So I'm telling you now, if you've ever believed that the Bible says God helps those who help themselves, the Bible says no such thing. In fact, the simple message is just the opposite. God helps those who finally realize they cannot help themselves. We are saved by grace through faith, but even our faith is a gift from God. Hello and welcome to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard.
The bottom-line truth of the gospel is this. It's about what God freely gives, not what we earn. Today, you'll be reminded that in the kingdom of God, you don't always have to do something to receive something. We are saved not because of our goodness, but in spite of our badness. That's the goodness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Now, let's get started with today's Destined for Victory message. It's all about him. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning with verse 18. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God The world through its wisdom did not know him.
God was pleased, through the foolishness of what was preached, to To save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. A stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom. Of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
He chose the lowly things of this world, and the despised things, and the things that are not. To nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that That you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God. That is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, As it is written, let him who boasts.
Boast in The Lord. Amen. I want to talk to you from the subject, it's all about. Him. It's all about him.
We continue our study here in the early part of 1 Corinthians. We're going to look at key passages throughout this entire letter. And as we look in the second half of what is called chapter one, of course, Paul wrote one long letter. But as we look in the second half of what editors later referred to as chapter one, we see Paul discussing how wise and powerful God is in setting up the plan of salvation the way he did. Paul is attempting to encourage those of us who are in Christ.
He wants to encourage us by showing us how marvelous a plan, how wise a plan God devised, and how powerful is the method by which God has brought salvation into our lives. I've taken this second portion of 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and boiled it down to three basic concepts that Paul lifts out for us. I want to share them with you. My job as a teacher of the Word of God is to take the truth of God and to break it down and make it simple. And that's why I love this chapter because the second part of it is all about simplicity.
The first thing Paul wants us to know in this passage is that God saved us through a simple message. That God saved us through a simple message. Look at how this unfolds for us. Paul said, The message of the cross, that is, the message that tells us about Jesus' death for our sins. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
He says, Now, when some people perish, Think about what Jesus did. And they are told by those of us who share the good news that that's the way you get saved by trusting that what Jesus did on Calvary is sufficient to save you and change your life, both for time and for eternity. He says, some people say, oh, you got to be kidding. Get out of here with that. You see, there are some people who believe they have got to work hard, they have got to achieve something before they can feel like their lives are going where they ought to go.
There are a lot of people who think their job in life is to take what you have and to lift it up, to magnify it, and to make yourself the best person you can be. And so some people are actually more comfortable striving for salvation than enjoying the gift of salvation. In fact, some of you are probably have that tendency in your own life. Do you know people who aren't comfortable receiving? There are some people who just don't like receiving.
They're not comfortable receiving. They like to be the giver because the giver is in control. The giver is the one who makes things happen. And there are some folk who will give to you, but they are very disinterested in receiving from you. I want to tell you something.
If you want to be saved, you got to understand that there is nothing proactive you can do to bring about your right standing with God. There are some people who say, well, you know, I just believe that God helps those who help themselves. If you have ever thought that was in the Bible, I'm glad you're here. Because I need to help you. My job as a teacher in the Word of God is to do permanent damage to your ignorance.
That's my job as a teacher of the word of God. I've got to destroy ignorance. I don't want any of you standing before God on that great day saying, Well, Pastor Paul never said anything about that.
So I'm telling you now, if you've ever believed that the Bible says God helps those who help themselves, the Bible says no such thing. In fact, the simple message is just the opposite. God helps those who finally realize they cannot help themselves. God helps those who say, Okay, Lord, I cannot reach you on my terms. And if it were up to me to try to get to God, I'm already done.
And then they hear the simple message. What is the message? That you don't have to try to find out how to get to God. God found out through Jesus how to get to you. Oh, I hope that makes you happy.
That just thrills me to no end that God sought. Us. That God actually was proactive about redeeming us. We were lost in sin, but Jesus said, I'm not going to settle for you to be eternally lost and alienated from God. And so God wrapped Himself up in flesh, came down into the world, borrowed the womb of a virgin named Mary, slipped into time as the God-man.
He had a divine nature, but also a human nature. He lived among us a sinless life. And then one day he died. They didn't kill him, but he laid his life down.
Now, why did he do it? He did it because he was seeking to save you and me. You got to understand, this thing is wonderfully simple. Simple. And I love simple things.
I don't know about you, but I love simple things. You know, when you buy something and you get a manual that's thick.
Some of you all start grinning because that just resonates with you. You're going to get to figure all this stuff out. When I buy a cell phone and the book. that tells you how to operate the cell phone is bigger than the cell phone. I don't feel like going through all of that.
I've been to school. I'm done. Feel like all this study just to figure out how to work a gadget.
Now I just bought my first iPod. I'm praying. I haven't even opened it up yet. I'm praying. That this thing is simple.
