1 Corinthians 1:26-29 | Your Story, God's Glory

When we have child dedications, which we had a couple of weeks ago, one of

the things that I do is I give each of the kids a, a, a book, and the book

is called The Jesus Storybook Bible.

And it's a book that I, I love to give because it's…

While it's not the whole Bible, it is a series of a lot of the, the

key stories of the Bible, stories that you remember from learning

in your childhood days growing up.

And one of the reasons I appreciate this one in particular is it

always points to the fact that the hero of the story is Jesus.

The hero of God's story, the hero of the Bible, the hero of everything that God

does, Old Testament and New, is Jesus.

And so these books, these Jesus Storybook Bibles, do this in a really neat way

where with a, a really great illustration, and the artwork is, is really good.

But it, it's there to remind us that the hero of the story is not us but is Jesus.

And just like the Jesus Storybook Bible, Jesus is the hero of your story,

too, and that's what our passage this morning is gonna be talking about.

Those of us in this room that are, are Christians, we have different

testimonies, different stories, different ways that God came after you.

Y- you were, some of you, living a, a, a life of rebellion in a, in open sin in,

in a way that the world would celebrate.

Others of you were living a life of rebellion and open sin in the church

and, and you looked like a good person, but God came and, and saved you then.

Some of you were saved young.

Some of you were saved i- in middle age.

Some of you were s- were saved in, in the latter years of your life.

But no matter what your background is, no matter what your story is, the

common theme of it all is that it's all about God's glory Our passage

this morning is 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, and, and that's gonna be what we're

1 Corinthians 1:26–29

going to find in this passage.

In fact, that's gonna be the big idea this week.

It's-- that is that your story is for God's glory.

Just like the Jesus Storybook Bible, your story, the one that God is

writing in your life, is not about you.

It's ultimately about Him.

Your story is for God's glory.

Let me read our passage together, and let me start here in verse 26.

Paul writes this: "For consider your calling, brothers.

Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were

powerful, not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are

not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being

might boast in the presence of God.

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us

wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so

that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'"

That's next week's passage, and also the memory verses that I forgot

to cite earlier in the, the, the service, so there, there you go.

Again, the theme of this passage is that your story is for God's glory.

As we get into it, let's look at verse 26 together.

Paul writes this.

He says, "Consider your calling.

Not many of you, brothers…"

He's writing to Christians.

"Brothers and sisters, not many of you were wise according to worldly

standards, not many of you were powerful, not many of you were of noble birth."

This feels like a little bit of a backhanded compliment from Paul as

he opens up this section for us.

But we have to understand what he's doing by going back one verse.

Remember where we landed last week, verse 25.

Paul wrote this: "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the

weakness of God is stronger than men."

And now Paul picks up in verse 26, and he says, "For consider."

So what Paul's doing here is he's saying, "You want evidence of this?

You want proof that God's wisdom, God's foolishness is wiser than the

wisdom of men, God's weakness is stronger than the strength of men?

If you want evidence, you want proof, you want an illustration of this, let's

just start with who you used to be before you came to faith in Christ."

And that's where he begins.

Paul says, "Consider your calling."

Remember who you were before God called you, before God saved

you, before God redeemed you.

See, God's gonna show that His wisdom is greater and His strength is

greater because God's not gonna save people according to our expectations.

God's not gonna do things the way that we expect Him to do things, and the first r-

area that we see that is by remembering where we were when God came for us.

Point number one is this.

Consider the type of people God chose to save.

Consider the type of people God chose to save.

You may recall, I don't know, five, six years ago, you remember

when Kanye West got saved?

It was a, a big deal back at our sending church because he was in Southern

California there, and in fact, uh, his pastor at the time, Adam Tyson, was

the pastor of Placerita Bible Church, which is in Ca- Santa Clarita, near

the Master's College, where Amanda and I went, and, and she and I actually

went to that church back when it used to be Placerita Baptist Church.

But I knew Adam, and Adam was Kanye's pastor.

And so I, I knew Adam.

I was kind of excited about that 'cause Kanye's being discipled by this guy

that was a Master's graduate, and I thought, "Man, this is awesome."

And, and Adam was even working with him on the, the CD that he released that had,

"You're my Chick-fil-A, closed on Sunday."

You remember that one?

And Kanye was doing these Sunday services and, and he was packing out stadiums.

And people were showing up, and he was even having Adam come and preach messages

at these Sunday services, and, and people … th- just giant worship conferences

and, and everything else like that.

And, and I got swept up in all of the, the momentum, but if you know anything

about where Kanye is today, you know that that profession of faith was not genuine.

He's far from following Christ today

See, celebrity conversions, they, they get our attention a- and, and they can fire

us up, and they can kinda get us excited because we begin to buy into the lie

that we think, "Well, somehow God's gonna be able to use them in a more powerful

way than He's gonna be able to use me."

