So two Mondays ago I was in my Monday night Discovery Bible
study with some guys and usually by Monday night I have my sermon
done. The reason is like an undone
sermon is like a woodpecker that is just like I'm trying to have
conversations with people, but in the back of my head it's
sermons not done, sermons not done, sermons not done, sermons
not done, sermons not done. And so I try to do no meetings,
nothing, and just get the sermon done on Monday.
And it's Monday night and I'm staring at a blank page.
And so usually I have my sermon done, but by that night, you
know I didn't. So I told the guys in my DBS we
were in First Corinthians chapter 2.
And if you might remember from First Corinthians chapter 2,
Paul says these words in that chapter.
I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom.
I came in weakness and fear and trembling.
My message and preaching were not with wise and persuasive
words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power.
So I told my group of guys on that Monday night that I was
going to be living out First Corinthians chapter 2 when I was
preaching to you, First Corinthians chapter 3.
I think after I've made that bold proclamation before God,
that everything would go great on Tuesday and I'll get my
sermon done. Tuesday was a dumpster fire.
I got done at work and I had a cool opportunity to go meet with
the family to talk about baptism and I was supposed to be at
their house at 8:00 PM and we I thought I'd get done at 9, got
done at 10. I come home to my house 10-15
and I am looking at a blank page.
I go, all right, Jesus, I'm looking at the rest of the week.
I've got from now until 11:30 before I've got to go to bed.
And then I have 90 minutes I can give you in the morning before I
start my meetings at 9 A 9:00 AM because I've, I'm already
obligated. I've already given my word.
So I worked hard until 11:30. I got up early and did some
stuff and then spent time and I finished my sermon and I shipped
it out. And then I went through my day
on Wednesday, and on Thursday I got ready to come to church and
I got in the car. I remember closing the door, I
put my hand on my steering wheel and I was going.
I have nothing of value. And a lot of people are going to
be hearing the sermon this weekend and I can't find a
single redemptive thing in it. So I can find it in the elders
who pray with me before I come out to preach, which I'm
incredibly thankful that they do that.
I told them, listen guys, I'm living out First Corinthians
chapter 2 because there's not one line in this sermon that I'm
excited for people to hear. I came out do what I normally do
during the second song, I get down on my knees and I pray the
prayer that I always pray, which is God.
This church is nothing. This service is nothing.
This sermon is nothing. I'm nothing unless you're in it
unless your presence and your power show up in this moment.
God would you do what only you can do in ways that only you can
do it. Can you start a fire in the
church that Satan can't put out? And then I walked out on stage
believing that you guys were going to get to be Co inheritors
of a dumpster fire of a sermon like man I I what what is
happening here? You may remember I said I had
you guys all stand and I just read First Corinthians chapter 3
out loud over you and I said these words.
So that way if you get nothing out of the sermon, you at least
got the word of God. And then something very special
happened. Now some of you may be gone.
No, we're in agreement with where you're at, Clayton.
Which, Listen, I I can live with that.
Unprompted. Unprompted.
I have received more encouragement, more texts, more
emails, more messages about that sermon than any sermon I've been
excited to preach on an Easter or a Christmas Eve or a vision
series. Like when I can't wait for you
to hear What I've written. Crickets.
When I'm scared out of my mind about what I'm about to say, God
absolutely dumps his praise on it.
I was thinking through it. I save.
Yeah, that's, yeah, God's incredible.
I'm, I'm, I'm weak in this area. If I get a really good
encouragement, I save my encouragement.
I have a little folder in my inbox.
If you send criticisms, we evaluate them and then we
discard them. But if you send, we do evaluate
them. I mean that especially if you
sign your name, by the way, whoever sending me letters, this
is not scripted. Whoever sends me like 9 page
letters in red and white ink and you never sign your name.
I can't follow up with you. So stop or start signing your
name. But the people who, the people
who, who sign stuff. So what I do is, and sometimes
you'll get this, I take those and I put them in like my
encouragement folder. So when you're tempted that when
you have a dark day in ministry, I've got, you know, a pile of
something to remind, you know, it's not all bad.
And I haven't received more encouragement from a single
sermon than all the way back during weeds in my garden.
Why am I telling you all this? Listen, do not blow me up on
emails this week. I got another full week.
