The Church in The World Not of The World Pt. 10

Sanctified Conflict Resolution

Who we are called to be in Christ is meant to impact every part of our lives

The Church, Jesus’ Body, is to on a journey to be made like Christ

‘Realignment’ 2 God’s ways impacts our social, legal, sexual, ethical & relational lives

The Word of God, The Scriptures, call us out to be Holy, in every area of life

This is nothing new, God has been showing us how we are to live in union with Him

Paul is using different issues in the lives of the Corinthians to make the same point

As fully surrendered Christ Followers we are to be ‘Transformed’ by God’s Spirit

Paul asks a number of questions in this passage: Theological Questions

Last one: Do you not know that the ‘Unrighteous’ will not inherit the Kingdom of God?

So we see that it all about being made ‘Righteous’ and then living that out

When the Gospel is total reality we move from self absorption to Christ Absorption

Various factions in the congregation label others as wise or foolish, weak or strong; fight over who was the best pastor before the current one; bring lawsuits against one another; argue over sexual morality, whether it’s better to be married or single, what makes a healthy marriage, what constitutes grounds for divorce, what are appropriate dietary practices; what is the correct understanding of resurrection and the afterlife; and on and on. When conflict becomes that pervasive, no conflict management plans have any hope of succeeding unless the people involved can move beyond self-absorption, step back, and see a bigger picture of a higher calling. Paul seeks to accomplish that. ~ Frank Crouch

Our objective as Christ followers is to be ONE with Christ.

He must increase, we must decrease

1st Corinthians 6:1-11

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

  • Unrighteous vs Sanctified: God does the sanctifying that makes us righteous
  • TOGETHER with Jesus we will Judge all creation

And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!

  • Knowing our eternal future gives us a pattern for here and now
  • We will be one with Christ (Biblical Conversion) HE we will Judge everything
  • He prepares us for eternity living as HIS Church (Justifies & Sanctifies)

So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame.

  • If Christ is the focus of our lives we can settle all disputes ‘In The Spirit’
  • It is a shame when we don’t trust God for basic things…

Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?

  • The idea that God’s people should learn to settle their own disputes Exodus 18
  • This is one of the roles of Elders & Mature / Experienced in Christ’s church

To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!

  • If there is anything that eclipses Christ’s Spirit governing in our lives is a ‘fail’
  • We are better off suffering wrong than letting anything else take priority over JC

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:

  • The mark of ‘Unrighteousness’ is that our self desires rule instead of Christ
  • Until we have surrendered our lives to Christ our desires own us
  • We cannot be righteous in any way until we give our entire self to HIM
  • Don’t be fooled by yourself or the culture of the day:(Stick with God’s Standard)
  • The reality of your relationship to Christ is revealed in your ‘Lifestyle’

Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

  • This is a list of ‘lifestyle / habitual Sin’
  • Identity is crucial, when your desires rule you they become who you are
  • People are not ‘Unrighteous’ because they may have done these things…
  • They do these things, make them lifestyle, shape identity around because they have not been made ‘Righteous’ in Christ by surrendering to the Gospel
  • These are lifestyles that God has clearly been against forever
  • The priority of Self vs that of Christ’s Body (what we do proves what is priority)
  • If your desires are consistently more important than God’s ways, have you been made ‘Righteous’ by Christ?
  • If being found ‘right’ in a dispute is more important to you than the unity of Christ’s Body, then are you really part of that Body?

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

  • We all start out in this category: Unrighteous & not inheriting The Kingdom
  • But those of us who have surrendered our lives to Christ and HIS Gospel…
  • We have been made repentant of our sin through Christ’s perfect sacrifice
  • God’s Spirit enabled us to surrender and began the process of sanctification
  • We are justified when our reality is Christ’s Lordship of our lives
  • God does all of this by HIS Spirit, we cannot make any of it happen

Application Questions:

Why does Jesus want His Body to settle their disagreements among themselves?

How does our union with Christ reflect in how we settle disputes?

How can we leverage the wisdom of our congregation to help settle disagreements?

What is it that makes any of us righteous or unrighteous?

