Mark Clark [00:00:03]:
Corinthians, chapter seven is where we are. Really important text that Paul lays out. He's been dealing with marriage. Last week he did, with singleness. And now he hits this kind of different, interesting concept that. That on first blush, might look odd. It might look like this has no application. We're not really sure what's going on, but then it actually makes a lot of sense.
Mark Clark [00:00:23]:
And so in chapter seven, verse 17, he says this. It's very interesting because oftentimes we think in life, what he does is he kind of reframes our spiritual life, reframes spirituality in general, which is good, because the master class of life is all about who is God, what is our morality? What are family, what do we do with sex and money. And all these issues that he's been hitting. And those of you who are new to our church, our church has actually been growing throughout the masterclass series through skeptics and seekers who are coming. Like, what does the Bible actually have to say about all these different issues in life? And now he hits this very interesting one where he says, only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned and to which God has called him. And this phrase God has called him is very interesting because there's a few things to it. So on one level, what it does is it reframes your life and spirituality in general vertically rather than horizontally. So what we tend to do is think of life horizontally.
Mark Clark [00:01:19]:
What am I gonna do with my family? What am I gonna do with my money? What am I gonna do with my school life? What am I gonna do with these things? And he says, actually the question you have to answer is a vertical question. And the question is about this question of God. And some of you haven' really figured this out yet. You just relate to the world horizontally with normal things in life. And you haven't answered this vertical question yet of who is God? Did he actually appear in the person of Jesus? Did Jesus pay for my sins? Some of you haven't even wrestled the question about the existence of God to the ground yet. And of course, that was how I grew up. Very skeptical, Needed the philosophical, needed the historical, needed the psychological arguments to actually ever begin to. To believe in God.
Mark Clark [00:01:59]:
And so what he does is he says, some of you sitting here across these sites, you haven't figured this question of God out yet. And you gotta figure this out. You gotta wrestle this. Does he actually exist? Did he come through the veil? Did he come down in the person of Jesus? Did he live a perfect life in your place? You have to answer that question. And most historians would say, yes, Jesus was an actual historical person. There was at least 12 people outside the Bible that actually talked about Jesus that had no Christian agenda at all. And then the question is, okay, if he did exist, is he who he said he was? Because he made massive claims about himself, and is the tomb really empty? Because if that's true, then we have to all deal with the question of Jesus. All of that is kind of going around this question of the question of God.
Mark Clark [00:02:42]:
That is one of the massive questions of the master class of life. And you've gotta figure it out, because as C.S. lewis said, one day you're gonna. If God exists, you're gonna face him as judge. And the question will not be you sitting around saying, yeah, but my neighbor wasn't a nice guy. So I didn't believe in Jesus or my. I read something about witches back in the day. They used to burn witches in the Christian church.
Mark Clark [00:03:01]:
And I don't. And what CS Lewis said is that none of that's gonna matter. He's gonna be looking at you, not what you read in some books and what your neighbor did. The question is, your heart, your mind, your life. What did you do with Jesus? And this is why he says, let each person. You gotta figure it out for you. This is an individual question. And then he says this.
Mark Clark [00:03:21]:
Lead the life. Now, that's fascinating, because in Judaism, oftentimes people will say, mark, why do you teach so much about how to live your life? Ethics, morality? Why don't you just teach doctrine? Why don't you just teach theology? Why don't you just teach soteriology? Why don't you just teach epistemology? Why don't you just give ideas and then let people figure their life out? Why do you keep talking about these things? It ostracizes people. It makes people feel uncomfortable. And it's like. Because constantly in the New Testament, he talks about how you live your life. And this comes from a Jewish concept called halaka, where basically what they said is, I gotta talk about the way you actually walk in life. How are you a human being? How do you function yourself through the world? And the New Testament comes along and it says, listen, there are ethical issues. There's a way of being truly human.
Mark Clark [00:04:10]:
There's a way of being human that's different and better than every other way of being human. You love your enemy. You absorb rather than go after them. Greed, no matter what you think in yourself, is wrong. This kind of lust is wrong. Absorbing evil is the right way versus reacting against film, loving your spouse and sacrificing for them. No matter what you feel in your heart, this is how to live generously. You don't just get wealth, wealth, wealth, and accumulate it and never be generous.
Mark Clark [00:04:35]:
All of these things are a way of life. Lead the actual life, not just having a doctrinal idea, but actually leading the life that God has called you to is actually part of the reality of the Christian world. And the Christian call.
Mark Clark [00:04:49]:
Now sometimes what happens is we get the traditionalists in us get religious and.
Mark Clark [00:04:57]:
We become self righteous and we begin to say, yes, all of Christianity is about leading the life that the Lord has assigned. And so that means I've never watched a radar movie and I've never done these, and I've never done this, and I've never done this. And then you start to function as if that saves you and this is the fear. But then you start to judge other people who aren't as good as you. And you start to look at them and you start to say, well, you know, it's wrong to, to be, to have positions of power. For instance, I did young adult ministry for six years. Every single one of them said, you know what's wrong? Having any kind of power? And then I said, yeah, because you don't have any, that's why you think it's wrong. And then they would say, having lots of money, that's wrong, that's evil.