Here's why I'm telling you this. I want you to know that our God
is absolutely, 100% undefeated. I told my boys we were doing a
Bible study. And because my boys are like you
and me, there are times when we get a lump in our throat about
doing something for God. Have you ever had that moment
where you're like, I don't know how this is going to go?
I don't know how I'm going to feel about this?
And so I tell my boys that courage is not the absence of
fear. Courage is doing something even
when you're scared and that to be people of courage, we have
to, even though we have a lump in our throat and even though we
wish that the circumstances were different, we're going to do it
anyway. And so as I was wrapping up my
Discovery Bible study with my family, we always, and for those
of you who do a Discovery Bible study, you guys know that the
very end of one of those, you kind of answer 2 questions.
What are you going to do and who are you going to tell?
And I told my boys that my tell was going to be you.
And I'll tell you why because you might be tempted to think,
man, if, if Clayton could have this conversation with my
friend, it would all go perfect. Boy, if I could just talk like
Clayton or some of our campus pastors, wouldn't that be great?
I need you to know that we get scared too.
We get nervous too. We don't have the right words to
say all the time too. But don't ever doubt how God can
take a small amount of faith and just a little bit of obedience
and do a mighty work. Because at the end of the day,
what your friend or your spouse or the person you go to school
with, they don't need a word from you and you don't need a
word from me. What we all need is a word from
him. And so even if you don't feel
like it's the right word, God can give you the right word to
help people in the situation that they're in.
And it's when you step into those moments.
I've stood on this stage a ton of times and not been scared.
I've also stood on this stage a bunch of times and been scared.
And can I tell you something? My wife will tell you this when
I get done right in the sermon on Monday night.
And I go, this sermon stinks. And I usually use a different
word than stinks, but I'm trying to do better.
But it rhymes with, Oh no, shouldn't do that either.
Please forgive me for the thoughts that just went through
your head. My wife will tell you that those
are usually going to be the best ones.
So when you don't feel it, when it's not going the way you want
it to, when you don't feel the way you wish you felt about it,
can I just encourage you in faith to just be obedient and
let God do what only He can do in it?
Because at the end of the day, our job is to plant and water,
but God is the one who provides the growth.
As we jump into First Corinthians chapter 4, we're
going to near the end of Paul dealing with minor issues that
are producing major problems. Now, the next couple of weeks
we're going to be hitting it hard on some pretty tough
issues, and Paul addresses a whole bunch of other issues,
major sin issues in the church. So for the next couple weeks,
hang on. Now I'm making the distinction
between minor and major because that's how we see them, not how
God sees them. Here's what I mean.
Paul has been dealing in chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3, and
again in this chapter, chapter 4.
Pride, disunity, jealousy, and quarreling.
And we usually don't get as upset about these sin issues.
Do you want to know why? Because they're the ones that we
struggle with. And anytime we struggle with the
sin, it's a minor issue. We would rather deal with the
big sin issues that other people deal with then deal with the
minor issues that we have. The problem is that the greatest
threat to the mission of Jesus throughout the church is not the
sins of the world, it's the undealt sin issues in the lives
of believers. You see, people want to move of
God, but God will not bless or resource pride.
Why is Paul going on and on about unity in the church?
Because all throughout church history, the people of God were
never more powerful when they were united and never more
powerless when they were divided.
So how does Paul deal with this? He deals with this directly.
First Corinthians chapter 4 verses one and two.
This then is how you ought to regard us as servants of Christ
and as those entrusted. We're going to circle back to
the word servants and entrusted with the mysteries God has
revealed. Now it is required that those
who have been given or who have been given a trust must prove
faithful. Paul starts off with two word
choices that invoke a ton of imagery.
He reminds them that first and foremost we are to be servants
of the Kingdom. The word for servant that he
uses there is under rower. Under rower.
What's that mean? Glad you came, Glad you asked.
Imagine you are on a slave ship. You are have been taken captive
by Rome and you are on the ship and you are the under rower.
You're not on deck where you get to feel the breeze, feel the
sun. Nope.
You are below deck. There's rows of people there.
There's no stops, no bathroom breaks, no wind, no breeze, no
nothing. Just a chain and an oar, and the
under rower is at the bottom of all the other rowers.
He says this is where we belong. We're at the very bottom of the
boat and all we do is row. What he's saying is you and I
are to be servants wherever our master wants us to go, doing
whatever our master wants us to do.