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1st Corinthians: The Church in The World Not of The World Pt. 9

The Yeast of Unrepentant Sin in False Converts

The topic of Church discipline is an emotional minefield

People have been hurt by churches practicing Non Biblical Church Discipline

The only Biblical reason to remove someone from a church membership is for unrepentant, planned, ongoing sin… WHILE confessing to be a Christian

The witness of the church to the world is to be about obedience born of love / grace

We are to live a life ‘Set Apart’ by Christ, for Christ and patterned after Christ

1st Corinthians 5:6-13

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?

  • The attitude of allowing, & celebrating unrepentant sin is dangerous / infectious
  • The lowered / non-Biblical standard will spread and become ‘Culture’

Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

  • The example is of yeast in bread…it is an illusion to the Exodus from Egypt
  • Yeast is symbolic of Sin / Evil (Exodus 12:15 / Matthew 16:6)

Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

  • Keeping the Festival is doing it as God has commanded
  • The nation of Israel kept the Passover to keep connected to God’s promises
  • Unleavened bread is with out the infiltrating influence of unrepentant sin

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

  • Paul wrote the church a previous letter that is no longer exists (not HS Inspired)
  • He’s clarifying his instruction: The expectation isn’t for non-confessors of Christ

But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.

  • We are called as Jesus Church to not affirm ‘False Converts’
  • False Converts have no desire for: Discipleship / Holiness / Scripture / Change
  • Tenets / Standards of Judaeo Christian faith are unchanged for 3400 years
  • As members of the body we are called to value Sincerity & Truth
  • Those claiming Christ without being Biblically Converted are not to be affirmed in their insincere claim.
  • Let’s be honest about our surrender to Christ or not

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

  • The question is about the churches role in upholding the standard of Christ
  • We are not called to judge behavior & lifestyles of those outside Christ’s Body
  • All who have not surrendered their lives to Christ are under God’s judgement
  • Paul affirms the responsibility of the Church Body to stay ‘Unleavened’
  • We re to be set apart by Christ, & are Christ accountable to Christ & His Body
  • The Non-Biblically Converted exclude themselves from the Body of Christ

Application Questions:

Why does Paul compare the acceptance of Unrepentant Sin to yeast in bread?

What is the significance of the Passover Festival to you as a Christ Follower?

Why is there often a passivity in The Church about evaluating other’s faith claims?

How do we @ Midtown have honest accountability about Biblical Standards?

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1st Corinthians: The Church in The World Not of The World Pt. 8

1st Corinthians 5:1-6: Removal From Fellowship Can Save

When you preach through books you have passages like this that are odd

God wrote the ‘Whole Bible’… all of it matters

Not your normal church situation…

It is a symptom of the greater illness befalling the church @ Corinth

The sickness of tolerating false converts rather than confronting unrepentant sin

I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother.

  • Not a mistaken sin but a ‘Sin Lifestyle’
  • This is a man who is a member of the church

You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.

  • Perhaps this guys was a prominent man in Corinth
  • They are tolerating or ignoring the sin because they don’t want to lose him
  • They should be grieved and disgusted
  • Paul calls for removal from the fellowship (church discipline / excommunication)

Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man in the name of the Lord Jesus.

  • This speaks to the true oneness we have as a body in the Spirit
  • Based of the ‘Spiritual Connection’ and the shared values & standards
  • We are called to judge within the body of Christ
  • Jesus said: ‘don’t Judge if you don’t want to be judged’ (Paul was willing to be)
  • Within the church Body we all are accountable to each other & Christ)
  • Paul is doing this by Christ’s power (in his name)

You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus.

  • It is the gathered body that has the power of Christ
  • Paul is part even though not there physically

Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.

  • The kindest thing they can do is to throw him out so he can face his sin
  • It is designed to cause repentance
  • The ultimate end is that this guy will surrender his life to Christ

Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough?

  • Paul is deeply concerned with the attitude that church in this, ‘Boasting’
  • They don’t realize what compromise does, and how it effects the whole church
  • This is why we can’t waver from the principles of God’s Word

Application Questions:

What is the difference between a committing a sin and having a sin lifestyle?

Why does God want us to be accountable to each other and not just Him?

How can people who are sinners pass judgement on someone else?

What does ‘Hate the sin, Love the sinner’ call us to do within our membership?

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1st Corinthians: The Church in The World Not of The World Pt 7

‘Power Not Talk’ 4:14-21

The important role humility plays in the life of the church

Christ’s way is our example, there is no way we can follow him without being like Him

As we build a church culture here @ Midtown an essential element of our fellowship is Humility

Humility is the quiet, consistent obedience to Christ’s ways and words

Humility is a realistic estimation of one’s own spiritual maturity

Humility is recognizing God’s work in the life of Leaders that He places you under

Humility is the power of God displayed in life, relationships, serving; not words

(4:8 & 4:10 Last Week)

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!

