1 Corinthians - Messy People / Holy Calling

Welcome to the City Covenant Podcast.

We are a warm, welcoming church located in downtown Spokane, dedicated to practicing the way of Jesus in the heart of the city.

Please join us as we dive into the Word of God together.

We are doing a new series on 1 Corinthians.

So we're going to get started in just a few minutes.

This is a, I think this is going to be a helpful series to our church.

1 Corinthians is an incredible book because what we see in 1 Corinthians are these really messy people with this incredibly holy calling.

And so that's what we're going to be looking at for these next 11 weeks as we look at kind of this idea of these messy people, right?

These are messed up, broken people.

But God has called them to a specific purpose.

And I think that is when we look at the American church, right?

When we look at the church here at City Covenant, we we can even identify ourselves in that, right?

We are messy, broken people who desperately need God's help, who He's called to an incredible calling.

And so we're going to be looking at that for the next 11 weeks.

And that's going to get us through right up until Advent.

And then during Advent, we like to do something, you know, kind of Christmassy.

And so we'll do a new series then.

I'm going to tell you this now.

We're going to pray.

Yeah, and I'll wait.

I mean, we're going to pray after we read the text, and then we're going to get into this, and then I'll tell you more later.

Okay, let's go ahead and read.

This is 1 Corinthians 1, 1 through 17.

There's a pew Bible in front of you.

If you didn't bring one from home, you can follow along.

This is what this is what the beginning of 1 Corinthians says.

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I always thank my God for you, because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.

For in him you have been enriched in every way with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge, God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.

Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus to be revealed.

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say, and that there be no divisions amongst you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.

My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels amongst you.

What I mean is this one of you says, I follow Paul, another, I follow Apollos, another, I follow Cephas, and still another, I follow Christ.

Is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you?

Were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I thank God that I didn't baptize any of you, except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say you were baptized in my name.

Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanus.

Beyond that, I don't remember if I baptize anyone else.

It's a great part.

That's the also part of the word of God.

Okay.

For Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Friends, this is the word of the Lord.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you that we get to look in on this letter, Lord, and um, even though we know it was wasn't written to us, it was written for us.

And um, Lord, we pray that you would minister to us through this, Lord, that we might grow closer to Jesus, that our hearts might be um drawn to you, God, and that we might follow you.

We we would um as your disciples, that you would become more and more central in our lives, Lord, and that we would leave behind um all of these other things, Lord, as we as we follow maybe the wrong leaders, as we put our focus on on pastors um and servants rather than um the savior.

And so, Lord, would you help us, Lord Jesus, that we uh might come closer to you today.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Um, so as we look at this, that that's what we're gonna be doing.

We're gonna be looking at this, and we're gonna see the fact that these people in in chapter one, what's happening, just to give you some background, is what's happening is they are putting too much focus on their their spiritual leaders, right?

And he, you know, as Paul or Apollos, right, or or Cephas, and and equating them almost like identifying too much with them rather than just identifying with Jesus.

And so we're gonna see that um in our time today.

Um, what we'll do is we'll give some background on um just a little bit of what he's saying here.

We're gonna look at this for 11 weeks.

I will tell you, here's my advice to you.

Go home, read 1 Corinthians.

You're gonna look and see some people who that you're gonna see some real high spots and some real low spots.

And I will tell you guys, that's the Christian church.

The Christian church is um a group of people who are deeply broken, deeply messed up, um, and and saved by by Jesus Christ Himself.

And so what we're gonna see here is um as we look at this today, we're gonna look at Paul's admonition to them, this corrective, right?

As he calls them brothers and sisters, right?

Even though um they have a lot of work to be done.

And then we're gonna look at this problem of celebrity pastor culture, which fortunately isn't a problem in America.

And so um we're gonna, but we'll see if it applies to us.

Okay, so here's I want to start out a couple things.

So a couple things.

I mentioned this in, you know, as we are praying together.

I I even prayed this.

This letter, and this is important for us to know as we read through the text, right?

As we learn how to be good disciples, as we learn to be good Bible students, one of the things we have to do is we have to know this letter is written to a real people that aren't us, right?

