Church Gone Wild, Week 2

Tim Rivers | July 14, 2024

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Transcription

What's up everybody? Give Jesus some praise in this place. Anybody love Jesus? Has he been good to you? Any day that you get to spend with the Lord is a good day. Even if you think you're having a bad day, as long as you have a relationship with Christ, you know it's all going to work out. No matter what you're going through, no matter what you're facing is all going to work out. All the guys. Make some noise in this place.

Yo. Wasn't Friday good? Yeah. If you're a man in this place and you were there on Friday, man, we had a great time. Guys showed up. We got to connect fellowship worship together, hear a word, eat barbecue, eat barbecue, and then regret it on Saturday morning. But so thankful for all the men that showed up to the men's event, and for those of you that didn't have an opportunity to be there this time, you will have an opportunity at our next men's event, which will happen in October. We'll give you the dates more specifically. But hey, I'm so grateful that you're here. If you are a guest with us, we want to say Welcome to Embassy City Church. If you're here, just checking it out. Take your time, check it out. Make yourself at home. Oftentimes when people are in transition, they can feel the pressure to come into a place and try to figure out the membership or how it works, but there are some times when you're in transition, you just need to go to a place and rest.

Don't worry about membership, don't worry about getting involved, just rest. If you've gone through a traumatic church experience, let me just comfort you. This is a place of safety. It's a place of safety. We're not going to put pressure on you. You can come, you can sit in the back, you can wherever you want. Just rest, relax. When Janice and I were in transition, and I've told you all the story before, how that our connection at the church we were at ended abruptly. And that Saturday, I mean that Sunday I went to service and then Janice and I started to visit churches to find out where we were. Now, I've been in ministry for years by this point, and when you've been in ministry for years, you feel like you got to find a place immediately get plugged in, serve, do all that. I remember a pastor telling me, we went down to, we were visiting a cousin of ours and a pastor told us the most vulnerable place for sheep is when they're between shepherds. And he said, the best thing you can do in this moment is find a place You may not jive with it. You may not be the thing that you're looking for in all its totality, but just sit and heal and take the word in and let God put that salve on you.

So if you're here and you're in transition, we welcome you. Let this be a place of healing for you if you feel so led to do. Amen. Amen. And if you're a guest with us, we're glad that you're here. If you're watching online, thank you for being here and for all the Embassy City members, what's up? What's up?

I'm glad that you're here. We're continuing our serious call. Church gone wild. But before we get into it, I do want to address something our nation is right now in confusion by the assassination attempt yesterday of Donald Trump, a presidential candidate. And let me just say this. When something like this happens, we need to put our political views aside. This has nothing to do with politics. It has nothing to do with partisan lines. This has to do with us being commanded by the Lord in the scriptures to pray for those who are in authority in our country and to those who are trying to get into different places of authority in our country. It is incumbent upon us as the church to do what the scripture says regardless of how it makes people feel. And some people are uncomfortable and some people are going to take this and make this political and try to merge politics and religion. And I'm not here to do that, but I am here to say, the scripture says if you strike the shepherd, the sheep will scatter. And we don't know what the end result is going to be of this presidential election, but what we do know is scripture commands us to pray for those who are in offices of authority. Why? Because God is the one who raises up and sets down. That’s it.

Don't get it twisted. I mean vote. I am not a political pastor, so you're never going to get me up here, vote for this candidate and do this. I'm a pastor, so I'm going to go to the word of God and say, what does the word of God say? But don't get it twisted. God is the one who is in control, and God will use Pharaoh to do his bidding and God will use David to do his bidding, but it's incumbent upon us that when things, and as a body of Christ, we condemn violence, we condemn any attempt of violence and especially taking somebody else's life. So we're going to take a moment, we're going to pray over our country. Is that all right?