Mark Clark [00:05:33]:
And I would say, yeah, because you don't have any money, so you think it's wrong. Don't you understand? And so they would go through this like, oh, if you're a, if you're someone who's ever struggled and doubted, you're a bad Christian. No, listen, you go back, if you, there's this great book I was reading recently about Joseph of Arimathea, the tomb that Jesus went into. He's a fascinating guy because we don't have the resurrection unless Jesus gets to be in a tomb. But Jesus didn't have enough money to be in a tomb. His disciples didn't have enough money to.
Mark Clark [00:05:58]:
Be in a tomb.
Mark Clark [00:05:59]:
So there was this guy, Joseph of Arimathea. Bible talks about him two or three times. Here's what it says about him. He was extremely powerful, he was extremely rich. So much so that he had a tomb that Jesus got to go into. And so he needed the money in order to have a tomb to get resurrected. And when somebody asked him whether he's a follower of Jesus, he said no. So the reality is he was a secret disciple who was so ashamed of his faith that he wouldn't tell anybody he was a disciple.
Mark Clark [00:06:24]:
He was powerful politically, and he was rich. There's the trifecta of things that you shouldn't be as a Christian, and yet God used them. And some of you need to hear this today. The idea that you think you're not good enough because you haven't led the life you haven't lived perfectly yet. So God could never use me. And you got to understand, as we talk about here often, God will use you. Not because of you, but what. In spite of you.
Mark Clark [00:06:52]:
Right? That is who. This is what Christianity is. It's a bunch of messed up, broken people that God uses not because of them, but in spite of them. And so you start to understand grace and you start to understand this is a reality. Why? Because of what he says. Because the call of God, which God has called. Right. The Lord has assigned to him, that God has called him, meaning your life is the call of God on your life, not your own doing.
Mark Clark [00:07:21]:
It's about what God has done. It's about the world. See, salvation starts with him. He moves on you. He calls you, he assigns you. He is an ultimate sovereign control of everything that happens in the universe and your life, which is really good. Cause I met some of you and I wouldn't want you in control of anything. And the reality is, is God's going, I'm a sign.
Mark Clark [00:07:41]:
I'm the one. Which is good. Because what he's saying is, I want the world to feel my glory. And the word glory means. Wait, he's saying, I want the world to feel me, not you. Which means a lot of things. It means that God's saying, hey, I actually want people to feel my love, to feel my grace, to feel my movement in their life rather than you. And if you always put yourself forward.
Mark Clark [00:08:02]:
So it's kind of like this.
Mark Clark [00:08:04]:
So in high school, I was like grade 9 or 10 or something. I used to have a temper. Used to. Not anymore.
Mark Clark [00:08:11]:
And so I remember there was this teacher, and we were in gym class and we went in to play squash. Okay. I'd never played squash in my life. I didn't have any great aspirations to become a squash player, a professional squash player. But for some reason, me and my buddy were jacked up. We're like, hey, we gotta play squash. And we're next in the court. So it's the whole class, all right, 50 people up on this thing.
Mark Clark [00:08:32]:
And you go into the court, you play in front of them, right? So me and my buddy Were, like, ready to go. And then this teacher, he was 6 foot 5, all right? And just this. He was a huge. Just. Just. Just intimidating figure. And I was not. I was probably 4 foot 8, all right? And £100 soaking wet.
Mark Clark [00:08:51]:
And he goes, hey, Mark, it's not your turn yet. You wait. And for some reason, something in my brain snapped and I ran up. I walked up to this guy in front of everybody. I just started. I'm throwing my squash rock. I'm like. And he's just looking down at me like he could just gone, all right? And just.
Mark Clark [00:09:08]:
Away with you, child. And I'm like. And I'm screaming, I'm yelling, I'm swearing at him. And all of a sudden he says, go to the principal's office. So I go down, I get suspended. And I never forget when I got suspended that day. My mom came to get me. And she looks at me and she's like, don't you understand? Don't you get.
Mark Clark [00:09:25]:
And I'm like, what? She's like, how embarrassing this is for me. And I'm like, for you? Why is it embarrassing for you? You didn't yell at the teacher. What are you talking about? And she goes, because I'm your mother. And I began to realize this is how it functions. The reason that God says you gotta live the life that I called you to in regard to your sexuality, in regard to your money, in regard to your family, in regard to you being a student, in regard to whatever, is because it reflects on me. It's not about how it reflects on you. It's about me. I'm your father.
Mark Clark [00:09:52]:
And if your life has supposedly been changed by me and my power, then you gotta show the world that rather than functioning in a way where you're trying to show them you. And so he's saying, God has assigned these things. I wanna actually make the world feel me and my agenda versus your agenda. This attacks us at so many levels in the postmodern reality in the modern world that says, everything's about you. It's that, you know, there was. I remember reading. If you read through the Gospel of Mark, Jesus gets to a point where he says something really scary. He says, whoever will give his life up for my name and the gospel, my sake, and the gospel's sake will save it.
Mark Clark [00:10:31]:
It's a fascinating verse because I remember I was taking a young adult mission.
