Mark Clark [00:00:03]:
First Corinthians, chapter three. We're ending off chapter three. If you are new, welcome. My name is Mark. I'm the senior pastor of the church. Really good to have you all here. And part of this masterclass as we explore kind of the big questions of life and God and salvation and heaven and hell and what relationships are about and sexuality is about and philosophy and money and all these things that Paul talks about in this amazing book, First Corinthians. And so we're in chapter three, and he's been talking about this idea of unity.
Mark Clark [00:00:30]:
And he's talking about the unity of. Of the church. And he's saying how important the unity of the church is. And the reason he does that is for the same reason that Jesus. Because, of course, there was division in Corinth, which happens in modern times as well, as people say, well, I follow this leader, I follow this church, or I follow these people, these ideas, whatever. And people start to be divisive and gossip, and they start to get unsettled about things. There's a talk behind people's backs and so on. And that, of course, never happens in modern times or at Village church.
Mark Clark [00:00:55]:
Cause you're all wonderful saints. But there has been times where this has happened in history. And it happened when Paul started this church in Corint. And they started kind of saying, I follow Apollos. And I followed this teacher.
Mark Clark [00:01:06]:
I follow this.
Mark Clark [00:01:07]:
And Paul kind of comes in, he goes, listen, don't elevate teachers. Don't be divisive. Because when we do that, the church is not on point. The church is actually losing its mission. It's lost its way and it's not gonna be effective. And this is the same thing. When you have an opportunity, go read John, chapter 17. Jesus, in his high priestly prayer in John 17, talks about he's praying to the Father about the disciples and about all the people who are gonna be disciples in the future.
Mark Clark [00:01:34]:
And he says, I want them to be unified as you and I are unified, Father, because when they're unified, then the world will actually come to know you. And so there's literally a link between the unity of the church and the effectiveness of the mission of the church. And that's why Paul cares about it. He's saying, it's really important that you're not divisive. And so we've been talking about this for a couple weeks. And now Paul says, as he ends off chapter three, he talks about the idea. If you go to verse 16 and 17, which is really all we're Gonna hit today. Probably all we're gonna have time for.
Mark Clark [00:02:01]:
And then I'll land with another passage.
Mark Clark [00:02:03]:
That is a pretty famous passage about our spiritual life.
Mark Clark [00:02:06]:
But he starts out, and he says this, starts out with these words. He says, do you not know that you are? And then he talks about God's temple. So he starts out with this really interesting way of framing their life, which sometimes we don't tend to do. But I wanna stop on it and actually reflect on it for a second. Because what he does is something that you and I don't tend to do very well, which is he. He's kind of looking at them like a coach. And he's saying, do you not know who you are if you're not being effective in your life, if your marriage is crumbling, if your finances are a disaster, if you can't figure out how to raise your kids properly, if your relationships are a wreck, if you can't reconcile your family, if work, blah, blah. He's trying to bring them back, to get them to remember who they are, that in Jesus Christ they have power.
Mark Clark [00:02:50]:
In Jesus Christ, they've moved from a person without power, enslaved in sin, full of fear, full of anxiety, full of relationships that are disaster, full all these things, they're of the old self. And he's saying, don't you know who you are? I'm about to tell you these amazing things that have happened because you are no longer categorically a sinner. You have moved from category sinner to category saint. Yes, you sin and we struggle and we have difficulty in life, but categorically in Jesus Christ, because the Holy Spirit has come into your life. If you're somewhat defined by that now, you are someone who has power. And so why don't you use. And he's doing, like a coach thing. I don't know if you've ever had a good coach in your life where I just encourage you.
Mark Clark [00:03:28]:
I was listening to. I saw his video of Steph Curry's coach the other day. Steph Curry is this amazing basketball player. And I heard the video of his coach, and his coach was saying, steph, you're the greatest basketball player that's ever played. You're the greatest shooter. No one can score like you. No one can shoot threes like you. Never in the history of time.
Mark Clark [00:03:46]:
Never since, you know, I've been coaching since the 70s. No one in the history. And he's just, like, affirming it. So Steph's like, yo, what's up, player? And so this confidence comes from his coach. Actually sitting him down, saying, hey, here's some positive things about your life. And for all the negative things that you and I could say about the positive affirmation movement or the positive thinking movement from all the critical things that we could say. And there's lots, because it's humanistic and materialistic, and it just goes toward your wants. And it's, hey, you believe in you, and you believe in you.
Mark Clark [00:04:13]:
Go down inside yourself, and all the stuff's inside yourself. And that's all a disaster when it comes to the gospel. That's true. But there, some of you could actually deal and do with some positive affirmation and thinking in your life as Christians, because some of you are just downers, all right? You're just in the sense of your defeatist mentality. And that's not what Christianity offers either. God doesn't want you to be a defeatist and go, okay, well, I guess I got nothing to offer the world. And, you know, I'm just gonna slug around and whatever. It's positive affirmation.
Mark Clark [00:04:42]:
Are you a force for encouragement for other people? And do you get up and look in the mirror like, I got a bunch of notes, a bunch of Christmas cards from a church in a city in Canada, and it was the whole church writing me thank you cards, because they'd gone through a series based on my book, the Problem of God. And the pastor had preached this series, and the youth group had done it, and the seniors had done it. This whole church had done gone through my book. And so they wrote me these cards. All the church is writing all these cards, and they're saying, thank you for writing this book and doing what you did. And here's how it blessed us as a church. Man, do you take the time out to go, Someone's gonna be affirmed in that. I actually needed to hear that this week.
Mark Clark [00:05:23]:
I had a discouraging week. I had a tiring week. And so here I was opening these cards up, and I'm like, I'm reading these cards, these amazing stories of these youth and this and this. And I'm reading them and I'm going, man, this is gonna kind of drive my week now, people. Actually, Paul's going, let me remind you who you actually are. You need some positive affirmation in your life. Some of you need to. Instead of just dragging yourself around, you need to get up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror and go get your game face on.