Oh, I'm asking God, please, Lord. I have so much music that I have through the years. You know, I started listening because I'm a musician and I started taping music back before there was no such thing as CDs. I'm talking about back in the 70s when you finally got your first tape deck. Come on, go back, those of you who are in my, when you got your first tape deck, and you could finally take your records.
Remember records? You could take your records and record it onto a tape because they were now putting tape decks in cars. And I said, oh, that's what I'm talking about. And I started taking all my old records and putting them on tape. Then CDs came out.
And they said tapes wear out, so now you need CDs if you're going to memorialize your favorite song.
So then I started in on that in the 80s. All right, then let's transfer it from tape to C D. In the 90s, that's when they first started allowing you to record your own C D's. And so I said, I got to do that. And so I have things, but I still have things on tape that I never got to C D.
And so I have tapes that need to be converted to C D's. And now I need to get all my tapes and C D's into an iPod. And it's tons of music. It's gonna take a lot of time. Over, I'm just gonna take my time, just put in a few hours every week and get it done.
I have lots to do. And I need you to join me in prayer that this will be easy. Need this to be simple, need this to be easy. I love simplicity. Still ahead, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message, featuring the teaching ministry of Pastor Paul Shepard.
If you haven't already, don't forget to download our free mobile app. Search Destined for Victory at the App Store and listen to Destined for Victory wherever you go. More details are available at pastorpaul.net. The world tries to complicate what it calls organized religion, but the truth is, the gospel of Jesus Christ is simple.
Now, let's get you back to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message. It's all about him. I love a simple menu. Go to the restaurant, and you got to figure out what in the world are these folks offering me. Just put down there, you don't have to give me all the fancy terms, and this has the roasted crusted and all this stuff.
No, okay, show it to me. I just like it when it just says chicken. Fish. Beef. Which one you want?
Yeah, there's some. Simple, simple. No, every now and then I'll go to the fancy place just to, you know, have a little class. But that's not really where I want to hang out. I just want to go where it's just straightforward.
Especially some of those whole family-run places where it's just home. You're so much like family, they don't even treat you right half the time. Yeah. Ever had a waitress come to your table and she just looks at you, just don't even ask you what you want, just stand there and look at you. Simple, simple.
And the gospel. Bypasses a lot of people. Because it is wonderfully simple. The gospel is based on the truth that you and I can't get to God no matter how we try. Our righteousness, the Bible says in one place, is like filthy rags.
There's nothing you and I could ever do. To cause God to receive us because we are sinful by nature and by nurture. You come into the world alienated from God. The Bible is clear. All have sinned and come short of God's glory.
You who are stuck on yourself and think you're all that, you need to read your Bible. The Bible says all have sinned. You who look down on other people because of their brand of sin. All unrighteousness is sin. Your haughty attitude is as much sin as another person's disgusting behavior.
You're being conceited. You're being stuck up. You're thinking that you really don't have any trouble. You don't have any problems. In fact, some of the worst folk, some of the most desperate people are people who don't think anything is wrong with them.
Because they've not yet acknowledged their need for God. But the message is simple. All have sinned, every one of us. You sin first, you're a sinner by nature. You come into the world alienated from God.
And then, as you live your life, you are a sinner by nurture. And you begin to do those things which displease God, those things which dishonor Him, those things that are born of unrighteousness in your heart. And so all of us develop various symptoms of sin. But sin really isn't about the symptom, it's about the fact that it displeases God.
So, don't look down on other people because they have a problem you never had. And see, I never understand how certain people do that. And you're putting sin in categories, but God does not. God so loved the world, and that means all of us, why? Because all of us need His love.
And so The message is all of us have sinned, and then the good news is Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. And if we believe in him, that is, we put our trust in him. We can enjoy his righteousness because on the cross he bore our sin. The cross is the place of the great exchange. The cross is the place where all of your sin was heaped on Jesus.
All of his righteousness is ready to be transferred to you. It's the place of the great exchange. And how do you enjoy it? You put your trust. in what God did.
You don't make God promises because he knows you. Salvation is not a matter of making God promises because He knows every one of us. God knows we can't even keep our New Year's resolutions half the time. Is that am I telling the truth? And even if we do, then we get conceited.
That's a problem. But you got to understand something. God knows you. And he knows how to come into your life by the power of his spirit and make you the person he designed you to be. And what is the requirement?
That we simply acknowledge our need for Him, acknowledge the gift that He gave us on the cross. and trust him that that gift is sufficient. And so Paul says here, we've got to understand that while it's foolishness to some people who want to strive, who want to work, who want to try to come to God on their own terms, do you know why a lot of people choose the kind of religions they choose to get involved in? Because those religions allow them to feel like they are working their way to God. But Christianity at its core is really not religion.
