Mark Clark [00:00:03]:
We're gonna unpack three or four major.
Mark Clark [00:00:05]:
Big ideas in masterclass today.
Mark Clark [00:00:07]:
And so here's what Paul does. This is. So we did verses one to three already. Those were the first two weeks. And now we pick it up in verse four and we're gonna hit a few verses. He hits a few things that are really important to us. So he says, first Corinthians, chapter one, verse four, I give thanks to my God always for you. And so if you have a Bible, if you can click or underline or whatever, he says, I give.
Mark Clark [00:00:32]:
That's really important because one of the issues in life, I think what he's starting to do is he's before he gives them kind of 15 chapters of just slamming them and challenging them and kind of being in conflict with them, he kind of wants to go, hey, how you doing?
Mark Clark [00:00:48]:
Like, how are you guys?
Mark Clark [00:00:50]:
I wanna. He's kind of buttering them up. It's kind of this like how to win friends and influence people. Hey everybody, I'm just so thankful to you. Bam.
Mark Clark [00:00:57]:
And then he's just gonna punch them.
Mark Clark [00:00:58]:
And make them feel like, have this crisis of faith in their life. And so he says, I give thanks to you. But is. It's not just really a pithy saying. He really, as the Apostle Paul, gives thanks to God for everything. And that's one of the massive realities in the masterclass of life that you gotta figure out. One of the controlling questions of your life has to be, who do I actually thank for what my life is? And postmodern culture, secular culture, will tell you that you are really to blame the myth of the self made man, that if you have it, it's all because of you and you deserve the credit. And the Apostle Paul, continuous, I give thanks to God for everything.
Mark Clark [00:01:37]:
Your life, where you're at, salvation itself is actually from God. That's what he already told us and that's what he's going to continue to tell us. So those of us who go, no, no, no, I think I chose God. And I and all my real, you know, I made a decision that I was going to do this. And then you read John, chapter 10 and Jesus is like, you would not have believed if you were not part of my one of my sheep. And the order's interesting because he's saying, look, it's not that you aren't one of my sheep because you haven't believed. It's that you never would have believed to begin with if you weren't part of my sheep. And so there's this Biblical idea that even your salvation at the end of the day is something that you can't take credit for because it's all God who gets the credit.
Mark Clark [00:02:21]:
And this is why Paul's going, I thank God for him. Now look at your life. One of the questions of life. I was reading one philosopher this week, and he said this. Nothing is so acceptable to God as that people should be thanked both for themselves and for others. Do you live a thankful life or a thankless life? Do you have something buzzing in your soul at all times that says, I need to be thankful for any goodness that has ever come about in my life? If you half like your marriage, all right, if you half appreciate your spouse or your kids, that's not you, man. That's the God of the universe who rained that down on you because he is good. Not because you're good, not because of you, but in spite of you.
Mark Clark [00:03:06]:
And this is again where the biblical story pushes against the new age story, pushes against the agnostic secular story, pushes against the religious story that if you do these things, if you obey God, if you do these pilgrimages, if you pay attention to these rules and these laws, then God will save you and love you and adopt you. That's religion. The gospel comes along and goes, no, no, no. Because God worked before you ever knew him, in the person and the work of Jesus Christ, when you were his enemy. Now he adopts you. When you trust to that work, not your own work, that's life changing because that makes you thankful. But this is a constant fight in life. This is why we thank God for meals.
Mark Clark [00:03:47]:
This is why when we sit down with our families, we're like, God, thank. And it's interesting because in Jewish culture, you actually do it after the meal, which makes more sense. All right? Cause we kind of do it before the meal. We don't know if that meal's gonna suck. So we're like, thank you, Jesus, for this food. Blah. That was terrible. Why'd you give me that? You do it after.
Mark Clark [00:04:02]:
It's like, man, those ribs were legit. Thank you, Jesus. Right? Thank you, Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:04:07]:
Full ribs.
Mark Clark [00:04:08]:
And so if you do it after, it's kind of more meaningful. It's like you can name stuff that you ate. The gravy was nice. The Dessert was a 5 out of 10. But all in all, it was good. All right. You could do that being thankful. And I sit down with my.
Mark Clark [00:04:21]:
I remember a conversation. Now, here's a constant tension in life, though, because you're always gonna wanna take the credit or understand and not have a perspective on who gave you what. And if you don't have the perspective, then you're not humble. And what are the deep. I look to my kids, and when my kids are not thankful kids, they begin to become entitled kids. I start punishing them. I start freaking out. I start wondering.
Mark Clark [00:04:41]:
Like, literally, we had a conversation this week at my house over dinner. We were having dinner, and I said to one of my kids, I said, look, here's the reality. I would love for you to get a job when you're 16 years old, 15. 16 years old, I want you to get a job at a fast food restaurant. And I named the restaurant. I said, because they're gonna teach you about discipline. They're gonna teach you about hard work. They're gonna teach you about showing up on time.
Mark Clark [00:05:01]:
And listen, this generation, that we're a part. They don't know what that means. They don't know what hard work is. I want you to know. And one of my daughters looked at me and I'm not kidding you. Her quote was, I'm not gonna work at that place, dad. That's where poor people work. Sorry.
Mark Clark [00:05:14]:
What? My, my. I lost it, all right? I literally started pacing her. I had an existential crisis. I was like, oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. My kids are entitled. Oh, my goodness. What time? What have I done now? I guarantee, listen, don't judge me.
Mark Clark [00:05:26]:
It ain't my parenting, man. She got that from one of the public school kids. This was not me. All right, all right. This was some nonsense. She cried and I said, sorry, what did you just say to me? And she goes, well done. What do you mean? I said, well, Aaron, my wife. I said, what did you.
Mark Clark [00:05:40]:
Where did you work growing up? I worked at Wendy's. I worked at Tim Hortons. I worked at. I worked at daycares. I said, I worked at Canadian Tire, pushing carts around when I was 15, mostly so I could go for a smoke, But I still made $6.40 an hour. All right, all right. That was the kind of job where I would just go to the bathroom and rest. All right? You know those jobs where you're just like, I just gotta go.