Mark Clark [00:05:50]:
I'm gonna accomplish something this week for the sake of Jesus. I'm gonna Actually do something way bigger than my experience, than my environment will allow me. I'm not gonna give excuses, which is what we've learned to do as a culture. When stuff goes wrong in our life, who do we blame? We blame our parents, we blame our environment, we blame the people around us. We blame churches and leaders. We blame everybody else. But who but you? You don't take any responsibility for your life. You're like, oh, I don't know.
Mark Clark [00:06:18]:
It's just. It's the way things happen. I can't believe it. I got nothing going on. I can't accomplish anything.
Mark Clark [00:06:23]:
And.
Mark Clark [00:06:23]:
And Paul's going, don't you know who you are? Get up, get your feet on the ground. Make your bed. All right? Then look in the mirror and go, I'm gonna accomplish something today. I got a game face. I can do something great under Jesus for his glory. Bigger than anything I could have imagined. And if you doubt that, over and over and over, Paul goes, look at me, Chief of Sinners. Look at me, Mark Clark.
Mark Clark [00:06:45]:
I'm a disaster. You guys know my upbringing. Atheistic family. Schizophrenic aunt, killed herself, Tourette's. Obsessive compulsive disorder. Weird kid in the corner in high school. What the heck am I ever gonna do with my life? One thing I'm never gonna do as a preacher. Cause I swear randomly, which I still do, and I blame it on Tourette's, but not from the stage.
Mark Clark [00:07:07]:
One thing I'm never gonna do as a pastor, one thing I'm never gonna be able to do is be a counselor. One thing I'm never gonna do is be able to write a book that anyone's gonna read. But to think about, go back in your life and realize every point along that way is because do you know who you are now? You're not just you in the flesh now. You have God now. You can accomplish so much more than you think. You don't even understand what you can accomplish now. That's what he's trying to say. From my upbringing.
Mark Clark [00:07:33]:
There's no way I should be standing up here at all. There's no way any of that makes sense. When I was.
Mark Clark [00:07:40]:
Okay, so here is interesting thing. You look back at your life and you go, what could I.
Mark Clark [00:07:45]:
Could I accomplish anything of meaning.
Mark Clark [00:07:46]:
And translate this into your own thing. I'm just illustrating from my own life. So my grandfather is 96 years old. He's the only other Christian in my family. He's.
Mark Clark [00:07:53]:
For 40 years, he has followed the.
Mark Clark [00:07:56]:
Ministry of people's Church in Toronto, right?
Mark Clark [00:07:59]:
He watches it every week on television. Now he can't even leave his house. And so he watches that on television. And then he gives them money, right? Whatever. Little bit money.
Mark Clark [00:08:07]:
He gives them a little money to support their ministry.
Mark Clark [00:08:09]:
They're an amazing church. 100, 150 years old in Toronto, preaching the gospel Bible, preaching amazing pastors throughout time, and it's one of the most well known churches in Toronto, and he watches that every week. And yesterday I called my grandfather and I said, hey, what's going on?
Mark Clark [00:08:27]:
Blah, blah. And we started talking and I said.
Mark Clark [00:08:28]:
Hey, I'm out there in February, and I just wanted you to know that I'm preaching at People's Church.
Mark Clark [00:08:35]:
And he was like, wait, what? What do you mean?
Mark Clark [00:08:38]:
Like, see my grandfather see his heroes preach at Village Church, not me. All right, People's church. Yeah. It's like the true men of God, they preach at people. They take the pulpit at People's. And I'm like, yo, grandfather, I'm preaching to People's. What's up, player? He's like, what? All right, get up there in a hoodie. I'm like, what's up, People's Church right.
Mark Clark [00:09:04]:
Now?
Mark Clark [00:09:05]:
And I said, you can come with me. We'll go in the back, we'll hang out for the day. Like, you can experience that. You can sit front row and watch your grandson preach at People's Church. And he's like, no, this doesn't sound right. Nope. You know, but no, of course he's like, he's over the moon about stuff like that, right? It's like, what are you talking about? This is crazy. You know? What does that even mean? Right? Just.
Mark Clark [00:09:28]:
Just rewind the clock 20 years, man. You. You're gonna pick me out of a crowd for that kind of stuff over and over and over again. You gotta recognize it's not based on who you are, naturally, or the family you came from or the situation. Do you know who you are now? That you are God's temple? Now that you have God's spirit? You are something different than you were. Something way more profound can happen in your life than you even recognize and you even realize. I was speaking at a conference a couple years ago, and I got up and shared my story and my disaster and who I was. And I remember a guy walked up to me and I've shared this story with you, but I haven't shared another part of it where he walked up to me at the end and he said, I was walking past the church here and I Came inside because I saw a sign that there was a conference and I'd never heard of it before.
Mark Clark [00:10:17]:
And so I came in and this isn't even my name tag. I took it off the wall and I just came in for free. But I wanted you to know that I'm a pastor and I have my resignation written at home to resign from my church because I have no place in ministry. That's what I thought until I walked in the door and I heard your story about all the things that God could do in a life, even though that life is not perfect, even though that life had this background and that background and all the imperfections. And he said, I have now been given a new reality. And he said, here's the reality. I'm same sex attracted. I don't act on it.
Mark Clark [00:10:53]:
I don't function like that in my life. Sexually, I'm celibate, but I'm attracted to the same sex. And I thought that that meant that I was done and God could never use me at all in ministry. And now, from everything you've told me, all in my brokenness, all in my imperfection, because the gospel is true about me and God says, you are beloved. I can actually go out because there's a whole bunch of people who need me to minister to them. And that's what I did not understand before this gathering. Why? Do you know who you are? Do you know what God can do with you? Because you're actually filled with the spirit of God, because you're part of God. So he could do way more than he could just do if you were just naturally you, in all your brokenness and all your mess and all your disaster, this is what he does.
Mark Clark [00:11:36]:
And so every day you and I get up and we go, okay, what does God actually want to use me for today? What does God want to use me.
Mark Clark [00:11:43]:
For in my life?