And lots of people, maybe even you sometimes me, we love to be
seen as a servant. If somebody say he's just such a
wonderful servant, you'd be like, oh, that's a pretty nice
compliment. I should meet that person.
If you were bragging about your wife, she just does an
incredible job of serving our family.
Be like, Oh my goodness, what a what an awesome trait.
I wish your wife was my wife. That sounds fantastic.
Everybody likes to be seen as a servant, but almost nobody likes
to be treated like 1. We like the perception of being
a servant until someone hands us an oar and says get to the
bottom of the boat and row. The second image that he uses is
the that of a housekeeper or a house manager.
He says those who have been entrusted, they are not owners
of the house but stewards of the house.
They are servants who take care of the property, the fields, the
food, not on behalf of themselves, on behalf of the
master. The expectation is that you and
I are required to prove ourselves faithful over the
things that we have been entrusted with.
Turn your neighbor and say we the things that we have been
entrusted with. We have lots of opinions about
how other people should manage what they have been given, but
Paul says that we are to be stewards of what we have been
entrusted with. We love to talk about how
professional athletes should manage their platform or they're
giving. We have big opinions about how
billionaires should manage their wealth or those in Washington
and how they should manage their power.
However, you have not been entrusted with their money,
their position, their life, or their power.
You've been entrusted with what you've been entrusted with.
And can I just say this gently? The backbone of every
civilization and the centerpiece of the Christian faith is
supposed to be the family. So tough question here.
How are you managing your family?
How are you stewarding your marriage?
How are you navigating your kids, your finances, your
relationships for the mission of God?
You are to be a servant of God's Kingdom in your home.
You and I are to be stewards of the leadership positions that He
has put us into. We need to spend very little
time talking about how other people could live, should live
their lives, and focusing A gigantic portion of our time
about how do we be a better steward of what God has given
us. Verses 3 through 5, Paul keeps
going. I care very little if I'm judged
by you or any human court. Indeed, I do not even judge
myself. My conscience is clear, but that
does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.
Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time.
Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is
hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart.
At that time, each will receive their praise from God.
Now I'm going to unpack a ton of this next week when I we, we're
going to talk a ton about judging.
And if you're going, man, I've been wanting to get better at
being judgy. It'd be a great week for you to
come because I'm going to teach you how to do it.
OK. But Paul knows that his readers
have tons of opinions about how Paul should be managing his life
and his ministry. And Paul knows that he does not
have to give an account to those people.
And what Paul does is he lays out four courts, but only one
that matters. Here's the 1st court that he
talks about, the court of public opinion.
Paul says don't care. I wonder how much doesn't get
done for the Kingdom of God because we are too worried about
people who are not of the Kingdom of God would view us.
I wonder how many things don't get done for the Kingdom of God
because people who claim to be in the Kingdom of God, we are
more worried about what they think than about what God
thinks. Paul says public opinion don't
care. Then he talks about the judicial
court. Well, listen, I'm going to honor
the judicial system as long as the judicial system doesn't make
it illegal for me to follow God. And if they make it impossible
for me to follow God, then I won't follow them.
I'll be an outlaw for Jesus. Then he talks about the court of
personal opinion. We're going to pause here for
just a second because I think there's a little devotional in
there for us because many of us get trapped here.
How we view ourselves matters, and there are some of you who
will put you all the way over here on this end of the
spectrum. You're extremely hard on
yourself. You have a very realistic
assessment of who you are. You know just how bad you've
been, how much you've been saved, how jacked up you are.
You get a PER. You are so clear on how bad of a
human being you are. However, sometimes people who
have that mentality, what they end up doing accidentally is
they diminish the cross in Jesus of its power.
And here's what I mean. Because you have such an
accurate assessment of who you are and your failures and your
shortcomings, you have come to the conclusion that there is no
way that God could ever save you or use you.
You're too far gone, you're too messed up, you've been too bad.
And they're of the opinion that because of who they've been,
there is no way that God could redeem, repurpose, and save
them. And when you do that, while it
may not be intentional, you're making a gross claim about the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Because what you're saying is
Jesus sacrifice is enough for other people, but it's not
enough for me. But hear me, there is not a sin
that Jesus will not forgive and there is not a Sinner that Jesus
cannot save. On the opposite end of the
spectrum, there. Now be so careful here.