Mark Clark [00:06:02]:
I'm sorry, I'm no good. I go to the bathroom, and you lay. Just put the thing down, and you sit down for like 10 minutes, and you're like, my gosh, I just got to sit down. All right, so I work today at Tire. I work Michael's arts and crafts. I worked as a janitor. Kid goes, ooh, dad, what are You a peasant? What you. Now listen.
Mark Clark [00:06:23]:
See, back in the 80s, bro, you could smack kids around, all right? Like when I grew up, you could smack kids. If my mom couldn't reach me, she'd just tell my neighbor to smack me. Anybody could beat you when I was growing up, right now we're not allowed to touch them, you know, trigger them, you know, trigger language or whatever. We gotta create all these safe spaces. So I made sure I stepped back a foot or two, all right? I said, hey, listen. So these kids, I mean, it's actually mind boggling. And I look at them, I say, how am I gonna make this kid thankful? How am I gonna. Because here's the thing, she thinks that food is automatic.
Mark Clark [00:07:03]:
She thinks a house over her head is automatic. She thinks the blessings in her life and a warm bed, that they're automatic. And so do you. Because you're dumb like kids sometimes. And you take credit for. Well, what are you? You're just a kid that's like 40 years older, but you still have the same problems, you're still wired in the same narcissistic way where you think you get the credit for what you've done. And Paul starts out with an assumption here that will challenge your life. And it's this.
Mark Clark [00:07:36]:
I give thanks to God for what I've got. I give thanks to God, not me, not you, not my circumstances. Every good gift, the book of James says comes down from the Father of Lights into your life. And then he says this, all right, so I give thanks. So this is underlying question, are you thankful or not? That's your decision in life. Are you an entitled person who thinks you made it? Or do you recognize that everything you got actually came from the God of the universe to you, whether you know that God or not. Now he's about to introduce him and then he says, I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God. So twice he uses the word God.
Mark Clark [00:08:14]:
So we've gotta stop right there. Because one of the controlling questions of all of life is, who is God? A.W. tozer, who's a philosopher, said this. The most important fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deepest heart conceives God to be like. That's the question of your life. And Paul introduces, and he says, I thank God. So the question for you is, well, who is God? What is that? What is that concept? Because there's a lot of ideas out there. And I remember when I became a Christian at 18 years old, I started going up to my friends and saying, do you believe in God? And they would say, no.
Mark Clark [00:08:55]:
And that might be some of you who are here, you don't believe in God. But the pushback question to them as it is to you is, well, which God don't you believe in? Because see, that's important. You're not allowed to just say, I don't believe in God. There's a follow up which is, well, which God are you talking about? I remember when I, when I first became a Christian, would have that conversation. It was like, well, I don't believe in, you know, the God. Well, which one? Well, you know the one, the long haired bearded guy with a big lance and he sits up in heaven and he bombs out people with lightning who do things wrong. He's distant, he's far right? He's the Bette Midler from a distant God, right? I remember my cousin, when I first became a Christian, went to a mall and actually did that song, sign Language. And then from a distant whatever they're.
Mark Clark [00:09:44]:
And I'm like, man, this is paganism. From a distance. What do you mean from it? See, that's the concept of God you have. He's from a distance. He spun the world around and he's watching it to actually see what plays out. Well, I constantly would look at them and say, well, I don't believe in that God either. And then, well, what do you mean? See, here's the question we've gotta ask ourselves. Who is God? What is he? And so let me just hit for a few minutes six or seven things that the New Testament comes along and says, no, no, listen, here's who God is.
Mark Clark [00:10:12]:
This is what he is. This is who he is. This is his nature. All right? And so a few of them here because I mean, the first thing to say is right out of the gate he says, I thank God. Which means he doesn't, he doesn't believe it. Polytheism is wrong. There's not Godza, there's God. And then he says, hey, this is who I.
Mark Clark [00:10:29]:
So he doesn't say I thank you as New Age philosophy would say. He doesn't thank all the gods, he doesn't thank the universe like Oprah would say and Jim Carrey would say and Rob Bell would say. Rob Bell was a pastor. And this weaves itself into Christianity of 10,000 people in the Midwest. And he took on a New Age philosophy of Christianity. One of his recent books, he starts talking about, you should thank God slash the universe, slash the all soul for what you have in life. And I actually Instagrammed him. I direct messaged him on Instagram.
Mark Clark [00:11:01]:
I said, bro, are you actually like a new age thinker now? Because you. And he's like, no, you should read my quote more specifically. And I'm like, okay, well, you literally wrote God the universe. That's kind of saying that you're not sure who God is. And so here's a few things that you gotta understand about God when we start talking about him through this series. Christianity says a few things about him. First, that he is a person, meaning God is not a cosmic energy. He's not bubbling under the surface.
Mark Clark [00:11:31]:
He's actually a person. He's not an impersonal force like other religions or thinking in philosophy would do, like Star wars thinking. All right? In Star wars philosophy, which is very Based on Eastern mysticism, which, you know, hundreds of millions of people in our world believe. The reality is the force is just very impersonal. It's just something. We're not really sure what it is. The Bible comes along and says, no, no, no. God is a person, all right? He's relational.
Mark Clark [00:11:57]:
He thinks. He acts. He speaks. Secondly, God is not the same as nature, all right? So avatar philosophy is wrong. Animism is wrong. God is not in water. He's not in trees. He is omnipresent.
Mark Clark [00:12:12]:
He is everywhere, but he is vastly distinct from the creation. He's not the same as creation, like pantheism would say or panentheism would say. He's not actually in the water. He's not part of the trees. He's everywhere. But he's distinct from his creation. That's very important. Thirdly, he is perfect, all right? So as we think through this, you gotta understand, there's things about God that he's not like you.
Mark Clark [00:12:36]:
This is what theologians call the incommunicable attributes of God. There's communicable attributes, which are things that we are like God, and then there's incommunicable, which is things that are just distinct. He is perfect. He's never said anything wrong, done anything wrong, thought anything wrong. He is absolute perfection. And I tell you that because, listen, if you get anything out of this message, here's what I want you to get. I want you to fall in love with God, not me. All right? I don't, don't, don't.
