Power in the Face of Weakness - 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

I have a memory that's over 35, nearly 40 years old now, but I remember it in some ways as it were yesterday, a high school mat, sporting a really cool mullet, sitting in a metal folding chair in a Sunday school room in the basement of the church I grew up in on a Saturday morning. It was about in the third or fourth Saturday in a row I'd sat in that room. One of the youth volunteers at our church thought it would be really cool to teach us how to share the good news of Jesus with other people. We call that the gospel, how to share the message of the gospel, what Jesus had done for us on the cross, how to take that and share that with others. And one Saturday, we talked about our personal testimony, the story of how we realized our need for Jesus and how we started to follow Jesus and how Jesus changed our life. And we wrote that out and practiced sharing that. One Saturday, we got a Bible and we went through an underlined verses that share about the death of Jesus on the cross and how to trust Jesus. we had those verses underlined, some of them memorized and on this Saturday, we were going to go out on the neighborhood. We were going to share the gospel with people in the neighborhood. We' learned our testimony, we'd memorized scripture, we were ready to go. And I remember being so nervous. that morning that we were going to go out and actually do this. And I remember going up to that very first house and I remember so vividly knocking on the door of that house, and I was knocking I was knocking the door, I was prayinging this prayer. Dear God, please don't let them answer this door." I was so scared that I was actually gonna have to share this with someone. It was shortly after that that our youth group at that little church was asked to lead the Sunday night service. It was going to be youth led worship service, and someone was going to pray, and someone was going to lead the worship and the youth were going to collect the offering. and they said, Matt, you're going to be the preacher And I thought, I don't know how to do that, but I'll give this a shot. I remember the sermon was called What is faith? And it was from here Hebrews chapter 11, and it was 12 minutes long. I remember preaching that sermon, sitting down in the pew, and thinking, that was absolutely horrible, I am never going to do that, ever again. Now, over 30 years have passed. I've had many, many times, I've shared the gospel, many, many sermons have been preached. I want to tell you, the fear I felt as a teenager still is in my heart when I show the gospel. And the fear and accquacy I felt as a teenage preacher, I still feel even today. All these years, 30 plus years of ministry, a bachelor's degree, and a master's degree in theology, I still feel those feelings of fear in limitation in an adequacy. And I'm guessing you do also. I think that many of you probably would feel the same thing. You do feel the same thing. You're here today, and your desire to be used of God You'd like to see God use you to make a gospel impact on your family or your friends or your workplace or your school. You want to share the good news of Jesus with other people. You have friends in your life who aren't followers of Jesus, and you're burdened for them. You really want to share with them. You have ministry opportunities in front of you to step into some kind of minististry. Maybe someone has asked you to lead a Bible study or teach a class or step out in leadership in some ministry, and you really desire to do that, but if something's holding you back. Maybe it's a mission trip. You've heard of the mission trips we've taken or opportunities you've had other places, and you say next year, I really want to go on a mission trip and be a part of that. You feel called to something, burdened for something, but you feel weak and you feel limited, and you feel inadequate and you are fearful. That's a common thing. That's a natural thing. And if that describes you as it describes me, we're going to see today that we're in really, really good company. We're going to be in 1st Corinthians chapter 2, in our study through the book the 1st Corinthians. Armando just read the passage for us earlier in our service. We're going to go back through it again and dive into here and see what we might learn from this, how we might be encouraged. I believe that this passage of scripture is going to offer us some hope today when we feel weak and limited and inadequate. It's written by a man named Paul. Paul is often called the Apostle Paul. He was a missionary of the early church. And in the first few years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Paul traveled extensively throughout the Roman Empire, sharing the meth message of Jesus in cities and towns across the empire. Dozens of different places he went on these missionary journeys, preaching about Jesus and planting new churches. If you were with us right before we got into 1st Corinthians, we were in the Book of Acts. We were in Joshua before Joshua we were in Acts. If you remember the Book of Acts, Paul was was kind of a central character in that book, one of the probably the central human figure in the Book of Acts, where in the Book of Acts, he was portrayed as a bold witness for Jesus Christ. So here's a man who was preached in city after city, planted churches, preached the gospel in small and large settings. God used him to pin 13 books of the New Testament of our Bible and today, we get a little glimpse into his heart. We get a little glimpse into what he was thinking and what he was feeling throughout all