Mark Clark [00:00:03]:
Hey everyone, Mark here. Welcome to the Mark Clark Podcast. Hopefully you are doing well. Today's episode centers on a simple but profound truth from Ephesians 1, this series that we're in, and it's all about the fact that Jesus wins in the end. Not symbolically, not eventually. Right now he wins over sin and death and fear and chaos in your life. If life feels unstable, overwhelming, this passage anchors us in the reality of Christ's authority and victory and how you can live in light of it. Super excited about this one.
Mark Clark [00:00:33]:
Make sure you share this with a friend, share it on social media. Let's get the word out of how Ephesians is changing our life. Thanks, guys. Now let's get into it.
Mark Clark [00:00:42]:
Ephesians chapter 1. We've been going through this book a bunch of weeks. We're on verse 6, which is awesome.
Mark Clark [00:00:47]:
We're excited about that.
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And here's what Paul does in this book, but also in these verses. He's going to give us this huge 30,000-foot cosmic global vision of what the.
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Work of Jesus Christ has accomplished. All right, so we're going to kind.
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Of unpack that as we go forward because it helps us to frame our own lives. And so here's what he says. Pick it up. We ended last week halfway through verse, uh, 7. So he says, in him we have.
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Redemption through his blood.
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And we talked about this last week, that the, the idea of redemption means to be bought back. All right, it comes from the Old Testament. You were living in the, the slave market of your own life. You were living in Egypt. And God moved and worked to buy you back out of your own slavery to sin, out of your own slavery to yourself, that you're really self-involved. And remember the Egyptians were there, they were hoarding over the Israelites. God moved to save the Israelites, to buy them back out of slavery, and then the Israelites kind of got out and they started pining for, "Bring me back to Egypt." And the reason is, is because we love our own sin. We love our own idols.
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Our heart kind of moves toward those things. Because they're really comfortable. All right, so when we get— we are really excited by the sin that brings us comfort and helps to define our life.
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It's a comfort place.
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So when God starts to actually save us from our sins, we kind of get all awkward and uncomfortable about it. So what we constantly do is we go back to the idols of our own hearts, right? If your idol is money, if your idol is materialism, then here's how it plays out in your life. You need to shop. All right, that's like a drug for you. And when you go shopping, I mean, you're down in the dumps, you're depressed, but then you go out and you're like, man, I need to, what is the solution? I gotta buy a new bra. All right, and that's what you do. You go to the store, you call up your friends, you go get a Starbucks, and you go and you buy a new bra and you're sailing again. That is a solution to your idol.
Mark Clark [00:02:52]:
The thing that gives you comfort, the thing that warms you, the thing that satisfies you, the thing that gives you meaning in your life is money, materialism, buying yourself stuff. When you're at a mall, man, your heart's pumping, all right? It's like a drug to you. And so you need to do it every day. That's called an idol, all right? Not too hard to figure out what your idol is, what you worship, what is Egypt for you. And so that's what you do. For those of you who have relationships and that's your idol, and that's the place where you find comfort, that's the place where you find satisfaction, you never wanna be alone, You always want to be around people. You always want to jump from one boyfriend to the next boyfriend, one girlfriend to the next girlfriend, because you have no identity in yourself. Your idol is other people.
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You are not satisfied in him. And so what he's saying is, man, God has redeemed you from that kind of slavery. And then he says this, through his blood, meaning through the blood of Jesus.
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What he has done, it's not your.
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Own work, it's not your own goodness, it's through the blood of Jesus. He's done it for you. And then he says this.
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"The forgiveness of our trespasses." Here's what he means, because this can become very Christianese for us, all right? The forgiveness, I mean, some of you who are new to church, all right, you're coming in here like, "Trespass, what does that mean? Did I jump a fence or something? What's happening? Why am I being forgiven of something called trespasses?".
Mark Clark [00:04:11]:
Literally what that means is the idea of sin and trespass in the Greek.
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Means that you miss the mark, meaning.
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You'Re like an archer and you're shooting.
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An arrow and you completely miss the target. And where that's going back to is.
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The idea that God, when he established the universe, set us up in the garden as human beings to reflect his.
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Glory, to walk with him in the.
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Cool of the day. And he told us, do not choose sin, do not choose Satan, do not choose yourself, choose me. And we chose all of the other three. And so what God had to do is put a plan in place where he would rescue and redeem us through the powerful work of Jesus, that he came, he died on the cross, lived a perfect life in our place, went to the cross, shed his blood, and then we repent of our sin and we trust in that. And that's what redeems us. And he's saying that's where you get.
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The forgiveness of your sins.
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And so for many of us though, it kind of just stops there. All right, like we're like, man, I am so happy to have my sins forgiven. I'm so happy to be justified kind of forensically in the law court of God. And we don't realize, man, this is supposed to actually play out to a kind of obedience in your life.
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Right?
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Like, it's not supposed to end with, "Okay, I'm justified and now I'm going.
