Introduction:
We're Not Putting on a Show (1 Corinthians 2:1–5)
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Because the show will replace God's MESSAGE. (1 Cor 2:1–2)
John 17:17 – Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
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Because the show will replace God's METHODS. (1 Cor 2:3–4)
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Because the show will replace God's MISSION. (1 Cor 2:5)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What are some ways you have seen a church make the Gospel into a show / performance?
Why does God prefer to work through weak people instead of strong & talented people (1 Cor 2:3-4)?
How can you tell if a “good preacher” is a real Spirit-filled preacher, or a talented man just using his own gifts?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
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Open those Bibles up to the book of 1 Corinthians. We're going to be in chapter 2.
Let's just pause for a moment.
And I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word accurately and clearly.
I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what God said in His Word.
Alright? Let's pray.
Father, there are so many things that compete for our attention and devotion.
Give us a hunger for your Word, because it is through your Word that we know you.
So I pray, Father, that our appetites would be for nothing but the bread of your Word.
Let us dial into what your teaching is here in this passage, Father. We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
1 Corinthians chapter 2, are you there?
I was today years old when I learned what that phrase meant.
How many people have heard that? I was today years old. How many have heard that one? How many of you used that?
Some of you are like, I don't know what you're talking about. Well, maybe you're not hip like Justin Cady,
knowing all the vernacular of the children.
But let me give you an example. I was today years old when I learned that on a box of tic-tacs,
do you know when you open it up, there's this little oval in here? Do you know what that's for?
That is to serve the tic-tac. Did you know that?
Have you been just eating your tic-tac straight from the box like a wolf?
Did you know that you're supposed to use this thing to...
Ta-da!
Maybe you can flick it in your mouth.
Never mind.
I'm going to give you, in all seriousness, the biggest and most shocking thing.
The whole phrase I was today years old means there's something I should have known.
I'm just finding out this thing that I should have known my whole life and wow, it changes everything.
Well, here's the biggest one of all time.
Did you know that you have the ability to take power out of the cross of Jesus Christ?
Did you know that? You might be leaving here today saying I was today years old when I learned.
I can empty the cross of Jesus Christ of its power. Do you realize you have that ability?
The Bible says we do have that ability. Look back at chapter 1 verse 17.
We covered this a couple of weeks ago, but very briefly because I knew we would be hitting it hard this week.
But chapter 1 verse 17, Paul says, "For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel,
and not with words of eloquent wisdom lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."
What? I can take power away from the cross of Christ? That's what he said.
How can I take power away from the cross? How can I empty the cross of Christ of power?
He tells us right here in verse 17 by relying on eloquent wisdom.
Look at chapter 2. We're going to look at the first five verses, but I want us to read it all first.
I want us to be very clear what the Lord is saying here.
Paul says through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "And when I came to you, brothers,
did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not
implausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
That your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."
See a theme there? Over and over and over he's talking about wisdom.
And you're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on, hang on, timeout Pastor Jeff, hang on."
I thought wisdom was a good thing, right?
And we've had whole sermon series on wisdom and there's books in the Bible called wisdom literature.
I thought wisdom was a good thing. Why are we poo-pooing wisdom here today, Pastor Jeff?
Well, wisdom is one of those words that can have different connotations depending on the context.
A lot of words like that, right? Like the word aggressive.
Is that a good word or a bad word?
Well, depends on where we're using it, right? It's great if you're playing hockey.
It's bad if you're in a meeting. See?
Or how about the word judge? You hear that word judge, is judging good or bad?
Well, depends how you use it. We are commanded to judge to discern.
But we are forbidden to judge in the sense of criticizing people like we talked about in the sermon on the Mount.
So you see, judge is bad or good depending on the context. And it's the same with wisdom.
Because the Bible is clear there is God's wisdom and there is man's wisdom.
And the obvious point of this passage, all circles around this idea of not man's worldly, earthly wisdom.