Yes. Dear Lord, we just pray protection over this entire country. We pray over our leaders whether we agree with them or we don't. We agree with you and we know that you are in control, that you raise up kings and you set them down. God, you are the one who is in control, and we devote ourselves to your will and to your way and to your purpose. Help us not to get caught up in politics in this moment. Help us to stay away even though we're tempted to help us to stay away from getting involved in the quarrels of the flesh and help us to dig into the spirit and see, Lord, what would you have us do as you commanded Daniel? So you command us that we should pray for our nation to pray for the protection of our leaders to pray, Lord, that violence has no place, but that your peace may reign in our country, protect our children, protect our schools, protect our city, protect our state, protect our military, protect our families, protect all those that are around us, and we give you all the praise and glory and knowing that you'll have your way no matter what in Jesus' name. And everybody say amen. Grab your Bibles. We're going to one Corinthians chapter one,

One Corinthians chapter one. Again, we are continuing the second week of our serious church going wild. If you weren't here last week, we started off talking about how God will, when some of y'all know

God will sustain you. Before we talk about the problems happening in the church, one thing that has to be established in your line that no matter what you go through, no matter what you face, no matter what is happening, you may be on a mountaintop or in the valley low. God is the one who sustains you. So we're going to continue the topic. So last week we went from verses one through nine. Today we're going to go from verse number 10 through 17. I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree

That there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind, the same judgment for it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you by brothers, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul or I follow Apol or I follow PHAs or I follow Christ. Is Christ divided. Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Man, I thank God that I baptize none of you except for Crispus CMUs. That's what goes through my head. I'm sorry, hot and ready. You will never read that scripture the same again, Christmas in Gaius so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. I did baptize also the household of ness. Beyond that I do not know whether I baptized anyone else for Christ, did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom. Let the cross of Christ be emptied of its power as a potent scripture right there. Here's my title for today, y'all ready? Celebrity preachers.

Okay,

Now get ready because it may not go the direction you think I'm going, but I'm going to talk about celebrity preachers. Is that all right? Dear Lord, we thank you so much for your goodness and mercy. We thank you for your word. I pray that you would have your way, that you would do what only you can do. We are submitted to you. We are submitted to you, not just now, but our entire lives forevermore submitted to you. Give us ears to hear, a heart to receive and a mind to understand which your word would speak to us. We give you name, all the praise, the glory and the honor. In Jesus' name we pray and everybody say amen. Amen. I don't know when I said celebrity preachers, you saw a face. I was telling somebody that I'm going to be talking about celebrity preachers. That'll be my topic. And they said, are you going to name names? I said, nah.

So in 20 13, 4 months after Janice and I got married, Janice and I felt led to move to Sri Lanka, the country of Sri Lanka to do submission work there. Now my mom is from Sri Lanka and so I'm half Sri Lankan. And so we had some family there, but we didn't really have a plan. We were mid twenties. When you're mid twenties, you just go with the flow. So we bought one way ticket and went there with a plank and of prayer. And so we moved there, we moved, got a little apartment and we started to walk around. And the way Janice and I like to vacation or visit places, we like to be integrated into the culture and society, which we're going to. We're okay with taking some time out and trying all the different foods and really trying to integrate and what is life like here in Sri Lanka? So we ate curry and rice and we made the mistake of eating some street vendors food that the locals didn't eat at, and Janice was down with food poisoning for two weeks, laid up in the bed, but we just wanted to be a part of the culture. But how many of y'all know that if you visit, whether you go out of state or you go out of the country, you may want to integrate where you're at, but at a certain point you're like, man, I miss the food and the things from home. If you have grown up in Texas and you go anywhere else, at some point you're going to miss Texas barbecue.

We make brisket different here. I'll fight you for that. Our barbecue is,

It is good. So after a few weeks of being in Sri Lanka and really being integrated and enjoying it and having fun, we started to want some things that we didn't have access to. So when you go to another country, especially a third world country, there's two things they tell you not to fool with. Number one is the water, unless that water is boiled or it's bottled, don't fool with it. You be sitting on the toilet for several days if you don't want to do it. Number two is you don't flow with the milk because of the way it's pasteurized and different bacterias and things of that. You don't mess with milk in these different countries. But one of the things that I was missing is ice cream. Any ice cream fans in here? My favorite ice cream is cookies, cream. It's got to have the N cookies cream. That's my favorite ice cream. And so after being in the country a while, and what you have to understand about Srilanka, it's a tropical country, and so it is very, very hot. It may be 90 degrees and it feels like 120 and the humidity is 80%. Now to give you context, the average humidity here in Dallas is like 45% double that. So you take a shower dry off and you're sweating again.