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To heaven when I die.".
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Right?
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For many of us, man, that's the gospel.
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I believed in Jesus, I said a.
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Prayer at summer camp, now I'll just.
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Move on with my life and I'll.
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Get to go to heaven when I die. And there's nothing in the Scriptures, there's no teaching of Jesus where He's like.
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"Hey, by the way, you can be— take a whole bunch of stuff at.
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My expense, all right?
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Take My blood, take My justification, but then you can prolong and postpone postpone your obedience.
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There is nothing in the scriptures that shoots toward that at all.
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That we constantly need to go, what does it mean to actually follow him?
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We are freed up unto actual discipleship.
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The, the other kind of way where we just take justification or we just take the blood, it's what one philosopher.
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Named Dallas Willard called vampire Christianity, where.
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Basically we come to Jesus and we're like, give me the blood. Give me the blood of Jesus. Suck it. Take that. Twilight. Give me what the blood accomplishes for me, which is my justification and my forgiveness of sins, but I do not want the reality of the forgiveness of sins to actually play out with obedience, discipleship, transformation. So Jesus, just get out of my way. "Give me your blood, excuse me for a while, and I'll see you in heaven." And you read the Scripture, it's just never there.
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What God is constantly wanting to do.
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Is, "You don't get to postpone your obedience. You've got to be a disciple.
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You've got to follow me. I want to transform your life. I want to transform your heart." We constantly talk about the heart. If you flip back to Romans chapter 12, one of the things Paul talks.
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About in our own transformation is the need to transform our mind constantly.
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What the forgiveness of sins means is the freedom of your mind to the slavery you were in. You thought a particular way. You thought this way about relationships. You thought this way about marriage. You thought this way about money. You thought this way about sexuality. And then Paul comes along, he says, you know what? You know what's amazing?
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Chapter 12, verse 2 of Romans. He says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the.
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Renewal of your mind. He doesn't say your heart.
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All right, now the heart is crucial.
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All right, we're supposed to love God.
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With all our heart, our soul, our strength, but then Jesus throws on the mind.
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Modern Christianity, we constantly get very sentimental, and the whole Christian message is, are you crying yet? Like, get your emotions into this thing. If you're not crying, then it's not Christianity. So bring your Kleenex. Pastor will cry on cue. And we'll all be good.
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Because don't you know Christianity is all emotions? That's constantly the message we get. And this is going, hold on, I'm.
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Talking about the transformation of your mind. Do you think?
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See, what constantly happens in modern Christianity.
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Is we posit reason, evidence, thinking against something called faith. And then we think, well, we're people of faith. So we don't have to think, we don't have to look at evidence, we don't have to study science, we don't have to really know much, we're just simple.
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Alright, it's like backwater, alright, kind of.
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Socks with sandals kind of people, alright.
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But we're just simple. We don't need evidence, we don't need to think.
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And that classic dichotomy has happened, it.
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Just filters down to Christianity. All you need to know is your heart. All it needs to be is your heart.
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Don't you understand?
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Are you into this and your emotions?
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But what about thought?
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Eee! So that— we were doing a Skeptics.
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Forum video last year, and I went.
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Out with a video camera, put it into the face of people on the.
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Street, and asked them difficult questions about Christianity, asked them what they believed about.
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Certain things so that we could try to answer those questions. And I bumped into two Christian girls. And so I became pagan. All right, they didn't know me, and so I would just grill them with questions.
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All right, why do you believe in God? And what they ended up saying is this, all right, I'm a Christian because I feel it. I'm like, okay, unpack that for me. What do you mean you feel it? They're like, well, I just— I'm like.
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Haven'T you thought about it?
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Where's the evidence? Why do you— do you use your.
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Mind, philosophy, science, anything?
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They're like, no, no, I just I feel it in my heart, it's the right thing to do. And she said, "And my experience." All right, we elevate experience, we love experience. "Well, I experienced this, so it must be true." Yeah, but the text is saying completely opposite.
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"Doesn'T matter, I experienced it.".
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So what did you experience? "Well, my friend got her eyes healed.
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She used to wear glasses and now she doesn't have to wear glasses and.
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God healed her, therefore I believe in God." I'm like, "Yeah, but you're wearing glasses." So he doesn't like you? He likes her better than you? And things got awkward. Alright, it was weird, man. 'Cause they started losing their faith and I was like, no, no, no, come on, don't worry, I'm the pastor. Right, and then we prayed together and we huddled and it was good, gave them a blessing, all that. Alright, but usually the idea is, man.
Mark Clark [00:10:46]:
Faith, Christianity, it's about fairies and Easter bunnies and people who actually think they're not Christians, they don't believe in God, they believe in something called evidence. And the reality is, no, we use.
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Our mind, our mind gets renewed, and.
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Then we start to walk in freedom. Because the reason you're so enslaved, the reason that you sin, the reason that your life is a disaster and a mess, is because your mind is messed up.
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Your mind is messed up.
