Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: The world will try to discourage us from preaching on repentance. But they better watch out when I preach on repentance because what am I doing? I'm pulling people out of their shame, I'm pulling people out of their sickness, I'm pulling people out of their sin and I'm bringing that and I'm calling them to a higher standard. I'm preaching up to people. Why? Because every single person who hears you speak, they're designed and created by God. They have a purpose in their life. How dare I speak down to people who created in God's image.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Welcome to season two of the well, this week we will be hearing from Jonathan Burgio of Lovejoy Church from one of our regional conferences.
We hope that you enjoy his message.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: I think of this particular message that I've never spoken anywhere that I felt like God has only given me to speak here to today. And it's been a foundational message in my life whenever I preach. And I love preaching. In fact it's one of my the most favorite thing in the world to do is to preach. I love it. I don't mean it in like a private. I just really enjoy it. When I'm up here I feel I'm at home and what I'm supposed to do. I think about preaching all the time. I love preaching. I've been preaching for 19 years, almost 20 years, which is hard to believe. I still feel like that 21 year old kid. But anyways, I've been preaching for almost 20 years. I'm a student of people like John Maxwell, Andy Stanley, Craig Groeschel. I'm a, I'm a Mike Kavanaugh student. I didn't see him here, but I'm a student of Mike Kavanaugh of Passer on. I learned, I've read tons of books. I've developed a skill of communicating and preaching. I've been able to rub shoulders with some amazing people who have helped me in my preaching. But it seems to me that over the past couple of years in my life, this is my life, God has begun to speak to me about something very specific when I preach. God has really begun to share something with me. And if you've gone to my church here and you've heard me preach for a couple of years, I would bet nearly every single person would say a similar thing. That over the past couple of years something has changed with my preaching. It's become more anointed, more powerful. And it's because something that God has shared with me and that I want to share with you today. And so as I learn to listen and obey God, I don't always get it right. I mess up all the time. But what I wanna share with you today, I think is gonna help us to refocus and do what we're doing. I'm not talking about other people's preaching. I'm not talking about your preaching. I'm talking about my preaching, what God has talked to me and that I feel like I wanna share. I think what I'm gonna share is gonna help us open up the gates. That's the theme of this. They'll open up the gates and. And to remove barriers for people.
I think there's a lot of barriers in our world, and I think there's only one thing that removes them all. And we so easily get distracted from it, from the very thing that's going to conquer. And I feel like that's what I want to share today. And so you probably already know everything I'm going to share.
But that's okay, because I'm not trying to teach you something new. I'm trying to help us stay focused onto what God has called us to do. So the title of my message today is what My Preaching Needs. I titled it that because it's for me, because I think of this message often and it helps me when I'm preparing a message. What does my preaching need? It's not yours. I'm not critiquing anyone. I'm talking to myself. That's something God has really spoken to me today to focus on this and to look at this. We're going to look at First Corinthians, chapter 2. Before we put those verses off, I want to talk for a few minutes, but it's going to be about four of the first five verses in First Corinthians, chapter two. That's really all. We're going to look at two other verses, but really we're going to focus on those few verses. But before we read the verses, I need to talk about the guy who wrote it, the Apostle Paul.
Paul was raised up and trained as a Pharisee. The guy he trained under was a great teacher on the Sanhedrin. This is kind of a governing board of all the high, brightest, smartest and most religious religious people of the time, the most influential people. Paul trained under this guy. Paul went to the school of Halal, and he was intensely trained in wisdom, in knowledge. He studied and memorized scripture. This guy Paul has memorized more scripture in his young life, in his young adulthood, than Most of us will memorize in our entire lives. All right, Paul was super trained, knew the scriptures, loved knowledge. Yet somehow this intellectual, knowledgeable, well trained, zealous person understood something when it came to preaching, when it came time to preaching that many times we could get distracted from. And I believe he understood this. Why? Because he experienced it.
Think about Paul's life like this.
All the knowledge Paul had in the Scriptures was not what converted him to Christianity.
All the knowledge he had in the same scriptures that all the early Christians read was not what converted him. All the knowledge he had in the same scriptures that have over 300 prophecies about the coming Messiah was not what converted him to the coming Messiah. Fasting twice a week didn't convert him. Following every letter of the law didn't confer him. What converted Paul was one very real, one very powerful, one very life changing encounter with Jesus.
