the risen Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sees the risen Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Galatians, it talks about how he spends three years in the wilderness of Arabia being taught by Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he is one who has seen the resurrected Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hence, the reason he can call himself an apostle.
[SPEAKER_01]: the remaining 11 apostles decide they need to pick a 12th apostle, and the one criteria, the main criteria, was that it was somebody who had seen the resurrected Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot have an apostle without someone seeing, having seen the resurrected Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Scripture is very clear on what that is, and that is why Paul can call himself that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's look, continue to look on.
[SPEAKER_01]: What more does it tell us about this church?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the church of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not the church of Paul.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the church of God that is in Corinth to those sanctified encircle Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Call together, call to be saints together with all those in every place who call upon the name of the our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: both their Lord and ours, grace to you in peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So who is the church?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the church?
[SPEAKER_01]: The church is God's.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not the crane's church, it's not my gallows' church, it's not my church, it's not your church.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is God's church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we as his people, what kind of people are with?
[SPEAKER_01]: We are sanctified people, what are sanctified people, sanctified people are people who are set aside, set apart to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as one who are set apart to God, to follow Him, we have then His people.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the church is God's people who are called together to be saints.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let the Catholic Church steal the term sainte from you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The word sainte just means holy one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't mean perfect one, doesn't mean sinless one, doesn't mean greater than anyone else.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just is one who has received God's righteousness and is therefore sanctified.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are saints.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when I was younger, our church used to refer to the older people in the church as the senior saints.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I never understood why they get to be saints and the rest of us aren't.
[SPEAKER_01]: But just old people allowed to be called saints.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought, well, they must be really, really holy people.
[SPEAKER_01]: There must be some kind of something glowing about them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wanted to know what age you had to be to become a saint.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of those things kind of ran through my mind as a child.
[SPEAKER_01]: If God looks down upon you and sees his son, which he does in your redemption, then you are a saint.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to go through special hearings at the College of Cardinals to become a saint.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to prove any miracles to become a saint.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't even have to be old to be a saint.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are some saintly three year olds.
[SPEAKER_01]: because they are the ones that God sees his sons righteousness upon them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love how Paul reminds this church, that you're not alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we are together with everyone who calls and in every place who calls upon the name of the Lord, there's a universality to the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Churches are not competing, we don't sit around and compare numbers, at least we shouldn't sit around and compare numbers.
[SPEAKER_01]: The size of the church, I'm starting to reverse the size here, versus the size there, who cares when I'm competing with each other?
[SPEAKER_01]: When not stealing each other's people, the church is about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is his church.
[SPEAKER_01]: is bigger than what happens inside these four walls.
[SPEAKER_01]: We should be cheering for each other.
[SPEAKER_01]: We should be excited for each other.
[SPEAKER_01]: We should be working together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we're all sanctified saints who call upon the same Lord and represent Him throughout our world.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about any one of us or any one church.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all his.
[SPEAKER_01]: Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is it that we need most from our Father?
[SPEAKER_01]: We need His grace, that which we can never earn, that which we can never afford, that which we can never buy, but he freely gives.
[SPEAKER_01]: The strength, the forgiveness, to live in light of His word.
[SPEAKER_01]: We need grace and we need peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: This week for most people was not very peaceful.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was told Mike this morning, I thought about him a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought, boy, I think the last person in the world I want to be right now is an insurance guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because everybody's got to be calling, asking for help.
[SPEAKER_01]: And not everybody is always feeling peaceful when trees are falling on their house.
[SPEAKER_01]: And electricity has gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this problem and that problem, by God's grace, we did not have much issue where we were.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember at one point during the storm, I kind of like storms.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like watching these things.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ever since I was a little kid, I liked watching.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody else was hiding, and I'm like looking out, and I'm like, this is amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I watched my neighbor.
[SPEAKER_01]: My neighbor is a perclined atheist.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he is very staunch and his atheism.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've just watched him panic.
[SPEAKER_01]: watching the fear come over his face over every little thing that happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have to live that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have to live that way because we have something that we can rely on in the midst of a storm.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have that peace from our God and Father Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: That if even if the worst case happens, what can they do to me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh well, what's the worst thing that can happen?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why Christians have peace, because we know at the end, we're with him and what's the worst thing that man can do to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what else is it that Paul reflects on and points out specifically as the basis of this relationship?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the greeting, as sometimes you'll see in your Bibles.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is all Paul talking about how he and why he feels close to this group.
