Sunday, April 3rd, 2022 - 11am Traditional Service - Guest Speaker Florin Ion on Knowing Christ
April 3, 2022 · Florin
Scripture referenced 2 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Colossians 3:16 quoted before congregational singing to connect worship through song with letting the message of Christ fill your life
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse
Philippians 3:1-11
the main sermon text, read aloud in full as the foundation for the message on knowing Christ personally
1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe.
2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.
3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;
4 though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more:
5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;
6 concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.
7 However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ.
8 Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
10 that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death;
11 if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Florin, a Romanian-born member of First B Jackson, brought the message on the Sunday of April 3, 2022, preaching from Philippians 3:1-11. He came to the text from his own experience of swinging between rigid rule-keeping and drifting away from God altogether, and he used Paul's words to press one question: do we merely know about Christ, or do we actually know Him?
What was said
Florin opened by placing Paul's words in context. Paul, writing from prison, had every credential a person could claim. Circumcised on the eighth day, a Pharisee, blameless under the law, so zealous he had persecuted the church. And yet Paul called all of it garbage compared with the "infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Florin read that phrase twice because he wanted the weight of it to land.
He traced his own version of the same arc. He had grown up passionate for God in an independent Baptist church in Romania, but the emphasis on strict doctrine slowly pushed him toward a hard legalism. Then, overcorrecting, he drifted the other way entirely, stopped reading the Bible, and found himself tangled in sin far from the Lord. Neither place, he said, is where God wants anyone to be. Pastor Ray's image of a center line with legalism on one side and license on the other gave him the language to describe what had happened to him.
Coming to the United States in 2006, Florin worked three jobs and had money in his account but was not happy. Standing in a car dealership in Idaho Falls with a pen in his hand, about to sign for the BMW he had always wanted, he put the pen down. He said the Spirit of the Lord showed him that he had taken his eyes off Christ and placed them on material things. He went out snorkeling, looked around to make sure nobody could see him, and cried out to God asking for forgiveness and a fresh start.
From that experience he drew the sermon's three movements. First, watch out for people and things that pull your attention away from Christ. Material blessings are not forbidden, he said, but they can quietly take the place that belongs to God, and the more comfortable life becomes, the easier it is to stop depending on Him. Second, put your confidence in Christ rather than in your own background or achievements, because Paul's whole point is that his impressive résumé counted for nothing once he understood who Jesus was.
The third point, the one Florin stayed on longest, was to make knowing Christ the supreme desire of your life. He anchored it in Paul's line: "I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead." He was direct that this means everything else comes second, and he listed what that everything includes: degrees, bank accounts, possessions, and then, he said, even children, spouses, and family. Good gifts, all of them, but they do not compare with knowing Christ.
He closed with the hospital. In January 2022, after two years of working through the pandemic untouched, Florin contracted COVID following a stomach illness that had already weakened him. He ended up in the hospital for three days with pneumonia, aware that the situation could turn fatal. Lying there, unable to breathe, all the ministry plans and fundraising goals and to-do lists fell away. The only thing that remained, he said, was just him and God. That moment, more than any argument he could make, was what he wanted the congregation to feel: that knowing Christ personally and intensely is what every other part of life is supposed to point toward.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Florin described drifting toward legalism on one side and then away from church altogether on the other side, and said the best place to be is in the center, in the hands of Christ. Have you ever found yourself pulled toward one of those extremes? What did that look like for you?
- Paul wrote from prison, 'Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord,' and Florin said staying in a state of rejoicing and thankfulness is what gives us the strength to keep going even on hard days. What practices actually help you stay in that state when life is difficult?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 9,216 words
FlorinGood morning, family. I am thankful that you are here. I am thankful that we have the privilege to worship God together. Amen? Will you please stand up and let's worship the Lord?
We're gonna sing, come down fount of every blessing. Now this song, just a little bit different because I have pastor Carl's style. So between each verses I'm gonna have just few chords played and then we're gonna go to the second verse. But what is important is that the fact that Christ is here and we worship and we wanna feel his presence in this place. Amen?
My prayer is that we we gather, we we worship, we learn, we train, and then we serve outside of this building. Amen? Yes. Amen. But let's make it special.
Amen.
Speaker 3Come thou founteth every blessing Thou hast brought me to this place. And I know thy hands will bring me safely home by thy good grace. Amen.
FlorinYou guys sound beautiful. Praise the Lord. Amen. I really love when the church gathers together and worship the Lord. There's no other better place to be than in God's house.
Amen? Yes. That's how I feel, and I'm thankful to be here. We're gonna sing this one with a country style. Praise the Lord.
Amen. The church sounds beautiful. May the Lord bless you. I think Nick has some announcements for us.
Speaker 2Well, since he did that song in a country twang, let's do our announcements in a country twang as well. Howdy, y'all. Welcome to First Baptist Church. Lovely to have you all here tonight. Tomorrow night is Monday nights at first b.