It's literally you just sweat the whole time. So we were wanting some ice cream, but we couldn't eat the ice cream because we couldn't have the milk. So one day we're walking down the street and as we're walking down the street, we look up and guess what? We see a sign that says Baskin Robins. I don't know about you, but I do believe that there's a prayer answering God because one thing I knew about Baskin bins is they're going to import this ice cream and we about to go ham, and I already had it in my mind. I'm about to get a double scoop of cookies, cream ice cream sugar, waffle cone, somebody about to go buy some Bluebell after the service. And have you ever made up in your mind that you're about to have something and the salivary glands are going off, your mouth is watering you. So we stret into this ice cream parlor and I'm excited, man, I'm ready. I'm about to quench this desire to have to have ice cream. And when we walk in the cooler that they have, they got that glass and you can see all the different flavors. We walk in, we walk up to the glass and we notice that the bins are empty.

My heart was like, wait a minute, somebody, that's all right. Maybe they don't have the mango, they don't have a coconut, blah, blah, blah. So we walk down and we're looking in the cooler and none of the bins have ice cream. We get right down to the end of we saw three flavors, vanilla,

Chocolate,

And strawberry.

That's all

They had. I wanted cookies and cream. I looked at Janice, Janice looked at me and Janice knows like, oh boy, he probably going to say something. And so I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe y'all got the ice cream in the back. Maybe the shipment didn't come in. You know what I'm saying? So I said, Hey y'all, did y'all have cookies and cream? They looked at me like it's the first time they ever heard of it. I said, this is not a good sign. I said, do y'all have cookies and cream? They said, no. I said, are y'all getting cookies and green? They said, no. I said, y'all have a freezer in the back that has other flavors? They said, no. I said, where's the manager? They said, no.

I Said, boy, we in trouble now. And then I started to think, wait a minute, even on brand, is this a knockoff Baskin and Robins? Because what you said about Swanka is they got some knockoff places. They had a place called Burgers King.

Now they just added an S to the burger and called it Burgers King. So I was like, is this a knockoff Baskins Robins? And then I started thinking, you know what, y'all ain't on brand because when you look at your own logo, it says Baskin Robbins. What's unique about their logo? If you look at it in the middle of the BNR is a 31. And the reason why there's a 31 is because in 1945 when Baskin Robbins was established, they opened up with 31 available flavors. So I got to know where is the cookies and cream? Now here's the thing. I actually love vanilla ice cream and I just wanted ice cream. So I knew vanilla would've quenched my thirst and my appetite for ice cream. I'm taking a long time talking the story. It just tells you how passionate I am about this.

So I settled for vanilla, but I was not happy even though I hadn't had ice cream for a long time, and it was queing the appetite that I have, I was upset because it wasn't my flavor. So the next week we came, same thing, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. I said, who's the owner? I'm about to go to corporate. We came then next week, we came the next week. And because they didn't have cookies and cream, I said, as a matter of principle, we ain't coming back. And so we went months of no ice cream because they didn't have the flavor that I wanted. Now here's the thing. Y'all all agree, right? You ever been to a restaurant if they don't have your stuff, you're going to walk out. If you go to a restaurant and you want crab legs, and they said, no, we got crab fingers. That literally happened to me at Papa's the other day. I said, we out. I don't know what crab fingers are. I don't want to know. I'll see y'all is okay to be picky when it comes to ice cream, but how many of us will take that same mentality and bring it into the church to where we can't hear a word from God? We can't get blessed because the flavor by which it's coming is an appealing to us. And so while God can quench your thirst for a word by someone, we reject it because it ain't the flavor.

Here's the thing. We live in a build a bear society. Have any parents ever been conned into going to build a bear? And I mean, it's

Not hating on the company, but if you ever go to builder Bear, they got the cottons flowing in the middle. You take your kids there and your kids are excited, you get to pick your furry friend and then they put it in there and fill it up with cotton. And then you go from there and you get to pick clothes and shoes and little sound making things and accessories. Then by the time you get to pay for it, they're like, it's $595 and 35 cents. And you're like, Hey, can y'all open that seam and take that cotton back out? We're going to five and below. But the thing is that same mentality of customization, the problem is it works. If you're talking about building a house, it works when you're talking about customizing your condo. It works. When it talks about customizing your car, it works when you're talking about customizing your clothes, you can be specific about what you want in a relationship. The problem is when we bring a mortality of customization into the house of God, it becomes deadly.