of those missionary journeys and all of those sermons and all of those encounters that we read about in the Book of Acts. And I think when we get a glimpse into Paul's heart and his mindset it's going to give us some hope today. When we feel weak, when we feel afraid, when we feel inadequate, I think there's some encouragement here. So if you're feeling today, I really want to be used by God. There's people I want to share the good news of Jesus with. There's ministries that that I want to be engaged in, but I'm being held back by my own feelings of inadequacy and fear and limitation. Hopefully today will be set free a little bit from that and more emboldened to be faithful what God's called us to do. We' to talk about what it means to make a gospel impact. What does the word gospel mean? The word gospel just simply means good news. It's make an impact on the community with the good news of Jesus Christ. It's going out and showing people and telling people what Jesus Christ has done in our life. It's all the ministries we' engaged in the church and all the optities you have to make an impact in your personal encounters with people. What does it take to make an impact on others with the good news of Jesus? We're to start with the question of what it is not what the gospel impact is not based on. And there are four things we're going to see in these five verses in front of us today, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 1 through 5. We're going to see, first of all here, notice that gospel impact is not based on impressive speech It's not based on impressive speech. If you're thinking today, I would love for God to use me, but I'm not a very good speaker. I'm not a very good communicator. Let's look at what Paul had to to say about that, verse one. And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. I didn't come with lofty speech. Healls the time that he first visited them. He came to them in 50 AD, around 50 A.D. You could read the story in Acts chapter 18, if you want to go back and read Acts chapter 18. You could read the story of Paul's time in the scene city of Corinth. And he says,Guys, when I was with you, I didn't come bringing you lofty speech, or some translate this brilliance of speech, or lofty words, some parhaphrase this. I didn't try to impress you with my polished speech Now, previously, a few weeks ago, we talked about a conflict that was happening in the church, where some people were saying, I follow Paul and some were saying, I follow Apollus. And we noted them that that might have been caused by a cultural distinction during that time when the Greeks and the Romans put a great deal of importance on public speaking They really emphasized the oratory skills of communicators. From a young age, you would have been taught the art of rhetoric and public speaking, and that had worked its way into the church, I think, because we know that Acts chapter 18, very into that, were given a description of Apollos They were told that Apollos was a very gifted preacher. He was very intelligent, he was great at making his arguments in his case. And maybe what happened in Corinth is Paul came and planted the church, he was their pastor for a while, he left, Apollus came in, and Apollos was a much better preacher than Paul. And so some of the church began to say, I like Paul because he's the one who started start this church. He led me to Jesus. and I said,N, Paul was okay, but Apollos is the guy. Apolus is an incredible preacher, and it caused a little bit of division, because of the emphasis that they put on public speaking So Paul is saying, here, guys, when I came to you, I didn't come as a gifted public speaker. My impact in Corinth was not based on my ability to offer lofty speeches. Gospel impact is not based on lofty speech or impressive speech. When we think about sharing the good news of Jesus with others, most of us are plagued by feelings of an adequacy. It's true for me. I'm guessing it's true for almost everyone in this room. I'll confess to you that many Saturdays, I spend worried about the sermon I have to preach the next morning, that I prepare well enough. I have it worded the right way? Is there a better way to say what's in my notes? And then I spend a lot of Sundays thinking, man, that could have gone better. I wish I would have said that better. I wish I could have come up with the better. A lot of preachers will tell you their weekend is oftentimes ruined by their fear on Saturday and their feelings of inadequacy on Sunday afternoon over this act of getting up and sharing the Word of God. That's a common thing that all of us face And I'll confess that I'm often envious of people that are better at things. You hear someone talk, and they've got just such a cool voice. Like that guy, that really cool preacher voice. He said, man, if I had that voice, it could be on podcasts. What a cool voice. I hear myself in a live stream, "G, it's ridiculous. How can you listen to this?" Or someone that's so creative, and they come with these creative titles, and creative points that. And my sermons are like three things Paul said, is the title of the message. I wish I were creative. Or I wish I had a good story. You know, you go to these events, and the speakers, like they were like on drugs and in prison, and Jesus changed their life and I'll think,Man, I wish I'd been in prison. Like, I could have like, this such a cool sermon if I'd been in prison. And we feel like we were lacking something that that would make us better We all feel this way, when you feel inadequate, remember that the power is not in our voice or our story or our ability. It's in the