And so we think, "Oh, well, finally, God saved somebody influential.

Look at the impact.

Look at the reach that Kanye West could have on thousands

of, of people, and I'm just me."

And so we get swept up, and we start to think, "Well, well, God, y- y- you

should save more people like that.

You should save the politicians, and you should save the, the generals in the army,

and you should save the, the professors in the colleges and the Ivy League schools.

Think of the impact, God, that you could make if you just

save the right types of people

I- i- if God wanted to, he could, and he does sometimes.

But his MO is not that way, and that's why Paul encourages the Corinthian

church and enc- encourages us to begin by saying, "Hey, consider your own calling."

The word calling here is, is God's saving choice of you.

He's gonna say three times in the, the context of our passage

this morning, "God chose.

God chose.

God chose."

So Paul's rem- reminding the Corinthian church, "Hey, remember,

remember who you were when God, in His grace, chose you for Himself.

Remember."

"Namely that," he's gonna go on to say, "that not many of you were wise

according to worldly standards."

We, we've spent a couple weeks talking about this one already, that the world's

wisdom and, and our wisdom, the wisdom of the church, it, they're different

The wisdom of, of the gospel i- is not gonna have a seat at the, the

tables with the Ivy League scholars

Not many of you were wise according to the world's standards.

Also, by the way, not many of you were powerful.

The word powerful there, it carries the idea of having political clout,

of having the, the influence at the civic level to enact reform.

He's saying, "You know what?

Not, not many of you qualified there either."

Oh, and, and also, not many of you were of noble birth.

Of good birth is the Greek there.

Meaning, not many of you had the, the family name, the pedigree,

the lineage, the background, the history that would impress somebody.

In other words, your last name is not really known outside

of your family reunions

But that's, that's who you were, at least most of you.

He says not many were.

A- and what that tells us is that some were

Paul's point here is that it's not that, that God won't save the influential.

It's not that God can't save the powerful.

It's not that God never saves the wise.

It's just that when He saves somebody, it's not about those things.

It's about Him and His glory.

See, there were some in the Corinthian church that did qualify

as powerful or influential or wise.

Crispus was one of them.

He was the ruler of the synagogue.

He would have been a man with great power and influence.

He was a believer and a member of the church in Corinth there.

There was another man named Gaius, who we found out from Romans was actually

hosting the church in Corinth, and so he would have had a home that was large

enough to be able to open up his home and use his resources to host the church.

He, he had means, and God saved him.

There was another man named Erastus.

Erastus was the city treasurer in Corinth, and God saved him.

He was a man with that power, that political clout.

And so it's not that He never does, but Paul's point in reminding the Corinthians

about this is the Corinthians were clamoring for status and prestige and

honor, which Paul is trying to remind them to say, "Your salvation wasn't

about who you were or who you weren't.

It was all about the glory of God."

And so he's saying, "Remember your calling.

Remember where you were."

By world standards, we would do things differently.

Think about being a, a child, a son or daughter of the King

of kings and the Lord of lords.

There's a club in New York City, it's still there today.

It's called the Knickerbocker Club.

The Knickerbocker Club.

The, the Knickerbocker Club was founded out of another club, and this other

club, it had standards that, you know, if, if you had enough money, you could

become a part of this other club.

Well, some of the members of that club grew frustrated with that.

They thought that things were being watered down, that the nouveau riche,

the new rich, the new money could just buy their way into the club, but

they didn't really have the pedigree.

They didn't have the status.

They didn't have the prestige that they were really after anymore.

Things were being watered down.

And so this group formed the Knickerbocker Club, and this club became

less about how much money you had.

In fact, they even set the membership dues for this club pretty low.

But it became all about the type of person that you were.

Did you know the right people?

Were you of the right pedigree?

In fact, some of the names that filled this club are names that you might

recognize, names like Vanderbilt, Roosevelt, Rockefeller, Astor.

In fact, so exclusive was this club that the Rockefellers had to wait three

generations before they got admitted to the Knickerbocker Club because there

was skepticism about whether or not their family name would really hold up

That's what we would expect God's standards to be, to say, "This is

who's gonna be a son and daughter of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords."

We would expect that the world's esteem, the world's level, it

would be about who you are.

Are you worthy of becoming a son or daughter of the King

of Kings and Lord of Lords?

The answer to that question is no

And so that's why it's so good for us and, and such good news for us that in

His grace, it, it, it's not about who you are or who you aren't, it's about

who He is and who He's called to be His.

And so in His wisdom, God saves people like you and me.

Not many of us in this room are the smartest person in

the room when we walk into it.

Not many of us in this room are sitting in the, the corner office with CEO

on the title of the door outside.

