>> All righty, good morning church family and happy Lord's Day. I hope you had a good week in the Lord. We're gonna go right ahead and start with our service. >> Welcome to Breen Community Church. And again, we had a great time of retreat this last weekend. And those of you who were not able to go, we have the retreat sermons that are online.

So you can download it and you can go back and listen to it as much as you want, whenever you can. We have a few announcements before we get started. First of all, the book, Master's Plan for the Church, that we are reading together as a church for this next session of Bible study, it's being sold outside.

So as you enter, as you're going outside, you'll see a table out there with books. And so those books are $10 each. If you buy it on your own, it's gonna be about $17, $18. So we're able to get a group discount. So if you need to pick one up, please go pick one up.

You will need to have that if you are attending Bible study. If you have an old version of that, the chapters are the same, the pages are different, but the chapters are the same. So you are able to use that book so you can hold on to that. If you need new ones, again, it's being sold outside as you are exiting.

Bible study PTA babysitting sign-ups today at the courtyard. So we have a new ministry that's being led by our brother Alex Koh, and he's gonna be helping us to find babysitters and establish babysitters in our home group in our Wednesday Bible study. And so if you're willing to put your name on there where they can contact you for help, if you can go to the table, it's, again, set up outside, and just sign your name up and then what your availability is, and they'll contact you when they're in need of it.

So please, if you're able to do that and serve in that way, you can go out to the table and sign up right after service. BAM Retreat, if you're part of the singles ministry, the topic is God-centered evangelism. It's happening on September 13th through the 15th over the weekend.

And so they told me to announce that today is the very last day that you can sign up. There's actually quite a few people who've already signed up for this, but today is the very last day. So if you are new to the church and you are part of that ministry, you're not part of the college, you're not part of the family ministry, this ministry is for you.

And if you want to sign up for that, today is the very last day. So they're going up on Friday and come back on Sunday afternoon, so Sunday worship will be happening there for the BAM ministry. We have an announcement from our women's ministry. Okay. Hello. Hi, church family.

The women's ministry will be hosting a new event for all sisters, high school age and up. This event will be called "This is My Story, This is My Song," and will be a time where we hear from a few of our very own Burian sisters as they share about God's transformative work in their lives, and we'll also be singing their chosen song of praise.

We hope that you'll be able to join us, as it is a rare opportunity for us to be able to share, be mutually encouraged, and exalt God as sisters in the different life stages that we're in. The event will be on Saturday, October 19th, from 8:30 to noon, here in the main sanctuary.

There is a $10 fee as breakfast and snacks will be served. Please look out for the Google form that's going to be posted on the various Facebook ministry pages, and if you have any questions, please direct them to Nicole Moes. Thank you. You guys are so awkward. Okay. All right, Sprouts PTA.

If you have a child in the kindergarten through sixth grade, there is a meeting for the parents on September 1st, that's next Sunday, between 2 and 3 o'clock. And so they're going to be going over the schedule, the programs, the curriculum, that type of stuff, so it would be very helpful for you to attend that meeting.

So if you have a child between K through sixth grade, next Sunday at 2 p.m. in the main sanctuary. Okay? Before I pray for the offering, I want to give a brief encouragement. And, again, I'm not saying this because there's something wrong or I've seen something wrong, but I think sometimes we get in the habit of giving without much thinking because it's like it's time to give, or I have it, or maybe I got paid and it's time to give my tithe.

And when we're younger, if you grew up in the church, you probably remember the Sunday school teachers or even your parents getting you a crisp $1 bill, putting it into an envelope, or putting it into the Bible, so when you give, that you're giving the best. You know what I mean?

You're not giving something like you just crumpled it in your pocket and just throw it into the thing. So we teach that to our children so that they may have reverence and intention in the way that they're giving. And so that should not stop when we're young because we got older.

So even in our giving as adults, that we should give intentionally out of an act of worship. Sometimes we just give because it's time to give. And so, again, I'm not saying this because I've noticed anything wrong. There's a reason we took a while. We actually even wrestled over should we shut down online giving because we want people to be thoughtful and intentional even as they give, but obviously times have changed, right?

And so even writing checks, I'm sure at some point in church history, they say, "Shouldn't we be writing checks? Shouldn't it be cash?" Or, "Prior to that, shouldn't we be giving our produce?" So times have changed, right? But as we do that, because it's so easy and convenient that we can just kind of push a button and then we're done.

So I just wanted to remind our church that the giving is an act of worship out of abundance, a thanksgiving, so that even as you give, that you would give prayerfully, that this is coming before the Lord, expressing his lordship over our lives, and as an act of thanksgiving, that you would give intentionally.

So let me pray for us for our offering. Again, if you brought a physical offering, there's an offering box in the back. But after we pray, after our main worship, our sister Jane Shin is going to come up, give her testimony, and be baptized this morning. All right, let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your grace. Thank you for the privilege to be able to come and worship you. Lord, we know that everything that we do week after week can easily become a habit that we don't give much thought to. I pray that that would never be the case in the way that we worship you.