Mark Clark [00:11:44]:
What big things that I never could have imagined for myself will he actually do now? He says, do you not know that you are God's temple? So he talks about this idea of, how are you gonna accomplish these great things? He says, well, here's why. Here's why you're great. Here's why you can accomplish great things. First, because you're part of God's temple right? Now, this temple imagery, it had two components to it. First, in the Corinthian culture, they had temples. Of course, they would come and they'd worship gods in the temples. But then it has this Jewish idea. From Exodus 25 onward, remember, God had set the Israelites Free in Egypt.
Mark Clark [00:12:19]:
And then they came. He gave them the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 20, Exodus 25, he comes and he says, hey, listen, I want you to build what's called the tabernacle. And here's all the ingredients for it, or all the instructions, not the ingredients. It's not food. Here's all the instructions for. Here's how thick the curtains are gonna be, here's the bread you're supposed to put in, here's the candle that all of these different things. And he explains it to them.
Mark Clark [00:12:43]:
Because what he wants to do is be to this point, since the Garden of Eden, he's lost the presence with the people. And so he was present with them in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. And now he's guided them to a point. He goes, I want you to have me as a mobile presence with your people, so build a tabernacle. And then that tabernacle went on, and then they had the conquest of Cana. And then they went in and they landed there, and they landed in Canaan, and they set up their life. And 440 years later, then King Solomon built the temple. And he said, here's all the paradigm of what the temple's supposed to look like, here's what the curtains are supposed to look like, here's the precise.
Mark Clark [00:13:17]:
And he said, why is all of this important? Why do I spend 20 chapters after chapter 25 of Exodus explaining to you all the details of every piece of this? Because my presence is gonna be there. And that's his point, is that the story of the Bible is the story of the presence of God. And he starts to listen, I wanna be present with my people. I wanna be present with my people. And so you are God's temple. Now, he doesn't. I'm gonna talk about this later. But he doesn't just mean this word, you.
Mark Clark [00:13:46]:
It's not singular. I'm gonna talk about that in a few minutes. It's plural. So he's kinda talking about the church being God's temple. And then he says, you have God's spirit, which dwells in you. So that's kind of the whole story of the Bible is the same of the presence of God that got lost in the garden gets restored in the tabernacle, gets restored in the temple. And of course, ultimately it gets restored in the personal work of Jesus. But then Jesus ascends and he sends his spirit.
Mark Clark [00:14:11]:
And so what you've gotta.
Mark Clark [00:14:12]:
You.
Mark Clark [00:14:13]:
And I have to understand, presence is the most powerful, beautiful Important thing. Think about that loved one that you lost recently or a year ago. Talk to someone who's lost a spouse. I talked to my mom, my stepdad. Al passed away the second Sunday of Village Church. I got a phone call about an hour before I got up and preached.
Mark Clark [00:14:36]:
Said, hey, Al's passed away. What does my mom miss? What do you miss when you lose your spouse? You miss their presence. You miss them sitting across the table from you at the dinner table. You miss them in the bed beside you. You miss their laugh.
Mark Clark [00:14:52]:
Think about that. When it comes to God, don't get your cliche, nonsense, 21st century Canadian brain in the way. And it's like, okay, God's temple. God's spirit dwells in you. Wah, wah, wah. When are you gonna talk about something important? This is. This is the most important. This is unction.
Mark Clark [00:15:10]:
This is his presence. This is you feeling him, you sensing him. This is the most that your life would be spent as God's temple, both individually and corporately. I'll come back to that. Having God's spirit dwell in you. This is the most important question of your life. Do you pour into this or not? Is this what people would say about you or not? That you are someone who pushes into the presence of the living God because you know you have it or not. This is my mentor, Larry Osborne.
Mark Clark [00:15:44]:
He's 65 years old and his parents are still alive. And him and his sister and his brother got up to do their 50th wedding anniversary. And there was a whole crew of people, two or three hundred people, and all the brothers and sisters got up and they gave a speech to their parents. And here's what they said to their parents. They said, you know what we always understood as kids growing up? We always understood this. Mom and dad, you always loved one another more than you loved us as kids. We always knew as kids that if we were on a boat and that boat started going down, that you would give each other the life rafts and the. What is this called? Life jackets.
Mark Clark [00:16:23]:
Right, the life jackets. We always knew you would give each other the life jackets and just watch us drown. And then they said this.
Mark Clark [00:16:34]:
And that gave us the greatest security in life. See, one of the mistakes we as parents make is we start loving our kids more than we love our spouse, and we let them kill our marriage.
Mark Clark [00:16:50]:
Destroy it. Get in the way. Listen, your kids, they're gonna survive, man. They don't need you every single second. Solving every problem for them to the expense of your own marriage. The best thing for your Kid, is that you and your spouse love each other more than them. More than them.
Mark Clark [00:17:16]:
Because you know what's gonna happen. Here's what I want my kids to say about me.
Mark Clark [00:17:20]:
Yeah, my dad loved me, but man.
Mark Clark [00:17:21]:
He loved my mom. I mean, I could just see it.
Mark Clark [00:17:24]:
In his eyes now. Here's the reality.
Mark Clark [00:17:27]:
The same thing needs to be true about you and Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:17:30]:
See, your spouse needs to then look at you and go, the one thing.
Mark Clark [00:17:34]:
I always knew is you loved Jesus more than you love me. And that gave me the greatest security on the planet.
Mark Clark [00:17:39]:
And I want my kids legacy to.
Mark Clark [00:17:40]:
Say my dad loved Jesus more than he loved us. Because you know what's gonna happen. I know you don't like to think about this. See, one day I'm gonna be dead. And one day you're gonna be dead. And you know all your kids are gonna have Jesus. They're not gonna have you to tell them what to do anymore. And if they saw a model of someone who lived in the presence of God, then they're gonna do that too.
Mark Clark [00:18:07]:
Versus being kids who are so needy.
Mark Clark [00:18:10]:
For you that when you're gone, it's over. They don't know what to do anymore. They have no faith of their own.