Not many of us in this room are the, living in the, the nicest home

on the nicest block in the nicest neighborhood in the community.

Not many of us in this room are known outside of our family and friends

In fact, if, if we were to have a draft for Christianity, not many

of us would be taken in the first and second round of that draft.

But that's exactly how God designed it to be.

Because it's not about who you are or who you aren't, it's about who

He is and what He's doing in saving us to be His people, His possession

for His purpose and His glory.

Your story for His glory

It's not that he doesn't use people in power.

It's not that he doesn't use influential people sometimes or

wise people or wealthy people.

Of course he does.

He just doesn't need to

And he doesn't do it because of who they are.

He does it because of who he is.

This would have also been a message necessary for the

Corinthian church, because remember, they were factionalizing.

I, I'm, I'm over here with Apollos.

I'm ov-- I, I'm with Paul.

I'm with Cephas.

And this is a reminder that it's, it's not about you.

It's, it's not about us.

It's about the God saving us in spite of who we are.

Remember James writes this in James chapter two, beginning in verse one.

He says, "My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly

and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to

the one who wears the fine clothing and say, 'You sit here in the good place,'

while you say to the poor man, 'You stand over there,' or, 'Sit down at my feet.'

Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become

judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my beloved brothers.

Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith,

heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?"

Again, has God not chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith?

The point here that Paul's making when he says, "Consider your calling," is that God

doesn't operate the way that we operate.

Your standing with the Lord is not merit-based.

That would be the wisdom of the world.

The wisdom of the world would say, "Well, the, the person

that's earned it should have it.

The person that's worthy of it should get in."

God's saying, "That's nobody."

Except for my grace, everybody's on the outside.

But because of His grace, we can remember His calling, remember the type of people

that God chose to save, including you and me, and the reason He did it that way

is so that He would get all the glory.

Because we don't have reason to boast.

We can't say, "Well, God saved me because this is my pedigree."

We can't say, "God saved me because this is who I am.

This is my background, this is my, my wealth, this is my income, this

is my wisdom, this is my knowledge."

Even if you have those things, you still can't say that's why God saved you.

Because He doesn't save you because of who you are or who you aren't, He

saved you because of who He is, and that's the type of people that God

saves, so that He gets the glory.

Again, the world's wisdom would say differently.

The world would say, "Well, s- you need to save more people that are powerful,

that are influential, that are wise," and that's where we're gonna go next

and see that what God does is He's gonna take the wisdom of the world,

and He's gonna turn it on its head.

Again, why?

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness

of God is stronger than men.

Pick up with me in verse 27.

Paul writes this, "But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to

bring to nothing the things that are."

What this, these verses are, are telling us here is that when the world

expects God to go left, God goes right.

When the world expects God to go down, God goes up.

When the world expects God to zig, God zags.

And it's not just to frustrate the world, but rather it's to show that

God's wisdom is different than the world.

Our second point this morning is this, see that God overturns the world's wisdom.

See how God overturns the world's wisdom

He renders the world's wisdom powerless in his economy

We went to a, a presentation from a missions organization

l- recently called Finisterre.

They're doing great work in, in Papua New Guinea, some pretty

amazing stuff taking place there.

But it was really clever.

They gave us something to remember them, and it's, uh, it was a form of

currency there in Papua New Guinea.

It's a five kina bill, for lack of a better term.

And so they gave that to us, and so I have it.

It's stuck in my whiteboard in my office so that every time I see it, I remember

to pray for what's going on there in, in Papua New Guinea with Finisterre.

But it's five kina, and, and it's currency there, but it's not currency here.

And so if, if I took that five kina across the street from my office to

HTO to buy the, the large half sweet, half unsweet Georgia I- peach iced

tea that I like to buy, a- and, and they said, "Okay, that's gonna be this

much money," and I put five kina down, they're gonna look at me like I'm crazy.

"What is that?"

"Well, this is money."

"Not here it's not."

"Okay, but in Papua New Guinea it is."

"Okay, but we're not in Papua New Guinea, and so even in Papua G- New

Guinea, that's still not enough to buy your iced tea, so you're gonna

have to pay with American money here."

Because here we have a set of the way things operate.

We have a, an agreed-upon understanding that, that this currency holds

value, that currency doesn't.

The currency of the world's wisdom when it comes to God, it doesn't hold value,

at least not for salvation, and that's where Paul goes here as he's beginning

to explain to us what God did instead.

He didn't choose these people.

That's what he just finished telling us.

He's not choosing the wise.

He's not choosing the, the powerful.

He's not choosing the ones with the noble birth and the societal swag and influence.

Instead, he's gonna do something else, and that's what Paul says.

He says, "But God chose."

He's gonna say that three times.

There's three t- different types of people that God chose.

