Jesus is Lord

My name is Jordan.

I'm one of the pastors here at Missy O'Day.

I'm usually up there tickling the ivory.

So today they let me come behind the pulpit and open God's word, and I'm super excited for that opportunity.

For those of you who are new, this is week two in our 14-week series on the gifts of the Spirit called For the Church.

And so we're going to be continuing over the next 14 weeks working through chapters 12 through 14 of 1 Corinthians.

If you didn't miss us last week, I invite you to go to either our website or the app and listen to Pastor Justin's sermon as he kind of set the tone for the series.

And he gave us a great overview of the varying beliefs and varying degrees of the gifts of the Spirit that different churches today hold.

So we have a ton to get into.

I wanted to kind of recap a little bit of that before we move forward.

One of Messi O'Day's doctrinal distinctions, distinctives, is that we are continuationists.

So simply put, we believe that the Bible, as our highest authority, teaches us that the gifts of the Spirit still continue today.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, equally God in glory and majesty, yet distinct in rule and service.

His gifting to the church has not been quenched nor limited due to any historical events, and his inspired scriptures are clear and sufficient for the guiding of the church and the use of specific gifts in regards to time, place, and order.

That's from our statement, our confession of faith on our website if you'd like to look into more information on that.

And so before we get in, I know that there are a lot of folks in this room that are maybe on edge a little bit, maybe a little bit nervous or terrified just of this idea of spirituality, let alone this God out there that gives us spirit, that gives us gifts.

And so we might be asking, does God really actually give particular gifts to Christians that He doesn't give to others?

And so these are some of the questions we're going to be wrestling with.

Many of us have firsthand experience or know a dear brother or sister who attends or attended a church that was completely divided by this very topic on the gifts of the Spirit.

Many of us have been believers for quite some time, and maybe never really thoroughly vetted out this doctrine, vetted out this theology, this understanding of who God is.

Maybe we never investigated really the person and work of this third person of the Trinity, God, the Spirit.

And so rather than embracing this and rather than diving in and really looking at it, we kind of just brush it off a little bit, or we reject it, or maybe we we run away from it.

So some of us in this room have, others of us have chosen to allow experience, maybe some poor practice that we've seen as it relates to the working of the Spirit to inform our minds in the pursuit of understanding this work of the Spirit.

But, church, we must not step aside and dance around Scripture.

We must humbly submit ourselves underneath it and acknowledge that it is sufficient, infallible, and effective for training and righteousness and growing in Christ's likeness.

Scripture alone must be our litmus for the work of the Spirit, not our experience, not uh some bad things that we've seen done.

We need to dive in and let Scripture interpret Scripture.

If I'm honest with you, Pastor Justin and I have uh both talked a little bit about this going into this series that we're kind of nervous in some regards of what a series like this could do, would do, what would the outcomes be?

Um, God is doing some amazing things here at Missio Day North.

Uh we what what happens if that people don't like this and it just blows up on our face, and I mean what there's just some uncertainty, right?

But at the end of the day, if we are to neglect or avoid the teaching of the Spirit, it would stem from a fear of man rather than a fear of God.

And so, as your pastors, we're committed to taking God's word seriously.

Not parts of it, but the whole thing.

And so this morning, whether you're nervous about the series, whether you've been a believer for a long time, 20 years plus, or you just feel like you don't even have the slightest clue about the workings of the Spirit, my charge to you this morning is to press in.

My charge to you is to not neglect this to write it off, but throughout this series, be reading of the scripture, be reading through chapters 12 through 14 before you come in.

Look for general themes, look for what God's word actually says.

Compare other texts on this, whether it be Romans or Ephesians or other sections of the Bible, compare it to what we're teaching, what we're working through, and ask God the Spirit to inform your minds and hearts.

This is for our good.

We trust, we trust that God is for us, and we trust that this is what his word reveals.

So, with that understanding, I want to take a moment to pray before we dive into God's word.

Take a moment to ask our Heavenly Father to be with us in His Spirit this morning.

So if you bow your heads.

God of all grace, we ask that you would be gracious unto us, your bride, this morning.

God, I plead that you would see fit to be gracious unto me as I attempt to teach your people this morning.

I ask that your spirit would move mightily in and through me, and that we as your church would humbly sit underneath the authority of your inspired word.

That your word full of power would pierce through our preconceived perceptions, that you would crush our doubts, that you would break through our ignorance, and that you would soften our hardness of hearts.