That's the point. He says it in verse 1. He says it in verse 4. He says it in verse 5.
So to sum up this passage, here's what Paul is saying.
He's saying, "I didn't come proclaiming man's wisdom. My message was not in man's wisdom and your faith can't be in man's wisdom."
You're like, "What's he saying? What's the problem here? Why is he so adamant about this?"
Well, you have to understand something about the Greeks.
You have to understand something about the people that lived in Corinth.
You see, for them, public speaking was entertainment and competition.
Now please dial in here, because if you miss this, you're going to be so confused as we go through these verses.
Public speaking was entertainment and competition.
They would actually compete for money and prizes and fame with public speaking.
So for the Greeks, those in Corinth, public speaking was putting on a show.
Public speaking was a performance.
Remember, they didn't have TV.
They weren't sitting down to entertaining themselves by watching the Judge Judy or whatever.
They didn't have the internet where they would sit on their phone and death scroll through countless videos about cats.
That's not how they were entertained.
They were entertained in the Greek culture by two things, really.
Sports, we get that, right? But their other form of entertainment was public speech.
And public speech, listen, public speech was evaluated on eloquence.
We get that, because how many countless TV programs do we have about judging talent?
Right? The Americans got talent and American Idol and The Voice, The Mass Singer, what else is there?
All these shows where, you know, so you think you can dance, we're constantly evaluating the talent level of people on these programs.
Public speaking was that in Corinth.
Now, do you see the issue?
Paul came to them with a speech, the Gospel.
He came to them with a speech and he came to a culture that evaluates a speech based on the performance of the performer.
So if you look at this passage again, I'm going to look at it again, just abbreviating it, but you could substitute this phrase where it talks about wisdom.
You could substitute putting on a show. That's what he was talking about here.
Paul's saying, "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming you the testimony of God by putting on a show."
And then down in verse 4, "My speech and my message was not about putting on a show."
And then in verse 5, "Your faith might not rest in the show, but the power of God."
You see? That was the issue for that culture.
And you're like, "Phew! Stinks for that culture because I get a... You know what, Pastor Jeff, it would be absolutely horrible.
I mean, that would be terrible if people today turned the Gospel into our show.
I mean, could you imagine how tacky it would be if people made church a performance?
We don't have to stretch our imagination, do we?
What do you see when you go to a lot of churches and Bible conferences, right?
Fog machines and lights and how about a man pole dancing and swallowing swords?
That happened at a men's conference.
And oh, every spring I gag as I see churches promoting this summer at such and such church, summer at the movies.
Life lessons according to Toy Story 2.
I'm like, "Really? You've preached through the whole Bible and you're out of material and now we're turning to Pixar.
Really?
We made it into a show.
Come to our church. We're dropping Easter eggs out of a helicopter.
Oh, you know what the worst is. This could be... And this is personal opinion. This is the worst.
The pastors that get on stage dressed up like a character.
Have you seen this? Have you seen this nonsense?
Pastor Taylor sent me a video for the record making fun of it.
He sent me a video of a pastor that got on stage and their whole thing was Indiana Jones.
And look, I love Indiana Jones, but the pastor was dressed like Indiana Jones.
It was so stupid. He had a whip and he's just standing up there.
It was so foolish.
I have a... Noa guy who's a pastor, local-ish.
We're talking about what's happening in church, what's going on in your ministry right now.
And he went on and on and on bragging. He bought an evil-can-evil costume and preached as evil-can-evil.
I'm like, "Great. Did you have to spend 20 minutes explaining to the people under 60 who evil-can-evil is?"
Like, "Really? That's church?"
What are we doing?
If you sit these people down that are putting on these performances, these pastors,
that are putting on these performances, like, "Why are you doing this?
Why are you standing on stage waving a silly whip around like Indiana Jones? What are you doing?"
They would say, "Well, that's how I get people to church."
"Hey, no need to thank me, Jesus. I have a brilliant plan to fill the seats."
