Prodigal Church
A series in 1 Corinthians
Life after Life after Death
August 18, 2019 • Shane Sikkema • 1 Corinthians 15
Summary: What if the solution to death was not to escape it, but to face and defeat it? The claim of Christianity is that someone has done just that, and done so for us. Many of us grew up imagining we would spend eternity as disembodied souls, but the true hope of Scriptures is something far deeper and more satisfying. This weekend we will conclude our series “Prodigal Church” by looking at 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul lays out a vision of Christian hope for the future, that fills us with courage and strength for today. Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com Right now, before we begin with the sermon, would you please join me in prayer? Jesus, we thank you for being our Lord and our Savior. That you are both merciful and powerful. You have the desire to save, and you have the ability to save, and to save completely. And if there are any here today who are lacking purpose or meaning in their life, if there are any lacking hope, if there are any finding it hard to persevere, tempted to give up, I pray that you would show us today, that your gospel changes everything. It gives us a sure and certain and unshakeable hope for tomorrow, that manifests into strength for today, so that we know that nothing we walk through in this life will be in vain. So long as it is done by your spirit, motivated by your love, it will be eternal. So we pray that you'd speak to us now through the preaching of your word. Amen. The author of Ecclesiastes famously wrote that, "God has placed eternity in the hearts of men." And if you've read the book of Ecclesiastes, you know that he's wrote far more often, "Vanity, vanity, everything is vanity. Life is absurd and meaningless." There's this tension where on the one hand he sees this reality, we're all gonna die, and all of our accomplishments, everything we lived for, it seems as if in one moment, death is going to swallow it all up. We're born, we live, we die. Time marches on, and we're slowly forgotten. Now, on the other hand, as we live these seemingly meaningless lives, we do so with this aching in our souls. It's as if we are homesick for some place that we've never been, and deep down we know that there has to be more to life than what we see with our eyes. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go back to the Midwest and spend some time with my family. And I've been... It's been interesting, the last few times I've been home, I have two younger sisters. And you know, you get together with family and you start to reminisce about the past. And what's been interesting to me though is that, at times they'll say something like, "Hey, remember that time?" And they'll go on to share a story. I'm like, "Yeah, I remember that. "And yet other times, and this has been happening, it's happened several times. So like, "Hey, remember that time?" And they'll go on to describe something in vivid detail that I have absolutely no memory of. Like they could just be totally making it up. I don't know. But if you think about your own memory, it's interesting, we have these very vivid memories at different points throughout our lives, and then we have these others that are kind of dim. And then we talk to other people and realize that it seems as if there's even some, we've just totally forgotten, as if they've just been deleted. And one of the most vivid memories I have from my childhood was, it happened in third grade. Like I can see myself, I can see the room, I can see the people around me vividly. And it was at my grandfather's funeral. I remember sitting there and just feeling that, it just didn't seem real. Like we just saw grandpa not too long ago, and he's there, but that's not him. Like this doesn't seem real. It doesn't seem right. And I remember sitting there with this growing frustration that kind of turned into almost an anger. And then I very vividly remember when my grandmother walked into the ceremony, she was just weeping. And as soon as I saw her, I started weeping. And this is one of the only memories I have from my childhood where I, as a child, I just wept. And if death is totally natural, and if life is totally meaningless, then why does it bother us the way that it does? Why do we rage against death? It's not enough to say that we desire immortality. It's deeper than that. There's a sense of injustice in its absence, as if we had it, but it's been taken or lost. And so the author, he looks and he sees death's gonna win. All of our accomplishments will be lost. Our names will be forgotten. Time is going to make fools of us all, so what have I to do but just drink, eat, and for tomorrow, we die. The life is just a vapor, vanishing in the wind. We're looking at 1 Corinthians 15 today, and you know, before we all get too utterly depressed, this is actually not the focus or the point of the text. Paul's not going to focus on the bleak absurdity of death, but that is going to be the background. Death is going to be the black canvas upon which Paul paints this bright and glorious vision of Christian hope. But as we begin this, we need to understand, that if this is not true, then none of it really matters. But if it is, then that changes everything. What we're about to read today is really at the crux of our faith. If this is true, as Christians, we have a blessed assurance and hope that begins right now, and reaches into eternity. And if it's not, if this is false, then our lives are really just absurdly meaningless, and we might as well stop right now. Like class dismissed. Everybody go home. Let's stop wasting our time. And that's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 16, he says, "Listen, if the dead are not raised, if death is the end of it, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is feudal and you're still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ, we have hope in this life only, we are of all people, most to be pitied." See, Paul understood. I didn't come to Jesus because I thought he was gonna make my life easier or more comfortable. In fact, following Jesus has made things a lot more difficult for me, and that's going to be true of us as well. Following Jesus means you will face greater temptation. Nobody knows the strength of a temptation until they have tried to stand against it. That's why Jesus knew temptation better than anyone else, because he never gave into it. He experienced its full strength. Following Jesus means that you're going to have to deny yourself earthly pleasures, and it's the idea of delayed gratification for eternal rewards. And following Jesus may even mean facing persecution for your faith. It meant that for Paul, and it meant that for many of the people that he was writing to. He kind of alludes to this in verse 32, where he says, "What do I gain, if death is all there is? What do I gain humanly speaking, if I fought with beasts at Ephesus. If the dead are not raised." And then he quotes the Ecclesiastes, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Then he says this, "Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor as is right, and do not go on sinning." Paul's saying the life of following Jesus Christ is absolutely, utterly absurd. Unless it's true. If it's true, then the whole world is stumbling around in a drunken stupor and needs to be woke up. If this is true, and Paul says that it is. That's why he begins in the very beginning of the chapter. He says, "Listen, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12, then to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive. You can go talk to them, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me." Paul saying this is impossible, but it happened, and we saw it with our own eyes, and this changes everything. This is what caused CS Lewis to write that, "If Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true of infinite importance. The only thing that it cannot be is moderately important." Now the goal of today's sermon is not to argue for the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as important as that is, but I actually preached that sermon a year ago, the first sermon in our Jesus among other gods series. We looked at the first half of 1 Corinthians 15. And what we did there was, we looked at the evidence, historical evidence, scriptural evidence. We looked at it all in order to show that it really is reasonable to believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. In fact, that's the most probable explanation for what happened in the first three centuries after the birth of Christ. But the goal today is not to convince you that Jesus rose from the dead. The goal today is to ask, why does it even matter? And that's what Paul focuses on in the second half of the chapter. That's what we're going to be looking at this morning. So three big ideas, three points that we're going to be looking at today is, first of all in Christ, we as Christians, we have hope and a life after life after death. And Paul is going to show us that this life after life after death, is immaculately immortal. And thirdly, it is also presently significant. So if you have your Bibles open up to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'd love to have you follow along. There's a lot of text today. And we're going to be looking at verse 35 through 58. If you don't have a Bible, the words will be up here on the screen. 1 Corinthians 15, starting at verse 35. But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" You foolish person. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There's one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there's a natural body, there's also a spiritual body. Thus it is written. The first man, Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, when the mortal puts on immortality, then she'll come to pass, the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain. And this is the reading of God's Holy word for us this morning. Point number one: Life after life after death. What if I told you that not all Christians go to heaven? What if I told you that you and I will not be spending eternity in heaven? Obviously I'm trying to be provocative here. It is true that Christians go to heaven when they die, but it's not true to say that that's where scripture leaves it. It has more to say. Paul told the Philippians, "For me to live as Christ, then to die is gain." Because if I die, I go to be with Jesus in heaven. But the full hope of scripture is not merely in life after death. The full hope of scripture is not that we would escape from these physical bodies and that our souls would fly away to some ethereal existence for the rest of eternity. The full hope of scripture is in full redemption, which means bodily resurrection, and new creation. There's a life after life after death that we look forward to. And so Paul says, "When Christ returns, the dead will be raised." And those Christians who are still alive, they will be transformed, and the broader scope of scripture shows us, to inherit the new earth, the new creation. This is important because this is a very common misconception that people have about Christianity. Myself included, most of us, what we grew up.... When we think about eternity, when we think about heaven, most of our ideas come more from like Renaissance paintings or even episodes of the Simpsons than they do from scripture. Like we picture ourselves floating around on clouds, playing harps with like angels wings, and that's not what we see. This is important. If the gospel is an evacuation plan, where our bodies die and our souls escape this mortal coil to spend eternity in some ethereal existence, that presents a few problems. First of all, if that's the truth, why does anything I do right now in my body, in this life, matter. It results in this dualism that was present in Paul's day, and that's why he's writing this. But this dualism that, well, the spiritual is good, and that's what matters, and the physical is bad, and it's inconsequential. But that's not Christianity. God's creation is good. Second, if this is true, then wouldn't that mean that death kind of won, and that God kind of lost. The gospel's not an evacuation plan. It's about redemption. It's about victory. Jesus came, he took on flesh, he lived and he died, not so that he could cut his losses and go home. He didn't come just to deflect death. He came to face it head on, experience, and defeat death, to turn it back upon itself and destroy it. Total victory. That's what Paul is writing about. He's trying to correct this dualism that was influencing that culture. Because at the time, the idea of a bodily resurrection from the dead was just utter nonsense in the pagan world. But for Paul, it was absolutely essential to the gospel. And so what would happen is, people would scoff at Christians, they would ridicule, they would mock Christians for their belief in a resurrection of the dead because they would say things like, "Well, hold on, hold on, first of all, dead people don't come back to life. I've never met a dead person who's come back to life." Of course, the Christians could say, "Well, yeah, but I kind of know a guy. You should meet him." But more so, what they would say is like, "We know, we know what happens. It doesn't take very long before a body begins to decompose. It rots away and given enough time, it turns to dust. How are you gonna raise that up?" And then if they were, you know, more cruel, they'd say, "What of your Christians that we've burned at the stake, whose bodies have become ash and floated away in the wind? What of those that we fed to our beasts? There is no body left to raise. So how is your God going to do that?" And Paul says, "Don't be so foolish." Jesus isn't going to come back just to resuscitate our corpses into some kind of zombie apocalypse. That's not what we're talking about. He's coming back to recreate, new creation. He's not just going to resuscitate us, he's going to resurrect us and those are very different things. And so to help us wrap our minds around this, Paul gives us an illustration, and this is what he says in verse 35, he says, "Some are going to ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of bodies do they come?" And his answer, "You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain." A few years ago, I was visiting San Francisco, and while I was there, I got the opportunity to spend an afternoon in the Muir Woods, one of the famous redwood forests in the area. And if you've ever been there, it's just, it's a very surreal experience. Like as soon as you get out of your car, the first thing you notice is the air just has... just the smell of it smells like life, and it's just hard to explain there's this sweetness in the air. But then as you begin to walk into the woods, you're just awestruck by how massively impressive these trees are. And you go there, and I remember, I took so many pictures that day, and just none of them could do justice to what I saw with my eyes. And while I was there, I learned that the largest redwoods today, are as tall as a 37 story building, and that in the past they've been known to get as tall as 400 feet. But just to put that into perspective, if you look at the pinnacle of the dome, we're talking about something four times higher than that. And not only that, these trees are extremely old. Like some of these trees are up to 2500 years old, meaning that they started their life and they started growing before Jesus was even born. And they're still alive growing to this day. It's just, a very surreal experience. And as I was walking through these woods, if you've been there, you probably saw this, but you come to this place called the Cathedral Grove. And there's a sign that says, "Everyone who enters, remain silent as you walk through this section of the forest." And there's kind of this semi-circle of trees that reach up, and they kind of resemble like a Gothic cathedral. And I said, "Well, if God planted a cathedral here, this is as good a place as any to just kind of like camp out for a while and spend some time." I spent some time praying. And so that's what I did. And after a while, I'm looking down, and I realized just everywhere I look, the ground is just absolutely covered with thousands and thousands of these. I don't often use visual aids, but when I do, they're too small for you to even see what they are, so. But what this is, it's a pine cone. It's like barely larger than a penny, and it had fallen from one of these trees. Inside this tiny little pine cone, are 50 to 60 redwood seeds. Like theoretically I'm holding a redwood forest right here in the tips of my fingers. And you put a seed in the ground and then it comes back up. But it doesn't come back up as it was. And yet it's still itself. It's still the seed, but it's undergone this glorious transformation, and it's still what it was. It's still itself, but it's now so much more of itself. And Paul's trying to help us. I think in some sense, this is what we're talking about with the resurrection. When Jesus returns, he's not merely going to bring our dead bodies back to life. He's not merely going to put an end to trials and temptations, to the sufferings and the weaknesses that we experience in this life. He's not even merely going to fix things up and make them the way they were before the fall. What scripture shows us is actually far bigger and better than that. The hope of scripture is that he's actually going to redeem and recreate creation in such a way, that what is found, is now more valuable for having once been lost. That what is restored, is now more precious and beautiful for having once been broken, better than it was before. You think about the Bible, Genesis to Revelation. The book of Genesis opens with the creation account, and we see two people in paradise with God. But when you get to the end of the book of revelation, it's not just a return to Eden. It's not just two people in paradise with God. Now Eden is surrounded by this radiant, glorious city, filled with a multitude of people greater than anyone can count from every tribe, tongue, and nation, from all the corners of the earth, brought together, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, worshiping God. It says that heaven and earth have become one, and we're told that God is going to dwell with his people forever. As Christians, we have a hope in life after death, but we need to understand that even more significantly, we have a hope in a resurrected life after life after death. And as Paul goes on, he goes into more detail to give us a glimpse of just how immaculately immortal these resurrected bodies will be. Immaculate in the sense that they're pure, they're clean, they're holy. They are completely without sin. And immortal in the sense that they're eternal, imperishable, powerful, glorious. This is what he says in verse 42, "So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It's raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. And if there is a natural body, there's also a spiritual body." Thus it is written. The first man, Adam, became a living being, the last Adam, referring to Jesus Christ became a life giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. When you read the gospel accounts of Jesus' resurrection, there's like all this weird like trippy stuff that happens to him, right, in his resurrected body. Like sometimes people see him, and they recognize him right away. Other times he'll spend a few hours with someone, and it's as if his identity is being concealed. There's times where it seems like he's teleporting from place to place. He walks through locked doors, through walls, and then as soon as everyone starts freaking out and saying, "Oh, it's a ghost." He says, "Hold on, I'm not a ghost. Come here." Said, "Put your finger in my hand. Put your hand in my wounded side. I'm real. I'm here. I have a body. But it's one full of surprises." And this section, it can be a little bit confusing, because if Paul is trying to argue for a bodily physical resurrection, then why all of a sudden is he talking about us being raised in spiritual bodies? It almost seems like he's contradicting himself. Well, he's not. What he's doing is he's expanding on this idea that he hinted that with the seed and the plant, and he's trying to reveal some of the specific ways in which these bodies are going to be transformed, in which they're going to be different. And so the first thing we need to understand is what he means by natural and spiritual. He's not saying that right now we have a body, but then we're going to be spending eternity as disembodied spirits. There's still a body. The focus is on what kind of body, and the distinction is between the natural and the spiritual. And so right now we have what he calls natural bodies. We have bodies that are born with a sinful nature, inherited from the fall. And because of this, our bodies are perishable, they are weak, they are corrupted, and Paul says, "They bear the image of Adam, the man of dust." Now, when Christ returns, it's not that we're not going to have a body, or use for a body any longer. It's that we're going to have what he calls a spiritual body, and the emphasis is on this. It's that it's going to be a body that is so perfectly filled, and energized with the Holy Spirit of God, that we will be bearing the image of Jesus, the man of heaven. Just try to imagine what this means. Like for those in Christ, in eternity, you will be so filled with the Holy Spirit, so filled with the love and the presence and the joy and the power of God, that not only will you never sin again, but your immediate constant internal inclination in every circumstance will be to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And the same is going to be true for everyone else there. Shame replaced with glory, weakness, replaced with power, sickness and death, replaced with eternal vitality in life, sin and temptation replaced with holiness and with a deep unshakable abiding satisfaction in Jesus Christ. This is amazing. I'd encourage you, just seriously, just carve some time out this week, and just think about that. Try to wrap your mind around that. As you do though, realize that that's not where Paul ends. He doesn't stop there. In fact, the big idea is not just that this is how things are going to be some time in the future, and so we might as well just kill some time now until we get there. The goal, the big idea, is that when Jesus saves us right now, that same Holy Spirit begins to dwell in us right now, and we are empowered and gifted in that spirit right now, so that we can begin living in alignment with that glorious future right now. Now, do we do that perfectly? No, obviously, of course not. We still have that sinful nature alive in us, and it is at war against the spirit within us. But what this means is we get up every day and we fight. We repent. We rely on God's grace, and we strive. We strive to put sin to death in our body. We strive to walk in the Holy Spirit. We strive to keep our eyes fixed on Christ, fixed on this hope, knowing that everything we do right now is presently and eternally significant. And that brings us to point three. At the beginning of chapter 15, near the beginning, Paul says this, in verse 10, says, "By the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." And then at end of the chapter, after laying out this rich theology of the resurrection, he concludes with this in verse 58, "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor, your labor is not in vain." Life in Christ is an inverted Ecclesiastes, where nothing is vanity, everything is meaningful. And compare this to what pastor Jan preached on a few weeks ago, when we looked at 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, because in chapter 13 Paul said this, said, "Listen, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give away all I have, and I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Apart from Christ, everything is nothing." In Christ, nothing is meaningless, nothing is vanity, everything will be accounted for. And there's this... And he's trying to help us see. Everything that we do in the flesh. Everything done without faith. Everything that is not done in the spirit, motivated by God's love is vanity, and yet everything we do in faith, hope, love, by the spirit of God, is eternal. None of our work, none of our labor, none of our suffering will be in vain. Why? Because Christ's work toward us was not in vain, and he is actually the one working in us right now, empowering us. Every good thing in us is him alive, his life in us. So your pursuit of holiness, every time you wake up and open your Bible, every time you call out to God in prayer, every time you say yes to the Holy Spirit and no to temptation, every time you lay down your life, pick up your cross, and follow Jesus, it will not go unnoticed. It will never be in vain. Your brotherly love for one another, every time you sacrificially give, every time you selflessly serve to build others up in the church, it will not go unnoticed. It will never be in vain. You're faithful perseverance, as you joyfully and patiently endure the trials and sufferings of this life, as you are insulted and slandered and mocked for your faith, and as you choose to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, it will not go unnoticed, it will never be in vain. Your bold, faithful, witness, every time you testify to what Jesus Christ has done in your life before others, every time you share the gospel, even if it seems as if it's falling on deaf ears, it will not go unnoticed. It will never be in vain. Paul says, "Even if you lay down your life, give up your body to be burned." Listen, countless Christians in the first century, including Paul, and all the apostles, except for the apostle John, died as martyrs for their faith, because they refused to deny that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, and their deaths were not in vain. They did not go unnoticed. They did not die meaningless deaths. Jesus said, "If you lose yourself, if you die to yourself, and if you pick up your cross, and follow me, that's when I actually, for the first time in your life, you're going to see what it means to truly live, and I promise you that in the next life you will be eternally rewarded, because I have come to give life. I've come to give abundant life, eternal life, and it's a life that begins right now. In Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 5:17, Paul said this, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he will become a new creation." No, that's not what he said. He said, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold the new has come. It starts right now." Ah, this is the last sermon in our Prodigal Church series. We've been going through the book of 1 Corinthians all summer long. And we called this series Prodigal Church, because like the infamous prodigal son, this was a church that had a lot of problems, and we've seen that every week. There's a new issue that the church is needing to deal with. That this church was young, it was arrogant, it was immature, they were short sighted and foolish. They were presuming on God's kindness and his patience and his grace. And this was a church full of sexual immorality, it was a church full of division and pride. And Paul says, "All of that is just because at the base of it there's this overall lack of love for God and for one another." And like the prodigal son, it seems as if this church was squandering it's inheritance in Christ, and yet also like the prodigal son, this is a church that was loved by the Father and unlike the prodigal son, this was a church with an older brother who hadn't given up on them yet, who had begun a good work in them, and was going to carry it out to completion. And so Paul comes to them and it says, if he's coming to the prodigal son in the far off country, when he's there hitting rock bottom, he says, "Listen, wake up from you're drunken stupor." Like it's time to get up. It's time to walk back home to the father. It's time to stop following Jesus half-heartedly and get all in. Every single moment of this life is significant, and every single moment will be accounted for when Jesus Christ returns. So wake up. Remember who you are. You were not saved for sin, you were saved from sin. You are saints. You are the church, the bride of Jesus Christ. You have been purchased, redeemed by his blood. You are the children of the living God. You're treasured, loved, filled, and powered by the Holy spirit and you are destined for unfathomable glory. So you need to live a life worthy of that good news right now. Some of us, some of you, your lives are like leaves, spinning, flying, being tossed about in the wind, ungrounded, unstable, unpredictable, because you're not sure of who you are, haven't placed your identity firmly in Jesus Christ. And for some of you, this is because you've been running away from God your whole life. For some of you it's because you've been living in the world, and just trying to kind of dabble and Christianity. You're afraid to go all in because you know what it's gonna cost you to do so. And some of you have been trying to live the Christian life while continuing to dabble in the world, and you've been quenching the spirit, trying to follow Jesus in the flesh, and it's time to wake up. Jesus died for you so that through faith you could have a life in him and be filled with his spirit. 