This is what Paul was dealing with because Paul says, Hey, listen, y'all are divided. Y'all got some problems. And then Paul says, let me just address the first problem. Now, they had a lot of problems. Think about it. They had problems with sexual immorality, questions about theology. They had all these things. But the first division that Paul addresses is he says, y'all are divided on your preference of preachers. One Corinthians chapter one, verse 11, let's look at it, for has been reported to me by Chloe's people. That sounds so secret service like you know what I'm saying? By Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul. I follow Apol, or I follow PHAs or I follow Christ. Paul clarifies that what was causing division, that the word divisions is actually means to tear. It's like a tear in a piece of clothing. He says, what's causing a tear and what's causing quarreling, which actually is clicks within the church, is your preference for a certain flavor of preacher. Now, what's interesting is that Paul doesn't address the preachers. He addresses the church.

He doesn't say anything about Apol. He doesn't say anything about S. He says something about himself like, I'm not the guy, but he says, look, I'm not even going to address the preachers. I'm going to address the church because the church is divided. In other words, they're coming in the service. When they see that PHE is preaching, they walk out because they prefer Apol.

They won't come to service unless their favorite preacher is preaching. And Paul says, this is the problem because your preference for style is now being elevated above the power of God. Now we have to pause and consider the social context in which the church of Corinth is in. Because what you have to remember about Corinth as a city is that Corinth was obsessed with fame and celebrityism, and they had a culture that was obsessed about status. In fact, the isbe and games, which is the type of Olympics was happening there every two years, which brought in all of these athletes and affluent people to come watch the games. In fact, if you read the letters and the epistles of Paul, you'll notice that Paul makes a lot of reference, makes a lot of sports analogy references. He talks about the games, he talks about gladiators.

He talks about boxing because he understands in that culture, they were obsessed with statuses. They were obsessed with people having fame. And in that time period, the most famous people, the ones who were at the top of the food chain, the Hollywood celebrities at the time of Corinth were the orators. So what would happen is an orator, a teacher would come into town and they would find a place or they'd get an audience or they'd get invited to a house and they would try to woo people with their amazing speeches, with their understanding of philosophy and their rhetoric, and they would be such animated speakers and they would draw crowds. And the better you were at speaking, the more crowds you could draw and the more crowds you drew, the richer you got and the richer you got, the more famous you got. So you had all these people that were just, they were ISTs. This is what they did for a living, and they became super famous. And it's okay except for that mentality permeated itself into the church.

So now the church was picking preachers based on how accepted they were from the outside culture. So they started looking at preachers through the value system of what the world outside uses. And so they were looking at status and they were looking at style, and people were drawn to some preachers more than the others, not based on their theology. Paul doesn't make any mention of whether or not Apol, Isus or himself or Christ disagreed with theology. He said, this is not a problem with theology. This is a problem with you elevating your preference of style and trendiness and cool factor and acceptance by those outside the church that now you have divisions within the church.

The church seemed to have placed more value in presentation in the power of God and the people that he mentions Apol, he was in Alexandrian and a Paul. We don't know a lot about him. He's introduced to us in Acts chapter 18. We do know that he was steeped in the scripture. He understood the scriptures really, really well, and he was a phenomenal orator. And he goes to Ephesus where he admits Priscilla and Aquila, and the Bible says that he had a lot of understanding about the scriptures, but he didn't have a lot of understanding about Christ. And so Aquila and Priscilla begin to teach him the worm the way more perfect. And then at some point when Paul leaves Corinth after establishing the church in Corinth and being there for a year and a half, he leaves. It seems to be that Paul invited Apolis to come because he understood that he could probably preach to this culture better than anybody else. So Apollo comes to Corinth and he's teaching there and now people are like, ah, that's more like what I'm talking about. Because now I can invite my friends and they can see a relevant preacher.

Now I can be cool with the homies. I can invite them because I actually prefer his style over. And he was an Alexandria, so he was very stooped at oratory ability. And so some people in the church were like, I want to be cool, and Trinity, so he's my favorite preacher. Well then some they were attracted to Paul. Now remember what Paul Paul's whole vibe was? He was after the Gentiles and Paul's main message was grace. And so he was probably talking to the liberals in the building, people that were still struggling, but they were like, man, he's relevant with my life, man, that I'm on a grace journey doc. I need somebody that's a little more liberal. I need a preacher to get down and say some stuff.

