1 Corinthians chapter number 1. In a seminary missions class, a former missionary by the name of Herbert Jackson talked about how as a new missionary he was assigned a car that would not start without a push. After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home and got permission to take some children out of class and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for about two years. However, ill health affected Jackson, and his family had to leave the mission field, and a new missionary came to that station here where he was at. Well, when Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete on how to start the vehicle, the new missionary interrupted him and said, why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable. He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson's astonishment, the engine roared to life. For two years, needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting the power to work. You know, for Christian people, people who've been saved, the power to live out the Christian life the power to produce spiritual fruit, the power to do just about anything for that matter doesn't reside in us personally. But it comes directly from our God. In fact, if you're going to live the Christian life the way it's supposed to be lived, biblically speaking, you and I need the power of God to prevail in our lives. We want to see people saved and reached through our efforts. It's not gonna be through the things that we do, per se, as much as it is the power of God flowing through what we do for Him. In our text this morning, Paul is communicating his source of power, which made his ministry effective when he was in the city of Corinth. Here in 1 Corinthians 1, we're gonna read several verses here, starting in verse 10, through the second chapter It says, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name. And I baptize also the household of Stephanas, because beside I know not whether I baptize any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified under the Jews a stumbling block, under the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised have God chosen. Yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech and of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Today we're going to look at elements of this passage as we talk about God's amazing power. God's amazing power. Father, we thank you for the time we can be here today. I pray that your power be real today as we open the book again and we see that you are the all-powerful, almighty God, and that you grant power to your people to accomplish your purposes, which bring you glory, and it's for our best good. Help us, Father, to understand this truth today. In Jesus' name, amen. The Apostle Paul wrote this epistle, this letter, to a church that was struggling. There were some problems going on. Paul, of course, had been used of God to establish this church, and at this point had since moved on and was working in other places. But as the epistle states, he became aware of problems that had sprung up among the members of the church. Verse 11, This is for it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. There were problems, there were fightings, there were bickerings. It was, at this point, a divided church. It was a mighty church at one point. Good things had happened in Corinth, but now they were divided. And they were dividing over senseless things while embracing sinful things at the same time. Look at 1 Corinthians 3, verses 1 through 3. Paul rebukes them for their division, their carnality, their lack of spiritual foresight and vision, if you will. and getting tripped up over the simplest of things while swallowing very tiny things, or very big things, I should say. Verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 3, it says, I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? Again, these people were bickering and fighting amongst each other. And Paul says, you guys are being carnal. In other words, you're being fleshly. You're not being spiritual at all. You're operating in the flesh. You're operating in the sinful dictations of your spirit, and not according to the direction that God would have you to go. And he says, I fed you with milk and not with meat. Milk are the basics of the Word of God. Meat is the more in-depth things. He says, you couldn't even handle the in-depth things. Because we've got to get some things straightened out here. And one of the things that they were dividing over, of all things, was personalities. Personalities. Verse 12. Now this I say that every one of you, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. They were dividing over. In other words, the people were dividing into camps behind their favorite preachers. That's what it was amounting to. And these preachers, no doubt, were tremendous men. Yet Paul himself, Apollos, Apollos was an incredible, very eloquent speaker. Mighty in scriptures, the Bible mentions in the book of Acts about Apollos. Of course, Cephas, who's that? That's Peter. He was the pastor there of the Church of Jerusalem, at least for a time. Especially when it exploded and 3,000 were saved on the day of Pentecost. Of course, it mentions even Christ's name in this mix. Evidently, these people had a belief that these men, of course, excluding Jesus, we understand that, but the other three particularly, that these men were something special about them and their ability to do what they've done. In other words, they maybe thought, oh man, Apollos, boy, he was eloquent. Boy, he is a gifted speaker. I mean, he can keep your attention and turn it on a dime. And they thought, wow, what a guy. We're going to kind of follow him. He's our favorite guy. But then there was others that say, you know what, Paul, boy, he came here. And he won people to Christ. He got us