Boasting | Dr. Ed Young | Woodway Campus

you'd be surprised if i told you what preaching is as the holy spirit hovered over the womb of the virgin mary she became pregnant and gave forth the logos the word of god that's what preaching is the holy spirit hovers over his word and uses human instrumentality and the proclaimer of the good news has to get pregnant and preaching is giving birth to god's truth and i'm so thankful that we have a great choir who serves as a divine obstetrician thank you god bless you all patricia gearing in lincolnshire england lost a young daughter to a capricious disease she had the daughter buried in a little sea coast cemetery outside of the small town in which they lived and she put as a marker for her daughter her young daughter a little cross she's received a letter from the authorities and said remove the cross we cannot have such an overpowering symbol of christianity in this place so she remove the cross and negotiated and got the right to put a marker a marker depicting mickey mouse that's rather typical today ladies and gentlemen in that disney's world view supplants the christian worldview that's the secular world we live in england and europe and canada and is sweeping across our whole lands get god get christ out of everything and especially the cross because the cross when the book of corinthians was written was called a scandal on it was a scandal and isn't it interesting it was a scandal in the first century and it's still a scandal in the 21st century the cross of the lord and savior jesus christ and by the way i understand why it was the scandal i understand why it was a scandal then and i understand why it's a scandal today we have forgotten basically what the cross represented and how the cross was used the cross was used by the roman empire they got it from the phoenicians because it was the most horrific brutal horrifying death you could imagine they would take the one who was to be crucified and strip that person naked they would whip him and whip him to the end of his life and then they would laugh at him shame him and then he would have to take in his weakened condition to pick up that cross and drag it through the city where everybody could see his shame and his embarrassment and they put the cross down and he would lie down face up on the cross and they wouldn't drive nails they would drive spikes in his hand and in his feet and that cross would be lifted up but it would drop in that slot they'd prepared bang and he would hang there usually for an extended period of time until he was dead that's the cross but you and i have taken the cross today and we sort of polished it we've taken the cross today and we've got it in brass and gold and we rat around our necks and around our arms our hands and we have beautified and we have made the cross an art object i saw only last week a cross made out of china beautiful beautiful and we have different kinds of crosses jerusalem cross the greek cross et cetera et cetera and we've taken it and put it on top of of our churches all over the world the cross is that powerful symbol of christianity but you see we've forgotten that because we so polished it up for example let's just say for a moment that we took down any reference of the cross over our church or churches all around the world instead we put up there an electorate chair yeah let's put an electric chair up over the church and churches all the world what would people think about us they would come and say are those people out of their mind they got an electric chair in a prominent place maybe before the altar maybe on top or in the side and what in the world these people the electric chairs that's where we fry people that's what we kill the most heinous criminals that we have in all of our society and they are worshipping that kind of god a little different isn't it changes and so we see the cross as a powerful symbol of our faith but we've forgotten what the cross is all about i understand it was a scandal there in corinth and so we open our bibles begin to see exactly what was going on in our scripture we're studying the book of first corinthians we've called it first houstonians because current in that day was a reflection of where we are today in our world and our culture and tragically in that day as in today the city was influencing the church more than the church was influenced in the city and so we've got a challenge as christians what do we do in our rapidly changing society in which there is an effort to if there's any semblance of christ and christianity and god left in any major institution let's rush and get that symbol out let's take out god take out christ take out the cross man we better do that so how do we live in this day and age that's a question we ask ourselves and we hear ask all the time do we go in isolation we we remove ourselves and the world and the culture all we can and we just huddle up in little happy pious corners together is that what we do or do we go out in the world and we accommodate we compromise we get along to go along what do we do separate become absolved in our culture the counsel is given by jesus in john chapter 17. jesus said you are in the world hello but he says you're not of the world you're in the world but he says don't let the world get in you and so we come to the cross and the cross defines us and we'll see the response that the greeks or gentiles they're interchangeably used in our scripture by the way a gentile is anybody who's not a jew it's a jew and everybody else but we see how the greeks responded and we understand how the greeks responded let's go back to first corinthians chapter 18. paul says for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of god to the greeks the gentiles the cross was foolishness they were thinking look we specialize in erudition the greeks were a brilliant people athens in that day was a modern boston massachusetts it was modern boston it was the settle of thinking and and advanced people and then that day cards recognized exactly what we recognize today what gives us credibility what gives us credentials what is the currency that we have today you and i right here where we live i can tell you exactly what it is we know what it is it is wisdom and power man if you're thought to be smart have enough degrees and you have insight man you've got wisdom and boy we honor wisdom intellect erudition people who can articulate that people who have moved out with with wisdom that'll open a lot of doors if were esteemed and thought to have worldly wisdom well it not sure dwell sure it will that's a part of our cash that we have and also power man