Mark Clark [00:00:03]:
First Corinthians, chapter four is where we will be. And before we get there, I want to announce a really special thing. Over the last three or four years, we've done golf tournaments here as a church every summer to be able to raise money to send out into the global mission scene. We've always been a church that hasn't really been about just kind of hanging out in the cities that we belong to. But how do we actually help the global scene, the poor, the widows, the orphans? And this year, we're really excited to be partnering with a ministry called Kawasha out of Uganda, Africa. It's an amazing ministry that really hones in Uganda. This particular part of it is the epicenter of HIV aids. You have generations that are totally gone.
Mark Clark [00:00:42]:
My family and I are actually going there in a couple weeks. My family has gone without me for a couple years. And just this amazing ministry has captured our hearts and the hearts of many people in our church. And the work that they do, having a clinic and doing a school, changing generations, it's honestly amazing work. And. And they see about 16,000 people through a clinic every year. We actually support a bunch of kids as a family. And you go there and you see that they literally have parents.
Mark Clark [00:01:11]:
The one girl that we support, her name is Natasha. She's six years old. She walks two hours to school every day. To the school that Kawasha does. She literally walks an hour and a half to get water. This is still a thing. We kind of forget it. And both of her parents, her father passed away of AIDS a few years ago when my wife was there, became good friends with her mother.
Mark Clark [00:01:33]:
And then my wife was there last March, and then by the time she came back a few months later, her mother passed away as well. So here's little Natasha living with her grandmother. You have entire generations wiped out through hiv, aids, through malaria, terrible things in this particular part. And yet you have this bastion of light, this ministry that's serving so many of these people, Literally thousands and thousands of people, tons and tons of kids. And they take about 1500 students. And when those students get supported, their whole family gets supported by way of and so on. And so we have a big vision. They have about $1.3 million worth of improvements that they need to make.
Mark Clark [00:02:11]:
They've been doing ministry for about 30 years. And I was talking to the director the other day, and he was saying, literally, most things are falling apart, and they would need about $1.3 million to be able to get them the next 30 or 40 years in regard to the clinic, the school, the things that they're doing. So we're gonna do that. A million dollars in a single day. We are gonna race through the golf tournament and send on to. So we're really excited about it. August 28, 2019. Make sure you put it in your calendar.
Mark Clark [00:02:43]:
There's different ways that you can help. You can. The big thing that we need right now and it's gonna be at all the lobbies and all the foyers of all of our sites is sponsorships. So if you have the businesses that you can get into sponsorships to be able to sponsor a whole promote something and you get your four golfers. We're gonna have a gala after. It's gonna be amazing. We're even gonna amp it up in regard to quality from past years. We're just gon just gonna be.
Mark Clark [00:03:09]:
The food's gonna be unreal. We have five amazing chefs that we've got everybody from David George was the master chef of Canada a few years ago. We have these five chefs lined up that are gonna do family style meal. It's gonna be unbelievable, an unbelievable night. And so get your sponsorships in. That's the big thing is we need you to go, okay, I have some kind of business or my friend does where we can sponsor a hole. Holes are more expensive than we've had in previous years. Cause we're trying to raise twice the amount of money.
Mark Clark [00:03:35]:
So don't bother sending the emails that are like, well, last year we only paid this for a hole, but this year it's this. It's like, I know we're trying to raise twice the money. It's math, right. So we want you to be able to support a whole be super generous. And then the second thing is be able to give us those auction items. So we make a lot of money off auction items, but not so much like here's we like experiences. So if you have that home in Hawaii or the desert or or some, you know, somebody famous like Tiger woods or somebody probably less famous, get us that so we can auction that off. That's a huge money.
Mark Clark [00:04:16]:
We make a great margin on those kind of items. People say I want that kind of experience. So bring go online thisisvillagechurch.com golf or text the word golf to whatever your site happens to be the number. And we want to get those auction items. And you signed up. Those businesses signed up. They will go quickly. We've done a few dinners with people who've been involved in the past and they've shown a Lot of interest already.
Mark Clark [00:04:42]:
And they're saying, hey, we want our business to be here, so make sure that you do it, because the spots will go quickly. We're very excited about it. August 28th, gonna be amazing. Okay, now, First Corinthians Masterclass, Chapter 4. Last week we had an encouraging sermon where I told you, I don't know that I actually even know a Christian. All right, now, that was part one. This is part two of that same kind of sermon. Okay, so 1 Corinthians, chapter four, verse 13.
Mark Clark [00:05:11]:
Paul starts to kind of lay out this idea. And the reason he's doing it, he's really trying to knock out the knees from us and tell us, listen, some of you guys, I'm gonna list a whole bunch of things that none of you are, and I'm gonna talk about who I am. And that's what he does as an apostle. He says, you guys, there's two kinds of people in the world. He says, there's the people who are up sitting with Caesar and they're watching people suffer, and they're watching people get beaten to death in the lion's den in the arena. And they're up there cheering with Caesar in the comfort and the pleasure of their own house. They have comfort. They have great square footage.
Mark Clark [00:05:45]:
Their life is good. They have great reputation, great jobs. They're powerful, they're honored, they're great people. They're good looking, they're strong. And then there's a group of people who are in the arena getting beat on and sacrificing for the good of the world. And the apostle Paul says, that's me. I'm in the arena. I'm on the edge.
Mark Clark [00:06:02]:
I'm of disrepute. I have no honor. I'm gonna show you that list in a sec. And then there's the group. That's okay. And you have to make a choice which group you are. And the reason he does all of this is not to discourage people. It's basically to say, listen, we all have to be humble enough, because what we begin to think about in our life is that we've made it in the world.