So there were parts of the church, they were like, nah, I rode with Paul, the politic man. He's too, too eloquent. I need somebody who's down. And that wasn't it. Then you had another section of the church that preferred fuss, and Fus is the Aramaic word for rock, which was Peter and Paul often referred to Peter as CFUs by his AMA name. So this is Peter. Peter who, Peter the one who preached the inaugural message of the church, the one who was the leader of the apostles. He's got status within the church world. He's the conference preacher boy. He's the one that can pack out a room. They said, man, 2000 got saved on the first date. This dude knows how to move a room. He was right there with Jesus. Man, I want to be rolling with him. And guess what? He is about that Jewish life, he's conservative. He knows. Knows our tradition. There are a lot of Jews in Corinth that were coming to the church of Corinth. They loved the fact that he focused on tradition and doing things and the Ecclesia and liturgy, they say, man, Apollo, he's too smart. He's too relevant with the culture. And Paul, you too liberal. I like this traditional conservative one. I like a preacher who can whoop.

I like a preacher that holds a handkerchief and be getting down with the B three. And I always tell people, if you come to Embassy City, you may want to come several Sundays because one Sunday I may be with that old Hammond, another Sunday I'll be sitting down and teaching. We do it all here. We have 31 flavors, but it's still ice cream. Well, that's a whole message right there, Lee. And he said, so you got three different fractions? And he goes, but there's a whole group y'all don't even follow, man. Y'all got that straight connection to God. All y'all do, y'all just come for the worship service because some of y'all say that I'm of Christ. I don't fool with Paul. I don't fool with Peter. I don't fool with Apol. I just have a connection to Christ. I don't believe in following any man. I just believe in following Jesus. We all know somebody like that.

Well, guess what? This still happens today. It wasn't just a problem in the church of Corinth. It still happens today. The church, especially in North America and other parts of the world as well, but especially in North America, we have elevated preachers into celebrity status based on our preference for style and trendiness and coolness and not based on what does the scripture say is required for you to be a preacher in the first place. We don't look at first Timothy chapter three and see, do you follow all of these things that Paul laid out that makes you qualified to be an overseer? We're like, is he relevant with the culture that does not matter, is irrelevant with the word. So church work has created celebrities out of preachers who are trendy, but they don't teach the word. They're attractive but dishonest. They're compelling speakers, but preach a whack theology. They dress nice, but they don't study the word. They're convicting, they're convincing, but they're not convicting attractional to sinners, but they don't preach against sin. They're easy to get along with, but they ease up off the gospel. They have a big platform, but there's God dwell on it.

The problem is that the church has imported values of the world into the church and held preachers accountable to that. Now, I know some of y'all are like, man, you going to come at these preachers? Let's talk about them. Here's what I'll say. There is a difference between being famous and being a celebrity. Being famous just means that you're known. Being a celebrity means that you've been made an idol and you have welcomed the worship. So when you start expecting to be treated like Hollywood, you have now believed your own hype. When you start expecting to be in a, I'm not trying. When you start expecting, when you are so separated from the average person's life, you in a whole different stratosphere, and I know some people are like, come at 'em. Let's remember this. There are no celebrities without groupies, and there are no idols without worshipers. An idol is a statue until it's worshiped. Okay? So what should a pastor or a preacher do when people try to make them idols? There are very few, truly few individuals that come into ministry thinking I'm about to hit that status. Most preachers start off in Sunday school rooms teach in Sunday school and in nursing homes and being bi-vocational and doing youth ministry with three kids showing up. There were times when I was preaching to a room of five, like there was 5,000.

I see reliable. They're yawning and eating Skittles. This is the generation that's going to break moles and they yawn sleeping, wake up, I'm talking to you. But the majority of preachers out there are doing a great job.

The ones that are going whack and ham scandals and all that, they're just getting more press. But for the majority of preachers and teachers and missionaries, they're doing a good job. So that's why it's incumbent upon us to encourage those who are doing a great job. Paul says, Hey, listen, for those that are doing a great job, let them know. Tell them you're praying for 'em. Tell them they're doing a good job. I'm telling you, I try to be very active in reaching out to other pastors and preaching and saying, Hey, you're doing a good job. You may not feel like it, but you're doing a good job. So what should a pastor or a preacher or a missionary or someone do when people want to make them idols? Because listen, you don't become a celebrity without people worshiping you now. Now we're living in a time when you can create your own celebrityism. You just need a YouTube channel and some really cool stuff and you can create it yourself. But being a celebrity is just a famous person being worshiped. Alright, so let's see what Jesus did. John chapter six, verse 15. This is after he's done some miracles. People are following him, they're in awe. Jesus is famous. Don't get it twisted. He's famous. Thousands of people are coming to hear him speak.