This word chose, in the original language there, it, it conveys the

idea of choosing for himself, that God is taking to himself these people.

This is not the idea that God chose from before the foundation of the earth.

Yes, he did that, but the stress and the influence here and the, and the, the

importance here is g- that these are the types of people presently who God chose.

And he didn't choose the ones that the world would say, "Well, this makes the

most sense to choose these people."

He chose really the opposite.

He starts out by saying that, that God chose the, the foolish in the world.

This is a theme that keeps coming back to, the foolishness of God.

We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, folly

to the Gentiles, and it is.

The world looks at, at Christianity, and, uh, maybe you've even

thought this yourself, that man, Christian- Christianity just…

it's just a crutch for the intellectually weak.

It doesn't make any sense that you guys would get together and read a

book that's 2,000 years old on the newest parts a- and worship some guy

that you say died on the cross for your sins and then rose from the dead.

I've never known anybody else to rise from the dead.

What are you guys doing?

And you give up your Sunday mornings for that, and, and, and you don't

have fun the way that the…

we have fun because you, you think what, what we're doing is wrong

That's the foolishness that the world looks at and says, "I, I don't get that.

I don't understand that."

Paul says God chose that.

God chose the foolish because he's flipping the expectations upside down.

My son ran into this recently at his workplace.

Somebody got hired who was pretty much the exact opposite of my

son as you possibly could be

And they got into a conversation about God, and this person said, "Well, yeah,

I, I, I follow Jesus as my savior, but I can't call myself a Christian

because I don't-- I hate the Bible

is just full of errors and God is, the God of the Bible is evil and wicked

And you've got my son there, and my son's saying, "No, I, I don't…

That doesn't compute.

That doesn't add up for me."

I follow Jesus because I believe the Bible to be true.

That's how I know who He is.

That's how I know what He's done

But that's the foolishness of Christianity in the eyes of the world.

To that coworker, my son is just a lemming, just following after whatever

he's been brainwashed to believe

And but for the grace of God would all of us draw that conclusion.

It's only because God chose the foolish, that is us, and opened

our eyes to be able to understand.

It's not because we're better.

It's not because we're more insightful.

It's not because we're, we're smart or wise or anything else.

But it, it's because God in His wisdom is taking the world's

wisdom and turning it upside down

He didn't only choose the foolish in the world, he also chose the weak.

God chose the weak in the world, those without the political

influence and the sway.

And again, it's not that he doesn't ever save the politician

or the city councilman.

He does.

But it's that God's primary mission and goal is not to

make the world a better place

His goal is to save for himself a people who are going out with a mission and,

uh, like we have as, as our church, a mission to reach people, teach

people, and train people for Christ.

That's what he's after, and he's gonna save people that are gonna

be effective in doing that.

And so is it wrong to pursue civic reform or to get involved

in politics as a Christian?

Absolutely not.

There's the common grace of God where God uses believers in the political

realm to do good things here.

But that's not his main purpose and his main goal and his main mission,

which is why he's perfectly content choosing the weak in the world, those

without the power and the influence.

Because they're the ones that are perfectly primed to be used in

accomplishing his main mission, to reach people for Christ, to p-

teach people to be like Christ, and to train people to serve Christ

So he chose the foolish in the world, he chose the, the weak in the world,

and then he also chose those that are the low and despised in the world.

Literally, it's those of low birth.

Even the things that the world would say are not, meaning the things that the world

would say are, are nothing, of no account

These are the people that nobody notices when they walk in the room.

Back in Paul's day, these would've been the, the freed slaves, the current

slaves, the people without the last name, the people without the pedigree.

These are the people that would've been looked at societally as, as outside

of, of the, the bounds of honor.

They would've been despised.

They would've been thought of as, as of no account, of no value.

In today's society and culture, we may not be so crass as to identify somebody

as, as low and despised or of, of no account, but it's there still subtly

in our culture standards, isn't it?

Maybe somebody that, that comes out of a, a broken family

Somebody with, who's a single parent, a single mom or a single dad

Somebody who's out there just living paycheck to paycheck

Somebody who's never owned a house and can't even begin to dream of

being able to own a house someday

Somebody who their retirement plan is just dying

Because they don't have anything to invest

Those are the type of people that our world would look at and say

They don't, they don't have it together.

They're not doing it right

God says, "Those are the people that I'm gonna choose, 'cause I'm

gonna take what the world expects and I'm gonna flip it on its head

And he did all that because Paul says this.

He did all that to do this, to shame the wise, to shame the strong, and to

bring to nothing the things that are.

In other words, God did that in order to get the glory

One of the main struggles of the Corinthian church was that they

wanted the honor, they wanted the acclaim, they wanted the prestige.

If I look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3, we'll get there in, in a little

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

while, but Paul writes here, he says, "Brothers, I could not address you

as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.