Mark Clark [00:18:15]:
Here's the reality. The greatest thing in your life, the highest priority needs to be that you're pushing in, that you're understanding. This is what it means to be in the presence of God. This is what it means to actually function in the living God and in his power. And see, this is the stuff. I was talking to a couple Jewish guys the other day and here's this very interesting thing that Paul does. I mean, just the idea here that he says, and that God's spirit dwells in you, right? So here's what he says, God's spirit. Now think about that for a second.
Mark Clark [00:18:46]:
We kind of just pass over that we're like, yeah, yeah, God's spirit. For a Jew, this is mind boggling. Because for a Jew, Paul had spent his whole life in 1st century Judaism, knew that, that they were in sin, they were in exile, there was death, there was terrible things about the world. But one day in the age to come, God would move and he would do something. He would bring about the kingdom of God. And when he brought about the kingdom of God, he would restore all justice. Sin would be forgiven, exile would be over. And his very presence that got lost in the destruction of the temple, that got lost.
Mark Clark [00:19:20]:
Even though they were back in the Holy Land and there was a temple there, it wasn't really the real temple.
Mark Clark [00:19:24]:
And.
Mark Clark [00:19:24]:
And for a Jew, it was like one day God's presence again will come and reside with his people. One day at the end of time. And what Paul does is he goes away after meeting Jesus, he goes away to Arabia for three years and he rethinks God and he rethinks salvation history. And he comes to realize it's not the end of the world, but it kind of is the end of the world. Because everything we thought as Jews was gonna happen at the end of the world has actually happened in the personal work of Jesus. And now the Spirit is an option for people in the middle of time, not the end of time. Which means what? Holiness, power, authority, all the things in your life. Listen, even if you're not a Christian, you're here.
Mark Clark [00:20:02]:
What are the things that you seek after in life? You seek after power in your life.
Mark Clark [00:20:06]:
To actually accomplish some great things.
Mark Clark [00:20:08]:
You seek after joy and delight.
Mark Clark [00:20:10]:
Things I'm gonna talk about in a little bit.
Mark Clark [00:20:12]:
You go for the things that he says. The actual spirit is the one that gives you. And so what we need to do is understand. He's saying this is your reality, that the Spirit comes into your life. This is what's on offer for you, something outside of yourself coming in. Now, when the New Testament talks about the idea of God's spirit, it talks about the idea it. Almost the New Testament writers talk about the time of the Spirit being a renewal of the world. It's almost like recently there was a massive windstorm, all right? I was sick on the day of the great windstorm that destroyed.
Mark Clark [00:20:48]:
Those of you in Calgary don't know what I'm talking about, but out here in B.C. there was an apocalyptic windstorm, all right? It destroyed all of life. Everyone's life came to a halt. And so there was some wind, all right? And it killed a lot of stuff. It was crazy. Not people, I don't think.
Mark Clark [00:21:03]:
I don't know, maybe.
Mark Clark [00:21:04]:
But it killed detours and killed a lot of schedules. And so there was trees falling down and at people's houses and trees falling down on the ground and cars and all this craziness. A pier got boats went through a pier. A guy was out in the pier for some reason in the middle of a tornado, just like chilling on the pier, like, what's up, players? Oh, shoot, there's no more pier. Uh oh, I'm stuck. All right, so some helicopter had to come and the Navy had to come in. And it was nuts, it was crazy. The guy gets lifted up and I don't know what he was doing.
Mark Clark [00:21:37]:
Checking on his. It's probably, you know, everyone's like, who is it? He's probably one of our pastors, to be honest. But anyways, the great revelation of this.
Mark Clark [00:21:47]:
Mystery man will be interesting.
Mark Clark [00:21:48]:
But anyway, so yeah, there was this wind. It was crazy. It did all this crazy stuff. Now here's the thing. In the New Testament, you go back and you read the Book of Acts. The first time the Holy Spirit shows up, they describe it as wind comes into the room.
Mark Clark [00:22:01]:
They're all gathered, there's a windstorm, all right?
Mark Clark [00:22:05]:
And it comes in, in these tungsten of fire land on all the heads of the people. And so the way that the New Testament writers talked about the coming of the Spirit was through wind. But then they start talking about it not only in regard to history and salvation, but themselves. Some great wind has come into my life and changed me. It's uprooted everything. It's knocked things over. It has the ultimate power of wind that can. That can humble a civilization.
Mark Clark [00:22:32]:
Like, it froze everything. We lost power, right? I was on social media, people losing power. It was like people didn't even know what to do. It's like, pow. Where's my. I can't plug in my iPhone. There's no power. I can't even eat.
Mark Clark [00:22:46]:
Is it the end? Is it the end? It's like, my gosh, what do you think they did, like 80 years ago when there was no such thing as power? No, there was power 80 years ago. But anyway, don't look up the data on that one. That was off top of my head. But at some point there was no power. All right? There was no electricity. What do you think they did? All right, Just sit around. Oh my gosh. It was like, my goodness, it's dark.
Mark Clark [00:23:10]:
Yes, it's dark. It's dark. Don't be afraid of it. Now, here was the crazy thing. That day, I was sick all day, and so it was like a day just got deleted because I was in bed for some reason. I got a 24 hour bug and I was just sick in bed and I was just like, ugh. I couldn't get up. I stood up.
Mark Clark [00:23:26]:
At one point I drank like Canada Dry. They tell you to drink Canada Dry when you're sick. I don't know if it's. It's good, it's bad, whatever.
Mark Clark [00:23:31]:
It's just.
Mark Clark [00:23:31]:
I've been doing it since I was a kid. So whenever I taste Canada Dry, it's like, whoa. I think I feel sick now. All right, Even If I'm not sick yet. Cause my brain is like attached to sickness. All right, so anyway, so I'm like. And I like, got up for half an hour. I'm like.
Mark Clark [00:23:44]:
And I just go back, you know, man, being sick is not a pretty picture. So I just slept like for 24 hours. And then I woke up the next day and everything. I was like in shower, da, da, da. And I walk in, there's pine trees over, and there's like. It's like post apocalyptic people and everyone's freaking out. I lost that whole day. That whole day never happened to me.
