Sunday Message - Pastor Brad Neuschwander (September 16, 2018) | Life Bible Church

I want you to open your Bible to 1 Corinthians.

We've got just a few minutes. 1 Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

1. Today is a day of reading Scripture. I read

to you about over half of Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

This morning, I want to read 1 Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

1. Part of it. Last week I left you off with

Sosanes and this guy that was most likely the

ruler of the synagogue as he was the replacement

for... Crispus who was a ruler of a Jewish synagogue

that got saved under Paul's ministry when Paul

was in the book of Acts chapter 18. You can read

Acts 18 · chapter mention

it chapter 18 of the book of Acts and Paul is

now writing the Corinthian church. Now here's

an amazing thing about this as we kind of just

Because I've only got 10 minutes, I'm going to

give you an exhortation as we move through this.

Maybe 10, 15, I hear 15 now, 16 now, 17 now.

The reality is, Paul was 18 months preaching

the gospel, and the Bible says that all of Asia

heard the gospel from Corinth. And in that 18

months, as you begin to read it in chapter 18

of what was taking place, God spoke to him. God

spoke to Paul and said, Paul, you keep preaching

the gospel in this city. I've set an open door

before you, and they will not hurt you here.

Meaning, I am bringing you into a divine... placement

and the shield, an angelic, if you will, shield

around you that you are going to have favor.

How many know Paul experienced a few unpleasant

things preaching the gospel on some missionary

journeys? God sometimes in the midst of some

unpleasantness brings pleasantness. How many

can thank the Lord for some pleasantness in the

midst of the ministry? Amen? Listen, if you've

been in the ministry any type of all, some of

you have been seasoned ministers. We have lots

of different pastors in this church of different

affiliations that have worked for the Lord. You

may be deacons, elders, pastors, just people,

life group leaders from all other places and

then those that are being born again. But if

you've spent any time with Jesus Christ, and

ministering to his body, you'll understand that

if you minister to the body of Christ, you will

experience some form of suffering. I'm not kidding.

I mean, that wasn't a funny point. That was the

reality. I mean, it does sound kind of funny.

It's like you minister to Jesus, and the word

that we have around here, you minister to Jesus'

body, we just say, sheep have teeth. And sometimes

they bite. And in Paul's life, he got bit by

some sheep. He also got bit by some goats, but

he got bit by the sheep and the goats. And here

he's writing to 1 Corinthians. He's writing a

letter. Now, get this in your time frame, just

in your mind, so you can understand Acts 18 of

what we read last week and took place within

the... The salvation of a Jewish leader gets

kicked out of the synagogue and a new person

gets put in. During that time, in that 18 months

Paul was there, he then writes this letter to

the Corinthians four years later. So he'd been

in Corinth 18 months sharing the gospel. Now

when this letter comes back to them, it's most

likely it's been four years since he has been

there. And as he writes this letter, 1 Corinthians,

fact is, most scholars believe that this is the

second letter, even though it's the first letter,

because nobody can find the first letter that

he references in 1 Corinthians 5. And so we start

this off as the first letter that we have, but

really it's probably the second letter that they

had. 1 Corinthians, he starts off with this amazing...

Salutation. He says, Paul, called by the will

of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ and our

brother Sosthenes. To the church of God that

is in Corinth. To those sanctified in Christ

Jesus. Called to be saints together. Called to

be saints what? Called to be saints together.

All right, we're still not getting it. The choir

master is going to work it again. Here we go.

Called to be saints. Oh, beautiful. Hallelujah.

Called to be saints together with all of those

who in every place call upon the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.

Grace and peace. From God our Father. Grace to

you. And peace from God our Father. And the Lord

Jesus Christ. Now let me just continue on. Verse

4. I give thanks to my God always for you because

of the grace of God that was given you in Christ

Jesus. That in every way you were enriched in

Him. In all speech, in all knowledge, even as

the testimony about Christ was confirmed among

you. So that you are not lacking in any gift

as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus

Christ who will sustain you to the end. Guiltless.

In the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful.

By whom you were called into the fellowship of

his son, Jesus our Lord. Now, I think this salutation

and this first 10 verses is sneaky. On the outset,

by just hearing it and reading it, man, there's

a lot of great stuff in there. I mean, we have

been... We're in Jesus Christ. We've been given

all speech. We've been given all knowledge. We

have every gift. We're not lacking anything.

And we've been called into fellowship with Jesus

Christ himself. And with everybody else that

calls on his name. Now that's true. And that's

wonderful. And yes, that is awesome. But it is.

One of the names of God is El Sneaky. Some call

him El Shaddai. But I call him El Sneeko. I'm

not meaning to be disrespectful, but he always

has an amazing truth inside a truth. Have you

noticed that? God builds the best sandwiches.

I mean, you get into the middle of it and you

realize it's deeper and grander and more just

stuff that you would have never realized till

you begin to open up what's on the inside. And

the reason, the reason Paul was saying this,

or I believe the reason the Holy Spirit was saying

this, remember he starts off by naming this brother

Sosthenes who was the guy That four years earlier

persecuted Paul to try to take Paul to the civil

court and get Paul sentenced and beat and run

out of town. And guess what happened? The judge

dismissed the case. Sothenes gets beat by the

lawyers, by the people. I mean, it's bad enough

that you've got to pay a lawyer, but the lawyer

beats you on top of it. Sothenes had a bad day.

His plan to run Paul out of the city backfired.

He gets beat by people, and the judge is watching,

and it says literally in Acts 18, and the magistrate

paid no notice. Amen. We're still working with

him to try to come out of the law of Moses. Hallelujah.