And just as sad, churchgoers applaud these gimmicks because they get attention, right?
That's why we're sharing these videos. They get attention.
Oh, but then we get out to do each other, don't we?
He dressed like Indiana Jones next week, harvest.
"You come to church next week. I'm going to be dressed as Darth Vader."
[sighs]
Your faith is weak.
Won't that be awesome?
You're like, "No, Pastor Jeff, that would be stupid."
And you're right.
We're going to top the other guy, and then we're going to top ourselves, right?
Okay, so my thing with Darth Vader, people are clapping and giggling for that.
So what am I going to do next week that's better than that, right?
Just like one of those Lord of the Ring elves or something, and we'll blast fireworks on stage.
What are we doing?
This is exactly what Paul's talking about here.
This is the principle. Lofty speech, human wisdom, plausible words.
It's making the gospel into a show in order to win people.
Paul says, "I didn't do that when I came to you in the Harvest Bible Chapel.
We're not doing that either."
And somebody right now is like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, come on, what's the big deal?"
Lighten up.
I mean, if it draws people to church,
why wouldn't we apply a little worldly wisdom?
Listen, we are not putting on a show.
We are not putting on a show.
That is a hill that I will die on.
You're like, "Well, what's the issue?"
Well, let's revisit the text here, and we're going to see it's a much bigger issue than you think.
We're not putting on a show.
Write some things down. Number one, because the show will replace God's message.
That's why the show, the show will replace God's message.
Look at the first two verses again.
Paul says, "And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you
the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you."
Except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
"When I came to you, you can revisit this story."
Acts chapter 17, Paul was in Athens and he preached and responds, "Not so great."
Then Acts chapter 18, he goes to Corinth.
He's alone and he's looking around and he's like, "This place is even worse than Athens."
And Paul here is saying, "So when I came to you, did I come with the fancy talk?
Did I come like your public speakers putting on a show for you?"
He's like, "No, no, no, no, the Gospel isn't about that.
I didn't come to you like one of your philosophers.
I came to you as a witness of Jesus Christ."
And I love this.
What is it?
He says, "For I decided."
It wasn't a whim.
It wasn't one of those tweak and go things, last minute change.
He goes, "No, no, no, no, no.
I made the decision ahead of time that I'm not going into Corinth and I'm not going to try to dazzle them into the kingdom."
By the way, do you think Paul could have?
Do you think he had the ability to dazzle people with the knowledge that he had?
Yeah, he could have.
He said, "I will not do that."
So what was your plan, Paul?
He tells us this was my plan, verse 2, "For I decided to know nothing among you."
Except what?
Say it.
Jesus Christ and say it.
Him crucified.
That's it.
That's all I wanted to know.
That's it.
The only thing I wanted to know.
The only thing I wanted to teach.
The only thing I wanted to talk about was Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
You're like, "Oh, time out question.
Isn't there more to the Bible than that?"
I mean, isn't there more to the Bible than that?
Nope, there's not.
Listen, the cross of Jesus Christ is literally everything.
Everything.
How is it that a person is saved?
How is it that a person can have their sins taken away and the promise of being in glory with their God forever?
How does that happen?
The cross of Jesus Christ.
How do we know that God loves us?
How do we know that the God who created us has a love and compassion and He really cares for us?
How do we know?
The cross of Jesus Christ.
How do we know that God is holy, that God is a God of justice?
How do we know that God always upholds His Word, always does what He says?
How do we know that?
The cross of Jesus Christ.
How does God feel about sin?
How does God feel about our rebellion, our thumbing, our noses at Him and our...
How does God feel about our sin?
Where do we get our answer? Shout it out.
That was the weakest shout it out I've ever heard.
Come on, you can even hit the Sunday School Answer here.
How do we know how God feels about sin?
Where do we look? Tell me.
The cross!
That tells us.