up and running. And he got us going. And you know what, we're with him. And then, of course, Cephas or Peter, well, Peter, boy, we know what Peter did there on the day of Pentecost. And God's used him greatly. And boy, we're going to follow him. And Paul here is like, what are you guys doing? Like these men were somebody, that they somehow personally possessed some special power of themselves. The people of this church were making these preachers, and even throwing Jesus into the mix, into competing camps, when these guys were on the same team. Verse 13, this is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Are we baptized in the name of Paul? And he goes on and says, I'm glad I barely baptized anybody. I don't want this division within here. He's saying, Christ isn't divided. And you guys are dividing him. All these guys, Paul, Apollos, Peter, are all on Jesus's team. They preach the Word of God. They stand by the Word of God. They stand by the teachings of Jesus Christ, if you will. These preachers, yes, they're good men. But they don't want you to divide and be on separate teams. These people were trying to divide that team, and as a result, they were dividing their church. These people evidently were confused on where the real power came from. Yeah, if we just had Peter as our pastor, we'd be doing a lot better now. Or Paul, or Apollos. You know what? Good night, we need Jesus here. Yeah, we do all need Jesus here, but he's not here physically. If he wanted a pastor here, I'd step down, no problem. There would be no competition here. I surrender, uncle, right there. But he's not here like that, in the flesh that is, at least. So these people were confused in the idea of where's the real power coming from that these men were invoked with that they saw the results that they did and the movement of God that they did. And Paul is going to spend a number of verses communicating that the power of these men possessed wasn't coming in and of themselves, it was coming from God himself, God alone. These guys are nothing special. They're just sinners saved by grace like you are. The Bible teaches us that God is the source of all power. Psalm 62, verse 11, God has spoken once, twice, have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. He's the gas, if you will, that makes all things go. All power comes from God himself. We as people don't possess that power in above ourselves. In fact, the Bible tells us that we're quite helpless on our own. John 15, five, Jesus speaking, I am the vine near the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. We can't produce spiritual fruit without God's help, without the power of God at work. We as people don't like to admit that, because we like to be self-sufficient. We like to say, I can do it myself, and I can go through this life without God, without Jesus as my crush, so to say, as some have insinuated in the past. But the sooner that we realize that we have a need for Him, and particularly of His power to operate, and His power to live out the Christian life, and His power to be fruitful at it, the better off we're gonna be. Today we're gonna examine our passage and discover some more things about God's amazing power. First off, let's talk about mankind's powerlessness a little bit more. I think we need to really grab a hold of that, and the fact that we are really powerless. We don't have as much power that we think we do. Because the simplest, littlest things can take us out. Now, the Corinth church people evidently had an idea that these personalities they were dividing over, again, had some kind of unique power. But they didn't recognize all these men they were dividing under were getting their power from the same power source, God. And Paul, again, spends some time communicating to them that Man, regardless of the personality, is powerless unless he's plugged into God's power. Look at verse 25. It says, because the foolishness of God, if God had any foolishness, is wiser than man. Now there are some brilliant people out there, some people with some high IQs. I cannot begin to understand how they can shoot a rocket into orbit. I probably never will. I don't know how some people can make the decisions at the upper echelons of our government that they have to. I know people like to criticize them and be the armchair person from the television set, but you know what? When you get in the situation, it'd be a whole lot different. Say, I know what I do. Yeah, well, you know what? You're not in that situation. But they have to make these big decisions, whether it's on the financial realm, governmental realm, militarial realm. There's, I mean, these big decisions that have to be made. I mean, they're not, whoever gets, it doesn't matter what side of the aisle, they're not They're not intellectually slow. Very, very intelligent people. And they have a plan, whether it's good or not, that's beside the point. But despite the brains that some people have, God says, my smarts, if you will, are way higher than man's. And says, and the weakness of God, if there was such a thing, is stronger than man. There are people today that they're strong physically. You know, they can bench press hundreds of pounds and squat hundreds of pounds. I mean, you wouldn't want to meet some of these people in a dark alley with them having had a bad day. Or maybe they have power in the sense of financial ability or political position or whatever the case might be. The strongest of people of the world pale in comparison to the strength that God possesses in the breath of his nostrils. Compared to God, we are weak, frail, and forgive me for putting it this way, but lacking smarts. You may be a straight-A student here, but compared to God, not one of us compares. You know, David mentioned in the Psalms, Psalm 39, 4, Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, and what it is that I may know, how frail I am. That's David. David was a mighty warrior, man of God. But he asks God, remind me how frail I really am, how weak I really am. But mankind really has a problem thinking that he's something sometimes, doesn't he? that he's got it all figured out and that there's nothing that's going to stop him. Kind of reminds me of the days back in the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 11. You want to hold your place here in 1 Corinthians. Genesis chapter number 11. This is after the flood takes place and there's a few generations that have come about and man, under God's direction, man was supposed to spread out and be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and all that. Well, mankind doesn't always go along with God's plans initially. God has to sometimes step in and kind of get mankind moving a little bit. That's what happens here. This is where we get the spreading out of the languages. But notice what brought it about. It's kind of funny. Genesis 11 verse 1, it says, And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. It came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, which today is modern-day Iraq. And they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth, which they were supposed to do. Verse five, And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built it. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they all have one language, and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Verse seven, I like God. Go to, let us go down. And there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of the earth, and they left off to build the city. Therefore it is the name of it is called Babel. Because the Lord did there confound the language of all the people, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. This is funny. but but you see here yet mankind say hey we got a plan we're we're we're not going to do God's plan we're going to do our own plan we're going to build this city we're going to build this tower it's all going to be about us we're going to reach heaven it's going to just be and nothing's going to stop us now go to that's so funny it must have been a real real pertinent or pertinent saying go to go to God says go to let us go down and God just All of a sudden, they start talking and somebody goes, oh, blah, blah, blah. They're like, what's going on here? I don't understand what he's saying. One guy's speaking Chinese. One guy's speaking Spanish. One guy's speaking Hebrew. Another guy's speaking English. And they're like, what happened here? I guess they don't quite have all the power they thought they did. Let me just get a kick out of God. Go to. He just kind of mocks him a little bit. Go to. Let's just show a man how strong he really is. And you know, He mixed the languages up. And he mixed them up pretty good. He tried to learn some of those other languages, especially those Eastern languages. That's not an easy task. I can barely speak English. Why don't you learn some of those? But that's God. He can step right in there whenever he wants. There was a ruler by the name of Nebuchadnezzar. He was over the Babylonian Empire, which was a world-dominating power. And of course, if you're familiar with biblical history, Babylon conquered Judah and brought them into captivity, the Jewish people. And Nebuchadnezzar, if you read the scriptures, it says very plainly that God was using him to accomplish purposes. God was empowering him. God elevated this man to his position. But Nebuchadnezzar thought of in himself, you know, it was me. It was my brains. It was my military genius. It was my this and that. And he mentions it in Daniel 4.30. This is Nebuchadnezzar talking. The king spake and said, is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? Just all puffed up, like it was him that did it. Well, if you read on, and we don't have time to go there today, but God says, you're going to learn something, buddy. You're not in control here. And for seven years, Nebuchadnezzar went crazy. And history records this, that he He went crazy, literally, until he came to the point where he realized that the God of heaven rules in the affairs of man. You read Daniel 4, and it appears that Nebuchadnezzar may have gotten saved. What a trophy of God's grace. But again, he had to be humbled, realize he wasn't as big of a shot as he was. I like what David writes in Psalm 2, verses 1 through 4. Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. Verse 4 says, He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Or that word means confusion. You know, we got a society here today that says we don't want anything to do with God. You know, this God stuff, push it out. We don't want anything in our government anymore. We don't want anything in our lives. We don't want any preaching. We want to do our own thing. You know, we want to break the bands asunder. We've got a better plan. We've got a better morality system. We know what's right. And God's just sitting up in heaven laughing at mankind. Like, what? You think you've got it figured out? You don't have it figured out, man. You don't. We can't even begin to understand. And, you know, there can be people out there that shout as loud as they want. They can get lost past and do whatever they want. But let me tell you something. God's going to win in the end. He's just like, he's rolling his eyes. Like, man, you don't know half of what you think you do. We don't realize how helpless we really are sometimes until we are put in a position that proves it. We don't realize it until it takes us very little for a little position to prove it. Say, well, what kind of position? Well, there is one that I know humbles every person. It's the subject of death. Start talking about death. You go to a funeral, people are humbled. Why? Because we know we can't beat death. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8.8, there is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death. And there is no discharge in that war, neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. You want to know something that is humbling, that gets the attention of people, you start talking about death. You start seeing that. We begin to realize how much we need God. Because every person here is going to die one day, including me. But God's provided a way in which we don't have to fear death anymore. That we don't have to be subject to its bondage anymore. By receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. By trusting Him. turning from our sin and trusting Him to be our Savior. You know, people can be big, bad, and bold. But when the reality of life and death hit home, we're suddenly not that powerful anymore, are we? Not one bit. There's only one that's ever been able to beat death. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. After three days in the tomb, he broke free. Death couldn't hold him down, because he was God. But we're not God, folks. Not a one of us is. When we begin to think about that a little bit, we begin to realize how much we need him. Sometimes man forgets that. His haughty attitude, he begins to think sometimes we possess some sort of power. some special ability. Muhammad Ali's heyday as the heavyweight champion of boxing, he had taken his seat on a 747 which was starting to taxi down the runway to take off. The flight attendant walked by and noticed that Ali hadn't put on a seatbelt. The stewardess said, sir, would you please fasten your seatbelt? Well, he looked up proudly and snapped up and said, Superman, don't need no seatbelt. When she replied back, Superman don't need no plane. Buckle up, buddy. You know, Christians aren't immune to this either. Think about the quadrature of Corinth. We think we can accomplish something for God and live for God, the Christian life on our own, but we can't. We can't. But people try all the time. How do you know? Well, how much time do you personally take to go to the power source to get recharged daily by Him? We're like cars in the sense that we need to be refueled. But our fuel, spiritually speaking, comes from God. Ephesians 3.16, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man or within our hearts. How many Christian people try to live out the commands of Scripture in their flesh without seeking God's power to help them live out those commands? You know, before I was saved, I tried to live out the commands of God. It is impossible. I couldn't. I couldn't do that. The idea of going to church and reading the Bible consistently, praying, boy, that was a lot of work. But then when I got saved and the Holy Spirit of God came in and dwelt with me, all of a sudden that desire was there, and that power was there, and it was something that just fueled itself as I began to seek God and started saturating myself with Him. Look, if we could live the Christian life the way the Bible lays out successively and produced fruit spiritually void of God, we glory in it. We think we're somebody, because why? I must be something special. Well, verse 29 of our passage, 1 Corinthians 10, it says that no flesh should glory in His presence. Why? Why should no flesh glory in His presence? Because without God we wouldn't be able to do it. Without God, you and I wouldn't be able to take a breath of fresh air. You know, God supplies every breath of fresh air that you take. And it's His mercy that He doesn't take it away, does it? We're that dependent upon God. But when a Christian, though, who may be genuinely saved, is not having any victory, no fruit, doesn't have any strength to live for God. It may be because they've just spent long stretches of time without powering up. Powering up completely. Trying to live the Christian life in their own power. Which is impossible. You can't do it. No way I could live out what God wants me to live out without His power helping me. And I didn't have that power until I got saved. And I have to continually get refueled up every day, or else I'll dull real quick. And so will you. Why? Because Psalm 39.5 says, Behold, thou hast made my days as a hand breath, and my ages as nothing before thee. Barely every man at his best state is altogether vanity, or void, or empty. Every person at their very best This will never cut it. We are too weak in our own selves to accomplish and do what God desires for us. We need His power. Secondly, let's talk about the Master's powerfulness. Now in our text that we looked at here in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, Paul is going to make some very strong and very revealing statements about God and even about himself. But he wants these people to recognize just how powerful their God is and how vital it is that they have the power of God upon them. And the same for us. He communicates the fact that when he first came to Corinth, it wasn't super-duper Paul that made these things possible. It was not the fact that he was super-spiritual Christian. that established a work of God in that community. He communicates very clearly. It was God Himself working through me. Look at verses 1-5. It says, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. In my speech and my preaching, was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God." When Paul came to Corinth, he actually had to be encouraged by God to keep speaking, and to keep preaching, and to keep ministering. See that in Acts 18, verses 9-10. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city." The city is Corinth that's talking about. God himself had to encourage Paul, say, don't stop. Now, Paul had some rough experiences beforehand. He had been stoned up at this point. He had dealt with problems in the ministry, if you will. Now he's in Corinth, and the way it appears, he was maybe a little bit fearful, saying, what's going to happen to me here? God says, hey, don't worry about it. I'm with you. I'm going to take care of you. Nobody's going to hurt you here. There are a lot of people in this city that are going to get saved. And Paul's being very honest with us in our passage here in the second chapter of Corinthians here, because he's expressing the secret of his success and the personalities that they're bickering over as well. It wasn't in Paul's ability to articulate eloquently. Verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. In fact, there's another part where it talks about how he's rude of speech. Evidently, the Apostle Paul was not an eloquent speaker. And he firmly admits that. I don't know, maybe he slaughtered the king's English. I don't know. But he was a little rough around the edges when it came to just being a speaker. He wasn't eloquent. Verse 2 it says, where I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. What is he saying here? I didn't come here outsmarting everybody. hyper-intelligence, that I understood all these in-depth things, and he did. He was a very intelligent man based on his background, but he didn't come there as, you know, hey, I'm the PhD here, I know everything. In fact, he kept it pretty simple. I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The basic tenets of the gospel. He said, what I came here with What happened here as a result was a demonstration of God's power upon my life and ministry that I want you to put the faith in. Not me as a person, not any of these other guys, but God Himself that provides the power. Look at the end of verse 4, it says, But in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. See, these people were glorying in men, which was foolish. Like they were somebody. And Paul's saying, no. Look at verse 3. He says, I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. Doesn't sound like he's coming across as some big, bad, bold creature, is he? No. He said, I was weak? I was scared out of my mind. He says, and much trembling. He was nervous wherever he went. And he's just saying here, guys, here you're separating, some of you are separating a camp of your church behind me. And I came to you with this in my heart. And he's like, you don't understand. You're missing something here. It wasn't me. Look at 1 Corinthians 3 verse 21. He goes on and he's kind of belaboring more of it in this chapter. But he says, Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours. Whether Paul, or Paulus, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or all things present, or all things to come, all are yours. You are Christ and Christ is God's. So don't separate behind these men. Don't glory in men. Glory in the God that empowered those men. Throughout the pages of Scripture, God shows us how powerful He really is. Jeremiah 32.27, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? Is there anything too hard for me? No. There is nothing outside the realm of possibility with God. Ephesians 3.20, Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us." In other words, we can't even begin to dream up in our minds the things that God is capable of doing. We can't even get as creative in your mind as possible, but we will never be able to develop within our own minds the possibilities of what God can do. We can't even begin to dream it up. But that's just how powerful and significant God is. God can take the weakest of things and use them for the greatest of things. In fact, that's what he's saying here as this passage goes on. 1 Corinthians 1.27, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. In other words, put down, confuse, to stop. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, God hath chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." In other words, God takes weak things to beat big things. You know, we would think that in order for things to get accomplished, we have to be wise, we have to be mighty, we have to have everything going for us, so to say, in the world's eyes, as the world defines it. God says, I don't choose those people. I choose the ones that may not have everything going for them. That recognize their own weakness. And I stop them. And I use them to do things that they never thought were possible with their lives. Some people look at their lives and they think, well, man, I don't have a lot going for me. I don't, you know, I don't have this type of education, or I don't have this kind of physical appearance, or this physical ability, I don't have the, you know, I may not, maybe I was a D&C student, I don't know. But we do, when we start looking at ourselves, we fail to see what God can actually do with us on the other side, instead. And we cut God's ability short. I think in the New Testament, During one of the times when Jesus was going to feed 5,000 people, there was a little boy that came up and gave him his lunch to feed the 5,000. That's kind of small. That's a nice little gesture, lad. But the apostles or the disciples at the time were, we've got to think of something else. We better start raising some funds. And Jesus just takes that little lunch of that lad, a couple of fishes and a few loaves of bread, and multiplies it. What was the key in all that? The kid just had to give up his lunch. He had to just give God the opportunity to do what only God could do. Sometimes we shortchange what God can do with us because we look at ourselves and we don't look at the God who can do anything. And all he's looking for is a surrendered vessel to do it through. You may not have everything going for you as the world says it, but that doesn't matter. If you've got a heart for