I don't even judge myself!

 Read 1 Corinthians 4

Paul said that he didn’t even judge himself.  That’s a statement right there!

I don’t even judge myself.

That’s Paul. Surely that’s not for us. Is it?

Realize that Paul explained that people are not qualified to judge others. Our human nature kicks in, and we condemn more than we discern.

You might be thinking, I get judged yearly on my performance evaluation. I hope not. I hope that it measures value. Judgment or discernment is involved in the evaluation process. We judge or assess the amount, number, or value of something.

We are not venturing any further into performance evaluations. Let’s focus on judging, specifically Paul's comment about not judging himself.

Among the tougher jobs that I had as a Marine officer was as a Summary Court. Yes, one individual can be assigned as the whole court.

In the court, I was the prosecutor, defendant’s counsel, clerk, and judge. I did get a Marine to serve as bailiff to get other witnesses, evidence, or coffee. It sounds easy enough—you do the whole thing.

You think it would be easy. You only have to sort things out for yourself. You are missing out if that’s what you believe. You don’t know the joy of objecting to your own questions. It does get you ready for marriage, though. So much for the rabbit trail.

The hardest part was getting the defendants to say something good about themselves. These young Marines knew they screwed up and were ready to pay the price. But as their legal counsel, you wanted to put their best side forward, even if you had to pull it out of them.

I say all of this to make a simple point. We are not prepared to judge another person. Our courts do the best they can, but what about the believer and his or her relationship with God? What about us?

Shouldn’t we judge ourselves? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a practice test? Don’t you want to know where you stand with the Lord?

Yes, you are forgiven, but what have you done with your life since you were forgiven and saved?  Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. I get that. It’s all him.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see where we stand before we stand before the Lord?

We can. We have a judge available to us all the time. It’s like an app. The word of God judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Paul didn’t need the approval of the Corinthians or Ephesians or even the Hebrew people.  God alone would judge him and if he wanted to know where he stood, he could consult God’s word, which Paul knew so well.

So today, I say:

·       Don’t be subject to what others think of you. That’s outside of your purview.

·       Don’t decide based on how others might react. Just do the right thing.

·       Do what your Master tells you to do. Its right there in black and white. Some of it might be in red.

·       Don’t judge yourself. Be receptive to what God’s word says about you, but don’t get wrapped up in others' judgment of you.

·       Don’t beat yourself up. None of you surprised God when you fell short. I might be the only one who surprised him with how far outside the lines I was coloring.

Do those and you will have a humble confidence. You will also have someone who is always upset with you.

Elsewhere, Paul noted that one should get along with everyone as much as possible. If one does not get along with someone, one should make sure it is not the Lord that one offends.

Let the word of God be your judge. Focus on practicing the Lord’s words, learning from him, and pouring yourself into your discipleship.

Amen.

We are not there yet, but will be...

 Read 1 Corinthians 4

Imagine walking into a worship service where the music is loud, voices of praise to God are louder, and hands are raised. Amens and hallelujahs abound.

People at this worship service are motivated to worship God. They are motivated.                   

We Cumberlands are just fine raising our hands or sitting on them.

We are balanced. By that, I mean that people are equally bored with the sermon and the hymn selections.

Sometimes, I wish we were as visibly excited about worshiping God as we are about our sports teams. Can’t we get motivated?

I like motivation. I like enthusiasm. I love getting pumped up about something.

But it is our commitment that gets us to the goal, our commitment to press on, and our commitment that gets us through the lows.

It is commitment that stays the course.

In the adult Sunday school class, we often ask when we were closest to God. The most common answer is in our lows, our trials, or our suffering.  That’s not my answer.

I feel closest to God when I am bringing glory to his name. When is that?

When I commit to take his yoke.

When I commit to learn from him.

When I commit to put his words into practice.

When I commit to this relationship: JESUS IS LORD.

Motivation is wonderful. Everyone should get a good Motofix now and then. One of the cool things about preaching is that you get to make up your own words. It’s in the dictionary.  Ok, it’s my dictionary on the computer, and it gives me the option to add to the dictionary.