I pray, Father God, if we've just come into this room out of habit, that you would examine our hearts, that you would cause us, Lord God, to be intentional in everything that we do, that you would receive the glory and the honor that you deserve, that you would fill our hearts with gratitude, thanksgiving, and worship, and that we would come to sing praise, to give, and listen, and to apply all that you have for us.

May this offering be given to you as an act of thanksgiving, and may it be multiplied for the sake of your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, would you please stand with us to say hello and greet those next to you. We will continue our worship.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Praise to the Lord, God and King ♪ ♪ His love endures forever ♪ ♪ He is good, He is above all things ♪ ♪ His love endures forever ♪ ♪ Sing praise ♪ ♪ Sing praise ♪ ♪ Mighty hand, with a mighty hand ♪ ♪ And now stretched on ♪ ♪ His love endures forever ♪ ♪ For the life that's been reborn ♪ ♪ His love endures forever ♪ ♪ Sing praise ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise, sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Forever God is faithful, forever God is strong ♪ ♪ Forever God is with us, forever ♪ ♪ He rises to set us up, His love endures forever ♪ ♪ Grace of God we will carry on, His love endures forever ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise, sing praise, sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise, sing praise, sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Forever God is faithful, forever God is strong ♪ ♪ Forever God is with us, forever, forever ♪ ♪ Forever God is faithful, forever God is strong ♪ ♪ Forever God is with us, forever ♪ ♪ Forever ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise, sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise, sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Sing praise, sing praise, sing praise, sing praise ♪ ♪ Forever God is faithful, forever God is strong ♪ ♪ Forever God is with us, forever ♪ ♪ Yes you are, forever you are faithful ♪ ♪ Forever you are strong ♪ ♪ Forever you are with us, forever ♪ ♪ Forever, forever ♪ ♪ Forever ♪ (upbeat music) , ♪ There is no song we could sing ♪ ♪ To honor the weight of your glory ♪ ♪ There is no song we could sing ♪ ♪ To honor the weight of your glory ♪ ♪ There is no song we could sing ♪ ♪ To honor the weight of your glory ♪ ♪ There are no words we could speak ♪ ♪ To capture the depth of your beauty ♪ ♪ Jesus, there's no one like you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we love you, ever adore you ♪ ♪ There's no one like you ♪ ♪ There's no one like you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we love you, ever adore you ♪ ♪ There's no one like you ♪ ♪ There is no song we could sing ♪ ♪ To infinite stretch of your mercy ♪ ♪ How can we thank you enough ♪ ♪ For how you have loved us completely ♪ ♪ Jesus, there's no one like you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we love you, ever adore you ♪ ♪ There's no one like you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we love you, ever adore you ♪ ♪ There's no one like you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we love you, ever adore you ♪ ♪ There's no one like you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we love you, ever adore you ♪ ♪ There's no one like you ♪ ♪ All we have ♪ ♪ All we need ♪ ♪ All we want is you ♪ ♪ Is you ♪ ♪ All we have ♪ ♪ All we need ♪ ♪ All we want is you ♪ ♪ All we have ♪ ♪ All we need ♪ ♪ All we want is you ♪ ♪ Jesus, there's no one like you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we love you, ever adore you ♪ ♪ There's no one like you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we love you, ever adore you ♪ ♪ There's no one like you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we love you, ever adore you ♪ ♪ There's no one like you ♪ ♪ Jesus, we love you, ever adore you ♪ Amen, please take a seat.

(bell chimes) - Hello, my name is Jane, and this is my testimony. One of my earliest memories is of our mom teaching Sunday school at our church in Panama. Wherever we moved thereafter, she made sure we were committed to a church. Thanks to God's providence and the early exposure to his word, I grew up knowing about him and what he did for me.

But for many years, it was just head knowledge. It wasn't until we moved to the States when I was 13, and my youth pastor shared with me about sin and repentance. It was then the gospel became personal to me and that I accepted Christ as my savior. It was also then when I was sprinkled.

Life had always been good in the worldly sense, but after knowing it was all ordained by God, my joy grew in immeasurable ways. I was eager and confident to share about him. But if life before Christ was a life unaware of what sin meant, now it seemed like my life was a constant wrestling with it.

Through high school and college, I wrestled with envy and loneliness, then pride and self-reliance once I started working. As a new mom, I wrestled with discontentment and anger, and having another baby didn't mean it was any easier. But on the days when I felt defeated, I was reminded of his sovereignty and love through his word from verses like Romans 5, 3-5 and James 1, 2-4.

And even when I was full of doubt and bitterness after our mom passed away three years ago today, God in his kindness loved me through a patient husband and sweet children, a loving family and kind and faithful friends. When nothing anyone said or did seemed to help, it was God's words that breathed in hope and joy into my heart.

And as it says in Jeremiah 31, 13, he truly turns my mourning into joy. He comforts me and gives me joy for my sorrows. Today I am getting baptized by full immersion as an act of obedience and a testament of his faithfulness and steadfast love for me, burying my old life and persevering in this new life in Christ.

Thank you. Usually when we have the college students get baptized here, we have a row of college students in the back, but today you have all the moms standing over there supporting you. So Jane, do you understand when you go into the water you're being united with Christ's death and you're coming out being united to his resurrected life?