power of the message. We're going to get that in a little bit. It's not in the power of the messenger's ability to eloquently communicate it. He says, second, gosp will impact is not based on intellectual reasoning. Not only is it not based on my lofty speech, it wasn't based on my lofty wisdom. Look back at verse one again.And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom Wisdom here is a reference to human wisdom, or clever argumentation. Some translate this superior wisdom, impressive wisdom, the latest philosophy. I didn't bring you a very well thought out philosophy. So for some who said, really, the power is in how well you can craft your argument And others said, "Oh, the power is not based on how well you craft the argument. It's in how powerfully you can communicate it as a speaker. Paul said, "It's neither of those. I wasn't a very good speaker, and I didn't make a very philosophical case I came to you with a simple message. So often we're held back by what we feel as our lack of intellectual reasoning ability. We're held back because we're afraid we're not going to have all of the answers. Can I confess to you that when someone says to me, "Can I ask you a question My heart races just a little bit? Because there's a good chance I've heard the question before, and there's a good chance that, because I'd heard the question before, and I had to practice answering it once before, I've got a pretty good answer this time. There's also a chance, though, that you're gonna ask me a question I've never been asked before, or you're gonna ask me a question that I've been asked many times and never had a good answer for it. I don't know that I have the intellectual capacity to answer your question, and think what I can say, call Rustin. held back, because I'm not sure that I'm gonna have the right. I'm so impressed. You ever see these, like, they're Insta and TikTok, and Facebook, these reels of guys going to like college campuses and engaging with students? And they're so good. They'll ask a question, and the answer is so, like, man, I wish I could answer questions like that. I wish I had that intellectual capacity. My head looks the same size of his head, but his brain is bigger somehow. I wish I could do that. We're not gonna have all the answers, but neither did Paul. He said, I didn't come to you impressing you with my ability as a speaker or my ability to offer you lofty, superior, impressive wisdom. Nor is gospel impact based on confident delivery. I didn't I didn't wasn't a good speaker, and I don't know that I crafted my argument well well. And then when I did speak, honestly, he said I was afraid. Look at verse three. Catch this, does this describe anybody in this room? And I was with you, verse 3, I was with you in weakness and in fear, and much trembling. Notice those words, weakness, fear, trembling. Does that ever described you? You ever felt in moments where you wanted to be confident you were weak? You wanted to be bold and you were afraid. In fact, you felt so weak and so afraid that you literally, physically trembled at the thought of this. It's a common thing to feel this way. Paul felt this way. I knew what's interesting about this. Verse 3 seems contradictory to the image of Paul that I have in my mind from reading the Book of Acts. Now, think back about the Book of Acts. You remember how many times Paul stood boldly before religious leaders and they would debate him, and he would boldly debate these Jewish religious leaders. He would face down angry mobs of people who wanted to kill him, and he would boldly proclaim the gospel. There were Roman soldiers with whips in their hand, and Paul never backed down. He boldly proclaimed the gospel. And I see Paul as this man of great courage." And then I read verse 3, and he said, "No, I was weak, and I was fearful, and I was trembling. In fact, if you go back to Acts 18, where you read the story of the story of Paul's time in Corinth. In Acts 18 verse 9, it says that there was a time where the Lord came to him in a night vision and said, "Do not be afraid." He was so afraid that the Lord had to come to him to a vision to tell him to not be afraid And so what you see on the outside is not always a true picture of what a person is facing on the inside. Paul felt weak and limited. 2nd Corinthians, he would write another letter to Corinth, and in that letter, he would write this, "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong. He allowed the Lord to give him boldness and courage in the face of his fears, in the face of his weakness. God made him strong. Our ability to make an impact on the community, on your workplace, on your school, and your family, is not going to be based on your confidence. It's to be time where we're going to be afraidraid, just as with Paul, what we project on the outside is often not the case on the inside You may come off very confident, but the reality is inside, you feel weak and fearfulful. This is natural. I'd heard years ago that one of the top fears is public speaking. And so yesterday, I asked CGPT, what's the top fear in America? You know, according to CGPT, it's public speaking It ranks above spiders, it ranks above heights, it ranks above death. Years ago, Jerry Seinfeld, say that the number one fear in America is public speaking, the number two fear is death. He said, "That means if you go to a funeral, you'd rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy. That's how much we fear talking in front of people. And while someone might appear very confident on the outside, the inside, they're afraid. They're afraid to speak.'re afraid of not being able to do it well. We're