Mark Clark [00:24:03]:
So I didn't know what happened. I felt like I woke up and it was like, oh, my gosh, it's left behind, right? The world's changed. It's crazy. It's crazy. What's happened. The great windstorm of 2018. Anyway, point being, wind has this power to humble humankind so that all of our developments meant nothing, nothing we could do in the face of it. And then the New Testament goes, you want to know what the Spirit can do in your life? It will destroy everything you've built, but.
Mark Clark [00:24:36]:
Build you back up to something God wants to actually make of your life. And it will humble you, man.
Mark Clark [00:24:44]:
It will knock down whatever empire you built and you thought was so good. And it will show you how small you are. Because the Spirit is like, what?
Mark Clark [00:24:52]:
Wind.
Mark Clark [00:24:52]:
That's actually in the Old Testament Ruha.
Mark Clark [00:24:56]:
That'S the word for wind.
Mark Clark [00:24:58]:
And it's the Spirit hovered over the.
Mark Clark [00:25:03]:
Face of the deep in Genesis 1, the wind. Now.
Mark Clark [00:25:09]:
Why do we get the Spirit? Okay, here's two thoughts on this and this will be the rest of our time. 2 thoughts on why we get the Spirit. Okay, the first one is we tend to think we get the Spirit simply for individualistic, experiential type things. That tends to be in the last 60, 70 years. The emphasis of the Spirit is on your personal experiences of the Spirit and God talking to you. And so now I'm gonna end by talking about that more personalized reality of the Spirit, because I think it is a thing. But first and foremost, if you read Acts chapter one, the reason we get the Spirit is for the mission of the church to be empowered toward the mission. It's not just about you and Jesus doing devos together.
Mark Clark [00:25:56]:
That's a very modernistic version of why you get the Spirit. Let the Spirit talk to you, walk with the Spirit personally in your life. We have to get out of this individualized version of Christianity and start to, to realize the New Testament Writers thought corporately about things. Now, I will talk about your personal holiness in a sec, but this great paragraph from N.T. wright in his book Simply Christian, he says this. The Holy Spirit and the task of the Church. The two walk together hand in hand. We can't talk about them apart.
Mark Clark [00:26:29]:
Despite what you might think from excitement in the previous generation about new spiritual experiences, God doesn't give the Holy Spirit in order to let us enjoy the spiritual equivalent of a day at Disneyland. Of course, if you're downcast and gloomy, the fresh wind of God's Spirit often and can does give you a new perspective on everything and above all grants a sense of God's presence, love, comfort and even joy. But the point of the Spirit is to enable those who follow Jesus Listen to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up and that we are to help make it happen. That's the point of the Spirit dropping on the church to give you a mission. To make it so that when you tell your coworker about Jesus, they might actually come to know Him. Why? Because they're not based on you. If it was based on you, Lord, it's over. Seen some of your pitches.
Mark Clark [00:27:33]:
But the Spirit might be able to do something that could blow trees over. It's so powerful, that could knock over and cause everyone to detour their whole life. The Spirit can do that.
Mark Clark [00:27:44]:
That's why he gave it to you. It's the task of the church to.
Mark Clark [00:27:47]:
Actually be on mission to do what.
Mark Clark [00:27:49]:
God has asked us to do.
Mark Clark [00:27:50]:
It's the task of the church. And so even though it's offensive, it's very interesting that he gives these images of God's temple. And he says again plurally, the church is the temple of God.
Mark Clark [00:28:06]:
The church, he's saying, is the place.
Mark Clark [00:28:08]:
Where the presence of God actually resides.
Mark Clark [00:28:11]:
And can I just.
Mark Clark [00:28:13]:
If you're a non Christian and you're here and you're exploring Christianity, here's what I love about It's a little offensive because it feels inclusivist. It feels like, oh, the church is so great.
Mark Clark [00:28:25]:
But I think for a moment we all just need to stop and just.
Mark Clark [00:28:29]:
Do a little bit of rumination culturally.
Mark Clark [00:28:32]:
As a society, on the fact that the church actually is pretty great.
Mark Clark [00:28:37]:
Because I think what happens is we as skeptics come toward the church and we say it's judgmental, it's inclusivistic, it's.
Mark Clark [00:28:45]:
Anti this, it's anti that.
Mark Clark [00:28:46]:
The church is so bad.
Mark Clark [00:28:47]:
I think what society needs is less of the church, less religion. That's what we tend to do. And yet Paul has this real positive.
Mark Clark [00:28:55]:
Thing where he's like, man, you are.
Mark Clark [00:28:57]:
God's like, the church is awesome. That's what he says. And don't be ashamed of it because this is the one place, mean the body of Christ, I mean, that you can bring, you can invite people in to experience what, the presence of God. It's the one place on earth, the one people group where he has chosen to dwell specially. That's the thing. Don't be down on yourself. I know what we get. We get enough beat up on the church, we're like, oh.
Mark Clark [00:29:26]:
We start feeling. We're like, oh, yeah, I'm part of the church. But it's not what I mean, right? And we start. We're negative, it's judgmental, it's this, it's that. Let me tell you something. Go back through history and see what the church has done for the world. Everywhere it exists, it has loved and served the poor. Go to the first century, the second century, the third century.
Mark Clark [00:29:46]:
Who was taking care of the sick that the Roman Empire just kicked out in the street to their own death? It was the church. Why? Because they said, we're not afraid of death. If he really rose from the dead, I don't care about my 40 years. Let me take this person in. Yeah, if I get the plague, all right, I get to go to heaven when I die anyway. Don't tell me secularists were doing that. Every place the church has existed, it's brought hospitals, education, loving and serving the poor over and over again. It's the ethic of the Bible that men and women are made in God's image, that all races are the same.
Mark Clark [00:30:18]:
What do you think abolished slavery in the British Empire? Secularism. You think William Wilberforce got up in the British Parliament and cited Nietzsche and Darwin? He cited the Bible. You think Martin Luther King Jr. Wrote letters from Birmingham jail and cited cited Nietzsche to say, by the way, blacks and whites are equal? No, he cited Hosea. Because the reality of the world is not that you need less religion, you need better religion. You need to understand it's the Bible that's gonna tell you do science and find out that people are equal and that you can't enslave a people group because they're made in the image of God. Without that, who cares? It's just a people group. It doesn't matter.