And I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, thank you, Jane, for that encouraging testimony. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke 9, and we're going to be reading from verse 1 through 6.

Luke 9, verses 1 through 6. Reading out of the NASB. "And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. And he said to them, 'Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff nor a bag nor bread nor money, and do not even have two tunics apiece.

Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that city. And as for those who do not receive you as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.' Departing, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere." Let's pray.

Father, we pray for understanding. We pray your Holy Spirit would illuminate us, that we would understand more than knowledge, that you would give us eager hearts to listen and to obey. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're about two years into Jesus' ministry, or about a year, depending on what timeline you use, about a year and a half before Jesus heads to the cross.

Jesus made it very clear what his intention was with the disciples. He didn't just tell them, "Follow me and we'll figure something out. I want to train you and do this and that." He made it very clear, a single purpose. He said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." That was his goal.

For three years, he walked with them, trained them, so that when he heads to the cross, that after he leaves, that they would take the baton and continue to go after men, that they would learn how to be fishers of men. Well, the training that he gives here is specifically designed for the Twelve Apostles.

It's important for us, especially with our generation, where there's so much resources, so many books. You go to any Christian bookstore, and how to evangelize, evangelism programs. There's so much training, so much education, and different opinions on how we ought to approach, how we design church, how we design small group.

But we need to see, like, what was Jesus' method of training these Twelve, right? This morning, I want to look at three specific things that he mentions here, and hopefully we gain some insight as to his training and how he prepared them. And next week, we're going to be looking at the other two, which I won't mention for this morning, so this will be a two-part sermon.

We're going to start today and look at, first of all, who it was that he sent, the Twelve Apostles. The first thing that we notice about these Twelve Apostles were who they were not, first and foremost. One, there's Twelve Apostles for a reason, because this is an indirect or direct indictment against Israel.

If God created a nation of Israel to be a blessing to them, and that they would be a blessing to the rest of the nations, if the Messiah that they've been waiting for for hundreds of years shows up, you would think that maybe that they would maybe have a representative of each tribe, maybe a top scholar of each tribe represented in the Twelve.

But the first thing that we see, there's none of that. And again, this is a direct or indirect judgment against a nation of Israel, that he bypasses all of these things, and there's no scribe. Scribes are the scholars. These guys are the PhDs in theology. There's no rabbi. There's no teacher, even in a smaller scale.

There's no synagogue leader. There's nobody of any prominence. There's no Pharisee, who was known to be a meticulous keeper of the law. There's not one prominent person. The only information that we do know of some of the disciples are just that they were fishermen, or something negative. They were tax collectors.

These are people who would have been hated by Israel. And outside of that, all the other information about the other disciples, we know nothing about because they were, by human terms, a nobody. So the first thing that we recognize is that these people were of no prominence. It's just like saying today, if Christ came and he was to do a round two on establishing a church and to fulfill his promise, there's no pastor.

There's no elder. There's no professor. There's no celebrity. No CEOs. No Ivy League graduates. Nobody who has any kind of connection. Nobody wealthy. Just plain people that no one would have known. That's basically equivalent of what he did. He took 12 people who was either nobody that anybody knew, or even negative.

Why would you choose them? And people began to question. How can that be the Messiah if he chooses people like them? Our Messiah would never do that. You would think that there would be some Pharisees. There would be some scribes. Some leaders. Somebody of prominence. But nothing. It was not by accident.

It was very deliberate. God deliberately chose those people with no prominence because of what he was intending to do in them and through them. If you know the book of Corinthians, the first letter and the second letter was probably the harshest and the most critical letter that he wrote to the churches.

The first letter that he writes, he begins by saying that this church is divided because they were trying to one-up each other. Who's the most spiritual? Who's the closest to God? So they were comparing. He said, "No, we follow Peter because he was the first apostle. He's the apostle among apostles.

We follow Paul because he's the apostle to the Gentiles and they're in the Gentile area." Some of the saying they follow somebody else or Jesus. And he says, "All the problems that you are having is because you have forgotten who you are." And so he's writing an indictment in 1 Corinthians 2.

He says, "For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and despised God has chosen the things that are not so that he may nullify the things that are so that no man may boast before God." And if you were paying attention closely, right, I mean, this is a slap in the face because they were all fighting to see who has better honor, who should get better honor, who should have more say in this church.

And then he says, "Not many of you were wise." In other words, you were foolish, right? So if they're paying attention carefully, right? Did he just say what he said? He just called us all a bunch of fools. He said, "Not many of you," right, "God has chosen the weak," right?

He said, "Wait, wait, wait." He said, "He just called us fools." And he said, "We're weak." And then he said he chose the base things, right? Base meaning like there's nothing prominent, there's nothing special about you, right? That's you. He's talking to these people who are fighting to see who's going to have the upper hand.

You're base, you're nothing. God deliberately chose you because you had nothing, because you are a nobody, because you are a fool. So if they were paying attention, "Wait, wait, wait, wait." He just called us nobody, nothing, weak, bunch of fools, all of that intentionally to nullify the system of this world.

In order to slap the face of the system of this world, he deliberately chose those who are weak. That's what it says in James 2 verse 5. "Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?" He deliberately chose people who weren't in the system.