You know, I was really hitting this this week, hard thinking,
is there anything that's not finding its foundation in the cross?
I couldn't think of anything.
And somebody's like, well, how about money?
How about money, Pastor Jeff?
Does the cross speak to money?
Yeah, it does.
Why do we give?
Because God is a God who expresses His love through giving.
And the cross of Jesus Christ tells us why we should be generous givers.
Read 2 Corinthians chapter 8.
He talks all about that there.
So yes, the cross is a foundation even for giving.
Oh, okay, okay, Pastor Jeff.
Very slick.
What about marriage and sexuality?
I bet the cross doesn't talk about that.
Oh, you got me. No, you didn't.
Who did Jesus die for?
His bride.
Jesus died so that He could have a bride that was spallus.
And heaven is described as the marriage supper of the Lamb.
And husbands are to conduct themselves in a home in the pattern of Christ
because the purpose of a marriage is to put on a graphic display
of the relationship Jesus has with the church.
Husbands represent the self-sacrificing love of Jesus Christ to their wives.
Do you see how the cross speaks to marriage?
We could do this all day.
Fight me.
Fight me.
Show me something.
Show me something that the cross of Jesus Christ doesn't cover.
Doesn't explain.
Paul says, "I wanted to know nothing.
I decided I'm not going to know anything except Christ and Him crucified."
Then I'm going to tell you, church,
it is absolutely baffling to me when I see all these goofy gimmicks that people are doing in churches.
It's absolutely baffling to me when we're dressed up like Indiana Jones
or Evil Can Evil or Super Mario or whatever.
It's absolutely baffling to me.
I'm like, do you realize the message that we have in the Word of God?
Do you know what this message is?
The message is God spoke everything into existence.
He created us in His image.
We rebelled against Him so God in His love came to this earth as a man
and demonstrated supernatural abilities proving who He was.
And then in the ultimate act of love, He sacrificed Himself on the cross
so that we could be forgiven and then they put Him in a tomb and He rose from the dead.
And that's not it.
Then He flies to heaven and He's making a place because He's going to come back
and He's going to take us so that we can be there with Him forever in a place that's so glorious.
And like, is there anything better than that?
There's the greatest message in the world.
And somehow we think it needs bling.
We think we need some kind of a gimmick to make Jesus exciting.
What are you talking about?
That's Paul's point here.
It's the greatest message and it always will be in any attempt to put on a show.
It's not going to enhance the gospel. It's going to replace the gospel.
You know what I mean by that?
Take our good friend Indiana Jones.
I hope you weren't in that service.
But if you were, could you imagine what people were talking about
when they walked out of church that day?
Do you think they walked out of church going, you know,
after watching the pastor get around and waving his silly little whip around?
Do you think people walked out of church going, Jesus Christ is so awesome?
Do you think they walked out of church going, oh how wonderful the salvation of God
that He would so love us?
I'll tell you what people said walking out of that church.
People walked out going, man I got to find my temple of doom VHS.
We've replaced the message of how to be safe from hell with nonsense to entertain people.
Well, at harvest Bible Chapel, Bible is our middle name.
We are committed to pillar number one, proclaiming the authority of God's word without apology.
Why are we so committed to nothing but expository preaching, representing the word?
Why are we so committed to that?
Like why are you so hard-nosed about that?
I'll give you three reasons why.
Number one, because it's commanded.
God said this is what we were to talk about.
So that's what we're going to talk about.
It's commanded.
Second reason that we're so committed to the word of God is it's literally the only thing that's effective.
God said He is watching over His word to perform in Jeremiah 1.
God says Isaiah 55, that His word always accomplishes the purposes for which He sends it out.
It's effective.
Nothing else will change a person.
But the Spirit of God working through the word of God.
That's it. That's the only way change happens.
There's another reason that we're so committed to the word of God is because it's unifying.
In John 17, Jesus was praying for us, and Jesus said, "Sanctify them in the truth."
