Mark Clark [00:00:03]:
Go to First Corinthians, chapter 10. We're gonna try to hit a bunch of verses, maybe three or four verses. That's a bunch in village terms today. And really talk about something I think is really important that Paul brings up. And what you gotta understand is first, as you turn to First Corinthians 10, if you're new to the Bible, go like, like 3/4 of the way through your Bible. That's like the book of Matthew. And then just keep going and Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, so on. And there's a few books in, and that's First Corinthians.
Mark Clark [00:00:28]:
You can go to the table of contents, put your pride in your back pocket to find First Corinthians letter. Paul wrote to this city that was very similar to the cities that we gather in. And he's dealing with people very similar to us who lived kind of lives where they didn't know God and they kind of lived a certain behavior and had a certain philosophy. And then they met Jesus and they started gathering in these churches and they started trying to figure out what life was really about. How am I going to die, to sin? How am I gonna start living for God? And so on. So he writes in this particular section, he's writing this part. And you gotta understand, especially if you're new. I was talking to this couple that we're trying to lead to Jesus and kind of walk in a journey with, and we're talking about why we talk about the Bible.
Mark Clark [00:01:09]:
Like, they've come to village a few times and they kind of watch what we do. And it's always weird when I'm trying to journey with people and I invite them to church because it's like, hey, come to church. And then they show up and it's like, yeah, you just invited me to come listen to you talk and wax eloquently and yell at me so I can do that at home and yell at them at home, and I do that in my living room. But outside of that, they come and they're like, why the Bible? Why do you talk from the Bible all the time? So just as you. As you turn there, we gotta understand, as Christians is we believe that the Bible is literally authoritative, that it's perfect, it's inerrant, it's inspired by the Holy Spirit that the Spirit literally guided along the people who wrote the books of the Bible. And the reality is that it's perfectly true, it's perfectly accurate, and that God. It's literally like a living word that God uses to inspire us to Challenge us, to change us, to inform our faith. And that other books, while good, aren't inspired by God.
Mark Clark [00:02:04]:
They're not perfect. They're not what I call the canon of Scripture, where God, God's word is totally closed from Genesis to Revelation. That's the Bible. God unpacks his theology, who he is, the way that we get salvation, who we're supposed to be as human beings. Put it in this book so that all people could actually read it and understand, rather than just having a subjective experience where we say, well, I think God's telling me this and I think God's telling me that. Cause that's good and we need to experience God. But there could be moments where you just eat too much pizza and you think God's telling you to do this. He's really not.
Mark Clark [00:02:34]:
And so we always constantly bring it back to the Bible. We're like, what does the Bible actually say? Would it guide you in this way? Would it guide you in this way? And so on. So that's why we teach from the Bible every single week. And we're a church that does expository preaching. So that literally means that our sermon series, for the most part, 99% of them, are based on just going through Bible books verse by verse, by verse by verse until we get to the end. So we did three and a half years in the book of Matthew. We are now in the midst of First Corinthians. This is Sermon, I think number 37 or something in that series, but we're in chapter 10, so we're just beaming through.
Mark Clark [00:03:06]:
And the reality is, is that we do that not only. And one of the things that I want to do with this series is actually use the screen. Cause I think my job as a preacher is not just to tell you conclusions, but to teach you how to think. And it's very important that you construct a way of thinking. And so it's important to bring conclusions to you, but also show you progressively how I got to those conclusions. And so going through the Bible verse by verse does a couple things. It kind of explains who God is in context. Everything needs context.
Mark Clark [00:03:35]:
You can't just drop into verses randomly, or else you're gonna be totally lost. You're gonna have bad theology. But the reality is you gotta understand that God puts context to everything, and you have to watch it unfold. And so the reality is we're gonna get to certain. If you just fly into certain chapters, you're not gonna understand the larger context of what Paul's doing. And so we just Go verse by verse. So we think. So we actually see, here's what Paul's saying, here's why he's saying.
Mark Clark [00:03:59]:
And so on and so forth. So that's why we always root it in a context and we just go expositorily through books of the Bible. Cause that's where our faith is rooted. It also forces us to talk about things that we would never. If I was just coming up with sermon series in my office, I would never do some of the things that we're going to do. Probably even over the next six or seven weeks. We're gonna start hitting text as we turn into chapter 11, that get weird, that get odd. They start talking about angels and women and head coverings and men and what we're supposed to do with this and that, whatever.
Mark Clark [00:04:27]:
And tongues and spiritual gifts and miracles and angels and demons. All these kind of things that literally, if I was like, hey, I'm starting a church in Canada and I wanna preach, it'd probably be like, I'm not gonna really talk about this kind of stuff. Like Paul's about to do a passage where he goes, that man was made in the image of God, but women were made in the image of man. It's like, all right, let's just skip that verse. I'm not gonna choose to preach on that verse. Cause that sounds crazy. So what are we gonna do with it? All right, so invite your friends to that. Okay, here we go.
Mark Clark [00:04:57]:
So here Paul in chapter 10. Now he's hitting. He summarized what we talked about last week. And now he comes out of the gate and he says this. Chapter 10, verse 23, all things. He starts out, all things are lawful. And so the reality is that phrase right there is actually crazy. Because him as a Jew, he's coming from a very.
Mark Clark [00:05:17]:
He was a Shamite Pharisee who believed in over 600 laws. And so he believed that you couldn't eat shellfish. You had to do for the Holy Land. You couldn't let, you know, cotton touch polyester. You couldn't do this on the Sabbath. You couldn't touch a pig skin. You couldn't touch a dead body. You couldn't.