He went outside the system as an indictment against the religious system of that time. You know, you can tell when somebody immigrated to the United States, right? Some of you are born and raised here, so you may not have much of an accent or at least you don't think you do, right?

But if you came later, the later you came, the more of an accent you're going to have, right? Because you have the old way of thinking and accents that you picked up when you were young and then tried to get a new way of saying things and so you're adding on top of what you know, the new accent.

So the older, the longer you stayed in one culture, the more difficult it is to get rid of that, right? So you could tell, but if you came when you were young, right, if you came like two, three, four, five, you probably even forgot your previous language if you immigrated here, right?

In the same way, God chooses the people who are not in the system because he was trying to teach them a completely new system to get rid of the old ways, to teach a Pharisee the things that he was trying to teach the disciples. You have to get these guys from on high who spent years climbing up this religious system.

These years, years of these scribes are learning the way of the Pharisees and the way that things were and Jesus came and he had to tear it all down in order to bring about his kingdom. And in order to do that, he started fresh with people who were already base, who were nullified, who were foolish.

You know, you guys remember not that long ago, right, we had Olympics and the supposed, you know, the top basketball team with LeBron James and Steph Curry and all the superstars of the NBA, you know, put a team together and just assumed that they were going to demolish everybody and then before the Olympics started, they had a pre-Olympic, right, game with South Sudanese and they almost lost until the very last second.

LeBron James came and he put up a layup and then he was able to win the game, but he made the news because it was the South Sudanese because they were supposed to crush them. And the reason why they made the news is because South Sudanese have only existed for 11 years.

It's a brand new country. 11 years ago, every single one of these guys were refugees as a child. They grew up in a refugee camp and in South Sudan, they don't even have an indoor basketball court. So all their training happened on the outside. They grew up just playing basketball outside, right, like our BBA.

You know, I hear all the time, "It's not good for my knees," you know what I mean, "playing outside." You guys are so spoiled. Even our BBA, people complain that we need to play on the soft floor. These guys came out to the Olympics and they don't have indoor basketball courts and they almost beat the superstars of the world.

Now, we heard it for a little while, but can you imagine if these guys actually beat them, come to the Olympics, and they win the gold medal? Imagine what would have happened. The buzz around, the news that would have come out. What was it about these guys? They would have examined their clothing.

They would have examined their food. They would have examined their genetics. What was it about these guys? And they would have examined their training. Everything about them. How can these guys, who don't even have indoor basketball, who were refugees just 11 years ago, beat these multi-millionaires? LeBron James spends a million dollars just taking care of his body, and how can these guys beat them?

That's exactly what happened with the disciples. These 12 guys who had no training, no background, all of a sudden, they flipped the world upside down. Completely flipped the world upside down. He chose 12 people for what he's been preparing for thousands of years. 12 people, untrained, have no background, nobody that wealthy, nobody that connected.

He chose them. How could they have happened? If you typically hear a secular or liberal New Testament scholar or somebody who's just kind of superficially dismissing Christianity, they'll look at it and say, "Well, that happened because they were connected, they were Roman citizens, people were poor, and it created this perfect storm, and that's why they were able to do all this stuff." But if you examine carefully, all of that is nonsense.

Christianity, according to human wisdom, should have died the first century. With the persecution, they're being slaughtered for saying that Christ resurrected from the dead, and they were willing? They were willing to give their lives? The only thing that could explain how these 12 men turned the world upside down was because God was with them.

Period. Period. And that's exactly what we see here. Even the choice of these 12 men tells us that God is going against all the conventional wisdom of this world. And he does that very deliberately. He said he chose those who are nothing to nullify those who are. He chose the foolish to nullify those we think are wise.

He chose people who have no prominence in order to nullify those people who are proud because of their prominence. You know what it says? Well, then, what power? How were they equipped? Was it three years of classroom training, the techniques, and, you know, how to use the Aristotle argument of convincing somebody?

Did they learn the latest marketing technique and the new branding? All it tells us is Luke chapter 1. He called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. It was given to them. He just gave it to them. It didn't say years of training, how to manipulate the power, don't lay hands here, lay it on here.

When you talk to the demons, talk to them this way. It's like, no, he just gave it to them. And because he gave them the power, he gave them the authority, they were able to do what Jesus was doing. And it was simply given to them. It wasn't years of training.

What was he exactly teaching them to do? In our generation, where does authority and power come from? Depending on what stage of life you're in, right? If you're in elementary school, your authority and power, you think, comes from your parents. So when you're in elementary school, the cool kids are the ones who have parents who are wealthy or they're celebrities or they're known and what car, what house they live.

And then when you go to high school, it's your looks, which friend group you're in, how athletic you are. And those are the cool kids that everybody is trying to think that my life would be better if I'm part of that group. If you're in college, you start to compare, well, what school did you get into?

Where did you, where, what are you studying? What major are you in? And that's where we think life is going to be. The next stage is, where do you work? Do I work at Google or I work this or I work that? And so that's where the next stage comes from.