And even now you are not yet ready, for you're still of the flesh.

For while there's jealousy and strife among you, are you not of

the flesh and behaving only in a, a human way, in a, a worldly way?

For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,'

are you not merely being human?"

And so Paul's writing and confronting the Corinthians, saying,

"You're after the wrong things.

You want the honor and the acclaim and the praise and the prestige of

men, but that's not what matters.

What matters is what God thinks, not what the world thinks."

And so Paul again is, is saying, "God has done things in a way to shame

all of that, to flip it on its head

What does Jesus say?

What does a man gain?

What does it profit his soul if he gains the world but loses his soul?

In other words, if, if we gain the world's acclaim, if you get everything

that the world says is what you should have, but you don't have Jesus

You've got nothing.

Because, and we're in Ecclesiastes in our daily Bible reading, and this is something

that Solomon had to wrestle with, and that is the reality that death is batting

1,000 for every single person, no matter how many zeros are in your bank account

And so God is doing something to reveal the bankruptcy of living for everything

the world says is the right thing.

And instead, he is flipping the, the script.

He's changing the paradigm, and he's saving those that the world would

never save because he's trying to show that his wisdom is wiser than the

wisdom of the world and his strength stronger than the strength of the world.

There's a quote from somebody who said this.

He said, "The, the Greco-Roman culture believed that one's value was determined

by education, wealth, and breeding."

Those are the three areas that Paul is going after here,

education, wealth, and breeding.

And then he says this: "The cross, on the other hand, turns the world upside down."

Because again, it's not about who you are or who you aren't.

It's about him.

And so in his wisdom, he's flipping the world's wisdom on its head

And so I wonder maybe are, are you sitting there thinking to yourself,

or maybe you have thought to yourself, you know, God, I, I feel like you

could do so much more if you would just save this type of person.

Just like back when, when Kanye was professing faith.

Wow, God, you're gonna be able to reach so many people with him.

Or maybe you're thinking to yourself, God, if, if you would only save the right

person and put the, the right Christian in o- in office in the presidency or,

or to hold the governorship, and then, Lord, it would be so much better for

the church, and your mission here for the church could go, go so much easier.

If we just ban Sharia law and ban the building of mosques and,

and ban the building of Hindu temples, that, that would make

it so much better for the church.

We could accomplish so much more.

Will you just save the right person and put them there to make that happen for us?

And God's saying that- that's not, that's not what I need.

I don't need a Christian governor to shut down the mosques or a

Christian president to ban Sharia law.

I need a church that's gonna be faithful to me.

I need a church that's gonna reach people, teach people, train people

I need the foolish.

You know what?

I, I, I need the, those that are, are not powerful in the world's

eyes, those that are, are, are weak.

I need the low and the despised.

Those are the ones that I'm choosing for my team to carry out my mission.

And ultimately, again, it's, it's so that the Lord gets the glory.

It, it's not that He doesn't save those that are strong, those that are

influential, and those that are…

It's just that's not…

He doesn't want anybody to look at Go- look at Him and say, "Well, clearly you

needed them to do what you need to do."

Rather, God's saying, "I don't need anybody of any clout, any prestige."

It's not about who we are or who we aren't, it's about Him, and

God's taking the world's wisdom and, and flipping it on its head.

Uh, Moses conveyed this, eh, to, to Israel back in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7, something similar.

Moses said this: "It was not because you were more nu- in number than

any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for

you were the fewest of all peoples.

But it's because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to

your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed

you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt."

And so Moses was telling the people of Israel, "It's not about you.

You are trophies of the grace of God."

And Paul is telling us as the church, "Church, it's not about us.

We are trophies of the grace of God."

Whether you're wise and powerful and influential or whether you're weak

and foolish and have nothing, of no account, it, it doesn't matter.

What matters is what saves you is God's grace.

What saves you is His power at work in your life

And he's gonna save you and begin to use you for His name and His glory.

And what that does to us at the end is where Paul goes finally in our

passage, is it robs us of any grounds on which we might boast in ourselves.

Look at verse 29.

Paul says, "So that no human being might boast in the presence of God."

That, that, that God is doing th- things this way ultimately for

this reason, that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

And so when we look at the fact that God has chosen who He's chosen, and it

doesn't line up with our expectations or the world's expectations, w- we might be

faced with the, the question, why though?

And here's the answer: so that He gets all the glory, because He's due all the glory

Listen, y'all, at, at some point in time, again, death

is batting 1000 for all of us.

At some point in time, when you breathe your last and you stand before God, if

the evangelism explosion scenario takes place and God asks you the question,

"Why should I let you into heaven?"

If you are gonna pull out anything that has to do with your personal

resume, you're in trouble.