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Right?
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You love stuff that God hates. That's what you're passionate about. That's what your mind focuses on. You love things that aren't freeing for you. They're enslaving. And so he's going, man, what you need is a freedom of your mind. Not just your heart. Not just your affections.
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What are you doing with your head? Do you think about Christianity? Do you love God with all of your mind? Do you serve him with all of your mind?
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This is what it means to be actually free. This is what it means to walk in him, that he is going to.
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Change what you do.
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Listen, by changing what you want to.
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Do, you're never going to be free if all you're doing is pushing against what you actually like. And Christianity is this whole bunch of rules that gets dropped on you that just makes life boring.
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It just sucks all of the fun out. That is not Christianity.
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He's saying, man, these things that you used to love, these things that you.
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Took joy from, I'm going to change those things. So now the things that you just.
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Are passionate about, I'm going to change them up so that in 2 years.
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From now, the things you used to love, you hate. And the things that used to bore you to tears, all right, you're just going to love. All right, like listening to 1-hour sermons.
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All right, you're just going to love that. You used to hate that. It used to put you to bed. Now you're going to love it. I'm not talking now, I'm talking a year or two from now. You're going to love that. Just stick with it. He's going to change your mind.
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That's discipleship. That's what it's about. Don't be conformed to the world. Be transformed by the renewing, not of your heart— yes, that happens— but of your mind.
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That's what he's focusing on. All right, so then there's this transformation. There's this redemption. The forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of his grace. Verse 8.
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Which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight. So now, here's what Paul's gonna do, which messes us up a little bit. You're gonna have to be patient, because.
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Here'S what he does.
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He starts talking not about us, but about God.
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Alright, so I know for us it's like, man, I come to the Scriptures.
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I come to church, I expect to hear about me. And we get trained up that if it goes too long without talking about us, we get bored and we fall asleep.
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Constantly the Bible's going, hey, We got.
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To get God right. We got to talk about God. Who is he?
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What is his character?
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What does he do?
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How does he function?
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Who is God?
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So constantly the Psalms are like— you open up the Psalms looking for yourself in there, it's going to be very difficult because constantly the Psalms are like, this is who God is. He's all-powerful. He's all wonderful. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
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The prophets speak about it. All of these— let's talk about God. Paul, when he wraps up in Romans 11, he starts talking, let's talk about the richness of God. Let's talk about the depth of God's character and his plan and where We're like, "Oh man, get to talk about me." I went to a conference thing this week and the guy got up and he said, "The Bible is a book about how to be good. The Bible is a book that's going to tell you how to live your life. It's kind of a manual for life." And I thought, man, this is the fundamental flaw with people's view of the Bible. Listen, if you come at this thing going, "Show me what to do with every decision," You're not going to get it, because here's the crazy thing. Remember we talked about a couple weeks ago, you're searching out the will of God? Show me what city to move to, show me what girl to marry.
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And you look at the Scripture like, come on, come on, come on, must.
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Be in the Hebrew somewhere.
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Sarah, Margaret, Sarah, Margaret. It's just not there. It's not there. And you know why it's not there? Listen, there was no Bible verse that.
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Told me to move to British Columbia.
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Marry Erin, and buy a minivan. It's not It's not there! And you're never going to find it. You know why?
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Check this, this is crazy. Because what if the Bible's not about us? What? But my daily devotional says it is.
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My daily devotional says every verse is about this guy! So then here's how we start to read the scriptures. Fundamentally different. We come at the triumphal entry story and Jesus is coming into Jerusalem and he needs a donkey. And so as one pastor I heard.
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Preach it, man, we're all donkeys. And the question of life is whether.
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You.
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Will be used by Jesus as a donkey.
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What?
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What if the story's just about Jesus riding a donkey?
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It's crazy! Right? But my life application Bible in the notes tells me I'm the donkey. You're not. All right, it's about glorious Jesus who should have been riding a war horse into Jerusalem, slaying people, coming in as a humble donkey with a limp. I put that in there, the limp.
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Part, but.
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It'S— he's— all right, the point is he's humble. He's humble and he's riding in on a donkey. And the text isn't about you.
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It's about Him.
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See, if the whole Bible was about you, constantly about you, it would just.
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Read like the Ten Commandments the whole time. Do this, do this, do this, don't do this, don't do this.
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But you will realize you get bored.
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When you read the Scriptures, alright, let's be honest, because it keeps talking about Him and it puts you to sleep. Why is it talking about Him? Why does Paul stop right in the middle here and go, by the way, He's wise and He's got insight? Because the way you think about God is going to define everything about your life. Who you view God to be, his character, how he functions, who he is.
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It'S gonna define everything about you. Look, if you have a vision of.
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God where he's small and he's not in control and he's disconnected from reality and he's the Bette Midler God who's very far away and he's kind of looking down from a distance seeing what's happening and he can't interject, he can't look on anyone's heart and shift it and change it, he can't do anything but observe, then your life is gonna become very difficult when you start thinking through your own salvation.