Commitment gets you to the endzone.  I like my metaphors freshly out of season.

Commitment gets you to the finish line.

Commitment is essential to growth.

Let’s get to the letter. Paul was a writer. He wrote about half of the New Testament over just under 20 years.

I think that Paul got paid by the word. They were good words. His stuff is still on best-seller lists.

He was an apostle, a pharisee, a Hebrew, and a Roman citizen, but make no mistake: Paul had significant mastery of at least one language. He used it to communicate with believers far away.

Paul was excited to have planted this church. He saw many gifts in these people, but he also saw problems and difficulties of many sorts. There were lingering pagan practices, little communion among believers, and fellowship fell short.

There were things to work on, but Paul was in Ephesus.

Camps were being formed as to who followed whom.  These folks needed a visit or at least a good letter.  The letter would have to suffice for now.

You think Paul could have just uploaded a TED talk. I would have liked to have heard this TED talk. It might have contained a little hyperbole.

You Corinthians have finished the race in record time. You have received your Victor’s Crown and are reigning.

Wow! How I wish I had your insight and knowledge of God. If we, who are apostles, could only catch the idiom of what you are doing, we would have it made.

As it is, we still struggle. We often live at the poverty level. Sometimes we are well received, but we still get beaten and run out of town from time to time.

This is the race God has set us upon. Why?

So many may come to know the love of God through Christ Jesus. So some could be saved.

Paul challenged this body of believers to answer a simple question: Are you really there yet? Has everything been fulfilled already?

Are we on some sort of self-actualization high?

Are you really there, yet?

This is Paul’s style of saying the more you know, the more you need to know—the more you realize, we have miles to go.  There is a whole bunch beyond your immediate knowledge that applies when Jesus is your Lord.

The secular concept here is called the Dunning-Krueger Effect. It was first defined in this information age ad got a name at the turn of the last century, but I suspect a rose by any other name has always been with us.

How do you display confidence when you don’t know diddly? You act like you do know it all. You believe you have arrived at your destination and nothing is left to learn. Only after some epiphany can growth genuinely occur.

And that revelation often comes with a considerable humility price tag. Do you know what it’s like to know everything—or at least think that you do—only to discover you have miles and miles to go to comprehend mercy and grace?

When Paul noted that he and some who traveled with him were treated like the dregs of the earth, I don’t think he was complaining.

Remember back to Acts 9, God told Ananias that he would show Paul how much he would suffer for the name of the Lord. Paul knew the calling he had accepted.

Paul was not complaining. As we read more in this letter, we will see him explain that we all have our part in the body of Christ. We each have gifts, some the same, others not.

Paul flips what could have continued as division. You don’t have to choose between Paul and Apollos. The Lord gave both roles, tasks, gifts, and authority.

You need only follow Jesus. God alone will judge whether you used your gifts and talents well or capriciously. God alone will judge.

Paul noted that only God would judge him, not Romans, Greeks, or believers in Corinth.   

We should all do what God has called us and gifted us to do, but we must all realize that we are not there yet. We deceive ourselves when we think we are.

We may have arrived in some areas, or we are getting close.

Our beliefs may be solid, but on rare occasions, we may wrestle with doubt. Life can be tough, and times can be tougher than we thought we could handle. With God, we get through them, but we might struggle.

Perhaps we forgive easily, but is there a person or two that don’t make the forgiveness cut? In your mind, was their trespass unforgivable? Was it so much that you would mock God by disobeying him? He gave very stern warnings at the end of the Lord’s prayer.

Perhaps you are a prayer warrior. You pray without ceasing, but do your prayers spend nearly enough time on thanksgiving? Are we truly living a thankful life every day or just on occasion?

Do you listen? Can you wait patiently upon the Lord? Can we truly trust God?

Perhaps none of us are there yet.