[SPEAKER_01]: So far, we see that it's a lot of, we have commonality.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that commonality?
[SPEAKER_01]: Cominality, we are Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are His.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are called by Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he could change the move forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he could get to a little bit more per sex.
[SPEAKER_01]: about the things that are in common, that we have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Says, I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: that was given to you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're commonality in that we are a Christ and we have commonality in the fact that we have the grace of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Grace is one of those words that we say a lot and is the hardest thing to define in theology.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love teaching theology.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love studying theology.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of my biggest frustrations with theologies we use words that we don't understand.
[SPEAKER_01]: it never makes sense, because grace is so far beyond us.
[SPEAKER_01]: We talk about somebody who is gracious to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: All that personal is so gracious.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to think for a moment, when is the last time you describe somebody as gracious?
[SPEAKER_01]: What did they do?
[SPEAKER_01]: They give you a gift.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did they open a door?
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe, and all those things are grace-like, but grace is so far beyond anything that we can comprehend.
[SPEAKER_01]: Grace is not just love.
[SPEAKER_01]: Grace is I'll give my son for your sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Grace is beyond forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Grace says, I'm going to wipe the slate clean.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to actively forcefully try to forcefully not remember this again when I see humanly speaking forgiveness is beyond us in a lot of ways, but Grace takes care of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We talk about graciousness and that the person gives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes we, the Lord, blesses and we're
[SPEAKER_01]: freely without hope of getting anything in return.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a great grace-like thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the gift of God is so beyond the graciousness that we do.
[SPEAKER_01]: The grace of God is given to you in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Grace comes from no place else.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think we need to be careful when we use the term grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you grace to me with this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard people say this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you grace to me this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, grace is so much more than that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It means so much more.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does grace mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if you look at the text here, I highlighted a couple words there in purple.
[SPEAKER_01]: That hopefully start to explain what the grace of God is.
[SPEAKER_01]: The grace of God enriches us.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't make us rich, it enriches.
[SPEAKER_01]: To enrich someone or to be enriched means to take what you have and make it better.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean I'll take your bank account and fill it to the bread.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we see the word of rich and we instantly run to money.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not what it says.
[SPEAKER_01]: we were enriched.
[SPEAKER_01]: What were they enriched in?
[SPEAKER_01]: Speech and knowledge.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which sounds kind of odd to us, but if you think in the first century mind, the city of Corinth, where it was located there in that little dismiss in that little peninsula, all the great teachers of Greece came through Corinth on their way from one place to another.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Corinth became the town of the place to give a speech.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are tons of temples still in existence in that city where people would just come and speak.
[SPEAKER_01]: And everybody who is a great speaker or what they call it the time and order would come through and gather a following and gather his disciples and would have his own group of fans if you will.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody wanted to be a great speaker.
[SPEAKER_01]: knowledge.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Greek world loved knowledge, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, all of those guys they wanted knowledge and with knowledge came power.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what Paul is saying here is you thought the way to
[SPEAKER_01]: more knowledge was through learning through all of these things.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, no, the grace of God enriched your knowledge took your knowledge that you were seeking after and put it in the right place, gave it the right frame, gave it meaning, made it valuable.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you love to give speeches, you love to gather a crowd, the grace of God takes that and makes your speech meaningful.
[SPEAKER_01]: valuable, because we have something to speak about.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Greek philosophers have ever read Greek mythology, which is kind of fun because I'm a history guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of fun to read Greek mythology.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is completely hopeless, chaotic, and hectic, as one of my favorites, South African words, hectic at its core.
[SPEAKER_01]: Evil gods take
[SPEAKER_01]: so they can get whatever they want.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's completely empty, completely hopeless.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Paul said, the grace of God is what enriches you, what gives you commonality.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he continues and talks about how the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you so that you don't lack any spiritual gift.
[SPEAKER_01]: Could you imagine having somebody say that about you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, a couple of weeks ago, I was driving around town with my youngest daughter.