Mark Clark [00:05:32]:
There's this long list of things you were and were not allowed to do as a shammate Pharisee. Which is why Paul overs killing of the first Christians. It wasn't so much that they were Christians, they were bad Jews. They'd followed a false messiah. His rules told him he couldn't do that. And now he gets to a place where something happened, something has Happened to him. He had met someone, and his name was Jesus. Jesus knocked him blind, said, I want to use you.
Mark Clark [00:05:53]:
Paul went away, rethought his whole concept of God, concept of salvation. And when he came to know Jesus, he realized that all of those laws had played a particular part for a certain epoch or era in salvation history. But now that era had come to its climax and come to its conclusion in Jesus. Which is why Jesus in his ministry is constantly going about symbolically doing things that say, listen. All this old way of connecting to God, religion. John, chapter two. When he goes in, he has the wedding at Cana, and he turns the water into wine. And John says, all the water pots, there were six purification pots used for the Jewish ritual of purification.
Mark Clark [00:06:27]:
He takes all of that water, he turns it into wine. It's not just that he wants everybody to get hacked up. It's that he's saying, listen, symbolically, the Old Testament reality of purification is done. The new wine has come. My way of salvation is superseding it. The very next story, he goes into the temple. He does the same thing. The temple's gonna be destroyed, and three days later, I'm gonna raise up.
Mark Clark [00:06:48]:
And he's saying, the real temple is the temple of my body. This is where sacrifice is. The temple is now over. All of these religious rules, these lawful things, are now over. As a way to connect to the God of the universe. I have come to do this amazing thing, and some of you just need to hear this. And it's something that constantly comes up through the scriptures, is that whether you're an atheist or you're super religious, all right, you might be a Muslim or a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Jew or whatever, and you're here and you're like, what is God about? What does Christianity have to say? The reality is, Paul believed it was all religion that got you to God. And then he met Jesus and he changed his mind.
Mark Clark [00:07:23]:
He realized that a new era had come about where all of these rules, all of these laws had actually come to their conclusion. And now there was a kind of freedom. So here's what you've got to understand. If you're exploring Christianity, if you're an atheist or you're religious, whatever, you've been living a life of religion that says, you got to do this. You got to do this. You got to do this to get fulfilled in life. And this Christianity, if you accept it, if you believe, if you participate, if you become a Christian, a follower of Jesus, what you've got to understand is it's not going to be a burden to you. It's absolutely freeing in every way.
Mark Clark [00:07:52]:
And that's the point is Paul comes along and he says, man, what I've seen in Jesus actually frees me. And so what we gotta understand is everything else about life crushes us. If you try to. Even if you're an agnostic, you're an atheist and you try to get fulfillment, you're basically religious, you're lawful, you're trying to get fulfillment through becoming successful, through getting a good job, through having a good reputation, through being a good person. But if you look at. I mean, the reality is if you do that without Jesus, if you do that without God, if you do that with the cross and the resurrection, it will crush you. Religion always crushes. Even if you look at agnostic, humanistic religion, if you look at people who become famous celebrities, if you look at rich people, if you look at powerful people, look at how they so often those people's lives derail.
Mark Clark [00:08:39]:
How many super powerful, super rich, super successful celebrities. We all want to be celebrities, we all want to be known. How many of them actually get through life without a drug addiction, without failing out on their marriage, without totally derailing their life in regard to mental stuff that comes up, stresses and pressure. All you go through the list of powerful people, successful people, they all get crushed. They cheat on their wives, they're on medication, they're in counseling, they go through massive things in life because the human soul cannot take that much pressure. It becomes an idol, it becomes law, and law crushes. And so here the apostle Paul comes along and goes, no, no, no, there's actually freedom in Jesus. There's a reality of the kind of freedom.
Mark Clark [00:09:18]:
Now, the problem is, is they had actually overlearned this. All things are lawful. And they were using it as a slogan. They were like, hey, I can do whatever I want. All things are lawful. It doesn't matter what I do with my life. And I see this in pastoral counseling all the time. I want to become a Christian, but I want to sleep with whomever I want.
Mark Clark [00:09:37]:
I want to become a Christian, but I want to spend money how I want. I want to be a Christian, but I'm allowed to gossip, be greedy, do whatever I want. You want both worlds. And Paul's coming out and he's saying, no, no, no, listen, that's not what I mean by all things are lawful. That is what Diedrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace. Bonhoeffer was a theologian writing in World War II, 1930s, 1940s in Germany as a German theologian, the Nazis had started to rise and use the church in Germany as a way to get power. And the church in Germany, most of the pastors were like, yeah, it's great, Hitler, we're with you. We can get people roused up and it's gospel centered and don't worry.
Mark Clark [00:10:14]:
And Hitler said, I'm a Christian, don't worry about it. And so the German church started to turn and Karl Barth and Diedrich Bonhoeffer started to realize that the Third Reich was actually using the church. And so Bonhoeffer wrote a book called the Cost of Discipleship, where he basically said, listen, don't believe in cheap grace. Cheap grace is when you so believe in grace that you overlearn it, that you start to abuse it and think that God doesn't demand anything of your life at all. He just demands. He's so gracious and that you don't have to actually, you can just use Christianity in any way you want. And so that kind of life is literally Hitler esque. It's taking the grace of God, using it to basically give you permission to do whatever you want in life.