It's a meal, music, and message, and Nick has given the message tomorrow night. Come on by to hear him speaking from James, and Florine will also be there as well playing some lovely music. Meal music message is free. Bring the whole family. Juana is not gonna be going on tomorrow night, so come visit us again next week when we have Awana.
It's our kids programs where we're sowing God's words into their little hearts. And coming up is the If Conference. It's meeting at Boundaren in a couple of weeks here in May sixth and seventh. If you have any questions, feel free to see our website. It's on there as well.
And we got a prayer group on Wednesdays. It meets every Wednesday in the church office. It's open to everybody. Come on by. Bring your your requests, and we also pray for our missionaries that we we have so many missionaries, almost 20 all around the world, and we wanna pray for them wherever they are.
And looking forward to the church directories, they were available at the front doors, but they sold like hotcakes this morning, and they are gone. They are gone gone. Got a couple if you I think people are taking bribes to be able to get their copies, but we'll we'll try to have some more for y'all next week, so come on back. There's a book study, a meeting at the fellowship hall on Thursday nights. Thursday morning to 9AM, so come on by.
It is at Anne Graham Lot's book. And if you have any questions, it's first and third Thursdays. If you have any questions too about when that will be, there is a church calendar now on the website where you can check that and see which Thursday that would be. We are closing the nursery on the 11:00 service because we have a volunteer shortage. If you'd like to help us all out, it'd be great to have some extra folks down there to help watch those kiddos.
You can call Grant sorry, Christian Galloway. Her phone number's right there. And if you forget, you can check that church directory that we do not have available for you. We did try our best, though. We did not think they'd be so popular this week.
And the connect hour in Monday Night Kitchen is looking for extra people to volunteer to sign up. If you would like to provide a meal or a snack, come on by. We'll we'll actually pay you for it. You just have to be able to go pick it up and arrange it for us, and you could sign up for that. On the right hand side of the there's a bulletin board as you enter the fellowship hall.
Thanks. That's all for right now. So let's go back to Florine. Yeehaw. I know.
FlorinI feel we're like we're we're at the fair now.
Speaker 2Second and fourth, I'm sorry. I guess we had Oh, first and third, you're right. It is second and fourth. We're just gonna do the opposite of whatever that slide says. That's what happens when you put on a funny accent.
Don't do it. Don't do it.
FlorinOkay, one more. I love it. I love it that we rejoice and we are happy and glad in Jesus' name. Amen? Amen.
We're gonna sing wonderful words of life. Colossians three sixteen says, let the message about Christ in all its richness fill your lives. Amen. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
Amen. I like that rhythm. Makes me go this way. This is sweet to trust in Jesus. Amen?
We trust in Jesus in any circumstances and he's always there with us. Amen. We're gonna see that in the text a little bit. Amen. Hallelujah.
You guys sound beautiful, Nick. Would you like to pray for us and I'll be the I'll invite the elders to come up front? Lord God, thank you so
Speaker 2much for all that you've given us, Lord God, and we just wanna take a moment to give back to you. Thank you for this day. Thank you for the breath within our bodies and for good friends being around, Lord, and that you're here, Lord. And we just pray that you'd fill each one of us, direct us in, the way we're supposed to go. Help us to learn today too, Lord.
Help us to to give it as as you see fit, Lord. Let us know how what that should look like, Lord. Thank you so much in your holy name. Amen.
FlorinAmen. Okay. Now it's up. Me drink some water. I'm happy and thankful to be here, and I'm privileged for the opportunity that I have to speak today.
At first, when pastor A texted me and asked me if I wanna preach in my in my mind just like this, why me? Why me? There are so many other wonderful first day members that I know 100% they could be here and do a way better job than me. But why me? So I can send him in the text the emoji of thinking, like thinking.
Right? And actually, I wrote thinking, thinking. And then I and then I thought, why not? It's a privilege to be able to stand in front of the church that I love and spread few words from the from my life experience but also from from the Bible. And I hope it's gonna be a blessing for you all because for me it's a privilege and I love it.
I have to admit it. I love to speak about God's goodness and about what God does in my life through me and how he rescue me if I can say it this way. We were supposed to my wife and I and the family were supposed to be here and sing a song during the operatory but unfortunately they're all sick. And because of that, I'm speaking in English right now. Another going back a little bit.
So before I texted pastor Ray, he actually said, would you please do it in English? I think you can do it. Kind words, beautiful words. You know pastor A. He is the best encourage us.
Right? And and I said, yes. But then I was whispering to my wife, it's gonna be Romanian language. It's gonna be in Romanian. But I just said yes to make him feel comfortable, you know.
And I had my plan. For real now, I had my plan. No, I'm gonna do my study in Romanian language. Violetta is gonna translate for me and I have the freedom to speak how I want. And here I am speaking in English.
So that's being said. Thank you for your patience because my brain function in Romanian language. And then sometimes I have to translate fast, quick, and to be able to speak in English. And there are moments when I'm confident and there are moments when the words are not showing up when I want them. Now when we chat at Smith here and there a few words, it's easy to say, hi, miss Judy.