2000 years ago, God became a man that really happened. Paul saying, "Gun to my head, go ahead, I'm not going to deny it. I've seen him with my own eyes." Jesus lived a perfect life. He died for our sins. He rose in victory over Satan, sin, and death, and now he invites us to repent, to stop trying to live life in our flesh, and to trust that we can share in this victory of his, not because of something we've done to achieve it, but because of what he has done for us completely by grace, through faith in him, and his work. If you are here this morning and you have not experienced that life, you've not given your life to Christ, you've not been filled with his Holy Spirit, I pray that you would do that today. Repent and put your faith in Jesus. And I pray right now that you just join me in prayer as we conclude this message. Jesus, to you be all glory and power and dominion and authority and praise. In your death, you have given us life and in your resurrection you have given us eternal hope. God, I pray that you would give grace to your children, that we would be able to love you and trust you. That we would be steadfast, immovable, abounding in your work, walking in holiness. Patiently waiting, and eagerly hastening the day of Christ's return. What for those here who have not yet been reconciled to you, I pray that you would reveal yourself to them now, that you'd show them their need for a savior, that your kindness and patience would lead them to repentance, and that they would put their faith in Jesus Christ. They would experience your love today, and even now, be filled with your Holy Spirit. I ask this in the name of your son, our Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Charismatic Seat Belt
August 11, 2019 • Tyler Burns • 1 Corinthians 14:1–33
Summary: "Let’s suppose that a kite could come to life and develop its own personality. On the one hand, it would feel the exhilaration that comes from the surges of wind that direct it through the sky. On the other hand, it would almost immediately take notice of something annoying. The tugging of the string at its center; a feeling of constraint; resistance. And soon the kite begins to think to itself, “If only I could detach, then I could really fly.” - (Beautiful Eulogy, "The String That Ties Us") As we know with kites, if there is no string, it cannot fly for very long. In the same way, driving without a seat belt is inherently dangerous. God has given us instructions around the way to practically use the spiritual gifts He has blessed us with. At times, these instructions can seem to hinder us, or might even seem trivial, but they are given to us to allow His Church to flourish. Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning church. Welcome. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Tyler. I'm the team director here at Mosaic Boston Brookline. And if this is your first time here, welcome. Pastor Jan is away and Pastor Shane was away and he got back last night. So I'm filling in. But today we will be continuing our sermon series that we've titled Prodigal Church where we will be going through the book of 1st Corinthians and today we will be in 1st Corinthians chapter 14 verses one through 33. If you're wondering, "Why are we skipping the last few verses of the chapter?" It's because Pastor Shane actually already preached on them. And if you're like, "What? I didn't know that." You should download the app or go to our website and listen to Pastor Shane's sermon on chapter 11. And while you're there, just listen to the whole series again because it's that good. But now, will you pray with me over the preaching of God's word? Heavenly Father. Lord, we come to you today and we humbly ask that you reveal your truths to us. You use your words, you use your scripture to reveal the secrets of our heart, to convict us, Lord, and to encourage us, Lord, in the gifts that you have blessed us with and the work that Jesus Christ has done on the cross, so that we can cultivate love in this church, proclaim the gospel to those who don't know, and build up your church here in Boston. We thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, your son, we pray. Amen. What comes to mind when you think about seatbelts? For many of us, the first thing we think of is how restricting it is, how uncomfortable it is. Sometimes we think, "Oh, I'm only driving down the block. I don't really need to put on a seatbelt if I'm just going like five minutes. It's okay." Or sometimes you might even think, "How do I click it so that I don't get the ticket and so that my car isn't blaring an alarm at me for 10 hours, and I could put it like behind me so that I'm technically following the law, but it's not actually doing anything?" But if any of you here have ever been in an accident or know anyone who's been in an accident where the seatbelt has saved you from injury or sometimes even death, the idea of a seatbelt takes on a whole new meaning. Here at Mosaic, we like to say that we are charismatic with the seatbelt. And the reason for that is what I just explained about seatbelts, in that there are certain instructions, there are certain guidelines that God has given us in terms of how to use the gifts he has blessed us with so that they can be life giving and saving. Sometimes we might think that they're restricting our ability to use the gifts, or we might say, "This is trivial. It's not that big of a deal." But to God, he knows that it's life giving and saving. And so when we read these instructions, we want to praise him and thank him for them because he knows he has our best interest in mind and the interests of others. Today we will be spending our time in three parts. The first part is what are tongues and prophecy? Throughout this whole chapter, Paul is talking about tongues and prophecy. So we're going to have to define them because there's a lot of confusion around what they mean. And then the second part we're going to be talking about is building up the church in Corinth. And then lastly we'll be talking about how to build up Mosaic here. Because it is a long text, we're going to be reading the first half now and then the second half with the second point. So if you have your bibles, will you turn with me to 1st Corinthians chapter 14. We'll be reading verses one through 12. And if you don't, you can follow along on the screen behind me. "Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up. Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue, you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and a speaker or a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church." So first, because we talk about tongues and prophecy so much in this text, we're going to define them. And I'm going to start with tongues because I think that this one is the more controversial of the two. And so we can define, I'm using Wayne Grudem Systematic Theology. So if you have questions, you could look at that and read from there. But we are defining tongues today as speaking in tongues is prayer or praise spoken in syllables not understood by the speaker. This deals with human languages. So if I'm up here talking in syllables, syllables together make words, we could say words, that I have never heard before, I've never learned. And the great community of Russian speakers we have here are like, "Wow, Tyler's speaking in Russian." That's an example of the gift of tongues. I don't have that gift so that's probably not going to happen. But also, as Paul is talking about here, he says, "For when someone speaks in a tongue, he speaks not to men but to God." So there is this aspect of speaking in tongues that is between a person and God and speaking in syllables that they don't understand. And this is where it starts to get a little controversial and a little bit prodding. So in order to really understand what the gift of tongues is, what its purpose is, and why we are given it, we actually have to look back into the book of Genesis in chapter 11 at the story of the Tower of Babel. I mean, you might be thinking this is out there. Follow along. Trust me. It makes sense. In the book of Genesis at the story of the Tower of Babel, the people decide, "We're going to build this tower up into the heavens." And they say in chapter 11 verse four, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its tops in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." And God sees this, and he responds by saying, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do now will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech." So what God sees as the real issue with them building the tower, they say that they're building a name for themselves, but God says, "And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them." You see, the people in the story, mankind was using the gift of unity in language that God had blessed them with to build a name for themselves, to say, "Yes God, thanks for this gift so that we could all talk to each other. Now we're going to build our name for ourselves so that we don't need you. We could do anything we set our minds to. We don't need God's help. We don't need to seek his guidance. We can do whatever we want." And in doing that, there were two major consequences. The first is the one that we always think of, is that God confused the language of mankind and that people no longer had this unity in language. And the second is that we actually hurt our community ... our communication and our relationship with God in this moment because we said, "God, you've given us this gift of communication. I'd rather use it to build up myself and our people rather than be built up in you." So when we look at the gift of tongues, we have to be looking at it as redeeming both aspects in the story of the Tower of Babel. When we look at the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two, we see God redeeming the effects of the Tower of Babel and that the confusion of human language. In chapter two verse 11 he says, "We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." So the people were listening to the apostles, and what they heard was them speaking in their own tongues. In this moment, God unified their languages. But also it was for the purpose of declaring the mighty works of God. Back in our definition, it's prayer or praise to God. The focus of it is on God. The focus isn't on the human relationships. The focus is still on God. And then for the aspect of redeeming this consequence of hurting our communication with God, we look here at this text in chapter 14, and this is what Paul is talking about. That's why he says, "The one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God." Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology puts it this way. He says, "The fact that speaking in tongues occurred in known human languages once in scripture does not require that it always happened with known languages, especially when another description of speaking in tongues indicates exactly the opposite." He's talking about 1st Corinthians 14 here. Paul does not say that the foreign visitor to Corinth will understand the speaker, which is what we would expect from Pentecost, but he says that when someone speaks in tongues, no one will understand and the outsider will not know what the person is saying. In fact, Paul explicitly says that quite the opposite of the phenomenon at Pentecostal will happen in the ordinary conduct of the church. He's talking specifically about verse 23 in our text, which we haven't gotten to yet, but I'll read it for you. Paul says, "If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enters, will they not say that you are out of your minds?" In the day of Pentecost, outsiders, unbelievers came in, and they heard, yes, some said that you're out of your minds, but others heard and believed. Here, Paul says, no one will understand. So we have to understand that the description in the book of Acts chapter two and the description we see here and in other places in the book of Acts. They're not in contradiction. They're not in conflict in any way. They are God giving us this gift to work harmoniously to redeem the effects at the Tower of Babel. As Pastor Jan talked about last week in chapter 13, he said that the gifts, specifically tongues and prophecy are a glimpse. They're like looking into a dim mirror as to what will happen when Jesus Christ comes and he redeems us completely, when there's the new heaven, the new earth, or when we're in heaven. You see, the gift of speaking in tongues is a glimpse into the unity we will have in communicating with each other, even people of different languages, different nationalities that we will have in heaven, and also it's a glimpse into the unity we will have in communication with God, uninhibited by the effects of sin and uninhibited by the fall. This is something that can be challenging or prodding. Maybe you've never heard this before and you're like, "Whoa, this is a little strange." What I want to encourage you with is this is not the gospel. This is not what saves us. Jesus Christ is the only one that saves us. But this is the truth in scripture. And so if you aren't sure about this, if you're not sure, that's okay. What I would ask is that you'd spend time in prayer asking God to reveal his truth, so you're asking him to work on your heart and reveal what he has said in scripture. In addition, in verse four when Paul says, "The one who speaks in tongues builds up himself," this isn't a knock against the gift of tongues. This is actually Paul understanding that, what he's talking about it, the gift of tongues is primarily used for an individual to build up and strengthen their relationship with God because they're speaking to God. Whereas the gift of prophecy is able to welcome in others and to build up the whole church. So with that, keep that in mind. This is what we're talking about when we're talking about tongues. Now we're going to move onto the definition of prophecy. Prophecy we can define as telling something that God has spontaneously brought to mind, primarily, as it says in verse three, for the purpose of upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. But how do we know it's the spontaneous brought to mind thing? What does that mean? This is from verse 24 and 25 where Paul says, "But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he's convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you." If an outsider comes in, how can you know the secrets of their heart? Who is the one that knows the secrets of their heart? That's God. And so it takes this divine revelation, this divine inspiration in the moment for you to know what God is using you to say to this person, to speak into their heart, to challenge them, to convict them, and to show them the love that God has for them. Here's a quick example for you. I think a lot of times when we think about prophecy, we have this high lofty idea, which is this amazing gift. But I think we think of like movies where it's like, "Oh, you must fulfill the prophecy." It's like, "No, that's not what we're talking about." And so I'm going to give you a mundane everyday example of prophecy that you might be able to relate to a little bit more. One Sunday I was talking with a friend of mine. And this friend would openly say he believed in God but would never say he believed in Jesus. And the reason for that was there was past hurt in his life by people that came to him, not wanting to know him, not wanting anything to do with him, but just demanding that he believed certain things about Jesus. And because of this he became embittered, and he didn't want to talk about Jesus. He didn't want to know about Jesus. As we were talking, the spirit placed on my mind the story of the Good Samaritan. So in that moment I was able to realize that this man was hurting because he felt that no one in Boston cared for him, no one really cared for him. And the people that claim to be Christians, they didn't care for him. They just were walking by proclaiming Jesus to him and not caring for him. So in that moment, the spirit prompted me to talk to him and to reveal to him how, yes, there were people in his past that walked by him, even claiming to be Christian that weren't caring for him. But there were brothers and sisters here at Mosaic, there are people here that were caring for his physical needs, helping him in his times of need, and also praying for him every week, caring for him, answering his questions. And when he recognized this, his whole demeanor changed. He went from a position of arguing with me and yelling at me all of the horrible things Christians have done throughout history and has instead started asking me about who Jesus is, his characteristics. And so I'm just answering his questions. His words were just like firing them off. I'm going down the line and out of nowhere he says, "Oh, so that's what you mean by the Trinity?" I was shocked because I had never mentioned the word Trinity. I did not use that at all. We were just talking about Jesus. And he had that connection. So I was like, "Yeah." And he was just like, "Oh, that makes sense." I was like, "Wait a second. This is crazy. Like what's just happened? So you're telling me you believe that Jesus is equal to God. He's the son of God, fully God?" He's like, "Yeah, it has to be." And I was like, "Whoa, so you're telling me you believe because Jesus is God, he was the only one who was able to die on the cross, to pay the penalty for anything you've ever done wrong and give you this perfect relationship with God?" And again, he said, and I quote, "It has to be." You see, this is exactly what Paul is telling us prophesy will lead to. In verse 25 as I read, it says, "So falling on his face, you will worship God and declare that God is really among you." In that moment he said, "Yeah, Jesus is God. The God that we are worshiping here at Mosaic is the true God." I say this because this had literally nothing to do with me. This was something the spirit brought to mind, and as we were talking the spirit changed something in his heart that I didn't even talk about. And this is what prophecy does. Prophecy isn't always exactly quoting scripture in the way that the story illustrates. Sometimes it is something more particular or practical to the individual you are talking to. If you want to know more about, that after service, come talk to me about the time the Holy spirit made me talk about baseball. It's a weird one. But anyway. But what is true and what is certain is that the gift of prophecy will never contradict scripture. The gift of prophecy is not over the authority of scripture. It is working in unity with scripture for the sake of revealing God's truth about the gospel to someone in a practical way that they can understand and convicts them. As Paul says in verse three, in verse five, in verse 12, three times in the first half of this chapter, he says, "Build up the church." You don't use the gift of prophecy. You don't use the gift of tongues for yourself. In church, we are to use it for building up his church, strengthening God's church, bringing people and welcoming them in. Now we're going to be looking at specifically what Paul was challenging the church in Corinth to wrestle with and how that applies to us. So now we are going to be reading verses 13 through 33. Paul says, "Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of outsiders say 'Amen' to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the law it is written, 'By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.' Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church come together and all speak in tongues, and an outsider unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he's convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. What then brothers? when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there's no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and be encouraged, and the spirits of the prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace." All right, so a lot of text again. The problem that the church in Corinth was having was that they were lifting the gift of tongues above every other gift. They were saying that, "If you have the gift of tongues, you are held to this position of honor. And if you don't, well, you're not as important." And this led to a lot of issues. The first issue was that there was division in the church. You weren't all equal. Those few who had tongues were higher and the people that didn't were lower. But the second was that as someone was speaking, another person over here would stand up, start speaking in tongues with no one to interpret. So half would be like, "What in the world's going on?" And then another person over here would come and start speaking and speaking in tongues and everyone would be like, "What in the world is going on? They're saying different things. What's happening?" And this led to confusion in the church. And when outsiders or unbelievers came in, they said, "You all are crazy. You're insane, and you're out of your minds. We want nothing to do with this." So the instructions Paul was giving here are for the sake of creating an environment where outsiders or unbelievers can come to church and hear the gospel proclaimed uninhibited, undistracted. I know this whole chapter and this whole book is about the local church. And the reason for that is that the way in which God has designed us to use the spiritual gifts he has blessed us with is in the local church. This is why Paul says that the gift of prophecy is greater than the gift of tongues. He's not saying, "Oh, you have the priorities wrong. Flip them." What he's saying is that the prophecy, the gift of prophecy has the ability to build up the church, whereas the gift of tongues does not on its own unless someone interprets. So use the spiritual gifts that God has given you, whatever gift it is, for the sake of building up the church in your local church at Mosaic. If you're not using your gifts here at Mosaic, I challenge you and I encourage you. Use them here. God has a place for you to use your gifts here. We need to be blessed by them, but also you need to be blessed by the people that God has given other gifts to, to challenge you, to encourage you, and to strengthen you in your faith. So hold onto that and remember that for the last point. But back to this, this section. In verse 13 Paul starts the section by saying, "Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret." This further supports our definition that he has to pray to interpret because he doesn't know what he's speaking. So speaking in syllables, he doesn't know. But the important thing to know here is that interpretation of tongues it's not like interpreting modern art, so not like you could put a picture up on the wall and one person comes and says, "Oh, when I look at that, I see two people looking into the sunset and walking together, holding hands." And then another person comes, "Oh, when I look at that what I see is, I just feel warmth and happiness." And another person comes up and says, "Literally, that is circles and triangles with red and blue plaint spattered on it. I don't know what you're talking about." That's not what we're talking about when we're talking about the interpretation of tongues. Interpretation of tongues is like interpreting the language. Here's a little thought experiment for you. What comes to mind when I say this sentence: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. It's one sentence. It's biblical. It's a good, good thing to say. But when I read that, some of you might be focusing on, "Oh, God so loved the world, the love he has for us and his creation is vast and great." Another person hearing that might be saying, "Oh, Jesus Christ is the only Messiah. He is the only way to have and no one else." Another person might be thinking, "Oh, I need to put aside my doubts and believe, commit to Jesus." All of those are accurate interpretations of the verse, but they were different emphasis for the individual. And this is where interpretation of tongues needs to be careful because there is one meaning, there's one language, it is one thing that's being said, but there might be different emphasis to the individual. So this is why they encourage only one or two or three to speak in tongues and for there to always be interpreters around so that they could use each other to interpret what was said and keep each other in account. Just with prophecy. Same with tongues will never contradict scripture, it is not over scripture. It