Mark Clark [00:10:50]:
You can sleep with whoever, you can spend money with whoever, whatever. And the reality is, Christianity comes along and says, listen, here's how. I'm not gonna crush you. You don't get to live that kind of freedom because Jesus becomes your authority, God becomes your authority. The Bible starts to dictate life and belief and meaning and practice to you in a way that is ultimately freeing. It's beautiful. It's like Jesus comes and he sets you free from prison. But what Paul is going to try to tell them is he's not setting you free so that you can go and sin.
Mark Clark [00:11:19]:
He's setting you free so that you become righteous. That's the point. If you get freed by the grace of God and use that as liberty to delve into sin, you've totally missed the point of why Jesus set you free. That's the point. It'd be like someone if I went to prison, which would be my absolute worst nightmare, I'd be someone's girlfriend the first night. I guarantee I would not be good in prison. All right? So I would have to talk myself into the best gang possible. Cause I could.
Mark Clark [00:11:43]:
Hey, bro, that would be my gang. Yeah, you're my gang. All right. I have to somehow negotiate. So let's say I went to prison. That's a side note. Let's say I went to prison for tax evasion and I'm sitting in prison. I'M like, oh my goodness.
Mark Clark [00:11:53]:
And then a friend of mine does everything in his power to get me out of prison. And I get out of prison, worst nightmare, I'd be terrible. And I finally get out and I use my freedom to do more tax evasion. I kiss the ground. I'm like, oh my. Kiss my kids. I'm so glad I got him. And then I just do more tax evasion.
Mark Clark [00:12:08]:
That is like the apostle Paul saying, why would you use the freedom that Jesus has given you to sin? You don't wanna do that. That defeats the whole point. You use the freedom in order to become righteous. That's his whole point. And so he's saying, listen, all things are lawful. And he's quoting them, this was a slogan that they were using. And he's saying, listen, I understand the grace of God lets you free, but you gotta understand I'm not talking about being free to sin again, he's talking about the context, food laws. Hey, can I eat food? Sacrifice to idols.
Mark Clark [00:12:39]:
Remember he started talking about that in chapter nine. It's all the context of what he's still talking about, can I still eat food? Sacrifice idols. You can if it doesn't violate your conscience. You can if it doesn't cause you to sin. And so he begins to say, there's more questions to ask than is something. Can I do something? See, that's lowest common denominator of Christianity. Can I do it? And he's going, all things are lawful. But then he says there's a second follow up question which is is it actually helpful? So, but not all things are helpful.
Mark Clark [00:13:10]:
This is a crucial word. Cause what he's saying is there. Here's the balance. Theologically conservative and culturally liberal, that's the conclusion of where the New Testament goes. And what I mean by that is you have to believe that the Bible's the word of God. Jesus is the only way. Hell's a real thing. The only way to God is through the cross, the resurrection of Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:13:32]:
All of these things that are orthodox historic Christianity, but then culturally liberal. Meaning there are some of you that need to learn this. All things are lawful, you need to learn that. Some of you need to learn the other. But helpful. And you need to be, yeah, you need to rein it in. Others of you need to learn, listen, all things are lawful. You need to actually understand that.
Mark Clark [00:13:52]:
Movies are okay, music is okay, art is okay. I'm gonna talk about that in a second. All of these things that God has given to people, they need to be enjoyed, they need to be Understood in the gospel context. Some of you need to learn that. Others of you, you are far too liberal in the way that you live. And you need to take the second half, which is. But not all things are helpful. Yes.
Mark Clark [00:14:13]:
There's no law where I can tell you, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. But you have to ask a second question. Not just does the Bible prohibit me to or restrict me from doing it. You have to ask the question, is it helpful? Is this actually not just neutral? Is it moving the kingdom forward? That's the question we all have to ask. So think about it in different regards of your life. I think about it in raising kids. So you could just ask the question. So yesterday morning, my youngest 8 year old, Bella, she has a friend sleeping over.
Mark Clark [00:14:40]:
We wake up, I go to the cupboard, I'm like, hey, you guys want some breakfast? And I'm kind of looking this way. She's like, yeah, I'd like some breakfast. And then I said, okay, what do you want? And I'm kind of sifting through the cereal and I hear her and her friend over here and their little voice says, well, I can have these, I'm allowed to have these. And I'm like, okay, whatever. And I turn around and she's holding a bag of Oreos, all right? With like this face, like. And I'm like, it's 8 o' clock in the morning. All right? Now here's the reality. It's lawful.
Mark Clark [00:15:11]:
She could have them, but it ain't gonna be helpful sucking down eight Oreos at 8 o' clock in the morning. I'm gonna be peeling her and her friend off the wall, right? Which I don't know if they actually snuck one because about 15 minutes later, I looked around and they had two mats out in my kitchen and they were stretching and I said, what are you doing? And they're like, yoga. And I'm like, what universe am I in right now? All right, this is ins. Why is my 8 year old doing. She's like. I'm like, what is happening? Hopefully, hopefully Jesus is in your mind while you're doing this, okay? So the reality is there's this theologically conservative, culturally liberal tension that we need to live in where there are literally Triple X church is a church that is so theologically conservative idea, but so culturally liberal that they feel called to go reach porn stars. So literally, their employees go to porn shows, all right? All the big shows in Vegas, they show up as Christians and they wear T shirts saying Jesus Loves porn stars, and they hang out with all these porn stars. Now, listen, some of you just don't be dumb and think that's your calling in life.