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Look, if He didn't choose you, like Paul said in verse 4, then you.
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Can lose this thing.
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You can drop it depending on how your day's going. You're saved, you're not saved. You're saved, you're not saved. Paul's already gone, "Hey man, He already chose you." Jesus doesn't lose Christians. If you got a view of God where He does, then you're going to live in a constant flux How do you view him?
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So when we were, when we were gathering for Village Church, meeting as a.
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Core launch team of people every week.
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For 9 months, there were 13 people meeting in my house.
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We would pray, we would go out.
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We would do surveys to people all around South Surrey. Hey, do you go to church?
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Why not?
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Because we wanted to establish a church for the unchurched, reach people who don't know Jesus.
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And so we talked to them, we prayed.
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In that span of time, 3 parents of the core launch team, out of.
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13 people, in that short amount of.
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Time, 3 of our parents died. Now, one of them died, got a brain tumor, died. One of them, who were lifelong missionaries in Chile, they got in a car accident, the mother died. And then my dad, the second Sunday ever at Village Church, I got a phone call, 9:00 AM. He was my stepdad, raised me, loved me, awesome guy. I got a phone call, 9:00 in the morning. I was preaching at 10:00. Al just died.
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In a short amount of time, listen.
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How you view God in those— if God is small, if God is not in control, if God just drops stuff, we would have just cashed in. I mean, we're doing this thing for the glory, the renown of Christ, and our parents start dropping. So what do we do? How do we view that?
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If you've got a small God, man, just pack it in. Forget this. Too costly. But you know what our vision of God was? Man, it was Revelation 1 that we talked about. It's cosmic Jesus.
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All right, He's got the long white hair and the fiery eyes and the.
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Sword coming out of His mouth and He's holding the 7 planets. Which in that culture was about the 7 planets that controlled all of the universe, and Jesus is holding those things.
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With His right hand.
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And then it's Revelation 5 where there's a scroll. Man, there's a scroll. There's a plan, and it's written out. And it says the Lamb had the authority. The Lamb who was slain walked up and He grabbed the scroll because Jesus is in control. He's got it.
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That's God. And if your view of God is different than that, then your life is going to be affected. That's why Paul is constantly going, we.
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Need to unpack who God is. Because if he owns every molecule on every planet, on every galaxy in the entire universe, man, that is going to shift how you relate to him.
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Because man, if he is all-knowing, if he has wisdom and insight, he's powerful, he made everything, You are never going to approach Him with a swagger and go, "Hey, I know how to do stuff that you don't know how to do. By the way, God, this is the way that I run the universe.
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You want to check in with me?".
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Alright, my 3-year-old, she comes to me with ideas about how to run the universe. And I'm like, "Do you know I know Greek?
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Like, like, read this cereal box for me.".
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Oh, you can't. Oh, interesting. She can't walk to me with a swagger. I mean, she does, but she's a fool. How do you view God? Is He big? Is He massive? How do you actually approach Him?
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So here's what he's saying. Look at what he says about God. Which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight. Here's what he's saying. God is extremely wise, and he has a ton of insight. Okay, so here's where we need to kind of go with this. All right, our culture tends to view God as if he's dumb.
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He's a senile old man, all right, totally disconnected from reality, and we are progressive. God's kind of outdated. He's got a fanny pack on, he's got penny loafers. He's completely out of touch with the real world and what it should be like.
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And this text is going, no, he's all wise and he's insightful.
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He's smarter than you, and he's right about everything, and you're not. Meaning he's right about sexuality. You come along and you think in your swagger that you can come up with new ideas about how to define sexuality, what to do with sexuality. He's going, no, no, no, listen, he wrote it down. He's right about it, alright? He's right about drunkenness. Alright, Paul's going to say in Ephesians 5, do not get drunk. Now we can go, hey, hold on a sec. You know, West Coast, even Christian culture, that one just lands hard.
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Yeah, you're all quiet.
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All right, it's like, yeah, I just got a little wobbly.
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The Bible goes, you want to know about human flourishing? Do not get drunk. Listen, I was, I was doing counseling.
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A little bit ago with a couple.
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And this just, just showed how God is so right, all right, about this issue. Um, we're doing marriage counseling, and I'm.
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Like, okay, let's talk about some fights.
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Let'S talk about some conflict. How do you guys communicate?
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And they're like, "Okay, so when do we fight?".
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"Um, okay, there was that party where.
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We were doing those vodka sliders." "Right, right, and then what happened?" "We got a little hammered and then you said that and I said this." "Bam! It blew up and we left the party.
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Remember that? That was crazy. And all our friends thought we were crazy." "Yeah, that was nuts." "Okay, tell me about another time.".