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!

  • These are statements that point out the immaturity of the Corinthian believers
  • Sarcastic rhetorical way of making an argument (The Truth In Love)
  • The Corinthians had unrealistic estimations of their Spiritual Maturity

4:14-21

I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children.

  • The goal of Godly leadership is never shame, but children need guidance
  • Speaking the truth in love to others is a major challenge (Spirit Empowered)
  • Parental Love is not passive, parents have a responsibility to address issues
  • True love is displayed in discipline
    • My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. ~ Proverbs 3:11-12

Even if you had ten thousand 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.

  • A guardian is not a parent…a different level of care and commitment
  • A father is involved from conception forward (a Spiritual Father is a real gift)
  • A child learns by imitating their parents

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.

  • Timothy is the son being faithful in the Lord, which they have strayed from
  • The reminder is of Pauls way, which is the way of Christ (Apostolic Way)
  • Jesus imprinted the Disciples & Paul, they in turn set the pattern

Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you.

  • Arrogance is the opposite of Humility
  • Arrogance knows better and does not place itself under authority
  • They think they don’t have to answer to Paul and God’s chosen leaders / way

But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have.

  • There must have been some report to Paul of the boasting and arrogance
  • Paul is grounded in God’s will
  • Are the Corinthians talking the talk or walking the walk?
  • He sends Timothy to represent 1st but he will come himself

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

  • Paul knew the Power of God and had been there / done that by God’s power
  • Talk is rooted in arrogance, power in humility
  • God’s kingdom is honored and gloried by His power not our talk

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 is saying there will be correction, their approach will determine his
  • God will discipline His church, one way or another

Application Questions:

What do you have in place to keep you from becoming ‘Spiritually Arrogant’?

Who can you imitate as examples of ‘Spiritual Maturity’?

How do we as a body embrace of culture of humility?

In what ways do you accept correction and discipline from leadership you are under?

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1st Corinthians: The Church in The World Not of The World Pt.6

Following Christ In Obscurity: 1 Corinthian 4:5-13

Christ has called HIS followers to follow Him…not to seek recognition

Beware performance ministry…Church Planter: ‘Cover Boy’ / Culture of Stories

This kind of Christian Culture elevates our flesh, not being like Christ

Audience: Immature Christians making the church standards the world’s standards.

Are you ok with obscurity, perhaps even mistreatment?

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. (Last Week)

  • No Judgement until Judgement day
  • If we are not judging each others motives we can love in from grace
  • Almost all of Matthew 6 Jesus is laying down what Paul is saying here

Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos 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 in being a follower of one of us over against the other.

  • These things: Unity / Christ = Wisdom / Spirit Revelation / Mature Leadership
  • Mature Christians applying Scripture benefits the Body (healthy relationships)
  • Stick with what God Says, not what the world says
  • Grounding in Scripture keeps you humble and from being part of cliques

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

  • Did some leader provide your salvation?
  • Did you make it happen yourself?
  • If God did IT ALL why do believers start preforming & posturing in the body?

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!

  • People were considering themselves ‘Arrived’, not needing discipleship
  • People were thinking they already discovered all the riches of Christ
  • People were saying they knew better than God’s Apostles and Leaders
  • Paul is saying they (Apostles) are reigning (Not by the Worlds measure)

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 to human beings.

  • Those who are fully living as God intends us all to live are not honored
  • Why would someone live like that?

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!

  • Paul is being Sarcastic…is God using sarcasm to make a point?
  • Who is honoring the Corinthians?

To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands.

  • Earthly rewards…NOPE!
  • Answering God’s call on you life is rarely glamorous

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.

  • Example of what true Maturity In Christ looks like…it looks like Christ
  • This is opposite of how our world says you are to be

Paul gives example of the depth of sacrifice the Apostolic church leadership experienced…as church leaders do in many ways around the world.

The depth of their sacrifice, their love for Christ and HIS body, led to intense revelation of God…that revelation became Scripture, the next part of “What is Written”

Those levels of sacrifice for Christ’s Body, can this be our example?

Application Questions:

What is your motivation to really know God’s Word?