God, I pray that we would see and savor Jesus Christ as Lord.

It's in his mighty name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 through 3.

We're gonna first uh break down verses 1 and 2, and then really verse 3 is kind of like what is verse 3 there for?

Verse 3 is there for to interpret verses 1 and 2.

So let me read again verses 1 and 2.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.

You know that when you are pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, Paul is addressing the brothers in Corinth, and he tells them, I do not want you to be uninformed.

And so the context of this message, the context of this letter is going to be key for us this morning.

Uh Corinth is probably the most jacked-up church that we have in the Bible.

Um and so we're in it we're in good standing, right?

Like we they're it this is probably the they're they're doing some pretty wild stuff here.

And so, Corinth, um, members of the church are looking at one another, they're placing different values, judgments on one another based on performance, based on competence, based on charisma.

And some members have more impressive skills than others.

Some have more impressive gifts than others, more impressive talents than others, and it has caused division in the church.

And so we can kind of relate to this, right?

Throughout church, you've been in churches where there are certain giftings that are just put on display a little bit more.

Uh, this guy stand up here, uh Jordan Humphreys, is incredible at leading you guys in worship, right?

He's it's very visible.

Uh his skinny jeans are right out there.

And uh, I told you I get that in there.

I wear skinny jeans too, but I didn't buy them as skinny jeans.

They just grew and I grew and now they are skinny jeans.

But yeah, there's there's certain giftings in the church that are more visible, right?

Like you don't get to see Paul Dom with this gift of service painting the hallway through the week.

You just don't see it.

And just like just like the church in Corinth, we place values on different giftings.

So there's this great division and disunity in the church over the gifts of the spirit.

And all the while, in the midst of this disunity and chaos, what does Paul say?

Does he tell them to neglect the gifts, to back away from the gifts?

No, he does the opposite.

Chapter 14, verse 1, he says, Pursue love and earnestly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially that you may prophesy.

So in the midst of this chaos, he doesn't tell them to stop practicing, he tells them to press in.

So this phrase, unaware, I do not want you to be uninformed.

This is kind of like the geek out moment that I had as I was studying.

It's used three times in 1st and 2 Corinthians alone, which I thought was interesting.

But Paul uses this frequently elsewhere throughout scripture.

What's most interesting about this phrase is that Paul almost always uses it when he desires to share his readers that what he is passing is part of a central Christian truth or Christian doctrine, or it's a really important truth, a part of our faith.

In Romans chapter 1, he's verse 13, he says, I do not want you to be aware.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

The gospel is both for the Jew and the Gentile.

In Romans 11, he says, I do not want you to be ignorant.

And then he goes on to explain the mystery of the Israelites' salvation.

In Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13, he says, I do not want you to be unaware.

Christ is coming back.

He will rise from the dead and call those who are still living up together with him, so that we will always be with our Lord.

And so this phrase has beautiful meaning throughout the New Testament.

And it's no different this morning in today's text.

Paul is is is warning the church, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers.

I'm about to bring something of great importance to your attention.

And we'll get to that in a moment.

So he continues on.

Verse 2, he says, You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.

And so if we were to kind of summarize this, reflecting back, summarize this first two verses, it would be this You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.

And therefore, or because of that ignorance, I do not want you to remain that way.

But I want you to have understanding.

And what is it that Paul's trying to bring to their attention?

What is it that he's this great truth that he's trying to proclaim, this great truth that he's trying to remind?

We find that answer in verse 3.

Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, Jesus is accursed.

And no one can say, Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.

So what is that central truth?

No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

I'm gonna repeat that because I don't want to assume that it hit you.

You can leave that up there if you can, Melissa.

No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit.

A few weeks back, I was on a date with my lovely bride, and we were at a restaurant that I will uh not leave, I won't name it.

And I made this claim, this this claim as we were eating, that no one in the city of Cincinnati has a better meal top to bottom than this restaurant.

Can anybody take a guess?

Take a stab?

Cincinnati.

Taste of Belgium.

Taste, there is no one in Cincinnati that has a better meal top to I began arguing with the table next to me and the waiter as I was, as Holly and I were fleshing this out.

If you want to go there for breakfast, they have incredible breakfast.

Their biscuit and gravy is incredible.

Uh, one of the my favorite beers, the St.

Bernardist, is from Belgium and it's only found there.

If you want to have the best French fry in Cincinnati, you get their frites.

It is the best fries under the sun.

You want the best chicken and waffles?

Get a taste of Belgium.