Mark Clark [00:31:04]:
If you can get ahead, then get ahead using slaves. It Doesn't. All we're here to do is survive and get our genes into the next gene pool anyway. It doesn't matter. Survival of the fittest baby. That kind of narrative can allow the Holocaust and it won't matter. The only narrative that rebuts it is one that says human beings are made.
Mark Clark [00:31:22]:
In the image of God.
Mark Clark [00:31:23]:
You cannot touch them like that. You cannot destroy an image bearer of God.
Mark Clark [00:31:28]:
Don't you know?
Mark Clark [00:31:29]:
See, this is what. This is why it's like we need more of the church in the world. Look at what we've been doing with the local schools. And I got a letter from Randy Watson, our pastor of Global and Local Mission. He said this. Every year we distribute gifts to every student at Holly Elementary. It's one of the most in need schools in Surrey with over 90% of the 570 students under the poverty line. There's also 40 countries represented in the school.
Mark Clark [00:31:58]:
This is our third Christmas with these students and staff and they're so thankful for Village Church. A grade five girl just ran up to me with a card she made and she said, please tell your church how thankful we are for bringing joy to us every year. To top it off, the principal. Now, I read this email when I was sick in bed that day, all right? And I was just like, I was just crying. It might have been because I was sick, but I was bawling, all right? The thought of this girl walking up saying, thank you for blessing us. To top it off, to principal, who four years ago didn't want the church in the school, just told me he's going to be representing village at the next school district administration meeting and recommending we receive citywide appreciation from the district. This is what the church does. This is why the church is needed in communities, in countries, followers of Jesus give their life for the good of other people.
Mark Clark [00:32:48]:
So don't, don't hide. I know it's the church. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just wanna, like, there's this. When you invite someone to church, do it boldly, because this is a community of love and compassion and people laying down their lives and sacrificing their time and their money and their energy for the good of people. There's nothing to be ashamed of. God's presence is among his people.
Mark Clark [00:33:13]:
And one of the great. I was reading, read Alison McGrath. Very funny.
Mark Clark [00:33:17]:
He wrote this book.
Mark Clark [00:33:18]:
I was talking to one of our pastors about this backstage. He wrote this book called the Dangerous idea. And Allison McGrath is kind of a high church Anglican. And the whole book is 500 pages on why the Reformation was actually a bad thing. And what he means is the whole idea of putting the Bible in the hands of the people and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and all of these things. He said, you know, it's got some good stuff to it, but in a sense, it actually destroyed the sense of the ecclesiology, the sense of the gathered people. It kind of made Christianity too personalized, and it took all the power away from the church, put it in the hands of the people, which sounds like a really good thing. But sometimes the acid bites back.
Mark Clark [00:33:59]:
It waters down Christianity. So much so that there's no power anymore in the corporate identity that we don't think about the church gathered. We think only about ourselves as followers of Jesus. And he says, don't you know, plural, Dear God, this is the church. There's power here corporately, because it's here that we go. My family has suffered this. And you get a hug and you get FaceTime and you break bread together and you sacrifice for one another and you give and you serve and you. It's corporate.
Mark Clark [00:34:33]:
That's the point. And so look what he does.
Mark Clark [00:34:38]:
If anyone destroys God's temple now, I guarantee you didn't think you were gonna hear this when you came to church today. God will destroy him.
Mark Clark [00:34:44]:
Oops, that's weird. If you're against the church, he said.
Mark Clark [00:34:51]:
God is gonna destroy you.
Mark Clark [00:34:52]:
Now, I didn't make that up. I'm just telling you what the text says. There's two reasons why you didn't think of that when you woke up this morning. The first is you don't think there's consequences for your sin. And the second is because your concept.
Mark Clark [00:35:04]:
Of God is way too safe. You don't think he destroys people anymore. You think he, like, pats them on the back and then just causes them not to exist anymore. And he's so happy to just have us on his team that he's not worried. There's not, like, fire in his eyes and judgment in his heart. He's just a nice guy.
Mark Clark [00:35:21]:
But he says you're against the church, he'll destroy you. Now think about that for a second. Don't think about the outcome. Don't think about the person who doesn't come to church and is not a Christian talking about you.
Mark Clark [00:35:34]:
Because every day you come against fellow.
Mark Clark [00:35:39]:
People who are part of the church.
Mark Clark [00:35:40]:
I'm talking about when's the last time you ripped off a fellow Christian? When's the last time you gossiped about a Christian leader?
Mark Clark [00:35:47]:
When's the last time you talked negatively? When's the last time you got in that business deal and you gave them way less than they should have got for it? And you cut them off and they're a brother, they're a sister in Christ, and you did that to them. How you treat Christians. He's saying there's going to be an evaluation on your life about how you treat one another. Read Matthew 18. It's a crazy passage. He's like, whoever works against these little ones, and he's talking about the church, they'd rather tie a millstone around their neck and throw themselves into the ocean. It'd be better for them. What?
Mark Clark [00:36:23]:
Just skip over that passage?
Mark Clark [00:36:26]:
That doesn't sound like Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:36:31]:
Okay, I want to end on a positive note because you're getting depressed. Let me end personally. So corporate, corporate, corporate, corporate. Okay, you get the point. But let's land it personally. Galatians, chapter five. Probably the best passage when it comes to the work of the Spirit in our lives as individuals, and we could go through this individually, but look, what he says is produced in the life of someone. I mean, he makes this very interesting distinction.
Mark Clark [00:37:05]:
If we live by the Spirit, let.
Mark Clark [00:37:09]:
Us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Mark Clark [00:37:12]:
You know what I think? I think there are people. There are people here who live by the Spirit, meaning you have the Spirit.
Mark Clark [00:37:20]:
You'Re a Christian, but you don't necessarily keep in step with it. It's not part of your daily life. He makes a distinction here, and he.