It was written in the in the first century by a person named Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, but it was written by Paul to the church that he had helped start.

He lived there for 18 months, and he writes this letter to the church in the city of Corinth, okay?

And when he did that, what we are now seeing in the in the scriptures as it gets added to the canon is that um we're seeing one side of a conversation.

So what we're always asking as we read through the Bible like this, when you're reading the epistles, is you're always asking, what's he writing about, right?

He's responding to some things that happened.

And so you're gonna notice that we're gonna be talking about that over these next 11 weeks.

So we you have to understand, you have to do some work to find out what he's writing to them about, right?

Because there was an occasion that um, there was a reason that he wrote this.

Okay, so a few things.

He he starts, um, he loves these people.

Just so you know, he loves the people of Corinth.

Other letters you can see, even at times, he like if you we've preached through the book of Galatians before here, and in the book of Galatians, Paul like really goes right into it, and he was really, really upset.

Here, what's interesting here in Corinth, he doesn't do that.

These folks are doing some things that are really they're going sideways, but he approaches them really gently, like right.

He has this like very kind, um, you know, um parental care for them, um, rather than just like going, you know, right after it.

Um, when he when he starts, he does something that um he does in almost all of his letters, and he introduces it by saying, Grace and peace to you in in the name of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want to just break out that line real fast, and then we're gonna get into the meat of this text.

Um, some of you guys have heard me say this other times if we've looked at other letters together, but for those of you guys who are new, I want to tell you this.

So when Paul does this greeting of grace and peace to you in the name of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, this is super substantial, and here's why I need to tell you about it so you don't miss it.

So the um Greek speakers would often the way they would say hello, like in the Hellenistic world, right, in in the Greco-Roman Empire, the way that they would say hello to each other is something along lines of the English short of grace, right?

And so they would say something, they would greet each other um in the same way that we'd say hello.

They would say something along lines of curis to them, right?

And um, or excuse me, yeah, and so they would say curis to each other, right?

And then what here's what's interesting though.

Um, you know how Jews said hi to each other?

They would, and you guys know this word actually, um, they would say shalom, right?

So you guys have all heard that word shalom.

And um, so the way Greek-speaking people would say hi is they'd say grace.

The way um Jews, so and and Hebrew speakers would say shalom.

So what he's doing right here, just to start, is he's using both of their greetings together as a as a bond of Christian unity, um, and and appealing to both of them and and and rooting it all in Jesus Christ.

So he's using uh a Greek greeting and a Jewish greeting together.

Why?

Because ultimately Christians are supposed to be united by Jesus Christ.

So he uses this new greeting together of grace and peace to you, right?

Okay, so then he says, in the name of God our Father, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You have to understand that Paul has this very high Christology.

There are some people who would look and think that um Paul, or you know, or they would look and say, oh, this idea of you know of a divine Jesus doesn't come around for you know a hundred or a couple hundred years.

That it that is ignoring and that is missing the way that Paul wrote.

And let me explain why.

Paul here is a first century, uh, as a first century Jew, studied under Gamaliel, who is a big deal in his day, would have never accidentally used the name Jesus Christ in the same phrase as God our Father, right?

And you would just never use the name of like of a mere mortal at the same time that you are invoking the name of deity.

Does that make sense?

You just you wouldn't do that.

And so Paul, by talking about God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, is putting them on the same plane and talking about them together and is establishing a Trinitarian explanation of the relationship of Father and Son.

So that's what's happening when he says, Grace and peace to you in the name of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is putting Jesus Christ now at the same plane as the God of Israel, right?

Which is a is a first century Jew, it was a massive deal.

And so that's what he does.

And here's what he does: he says, I always thank God for you.

He says, I you guys are just so wonderful.

I I love you so much.

Pause.

If you ever hang out with a little kid, um, if you know their parents, here's what you're gonna find out.

These parents love their kids so much.

Also, they really know about their kids' flaws.

Right?

If you hang out with any little kids, you're gonna quickly determine that these kids are deeply broken, messed up people.

I'm not just talking about my kids, okay?

I'm just saying this is children.

