Stewards of the Kingdom

So two Mondays ago I was in my Monday night Discovery Bible

study with some guys and usually by Monday night I have my sermon

done. The reason is like an undone

sermon is like a woodpecker that is just like I'm trying to have

conversations with people, but in the back of my head it's

sermons not done, sermons not done, sermons not done, sermons

not done, sermons not done. And so I try to do no meetings,

nothing, and just get the sermon done on Monday.

And it's Monday night and I'm staring at a blank page.

And so usually I have my sermon done, but by that night, you

know I didn't. So I told the guys in my DBS we

were in First Corinthians chapter 2.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

And if you might remember from First Corinthians chapter 2,

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

Paul says these words in that chapter.

I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom.

I came in weakness and fear and trembling.

My message and preaching were not with wise and persuasive

words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power.

So I told my group of guys on that Monday night that I was

going to be living out First Corinthians chapter 2 when I was

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

preaching to you, First Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

I think after I've made that bold proclamation before God,

that everything would go great on Tuesday and I'll get my

sermon done. Tuesday was a dumpster fire.

I got done at work and I had a cool opportunity to go meet with

the family to talk about baptism and I was supposed to be at

their house at 8:00 PM and we I thought I'd get done at 9, got

done at 10. I come home to my house 10-15

and I am looking at a blank page.

I go, all right, Jesus, I'm looking at the rest of the week.

I've got from now until 11:30 before I've got to go to bed.

And then I have 90 minutes I can give you in the morning before I

start my meetings at 9 A 9:00 AM because I've, I'm already

obligated. I've already given my word.

So I worked hard until 11:30. I got up early and did some

stuff and then spent time and I finished my sermon and I shipped

it out. And then I went through my day

on Wednesday, and on Thursday I got ready to come to church and

I got in the car. I remember closing the door, I

put my hand on my steering wheel and I was going.

I have nothing of value. And a lot of people are going to

be hearing the sermon this weekend and I can't find a

single redemptive thing in it. So I can find it in the elders

who pray with me before I come out to preach, which I'm

incredibly thankful that they do that.

I told them, listen guys, I'm living out First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 because there's not one line in this sermon that I'm

excited for people to hear. I came out do what I normally do

during the second song, I get down on my knees and I pray the

prayer that I always pray, which is God.

This church is nothing. This service is nothing.

This sermon is nothing. I'm nothing unless you're in it

unless your presence and your power show up in this moment.

God would you do what only you can do in ways that only you can

do it. Can you start a fire in the

church that Satan can't put out? And then I walked out on stage

believing that you guys were going to get to be Co inheritors

of a dumpster fire of a sermon like man I I what what is

happening here? You may remember I said I had

you guys all stand and I just read First Corinthians chapter 3

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

out loud over you and I said these words.

So that way if you get nothing out of the sermon, you at least

got the word of God. And then something very special

happened. Now some of you may be gone.

No, we're in agreement with where you're at, Clayton.

Which, Listen, I I can live with that.

Unprompted. Unprompted.

I have received more encouragement, more texts, more

emails, more messages about that sermon than any sermon I've been

excited to preach on an Easter or a Christmas Eve or a vision

series. Like when I can't wait for you

to hear What I've written. Crickets.

When I'm scared out of my mind about what I'm about to say, God

absolutely dumps his praise on it.

I was thinking through it. I save.

Yeah, that's, yeah, God's incredible.

I'm, I'm, I'm weak in this area. If I get a really good

encouragement, I save my encouragement.

I have a little folder in my inbox.

If you send criticisms, we evaluate them and then we

discard them. But if you send, we do evaluate

them. I mean that especially if you

sign your name, by the way, whoever sending me letters, this

is not scripted. Whoever sends me like 9 page

letters in red and white ink and you never sign your name.

I can't follow up with you. So stop or start signing your

name. But the people who, the people

who, who sign stuff. So what I do is, and sometimes

you'll get this, I take those and I put them in like my

encouragement folder. So when you're tempted that when

you have a dark day in ministry, I've got, you know, a pile of

something to remind, you know, it's not all bad.

And I haven't received more encouragement from a single

sermon than all the way back during weeds in my garden.

Why am I telling you all this? Listen, do not blow me up on

emails this week. I got another full week.