When Paul met Jesus, everything changed. Of course the knowledge was helpful. Of course the training was great. Of course the understanding was awesome.
But what was the turning point? What was the catalyst? What brought the life change in Paul?
It was what brought Paul from persecuting the church to being persecuted from for the church. What brought Paul from persecuting the church to actually building the church. It was an encounter with the very real, the very powerful presence of Jesus. And so we have to remember that when we read what Paul writes, we have to remember that it was this encounter with Jesus as we read these things. Of course, knowledge is valuable.
You have to remember Paul was the smartest guy in the room.
Paul was the guy you'd ask for. But Paul, where was that scripture going before? Google, Right? Paul was our Google Paul. What book was that? How does that scripture go? He was a guy you ask about the prophecies he knew every prophecy about. He was the smartest guy in the room. Yet that wasn't what converted him. It was this encounter with Jesus. So as we dive into these verses, I just want us to keep that in the back of our mind because it's going to be important. First Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 1 1. The first part says this. When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I want to stop there for a moment. This is important to say when I first came to you. He's talking about when he first planted this church in Acts, chapter 18, when he came to them. Why is this important? Because it's who he's talking to. He's talking to people who haven't heard the gospel before. He's talking to people who haven't heard about Jesus before, so it's important to remember that. And then it goes on. When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn't use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God's secret plan for I decided that while I was with you, I would forget everything.
All that knowledge, all that stuff he trained, except one thing. Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.
And I realized my preaching number one needs the gospel.
I've realized that no matter how many times I've said it, there is power in the gospel.
I've noticed something about preaching the gospel. The more I say it, the more I explain it, the more powerful it becomes. It doesn't become mundane, it doesn't become over said and it doesn't become repetitive. It actually becomes worse, more powerful.
See, I must learn to clearly and effectively tell my listeners the gospel. Every time I preach. He goes on, verse four says, and my message and my preaching were very plain. Now this is a very interesting verse to me because I love communicating. And it's interesting that Paul uses two different words, my message and my preaching. Apparently, according to, According to commentaries and scholars, they're not the same thing. The word message he uses here, he's talking about how he spoke, the manner in which he says things. And then when he uses the word preaching, he's talking about his content, how he spoke, how he said, and his content. Paul's not probably differentiating between them with any real exactness, but he simply uses two terms to. So he could both show us that he preached the content of his message. He's how he preached. But he's using this other term to show us that he had specific content of his sermons. And Paul's content, what was it he said it was everything. He forgot everything. But Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul's content. He had different styles of preaching. We all have different styles of preaching. But his content was. Was the gospel of Jesus. His content was about Jesus who came to earth, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins in three days, rose again from the grave. That was Paul's content. That is what Paul preached about.
He forgot everything except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And the cool thing about Paul is he understood this from personal experience that when it comes to salvation, when it comes to people believing in Jesus and becoming disciples of Jesus, we must preach the gospel of Jesus.
Now, I'm not perfect at this and I'm getting better. I'm trying to grow in it, but I've Realized that almost everything we preach on a Sunday morning gets connected to the gospel. Let me give you some examples.
When I talk about serving, we don't serve in my church because we need more volunteers. We serve because we need more people to hear the life changing message of Jesus. That's why I recruit people to serve. When I talk about people having to move in the rows because our chairs are filling up, when I ask people to park in the back because all our front spots are picked up, are filled up, when I tell people they're going to have to be uncomfortable in church, that's okay. Why? Because we're not spiritual consumers, spiritual contributors and they're helping more people to love, serve and lead the pot and to know the powerful name of Jesus.
When I talk about people giving to my church, you need to give.
I don't tell people to give so you get blessed. That's a great benefit. I'm glad God blesses us when we're generous. But I tell people to give because we will reach thousands of people with the gospel. That's where you put your money. Everything we do is connected to the gospel.
When I talk about how everything needs to be excellent. Why? Because I don't want one thing distracting anybody who walks through those doors from hearing the gospel. When I talk about our kids ministry being excellent and awesome, why? It's not so we could brag to people. It's so those kids can hear the gospel. And it's so those parents can trust us when they drop off those kids. So when they come in here they could be focused and they could hear the life changing, shame removing message of Jesus Christ.
Everything is connected to the gospel. Why do we need to be good at what we do?
I don't care about going viral anymore. I don't care about what other people think. I care about one thing. Doing what we can as best we can so more people can hear the message and of Jesus Christ.
