Nothing But Jesus

We have all at one time or another met someone who was full of themselves and you cannot stand to be around that kind of person. Someone who no matter what happens they don’t make mistakes. Those people are not easy to be around and if you have to work with them every day it is even more difficult. Just a couple of verses back in I Cor 1:27 “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” I Cor. 2:14 “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” God cannot use a prideful person. A prideful person will not acknowledge the power and control that Jesus has in their lives. This is why the bible says “pride comes before the fall.” If you want to be useful to God, you must first lay aside all your pride and realize Jesus is your source of wisdom and knowledge. You must be humble before the Lord as Paul was humble.

Simple Message

I am a student of preaching, I enjoy listening to messages of all types. My enjoyment is on several levels. I want to pick up any pointers I can on how to assemble a message, how many points you need to make one complete, when do you have too many points. I listen for illustrations and jokes I can use in my sermons, but I never seem to be able to remember them. I am always open for sermon topics branching off from something I hear in another preacher’s sermon. Most of all I like to listen to preaching because I like to be fed the word of God. If I like to be fed and need to be fed then I know that need exists in the hearts of others. There are those out there who need to be fed the word of God but have no idea they are hungry. They need the message of Jesus Christ. They don’t need a perfect three point message with a tidy opening and a closing. They just need the simple message of Jesus Christ.

Paul says in verse 2 “For I am determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” This does not mean Paul refused to learn anything outside of the crucifixion. He was determined to preach to them what they needed. Because he was a humble man before the Lord the Holy Spirit would speak through him and words would be exactly what needed to be said. At no time did Paul try to persuade anyone into believing in Jesus, he never preached over their heads and used big words they could not understand. Paul had a simple message and that message was Jesus Christ and the crucifixion.

Sometimes we feel the message has to be spectacular or it will be ignored. If we cannot get somebody’s attention with polish and a high shine then we give up. The simple message of Jesus has all the power it needs. Paul was never known to be a big speaker or a great orator before he came to know Christ, but after he met Jesus his courage and delivery style changed. He relied on the message he had to spread, the message of Jesus Christ, and the power was supplied by the Holy Spirit. I Cor. 2:12 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”