Mark Clark [00:16:16]:
Some of you are like, that's my calling. You're 21 and single. Shut up. All right? That's not your calling. But some of you, if it doesn't affect you, if it doesn't ruin your mind, if it doesn't corrode your soul, maybe some of you are then called to actually be those people who go, yes, Jesus does love to important stars. And it's actually my calling in life to do this. So here's what Paul's trying to do. He's trying to walk this balance.
Mark Clark [00:16:40]:
And so he gives us three principles as we begin to act, ask the question what we're gonna do in our life. Every scenario that we get into, he gives us three principles. And I pulled them out of a book for all of you type A's. I don't usually give three principles, but I'm gonna do it for all you people who like to take notes. Okay, here's the first one, right? First principle is edification over gratification, right? That when you're thinking through, should I do this in my life? Say you're a couple, you're married, whatever, and you're like, should we do this? Should we do that in business or life or kids or whatever. Ask the question, not just can I do it? Does the Bible. Let me, is this actually helpful edification over gratification? So he goes on. He goes, all things are lawful, but not all things build up, right? And so he's saying, what we've got on this is.
Mark Clark [00:17:26]:
This is the Greek word right here. This is the Greek word oika demeo. And it's. It's literally the word Oikos is the word house. So literally, what he's saying is, does this. Does this build a house? So think about your life. Does your life build houses or tear down houses? Do you encourage. Do you build up a soul? Are you someone who builds up or are you someone who deconstructs? Because so many people in our lives.
Mark Clark [00:17:57]:
Deconstruct. Deconstruct. There's two ways of living your life. You tear down houses or you build up houses. That's issue number one. He's saying edification over your own gratification. You have to think through, do you build up? I was watching my wife's Instagram stories yesterday, and I was like. She was, like, telling the story about how so we have all these hangers in our bedroom closet.
Mark Clark [00:18:18]:
And she's like, look at this one hanger. And she has a picture of like 30 hangers. And they're all in the right way. And then one of them is turned the opposite way. And she's like, I don't think he loves me. All right. Cause this drives me crazy. And I'm like, is that really that bad? It is.
Mark Clark [00:18:31]:
Okay, so I guess that is legit. So she was tearing me down and I'm like, no, that's not right. You gotta build me up, honey. And I started reading the Bible and she's like, nah, like, do your clothes properly. So the reality is we have to ask the question, do we build up or do we tear down? Do we construct or do we deconstruct? Think about your friends, think about your neighbors. Think about who you are in social media around the water cooler. Do you build up or do you tear down and think about. You need to be.
Mark Clark [00:19:00]:
People who follow Jesus are people who build up. People who follow Jesus are people who actually say to themselves, my life is defined by building up people, not tearing them down. Do you text? Do you go out of your way to encourage, to send an email, to send a text? Who are you on social media? This is what he's talking about. Followers of Jesus are not the critics. They don't sit in the seat of mockers. They don't complain all the time. Rah, rah, wah. Negative, negative, negative.
Mark Clark [00:19:25]:
This is what Christians are known for. Negativity, what they're against. He's going. Christians should be known for what they're for. Build up, text someone, email someone, call someone, encourage them. Do you know how many times literally this week, there's moments where I am down? I feel like I'm like, I don't know if this is the right decision. I'm feeling this pressure in my life, whatever. And someone will text me or send me a note or whatever.
Mark Clark [00:19:49]:
And you're reminded. This week, literally this message came in from a guy we were considering. Okay, what do we do missionally as a church dad? And he says, My wife and I moved to B.C. two years ago. For our first year, we attended Village and adored it. We used the counseling, marriage, parenting programs, community groups, and regularly attended. That one year was the most edified we'd felt in all the five years of our marriage combined. However, we left last September when the 35 minute drive to church was too much for us and our two little ones.
Mark Clark [00:20:18]:
Tonight I had my first mental spiritual breakdown in a while. I wept on the floor with My wife and finally admitted I needed to get some help. We prayed that God would come and rescue us. After I gathered myself, I heard my wife screaming. She came running to me with tears in her eyes, holding out her phone. Village just announced on Facebook the opening of their Abbotsford campus. Thank you so much for being faithful to the call. It's amazing to see God work through Village and we can't wait to start attending in the fall.
Mark Clark [00:20:47]:
Think about what God does. God is so far ahead of us doing things. You take people who are down, get out of your own bubble in life and realize you sending texts to people, messaging people, calling people, emails to people, encouraging people, build people up. It's way too easy. And you can be way too d. You know, it takes smart people to build up. It takes people dying to themselves. It's so easy to be a mocker, a complainer, a negative person.
Mark Clark [00:21:16]:
Any dummy can do that. Try to build something. This is what he says Jesus followers actually do in the world. Now, here's the reality. Let me get a little New Age on you for a second, okay? Some of us, we get very down in life. You hit something, you hit a wall, Circumstances happen, a diagnosis happens, a marriage falls apart, you face difficulty, whatever your scenario is, and you beat yourself up and you get down about it and you're like, I can't get back up. I can't. And the reality is this is where Christianity is beautiful.
Mark Clark [00:21:49]:
Because Paul comes along and he says, listen, we need to be people who are helpful and who build up. We need to be people. This is where the idea of positive thinking is good. Sometime it's bad theology, but it's good psychology. Because some of you get beat up and you just stay down and you can't get up. You can't take. And the Bible constantly comes along and says, you need to take responsibility in your life. I was watching.
Mark Clark [00:22:12]:
Now here's what I've learned over the last few months. Cause I'm almost 40 and I'm still learning things. So here's the thing. I mean, I'm 40 next year, but I've been saying I'm almost 40 for like four years. Cause I see it coming and it's scaring me to death. I'm like 40. Oh my gosh, I'm almost dead. 40.
