Crazy City, Crazy Love - God's Farm

Good morning.

It's great to see everybody.

Beautiful day.

I walked in and I'm like, man, something's different.

And I was trying to figure it out, and it was coats.

It's been a long time since anyone has worn a coat.

But it's nice.

I love this, uh love this weather.

Let's pray.

So, Father, thank you for for this morning.

Thank you for us all being together.

Thank you so much for adopting each of us as your your very own children.

Although none of us uh deserve it.

You love us so much.

And we just praise you and thank you.

And Holy Spirit, thank you for being our teacher.

And please uh teach us something uh together as a group today, and also something that we can take away individually.

We'll know we've heard something uh for us from you.

And Jesus, we just praise you.

Uh thank you for saving us, thank you for being our friend, an example, uh our Lord.

And so we praise you and thank you.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.

So anyone take the uh seven-day challenge this week?

The uh how was that?

The if you weren't here last Sunday, um we talked about Paul uh saying that real wisdom comes from an eternal perspective, from the Holy Spirit, and from um the Word of God.

And so we finished with a seven-day challenge to prove to ourselves whether or not Paul knew what he was talking about.

And the challenge was this that we're gonna take 30 minutes each day, 15 minutes reading God's Word.

I suggested the chapter of Proverbs that corresponds with that day of the month or something directly that Jesus said in the gospels.

Then a big key is then taking 15 minutes and asking the Holy Spirit just to uh to teach us and to show us and apply it to whatever you know we're we're dealing with currently.

And the important thing with this is we don't ever want together, get together and play church.

You know, I mean God has real things for us and we want them.

And uh one of those is real wisdom, and and real wisdom will change uh our lives and make our lives easier and make us even more effective and impactful with our lives.

And so one thing I'm noticing as we're as we're talking about first Corinthians is how much Paul talks about wisdom.

When I thought of 1 Corinthians, that's not really what I thought of.

But he lays this whole foundation for everything that he's gonna share as kind of man's wisdom versus God's wisdom, and how you know thinking like like Jesus is there for us if we just uh if we just want it.

And so every Sunday when I'm when I'm talking, I'm talking mostly to uh myself.

I'm trying to share God's word, but I'm speaking to myself.

And so this is true this week.

This this idea of reading a corresponding uh chapter of Proverbs that corresponds to the day of the week has been really important in my life.

Um but like a lot of things that are important to us, we kind of get away from them and got you know do something else, do um other types of things.

And and I'd kind of done that.

You know, I guess I thought I had all the wisdom I needed.

And um but anyway, so this week, taking the challenge, um it was just so great, and it and it was so um just such a reminder of how much I need God's wisdom in everything we do.

And two quick examples.

Um Thursday, I had an important business meeting at at 1 o'clock, and I've shared how when Susan and I uh you know, we sold a company and we started this, and and our desire has always been and always will be to be able to volunteer and not get paid.

We also have a desire to eat, and so um one way to meet both those desires is is uh we started another company back in May, and I do that a couple days a week and and and here the rest of the time, and that's that's all going great.

But I had this really important meeting on Thursday, and it was with uh a big company that we work with.

And the president of the company is retiring, and a new president was coming in, so they were coming down to kind of do that transition.

I knew the old one, I didn't know the um the new one, and I'm kind of rushing out the door because I have this this meeting, and then I remember that I haven't done the challenge.

You know, and so so I stopped, and it's the 27th, and so uh for me this week it was Proverbs 27, and I was reading the message in Proverbs, and so 27 verse 1.

Don't bra brashly announce what you're gonna do tomorrow.

You don't know the first thing about tomorrow.

But what this meeting was about is it was next year.

We're planning together for next year.

I thought, man, that's really that's good.

I'm glad I read that because um I'm gonna tone it down a little bit and make sure that I don't create expectations that we can't um that we can't meet.

And I just want to be wise about how we talked about it.

So I keep reading, get to 27, verse 18.

It says, if you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit.

If you honor your boss, you'll be honored.

Well, this company's not really my boss, but they are important, and and in a sense, we work for them.

And so I thought, well, man, how does that apply to me?

And it's just a good reminder to for me to ask them what's important to them.

What are they trying to accomplish this year?

How can how can we help them?