In what ways might you be tempted to seek people’s approval thru ministry?

Why should you serve God in the most humble and anonymous ways?

How might you develop a realistic view of true maturity in Christ?

Who are the people in your life that follow Christ in obscurity?

John 17:9 & 15-20

“I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours…

…I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message…” ~ Jesus The Christ

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The Church in The World, Not of The World Pt. 5

‘The United Temple’ Chapter 3:16 – 4:5

In this letter Paul started with the importance of unity.

Then the theme of how the world’s wisdom is opposite of God’s wisdom.

Next the critical need to have and yield to God’s Spirit

And then, how these things go into Spiritual maturity, then back to unity…

What the thrust of this passage is: If there are factions, then there is no Temple

3:11-13 (Last Week)

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.

  • Once in the body of Christ we are to build precious, eternal things
  • We will have to answer for what we have built

1 Corinthians 3:16 – 4:5

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

  • We are a Sacred Collective: It only exists when we are unified in Christ
  • The Temple is where God’s worship is done in Spirit and in Truth
  • God’s Spirit is here, will we let HIM have HIS way?
  • God says: a person can destroy that temple! How can that be?
  • We are only as united as the least united among us is: ‘The Weakest Link’
  • Sacredness is found in the togetherness, the true worship, in that togetherness

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.

  • If we are warned to not be deceive by ourselves it must mean we often are…
  • What informs your values and priorities?
  • The only objective standard we who belong to Christ use: GOD’S WORD
  • God’s Word defines what is wise in God’s sight, do you know it well enough?

As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness” and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

  • ‘As it is written’ is what Jesus said when quoting the Old Testament scriptures
  • Matthew 4:4 Jesus is quoting Deut. 8:3 to Satan
  • He is appealing to the authority of Scripture in the believer lives
  • He is encouraging them to focus on what matters, not leadership preferences
  • We each as individuals have so much in Christ

Job 5:12-13: He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away.

Psalm 94:10-12: Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge? The Lord knows all human plans, he knows that they are futile. Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord, the one you teach from your law.

This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

  • How do you regard the leadership of our church?
  • 20 years ago I had no idea the sacrifices it takes to serve Christ & HIS church
  • I do believe I have been blessed to receive, carry and share The Mysteries
  • The Gospel of Jesus Christ
  • I fully believe I will have to answer for my faithfulness, as do the rest of leaders
  • Christ’s leaders are given a sacred trust, we must prove faithful

I care very little if I am judged by you or by 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.

  • Paul know who’s opinion really matters (An Audience of One)
  • In humility he dosen’t try to justify himself, he has nothing to hide
  • But even his opinion doesn’t matter, only God’s

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.

  • God says wait to Judge, in HIS time Our Lord will reveal what is the truth
  • The motives of your heart and my heart are not for us to judge in each other
  • Worry about your motives, not your brother of sister’

When we make the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ our ultimate reality…

  • We come together as a body and focus on what is important, CHRIST
  • We guard our unity with great care and love

Application Questions:

What does it mean to YOU to be part of a ‘Sacred Collective’?

In what part of your might YOU take the advise and become a ‘fool’?

How can YOU be a part of promoting what have in Christ instead of church leaders?

How do YOU view the leadership of this church, has it proven faithful?

How can Paul have a clear conscience and still not be innocent?

Why should WE leave Judgement of motives to God?

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1st Corinthians: The Church in The World, Not of The World Pt. 4

Building Spiritual Maturity

1 Corinthians 2:13-14

When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.

What does Paul mean by ‘Those who are Spiritual’?

He is talking about levels and degrees of spiritual maturity / mature discipleship

We can be saved and not be ‘Spiritual’, because we are immature

We all start out immature; physically, emotionally, socially, relationally…

We grow up and out of immaturity, we are made to become mature in every way, including spiritually.

But the key is that if you think you are mature you will be immature.

How do we become ‘Spiritually Mature’? We have to build it…it is a process

It is on the foundation of Christ that we build our ‘Spiritual Maturity’ (Discipleship)

The things that exemplify Christ; what we must intend to build in our hearts & lives

  • Humility / Sacrifice / Obedience / Holiness / Selflessness

Did you think to follow Christ was about only doing stuff you liked doing?

Spiritual Maturity results in eternal impact, Mature disciples of Christ change things

What we do with our salvation is almost as important as our salvation itself.