Mark Clark [00:10:36]:
Trip at the church I was working.
Mark Clark [00:10:38]:
At before we planted a village and.
Mark Clark [00:10:39]:
We were going to Turkey.
Mark Clark [00:10:40]:
And so there was this whole group of people. We're Going to Turkey. We're gonna tell people about Jesus on the streets of a Middle Eastern culture we've never been to. This was the idea. All right, so let's go to Turkey and save a bunch of people. It's gonna be great. So we prayed into it, we're all excited. Got a bunch of people ready to go.
Mark Clark [00:10:55]:
And about a week before we went, I was reading the newspaper and this thing, it was like, okay, here's what happened in Turkey. There's these Christians, there's these two guys working at a factory, and they were Christians and they would have these Muslims in for Bible study and they would chat about Jesus all the time. And then one day these guys showed up, tied the guy up on a chair and tortured him to death and killed him. Even though the guy knew the cost, he actually did it anyway. And then all the TV cameras showed up and said, what are you gonna do about this? And came to the guy's wife who was killed, murdered and tortured. And she said, here's the thing, they know not what they do, and I forgive them. And she quotes Jesus words from the cross that these men didn't even know what they were doing when they killed my husband. And I already forgive them in my heart and I just want them to know Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:11:42]:
Now here's the crazy thing. Then we show up and I'm like, okay, now this trip has become serious because now we're going out to tell people about Jesus. A week ago, a guy was killed for loving Jesus in this country. I don't know what to do. We showed up and I started going out and talking to people on the street with my translator. And I remember this one moment, we walked in, there was this group of young 30 year old guys sitting around, and I walked up to them and they were chatting and drinking tea and smoking. And I said, hey, I want to talk to you about Jesus. And they were what? And so we got a Bible out and we started going through it and they said, why did.
Mark Clark [00:12:11]:
Cause it become national news that this lady had got on the news and said, they know not what they do. I forgive them. And so they said, why did she say this? Cause in our culture we don't. You don't forgive like that. You gotta get them back. Why did she say this? And I. And so I took to the Bible and I said, let me tell you about the words of Jesus. And I read the cross story and I said, they know not what they do.
Mark Clark [00:12:33]:
And literally what started to happen is one by one, all these guys started to Surround my Bible. And they started passing it around, reading it like it wasn't real. Like, there's no way that could actually be a thing. And the one guy's like, whoa, whoa. And he takes my Bible and he goes, they know not what they do. And they look, well, how is that a thing? And the next guy's like, no, no, no, no. And he takes it and he's. And he's reading his.
Mark Clark [00:12:52]:
They know not what to do. And literally, what I realized is, listen, here's my point. That in that moment and in that moment in the news media and then a moment, it was more important to God that the gospel advance than that this guy would stay alive another day. And the reality is this. Jesus says, here's what's more important, that the gospel advances. Then you live one more day. God will take you out just to advance the gospel.
Mark Clark [00:13:18]:
Cause it's more important than you are.
Mark Clark [00:13:21]:
This is what he's saying. You can live in a world where, oh, you're the man. You're so important. Your story's the main story, you know, your whole life. You're so unique, you're so great, you're so wonderful. And God's going, I got a story here, and you ain't the center of it. And I will take your life for the advancement of the gospel. Don't think I won't.
Mark Clark [00:13:42]:
And this is what Paul's trying to reframe in all of us. He's trying to say, how. How do you function in the world if you are number one? But if you function that God in his story is number one, it starts to change you. Because here's the modern story. The autonomous self is the ultimate self. Who you are in your personal advancement and your personal fulfillment and your soul. That's the main thing. And here's what he says.
Mark Clark [00:14:04]:
No, no, no, this is messed up. God assigns stuff. God calls stuff. God is actually in control. That the decision you have to make in life for all of us is this.
Mark Clark [00:14:16]:
He says.
Mark Clark [00:14:16]:
He starts to talk about bondservants. For he was called in. The Lord as a bondservant, is a freedman of the Lord. This concept of this is the Greek word doulos. It's slavery. You're a slave. That's literally what it means. And here's the question of life, okay? This is one of the main questions of all of life that Paul raises in this for all of us to consider.
Mark Clark [00:14:39]:
The question is not whether you're gonna be a slave. The only question in life is who you're Gonna be a slave of. You are a slave of one of two people. You're either a slave of humankind and the pressures of the world, or you're a slave of Jesus. That's it. Do not live under some kind of postmodern modern narrative where you're free and you make all these free will decisions and you just go through life and you're a blank slate and you just get to do whatever you want. You're not free. Read Martin Luther's sermon.
Mark Clark [00:15:05]:
Way back in the 1500s, he wrote a sermon called the Bondage of the Will. And he said the concept that you have absolute free will is actually a pagan mythology because the Bible actually teaches that you were born. Read Jesus when he says, out of the heart comes sexual immorality, murder, greed. What do you mean, out of the heart? I thought I was born with a pure, objective reality, and then when I grow up, I get to make decisions purely objectively. No, no, he says, your heart is already geared. When you are born to sin, that is your natural curve. That is your proclivity, right? That is the reality of your life. You are born into a situation.
