C3K Church
What Things
let's get to the word. Okay, tonight. What things? What things is what I want to preach about tonight? You know, sometimes we talk to people and they say stuff and we ask them, they say, "Oh, things are happening," or whatever you go, "Oh, what things?" And they tell you a little bit, but I don't tell you everything. And then other times, companies might say to you, you know, there's a few things that you do that bother me. They kind of irritate me. You don't know what things. And they won't tell you everything. You know, and we often wonder about many things. What makes this happen? What makes that happen? And we have so many questions, but I tell you what, the thing about God is that He is a revealer. He has a nice stuff. He's not sneaky. He doesn't tell you a little bit and doesn't tell you everything. He reveals things to us. He's not elusive and he's not evasive. And so, He's made a way for us to come to Him. And we can talk to Him, you know, one on one with God. You know, some of us are afraid to talk to people one on one. But God's as you can come to Me, come to Me and talk to Him one on one. It's pretty amazing when you think about it. So I just want to go through a passage tonight, a short passage of Scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, because I love this and you probably do too. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9, it says this, "It is written," so the Word of God says this, "I has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." So when we're talking about, "I'm focusing on things," okay, and as many things I could talk about, but I'm focusing on this passage and where the word "things" comes so many times. So the Word of God says that "I hasn't seen, ear hasn't even entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him." So there's things that we do know that God has prepared, but still there's things that we haven't seen, there's things that we haven't heard, and things that haven't entered into our heart, that God has prepared for those who love Him, for those who love Him. It's not for everyone, but it's for those who love Him. And so, you know, there's so many goodies that God has for us. When He shows us things sometimes, it's just amazing when He reveals things to us. You know, when we're reading the Word or when we're praying and God speaks to us, or He says to us, "Don't go there," or "Don't do that," or He warns us about things and it's like, "Wow, these are the things that God has prepared for those who love Him." And He has many things for us. So let's keep going to the next verse. It says, "Yes, God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. How can that be? Because we are born again. We are born of the Spirit so the Holy Spirit can communicate directly. God can reveal things to us by His Spirit because we are alive to the Spirit. Okay? We've been born again. We're alive to the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things. They said, "Well, again, the Holy Spirit searches all things. You hear the deep things of God. There's the things of God and then there's the deep things of God." Wow. You know, sometimes people go, "Oh, that's really deep." Like, "I can't understand it. My mind's too small." You know? That's how we feel sometimes because the deep things of God are so profound, so deep, so high, so large, so awesome, so amazing. But the Holy Spirit can search out these things. We can't even imagine these things. We don't even ask the question sometimes. The Holy Spirit searches out these things, deep things, and reveals them to us. Just little old us. Just little old us. We can hear from God. We can understand things. Great wisdom. We can understand. Other people go, "I don't get it." We're like, "You know what? I totally get it. I totally understand." Like, what about the deep thing of the Trinity? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Three in one. A lot of people say, "Just don't get it. Can't see it. Can't hear it. Can't understand it. Don't get it." But we're like, "Yeah, I get it." And when they say, "Can you explain it to me?" You really can't. You just have to know it. You know that you know that you know. You know. These are the deep things of God. So the Holy Spirit searches for things. You know. He wants us to search for things too. You know, sometimes it's fun searching for stuff. Other times it's not. But I'm talking about the fun time of searching for things. Digging deep and finding the answers. And when you find it, it's like, "Yeah. Wow. That is so cool. That is very awesome." Searching out the deep things of God. You know, basically, people are pretty shallow. People are pretty shallow. And we're very limited. But God, He's unlimited. And He's very deep. And you know, I don't know about you, but I like to know stuff. I like to learn. Do you like to learn? I want to know more about God. I want more of Him. I want more understanding. I want more wisdom. I want more insight. I want more of these deep things of God. I'm hungry for it and I hope you are too. And then it goes on. What man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? In other words, we think we know ourselves. But actually, we don't really know ourselves that well. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. We can't know the things of God unless it's revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. You know, a lot of people think they know God and they know about God, but they totally don't. And they mold God into their own image. Some people say God's a woman. You know, some people make a stone statue or a piece of wood and carve it and go, I'm going to bow down to that. That's my God. Yeah. That is not God. We think we know God, but we don't unless the Holy Spirit reveals the things of God to us. It's pretty clear. And then He says this, but we, and He's talking to believers, we have received not the spirit of the world that thinks they know everything, but the spirit who's from God, Holy Spirit, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. It's not just about knowing stuff. It's about knowing the really great stuff, the good things that are being freely given, free gift, don't have to earn, don't have to pay, the free things, the gifts that have been given to us by God, the spirit of the world, the worldly, they will charge you for everything pretty much. You know, I remember when you could go to places like cafes and burger places or whatever, and you could buy your burger, you could buy your stuff. And if you say, oh, I'm going to have some ketchup to her or something, and they give it to you, you go to a restaurant and you just ask for water and they charge you for everything now. That's the spirit of the world. It's like, give me this, pay for it, pay for it. Spirit of the world. The spirit of God, He freely gives us, freely gives us, but we need to know about these things. We need to know about it, OK, freely given by God. And then He says this, Paul says, these things that have been given to us by God freely, we speak. Just like right now, I'm speaking about it, I'm telling you about it. We talk about it, we share it, we don't hide it and keep it to ourselves. I'm not telling you. You know, we speak about it, but not in words with man's wisdom, but the world thinks they know everything, they got it all sorted out. Not in words with man's wisdom teachers, but what the Holy Spirit teaches. So when I talk to you, I'm not telling you from my opinion, or what I think, I'm telling you what the word of God says. I'm letting the Holy Spirit teach you through me. And that's what Paul is saying. These things, the things of God, we're not telling you about it by man's wisdom. The Holy Spirit is teaching through us, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. What does that mean? You know, those people in the world, you don't know God who think they're very spiritual. Oh, I'm not religious. My spiritual. But the trouble is they're following the wrong spirit. They're following the wrong spirit. The Holy Spirit will teach about the right spirit, the right spirit. That's what it means. Comparing spiritual things, false spiritual things with true spiritual things. These are one of the deep things of God and we talk about it. The truth of God says, but the natural man, even when you're talking about the things of God, the spiritual things of God, the natural man, the worldly, does not receive the things of the spirit of God. The foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. And that's what a lot of us were like before we got saved. We were natural men, natural women. We thought with a natural process. We were worldly. We thought, probably thought we were spiritual. I don't know about you. I came out of the new age. I thought I was very spiritual, but I was totally on the wrong track. Okay? Cannot receive the things of God. They think they're foolish. So someone can tell you the truth. Jesus loves you. He died for your sins. You can be forgiven. There is a future in a heart and I think, ah, that's stupid. That doesn't make sense. That's foolish. Why would Jesus die for the sinners? I used to think that. What a fool. What a wonderful fool. I used to think that. Before I got saved, I would watch these TV programs at Easter time and there's Jesus hanging on the cross. And there I was sitting on the floor half stoned and all the rest of it thinking, ah, you fool. But now I'm like, Jesus, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. See, it is foolishness and you can't know these things because they are spiritually discern, but there's a point in everyone's life when there's that opening, when God opens our eyes, when God opens our hearts, and it's up to us to make that decision. It's up to us to make that decision spiritually discern. Sometimes you just think, you know what? I think I need Jesus. I think what they said was right. Actually, it kind of does make sense, and if it doesn't, I need help. I need help. And at that moment, that's the point of salvation. That's the turning point. And God gives, I believe God gives everybody that opportunity because it's not willing that any should perish. He gives everyone ample opportunity to receive him. Okay. And then it says this, he who is spiritual judges all things. Now those who receive the Lord, okay, spiritually minded will judge all things. The Holy Spirit in us will help us to judge, not judge, but that means to discern, to decide. We led by the Holy Spirit. Is this true? Is this false? Is this right? Is this false? We discern. If we are following the Lord and we are spiritually minded, we will be able to judge or to discern, to decide about all things. He will lead us and guide us. Yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. Was it me? Nobody really knows us except the God. Nobody really knows us except the Lord. But who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? We can't tell God what to do. We don't know God unless the Holy Spirit reveals to us. But it says here, we have the mind of Christ. What does that mean? We have the mind of Christ. Now only he has that mind. It doesn't mean the mind, the physical mind, it means the