When I did this on Thursday night, there were some marriages
that started having problems. So I'm just going to encourage
everybody. Just look at me for a little
bit, OK? Because we might be talking
about you or the person you came with or the person you should
have came with. These are the people who, you
know, they're not too hard on themselves.
They're not nearly as hard on themselves as they should be.
They would say that they're pretty good people.
They're doing a pretty good job. They live pretty good lives.
I've been wrong before. I just don't remember when it
happened. I would say I'm sorry if I did
something wrong, but I I haven't done anything wrong.
And these people, whoever they are, seriously, just look at me.
You know what they do? They too diminish the cross and
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ of its power, because they don't
see themselves as a Sinner needing saved.
They see Jesus as a small, tiny, insignificant component of their
salvation. They see the cross is something
to add to their life instead of the basis of their life and the
basis of their salvation. Hear me.
The Bible says that we were dead, dead, dead, dead in our
sins. Jesus did not come to improve
your life, He came to save it. Jesus did not come to make bad
people good, good people better. Jesus came to make dead people
alive in him. And so while you may look at
yourself and see yourself as way too far gone, you are not so far
gone that the blood of Jesus Christ can't cover you if by
faith you will receive what He has done on your behalf.
And if you were the kind of person who has been going
through life and you just think you're a pretty stinking good
person, and you know, I, I just a little bit of Jesus is all I
need. You have a gross
misunderstanding of your fallen nature and your sinfulness and
your pride. But the good news is that Jesus
came on your behalf and he can save even you.
Then Paul goes to the 4th court, the only one that matters, the
only one that counts when you will stand before God.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13 teaches us this is a scary verse
in the Bible. If you're looking for a scary
verse. Nothing in all creation is
hidden from God's sight. And Speaking of the Judgment
Day, it says everything is uncovered and laid bare before
the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.
You can spend your side, you can spend the rest of your life
looking for the approval of others, but you're not going to
stand before others on Judgement Day.
You can spend the rest of your life measuring yourself against
yourself, but you won't stand before you on Judgement Day.
But you will stand before God. And when you do, you better
stand on the record of Jesus Christ.
And the Bible says that you will be rewarded for what you did for
Him and for his Kingdom. Cause verses 6 and seven.
Now, brothers and sisters, I've applied these things to myself
and Apolis for your benefit so that you may learn from us the
meaning of the saying. Do not go beyond what is
written. Then you will not be puffed up
by being a follower of one of us over against the other.
For who makes you different from anyone else?
And what do you have that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did
not? Paul says, look guys, I'm living
this out, follow my example. Let me just say something to the
the parents out there and the people who work in a secular
workplace. Don't ever underestimate the
power of your example. Your kids and the people you
interact with will not remember everything that you say, but
they will remember how you lived in the example that you set
before them. The people who get the closest
to you are either going to be let down and disappointed, or
they will be inspired and held to a higher standard.
And then Paul looks at the people he says, don't go beyond
what's written. There's a lot that gets said on
social media, and there's a whole theme right now of unsmart
people who are making gross accusations about the Old
Testament. And so for those of you who are
Bible nerds, let me just talk to you for just a second.
It's true that the Bible was not written to you.
The Bible had an original audience, but the Bible was
written for you. It was written for your good,
for your maturity, for your growth, for your sanctification.
So you can know God, understand God, and learn from the people
that God has interacted with in the past.
And it is the inspired Word of God, which means the Holy Spirit
was the one who participated in the writing for your good.
So even though you weren't the original intended audience, you
were a part of the audience that it had in mind.
And a lot of people will say a lot of stupid things about the
Old Testament. And I just want to say something
that I think is worth noting. Paul is writing to people in the
New Testament under the New Covenant.
And while he is writing to them just in First Corinthians, out
of the 437 verses in First Corinthians, Paul quotes the Old
Testament 41 times. So Paul is saying that the Old
Testament is good for people living in the New Testament.
I'll tell you why. Because when you read the Old
Testament, you're going to realize that God made the world
and everything in it. You're also going to learn that
we're sin for people and we messed it up.
We're the problem, not the solution.
Then we realized that God, in his grace and mercy, uses sinful
people to bring about his redemptive work, and that true
followers of Jesus make sure that at the end of every story
that God is the one who's the hero.
Why does this matter? Because this will destroy pride
in a church and in the life of a believer.
Because when you realize that God is God and you're not,
you're not going to be as prideful as you used to be.