Sanctify means set apart.
Jesus said, "Regarding His people, regarding us, we are to be set apart in the truth."
Like where do we find that?
Right there, Jesus said it.
As He was praying to His Father, He says, "Your word is truth."
So Jesus said, "The thing that must unify us, church, isn't some gimmick or a favorite form of entertainment.
The thing that must unify us is the word of God. Get under the word."
That's why we're committed to that.
And you know what? I got to tell you this personally.
This is so freeing for me.
This is so freeing.
I don't have to wonder what to say to you.
See, we don't get in our offices through the week and we're like,
"Oh, Pastor Taylor, what do you think we should say this week?
Let's come up with some really great thing that's going to really fire people up."
We don't have to do that.
We just have to share the word of God.
It's so freeing. I don't have to think, "How do I top last week's show?"
I mean, people were really entertained last week.
How do I top that?
It's freeing for you, too.
It's freeing for you.
We talk about witnessing.
One of the main obstacles people have about witnessing,
I hear this all the time, Pastor Taylor,
you've heard it a billion times as well, give or take.
But you know what people say about witnessing?
They say, "I don't know what to say."
I would share my faith, but I'll be honest with you.
I don't really know what to say. Yes, you do.
You know exactly what to say.
What do I say?
Try this. Try Paul's technique.
Nothing but the cross. How about that?
Nothing but the cross. Share that.
Do you know about the cross? Share that.
You know, when people come to you and they're like,
"Well, you know what does the Bible say about politics?"
And like, Republicans and Democrats, you're like,
"Well, do you know that Jesus Christ died for your sins?
Did you know that?"
And then they're like, "Well, what does the Bible say about AI?"
I mean, AI is kind of scary.
What does the Bible say about that?
And your response is,
"Do you know that God loved you so much
that He sent His Son to die on the cross for you?
That's how much God loves you."
And they're like, "Well, does the Bible say anything
about in vitro fertilization?"
And she's like, "No, no, no. All I know is that Jesus died for you."
That's all we need to know.
We're not putting on a show because the show
will replace God's message of the cross of Christ.
Number two, write this one down.
We're not putting on a show because the show will replace God's methods.
The show will replace God's methods.
Look at verses 3 and 4 again.
He says, "And I was with you in weakness and in fear
and much trembling.
And my speech and my message were not
in plausible words of wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."
Paul reminds them, he didn't come to them
like a boxer going to the ring.
Like, "I fired up."
Yeah!
You see, there's really goofy, like,
WWE professional wrestlers.
Do you ever see these guys that come to the ring with the fireworks?
Yeah!
Yeah, and Paul's like, "That's not how I came to you.
Like some goofy entertainer."
He says, "I came to you. Use the three words, 'weakness,' fear, and trembling."
What do you mean?
What do you mean by that?
Well, you look at how it's used biblically.
Trembling is talking about mental anxiety
over an important issue.
That's when you feel something heavy in your heart and mind.
You feel something so heavy that it's like weighing on you.
And here's what I mean.
Have you ever had the unfortunate business of having to give somebody news
you didn't want to give them?
Unfortunately, in my role, I've had to do that too many times.
And it's so heavy on you.
You're driving to the person's house because you have to tell them face to face
that there's been a terrible accident and things don't look good,
that heaviness that you have while you're heading there.
And delivering the message, just...
That's what he's talking about.
Or the heaviness, like if you have to confront somebody about their sin.
Like, it's been brought to my attention that so-and-so is involved in a relationship
that shouldn't be involved in.
Now I gotta go talk to them about that.
You see, you don't walk into that like a WWE wrestler, do you?
Like, "Hey, guess what? I got news for you.
There's been a terrible tragedy!"
Like, what's the matter with you?
No, that's the heaviness of having to deliver a serious message.
That's what he's talking about here.
Paul says, "This was my posture when I was with you.
Not exactly the celebrity showman that the Corinthians would have preferred."