When I talk to my staff and the elders, when I talk about people who to people who serve, even when I talk to people who just joined the church, I tell them the church isn't about you, the church isn't about me. It's about telling more people about the life changing pastor, giving shame, renew, moving name of Jesus.
And something always happens when I tie it back to the gospel.
For those people who are like Paul, for those people who are like me or when they had that encounter with Jesus, their life was changed. Those people get it because they understood something, that it was when they encountered Jesus that their Life was changed and it changes our focus from is the music too loud? Are the lights too bright? Should our services be longer? Should our services be shorter?
Somebody took my seat. Why do I have to park in the back? Why do we care only about new people? And it changes our focus. Something happens to people who've experienced the gospel when we tie it back to the gospel. They begin to get it, they get on board. We no longer care whose idea it was. We no longer care if it makes me comfortable or uncomfortable. All we care about is sharing this message of of Jesus to more and more people.
And what happens is the unity, the excitement, the passion, the focus all changes when my preaching always has the gospel in it.
Romans 1:16 says it like this. For I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power. The gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who who believes. Paul says it's the gospel that is the saving power of God. It's the message of the gospel that saves people. It's the message of the gospel that has the power.
If your preaching lacks power, might I suggest it might lack the gospel.
If you want more power when you preach. What I'm learning is I just need to preach the gospel more.
I just need to repeat it more often and more power is coming. Our world would get us to believe the opposite. Our world would get us to believe that we got to be careful when we preach the gospel. People might get offended and people might leave. Well, they might. You might offend people. But there are so many hurting and broken and shame filled people that I can't stop preaching the gospel. They need to hear the only message in the world that changes people's lives.
It's the life changing message of Jesus.
We can't stop preaching the gospel. I am more determined than ever to preach the gospel as much as I can.
First Corinthians 1:18 says it like this. The message of the cross is foolishness, foolishness. Foolish to those who are headed for destruction.
But we who are being saved know it's the very power of God.
The gospel is the power of God.
Preach the gospel and you will be preaching with the power of God.
How do we open the gates? How do we break down barriers from people? We must preach the gospel every chance I get.
Paul continues verse four and my message and my preaching were very plain.
Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, here it is. I relied on the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul's not hoping people believe in Jesus, turn from sin, live a new life. Based upon his knowledge of the scriptures or his ability to write a good message.
He's not hoping his opening joke is so good and he lands the plane so perfectly that people believe in Jesus.
Paul is in hoping that he has the perfect altar call and the band comes up at the perfect time, they play the best song, they start in the right key and everything is perfect. And that's what causes people to turn to Jesus. He knows only true conversion, the only true life change we see is when the power of the Holy Spirit comes. When you're preaching the gospel, he said, I rely on the power of the Holy Spirit and I realize my preaching number two, it needs the Holy Spirit.
Paul preached with conviction, with passion, and whether he was an excellent orator or had funny jokes or super relatable wasn't the main point as much as the power of the Holy Spirit.
It's great to have awesome messages, but what's most important are people coming to know Jesus.
It's lives being changed, people coming to know God, church being planted, and no human ability can accomplish that. It's only by the power of God when the gospel is being preached.
When I preach, I love being excellent. I do, I work very hard on my messages. I try to fully understand every text I speak. I try to be knowledgeable, I try to be funny, I try to be relatable. I love having props. I really bring this last week I have all these props, I love all of that stuff. But I want you to hear something. In my heart, I know that, I know that I know it is not my prop, it is not my ability that changes people's lives.
It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit when the gospel is being preached that brings life changing power in people's lives.
Preaching the gospel isn't just delivering beautifully, eloquent, beautiful speeches. It's not having TED talks, it's not trying to go viral.
It's bearing witness to what God has done through his son Jesus on the cross and the resurrection and relying on the Holy Spirit to come. Spending time in prayer, spending time listening and sometimes just straight up counting on the Holy Spirit to show up in power is what will bring change in people's lives. This is what will open up the gates, this is what will break down barriers that are standing in our way.
There has to be an element in my preaching where I rely on the Holy Spirit to do something.
I just rely on it. Sometimes I get up there, I don't know what it is and it, but it happens. God shows up. In fact, he explains it more. Verse 5.
I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom, but in the power of God.
Mere intellectual persuasion does not save people.