Here's why I'm telling you this. I want you to know that our God

is absolutely, 100% undefeated. I told my boys we were doing a

Bible study. And because my boys are like you

and me, there are times when we get a lump in our throat about

doing something for God. Have you ever had that moment

where you're like, I don't know how this is going to go?

I don't know how I'm going to feel about this?

And so I tell my boys that courage is not the absence of

fear. Courage is doing something even

when you're scared and that to be people of courage, we have

to, even though we have a lump in our throat and even though we

wish that the circumstances were different, we're going to do it

anyway. And so as I was wrapping up my

Discovery Bible study with my family, we always, and for those

of you who do a Discovery Bible study, you guys know that the

very end of one of those, you kind of answer 2 questions.

What are you going to do and who are you going to tell?

And I told my boys that my tell was going to be you.

And I'll tell you why because you might be tempted to think,

man, if, if Clayton could have this conversation with my

friend, it would all go perfect. Boy, if I could just talk like

Clayton or some of our campus pastors, wouldn't that be great?

I need you to know that we get scared too.

We get nervous too. We don't have the right words to

say all the time too. But don't ever doubt how God can

take a small amount of faith and just a little bit of obedience

and do a mighty work. Because at the end of the day,

what your friend or your spouse or the person you go to school

with, they don't need a word from you and you don't need a

word from me. What we all need is a word from

him. And so even if you don't feel

like it's the right word, God can give you the right word to

help people in the situation that they're in.

And it's when you step into those moments.

I've stood on this stage a ton of times and not been scared.

I've also stood on this stage a bunch of times and been scared.

And can I tell you something? My wife will tell you this when

I get done right in the sermon on Monday night.

And I go, this sermon stinks. And I usually use a different

word than stinks, but I'm trying to do better.

But it rhymes with, Oh no, shouldn't do that either.

Please forgive me for the thoughts that just went through

your head. My wife will tell you that those

are usually going to be the best ones.

So when you don't feel it, when it's not going the way you want

it to, when you don't feel the way you wish you felt about it,

can I just encourage you in faith to just be obedient and

let God do what only He can do in it?

Because at the end of the day, our job is to plant and water,

but God is the one who provides the growth.

As we jump into First Corinthians chapter 4, we're

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

going to near the end of Paul dealing with minor issues that

are producing major problems. Now, the next couple of weeks

we're going to be hitting it hard on some pretty tough

issues, and Paul addresses a whole bunch of other issues,

major sin issues in the church. So for the next couple weeks,

hang on. Now I'm making the distinction

between minor and major because that's how we see them, not how

God sees them. Here's what I mean.

Paul has been dealing in chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3, and

again in this chapter, chapter 4.

Pride, disunity, jealousy, and quarreling.

And we usually don't get as upset about these sin issues.

Do you want to know why? Because they're the ones that we

struggle with. And anytime we struggle with the

sin, it's a minor issue. We would rather deal with the

big sin issues that other people deal with then deal with the

minor issues that we have. The problem is that the greatest

threat to the mission of Jesus throughout the church is not the

sins of the world, it's the undealt sin issues in the lives

of believers. You see, people want to move of

God, but God will not bless or resource pride.

Why is Paul going on and on about unity in the church?

Because all throughout church history, the people of God were

never more powerful when they were united and never more

powerless when they were divided.

So how does Paul deal with this? He deals with this directly.

First Corinthians chapter 4 verses one and two.

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

This then is how you ought to regard us as servants of Christ

and as those entrusted. We're going to circle back to

the word servants and entrusted with the mysteries God has

revealed. Now it is required that those

who have been given or who have been given a trust must prove

faithful. Paul starts off with two word

choices that invoke a ton of imagery.

He reminds them that first and foremost we are to be servants

of the Kingdom. The word for servant that he

uses there is under rower. Under rower.

What's that mean? Glad you came, Glad you asked.

Imagine you are on a slave ship. You are have been taken captive

by Rome and you are on the ship and you are the under rower.

You're not on deck where you get to feel the breeze, feel the

sun. Nope.

You are below deck. There's rows of people there.

There's no stops, no bathroom breaks, no wind, no breeze, no

nothing. Just a chain and an oar, and the

under rower is at the bottom of all the other rowers.

He says this is where we belong. We're at the very bottom of the

boat and all we do is row. What he's saying is you and I

are to be servants wherever our master wants us to go, doing

whatever our master wants us to do.