Mark Clark [00:06:23]:
We're worthy, we're good. And so God's gonna bless us because we're good. And he's trying to remember. He said in verse 10, 11, 12, he said, you become puffed up. And so this whole text is about trying to get you deflated, all right? It's trying to take away your puffiness. It's trying. Now, here's why. Because it derails your life.
Mark Clark [00:06:41]:
If you are the center of your own story, and you try to live life in your own power, it's going to be bad for you in the end. And here's what I mean. Last night, I was putting my three. I have three daughters for those of you who are new. I was putting them to bed last night. And our youngest daughter, who's 7 years old, has this little stuffy. All right? Now, I don't know, those of you with kids, you start down the stuffy train, and it's a complete gon show, all right? You give them one stuffy, and then they get attached to it. And then that stuffy becomes your whole life.
Mark Clark [00:07:10]:
And then everywhere you travel, where's the stuffy? Where's the stuffy? And there's more stuffies. And every time you're out, there's another stuffy. And it brings her so much joy. I can barely get into her bedroom because of all the stuffies. It's just like, okay, I gotta get into bed. There's stuff everywhere in regard to these little tiny stuffies. But there's one she got when she was first born. It's little pink and white, and she sucks on its little ears since she was a little kid.
Mark Clark [00:07:32]:
And it's got every. It's gone on every trip. It's gone on everything. And unbeknownst to me, three days ago, she lost it. And she's held on to it. I mean, it's impressive that she still has it after almost eight years. And so what did she do last night? I'm putting them all to bed. Okay, everybody gather around.
Mark Clark [00:07:49]:
Yes, Father. And we're all sitting around, and I'm praying with them, and I pray. And they said. And Bella was crying. I'm like, what's wrong? She's like, I lost my Stuffy. I'm like, you lost your Stuffy? I can't believe this. You've lost Stuffy. Okay? And I prayed.
Mark Clark [00:08:02]:
I said, father, help us find Stuffy. We've lost Stuffy the last three. I know there's other things going on in the world. Just take it easy, all right? Help us find Stuffy. We're missing Puppy. Puppy, Stuffy. Whatever. Please, Lord, show us your power.
Mark Clark [00:08:16]:
Show us your real. You know what flip spine is. Anyways, so, hey, kiss them all. Put my oldest to bed. She gets into bed. I go back, and my wife says, oh, here's Stuffy. All right. Three minutes later, oh, here's puppy.
Mark Clark [00:08:29]:
And. Oh, my goodness. And Bella's like, da, da, da, da. She goes And I go into my oldest and crawl into her bed, pray for her, give her a little kiss, okay, I'm going to bed. And I said, wasn't that amazing? We found stuffy. See, we prayed and then God answered prayer. We found stuffy. That proves that God exists.
Mark Clark [00:08:46]:
And my 12 year old looks and goes, so you're telling me if he didn't answer our prayers, that means he doesn't exist. And I'm like, what? And then I just ran away, all right? Cause she just philosophically outplayed me, all right? And so, because here's the thing, here's how we begin to think. We begin to think that if God answers my prayers exactly, exactly how I want him to, then he exists and he's good. But if he doesn't answer my prayers the way I wanted him to, then he doesn't exist or he's not good. That's the kind of puffiness, that's the kind of derailment that the apostle Paul's trying to save everybody from. Which is why he starts to say, guys, listen, you wanna understand who you are? Get down away from Caesar and the pleasure and the power structures and come down into the arena. And he says this. I am willing to be.
Mark Clark [00:09:40]:
He says, we are fools for Christ, meaning the world is gonna look at you and they'll begin to think things of you. He actually gives this long list. He says, we're fools, we're weak, right, you are held in honor, but we in disrepute. And he starts giving this long list of stuff. And he starts saying, this is me. I'm an apostle to the present hour. We hunger and thirst. Think about this in our life.
Mark Clark [00:10:08]:
We are poorly dressed. What? He's pausing. He's saying, here's people up there and here's me. We're buffeted, we're homeless, we labor, we're working with our own hands. We're reviled, we're persecuted. Think about your life and begin to say to yourself, is this actually you? Which one of these sides are you? And so he begins to say, okay, what are you? Are you a fool? Or does everyone respect you? Does everyone look at your life and say, and he's saying, there's a downward mobility that has to happen in your life. You have to start looking at this list and wonder to yourself, why isn't my life like this? Why isn't my life like the apartment? Why am I? Probably someone that fits more up to the people who are sitting up in the stands watching other people do list, and everything's fine in my life because you've sought after comfort, you've sought after ease, you've sought after pleasure, you've sought after the good things in life, so much so that none of these things actually reflect you. And that's the question we begin to ask.
Mark Clark [00:11:08]:
How is it that we're going to actually do downward mobility? Why would we want to go downward instead of upward? Here's two reasons. First, because God looks good in the world. When you have downward mobility and yet you have pure satisfaction in your life, that's when God looks good. God is most as one writer has said, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Not in the midst of prosperity, but in the midst of loss, in the midst of pain. Here's what I mean. When you drive an amazing car and you're happy, the world doesn't necessarily think the equation is that person must be happy because they have Jesus in their life right now. I'm not telling you you can't drive an amazing car.
Mark Clark [00:12:02]:
I'm telling you most people aren't going to say your happiness, your contentment, your joy is directly connected to the God of the universe because they see something else. They see this material thing, they see this beautiful shiny thing, and they equate some of your joy and happiness and life to that. That's just how it is. I'm not critiquing. I'm just saying that's how it is. I was sitting with a. With a leader of a global mission movement, and he was saying he was in China a few weeks ago, and he's sitting with these home church pastors in China, which is all they have.