Mark Clark [00:13:08]:
It's God. This is like if you fall in love with who he is, how powerful he is. See, here's the move of our modern culture. We move toward the attributes of God, which are more empathetic and soft. Right now, we kind of like that he loves people. That's good. We like that he walks with people. That's good.
Mark Clark [00:13:27]:
But we've moved away from some of the. The. The almighty ness of God, the majesty of God, the holiness. He is holy. He is perfect. He's never. He is also not just one. He is three and one.
Mark Clark [00:13:40]:
He is trinitarian. And so it's not a Unitarian version of God where He is just one. Or else when the Bible says God is love. See, here's what you gotta understand. The Bible defines God as love. It's because he always existed. Father, Son, Holy Spirit in a trinitarian community his whole life. He didn't need to create the world because he was lonely.
Mark Clark [00:13:59]:
And he didn't need to create the world for love to exist. Love existed before he made anything because it existed in the trinitarian reality. So that's why the Bible can say God is love. Any other version of God can't actually say that. And so he's eternally one, and he's eternally distinct. A guy. Actually, I was hanging out with a Christian guy today or this week, and he looked at me and he's like, hey, who do you love more, God or Jesus? And I'm like, see, here's the fundamental problem, Christians. It's a category mistake to even ask that question, because Jesus is God, the Father is God, Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God.
Mark Clark [00:14:35]:
All through the New Testament, people pray to all three. So you'll notice you can pray to all three, but here's they're also distinct. All right, so when people say Father Jesus, that actually doesn't make any sense. I've heard people pray like that before. The Father is distinct from Jesus, Jesus is distinct from the Spirit, but they all exist as one. Fifth, God is relational. He loves us, and he wanted to share his love with creation. That's why he made number six.
Mark Clark [00:15:02]:
He's all knowing. He doesn't have limited knowledge. He knows everything. And he's completely sovereign over all things. He made you. Psalm 119 says, in your mother's womb, crafted you from the beginning and wrote out every single day of your life. And so when you die, just know that is the sovereign plan of God. He has your days written.
Mark Clark [00:15:21]:
We may not understand why or what he's actually doing, but he has them written at every moment of your life. He has your story written, because he's absolutely, absolutely sovereign in all things. Seventh, he's all powerful. He can do anything. He can move anything. He can change anything that he wants. There is nothing that holds this God back. And I tell you all that.
Mark Clark [00:15:43]:
A lot of you might be, yeah, we know all this. But here's what you gotta understand. Our culture has moved to a place where we just make God in our image and we come up with things. And we are scared of some of what I've just described to you. All powerful, makes us nervous because we've lived through authoritarian regimes. And we come along, we say, no, no, no, here's what we love.
Mark Clark [00:16:02]:
You're a product of Western democracy.
Mark Clark [00:16:04]:
And what is Western democracy? You get a vote, decisions are made by consensus. And so any version of God where he's not asking your opinion makes you nervous, but you come along, New Testament, over and over and over. God's not asking you, man. God does what he does. Check the Christmas story out. If you deny that Mary's 14, walking around, having a good time of it, he's like, hey, by the way, Holy Spirit came. Put Jesus inside of you. Sorry, what? Can we talk about this? No, it's over.
Mark Clark [00:16:35]:
Think about that. He's not asking you your opinion, man. He's sovereign over all things. He's in absolute control. And so when Paul says, here's who I want you to know.
Mark Clark [00:16:44]:
I want you to know this God.
Mark Clark [00:16:46]:
And then he says this. The grace of God that was given. You now realize this. Verse 4. How is this grace given? In what context? In Christ Jesus. That's vastly important because he says it's not good enough to believe in God. I walk around Canada, I walk around the city of Vancouver, or I go to Calgary and I go, hey, do you believe in God? All right, yeah. A ton of people say yes.
Mark Clark [00:17:11]:
All they mean by that is, well, hey, you know what? I believe in some kind of higher power, whatever. What he does is he makes it more specific.
Mark Clark [00:17:18]:
And he says, actually, the question is.
Mark Clark [00:17:19]:
About Jesus Christ himself. And so what you've gotta figure out in life is what you're gonna do with Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:17:25]:
That's the issue.
Mark Clark [00:17:25]:
It's not just God.
Mark Clark [00:17:26]:
Generically, he says, the grace comes through.
Mark Clark [00:17:29]:
Jesus Christ, meaning there's only one way to God. It's narrow. And Jesus says very few find it. He says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me. And I know that pushes against our modern culture, but what he's saying is the only way to get salvation, the only way to get God in the end, the only way to go to heaven is Through Jesus Christ. He's the one who paved the path. Now that pushes against our culture because everyone wants to say, chill, chill, chill, chill, chill.
Mark Clark [00:17:58]:
Every way's the same way. But what we gotta understand is that.
Mark Clark [00:18:01]:
Becomes illogical as Paul's gonna talk about.
Mark Clark [00:18:03]:
But the reality is you gotta figure out what you're gonna do with Jesus. The Bible says he was born of a virgin. Well, you have to let that confront you. Let it change you. Let it create a crisis of faith in you. And you go, was he actually. Because maybe he just lied. Larry King years ago talked about the idea if he could only interview one person through all of history, it would be Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:18:22]:
And someone said, if you only had one question to ask him, what would it be? And he says it would be, were you born of a virgin? Because the answer to that question would change everything about my life. Cause if that's true, everything changes. That's why J.I. packer says the ultimate scandal is the incarnation. It's Christmas. It's God becoming human. And people. I remember Mormons came to my house one day.
Mark Clark [00:18:45]:
We're sitting, chilling, and I just wanted to act like a regular Joe. So I was like, okay, they came to my door. I'm like, sweet, I'll invite them in, we'll have some. Whatever they drink and we'll chill out and we'll talk.
Mark Clark [00:18:55]:
Cause there's a caffeine thing.
Mark Clark [00:18:56]:
So I was like, okay, let's talk. And they came in. And then I looked over and there was this Bible sitting in my house. This is when I was a new Christian.
Mark Clark [00:19:02]:
I'm like, oh, shoot, now I'm out.