And lots of people, maybe even you sometimes me, we love to be

seen as a servant. If somebody say he's just such a

wonderful servant, you'd be like, oh, that's a pretty nice

compliment. I should meet that person.

If you were bragging about your wife, she just does an

incredible job of serving our family.

Be like, Oh my goodness, what a what an awesome trait.

I wish your wife was my wife. That sounds fantastic.

Everybody likes to be seen as a servant, but almost nobody likes

to be treated like 1. We like the perception of being

a servant until someone hands us an oar and says get to the

bottom of the boat and row. The second image that he uses is

the that of a housekeeper or a house manager.

He says those who have been entrusted, they are not owners

of the house but stewards of the house.

They are servants who take care of the property, the fields, the

food, not on behalf of themselves, on behalf of the

master. The expectation is that you and

I are required to prove ourselves faithful over the

things that we have been entrusted with.

Turn your neighbor and say we the things that we have been

entrusted with. We have lots of opinions about

how other people should manage what they have been given, but

Paul says that we are to be stewards of what we have been

entrusted with. We love to talk about how

professional athletes should manage their platform or they're

giving. We have big opinions about how

billionaires should manage their wealth or those in Washington

and how they should manage their power.

However, you have not been entrusted with their money,

their position, their life, or their power.

You've been entrusted with what you've been entrusted with.

And can I just say this gently? The backbone of every

civilization and the centerpiece of the Christian faith is

supposed to be the family. So tough question here.

How are you managing your family?

How are you stewarding your marriage?

How are you navigating your kids, your finances, your

relationships for the mission of God?

You are to be a servant of God's Kingdom in your home.

You and I are to be stewards of the leadership positions that He

has put us into. We need to spend very little

time talking about how other people could live, should live

their lives, and focusing A gigantic portion of our time

about how do we be a better steward of what God has given

us. Verses 3 through 5, Paul keeps

going. I care very little if I'm judged

by you or any human court. Indeed, I do not even judge

myself. My conscience is clear, but that

does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.

Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time.

Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is

hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart.

At that time, each will receive their praise from God.

Now I'm going to unpack a ton of this next week when I we, we're

going to talk a ton about judging.

And if you're going, man, I've been wanting to get better at

being judgy. It'd be a great week for you to

come because I'm going to teach you how to do it.

OK. But Paul knows that his readers

have tons of opinions about how Paul should be managing his life

and his ministry. And Paul knows that he does not

have to give an account to those people.

And what Paul does is he lays out four courts, but only one

that matters. Here's the 1st court that he

talks about, the court of public opinion.

Paul says don't care. I wonder how much doesn't get

done for the Kingdom of God because we are too worried about

people who are not of the Kingdom of God would view us.

I wonder how many things don't get done for the Kingdom of God

because people who claim to be in the Kingdom of God, we are

more worried about what they think than about what God

thinks. Paul says public opinion don't

care. Then he talks about the judicial

court. Well, listen, I'm going to honor

the judicial system as long as the judicial system doesn't make

it illegal for me to follow God. And if they make it impossible

for me to follow God, then I won't follow them.

I'll be an outlaw for Jesus. Then he talks about the court of

personal opinion. We're going to pause here for

just a second because I think there's a little devotional in

there for us because many of us get trapped here.

How we view ourselves matters, and there are some of you who

will put you all the way over here on this end of the

spectrum. You're extremely hard on

yourself. You have a very realistic

assessment of who you are. You know just how bad you've

been, how much you've been saved, how jacked up you are.

You get a PER. You are so clear on how bad of a

human being you are. However, sometimes people who

have that mentality, what they end up doing accidentally is

they diminish the cross in Jesus of its power.

And here's what I mean. Because you have such an

accurate assessment of who you are and your failures and your

shortcomings, you have come to the conclusion that there is no

way that God could ever save you or use you.

You're too far gone, you're too messed up, you've been too bad.

And they're of the opinion that because of who they've been,

there is no way that God could redeem, repurpose, and save

them. And when you do that, while it

may not be intentional, you're making a gross claim about the

sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Because what you're saying is

Jesus sacrifice is enough for other people, but it's not

enough for me. But hear me, there is not a sin

that Jesus will not forgive and there is not a Sinner that Jesus

cannot save. On the opposite end of the

spectrum, there. Now be so careful here.

When I did this on Thursday night, there were some marriages

that started having problems. So I'm just going to encourage

everybody. Just look at me for a little

bit, OK? Because we might be talking

about you or the person you came with or the person you should

have came with. These are the people who, you

know, they're not too hard on themselves.