Instead, it's gonna be about pointing to the resume of Jesus and saying, "Because

what if He did for me on the cross, that He died on the cross for my sins and rose

again for my life, and He's my only hope.

My boast is in Him

See, that, that's the, the beginning to the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

The opening question is, what is the chief end of man?

In other words, what is our purpose?

What have we been created for?

And the answer to that question is that we might glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

You can't boast in yourself and glorify God.

Those two things are incompatible.

And so our whole life is meant to be lived for the glory of God so that no human ma-

being might boast in the glory of God.

And what Paul is showing us is that God has saved us and has saved people in a

way to ensure that that takes place, that our story becomes all about His glory

You can focus on the, the key to all of this being the, the word grace.

Unmerited favor.

We talked about it in our scripture reading earlier from Ephesians

chapter two, but, but it's, it's really the foundation of

what he's driving at right now.

The reason that none of us can boast is because our salvation rides on

and rests on and depends on grace.

And what grace is, is grace is unmerited favor.

Grace is getting what you don't deserve

And so grace is what keeps us from living a life that would say, "Yeah,

I've got something to boast in," at least as it pertains to us.

And so that grace is where I want us to think about this,

this final point this morning.

That grace is what's gonna keep us making sure that our boast goes nowhere

other than to the cross of Jesus Christ.

So our final point this morning is this: Never get over that saving grace.

Never get over God's saving grace

I've played golf since I was seven years old.

Not well necessarily, but yeah, 35 years of hacking a, a little

golf ball around a golf course.

I, I, I got into it initially because my, my dad, he played golf and, and so

he brought me out on the golf course just like I've started to do with my boys, and

drop a ball 100 yards out and say, "Okay, let's start from here and just hit it

towards the green and see what happens."

And then as I, I began to improve, I, I went to, to golf

camps because I was that kid.

I was a nerd.

Um, and, uh, I, I played g- golf on a, the junior, North Texas Junior PGA

Tour, which don't be impressed by that.

I, I lost horribly every single time I went out and played, but I did,

and I had instructors, and I had coaches, and I had all of these people

teaching me how to play the game.

That was how I got into the game, and that was how I started to

improve a little bit in the game.

But then now when I go out and play, I don't bring any of those coaches

or instructors with me anymore.

I go out and just play, and I play on my own, and sometimes I remember what

they taught me, but I'm not remembering even who it was that taught me that.

And so now I go out and really I'm depending on myself for my

golf game now, which probably why it's not very good anymore.

But I'll, I'll go out and do that.

And, and here's the thing.

On the rare occasion when I hit the good shot, I don't stop and, and think

about my instructors and go, "Man, I'm so thankful for, for what they did to

enable me to be able to hit that shot."

I just hit the shot and I think to myself, "Wow, that was a pretty good shot."

That's not the way that Christianity works.

In other words, God's grace didn't just get you into the game and kinda get

you started on it, but now it's you.

But sometimes as, as Christians, that's kinda how we, we live, isn't it?

Like, man, God saved me, and he got me into this thing called

Christianity, but I'll, I'll

God, I'll let my wisdom take over from here

That's not the way that Christianity works.

All that we are, all that we are as Christians, we

owe entirely to God's grace.

See, God's grace saves us, but then it also sustains us, and it sanctifies

us until ultimately it delivers us into his presence In fact, that's

our memory verses this week and what we're gonna talk about next weekend.

If you look at verse 30, "Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became

to us wisdom from God, righteousness," okay, there's our s- our salvation.

Jesus is our righteousness.

That's our salvation.

Also, He's our sanctification.

Notice that's the next word there.

That, that's what we're doing right now.

We are being made more like Christ, so we need Jesus for our sanctification.

And then finally, He is our redemption.

That's when we're gonna go and be in the presence of God.

And so we need the grace the whole way through.

And so when we remember that, then we have to come back to this, what Paul's

saying here, and that is that none of us have any grounds to boast in when

it comes to our standing before God.

That it's His grace and His grace alone.

So I wanna us to think about that.

I, I wanna help you.

Okay, so how can I make sure that I never get over the grace of God?

What should that practically look like in my life?

I wanna suggest three things to you this morning.

Number one, always remember His grace.

Daily remember His grace.

Preach the gospel to yourself every single day.

And be driven by remembering that you needed grace to be saved, to

remember that you need grace today, but for the grace of God, right?

We say that, and, and do we mean it?

That God's grace is what's keeping us on this straight and narrow path.

God's grace is what's enabling us to will and to, to work for His good pleasure.

We need to remember His grace every single day.

Paul does a good job of this.

First Timothy chapter one, verses 12 through 17.

I want you to listen to, to Paul's emphasis here.

Paul says, "I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our

Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.

Though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent opponent.

But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief."

And notice here, "And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith

and love that are in Christ Jesus.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus

Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who

were to believe in him for eternal life.