Mark Clark [00:19:04]:
Now they're gonna know. So we start talking. And by the end of our two hour conversation, the question about Jesus was the issue. And they simply looked at me and they said, oh yeah, we're all on the same team. We're both saying the same thing. I'm like, no, no, no. You think Jesus is a half brother of Lucifer? I think that he's God incarnate. We're not even playing the same sport, bro.
Mark Clark [00:19:23]:
What are you even talking about right now? Don't worry, we're all saying the same thing. No, no, no, no. He's not God. What do you mean he's not God? No, no, no, don't worry, he's not God. There's no verse in the Bible that says he's God. Listen, read it. They knew what he was saying when he said, I am. That I am.
Mark Clark [00:19:39]:
I'm doing the work of my Father's own. Because the Text. Read John, chapter five. Read John, chapter eight. Over and over. What do they say? He's claiming himself to be what? Equal with God. That's why they kill him. They know what he's talking about.
Mark Clark [00:19:53]:
Read the story. He doesn't say it the way you want him to say it, but he said it the way his audience would know what he said, saying he forgives sin. He's the temple. He's the one who says, I'm in control of all things. You need to believe in me. I'm the one. Listen. He takes on the role of God over and over and over again.
Mark Clark [00:20:11]:
Let that scandalize you because you have three options. This is what one writer said.
Mark Clark [00:20:16]:
You can either say Jesus Christ was.
Mark Clark [00:20:17]:
A liar, he was a lunatic, or that he's Lord. Those are your three options. There's no. None of this Canadian nicety nonsense where.
Mark Clark [00:20:25]:
Jesus is a good guy, He's a good leader. He's my homeboy, but I don't really believe in him.
Mark Clark [00:20:29]:
If you don't believe in him, then he's not a good homeboy. He wasn't even a good moral teacher. How many people have I sat on the street with and said, what do you think about Jesus? And they say, I think he's a good teacher. Just like Buddha, just like Muhammad, just like Abraham. He's just one of those guys. But he doesn't even give you that option because he claimed to be God. So as C.S. lewis says, he is either a liar, he's the devil of hell.
Mark Clark [00:20:56]:
Or he's God and you get to give your life to him. Those are your options when it comes to Jesus. There's no read the New Testament.
Mark Clark [00:21:02]:
Nobody liked Jesus. You either killed him or wanted to follow him with everything you got and died for him. You didn't get to.
Mark Clark [00:21:10]:
I'll just watch from a distance.
Mark Clark [00:21:12]:
That's not what he lets you do. And so, over and over and over.
Mark Clark [00:21:15]:
Again, I think the issue is coming back to last week. It's the issue of your fear of what people may say if you organize your entire life around the person and the work of Christ Jesus. That's what he's saying. The grace comes to you not through God generically, but you gotta deal with Christ Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:21:30]:
And you might be hesitating to do.
Mark Clark [00:21:33]:
That because of what your boyfriend would say or your mom or your grandma or your co workers. Don't do that because that's the adventure.
Mark Clark [00:21:40]:
See life. I remember I was reading Lord of.
Mark Clark [00:21:43]:
The Rings this week, and there's this great line where Sam Wise Gamgee's about to leave the Shire.
Mark Clark [00:21:48]:
And he's the only one out of.
Mark Clark [00:21:49]:
The four hobbits that have left the Shire. And it says this, Tolkien goes, sam.
Mark Clark [00:21:54]:
Was the only member of the party.
Mark Clark [00:21:55]:
Who had not been over the river before.
Mark Clark [00:21:56]:
He had a strange feeling as the.
Mark Clark [00:21:58]:
Slow gurgling stream slipped by. His old life lay behind in the mist. Dark adventure lay in front. That's what you're afraid of.
Mark Clark [00:22:08]:
You don't know what it's gonna do on the other side of the river. You don't know what it's do if.
Mark Clark [00:22:11]:
You give your life to Jesus. But listen, dark adventure's good, man.
Mark Clark [00:22:15]:
Dark adventure is good for you. Yeah, it's dark, so you don't know what's good. But it's adventure. Where in your life, every great thing in your life has come through that moment of risk, right? If I risk, this could go really bad. But if it's great, man, I mean, think about my wife, the risk she took in marrying me, man. I had my chain connected to my wallet. Cause I didn't want anyone to take my $10. I was a chain smoker, all right? I swore like a sailor, all right? Not like a guy with a sailboat, but like an anchor tattoo.
Mark Clark [00:22:46]:
Sailor, all right? Every other word, all right? I was a disaster. I mean, I showed up at their house, brought my buddy over for the first time we ever had dinner. Her parents wanted to interview me, and I came, I brought my buddy over. The whole time, we just sat and joked around and laughed at her parents. What a bunch of hat. And I'm like, I'm not dating you. I'm dating the daughter. I'm going out for a smoke, all right? She married that nonsense.
Mark Clark [00:23:10]:
That was a massive risk, man. Can you imagine the risk? I'm gonna marry this fool. No job, no idea what to do. Broke. All we're doing is love and air. We're gonna move out to Vancouver. I don't know what's gonna happen. I wanna do some education.
Mark Clark [00:23:24]:
Maybe I'll get a job somewhere, but I'm not sure. Please marry me, baby. And she goes, okay. She took this mask of risk and look how it's paid off for her life. The best. The best. That's gold. She never would have got this without taking a risk.
Mark Clark [00:23:45]:
That's the point of the story, man.
Mark Clark [00:23:47]:
So anyways.
Mark Clark [00:23:50]:
Then he says this.
Mark Clark [00:23:52]:
Listen, take the risk. Don't be a coward. There's dark adventure that lies ahead. And then he says this, that in every way. Verse 5.
Mark Clark [00:24:02]:
That in every way, you were enriched in him, man. If Christianity was pitched to you as it's gonna be awful, and it's all just about cost and it's all about slugging it out, then you don't understand what Christianity offers. Here's the beauty of the gospel. You get God, which means you get joy, which means you get, as Psalm 37 says, delight yourself in the Lord. Listen, Christianity is about your enrichment. It's not gonna lessen your life. It's gonna make you fully human. It's gonna give you joy, the kind of joy you could never imagine.