Next stage is, will you get married? Who did you get married to? And then after that is, how successful were you? And that's the struggle. Those of you who are in your 30s and 40s, that's the stage that you're in, where you've gone through the schools, you've had your job, but how successful are you in your job?

And then the next stage in your 50s are your kids. What school are your kids in? What are they doing? And so this rat race gets us going all throughout our life, different stages that we have, where that's where we think power and authority comes from. But does that type of thinking, do those principles stop at the church door?

Do we nullify that and say when we come to the church that we work through a completely different set of standards of where we get the power and authority? If we're not careful, we do the same thing in the church. If you have a large church, if you have a PhD, if you have experience, if you're gifted, you must be closer to God.

And so we try to present the church in a way where it completely nullifies who God is. So when a church is successful, what do we do? So who's the pastor? Well, how is his preaching? How is the church organized? What kind of funding do they have? What's their building like?

What's their location? What's the makeup of the people? And so we examine everything that human beings are able to do, and then we try to repeat that in the next church, because if we repeat that, maybe we'll have the same success that they did, and by doing so, we nullify the power of God.

He does this very deliberately to nullify the things that are. To nullify the things that are. Power and authority was simply given to them. So when the disciples, after the resurrection of Christ, began to go and preach the gospel, people were amazed. What is it about them? Just like the South Sudanese, what is it about these guys that they're willing to give their lives?

Where did they get their boldness? And at the end of examination, they said they realized that they were with Jesus. That's all. That's the only conclusion they came to. It's like, oh, they must have been trained properly. They went to the right school. They had the right scholars around them.

All they can come up with is why they were able to speak with such power and authority, is that they came back and they said they realized that they were with Jesus. Ephesians chapter 2, 8-9, it says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourself.

It is a gift of God, not as a result of their works, so that no one may boast." That's the point. That's the point of the gospel. Salvation by grace alone. "So that no one may boast." To humble us. Because what ruins us more than anything else is our own pride.

Our own desire in this rat race to get ahead. That's how Satan fell. Because he saw the glory of God and said, "I want some of that." And that's how he tempts us. He said, "If you eat of this, you will have what God has." And so all throughout the fallenness of man, the temptation is for us to get ahead in life.

It is our pride. It is our pride. It is our flesh that the world tempts us with. It is at the core of the fallen nature of man. It is wanting for us to get to the next stage. And have a better life. Because we think that's where power comes from.

Jesus does exactly the opposite to nullify their power. In 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10, it says, "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself." Apostle Paul, this is a text that you know very well, where he's begging God, he says, "Three times he asked the Lord to take the thorn from his side." He said, "Concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me." It might leave me.

The reason why he mentions three times is because that's how agonizing it was. Number three is the number of confirmation. This is how much he was suffering. And he begged the Lord to take this off my side. Now, we don't know exactly what that is. But some people think that maybe he was sick.

And he needed to be healed. And some people have different ideas. And some people think that maybe it was his wife, because he's talking about his side. Right? Adam took the bone from his side, so that must be his wife nagging him. It's like, "Please, Lord, deliver me from my wife." Some scholars believe that he may have been married in the beginning, and then because his wife couldn't understand how this man, who was so prominent, a Roman citizen, a disciple of Gamaliel, how could he have turned and he's going to village and beat up, and she just left him.

So this is not a proven fact, but some scholars believe that that's what happened to him, and so they think that maybe this was his wife. I think that it was his detractors, considering the context, because later on he says, "In weakness," he says, "Therefore I am well content with weakness, with insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties," and every single one of these is talking about another human being who's making it hard for him.

And in the context, that's exactly what he says. In 2 Corinthians, he writes about how people were questioning his apostleship, and he says his credential of apostleship is his suffering. So I believe that his detractors were questioning him constantly. And here's a guy who was being beaten, stoned, dragged out for dead, and people are saying, "This guy's only doing it for money." I think it bothered him so much that he begged the Lord to please take it away, but Jesus' response to him was says, "Concerning this, I implored the Lord to leave three times, and he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'" You would think if you chose an apostle to go and represent you to the Gentile world that you would provide the funds, that you would provide the safety, you would provide the health, that you would provide everything that he needs so all he has to do is stand up on a pulpit and preach the Word of God.

But that's not what happens to him. He's a rich, connected man, a Roman citizen, already well-known even by kings. He's making tents to pay for bills. And he says he deliberately allowed a messenger of Satan to bother him to the point where he's begging God three times to take it away.

And he says the whole reason why God allowed it is to humble him because it is our own pride. The biggest hindrance for the work of God to work is our own pride. When we are rich, he becomes poor. When we are powerful, he's presented as weak. It is our own pride, our own know-how, it is our own talent, it is our own view of ourselves that gets in the way of God being revealed.

That's why he chose the twelve. The worst thing that a man of God can do is to touch his glory, is to take some credit. He gave them this power. He simply gave them the power. 2 Corinthians 12 tells us, "The signs of true apostles were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles." Today, we use the word "apostle" as somebody who's elevated, who's chosen, who's unique.

That God gave them power, which is all true, but the word "apostle" simply means a messenger. A messenger, a servant, that's all it means. It became elevated because of what God used them for, but the actual word simply means a servant who just went and heard what God had to say and then went and told them what he said.