Good to see you. It's it's easy, simple conversation. But when it comes about standing in front of people and speaking English, it's not very easy. So if I do a lot of mistakes in English, thank you for your patience. So the Lord put on my heart, actually when this is the way I operate when I prepare a message.
When when I when I said yes, then immediately my obviously my heart does doom doom doom doom. Right? I need to prepare a sermon. And then what I do, I either go for a walk, for a bike ride, and and stay in touch with the Lord. This is my main number one.
I go for a walk and I I speak to the Lord and I say, Lord, would you please speak something to me? I wanna hear your voice. I wanna hear your voice. Would you say something to me that would benefit my life, but also will be very good for the for the church? And whatever I say to you today, it's actually first for me.
So if I say something that sounds harsh, where I sound mad, first of all, I come I come from another culture. I'm I'm Romanian. And in Romania, whoever is on stage preaching or whatever, he has the freedom to say anything he wants and nobody gets mad. Nobody gets mad. Nobody takes in the wrong way.
When the Lord speaks, the Lord speaks. Okay? So if I say something, please forgive me. I ask the Lord to give me something that would be first for me and then to be a blessing for all of us. Amen?
Amen. So first, this is this is what I operate. So I go for a walk. I I stay in touch in many many prayers. And then I read the Bible or I listen to someone preaching on YouTube or I I I search sermons and stuff like that.
And then some phrases come here and there and it clicks in my mind. It happens this time, I was I was giving myself a haircut. I love to do that. Oh, it's a funny story. I need to go there before I do that.
Okay? So I gotta share this because it's funny. So my hair actually, how do you call this, Nick? They used to be connected big time. I mean, I'm I'm serious.
Big, you know, big time connected. Right? So so I went to the pithumb barber, and I asked politely the gentleman. I said, I want number three here, number one. No scissor.
No nothing, you know, with the scissor. Just the machine. And the gentleman looked at me, he said, okay. And then he did what I asked him, and then he end up doing with the scissor. And then, true story, out of the blue, he caught my with with I know.
I was so mad without my permission. He didn't ask he didn't ask if I if if I should take this the one more time. Eyebrow. Yes. Without to ask him without to ask my permission first, he just did it.
I was super mad. I promise. I was said like this and did this. But I'm a Christian. I'm supposed to be a light.
I I was right over there. I waited. He did. He did what he had to do. I gave him a $5 tip.
It was a good tip. Right? And and I said, thank you, sir. Have a beautiful day. God bless you.
But I was so mad. This and and then I went I went straight to Kmart. I I looked for the most this this is how I end up doing my haircut by myself because I didn't like to do that. I then and I went to Kmart. I I purchased the most expensive one, the good one that I noticed over there, the Clippers.
The Clippers. Yes. So I I went to I went home. I asked my wife politely, would you please watch with me few videos on YouTube and see how they do it? And then because I needed help in the back.
So and by the way, I see, I jumped from a story to story now. I have such a beautiful wife. She's so good, so kind, so wonderful. To this day, I have no idea why she married me. Okay.
Back to the story. Because she's so sweet and nice, she said, okay. So I went on YouTube. I found some videos how to do it. And immediately, went to the bathroom.
I did it myself, and she helped me, and I was so happy. Since then, I saved a lot of money. And I'm very happy about that. But now when it came about the eyebrows, so I I I came home and I said, what do you think? So she looked at me and said, I'd like the haircut.
Yes. Something else? No. I said, can you look again? What happened?
And I told you I told her what happened. She said, I love it. And since then sorry. I have to go into details now. I did this myself today.
I promise I didn't meant to share that, but it came that way. So the the the the the message, the idea for today is knowing Christ. This is what the Lord keep now I know why I end up in the telling you the story. So I was giving myself a haircut and I was listening to a song, a beautiful song and the song was about knowing Christ. And that phrase, boom, right there.
I said, this is it. I think that's my that's what I'm looking for. All those prayers outside and biking, all that stuff, the Lord gave me the idea while I was giving myself a haircut. Knowing Christ. It's it's very easy to fall into position when you say, we know Christ.
We heard about Christ. We read the Bible. We just but actually, in in reality, not have not having that beautiful connection with Christ. Not knowing Christ. So I'm gonna share a little bit about myself so so you know why and where I'm coming from this.
When I was young, I was very dedicated at church, serving God, very passionate about, I can say twenty four seven in the church and that's where I I wanted to sleep. In the church, being happy, being thankful in the church. And I was part of independent Baptist church. Independent Baptist church is very tough on doctrine, teachings, and we preach this is the way, this is the way, this is the way. Right?
So I think literally, slowly, I find myself as you as you know, pastor Ray, he always says, let's stay in the center. Right? He always point to this side, the legalistic, and the flooring stays always to that side. See that? So this is the legalistic side and this is the licensed side.
So and I'm sorry? Okay. So at one point, I I saw myself going towards the legalistic side where, no, this is the way. No. This is the way we sing.
This is the way. This is the type of songs are accepted and blah blah blah. Stuff like that. Right? And then dress this way.