Mark Clark [00:24:39]:
It's gonna give you the kind of stuff that you're gonna have, a kind of joy in life and a kind of satisfaction. This is what one writer calls Christian hedonism. He basically says everything that drives our life, every motivation about our life is about pleasure. That's why we make the decisions we do. So if we understand Christianity right, we understand that it's going after the best pleasure we could ever imagine. It's not the opposite. Sometimes we think that if I do something godly, I have to do it. I have to chug it out.
Mark Clark [00:25:07]:
It's not going to be good, you.
Mark Clark [00:25:08]:
Know, I got to make sure that it's actually suffering and painful.
Mark Clark [00:25:10]:
And he goes, no, no, no, you get God.
Mark Clark [00:25:12]:
In the end.
Mark Clark [00:25:13]:
You get the most delightful, beautiful pleasure you could ever imagine. The kind of joy that enriches your life, it doesn't. So if you're pitching Christianity, people, man, you gotta show them that your life is rich. He just said, your life gets enriched in Jesus Christ. It doesn't go bad, it doesn't go sour. Some of you slog around with your faces and people go, my gosh, I never. Whatever they believe, give me the opposite, right? It's why I don't have, like, a Jesus fish on my car. Because the way that I drive would make people confused, revert to another religion.
Mark Clark [00:25:47]:
They'd be like, what? I just put 666 in the back of my car. And they're like, give me Jesus. This guy's a nut. What kind of enrichment do you have in your. Do you live out a truly human life at all right now or not?
Mark Clark [00:26:01]:
Here's what Christianity gives you. I was reading a book by a guy named Tim Keller making Sense of God. Few of his chapters are beautiful because he says, here's what you get when you get Jesus. One of his chapters, he says this, you get a meaning that suffering can't take from you. See, agnosticism, atheism, secularism, it forces you.
Mark Clark [00:26:22]:
To find meaning in this life and this life only.
Mark Clark [00:26:25]:
That will kill you in the end.
Mark Clark [00:26:27]:
Because that's why the people around you go for more money, more square footage, more status. Because the only meaning they've got is what happens right here in the 76 years they got. But you get Jesus, and all of a sudden, all the meaning in the world becomes an eternal thing. And now when you hit that suffering which you will, the meaning that comes.
Mark Clark [00:26:49]:
In Christ, the enrichment that comes in Christ, can never be taken from you. We have a family in our own church this week. Her husband passed away in a car accident. They have three kids. Four months old is the youngest. And as my wife's been talking to her, her perspective in the midst of the trial of what she's facing is, God is good. He will sustain us. He is my strength and my portion forever.
Mark Clark [00:27:22]:
In Jesus Christ, you get a meaning that suffering cannot take from you. You start to define your life in many different things. In what's in the bank account, in whether you're healthy this month. Because you ain't living for 76 years, man. Jesus says, you believe in me? You shall never die.
Mark Clark [00:27:41]:
What does that mean? What do you mean, never die? Course we die. No, he's saying, you don't. You're immortal. Your soul goes on forever. Like, the minute you never. You never die. You never stop being conscious in existence the second you die. Like, there's no.
Mark Clark [00:27:57]:
There's no, like, stopwatch where you can be like, hey, he died, and then he's dead for a while, and now he's alive in heaven somewhere. It's like there's no. It's like he's dead gone. He's dead. He's alive. He's dead alive. It gets. Boom.
Mark Clark [00:28:08]:
There's like. There's not even like a. There's not even like, oh, he's dead. God. Bam. You're with him face to face. And that's the hope that we hold onto when we say goodbye to those who go before us. They're more alive than they've ever been.
Mark Clark [00:28:25]:
Enrichment in Jesus Christ comes into your life to give you greater joy.
Mark Clark [00:28:31]:
Not slogging around and saying, well, you want Jesus? It's like, jeepers, no.
Mark Clark [00:28:39]:
What's wrong with you? You don't look happy at all. You're the only guy at the party sitting around judging everybody all the time.
Mark Clark [00:28:48]:
That doesn't look like fun.
Mark Clark [00:28:49]:
I wanna party. I read the New Testament, Jesus, like, kingdom's here, let's go.
Mark Clark [00:28:55]:
He says, I'm not gonna drink wine again while I'm on earth. And they're like, well, what does that mean? It's like, well, because I'm gonna die in like eight hours, but I will be drinking it in the new creation. Don't worry.
Mark Clark [00:29:06]:
That's what he says.
Mark Clark [00:29:08]:
Cause Jesus wants to enrich life, not strip it. And so Keller says, a meaning that.
Mark Clark [00:29:16]:
Suffering can't take from you. He says, in Christianity, you get a.
Mark Clark [00:29:19]:
Satisfaction that is not based on. Based on circumstances. 2008 hits. There's two kinds of people.
Mark Clark [00:29:26]:
There's guys who put a gun in.
Mark Clark [00:29:27]:
Their mouth, they lost all their money and they killed themselves. They jumped off buildings, they got in their Jaguar and ended their life. And then there's guys like, I know who lost everything. And they got a house and a family in 2018, and they loved Jesus. What was the difference? They held on to a transcendent reality of what God had given them and did not define their identity by what was in their bank account.
Mark Clark [00:29:48]:
And what they lost because they knew, they gained. I got God now. There's no greater gift than that. Stop living your life to take gift. Live your life to get giver. Do not elevate gift above giver or you will be punished over and over and over again in your own soul because you didn't have enough.
Mark Clark [00:30:11]:
God is enough. God is enough. He is my portion forever. And then he says this. You get an identity that doesn't crush you or exclude others. You get an identity in Jesus Christ that doesn't crush you because it's not based on your performance, it's based on his performance for you.
Mark Clark [00:30:32]:
And here's where that comes in handy. I was talking to a pastor a.
Mark Clark [00:30:36]:
Few months ago and he said, oh.
Mark Clark [00:30:37]:
My gosh, you don't know what I did. I said, what'd you do? And he said, I did a funeral. Yeah, okay. He said, but here's how it went down. He was a young guy, 28 years old, coming up in the ministry, been assigned this funeral. And so this family had lost someone and their mother older and the daughter.
Mark Clark [00:30:58]:
In law came in to talk with.