This is what they're like.

If you ever hang out with Christians, what you're gonna quickly find out is Christians are deeply messed up people.

If you see a parent talking with their child, when that parent corrects the child, it is not because of a lack of love.

It's not saying because you messed up in these ways, I no longer care about you.

I'm now gonna withhold affection.

No, it's actually saying, from a parent to a child, it's saying, I love you so much that good news, our bonds of unity are so tight that I can correct you, and we're not, I'm not going anywhere.

Right?

This is like this is healthy parenting, right?

So in healthy pastoral care, what the apostle Paul is doing is saying, man, you guys are so messed up.

You and he spends a letter explaining some of this stuff, okay?

Don't worry, we'll get to it.

But he's gonna go in and saying you are misusing the gifts God has given you.

What's interesting though here is he doesn't start by laying into them.

You know what he does?

He let he starts by calling them brothers and sisters.

He re-establishes and reminds them where they stand together.

He says, Listen, I'm not going anywhere.

I love you, I care about you, I helped start this church.

I lived amongst you for 18 months.

And I know I don't live here anymore, but I have this deep affection.

And so, right, that that's his starting point, right?

He doesn't call them out, he calls them in, right?

Calling out is to publicly rebuke somebody and say, hey, now I no longer have any relationship with you.

Calling someone in is to say, listen, we guys, we got some stuff to work through.

Just so you know, that is like a more Christian posture.

Calling in is a Christian posture, calling out is not.

Paul calls them in and says, we need to talk about some things here, right?

And he appeals to them for unity.

He's saying you have these incredible strengths, right, as a church, speech, knowledge, other spiritual gifts.

But there's there's just this base level problem because you're actually abusing the gifts God has given you and it's hurting people in the process.

Right?

He and and this is what happens at times as instead of being unified, right, they're leaning in to maybe their own gifting or or strength or skill or ability.

And and maybe you can uh even connect with this is that all of a sudden now they've got their eyes set on the wrong thing, right?

And so they they have a hard time going forward.

What Paul is saying is listen, God is doing this long-term work in you though.

You're deeply broken, but you're deep and you're deeply loved.

It's both.

Right?

And I'm I'm confident about one thing.

And here's what he says he's confident about.

He doesn't say, I'm confident that you're gonna figure it out.

He doesn't say that.

He doesn't say, I'm confident that you're deep down in your heart, I know you're hard workers and you're gonna come around.

No, you know what he says?

He says, I'm confident that God is faithful and will see his work to completion.

So here's what's amazing about that.

He looks and says, Oh, the reason I th the reason I'm confident about where this is all going, oh, it's not because of you.

It's not because of you.

It's because of the faithfulness of God.

God's faithful.

We often aren't faithful.

We often walk away from him, we forget, we we get onto our own things that we're passionate about.

Oh, guess what though?

God is faithful to see this work through completion, right?

It's like this.

If you go to Barcelona, you see this amazingly beautiful church called the Sagrada Familia.

Okay, has anyone ever seen this thing in person?

Some of you guys have seen this?

Wait, are we is no one seen Sagrada Familia?

Okay, so I've got a couple people.

Okay, I've not seen to it.

I'd actually like to go.

Go, um, I'm I'm saying, I know this is sounds like a very middle-class thing to say, but go now if you can, you know.

And here's why.

The church has been under construction for um literally since 1882.

Okay, if you go to the Sagrada Familia, though, this church started in 1882, or they started building it in 1882.

Um, the next year, this guy who is a wildly famous architect um with the last name, Gaudi, starts becoming the architect for it.

And and they've been working on it ever since.

Gaudi works on it for the rest of his life.

He works for 43 years, and by 1926, when he dies, the Sagrata Familia isn't even anywhere close to being done.

But it's this incredibly beautiful church, and it's just um it's always been unfinished.

They're getting close to finishing it now, though.

And and here's the thing they just kept building it.

Generation after generation keeps building this unfinished church, right?

What we see with the Apostle Paul is he is looking and saying, This is an unfinished church in Corinth.

The Sagrada Familia is this unfinished church in Barcelona, right?