That's all that word means. God gave them the power. We have a tendency to allow the secular thinking to penetrate into the church and thinking that if we follow these principles, that our church will succeed. And I remember when the Seeker Friendly Movement was coming in, we spent a whole class time talking about how Coca-Cola brands their drink.

And this is back in 1989, 1990. And I remember sitting there thinking, "This is interesting. I've never heard this before." But the whole class was about how Coca-Cola, how everybody drinks Coca-Cola, how so many billions of people drink Coca-Cola. And if the church wants to be successful, we need to learn how to brand the gospel and Christianity.

And I remember one older lady in the room, and we were just thinking, "That's interesting. It's interesting." And one lady, an older lady, I think who's been walking with the Lord much longer than us, she said, "This sounds like manipulation." And I remember half the class, when she said that, like, "Yeah, this does sound like manipulation.

So we're going to manipulate people into the kingdom of God?" And I remember all of a sudden, just a snap of fingers, like, "This is not it. This is not from God." I remember for years, you know, early church, I'm trying to figure out, like, how are you supposed to do church?

I love God. I believe in the Bible. But I've never been a pastor before. I don't know what you're supposed to do in a church. So I got all the church growth books that I can get. And I remember reading in those books, and one of the things that they said was, "You need to have a critical mass of 30 people." They said, "Don't start a church unless there's at least 30 people that you have a group." Because all the churches that have ever grown has a critical mass of 30 people.

And then if you read further on, it'll say that you can't give sermons more than 30 minutes because people are used to 30-minute sitcoms, and this is back then. Now it's 14-second TikTok, so your sermon can't be more than 14 seconds, right? And that's what they said. 30-minute sermon with an illustration every 5 minutes, because that's where the commercials come on, right?

The bathrooms have to be clean, right? Or else they're not going to come back, because the reason why McDonald's is so successful is because their bathrooms are immaculate. So they were using all this human wisdom, and one of the things that they said is, "The parking can't be too far," which our church is failing in right now.

Some of you were shuttled here. How did you come? Why did you come? So the more I read, the more I began to realize, what does this have to do with God? The success of the church is based upon marketing techniques of McDonald's and Coca-Cola. This goes directly against everything that God was trying to teach his disciples.

He tells them, he says, he chooses people that have no prominence, so that if anything happened, it would be like the South Sudanese. How were they able to, so we would examine closely and realize their proximity to Christ? And that's it. That's the only thing that we can look at, is because God empowered them.

Their power did not come from education, their background, their know-how, or their talent, or their experience, or their vast training, vast education. No, God's power, Jesus' power was given to them. 1 Samuel 16, 7, when God chooses David, it says, "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at the height.'" Every time I read this, that height thing always stands out to me.

"Don't look at their height." It's a personal joke, if you get it. "Because I have rejected him, for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." I don't know how many sermons I've heard where a pastor said, "The reason God chose David was because David was in the background training to be a..." What is this?

What is this? I forgot. Huh? Slingshot, slingshot. I should write this down. I keep forgetting. Because he was in the background for years practicing his slingshot, he got so good at it, he knew that if he chose David and Goliath came, that he was the only one that was going to be able to throw that rock and hit it perfectly on his head, and then he would die.

So if you want to be used powerfully by God, you make sure that you sharpen your slingshot skills. And when you are ready, and you have something to offer God, and you have enough connections, and you have enough authority, and you have enough power, then God is going to choose you because he needs you for his kingdom.

Utter garbage. The only reason why David was chosen, because it says, it tells us, because he was a man after God's own heart. That's why. But we have a tendency to look, just like it says in Romans chapter 1, that we have a tendency to make images of ourselves and worship it.

We can't copy God's power, but we can copy David's. We can't copy his authority, but we can copy the pastor down the street. And so we have a tendency to focus our energy on the things that you and I are capable of doing. But what God did was completely supernatural.

It was completely supernatural. He did only what he is capable of doing. For what reason? So that no one may boast. Because it is our boasting that ruins us. It is our pride that prevents us from experiencing and knowing his power. In fact, he says, he tells them, "Don't take anything." I mean, think about it every time, even when we go on a trip.

What kind of, how big the bag, right? What do I need to take? What's the weather? Is it cool? Is it hot? Is it cold? What do I need to take? What kind of shoes do I need to get? How much should I take? What do I need? If I go there, where's the hotel?

How far is it? What's the transportation like? Especially if you have a small child, think about all the planning that goes in so that you can be equipped and ready. And even when you do all of that, it's never as comfortable as when you're home. Jesus is sending them to preach about the kingdom, that people are going to be hostile.

And then he says, in verse 3, "Take nothing for your journey." Nothing. And then he explains, "Neither a staff." What was a staff? Like today, if we're going from here to LA, you're not worried about wild animals. People jump in you, right? Not in your car. But at that time, if you're walking, you need a staff.

What if there's a wolf up on the top? I shared this years ago when I asked the pastors in India, "What's the most difficult thing you ever faced in evangelizing?" And I was expecting rocks and stones and knives. And he said it was a tiger. So they were walking in the field trying to get to a remote village.