is under the authority of God's word. He follows this up by then saying, "Worship with your spirit, pray with your spirit, but also do it with your mind." And he's saying this because he understands you might be using your gift of tongues or just naturally be praising with only your spirit and not your mind. What he means by this is he says that when we pray and when we sing together in church, we are to do it so that the people next to us can say amen to what is being said. The word amen means this is true, this is verified, I wholeheartedly agree. And so if you're speaking in a tongue that no one else can understand, people next to you are going to think you're crazy. But also to them, it doesn't matter if you're actually worshiping God or not. To them, they don't know what you're saying, but yes, it's good, you should be worshiping God when you do. But to them, they, as far as they know, you could be worshiping Satan in church. They have no idea. So this is why Paul says, "Worship with your spirit and with your mind so that the people around you can say amen. What you are saying, what you are worshiping, what are you are praying is true, it is right." The easiest example I can give of this is worshiping through song. If you have the gift of tongues in your singing, the song in tongues, great, worship with your spirit, but also sing the actual lyrics to the song so that the people next to you can hear what you are saying. See that you are worshiping with your spirit and validate that what you're saying is true, is glorifying to God and say "Amen" and be encouraged and built up by your worship. Using the gift of tongues in the church can be difficult. This is why Paul explicitly says, "If there's no one to interpret, don't do it." This is also why he then says in verse 19, "Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than 10,000 words in a tongue." Every single spiritual gift can be used to build up the church if we are willing to put on the seatbelt, put on the way God has instructed us to use it. This helps. Think about it. Like the spiritual gift is a car that God has blessed you with. He's given it to you. So you can use it for his ministry. But if you're not willing to put on the seatbelt, if you're not willing to follow the instructions God has given you, Paul is saying it's better for you to walk than even step foot in the car. He's saying it's for me to speak five words with my mind, with the natural gifts God has given me, than to be using the spiritual gift incorrectly, not building up the church. So I challenge you again. Use your gifts for building up the church. Paul wants you to use your gifts, but for the sake of building up the church, not for building up yourself and not to be a distraction to others. Build up the church. Now we get into what some scholars argue is the most confusing text in all of scripture, and I did not understand it until I was talking to Pastor Jan and Pastor Shane and Andy about this, and they were able to help me together. We all worked together. This is verses 20 through 25. In verses 22 Paul says that the gift of tongues is for unbelievers, whereas the gift of prophecy is for believers. Tongues, unbelievers, prophecy, believers. Then in verse 23 through 25 Paul says that when an unbeliever hears tongues, they'll think we're crazy. But when an unbeliever hears prophecy, they fall down and worship God. Paul, this seems like you're saying the exact opposite of what you said before, tongues for unbelievers. But unbelievers will think we're crazy. Prophesy for believers. But unbelievers are the ones that worship God when they hear it. What are you talking about? So in order to understand what Paul is saying, we have to understand that his idea of election and his idea of believer are so intertwined that when we're talking about them, we can't fully separate them. He doesn't use them to mean the same thing, but they are intertwined and connected. So the one that I think makes the most sense is the easiest to understand is prophecy for believers. So when Paul says that an unbeliever hears prophecy, they're convicted, called to account, and the secrets of their heart are disclosed, what does this make you think of? This is the moment when someone recognizes that they are a sinner and need a savior. This is when they are convicted of the sin that is inside them. They are called to give an account for the secrets of their hearts and the sin they have committed, and they say, "Lord, I'm not worthy. I am not able to come to you." And prophecy is able to speak into their hearts in a way that changes it so that they're able to say, "God, you are the true God. You are the one who saves me. You have forgiven me for my sins." So the gift of prophecy is a way in which God chooses to use us to draw his elect from the state of unbelief into the state of belief to build up his church. So now the gift of tongues is for unbelievers. And in order to understand this, we have to read the prophecy from the book of Isaiah in verse 21 where he says, "By people of strange tongues, and by the lips of foreigners, will I speak to the people? And even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord." Gift of tongues is a sign for unbelievers, but it's not a positive one. The word that's used for the tongues, the sign is a sign for unbelievers can also mean against. And it has this idea that when an unbeliever comes and here someone's speaking in tongues, they're going to say you're crazy, they're going to say you're out of your mind. And it's proof. It's validation of their unbelief. This is why Paul is so urgently charging the church in Corinth to focus on prophecy over tongues because they're speaking in tongues, and all they're doing is revealing people's state of unbelief. Whereas the gift of prophecy has the ability to be used by God, to draw people from unbelief into belief. This is how the church is built up. We are to be used by God to draw his elect from unbelief into belief. And this is how we are called to use the gifts even today. So thinking about Mosaic and how we can build up his church here. If you've been to Mosaic before, you probably know that we don't struggle with lifting the gift of tongues above every other gift. That's not our struggle. We don't have people speaking in tongues all over and going crazy. Like that just doesn't happen here. So what is the gift? Do we have a particular gift that we struggle with lifting above every other gift? And I think we do, and I think it's because the culture has so taught us to value the gift of utterances of knowledge above everything else. We only care about what is being said if it stimulates our mind, if it's an argument that is argued in such a way that it's the most persuasive thing we have ever heard and the neurons in our brain are firing and going crazy as it's being said, that we neglect anything that involves a heart change, anything that even has any emotion in it. We say, "No, I don't want that. Emotions aren't logical." And we neglect to allow the spirit to change us from within and reveal truth to us because we have formed in our mind what we have determined to be knowledge. Have we quenched the spirit working inside of us to challenge us, to strengthen us because we said, "Nope. There's not enough physical evidence for that. That's not what I understand or how I think He work. That's not what I know." Quick example of this. I am guilty of doing this and I can say that honestly. I'm in seminary currently at Gordon-Conwell. In my first year I was taking a class called Introduction to the New Testament. And for one of my exams I had to memorize the order of events in the book of Acts. Crazy. So I was reading the book of Acts over and over and over and over again. And as I'm reading, the Spirit's prompting something inside me. You see, before this moment, I had only believed in the gift of tongues as the definition of Acts chapter two. I would say, "This text is crazy. I don't know what to do with that." And God's Spirit was speaking to me saying, "Hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about this verse? What do you think about what I'm saying here?" And I said to God, "God, you know I have an exam tomorrow. You know I need to study this so that I can do well on my exam. And by the way, God, you know that I'm studying and taking these classes so that I can serve you God. Like I need to do well on this exam so I can serve you here at Mosaic." And in that moment I quenched the spirit because I had determined that what I believed to be knowledge, memorizing the events of scripture was more important than what the Spirit was trying to change in my heart. That was sinful. That was wrong. Praise God. I am thankful that he has then worked on my heart after then, and he had grace for me. I had to come back and fall at his feet and say, "Lord, I am so sorry." And he was able to convict me again. But have we so valued knowledge that we have diminished the works of the Spirit in other ways? I want to be clear. The gift of knowledge is good. It is important. It is hugely important in the church and is vital in building up God's church. However, it is not more important than the other gifts. Furthermore, we talked a little bit about the problems with worshiping with just our spirit, but I think the problem that most of us here struggle with is worshiping with just our mind and not our spirit. Thinking about when the songs are playing, we are saying the words, we're affirming the theology and the lyrics, but we're not worshiping with our spirit. We sing songs like praise God from whom. Like, no, we're not joyful. We're not praising God when we're singing. As Paul says, the issue with worshiping with just your spirit and just your mind is that the people around you will not say amen and will not be praising God because of that. To prove this point, I have had multiple teens in Mosaic teens that when I ask them, "Oh, do you believe in Jesus?" They're like, "Yeah, I think so." I'm like, "What do you mean? What's holding you back?" And they say, "When I go upstairs, I see so many people worshiping ingenuinely." Now that's not good theology for them. I correct them by saying, "Yes, we're all sinners. We are all working towards worshiping God rightly. That shouldn't be a reason to not believe in God. It's not a good reason," but it proves the point that Paul was making here, that when people see us worshiping with just our mind or just our spirit, they're going to say, "Ah, I don't know if I could say amen to that. I don't know if I could say this is true." And this one I think is the best thing to be working on because when you are worshiping with both your spirit and your mind, you are so much greater deepening your relationship with the Lord. You are worshiping him wholeheartedly. You are able to understand the love he has for you and praise him in the best way possible. Like this is good for you too. But then also, the people around you can see and say, "Wow, God is here. The spirit of God is moving in this place. I could say, amen. God is really here." I say this being fully guilty of not doing this perfect. As I was sitting over there this morning, I had to remind myself that I'm preaching on this because I was trying to go through the sermon that I was about to say in my head and I was like, "Yeah, I was saying, ha, ha, but I'm really thinking about the sermon." I was like, "No, no. I am preaching on how exactly wrong that is. I need to not worry about that and praise God in this moment." Lastly, I want to say this. I think our view of church is far too narrow. We view church as the hour and a half we meet here on Sunday and that's it. We show up just in time to miss the meet-and-greet so we don't have to say hi to anybody, or we show up just in time for the sermon to start. So we miss all of the worship through song. And then the second I say amen and I walk off the stage, half the people are out the door and then the rest wait until the last song is done and then are immediately out the door. And then you hear me saying, "Use your gifts. God has a place for your gifts here at Mosaic. Use them here. We want you." And you say, "Ah, there's not really a place for me to use them here. Like the band is up there doing their thing. Pastor Jan, Pastor Shane, me, Andy, like you're up here talking. Like there's not really anything else for people to do." First of all, there are so many different ways to serve here at Mosaic, and each one of the spiritual gifts that God has blessed us with needs to be used in them. I wrote down the list from chapter 12 so I didn't have to turn there, but utterances of wisdom, utterances of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between tongue ... distinguishing between spirits speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues. We need all of them. We want to be one whole unified body and you can use in there. But even before that, even before you commit to a service team, which you should, but what about the time before service starts and after service ends? Are you in a relational community with people here that you can use your gifts then? Do you have the gift of prophecy? Are you speaking with people before and after service saying, "Hey, I know you're struggling with this. God has encouraged ... wants me to encourage you, to console you, to build you up with this." If you have the gift of tongues, go find someone with interpretation. Pray together, praise God together, and get to know the knowledge, the revelation, or whatever is being ... God is using you in that time. If you have the gift of wisdom, of knowledge, are you helping people in between? If you have the gift of distinguishing between spirits, someone's struggling with something. I don't know if this is God leading me or Satan trying to deceive me. Are you helping people? There are so many opportunities for everyone here to be using your gifts. There's really no excuse. And remembering that God has designed us to use our gifts in the local church. Yes, we should be using them elsewhere. But if we really want to build God's church, his kingdom here on earth, we are to be using his gifts in the local church here at Mosaic. Are you willing to let him use you here? Are you willing to let him use you now? Let's pray. Heavenly father. Lord, we come to you humbled, recognizing that we are not worthy and we praise you that you have blessed us with gifts anyway. Lord, we thank you that you have saved us and blessed us with opportunities to be used by you. Give us that wisdom. Give us that understanding to use your gifts here in your local church. Help us to use them rightly in the way you have guided us for the sake of building up your church. We want to see people come to know you and to love you more. Use us. Give us a heart to be used by you. In Jesus' name, your son, we pray. Amen.
Pixelated Love
August 4, 2019 • 1 Corinthians 13
Summary: Why does it seem so easy to love "humanity in general" and so hard to love "people in particular" (especially roommates)? How does loving particular people convince us that God truly loves us? Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Hello, welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, one of the pastors here at Mosaic. If you're new or if you're visiting, welcome to Mosaic, we're so glad you're here. We'd love to connect with you either in person afterwards, or through the connection card in the worship guide. If you fill it out legibly, you can either toss it into the offering basket afterwards, or redeem it at the Welcome Center for a gift that we have lovingly prepared for you. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are God of love. You didn't just give us words of love, you gave us the greatest act of love in the history of the universe. You gave your son, Jesus. You came, and you walked the way of love. You didn't just show us the way of love, you walked it. You embodied it. You epitomized it. You made the way of the cross the way of life. We come to you Lord, and we confess now. On communion Sunday we confess that we have not loved as we ought, that all too often we are not patient, and we are not kind. All too often we do envy, and we do boast. All too often we are arrogant and rude. We insist on our own way because that is the way of the city. This is how you get ahead. All too often we are irritable and resentful. We rejoice when our competitors stumble, instead of rejoicing with the truth. All too often we do not bear all things as we ought. We do not believe all things as we ought. We do not hope all things as we ought, and we do not endure all things as we ought. Lord, we repent. We confess, but we also repent. We ask for grace. I pray that your grace today melts our hearts, that it removes the layers of hardness and callousness around our hearts. Holy spirit come, move in this place, move in our hearts. Show us where we are not walking in the way of love as we ought, and teach us not to zigzag on the way, but go straight on the straight and narrow following Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior in whose name we pray. Amen. The title of the sermon today is Pixilated Love. By pixilated love, I do not mean virtual love. I don't mean theoretical, hypothetical love. What we mean is loving real people with real love, granular love. Now today, we are looking at 1 Corinthians 13, meditating on this text. For at least two reasons you may have already checked out. You may already say, "This is not for me. This is not what I need to hear," primarily because 1 Corinthians 13 is the wedding passage, and this isn't a wedding. There's no bridesmaids, there's no flowers, why are we reading 1 Corinthians 13? Well, because 1 Corinthians 13 was written to a church. Yes, it does apply to a married couple, but it also applies to every single one of us. We are to love like this. That's number one. Number two, love is not the way that you get by in this city. We live in a city that celebrates the intellect, celebrates IQ, celebrates academic accomplishments. We live in a cerebral culture dominated by thoughts of big people, important thoughts from important people on important subjects. Rene Descartes said, "Cogito ergo sum," I think, therefore I am, meaning the essence of humanity, what it means to be human is to think. That's part of what it means to be human, but we are more than just brains. Most of our decisions that we make are actually driven by desire of the heart. He did not say, "I love, therefore I am. I am love, therefore I am." This is a text that if you understand this, if you don't just understand it with your mind, but if you understand it with your heart, it will transform every single aspect of your life. This text, right here, is the most profound, the most eloquent treatise on love in both scripture and all of human literature. Agape love. Before I get into the preaching part of it, I will say this. I'm not coming to you as some kind of specialist in love. Actually, I think it's very ironic, ironical, which is the ironic way of saying ironic. It's ironical that I am the guy talking about love. It does not come to me naturally, but by God's grace I'm growing in it. It's easy to preach. I can give you a theology of love. I love theology. I can give you the acts of Jesus and we can do all kinds of hermeneutics. I can tell you what it says in the Greek. Now, when you put me in the car with my whole family, I've got four daughters, so that's six people in the car, with my brother this week driving to Rhode Island to my dad's 60th birthday. A trip that's supposed to take an hour and 20 minutes, instead it took three hours and 20 minutes, because my youngest daughter puked three times. My brother is sitting next to her and he said, "I just saw full berries come out." Try being patient and kind in that situation. Jesus take the wheel. We all struggle with this. This is how scripture ... Scripture says, "This is the standard. This is what God has for us. Be perfect as I am perfect. Be loving as I am loving." Oh you can't. This is us. Someone can help. Someone can bridge that chasm. Someone can show us the way of love. Loving God is easy. God is beautiful. God is perfect. God is consistent. God is generous. God is loving even to those who are unlovely. His love makes us loving. It makes us lovely. Loving God is easy. Loving people, not so much. In the newsletter I sent out this text that really articulated this perfectly. It's the fact that we love the idea of being loving. We love the idea of loving humanity. This is from Dostoevsky's, The Brothers Karamazov in Chapter four. There's an elder, and he's counseling this lady that comes to him. She's like, "I'm struggling with my faith." He says, "Try loving people completely indefatigably. She's like, "Oh, I love everybody. I'm even willing to leave my daughter to go become a nurse." Meaning, I want to love other people, not her. He gives her a story. He quotes a doctor that he had a conversation with. This is what the doctor said. The doctor said, "I love humanity, but I wonder at myself. The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular. In my dreams," he said, "I have often come to making enthusiastic schemes for the service of humanity, and perhaps I might actually have faced crucifixion if it had been suddenly necessary, and yet I am incapable of living in the same room with anyone for two days together, as I know by experience." Can you relate? "As soon as anyone is near me, his personality disturbs my self-complacency and restricts my freedom. In 24 hours I begin to hate the best of men. One, because he’s too long over his dinner, another because he has a cold and keeps on blowing his nose. I become hostile to people the moment they come close to me. It has always happened that the more I detest men individually the more ardent becomes my love for humanity." Working with this definition of love, Biblical love, or Christian love is self-sacrificing, caring commitment that shows itself in seeking the highest good of the beloved. There's sacrifice, there's a caring commitment. It's decisive, it's an act of the will, and you seek the best. You seek the good of the one whom you're called to love. It's drastically different than love in our culture. Love in our culture is tolerance. I'm willing to tolerate you. I'm willing to live and let live. Or, it's being in love, sensory overload. That's not what love is. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 to see a Biblical definition of love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not loved, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." "As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part, and we prophecy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love." This is the reading of God's holy and infallible word, may he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. We'll frame up our time with three points. We'll look at love empowered, love expounded, and love epitomized. Love empowered, just to wreak out the context. The context in 1 Corinthians 12, St. Paul has been saying that we as Christians are one. That's a spiritual reality. We've been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. That's a spiritual reality that needs to manifest itself physically. Therefore, we, as a local body of believers, as members one of another, are interdependent, therefore, no one can say explicitly or implicitly I don't need you, or I'm not needed here. We're designed by God for interdependence. If he brings us to a local body of believers, we are to connect. We have spiritual gifts that God has given to us at our conversion, or regeneration, gifts that grow as we use them. They're tools to build up the body. St. Paul talks about the spiritual gifts, prophetic gifts, and tongues, and knowledge, and words of incite, et cetera, and then he pauses. What he knows is the Corinthians are saying, "We're ready. Give us the details. Give us the details of how to use the gifts." He pauses and says, "No, you're not ready." He gives us the details in chapter 14. He stops in chapter 13, he gives us something more important than a treatise on gifts. He gives us a treatise on love. It's the crescendo of the whole argument here. What he's saying is, "No matter how powerful you are naturally, no matter how powerful you are supernaturally, if you are not empowered by love, it ultimately means nothing. Your accomplishments ultimately mean nothing." He used that phrase nothing twice. Verse two, "If my faith starts to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. Verse three, if I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." He says, "You can give all of your money away. You can actually give your whole life away. You can be martyred for the faith, but if you are not motivated by love ..." Yes, you can be martyred for the faith and not motivated by love. He says, "It means ultimately nothing." The question here is what's driving you? We are so driven. What's driving us? What's the force? What's the motivation? Sometimes it's a feeling of obligation, I need to do this. I have to use my gifts. I have to be generous. I have to sacrifice. Maybe it's expectations of other people. What are they going to think? Maybe it's fear of embarrassment. St. Paul says, "You can end disease. You can cure cancer. You can solve world hunger. But if you do it without love, it ultimately means nothing." Those words are as strong as they sound. That all gifts ultimately are useless without love. What motivates everything that we do Christian? What motivates our work? What motivates our social media habits? What motivates our spending? What motivates how we care for ourselves? Is it love? It would be as if Superman, the most powerful being that there is other than Jesus Christ. Jesus number one, Superman, fictional, whatever. Imagine if I'm in a burning building, and I cry out for Superman. He comes in, swoops me up, because Superman is strong enough to carry me. He's carrying me in his arms and I'm like, "Thank you Superman, that was so kind of you." He says, "Stop moving, you're ruining the photo op." Superman did a great thing. He saved me. Superman turned out to be somewhat of a not a nice guy. I'm glad he saved me. I'm going to tell everyone he's not a nice guy. It's like if you get in a fight with your wife as she's cooking you dinner. Not that that's ever happened to any married couples here. Your wife is grilling up a steak and the perfect grill marks are on the steak. Halfway through you forgot it was your anniversary, I don't know, just hypothetical. She gives you the steak. She's like, "Here, eat it. Here's your side of contempt. I'm going to douse it in disdain." I'm still going to eat it. It just doesn't taste the same. You know what I'm saying? 