Mark Clark [00:15:42]:
If you doubt it, just look at children. Watch them. They are wicked inside.
Mark Clark [00:15:48]:
All right?
Mark Clark [00:15:49]:
Wicked to the point where, like, they think about things in such a way and it's not just an innocent wickedness. Now let me. It's a strategic one. Now let me explain. Okay, so my buddy literally told me this this week. He has an eight year old son. Okay? So eight year old son's the same size and age as my daughter Bella.
Mark Clark [00:16:07]:
Okay?
Mark Clark [00:16:07]:
So we're talking this. So picture this big. This is important. So this big, just like just going through the world. Okay? This is literally what happened this week. Monday morning, his mom drops him off at school. Great. And the issue is, usually pickup's an issue.
Mark Clark [00:16:22]:
They get there and he's late and it's a tension, but he's there. Monday, he was there, right on time, waiting, picks him up.
Mark Clark [00:16:29]:
Great. Tuesday, right on time, waiting.
Mark Clark [00:16:32]:
Wednesday morning, he says, hey, I've been on time two days in a row. So here's the thing, Mom. What if today you let me stay at school half an hour longer, you just give it 30 more minutes before you come pick me up? And she goes, yeah, that sounds good. That's a great idea. Fine, great. And you'll just play with your friend? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it. Okay, great.
Mark Clark [00:16:54]:
So she says, next day, Wednesday comes around, drops her off in the morning. See you later. Waits 30 minutes, gets a Phone call, Wednesday. Hey, mom, where are you? I'm waiting for you from the school phone? Yeah. Great. I'm just around the corner. Cool. I'm ready to go.
Mark Clark [00:17:08]:
Okay, perfect.
Mark Clark [00:17:08]:
Boom.
Mark Clark [00:17:08]:
Picks him up, goes home. Next day, her friend calls her and says, hey, I don't know if you know this or not. Let's say his name's David.
Mark Clark [00:17:16]:
All right? Little Davey.
Mark Clark [00:17:17]:
All right, I don't know if you know this or not, but Dave, I saw him walking with a big McDonald's drink down the road near the school yesterday after school. What? That's weird. My child's 8 years old. He's not allowed outside of the house without supervision. Yeah, I don't know. Ask him about it. Okay, so they get home that night, hey, Dave, why were you. And here's what they pulled out of him.
Mark Clark [00:17:49]:
Over torture, over the evening. This kid. All right, now think of the strategy. This takes the preemptive strategy. This kid one day started taking a little bit of money from his parents purse over a period of weeks in order to accumulate enough money. Then he puts two days in where he's on time, sets the stage and says, pick me up 30 minutes. And here's what he does. The bell rings.
Mark Clark [00:18:20]:
He then leaves the school, walks half a mile by himself to McDonald's, okay, has enough money, goes in, orders a combo, a burger, fries and a drink, sits down in the McDonald's by himself. An eight year old, he's this tall and just eats by himself and then walks all the way back. We're talking half a mile. There's traffic. It's not a forest. This is a busy street. And then just saunters back by himself, throws the drink out. Think of the strategy and the depravity it took.
Mark Clark [00:19:03]:
Think of the sin and the narcissism it takes to strategic. This whole ploy took weeks. This ain't. Listen, you are not born into some innocent. I just fly through the world and I make free will decisions one way or the other. I'm not really sure he's saying, Listen, you are a slave already. You're already born that way. You're a slave to sin.
Mark Clark [00:19:27]:
You're a slave to yourself. And here's what you need. Your enslaved heart needs to not look at freedom as the thing that says, nothing's over top of me. Nobody gets to tell me what to do.
Mark Clark [00:19:38]:
No, no, no.
Mark Clark [00:19:38]:
Your enslaved heart is set free in the concept of true freedom, which is you switch your slavery from the slave slavery to yourself to the slavery of Christ. That's his point. That you take your heart and put it underneath an obligation that transcends you, that gets to now define reality for you. And that is true freedom. True freedom is not doing whatever you want on a whim, taking some nonsensical, weak sauced version of Christianity or some version where you just came up with it in your gut. No, the text gets to define it for you. I got people. I got people that message me on social media.
Mark Clark [00:20:15]:
Like, I listen to your sermon on sex and sexuality. And I think, you know, when you say that these kinds of things are structurally wrong and these kinds of things are sin, I think your problem is you need to go to counseling because your worldview is wrong. And I'm like, dude, I'm just. I'm not writing this stuff. I'm just telling you what the text says to the best of my ability. Right? It's the best I can do. Which is why when I was reading all those texts about men growing up and stopped me. And Peter Pan.
Mark Clark [00:20:46]:
That's the text. And women stopping complaining and nagging like a dripping cap. Torture. That's just torture. Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip. Like countries use water drops as torture. And the Bible says that's what it's like when you nag and complain. I'm just giving you the text, all right? Don't send me an email.
Mark Clark [00:21:04]:
Send the Bible an email. That makes no sense. But the point is, it ain't me. Because I am not a slave to myself anymore like I was for 19 years. I'm a slave to Christ, and that is freedom. That's his point. That's what you've gotta figure out in your life. Not if you're a slave or not.