All that stuff. And then slowly, I fall on the other side where I was not going to church, I was not reading the Bible, I was not I didn't pay attention to what I was doing. Slowly, was tangled in sin. And and I'm not talking about mistakes. You know a mistake, it's a mistake.
It's when you know what you're doing and it's wrong. So I found myself way far away from the Lord. And I promise you, it's not a good place to be in this situation right here. It's not a good place to be in that situation either. The best way to be is right here where pastor Ray says so many times, in the center, in the hands of Christ.
And that's why the idea is, do we know Christ? And if we know Christ, what do we do with that? How we expand from there in a way that we can live out the faith in such a way to win others for Christ. Amen? So let me open my text here a little bit.
As I said, so I accept Christ when I was 12 years old. Very passionate, very dedicated to church. And then two missionaries came from Florida. One from Florida, one originally from Mexico, but he was living in Florida. So they together came in Romania as missionaries right after the communism felt in 1989, but they came in 1993.
Before that, it happened that I lost my father when I was 11. I'm not going to go too much in that. One of my brother died when he was 19 years old. So there was a mess in my my life and my mind and all that stuff. Tons of family problems.
But when missionary came, oh my. They came with such a beautiful smile with a love from God that I had never experienced before. And we became such a good good good friends. And they they love me for who I was. And as I mentioned many times here, and I can say this here at church, not too much or sad because you never know how people react.
From my mom's side, we have a Gypsy blood. From my father, we're not sure. Or if they knew, they never mentioned anything because probably they were shy or afraid of it. So my mom would say all the time, don't ever say the word Gypsies outside of this family because people will treat you different. And I was young and I would sometimes I would say it out loud.
We're gypsies. And my mom would smack me. I told you not to say that. I told you not to do that. So growing with this type of mentality was a difficult life.
But when missionaries came, they didn't see, they didn't look at the color of my skin. They didn't notice how poor I was and stuff like that. They love me because I'm a precious soul in God's eyes. And that's the way we should love people around us. Amen?
And then from there, we became friends. We served God together. I end up working in construction with them building churches, but also they provide a salary for me and then little by little I was in charge of leading music with kids, youth group, and later on, I end up studying Bible seminary where I can I was trained to preach to spread the the gospel because that was my passion? Because of that, we had different many many opportunities to go visit other churches between independent baptist churches. And I had tons of opportunity to be able to stand in front of people spreading the good news from an early age.
I'm very comfortable standing in front of you by the way. Actually, this is what I love to do, but not in English. Okay. So this is a little bit about me. There are so much more that I can share, but some of them I'm not proud of them because they're very bad and some of them are very good, but time flies.
So in the morning, I I talk too much about myself. So we are in the Philippians chapter three from verse one to 11. So I'm gonna read that first for us. Whatever happens my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. Please have this in your mind that Paul was in the prison at the time when he was writing this story.
So isn't that something special to to see? Whatever happens my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things. You you're gonna hear Florin repeating a lot of stuff or jumping from a story here and there, but they are all have a good purpose to teach us something or to wake to wakes us up to a certain point where we understand the importance of knowing Christ. I never get tired of telling you these things and I do it to safeguard your faith.
Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. For we who worship by the spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort. Though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could.
Indeed, if others have risen for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more and I believe him because you know who Paul was. I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I'm a pure blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a real Hebrew if there was one. I was a member of the Pharisees who demand the strict obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church.
And as for his righteousness and as for righteousness, I obey the law without fault. This is Paul. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Oh. Is that beautiful right there?
Yes. Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have discarded everything else counting it all as garbage. I I have to repeat that because it's so good. It's so good.
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes. Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage so that I could gain Christ and became one with him. Not just knowing about him, became one with him.
I no longer count on my own righteousness through the through obeying the law. Rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ or this is another my favorite one. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.
I want to suffer with him sharing in his death so that one way or another, I will experience the resurrection from the dead. Amen. Let me pray on that. Heavenly father, thank you for this day. Thank you for again giving us the privilege to be here.
And Lord, this is seems like it's a favorite word for me. Privilege. Privilege. It is a privilege to be here. We live in times where we have freedom to gather, to worship.
Lord, I'm thankful that we can be here together learning about you, praising you. And Lord, may we be well equipped that everything you teach us here that we can serve you outside of this building. Give us the strength and the desire to pay attention to what we believe and what we do with our lives. In your precious name, I pray. Amen.
I have my notes here, and thank you for your patience. As I said, speaking in English is not an easy task, so this would help me a lot. And thank you much thank you to my sweet wife for helping me put this together. She's so smart with computers and everything. I am the one that is on fire to do things.
Right? But my wife is the brain of the family. She's smart. She's she she put everything well together. I'm the one that says, let's go.
Let's fight. Right? But she's she's the brain. She she's so smart. So thank you Violetta.
I'm a blessed blessed person. I want to know Christ. This is what Paul said. Already we I mentioned that he was where? In prison.