Everybody wants some over at the house. I need you, Jesus. I need you to come turn my water into wine, man, come, I got the red carpet for you. We're going to party. I don't even know the dates back then. We're going to have a good time. Jesus was famous. People are like, why do you have disciples? Yo, could you imagine trying to move through a crowd without somebody helping you move through? The disciples had a job. They weren't just there to be like, can I pass out the fish of Brett? Peter had a weapon for a reason. You don't want to hear that. But this is what Jesus did. John chapter six 15 perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king. They said, yo, you got this crowd. You got these people. You've got all the goods, bro, we about to go next level. We about, Hey, I got a marketing strategy for you that's about to, bro, I got the B roll, I got the bro. We about to go next level, dog. I mean this is about to be fire. Herod who? Caesar what

Bro, we going next level. Jesus withdrew again to a mountain by himself. How do you as a preacher, a teacher or minister, how should pastors and teachers and all this, how should they operate when people try to make them king, withdraw themselves, refuse to be made a king, refuse to let people idolize, refuse to be above human. Sometimes you got to take the gig that don't pay. I remember preaching with Tom when I was evangelizing and I was starting to preach at all these different churches and I had a guy ask me, Hey man, can you come preach for us? We got about 35 people and I was in the middle of two different revivals and it was like a two hour drive. And I said, man, yeah, I'll be there, bro. So I preached at this church and I'd drive two hours and I'd go to his church and boy, it was it rough trying to preach there. It was dead as a doorknob. And I'm 21 and I'm preaching my heart out and they just staring at me, some of 'em drooling. I'm like, are you sleeping with your eyes open? What's going on? And I remember walking off and the pastor gave me this check and I was like, okay, man, this is going to, now I'm in California, okay, gas is expensive. I opened a check and he didn't even cover my gas.

You know what I said? As a matter of principle, I'm not going back. I'm telling on myself. I say, if he calls, I ain't going back. I had to pay to go. I'm paying you for my surfaces, but I remember and I made it up in my mind, I'm not going to do it right. And I even told Lord, Lord, as a matter of principle, Lord, you are a God of generosity and I will not support someone who don't practice generosity. And some of y'all like maybe they didn't have the money. No, they have the money. The pastor had an airplane. He was a pilot. They rented out of place to this ranch. They made a lot of money. But I was like, I ain't going back if they ask. And so to make myself feel better, I called a friend. I was like, would you go back? He's like, no, I wouldn't go back. I said, here's what I'm talking about. The pastor calls me. I ain't answering voicemail. He leaves me a voicemail and says, Hey, we had such a great time. We loved to have you here wondering can you come back and preach for us?

And now in my head I'm like N. And then the Lord while I was driving pow. And the Lord said, Hey, might I remind you that when you first started preaching, you specifically told me that you will never allow money to motivate you to preach. I said, God, times have changed. You know what I'm saying? We got to move with the seasons. Did you say that in Ecclesiastes? This is a different season. It's a new season. I'm just trying to get cast money, Lord. And he reminded me, and I sure did. I told the Lord when I first started ministry, Lord, when I go full time, I will not allow money to motivate me preaching. And when I say the Lord tested me, I went and preached at a place one time Janice was with me and my dad. I got $30, 15 of it was given by Janice and my dad. We had just enough to go to McDonald's. We have throw down church though it was legit. And I said, all right, Lord, you're right. And I repented and I called that pastor back. I said, I'll be there. And I went and preached for him and I didn't even want to take the check. Why? Because as a pastor, as a minister of God's word, you have to make a concerted effort to keep yourself humble. The Bible says, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to.

You ain't all that. And it's interesting that Paul doesn't say anything about the preachers. He addresses the church. Why? Because again, now, preachers, pastors, missionaries, speakers, we are accountable to God for the trust he has placed to us. And believe me, you will give an account to the Lord for how you handle his people and his resources. So don't trip. You have somebody like how they get away. They ain't getting away. God will reveal that, but there would be no celebrities without worshipers. And so guess what? It's incumbent upon us as the people of God to make sure that we are orienting our preferences the right way. That we're not looking at people's platform and status and who they know and what they got. We got to look at what does the scripture say about them and are they in the word of God? If they ain't preaching the word, it's just a conference. And don't be fooled by big crowds. Big crowds don't say nothing about whether or not it's a church. Who's going to tell the world about it? Not many.