And year after year, generation after generation, here in Barcelona, it keeps getting built, right?

There have been wars, they keep building, economic crises, political upheaval, pandemics, the work still continues, right?

Here's what's wild is if you walked in, if it's a tourist, if you walked in and saw the Scrap of Familia, you might look and look around and say, Oh my goodness, this place is a mess.

Right?

What's the point?

Right?

You got scaffolding everywhere, right?

You got stones being cut, you got parts of the building just straight up, unfinished, no roof.

You got cranes interrupting the skyline.

And here's the thing, if you just looked and said, what a mess, you'd actually, that's true, right?

It's not that you're wrong in that.

But here's the thing.

If you looked at it and you just said, what a mess, and you looked and said, what a ruined cathedral, you would be wrong.

What it is, is a it's an unfinished work in progress.

And I think what's happening here is the apostle Paul is looking with the Church of Corinth and Corinth and saying, it's an unfinished work in progress.

It's actually becoming something beautiful, right?

And all the scaffolding you see, all the work that's being done, that is not a reflection that the architect has somehow skipped out on the process.

It's actually a reflection that the architect is still involved, right?

In our church, in your life, you look and you've got some things in your life, we got some things in our church, we got some things in the American church at large, and you would say, What a mess, right?

And you might look and you say, Oh my gosh, the the frequency, right, that Christians are such jerks, right?

All the arguments, right?

All the immature Christians, right?

All the way people hurt each other and hurt you, right?

The places where the church doesn't look anything like Jesus, it'd be easy to say, what a mess, I'm giving up on it.

If you were a tourist in Barcelona and you said, Yeah, we looked at the Sagata Familia, we didn't even bother going in because it's not done yet, you would have missed out so much on this beautiful building.

If you look at the Christian church today and give up because you say, What a mess, you're giving up too soon.

Why?

Because what the Apostle Paul says is good news, it's actually gonna come together because of Jesus.

That's the amazing part.

It's not because good news, I have this deep faith in people, they're gonna figure it out.

That's not what Paul says.

He says, I have a deep faith in God about God's faithfulness.

Right?

This deeply imperfect church, God is gonna do a work in, and and then you know what?

He's gonna do a work in us.

Right?

The the same God who began this work will sustain them to the end, and and that is good news for them.

I mean, you you might look at yourself and just say, Man, all you look at in your life is you just see scaffolding.

You keep messing up about the same things.

Does it never feel like that?

Right?

I'm 47.

I feel at times like I'm still have the same problems I did when I was 27 and 17 and probably seven.

Right?

And you you look and you can you can just look and at times get so discouraged, right?

If you've been married and you might look and say, all I see is scaffolding.

It's still not, we still haven't gotten there, right?

Um, you might look at your faith and say, all you see is scaffolding, right?

Shoot, you might look at our church and you know the people here, and all you see is scaffolding.

And you what you have to know is God's still working, right?

God sees the cathedral that he's building.

That's what he sees when he sees your heart.

Right?

That doesn't mean though, I just have to tell you this.

That doesn't mean that somehow then God excuses sin.

And it doesn't, and we certainly will see that in the coming weeks.

Paul certainly doesn't excuse the sin of Corinth.

He just looks and says, We need to keep submitting these things back to Jesus.

That if we give it back to Jesus, Jesus will keep working in our heart.

Right?

And so he says though we've got a problem.

He says, we've got a real problem.

The church is fracturing.

And so let's look at this second section, okay?

He says, the church is fracturing, and there's a reason why.

He says, rather than keeping your eyes on Jesus the Savior, you're focusing on these servants of Christ.

You're looking at servants, not the savior.

That's what he does.

He says, You look and you say, Some of you guys are of Paul, some of you guys say, I'm of Apollos, right?

Some of you guys are about Cephas.

And and we'll talk about that in a second.

You know how what I love is his start.

This is part of the Christian scriptures, right?

This is God breathed.

And here Paul says, I am just so glad I didn't baptize any of you guys, or barely any of you.

You know, I mean, there's a couple.