Paul noted that he would instead work on this now via correspondence, hoping not to have to show up ready to chew out these new believers who were only slightly removed from paganism. He wanted it to be a joyful reunion when he returned to Corinth.

We will discuss this whole new creation business further, but for now, remember that you are still a work in progress. We don’t boast in ourselves that we have done so much.

We seek to humbly walk with our Lord, knowing with certainty that he will complete the work he began in us. We are not there yet but, on our way, and assured of our destination.

We will have ups and downs, highs and lows, but we must continually grow.

So, what does that look like?

·       Be encouraged but not satisfied.

·       Be confident but not complacent or boastful

·       Be self-correcting without feeling that it’s all on us.

·       Endure your trials and even suffering, knowing that God will use your circumstances for some sort of good.

Here’s one:  Walk humbly with your God who loves you more than you understand. Let’s keep going.

·       Be humble in your salvation.

·       Receive correction.

·       Do what God has called and equipped you to do.

·       Take his yoke.

·       Learn from him.

·       Put his words into practice

Those should sound familiar. Of course, there are other things to help us bring glory to God, but for now, let’s take our lesson from Paul’s letter and work on these things.

We do not do it because Paul will visit us if we don’t.

It is not because Paul will send us a letter. He already has. He sent this one to Corinth first.

We do it because we will all stand before God, and we want to hear "well done, good and faithful servant."

That’s not a conditional statement. We will all stand before God!

Let’s do our best to live humbly now, seek growth, and enjoy what God has in store for his faithful servants.

Let’s do our best to let the word of God judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

We know we are not there yet.  Today, I ask—it’s a big ask—to commit everything to the Lord.

Commit, learn, and grow, for we are not there yet, but we surely belong to him.

Commit.

Amen

You are a Temple

 Read 1 Corinthians 3

 A local farmer had a situation and asked if I could help. I said, maybe…

I’ve got this small load from cleaning out the stables but I have to use the trailer to move my mother-in-law’s classic white sofa across town right now. I just need a place to park my load. Could I use your fellowship hall?

So, beginning tomorrow, watch your step in the fellowship hall. But on a high note, the youth group might get a $20 donation for camp.

It will be fine.

There’s a group that wanted to do an art display in the church building. They wanted to feature artistic and educational material on the 247 genders.

The session will probably have to vote on that one.

We don’t have the vaulted ceiling of sanctuaries of old, so I was thinking of cutting a big hole one each side of the sanctuary and making two skylights. We will cut the holes in them this year and make some glass coverings for them next year.

We might get a little snow, hail, rain, leaves, or stray cotton bolls until we make the window coverings, but it will work out.

Some of you are wondering what this has to do with Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. Others are thinking, are we going to do that show-of-hands thing about who read their chapter?

What is the connection?

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.

So now, Tom says, DON’T DO DRUGS. That would be fitting.

Or, don’t eat so much processed food. Be careful choosing what you consume. Some junk is masquerading as food is out there, so look out.

How about what we see? Be careful, little eyes, what we see.

How many sets of eyes here are glued to your phone's screen for hours each day? Visual stimulation is powerful. I remember coming into the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California, after 10 days in the field.

I was in a group of about 100 Marine officers. We came into the theater and sat on a real seat for the first time in a couple of weeks. As we waited for the commanding officer of the training center to come to say a few words to us, a lance corporal turned on the two big-screen televisions. Instantly, the whole audience was immersed in MTV.

We sat there and were mesmerized by it. Marine officers typically do not spend their time with MTV and music videos, but we were glued to the images on the screens. Images are powerful.

If you have lived long enough, you have some imagery in your mind that will never go away. I hope it’s not all traumatic.  

An image of Jesus embracing you in heaven would be a good thing to have stuck in your mind.  Maybe the image of the cross would be a good one to protect from being deleted in your mind’s next update.

And what we hear is as powerful and sometimes more subtle than we realize.

Who wants a Coke? What kind?

Dr. Pepper.