Saving faith is produced by the power of the Holy Spirit. When the gospel is preached, a faith that depends on clever reasoning and good arguments can always be deconstructed with a better, more clever, more intellectual argument.
But a faith that is built upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, is built upon a firm foundation.
I want to share with you a story in my life.
Years ago. I was just watching all these preachers on Instagram and social media and every single preacher was better than me, funnier than me, smarter than me, more cutting edge than me, had better leadership skills, me, everyone. It was driving me nuts. And something began to happen. I became so anxious and almost depressed and stressed out and I couldn't handle it. I didn't know what to do. And so my only thought I had was I gotta stop.
And so I didn't make some social media announcement. I didn't tell anybody, I didn't set a time frame, I didn't even tell my wife. I just got off it, done.
I didn't have the time. I didn't know what was going to happen. Turned out about six months. I never went on it, never checked it.
Apparently I didn't miss anything either. But I didn't go on it for six months.
And it was during those six months that I began to realize what was happening to me when I watched all those preachers. My focus began to change from the gospel and my focus began to change to try to be like other people, be better than other people, being more cutting edge than other people. And all this anxiety, all this stuff rose up in me. And when I took that break, it helped me to get right with God. It helped me to be focused with God. It helped me to get back focused on preaching the gospel.
And I really feel like here's a word for some of us right here, right now, word even for me, every time I preach.
We need to stop getting hung up on our flaws.
Stop getting so concerned that you're not good enough, you're not as good as these people on social media. Stop trying to be the funniest, stop trying to be the smartest, Stop trying to be the best preacher out there. Stop trying to go viral and start preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and have faith that the Holy Spirit will move in power.
Sometimes I can get so hung up on culture, I can get so hung up on how crazy our world is on all the immorality, on all the perversion, on all the corruption, on all the politics, on all the aggression towards Christianity that it actually distracts me from the one thing that conquers it all, the gospel, the message of Jesus.
I have to be honest with you, I've been preaching some pretty harsh messages to my congregation. I've been preaching some pretty tough things that maybe not everybody preaches on a Sunday.
And the craziest thing is people are turning from sin.
People are inviting more people to church. Something's happening because it's real.
It's the gospel of Jesus.
People say, jonathan, why don't you preach politics? I said, I don't got time to preach politics. I got 30, 35 minutes a week with these people.
Some people, 30, 35 minutes twice a month with these people. I don't have time to preach about an earthly kingdom. I got something more important. I'm preaching about. I'm preaching about the kingdom of God. I need people to see where we're going.
I don't preach down to people. I don't preach against things. I preach for the gospel. I preach for repentance.
Sometimes I don't really like how preachers preach repentance because a lot of times they preach down to people, right? What I mean, they preach, oh, you're so bad. You're an awful sinner. You need to turn. How could you believe that? How could you vote for that person if you're doing that? You're evil. And I don't like when people preach on. See, when I preach repentance, I preach up to people. What does that mean? That means this. The word repentance re means to turn, right? To turn. And when I think of the word pent, I think of the word penthouse. What's the penthouse? The penthouse is the nicest room in the hotel, on the highest floor of the hotel. So when I start preaching repentance, I'm not preaching down to people. I'm preaching people. You need to turn from sin, right? You need to turn from sin and come to the higher calling that God has for you. The world will try to discourage us from preaching on repentance. But they better watch out when I preach on repentance because what am I doing? I'm pulling people out of their shame. I'm pulling people out of their sickness. I'm pulling people out of their sin. And I'm bringing that. And I'm calling them to a higher standard. I'm preaching up to people. Why? Because every single person who hears you speak. They are designed and created by God. They have a purpose in their life. How dare us speak down to people who created in God's image. And we need to pull them out of their mess and bring them to the higher calling that God has for them.
Preaching the gospel is not. Shame on you.
Preaching the gospel. Shame off you.
Shame off you. Now come follow me and do what God has called us to preach.
As the band comes back up, I'm going to end with this. And we're seeing another song.
All day long I use my phone, right? All day long I use my phone. Do you know?
All day long the brightness on my phone screen never bothers me. It's never too bright. In fact, if I'm in the sun and it's real bright outside, sometimes it's kind of hard to see it. It's not bright enough, right?
But the funny thing is, when I go to bed at night, I like to sleep with my room pitch black.