They're not nearly as hard on themselves as they should be.

They would say that they're pretty good people.

They're doing a pretty good job. They live pretty good lives.

I've been wrong before. I just don't remember when it

happened. I would say I'm sorry if I did

something wrong, but I I haven't done anything wrong.

And these people, whoever they are, seriously, just look at me.

You know what they do? They too diminish the cross and

the sacrifice of Jesus Christ of its power, because they don't

see themselves as a Sinner needing saved.

They see Jesus as a small, tiny, insignificant component of their

salvation. They see the cross is something

to add to their life instead of the basis of their life and the

basis of their salvation. Hear me.

The Bible says that we were dead, dead, dead, dead in our

sins. Jesus did not come to improve

your life, He came to save it. Jesus did not come to make bad

people good, good people better. Jesus came to make dead people

alive in him. And so while you may look at

yourself and see yourself as way too far gone, you are not so far

gone that the blood of Jesus Christ can't cover you if by

faith you will receive what He has done on your behalf.

And if you were the kind of person who has been going

through life and you just think you're a pretty stinking good

person, and you know, I, I just a little bit of Jesus is all I

need. You have a gross

misunderstanding of your fallen nature and your sinfulness and

your pride. But the good news is that Jesus

came on your behalf and he can save even you.

Then Paul goes to the 4th court, the only one that matters, the

only one that counts when you will stand before God.

Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13 teaches us this is a scary verse

Hebrews 4:13

in the Bible. If you're looking for a scary

verse. Nothing in all creation is

hidden from God's sight. And Speaking of the Judgment

Day, it says everything is uncovered and laid bare before

the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.

You can spend your side, you can spend the rest of your life

looking for the approval of others, but you're not going to

stand before others on Judgement Day.

You can spend the rest of your life measuring yourself against

yourself, but you won't stand before you on Judgement Day.

But you will stand before God. And when you do, you better

stand on the record of Jesus Christ.

And the Bible says that you will be rewarded for what you did for

Him and for his Kingdom. Cause verses 6 and seven.

Now, brothers and sisters, I've applied these things to myself

and Apolis for your benefit so that you may learn from us the

meaning of the saying. Do not go beyond what is

written. Then you will not be puffed up

by being a follower of one of us over against the other.

For who makes you different from anyone else?

And what do you have that you did not receive?

And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did

not? Paul says, look guys, I'm living

this out, follow my example. Let me just say something to the

the parents out there and the people who work in a secular

workplace. Don't ever underestimate the

power of your example. Your kids and the people you

interact with will not remember everything that you say, but

they will remember how you lived in the example that you set

before them. The people who get the closest

to you are either going to be let down and disappointed, or

they will be inspired and held to a higher standard.

And then Paul looks at the people he says, don't go beyond

what's written. There's a lot that gets said on

social media, and there's a whole theme right now of unsmart

people who are making gross accusations about the Old

Testament. And so for those of you who are

Bible nerds, let me just talk to you for just a second.

It's true that the Bible was not written to you.

The Bible had an original audience, but the Bible was

written for you. It was written for your good,

for your maturity, for your growth, for your sanctification.

So you can know God, understand God, and learn from the people

that God has interacted with in the past.

And it is the inspired Word of God, which means the Holy Spirit

was the one who participated in the writing for your good.

So even though you weren't the original intended audience, you

were a part of the audience that it had in mind.

And a lot of people will say a lot of stupid things about the

Old Testament. And I just want to say something

that I think is worth noting. Paul is writing to people in the

New Testament under the New Covenant.

And while he is writing to them just in First Corinthians, out

of the 437 verses in First Corinthians, Paul quotes the Old

Testament 41 times. So Paul is saying that the Old

Testament is good for people living in the New Testament.

I'll tell you why. Because when you read the Old

Testament, you're going to realize that God made the world

and everything in it. You're also going to learn that

we're sin for people and we messed it up.

We're the problem, not the solution.

Then we realized that God, in his grace and mercy, uses sinful

people to bring about his redemptive work, and that true

followers of Jesus make sure that at the end of every story

that God is the one who's the hero.

Why does this matter? Because this will destroy pride

in a church and in the life of a believer.

Because when you realize that God is God and you're not,

you're not going to be as prideful as you used to be.