Before that, we know Paul. Paul was so zealous to to to obey the law and to fulfill the law to the point when he could easily say, look at me. I'm great. I'm doing great. I can boast about myself.
But then when he understand who Jesus was, when he got to that time, when he literally, Jesus appear and face to face to him and said, Saul, Saul, why are you doing this? And then when he understood who Christ was for him, then his life was completely changed. May it be this way for us too. Amen? May it be for us too.
And the reason I manage I I shared with you before what I how my life was from here to there is because it can happen. It can happen to everyone no matter how strong do you think you are, no matter how that you're here every Sunday at the church or something like that. We might easily fall into that temptation when we can come to the point to know about Christ, but not knowing Christ personally. And that intense beautiful communication with our savior. So when Paul got in touch with Christ and understand, wait a second, all this that I'm doing by myself, it doesn't help me at all actually.
All I have to do is to put my faith in Christ. Faith alone is what keeps me alive. It's it's faith alone what's gonna keep me alive for the afterlife. Spending eternity with Jesus. Amen?
Not how much I owe, not how great I perform on the piano, not how beautiful I look on Sunday and new clothes and all that stuff. Those are good and beautiful to have, but it's just the outside. Christ wants to know us deeply in our hearts in one on one, you know, when when he when we allow him to transform our lives. And there are two things here. Point number one would be watch out for those who would draw your attention away from Christ.
Watch out for those or for things. Okay? So it can be people or can be things that can draw our attention away from Christ. Second would be put your confidence in Christ not in yourself. Oh, this is good.
And the third one which is my favorite one and probably we're gonna stay on that one longer. Make knowing Christ the supreme desire of your life. Oh, that's a good one. I need to read that one more time. Make knowing Christ the supreme desire of your life of your life.
Watch out for those who draw your attention away from Christ. It it's easy and I noticed here in United States and please, I said in the morning and you know when you're from a different culture and you stand once in a while in front of the church, you might say things that might bother some people or don't blame him on me. Asked the Lord to give me the message. Okay? So here here's the the messages.
So in The United States, we have I can say this too much sometimes. We can have three cars, a boat, two houses, and all that stuff. And these material things are good and necessary for us to have a good life. There's nowhere in the Bible that says not having three cars, five cars, and something like this. But what happened is these things can become between us and God.
And then we don't tend to depend on Christ much. We tend to depend on our ability and strength. I can work. I can do this. I can do that.
When I came to The States in 2006, I remember when I was in the embassy, I prayed and I said, Lord, if you help me and help me with to go to The States, I will never ask anything else. I I have no idea what I was asking. I think the Lord was looking at me and and laughing. In my mind, I thought I'm gonna go to United States, work hard, buy house, buy my BMW. BMW is my favorite car.
Right? Buy a you have one? No. I'm just joking. Buy a BMW and work hard and do something with my life that I'm gonna be happy and thankful.
And here I am. I came to United States. I worked three jobs. I have I have lots of paychecks, lots of money in my account, but I wasn't happy. I I wasn't happy.
I realized that the material things would never ever ever absolutely ever would take the position of Christ in my heart. And then at one point, I was in Idaho Falls with my wife and I saw a nice white BMW. I I drove a little bit here and there. I liked it. My wife wife was just like, yes, buy it.
You always want it. Buy it. Buy it. I I had the pen in my hand, just one tiny little signature, and that's it. I was reading, I said, what am I doing?
Nah. Nah. No. I'm not gonna buy it. I realized that my life was empty, and I didn't need more material things in order to feel great and wonderful about me.
What I needed was Christ. More of Jesus. More of Christ. Repentance. And the and the spirit of the Lord came to me and said, you see, you thought your life was terrible over there, but actually it was not terrible.
What Euphorin did, you took your eyes away from Christ and looked at and looked at other things instead of at what the right thing is supposed to be. And then and then I realized what happened. So then and the spirit of the Lord came to me in the repentance way. And I start to repent with all my heart. And I I literally cried out.
I I used to go on snorkeling so many times, and I I always looked to the front, behind, to the left, to to the right, to the left, and to make sure nobody sees me so they don't think that I'm crazy. And and I started to cry out with tears and said, Lord, forgive me. My call is to serve you. My desire is to to do your will. And look what I am.
I'm in such a deep mess right now. I need you Lord more than ever. Lord, would you take all this big mess from this side, from the Lekkielista side, and from the licensed side? Would you put them all together and form something beautiful out of it and use it for the kingdom of God? Because of those mistakes, either from there and from there, now I can I now I can understand people so much better?
I can sit down with them. I can cry with them. I can I I I have compassion for people to share the good news knowing that they are lost in this world? Now, do we have to go there or do we have to go there in order to understand God's ways better? Definitely no.
It's not a good place to be. But if it happens but if it happens, please learn from me from my life experience. Come back to the center, cry out to the Lord, ask for repentance, and say this, Lord, use me with all that I am today in such a way that I can gain people for you. So so I can spread the good news to others around me. So first point was watch out for those who draw your attention away from Christ.