We can argue for days over whether it’s soda or pop or a soft drink or something else but the Coca Cola Company already did a job on us decades ago. Who wants a Coke?

Our bodies are temples. God calls us out of the world, sets us apart, makes us holy, and then sends us back into the world to share his love and good news.

Our very being is to be a holy place. We need to be careful about what comes in to this holy place. Elsewhere, we will read to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. The same applies here.

And we must pay attention to what we hear, not just what’s up front and obvious but the background conversation or music. Is it wholesome? Is is beneficial?

And what we eat and drink and otherwise consume for whatever reason is on the list.

Our bodies are not our own. They were bought with a price. They are now God’s temples and we are to keep them holy.

Amen.

 

What are we eating? What are we making?

 Read 1 Corinthians 3

I recently discovered that the Apostle Paul and I have something in common—not just this whole Christ, love, and making disciples thing, but something else.

Neither Paul nor I know any Taylor Swift songs. I’m good with that. Just thought you should know.

During high school, I lived on a farm about 5 miles east of Mangum, Oklahoma. Last year, I attended my 50th alumni reunion. I was shocked to find out that I was the same age as old people.

It was good to see those old people. A fourth of us didn’t get the chance to grow old, and we are fewer now.

Back to those high school days. I lived with my family (I let them live there, too. I was generous like that.) in a granite house. The granite blocks that made up the house weighed between 300 and 400 pounds.

If the Soviet Army had invaded Oklahoma in the 1970s, we could have withstood all of their tanks and artillery. This house was built.

On a side note, granite might be the worst insulator in the world. This old place had a fireplace on each end and a couple of gas heaters. I don’t know how efficient the fireplaces were, but I was warm all winter.

That was mostly because I was the woodchopper.

So there was my granite house, our propane tank off to the side, our storm cellar (which my mother didn’t like to go in. I didn’t care much for it either, so I would go stand outside to watch the tornados go by) and wood lined up all across the south side of the house.

Oh, and there was this foundation. I don’t know what it was supposed to support. It was at least 75 years newer than the house.

It wasn’t a solid foundation. It was one of those that just outlined the area. I have always been inquisitive and a little creative, maybe., I would wonder what might have been. What changed?

Why had nobody built upon this foundation?

It was like I had social media in my head in the 70s. I had plenty of opinions and theories but not many facts.

Why had nobody built upon this foundation?

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth and asked:

Why had nobody built upon this foundation?

Paul noted that he gave them the only foundation that they needed. Why hadn’t they built on it? How could Paul say this?

The church still had divisions. I follow Paul. I follow Apollos. I follow Peter. Really? There was quarreling and jealousy. 

Paul noted that he fed them milk when he was with this church body. They couldn’t handle more. Now, he chastises them and adds, "It appears you are still on the milk."

How many people are we talking about here? The best guesses are between 40 and 150 people. That sounds like us.

It was as if Paul was scratching his head, staring at the foundation in the sand by the old farmhouse that I knew over half a century ago. There was so much potential, but human nature kicked in.

What foundation had Paul laid? What foundation are we discussing?

Christ.

Christ alone.

Nothing other than Christ.

God included everyone in salvation. Christ died for all, but the path to receiving salvation narrows. It is by Christ alone.

This whole one true God thing was new to the Gentiles. If they wanted a god, they just made one or one-click ordered one on Amazon. They mighty save five to fifteen percent if they subscribe.

This whole Son of God thing was a stumbling block to the Jews. Remember, the Synagogue didn’t want anything to do with Paul. Christ complicated their lives.

Christ revealed the magnitude of God’s love for all. For all!

Christ surpassed the Law—the law that had governed for so long.

Christ Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe.

He is the Good Shepherd.

He is full of mercy and grace, just like his Dad.

We know this, but have we done any better than Corinth? Comparing details is hard. Who joined? Who died? Who professed their faith?

OK, so why make the comparison?  To ask this question to our believers in 2025.

Has anyone built on this foundation?  What have we done with the good news of life in Jesus Christ?