Paul is encouraging The Corinthians to grow up so they can build kingdom things

There is no such things as ‘Microwave Maturity’ it takes time to grow in Christ

1 Corinthians 3:1-15

Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger.

  • As he had just explained, only the ‘Spiritual’ understand God’s love in Christ
  • Belonging to the world in areas of your life will keep you spiritually immature
  • Being an infant is ok if you are 6 months old…
  • Our quest to build ‘Spiritual Maturity’ needs to follow the natural order.
  • If you haven’t had the milk (made it your reality) you wont understand solid food
  • The process of discipleship is not on our terms (be sure to finish the milk)
  • Paul had to feed them, spiritually mature people feed themselves (normal deal)

And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?

  • It is obvious that enough time has passed for them to be ready…
  • They’re not ready because they are still being controlled by their flesh
  • Big difference between being influenced by your flesh & being controlled by it
  • He sites the agitation and side taking around different leaders (political focus)

After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.

  • Who are leaders meant to be in Christ’s Kingdom? Last is first / first is last
  • Leaders in Christs kingdom just do the work given to them by God
  • Leaders aren’t our focus, if we want to be mature; Christ is to be our focus
  • It is God working in our lives that makes us mature. Leaders are not the source

The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.

  • Building Spiritual Maturity can only be done God’s way, by His power
  • If we do it God’s way it has ‘Eternal Value’; God rewards us for building maturity
  • This is God’s process, maturity comes for trusting Him & then giving Him credit

Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.

  • God gives us leaders to lay foundations in our lives, we build on what they start
  • He was an expert because he only built on the foundation of Christ Jesus
  • We need to be as careful as He was, we use ‘Biblical Theology & ‘Christology’
  • Spiritual Maturity doesn’t happen by mistake, be real about your commitment

Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.

  • All who are trying to build their life on Christ are capable of variations of work
  • Different materials represent what we form our life around: Eternal or Temporal
  • We can love Christ , follow Christ and still build worthless things into our lives
  • The Judgement Day Paul is talking about is what is known as the Bema
  • The Judgement Seat of Christ / Judgement of the saved

2 Cor 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

  • 1st Judgement: Is your name in the book of Life (Rev 20)
  • The Saved will be will be judged on what they built that was of eternal value
  • Building Christ’s Kingdom is what is of eternal value, the by-product of maturity

If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

  • If what you have done with your life since salvation is of eternal value: Reward
  • Our post salvation lives are judged based on what we built (eternal or temporal)
  • Discovering we wasted our lives on things will be painful
  • You will still be in heaven (Saved) but will miss out on amazing rewards…

We can choose to be who God wants us to be and use our life in Christ to build eternal things from a growing spiritual maturity in Christ.

We can also choose to be captivated by and focused on this world, building worthless things that will pass aways.

I want to encourage you today to choose Spiritual Maturity as your goal as a disciple and building things of eternal value that you can invest your life in (people)

Application Questions:

Can you identify areas in your life where you are an infant in Christ?

What personal practices or habits have helped you become more mature spiritually?

In what ways can you trust God with your maturity building?

How do you plan to faithfully build on the foundation of Christ?

What can you build that will have value / survive the judgment? (Bema Seat)

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GOD’S COVENANT LOVE

God’s Covenant Love

What is a Covenant?

Covenant is key to understanding how God relates to His Creation.

Covenant is what God has used through Scripture to describe His Love (320 times)

Humans made in His image are the main focus of God’s ‘Covenant Love’

The Scriptural story of God’s revelation to us is the unveiling of His Covenants

The ultimate revelation of His ‘Covenant Love’ is Jesus Christ

As followers of Jesus Christ Our Lord, we have committed to be HIS disciples

And as His disciples we are to love as He loves

As Followers of Jesus, guided by Scripture we express love in covenant relationships

God’s people throughout history have used a covenants to express love in the most important of all human relationships: Biblical Marriage…The Marriage Covenant

So as Christ’s body, HIS church, HIS ‘Called Out Ones’ we are expressing love in our relationship with each other in this ‘Family’ by instituting ‘Covenant Membership’.

There is only one requirement to be qualified to enter into such a Covenant Membership: That you have come to the place of Biblical Salvation in Christ Jesus!