One Corinthians chapter one verse 2125 says, for since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It please God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews, demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block for Jews and a folly to the Gentiles. In other words, Paul says, listen, when we preach the gospel, it's offensive to the Jew because it doesn't meet their expectations of traditions and how it should be. And it's a stumbling block to the Gentiles, the Greeks. Why? Because it's not philosophical enough. You want to know what the gospel is? It confuses everybody. That's the point of the gospel that you look what is attractive about following a savior whose method of winning us over was going to a cross being buried and rising again, it's confusing, but that's the whole point of the gospel. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God for the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Paul says, listen, don't elevate your preference of style. Elevate the gospel of Jesus Christ. This service is pointless unless we're talking about Jesus Christ.

So what do you do? What do we do as the people of God to make sure we don't get caught up in cultural relevance

And sacrifice, truly stepping into God what God has for us. Here's number one, worship God, not man. If anyone could use his credentials to woo people, it would've been Paul. Paul sat at defeat of eal, which was the topnotch school for Jewish leaders. He understood the scriptures almost better than anyone. He was very steeped in philosophy. He had political connections. This dude was next level. Everybody. If he could have walked into Corinth and he could have given anybody a, for their money with his rhetoric and his ability to talk about philosophy, and yet he has chosen one Corinthians chapter two, verse one, and I, when I came to you, brothers did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him Crucify. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and power so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Where is your faith? Is your faith in the ability of a preacher to communicate oratory abilities or is it in the power of God? Because what will sustain you through life is not how cool a preacher is, how relevant he is, how much

It's going to be the gospel of Jesus Christ. When you need prayer, you got to call on Jesus. We can't make church about vibes and trendiness and coolness and cultural relevance. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being trendy. I'm not saying you can't dress cool. I'm not saying that you can't have nice things. I'm not saying any of this stuff, but your trust and your faith can't be in that. You can be cool and preach a good word, right? You can dress nice and still not be a heretic that have mutually exclusive. You can have a nice house and take care of the house of God. You can drive an ice car and still love people. Oh Lord, we can't make church about personality preferences. We got to make it about the gospel. We got to make sure that we're elevating God and not, man, here's my question to you. If you can't hear God through anyone that he chooses, you've elevated your preference above what he wants to do in your life. If you reject the word because the person, the vessel that God is using don't fit your criteria for flavor and preference. You've elevated man above God and that never ends well. It wasn't good at pause day. It isn't good today in a culture that elevates people based on status

And trendiness and coolness and all these external factors, the church has to remain steady. We elevate the gospel. We elevate the king of kings. We don't worship man. We worship God. Here's the second thing. Follow those who follow Christ. What do we do as a church to push against the celebrityism that's happening in the church? Number one is we elevate God, not man, we worship God, not man. Number two is we follow those who follow Christ. It is easy to read the scripture and hear this message and be like, yo, I'm out on people. Point blank period. I don't need a preacher. Well, if that's what Paul was saying, he's going against everything else that he writes throughout the epistles. He says that those who serve well are worthy of double honor. What you mean? I'm just reading the scripture. And some of you have been in environments that have abused that and they've defined what honor means, and it means that you do this and you do that and blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm not saying that honor is not about being subservient to someone. Honor is about recognizing the office that somebody holds. That's the definition of honor. So when it says, honor your father and mother, guess what? If your parents were abusive to you, honoring your father and mother does not mean that you got to still serve them hand and foot and act like nothing ever happened. It means that you honor the office that they hold. Even though they have abused office, you still honor father and motherhood.

Does that make sense? Yes. God is the one who decided did that. We will have apostles, prophets, evangels, pastors, teachers to what equipped the saints what for the work of ministry. And Paul says that if someone is doing a good job, we ought to support them. That's what he says. We ought to support those who are doing a good job. In Hebrews, there's some controversy on who wrote Hebrews. It's really unknown. Many people believe it was Paul. Some actually think it's a Paul. Some thinks it is Timothy, but this is what Hebrews says, obey and submit to leaders as those who watch over your soul and must give an account. What does that mean? It means listen to what they're saying. If they're following after God, they should be presenting to you the word of God to help you grow in Christ more. What is my job as a preacher? To go to the word of God, to pray, to dig, to study, to find out God. What are you trying to say to your people? And then guess what? I come up here on Sunday and I am presenting to you the word of God. And if you will grab ahold of it, I believe it's going to help you flourish in life.