I mean, there was, I'm just glad it was Crispus and Gaius, and some of you guys are wondering, who's Gaius again?

Go back and read 3 John.

There's a short little thing about Gaius.

He's in there.

And he's like, Yeah, just a couple of you guys.

Oh, well, you know, then there was the household of Stephanus.

There might have been a couple more, I don't remember.

This is Paul.

Okay, I'm just let's take a break from like general 1 Corinthians.

Let's just talk about the nature of scripture for a second.

Christians don't believe that the authors of scripture were in some type of trance or were like were somehow out of their mind.

We don't believe like they were out there doing something like with a Ouija board and you know, just like writing what came to them like they were channeling.

That's actually not the Christian theology of scripture.

Just, you know, the Christian theology of scripture is that what was happening here is that Paul is literally led by and inspired by the Holy Spirit so that I The it's fully God breathed because God is inspiring Paul to write it.

And it really is in Paul's voice right here.

Right.

So in the same way that we would describe the incarnation, and we would say the person of Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, we would simultaneously say the nature of scripture is similar in that it's fully written by real humans, so it's fully man and fully inspired by God.

So similar to the incarnation, that if that's helpful.

Okay.

So even when we look and say, hold on.

So even the part about the apostle Paul not being able to be remembering how many people he baptized, that's also scripture and that's authoritative?

Yes.

Okay, so anyway, we're going back to 1 Corinthians, okay?

So that was just a little aside for those of you guys who want some Bible theology for a second, okay?

So here's what happens.

He says, Yeah, you guys, some of you guys are saying you're into this one pastor rather than Jesus.

No wonder the church is fracturing.

No wonder it's splintering.

Now you look and say, but why is why are they doing this?

You know why?

Because Christians have always loved their pastors.

They always have.

This is not actually just a it's not a new problem.

It's not an American problem, it's not a 21st century problem.

Christians have always had deep affinity for their pastors, right?

It's why we have Pastor Appreciation Month every year, okay?

Don't worry.

I have something on Amazon.

You can go on there, there's a wish list.

Okay?

I'm just, I'm teasing, I don't.

I'm just joking, sorry.

But what I'm saying is Christians have actually always had this kind of affinity for their pastors, okay?

It's not just a problem of celebrity, it's just finding it in its right spot, right?

So what they're doing is you have these people who are so locked in on these three people.

So here's who they are.

We know who Paul is.

Why are they so why is some group so amped up about Paul?

He helps start the church.

They feel such a connection to him.

That makes sense.

You can kind of get your head around that, right?

Who's Apollos?

Apollos is this Alexandrian Jew.

He is a kick butt preacher.

That's the deal with Apollos.

He is an amazing orator, and people liked that.

Okay, it's actually probably also why Paul said that he didn't come here just to like to baptize, but to preach the word, right?

And so, because he's saying, hey, we're all over here preaching, right?

It's not just one person does, you know, certain things.

Okay, so we know who Paul is, we know who Apollos is, who's Cephas.

That's actually a different name for the Apostle Peter.

Well, why would they like Peter?

He's one of the original 12.

Of course they're gonna like Peter.

Here's the problem: the problem isn't that they really have this pastor, you know, that in particular they like hearing the most, right?

It's not like, oh, I just love my Tim Keller sermons, and that's a problem.

For those of you guys who don't know, I love Tim Keller sermons, okay?

Some of you guys are like, I love anytime I can find it, I'm going to read some Bethmore Bible study, or you know, even I heard Bethmore is gonna, you know, preach at Climate Parage Arena in Seattle, and I'm going.

That's awesome.

That's fine, okay?

You want to listen to some Matt Chandler tapes, go for it, okay?

Here's the problem in what's happening in Corinth back then.

They're saying, I only like Apollos, and I don't like hanging out with anyone who's not into Apollis like me.

And then here's where Paul's coming in and saying, hold on, it's never been about Apollos.

It's never been about me, it's never been about Peter, it's always been about Jesus.

Guys, the fundamental problem that he's talking about, and it's the same fundamental problem we have, it's not actually having famous pastors.

It's actually a problem that they're so into famous pastors that they're actually missing discipleship of Jesus.