1 John 4:7 says, "Beloved let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." What's he saying? He's saying that unless you are a Christian regenerated by the Holy Spirit, filled with God's love, you can't love as you are commanded to love. There's a natural love, that's not what he's talking about. He's using the Greek word agape, which is a supernatural love. It's not just a physical love. It's not just a human love. It's a Godly love. He says, "This love is from God, and whoever loves like this has been born of God." Meaning, being born comes before, it proceeds loving like this. You ever wonder why scripture commands that we love? Jesus said, "This is all of the law distilled into two sentences. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself." Why does God command love? God commands things that do not come natural to us, because natural is fallen. Do not sin does not come natural to us. Be humble does not come natural to us. Love like this does not come natural to us. We need help. I'm going to table that for just a second. We'll get back to it in point number three. Here, in point two, we're going to look at an exposition of love. Love expounded, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, "Love is patient and kind, love does not envy or boast." That's really important what you just did there. Love is, love is, love is not. It's chiastic structure. Love is patient. Love is kind. That's what it is. Then he gives us descending steps of what love isn't. "It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not arrogant, it is not rude, it does not insist on it's own way, it is not irritable, it is not resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing," Then he starts bringing it back. "It rejoices with truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Why is he doing that? He's giving us a positive definition, and a negative definition. He's like, "This is what love is and this is what you're doing." This is what love isn't. He's defining love. We live in a world that loves to talk about love in general, a very amorphous and ambiguous idea of love. You define love however you choose. That's not how scripture talks about love. Scripture it defines love. It defines true love. I don't know if you know this, it defines love not as a feeling, it defines love as action. It actually defines love as a path. It defines love as a way. Why does it define love as a way, because Jesus Christ said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." What's Christianity called in the book of Acts, before the term, before they were coined Christian, or little Christs? What was it called? It was called the way. It was called the people of the way. St. Paul, Saul, before he became Paul, he was persecuting people of the way. Why were they called people of the way? Because they were living this way. They were living, they were walking on the path of love, following Christ who didn't just show us the way, He is the way, meaning we can't love like this apart from Christ. Love is patient. I'll just go through every single one of these quickly. Love is patient, it's long tempered, it's long suffering in the King James, it's slow to anger. It endures personal wrongs without retaliating. Your graciously bearing with other's imperfections, faults, defects. Assumption, loving is hard. Presupposition, we're called to love sinners, and they will sin. As they sin, we are called to be patient with them, giving them room to change, giving them love to change. Love is also kind. Kindness is patience in action. It comes form the Greek word which means helpful. You look for ways and opportunities to help people with their needs. The word actually comes from ... The semantic range is very broad for the word kindness, chrestos, in the Greek. One of the definitions it's used to describe mellow wine. Meaning kindness is the ability to be gentle, to sooth hurt feelings, to calm an upset person, to help quietly in practical ways. There is a tenderness to this love, even when people don't deserve it. Especially when they don't deserve it. That's when you're most like God. Luke 6:35, "Love your enemies and do good, and lend expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful, and the evil." God was kind to us even when we were ungrateful and evil. That kindness is meant to bring us to repentance. Romans 2:4, "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to be lead you to repentance?" Love does not envy. Envy here means an eager desire, and that can be manifested in either a positive or a negative way. Positive envy, or jealousy, is used to describe God. God is jealous for our best, therefore, he wants to protect us from sin, from idols, because he knows what's best. The negative form of envy is greed or selfishness. You become possessive. You are mine and mine alone. You're here for me. Also, love does not boast, and it is not arrogant. Bragging reveals a proud heart. Pride is the number one obstacle to love. In any relationship, if you start viewing this person, whoever the person is in your life, if you start viewing this person as something that you deserve, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children, you are here to serve me. You are here for me, instead of I am here for you. Scripture talks about people as gifts in our lives. When you start looking at a gift as something that you earned, as something you're entitled to, that's the first step to love cooling off. In a relation ... I go through this in my pre-marital counseling, and I actually have to keep reminding myself in my own marriage. My wife is a gift from the Lord, precious gift. I do not deserve her. I need to treat her as a gift. That's humility. Pride says, "I earned this." No. Love is humble, and everything is a gift including this person. 1 Corinthians 4:7, "For who sees anything different in you?" Another translation says, "For who made you to differ? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" Everything we have is a gift from the Lord Jesus Christ. He needs to humble us, and when we're humbled, love flows freely. Love is not rude. It doesn't act unbecomingly. Love has good manners. It tries to put others at ease. Love is courteous, it's polite, it's sensitive to the feelings of others. It's tactful, it's empathetic. Love does not insist on it's own way. It doesn't demand it's own rights. There's no selfishness in love. Selfishness is actually antithetical to self-sacrificing love. Love is not irritable. Selfless loves is not provoked. It's not touchy. It doesn't have a short fuse, or hair trigger temper. Love is not resentful. It doesn't keep track of wrongs. It's an accounting term for numerical calculation that we are not to tally wrongs. We're not to keep score. God, when we come to him, he takes our record of wrongs and he nails it to the cross, imputes our sins to Christ, and imputes Christ's righteousness to us. It isn't resentful, meaning that you don't remember other people's sins against you once they've repented. God doesn't. The omniscient God of the universe, he says, "As soon as we come to him, as soon as we repent, he casts our sins from himself as far as the east is from the west." God says, "I shall not remember your sins any longer." How does the omniscient God of the universe forget anything? He chooses to. It's not resentful. Love does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices with the truth. Love is never glad when others go wrong. When they stumble, there's no gloating, there's no, you owe me. Obviously there's a fine balance. When you love someone, you love them truly and you want the best for them, so you don't compromise the truth. You don't take a soft view of sin. When there's sin in their lives, you come with sensitivity, and love, and tenderness, you try to help them repent of that sin and follow Christ, because sin destroys. 3 John 4, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." Then in verse seven, he gives us four repetitions of all things. It's that hyperbole to make a point. "Love bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, it endures all things." He's not saying that love accepts sin. What it says, when a person does repent, that you gently restore the person. You protect the person by covering and not broadcasting the weakness. Love bears all things, it believes all things. Love always trusts. It doesn't imply gullibility. You're not suspicious of character, of motives without good reason. You give the person benefit of the doubt. You don't immediately blame or accuse. Love does not play devil's advocate. I hate that phrase. "I'm just want to play devil's advocate." Don't be devil's advocate. We give other people the benefit of the doubt. That's what love does. There's mutual trust. Obviously if trust has been broken, then it needs to be earned again, step by step. Love believes the best. It also hopes all things. It hopes for the best for the person. You're not pessimistic about the people that you love. You're optimistic because you understand that by God's grace this person can grow. We all are works in progress. The person isn't how they ought to be, but they're definitely now how they were. We're still growing. By the way, when you believe in someone like this, because you love them, I know that you're growing, I see your growth, then they rise to the standards, to the expectation. Finally, love endures all things. It's a military word meaning that we do sustain the assault of the enemy, but we hold up under trial, persevering in spite of difficulties. We don't bail out of tough situations. We don't bail as loving people out of tough relationships, because God didn't bail on us. Point number three is love epitomized. We hear this. We hear this. How many of us have ... Raise your hand if that described you. You're loving. No, no. I'm not. I'm not patient. I'm not kind. I do envy. I do boast. We struggle with this. Every single one of us, we struggle with this. This is where the gospel comes. Christianity doesn't say, "Be perfect," and then leaves us to our own resources. Christianity says, "Be perfect as your God is perfect, be loving as God is loving," empowered by God's love, energized by God's love. By the way, we need the epitome of God's love, which is Christ. 1 John 4:7-10, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. This agape is from God, for whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, is the love of God. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through Him." So that we might live through him. Not only is he showing us the way, he's walking the way of love, and we are in him by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we might walk through him, live through him, love through him. This is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. So dense, I love that text. I love how the Apostle John, who is the apostle of love. "Beloved children, love one another," those are his final words in his final sermon. John didn't start with a rosy picture of humanity. John 5:42, Apostle John quotes Jesus Christ, "But I know that you do not have the love of God within you." He's talking to people who were religious. Jesus says, "You don't have this love. It's not natural to you." Human love, the kind that John is calling us to, is supernatural love. That's what he's talking about, it's not the norm. He's not talking about requests for natural affections. Be nice to each other, win friends and influence people. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about something supernatural. To love your neighbor as yourself. To think about your neighbors finances as you think about your own. To think about your neighbors health as you think about your own. To think about your neighbors dreams as you think about your own. That's what separates Christians from non-Christians, God's love. St. Teresa, Mother Teresa, she said this about Satan, "Satan could not be Satan any longer if he could once love his neighbor as himself." Satan couldn't do this, because Satan existed for Satan. Satan was curved in upon himself as Augustine says. John takes this phrase that God is love. Love is from God because God is love. This is a very important phrase. It's a phrase that our culture has misunderstood. God is love. He's not saying God is only love, because God has other attributes other than love. He's not saying love is God, that love is ultimate. No, God is ultimate. What he's saying is that God continually gives of himself for the benefit of others. He continually pours himself out. This talk about God is love, perhaps you've heard this? You must have heard ... If you live in American culture, you've heard that Jesus loves you. You've heard that God is love. This is one of the reasons why our eyes kind of glaze over, and like, yeah, yeah, God is love, yeah, yeah, God loves me. How do you know that God loves you? Outside of the pages of holy scripture, how do you know that God loves you? How do you know that God is loving? There is not one religion, other than Christianity that teaches this. No other world view teaches this, that God is so loving that he gives his most precious son for us on a cross. Why are you a Christian? If you're a Christian, why are you a Christian? In your mind, I'd like you to give an answer. Why am I a Christian? Because I was baptized as a child, because I was confirmed, because I became a member of a church, because I go to church, because I serve, because I give, I've read the Bible, I'm a Christian. That's not what John says. John says, "You are a Christian, you are of God, you have been born of God if you love God." Not if you have a theology of God's love, but if you love God. If you can't say that honestly, from the recesses of your soul, if you can't say, "I am a Christian because I love God, because he first loved me," then perhaps you have not yet been converted. If your heart is cold toward God, if your heart isn't moving to God in worship, if it isn't moving to adore him, then perhaps you haven't been converted. Dear friend, you need to be converted. The way that you are converted is you cry out to God and say, "God, I need you God. I repent of my sin and my selfishness. God, let me see what Christ has done for me on the cross." What has Christ done for us on the cross? Here we need to feel the shock value of love. This is how the scripture talks about love. It's not just some sentimental sappiness. There's a shock value in God's love. In our natural state we hate God. You say, "Whoa, strong language. I don't hate God. I don't care about God. I'm apathetic to God. I'm indifferent to God." Indifference toward God is actually the worst form of hate. If you hate someone, you're actually thinking about them. There's some kind of visceral reaction against this person, against God for example. If you're indifferent, there's just a hardness. Indifference is actually the worst form of hate. We, in our natural state, utterly are utterly indifferent to God. We kicked against him. We despise him. Luke 19:14, Jesus gives a parable about a king whose citizens hated him, sent a delegation after him saying, "We do not want this man to reign over us. When we heard of him coming, ruling, being our Lord, we sneered at him. We were his enemies." Jesus, knowing that he would come, that he would love fully, completely, ultimately, he knew he was going to be crucified, yet he came. Psalm 22:14, "I'm poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint." He came, he walked the way of love, and the way of love was the way of the cross. En de via dolorosa. He agonized over us. He sweat blood for us. He was ridiculed for us. Then he carried a cross on his mangled shoulders for us, staggering through the streets of Jerusalem. He laid down on that cross willingly. He didn't fight it. He was raised on that cross. He spread his arms in the greatest gesture of love in all of human history, because he loves us. He was despised and rejected by us. he was despised and rejected by them. When you see that Christ didn't just die for someone, Christ didn't just die for Christians, he died for you. He absorbed God's wrath for your sin, for your indifference, for my indifference. That's what changes us. There's no greater reason to love than love. When you realize that God made that first step, that he love you first, that love woos us, that love compels us. God doesn't just command love, he compels our love with his love first. Why am I a Christian? Because God loved me first. Why do I love God? Because God loved me first. Why do we start there? Why do we start with talking about the vertical love, your relationship with God? Why not just talk about loving human beings? We started with that in the beginning. We're good at loving humanity in general. We love the idea of loving humanity. Then when we've got to love particular people, we realize it's so hard. We need a supernatural love infused into our hearts in order to love people horizontally. The gospel can't be reduced to some kind of benign humanism, just horizontal without the vertical. By the way, this is the largest miscalculation of millions of nominal Christians, and nominal Christians nominations that say, "Let's just be good people. Let's just be nice people. Let's not talk about sin. Let's not talk about the cross. Let's not talk about God's wrath." God showed us true love. Love is patient and it is kind in verse four. Paul here speaks about love in a way ... He doesn't speak about love as a syllogism or feelings. He speaks about love almost as if he's talking about a person. Did you notice this? He is. Love does something. Love does not do other things. One commentator says, "In a pagan society there was confusion about the title of Jesus, that Jesus was Christ. Jesus was the Christ. Christos, C-H-R=I-S-T-0=S, Christos, Jesus was the Christ. The word for kindness here is Chrestos, C-H-R-E-S-T-0-S, love is Chrestos. There is confusion here in Roman A.D. 49, the emperor Claudius expelled the Jewish Christians, because Suetonius, the historian says, "There was disturbance over Chrestos." There wasn't riding over kindness. There was riding over Christ. For them in Rome, this was so new, that these people as they are being martyred, as they're being arrested, as they're being persecuted, they're still kind. They have returned kindness for hostility. They were like this is the way of Chrestos, Christos, I don't know it's all one in the same. This is what St. Paul is doing. He is playing on those words. Yes, this is about Christ. Jesus is patient. Jesus is Chrestos. He's Christos and he is patient. He is kind. He does not envy. He does not boast. He is not arrogant. He is not rude. He does not insist on his own way. He is not irritable or resentful. He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. God's love always takes the initiative, and our love is always a response to God's love. I say that to say this, this changes everything. If you catch a glimpse of the power of love. If you get that fire in your heart, it changes everything. It changes everything that you do. It changes everything that you do Monday through Friday. It changes the trajectory of your life. If someone can say about you, like instead of putting Jesus' name in there, if someone could say that about you with your name. I tried doing this with my own name. It's so hard, just reading out loud. Jan is patient. Jan is... I'm working on it. Honestly, this is the reality talk part of the sermon. This changes absolutely everything. Imagine world history without Christianity. Imagine world history without the way of Jesus Christ, without the love of Jesus Christ. Just imagine it. It would look incredibly different. Christians were motivated by this love to meet real needs. This is what led to human progress at the most basic level. Let me just give you a few examples. Christian love has changed the world in medicine. The first hospice was invented by whom? In 325, at the Council of Knights, the bishops were told to establish hospices near cathedrals. The first hospital was built by St. Basil of Cesarea in 369. Care for the mentally ill, that was a movement started by Christians. It was a Christian initiative, so was nursing. Florence Nightingale who formed the Red Cross said, "Jesus told us to love our enemies, meaning even during war we need to cross lines and help the wounded. Education, who started the first libraries? Christians at monasteries. Monks started monasteries. The monks started libraries, and then those libraries were the foundation to the first universities and educational institutions where they taught both genders. Universities, and then ultimately the printing press. Who started the printing press? Christians. They were like, "Let's get Bibles out." Then they're like, "Oh wow, we just invented something that actually revolutionized the world." Almost all of the first 123 colleges and universities in the U.S. were founded by Christians. Just look at Boston, Harvard University started by Puritans, BU started by Methodists, BC started by Catholics, Christians. Work and economic life. Christianity redeemed the perspective of manual labor. Jesus Christ comes and he works as a carpenter, dignifies manual labor. Laziness, sloth, idleness, it's a sin. Do not steal, that concept led to the concept of private property, property rights. Human rights, by the way, that's a Christian concept that we are created in the image of God with dignity, value and worth. Science, modern science is directly linked to the Biblical understanding of the world. God created everything. There' rules, there's laws we should study what God created and maybe we'll know God better. Art, literature, music, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Bach, Hondo, Brahms, Dante, Milton, Bunion, countless other, Sistine chapel, Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, Rembrandt's Christ at Emmaus, there's Simeon in the Temple. Western music, Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, the soaring compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach. Gothic cathedrals, Western literature, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy. So extensive is the Christian contribution to our laws, our economics, our politics, our arts, our calendar. Our calendar, 2019, from what? Our holidays, our moral and cultural priorities that the historian Jane Roberts write this, "We could none of us today be what we are if a handful of Jews nearly 2000 years ago, had not believed that they had known a great teacher, seen him crucified, dead, and buried, and then risen again." My dream, my dream is for you not to just be like, "Oh wow, Christians have done so much. Now I'm going to go to my job on Monday and think about building my LinkedIn, and building my CV, building my resume." This is my dream. My dream is that if the Lord should tarry and not come, my dream is that in 2000 years, I dream that historians look back and they say, "If it were not for Christians in Boston in 2019, giving everything that they had, all of their natural talents, and supernatural talents, if they didn't do that, we would not have cured cancer. We would not have solved global hunger. We would not be living on Mars, maybe, I don't know." If you take everything that you have, and who's the next Michelangelo? Who's the next Bach? Who's going to revolutionize medicine? Who's going to revolutionize the economy? If you are motivated by love, and powered by love, we can absolutely not just change the world, but change eternity by God's grace. 1 Corinthians 13:8-12, "Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away." What are prophecies for? They're to show us a glimpse of what's behind the scenes in the spiritual realm. They will pass away. "As for tongues, they will cease." We will no longer have to communicate with God through the spiritual gift of tongues. "As for knowledge, it will pass away." Why? "For we know in part, and we prophecy in part, but when the perfect comes to laos. When the new heavens and the new earth come, when Christ returns, everything is absolutely perfect, the partial will pass away." "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." Mirrors back then were made out of metal. You could see something and it's real what you see, but it's not perfect. It's not exact. It's a distorted reflection. What we know about God through is revelation, through mysteries, through knowledge, through prophecy, it's real, it's true, but it's incomplete, it's imperfect. One day we won't need all those gifts, because we will have God face to face. We'll see God. This is why love never ends, because we have God's perfect love, face to face with our glorious savior. What we have now is rich, and it's sweet, it's a kind gift of God, but it's temporary and it's partial, but then we'll get the full thing. What I do, we won't need this in heaven. What I'm trying to do is give you a glimpse of the glory of God, give you a glimpse of how incredible God's love is. There's no preaching in heaven. There's no pastors in heaven. Why? We have the real thing. I have no idea what I'm going to do in heaven. I have no clue. I discovered LinkedIn recently. LinkedIn, you've got to say, "This is what I do." Then there's a section where you put in your skills set. Imagine doing that if you were me. I just put in random stuff. I was like, "I'm not even on this for real. I'm not looking for a job." One of the skill sets was stand up comedy. I put in stand up comedy. I think that's what I'm going to do in heaven. It's that and rap. I think I'm going to write rap lyrics. I don't know. We're going to have God and we're going to have the perfect, perfect expression of God's love, perfect experience of God's love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 before we transition communion, "So now faith, hope, and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love. Why? Because faith and hope are just a means to an end. When the Lord returns at the resurrection, and we stand before his throne, faith will lead to perfect sight. Hope will become a reality, and love will be all that remains. Love is supreme because love never ends. At this time, we're going to transition to celebrating holy communion. We do this in remembrance of Christ's greatest act of love. Christ gave himself, body broken for us, blood shed, to cleanse us. If you are a Christian you are welcome to participate in this part of the service. It's a reminder for us of the spiritual reality that's happened in the inside. If you are not a Christian, we ask that you just spend this time to meditate on what you've heard. Also, if there is any sin in your heart against any particular people whom you have not loved as you are called to love, spend this time doing some deep repentance. The ushers are going to hand out the elements. Please hold onto them, and then we'll partake together. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. Though we were unlovely, you still loved us, and pursued us, and wooed us, and you compel us to fulfill the commandment to love you and others. You compel us through your love. We pray that you bless our time in meditating and repenting, and preparing to participate in holy communion. Let us now do this lightly, but let us do it reverently, and discreetly, and soberly in the fear and reverence of God. We pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.