The church in Corinth liked Bon Jovi. Whoa, I’m halfway there. Whoa, living on a prayer.

Paul was thinking we should be farther along by now.

In 2025, we will produce annual reports to make something tangible for our church bodies and help us understand what’s happening. Maybe it helps. Maybe it’s just a placebo.

Numbers are easy, sort of. But are we on milk or meat? Are we growing in grace? Are we hungry for the things of God?

Are we who believe still encumbered by the things of this world? I’m not talking about paying the mortgage or making sure the kids do their homework and update your phone before they go to bed.

Are we weighted down, laden, burdened by hate, anger, bitterness, self-righteousness, lust, greed, jealousy, coveting, excess comfort, and others I have not named?

The Jews and the Gentiles were alike in one way. They loved their comfort zones. The law for the Jews and false gods, idolatry, and so many unspiritual things for the Gentiles.

They knew these things. They were comfortable with these things. This whole Christ business disrupted comfort zones among Jews and Gentiles alike.

So I ask, what comfort zones we tolerate that Christ would abhor? What comfort zones do we have that would make us like the church in Laodicea?  What would make Christ want to vomit us out?

What are we holding on to that we should let go of or cast off?

Procrastinating. Plenty of high-priority things deserve high-priority effort in the here and now. 

Any procrastinators?

Fatalism. The whole, for what it’s worth, it just doesn’t matter, or it ain’t nothing but a thing sort of thinking is what we are talking about.

Any negative thinkers here?

There’s probably a level down from the fatalists. It’s the worrier. It’s always presuming the worst-case scenario. Let’s not sugarcoat it. It’s fear or fear-based

Are there any comfort lovers? Growth lies outside our comfort zones.  Our comfort zones should be labeled “Growing.” We are growing.

Here is a comfort zone example: When we don’t agree on something, we say, “Let’s just agree to disagree.”

Agree to disagree sounds good if we are talking politics. I would love a sabbatical from talking heads talking politics.

But what if we are discussing scripture, putting those words into practice, and disagreeing? What should we do? We are believers. We don’t want to offend others. So, we:

Agree to disagree

What if we took the iron sharpens iron approach and dug down, drilled down, or just started searching for answers? What if, instead of fearing disagreement or argument, our differences motivated us to search for the answers, the truth?

Then, we are not defending our positions against each other. We are exploring God’s word together.

Why can’t we take this approach to politics as well? Too many people don’t want to spend time searching God’s word for answers.

The truth is if we are searching God’s word, we have our political answers as well.

Let’s take our disagreements as opportunities to dig deeper into God’s word. When you hear something in the message that you don’t agree with or disagree with, don’t you already search the scriptures?

I got this far in the year without any Marine Corps analogies.  That’s too long. Marines as well as soldiers are often taught in their boot camps never to answer a question with, “I don’t know.”

But what if they don’t know?  The answer is, “I do not know, but I will find out.” The recruit now has a mission.

Being a Berean is the cure for this part of the comfort zone. Search the scriptures! Still not of one accord, don’t retreat keep searching.

The theme here is what we are holding onto that we should discard.

Let’s get blame in there. We are so quick to blame. Surely, some situations require community awareness and action, but does everything that happens immediately feed the blame mill?

I remember driving my mother to appointments, reunions, and other things that took us a few hours away.  That meant that somewhere along the way the traffic would be backed up.

We would creep along for a while, and then she would point out a vehicle a quarter mile ahead of us and say, "That’s the guy holding up traffic."

“You see him?”

“Yeah, the white truck. I see him, and he is doing a fine job. He is also holding up traffic for at least a mile in front of him.”

My mother would break out her index finger and shake it at me when I would point that stuff out.  

I think blame helps us construct our own understanding. The remedy for giving so much effort to our own understanding is trusting God.

You might realize that these letters by Paul are letters not lesson plans. There is more in this chapter. We caught some of it at the early service, but for now, here is your charge, your challenge for this week.  Ask yourself:

Am I subsisting on spiritual milk or meat?