Mark Clark [00:21:25]:
It's what you're a slave of. Who are you gonna chain yourself to? Yourself? The narrative of the culture around you that is fleeting, that moves from one thing to the next. Every 10 years, it has a different view, something you're gonna chain yourself to.
Mark Clark [00:21:41]:
That.
Mark Clark [00:21:41]:
A political view, an ideology that shifts and change with the wind depending on what votes come in. Stop it. You have to tra. You have to connect yourself into something that transcends history, cultural moments, gender versions of reality that have nothing to do with reality. They have to do with an agenda that the human heart has in a particular moment that serves you and your life. Only that is not freedom. That is the ultimate slavery. And he says the only true freedom.
Mark Clark [00:22:10]:
Is actually becoming a slave of Christ. And that's what he wants. Cause here's the reality. God is perfect.
Mark Clark [00:22:18]:
You are not perfect. He calls a bond servant of Christ. Listen, some of you.
Mark Clark [00:22:25]:
He's saying, there's a view of yourself.
Mark Clark [00:22:28]:
Where you take this view on, and everything starts to change.
Mark Clark [00:22:31]:
Because now you're just a humble servant.
Mark Clark [00:22:33]:
Meaning there's no celebrity. There's no. I meet people that are like, I'm not gonna do any in my life because I don't get to sit on a stage and preach the Bible. I don't get to write books and sit under lights. I'm not gonna do anything great. I'm not gonna be able to do anything to have these great things in my influence. And I just wanna. You know, and then they come and they'd say, oh, Pastor, you're so different.
Mark Clark [00:22:52]:
You're so. You're so. You can solve all my problems if I can just get one meeting with you. There's a wand that you have in your drawer, and you'll take it out and you'll put it over my family and my marriage and my life, and then everything will be solved because you're a pastor and you get to do. And I'm going, guys, you don't understand, man. That's not the way Christianity works. I'm a bond servant, man. I'm a slave of.
Mark Clark [00:23:13]:
I don't. I'm a mess. I'm a disaster. I'm not. I'm not per. My marriage is good, but it's not great because I'm married to someone else. I'm not married to me. And so she's got her stuff, and.
Mark Clark [00:23:30]:
And I have my stuff, and I'm gonna. This week. Literally, there was a moment this week where it was like, hey, Mark, let's have a night in. All right? This is me, okay? This is my OCD nonsense. This is why you don't want to be married to me. If you were thinking about it, I literally had a moment where my wife's like, let's be in tonight. It's been so busy. Let's be in tonight.
Mark Clark [00:23:49]:
Let's just snuggle tonight. We'll have our tea. We'll hang out. We'll just chill. We'll watch a show. We'll just. Yeah, I'm down, I'm down, I'm down. This is great.
Mark Clark [00:23:56]:
And then, literally two minutes later, I get a text from my buddy. He's like, hey, I wanna play pool tonight. And here's the conversation that went on.
Mark Clark [00:24:03]:
I really wanna play pool tonight.
Mark Clark [00:24:04]:
I really do. But now I got my wife, though.
Mark Clark [00:24:09]:
And she doesn't want me to play pool. She wants me to Be inside.
Mark Clark [00:24:11]:
And it's not going. And so this conversation's going on in my brain. Here's what the conversation said.
Mark Clark [00:24:15]:
As most guys in this room know.
Mark Clark [00:24:16]:
Don't even ask. Don't even ask. Don't even ask. Don't even ask. Don't even ask. Because even in asking, her heart will go cold. Even asking, it's. You raise the question.
Mark Clark [00:24:27]:
Why would you ask if you didn't want to? If you wanted to spend time with her, you're not gonna ask. So don't bring it up. So don't bring it up. Don't bring it up. Don't bring it up. All right. I put the phone down. I walk over.
Mark Clark [00:24:37]:
I'm like, don't bring it up.
Mark Clark [00:24:39]:
You're just gonna chill. You're just gonna chill.
Mark Clark [00:24:41]:
She's like, who is that? I'm like, they wanna play pool? Can I go play pool? She's like, three minutes later, I'm literally out the door. The door's swinging shut. Like, there's dust behind me. I'm gonzo. That's how bad of a husband I.
Mark Clark [00:24:54]:
Am.
Mark Clark [00:24:57]:
As a father. I'm a. My kids, literally on Monday, we're in this coffee shop. Cause we homeschool our kids. And we're sitting there talking. And I was reading for a book that I'm working on. And the kids were sitting, doing their homework. And at one point, my wife looks over and kind of brings me into the conversation.
Mark Clark [00:25:15]:
And she's like, hey, hey, dad.
Mark Clark [00:25:17]:
So remember, my kids are 12, 10 and 8. And it's like, hey, dad, we're learning about metaphors. You know, why don't you teach us about metaphors? I mean, you're the writer. Why don't you tell the kids, take a moment and give them a great, you know, definition and example of metaphors. And so I go, well, guys, it's like when they say, all we're doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. And they just look at me and they're like, what? I'm like, you know, like, for instance, you know, a business. When a business is going well, but they started to lose profits over time. And now they're just kind of trying to save themselves with the metaphor.