To me, no to God. So how should we choose preachers or pastors to follow? Y'all ready for this one? One Corinthians chapter 11 verse one, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. The KJV says, follow me as I follow Christ the most attractional quality of preachers should be their pursuit of Jesus. Lemme say it again. The most attractional quality of preachers should be their pursuit of Jesus. It should be to the point where they're blurred in the cloak of being in the presence of God. When I preach, I should almost disappear. But you feel, oh, God is speaking to me. I'm a vessel, I'm a conduit. That's all I am. And the measurement of my leadership is how much I'm pursuing Jesus. When you follow someone and it's not obvious that they follow Jesus, stop following them because they're leading you to whatever they're pursuing. If they're pursuing worldly things, that's what you're going to fall into. Follow those who are following after Christ. The greatest compliment that you can have as a parent is your children recognize that you follow Jesus. What made Moses such an effective leader? He would go to be in the presence of God

And then he could deliver what God said. What made Joshua such a great leader? He pursued God. What made David such a great leader? David, one of the greatest kings. What is known about him? He was a man. What? After God's own heart, it's easy to follow someone that's following God. So you got to evaluate who you following. Evaluate the preachers that you listen to. Evaluate the apostles, the people that just because they say they're in ministry don't mean your fruit will speak for itself. Why am I teaching this? Because it's the word of God and to remind us not to allow personal preferences to create division in the body of Christ. Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't join a church that you can really grow in, but I'm saying is if you choose a church plant, get planted, get rooted there and make sure that you check your motivations for why you're listening to a certain person. Is it because they got a big platform? Is it because they got, they got all this? Lemme tell you, the measurement of leadership in the kingdom of God has nothing to do with how much you read Simon Sinek and Malcolm Gladwell, and I like those guys. It's not that, oh man, I can quote the 21 Immutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell,

And that's a good book. It's not that, man, I did three Ted talks and that's cool. Are you pursuing Jesus though? Are you pursuing Jesus? Are you hidden in the presence of God? Let's not elevate our own personal preference above the power of God. Amen. And that comes to everything in life. We cannot elevate our own preference above what God wants to do in our lives. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. We are grateful for your word. Help us never to lose sight of what matters the most, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray, Lord, that the message is very clear today that all of us should check our hearts and our motivations. All of us should do some self-reflection and see where we're at. Is our ear attuned to your word or is it attuned to a personality? Are we open to hearing you from vessels that we may not, may not be the flavor that we want, but you're still speaking. Help us to be a church. God that's built on a foundation of your word and not on personality, not on preference, not on style. And Lord, we want to do everything with excellence. We want to put our best foot forward because we believe that doing things in the kingdom, God should be done with excellence as unto the Lord, but help us not to think that that is what's breaking. Yokes. Your word is what breaks. Yokes help us to be submitted to that in Jesus' name.

I want to pray one more prayer. Maybe there's somebody in here and you don't have a relationship with Jesus. Maybe you're in here and you've been around the church, but you've never entered into the body of Christ. I want you to pray this prayer with me. Say it out loud. I want all of us to pray it, and for some of you may be the first time, but I want you to recognize this moment as an invitation from the Lord to enter into a relationship with him. So repeat after me and say, did Jesus, Jesus, I recognize my need for you,

Recognize my need for you. I believe that you came, but you died. You rose again, and you did it all for me. Forgive me on my sins. Come into my heart. Be the Lord of my life. I commit myself to being your disciple. In Jesus name. Amen. Come on somebody. Make some noise right now for those stand to your feet. Come on, somebody. Give God some praise in this place. Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen.

I love you. I pray for you. Janice and I. We love this church. We pray for you. We pray blessings on you. We want you to prosper in everything that God has for you. Seek Jesus and watch Him do something real in your life and somebody say amen. Amen. Alter team, I want you to come up here. Listen, if you need prayer for anything, anything at all, come up here and pray with somebody. Don't leave here. If you need prayer, don't leave out here. Not be in Prayed for. Come and get prayer. If not, we'll see you here next week. Shake hands with somebody, love on somebody. The worship team's going to sing one more song. Make sure that you love others and love God this week.