And they saw a tiger walking down, and then they freaked out. And then they were hiding behind the boulder. And then they said the tiger ended up making a left turn and then just disappeared. And they just said, "Yeah, probably a tiger." Imagine these guys being sent out. The staff was there for protection, the wolves, whatever wild animals might be there.

And he said, "Don't take that." He says, "Don't take a bag." Nothing. What if we want to take rocks? Maybe the staff is not going to work. But if we want to take rocks or something, don't take that. Don't take bread. I mean, today, everywhere we go, we have to figure out how we're going to eat.

We can't go there. What are we going to eat? He said, "Don't even take bread." It's not like they can go and find restaurants or they can find someone's place. If you don't have bread with you, you're not going to eat. And then on top of that, he says, "Don't take any money." Well, if you don't have bread, at least if you have some money, you can go and ask people and say, "Hey, can I give you some money?

Whatever you're eating for dinner, can I have some of that?" He says, "No, don't even take money." He says, "Do not even take two tunics." Tunic was the most basic outfit. So it would be equivalent to a T-shirt. He says, "Don't even take more than one T-shirt. Only take exactly what you need to breathe and live." That's it.

Now, why does he do that? To torture them so he can come back and hear about how cold it was and where they got bit? No. Every part of that was what was he teaching them, to trust me. He said, "Well, what if we get bit?" "Well, God intended for you to get bit then." "What if we starve?" "God intended for you to starve then." There's one single thing that we see repeated over and over and over all throughout the Old Testament, all throughout the New Testament, is to trust me.

Do not turn from the word to the left or to the right, whether it is in season or out of season. Do not add or do not take away. Just do exactly as I say. That's what he told them when they were marching in the desert. Lift up that box.

But don't just anybody lift it up, only these people lift it up. When they lift it up, they need to use the poles. He called it at the end, "Get in line, march. When I tell you to stop, you stop. When I tell you to get up, get up.

And then you camp out this way. Make sure the tribes are set up equal distance from each other. Nobody comes." He gave them meticulous. And he said, "Do exactly as I say if you want to be successful. When I tell you to hold the staff up, hold it up.

When I tell you to put it down, you put it down." Because it is not our power. It is not our know-how. It is not our wisdom. It is not our talent. It is not our resources. All of those things get in the way of God doing his work.

He simply gave them. He simply gave them the power. And the only requirement for David was that he loved the Lord. He loved the Lord. All the commandments, the greatest commandments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." Doesn't that simplify Christianity? Doesn't that simplify the church?

Doesn't that simplify everything that we're doing, discipleship? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Do not take anything. And all he told them to do was to pray, pray, pray. So when God works, then you know God did it. We have a tendency, as soon as we bear fruit, it's like, "What did you do?

What was your program? How did you organize? What is your training like? Oh, you guys have such a great training. You have great this, great that." He deliberately did what he did to nullify, nullify. Today, the modern Western church is an example of everything that man can throw at it and what it results.

I'm talking specifically the Western church. I don't think even the West can argue that we are spiritually weaker than the previous generation, that we are spiritually weaker than the churches in China. We are much spiritually weaker than the churches in India. And yet, we have more money than church has ever seen in human history.

I heard of this one church that has $100 million just put in the bank account just in case North Korea opens up. I had a friend who was in charge of a mission program in this one mega church, and his budget was $10 million. We have more money as Christians than the church has ever experienced in 2,000 years in the Western church.

We have more freedom. We have more freedom than 99.99% of any Christian who has ever lived in history. In history, we have more freedom. There's people who are living in areas where just simply by owning a Bible, they can be executed. But you and I, we can travel, we can preach.

I mean, they might get annoyed. They don't like it. "Hey, shut up!" "Oh, I'm being persecuted today." That's the degree of persecution we have, at least. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't fight. We live in a free country. We should speak to change laws and choose the right people in office.

We should do all of that. But we have more freedom. Let's understand this in proper perspective. We have more freedom now than the church has ever experienced in church history. We have more education, more seminaries. You can go online if you don't want to physically drive. If physically driving is just too hard for you, you can get online and push a button.

And top-notch professors around the world are popping up on your screen whenever you want. We have more education, more seminaries, more training, more books than the church has ever experienced in church history. When we go to certain parts of the world and we say they need a Bible, nobody ever asks, "Which version do you want?" That's a luxury that only you and I have.

Oh, LSB, NASB, the NIV, the RSB, the King James. How about the new King James? How about the Ebonics? We have more translations than the church has ever seen. More access. We have Bible programs. Books you can read. More training. I don't know any church in our generation that has gotten more training than we have.

Training for marriage, training for evangelism, training for small group, training to cling. I mean, we have more training than they've ever had in church history. We have more opportunities than ever. I remember just even in 1993 when we were doing a vision trip to China years ago. I took $50 because that's, you know, at that time that was a lot of money.

It took me $25 to call back home for like a four-minute conversation with my wife. And I said, "I can't call you anymore." For 30 days I made contact with her one time. And I remember, you know, back in the '70s and even parts of '80s when missionaries left, we said goodbye to them at the pier or at the port.