Paul is saying, "I came in weakness because I didn't want to put on a show
because I didn't want to get in God's way."
Why, Paul? Why?
Because the show will replace God's methods.
You're like, "Well, what is God's method for reaching lost people?
What is God's method?"
It's the foolishness of preaching from a weak preacher.
That's God's method.
Did you ever say something like magnanimous, you have this really idealistic conviction
and then the word of God kind of changes your mind on that?
What I mean is, in past time I've said things like,
"Well, you know what? The messenger is insignificant. The message is everything."
After my study this week, I'm not so convinced of that anymore.
Yeah, look, we established already that the message cannot be replaced.
We already talked about that.
But you cannot separate gospel content and gospel communication.
Because according to this, in 117 that we already talked about at the beginning,
you can suppress the power of the gospel message if attention is taken away from that
and put on the speaker.
And you're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on. Hang on a second, Pastor Jeff.
Are you telling me that popular people can't be faithful preachers?"
Sure they can.
So long as the spotlight isn't on them, you see.
You're like, "Well, where's the line? Where's the line?"
It's a hard issue. I'm not sure that we can see the line, but I know that God can.
And I know that there is a difference between preaching Christ and showing off.
And please hear me. You don't need to dress up as Indiana Jones to show off in church.
You can dress like Pastor Taylor.
You know, you really hurt his feelings by laughing just there.
There is nothing wrong with how you're dressed.
I'm sorry, Pastor Taylor.
Do you know what this thing is for in a tic-tac box?
You put the tic-tac in there.
Moving right along.
You don't need to dress up as Indiana Jones to show off.
You can dress like Pastor Taylor, but unlike Pastor Taylor, you can try to make yourself the star.
Unlike Pastor Taylor, you can put all the attention on yourself.
You know, the message of the cross, you know what the message of the cross is?
The message of the cross is about the humiliation of God.
And preaching and witnessing require the humiliation of man.
If you're sitting here today and you're like, "Well, I'm not really anything special.
I'm just a sinner saved by grace."
Well, if that's your attitude, then that's exactly why God wants to speak through you.
Because you've found nothing to boast of in yourself.
And instead, all you can do is exalt Jesus Christ.
The power is in the gospel, which is why it must be preached by someone
who isn't going to drown out the gospel message with the sound of tuning their own horn.
So we're not putting on a show because the show will replace God's method of preaching through weak men.
One more.
We're not putting on a show, number three, because the show will replace God's mission.
Look at verse 5.
He says that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
See here Paul's landing. This is the end game.
The results.
Here's the bottom line.
If you're dazzled by men, your faith is going to be in men.
But if you are dazzled over the power of God, if your experience is with the power of God,
then your faith is going to be in God.
What you win people with is what you win them to.
See we're not putting on a show, why?
Because if we win people with the show, with entertainment, we've won them to entertainment.
And guess why people are going to come to harvest?
Because they want entertained.
But if we win people with Jesus, we've won them to Jesus.
And people are going to come to harvest because they want to know Jesus.
Putting on a show replaces God's mission.
Instead of making disciples of Jesus, I'm making disciples of me.
There's a very pragmatic problem with that too.
If the church is replacing God's mission for the show, it leaves the converts vulnerable.
Why? Because there's always a more impressive performance.
There's always a more charismatic personality out there.
There's always a better show somewhere else.
And that's why, listen, that's why people bounce around churches.
People bounce around churches looking for something more entertaining.
They're not going to use the word entertaining.
They want something that is going to be more appealing to them.
We hear it all the time.
"Oh Pastor Jeff, we love harvest.
We love the people here and we love you.
But such and such church has a better playground.
We've got little kids and they need better facilities like that with playground and stuff.
I had one family.
I said, "Oh Pastor Jeff, we love harvest."
But he said, "My kid, he had a 12 year old kid.
He said, "My kid loves the concert atmosphere at such and such church, so we're going there."