Am I learning from my Master?

Am I growing in this incredible grace that I know?

Am I building upon this foundation, which is Christ alone?

Am I known as the Lord’s disciple by my love?

What happens if I genuinely profess Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead? You will be saved.

But what if I don’t do anything else? You will be saved, but you will be as one escaping a burning building.

What does that mean? Your salvation was always assured in the blood of Jesus, but you have little to show for the sum of your life experience.

You are saved from sin and death but missing the abundant part of abundant life.

You escaped the flames of hell with only the singed clothes on your back and missed so much life.

Two questions from this chapter to consider.

Are we consuming spiritual milk or meat?

What have we built upon the foundation which is Christ?

What are we eating? What are we making?

Amen.

This is how you do church

 Read 1 Corinthians 1

Acts 18

 

And so we come to Corinth, at least we accompany Paul as he was there in Acts 18. The Jews rejected him and he went to the Gentiles and started a church before returning to Asia Minor.

The Jews took Paul before the secular Greek authority because he was disrupting the Sabbath services with this Jesus business. Gallio did what Pilate couldn’t manage. He stuck by his decision not to get sucked into this obviously religious struggle.

The Jews didn’t get what they wanted from the local authorities, so they beat Sosthenes, the leader of the Corinth Synagogue. We find the name Sosthenes in Paul’s salutation and must wonder: Did the leader of the synagogue come to be a believer, or is this Sosthenes someone we won’t hear of again?

Paul also maintained a relationship with this church. We know because he addressed specific issues. This wasn’t just Sophomore Theology conducted by correspondence. This was Paul in the middle of the congregation’s business. Plenty of theological pointers exist, but this is mission work, not commentary from the sidelines.

This is how you do church!

Thankfully, we can just sit back and comment on those knucklehead Corinthians instead of getting another series of challenges from Tom. Or can we?

We don’t seem to have any problems with the Lord’s Supper, but we learned not to take it during a fellowship meal.

We don’t seem to have a problem coveting Spiritual Gifts. We seem to comprehend being a member of the body of Christ. Maybe we should read Romans instead. It has plenty of theology that we can apply in this modern century.

That’s one perspective. Try another. There is who we were before professing Jesus as Lord and there is who we are now. There is a word for that journey between these two points: who we were before Christ and who we are now. It's one of those four-letter words, but you don’t need to cover your children’s ears. The world is life.

Life

Life involves struggle and challenge. It sometimes runs us through the wringer. Life is sometimes just so apparently amazing, yet we struggle to find the blessing in our situation.

We live and give thanks for life itself.

We struggle. Everything seems hard. But we press on.

We hurt to our souls, and sometimes it just hurts right here, but it has your full attention. We know pain.

And we know joy. That inexplicable feeling overwhelms you with peace, hope, love, and other godly companions.

We know life and can empathize with those believers in Corinth from 2000 years ago. They were figuring out how to be the church.

They were figuring out how to be a church. They were not a synagogue that now embraced Christ. These were mostly pagans from a pagan culture who chose to profess Jesus is Lord!

They sound like us. We didn’t grow up Jewish. We don’t fully comprehend grafted in. But we are trying to please God in this modern and post-modern age.

From where we were before we knew Jesus to where we are now is life, but for us, it is life lived in grace. Let’s get to the letter.

Paul began his letter with his standard salutation—blessing and thanksgiving. He then moved directly into attacking a leadership crisis at its root. Some had divided into camps. I follow Apollos, Paul, Peter, and…

Paul noted that only Christ was crucified for you. There need be no divisions. There must not be division! Christ is the head of the church. And this is not news. You know this!

But some do not. The message of the cross means nothing to them. They are perishing. They are already dead in their sin but reject the lifeline as foolishness.

Jews demand signs and miracles. Greeks demand wisdom. Paul said that he came with the truth, not eloquence. He brought wisdom that the world would call foolishness in introducing a God they did not know and how much that one true God loved them.