They have it.

They have great Ohio maple syrup, great hot sauce.

It is a fantastic meal.

I don't even like blue cheese.

And I like that little salad that they put on the side that has the blue cheese in it.

It is it is incredible.

If you want coffee, if you're tired, they have great coffee.

They have it.

You want desserts?

They have homemade crepes.

They have those little macarons.

They have it all, top to bottom.

It doesn't matter what time of day.

You can walk in to taste the Belgium and rest assured that you're getting a fantastic meal and it's affordable.

That's my pitch.

Listen, you need to validate these claims for me.

We make these claims a lot.

No one fill in the blank, right?

No one played the game of basketball like Michael Jordan.

No one played the game of basketball like Kobe.

Nobody preaches better than that man.

No one's a better teacher than that person.

No one was a greater president than.

We make these no one claims a lot.

In today's text, no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit.

That claim is a lot more weight.

I don't want it to miss us.

I don't want it to for it to pass us by.

No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit.

And so how can Paul make this claim?

How can he make this claim that no one can say it?

No one.

No, not one.

The answer is sin.

We read in Genesis 3 in the creation account.

If you turn with me, we're going to be working verses chapter 3, verses 1 through 5.

So God created everything, it was all good.

And then we pick up in chapter 3.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight for the eyes, she took of it and ate and gave some to Adam.

We see in this creation account that Adam and Eve both ate of the fruit of the tree in an effort to make themselves like God.

And the truth is, we all make terrible gods.

As man rebelled against God's ways, spiritual death was brought about to all mankind because all of us have sinned.

You and I, like the rest of mankind, are left wanting.

We need to be saved from ourselves.

And this is why God sent his son Jesus to rescue us from ourselves, to rescue us from our sin.

And it is only made possible by the work of the Spirit.

No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit.

It's the Spirit who applies the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

This phrase, Jesus is Lord, is one of the most basic and central confessions of our faith.

Romans 10, 9 says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

You will be saved.

With this understanding, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved.

Yet on the other hand, no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit, we are left to conclude, and this is our main point this morning.

It is both a gift of grace and a work of the Spirit to be able to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

It is both a gift of grace and a work of the Spirit to be able to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

So why would Paul begin this three-chapter explaining this three-chapter debrief on the spiritual gifts in this manner?

Why would he choose to bring up this basic confession of faith?

Why isn't he talking about tongues and prophecy and revelation and knowledge?

Why?

The answer is because this principle will be important, moving through the rest of chapters 12 through 14.

Just like the gift of faith, the gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift made possible by grace alone.

The reason Paul starts this section of Scripture out is because just like the gift of faith, the gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift made possible by grace alone.

Faith is first and foremost a gift.

We see this central confession most clearly in Matthew 16, verse 15 through 17, and this is Jesus talking to Peter, but who do you say that I am?

Matthew 16:15–17

Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

This confession, this this faith was not coming from Peter.

It wasn't from flesh and blood, but it was given to him by the Father in heaven.

So faith is given.

It is a gift.

I wonder how many folks in this room this morning need to be reminded of that truth.

Faith can never be earned.

It's a gift.

It must be given.

I went to a birthday party last night and uh for little little Sammy J.

John.

And uh it was just funny to see all these kids run around.

And uh Sammy didn't do anything to get any of these gifts.

And it just struck me as I'm going through this text and you know, what's my main point, and you know, all this kind of stuff, and I'm rethinking everything, and just the beauty of this picture that here's all these people bringing gifts that Sammy never earned, that he didn't pay for, that there's no expected return from me to give him this gift or the other people in this room.

And it's just like faith.

Faith is a gift, it cannot be earned, it must be given.

No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit.

Romans 8 11 says, if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you.

It is both a gift of grace and work of the Spirit to be able to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

A gift of grace and a work of the Spirit.

And this leads us to where we find ourselves in this story, where we find ourselves in this text.

And this is our story.

Apart from a work of the Spirit in our lives, we all have a Lord problem.

Apart from the work of the Spirit in our lives, we all have a Lord problem.

We all have a worship problem.

Notice the past tense of all of these reminders in today's text.

The past tense of them.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, I do not want you to be uninformed.

Verse 2, you know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols.

However, you were led.

Paul is reflecting back before they were in Christ.

You know that when you know that when you were led, that I don't know what I'm saying now.

That's fine though.

Um let me get back.

You're fine.

I mean, people video things.

You're fine.

Oh, okay.