But anyways. Sosanace gets beat there at the

judge, and then four years later, we read the

opening line of 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

it says what? Called by the will of God to be

an apostle of Jesus Christ and to our brother

Sosanace. So somewhere from Paul's journey of

being in Asia 18 months, and now four years later

writing back, Paul... had heard word that Sosanase

had given his life to Christ. And in the opening

letter, Paul writes Sosanase's name that the

church would recognize God is doing something

different than that's the mind of the flesh.

He is operating in his church by the mind of

the Spirit. And we must have renewed thinking

if we're going to operate according to how God

wants us to operate. Because everybody, Paul

experiences himself. Remember when he got saved,

he persecuted the church of Jesus Christ. Saul

from Tarsus, whose name changed. But he was a,

he might have been little, but he was one furious

dude when it came to hating Christians. He sent

people to death. Men and women broke up families

for persecuting the church of Jesus Christ. So

the apostle Paul knew a little bit about what

it was like to come and face a crowd that had

heard you were on the other side of the tracks

and persecuted them. So what does the Holy Spirit

do? He makes sure that Paul writes Sosene's name

right in the scripture. And then what I think

is just marvelous. Is he begins, and this is

not just tongue in cheek and it's not he wasn't

playing with us. It's that deep sandwich in God.

He says you have every gift in God. Now if somebody

tells you that, there is something more that's

about ready to happen. He says you've been given

grace in all speech. In all knowledge. What was

he saying? He's saying, listen, guys, you have

been given the mind of Christ. And it is not

above my notice to let you know that I see the

deposit that God has put in each of you. And

you have been instructed and imparted with the

grace gifts of God to walk this out according

to God's will. That's what he was saying to them.

And then after verse 10, the deeper part of the

sandwich is I'm getting ready to close here.

So, Clark, if you'd come up. I appeal to you,

brothers, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

that you all agree. Now, you've been given all

speech. You've been given all knowledge. You've

been given every grace gift of God. And now you

have fellowship, koinonia, partnership in this

whole thing that God has opened to you. Now,

I beseech you. That word beseech is I appeal

to you. I begin. To make an appeal not on the

basis of what you know in your flesh, but I begin

to appeal to you on the things that have been

given to you by the Spirit. And I'm calling that

you begin to draw on the way the Spirit of God

thinks and not how you've been thinking. The

whole letter to the book of Corinthians is a

shift. Have you read the book? Maybe that would

be a great assignment. In the month of September,

read the book of Corinthians. The whole thing

is a shift. Paul never, he builds them up in

the truth, but the Holy Spirit comes and he begins

to almost like move them. Have you ever just?

You needed your child to sit closer to you and

instead of actually saying, move your chair up,

you just kind of grab the chair because you have

the force and the grace to do it and just slide

it over with one hand and they just kind of look

at you as you bring them near. That's exactly

what the Holy Spirit is doing here in 1 Corinthians.

It's like, come here. He says, you've been given

all speech. All knowledge. All grace. You have

fellowship with Jesus Christ. Now I appeal to

you. I appeal to you, brethren. By the name of

our Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice he invokes

the name of Jesus. This wasn't by Paul's own

words. He said by the name. How many know there's

only one name? In which men can be saved. There's

only one name in which healing can be done. There's

only one name in which demons will flee. There's

only one name which you can change your thinking.

It's the transforming power of the Lord Jesus

Christ through His name. He said, I appeal to

you by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that

there be no divisions among you. And that you

be united in the same judgment the same mind

you further read on I've got to preach on this

the next couple of weeks but it's an amazing

thing what the Holy Spirit does he lists everything

that we are in and then he says now I appeal

to you that you begin to draw on that That you

begin to leave what you came into the body of

Christ with that's carnal. And you begin to draw

on that which is spiritual. And you begin to

share and have the same mind with one another.

It's not that you can't have your own. I'm not

going to call you out on anything. I'm just coming

to shake your hand. If they were looking at me

like, what's he going to do now? I get that.

After today, I get it, okay? That we have the

same mind. We have the same judgment about what?

About one another, about spiritual things, about

walking together in unity and peace and grace.

He's saying, I'm not appealing to you or... mandating

this as a law I'm appealing to that which has

been imparted to you in Christ I'm going to draw

on something that's on the inside of you and

in order for you to draw on it you have to bypass

the way you've always thought and you've got

to get down into the spirit of love and grace

and you've got to begin to change the way you

think and begin to renew your mind by the word

of God and remind yourself of who you are with,

with the saints of God in every place that call

on his name. So whether, why don't you stand

up for me? I'm going to love you in fun. Okay.

So whether you're kind of in the urban renewal

here, or come on, stand up, or You're in the

clean cut society. I love it. Okay. I'm proud

of you both. Okay. Come on. Give them a big hand.

Come on. Doesn't matter how you came in in the

natural. It matters how you're operating here

in the spirit. And that we're going to commit

ourselves to dig deep. deep from the Spirit of

God where the impartation of the Holy Spirit

is so that we can what? Have the same mind, the

same judgment, the same passions for the things

of God. And when that happens, guess what happens?

Favor, His presence begin to break out all over.

Would you stand with me this morning as Pastor

David comes and gets ready to dismiss us? I'm

going to pray for us and then He's going to give

us a little direction. Father, today, I sense

your power in this room. And God, we are thankful

for all the things that we just read in your

holy word that you've given us. Every gift. You've

given us godly speech. You've given us speech

that builds, that encourages, that strengthens,

that causes ties. Lord, and... nets us together

as family and fabric. God, you've given us every

spiritual grace that we can build your church

and share the love of Jesus Christ in the world

around us. Together, with every saint in every

place, we say, let your kingdom come. Let your

will be done in us as it is in heaven. In Jesus'

name. Amen.