They're mistaking being all about Jesus by actually being into one of Jesus' servants.

They're actually what they're doing is they're moving something earthly into something heavenly, right?

You've heard us say things like this before at City Covenant that what's happening in a way is they're taking a good thing and making it an ultimate thing.

That's idolatry, right?

That's why it's not working.

That's why now the church is fracturing in Corinth.

We're not that different in America.

In fact, if anything, we're probably worse today, right?

It used to be I just went and listened to whoever preached at the church I was at.

You know why?

Because literally the only other option is I could have some other random church send me tapes in the mail, right?

I mean, that was literally how it worked.

Now we can just like to our heart's delight listen to other pastors.

I will tell you this sometimes what is difficult is what I do know.

I'm just like a little window into my world, okay?

What I know that's difficult sometimes as a pastor, and I'm not the only pastor like this, is that I know I am frequently not actually your pastor.

There is somebody who is certainly way, way more influential in your life spiritually than who you're hearing on a Sunday morning, right?

And that's just because you can listen to so many other podcasts.

Overall, just you know, as a pastor, I'm fine with it, okay?

By and large.

Here's what I'm not fine with is that when people build platforms on specific issues, and then guess what happens?

That forms us spiritually so that what we think about is only that platform and that issue, right?

So here I'm gonna give you some examples if this pokes you in the eye, okay?

I'm just preparing you.

That's a, you know, for those of you guys who get worked up on things.

Sometimes you look and you're so, you without even realizing it, you got so into Christian nationalism, you listen to pastor after pastor after pastor only on talks that have to do with that.

Well, guess what?

You get real locked in on Christian nationalism.

You know why?

Because you're no longer hearing a broad base of biblical education, right?

You might get so locked in on the far other end on biblical justice, and you just look for the same sermons from different people all the time, but always on that one subject.

Because you know why?

You love listening to that.

Actually, guess what?

It's good to learn about biblical justice, right?

There's nothing wrong with that.

But if that's the only thing you're ever hearing, and you're not hearing the rest of like Christian discipleship, then you're there's gonna be a weakness, right?

And then guess what?

If you look over here and say, I'm so into biblical justice over here, and I don't even like to hang out with people that aren't like me, who don't have the same affections, you know what happens?

Now what we've done is taken some of our personal interests, right?

Taken things that we're personally passionate about that are part of the gospel, and then and then turn them from being personal interests to preferences, from preferences into like basic level theology, and ultimately into something that you're willing to divide over, right?

And that and that's the problem, guys, of living in echo chambers, right?

That's the problem of where social media gets us, it's the problem where celebrity pastors get us, and you've got a bunch of weirdos out there.

I'm just telling you right now, you've got a bunch of weirdos out there on the internet who can just pull you aside and they love to appeal to you.

Right?

This is something we all have to be wise about.

We have to be discerning, we have to be careful because what's happening then is the church is fracturing as a result, right?

Because we are putting all of our emphasis on servants rather than the savior.

Right?

We what does Paul say?

Paul says about Apollos or about Cephas, about himself.

He said, Did those people were they crucified for you?

No.

And you look and say, Why was Jesus crucified?

What is it when we call Jesus not a why is it we call Jesus the Savior?

You know why?

Because we are so hopelessly broke spiritually that we so desperately needed someone who is so infinitely infinitely wealthy spiritually, like Jesus, to stand in our place, right?

Rather than just looking and saying, well, I was baptized by this one person, and so that's where I'm gonna put all of my energy.

Instead, what we see is that we you know we we just lock in on someone else.

And rather than realizing, what is it Jesus did for us?

Do you guys ever just take a step back and just say, What is it Jesus did for me?

Let's go back to the basics, can we?

What does it mean to be saved by Christ?

When we look, a word we use at times as Christians as atonement, right?

It means to make one, right?

There were two fractured parts, right?

There was God and humanity.

And what does God do?

Is somebody who is so spiritually wealthy, and even though we're catastrophically broke, what happens is that Jesus comes for us, right?

And we we have such infinite, uh, you could use words like debts, sins, trespasses, right?