Mark Clark [00:22:30]:
No. So. But here's the thing. I'm still learning things. So there was a time when I used to look at, like these motivational videos. I'm gonna show you one in a sec. And kind of laugh at them and think they're silly or whatever, but you do that until you become the kind of person who needs them, who needs someone to encourage, who needs someone to inspire, who needs words of affirmation in their life. And we all get there in life.
Mark Clark [00:22:57]:
And this week someone had told me about a friend of theirs who was facing such dire circumstances. They're a Christian, they're a believer, but through different circumstances in their life. Mental illness, social pressures, different things that have happened. They're now at a point in their life where they're down to about £80, full grown woman, and she's at the end of herself. Nothing's responding, no medicine's working. They have a plan, a medical plan. But it would be like a month almost, where she'd have to go through pain and agony. And it'd almost be like chemotherapy where you have to go through immense pain and pressure to be able to come out the other side.
Mark Clark [00:23:44]:
And she's at the end mentally and just saying, I don't. I just wanna be done. I just wanna go to heaven. And so they said, can you just call her? And so I called her up and we talked on the phone this week for a bit. And the Holy Spirit was just giving me stuff to say that I didn't intend on saying. But I realized in this moment, in this conversation, that what she needed to hear wasn't just trite Christian things. What she actually needed to hear were tough words about, you need to get up now, you need to get off the floor, this is now in your head. And you need to mentally become strong enough to actually defeat this.
Mark Clark [00:24:16]:
This is your decision. You need to take responsibility in your life. Cause people get hit and they need to either give up or stand up. And this is your moment when you can do that. And we had this conversation and I sent her one of these videos that I've watched in difficult times in my life that inspired me. I wanna show it to you and then talk about how she responded. So here's a video. It's about four minutes.
Video Clip Audio [00:24:44]:
But you're going to have some ups and you're going to have some downs. Most people give up on themselves easily. You know, the human spirit is powerful. There's nothing as powerful. It's hard to kill the human spirit. Anybody can feel good when they have their health, their bills are paid, they have happy relationships. Anybody could be positive. Then anybody can have a larger vision.
Video Clip Audio [00:25:08]:
Then anybody can have faith under those kinds of circumstances. The real challenge of growth mentally, emotionally and spiritually comes when you get knocked down. It takes Courage to act part of being hungry. When you've been defeated, it takes courage to start over again. Fear kills dreams. Fear kills hope. Fear put people in the hospital. Fear can age.
Video Clip Audio [00:25:57]:
You can hold you back from doing something that you know within yourself that.
Mark Clark [00:26:01]:
That you are capable of doing, but it will paralyze you.
Video Clip Audio [00:26:11]:
At the end of your feelings is nothing. But at the end of every principle is a promise. Behind your little feelings. It might not be absolutely nothing. At the end of your little feelings, but behind every principle is a promise. And some of you in your life, the reason why you not at your goal right now, because you just all about your feelings. You all on your feelings. You don't feel like waking up.
Mark Clark [00:26:35]:
Who does?
Video Clip Audio [00:26:37]:
Every day you say no to your dreams, you might be pushing your dreams back a whole six months, a whole year. That one single day, that one day you didn't get up could have pushed your stuff back. I don't know how long.
Video Clip Audio [00:26:53]:
Don't allow your emotions to control you.
Mark Clark [00:26:55]:
We are emotional.
Video Clip Audio [00:26:56]:
But you want to begin to discipline your emotion. If you don't discipline and contain your emotions, they will use you. You want it and you're going to go all out to have it. It's not going to be easy. When you want to change, it's not easy. If it were in fact easy, everybody would do it. But if you're serious, you'll go all out. I'm in control here.
Video Clip Audio [00:27:31]:
I'm not going to let this get me down. I'm not going to let this destroy me. I'm coming back and I'll be stronger and better because of it. You have got to make a declaration. This is what you stand for. You're standing up for your dreams. You're standing up for peace of mind. You're standing up for health.
Video Clip Audio [00:27:51]:
Take full responsibility for your life. Accept where you are and the responsibility that you're going to take yourself where.
Mark Clark [00:27:59]:
You want to go.
Video Clip Audio [00:28:02]:
You can decide that I'm gonna live each day as if it were my last. Live your life with passion, with some drive. Decide that you're going to push yourself. The last chapter to your life has not been written yet. And it doesn't matter about what happened yesterday. It doesn't matter about what happens to you. What matters is what are you going to do about it.
Video Clip Audio [00:28:32]:
This year?
Video Clip Audio [00:28:33]:
I will make this goal become a reality.
Video Clip Audio [00:28:36]:
I won't talk about it anymore.
Mark Clark [00:28:38]:
I can, I can, I can. To persevere, I think is important for everybody. Don't give up. Don't give in. There's Always an answer to everything. So I send that to her. She sends me a text back and says, I gotta get up and do this. Jesus has a plan for me beyond my own inability right now emotionally to actually transcend the circumst I'm in.
Mark Clark [00:29:33]:
And I said, you gotta picture your life in 30 years. You can't give up because you get knocked down. You gotta start picturing. Of course, we all go through trial, we all go through difficulty, but the reality is there is a way through it. Jesus will provide a way through it. And she texted me back. She's like, I'm gonna do this. I'm.