So sorry.

I love this phrase in verse 2.

He says, however you were led.

You know that you were led, however, you were led.

And I I think we can all relate to this, right?

Like, I I've done things, and like four hours into it, I'm like, how in the world did I get here?

Right?

Paul is telling them, you know that you were led to these idols and these gods, however, you were led.

Like, who knows how you got here?

Facebook, whatever it is, two hours later, sitting on the couch, like, what the I I don't even know where this day has gone, right?

ESPN, shopping, whatever it might be for you, we are prone to be led to other idols.

And apart from the work of the Spirit, apart from Christ, we all will be led to false lords.

We have a worship problem.

So if we're not being guided by the Spirit, we will be led to mute idols and false lords.

Within a culture, Of Lord's A Plenty Church, we are far too easily satisfied and consumed by fleeting things.

We are far too easily satisfied.

We are daily in a war for our hearts' affections.

We, like culture we find ourselves in, have chosen to consume more and more, to fill our schedules more and more, to pursue our careers and dreams that will one day fade more and more.

All the while actively choosing to stay uninformed to the Spirit's work in our lives.

If I'm honest, this was one of the hardest sermons for me to like prep for.

And uh as I was writing this stuff out, um I was convicted as I'm writing this statement that we like culture find ourselves, we choose to consume more and more.

I can tell you some really dumb facts about the Browns who have done nothing for me for many years.

I can tell you quarterbacks, I can tell you stats, I can tell you a whole bunch of dumb stuff that is worthless knowledge.

And when I started to really flesh out how how what's the best way I can talk about spirituality to the church?

What's the best way to define this?

What's the best way?

Man, I felt left wanting.

I felt convicted that I have searched after many false things in my life that have left me with nothing, that have left me empty.

King Solomon had everything under the sun, and at the end of the day he said it's all vanity.

It's all vanity, it's all fleeting, it's all fading.

So, church, the truth is Jesus Christ alone is Lord.

And the question remains, who is lording you?

Or what is lording you?

And what is leading you to that Lord?

Who is your Lord?

What is your Lord?

And what is leading you to it?

No one can say Jesus Christ is Lord except by the Spirit.

Ephesians 2, chapters, or chapter 2, verses 1 through 9.

We have some really beautiful parallel text.

Um, as I was preparing uh this sermon, this common text really jumped out, and I want to work through it a little bit to encourage us this morning.

Notice the past tense that Paul addresses the church in Ephesus first as he moves forward, just like he does in Corinth.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God.

But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead and our trespasses made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.

It's what?

It's a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

It is a gift of God so that no one may boast.

We're gonna learn as we're moving forward that the church in Corinth was bragging about special particular gifts that people have.

And this text calls them out faith is a gift, it is something that is given that can never be earned.

You can practice and strive and try to attain, and at the end of the day, it's gonna be vain.

It's a gift from God as He sees fit for purposes that He has designed.

At the party, it struck me at the birthday party last night, they got a Nerf gun, right?

And so all these kids didn't need to know what the Nerf gun was for.

There's also lightsabers there, which was pretty cool.

It was a Star Wars birthday.

But one thing that struck me was the kids didn't start using the Nerf guns as lightsabers, right?

They weren't trying to wave this Nerf gun.

No, they were they were sniping people from across the room.

And likewise, they weren't trying to like shoot the lightsaber gun, right?

And just like the gifts that were given have a purpose, the gifts that God gives us have a purpose.

They have a design.

They're to be used according to his ways, not our own understanding.

This morning we must remember that the gifts, just like faith, are first and foremost a gift from God made possible by the work of the Spirit.

And this is the good news this morning.

This is our gospel conviction that God offers us the gift reception Jesus earned.

Because Jesus accepted the gift rejection we deserved.

God offers us the gift reception Jesus earned because Jesus accepted the gift rejection we deserve.

The good news is that God is both the gift and the giver.

You and I are mere recipients of this great gift, this good and perfect gift.

We by nature deserve death.

And God, like a good and gracious Father, lavishly gives us of his very best, his one and only Son, to pay our sin debt in full and make us objects of his greatest affections.

And more than that, the good news goes beyond Calvary, as we learned last week, as not only is the tomb empty, but Christ Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to be God in us.

And as the Spirit works to illuminate the person and work of Jesus, we grow in maturity, understanding, and God is most glorified.

Church faith is a gracious gift from God, only made possible by the work of God the Spirit.

James 1 17 says, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.