Let them know how much uh we appreciate them.

That's true, I think, in all business relationships.

You're looking for it has to be a win, win, you know.

Um, and okay, so I do that, and that's good.

Then I ask the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom.

And he reminds me to do something that I've talked about but hadn't done, and that's to ask for favor for this meeting.

You know, for every important meeting, just to ask God for a supernatural favor with these people.

And so did that, and it was one of the best business meetings I've probably ever had.

Because God gave me wisdom for that day.

Um yesterday morning, I'm reading chapter 29, and I keep reading through chapter 30.

Later yesterday, I get just kind of pulled into this really angry, volatile situation.

And um, and it was one of those that's kind of complex, and I wasn't exactly sure what to do, and some of the dynamics were making me angry, and so um so I'm asking God just quickly how you doing.

It's like God, what do I what should I do?

And um, and he reminded me of the proverb I'd read this that morning, yesterday morning, which was churned milk turns into butter, riled emotions turn into fistfights.

And so I didn't remember that proverb word for word, but what I remembered was it's important to keep things calm.

And so I immediately said, okay, this that's what I'm gonna do.

I'm just gonna try to keep this myself calm, and I'm gonna try to keep the situation calm.

And everything did calm down, and it turned out as good as that situation um could have.

Um you know, it it's I say these things it just to say that even a foolio like me can make good choices if I let God instruct me.

You know, and I want to make sure it's that whole, you know, fish verse teaching to fish is that if we can all go and get wisdom directly from God every day, encouragement, inspiration every day directly from God, it's directly from God's Spirit, imagine you know what He's gonna do here.

Uh Jesus said, people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

And so we need that.

We need that often.

Um so let's keep the challenge going and uh let God's word and his spirit help us have have real wisdom and God's wisdom every day.

You know, the bread, if you will, God's word, uh the piece of bread we're we're eating right now is this letter that Paul wrote to these pretty new Christians that lived in the city of Corinth.

And we've talked about Corinth, and I'm just gonna we won't talk long about Corinth today, but it was one of the most important, fastest growing cities in the world.

They had a long history of Greek mythology, they had uh famous temples to Aphrodite, to Apollo and Poseidon.

Rome occupied Greece, and uh, you know, they were the rulers of the world.

They had a pretty strong influence in Corinth.

Corinth was the first Greek city ever to have gladiator fights, for instance, um, and it was the Roman influence.

There's also a big growing Jewish community uh in Corinth because they had physically um resettled uh 2,000 families from Rome to Corinth, Rome had.

And so this church is a mix of this population of Greek and Rome, Roman and Jewish, and the church has kind of started struggling, and and the main problem is that they've got this appreciation for, let's say, an overappreciation for people, for man's wisdom, man's uh knowledge, man's intellect.

And they'd kind of this had kind of uh shown itself because they were dividing over people.

You know, Paul, who was who was smarter, Paul, or was it Apollo, or was it was it Peter, or who do I like more?

And they just created this division in this church.

So that's what Paul's talking about at the first part of this letter.

And what we're gonna do is that we're in chapter three, and in chapter three, Paul's talking to this group, and he says, You're like a farm.

And then he goes on to explain that, and we're gonna talk about that this morning.

Then he immediately says, You're also like a building.

And he makes a whole nother point, but he's talking to uh to this group.

And we've gone almost verse by verse, you know, through these first three chapters, but we're gonna pick it up a little bit as we go.

We're gonna take a break over Thanksgiving and even even over Christmas, and then um first part of the year we'll we'll keep going.

But um Paul's gonna talk about just a lot of interesting things.

He's gonna talk about sex soon.

He's gonna talk about um money, he's gonna talk about haircuts, um, he's talking about men, women, lawsuits.

He's gonna talk about love, he's talking about spiritual gifts and what that looks like as we follow Jesus.

Uh one of the most one of my favorite chapters, one of the most beautiful chapters in the whole Bible is chapter 15, when he describes what the day Jesus returns is going to be like.

Isaiah 15 · chapter mention

Um and so it's just a uh a great letter that Paul wrote to this church, and it's uh it's bound to help us because uh we're a new growing church, just like in in uh Corinth, and we're just real everyday people, just like the people in Corinth.

And so we're gonna start in in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 5.