Mark Clark [00:37:28]:
Says some of you live by it.
Mark Clark [00:37:29]:
Meaning you're defined by it, but you don't actually keep in step with it. So what does it mean to actually keep in step with it? What does it look like? Looks like this. You want to know what the fruit of the Spirit in your life is? Love.
Mark Clark [00:37:39]:
Is this part of your life?
Mark Clark [00:37:41]:
Are you defined by a kind of love you can never explain by yourself? Let me give you an example of this. So some of you know, my dad was a jerk in regard to me and my family growing up. My parents got divorced when I was 8. He died when I was 15. And he never called me. He never told my brother and I. He was sick of cancer. He was dying of cancer for about a year.
Mark Clark [00:38:03]:
I hadn't seen him for about three years. And we got a phone call from the hospital that he was almost dead. And then we went to visit him and he was already dead.
Mark Clark [00:38:10]:
You know, for.
Mark Clark [00:38:12]:
Since I was 15 years old. The narrative has been in my life that my father, to be honest, he's a jerk.
Mark Clark [00:38:17]:
He didn't have the guts to call.
Mark Clark [00:38:19]:
Up his own two sons and tell them he was dying and to deal with it face to face. He just kind of passed away like a coward. That's been the narrative in my life. And I've probably loved him less because of it, to be honest.
Mark Clark [00:38:34]:
But then I had a conversation about.
Mark Clark [00:38:35]:
Three or four months ago where a friend of mine looked at me and suggested the idea that maybe the reason he didn't call was because he didn't want to put the weight of his own death and his cancer on his kid. That he hadn't seen his 15 year old son in three or four years. And so why enter back into his life when he only had a couple months left? And why burden Mark down with this thing that he can't do anything about? And you know what? Maybe that's true and maybe it's not. But the idea entered my brain and it made me maybe love him a little more. But you know why that happened? Because an external person suggested an idea. See, here's what you need. You know what the Holy Spirit brings into your life. The reason it brings love.
Mark Clark [00:39:19]:
I mean, it's not just a cute word.
Mark Clark [00:39:20]:
The reason it brings love is because you need someone from the outside to come in and interrupt the framework of your brain. Because inside your own filter, you are.
Mark Clark [00:39:30]:
An echo chamber of ideas that has.
Mark Clark [00:39:32]:
No idea what reality is until the spirit brings it about in your life. You need another person to interject in you.
Mark Clark [00:39:39]:
If you're a naturalist, all your ideas are just your ideas. So you don't know if they're good or bad. You have nothing to weigh them against. It's just an echo chamber of your own matrix. And what I got is, I got more love for my family.
Mark Clark [00:39:51]:
Father.
Mark Clark [00:39:51]:
Little bit. Because someone from the outside suggested an idea. That's what the spirit does in our life. That's why he produces love in a way that you could never love someone. Way more a supernatural way to do it.
Mark Clark [00:40:07]:
And then he says, joy.
Mark Clark [00:40:09]:
Joy, that's beautiful. Because all you want joy. By the way, the biggest motivating factor in the decisions you make in life is right here. Your own joy, your own delight, your own pleasure. It's the reason you married who you married. It's the reason you're gonna eat lunch where you're gonna eat lunch today. It's the reason every decision you make is about your own delight and your own pleasure and your own joy. What the Holy Spirit does is he produce.
Mark Clark [00:40:31]:
If you're not A Christian man. You just look at this, zone in on this as the reason you should become a Christian. The Spirit offers you joy. The kind of joy that it doesn't matter how many sex partners you have can't bring you that kind of joy that brings you happiness. There's a distinction between happiness and joy. Cause happiness can be struck from you depending on your circumstances. Joy. Can't.
Mark Clark [00:40:50]:
Talking joy here, like a deep, profound, doesn't matter. Some of you look to drugs, alcohol, experiences, money. All those things are replacements for the kind of joy the Holy Spirit brings into our life. And CS Lewis says it's like playing with a mud pie when you're being offered a holiday at sea. What the Holy Spirit brings into your life is profound joy, not happiness. And then he brings peace. He brings peace. Think about peace.
Mark Clark [00:41:18]:
How many of you live in anxiety in your life? I know when I counsel. When my wife and I counsel women, there's all kinds of anxiety in their life. But men too. Different kinds of anxiety. Anxiety about your kids, anxiety about your future, anxiety about your death, anxiety about your finances. We're a stressed out culture. We are so stressed out. Social media stresses us out.
Mark Clark [00:41:37]:
We compare ourselves with everybody else. Water and I of that life. We got constant fomo. Fomo.
Mark Clark [00:41:42]:
Fomo.
Mark Clark [00:41:43]:
All right. You know what FOMO is, all right? Fear of missing out. That's what you do every Friday night when you're sitting there and you're scrolling your Instagram and everyone's at a party with the reindeer cups and they're like. And they look half hammered and they're half dressed and you're sitting there in your PJs drinking marshmallows and you're like, why didn't I get invited to that party? Fomo. That's fear of missing out. You don't wanna miss out. You wanna be like everybody else. You have anxiety.
Mark Clark [00:42:11]:
You're stressed out. You're stressed. You're. So where's it gonna go? How am I gonna get peace in my life? How am I gonna get peace in my life?
Mark Clark [00:42:17]:
The Holy Spirit brings it in a divine way that you couldn't get anywhere else.
Mark Clark [00:42:21]:
The kind of peace that surpasses any kind of nonsense that you're gonna face.
Mark Clark [00:42:25]:
In this life, the circumstances. Patience brings you a divine sense of patience.
Mark Clark [00:42:30]:
The kind of patience that you would never have. Look, I have no patience in my life at all. I had no patience. I got in two fights with my oldest daughter yesterday. And my wife's like, standing there going, da, da, da, da.
Mark Clark [00:42:38]:
And I'm like, okay, Lord, please.
Mark Clark [00:42:39]:
Right in front of my.
Mark Clark [00:42:40]:
I'm just. Please, Lord, give me patience right now.
Mark Clark [00:42:42]:
Cause this one right here, this one right here, I'm done.