I'm like, "First of all, Dad,
I seriously doubt the wisdom of leaving the decision of the spiritual direction of the family
in the lap of the most immature member of the family.
That's a problem.
But is that how we're picking churches who has the best concert?
You see, if the faith of the responders is produced by the preacher's show,
what if the preacher leaves?
What happens when that preacher retires?
What are we going to do now?
Worse, what if the preacher fails?
See, you replace the mission for the show
and Paul says you're missing out on God's power.
God's power, you're like, "Well, what is the power?
What is the power?"
You're like, "Oh, I know this one.
I know what the power is because I've seen this on TV."
Who's that guy that's...
He slaps people and heals them?
What's his name? Benny Hill?
Hen, Benny Hinn.
Benny Hill's different.
I've seen that show.
He slaps the people and they're down.
And then he waves at a group of people and they all fall down.
That's the power of God, right?
Well, back in chapter 1 verse 18 of Pastor Taylor preached on last week,
we learned what the power of God is.
You know what the power of God is?
The gospel.
The gospel. Romans 1.16, the gospel is the power of God.
You're like, "Well, do we see the power of God at Harvest Bible Chapel?"
Yeah.
Every time that we have a baptism service
and you have somebody stepping in to the tub
going, "I turn from my sin and I receive Jesus Christ, I am born again."
You're witnessing the power of God.
Every time somebody chooses forgiveness,
"I was wronged, I was offended, I want to forgive, I want the relationship restored."
Every time that happens, you're seeing the power of God.
Every time somebody uses spiritual gifts to minister to others in the church,
you're seeing the power of God.
You see, the power of God is a changed life.
You're the power of the Holy Spirit.
That only comes from Jesus.
In church, we are doing a major disservice to people
to replace people experiencing His power with people enjoying my performance.
I have no power at all.
I can't save anyone.
I can't change anyone.
Only Jesus Christ can do that through His Spirit.
So we're not putting on a show
because the show will replace God's mission of making disciples of Jesus.
The Harvest Bible Chapel, there's no tricks for results here
because the Gospel just simply points to the bloodied Jesus Christ on the cross
and says, "There, right there on the cross is your salvation.
There on the cross is your example.
There on the cross is your victory.
There on the cross is your power."
So this is a call for discernment.
Look, are you new here?
You're a first-time visitor here today?
Have you been bouncing around visiting churches?
And this is just one of many that you've been checking out.
Or maybe you're somebody who's been attending for a while.
Maybe you're even a member who's been thinking about moving on.
I just want to ask you a couple of questions in light of what God says here.
What are you looking for in a church?
Wait, wait, maybe that's not the right question.
Maybe the better question is what should you be looking for in a church?
More fireworks?
More pizazz?
Or is Jesus what you really want?
Are you saying, you know, I want to know the Gospel.
I want nothing more than to experience the power of God in my life.
Well, wherever you choose to worship,
I would encourage you to make your decision based on the right factors.
I have no say over what other churches do.
I have some say here in a harvest Bible chapel.
We're not putting on a show.
We buy our heads as the worship team makes their way back up.
Father in heaven, we bow before you as people who live in a culture
bombarded by entertainment.
Bombarded by churches trying to win people through goofy stuff.
Father, your word is so clear on that in this passage.
That your Gospel doesn't need help.
It's just He's proclaimed.
Father, I'm sorry for all the times that I thought it was about me.
I'm sorry God for all the times that I was trying to factor in some element of creativity
or something to really wow people and your Gospel doesn't need that.
My efforts will just replace the pure, simple, clear message of the crucified Christ.
Father, I pray for all of us that we would have the discernment that only comes from your spirit.
That as we are evaluating where we are worshiping and how we are worshiping,
we're evaluating the methods that you've laid out in your Word.
We're evaluating the mission that you've laid out in your Word.
We're evaluating the message that you've given us, Father.
Give us discernment.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.