1 Corinthians 3:5

After all, who is Apollos?

Who is Paul?

We are only God's servants, through whom you believe the good news.

Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.

I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.

It's not important who does the planting or who does the watering.

What's important is that God makes the seed grow.

The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose, and both will be rewarded for their own hard work.

For we're both God's workers, and you are God's field.

So I grew up in Oregon and I worked on a a farm in high school.

And so my job for the most part was to move an irrigation pipe.

And so I don't know if you've done that, but it's a pretty hard job, you know, and and you'd uh you'd water if you'd have two sets, or at least we had two sets going, and one would get done just about the time you know it needed to be moved to another, and you just keep keep it going all day um watering the the fields.

And it was an important job, obviously, because uh the fields needed water, and we grew strawberries and and beans were the main crops, and it was kind of gratifying watching the the crops grow on and and working outside and all that.

But I had two jobs during the summer.

I also worked at a roller skating rink.

Um I don't know if I've ever shared this before.

But but a guy at the roller skating rink got me this job on the farm.

In fact, he kind of worked for me at the roller skating um rink where I was the skate guard supervisor.

And um, you know, it's I know I'm not trying to big time it or anything, but you know, I wasn't the assistant to the skate guard supervisor, I was the skate guard supervisor.

And so I had the blue vest, and um more importantly, I had the whistle.

And so I could make people slow down, I could make them miss a whole song, I could make them sit out for the hokey pokey if I wanted to.

Um that's just how I rolled.

Um but the guy at the farm, he was my supervisor on the farm.

And so in different situations, we had different roles and responsibilities.

So his job was to sit in the truck.

Not, I mean, he didn't sit in the truck, he worked hard too.

But part of his job was to come to where I was in the truck and then tell me where to move the um the pipe to next.

And we had different roles and we had different responsibilities, but we were working together.

We were trying to accomplish something, which was we wanted to help the farm be successful, to watch what the farm was growing grow.

And I did that when I was uh the summers of when I was 16 and when I was 17.

And there was one thing that was clear to everyone it wasn't my farm.

I mean, that was obvious.

It wasn't my farm.

Ultimately, I did what the farmer asked me to do, and he was the one that knew how to make things grow and what to do when and where.

And so in Corinth, Paul got the church started.

Um, and it was and and he invested a lot emotionally in love and all those things to do this.

But then Apollos and Peter came along and they make a difference.

And so who deserves the credit is really the question.

Who deserves the credit?

God.

See, the whole thing is a God thing.

Who really cares?

Who really cares what each person did?

You know, they're all working together, doing something together with God.

I don't have many pet peeves in my life, I've got a few.

And I'm not sure I should share this one.

In fact, I'm pretty sure I shouldn't.

But um a pet peeve of mine is pastors' names on church signs.

And it may just be that God's put that on me because of what we're doing here.

And I know some of you are preachers' kids and their names are on church signs, and uh but uh my res reaction every time I drive by a church sign and there's a prominent pastor so-and-so, reverend so I'm like, Who cares?

You know, it's Jesus' church, you know, it's it's it's who cares really what person is um is doing what.

Um so you can imagine how I react to those billboards with the good-looking couple saying, come, come visit our church.

But um, but but but Paul, honestly, I think that is a lot of that's just tradition and so many things in in church and and um even Christianity, we we don't really even stop and think about it because we just kind of get on uh, you know, uh we're on a in a in a groove, I guess.

Um but but Paul would say, he said, you know, who is Paul?

Who is Apollos?

And so he might say, who is, you know, Reverend Bishop so-and-so?

And and and who is senior pastor so-and-so?

Isn't it Jesus' church?

Aren't we all his servants?

I mean, there's a reason there isn't even a picture of Susan and I um on our website.

And it's not just because we're in the Witness Protection Program, even though that's definitely a big part of it.

But you know, John the Baptist started getting notoriety, and and and he backed off.

He he said, you know, less of me is more of him.

And so um that's an important part of our culture, and and I share that really because it it's a small thing that is an important part of our culture.

And so if Susan and I get hit by a truck, please don't put somebody's name on a sign.

Um now the way we've tried to prevent that is we don't really have a sign.

So we do have we do have a banner.

Um, but but it's really important for all of us to understand that we all have the same position with God.