To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be

honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen."

See, Paul starts to write to Timothy about his story, and it's long, not long before

Paul gets from his story to God's glory.

And the reason is, is because he's infatuated with and obsessed with

and consumed with, appropriately so, the saving grace of God.

His grace overflowed for me.

And so as Paul remembered the grace of God, it drove him to worship God.

We need to daily remember the grace of God and our dependence upon it, and it

will drive us to worship Him as well.

We are a walking billboard for God's wisdom, power, and glory.

At least we should be.

If our story is truly for His glory.

So first remember grace, second boast in Christ.

Not all boasting is bad.

Pastor Rod mentioned that earlier during our worship set.

Not all boasting is bad.

There is a good boasting, but that good boasting has to be about what

God's grace has done in our lives.

The Apostle Paul puts it this way, 2 Corinthians 11:30.

2 Corinthians 11:30

2 Corinthians 11:30, Paul writes, "If I must boast, I will boast of

2 Corinthians 11:30

the things that show my weakness."

Why?

Because the things that show his weakness maximize the

glory and the strength of God.

Elsewhere, Galatians 6:14, Paul writes this, "But far be it from me to boast

Galatians 6:14

except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been

crucified to me and I to the world."

So Paul says, I, I'm gonna boast, but I'm gonna boast in the right things.

I'm gonna boast in the things that God has done in my life.

I'm gonna boast in the fact that God, by His grace, has made me a trophy

of His grace, has transformed my life, has overcome my weaknesses.

Uh, God came to save sinners of whom Paul says, "I'm the foremost."

But God, through His grace, overcame them and saved me, and

so I'm gonna boast in Christ.

And then the third thing, not only do we need to preach grace to ourselves,

we need to preach grace to others, and we do that by telling our story.

Telling the story of what God has done in your life.

You know what?

I, I think sometimes, and, and maybe this might even be you this morning

if, if you're here, maybe you're not a, a Christian, you might think this

of the church, that the church can put out the, the feel that we're, we're

better than or holier than, than thou.

Or like we're, we're disinterested with the lost world around us

'cause we just wanna hang out together and not be bothered

And while not all of that may be valid, it-- some of it may be valid

because I, I, I don't think we've done a great job at this last point

I don't think we've been as, as faithful to tell our story and to

maximize the grace of God in that story

Because if we were and if we are, then nobody would look at us and think, "Well,

they think they're better than me."

Because they would hear from us anything but that.

They would hear from us, "Man, you don't know the, the least of how evil I was or

how much I still need the grace of God."

You don't know the smallest sliver of how absolutely unworthy of God's saving

grace that I was before he came for me

So I wanna encourage you to, to tell your story, and I wanna encourage you to, to

tell your story by developing something that's called the 15-second testimony.

That's just what it's called.

It may not take you 15 seconds.

In fact, I was shadowboxing with, with somebody earlier th- this week about

this sermon, and the feedback was, "Your 15-second testimony is not 15 seconds."

I was like, "Well, thank you.

I appreciate that."

It's just a name.

But the 15-second testimony goes like this.

There was a time in my life when…

There was a time in my life when, but God…

And now I'm filled with, or now I'm this way, or now I'm doing this

And so let me give you maybe a tangible example for this.

Maybe you invite your neighbor to come to church or your coworker to come to

church and they, they politely pass.

Maybe the follow-up rather than, "Uh, oh, okay," might be something

like, "Hey, can I, can I just share with you why I go to church?"

There was a time in my life,

this would be my 15-second testimony, by the way.

There was a time in my life w- w- when I was self-righteous

and arrogant and thought that I was better than other people.

I, I, I thought that I could manufacture the type of

relationship with God that I wanted.

I thought that I could, could know God on my terms and, and not His,

and, and I, I was totally lost.

Boastful, prideful, everything that you probably hate about

Christians, that was me

But God broke me, humbled me.

God showed me that I, I'm, I'm not good enough.

I'm not better than anyone

That my church attendance, my being born into this family, my place on a

student ministry leadership team, that, that doesn't mean anything in His eyes

God showed me how much I, I needed to just surrender to Him and, and made

me realize that I need His grace as much as anyone else needs His grace

And because God did that, now I'm filled with a humble joy that is just

constantly in awe of the fact that God still loves me, even though I still

struggle sometimes with those same things that I once was characterized by.

I'm in awe of the fact that, that God accepts anything from me

And so I go to church because God saved me from who I was

And I'd love for you to come join us because we're not gathering together

because we're better than anyone.

We're gathering together because God's grace has saved every single one of us

And God's grace is there for you too.

I'd really love for you to reconsider whether or not maybe you'll come with

us and join us at church on Sunday

Something like that.