We preach Christ crucified. It is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles—in this case, the Greeks. God chose the simple things of this world to put the so-called wisdom of the world to shame.

The cross—that despicable symbol of Roman power and oppression—will bring liberty to the one who will receive its message.

In very short order, Paul got down to business. It’s all rooted in God’s love that we know in the blood of Jesus. That blood was poured out on the cross. It’s that simple.

It seems crazy to a world—a world that is perishing—but it’s nonsense to them, nonetheless. It just can’t be that simple… There’s got to be a catch…

And what are we to learn from such counsel?  How about salvation in Christ? Jesus will always be looked upon as foolishness by those who are vested heavily in the things of this world. It does not make sense to those seeking only self-gratification.

The world will try to convince you that you are going the wrong way because so many others are headed in a different direction. But you are to stay the course. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Press on towards the goal.

Paul’s letters to the church in Corinth are often noted as good teachings because of the problems of this early church. But we should note that this church also had some things going for it.

Paul notes that the believers had received spiritual gifts, which were known to the community. Later, we will see Paul setting aside the argument over which gift is greater in these words: Yet I show you the most excellent way.

This church had a lot going for it, which makes it an even more valuable resource for us. Which of our bodies of believers is without fault?  Without Gifts?

Corinth had faults, and they had gifts. They had blessings, and they had blunders. They had faithful servants, and they had hard cases. The church had growth.

We have faults and gifts. We struggle and we obtain victories. We try to keep our eyes on Jesus and put his words into practice, but things get in our way repeatedly. We want to be overcomers but sometimes we find every stumbling block that there is. Sometimes, we become one.

We need counsel. Although we may have different problems and opportunities than the believers in Corinth, we have the same mission: to love one another and make disciples.

Having preached those two words for about a dozen messages in the last half of last year, I was pleased to hear them at one of those mega-churches with video satellites.  Make disciples.

Make Disciples!

We are to make disciples once we are perfect in everything we do, right? Not!

We make disciples while we work on our own discipleship. We call others to trade the wisdom of the world—which is foolishness—for the wisdom of God, and we do it while we are a work in progress.

And we do it while the world calls us fools.

Consider who you were before receiving Jesus as Lord. Now consider the new creation that you are. It’s a struggle sometimes to live up to being this new creature, but that struggle is growth, sanctification, and God continuing the good work that he began in us.

So, keep pressing on in your journey to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. And keep inviting others—others who are perishing—to know this liberty and peace that comes only through Christ.

Grow in God’s grace and make disciples. The world considers us foolish. We are assured of salvation.

To borrow words from Casting Crowns, Know him and make him known. Even when the world considers you to be a fool.

Draw nearer to God and invite others to join us on the journey.

Amen.

To the Sanctified

Read 1 Corinthians 1

Acts 18

We are sticking close to the start of this letter in this service.  We won’t venture far from the salutation.

To whom is Paul writing?

It’s to believers whom he might call the church of God or the Saints. Those are some fine titles. Paul also calls his target audience the sanctified—those who had been sanctified.

Sometimes, we get caught up in our church words. Sanctified is a good title. It’s not sanctimonious—holier than thou.

Sanctified is simply growing in grace. We are to develop, struggle, learn, and grow, knowing that God will never abandon us.

The church is composed of those whom God has called out of the world, set apart for his holy purposes, and sent back into the world with a mission. Yes, you are on a mission from God.

For now, let’s focus on the sanctified part. For the believer, everything that we experience is grist for the mill. God will use it in some way for the good.

So, I can see working on patience while I’m stuck in traffic, but illness, injury, and death are a little harder to make the connection.

We are sanctified. That doesn’t mean we have reached our destination. It means our destination is assured, and we are free to be who God made us to be and live this life to the full.

We are sanctified, not indemnified from trouble. We will still have trouble in the world but we are not confined to the sentences imposed by the world. We are growing in God’s grace.

We are growing. We are not who we were before we knew Christ. We are already complete—perfect—in Christ, but we are just not there yet.