Bound By Love
July 28, 2019 • 1 Corinthians 12:12–31
Summary: We're created in the image of the Trinity, One God, Three Persons, bound by love in perfect harmony. Thus, we're created to bond, to God and to people. The cross of Christ binds us vertically with God, Who fills our hearts with love for real people, creating the meaningful horizontal binds we all need. Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you would like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church, my name in Jan. I am one of the pastors here at Mosaic. I've got the pleasure to serve, and if you're new, welcome. We're so glad you're here. We'd love to connect with you if you would like to connect. We do that initially personally. We'd love to meet you personally, and officially we do it through the connection card in the worship guide. If you fill it out legibly, then you can either redeem it at the welcome center for a gift, and it's a great gift. Or you can toss in the offering baskets when they around after, or option three, you can download the app from the app store, just Mosaic Boston, and there's a connection card in there as well. With that said would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word. Father we thank you that you are a god of love. You're not just a god who loves, but you are love. Holy Trinity, there's a perfect community in the God head. We thank you for that. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We thank you God that you proved your love to us through your son Jesus Christ. That Jesus you were the gift of the Father. The Father gave the Son, so that whoever believes might have eternal life. We thank you Christ that you came, lived the life of perfect love toward God, and toward neighbor, toward the people around you. You served. You sacrificed. You made yourself accessible. You are the embodiment of God, and you are also the embodiment of what it means to be truly human, so Lord Jesus we thank you for the gospel that on the cross you poured out your life. You poured out your blood, in order to save us from self, from egos, from selfishness, from all the things that keep us from bonding to you, bonding to the people in our lives. We thank you that Jesus you rose from the dead and we thank you that you send us the Holy Spirit through whom we can experience God, and we can be empowered by God, and our hearts can be filled with love. I pray you make us a force of love here in the city, so that we love in a way that draws attention to the ultimate act of love in the universe, which is the gospel. Bless our time in the holy word, and we pray all this Christ's holy name. Amen. So in the 1970s the American psychologist, Dr. Bruce Alexander, he ran a study called Rat Park. And studies had already been run where it was proven that if you put a rat in a cage by itself and you offer it two water bottles, one with just water, and one laced with a cocktail of a drug, heroin or cocaine, that as soon as the rat gets a taste of the cocaine, gets a high, that rat now chases that same high over and over, and keeps drinking from that water bottle until it dies of overdose. Well Dr. Alexander wondered, as he said, "Was it just the drug that caused the addiction, or might the isolation have something to do with it as well?" So to test that hypothesis, he built a rat park. He built rat paradise. There was all kinds of things for the rats to do. All kinds of ways for the rats to play, and frolic, there was little community center. Public space if you will. Many food trucks for the rats. No, no, not really, but that would have been epic. He created a Boston for rats. He created a true community. And also, he provided the same two types of bottles, and surprisingly, they preferred the plain water. And even when they did imbibe from a drug filed bottle, they did so without abuse, without obsession, and not one rat overdosed. And the conclusion was there's power in community. And the power of community is stronger than the power of drugs. But the power of community satisfies what the person was looking for. The person wasn't just looking for the drug or the high, there's a deeper problem, a problem of alienation that comes with isolation. Now that's important, and that's profound, because we live in a world where we are more connected than ever virtually. And more disconnected than ever physically, relationally. And that's one of the reasons it so... There is an opiod crisis. Now I knew about the rat race, and I know the theology behind why that works, because we're created by a Trinitarian god, a god of community. We're created in his image, therefore, we are created to bond with God and with people, and if we don't bond with God and people we will bond with things, sex, money, drug, etc. I was reminded of the rat study this week on Friday when I got in an Uber from Brighton down to Dewey Square, and in the Uber, so the Uber driver he extended his hand. I've never had an Uber drive do this, and he said, nice to meet you. And he said forewarning, "I am chatty, because I used to work as a psychiatrist." Oh wow. Okay. And I said, "Well I am chatty too, because I am a professional talker." And he said, "What do you do?" And I said, "I am a pastor." He says, "What?" And I said, "What?" Now you've got a psychiatrist and a pastor driving in Uber. It's like the beginning of a joke. Psychiatrist and a pastor walk into a bar. So just riveting conversation. I wish I had this on video. It's like I'm in a movie. What is the... And we got to talking about psychiatry and his job, and he said, "One of the reasons that I don't do that anymore is I"... it was important work. He said, "But I realized that people's greatest problem wasn't me writing a script and giving them a prescription. The greatest problem actually was they don't have friends. They don't have community. They don't have a support structure. And what I wanted to was I wanted to love them. I wanted to befriend them. I wanted to give them that, but because of the system of the job I couldn't do that. And he said what he was doing was important. What you are doing is so much more important. You're trying to create a true community, where people truly love one another, like one another. Where people are friends and family. Then he asked, "Can I come to your church?" And I said, "Yeah." I said, "It's not my church first of all." But his first joke when I got into the Uber and he found out I was a pastor, he's like, "Where's your jet plane parked?" No bro. I got a Toyota Highlander. I've only ever owned a Toyota, except for my first car an Audi 80, big mistake. So back to the sermon. Back to the sermon. So he gave me his number. We're going to connect, and now we're friends, and the first thing I texted him was let's be friends. But I want more than that. And you know what Jesus, he brings disciples and he says, "Follow me." And what he told his disciples at one point, "I no longer call you servants, now I call you," what? Friends. That's in the Bible. You can Google that. But he doesn't just call us friends either. He calls us family. That he's our older brother. We're brothers and sisters. He combines, like you have relationships in your life. Your family you have to love them. So I can't not love you, but we separate. We bifurcate between love and like. So we have people we like. We have people we love. Jesus says I want that to be one and the same. I love you and I like you. That changes everything. So that's what we're going to talk about. That's God's heart for the church. That's God's heart for the city, that the church exists in the city for the common good of the city. The problem is the ideal, usually it doesn't happen in reality. This is why Saint Paul writes this letter to the church in Corinth, and we have the same problem so he's writing to the church in Boston as well. The church in Corinth there were divisions in leadership, division in economics with lawsuits and secondary issue, and gifting, and this is what we're talking about today. We started last week, where God when he creates us he infuses us with talents, and then when he recreates us, when we're children of God he infuses us with gifts. What the gifts do is sometimes he repurposes our talents for his glory, but often the gifts just enhance the talents. Then God brings people together. Each person in the body, in the church has different gifts, and they're brought to the church as gifts. To use their gifts for other people to be other gifts that use their gifts. So that's what we're talking about today. We're in First Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 12 through 31. First Corinthians 12, 12 through 31. You can follow along in your Bible, on the screen, or on your screen. For just as a body is one and has many members and all the members of the body though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell, but as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he choose. If all were a single member where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those part of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God ha appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you still a more excellent way. This is the reading of God's holy inherent and infallible authoritative word, may he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. The I will show you a more excellent way wasn't on the screen, but it is in the text. And that's what we're talking about today. That love is the force behind the building of the church. The relationship in the church. That this is how we are bound. We are bound by love. Three points to the sermon. We are one. Two, are we one? And three, let's be one. First of all, we are one. Saint Paul begins with a we. Who's the we? He's talking about the church. He's talking about people who have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his light. People who are Christians they now are part of the Body of Christ, the church, and also the church locally. So who's the us? It's the church. It's the Body of Christ. He starts with that as he talks about being members he talks about it in the context of a body, like a physical body, therefore when we talk about church membership, we're not talking about being a member of a club, or of an activist organization, or political organization. Membership isn't a card, it's a belonging. That you are connected. Vitally connected to other people who are believers. So this is verse 12. Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with... What does he say? So it is with... What's the last word? Christ. Unexpected. Unexpected. What are we expecting. He's talking about being members of a church. Being members of one body, the church body. Instead, he uses a different word. He brings in the word Christ. Why do that? Why would he use these words interchangeably, church and Christ? He does so because for him they are so united. They are inextricably intertwined. This is important for us because if we live in a world where people say, "I love Jesus. I want your Jesus, but not your church, not your Christians." For Saint Paul and the early church it was one and the same. This is Christ. The other Christians in my life are Jesus to me. I am Jesus to other Christians in my life. Where does Saint Paul get this idea? This idea was seared into his heart at his conversion. This is Acts 9: 3-5. Saul, that was his former name, birth name. He was a persecutor for Christians. And Jesus Christ meets him on the road to Damascus and converts him. That's why Saint Paul became a Christian. Verse 3 of Acts 9. Now as he went on his way he approached Damascus suddenly a light from heaven shone around him and falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him. "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Not Christians, not the church, "why are you persecuting me," Jesus said. And Saul said, "Who are you Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." When a person becomes a Christian they become a Christian by the power of the Holy Spirit. God the spirit saves the person. Transforms, regenerates the heart, and it doesn't stop there. God just doesn't just forgive us our sins, and says, "Now you can live you life anyway you want, just until you go to heaven." If that were the case God would just teleport us into heaven. But no, there's a purpose for us here on earth. God has a mission for every single one of us. God has a purpose. God has gifts for us to fulfill that purpose. And we do that by the power of the Holy Spirit. So when we become a Christian we're united with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We become part of Christ. That's a spiritual reality. When you become a Christian you become a part of Christ. A part of God. This is how strong God's love is. It's like he swallows you whole. He internalizes you. We become part of him. It's kind of hard to communicate unless you've had a baby. I remember when my oldest daughter, she is almost 11. I remember when she was born and I brought us home I learned the swaddling technique. I became a master of the swaddling technique. I was like, "This is going to be my thing." The baby burrito thing, that's my thing. In like three seconds, done. And then I was like, "What's this called burrito?" I love burritos. I'm a big fan of burritos and I'm a big fan of babies, and now it's two in one. That's awesome. And there something when you hold the baby, especially a baby burrito. And you put your nose, like as you're kissing you smell the neck. Like this right here with the saliva and all this. The little lint. Something there about that smell. And honestly, the only way I can communicate it is I love you and I want to eat you. I won't eat you, but I want to. I don't know how to... And you see this with kids. My youngest Milana she's almost... She is two. She's what, she's two. And she loves my wife so much she tackles her climbs on top and she starts licking her. Not kissing, licking like... Like that. Like a puppy. With me it's a little different. We've got a different relationship. She starts biting me. That's what she... There something about God internalizes us. We become part of God. That's the fundamental spiritual reality. We are part of Christ, and what Saint Paul is saying is, let's make that a physical reality. But there's so much unity in the church. There's as much unity in the physical body of Christ as there is in the spiritual body of Christ, therefore disharmony is a contradiction. Verse 13. For in one's spirit we are all baptized into one body. So by the spirit we are baptized. Baptism is a visible sign of a spiritual reality. We were baptized into one body. Jews and Greeks, counter opposites. Diametrically opposed. Slaves or free. And all were made to drink of one spirit. Hear it. He's talking about the reality. We drink God in. He drinks us in. He inhales us. He ingests us. We do the same ting with him spiritually speaking. God become part of me. That's how close our union is. And the reminder for this, the outward reality, is that bread and the cup. The Lord's Supper. The sacrament. Every time we take part and we're doing that next week, bread is the Body of Christ. We internalize it. The cup is we internalizing Christ sacrificed his blood, so we are one. When God looks at Christians he see one. There's distinction. There's difference. There's diversity. But no division. Different but one. Not a melting pot. Not a melting... I know the U.S. is supposed to be a melting pot. That idea that got me into college. That was my essay for college. I'm an immigrant. I'm from the Soviet Union. Please let me into your school. I want to embody the American dream. Church is more than that. Church is more than the melting pot. Church is like a stew. A good church is like a good stew. You've got the steak tips of course. With the little potatoes. You've got some carrots. You've got a little onion, a little celery. And spices we need all the spices. We need all the flavors. That's what a good church is, it's like a good stew. Now the question is, are we one? From God's perspective we are one. From our perspective, are we one? Verse 14. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. It the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less part of the body. If the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body." And so you get it. What's he's saying is it's ridiculous for people who are part of the spiritual Body of Christ to show up and see the physical body of Christ, and say, "I do not belong here." We have a personal relationship with Jesus, person to person, but it's not an individualistic relationship. And Paul here, he's first ministering to those who had suffered at the hands of the ultra gifted who have weaponized their gifts, the people with public gifts, of prophecy, of teaching, of healing, of tongues. They've created a hierarchy of gifts. And Saint Paul says, "no." What he's doing is he's leveling the ground that we all need grace. That we are all brothers and sisters as Christians. That we all have gifts that others need. There's two forms of exclusion, I don't belong. The first one is where the person excludes themselves. The second is when the person is excluded. Saint Paul starts with the person who feels excluded. The person who shows up to church and feels like, I don't belong here. I am not needed here. And sometimes it's because of a sense of inferiority. I'm not a hand, I'm just a foot. I'm not needed here. Well the hand's not getting anywhere without the foot. All right I'm not a mouth. I'm just an internal organ. I don't belong here. And Saint Paul starts here and says, "No, false theology. False ecclesiology. You do belong." God, if God has called you to a particular church, Mosaic or not, if God has called you, he's called you there for a reason. Perhaps you don't see that reason yet, but don't use the excuse of gift cop out to not use your gift. If God gave you gifts, he wants you to use those gifts as you love one another. Sometimes you walk into a church and you just feel like everyone here is just better than me. They know the Bible more than I do. They're smarter than I am, or what have you. They're more godly than I am. Look we've all got to start somewhere. Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future. Every single one. We're all a mess. We're all a mess. And God works through our mess by bringing other people into our lives that loving say, "Hey, that's a mess. Can I help? I want to help. Can I serve?" We're all a mess. So if you're a foot, and you're a dirty foot, I know someone who's really good at washing feet. If you're an ear and you're here and you're like, "I don't like the sound here. This isn't my type of music." We still need you. We still need you. We need to hear what you hear. If you're an eye we need to see what you see. If you're a heart we need to sense. We need to love the way that you love. This is what he's saying. That we all need each other. We need you here. If you walk in and you're like, "Oh, this is a bigger church self-sustainable. It's all good you're self-sufficient. I'm not needed here." How many people in the city don't know Jesus? I can connect with a particular type of person. I can connect with people who are like me, and there's a lot of people in the city like me. There's also a lot of people in the city like you. So when you join and then they walk in they're like, "Yeah. I belong here." Well you didn't feel like you belonged, but you belong, because if Jesus called you and now that allows other people to feel like they belong. Some of you walk in, you're like, "Everyone's so friendly. Way too many people smiling. Way too many people saying hi to me." Leave me... A meet and great, that's not for me. That's not my kind of church. Look I understand. I understand. I'm an introvert. I'm an introvert that fakes the extro... By the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm growing in the whole extrovert thing. 80% of the people at this church are introverts. Did you know that? 80%, and we do the meet and great, uncomfortably and awkwardly, and you do it uncomfortably and awkwardly, and then we get to know each other. And the next time it's not as uncomfortable, and it's not as awkward, because now you're friends, and hopefully become family. If you feel like you don't belong that's usually a good sign that you definitely belong. That you definitely belong. That we definitely need you. For example, I will give you an example of Fred and Nancy Gayle. Are they here? Fred and Nancy. They're so sweet. Back in the movie theater they showed up and this was when we used to meet in the Regal Movie Theater right down the street. Theater seven because that was a biblical number. And the average age of the church was like 23. And pastor Shane and I were the elders. We were the oldest people in the church. And Fred and Nancy came in. Fred and Nancy are retired, and they moved to the city, because they were like, "We love the city. We want to retire in the city." And they walked in and there was no one in their... No one they could connect with because they were their age. And in... I do think thing sometimes where I just point people out in the sermon, and I can because I have the excuse of, I'm up here. And I said, "We need you." And ended up on them. And they stayed. You know why they stayed? I said, "We need your wisdom, because we're all a bunch of 20 somethings trying to disciple 20 somethings." And we need someone who's lived a life of faithfulness to the Lord. We need you to teach us. We need you. So if you walk in, and you're like, "I don't see anyone that I can naturally connect to." It may be because you need to be the first one. And then when people walk in they're like, "This is the church for me." That's what it means to be a body of... This is what it means to be a Mosaic. This is the whole thing where we're broken pieces and we're brought together. We're different colors, different shapes, different brokens, different everything, but what unites us is the cross. And with the glue between the pieces is the love that we get from the cross. So we need you. If you feel like you don't belong, we definitely need you. Let me challenge. I don't do this often, but I want to challenge you with something. Who are the people you naturally connect with? People who are like you. You like people who are like you, because you like yourself. Hopefully. I challenge you to find, not your doppelganger, I challenge you to find at this church your anti-doppelganger. The person who is different than you in absolutely every category. Find that person. And I guarantee you that person is going to bless you and teach you more than anyone like you. You need more than you. That's what Saint Paul is saying. Verse 17. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the smell. So he's saying we don't want to just be a church of eyes, because eyes see eye to eye usually only with eyes. He's saying if you're an eye, you've got to pay attention to people who are other than an eye. We don't want to be a church of just ears. We truly want to be a church that reflects the city. And the city reflects the world. So we want to be a church that actually reflects the world. And usually, this is rare by the way. If you just look around. This whole thing that's... It's already happening. And this is rare. It's rare. Because usually this is how churches are planted. One ultra gifted person who's gifted in one category for example a person who has the gift of evangelism. So we now become the evangelistic church. All we want to do is evangelize. All we want to do is see people come to faith. That's awesome, and we need people with those gifts. But then people become Christians and then what? And the you have to disciple them, and then you've got to teach them. Then you've got to organize. Now church, it's an organism, but it needs to become an organized organism the best organisms are. So you need someone with the gift of administration. Then the church grows and you need someone with the gift of leading children's ministry, and youth ministry. And usually what happens is a person with a great gift in one area, projects that gift on everyone else, and doesn't build a team around themselves. Doesn't accept the people that God sends. And then those people go, and they start their own church. So now, there's the strictly evangelistic church, or the justice church, or the cultural center church, or the intense discipleship church. And the same thing happens to parrot church organizations. A person said, "Okay, I did the evangelistic church, no other churches aren't doing the evangelistic, I'm going to start my own parrot church organization. All we're going to do is evangelize people." Now what happens when you have a group of people who are baby Christians? We need churches that's what he says. You can't have a church only with one gift. And the only way this works is when you realize that we are nothing without each other. And we need each other. We are nothing without each other, and we need each other. Do you really believe that. In your heart do you really believe? Can you say to the people closest to you in your life? Husbands can you say to your wife, "I'm nothing without you." I dare you. I dare you to say that today. Wives, I need you. That's what repentance is. This is how the Christian walk starts. God I need you. God help me. God I'm nothing without you. And then that humbles you and you bond with God, and now you can bond with other people. Diffidence makes all the difference. The gospel gets rid of my pride on a dial basis. It keeps rearing it's ugly head. The gospel continually... God save me. God save me. God I need you. And now with humility. Humility allows the love to flow freely. It doesn't mean that you have to count everyone as so much more important than you, but it does mean that we're required to thing of people at least as equally in importance as us. And then Philippians 2 says, "Count others more significant than yourself." So the point is we do need you. If you walked into this church today, and you're like, "I'm just looking for a church." We need you. We need you. We need to lock arms together. We need to become members one of another. And we are gifts to one another. That's what we talked about last week. How do I know my gifts? Do I take a personality test? Do I take a talent and a gift test online? All of those things are cool. I'm not knocking any of that. Scripture doesn't offer any of those, but you know what scripture says? Love people. Serve people. Pay attention to people. The meat, a really close knit group of people join, and minister to those people, and they'll help you discern your gifts. Like hey, you're really good at this. You're really good at that. It's kind of hard to do that on a Sunday. It begins here, but we intentionally do that during community groups during the week. Different homes, different nights of the week. And I know if you're new to the city, that's so intimidating. You're going to someone's house. No. Meet someone here. Meet your anti-doppelganger at church, and say, "Which community group do you go to? Can I come?" Like, "Yeah, of course." And now you've become friends, and the friends become family, and that's the vision of the church. Then you see where your gifts are. You want to use your gifts more. The other thing I'll say here is when thinking of gifts don't just think about titles or offices. We're all called to teach. We're all called to serve. We're all called to love. We're all called to be generous. You don't need a title to do that. You don't need permission to be a Christian. So be a Christian. Love people. 