When you realize that you're the problem, not the solution,
you're not going to be as prideful as you used to be.
When you realize that God is the one who allows you to
participate in His redemptive work, you're not going to be as
frightful as you used to be. And when you decide to make
Jesus the hero of absolutely every single story, you will not
be as frightful as you used to be.
That's why Paul goes on to say everything that is happening to
you spiritually you have received from God.
So why are you boasting as if you did it?
You didn't get on the cross, Jesus did.
You didn't come up with the idea of salvation, God did.
You're not the one who paid the ultimate price, God did.
The grace you have didn't come from you, it came from God.
The mercy that's washed over you didn't come from you, it came
from God. So why are you boasting as if
you did it? You received it, so all the
glory should not go to you, but to him.
You were given it. You received it.
Verses 8 through 13, Paul starts to get a little sarcastic.
If you've never been married to somebody who's sarcastic, have
somebody explain this part to you.
OK, Paul's looking at people and he goes into sarcasm mode.
Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich,
you have begun to reign, and that without us.
How I wish you really had begun to reign, so that we might reign
with you. For it seems to me that God has
put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like
those condemned to die in the arena.
We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as
well as human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you
are so wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong.
You are honored. We are dishonored to this very
hour. We go hungry and thirsty.
We are in rags. We are brutally treated.
We are homeless. We worked hard with our own
hands. When we are cursed, we bless.
When we are persecuted, we endure it.
When we are slandered, we answer kindly.
We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world,
right up to this moment. Paul starts off and he's
comparing himself to all these other people and he's going.
You think you've got it all figured out?
Not even close. He's trying to point out how out
of line they are in their thinking and their living, Paul
says. I feel like I'm someone at the
end of a procession. Now, to the people in corn, this
would have made perfect sense. Imagine a Roman general going
off to war for a military campaign and then many years
later, returning victorious. And as he would enter into the
city, he would be at the front of the parade with all of the
soldiers. And the town would gather and
they would applaud and they would cheer.
They'd be excited. And at the very end of the
parade would be all of the people that they captured.
And they would drag those people into the arena to be slaughtered
by the gladiators during the games.
Paul's saying, that's how I feel at every turn.
It's heartache. Paul is taking a sledgehammer to
those who believe in the prosperity gospel where they
believe that life with Jesus means it is a life to riches and
abundance of material possessions.
He's saying that's not where close to what I've experienced.
But then look at this. There's this inspiring moment in
here. It's almost like, it's like
Paul's going, hey, I just want you to know what the Holy
Spirit's doing in US during this season.
And when you read it, you're like, Oh my goodness, that is
not me. That's not anywhere close to
being me. Paul says when we're cursed, we
bless. When we're persecuted, we endure
it. When we're slandered, we're
answering kindly. When you're going through life,
you're going to get bumped. You'll be going through
something at work, you'll be going something at home and
something will happen and you'll get bumped.
And when you get bumped, stuff comes out of you, right?
Some of you, you're trying, you know, you've been following
Jesus for a while. You're trying to not, you know,
say mean things, but you get bumped and you say a mean thing
or, you know, everybody thinks they're Christian until they get
cut off in traffic. And then like all of a sudden,
like your hand remembers that you used to not be saved and it
does the one finger wave like you didn't even, can I tell you
something that happened? Because that's in you.
When you get bumped, what comes out is what's in you.
And look at what's happening with Paul when he gets bumped.
Look what comes out. When people say mean things to
us, we answer kindly. When we're persecuted, we endure
it. The only person who can change
what's happening inside of you is the Holy Spirit.
And if we want to change what's coming out of us, we have to
lean into Him in a major way because you are going to get
bumped in this life. But when you get bumped, how you
respond is evidence of what the Holy Spirit is doing in your
life. So this week, when you get
bumped, you'll see what comes out, and that'll be a moment for
you to either thank God for what He's doing in your life and how
He's changing what comes out, or it will reveal to you what needs
to happen in your life. There's a pastor of a church
that's growing rapidly in the South.
And any time, you know, pastors are not immune from, you know,
people taking shots at them. And it was almost like there was
a coordinated attack over a period of about 3 weeks.
A bunch of people in the blogosphere and people with
podcasts like kind of colluded and started taking a whole bunch
of shots. I mean, it's a large church.
There's, you know, probably 500 employees on that staff and
there was 1 disgruntled employee.