In Romans 8, Paul says, This resurrection life you receive from God is not a timid, grave tending life.

It's adventurously expectant.

Greeting God with a childlike, what's next, Papa?

God's spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are.

We know who he is, and we know who we are: father and children.

And we know we're gonna get what's coming to us an unbelievable inheritance.

And so all of us all have the same position.

We're daughters and sons of the living God.

But doesn't someone have to make decisions?

Yes, but that's not a position thing, it's a role thing, you know, it's a current responsibility thing, you know, and so whenever God gives us a responsibility, he may give us a little bit of authority to fulfill that responsibility, but it's never about that.

And that changes from time to time, you know, it's it's roles and responsibilities.

And I think to me, one of the really refreshing things here is we don't have anyone with a title, we don't have anyone wanting a title.

You know, we're all working together as a team.

Um, and it's just an important thing, and I think I think Paul would appreciate that about us, but it's not something we want to take for granted.

You know, it's something we all want to be really diligent about.

But stuff goes on here all week long.

Um, but but let's take this morning, for example.

Okay, we're a volunteer church, and so a bunch of you have already helped in in a bunch of different ways.

Some of you came early and made free coffee, um, some will stay late and clean it all up, some set the Lord's Supper out, some came early and prayed.

The worship team got here real early uh to get ready.

Some of us right now are in his kids helping with the kids, some of us are in the nursery helping with uh um with the babies.

I'm up here speaking right now, Bill's running sound.

Um the minute we finish, some of you will be grabbing uh vacuums and and emptying the trash, and we've got a first aid team, a security team, and and an info team, and I can name all these different ways people are doing different things.

And so which of all that is the most important?

None.

It literally is all equally important.

It's all important.

I had a a a couple, one of y'all, um tell me, I don't know, so probably uh two months ago, how much they loved uh coming here.

And the first day that they came, they knew this church was their home.

And they knew it because right afterwards people started running and helping clean up.

It wasn't the worship, it wasn't what I said.

Um it was uh something like that.

You know, so many people are affected by just how friendly and nice and good uh each of you are, you know, and and it's all important.

It's just different, it's just different real roles.

Um we all need each other, there's no highest position.

We have all different roles and different responsibilities, and and those change, you know.

Uh the but God cares about us all and he'll take care of all of us.

Now, just as true as that is in here, when we're here, I would say it's even more true outside of here.

That God has us playing different roles, you know, we have different responsibilities, but they are all equally important.

You know, I really enjoyed it when I was in the business world, and and I say this and people laugh because I guess it's funny, but I'm actually serious.

But one of the things I enjoy in the business world is because I can talk about God with a lot more credibility.

Um if you're perceived as a pastor, people expect you to talk about God all the time.

And it just rolls off, you know?

It's like, what do you think about the Falcons?

Oh, I just thank God there's football, you know.

How how are you doing?

Well, I'm blessed and highly favored, you know, and and it's just it's God talk, and that's what what people expect.

And so on a one-on-one basis, it doesn't have as much impact as when you know I could tell somebody, you know, how's things going?

It's going great.

I tell you, you know, God's really making a difference in my life.

He's really made a difference in my in my business.

Or how's things at home?

That's so much better.

We started going to church, and it's just everything's changing, and and I'm really trying to focus now more on on God, and and He's really changing me.

Um yesterday, Georgia beat uh Florida, and they uh And so they sorry, sorry, Tim.

He didn't see him.

He's like, oh he said, yeah, yesterday.

But anyway, they uh and so after the game, they interview uh Coach Ricked on the sideline.

And so he says, you know, the the first thing I'd want to do is thank God.

And and he's not saying that God wanted Georgia to beat the Gators, although they he almost certainly did.

What he's saying is God is an important part of his life.

And God is involved in everything he does.

How he looks at sports, how he looks at people, the opportunities he has, so the very first thing he wants to do is thank God.

Okay, and that impacts people.

People notice that.

It makes a difference.

And it you may not realize how much that's true for you.

Very few people have ever had a regular, normal person tell them how Jesus has changed their lives.

Especially not in a real down-to-earth kind of kind of way.

You can really help God completely change somebody's life.

And it doesn't matter, again, what our role is.