When you realize that you're the problem, not the solution,

you're not going to be as prideful as you used to be.

When you realize that God is the one who allows you to

participate in His redemptive work, you're not going to be as

frightful as you used to be. And when you decide to make

Jesus the hero of absolutely every single story, you will not

be as frightful as you used to be.

That's why Paul goes on to say everything that is happening to

you spiritually you have received from God.

So why are you boasting as if you did it?

You didn't get on the cross, Jesus did.

You didn't come up with the idea of salvation, God did.

You're not the one who paid the ultimate price, God did.

The grace you have didn't come from you, it came from God.

The mercy that's washed over you didn't come from you, it came

from God. So why are you boasting as if

you did it? You received it, so all the

glory should not go to you, but to him.

You were given it. You received it.

Verses 8 through 13, Paul starts to get a little sarcastic.

If you've never been married to somebody who's sarcastic, have

somebody explain this part to you.

OK, Paul's looking at people and he goes into sarcasm mode.

Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich,

you have begun to reign, and that without us.

How I wish you really had begun to reign, so that we might reign

with you. For it seems to me that God has

put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like

those condemned to die in the arena.

We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as

well as human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you

are so wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong.

You are honored. We are dishonored to this very

hour. We go hungry and thirsty.

We are in rags. We are brutally treated.

We are homeless. We worked hard with our own

hands. When we are cursed, we bless.

When we are persecuted, we endure it.

When we are slandered, we answer kindly.

We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world,

right up to this moment. Paul starts off and he's

comparing himself to all these other people and he's going.

You think you've got it all figured out?

Not even close. He's trying to point out how out

of line they are in their thinking and their living, Paul

says. I feel like I'm someone at the

end of a procession. Now, to the people in corn, this

would have made perfect sense. Imagine a Roman general going

off to war for a military campaign and then many years

later, returning victorious. And as he would enter into the

city, he would be at the front of the parade with all of the

soldiers. And the town would gather and

they would applaud and they would cheer.

They'd be excited. And at the very end of the

parade would be all of the people that they captured.

And they would drag those people into the arena to be slaughtered

by the gladiators during the games.

Paul's saying, that's how I feel at every turn.

It's heartache. Paul is taking a sledgehammer to

those who believe in the prosperity gospel where they

believe that life with Jesus means it is a life to riches and

abundance of material possessions.

He's saying that's not where close to what I've experienced.

But then look at this. There's this inspiring moment in

here. It's almost like, it's like

Paul's going, hey, I just want you to know what the Holy

Spirit's doing in US during this season.

And when you read it, you're like, Oh my goodness, that is

not me. That's not anywhere close to

being me. Paul says when we're cursed, we

bless. When we're persecuted, we endure

it. When we're slandered, we're

answering kindly. When you're going through life,

you're going to get bumped. You'll be going through

something at work, you'll be going something at home and

something will happen and you'll get bumped.

And when you get bumped, stuff comes out of you, right?

Some of you, you're trying, you know, you've been following

Jesus for a while. You're trying to not, you know,

say mean things, but you get bumped and you say a mean thing

or, you know, everybody thinks they're Christian until they get

cut off in traffic. And then like all of a sudden,

like your hand remembers that you used to not be saved and it

does the one finger wave like you didn't even, can I tell you

something that happened? Because that's in you.

When you get bumped, what comes out is what's in you.

And look at what's happening with Paul when he gets bumped.

Look what comes out. When people say mean things to

us, we answer kindly. When we're persecuted, we endure

it. The only person who can change

what's happening inside of you is the Holy Spirit.

And if we want to change what's coming out of us, we have to

lean into Him in a major way because you are going to get

bumped in this life. But when you get bumped, how you

respond is evidence of what the Holy Spirit is doing in your

life. So this week, when you get

bumped, you'll see what comes out, and that'll be a moment for

you to either thank God for what He's doing in your life and how

He's changing what comes out, or it will reveal to you what needs

to happen in your life. There's a pastor of a church

that's growing rapidly in the South.

And any time, you know, pastors are not immune from, you know,

people taking shots at them. And it was almost like there was

a coordinated attack over a period of about 3 weeks.

A bunch of people in the blogosphere and people with

podcasts like kind of colluded and started taking a whole bunch

of shots. I mean, it's a large church.

There's, you know, probably 500 employees on that staff and

there was 1 disgruntled employee.