And any of you guys have ever worked with people or managed
people? You know, there's always one,
right? Oh my goodness, hold on a
second. If you're on staff and you're
watching this right now, I have no ones on my mind.
So don't think that I'm OK. You're all good right now, OK?
Anyhow, so the people who are not in the know are turning on
the cameras, they're writing their hit pieces, they're doing
all this stuff. The people in the know know that
nothing's wrong. But imagine you sitting in your
office and seeing people just say absolutely vile, destructive
things about you and your ministry and how you navigate
life. He's driving home after
everybody kind of throws their shade at him and he gets to the
house and the kids are waiting in the garage with posters that
say world's best dad, world's best boss, world's best pastor.
He comes into the house and all the the the good plates have
been put on the table. And the wife says that we're I'm
making you your favorite meal. And he goes, why are you doing
all this? And this is what she said,
quoting Jesus. Blessed are you when people
persecute you and say all kinds of evil about you, rejoice and
be glad, because great is your reward.
So tonight we feast because God is going to bless us.
That's a completely different response to actually take on the
piling on of the uninformed, uneducated blogosphere.
And instead of fighting back on the blogosphere, you instead go
home and celebrate knowing that God is going to reward you for
enduring the persecution. What's the take away?
Jennifer should be making me more home cooked meals.
I, I know you guys were all thinking the same thing that I
was thinking. Actually, I know she's been
killing. We've eaten.
I mean, all right, I ate a lot this week.
Let me just say that. All right, not related to that,
First Corinthians chapter 4, verse 21, big punch.
Here it comes. I am writing this not to shame
you, but to warn you as my dear children, even if you had 10,000
guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers.
For in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son, whom I
love, who is faithful in the Lord.
He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which
agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.
Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not
coming to you. But I will come to you very soon
if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how
those arrogant people are talking, but what power they
have. For the Kingdom of God is not a
matter of talk, but of power. What do you prefer?
Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come
in love and with a gentle spirit?
Paul finishes the sermon by reminding these people of his
love for them. He's saying I'm saying these
things because I love you. Harsh words from a bad father
can destroy the heart of a child, but hard teachings from a
good father can destroy the work of Satan in the heart of a
believer. Ezekiel chapter 33 catches this.
But if the watchman sees the enemy coming and does not sound
the alarm to warn the people, he is responsible for their
captivity. They will die in their sins, but
I, this is God, will hold the Watchmen responsible for their
deaths. Paul is looking at a group of
people that he loves and he refuses to sit on the sidelines
and watch people set their lives on fire and set their eternity
on fire. Paul boldly and in faith and in
humility gets involved in the conversation.
He addresses the issues. How many times have we simply
not engaged in needed conversation with the hope of
turning things around and instead gossiped while we
watched the house burn to ash? Paul says.
You guys talk about the Kingdom of God, but I advance it.
There are a lot of coaches and there are a lot of consultants,
but we need to look for people who are actually doing it and
have done it, Paul says. There's a gigantic difference
between you and me. You guys like to pontificate
about what it means to lead the church, but I am leading the
church. You like to pontificate and blog
about how something should be different, but I'm actually
doing the thing. When I was in Bible college, it
happened all the time on dorm floors.
There'd be a group of people who'd be talking about how to
talk to people about Jesus Christ, and there'd be people
who actually talk to people about Jesus Christ.
And if we're not careful, you can be people who have been in
Bible studies, LED Bible studies, but never lived the
Bible. Paul's looking at people and
he's saying, hey, the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but
of power. It's not people who are just
reading it, but doing it. People are not just hearing it,
but living it. And then Paul ends with this
brilliant parenting coaching thing.
Watch this. Paul says, you guys get to
choose what kind of dad comes home.
How am I going to show up? Am I going to show up with a
spoon or am I going to show up with a gentle spirit?
You pick. Here's what he's saying.
Parents, this is gold. It is OK.
Don't use this as a gigantic permission slip.
But Paul's saying when I show up, how adversarial do you want
that conversation to be? In our home, it is only
adversarial until we have agreement.
So when my kids do something stupid, whichever kid does
something stupid, all people do stupid things.
But until we have an agreement that you just took a stupid
pill, until we have an agreement that what you just did was send,
we are at war. And I'm not going to let off the
gas, release the pressure until we have agreement that what you
did was wrong. You tracking with me.