At its core, Christianity is relationship. It's God saying, I want to know you. I want to walk with you. And so, what I need you to do. It is to trust that what Jesus did is sufficient for you.
And in Revelation 3, he says, I'm being proactive. Imagine the holy God who could sit up in heaven and just let us rot. He says, Behold, I stand at the door of your life and knock. Oh, I'm telling you, when you think about the fact that God loves you so much that He goes after you. Imagine God pursuing me.
God loves me so much that He goes after me. God loves me so much that when He sees me going astray, He comes after me. He calls for me. He sends word to me: I want you. Come back.
You're going the wrong way. God loves us. And he so loves us. That He is established. A simple message.
And he says. Paul says it's through the foolishness of what was preached. That God has decided to save those who believe. You know what that means? That means He just sovereignly chose to give me one of the best jobs on the planet.
Which is to Pass on this message to everybody who will listen.
Now, you have it too. It's just that for most of you, it's not vocational, but God has given you the wonderful privilege of passing on the message that you don't have to be lost. You can be saved. When you see someone who is just messed up and messed over, you've got a message. The message is God loves you like you are, and God has a plan to change you and make you what he has called you to be.
And all you have to do is put your trust in him and follow him. And I get to do it vocationally. I get to make my living preaching and teaching this good news, the foolishness of what was preached.
Now, Paul's not applauding foolish preaching. I've heard some of that too. But he's saying the foolishness means some people, when they hear such a simple message, they say it can't be that simple. Oh, that's hogwash. There's no truth to that.
And they try to debunk everything. They're trying to rewrite history. They're revisionists. They're trying to say Jesus wasn't who the Bible says he was.
Well, I want to let you know, Jesus was exactly who the Bible says he was. Non-Christian historians have vouchsafed for the fact that Jesus was born, he lived, and he died on a cross. And I want to let you know he died there not because of what he had done. but because of what you and I had done.
So God saves us, Paul says, through a simple message. And he notes that the problem is the Greeks are seeking philosophy and the Jews are seeking science.
Some people want God to prove himself in a test tube.
Some people want to say there is no God unless it's proven. The truth is You can't prove or disprove. God by scientific means. But God said to us, the heavens declare. My glory.
In other words, God challenges us and And because of our sinful nature, we have actually taken him up on the challenge. God says, I challenge you to look out at a starry night. And say, I don't exist. And what do we do? We say In the beginning, God didn't make all of this.
In the beginning, bang. Tremendous explosion. And after the explosion, through so many eons. Then things began to form and settle into patterns. And it all just happened.
Nobody did it. It just happened. And then from the stuff that formulated Life came. No one gave it. Life just showed up.
Things began to look around. And move. That's how desperate we are. to be people who dictate our own terms.
Now Even if you could believe That Something can come from nothing. They don't believe just that something comes from nothing, they believe that order. came from nothing. When's the last time your house Just God in order. You can leave it like it is for eons.
I promise you. That one day you will not walk in there. And all your stuff is neatly folded? Dishes washed and put away. That's me.
Out of Nothing doesn't come. anything without it being ordered. And the Bible says while some are seeking philosophy, so you know the Greeks were good for standing and pontificating and giving their latest ideas. Why? Because we get to brag about our ideas.
And then the Jews said, prove it. Show us miraculous signs.
Well, what happens? Jesus comes showing miraculous signs, and they still don't believe him. And so Paul says, while some say prove it, and while some say I'm going to tell you the wisdom that will elevate your life, he says they're missing the simple message, which is that God loves you and wants to save you. You know, many people are curious about the gospel, but it sounds too good to be true. Others think it's too absurd to even talk about.
But no matter what group those around us may fall into, whether cynics or seekers, God loves them, and His will is that all will come to the knowledge of repentance. One of the reasons Jesus sets us free from bondage is so that we can go out and help others find that same freedom in Christ. It takes all of us working together to reach the world with the gospel. And this month, as we approach the summer, we're asking all of our listening friends and partners to prayerfully consider making a generous gift of $25 or more to help Destined for Victory continue teaching timeless truth for a victorious life. And when you do, we've got a very special thank you gift to share with you.
For the first time ever, Let My People Smile is available in video format. Let My People Smile has long been a huge favorite among our listening friends and partners, featuring Pastor Paul's unique blend of humor and, of course, biblical wisdom. But now you'll be able to watch these humorous teaching clips in your favorite video format. It's Let My People Smile, available on DVD or a streaming link, and it's yours this month for your most generous gift of $25 or more to Destined for Victory. You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500.
That's 855-339-5500. Or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. And so, what you have to do is humble yourself. before the Almighty God.
And recognize, Lord, I need you. Without you, I am nothing. Without you, my gifts can never be used for eternity. And that's next time in our continuing message, it's all about him. But until then remember, he He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.
In Christ, you are destined for victory.