Mark Clark [00:31:00]:
Him and they started talking in the office. And he said, so tell me about your mom.
Mark Clark [00:31:05]:
Cause he wants some information about the sermon for the day.
Mark Clark [00:31:08]:
And so she lists out a bunch of stuff. You know, her life in Florida and you know, all these things about her, who she was a great woman and this and that and whatever. He gets all these details down and he shows up and the casket's there. Actually it was the. They're outside and they're about to put the cask in the ground. He was assigned to this 10 minute moment, and he just starts riffing for.
Mark Clark [00:31:30]:
10 minutes on how great this woman is.
Mark Clark [00:31:32]:
And he realizes as he's talking, hey, Deborah was this, and Deborah was that that. That. Everyone's kind of squirming around and going kind of looking or whatever. Finally someone stops him and says, her name's not Deborah, bro. You're talking about the wrong person. And he's like, what? What are you talking about? This woman came in and he said, tell me about your mom. She ripped on her own mom. She's talking about her mom who died five years ago.
Mark Clark [00:32:06]:
And then just walks out of the office, goes, guess the guy wanted to know about my mom. The guy gets up, he's like, florida, Deborah, pillar in the community. Everyone's like, what? What are you talking about? And in that moment, that guy was about to quit ministry, man. He was like, I'm done unless the gospel's true. Because here's what Satan was telling him. I'm 28 years old. I'm playing a game. I'm a joke.
Mark Clark [00:32:35]:
I'm just gonna screw everybody's life up anyway. If I try to be a pastor, I'm out.
Mark Clark [00:32:41]:
And the identity you get in Jesus Christ is, look, this is not based on your performance. It's based on his performance for you.
Mark Clark [00:32:46]:
So get up, go forward another day, because this ain't about you. And Keller says, you get a hope.
Mark Clark [00:32:56]:
That can face anything, and you get a justice that does not create new oppressors. Because of course, Jesus says, you love your enemy. That's the kind of enrichment you get. All right, two more things that he says to land this, that in every.
Mark Clark [00:33:11]:
Way, you are enriched.
Mark Clark [00:33:12]:
Verse 5. In him, in all speech and all knowledge speech, the Corinthians worshiped great communicators. Worshiped them.
Mark Clark [00:33:24]:
They all wanted to be them. Think about you love being able to communicate. Well, we all love. I remember I was three months into.
Mark Clark [00:33:30]:
My marriage before my wife wrote a song, Communication is the key.
Mark Clark [00:33:33]:
Bop, bop, bop, bop.
Mark Clark [00:33:34]:
And she would just sing it around the house, right? Communication is the key.
Mark Clark [00:33:37]:
Bop, bop, bop, bop. And I like, three months in, I'm like, oh, she's talking to me, bro. She's talking to me because I suck. I just like, get up at one in the morning and just go out with my friends. I was like, that's what I used to do. What? Oh, I'm married now. Shoot, I better tell someone so she'd wake up.
Mark Clark [00:33:54]:
Communication is the Key. I'm like, what?
Mark Clark [00:33:58]:
So then I started singing that to people at their wedding, which is another.
Mark Clark [00:34:01]:
Reason probably I don't get asked to do many weddings.
Mark Clark [00:34:03]:
I would sing to the people.
Mark Clark [00:34:04]:
Here's my gift to you. Communication is the key. All right, so we all wanna communicate.
Mark Clark [00:34:11]:
Well, we love that. And then he says, knowledge. Here's two things, speech and knowledge. Those things the Corinthians worshiped. And Paul comes in, he goes, hey, listen, think about your speech.
Mark Clark [00:34:22]:
Let me tell you something about your words. They have a magical apocalyptic power in people's lives. How do you use them? There is no such thing as idle chatter. You are always building. Listen, there's only two kinds of people. There's people going to an eternal future with Jesus and an eternal future without him.
Mark Clark [00:34:43]:
And at every moment, your speech is being used to point everybody around you to one of those two destinations. That's all you do in life with your words is burn down forests or raise them up. That's it. So which is you? Are you the gossip and the negative and the criticizer and the deconstructor at.
Mark Clark [00:35:09]:
All times or the one who speaks life? Because you know, people need it. People are depressed, people are angry, people are going through it. They don't need your negative criticism. They need you to speak life. My daughter had a friend over, this is two weeks ago. They're sitting in their house and her friend looks down at her phone and there's a long text from her friend at school. She's starting back into a school that she was a part of years ago. And the text was scathing.
Mark Clark [00:35:40]:
These are 12 year old, 13 year old girls.
Mark Clark [00:35:42]:
Don't come back to the school and.
Mark Clark [00:35:43]:
Think you're gonna get all the attention. You're not allowed to come into my friend group because I've already got friends. Go find other friends. I can't believe you're actually coming back to school. What a loser you are. Make sure that you stay away from me when you're in school. We, we've already got things set. Don't try to get all the attention in life.
Mark Clark [00:35:57]:
I don't even know why you're coming back. And she starts to weep right in front of my daughter. Cry and cry and cry.
Mark Clark [00:36:03]:
Because this 13 year old girl is.
Mark Clark [00:36:06]:
Just pounding her with all of this negative information. She leaves the house and Sienna comes downstairs and she starts to weep and starts to tell us about this thing. And my wife goes, well, didn't you this morning write her a letter? And she's like, that's right.
Mark Clark [00:36:22]:
She had written this girl who was.
Mark Clark [00:36:24]:
Crying in her room a letter using her name as an acronym and spelling out with every letter something great and beautiful about her and her personality.
Mark Clark [00:36:33]:
And so they took it and they drove over to her house and they sat and Sienna read it to her.
Mark Clark [00:36:39]:
Each line.
Mark Clark [00:36:40]:
You're this, you're this, you're this, you're this, you're this, you're this. And the mother's crying and the kids crying and they're holding and they're hugging some. Sienna, that is your option in life. Become the first one that destroys people and deconstructs their soul right in front of you. Or become someone who shows up and builds up to give life. He's saying, you wanna understand what you do with your speech. That's the power you hold.