[SPEAKER_01]: I daughter Madison and I were driving and I love driving around town with her because she just suddenly is very chatty and talks about everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will notice she's very quiet, but in a car when she's by herself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she has daddy's attention to herself.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_01]: She just chats, chats away.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we are driving out towards PockelStorp and we drove by the graveyard out there, which is always a topic of discussion.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Madison asked me, he's like, well, dad, what do you want on your tombstep?
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought, are you planning my death?
[SPEAKER_01]: And do you know something I don't know?
[SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, because she just was interested in this idea of stuff being written on a tombstone.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, well, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to care because I'm never going to see my tombstone.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can put on it whenever you want.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she said, well, would you prefer world's greatest dad or world's greatest preacher?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, oh, I love you kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're the best big-head moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll never forget this moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I told myself, you can put whatever you want.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there was all kinds of more questions about where the graves would be and all these things that suddenly I'm planning for my own death.
[SPEAKER_01]: But could you imagine having on your tombstone that you lacked nothing?
[SPEAKER_01]: that you had everything that God intended for you to have to grow to be like him.
[SPEAKER_01]: You lack to nothing, and the truth is, every believer in Christ can have that written on the tombstone in complete honesty.
[SPEAKER_01]: You lack nothing that you are required to have to grow to be like Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we're not growing to be like Christ is not God's fault, it's ours.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Paul is able to stay in front of this church that he was only there for a year and a half that you lack no spiritual gift.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean they had the world's best piano player, or guitarist, or the best power
[SPEAKER_01]: And you have it all, and if it's not happening, it's not because of Christ, because of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not because of your pastor, because of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, you have everything that you need
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we talk about people who deconstruct in their faith, it's kind of the new term.
[SPEAKER_01]: People who fall away, or people who no longer believe in Christ, and every family has stories.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have stories of my own, from my sisters, who deconstructed in their faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember thinking, how could it be?
[SPEAKER_01]: Same family?
[SPEAKER_01]: same church, same Christian school, same influences.
[SPEAKER_01]: How could they fall away?
[SPEAKER_01]: How could they just deconstruct?
[SPEAKER_01]: How can they give up on the gospel?
[SPEAKER_01]: And this verse was comforting in that God is the one who sustains us as guiltless to the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about the beginning, it's about till the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he is the one who sustains us to the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: His grace sustains to the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the end, it's his grace that makes us guiltless before the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: Completely guiltless.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, as a child, I don't think, looking back.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I was a particularly naughty, or cheeky child.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought I was a pretty decent kid, but I was very well aware of my guilt.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember every time I'd get in trouble.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had in my mind this idea that there was a, that God was a celestial score keeper.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he had a big chalkboard because back then, they actually used chalk when I was a kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: And on the chalkboard, he had my name and all my brothers and sisters' names written on the chalkboard.
[SPEAKER_01]: And every time he's sent, he put another tallymark.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I had an older brother, Mike, who was seven years older to me than me, and he was my hero in life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So next to him, his name, there was like two lines from the two times he punched me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then I had my two sisters, and they had a lot, because they're sisters, hence, 10 towards evil.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there was me, and my little brother, who's 12 years younger than me, by this, by time he came, I was kind of like, I realized,
[SPEAKER_01]: He had more sins than my parents realized as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, when it came to my name, I just saw God as constantly disappointed, constantly putting another tally mark.
[SPEAKER_01]: So much so that my line always wrapped around the room.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody else's wasn't, eh, not too long.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then eventually I'd always picture God at getting sick and tired and keeping track of all my sins and all the times I failed him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he just dropped the chalk and walked away.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was the way I picture God, most of my life as a child.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I started to be started to study theology, I remember this verse.
[SPEAKER_01]: He views me as guiltless.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, God knows what he's saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it breaks his heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: When he sees me, he sees his son's holiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't look at me and remember all of my sin because of the grace of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why grace is so much bigger than anything that we can ever imagine and anything that we can ever do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you may be thinking, Matt, you said something about loneliness and relationships and so far all you talked about is Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 9, God is faithful by whom you were called into fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's done all of this for all of us, and that's what He calls us to fellowship with Him and with others.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you have this kind of relationship with him, you should be able to find relationships with other believers because it's around him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, C.S.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lewis' declaration, that relationship is built by two people striving in the same direction towards the same common interest.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what if, what if as churches?