Mark Clark [00:29:51]:
So we've been texting back and forth, and she's in the hospital trying to get better, not giving up. Some of you, honestly, that's what you need to hear. And I wanna always be an encourager in life. This is why I'm not gonna go on social media and be complainers of other people's ministries. People constantly think, you should critique this, you should critique that. It's not what I wanna do with my life. I don't wanna tear people down. I wanna build up.
Mark Clark [00:30:22]:
I wanna encourage. It'd be easy to tear people down. The reality is, followers of Jesus, listen. Tiger woods, by far, not even a question. The greatest golfer that ever lives. His father, when he was a kid, used to teach him. He used to say, tiger. There's this video with Tiger's dad talking.
Mark Clark [00:30:42]:
He's passed away now. And he says, I used to tell him as a kid, tiger, you are the strongest mental person you will ever meet. You will never meet someone stronger than you. He never has and he never will. Now, if your father told you that growing up, constantly, you will never meet anyone mentally tougher than you. And he never has and he never will. If Tiger woods meets people, he doesn't even question it. He's just like, dude, I'm the strongest.
Mark Clark [00:31:13]:
I don't even care if I've met someone stronger mentally. I wouldn't even know it because my father built into me that I'm the strongest. And he used to take him out and golfing, and he would be. Because people talk about the fact that Tiger should literally have five strokes over the field because of what he deals with. The amount of people, the noise, the sounds, they're 30 people deep, right where everyone else is. Like two guys following them around, just waiting for Tiger to get there. What Tiger deals is. You know how he did that? Because his dad would take him out as a kid and he would be hitting balls out in the.
Mark Clark [00:31:41]:
And he would go. He would go in his backswing and he'd throw the bag down right in his backswing. Or he'd make a noise and Tiger would stop halfway down, which is impossible if you're a golfer, by the way, because mentally, your brain, it's coming down. There's no way. And he'd go, rant. He'd throw the bag down. He'd stop midday, and he would train his mind mentally. This is sports psychology.
Mark Clark [00:31:59]:
If you miss a putt, you got to get rid of it. You got to. That's yesterday. That's gone. I got to move forward. I actually got to do something. The reality is, all of this is trying to inspire a positive life for the sake of other people and for the sake of the mission that Jesus has in front of you. And if you're saying, I'm just in my circumstance, I can't believe it.
Mark Clark [00:32:19]:
I'm getting beat up. In life, you gotta get up. And you have to be the person, as a follower of Jesus, who actually builds other people up and refuses to tear people down. Cause that's how the gospel advances. People get, okay, this is. I wanna be drawn to God, not away from something. And so that's the first principle, edification. Your life should be spent edifying.
Mark Clark [00:32:39]:
Edifying, edifying. Building up. Build a house. Don't tear houses down. Okay? Second thing is, the second principle is he says, others over self.
Video Clip Audio [00:32:49]:
Okay?
Mark Clark [00:32:50]:
Others over self. Let no one seek his own good. Verse 24. Let no one seek his own good. Ah, this is tough. But the good of his neighbor. So others over you. This is crazy, because my natural tendency is to be about me, right? I've told you the story about when my kid was, like, one or two years old.
Mark Clark [00:33:11]:
What I'm born into is I'm sitting there with the towel and she's freezing cold at the pool, and I'm toweling myself off, and I'm like, wow, one of them more towels around here. And she's like, that's my natural tendency, right? That is just. My natural tendency is like, take care of me. I love that airplane thing where they're like, hey, if there's turbulence and the masks come down, what do they say? Take care of yourself first, right? My wife tells me that's the first philosophy that I lived my whole life. All right? She's like, you have airplane philosophy, bro. I'm like, what? You always gotta take care of yourself first. Get your mask on, and then you can take care of everybody else, right? The Bible pushes back there's literally times where I've been so in self mode, my wife will be like, you have to pick up all three girls today from this thing. I'm like, okay.
Mark Clark [00:33:51]:
Multiple times I've left work and just arrived at home and walked in the door. And my wife's there. She's like, where are the kids? And I'm like, I just want to come see you first before we bring him home. She's like, go get the kids, idiot. All right, all right. So there's really been modes where I'm so into my own work and life, I arrive home without my kids. Like, that's not just once. That's multiple times.
Mark Clark [00:34:18]:
And what he's saying is, here's this crazy principle of life. When you're wondering, what am I gonna do? Am I supposed to do this? Am I supposed to do that? You're actually supposed to have this crazy principle. Let no one seek his own good. This is a crazy verse. Cause apply it. Francis Chan talks about how this is one of his favorite verses or favorite principle concept in regard to marriage. So put this in the context of your marriage. Imagine your marriage where both of you at the same time, sought the other one's good, not your good.
Mark Clark [00:34:46]:
That's hard because at every moment, you're trying to fight for your own little good and your heart and your soul, every decision you make in regard to your marriage. All right? So women, think about it instead of saying, oh, he's just all into sex all the time. I can't believe. I can't believe that. I mean, just being a man, he's gotta do other things. All right? Maybe flip your mental game and say, you know what? This is the way he feels loved and served. I have to let no one seek my own good. I have to seek the good of the person I'm with.
Mark Clark [00:35:11]:
Okay? My neighbor. Literally, my neighbor in bed. All right, so what should I do? I will serve him and love him and inspire him to work in the kind of way that I need him to work, maybe. And that's what I'm gonna do. Cause that's his love language. That's the way he feels love. Instead of complaining about it, you actually seek their own good above your own. That's crazy.