Rejoice in the Lord. Ah, this is very important. Another way for us to stay focused on God, another way to keep to make sure that we are not in the temptation to fall away is to stay in the state of rejoicing, in the state of joyful noise. When we are in God's presence, and that means read the Bible. Pray.
Pray and pray and pray. And sing. Sing out sing loud if it's possible. When we do that, the spirit of the Lord, the the Holy Spirit rejoice in us. And then when there are temptation around us, and temptation can come from positions or from people around us.
At work, oh my goodness. At work, there's it can be so much more negative energy. Did I say it right? Yes. That can affect your day in a second.
And we have to stay focused and staying stay in that state of thankfulness. I rejoice in the Lord. And the more we do that, the more focus and strength we receive from from the Lord to keep going. Is it easy? I promise you it's not easy.
It takes there are days there are days when I go to Smiths like this. For real. It's gonna be a good day. I'm gonna have fun today. And it goes like that the whole day.
I it's it's the end of the day, I text pastor A. The Lord has blessed me with such a great conversation and I'm thankful for what I'm doing. Right? There are days second day. Right?
It's gonna be a good day. Whoo. And then I must miss and someone gets mad in five seconds. And then just yell at me or and said, it's your fault. The machine is speaking about this, as you know, most of you know, I work at at self checkout.
Right? At self checkout, when you scan your item, if you do it too fast, you can hear the noise, click, but it doesn't scan if you do it too fast. And you can continue. And if you don't pay attention on the screen, you end up scanning a lot of stuff, and it doesn't and it doesn't it doesn't appear in the system. Now, I'm helping someone else here.
Right? I already see you notice I have a little computer? In that little computer, I can see every other computer, and I see everything you scan. So be careful. Just joking.
So so I see everything in that little computer. Now, I'm helping another gentleman here with his coupons and I can see what's happening at Register 5. He's scanning but doesn't scan. And I know that it's gonna be a tough conversation. So I'm helping here with the coupon.
And then by the time I go from here to the other customer, I'm praying. Dear God, please help me. Please bless this person. Please give me the strength. And I sometimes I try my the little humor.
I have good news and bad news. Which one would you like first? And then he gives me this. Whatever. Bad news.
Nothing scanned. What? It's not my fault, bro. And and the customer is mad already. Right?
And then I said, Lord I said, sir, please let me scan this fast for you. I'll give you $5 discount. I'll give you 10 back points. And then in the end, he gives me a nice smile. This is one this is it can happen this way.
But there can be another way when the customer is mad and leaves and it happened many times. Leaves the groceries right there and leaves literally out of the door with the carts and everything and the groceries right there and says, I'm done. And then and they they're out, and there's nothing that I can do. Rejoice and stay in that state of thankfulness. That's what gives you the strength to do it, to continue.
I exactly what I wrote here. Begin every day with praise to God and Christ. Rejoice in your salvation. Rejoice in God's love for you in Christ. Rejoice in his promise to be with you always, never to leave you or forsake you.
When this is the key here, right here. When you are rejoicing in Christ, it is hard for anyone to pull your attention away from Christ when we stay in that state. But when we don't read the Bible, when we don't sing, when we don't pray, when we don't maintain that conversation with Almighty God, there is already a little danger over there. We can fall in that temptation to be mad too, to be angry too in a second because we're humans. Right?
We we fall short immediately. But if Paul brothers and sisters, if Paul did this while he was in prison, what do you think? Do you think we can do that too? I think we can do that too. If the Lord help this wonderful man, and I I say thank you Jesus for Paul for his life that was transformed because of that we have most of half of the New Testament done through him.
But if he if the Lord did something like this through Paul while he was in the prison, I promise you, we have so much we're way better where we are right now. And we can also try to serve God and let let the work of the spirit work in us today right here and today in in our society. Amen? Amen. Hold on to your identity in Christ.
That's another one. Paul had all the right to boast about himself. He came from the tribe Benjamin. He respected the law. And as you know, he was to the point to persecuted the church.
He was on fire for what he believed until he find Christ. Who we are? What it it is? What is our identity? Children of God.
And that comes with responsibility by the way. When when we say we are children of God, that means people are expecting us to behave in a different way. If if you don't say the word, I'm Christian, if you don't say I'm part of the church, if you don't say absolutely anything, and you get mad here and there and act like the world, it's fun. People probably joke with you, laugh with you, and so many other things. But in the moment you you look at you stay focused on your identity, which is children of God.
I belong to Christ. I'm different now. There comes responsibility to act different. The I have to admit it and this is a confession. There there were times when I raised my voice to at Smith's being mad.
When my guard is down a little bit and I don't pay attention, sir, it's not my fault. Why do you think it's my fault? And then in the second, realized, oh, Floren, you're supposed to act different even if you're right. You have to act different. No matter how good we are in the flesh, no matter how strong do we think we are, we we can't do this without having God, the one that gives us the strength, the passion, and desire to do what we do.
Amen? I'm almost done. Almost done. But the time is coming indeed and is here now when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth. The father is looking for those who will worship him that way.