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"Well, it was that time we were over at Sarah's house. You remember this? And we were on our third bottle of wine and things got a little crazy. And then that guy started talking to you and I didn't like that so we started to fight and then bam! It blew up and we were gone." I'm like, "Okay, okay, tell me about another time." "Well, that time in Mexico where you did the tequila shots and then that guy came up and I couldn't hear, you know, and then we blew up and we didn't talk for 3 days." Right? And I'm like, "Uh..." They're like, "What.
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Are you writing about?" "I'm writing about..." "Stop drinking!".
Mark Clark [00:24:22]:
You might be the dumbest 2 people I know. Why are you doing this to yourself? God knows what's good for human flourishing. And he's saying there's nothing good in regard to human flourishing that comes out of drunkenness. Maybe some kids, but other than that, nothing good. All right, so his point is, look, he's right. God is all-wise. God has ultimate insight into everything.
Mark Clark [00:25:01]:
We are a product of a cultural moment. His opinions on everything transcend every culture, every decade.
Mark Clark [00:25:16]:
You are a product of a cultural moment where you think you have better ideas than Him and He's outdated. And what will come to be shown.
Mark Clark [00:25:24]:
In the end is that you are simply reading the prompter of your culture.
Mark Clark [00:25:30]:
You think you're so revolutionary. You're just doing exactly what everyone's telling you to do. You think like they think, you act like they act, you do as they do. You're reading the prompter. Oh, I'm an individual. Really? Is that why you all look the same? That why we all drink the same coffee, read Fifty Shades? All right, we're all doing what everyone else— I mean, what, what, you're unique?
Mark Clark [00:26:02]:
And the Bible's going, here, you're a product of a cultural moment. Here's how I know. Anyone who's been married for more than 10 or 15 years, look at your wedding pictures. How do you like that hair? I'm just wondering. How do you like the dresses that your bridesmaids are wearing? All right, they look like your grandma's drapes.
Mark Clark [00:26:26]:
All right, why?
Mark Clark [00:26:30]:
Because you are such a photograph of a cultural moment, and you're gonna move on, and in 10 years you're gonna think differently, you're gonna have different passions, and you're gonna look back at your now self as silly. And God's going, I'm the one who's wise, I'm the one who's insightful. And when I set up sex this way, listen. When I set up money this way, listen. When I set up relationships this way, listen. It's for your own good. And then he says this, verse 9:.
Mark Clark [00:27:04]:
Making known to us the mystery of.
Mark Clark [00:27:07]:
His will according to his purpose, which he set forth forth in Christ. Here's the idea. Christianity is about revealing, not concealing. Some people look at Christianity and say, it's so confusing, all of the theology. I don't know even if I'm saved. It's all so confusing. I don't really understand. He's saying Christianity is about making things known, not about concealing.
Mark Clark [00:27:32]:
God is not a God of confusion.
Mark Clark [00:27:34]:
God doesn't look and seek to confuse you.
Mark Clark [00:27:36]:
We look at, oh, it's so heavy.
Mark Clark [00:27:38]:
He's going, hey, this is about revealing stuff. He has made known the mystery of His will. Christianity is not mysterious. People will try to sell you books, give you conferences where you need their particular Bible code to be able to define really what this verse is saying.
Mark Clark [00:27:57]:
That's not Christianity at all. It's going, hey, it's made everything known to you. And you know what it's made known to you? It's made known to you the mystery of His will. That the center of history, that the meaning of history is this, which he set forth in Christ, meaning Jesus Christ is the center, the meaning of all of history. See, here's what would happen. In that culture, there was something known as Gnosticism, which was all about a mystery cult, that I know the mysteries.
Mark Clark [00:28:29]:
I know the secrets, and if you just listen to me, I'll be able to reveal to you all the secrets.
Mark Clark [00:28:34]:
And all the mystery, about the center.
Mark Clark [00:28:36]:
Of the universe, about the meaning of everything. If you go to Muslims today and.
Mark Clark [00:28:42]:
Ask them, "What's the meaning of history? What's the center of the universe?" They would say, "Well, it's a discussion about everybody worshipping Allah and everyone submitting to the Koran.".
Mark Clark [00:28:51]:
If you go to a Hindu, "What's the meaning of history?".
Mark Clark [00:28:52]:
"It'S all about, you know, reaching a state of nirvana." If you talk to our present culture, it's all about the self, it's all about self-preservation, self-fulfillment.
Mark Clark [00:29:03]:
All— everybody's preaching about what is the center of history, what is the meaning of the universe, what is it, what's the secret, what's the mystery. You go to the grocery store, you're gonna see magazines preaching at you about.
Mark Clark [00:29:17]:
What is the meaning of everything.
Mark Clark [00:29:18]:
So you're gonna open up a Max— no, you're not gonna open up Maxim, but you're gonna see Maxim magazine on the thing, and it's gonna preach to you a message, and it's gonna say sex is the center of everything.
Mark Clark [00:29:29]:
And then you're going to see Forbes.
Mark Clark [00:29:30]:
Magazine, it's going to tell you the.
Mark Clark [00:29:32]:
Meaning of history is money and business and capitalism.