Because most of them got on a boat and they left. When they left, that was it. You're not going to see them again because it's too hard to get back. But now, I mean, you're on the Facebook, "What's up? It's 3 a.m. today." There's nothing wrong with that. But I'm just saying that we have more opportunities than we've ever had in church history.

Things have become much more easier, much more convenient. We have more access to education, more access to sermon. And this is the spiritual state that we're in. We envy the church in India. We envy the church in North Korea. We envy the church in China that under heavy persecution when they have nothing or they have to think twice about even gathering or they might be put into jail.

And yet, the power of God is so evident in those churches. There's something backward in the way that we're thinking. We've allowed the principles of this world that Jesus tried so hard to eradicate from the church. We've allowed it to creep back into the church thinking that somehow if we work harder, if we're trained better, if we have better education, if we have the right people in charge, that we can be successful.

Success is from him. Power and authority is from him and him alone. In Psalm 127, verse 1 and 2, it says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It is in vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors, for he gives to his beloved even in his sleep." Remember, whenever we get tempted to think that only if we had more of this and more of that, God chose one man to build Israel.

God chose one judge to deliver his people during the time of judges. He chose one prophet to deliver his message. He chose a few men to turn the world upside down. Few men for the purpose of the world. He chose one man, Apostle Paul, as an apostle to the Gentiles.

You know, one of the most common questions that I get is, "We have four pastors, and we're going to have three, and so don't we need more people?" Of course! Right? We can use a hundred. We can use a hundred people. The harvest is plentiful, workers are few. So we're always beseeching the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers.

But the greatest need is not man. The greatest need is not more pastors. I'm not anxious because we lack manpower. What makes me anxious is that we lack God's power. What makes me anxious is that we don't pray enough. That we're not humbled enough. That we're not desperate enough.

God does not lack men. God does not lack training. God does not lack resources. What he is waiting for are men and women of faith. Men and women of faith. One man. One man with the authority and the power of God. Room filled with people who are surrendered to God.

You don't need a hundred people. You don't need five. Because it's easy. It's easy to disciple people who are in love with Christ. Who are surrendered to Christ. Because all I have to do is show you what the Word of God says. All I have to do is tell you what it says.

And you will hear his voice. You know, now that our church is a little bit bigger, I've heard people say, "Oh, you should write about your experiences "in ministry and people will benefit and all that stuff." And I said, "Everything that I would say is already here. "It's already here." And there's people who are much more articulate, much more educated, much more experienced than I.

They've already written it. But everything that you need to know is already here. It's already in the Bible. What we lack is not training. Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong. Those things are things that we wrestle with after we've prayed. Those things that we endeavor and establish after we are confident that we have come before the Lord desperately pleading and asking for his power.

Then we can worry about discipleship. Then we can worry about training. Then we can worry about the content of the church. But until we have surrendered all that we have for his power, everything else will actually work against us. It is when we are weak, he is strong. It is when we are weak, when he is strong.

It is when we are weak is when we pray. We need to recognize how weak we are so that we would recognize how desperate we are. And it is in our desperation the Holy Spirit will lead us to pray. If there's anything central to the training of the disciples that Jesus repeated over and over again, you cannot bear fruit until you abide in me.

Let's pray. Father, help us to know this wisdom, this warning, this equipping that's scattered all throughout the Bible. Help us, Lord, God, not to follow the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind that all the things that we have been trained and taught to do in this fallen world, help us to renew all of that, to be like children, to simply to obey, to listen, and to follow, and to trust that it is in our weakness that you would demonstrate your power.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. My waking breath, for my daily breath, I depend on You, I depend on You, for the sun to rise, for my sleep at night. I depend on You, I depend on You. You're the way, the truth, and the life.

You're the well that never runs dry. I'm the branch and You are the vine. Draw me close and teach me to abide. Where the Spirit lives, as I follow You. I depend on You, I depend on You, for the victory's still in front of me. I depend on You, I depend on You.

You're the way, the truth, and the life. You're the well that never runs dry. I'm the branch and You are the vine. Draw me close and teach me to abide. Be my strength, my song in the night. Be my hope, my treasure, my pride. I am Yours forever, You're mine.

Draw me close and teach me to abide. When I pass through death, as I enter rest, I depend on You, I depend on You, for eternal life to be raised with Christ. I depend on You, oh, I depend on You. You're the way, the truth, and the life. You're the well that never runs dry.

I'm the branch and You are the vine. Draw me close and teach me to abide. Be my strength, my song in the night. Be my hope, my treasure, my pride. I am Yours forever, You're mine. Draw me close and teach me to abide. Be my strength, my song in the night.

Be my hope, my treasure, my pride. I am Yours forever, You're mine. Draw me close and teach me to abide. Let's pray. Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and the eternal love of God the Father, rest, restore, strengthen, and empower us that we may be the aroma of Christ wherever You send us, amen.

God sent His Son. They called Him Jesus. He came to love. He went forth in. He lived and died to buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to prove the Savior lives because He lives. I can face tomorrow because He lives. All fear is gone because I know He holds the future.

And life is worth the living just because He lives. In desperation I turned to heaven and spoke Your name into the night. Then through the darkness Your loving kindness...