And if I ever check my phone in the middle of the night, it is blindingly bright, isn't it? It's like, why the holy cow, why is this so bright?
Nothing changed about my phone.
The only thing that has changed was the world around me.
And when the world around me got super dark, my phone became super bright.
And what we have to remember is, although our world may be spiritually declining, although there may be a lot of perversion and immorality and sickness and darkness in our world around us, that just means the light we have has already gotten brighter. The light we have has already gotten stronger. As the world around us gets darker, our lights get. Get brighter. And it's time we share it. And we refocus on sharing the gospel while relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to move.
We're going to sing a song. I love this song.
It's a little bit different of a song, but it's essentially a song that just tells us what the gospel is.
And as we sing it, I just feel like some of us. I don't know if there's a refocus for me. I gotta be honest, it's almost every week I have to refocus on preaching the gospel. I have to remind myself to preach the gospel. Maybe some people, we need to repent.
Maybe we need to ask God for help. But as we sing this song, I feel like there's going to be something. God speaks to us about how we share Christ and what our focus is as we lead our ministries and churches and what our purpose is. The bridge of the Song I love the bridge, it says this.
What you did on the cross still saves us.
It is still the saving power that people need in their lives. And I'm telling you the world is messed up. I'm telling you people are give you pressure. They're going to tell you what to preach about. They're going to tell you to do different things. And the more you do it, the more pressure you get. And that's okay because there's one thing I know my preaching needs the gospel.
What he did on the cross, it still saves us.
It's still the power in the name of Jesus.
In fact, I just want to take a moment. You could stay seated, you could stand whatever you want during the song. But I'm just, I want to pray over us.
And I'm not just preaching to you, I'm preaching to myself. It's a reminder of myself what God has called me to do. I want to pray. Lord, I pray that you would remind us that what Jesus did on the cross, it still saves today, no matter the challenges we face.
They might look differently than they did 20 years ago.
They might try to trick us differently.
But what he did on the cross still saves.
The apostle Paul knew something, that it was one encounter with the very real, the very powerful presence of Jesus that changed his life.
And that is what we should be preaching, that people can meet Jesus.
Lord, I pray that you help us to have a renewed passion to preach the gospel. Lord, help me to stay focused. It is so easy to get distracted in our world.
I go on my phone to check one thing. Thirty minutes later, my wife's like, where have you been? I'm like, I've been in some zoro zone. I got distracted.
And it's easy to do that in our preaching.
It's easy to feel a pressure to perform.
It's easy to feel a pressure to kind of hit this area and to help these people and to listen to these critics and to make sure this couple stays happy and to make sure these givers stay. It's easy to get distracted. But I'm telling you what God has for us and it's the power of the gospel. And I think as we remember, we what is the power the gospel? The Holy Spirit will move.
Lord, I pray in my heart that you give me faith every time I preach to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, give me faith.
Even when I think my message isn't good, even when I think people are going to get offended.
To preach the life saving message of Jesus.
The scripture I pray over myself every time I speak. Acts 10:38. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit, with power. And he went about doing good and healing all who are oppressed by the devil.
And I pray, Lord, every time I get up and speak.
Would you anoint me with your Holy Spirit and with power that I could do good, but that you would come and heal those who are oppressed by the devil?
There are so many people who are oppressed by the devil in our world, and we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit preaching the gospel, because that is the only thing that changes lives.
So, Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit. Help us to be focused. Like our phone. Sometimes we just gotta kind of tap the screen and get back focused on where we're supposed to be.
That we can preach your word with boldness and authority and that you're going to move and we're to continue to see more lives changed, more people turning and repenting from sin, more people accepting the message of Jesus.
Jesus, you said the harvest is great, but it's the workers that. That the problem is how many times do we get up and preach and we blame the harvest. We get mad at the people. No, God says, I need more workers.
I need the laborers.
So pray to the Lord, to the harvest and the workers into the field. Lord, I pray right now that you would raise up some workers right here who we preach the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we will, we will see a great harvest of people coming to know Jesus.
The church grew best under the most persecution it had. It grew best when the government was not only against them, but persecuted them. Lord, help us to grow regardless of what is around us, because our light only gets brighter and brighter as our world gets darker. So thank you for the reminder this morning to preach the gospel with the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Let's just sing the song together.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of season two of the well, we hope that you enjoyed the message that was shared and we would love it if you would take a minute to like and subscribe. See you next week.