Mark Clark [00:37:09]:
And then lastly, he says, in all speech and then in all knowledge. Gnosis is the Greek word for knowledge. It's where the religion Gnosticism came from. And here's the reality about knowledge. You and I have to understand that Christianity in the marketplace of ideas fits in regard to making sense.
Mark Clark [00:37:30]:
It is the most.
Mark Clark [00:37:31]:
It's the thing that makes most sense.
Mark Clark [00:37:33]:
Science.
Mark Clark [00:37:35]:
One writer, a guy named Alan P. Lightman, MIT professor in Harper's Magazine, said, we are going through science's crisis of faith right now because they don't have an explanation for first causes. They don't have an explanation for your consciousness. They don't have an explanation for the.
Mark Clark [00:37:50]:
Idea of beauty and why you would.
Mark Clark [00:37:52]:
Ever think something's beautiful and not beautiful.
Mark Clark [00:37:54]:
They don't have an understanding of morality. Science can't answer certain questions.
Mark Clark [00:37:58]:
So Christianity comes along and it answers.
Mark Clark [00:38:00]:
All these from a historical, philosophical, literary perspective. And it says the best way to understand the form of the universe and how we function theologically. Anthropology, all the study says Christianity in the marketplace of ideas makes the most sense. Over and over. You put it up against. And he put it up against the Canadian nicety idea of all religions are the same. Don't worry, we're all just going to the same places. And Christianity comes along and says, do not be illogical.
Mark Clark [00:38:28]:
That can't be the case. One religion says there's 100 million gods. Another religion says there's no Christianity, says there's one God. We can't all be right at the same time either. We're all wrong. But we can't say that we're all right just so you can get through Thanksgiving dinner. Do not adopt any logical worldview, because in that moment, you are actually going.
Mark Clark [00:38:47]:
Against knowledge and you're doing what feels good in a moment. And Paul says, why don't you believe something that stands up, that holds up under scientific rigor?
Mark Clark [00:38:58]:
My buddy looked at me and he said, all religions are the same. I don't wanna fight about this anymore. I said, what are you talking about? They all teach different things. He's like, it's okay. They all contradict each other. It's okay. We're all right. I said, dude, if your daughter came home and said, two plus two equals five, what would you say? He'd say, you know what? If that's what she wants to believe, then she could believe that.
Mark Clark [00:39:17]:
My head exploded. What are you talking about? We are going to sacrifice truth so we can all feel good. Where does that go? My buddy thinks that those things in the sky behind planes are chemtrails designed by the government to control weather. And every time he says it, all of us go, ha, ha, ha, you're crazy. Listen, either he's right or we're right. But we're not both right. He's crazy. Are you nuts?
Mark Clark [00:39:57]:
Chemtrails, but we're not both right. Do not sacrifice knowledge. Do not sacrifice wisdom. Do not sacrifice. And people, look at me. I remember when I first became a Christian. I'd go up to people, I'd say, hey, you need to believe in Jesus, man. This is the way they go.
Mark Clark [00:40:12]:
And they go, you know what? The only reason you're a Christian is because you happen to be born in Canada. That's the only reason. If you were born in Morocco, you'd be a Muslim. You wouldn't be a Christian. They say, don't you understand? We need to include everybody. We need to include everything's truth. It's inclusivism. That's the way to do it.
Mark Clark [00:40:32]:
And I'd say, okay, okay, hold on a sec. So you know the only reason you're an inclusivist is because you were born in Canada. You know, if you were born in Morocco, you wouldn't be an inclusivist.
Mark Clark [00:40:45]:
You'd exclude the exclude. You would be very excluded, very tight. There's one way and one way only. Does that mean that your worldview is wrong?
Mark Clark [00:40:55]:
We've got to understand. We gotta go after knowledge. We gotta go after what's right. We gotta go after what's true. But now, here's the last point here. It's very important. He says, knowledge is important. Gnosis is important.
Mark Clark [00:41:10]:
It's awesome. But by the time you get to chapter 13, here's what you're gonna realize, and this is Very important. Okay. I've been talking a lot to the unchurched people. Now I'm gonna talk to the church people for a minute. All right? So if you're a church person, if you're already a Christian, listen to me for a second. Here's what he's gonna say by chapter 13, it's gonna uproot your whole life. Knowledge is good.
Mark Clark [00:41:29]:
Truth is great.
Mark Clark [00:41:30]:
We all love truth. We're all about the truth.
Mark Clark [00:41:32]:
Here's what he's gonna say by the time he gets to chapter 13. It's inferior to love. That when you think about how God is going to be seen in the world, you think, here's the most important thing. What's true?
Mark Clark [00:41:48]:
What's true? What's true?
Mark Clark [00:41:50]:
I would argue that God actually gets more seen in the world, not always by what's true, but by love. And some of you might disagree with me. Listen to 1 Corinthians 13. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Mark Clark [00:42:14]:
And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, gnosis, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not.
Mark Clark [00:42:26]:
Love, I am nothing.
Mark Clark [00:42:29]:
You wanna know how people are gonna feel God through you in your life? It ain't just by the fact that you're right, man.
Mark Clark [00:42:37]:
It's by the fact that you love.
Mark Clark [00:42:41]:
And this is why he's saying, be.
Mark Clark [00:42:43]:
Very careful to make knowledge truth.
Mark Clark [00:42:46]:
The only thing I was listening to a pastor this week on Interview, and there was this journalist, and he was just hitting him with questions about why has the church, you know, mistreated gay people, and why has the church mistreated divorced and remarried people? And he said, listen, here's what's very.
Mark Clark [00:43:03]:
Important for the church to understand, that.
Mark Clark [00:43:06]:
You and I have to embrace the idea and understand very clearly that to be right in the wrong way is to be wrong. To be right is to in the wrong way is to be wrong. That we, if we crutch Jesus, comes and dies for his enemies, loves. This is what messes us up. He says adultery is wrong, and then he hangs out with adulterers. Prostitution is wrong, and then he hangs out with prostitutes. We go, oh, you're affirming their life. He goes, what?
Mark Clark [00:43:43]:
Now? The liberal side of us loves what I just said. Thank God and amen. But here's the flip side to it, and if you want to email me, I would love to hear from you. John Brodhead@thisisvillagechurch.com you can't just love people out into nothing. You love them towards something. What do you love that person who's in that scenario sexually or that adulterer?