Mark Clark [00:35:33]:
Husbands, maybe your wife wants a vacation more. Maybe she wants to actually have a conversation about what you guys should do. You need to communicate. Maybe you need to start homeschooling or stop homeschooling. Maybe she wants to have a conversation about the kids. Maybe she wants to talk. Maybe she wants you to stop golfing on Saturday, whatever the situation is. Now the question becomes, you're seeking that, so now you go, okay, I have to do what she wants to do, not what I wanna do.
Mark Clark [00:36:01]:
This is the reality. I have three daughters, man. So here's what I've been thinking about. I love this principle for marriage. I got three daughters, right? 12, 10 and eight. So here's my deep desire as a father. My desire is three things. That whatever guy they meet, that he loved Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:36:19]:
That he'd have a job in that order and not hope that she gets a good job so he can do nothing. Play video games, love Jesus, have a job, and then this. Care more about Sienna's dreams and desires than yours, bro. Love her and make her soar. Isn't that what we all want? How do you do it in the context of marriage? You do it by focusing on the desires of the people. Think about your kids. You gotta seek the good of your kid over your good. I know you just want an hour more sleep.
Mark Clark [00:36:57]:
Is that what's gonna be best for the kid? I know you want to spend time with the girlfriends. Is that what's best for the kid or the guys? Is that what's best for the kid? No one should seek his own good. Seek the good of his neighbor. Seek the good of the object of your affection. Enter your marriage and try to outdo each other in regard to the good that you're gonna do for them versus what you expect them to do for you. This will save your marriage. It'll save the way that you raise your kids. It'll save you in the context of mission.
Mark Clark [00:37:29]:
What do your neighbors need? This one sucks, by the way. Cause sometimes I'm busy and I see the neighbor outside and they're like, hey. And I'm like, I gotta go. And they're like, can you help me build this thing?
Video Clip Audio [00:37:45]:
No.
Mark Clark [00:37:47]:
I actually think when Jesus says, love your enemy, I actually think, love your neighbor is harder. Right. Cause you can't choose your neighbors. And now you gotta love your neighbor. I'm busy. You want to talk again? We just did this. And no, I don't know how to build a trampoline. Love your neighbor.
Mark Clark [00:38:13]:
This is crazy. This is one of the hardest things. So if you're of another religion, you're an atheist, you're a Gnostic, you're here, you're exploring Christianity. Here's what you gotta know. This is how hard Christianity is. It's not cheap, Grace. There's a cost of discipleship. And the cost is this Will feel like you're dying to yourself every time.
Mark Clark [00:38:31]:
But this is what Jesus actually calls you to do. So second principle is others over self in every way, others over self. And then the last principle, the third principle is liberty. And this is what we kind of started with. Eat whatever sold in the meat market without raising any questions on the ground of conscience. So he's saying you can eat whatever as long as it doesn't cause you to sin. You can eat stuff, you can enjoy things. And so he's saying, don't make the liberal mistake where you embrace culture and lose the gospel.
Mark Clark [00:39:10]:
And don't make the conservative mistake where you hold onto the gospel, but you forget the culture. Cause over and over and over again, God's saying, look, yeah, eat meat if it doesn't cause you to sin. If it does cause you to sin, or the person that you're sitting with, don't eat meat. This is the missional call of your life. And so the reality is, as we begin to think through what God has called us to here at Village, we love this concept of holding onto the gospel but not losing touch with the culture. Gospel community, culture. Some of you, you need to understand the gospel better because you're so part of the culture, you don't even understand the gospel. Others of you are so gospel centered that you've never, you haven't met a non Christian in 10 years because you're trying to keep your life unstained from the world.
Mark Clark [00:39:53]:
And he's saying, no, no, no, that's not. You gotta go, you gotta sit down with the people. You gotta understand. I mean, this is the beauty. What we want to do is gather here to worship and learn and be edified and come to know Jesus. And then we want to scatter out to our neighbors and our family and our friends and change the culture around us. That's the whole missional impulse of village. That's why we exist.
Mark Clark [00:40:11]:
That you actually go out and reach people around you who don't know Jesus on a Tuesday night in your living room, that they would actually come to know Jesus and you would disciple them. That's the whole point. I was visiting a couple of our sites last week. It was amazing. I walked into one site, I walked into the sanctuary. This guy was coming out and he looks at me. I'm talking this big bulked up guy. Like his arms are three times the size of my arms, which isn't hard, but tatty's on both arms.
Mark Clark [00:40:38]:
Big boy, look to me. He's holding a Bible and a notepad and he walks up to me and just crushes me, right? Just holds me up like a little rag doll, like I was a little girl, just. And I'm like, my legs are flopping around ragging him, and he puts me down and he starts to cry, and he. He goes, you saved my life, man. Addicted to drugs for 5 years. Been clean for a year. Came to know Jesus here. Sitting there with his Bible, taking notes.
Mark Clark [00:41:06]:
I mean, I'm like, what. What is going on? Cause we gotta scatter. We gotta connect to culture. There needs to be an authenticity and a brokenness about your life that connects to people. If you're perfect, you're never gonna connect to a guy like that, right? If God isn't the hero of your life and you think you're the hero of your life, which religion tells you you need to be, then a guy like that's never gonna see through you. And then I went to the next site, and this girl walks up to me, her and her husband. She's like, we've been coming here for two years. I was raised as a Muslim.