Something for us to be able to, to get out there and start being on mission.

Like I talked about earlier, we're doing this outreach week here as

a church coming up in October, but you don't have to wait for that.

But, but definitely at least during that time to say, "Okay, m- my church is asking

me, my, my pastor's asking me to be, uh, just extra focused on, on reaching people

for Christ for this week," but I'm just gonna say, "Let's make it outreach fall.

Let's make it outreach, you know, life, not just outreach week."

And start to think about, how can I have conversations that

matter for eternity with the, the people that are all around me?

This, this past week j-just, I think it was yesterday, September 11th.

You think of the, the 3,000 souls that died on that day, not a single

one of them planned to die that day

And I wonder how many of them were people that Christians that knew them

thought to themselves over and over and over again, "Man, I, I need to

tell them about Jesus, but next time."

Maybe even some of them, they were over, they had a barbecue,

whatever, on September 10th with, with those people that ended up in

those trade towers, and they thought to themselves, "You know what?

Maybe I should share the Go- maybe I should invite this pers- maybe

I should talk to them about Jesus.

You know, there'll be a next-- I'll, I'll, I'll do it next time we have them over."

Only to realize there wasn't gonna be a next time

Church, I, I, I want, would love, and I'm preaching to myself in this as

well, for us to stop gambling people's eternity on our own sense of whether

or not we're gonna feel awkward by having that conversation with them

We have to be doing this

God chose us for this purpose

To, to boast in him

To say, "Let me tell you about what God did.

Let me tell you why I go to church

Let me tell you why I, I'm gone on Sunday mornings

Tell you why, sir

You know the church at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter two, not Ephesians

chapter two, Revelation chapter two.

It was the first church out of the gate that Jesus writes a letter to

Jesus writes a letter to them saying, "Hey, you're doing a lot.

That's pretty good, but I've got one thing against you.

You've lost your first love

Ephesus was doctrinally sound.

They had expository preaching.

They sang the right songs.

They preached from the right version of the Bible

They had the right doctrinal statement

But their love for Christ and their love for the lost had grown cold

So much so that Jesus looked at that church and he said this to them.

He said, "You know what?

If y'all don't get this, I'm gonna shut you down

That's my fear for us

If we don't get this

what the foolishness of God is there to do in our lives

He doesn't need us here

If we won't do it, he'll shut us down and bring somebody else in that will

I don't want that.

I love seeing you guys on Sunday morning

There's a lot of different things people say, "Who's your plus one?

Who are you gonna…"

You know, all those things

I just want us to start being more passionate about the mission.

I wanna start being more passionate about the mission.

I wanna start having conversations,

thinking about people in my life right now that I've said, "Next time."

They need the gospel.

They need to hear the 15-second testimony.

They need to hear about what Jesus has done.

They need that

Because at one point I did, and God's grace came after me.

At one point you did, and God's grace came after you

One of the best evidences that we are still in awe of the grace of God is

we wanna tell other people about it

We've lost that passion and God's grace has become second nature

And we need to recapture it.

We need to preach the gospel to ourselves.

We need to boast in Christ.

We need to tell the story

I didn't have the Jesus Storybook Bible growing up.

I, I wish I did.

It hadn't been published yet, but I wish I had learned that lesson that my story

is for God's glory much earlier than I did

But I'm glad at some point, by his grace, he opened my eyes to understand

See, God in his wisdom has come after us in our sin

And in a wisdom that's wiser than ours and a strength that's stronger than ours, God

has chosen to come after us and to save us with the only solution where we would

be saved and He would get all the glory

And so this week, look for those opportunities.

Look for those opportunities to invite other people to church, to, to share the

gospel with people, to be on mission, uh, to exhaust yourself for that and, and to

be faithful to what God has called us to.

And pray that God will take that wisdom that might look foolish to your

neighbors right now, your loved ones right now, pray that God will take

that wisdom and make that the greatest message that they've ever heard.

Let's pray together.

Father God, we are so thankful for grace that saves and that doesn't save and,

and abandon us, but saves us and equips us, that saves us and, and uses us,

that saves us and puts us on mission.

Lord, we're thankful for the, the reality that you do the heavy lifting of

opening the eyes that need to see, the ears that need to hear the good news of

the Gospel of Jesus, that you've just simply called us to go and to share it,

and to announce it, and to proclaim it.

So God, I pray that we would do that more as a church.

I pray that you'd make us a church that is clearly on mission for you.

I pray that people wouldn't be able to show up in our, our neighborhoods, in our

communities, on our sports teams, without us having the conversations, inviting

them to come and be a part of what we're doing here, what you're doing here.

Lord, that we would be known as a church that hasn't forgotten its

first love, but that is kindling the flame of our first love.

And God, we pray that you would use that church for your glory

until you come back for us.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.