But what happens the moment we have agreement that something is
wrong right now? If this is what's wrong, this is
wrong. I don't think it's that big of a
deal. It was, Yeah.
Stop making excuses. It wasn't my fault.
You're held to a higher standard.
I'm super tired. I don't care.
But OK, I get it. I shouldn't have done it.
OK, Think that's what I do. We are no longer on the opposite
sides of this. I come around now that we have
agreement, we're on the same side of the issue that was
wrong. I've been wrong too.
Here's what Christians do when they've done wrong.
We apologize, we repent, we pray.
So in that moment, Paul's looking at this church, He's
saying I'm showing up. And when I show up, I can either
show up pretty upset, lighten everything on fire, or I can
show up with a gentle spirit. You choose.
Hear me? Why does this matter?
Because God loves repentance and God loves humility, and
repentant people and humble people go.
I'm not always right. I don't always have it figured
out. I don't always do the correct
thing. I sin more than I should.
Well, in those moments, how easy is it for you to be loving and
kind and caring? Well, the truth is, loving, kind
and caring has nothing to do. With what they did because
telling somebody that they're wrong is kind and loving and
caring has everything to do with the tone.
Once we're on the same side, Paul says I love you too much to
let you keep doing this. Why does First Corinthians
chapter 4 matter? I'll tell you because how you
live is going to be judged by God.
Why does First Corinthians chapter 4 matter?
Because how you live will impact the mission.
Why does First Corinthians chapter 4 matter?
Because how you live will determine your reward.
Why does First Corinthians chapter 4 matter?
Because how you live will impact whether or not other people find
Jesus. Why does First Corinthians
chapter 4 matter? Because how you live will impact
whether or not other people continue to walk in Jesus.
We're moving to a time, a decision.
To those of you who are here or you're watching online and
you've never started an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ, I'm just going to say this quickly to you.
The Bible clearly teaches over and over and over again, and it
reaffirms it in the text that we just read, First Corinthians
chapter 4, that there will come a day where you will stand
before God on the judgment Day. And I just want you to hear me
say this and say this plainly. On that day, you need to be
found in Jesus. You do not want to be standing
on your own record. You don't want to be standing on
your own results. You want to be standing on his.
And the beauty of the gospel message that not only Jesus
preached, but He lived, demonstrated, and made available
is that through His finished work on the cross, sinners can
be saved and found in Him. The Bible says that we are
clothed in Him. And so if you're here today and
you've never started an intimate, personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, right now you are outside of Christ.
But when you decide to make him your Lord and your Savior and
have your life found in Him, you have nothing to fear on that
judgement day because you are in Him.
And if you have questions about what that is or what that looks
like, you can say something in the chat or you can walk right
over there by the baptistry and talk to somebody or talk to
somebody in your row or somebody who brought you and go, hey, I
need to get some of this figured out.
To the rest of you in the room, to those of you who already have
a relationship with Jesus Christ, what step do you need to
take today? Maybe today it's time for you to
finally become a servant of the mission, participate in what God
is doing. Maybe you need to go.
My example has not been what it should have been for a while.
And I need to start all through the power of the Holy Spirit
living a life that causes other people to see God's work at me.
Some of you, you might be in a spot where this is, you're like,
you weren't expecting this, but you maybe need to have a hard
conversation with somebody. You're kind of watching them
throw their spiritual life away, and you're just hoping that
somebody else will have the conversation.
But maybe through this sermon, the Holy Spirit has said, yeah,
it's time for you to have that conversation.
What is the thing that God is calling you to do?
This is why we say this all the time, because God is always at
work. So if we don't feel like we have
anything to do or anything to change that, it has nothing to
do with God. It has everything to do with the
fact that we're not listening or we're not being obedient.
And you have no idea what God could do when you decide to have
that hard conversation, when you begin to participate in His
mission, when you decide to go, you know what?
God, through the power of your Holy Spirit, I want to be an
example so that everybody that encounters me sees that there's
something different about my life, my priorities, and my
future. Would you stand with me, God?
You know perfectly what every person in here needs to do.
It's not a mystery to you. And you know the full power and
the full extent of what could happen because of our lack of
obedience. And you also are fully able to
see what could happen as a result of our obedience.
And so, God, I just ask that you would give every person and then
hear clarity about the next thing that we're supposed to do
and that you would give us the courage to do it.
In your name I pray. Amen.