From there we enter in by choice, conviction, obedience, commitment, and LOVE

Today I want to share with you the biblical story of God’s Covenant Love in preparation for that commitment some of us will make today and in the coming weeks and months here at Midtown Church.

It is the story of redemptive history, culminating in Christ Jesus

The progressive revelation of God’s love (He knew the best order)

I hope today you clearly hear God speaking to you in love thru His Covenant Love

The original covenant of life God made with Adam in the beginning was broken with the fall of man and sin entering into the world.

It is downhill from there, so bad God destroys the world with the great flood

God begins to rebuild the relationship with His Creation & Mankind:

The Story of Noah: The Covenant Love with ‘Fallen Mankind’

Genesis 6:17-18

I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.

  • God ‘Establishes’ the Covenant
  • It is with ALL mankind (one race,the human race)

God’s Covenant is all inclusive: everyone has access

The Story of Abram (who becomes Abraham): Big Picture of Covenant Love

Genesis 12:2-3

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

  • God is going to form a Covenant People that He will bless ALL PEOPLES thru

God’s Covenant Love will be displayed through a certain Nation that will bless ALL

Genesis 15:6

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

  • This is the basis of relationship with God: Total Faith in HIM
  • This is how we access all of God’s Covenant Love!

Genesis 17:7

I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

  • Eternal Nature of God’s Covenant Love
  • Covenant is extended to all future generations & descendants of Abram’s faith
  • God is the God of all who would put their faith in Him as HE reveals Himself

The Story of Moses: Covenant to Clarify a People and a Place to Birth Blessing

Exodus 6:2-4

God also said to Moses, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners.

  • Same God, same Covenant Love, now further revelation of that love / plan
  • God’s Love can change you from a foreigner to an owner

Exodus 24:8

Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

  • Foreshadowing of Christ all over this revelation of God’s Covenant Love
  • The Passover
  • Covenant in Blood (Covenant Requires Sacrifice)
  • Specifics spelled out ‘The Law’ (previous 4 chapters was God giving the laws)

Story of David: Pointing to The Messiah and The New Covenant in God’s Love

Psalm 89:3-4 & 28-29

You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations. I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail. I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure.

  • This Covenant Love story is going to culminate with a Person

From David forward the Prophets declare the coming of a ‘New Covenant’

Jeremiah 31:31-32a & 33b

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors”… “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

  • This will be an Internal / Spiritual experience vs External / Natural one
  • Not only will God be our God (Gen 17) but WE will be His People

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of of all the covenant promises

The entire Bible is pointing to Jesus Christ

Luke 22:19-20

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

  • The New covenant is God revealing the fullness of his covenant love in Christ
  • Here Jesus is telling us how he will seal the deal

Lay out the Gospel in terms of redemptive history

2 Corinthians 1:19-22

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

  • The culmination of all human history is the advent of Christ
  • God enables it all, we receive it in faith
  • Because of what He did we ‘speak the Amen’ which is that we Surrender
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1st Corinthians: The Church in The World Not of The World Pt.3

God’s Wisdom Revealed by The Spirit

Paul is writing to the Corinthians as a Pastor, to shepherd them & teach them.

He started the letter calling for unity, then gets to source of Christian Unity: The Spirit.

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is foundational to our Christian lives.

He is the person of the Trinity we actually interact with once we belong to Christ.

The Spirit can and will work in our lives prior to Salvation, but once He indwells us…

It is essential that we understand how the Spirit work with us and in us.

It is essential that we first and foremost understand how & why He comes to indwell.

It is essential that we learn how to yield to and access God’s Spirit in us

All our ‘Spiritual’ problems require ‘Spiritual’ solutions, we need what the Spirit gives!

1ST CORONTHIANS 2

And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

  • Paul came to them ‘boasting only in the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 1:31)
  • He gave his ‘testimony’ what he had experienced; what he had witnessed
  • He didn’t want the waters of his faith or theirs to be muddied; but to be clarified
  • Keep the main thing the main thing! Christ Crucified! The Gospel

I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

  • He didn’t come swagger and confidence.
  • He didn’t try to win them with theatrics
  • He let the message be Christ and he let the Power be Christ’s Spirit
  • The last thing he wanted for them was to rely on human wisdom
  • Denial of the Spirit is only unforgivable Sin

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

  • God’s message is eternal wisdom; recognized through Spiritual Maturity
  • Please don’t expect it to be appreciated by our world
  • The fullness of God’s redemptive plan is a mystery to mankind with God’s Spirit
  • God’s completed Revelation = Christ…Surrender to HIM = God’s Spirit in US !