These are all words that different versions of the Lord's Prayer use.

They all speak to the same thing, which is that there are things that each and every one of us has either done that we shouldn't have done, or there are things that we didn't do that we should have done.

And when when we forsake that, we deeply injure other people and we injure our relationship with God.

You look and say, but why would I injure my relationship with God so much by just forsaking helping someone else, right?

Or even if I actively hurt it's hurt someone else, why would that injure my relationship with God?

Let me tell you about my Uncle Chris.

My uncle Chris had a little daughter, my cousin Heather, in preschool.

And um, a little boy hit cousin Heather when she was three.

And Uncle Chris hit the roof at home.

You know why?

Because he loved his daughter.

He was so passionate about his precious little girl that if you did something to injure Heather, you have not just broken your relationship with her, you broke your relationship with her father.

Right?

God is so passionate about his people that if you injure your relationship with one of his beloved, you injure your relationship with him, right?

So sometimes we sin just we're sinning horizontally, that actually becomes a vertical sin.

Sometimes we actually are actively ignoring God or actively willfully walking away from him.

Both of them injure our relationship with God.

So what does Jesus do?

Jesus says, I will go to the cross on their behalf and I will pay the debt that they have, that they've accumulated, like the spiritual debt.

So that they now that that debt is no longer counted against them.

Jesus says, I will come in with my immense spiritual wealth and pay because they could never pay.

They could never do enough to get right with God.

But Jesus says that He can He can save us because He doesn't have to save Himself, because He He's one without sin.

So He can take on all the sin of the world, He can take on all the deaths of the world, He can take on all the trespasses of the world, and then say, you don't have to carry it anymore.

And if you're not carrying it anymore, you can now walk freely to the Lord, right?

And He opens that door for us.

That's what it means for Jesus to save us, right?

And then we're not just saved from our sin, we're now saved to life in Christ, right?

And that's what the Christian life is about.

It's about intimacy with Him, depth of relationship with Him, becoming His disciples, right?

Practice that's why we talk here at City Covenant about practicing the way of Jesus in the heart of the city.

Because ultimately what our goal is is to know him.

We don't want to be, guys, here at City Covenant, our goal isn't to become fans of Jesus.

It's to know Jesus.

The apostle Paul here in Corinth isn't looking and saying, I wish all you Corinthians had a higher view of Jesus.

That wasn't really their problem.

He was just saying, you you lost sight of him.

You lost sight of him.

Why did you why did you lose sight of him?

Because you started looking at other good things.

Right?

I mean, maybe, maybe here's the thing.

We're gonna close in a second.

You know, as I when I look at the beginning of 1 Corinthians, I just wonder for myself if like maybe as we study it together, like maybe the first question of our series here, guys, isn't what's wrong with the church?

You I mean, I'll tell you, we could do a whole series on that, right?

Maybe that's not actually the fur big first question, right?

From what we're seeing here.

Maybe it's this.

Maybe it's what happens when people who have received everything as a free gift of God stop realizing it was a gift.

Right?

What what if it's the what if it's that we just we forgot?

What if it was we we we neglected the ultimate thing for the thing that was smaller?

Right?

Because that's Corinth.

And if we're honest, that's us.

Right?

What do we do?

We we turn gifts into trophies, right?

Like we were talking about earlier, we we turn preferences into convictions, right?

We turn convictions into identities, and we turn identities into tribes.

And you know what's wild about it, and then we wonder why the church factors.

Right?

The answer of the gospel is not try harder to get along.

The answer of the gospel is look at Jesus again.

Set your eyes on him because he's calling you as his disciples, as his beloved sons and daughters.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we love you.

We thank you of your goodness, we thank you of your kindness to us.

Lord, we confess that we are people who uh we often forget, we often neglect um the ultimate thing of Jesus Christ to settle for lesser things.

We often um lean into whatever person would tickle our ears.

Lord, instead, help us to follow Jesus.

We love you, God.

In Christ's name pray.

Amen.

Thank you for listening.

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We are located at 512 South Bernard Street, Spokane, Washington, 99204.