Mark Clark [00:25:52]:
They're rearranging. By this point, they're all just, like, checked out. All right? They're like, business structure. I don't even know what you're talking about. Right. I don't know why I didn't use just a normal, everyday metaphor, like, it's raining men or some thing That I could have used, that they could have connected with something. I don't know why I did some deep business thing. Cause I'm just not actually that great at it.
Mark Clark [00:26:15]:
So I'm not a perfect father. I'm not a perfect husband. I'm not a perfect boss. My staff know that. I mean, they don't say, to be honest. I give a talk. We do a monthly staff meeting that I do a vision talk. At literally, last month's staff meeting, they actually asked.
Mark Clark [00:26:31]:
I was in a bad mood, and I got up and the talk was, satan wants to kill you and your family, so you better work hard. That was the talk. Like, talk about motivating, right? It's like, yeah, I wanna work at this organization. And I'm just like. I was like, look, guys, what are y' all doing here? Satan literally wants to kill you and your family. He'll take you out at any moment. So figure your life out. All right? Have a great week, all right? It was like, what? This isn't my right.
Mark Clark [00:27:00]:
So the point is, I'm not perfect. I got no wand to change your life. I am a fellow bond, servant in Christ, period. And every time you want to try to live your faith vicariously through other.
Mark Clark [00:27:15]:
People, including leaders, Paul would say, no, no. Your definition of yourself is slave. Then he says this, and this is maybe the last big point I'll give you. He starts to give this interesting analogy that I think some of us need to hear. Let's just read this.
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Was anyone at the time of his call.
Mark Clark [00:27:36]:
He keeps coming back to this, already circumcised. So this is like a religious social reality. This is what Jews did, they circumcised. And this was the demarcating factor of covenant membership.
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Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call, uncircumcised? So was he a Jew? Was he a Gentile? Let him not seek circumcision. So he's saying, don't. Who are you? When God called you, don't try to shift that. Don't try to change that, right? And he's. He's making a point. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, which is EP Sanders, who's a great Pauline scholar, talks about. This is one of the craziest sentences that Paul ever wrote.
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Because as a Jew, that would mean so much. Like, so you would die for that right? Back in the day, you would die in Tyche's epiphanies, would Boil people to death because they were Jews and because.
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They would circumcise their kids.
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And he's saying it doesn't mean anything, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Each one should remain in the condition.
Mark Clark [00:28:29]:
Here's what I wanna get in on.
Mark Clark [00:28:30]:
In which he was called. Remain in the condition. It's a very interesting phrase. He's basically saying, here's the big idea and here's how I think it hits modern people. I think those of us who become Christians, or many of you sitting here right now, you look around and you see other people who are successful. They have more money than you. They have a bigger house than you. They might have a spouse better than yours.
Mark Clark [00:28:54]:
They have all these things. And what Paul is doing is he's trying to hone in on people who are always looking for the next things socioeconomic. And they covet. Right? Go read Exodus 20, right? One of the Ten Commandments is Do not covet. And then there's commentary on it. It's one of the only ten Commandments that actually has commentary. It's like, don't covet your neighbor's wife or donkey or something. Because God knows that we're gonna be coveting all the time.
Mark Clark [00:29:19]:
That we're just. That's all we do is think, what if I had that wife? What if I had that car? Your buddy shows up in a new car and you want one. He shows up with new golf clubs, and you want them. You go to a friend's house and they got a new kitchen and you want one. That's the human heart. That's how messed up it is. And what Paul's doing is. He's saying, listen, each one of you should remain in the condition which he was called.
Mark Clark [00:29:37]:
There needs to be a contentment in your life, in Christ. So much so that you're not pining to be the next thing. Yes, I was this, but over there, I want to do that. Yes, I was this over there. And some of you, this is the word that you need to hear. You look around and you feel like you're not successful. Particularly men that I meet with and men that are crying or they're sitting there and they're filleting their family, their life, their health, and they're putting it all on the altar. They're sacrificing all those things.
Mark Clark [00:30:05]:
They work all the time because they want to just be like, just a little bit more. I want to be just that much more successful, that much more money. I want to be like them. And what he's saying here is, if you have a contentment which is in Jesus Christ, you gotta look at your life and go. Remain in the condition. I'm not telling you. You're not trying to advance in life, but know that God can use you where you are. No matter how much of a Gong show you are, no matter how much money you have, remain in the condition you are.
Mark Clark [00:30:33]:
Don't keep trying to pine and be somebody else. I'm telling you, some of you, you need to hear this. It's the most freeing. You need to stop sacrificing your family and your life to get ahead and become something that maybe either God doesn't have for you, or maybe he does. But the reality is right where you are, how you are, who you are, how you're wired. That's who God has you wired as, and that's how he's gonna use. And this was brought to my mind when I was speaking in Sacramento a few weeks ago. And before I walked out, they said, hey, just remember to say hi to the Folsom Prison campus.