you have power because you inherited it with your name you have power because of what you have achieved you have power and therefore the whole area of influence evolves around wisdom and power today as it did in the first century and so we see the athenians there and we see the greeks and they said you mean to tell me that cross that cross the romans used to crucify everybody but romans by the way you know a roman would never be crucified no matter what they did that was for everybody else that was for the run of the mill but the romans no no and then they saw the greeks that that cross that cross to them it was foolishness that god visiting this earth as the promised one would ever die such a shameful painful unbelievable death of the common lowest criminal i get that i get that you get that and look how paul elaborates on that it's magnificent look here at verse 19. for it is written he said i will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent i will frustrate he said in other words how we think in a secular vein he said that's not gonna operate in the way area we're understanding and then we have an interview i think of three people three of the intelligentsia three of the elite in scholarship and this is these are the three look at it he says where is the wise person huh who do we think of as somebody who's wise albert einstein how about oh albert and you think he was wise enough brilliant brilliant and the question that we're going to ask all of these three and i'm putting a name with them not in the bible my name where is the wise the question they're asking these three here paul is tell me how to know god okay he said tell me how to know god so where is the wise let's take albert and you go to albert einstein and say albert man you're a physicist brilliant and albert einstein off the chart the theory of relativity so albert you're so smart and you're so wise i know you father spinozza another philosopher and spinoza said exactly what you read in romans chapter 1 it says look here's all the evidence of god here's the created order is the moon the stars all that's been given in nature in natural revelation and paul says in romans you know there is a god but you don't know god there's plenty evidence of that irrefutable natural revelation so einstein was in on that as he followed spinoza and so here he says where is the wise and i say boy here's albert einstein albert tell us how to know god can you do that a physicist albert einstein by the way found quantum physics invented it and spent the rest of his life trying to prove it didn't exist but that's for another time but gosh the brilliance okay albert can you tell us how to know god howard says no i can't huh and let's interview somebody else here look at the next little question says well where is the teacher of the law here's a teacher of the law let's just stay confucius now confucius was a wise teacher not unlike the book of proverbs and confucius in the eastern world the oriental world he was the authority on how to live basic basic principle of life he taught the law the principle of life so let's go to confucius confucius my glory how many people you've influenced tell us confucius how to know god confucius would say i can't do it no and then we interview someone else and then the question is asked where is the philosopher of our age now we're there philosophy of age who is that let's take it some of socrates we go off to suck and say man i want to ask you something you you are a great philosopher and we got the soteric way of logic you know what is socrates in his apologetics trying to prove something he never landed anywhere he kept asking questions somebody would say this he'd say what about that they'd answer that he'd say what about that what about that what about that that's a socratic method is it not just ask questions and questions and questions and questions and never land anywhere never really believe anything that's socrates well let's go to old socrates socrates look man we've run this by albert einstein we've gone through confucius and these are the great brilliant areas of study in all the world socrates man how can i know god socrates says i don't have anything to say and then we come and we read the rest of it and it is really powerful he says has not god made foolish the wisdom of the world the einsteins the confucius and the socrates for since the wisdom of god the world through its wisdom does not know him did you get that the world through its wisdom does not know him that was true in the first century it's absolutely true in the 21st century he said god was pleased through the foolishness of what was proclaimed to those who believe the greeks said man that cross is absolutely laughable but that's that's god this is planet that's who you worship man that's that's absurd and then the jews they looked at the cross and we see what they said and the jews demand signs and the greeks look for wisdom but we preach proclaim christ crucified a stumbling block to the jews and foolishness to the gentiles isn't that something the jews said when i look at the cross it's weakness that's where you'd figured out if you were thinking logically and sin somebody dying on the cross i mean that's that's the weakest thing you could imagine the jews always want to sign you read the old testament the book of judaism the torah you read this book and you discover there are miracles all over the place i mean in in genesis man and you go on the parting of the sea elijah elisha the miracles they perform and you look at the whole history of the hebrew faith there's miracle after miracle after miracle and sign after sign after sign so they look at jesus and they say well this is your messiah he said no no give me a sign the cross is weakness it's weakness we can't go along with that show me something and they did this to jesus all the way through his life did he not he performed miracles he brought people back to life everywhere he went and all the jewish leaders say well i miss that i i wasn't there when that happened you know show me something alakazam boom bang give me a sign to show show me a sign and this is what we have now if the greeks with all of their emphasis on thinking and logic they looked at the cross and said that's just stupidity and the jews with all their religious tradition they looked to the cross and said my my my that is the ultimate picture of weakness but if you have time sometime take your bible and look at isaiah chapter 55 verses 8 and 9. god is speaking and god says very simply and gives us a very profound principle and let me read it to you to be absolutely accurate in what he