God, anything's possible. with God's power behind you. You know, there's a young boy traveling by airplane to visit his grandparents. He sat beside a man who happened to be a seminary professor. The boy was reading a Sunday school take-home paper, and the professor thought it'd be fun to have, thought it'd be fun, or that he'd have some fun with the lab. Young man, said the professor, if you can tell me something God can do, I'll give you a big shiny apple, he said. Well, the boy thought for a moment and then replied, mister, if you can tell me something God If you can't do, I'll give you a whole barrel of apples. You know, what a pity we don't invoke His help in our lives more fervently and frequently, really. That we fail to see really what He can do. Somebody will put it this way, why is our walk with God sometimes a crawl with God? Why the lack of passion for our Savior who gave all for us? Why the lack of victory over sin in the average Christian's life? Why the lack of power to shake the world for Christ? The words of Billy Sunday ring true, he that is stranger to prayer, stranger to power. Now what is it today that you need God to do in your life? What is it today that you need God to do? Not only he can do. What area do you need a victory in, personally? That maybe you shortchange God and say, you know, I'd really like to see a victory here in my own personal life, but I think I'm just going to have to live with it the rest of my life that way. Well, so is who? You know, I would like to see God do this and open up an opportunity for the Gospel to spread in this area. I just don't see how it's ever going to happen. Isn't that God glory and those opportunities of the impossible? But yet, how often do we just think, well, if I can't figure it out, if I can't put things together, then it just can't be done. It just can't be done. Maybe today you're hopeful for somebody to get saved. And as far as you know, their heart is as hard as stone. You talk about God, they shut you off. You invite them to church, they give you a few choice words. But you love that person. You want them to have the salvation that you have. You want them to know the God that you know. Isn't our God capable of making those things possible. Luke 137, for with God, nothing shall be impossible. It might be a person's salvation. It might be a victory in your life. It might be something that burdens your heart. And I say, don't cut God short. Don't cut God short. Would to God that we would not doubt what he can do, but embrace and run with it what he can. So often we have limited God because we've not invoked His power to help us out. Thirdly, let's talk about the manifested proof. You know, God never wants us to rest and find security in our abilities or anybody else's ability, for that matter, because ours is limited at best. Instead, He wants us to rely and seek the power He's willing to exercise on our behalf. Now in our text, Paul is telling us That our faith and confidence, of course, should rest in God alone. Verse 5, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now consider that within the context of our book here today. Corinth wasn't an easy city to minister in. It was on a major trade route. It was very financially prosperous, but unfortunately very morally bankrupt. They had the Temple of Aphrodite, which housed 1,000 temple slaves or prostitutes. Morally, it was in rough shape. As many international cities, it was a hub of sin. But despite the precarious conditions, God built a church and transformed the lives of many people we think are impossible to win. 1 Corinthians chapter number 6. Flip over there. Paul just mentions something a little bit off the cuff, I guess. But this was the type of people you found in Corinth. 1 Corinthians 6.9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God." So you have a laundry list of the types of people there. People that were involved in gross amounts of sin. They weren't dabbling in it, they were hog wild in it. But then the power of God showed up through this weak, trembling, uneloquent preacher. And all of a sudden things started changing. People's lives changed because they got saved. Verse 11, and such were some of you. In other words, some of the people there at the church at Corinth were involved in these same types of sins. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. God transformed their lives from the inside out. who didn't have any desire, at least initially, changed because of what God could do and what God did in that community. It changed them completely in ways that they can't even begin to describe. Paul wanted these people to know that it wasn't him. It wasn't Him that was responsible for it. In fact, it wasn't Apollos or Peter either. It was God's amazing power that was working through Him, as He wants to work through us as well. May we understand the truth that we look at here today, because without His empowerment, we just can't do anything. We need His help. If we're going to be fruitful people for Christ, we need Him. May I say this? If you're not saved, you've never been saved, you have no power to earn your salvation yourself. You'll never do enough good works to earn favor with God. You need God's power to save you. He'll do that for you today. You just come to Him. with a heart filled with repentance, acknowledging of your sinful condition before God, and a willingness to get right with Him, and a willingness to trust Jesus Christ alone to be the one who pays for your sin and not yourself anymore. And you can be what the Bible says, calls, being born again. And that day that that happens, you'll begin to get God's power to live out a life that pleases Him, that is fulfilling and that makes a difference in the lives of others. God help us here today to exercise and understand God's amazing power.