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And I'm like, folsom Prison? It's a Johnny Cash thing, right? And it's like Folsom Prison Blues. What do you mean, Folsom Prison? And they're like, we have a campus they watch online. There are a thousand prisoners sitting in a room. And it was very fascinating to preach Ephesians, because it's a prison letter. And the first five minutes of my sermon was, here's Paul in prison and he's saying, I want to produce. And he writes Ephesians and he writes Colossians, and he writes Philemon. And I got off stage and they went, oh, my gosh. Do you know how those prisoners would have heard what you were saying? It's amazing they would have been able to.
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Here's what Paul's saying. You're even in prison, remain in the condition you are, because God can use you even there. How freeing would that have been for them to understand that?
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See, he's going, whatever your situation, there's. Don't attach yourself to the things of the world. You gotta be so detached from the things of the world that you're walking.
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Through with this mission. And understanding my.
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It was funny.
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My buddy was driving.
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He had a four hour drive this week. He was telling me about it back from Kelowna. And he was driving and he saw a hitchhiker.
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And of course, my.
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I don't pick up hitchhikers. Hitchhikers are all there to kill me.
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I can see it in their eyes.
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As I'm passing, they're like, pick me up.
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I will cut your throat. All right? That's how they're.
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That's what they say to me.
Mark Clark [00:32:25]:
So I never picked them up. But he was driving past them, and the Lord told him, because he saw one that was going to murder him. And he drove past. And then God said, go pick him up. And he's like, oh, man, I never did it. So he turns around, he goes back, and he picks this guy up, and the guy gets in the car and they drive four and a half hours here, all right? In a random weird place that the guy at any moment can just.
Mark Clark [00:32:46]:
Right? And then.
Mark Clark [00:32:47]:
So anyways, so he's driving four and a half hours, and what he does is he says, I wanna tell this guy about Jesus, man. I'm gonna sacrifice my drive, my safety, my. My narrative in my brain, because this guy knows he needs to know about you. I got four hours of this guy. This guy's locked in with me. Forget being locked in with him, right? This guy's locked in with me now. And so he gets to tell him about Jesus, tell him that. Four and a half hours they talk.
Mark Clark [00:33:11]:
Now, this guy, he said, oh, I hiked up from Mexico. I walk around town. The guy drives for four and a half hours. He gets out of his car and literally, the guy grabs his backpack and he lays down in the middle of the median, and he goes, what are you doing? The median of the road. And he's like, oh, I'm just gonna go to sleep here. And he puts his backpack and he falls asleep. Dude's like, what's going on right now? Listen, there's some people that are totally free from the things of the world so much that they don't. Don't sleep in the middle of a median, bro.
Mark Clark [00:33:42]:
That's crazy. But here's Christianity, this thing that goes, what else are you supposed to do but to be able to be so detached from the things of the world that you can saunter, sleep in a median, walk around whoever comes in your way. You have such a freedom because you haven't been tied down by the things of the world that have so derailed you. You feel no freedom in Christ anymore. And he says, the problem is you're always trying to advance. And every time you advance, you add some weight and responsibility onto your life, and you didn't remain in the condition. And now your life's become more complicated, and mission begins to suffer.
Mark Clark [00:34:26]:
And Jesus calls every single one of us to understand what would you do if you got so enslaved to me that I could call you to do anything? And you would do it. You wouldn't hold back.
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You were a bond servant when called.
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Do not be concerned about it.
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But if you gain your freedom of value.
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He's actually talking to literal slaves right there. And he says, a bond servant of Christ. And then he ends this way. He says, you were bought with a price. You were bought with a price. That's the cross he paid.
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You could not pay this debt on your own. You can't do religion. You can't do good things.
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You can't.
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I don't care how many. How many prayers you pray, how many pilgrimages you go on. There's nothing that you can do to climb up the mountain to God. So he came down and he paid the price. Cause there was a price. Sin separated you from God. So there's a price to be paid, and he's the one who paid it for you. Which is fascinating in and of itself, that Christianity says he atoned for your sin.
Mark Clark [00:35:23]:
Out of what?
Mark Clark [00:35:24]:
Why did he do this?
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Because he loves you. And some of you just need to.
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Hear that in a way that's like.
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Not sentimental and not the same old like you need to hear profoundly, because.
Mark Clark [00:35:37]:
You are pining and trying to work and work and work to change your circumstances. And he's going right where you are.
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I can use you, by the way.
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If you're a slave.
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He goes through all these different years, male, female, slave free, married, not married.
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Divorced, whatever it is, remain in the condition.
Mark Clark [00:35:55]:
That's his point.
Mark Clark [00:35:56]:
Remain as you are, because God can use you. You were bought at a price that he paid. It wasn't about you to begin with. And you need to know he did it all because he loves you. Now, listen, here's what I mean.
Mark Clark [00:36:06]:
I'll leave it at this.
Mark Clark [00:36:07]:
I met with a guy, came into.
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The office this week, and we chatted. And he said, you know, I'm a philosopher, and I've gone through a bit of an existential crisis in my life. And I really started to believe in existentialism. I started to believe that in naturalism. I moved away from all of Christianity and all of God, and I grew.