Mark Clark [00:44:20]:
What are you doing? I love them. What does that mean? I just love them. No, no, you love them toward what.
Mark Clark [00:44:26]:
God has for them.
Mark Clark [00:44:27]:
You love them toward how God designed. You love them toward the riches that God has for them, which means you gotta say some stuff that might offend them, that might hit them, because you got to move them toward an end goal, which means they might not want to hear it in the moment, but it's the only way to love them. And to be silent and to pretend that everything's okay in whatever scenario they're in is not to love them. But what is greater love than if you look at them and say, I want to actually lead you toward truth? Because that's ultimately where this thing needs to go. I'll give you an example. Yesterday, my. My oldest was like, okay, I want to go. I want to walk to the store on my own.
Mark Clark [00:45:06]:
And I'm like, not happening. I don't like that she had two friends with her. And this was like. This is like, okay, some of you who've been parents, these traumatic moments where you're like, are we now at the age where I'm letting her outside of my sight? This is crazy. I don't know what to do. What if she goes out there, she lies to me and she says, I'm going here, but then she goes over here, and then what if there's a male there? Like a boy? No, no, no. That's not happening ever. Till she's 40.
Mark Clark [00:45:28]:
So she's out and now she's gone. I don't know. And so I'm like, oh, I don't know what to do. I said, okay, fine, you can walk to the store. You go to the store and then you come back. Okay, great. So these three 12 year olds, boom.
Mark Clark [00:45:38]:
They take off. And I look at my wife. I'm like, is this okay? She's like, yeah, I think so. I said, okay, okay, okay. So here's what I like to do. I'd like to follow them in my car and just go up the back streets and just watch and make sure it's legit.
Mark Clark [00:45:55]:
No. Crazy van pulls up with a round window darkened out. All right.
Mark Clark [00:45:59]:
In the back.
Mark Clark [00:46:00]:
All right, so.
Mark Clark [00:46:02]:
And Erin's like, mark, you cannot do.
Mark Clark [00:46:05]:
She would be devastated. I can't believe you even thought that.
Mark Clark [00:46:08]:
I said, okay. And I Said, order some pizza. So she orders some pizza. She's like, okay, order the pizza. And I said, okay.
Mark Clark [00:46:14]:
I said, can I go get the pizza now?
Mark Clark [00:46:17]:
And she's like, yes, yes, you must.
Mark Clark [00:46:19]:
Get the pizza now. And I said, even though you haven't really ordered it yet, you're just getting to it. Yeah, yeah, you should go get it now, though. You should wait there and just see that it's okay. I was like, okay, okay, that's good. And she's like, but do not follow them. You cannot follow them. And I said, no, no, no, I would not do that.
Mark Clark [00:46:34]:
And now I'm going to confuse. I'm like, okay, I won't follow them, but I'm going to go get pizza now, right? Yeah, yeah. And I said, okay, then blink twice if you want me to follow them. She says, you can never follow them. That would be wrong. I'm like, okay, so you're follow them now. No, you can't do that. Okay, I'll just go get the pizza, Right? Okay.
Mark Clark [00:47:00]:
So I get in my car and I drive around to the little corner, and I watch them come out of their little store.
Mark Clark [00:47:06]:
They said they were going to be here. Where are they? Oh, there they are.
Mark Clark [00:47:08]:
Okay. There's no boys. This is creepy, by the way. I can't believe I'm telling you this. And then I. And then I saw them, and I drove up and I went into the.
Mark Clark [00:47:17]:
Pizza place because I could see where they were. The ultimate destination from the pizza place. So I get in there. I'm there like, they're not even taking. Like, my wife's on the phone with the girl, and I'm like, at the pizza joint. I'm like, the guy's like, sir, your pizza is not ready.
Mark Clark [00:47:28]:
And I'm like, yeah, I don't care.
Mark Clark [00:47:29]:
I'm just focused out the window. They got. Could have handed me a chicken. I would have been like, yeah, whatever. I just focus out here. I'm watching these kids, right? And they hand me these pizzas. I'm still sitting there for 15 minutes like, this is not a cafe, sir. It's a pizza joint.
Mark Clark [00:47:42]:
You got to get out of here. I'm like, shut up.
Mark Clark [00:47:46]:
Now she doesn't know I followed her. And you not gonna tell her. I was gonna say or. But then I had nothing to hurt you with, but I did it for her good. And she would have cried and thought I wasn't being a good dad.
Mark Clark [00:48:03]:
She would have said, oh, I can't believe he. Daddy. I can't believe it. Daddy. I Can't believe she would have freaked.
Mark Clark [00:48:06]:
Out if she ever finds out I followed her. But I was doing it for her good cause I love her, even though she wouldn't feel that way. Let me tell you something. There's things in your life you need people to love you toward. There's sin in your life that you need to let devastate you. Let it conspire against your soul because the people are loving you toward an end that is beautiful and enriching, even though it might not feel like that in the moment. So you got people looking at you going, I wanna tell you about Jesus, but your life's a disaster. I need to walk you and why it's wrong.
Mark Clark [00:48:40]:
Don't just put your walls up and say, I'm gonna die a man or a woman. Just as I am right now, believing and thinking what I'm thinking right now.
Mark Clark [00:48:48]:
Take it and go. Is there something here that's a dark adventure that's getting me to where God wants me to go, which is ultimately.
Mark Clark [00:48:54]:
Gonna be the greatest thing for me. Allow that to play itself out. Be courageous enough, Father, I do pray that they are courageous. That all of us are courageous enough to actually, in speech and knowledge, be loved one well, because we can have all the knowledge in the world, but not be overtaken by the love that you showed us in Jesus. Let that define us. Let us know that, yes, according to speech and knowledge, Christianity is the best.
Mark Clark [00:49:20]:
Idea in the marketplace of ideas. And let us give our lives to.
Mark Clark [00:49:24]:
It so that we can love well and be enriched to your glory and for the good of people. Change us not what we do, but what we want to do. Let us be the kinds of people who love well and who are loved well and receive it in Jesus Great name we pray. Amen.