And any of you guys have ever worked with people or managed

people? You know, there's always one,

right? Oh my goodness, hold on a

second. If you're on staff and you're

watching this right now, I have no ones on my mind.

So don't think that I'm OK. You're all good right now, OK?

Anyhow, so the people who are not in the know are turning on

the cameras, they're writing their hit pieces, they're doing

all this stuff. The people in the know know that

nothing's wrong. But imagine you sitting in your

office and seeing people just say absolutely vile, destructive

things about you and your ministry and how you navigate

life. He's driving home after

everybody kind of throws their shade at him and he gets to the

house and the kids are waiting in the garage with posters that

say world's best dad, world's best boss, world's best pastor.

He comes into the house and all the the the good plates have

been put on the table. And the wife says that we're I'm

making you your favorite meal. And he goes, why are you doing

all this? And this is what she said,

quoting Jesus. Blessed are you when people

persecute you and say all kinds of evil about you, rejoice and

be glad, because great is your reward.

So tonight we feast because God is going to bless us.

That's a completely different response to actually take on the

piling on of the uninformed, uneducated blogosphere.

And instead of fighting back on the blogosphere, you instead go

home and celebrate knowing that God is going to reward you for

enduring the persecution. What's the take away?

Jennifer should be making me more home cooked meals.

I, I know you guys were all thinking the same thing that I

was thinking. Actually, I know she's been

killing. We've eaten.

I mean, all right, I ate a lot this week.

Let me just say that. All right, not related to that,

First Corinthians chapter 4, verse 21, big punch.

1 Corinthians 4:21

Here it comes. I am writing this not to shame

you, but to warn you as my dear children, even if you had 10,000

guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers.

For in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son, whom I

love, who is faithful in the Lord.

He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which

agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

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

coming to you. But I will come to you very soon

if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how

those arrogant people are talking, but what power they

have. For the Kingdom of God is not a

matter of talk, but of power. What do you prefer?

Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come

in love and with a gentle spirit?

Paul finishes the sermon by reminding these people of his

love for them. He's saying I'm saying these

things because I love you. Harsh words from a bad father

can destroy the heart of a child, but hard teachings from a

good father can destroy the work of Satan in the heart of a

believer. Ezekiel chapter 33 catches this.

Ezekiel 33 · chapter mention

But if the watchman sees the enemy coming and does not sound

the alarm to warn the people, he is responsible for their

captivity. They will die in their sins, but

I, this is God, will hold the Watchmen responsible for their

deaths. Paul is looking at a group of

people that he loves and he refuses to sit on the sidelines

and watch people set their lives on fire and set their eternity

on fire. Paul boldly and in faith and in

humility gets involved in the conversation.

He addresses the issues. How many times have we simply

not engaged in needed conversation with the hope of

turning things around and instead gossiped while we

watched the house burn to ash? Paul says.

You guys talk about the Kingdom of God, but I advance it.

There are a lot of coaches and there are a lot of consultants,

but we need to look for people who are actually doing it and

have done it, Paul says. There's a gigantic difference

between you and me. You guys like to pontificate

about what it means to lead the church, but I am leading the

church. You like to pontificate and blog

about how something should be different, but I'm actually

doing the thing. When I was in Bible college, it

happened all the time on dorm floors.

There'd be a group of people who'd be talking about how to

talk to people about Jesus Christ, and there'd be people

who actually talk to people about Jesus Christ.

And if we're not careful, you can be people who have been in

Bible studies, LED Bible studies, but never lived the

Bible. Paul's looking at people and

he's saying, hey, the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but

of power. It's not people who are just

reading it, but doing it. People are not just hearing it,

but living it. And then Paul ends with this

brilliant parenting coaching thing.

Watch this. Paul says, you guys get to

choose what kind of dad comes home.

How am I going to show up? Am I going to show up with a

spoon or am I going to show up with a gentle spirit?

You pick. Here's what he's saying.

Parents, this is gold. It is OK.

Don't use this as a gigantic permission slip.

But Paul's saying when I show up, how adversarial do you want

that conversation to be? In our home, it is only

adversarial until we have agreement.

So when my kids do something stupid, whichever kid does

something stupid, all people do stupid things.

But until we have an agreement that you just took a stupid

pill, until we have an agreement that what you just did was send,

we are at war. And I'm not going to let off the

gas, release the pressure until we have agreement that what you

did was wrong. You tracking with me.