afraid of rejection. Years ago, there was a Bible study that was really popular called experiencing God. Anybody do the experiencing God, Bible study, Hen. A lot lot of people did that, and I remember one of the quotes that sixs out me still this day. It saw on the screen here, if you feel weak, limited, and ordinary, you're the best material through which God can work. Anybody feel weak? Anybody feel limited? Anybody feel ordinary? If Henry Blacklockaby is right, then you're the best material through which God can work. I think he is right. Well, here's why I think he is right, because he got this from the Word of God. Rustin preached this last week 1 Corinthians 1, 127, but God chose the foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even that things that are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. What's he saying? God? God chose the weak, limited, and ordinary of the world, so God could get the glory. And if you're fearful, if you're weak, if you're trembling today, you're in really good company, and you're in a really good place to be used by God. It's not based on impressive speech, intellectual reasoning, confident delivery, and it's not based on our ability to offer persuasive arguments Notice verse 4. My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom. Not only did he feel weak in his spirit, he felt weak in his preaching from a human perspective. He felt that his preaching lacked plausible words of wisdom. You could translate that word plausible, persuasive or enticing. Paul said, I'm not sure that my preaching is persuasive enough. I'm not sure that it's enticing enough when I was with you. He viewed his preaching as plain and not at all persuasive. He certainly would strive to do his very best to make his case, but he knew that he would often fall short. Of course, we should attempt to be well prepared. We should endeavor to improve. This doesn't give anyone a license to neglect study, to neglect preparation. This doesn't mean that a preacher can say, well, it doesn't matter how well I prepare. So I'm going to get up and wing it. A preacher should prepare well. If you lead a Bible study, you should prepare well for that Bible study. If you're a children's ministry leader in our church, you should prepare well, even for that preschool class, that you bring your very best to what you're doing for the Lord, for His glory And we offer, we will offer again, in the B term of our North unequipped classes at North End. We'll offer another class on how to share your faith. Churches should offer those classes, and people should take those classes, and you should engage in opportunities for training to be able to communicate the Word of God, to share the good news with others. The point is at the end of the day, it doesn't depend on upon your preparation, but on the work of the Holy Spirit Paul's point here is that unless the Holy Spirit works in the listener's heart, the wisdom and the eloquence of the preacher are going to be ineffective. Why? Because he was an ambassador, not a salesman. And that's true of us. We are ambassadors. We're not a salesforce God doesn't say, go out and try to sell the gospel to the Cub community, and try to do a really eloquent, persuasive job of it, the king says, "Take my message, and I'll do the work." And we're ambassadors. And he used if he had used Paul's spectacular speech or well crafted philosophy, Paul would have gotten the glory. And it would have hidden the very Christ Paul had come to proclaim. So one thing that causes us so much fear oftentimes, is our fear that we won't be able to answer all the questions or respond to all the objections. You ever felt that way? I want to share about Jesus, but what if they raise a question and I don't have an answer to that question. Paul said, I didn't come with great answers to your questions. I came just preaching the word of God. It's me so many times. I shared this some time ago, perhaps you were there for that sermon that we had a lady in the community who passed away after having a baby. The baby was about three months old. They didn't have a pastor. They called the church and asked if I could come and do this funeral. And I remember the night before the funeral, talking to the family, I remember the widower holding in his arms the three month old baby who just lost her mom And he sat there quietly through the whole time the other family members were telling me the things I need for my notes to put this message together. He didn't say a word until the very end. I said, anything else." And he said, I have a question. The first time he spoke up. I said, "What is that?" He said, what possible reason could God have for taking this baby's mother from her? You have an answer to that? I don' have an answer to that. Certainly not one that would satisfy. So our fear is, I'm not going to be able to answer the question You see, we're not called to be expert witnesses. We're called to be witnesses. You can't debate a person into heaven. You can't answer all of this. their objections. You could have a video of the resurrection it wouldn't matter. The Spirit of God has to open people's hearts. And so it's not based on our impressive speech or intellectual reasoning, our confidence, our ability to persuasively offer a rebuttal to every objection raise. What is it based on? Two things Gospel and impact is based first of all, on the truth of the message. The truth of the message, notice first two. I decided to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Notice that. I decided to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ and H crucified. That word decided is often