Mark Clark [00:41:40]:
I came to know Jesus six months ago and got baptized four weeks ago. This still happens. This is the mission we're on. And if you just stay in your little Christian enclave listening to Chris Tomlin and watching Kirk Cameron movies, no one's ever gonna meet Jesus. Why? Because you believe that your people that you could spend time with, they had to meet. Your measure of righteousness versus doing what he's calling you to do. Here, go and sit down. He says this.
Mark Clark [00:42:18]:
If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. You know, the church I started going to when I was 19 years old, I walked into this Baptist church, and the pastor, he was like this, you know, Scottish guy, and he got up and he said, you know, the other day I went out for a meal with people, and they brought a bottle of wine. Sorry, I'm sounding like Mike Myers right now. He trousers get in my belly.
Video Clip Audio [00:42:51]:
So.
Mark Clark [00:42:52]:
And he's like, I went out for dinner, and they put a bottle of wine on the table. And I said. I looked at them and I said, excuse me, that's the devil's juice. I don't touch that. And they took it off the table. And I'm like, wow, this is literally against what the Bible tells you to do. Like, your level of righteousness is such that you're gonna judge people who are trying to have you over for dinner? Let's Listen. There's people not meeting Jesus because you're not fun enough.
Mark Clark [00:43:22]:
You understand that? Because you're a loser. Listen, that's. That's my New Testament version, all right? That's my translation. Now here's my verse to back it up, all right? You can tweet that later. So here's my verse to back it up. Verse 26 is a verse that's saying, here's. Here's what you need to do. Here's what you need to embrace.
Mark Clark [00:43:44]:
He says. He's quoting Psalm 24. For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. You know what he's trying to get in there? It's all contextual. He's trying to say, man, God made the earth. He made meat and wine and sex and beauty and sunsets, and he did all of these things. And you're running away from them, thinking you're righteous. And I'm telling you, go, enjoy them.
Mark Clark [00:44:07]:
The earth is not Satan's, it's the Lord's. So go. That's the point. We treat these things as if they're bad. As I heard one writer say, we saw Adam and Eve in the garden, and we think that God didn't create sex. He created them naked. And our version is Satan kind of, you know, came out of the dust and, like, stuck a penis on Adam. And they're like, ah, the earth is the Lord's.
Mark Clark [00:44:31]:
God made that. And the fullness. He wants you. He wants you to enjoy what he gave the fruit of the earth. That your life would be such joyous reality that people would look in and say, I want what they have. Not because they're rich, not because they drive a nice car, not because they have square footage. None of that stuff. Not talking about that.
Mark Clark [00:44:53]:
I'm talking about a fullness that transcends all of that when you lose it. By the way, one writer has said, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Are you actually satisfied in him at all? Here's what Paul Sundays in Galatians 5. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. You get that? It was for freedom that Christ set us free. It wasn't for you to sit around and just be Christian. It was for freedom to live the kind of joyous life that will compel the people around you to come and say, whose is the earth's this beautiful thing? I've got all the fullness of life, all the things in it. Whose is that? Well, let me Tell you his name is Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:45:42]:
And don't believe the lies of hyper. What Mark Sayers, writer, calls hyperreality. Hyper reality are the lies that culture tells you. Here's how to find fullness. Here's how to find joy. You ever notice on Instagram, Instagram, every marriage is perfect? Every marriage is perfect on Instagram, right? That's what Mark Sayers calls hyperreality. You can't defeat it, but you go after it. Because you want a perfect marriage.
Mark Clark [00:46:06]:
So you think everybody's marriage is perfect. Kind of like you want a little secret as a pastor. None of those people's lives are perfect. I know them, I'm in marriage counseling with them, and a week later, they're on Instagram going, honey, I love you. I can't believe we met. Oh, my goodness, you're perfect for my soul. Perfect marriage. I'm like, perfect marriage.
Mark Clark [00:46:26]:
We were just in counseling. You were yelling at him. That's called hyperreality. It's not real. You're chasing a lie on Facebook. Everybody's kid is perfect. It's because they don't post the pictures where they came forth. They only post the ones where they came first.
Mark Clark [00:46:50]:
Hey, look at her ribbon. You're like, my kid can't come first. It's hyper reality. It's not real. You're gonna chase it until it destroys your soul. Don't chase falsity. Chase. The earth is the Lord's chase.
Mark Clark [00:47:03]:
The Lord behind the goodness of things. You go at this, the beauty of it, it draws you to this. Or you can just stay here. It will crush you. Jesus, my prayer is that these principles of life, as we consider what we're supposed to do from day to day to day, would actually drive us, that people who are here right now listening to this, would understand they needed to hear the message, that they need to be built up. They need to take responsibility for their life, and they need to edify other people and that they need to actually ask for bigger questions than just what gratifies them, what's easy for them in the moment, but they would understand their whole life is actually set for the mission that you have in front of them. That the reality is that you've called them to something great and you've called them to put others over themselves. And Jesus, of course, you are the great example of the one who put all of us above his own comfort, who came from heaven, who died on a cross, a horrid death for our sin, who put us over himself.
Mark Clark [00:48:11]:
And our hope is that we wouldn't abuse that grace, but we'd actually live it out in freedom so that many people would meet you. Jesus, let us live that joy missionally in our life and as a church. Do that work among us. Holy Spirit, speak to us about things right now across these sites that we need to shift, change, repent of, take joy, in part, participate in that. We haven't participated in that. You give us freedom to, as long as it's not causing sin and some of us just haven't been enjoying it. And you say the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Let that be our lives and reflect out and let people grab a hold of that and then meet the God behind it.
Mark Clark [00:49:00]:
In your good name we pray. Amen.