But what happens the moment we have agreement that something is

wrong right now? If this is what's wrong, this is

wrong. I don't think it's that big of a

deal. It was, Yeah.

Stop making excuses. It wasn't my fault.

You're held to a higher standard.

I'm super tired. I don't care.

But OK, I get it. I shouldn't have done it.

OK, Think that's what I do. We are no longer on the opposite

sides of this. I come around now that we have

agreement, we're on the same side of the issue that was

wrong. I've been wrong too.

Here's what Christians do when they've done wrong.

We apologize, we repent, we pray.

So in that moment, Paul's looking at this church, He's

saying I'm showing up. And when I show up, I can either

show up pretty upset, lighten everything on fire, or I can

show up with a gentle spirit. You choose.

Hear me? Why does this matter?

Because God loves repentance and God loves humility, and

repentant people and humble people go.

I'm not always right. I don't always have it figured

out. I don't always do the correct

thing. I sin more than I should.

Well, in those moments, how easy is it for you to be loving and

kind and caring? Well, the truth is, loving, kind

and caring has nothing to do. With what they did because

telling somebody that they're wrong is kind and loving and

caring has everything to do with the tone.

Once we're on the same side, Paul says I love you too much to

let you keep doing this. Why does First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 matter? I'll tell you because how you

live is going to be judged by God.

Why does First Corinthians chapter 4 matter?

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Because how you live will impact the mission.

Why does First Corinthians chapter 4 matter?

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Because how you live will determine your reward.

Why does First Corinthians chapter 4 matter?

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Because how you live will impact whether or not other people find

Jesus. Why does First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 matter? Because how you live will impact

whether or not other people continue to walk in Jesus.

We're moving to a time, a decision.

To those of you who are here or you're watching online and

you've never started an intimate personal relationship with Jesus

Christ, I'm just going to say this quickly to you.

The Bible clearly teaches over and over and over again, and it

reaffirms it in the text that we just read, First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4, that there will come a day where you will stand

before God on the judgment Day. And I just want you to hear me

say this and say this plainly. On that day, you need to be

found in Jesus. You do not want to be standing

on your own record. You don't want to be standing on

your own results. You want to be standing on his.

And the beauty of the gospel message that not only Jesus

preached, but He lived, demonstrated, and made available

is that through His finished work on the cross, sinners can

be saved and found in Him. The Bible says that we are

clothed in Him. And so if you're here today and

you've never started an intimate, personal relationship

with Jesus Christ, right now you are outside of Christ.

But when you decide to make him your Lord and your Savior and

have your life found in Him, you have nothing to fear on that

judgement day because you are in Him.

And if you have questions about what that is or what that looks

like, you can say something in the chat or you can walk right

over there by the baptistry and talk to somebody or talk to

somebody in your row or somebody who brought you and go, hey, I

need to get some of this figured out.

To the rest of you in the room, to those of you who already have

a relationship with Jesus Christ, what step do you need to

take today? Maybe today it's time for you to

finally become a servant of the mission, participate in what God

is doing. Maybe you need to go.

My example has not been what it should have been for a while.

And I need to start all through the power of the Holy Spirit

living a life that causes other people to see God's work at me.

Some of you, you might be in a spot where this is, you're like,

you weren't expecting this, but you maybe need to have a hard

conversation with somebody. You're kind of watching them

throw their spiritual life away, and you're just hoping that

somebody else will have the conversation.

But maybe through this sermon, the Holy Spirit has said, yeah,

it's time for you to have that conversation.

What is the thing that God is calling you to do?

This is why we say this all the time, because God is always at

work. So if we don't feel like we have

anything to do or anything to change that, it has nothing to

do with God. It has everything to do with the

fact that we're not listening or we're not being obedient.

And you have no idea what God could do when you decide to have

that hard conversation, when you begin to participate in His

mission, when you decide to go, you know what?

God, through the power of your Holy Spirit, I want to be an

example so that everybody that encounters me sees that there's

something different about my life, my priorities, and my

future. Would you stand with me, God?

You know perfectly what every person in here needs to do.

It's not a mystery to you. And you know the full power and

the full extent of what could happen because of our lack of

obedience. And you also are fully able to

see what could happen as a result of our obedience.

And so, God, I just ask that you would give every person and then

hear clarity about the next thing that we're supposed to do

and that you would give us the courage to do it.

In your name I pray. Amen.