translated resolved. I kind of like that better. I like it if I had to pick between those two words, I think the the intent of what Paul was writing here, it's the word resolved is stronger. It wasn't like he said, you know, I knew I had kind of two ways I could do this. I kind of just see what would happen. No, he said, I resolved that when I got to town, I had one thing to offer, and that was the hope of Jesus Christ in him crucify. And I had resolved, I had made up my mind that this is the thing I would share. When we read in Acts chapter 18, it says, when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia to Cont, it says, Paula was occupied with the Word, testifying to the Jews that Christ was that the Christ was Jesus. He was occupied with talking about Jesus. The power was in the message of Jesus, and he resolved to make Christ in Him crucified central to all of his teaching, and preaching a deliberate choice to preach the plain and simple life changing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our hope, our power is in the truth of the message. Every service program meeting gatherering event at Northern should have at its heart and at its motive, Jesus Christ, and him crucified And while we hope to make an impact in the neighborhood and offer services for the community and offer opportunities for community and fellowship and connection at the heart of it all should be the life changing message of the gospel. And so we strive at Northland. When you got here, I hope you found a parking space. We're always saying, how can we add some more parking here, there? Connor was out there with his orange vest helping you behind a spot. And you got to the front door, our friendly greeters were there, and you made your way to good coffee. We got rid of Folgers years ago and we got some good renegade coffee there for you. And you came in here and we have our talented musicians who work so hard, but none of that matters if we don't preach the life changing message of the gospel. I'll often joke, kind of joke, kind of serious, that I don't want anyone at Northland to be offended until the preaching starts. What do you mean by that? We want you to find Northland to be a fun, a friendly, welcoming place. We hope you find the building comfortable and we hope you found the coffee to be great and all that. And then when we preach the gospel of Jesus if that's offensive, we can't help you, because it's offensive. It's a message that says, we are sinners. We've sinned against a holy God. And for that reason, we are separated from God today. And for all eternity, if God didn't intervene, and he did, when God took on flesh, became a man, Jesus died on the cross for our sins in our place,, rose from the dead, and now the righteousness of Jesus is on us instead of our sin when God sees us. that's the message of the gospel that we preach at Northland, and we need to share in our communities, in our workplaces, and our schools. Nothing else matters apart from the life changing message of Christ in increusive.ified. Second, though, gospel impact is based on not only the truth of the message, but the power of the Holy Spirit. The truth of the message, Christ in crucified, and a demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power, notice verses 4 and 5 In my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not raise rest on the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul knew that the only thing that mattered at the end of the day was the power of God opening hearts to the message of the gospel Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what he's saying here. He knew that unless the Holy Spirit worked, the wisdom and eloquence of the preacher would be pointless and ineffective. He went in to trust God and not the messenger God had sent. And so we should strive to do our very best and all we do. But the results will rest with the sovereign work of the Spirit of God. We gather on Sunday mornings, our staff, our interns, some of our deacons, we gather in the classroom off the lobby, we pray at 7:30 every Sunday morning for the events of the day, for all of the things that are going to happen, and all of our volunteers, all of our ministries But my prayer every Sunday morning is God. Nothing of any eternal value will happen if you don't move in this place and in our hearts. It won't matter. We could work harder at better music and maybe find some better coffee, maybe add a few more balloons. If there were just more balloons. the Spirit of God, could be Trish actually says, "Maybe. No, Trish. No, no, it would just go back to the Bible. If the Spirit of God doesn't move, nothing matters. Nothing matters. It's the power of the Spirit. So let me give you challenges we wrap up this time. Three things I want you to consider. what now? What do I do with this? So I don't have to be an eloquent preacher or speaker. I don't have to be confident. I don't have to be intelligent and have all of the answers and be able to respect respond to every objection. What I need, what I'm learning here, is I need the life changing message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and the power of the Holy Spirit to work in me, there's three things we can do. Number one, you can resolve today to share Christ and trust the Holy Spirit Just resolve, just decide today, I'm going to do what Paul did. I'm going to share Jesus and trust the Spirit and see what God does. You know, every Christian has exactly what he or she needs to share the good news of Jesus with other people. There's three things a person needs that you have, three things that that are necessary. Number one, is a basic understanding