[SPEAKER_01]: him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what he has done in our own life, what his grace has done in us, not what food we're going to eat today or food we eat yesterday.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a foodie so everything comes back to food at some point in my life or the weather.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do you ever wonder why people always talk
[SPEAKER_01]: I, one thing's in George that I loved when I first came town, so all I had to do is mention the weather, and I could have a conversation with put somebody for half an hour, 45 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Easy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we all can talk about the weather.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why can we all talk about the weather?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's something we all have in common that we have a shared experience with.
[SPEAKER_01]: What if?
[SPEAKER_01]: What if that church?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, anywhere else in the world is church, but here at church,
[SPEAKER_01]: Shouldn't we be able to talk about God together?
[SPEAKER_01]: We should be, should be the easiest place in the world to do it, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You should round it by other sanctified ones.
[SPEAKER_01]: Other ones who are called by our Lord, shouldn't we be able to talk about God together?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, God's doing in our life, how God spared us in the store, how God did this, how God did that,
[SPEAKER_01]: How God is providing for us?
[SPEAKER_01]: How God is allowed a difficult time in our life and we're just waiting to see what the Lord is going to do in anticipation, not fear and animosity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if it's fear and animosity, talk about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do we feel lonely and church?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we don't talk about the thing that actually brings us together.
[SPEAKER_01]: We talk about, that picture he put up was really stupid.
[SPEAKER_01]: What we talk about, oh, the chairs, it really should be different colors.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or we talk about everything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: And not that it's bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not wrong to talk about the spring box.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, I had to make sure I let everybody off on the rug be hooked.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's okay to talk about the spring box.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if our relationships are church or just about food and the spring box, we're not, we're not built upon Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: we should be talking about Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: So any of one of the things today, any of one of these things that we've talked about today about who God is, how He is holding us guilt with, how He sees us as guilt with, how He sanctified us, how He's called us, how He's created in us a fellowship.
[SPEAKER_01]: Any one of those should be a topic of your conversation,
[SPEAKER_01]: So, in conclusion, we're going to ask my favorite question.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is the so-what question.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember as a child asking this question too much to my teachers, like out of very angry.
[SPEAKER_01]: But so what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do we always need to ask so-what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because so-what takes it from this realm of you should do something to how do we actually do this?
[SPEAKER_01]: So what?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to hopefully not get too many people angry with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what if the spring box actually lost a game?
[SPEAKER_01]: I know it would never happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: It hasn't happened since we got here in countries.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we're the good luck charm that needs to stay here forever, because they'll never lose as long as we're here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what does they actually lost a game?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or they didn't play anymore?
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to think about which one moves all your relationships.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are your relationships built upon?
[SPEAKER_01]: What if they made a role that you couldn't go fishing anymore?
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you still be able to get together and have anything to talk about?
[SPEAKER_01]: What are your relationships built upon?
[SPEAKER_01]: And you will know this by what draws you together.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like I said, those things aren't bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if that's all it is, if that's the only thing you can gather around, that pulls you together, and you're missing out on who Christ is and what he's done in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're missing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're missing out on a richness and a death that would bring you together in ways that you can't imagine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you putting yourself out there to build relationships?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes loneliness is the fault of the group.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that there's nobody else trying to reach out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes loneliness is the fault of the individual.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the things I did not learn this in seven years, I did not learn this in college.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did not learn this much through most of my life until I met this one lady at the church we were at before we came here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our sending church is one lady made the comment to her kids, and our kids taught it to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Guy I was mentoring actually taught me the idea of be the change.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be the change.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if all your relationships are built around the wrong thing, how do you fix that?
[SPEAKER_01]: You can wait for the group to change, or you can be the change.
[SPEAKER_01]: Start talking about Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you're a little friend group, you get together.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's all you can talk through all the gossip in the town and who lost this tree and this tree and that thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you say, you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: I was reading in my Bible the other day about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was just so blown away by God's grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: Imagine what happens to the conversation then.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some people may look at you like, huh?