You know, if you're a bus driver or a nurse or a homemaker or a business person or a high school student or a high school teacher, every single day we have an opportunity to love and to encourage and to help.

And from time to time, God gives each of us an opportunity to share how Jesus has changed our lives in a normal, down-to-earth way.

And so if we do that, I remember the first time I did that.

Um I mean, there were several first times.

The first time I ever talked to anybody about God.

I was, I mean, it was I was scared to death, honestly.

It was a huge step.

I remember the first time I ever talked about God in a business setting.

I mean, I didn't, I thought the walls were gonna fall down or something.

I mean, it was like a, and now it seems like such a not a big deal, but but you know, it's scary when you take a step like that.

You know, and you and you think often, like, wow, I'm not sure how they took that, maybe.

Um But what God knows is that you planted a seed.

You know, you planted a seed.

You know, maybe someone's gonna come along in a week or a month and water it.

But it'll be God that makes it grow.

You know, you don't have that burden, you don't have that responsibility or even that role.

We some of us plant a seed, some of us water, but God makes it grow.

And you know when we do that, so I was raised feeling like God was usually mad at me, and I was, you know, I should do things to to please him.

And so he wouldn't be mad at me.

Like reading the Bible.

This is okay, I'm gonna do a short backtrack.

But it's like reading the Bible.

You know, it's like, man, I need to read my Bible every day, or God's gonna be mad at me.

Um but we don't read the Bible to please God.

You know, I I didn't buy John Grisham's new novel to please John Grisham.

Um even though it probably does.

But I wanted to read it, you know, I bought it for me.

And it's the same way with with God's word.

Is we don't read the Bible to please God.

We read it for us.

It helps us, it changes us.

It's one of the most important things that that He's uh given us.

It's the same way when we talk to people about Jesus.

You know, we don't do that so God isn't mad at us.

You know, we we or guilt, you know, it's out of love.

And here's the truth is when we do that, he is proud of us.

He's way to go.

He's excited.

He's excited for us.

Because that's how he designed the farm.

That's how he designed it.

That one of us plants a seed, another person waters, you know, another person encourages, another person talks to someone at just the right time, but it's God that makes it grow.

And so one of the last things that Paul's gonna write to this um to this group in Corinth is he says, so my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable.

Always work enthusiastically for the Lord.

For you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

Whatever God has us doing, it's all important.

It's all important.

You're important.

You're important to God.

You know, God loves you.

I guess on Sundays I don't ever want to like stop without making sure you know that.

Because there might be someone here that has never been told that.

And it's so true.

God is not mad at you, He's not fed up with you, He hasn't given up on you.

He loves you, He loves you.

Um And so we're important, and our roles are important.

It's got how God planned it.

One of us takes some seed, another one takes some water, but it's God's farm.

This is God's church, and He's the one that makes it grow.

So we'll stop there if the worship team will come up.

And I guess I want to finish kind of where we started.

In fact, let's stand, we'll get ready to sing one more song together.

And kind of where we start is what what Paul was saying to this new group at at Corinth.

And and what he said is is don't put people on a pedestal.

You know, just don't do it.

And it's such it's such a temptation.

Um but let's not trust people, let's trust Jesus.

You know, let's put our trust in Jesus, and and he will never let you down.

And Paul just described what we read in Romans, how when we do that for the first time, a miracle happens, you know, because our spirit comes alive, and the Holy Spirit touches that spirit.

And then he starts changing us from the inside out.

And he does it through his word, and he does it through his spirit, and he does it for through each of us helping each other.

But we never have to fear death again, we never even have to fear what people think again.

Because we know who we are.

We're God's sons and we're God's daughters, and it's important what we do, it's important how we live.

Next week we'll talk a little bit about that.

But uh, let's pray.

Father, I praise you and I thank you, and I praise you for your creativity and your beauty in creating each person here.

And I thank you for how you care about each of us and you love each of us.

And I just ask you to bless each of us, that you know what we need, that we're all in different places with different things in our hearts.

And God, would you just please give every single person, whether it's health, or whether it's help financially, or whether it's a good friend, or whether it's being able just to forgive themselves and understand that you've already forgotten.

Whatever it is we need today, God, please uh please give it to us.

And so I thank you and I trust you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.