of the gospel. Just a basic understanding. You say, do I have that? Well, if you're Christian, you do, because you can't be if you didn't. Right? To become a Christian, you have to know how to become a Christian. So if you are a Christian, guess what? You know how to tell someone else how to become a Christian You don't have to you should definitely memorize more Bible verses and we should work on ways we can show the gospel. There's other sermons for that. Another time. I'm telling you today, you have a basic understanding of what it takes to follow Jesus. Second, you need a personal testimony that you share, just sharing what Jesus did in your life. If you're a Christian, you have that Now, maybe you've never thought it through or thought it out, and we can help you with that. It's just a story of this is what my life was like before Jesus. This is how I met Jesus, and this is how Jesus changed my life. If you're a follower of Jesus, you have that. And then third, you need the Holy Spirit, and if you're a follower of Jesus, you have that. If you're sitting your day and you're a follower of Jesus, you have an understanding of the gospelel, you have a personal testimony, and you have the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you. That's what you need to make a gospel impact on other people. And so resolve today, not to worry about being a salesperson, just being be an ambassador for what God has called you to do. Second, be obedient and trust the results to God. Success is obedience. Success is just going out there and trying. Armando, one of our interns, he heard the sermon at the 8 o'clock service, and he said, he was at a church last week. a pastor preached on a similar thing, and he said, the pastor used the illustration of a participation trophy which is sometimes in our culture, we look down on that, the preservation. God is just looking for participation trophies here. You don't have to be an expert at this. If I go out and share the gospel and Leslie goes out and shares the gospel, and Leslie said, seven people gave their life to Jesus. I said, seven people slammed their door in my face And you say, well, clearly, Leslie's better at this than you know. Matt and Leslie, were both obedient, and success is obedience. Success is just participating. Get out there with the gospel and be obedient and trust the results to God. What's God calling you to do right now? What burden is he put on your heart? What is holding you back? If it's fear or feelings of inadequacy or feelings that you're not smarter enough or not clever enough Hopefully this passage has put all of that to rest for you. Will you be obedient? Step out on faith and trust the Lord. Finally, have you put your faith in Jesus. I want to challenge you today to trust Christ as your Savior. You heard us talk about it. And as we did, you said, that's something I believe that God wants me to do. It's a foolish message. It really, The Bible says it's a foolish message. You ever This is happened to me before. I'll be sharing the gospel with someone. and I'll be telling them about their need for Jesus, and I' be living listening to the words I'm saying, and I'll think, well, that's just crazy. That's crazy. You're telling me that God created me, that He loves me, that my rebellion has separated me from Him, and that God took on flesh and died on a cross and came back from the dead, and through faith in him, I can have my sins forgiven? That's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. That's why the Holy Spirit has to open our eyes to see a message that would have before been foolish, has to open our hearts to a message that before we wouldn't have received. And I believe today, the Holy Spirit of God can be moving right here in this place, opening your eyes to see your need for Jesus. Open your heart to believe something that up until now, you've rejected. Up until now you've been blinded to. Up until now, you thought was crazy. The Bible says it's foolishness It's foolishness to the world that God would do this. This is what God has done. It's the message of the cross, and the Holy Spirit could be opening your heart today. Would you follow Jesus? Would you listen to the Spirit of God? It opens your heart? Would Would you put your faith in him? Let's pray together. If that's you right now, you say, God has opened my eyes to see my need for Jesus. And he's stirring in my heart a desire to turn from the sin in my life and follow Jesus. You can express that to God right now, this way. You can say it, any words that you wanted to pick, but a prayer like this, God, I know that I need Jesus. I know that I've sinned. I know that I'm cut off from you, and I know my only hope is Jesus. So, Jesus, I'm turning to you today. I'm trusting you today. I'm following you today, Jesus. That's the simple message of the gospel, that simple prayer, that can for all eternity change your life. Maybe you've done that, and you want to share that with others, but you're fearful, and you're timid, and you're trembling Would you just say, God, help me to hear the encouragement of these verses? God, thank you, that none of this depends on my public space speaking or my intelligence. God, just help me be obedient. Holy Spirit, I believe in you. Holy Spirit, I trust you. Father, I thank you that you take weak, limited, ordinary people and use them for your glory. So God, help us in the face of our fears and our feelings of inadequacy and our limitations. Let us trust your Holy Spirit and let us share the simple, powerful message of Christ and in crucified. Help us to be beat it this week. Use us this week, we pray Jesus name. Amen.