None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”– the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

  • The power running this world is deceived and does not know the ways of God
  • Jn 18 Jesus: Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me. Pilate; What is Truth?
  • What the world sees as truth is not truth. What the world sees as wise is not…
  • On our own with our ‘Human Capabilities’ we have No Idea! (Isiah 64:4)
  • These are things only seen with Spirit-taught understanding

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

  • The only way to understand God is through his Spirit (Pre-Salvation Sanctification)

What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

  • It’s when we truly understand what He’s given us that we receive His Spirit
  • God’s Spirit speaks a different language, different concepts and economies

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

  • Our world, human wisdom rejects the message of the Cross
  • They have no means by which to understand: no way to decode the message

The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” (Isiah 40:13) But we have the mind of Christ.

  • Who is the person with the Spirit?

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit…(Ephesians 1:13)

  • We have access to the mind of God through His Spirit because of Christ

Application Questions:

In what ways has God’s Spirit enabled your faith?

Why does Paul call God’s Wisdom a ‘Mystery’?

What truth in Scripture has God revealed to you by His Spirit?

What practices have helped you develop ‘Spiritual Discernment’?

Why do you have the mind of Christ?

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1st Corinthians: The Church in The World Not of The World Pt. 2

The World’s Wisdom VS God’s Wisdom

Context: Paul writing to a church he was part of starting, dealing with their issues

He started with Unity and then He clarifies what they are United around

This church, like us, is geographically situated in ‘This World’

We are called to be in this world but not of it; Spiritually ‘Set Apart’ by following Christ

It starts with a clear understanding of and belief in the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Everything we are as a church starts with the reality of Christ!

Who He is, and what He has done are not understood by the means of this world

God’s ways are scoffed at by the popular culture of our day, as they were 2000 yrs ago

1st Corinthians 1:18-31

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” (Isiah 29:14)

  • Not believing in the unconditional gift of the Cross = The height of foolishness.
  • The only way to truly experience the ‘Very Power of God’ is to surrender to Him
  • God says HE WILL

So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.

  • The pursuit God is not an educational, philosophic, information based endeavor
  • God’s way is for you do it His way and that is by ‘Relational Faith’
  • You don’t need to know everything, you don’t even need to know much:
  • You just need to know The TRUTH

It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

  • Jews wanted a replication of Moses
  • Greeks wanted to ‘reason’ it out with logic
  • The Gospel of Christ dosen’t fit mold of this worlds thinking (never has, never will)

But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

  • The only way it makes any sense is that God enables it
  • God is calling, will you let him be heard in your heart & soul?
  • It’s beyond ‘This World’s’ capabilities to fully understand God’s wisdom & strength

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.

  • Did any of us really know anything before God called us?
  • I know I was truly humbled…I thought I knew somethings…
  • I’ve been considered foolish by friends, family & others for being a ‘Real Christian’
  • They think I have wasted my life…we will see

God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

  • The manner of Christ’s birth was a low as it gets
  • The manner of Christ’s death was the epitome of nothing: shameful & despicable
  • But through this God, and God alone made the way for us to have EVERYTHING
  • True Faith takes no credit for the salvation of Christ…But we do take part!

COMMUNION: Celebrating & ‘Taking Part’ in ‘The Gift’ of Christ-Given Salvation

This is a Sacrament only for Surrendered Disciples of Jesus Christ (Start Today)

God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:24)

  • Being united with Christ is an ongoing practice
  • The Lord’s Supper is a: Remembrance / Reconnection / Reenactment of GRACE
  • Who Christ is and what He did enables us to:
      • Enter into a right relationship with our Creator
      • Become pure & Holy, Christ’s purity and Holiness become ours
      • End being ‘Owned’ by Sin…it still oppresses, us but dosen’t own us
  • Since we could make none of that happen, we have nothing to take credit for

Application Questions:

Why does the reality of the Gospel destroy the wisdom and intelligence of the world?

Why does God not want us to know Him through ‘Human Wisdom’?

Why do you believe Christ is the power and wisdom of God?

Why is the reality of God displayed through foolish, shameful and despised things?

What are some ways you can ‘Boast only about the Lord’?

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