1 Corinthians 12:18. But as it is God arranged the members in the body each one of them as he chose. If you are at Mosaic, you need to be sure God led you here, and if you're not sure pray Lord. Perhaps you're needed somewhere else, but if you're here, and you're like, "Mosaic is my church." God's brought you here, and if he's brought you here, he's brought you here for a reason. He's trying to arrange the parts. This is what he's talking about. And when you know that God is the one that gifts, and that God is the one that arranges. And when you understand that the gift you have is actually a gift. And the Greek, the word gift is charismata. Grace in the Greek is charis, charismata, meaning the gifts that we have, it's all grace. God chooses which gifts he gives to whom, therefore we don't have to play the comparison game with don't have to be envious of someone else's game because envy kills the free flow of love. So if you're ahead, don't be jealous of the hearts or the hands, but learn from them. If you're a heart don't be... You see? You see. 1 Corinthians 12:19. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is there are many parts, yet one body. And they're all interdependent. So don't become co-dependent on one person. And this is just real talk. A lot of people have become co-dependent on whoever the mouth is. My job here is to equip you. My job isn't just to feed you. My job is also to teach you how to cook. So this is why I go verse by verse, and I try to show you what I do. Look this word is... I don't give you lessons in hermeneutics. You come here for a month you'll understand hermeneutics. You'll understand exegesis. You'll understand how to interpret scripture. Therefore, you go home and you start reading scripture. And what you're doing is now you're cooking. And then you're like, "I've cooked more than I can eat." Then invite someone over to your house, and feed them. Let me feed you, I've cooked this bomb meal. Please come over, and the person who was invited, please don't be squeamish, "Oh I don't like eating other people's food." No eat their food. That takes love to. That take humility. Are we talking about food, or are we talking about the gospel? Yes, both. It's both. Other people cooking. This is in community group. Let other Christian teach you, "Hey what is God revealing to you through the scriptures through his Holy Spirit? Teach me." That's what I do. We're called to equip the saints for the work of the ministry as pastors. I know we live in a city where no one trusts each other. That's part of the reason no one even wants to say hello. Hello. Are you trying to sell something to me, or steal something from me? It's one or the other. And there's just this especially in a city, there's risk and it takes trust to bond with people. It takes trust to bond, and it takes risk to trust. What does through the gospel is he takes the risk that's impeding the trust, and he replaces it with love, because perfect love casts out fear, so now we can trust. We can love. So some Christians exclude themselves from the body. And sometimes Christian do the excluding. I don't belong here. I don't need you. That's verse 21. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." Some of the most heart wrenching words that you can hear. When someone that you want to be in a relationship with says, "I don't need you." And we might not say that out loud explicitly, we might act in ways that communicates this implicitly. I don't need you. My calendar, too busy. I don't need you in my phone. I have enough friends. I don't need you in my home, you're too different. I don't like how you look. I don't like how you dress. I don't like what you do for life. I don't like your education. I don't like how you smell. No. Don't communicate this verbally. Don't communicate it implicitly. And if you felt neglected, we're sorry. And we ask that you tell us that, and we'll try to work on fixing that. Mosaic is not self-sufficient. We're not self-sustainable. God gives gifts for mutual up building. We build each one up. When God gives you a gift it's not just for you. It's for you to share. And here's the other thing I'll say. The reasons why those Christians say to other Christians is because they think they're ultra gifted. And this is what happens with gifts. Who's the most gifted person who ever lived? Obviously Jesus. Who is number two? Who is second after Jesus when it came to all the gifts? It was Satan. And what happened with Satan was he twisted the gifts. The gifts instead of using the gifts to bless, he twisted the gifts to serve himself. And this is what Satan does. He tries to twist the gifts that God has given us. What takes someone down? What makes someone weaponize the gifts? It's just a little twisting when sin gloms onto the gifts that God has given us. Instead of using the gifts to serve, we start using the gifts to serve ourself. So be careful. And the greater your gift the greater the responsibility to use that gift. And the greater the temptation there will be to use it for self. 1 Corinthians 12:22. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. What he's talking about here is there's presentable parts. That's the visible gifts. Then there's the unpresentable parts, the ones that you aren't presenting because they are invisible. They're behind the scene. There's visible gifts, and there's behind the curtains. Behind the scenes gifts. So for example, visible gifts, presentable parts. The face, the mouth, the ears, the eyes. But then there's something inside. The heart. The organs, which are actually indispensable. They're actually more important than everything else. And he's saying the visible parts they already get the honor. Instead when you get the honor, I want you to bestow honor. Transfer honor to the ones who are behind the scenes. Bestow honor where honor is due. Out do one another in showing honor. And what this honor does is it... This bestowing of honor is very Christ like. It's very Godly. In the Trinity, the Father bestows honor to the Son the Son to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit to both. So we in the world. We're to show honor. We're to show attention the children. To those the world dishonors. I saw a guy walking the street today. He had a t-shirt that said I hate kids. I was kind of in a rush to Kids Summer Nights, or else I would have stopped and had a conversation with him. The world dishonors as a whole, children. Single moms, the elderly, the sick, the immigrant, the orphan, the widow, the homeless, the mentally ill, and we as the church are called to honor them. Are called to pay attention to them. Are called to serve them just like Jesus did. When the stronger pay attention to the weaker, they get stronger, so does the weaker get stronger. And they get stronger, because they realize, "Oh wow, you're weak in the thing I'm strong in, but you're also strong in the thing that I am weak in. We need each other." And the serving the weaker make everyone stronger, and what the stronger needs to know is that this person who seems weak is actually clothed in humility, and you need to be clothed in humility. And when we're clothed in humility. When we decrease together, Christ increases and that's how the church grows. Speaking of church growth. Three years ago we made... God sent this unique person into the church, Kara Bettis. This is the Kara Bettis part of the sermon. Kara Bettis came on staff three years ago, and when she came on staff as the Mini-Mo director/administrator/communications director/everything that needs to get done, she said, "I'm going to be here for a year. I'm going to give you guys a year." And it's been three years. Since she go there the church has doubled. And all the numbers, just everything has gotten a lot better. She's made all our lives better. She's very much behind the scenes. We don't really see her. So with a heavy heart I'm making the announcement that Kara Bettis is leaving the Mosaic Boston staff, but she's remaining in the church. She loves it this much. She was offered a job to do her dream job in journalism for Christianity Today. And she was offered a job as an editor. So she will be working from Boston, because she loves this church too much. She loves you guys so much. And we love her. So we want to honor you Kara Bettis. Big round of applause for Kara as she makes her way down. And we have a little gift for you. And we want to pray for you. So Kara though leaving staff she's remaining as a faithful member of the church, however I do ask you no longer email her with church questions. Because that's why she's leaving. No just kidding. Just kidding it's not true. The Lord is calling her to go elsewhere. We're going to pray over here. We're going to pray a prayer of thanksgiving, and also a prayer for the Lord to continue and empower her ministry. Would you pray with me. Lord we thank you for our dear sister Kara. Lord we thank you for her tireless work here for your kingdom. She's been a blessing to so many. She's a blessing to us and to me. And we just see in her... We see Christ in her. We've seen her sacrifice. And we've seen how the Holy Spirit has used her so powerfully. And Lord I pray that you do bless her in her new ministry. And the calling that you've placed on her, use her powerfully. Give her words. Write through her to touch many people. Bless many people with your gospel. And we also pray for you to send many more Kara Bettises to this church who behind the scenes do so much, and serve so selflessly. And I pray all this in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you Kara. Thank you. Thank you. Prayer emoji. We don't do that usually in sermons. What were we doing? Just honoring a person who was behind the scenes. So we are called to do that. Now verse 24. But God has so composed the body giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. This is how we use the gifts. This is how we grow in the gifts. Just care for people. If one member suffers, all suffer. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. If you stub your toe your whole body is aching in pain. If you get a great haircut, and someone compliments you on that haircut, your hair rejoices, so does the whole body. Thank you. It takes empathy. It takes noticing. It takes stepping into a person's life. Romans 12:15. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. And love is what unlocks the capacity to empathize this deeply. So we are one. Are we one? Let's be one. let's be who we are. It takes work. It takes commitment. It takes effort. It takes margin in life. It takes sacrifice. And where do we get the power to sacrifice like this? Where do we get the power to truly be so connected with other Christians in our life that we are individually members of one another? The whole world knows this is good. The whole world has studied that we need friends, and we need family, and we need deep relationships. Everyone talks about peace. Everyone talks about unity. But they're missing something. It's almost as if it's impossible to live like that, because people hurt us, and then hurt people who hurt people. So we want love, then we act in ways that where relationship are broken. Where do we get the power to love like this? Where do we get the power to forgive when people hurt us? Where do we get the power to be gracious? You know where we get that power, it's at the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus came, God incarnate, made himself accessible. Made himself vulnerable. Made himself pierce-able. He came into the world, he said, "Let's be friends, let's be family." And we killed him and that's our sin. And he took our sin upon himself. Poured out his blood to cleanse us of our sin, our shame, our ego, our pride, everything that actually is what makes the world, the world. Christ now through his love knits us together. He makes us friends. He makes us family. So this is... We have a membership class today from 1:00 to 3:00. And I'm not selling anything, I'm just giving you. I'm offering you. I'm offering you something. And I'm offering... We have room in our hearts for you at this church. We have space for you here. And we have space for you here. So get connected to this church and once you're connected, once you have friends, once this church is family, then we talk about membership. You can become a member. So if you believe this is your home church, you're welcome to come to the membership class. Or you can just come. It's free lunch. It's 1:00 to 3:00 pm today downstairs. But we don't just do membership, like fake membership, like pretend membership, like if you belong, we just confirm that belonging through the process. So we welcome you to belong, because we need each other. In Boston, I have met some of the strongest people I have ever met. Strong in mind. Strong in will. Strong in body. But strong. Strong Christians. And if I were Satan this is how I would temp you, and I know, because this is how he temps me. He say's you are so strong. You are so strong, you don't need anybody. And now we become the rat in the cage. And now addictions. And we need the humility to say, "I might be strong in one thing, but there's people who are strong in the things where I'm weak, and I need them in my life." And when you go to someone else, and you say, "I need you." What's their response? "Oh awesome, I need you too." I need you. We need each other. We need each other. That's the point. And we see this all throughout scripture. This is how the Lord taught us to pray. I won't do the whole thing, but here's the Lord's Prayer. My Father in heaven? No, our father. And when we pray, every time we pray the Lord's Prayer, we're thinking about, oh my brothers and sisters. My community. Our father in heaven. And then when we ask for bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. That's the love with forgiveness. Lead us not into temptation. Meaning sometimes I'm led into temptation, sometimes because I don't think I need anyone, God does allow me to be led into temptation to show me, no you're not strong, you're weak. So I need brothers and sisters that I go to and say, "Please hold me accountable when I'm led into temptation. Here's my temptations. I need you to call me out and bring me back from the zigzag path to the straight and the narrow." So my point in conclusion. Let's be friends. Let's be family. Jesus allows that to be reality. I'm going to close with this illustration to give us just a glimpse. A glimpse of what this looks like. And we're going to go to the pyrosome. Have you ever seen this? Do you know what a pyrosome is? Oh. Oh. You're welcome for this next part of the sermon. And you should go on YouTube and watch pyrosomes. Read up on this. This thing is awesome. Tyler Burns sent this to me. Our youth ministry director. Thanks Tyler. http://qz.com November 16, 2018, pyrosomes and they're called the unicorns of the sea. What is this thing. It's one body, but it's made up of hundreds, and actually thousands of individual organisms called zooids. And they're physically linked. They're shared tissue, but they're distinct. And yet they are one. And they have a purpose. They join together and they have a purpose to travel together. They need one another. By themselves they're unimpressive. They're negligible. Together, intimidating force. I actually read that they swallow up penguins, which that's not the church. We don't do that. But still that's pretty intimidating. And this is the crazy part. They are clones one of another. They clone, they reproduce. So we don't want to do the clone thing, but we do the reproduction thing in that we become Christians and others become Christians, and they're all clones of the first founding zooid, named... I don't know the zooids name, but you know where I'm going. And here's the other thing. This is what they eat. They join together, and they way that they travel is they suck water in and they suck it out, and what they're doing is they suck the bacteria in, and they let clean water out. They're actually cleansing the area around them. And the word pyro, pyrosome comes from the Greek words pyro, fire, some, body. They're a body on fire. I affectionately named this pyrosome Mosaic Boston. That's us. A body on fire. What's that fire? God's love for others. And that's what binds us. We're bound by love. Let's pray. Lord thank you for this time. Thank you for your scriptures, and thank you for the gospel, and thank you for your love. Jesus let us love in the same way that you have loved us. We pray this in your name. Amen.
Gifts That Keep on Giving
July 21, 2019 • 1 Corinthians 12:1–11
Summary: The greatest gifts in life are people you love and people who love you. You can have a big, beautiful house, but if you live there alone, there's an ache in your soul. The best trips are with friends. The best pictures from those trips aren't selfies. As we study 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, we see that God not only saves us, but gives us gifts to enrich the people in our life: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, words. The greatest people use their gifts to point us to the greatest Person. Transcript: This media has been available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check you more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and her neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church, my name is Jan, I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And if you're new, or you're visiting, we're so glad you're here and we'd love to connect. First of all, congratulations on being here, congratulations. And by the power vested in me, as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I give you permission to sweat as profusely as led. I will lead by example, here's my sweat rag, it shall make it's way into the sermon multiple times. We are glad that you're here. If you're visiting, I know it takes a lot to come to a brand new church, so we're thankful. And we'd love to connect with you, we do that either personally after the service, or we'd love to connect through the connection card via the worship guide, or in the app that you can download at the app store. You can fill out the physical connection card, you can toss it into the offering basket, or redeem it at the welcome center for a gift. That said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word? Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that you have revealed yourself to us through your son Jesus Christ. In Christ, we see who God is. We thank you Christ, that you are fully God, and you also show us what it means to be fully human. You lived a life of complete love, complete selflessness, and complete sacrifice. And you died on a cross, for our sins. You rose on the third day and you send us the holy spirit to apply the gospel to our lives, to save us from ourselves, from our selfishness, from our pride. From all the things that get in the way of living life as it's truly meant to be lived, of experiencing true humanity. I pray today Lord, show us that you build the church and you bring people together, and you equip is with gifts. And that you want to make us gifts that keep on giving, gifts that serve others like Jesus Christ, the ultimate gift that keeps on giving. Holy Spirit, we welcome you into this space. We pray that you minister, as we talk about you. I pray, do powerful work in each one of our hearts and speak to us the words that you have. And I pray all this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. So my wife Tanya and I just got back from Ukraine. She's originally from Ukraine, and ... Originally it was supposed to be a vacation and I stopped using that word, because it was a trip. It was really ... It was active, we met so many ... Hundreds of people we met, and it was incredible. One of the things that the Lord taught me was, there's no vacation from being a Christian, or Christians every day, when empowered by the Holy Spirit. If you're not familiar, my wife, she is the godliest person I know, she is a saint. And, I wanted to go back to her home town to see where saints are made. So we flew into Kiev, spent a couple nights there, and then drove down in a bus, in a marshrutka, down to her home town. I grumbled ... The first hour was fine, and then I just grumbled for the next three hours, about how terrible the roads were. Then I had to repent of that ... a change of perspective. But, one of the things that we saw ... One of the things that the Spirit taught us is, though the Ukraine is not as prosperous as the United States they are so rich in every single way that matters. Some of the most joyful people I've met, some of the most open people I've ever met. We meet people and they welcome us into their homes, they're hospitable. I met this guy on Tanya's street, who recognized Tanya, invited me over into his house, his little courtyard. He's showing me his chickens and these ducks. He's like, "Ducks are good. You want some duck?" Grilled up a duck for me, just incredible people. And they enriched us, I came back enriched. One of the lessons that the lord taught me is, the greatest thing that we have in this life is relationships, relationships with God primarily. And then, he releases us to have true relationships with other people. You can have the biggest most beautiful house at the end of a cul-de-sac, and if you live there alone there's an ache in your soul. You can have the fastest, shiniest, brand new, most beautiful car, and if you have no one to ride with, and you have nowhere to go, your passenger is sadness. You can go to the finest restaurant, eat the finest meal, in the finest location. And if you have no one to eat it with ... The greatest pictures from our trip, as we're looking through the pictures, and we took so many. The greatest pictures aren't the selfies, and they're not just of buildings. The greatest picture ... these are people that we met. The greatest gifts in life are people. We know this, so what's keeping us from pursuing this? What's keeping us from truly experiencing the gifts that people are? It's our own sin. It's pride, it's selfishness, it's ego. We're so focused on ourselves. So when Jesus Christ comes, he didn't come just to make us Christians, he said, "I've come that you may have a life and have it to the full." Jesus is saying, "I want you to experience true humanity," because sin de-humanizes us. We de-humanize other people by sinning against them. Jesus came to truly make us who we were created to be. And through the work of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God the Father reshapes us. He begins to transform us into the image of Christ. Jesus was God's greatest gift. For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son. And that gift just keeps on giving. And God, when he recreates us, saves us, gives us the Holy Spirit, so that we are now gifted to be gifts. This is one of the reasons why I really do push back when people say, "I have Jesus, I don't need the church." Well the church is Jesus' body, and Jesus' body is comprised of different members with different gifts. Only one person has all of God's gifts, that was Jesus Christ. Every single other person needs other Christians in their life. And yeah, you don't have to be part of a church. You don't have to go to church. Why wouldn't you? Why would you limit yourself? Why would you miss out on some of the greatest gifts that God has for you? You know how God speaks to me? Through his word, by his spirit, and often when people take God's word and they speak into my life. "Jan, I see something that you're not seeing." They speak a word, perhaps a prophetic word, a word of knowledge, and it builds me up and encourages me. It fills me with faith. So if you're a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit. This is what Saint Paul is going to talk about 1 Corinthians 12 ... And by the power of the Holy Spirit you can be useful, you can be productive, and you can be helpful. Every single Christian is a pastor, is a minister, is a chaplain. You are manifesting God to the world around you. You are gifted with natural abilities. And pound for pound, pound for pound, Boston is the most influential city in the world, because of sheer natural talent. Then the Holy Spirit takes some of us with natural talent, and he fills us with the Holy Spirit and re-purposes those talents, and gives us brand new gifts. And lights a flame behind those talents, and now he uses that for his glory. Mosaic is conglomeration of people, different people, different nations, different backgrounds, and we all need each other. Not just a conglomeration creating synergy, we're a constellation. Jesus said, "You are salt and you are light, and light shines." Just imagine in the sky, there's stars, constellations, light years away and we see ... We're still experience that. That's what Mosaic is, we're a constellation in the sky. Another question is ... How far is that light going to go? So as we talk about spiritual gifts today ... What are your spiritual gifts if you're a Christian? How are you using them? Are you blessing others? Are you enriching them? And, are you a gift that keeps on giving? The greatest gifts in my life, in terms of people, are people that constantly point to Christ. Look to Christ. And that's what builds me up. Do you hear thank you from other Christians, "Thank you so much. That was so helpful. You don't even know how meaningful those words were. How did you see that?" That's what we're going to talk about today. Gifts that edify build-up, we're gifts that keep on giving. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 12, verses 1-11, either on this screen or on your screen, or a bible. 1 Corinthians 12, 1-11. "Now concerning spiritual gifts brothers," brother and sister of adelphoi. "I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were lead. Therefore I want you to understand that no one is speaking in the spirit of God ever says, "Jesus is accursed!" And no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." "For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge, according to the same Spirit. To another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit. To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy. To another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues. To another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills." This is the reading of God's Holy inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Now if you're used to the Jan Vezicov formula for a sermon ... It goes introduction, read the text, three points. Quote C.S. Lewis, a story about babies. And we land the plane abruptly, that's the formula, that's the secret sauce. Today it's going to be a little different, I'm going to set the context because it's really important. And then, I'm going to give you rapid fire five ways that the Holy Spirit empower us, as Christians, in order to be more like Jesus. To love like Jesus, to serve like Jesus. So the big idea here is, that there is a sense of spirituality, that's part of the Christian faith. This is really important, in verse 1 he uses the Greek word pneumatika, or pneutikos, it's just a word spiritual. So in verse 1, in the English translation, they throw in the word gift. Why do they throw in the word gift? It's not in the verse, they take it from the context of verse 4, which has the word gift, charismata, which comes from grace charis. If you know someone named Charisa, that's where that comes from. The context is gifts, but he starts with spirituality ... And this is important, because this church was in Corinth. Corinth was a very spiritual city, there were temples with thousands of people working in the temples. So, it was a city that was filled with pagan cults and all kinds of idolatry. People talked about spirituality all the time. The super natural, they know is real. It's kind of like our culture, people talk about spirituality all the time. People want to be one with the universe. People want to be connected with one another. We understand that there is something wrong. We understand that we're not just physical matter. And Saint Paul was writing this letter to a church that he planted. He goes to Corinth, shares the gospel, plants the gospel, and in a sense ... Now these Corinthians are no longer just Corinthians. In a sense, he takes them out of Corinth. They're still there, but they're different. And then he writes to them another letter, because though he's taken them out of Corinth, there's still too much Corinth in them. He's got to take Corinth out of them. Corinth has influenced them more than the gospel has. They've been interpreting the gospel scripture through the lens of Corinth instead of vice versa, interpreting Corinth through the lens of scripture. In the same way Boston, we're in Boston. Is Boston influencing you more than you're influencing Boston? So this is why he needs to make clear, a lot of people come, a lot of people talk about spirituality. A lot of people talk about God. A lot of people talk about all kinds of ecstasies and all kinds of transcendent experiences. But, are they leading people in greater submission to Jesus Christ? That's what he wants to talk about. Verse 2, "You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led." They were pagans before they became Christians, like many of us were pagans before we became Christians. And when they worshiped in these pagan services, one of the ways that people gained influences in these cults is, by saying, "I heard a word. I received a message." And then they would make all kinds of ecstatic utterances to prove their spirituality, their godliness. All kinds of strange phenomena, displays of power. And Saint Paul says, "Don't thing that makes you a better Christian." And he's going to expound on this in Chapter 14, when he talks about speaking in tongues. So he starts there and then he says, "Now connect your spirituality to Jesus Christ." Because that's the ultimate test of how spiritual we are. "Therefore I want you to understand," verse 3, "That no one is speaking in the spirit of God ever says, "Jesus is accursed!" And no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except in the Holy Spirit." Obviously he's not saying, "No one can say Jesus is accursed," I just said that and he also just wrote that. He's not saying mouthing the words, he's saying in your heart is this what you believe? That when you find out just how far reaching the lordship of Jesus Christ is, that Jesus has lordship over every single part of our lives, over every single square inch of our bodies, everything. Jesus is Lord over our dreams, our visions, our inspirations, our desires. He's Lord over everything. And when people begin to learn what that means, he's Lord over my sexuality, he's Lord over my time, he's Lord over my money, he's Lord over my relationships. All the most important things in my life, he is Lord. Do I push back, bristle, and say, "That's anathema, and that's what it means to be accursed." And, that's what the world does. That's why a lot of the world, including a lot of churches, get rid of the name of Jesus. Let's talk about God in general. Let's talk about the Spirit in general. Anyone can fill in the blanks as they feel comfortable. Let's not talk about Jesus Christ. So Saint Paul says, "The true spirituality begins with Jesus and joyful submission to Jesus." And if you joyfully submit in your heart to Jesus, that is proof that you're a Christian regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Because for you to say, with your heart, Jesus is Lord, is a work of the Holy Spirit. Why am I a Christian? The Holy Spirit made made me a Christian. Why can I say Jesus is my Lord? And I say it with all of my heart, with complete affection. Because that's a work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, you are my Lord. I want to be with Christ, I want to commune with him, I want to be one with him. I want to abide in him, and the more I'm with him, the deeper the connection with him, the more I become like him. And what did Jesus do? He loved, he just loved a lot of people. And when you're led by the Spirit, you want to be like Jesus, and you want to be Jesus through people. You want to be Christ-like to people. You know, Tanya and I have been married for 13 years. When people have been married for a long time, they live together, they begin to resemble one another, they begin to act like one another. They finish each other's sentences. She knows all of my dad jokes. And when we were in Ukraine, she was cracking my dad jokes. I was like, "That's mine. You stole that material from me." There's something that happens when you're with the one you love, you begin to resemble the one that you love. And the more we love Christ, the more we become Christ-like, the more we conform to him. And that's all done by the Holy Spirit, and we need supernatural empowerment to be like Christ, so God gives us gifts. This is verse 4, now there are a variety of gifts, that's in the Greek charismata. But the same spirit, and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord. So God has given you gifts if you're a Christian, you have gifts. One of the reasons that you are not wielding the gifts, you are not gifting people those gifts, is because you're not happy about the gifts that you got. Perhaps you want another gift, but that's the reason it's called a gift, it's not a paycheck. We didn't deserve it, God gives it to us. By the way, I never wanted to be a pastor. I knew nine years old ... I was nine years old when the Lord said, "You're going to be a pastor." And I just kept confirming. I had, prior to me saying, "Lord, yes," at 22, "Yes, Lord." I had a job, I had a career path, "Lord, yes." Prior to that, I was ... I had a physical condition where I couldn't speak publicly. I've actually never even shared this, it's not even in my notes. I would get up and I would turn beet red, uncomfortably, like Harvard Crimson, beet red. It was the first two years of me getting up and doing public speaking. I just knew, I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew. You say yes to the Lord, "Yes, Lord, yes." "Okay, now you're ready for some more. Now you're ready for some more." Okay, let's keep going. Church is a spiritual phenomenon, that's what he's saying. And what happened in Corinth was, they started divvying up, they created a hierarchy, depending on who gets which gifts. They put people on top who could speak in tongues. Then below that was healing and miracles. At the very bottom, which is the practical stuff, you know stuff, and wisdom. And Saint Paul flips the whole dynamic right here. He starts with wisdom and he ends with tongues. What he's saying is, there is no hierarchy in church. There is no varsity and JV and freshman team. Everybody needs everybody, we all need each other. That's at the very beginning he was talking about gentiles need Jews. And men need women, and women need men. We need each other, we need to learn from each other. Internationals need US citizens, and vice versa. The rich need the poor, and the poor need the rich. We need to learn from each other. If you watch Netflix, or if you watch Hulu, we need each other. If you're a Pats fan or a Giants fan, we can still get along. If you're Apple or Android, you can still get along, we can still get along. We can still be in that group chat, it makes things a little more complicated but it's okay. I see that you loved something, I'm not sure what you loved, because we're five memes deep, but you know what I'm saying. We need each other. This is what he's getting at. In the body ... That's next week's sermon. The foot feels like, "Everybody is just walking all over me my whole life. I'm out of here, I'm out of this church." God's like, "That's your job." And the foot ... Okay, you get it. So we need each other, and exercise of particular gifts doesn't measure how important we are. It doesn't prove higher spirituality. The most important thing is sincere embrace of Jesus Christ as Lord. And when we do that, the more that we do that, the more that we submit to Jesus Christ as Lord, the more the Spirit uses us. Verse 6, "And there are a variety of activities, and it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for," and I want you to look at those words. "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit," for what? For your good? No. And this is where true Christian spirituality is so counter-cultural to the spirituality that is promulgated and peddled in the world. The spirituality that is peddled is you-focused. You can get connected to the universe. You can have the secret cheat codes of the universe. You, you, you, you, you. It's very individualistic, it's very narcissistic. And then we don't get what we're really looking for, what I started with, people are gifts. It's for the common good, it's not just for your good, it's for the good of the people who are closest to you. It's good for the people in your church. God gave you the gifts to be gifts to the people in your church, and it doesn't stop there. I think our vision as Christians is too limited. The vision of the church, the mission of the church, isn't just to make other people Christians, it's not just to proselytize. We want everyone to become a Christian, we do. And then what happens after people become Christians, they get the Holy Spirit and then what? And then they're living in the world as a manifestation of God. Now you're going to your job, you're going into your office, and you're bringing the Holy Spirit into your office. You're bringing the Holy Spirit into your job. Now, you begin to change the culture of your company, you begin to change the culture of your office, of your team. Because you're bringing the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self control. It changes everything, it's not just for the common good of you of our family, of your church. It's for the common good of your neighbor. It's for the common good of Boston. It's for the common good of the world. So how do we do that? He gives us five categories. He gives us multiple gifts, but many of them are in the same category to balance each other out. So first he says, "Be wise like Jesus. Believe like Jesus. Help like Jesus. Discern like Jesus. Connect like Jesus," to God and to people. First of all, "Be wise like Jesus." The first two gifts that he gives us wisdom and knowledge. So 12:8, "For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom." The utterance of wisdom, he starts with wisdom and then he brings in knowledge. They need each other. Knowledge as you know God's truth, you study God's truth, you absorb God's truth. And a lot of people who are phenomenal at the knowledge aspect, are not that great in thinking through the practical applications. And the people who are really good at the practical applications are like, "Oh, this is how it applies on a daily basis, in 2019, in Boston, Massachusetts." What he says is, you need each other. The wisdom, the wisdom is you have insight that isn't obvious. It's not obvious to the person that you're speaking to. You take principles that you learn from scripture and because you have applied it to your life, you speak practically. It's utterance of wisdom, and you understand God's will for your life. You understand God's will for the other person you skillfully apply. How does this begin? The wisest person begins by realizing just how foolish they are. Every single person has within them the potential to be a fool or a wise man, a wise woman, a sage, a fool or a sage. And the most sage people, they recognize the folly in their own heart and they say, "Lord, I need help. Lord, teach me." And that humility right there, that humility is what makes us teachable. And now we begin to see wisdom everywhere. We begin to see lessons everywhere, and now we can apply it to the people around us. It begins with asking from God. James 1:5, "If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." "Lord, help me. Lord, give this to me, please." And the Lord teach it. Jesus said, "Be like children." The first service didn't get this, you got some extra good stuff. Jesus said, "Be like children." You ever notice how children absorb everything. My kids are bilingual, I've never sat down and had a lesson in Russian or a lesson in English with them. We do reading, but they just absorb. Why? Because they know they're nothing, you're not even two feet tall. They're naturally humble, but that humility is what unlocks the potential to learn. It's the wisdom. It pleases God to give wisdom to those that come to him like little children. Say, "Lord, give me wisdom." And wise people, it's never obvious that this is the wisest person in the room, it's never obvious. We went to visit the Ukraine and I got to meet Tanya's great aunt, Titka Alla, Alla is her name. And as soon as I sat down in the car with her, I already knew there was something different about Titka Alla. Titka Alla, her husband died two years ago, because he worked in a Uranium mine, which is underneath the city. He died from cancer. And Titka Alla had to learn how to drive a car. She's driving this car, stick shift, on Ukrainian roads, two challenges. Titka Alla never needed to drive a car, because her husband was her Uber. She got a license, and the first year of driving you have to get this sticker on your car. It says y, y is for ученик, ученичка, just imagine it's an S for student. And I said, "Titka Alla, when do you take that off?" She said, "I'm never taking it off. I like the way that people treat me if they think I don't know how to drive." I'm writing this down, she keeps talking, wisdom, wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. I realized she was the wisest person in that whole church. In a church of a few hundred people, she's the wisest person. And the wisest people go to her. The people who think they're wise, do not. This is the gift of wisdom. If you have this gift, often you speak into someone's life and you hear the phrase, "That makes sense." That makes sense, you revealed something to me that makes sense. Who's the wisest person to have ever lived? Obviously Jesus Christ, because he was the most spirit-filled. 1 Corinthians 1:24, "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God." Christ is the wisdom of God, the closer we are to Christ by the power of the Spirit, the more wisdom we have. Corinthians 1:30, "And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Do you have this gift? If you have this gift, we need you as a church. We're coming up on eight years, we're a baby church. We have an S sticker on our church, we're never taking it off. We need you here, this church needs you. There's college students that come from all over the world and they need you in their life, to speak wisdom and change the trajectory of their life. Why, as people see folly in their life, they flee it? They see folly in other people's lives and they help them flee it. Then he bring in, 1 Corinthians 12:8, knowledge. "And to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit." This is a person who is all about learning the facts, but needs the wise person to help apply the facts. We need each other. So, this is a person who loves the root of systematic theology, has it almost memorized, but what we need is someone who practically lives it out. We need each other, that's what he is doing. Second is believe like Jesus. 2 Corinthians 12:9, "To another faith by the same Spirit." Faith is a gift from God, but then there's also another level of faith. That God gives to some people ... It's distinct from saving faith, it's distinct from persevering faith, it's a strong trust in God's spiritual ... It's a special endowment, you see that this is already a thing in the future. You trust so much, it's almost as if it's fact. It's like when Saint Paul says about Christians, "You have been justified, you have been sanctified, you have been glorified." That's coming in the future, but I'm so sure of it. And the gift of faith is the ability to envision. And you believe with every fiber of your being and the people around you get inspired by your faith. You begin to charge them, you're like a power bank charging the batter of their faith. Sometimes it's at 20%, change the color, and now it's yellow, then 5% of faith. And, I need people around me who have more faith than me, in order to keep going. Now if you have this gift, you need people to help you take the first step, second step, third step. If you see step 50, you need people who can help you in the beginning. You need people around you who have the gift of administration. I see this with my daughter, my daughter Elizabeth has the gift of faith. She's eight years old, and when she prays for something she keeps praying for that thing until it happens. So every night we get together and we have a little bible study, it's our community group. I say, "This is our Mosaic Community Group," every single night. And we sit in their bedroom and we do a little bible lesson. Then we pray, every single one of us. When we get to Elizabeth, I already know her list. She's like a bullet, a machine gun going, "Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop." And then ... But I've seen over the course of five or six years. And I see things that she prays for, check, check, check, check. She has that gift. The gift that she doesn't have is administration. She can't clean her room. She owns a closet, she says, "This is my closet," and it is a mess. Sophia on the other hand, has the gift of administration but she's too lazy, and so I'm working on the laziness. I see how they need each other, in the same way we need each other. Help like Jesus, this is point three. 1 Corinthians 12:9, "To another gifts of healing by the one Spirit." He goes, "Gifts of healings," both are plural, and then he brings in, 1 Corinthians 12: 10, "To another the working of miracles." This seems like this is kind of crazy, kind of trippy. Have there been miracles in the bible? Yes, of course. And they come in clusters when the Holy Spirit is authenticating the work of the Spirit in a particular location, where the gospel has not been planted yet. So we see this in the Old Testament, at particular points there's clusters of miracles, clusters of healings. We see this when Jesus Christ comes, he begins his ministry and he does so by healing. The ultimate goal is not just restoring people physically, but to restore them wholly, WH. Wholly, the whole person. So, there is an explosion during ministries to authenticate. However, God heals. Sometimes he heals today, some people really do have this gift of healing, this gift of miracles. It's a supernatural gift. I know this is getting weird and you're like, "This is Mosaic, we don't do this." This is true, I've met people like this. So if you have these gifts, we need you. I know some people I'd love to introduce you to. But more often than not, God uses our talents that he re-purposes to heal people. Some of you alleviate people's pain on a daily basis. Some of you help restore people to health, all kinds of physical and emotional and psychological, and you do that through your jobs. You do that through years of training and hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans. You're in the medical profession, what are you doing? That's healing. When it comes to miracles, sometimes yeah, people have the gift of ... That was miraculous. But once you see that God gives these gifts to the church, you begin to see miracles everywhere. You begin to see that God sometimes works miracles through you. If something happens you're like, "I have no explanation for that." God, God. I'll give you an example. We go to Ukraine $1 is 25 Hryvnia. So an espresso in the nicest café, not a Starbucks, they don't let Starbucks in. It's like 15 Hryvnia, it's like 70¢. Seventy cents for an Americano? Tastes better than Starbucks, I'm rich. I felt so rich. I'm walking around, I was like "I've got Hryvnia." I said, "Baby, where do you want to go out to eat?" She's like, "I don't know." I'm like, "We're going to the swankiest spot we can find in Kiev." Eight dollars, with tip, eight dollars. That was awesome. And then we get to her home town, prices are even cheaper. And I'm like, "Oh, wow. We can help a lot of people. We have money in our pockets now to help a lot of people." So we left Ukraine with $20. It felt so good. I've been praying for this for three months. How did you know I've been praying for this? Your Spirit just leads me. Where are you going to lead me? This church is a miracle. The fact that this church exists, this is a miracle. Given where we are, this is a miracle. You guys are miracles, you guys are miracle workers, the potential for those gifts is in everyone. 1 Corinthians 12:10, "To another the working of miracles." By the way, it's not one gift per person, that's not how that works. Some people have multiple, multiple. And you've just got to use them, and you've got to exercise them. And God says, "You've been faithful a little, I'm going to give you a little more, I'm going to give you a little more." Does God always heal? No. Saint Paul had a thorn in the flesh, we don't even know what that was. Ask God three times God said, "I'm going to leave that there for your humility." Jesus Christ could have healed himself while he was crucified, he did not, because there was a purpose in that suffering. James tells us, "Rejoice in trials of various kinds." There's a choice to rejoice. Why? Because suffering is an opportunity for growth. And also, miracles don't save people. Judas saw all of God's miracles, all of Christ's miracles, didn't help. Four, discern like Jesus. 1 Corinthians 12:10, "To another prophecy to another the ability to distinguish between spirits." So, prophecy is speech based on something that God suddenly brings to mind. God suddenly prompts you to speak a word into someone's heart. It's speech that reports something that God spontaneously reveals. A little trippy. But, what these people need, the prophets, what they need is people who can discern, "Is this from God?" Because all kinds of spirits, Holy Spirits, speak but so do demons. And that's why 1 John talks about discerning the spirits. 1 Corinthians 14:3, "On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation." One of the ways that you see this is a prophecy from the Lord ... Did it upbuild? Did it encourage? Did it console? Did it comfort? And also, God uses the gift of prophecy when people evangelize. 1 Corinthians 14:24&25, "But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you." I've had this experience. I'm having a conversation and I just ... This seems like something appropriate to say and then, "How'd you know that?" A revelation from the heart. But again, we need people in our lives to say, "Yes, that's from the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 5:20&21, "Do not despise prophecies but test everything, hold fast to what is good." 1 John 4: 1-3, "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already." Does this, whatever this prophecy is, whatever this utterance is, does this draw me closer to Christ? Does this focus my attention on Jesus Christ? And finally, connect like Jesus. Here he talks about tongues, languages? What's a tongue? It's a way to communicate. What's a language? It's a way to connect with another person. 