Mark Clark [00:29:35]:
And then you're going to pick up O magazine and it's going to say the meaning and the center of everything is Oprah, right?
Mark Clark [00:29:42]:
Right, because she's on every cover.
Mark Clark [00:29:43]:
She's going, I'm everything, I'm the center, I'm the story. And constantly all of these things are.
Mark Clark [00:29:50]:
Preaching at us, what's the center, what's the meaning, And this is going— the center and the meaning is not an idea, it's not a religion, it's not a personal philosophy. It's a person, and his name is Jesus. His name is Christ. He's the center of everything. He's the meaning of history. And for— so those of you who are here who are looking for, hey, what's my worldview? What do I actually believe? You have to deal with the question of Jesus. He came, he taught, he says he was God. Don't There's none of this, "He was a good teacher" business.
Mark Clark [00:30:21]:
He claimed to be God, so He was either an absolute write-off and a crazy man and a lunatic, or He was God and He was who He said He was.
Mark Clark [00:30:28]:
You have to deal with that.
Mark Clark [00:30:29]:
You have to confront, be confronted with the resurrection. Is it true? Is it not true? Christianity is either the biggest joke or it's absolutely true and you need to give your life to Him. It's not about, "Well, I can just kind of live in this no man's land and not really have an opinion, and I just like to come to church and put on my nice pants and go for lunch after. That's not an option. You sitting here, if this isn't true, is the silliest hour of your life. So this is either the most important thing you do or the least. It's not in the middle. There's no middle.
Mark Clark [00:30:59]:
And what he's saying is the center.
Mark Clark [00:31:01]:
Of everything, the center of all of.
Mark Clark [00:31:03]:
History, is a guy named Jesus. He came, he died, he rose again from the dead.
Mark Clark [00:31:08]:
He offers renewal of life, transformation, forgiveness.
Mark Clark [00:31:11]:
Of sins, He offers all of that. That this is the center. Here's what Paul's saying: this is the secret. The secret's been made known. It's not a mystery. It's Jesus. It's that all of history and everything else is about Him.
Mark Clark [00:31:29]:
Everything.
Mark Clark [00:31:30]:
So I got people getting in touch with me that call me and they're like, okay, so like you started out as this young church and You know, over a couple of years it's grown and people are getting saved and people are getting transformed, people are getting baptized. What do you think the follow-up is?
Mark Clark [00:31:43]:
What's the secret? Give me the secret. 4 bullet points. Give it to me so I can do it.
Mark Clark [00:31:52]:
All right.
Mark Clark [00:31:52]:
Come down to Seattle. Talk to us about the secret. One guy got in touch with me, wants me— wants to fly me to Amsterdam so I can go to Amsterdam and tell them the secret. I'm like, okay, I'll take that. But don't tell them, I'm gonna get there, I'm gonna be like, here's the secret.
Mark Clark [00:32:13]:
You get up and you preach and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, and men and women get drawn to Jesus. That's it. That's the secret.
Mark Clark [00:32:25]:
Romans 1 says the power is in the gospel. The power, the dynamite. That's the Greek word dynamite.
Mark Clark [00:32:31]:
See, I learned Greek, so I use it.
Mark Clark [00:32:33]:
Dynamite. Dynamis. It means it can blow your life up. The gospel can. That the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. That's why we don't open the roof and a helicopter comes in. That's why there's no gymnasts, nobody's dancing in a leotard, there's no tigers. We simply get up and preach Jesus, and men and women get drawn to Jesus, men and women get changed by Jesus, That's the secret.
Mark Clark [00:33:01]:
By some fluke of His grace, He changes and saves people. And if we were to ever take credit for it, that would be absolute utter deception. Not only arrogance, deception. Because the Bible says, man, you lift up Jesus, men and women will be drawn. So what are you talking about 10 steps to a better whatever for? Just give them the Gospel of Jesus and they'll get changed. Because the best thing for them in regard to whatever they're looking for a solution for in 10 steps is to.
Mark Clark [00:33:31]:
Love and serve Jesus. Because when they love and serve Jesus, they're gonna be a better husband, they're gonna be better with their money, they're gonna be a better friend, they're gonna be a better boss, they're gonna be a better employee. He's saying, man, the center of everything is Jesus. That's why we lift him up. People are drawn to him.
Mark Clark [00:33:52]:
Now.
Mark Clark [00:33:58]:
Here's how big it gets. He says, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time. All right, now that verse right there.
Mark Clark [00:34:13]:
We just get wonky about this kind of stuff, right? Within Christianity, we're like, the fullness of time, that must mean the end times. We get our pen out, we're like, "Okay, the fullness of time, that must mean the Antichrist, Obama, what? And that must mean we're living in the end times, that must mean I've got to get my rapture chart out. We've got to line up the events. Russia's moving into this, and Iran's going into that, and don't you see? It's in Ezekiel, it's all there, look, it's the end times, fullness of time." We go just wonky. I got like— so we're hiring 3 full-time pastors right now. So I put— not that much will.