Mark Clark [00:42:45]:
Time to move out, kid.
Mark Clark [00:42:47]:
All right, I'm 12. It was a good run. All right? You're making me broke and you're ticking me off. Lord, give me patience. Give me patience, please. So then I'm like, okay.
Mark Clark [00:43:06]:
And the Lord healed me.
Mark Clark [00:43:08]:
And then literally two hours later, we're at dinner and boom, again.
Mark Clark [00:43:13]:
I'm like, please, Lord. Please, Lord. Please, Lord. So put her up on Craigslist and see how it goes. Okay.
Mark Clark [00:43:21]:
Kindness. The kind of kindness you could never like to be kind to somebody. Kind. I'm talking kind. The kind of kindness that would well up in you that defies logic. I was reading two books on World War II recently and the testimony of one of the guys who flew the planes, who dropped one of the atomic bombs on Nagasaki or Hiroshima, I can't remember which city. Hundreds of thousands of people decimated in a moment. And he was a Catholic, and he was talking about how hard it was because, yes, it was an understanding to win the war.
Mark Clark [00:43:47]:
And maybe more people would have died if he hadn't. But he blew up a bunch of Catholics and nuns and priests and convents when he dropped that bomb. And how he said, is my allegiance more to my country than my brothers and sisters in Christ? And I'm struggling with. And I don't know what to do. The kind of kindness that would go to that. To go, I don't know, the Holy Spirit Wells, that kind of unnatural kindness, the kind of thing that defies logic, goodness. The kind of goodness that you're the kind of person that's just that you're good for your family and your culture and your society and your church. I know a guy, he's a lawyer and he flies back and forth from Toronto every week.
Mark Clark [00:44:23]:
He basically lives half of his life in Toronto. And he's this high end lawyer, respected guy. Does very well in life, by the way. You know what he does at Village Church every Sunday? He puts a Village Kids T shirt on and he gets down on the ground. He plays with grade twos and threes.
Mark Clark [00:44:38]:
And he loves it.
Mark Clark [00:44:38]:
He'll fly back from Toronto early to make sure he gets to his church. So he puts his Village kids. That's called goodness. I'm talking about not sucking resources from the church for his own gain. You can't do that in your own power because you're naturally just a taker. That's how you were born. You take. You ever seen a baby? Take, take, take, take, take.
Mark Clark [00:44:59]:
Right. Let me, let me suck. Let me just suck and.
Mark Clark [00:45:05]:
Whatever.
Mark Clark [00:45:06]:
Listen. Faithfulness, the kind of faithfulness that defies natural explanation. Faithfulness being faithful to God and your call and who you are and your church and your family and your spouse. The kind of faith with only the spirit can well up in you.
Mark Clark [00:45:24]:
Okay, let me end on that note with this. A few years ago, you know, pray for us, I followed the story of a guy named Britt Merrick. Britt Merrick was a pastor in Los Angeles and him and his wife started dealing with cancer of their at that time six year old daughter. She got it once, she got it twice and I started reading their blog. She got it three times, she got it a fourth time. She's eight years old. Her name's Daisy. I'll show her your pic.
Mark Clark [00:45:52]:
I'll show you her picture. Her name's Daisy. And his wife would blog about it. And the last post in the blog is the that Daisy passed away at 8 years old after wrestling through three or four cancer treatments. And I'm gonna read you her mom's last blog and then pray for us. Dear friends, early Saturday morning, Daisy has departed from Earth to a place outside of time and space where her joy is complete. Heaven. Our darling girl gave us kisses at midnight with lips dry from thirst and hot with flowers fever tiny and sweet.
Mark Clark [00:46:31]:
The words that's awesome came from her tired body. After letting us know she was having good dreams, she's safely home. Finally. Well, I have refrained from giving details of her suffering over the last few weeks as it was immense. Out of respect for her dignity and loveliness, we've been keeping these painful moments sacred. Thank you for your partnership in loving our girl. Please know we're brokenhearted for ourselves but so happy for Daisy who's with Jesus in paradise. Able to run and eat and play with abandon, she left the Shadowlands for a place more real in every sense.
Mark Clark [00:47:04]:
On our last night on Earth, she requested we watch The Hobbit, the 70s version and dress like hobbits. If ever there was a girl confident in her own skin, it was her. Among her favorite ensembles are animal ears of all kinds. Astronaut, monster, pirate, dinosaur, mermaid, bear, cowgirl, fireman and explorer. Free to laugh and cry and hug. There's no single way to grieve. And while we miss her on Earth, we will pick up where we left off and we've privilege of going to where she is now. And then she ends it like this, she says.
Mark Clark [00:47:33]:
My final request to all you who read this blog. Love, love your babies, your husbands, mothers, sisters. Love each day like it's your last. And all you mamas out there, you've been entrusted with the precious gift of a human life who depends on you. Enjoy your gift. Breathe in the scent of your child's hair, their breath. Let them cook with you and make a mess of the kitchen.
Mark Clark [00:47:58]:
Play hide and seek with them.
Mark Clark [00:48:00]:
Build sandcastles with them. Take them on picnics. Read to them. Listen to them. Value and respect them. Never shame them. Your words, they will carry with them their whole life. And you have the power to give them wings or stunt their growth.
Mark Clark [00:48:12]:
Motherhood can be tough, but it's worth can be exhausting, boring, tedious, but never for long. You blink and they're gone. It's been my honor and privilege to love daisy these last 8 years. I'm thankful for every minute, the joyful and the terrible alike. Here's the crazy part that I wanted to say to you. The Sunday after Daisy died, her dad got up and Preached Matthew, chapter 10. That a sparrow doesn't fall to the ground when without it going through the Father's hand first. I could not do that.
Mark Clark [00:48:47]:
That's the kind of faithfulness that nature will never give you. Faithfulness to God in the face of absolute tragedy. Father, I pray that this would be our testimony in life that your spirit would be the supernatural wind that would create in us experiences and convictions and realities that nothing in this world could ever bring. Let us be those people who take that and use it for mission. Change us in Jesus good name we pray. Amen.