Today, I ask—I challenge you—to grow in God’s grace. Live this life fully in a spirit of love. Learn from our Master and put his words into practice.

Take this sanctification business seriously. Jesus is ready for us to truly follow him. That means take his yoke and learn from him. That means put his words into practice. That means to be known as a disciple of Jesus by our love.

What do you get in return?

Typically, you will receive peace and hope. You will know joy and fellowship with other believers. You will live in the blessed assurance that you belong to the Lord.

And one more. You will know growth, growth in God’s grace.

You will know what it’s like to be sanctified.

And when we say sanctified, we mean a work in progress assured of completion.

When we say sanctified, we mean on your journey to holiness, knowing that God will get you to your destination.

When we say sanctified, we mean set apart for God’s purpose and sent back into the world to fulfill that purpose.

What’s the best thing we can do to be sanctified? Take his yoke, learn from him, and put his words into practice.

Amen.

In These Most Recent Days

 Read Hebrews 1:1-4

It’s the end of the year. That’s often a time to look back, so I googled top lists for 2024. Top albums and songs came up for the first page of search results. It turns out that I don’t know any songs from the past year. I don’t know many from this century.

I Googled the best quotes of the year, and there was too much politics. I always feel better when I Google Yogi Berra quotes. “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

I always like to check New Year’s resolutions, especially for athletes. When asked about his goals for next year, I liked the running back's answer: “I’m going to rush for 1000 or 1500 yards, whichever comes first.”

The Hebrew people looked back a lot. The richness of who they were was in their history. Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others spoke from the past, but the author makes it clear that God has spoken in these most recent times.

His message was his Son. His Son humbled himself for his task and has been exalted to the right hand of the Father. His message continues to this day.

God is love and he loves you.

Our response is to love him back by loving others.

God has placed everything in the hands of Jesus. Our eyes are fixed on Jesus. It all begins and ends with him. Jesus is Lord. He is above the angels. He is in everything and everything in him.

It’s all about Jesus.

In 2024 America, people have heard this countless times: Put Christ back in Christmas. They hear the jargon, but its meaning is lost in a sea of narcotizing nonsense that pervades us. We are bombarded with so much information that it makes us numb to all information.

Can we discriminate as to what is essential and what is not? Can we?

We are blessed to know Jesus as Lord. It is the beginning of a forever relationship, but others do not have this relationship. They have heard of Jesus Christ, Donald Trump, P:-Diddy, and Elon Musk and know they must be important people because we see their pictures everywhere and are always talking or sometimes taking the fifth, and that’s the end of it. There is no follow-on thought.

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. That means it won’t register as anything significant on the scale of what’s important in my life right now.

If the most important message God ever sent humankind doesn’t register with you, or you can easily discount it, you are among the perishing.

This is not most of you, but each of you knows someone who has discounted the message of love sent to humankind in Christ Jesus. We all know someone.

Now, it’s time for a little end of the year/New Year is coming challenge.

As we look to a new year, consider those you know who refuse to believe. Think of those who continue to resist the Lord’s calling.

Now, commit to pray for them as we begin a new year. Pray that they come to know God and profess Jesus is Lord.

Commit to talking with them whenever you get a chance. You don’t have to be preachy. Just let the love that lives within you shine through.

Commit to witnessing to this person at some point early in the new year. This does not go into your "when I get around to it" file.

Yes, I am charging you to witness to another person, but not just another person. Witness to the person that God places on your heart. If after a week or two, nobody comes to mind, then witness to anyone and everyone.  If God has no one specific for you, then they are all for you. Talk to everyone

In these most recent days, God spoke to us through his Son, Christ Jesus. And his Son said to go and make disciples and to put his words into practice.

This year is over, but a new one awaits us. Let’s begin by witnessing to our community about the love of God that we know in Christ Jesus.  

 In these most recent days, God spoke to us through his Son, Christ Jesus. His Son said to go and make disciples and to put his words into practice.

Amen.