[SPEAKER_01]: and maybe they're not comfortable with it, maybe they move on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe they changed the topic of conversation, but merely by putting it out there, you create an opportunity to talk about things.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that has shocked me about South Africa from the time I got here was how well people respond when I bring up the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the states having conversations with people and trying to share the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: You start bringing it up and people just kind of change it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Move on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've been completely shocked as I go around town, meeting people.
[SPEAKER_01]: They start talking, I see a way to bring up Christ and we talk about Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they don't run away.
[SPEAKER_01]: and they stay on topic, and we start talking, and I have opportunity to build relationships with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not as scary as it sounds.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen for an opportunity to bring up scripture, and then bring it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: That moment is petrifying.
[SPEAKER_01]: It really is, I understand that, but it also is life changing for you and for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: but yourself out there, be that change in your group, your friend group, be the one who talks about Christ, be the one who talks about what he is doing in your life and what you're learning about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you may be shocked at what you see.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you in?
[SPEAKER_01]: We talk about the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: as a group of believers who are called together, sanctified ones, once who've received God's grace into their life, and maybe you're one who's sitting in the room saying, I'm a visitor perpetually, because I don't understand any of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does it mean to be called?
[SPEAKER_01]: What does it mean to be sanctified?
[SPEAKER_01]: How does one become set apart to Christ?
[SPEAKER_01]: This whole grace of God that enriches and all of that, I have no idea what you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: How does one become in?
[SPEAKER_01]: Simply by trusting him, believing in your heart that he is the one who came, who lived a perfect life and died for your sins?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just believing like, oh well, I'm not a Muslim, so therefore I must believe in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: believing as in, I put the full weight of my life in this belief.
[SPEAKER_01]: All that I have, all that I am, is built around the belief of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And his death, his burial, and his resurrection for my sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it means to believe.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just, yeah, I heard that once, or I'm not an atheist, so I must be that.
[SPEAKER_01]: belief is not a fallback option.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is the center of who you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you have questions on that and what that means, I'd love to have a conversation with you, past a grind, would even might, I don't know, maybe depends on the mood that might send at the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: But most of us, any of us, all of us would love to have that conversation with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Probably the most heard
[SPEAKER_01]: argument I hear, when I talk to people around town, when I hear I'm a church guy, is this phrase, but the church is full of frauds and hypocrites and phonies.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would I want to build a relationship with a bunch of them?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would I want to be included with a bunch
[SPEAKER_01]: And almost every time I say the same thing, you're right, you're right, the church is full of that, but those frauds, hypocrites and phonies encounter Christ together, and they
[SPEAKER_01]: We're all, that we have to be honest, we're all hypocrites to some level.
[SPEAKER_01]: None of us are perfect.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're all growing, we're all learning.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, it can be hard to put yourself out in relationship with other people who could hurt you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we're all learning, we're all growing to become more like Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So do you feel lonely at church?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you feel on the outside of the relationship hub in your world?
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me challenge you with this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you're building your relationship around their own thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not gonna do this, so don't be alarmed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not gonna do this to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're allowed to talk to me afterwards.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not gonna judge your conversations.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I want you to take some time today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Later today, to think through, when was the last time I talked to my friends about Christ?
[SPEAKER_01]: When was the last time he was the center of my communication?
[SPEAKER_01]: How many of my relationships do we ever talk about Christ?
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll be revealing.
[SPEAKER_01]: part.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what I hope it is for you is a reminder that we have the greatest common interest in the world to develop our relationships around.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if our relationships feel like they're falling apart, we're probably building them around the wrong thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let Christ be the
[SPEAKER_01]: Let his work in this world be what guides you and what you are thrilled about, what you were obsessed with.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let that be the center of your relationships.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if so, you won't feel alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: You won't feel on the outside of the inside.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will feel the warmth of the body of Christ and the person of Christ through his body.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I thank you for your truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I thank you for all that it means to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, we know we are a bad representation of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know we fall short in so many ways.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, we know that you've called us to be like you, to show you to the world and Lord, I pray that you would do a work in our heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: Help us to make much of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: and make less of ourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I pray that our conversation would be about you and what you've done in your glory and your grace and your kindness and your provision and your love for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, give us the boldness to speak of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give us the boldness to live for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Lord, we thank you for all that you will do to be in the midst of your precious and holy name we pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.