says isaiah 55 by the way how many have your bibles with you hold your bible up bring your bible next week don't come here without your sword you used to have them in the pew but man we're covetitis and so we don't have there anymore they'll be coming back so look at what this verse says god says for my thoughts are not your thoughts this god speaking neither are my ways your ways my ways declares the lord as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts anybody have a problem with that god says the way i think is higher the way you human beings think and my ways the way i'd have you to operate and we are they're they're higher than your ways and the question evidently is asked well lord what is the distance between the way we think and the way you act and the way you think what is the distance and god says it's the distance from the earth all the way to heaven how far is that here we have atmosphere we move up into the higher and higher levels we move up and up until we get in outer space and we say here we are on earth we go all the way out of space unless we go to the constellation orion and go to that one star belty goose how far are you and i from belty goose in outer space the atmosphere well how far is that do you measure it in inches or feet or miles no no it's too far you measured it remember light years you turn on a light and that's ultimate speed how long does it take that light to reach all the way up to the star belt it goes it is light years away that's how far the way we think and our ways are from the ways of god oh this brings us right back to the cross don't miss it don't miss it right back to the cross so we go to the cross as the greeks do we say man this is foolishness no the bible says the cross for you greeks who give yourself to mental capacities oh no no no no no that cross is not foolishness it is the wisdom of god we've already seen it his ways and his thoughts are it is his wisdom well what does this mean and we touched on this already the brokenness that you and i have between god remember we're born not in relation with god but separate from god and we're separate with god and we can't get through god unless there is a mediator that comes in and that's jesus on the cross jesus on the cross was a scapegoat remember yon kippur how the high priest would put his hand on a scapegoat and he would list all the sins of the nation of israel man it took me a long time didn't it i imagined he said somebody said did i miss anybody's sin no no you got me and that scapegoat would be sent out one goat would be killed and slaughtered there at the altar as a sacrifice and that would give the sins of the high priest and his court forgiveness and those who were present but for the rest of the nation all the sins would be laid on the scapegoat what does this gate go it's something that takes the place of those who are guilty scapegoat years ago i was in a stream of traffic and everybody was flying by me and you know i was going about the speed limit but patrolman came out and pulled me over i was a scapegoat judge how would you handle that case if i came before you and so what we have here is jesus is a scapegoat because we can't barge into god because we're too unclean but jesus took all of our sin and there was a cosmic transaction there and he paid the price for you and me and therefore the cross is not foolishness it is the wisdom of god because that's how we get right with god we couldn't go in and of our own selves how do you add one-half and one-third do you know how to do that now how would you add one-half and one-third you got to get a common denominator and you got 3 6 and 2 6. now you've got 5 6. one-half and one-third is 5-6 not going too fast for anybody am i that used to be in the third grade now it's in kindergarten but that's what jesus is he is our mediator he represents before us before god and therefore we can talk and pray and be forgiven that is a big word propitiation so we see the greeks oh that's foolish says no it's the very power it is the very wisdom of almighty god the jew says where the cross is weak we come back and the bible says oh no for you jews looking for a sign you think that is weakness that cross is the very dynamite the dunamis the power of god how is that it's because when we get right with god and jesus provides that and that's the wisdom of god and now guess what that cross is so powerful it changes you and me from the inside is anybody here uh having a problem having an appetite say no i hope i'm hungry tomorrow anybody here say boy i sure want to be thirsty wouldn't that be good i'd like to be thirsty you see to be hungry and to be thirsty it's just built in us so see when we receive jesus christ and he is in us and a little phrase in here we'll look at next time in christ when we're in christ he begins to change our appetites no longer do i have to try to be a christian i talk to somebody and they say well pastor i'm trying to be a christian i know they don't know the first thing about being a christian and they don't know it they just told me they absolutely were not a christian you don't try to be a christian christ in christ comes in and changes you from inside your appetites and where there was lust it begins to disintegrate where there was pride and we say oh boy let me tell you who i know what i do oh no it begins to disintegrate and all of those things that are not pleasing when we try to brag our subtle brags that we have it begins to disintegrate because christ changes us inside and that is a very power of god nothing else has that kind of dunamis that kind of dynamite does it and so we see the magnificence of the cross all of a sudden it's not foolishness it's the very wisdom of god because vertically we get right with him well it is weakness no it's not weakness it's the very power of god because that power changes us inside out and therefore we look at the cross we don't say you know i wonder how tall that cross is we think the cross will say i wonder how long those arms are we look at the cross we'll say i wonder how much that cross weighs no ladies and gentlemen my brothers and my sisters we look at the cross and we ask i wonder if this high enough to reach the heaven vertically i wonder if those arms are long enough to include a sinner like you and like me and i wonder if it weighs enough to do exactly what we were singing about early it weighs enough to tip the scale of grace and mercy in my favor the cross stumbling block but yet it is the very wisdom gets us right with god it is a very horizontal ability because we're chains inside to get right with ourselves and right with the world in which