Mark Clark [00:34:53]:
Come of this probably, but we post.
Mark Clark [00:34:55]:
All the job descriptions on something called churchstaffing.com. Okay, so then we get crazies.
Mark Clark [00:35:02]:
All right, so here's what we get.
Mark Clark [00:35:04]:
People from everywhere apply for these jobs. All right, and right off the bat, it's like, cover letter, I want to come to Village I want to come to your church to help you— this is an actual email that I got this week— I want to come and help you reap the end-time harvest. Sorry? You're crazy. Delete. People love this stuff. We're living in the end times. Yes! We are. And you know what? We were in Acts chapter 2 when Peter got up and preached a sermon and said, hey everybody, we're living in the end times.
Mark Clark [00:35:45]:
And it's been 2,000 years since then, and it could be another 2,000 or another 2 million or another 200 million. We don't know. Jesus said— they said, hey Jesus, do.
Mark Clark [00:35:53]:
You know when you're coming back? He's like, you know what, I got no clue. The Father knows, but the guy who.
Mark Clark [00:35:56]:
Emailed me, he knows.
Mark Clark [00:36:02]:
He's reaping the end time harvest. All right. Verse 10, "To unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth." That's the last verse we're dealing with. That is huge. He is going— here's what Paul is.
Mark Clark [00:36:26]:
Saying, man, this is cosmic. He is going to unite All things, all right, here's what the Greek word means. All things. Like everything. Every bumblebee, all right, every blade of grass, every person, every ocean creature, all right, every whale, every octopus, every molecule on every planet on every galaxy in the entire universe is going to be united in Christ, all things in heaven and on earth. Here's what this does to us. It just jolts us out of the individual view of salvation that we have, where literally what we are born and bred on is Jesus Christ came to save you as an individual from your sins, and then we end there.
Mark Clark [00:37:22]:
And this is going— you don't understand. Yes, that's beautiful. Yes, he's gonna save you. Yes, he came to die for your sins. Yes, but here's the thing. It's bigger than that. This thing is cosmic. It's not just about you and your family and your friends and your ministry and Village Church in South Surrey and BC and Canada and North America.
Mark Clark [00:37:39]:
This thing's bigger. It's cosmic. It's global. And Jesus Christ's work is gonna unite all things in heaven and on earth.
Mark Clark [00:37:48]:
I mean, here's the practical reason why he's saying this. He's unpacking this idea to give us.
Mark Clark [00:37:55]:
A whole bunch of hope and a whole bunch of encouragement because here's Paul.
Mark Clark [00:37:59]:
He'S chained up in prison to a guy, right?
Mark Clark [00:38:02]:
His life is not good. And he's saying, hey, I know it.
Mark Clark [00:38:07]:
Looks like the powers are winning. Like, I know that cancer diagnosis you.
Mark Clark [00:38:12]:
Got a couple weeks ago is killing you. I know that that divorce you're going.
Mark Clark [00:38:21]:
Through is weighing on you and you're terrified for your kids. That debt you're facing is destroying you. But Jesus wins. That's what he's trying to say. He's going, man, here's the hope. You gotta let this then work backward to get you up in the morning. Jesus wins. All right, he is ultimately sovereign over all.
Mark Clark [00:38:48]:
He's taking all things, including your life and mine, uniting it in him. This is the massive, global, cosmic Jesus and his accomplishments.
Mark Clark [00:39:01]:
Now, here's what that does for us. It causes us to reprioritize everything. That's why he's telling us this. Right up front, he wants to give you a bigger vision of salvation than your individual salvation. He wants to say, man, it starts there, but this thing goes bigger. This is going to the cosmos. This is the Milky Way. This is Jupiter.
Mark Clark [00:39:21]:
This is every alien out there, if there is any. That's crazy.
Mark Clark [00:39:25]:
Uh, this is everything that exists is.
Mark Clark [00:39:30]:
Going to come under Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:39:31]:
He's trying to get Jesus to be really big.
Mark Clark [00:39:34]:
In your mind to get you really practical to say, man, all of this stuff that you face. So let me tell you how it reprioritizes things in my life. Um, I used to wake up, go to bed 2 AM in the morning, um, and that wasn't a problem. That's just how I rolled. Now I'm 31 years old and I got 3 small kids. I don't want to see 11. If I see 11, the next day will be bad. All right, now, why does that happen? Because these priorities have caused me to reshuffle my priorities.
Mark Clark [00:40:13]:
All right, the value of these kids has caused me to reprioritize. What Paul is doing here, he's saying, let me give you far bigger than your individual salvation. Let me give you cosmic and let you reprioritize. So, so here's a few things for me. If you get a cosmic vision of what Jesus is doing, all right, that it's bigger than yourself in your own little life, but it's outward, you start taking responsibility for more than yourself, here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna reprioritize what you do with your money. So at my house, we don't have.