Mark Clark [00:36:27]:
Up in the church and whatever.
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And the reality is, a couple nights ago, a few weeks ago, I was.
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Staring out into the cold of the cosmos, realizing there is no meaning, there's no purpose, there's nothing. And for a split. And he said, I've been going through.
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These massive anxiety realities in my life.
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Where I'll freeze up in the moment of anxiety. I can't even move. I can't even do anything. I just freeze up and I start to question everything and I start to wonder.
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And then he said.
Mark Clark [00:36:56]:
And then I started saying, well, could Christianity be true? And then I said, no, it can't be. And some of you know this dialogue in your brain, those of you who are skeptics and trying to figure this out, because maybe the only reason I'm gonna believe in it is cause it's a crutch. Cause it sounds good and it makes life somewhat meaningful. And so that's driven by my agenda. So I'm not gonna believe it just out of that. And he says, so I was staring out into the cosmos, realizing it's cold and meaningless. And for a split second, like just for the half a second, all of a sudden, I was overwhelmed by this, like, this presence. And all the anxiety disappeared.
Mark Clark [00:37:28]:
Just for a half second. It's almost like there was a veil that got pulled back. For half a second I felt something and then it disappeared. And he said it was pure peace and somehow I want this, but I don't know what to do and I don't know how to get it, and I don't. And I was sitting there in this.
Mark Clark [00:37:44]:
Meeting, and the Holy Spirit just told me what his problem was. And I said, let me tell you what your problem is. I don't know you. I've met with you for 30 minutes. Here's your problem. I said, there's a book called the God Shaped Brain where there's a psychologist who looks at the brain and he studies brain patterns as he reads people things from the Bible. And he says this. If you have a concept of God that he is only judge, only vengeful, only someone who wants to get you, in the end, what'll happen is your brain will actually carve different patterns of difficulty in life and anxiety because you're trying to perform.
Mark Clark [00:38:28]:
It's like you're trying to perform for your dad, right? Those of you with daddy issues, all right, raise your hand if you got some daddy issues like me, all right? I had a father who died when I was 15, all right?
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My stepfather.
Mark Clark [00:38:39]:
I wanted to impress him my whole life. All he wanted to do was see me succeed in life. And he never saw me succeed, by the way. He never saw me do it. I mean, I was a student. He died the third Sunday of village church. I never got to show my dads that I became anything. Not that I'm anything, but that I did anything.
Mark Clark [00:38:59]:
With my life. It was like, you're a student, you're trying to figure your life out.
Mark Clark [00:39:02]:
I have great plan. My stepdad wanted me to succeed so bad. He would tell me that. He was like, you gotta work hard. You gotta work hard. This is the same guy. Like, when I mouthed off to my mom, he picked me up off the ground in my garage and said, you ever talk to her like that, I will end you. Drop and walk.
Mark Clark [00:39:17]:
I'm like, best advice I ever got. I wanted to show him I could do something. And he died the third Sunday of Village Church. I got the phone call before I got up and preached, flew back and did the, did the funeral. If you have a concept of God where you're trying to please him, like a dad who's upset with you and you have to perform for him, literally, your brain pattern will function in a burdensome way. But he says if you have a.
Mark Clark [00:39:46]:
Concept of God that He is love, your brain actually begins to function vastly different pattern wise. And the problem with you is you think he's judged and you don't understand he is love. Not just he loves, he is the definition of love. And the reason he could be that.
Mark Clark [00:40:04]:
And the concept of Christianity in the.
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Marketplace of ideas is the best because.
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If you have a pure Unitarian version of God, he can't be love until.
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Makes something, makes people, makes creatures, makes the world, then he can love. But in a trinitarian version, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, who've been like that forever.
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There'S always been a community of love, which is why the Bible can say.
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God is by definition love.
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And the thing you need to understand is you need to be washed over with the reality of his, that he is love. And if you understand that, literally the anxiety begins to burn away, the paralyzing reality of your life that you're trying to perform goes away. And then you begin to understand the peace. And he literally looked at me, I'm not joking, you guys, and he said, I felt it just now as you were talking again. And how ironic is it that what I needed to hear as a philosopher, as a guy who came in here thinking I was smarter than you, the.
Mark Clark [00:40:59]:
Thing I needed to hear was the thing my parents were telling me in Sunday school since I was three years old, God loves you and he is love. And he bought you with a price. And some of you, that's what you need to hear. And that's the only way you're ever gonna remain as you are, that God could actually use you, no matter how much money you make no matter how successful you've been Father I do pray that the reality of the gospel would change us to the core of who we are so much so that we would know God could use us no matter our circumstance in life male female slave free Jew gentile that have come to know you and so been defined by the reality of Jesus that now he can take us and use us because he paid the price on the cross and rose again from death to give us that life I just pray that reality and the reality of your love would wash over every person listening to this hearing this across the sites that actually needs to hear because they're still trying to earn it they're still.
Mark Clark [00:42:04]:
Trying to perform they're still not happy with the condition they're in the social status they're in they would just hear.
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You are for them and gonna use them where they are because you are good you are love in Jesus good name we pray am.