we live as we become redemptive agents in the 21st century the cross the cross the word goat g-o-a-t we know it's acrostic greatest of all time right right now the word go to call according to marion webster in her dictionary his dictionary it has now become a word do you know that recently it meant the four standards it takes for an acrostic or some other new word to be legitimized and to be in webster's dictionary goat is now a word and now we have goats greatest of all time they look at every profession every sport everybody's ever lived the greatest this the greatest that who is the greatest of all time and they've got a long list a whole bunch of goats everybody argues about oh no he's a goat here no that should be the goat they look at the business world who's the goat when you look it up you'll discover that for all the arguments about who's the greatest of all time in various endeavors in various activities the name tom brady comes up four to one next to anything else that's right tom brady tom brady backup quarterback on the freshman football team in high school didn't win a game backup didn't even play didn't win the game mediocre high school quarterback played college football had a good arm but he was not an athlete then and he's really not an athlete now if you know anything about athletics he's not an athlete but a good arm somehow he was drafted and new england got him they had drew bledsoe as a quarterback all pro this was the year 2000. out of all the college athletes available to be drafted and signed into pro football out of all of them brady will sign the 199th person selected sixth round he just got in by the hair of his chinny chin chin but drew bledsoe gets hurt early part of the season 2001 and brady comes in they win the conference they win the super bowl in new orleans and after the game coach belichick asks brady to come say tom come ride in the limo with me as they leave the stadium and brady got in there and sat down by him and belichick said tom you played a pretty good game that was it that's all he said they just wanted to see well the next year they took a poll as to who would be the quarterback listening a lot of different quarterbacks and brady was last in the opinion of the public even after he'd taken the super bowl on it but you know a little bit about football he's now been to six super bowls he'll be in his seventh super bowl today interesting he's married to a model that's the highest paid model in history has beautiful children international fame i mean the name any base movie star handsome 42 years old but yet he's in the shape that someone would be proud of if they were 18 because he's worked he's exercised he's eaten properly and he is a specimen make no mistake about it hadn't lost a step people think so he was interviewed recently and the interviewer went over all of his accomplishments i mean look at any base you want to cover i mean wisdom power i mean he's got credentials and he can go anywhere anytime anyplace anywhere on the place boy that's tom brady oh goodness gracious i mean he's got it all this interviewer interview to ask him he said tom you you've reached the pinnacle the pinnacle of life that few people have ever reached what do you do now and brady said you know surely there's something more than this there's something more than this the interviewer said well like what and brady got a far-off look in his eye and he said i wish i knew i wish i knew that's something more more than something more than this that more than i would say to tom brady it's not something on it that more than is a person and i want to introduce you tom brady i would say to that person and that person is not any ordinary kind of person in fact right today interesting enough a portuguese soccer player cristiano ronaldo has the second most followers in all the world 101 million followers follow this portuguese soccer player second to the number one person who has followers all over the world who has 2.54 billion followers tom i want you to meet this person he's born in bethlehem backwoods town no impressive families he was sort of a carpenter for a while with his dad he became an itinerant type of proclaimer of the kingdom and truth but you know it was sort of he had no credits with jerusalem the power establishment of the day oh he did put on the greatest fish fry in history and by the way he took you know two little old fish and five little pieces of loaves and he fed five thousand people that that's pretty pretty impressive and he has a lot of names he's called a wonderful counselor he's redeemer mighty god prince of peace the rose of sharon the messiah oh man he's got all kinds of names and by the way tom his daddy wrote the book that's been the best seller since the beginning of time when he was first penned that's who his daddy is tom in fact tom i would say to you i want to introduce you to and i say this very reverently god's goat god's coat and that vacancy in your life will be filled with with him and he'll change you inside and you'll not be improved or better you become a brand new person in jesus christ at this moment i didn't know what to say except to say that the same thing i'd say to tom brady i'd say the identical same thing to that abandoned guy who spent last night under i-10 in a cardboard box addicted and probably now mentally deranged i'd say the same thing to him that i'd say to tom brady because god's goat in a life will change any life therefore i wonder if we couldn't give praise to our lord and savior jesus christ and people who can't hear they give praise like this could we do that people who can't hear silent here would everybody give praise to god like this would you do it in the balcony you got me would you hold your hands out and give praise to god right now could you do that some can't do that oh good just give praise to god praise to god praise to god and now i think as we honor him let's give him praise a standing ovation of pro of praise and acclamation to our lord god almighty jesus christ who is the wisdom and the power on this earth our heavenly father oh lord our lord what a wonderful time to be in your family to have your church and to be the salt the light the leaven the key the water that permeates all of our society with the fabulously good news that you can change any life by the power of the cross [Music] which enables us lord to have an entree right to you which enables us to realize your power is changing us inside

Channel: Second Baptist Church, Houston

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Length: 41min 28sec (2488 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 08 2021