attitude, the thoughts. We have the thoughts of Christ. When the Holy Spirit leads us, when the Word of God is in us, when we pursue the things of the Spirit and the deep things of God, we have that mind of Christ to follow, to hear from, to know these things. We have that possibility and that capacity because of Jesus. The Holy Spirit reveals to us the truth and the falseness, the right and the wrong. So we can spiritually discern and make good decisions for our lives, good decisions in our relationships, good decisions in our career paths, all these decisions spiritually discerned, spiritually discerned. Okay, so we talked about things, you know, the things of God. What other things of God? Things of God, of peace and the blessings and the healings, you know, all those wonderful things, the help and the assurance of the Lord. Then there's the deep things. I just want to have a look at a couple of the deep things of God. One of the deepest things of God, the one that's almost unfathomable, almost beyond our understanding is this, the love of God. Why would he love you? Why would he love me? Because God loves. God just loves. God so loved the world. John 3 16, He gave His only begotten Son that whoever, whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. I don't think He can get much deeper than that. That is deep, deep, deep. Yet when you're born again and you feel with the Spirit of God, that is very easy to understand. That's very easy. That's not foolishness at all. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. So the love of God is one of the deepest things there is. I think also the mercy of God, the righteousness of God. In Psalm 36, it says, "Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, so high. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains strong, high, powerful. Your judgments are a great deep. The depths of the judgments of God." So deep, the deep things of God, His mercy, His faithfulness, His righteousness, His judgments, how awesome is our God. You know the righteousness of God, talking about the judgments there, the righteousness of God and His hatred of sin, these are deep things. God is what? God is merciful, but He's also a righteous judge. These are the deep things that we need to understand. Then in Micah, chapter 7, what does God do with our sins? This is very deep, the deep harden, the deep forgiveness. You will cast our sins, all our sins, into the depths of the sea. There he goes. God, our sin is gone, washed by the blood of Jesus. He's cast our sins into the depths of the sea. Psalm 103, I love this too. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. How deep is that? God, He has removed our sin and yet the enemy keeps coming back and coming back and visiting us, just knocking on the door. I remember when you used to do this, you haven't changed much at all. Get away from me in Jesus' name. That's as far as the east is to the west. It's in the depths of the sea. It's under the blood of Jesus. God, gone, gone, go. These are the deep things of God that we need to understand so that we can fight the good fight of faith. We're in a spiritual battle like never before and things are getting more and more intense. If you watch the news and you see what's going on, you will see the spiritual battle that we are in. The last one I want to go to, this is the deep things of God. John 17, Jesus isn't praying, "Oh, help me, Father." No, His mind is on those He loves. He says, "They're not of the world, just as I'm not of the world." In other words, we're different. Then in verse 24, it says, "Father, I desire that they also, who You gave me, may be with me where I am, that they may be hold my glory." I love that. He was praying for them and he was praying for us. If you read chapter 17 of John, you'll see he was praying for the disciples who the Father had given him at that point in time, but he was also praying for those who wouldn't believe, which is, "Hello, us, us." He desires. Yeah, the blessings of the Lord. He desires that we've been with Him. That is very deep. One of the deep things of God is that He has a desire to be with us. How special is that? That should put a smile on your face, a smile in your heart. Why? Because He wants to be with us and He wants us to behold His glory. You know, the glory of God, the presence of God. All these are wonderful things, the deep things that we haven't yet fully experienced. He wants us to experience. He wants us. We want more of Him. He wants more of us. And then we thank You. We thank You for Your awesome word. Lord, we just thank You. Lord, we are just so conscious of the things that You've given to us and we are grateful. But Lord, there are so many deep things, so many more things, not just things that we want, but Lord, things that we need, things of great value. Lord, things that are mysterious, marvellous, wonderful, things that are eternal and significant, things that will transform us and transform others. Lord, these are the deep things that we long for. We thank You that You do reveal them to us, bit by bit more, in large a capacity to receive that knowledge, to receive that wisdom, to receive that understanding, to receive that revelation. But we just humbly thank You that You do reveal them, that You do teach us, and that You do freely give them how awesome is our God. We love You, we thank You. And Jesus, my Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Okay. Anyone needs prayer? I want to pray with you. Otherwise, have an awesome week. Bye everyone online. Say hi to somebody and wait till the rain stops. (laughing)