For God is spirit, so those who worship him must worship in the spirit and in truth. There were people in that time that said, it's okay if you believe in Jesus Christ. It's okay if you believe that, but we have to be circumcised too. Or let's fulfill the law this way. Let's keep the Sabbath.
Let's do this. So many other rules that Paul did not like that. And he was trying to warn the church and say, pay attention to the false teachers. Don't let them guide you in the long direction. How can we apply this today?
Because we are not under circumcision's idea anymore. What can be today that can take our our vision away from Christ? Material things. Our strength. I I mentioned earlier that I said having three house two houses, three cars, and all that stuff, it's good.
It is necessary. It's a blessing. But those things can take our eyes away from Christ. We we can rely our position and our money, our strength. I can do this.
I don't need anybody. Whereas in those times when they had less, they focus more on an everyday on God. The less to be honest with you, I I come from from Romania. We were under communism. I know what means to ask I I used to ask my mom, what are we gonna eat?
Nothing. That was the answer. And you know what? Although it was difficult times, now I look back, those are the times when we cry out to Lord like never. Never before.
The less we have, the the more difficult life it is. It's it it seems this is I'm not saying that this is the right way, but it shows that we tend to seek more for Christ, seek more for God. I remember the small church I used to go when I was in Romania. We were a small group, maybe sixty, sixty five. When that church was singing, I am telling you, was on fire, singing with all their hearts, with the instruments, praising God.
And probably at home, their refrigerator was probably empty. Maybe a few things here. I remember I grew up. I'm gonna share this and if it sounds sad, I apologize. It's not my intention to to make it that sad or to look at me to say, oh, poor guy Florin.
You've been through a lot. What can I do for you? So that's not my intention, but it's part of my life. One of the worst and most difficult I've experienced in my life is when I used to go to school. Used to go to school and then when it comes to break time of eating, I didn't have a package, a lunch with me.
We didn't my mom didn't prepare because we had nothing. So everybody was opening their lunch to eat and I had nothing. So I have to walk away from from the place where my how to say, students co co students were eating and I walk away until they were finishing their food. And then I will come back, and then when I will go home, I'll probably eat something whatever was available. Now, tough circumstances, tough life like this, you might hear and say, what a difficult life.
And yes, what a difficult life. But you know what? It makes you pray more. It makes you reach out to God. You can do it either in madness.
Why? Why? Or you can do it in in thankfulness. Thank you Lord for what we have. So Paul, he's here in the prison.
He's mentioning already that I can boast about who I am. I fulfill the law. I do this. I do that. Now he's in trouble.
He's in very difficult situation. Probably he's not having a lot of food too under his table. And yet he says, rejoice in the Lord. I love that. Lord Jesus, may we know you more.
Lord Jesus, may our life be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. And may we may we come to the place where we say, you know what? It doesn't matter how much stuff I have. It doesn't matter how good of a person I am. It doesn't matter how great I look or something like that or my positions or Lord, nothing of this matters compared with it with knowing you Jesus Christ.
Amen. I will share one more portion and I promise you I will I will close. I talk too much. I'm sorry. Okay.
Whatever was to his profit or gain, he now counted as worthless for the sake of Christ. Put your confidence in Christ not in your not in your background, not in your achievements. Christ is the only thing that matters. Put your confidence in Christ, not in yourself. I love that.
Yes. Paul says here, yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite infinite value of knowing Christ, Jesus my Lord. Do you get that Jesus my Lord? I will never forget when when pastor Ray was preaching about this. We we cannot say, no Lord.
We can say, yes, Lord. And may we get to that point in our faith, to that level, if I can say, where we can feel we can feel to the Holy Spirit that Christ is the one that is guiding our lives, is controlling our thoughts, our actions, and may we be in that position where we are willing to spread the good news around us. Amen? You are to consider this stuff here. This is this is harsh.
And I'm I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry. But look what it says. I I was thinking, should I share this or shouldn't I share this?
Should I share this or should I share? Because you don't get to hear this a lot from the stage these days, but this is tough. You are to consider everything worthless compared to knowing Christ. Your background, your degrees, your accomplishments, your bank account, your possessions, the things you care most dearly about. Are you ready?
This is gonna go even farther than this. Please forgive me. I'm saying it again if this sounds too harsh. Your children, your spouse, your family. These are all good things.
And in in them in the and in themselves, they are all good gifts from God. Everything. But they pale in comparison to the surprising greatness of knowing Christ. I'm gonna share this a little story and then I'll close. At the beginning of January, probably some of you know, I I end up getting COVID.
After after working two years at Smith's touching everything that people touch, I was not afraid at all. Since COVID started to this day, I'm going and work with all my help. Whatever happens, I am at peace. If I said, if I'm if I'm about to get sick, it's happened. If I don't, I'm at peace with that too.
So two years pass, nothing. My wife gets COVID, I didn't. My kids got it. I didn't. Whoo.