Mark Clark [00:40:40]:
A lot of money, but we support.
Mark Clark [00:40:42]:
A kid in Ghana. His name is Raphael. We've never met him, we probably never will, but we send him $40 a month so he can eat, get clothes, go to school, learn about Jesus. And my little daughter's saying, Well, why do we send Raphael money? We don't even know him. Here's why. Because we want to teach our kids that there's something far more important in the universe than our comfort. There is something far more important in the universe than I would drive a nicer car and live in a bigger house. This is bigger than us, and so we pray for Raphael around the table.
Mark Clark [00:41:21]:
And we talk about him so that he can eat. We send money. And my kids are learning, man, there must be something more to the universe. This helps you reprioritize what you do with your time. My kids will often ask the question, why don't we go to church with Daddy? I mean, this is the most important day, right? We're coming, we're singing, we're praising Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:41:47]:
We'Re learning about Jesus. Why don't we get to go to church with him?
Mark Clark [00:41:51]:
Like, I'm up at 6 o'clock in.
Mark Clark [00:41:52]:
The morning, I'm gone. And what we have to tell them.
Mark Clark [00:41:54]:
Is, because Daddy's teaching people about Jesus. Well, why, why does he have to do that? Because this is eternally significant, right?
Mark Clark [00:42:04]:
What's happening in this moment, all right? Some of you are hating, all right, this moment, and you're, you're rejecting stuff and you're sifting through stuff, and some of you are getting convicted by stuff. Some of you are giving your life to Jesus. Like, a guy came up and up and told me at the end of the first service, I just give my life to Christ today. I mean, some of you are in that moment. This is eternity at stake in this moment, and I feel the weight of that because this is eternally significant. And so our kids— listen, this isn't at the expense of family time. We do that other times.
Mark Clark [00:42:34]:
But here's the thing: Daddy has to go tell people about Jesus because that's what he's called to do, because there's eternity at stake.
Mark Clark [00:42:43]:
Every week.
Mark Clark [00:42:47]:
There's no such thing as a giveaway. There's no giveaway Sunday because you guys are inviting your friends, right? Invite your family that don't know Jesus. This reprioritizes how we view our kids. Man, in the suburbs Here's the 3 great dreams and visions we have for our kids: that they be awesome on the soccer field, that they get good grades, and marry someone nice.
Mark Clark [00:43:18]:
That's a suburban dream!
Mark Clark [00:43:22]:
And my wife and I are talking, going, how about we dream a little bigger? Not that I don't want my kids to play sports or want them to be dumb. But man, what if our vision is that they're just captivated by the beauty and the love of Jesus and they give their life to him and serve him in everything they are? If they get married, great. If they don't, great. Maybe, maybe they end up going out into the mission field and dying an early death to reach an unchurched people group with the gospel of Jesus for the renown of Christ.
Mark Clark [00:43:59]:
That's a whim!
Mark Clark [00:44:01]:
Gut-wrenching!
Mark Clark [00:44:03]:
But in light of all of the Scriptures, in light of the cosmic— everything's getting united in Him, He's holding the scroll, He's got the eyes, He's in.
Mark Clark [00:44:12]:
Control— that's to the glory of His name. And so I'm going to shrink down and go, "Hey, I got this vision for my kids, and it's that you play really good soccer, you get good grades, and marry a nice boy." Forget that. Let Jesus Christ be the biggest, most important thing in your life and die for it. Far more important as parents. Everything gets reprioritized under this. So we're gonna come take communion. Taking the body of Jesus that was broken for you, take— dipping it in the blood, alright? Don't grab the thing and drink it, alright? We don't want your flu. Dip it in the blood of Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:44:52]:
The cup is the blood, the bread is the body. This is for people who've given their lives to Christ. All right, if you're not a Christian here, you don't have to take communion, except if today you say, today is the day that I want to give my life to him. Today is the day I want to repent of sin and give my life to Christ, be forgiven of sin, totally transformed, totally redeemed. Then you can do that. When you come, you partake. Father, we're so hopeful. That in this moment there would be hearts that would stop kicking against you and they would surrender to everything that Jesus has done under the promise that you will unite all things in heaven and on earth under him, that he is the ruler, he is the sustainer, he is the defender.
Mark Clark [00:45:33]:
Jesus, you are the Lamb who was slain, whose blood was shed for our redemption, for our forgiveness. And I pray that that truth would actually translate not only to some forensic thing in our life where we're in your law court and, and we get this proclamation. Well, it is that. I pray that it actually translates to life change, that we are freed up unto something, freed up unto holiness, freed up unto discipleship. I pray that would be true about each life here. And even now, as we reflect on the broken body of your Son, on the shed blood of your Son, that we would be freer because of this moment. We would be more satisfied in you because of this day and everything that our minds and our hearts have connected with. Do that work in us.
Mark Clark [00:46:23]:
In Christ's name we pray.
Mark Clark [00:46:24]:
Amen.