I thought, man, something happened to me. I'm I'm strong. Now in January, I had a stomach bug, and forgive me for this plain words here. And for three days, I was puking, vomiting. Sorry.
Okay? So it was a mess for three days. And then a week after that, I got COVID. And my immune system was so low and when COVID came, boom. It knocked me down so bad.
I end up in the hospital with pneumonia for three days. It was very, very difficult. While I was there, I had time to pray like never before. I was reading two books. I was praying.
I felt so very much connection with Christ like never before. And I'm going back to September 2021. I prayed intensely and asked the Lord, dear God, please, you you know me. You know who I am. You know my struggles, my problems, and all of this.
I need I need your work in these three areas, Mentally, physically, spiritually. He did it. When I was in the hospital, I lost 15 pounds. I I was reading two books, and I was praying like never before. But what I wanna also wanna share is that when you are in that situations, it doesn't matter what position you have.
I promise you. Because I couldn't breathe. And that means when you had pneumonia, you can turn super bad. You can die, or the Lord takes you out of there and continue. So I I I was aware of the danger, and I and and I said, Lord, here I am.
If it's if it's my time right now, you know that I'm in love with you and I'm ready for that beautiful place. I am in love with the kingdom of God. But if you ask me what I want, Lord, I wanna live at least thirty, forty more years so I can be here with my kids. I felt so small. Seriously.
I am I'm I'm small. I'm with by the way, with my shoes on, I'm five. Without shoes, I'm four eleven. And my and my driver listens to his five and I'm thankful for that. Yes.
So I felt so small. I mean, believe me, church, I felt so small. It's like before that, I had visions. I had I need to go make sure I I need to raise funds for the mission for the ministry. I I I need to go visit churches.
I need to do this and that. So many things. And I can tell you over stressed too about so many ideas and plans. When I was at the hospital and being aware that tomorrow is not promised, nothing matters. The only thing that matter is is just you and God.
And it makes you it takes you to that point where you can say, Lord, help me help me to value today. Help me to value today. And Lord, if there's anything a sin or mistakes and things in my life, help me to put them aside, Lord. Help me clean clean me, make me new. Help me to know you.
And that's my desire right now. And I hope his desire for us too. And if I said too much and if I said something that was harsh or something, please forgive me. It was not my intention. My intention is to to to get your vision towards Christ.
Let's not only know about him, but to know him personally intense when we go to shop, when we go in the community, at the park, whatever. Let's shine with with the Christ in us. Amen? Thank you. Let's pray on that.
Oh dear God, thank you for giving me the privilege and the passion and desire to speak. And above all, God, you created all the languages. Thank you. Thank you for giving me the the peace to speak in English. I I am so thankful that I I get to share your message.
Your message, God, to the church that I love so much. Oh, God. Thank you for giving us the privilege. May we look at Paul's life and learn from him and understand that there has to be a time in our lives when our connection with you gets deeper and deeper, Lord. May we know you more and more.
Please forgive us of our sins, Lord. And may as soon as we leave this building, may we spread the good news to others so others can hear the gospel and so others can be saved. And when we get to the kingdom of heaven, someone who's would come to us and say, thank you for taking the time to share with me the good news. And because of you, I am here today. Oh, Lord, help us to be aware of that beautiful call that we have.
Lord, you know it's not easy. You you know that. We live in a world that is full of sin and it's so easy to fall in either direction, the wrong directions. Lord, help us to stay in the center, keeping our eyes focusing on you. Lord, you know who I am and you know my problems and my struggles.
Would you help them help me to bring them to the cross and help me to get to that position where I can say I it's no longer I who live but it's Christ in me. Please forgive us and give us the strength to love you more. In your precious name I pray, amen. Amen. Will you please stand up?
I shared this with the 09:00 that in Romania with with the 09:00 in Romania, the pastor has the freedom to preach as long as he wants, and nobody leaves. And if someone leaves, people will do this. He's leaving. So thank you for your patience. May the Lord bless you and may we be a church on fire.
Amen? May we be a church who seeks the will of God and tries to spread the good news to others around us. Sometimes we can do that through words. I promise you a lot of times we can do that without words. Simple actions or just a beautiful smile or just something that someone would say something's weird or different about you.
And then they would ask what's going on. Amen. What a friend we have in Jesus. Oh, what by the way, I'm always at the 09:00 playing the piano with pastor Colin and all that stuff. Most of the time, I'm I am at 11:00 because of the hymns.
The hymns are so good, so rich. I love contemporary style very much, but some of the songs are quite light. You know, we're all good, we're all happy. But but but Oh, pastor, forgive me. Sorry, I might put you in charge.
What are you saying? But the hymns, they're rich. They have the gospel. Honestly, you can sing this song and you have the plan of salvation right there. That's why I love hymns.
So let's sing this song with all our hearts. What a friend we have in Jesus. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord.
May the Lord bless you and may he give you a good week and may we spread the gospel. Amen? One day at a time. May the Lord bless you. Amen.
And thank you Naomi for singing so beautiful. Amen. Amen. God bless you.
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