1 Corinthians 12:10, "See to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues." Now there's two categories when it comes to the spiritual gift of languages. The very first time that we see this, as a whole, on the church, the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is poured out on the church and they begin to speak real languages. For the purpose of communicating the gospel to the people from other regions, who didn't speak their language. But then also Saint Paul, and this 1 Corinthians 14, he begins the idea in 1 Corinthians 13. There's another category that when this gift comes it comes in an expression of prayer to God, in which the human's spirit is praying and the person doesn't understand the meaning, but the person is edified, and the person is blessed, and the person is comforted. I have a lot of friends who speak it, I don't have this gift. I've asked for this gift, I have the gift of speaking in languages, a couple. My first language is Russian, my second is American, I'm working on English. But it's an opportunity to communicate to people, it's a gift. And God allows me to connect with Christ, with God, through prayer and the Holy Spirit, and I communicate through prayer. But, I haven't experienced ... I have friends and a pastor friend in the city who are always trying to give me this gift. And they're like, "Let's lay hands on you." So I don't have it, some people do. We'll get into this about ... In public services we don't practice the speaking in tongues, because it's a very transient city, a lot of people coming and going and you need the interpreter. That's what he talks about, some people have the gift and another to interpret the gift. Again, this balance of we need one another. He lists tongues last, and this is really important. He lists them last because the abuse of these gifts was already present in the church in Corinth. Just like the abuse of healings and miracles has been abused in the modern day church. He ends with this one, 1 Corinthians 13:1, he starts with this one to say, if you are doing any of this, if you are exercising any of the gifts that God gives you, and you are not motivated by love, you are not using it as it should be used. My abrupt conclusion, 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit," it's the Holy Spirit. "And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord," Kyrios, talking about Jesus Christ. Kyrios is the Greek translation of Yahweh, from the Old Testament. "And there are varieties of activities, but is the same God," Thaos, Elohim in the Old Testament. "God the Father who empowers them all in everyone." Here he brings in the Trinity. Before he goes in to talk about the diversity of gifts in the unified body, he talks about the diversity in the godhead while God is one. It's so artless, so unconscious, but this is how they thought about God, the Holy Trinity. We only begin to understand the diversity of gifts if we understand the Holy Trinity. That because of the mutual in-dwelling in the Trinity, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Spirit, and the Son is in the Father and the Spirit. The Spirit is in the Father and the Son. And when we put on Christ, we are in the Father and in the Spirit. Why do I say that? Perhaps you've been sitting here almost as if you are on the outside looking in. You like, "Okay, I hear what you're saying, I've never experienced any of that. I know I'm a Christian, I have confessed to Jesus Christ as Lord with my mouth and my heart. Why am I not getting more of this?" I would submit to you, perhaps there's something in the way of the Spirit flowing through you. And there's two things that holy scripture brings up. In Ephesians 4:30 it says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption." You were sealed by the Holy Spirit, meaning you are a Christian, and you could potentially be grieving the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in particular ... He is especially grieved, especially sensitive to sin in our life, because of his close relationship with ... He's in us, and then when we take him to sin, we take him with us. The Holy Spirit experiences grief, he can't stand the presence of sin and he hates it when we entertain transgression. So perhaps your gifts are locked up by sin, and shacked by sin. Say the Lord wants to release those gifts, release you from that sin. How, how, how, how? I'm driven by the flesh, and I see the fruit of the flesh. It's always pride, it's always envy, it's always self-focus. Until I repent, that's still there. This is what repentance is, repentance is that key that releases me from the shackles of my sin and now I can be Spirit filled. I can be Spirit led. Also there's another thing the scripture says in terms of the Spirit, we can grieve the Spirit and we can also quench the Spirit. This is 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Do not quench the Spirit." This is a little different from grieving the Spirit. Quenching the Spirit ... You know what the Spirit is calling you to, you know what the Spirit is leading you to do, but something is pushing you down. Something is extinguishing that fire. Sometimes it's fear. "Lord, I'm afraid of entering this new season in life. Lord, I'm afraid that I have to give up too much, there's too many sacrifices to make. I'm afraid." And we quench. And you know what the Lord does? The Lord is offering to replace that fear with his love, perfect love casts out fear. God has granted the Christians the ability to restrict or release what the Spirit does in our lives, in the lives of the local church. The Spirit comes to us as a fire, either to inflame us, or to be doused out and extinguished by our fear, our control perhaps flawed theology. So, don't grieve the Spirit, don't suppress the Spirit. Allow the Spirit to use you as he wills, and that's the greatest thrill in life. Honestly, it's like your life becomes like a movie. Your standing in the aisle and you're like, "What is happening?" And you feel more alive than you've ever felt. 1 Corinthians 12:11, "All these are empowered by one in the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he will." So, ask the Holy Spirit to give you insight. "Lord, why have I not been unleashed as you want me to?" Or, "Holy Spirit, what's my part in this body? Where are my gifts? Where should I start? What are my passions? What are my desires, dreams? Why did you bring me here? Not just for my program, not just for my job, not just for my degree, why am I here? What am I supposed to do?" And he will tell you. Boston, Massachusetts is the human capital of the world. We go to Ukraine, and people are wearing the Tshirts. In church, half the people were in Tshirts. What language are the Tshirts in? Anywhere we go I listen to music, what music do we listen to? I see graffiti of bands 21 Pilots is apparently really popular in Ukraine, and so is gangster wrap. The United States is the most influential cultural exporter in the world. It's everywhere, Ukraine is just a little sub-set, anyone from any other country will tell you. Who exports culture to the United States? Boston, Massachusetts. Pound for pound, the most influential city in the world. Mosaic Boston, I'm telling you, the amount of talent here if it would just be unleashed. You know Boston, you ever see a map of Logan? All the flights going out of Logan, just all around the world. That's what Mosaic Boston is, we are Logan, and we are exporting. We are exporting culture for the common good of the world. We're exporting love Jesus, simple. Now let's do it. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, I'll close with this. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love. I am a noisy gon or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all ministries and all knowledge, and I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you are God of love and I pray Lord, release your love into our hearts to love you, as you deserve to be loved. To love the neighbor as they deserve to be loved. And I pray Lord, make us see, give us eyes to see that the greatest gift that keeps on giving is Jesus Christ. And that Lord, through the power of the Spirit, you long to make us gifts that keep on giving to transform the city, our neighborhoods, the city, this country and beyond. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
Hair Cuts and Head Coverings?
July 14, 2019 • Shane Sikkema • 1 Corinthians 11:2–16
Summary: The Apostle Paul connects some practices in the early church to the timeless principle of Headship. Headship in the home and in the church is a call to reflect God the Father's headship over God the Son, and ultimately Jesus Christ's loving sacrificial headship over His bride the Church. In a fallen and sin filled world men too often grasp at authority to serve themselves at the expense of others. In the Kingdom of God, however, Jesus shows us that authority is to be used to serve others, even at the expense of one's self. Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning, and welcome again to Mosaic. It's great to see you this morning. If you're new, my name is Shane. I'm one of the pastors here and we'd love to connect you. The way we do that officially is with that little connection guide in your worship guide, the little connection card in there. You can fill that out for us and either drop those in the offering baskets a little bit later on or, if you turn them in at the welcome center out there, we've got a little gift bag we'd love to give to you as well, some more information about the church. We have been going through a sermon series this summer on the book of First Corinthians, called Prodigal Church. First Corinthians was actually a letter written by the apostle Paul to a church that he had planted in the Roman city of Corinth. It's a young church and it's a church with lots of problems. Paul was writing to help them navigate a lot of these problems that they're facing. What we're going to see over the next couple of weeks is that he kind of shifts his focus and he begins to specifically address some of the problems that they've been facing in their worship gatherings. I'm just going to warn you right up front this morning that this text that we have today is a lot of fun, and by fun I mean it's like a tinder box of controversy. There's a lot of stuff going on here that is potentially going to be offensive to some people. If so, my email is http://caleb@mosaicboston.com, but we're going to talk about marriage. We're going to talk about gender. We're going to talk about authority and submission in the church and in the home. It's controversial, but it's not just controversial because of the topics, it's also controversial because some of the stuff in here that Paul writes is hard to understand. It's hard to follow from our modern perspective. It's interesting, if you've ever read the Second Peter, there's this passage in Second Peter, chapter three, where Peter is writing about Paul's letters and this is what he says. In verse 15, he says, "Count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him as he does in al his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you not be carried with air of lawless." People, I have no proof of this, but I'm pretty sure Peter wrote that right after reading the passage that we're going to be looking at today. So before we get started, just a couple things. Yeah, there are things in this text that are going to be hard to understand, but they're not impossible to understand, and so we should think hard, we should do our best to understand them. Secondly, Peter warns us, in his words, that "Some ignorant and unstable people" back then would twist Paul's words, just like what? Just like they do the other Scriptures. Now, what we have here, the apostle Paul is writing these letters under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So we're not going to be reading Paul's opinion here. What we're reading here is God's word. At Mosaic, we full-heartedly believe in the goodness, in the authority, in the beauty and the truth and the inherency of Scripture. Second Timothy 3 says that "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching and reproof and correction and for training in righteousness." Now, Psalm 19:7 says that "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the lord are right, rejoining the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold," that God's word is good. It is true. It is perfect. So if we come to a passage that offends us, we need to take a step back. We need to take a deep breath, and we need to understand that either we're offended because we are failing to understand the text correctly or we're offended because the text is correcting us in our understanding where we're failing, and we need that correction, even if it's uncomfortable. So, we're going to be in First Corinthians, chapter 11 today, looking at verse 2 through 16. If you have your Bibles, I encourage you to open up and follow along. If not, the words are going to be up here on the screen. Three points today. We're going to talk about a beautiful principle. Two, a confusing practice, and then three, a redemptive purpose. Before we read the text today, would you please join me in prayer? Now, Father God, I ask that you would give us the humility to hear what Your word has to say. Give us the grace to understand what it says and to believe that it is good. Give us the faith to obey it together for Your glory and for our testimony to Your Gospel. Amen. First Corinthians chapter 11, starting at verse two. "Now, I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head since it is the same as if her head were shaven. For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short, but since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. For a man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man nor man of woman, for as woman was made from man, so now man is now born of woman and all things are from God." "Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory for her hair is given to her for a covering. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God." Point number one, a beautiful principle. Don't worry if you're concerned, we're going to be offering free haircuts and head coverings at the welcome center after the church. Stop by. We're going to talk about that and what on earth Paul is talking about there, but before we do, we need to understand that the haircuts, the head coverings, that is not actually the main point that Paul's trying to make. It's not actually the reason that he's writing this passage. In fact, he is commending them because they have been observing this tradition, but unfortunately, it seems like they haven't really fully understood why they're doing it or what these traditions were symbolizing. He wants them to understand that behind these practices is a timeless principle. We see that in verse three. He starts and he says, "I commend you because you remembered me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ." This is why you're doing it. "The head of every wife is her husband and the head of Christ is God." Behind these practices concerning the head coverings and the hair length is this doctrine of headship. These things that they were doing, they were an outward sign that in their hearts these men and women were, one, they were honoring the gender that God had given them and they were honoring the God ordained order of authority that begins with the Godhead. It begins with Jesus Christ the Son and God the Father. In that relationship, we see this paradox of two people who are perfectly unified, eternally equal, fully divine. There's no inequality in that relationship, and yet the Father has authority over the Son and the Son joyfully submits to that authority. So he says, it's pointing to that. It's also pointing to the relationship between Christ and His church, that the head of every man is Christ. He said, then it's being reflected into marriage that the head of a wife is her husband. So what Paul is saying here is not unique to Scripture. We see this principle all over the Bible. It begins with the relationship of the Father and the Son, but then it's reflected in the creation of Adam and Eve. It's reflected in the kings and the priests of the Old Testament. It was reflected in Jesus choosing 12 men to be his apostles and in the requirement for elders in the New Testament church to be men. It's most tangible in the relationship between Christ and the church and the metaphor that Scripture uses to most clearly communicate this is that of marriage, that Christ is a groom and the bride is the church. We see this in Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians 5, verse 22, writing on the same subject, Paul says, "Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wive even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so wives should submit in everything to their husbands." Then he begins to describe, what does that headship look like? "Husbands," verse 25, "Love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church because we're members of His body." Then he quotes from the creation account in Genesis, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wive and the to shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. If we properly understand this, it should be a beautiful thing, but let's be honest. We have a tendency to cringe at passages like this in the Bible. We bristle at this idea of headship. I think the reason we do so is because it's very easy to hear headship and begin thinking about worldly forms of leadership and they're two very different things. In our culture, in every culture, there are many wicked men in leadership wielding demonic authority and not Christlike headship. Even in the home, there are too many men, too many husbands have done a pathetic, horrible, even horrific job at leading their families and loving their wives. So when we read about headship in Scripture, we can't think about that. Jesus hits the reset button on what authority looks like. He redefines it. More accurately, He properly defines it. He shows what true authority is supposed to look like. If I were to put it succinctly, I would put it like this, that evil men grasp authority to serve themselves at the expense of others. That's what we see all over our world today. Christlike men are given authority. It's not their authority. They are stewards of it and they are accountable to Jesus for it, but Christlike men are given authority to serve others even at the expense of others. Husbands, lay down your lives. Male headship in the home and in the church, when it is done right, it is a deathblow to chauvinism. To imagine a world where this was perfectly practiced would be to imagine a world with no divorce, no domestic abuse, no verbal abuse, no sexual assault, no pornography, no prostitution, no sex trafficking, no single mothers, no fatherless children. The brutal reality is that that ideal is severely lacking in our fallen, in our sin-filled world, but that doesn't mean that we, as the church, shouldn't aim for it. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be Christ's representatives in what this looks like. The whole Christian life is a call to live our lives in a way that points people to God's perfect future kingdom in a way that shows them that it's breaking into the present right now through the church and through the people of God. So wives, submit to your husbands. Husbands, lay down your lives, love, cherish your wives. Why? Because it shows the world the way that Jesus the groom sacrificed everything and laid down his life to redeem His bride, the church. So what does that actually look like in real life? That's the question. How do you see this play out practically? I think probably the best example, and this applies to the way pastors serve the church, but we're talking about husbands and wives right here. It plays out like this. In marriage, there are decisions that need to be made every day, important decisions. Kelly and I, my wife, we have been married for 14 years. We've had a lot of time to practice this, but it takes a lot of practice and we have a long ways to go. We're far from perfect, but as the head, as the husband, when decisions need to be made, it is not my right, it is not my privilege to make those decisions to serve myself. It's not my right to make those decisions alone, but it is my duty to take responsibility for those decisions. So if I am a head with any brains, I'm not going to make any decisions before talking to my wife, from seeking the input of the body and so taking counsel with her and trying to make a decision that's going to benefit the whole, not just myself. I'm accountable to Jesus for that. So what this has meant in our marriage is 99 times out of 100 when a big decision needs to be made, Kelly and I, we talk about it and then we walk forward in unity, in agreement, about what needs to be done. That's the norm. What about the exception? What about that one out of 100 times scenario when we've talked about it, we've weighed the pros and cons and we still don't agree on the solution? We still don't agree on the direction that we need to go? This is where the idea of headship and the beauty of headship really starts to shine through, because imagine the alternative. Imagine we weren't practicing this. Imagine we weren't Christians. Imagine we weren't listening to what Scripture says to us and so probably by nature our marriage would just be a democracy. She gets one vote and I get one vote and we get along just fine so long as we always, always, always agree about everything, but what happens when we don't? What happens when we hit that impasse? We've both cast our votes and it's a tie. What do we do then? Well, most likely the only thing left to do at that point is to fight it out, right? It's to basically, whoever's willing to be the most aggressive or passive-aggressive, the most manipulative or the most domineering is always going to be the one who wins and the relationship is always going to lose. One person is going to recede and become passive. The other person is going to take control and domineer. It's not a healthy relationship. Headship is teaching us a much better way. So, in that one in 100 scenario, I think it looks like this. Jesus goes to Kelly. He goes to my wife. He says, "Hey, I want you to trust me. I want you to trust this order of authority that I have instilled within creation and I want you to submit to your husband. I want you to know I'm going to hold him accountable." Then Jesus comes to me and He says, "Hey, you're the head. I'm giving you the tie-breaking vote, but with it I'm holding you accountable for this decision. If you screw this up, it's your job to fix it. If you act selfishly, you're going to answer to me." This ought to scare the pants off some of the husbands in the room. It's not a right to go and to do whatever we please. It's a responsibility to do what is best for the family and it's one we're going to answer to Jesus for. Now, I can only think of one or two times in our 14 years of marriage where it has come to this. In those situations, this is important, it's not my job as the husband to make my wife submit. Jesus didn't give that commandment to me. He gave that commandment to her. It's my job ... The commandment to me is I need to love her. I need to cherish her. I need to nourish her. I need to try do what's best for her, but Jesus goes to her and it's in that moment where Kelly has to decide, "Okay, am I going to submit to my husband and continue working with him? Or am I going to turn against him now and start working against him?" By God's grace, Kelly has, in those moments, supported me most of the time. By God's grace, I haven't screwed things up too terribly yet, but if and when I do, it's my job to clean up the mess, not hers. If I'm acting selfishly or foolishly, I will give an account to Jesus for that. True Christlike headship in the church and in the home, it never domineers. It gives, it serves, it sacrifices, and it reflects the Gospel and the Godhead relationship onto the practical surfaces of our lives. It shows the world that at the crux of human history is a humble, servant-hearted man, who laid down His life, who gave everything in love to His bride, the church. It shows the world that, in the kingdom of God, authority is so selfless, so humble, so generous that submission becomes a joy and a delight. So that is the beautiful principle. It's not one against the other. It's both working together in perfect harmony. I might be in the driver's seat and it might be my responsibility to get us to where we need to go, but she's in the navigator seat and I'm not getting anywhere without her. Right? Without her, I'd be lost, spinning in circles somewhere with no clue what I was doing, but that's what it looks like in the home. So now let's talk about point two, which is, "Okay, well, what about all this weird, crazy, confusing stuff Paul has to say in this passage?" Which part of this is confusing? Every single part of this is a little bit confusing. Part of it, there's three big categories here that Paul is talking about. He's weaving them all kind of together as one, but we'll kind of pull them apart and try to unpack what's going on. The three big things that he's talking about, so he talks about head coverings. He talks about hair lengths and about haircuts, and then he talks about this idea of praying and prophesying at church. We're going to get into those, but before we do, I want to tackle the really big one in the middle. Verse 10. This is probably one of the most puzzling verses in all of Scripture. Paul says that a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. What on earth is he talking about there? I read so many commentaries. I'm going to give it my best shot. First century Jews believed that angels were present and watching during their worship services and they couldn't bear to see anything disorderly, unholy, or sinful taking place when people were worshiping God. So it could be that Paul's ... He's warning everyone to respect the order of authority that God has designed us for and to ... Everyone to play your position and play it well. So I kind of picture it like this. It'd be like if we turned on the Patriots game. We're the angels, right? We're watching. We turn on the Patriots game and you look and Tom Brady is insisting on playing linebacker and Belichick is playing quarterback and Edelman's selling hot dogs or something out in the stands. As the fans, we're like, "What are you doing? This is offensive to us." The Patriots aren't a good team just because they have good players. They're a good team because the players are playing the right positions. I think something like that is going on here. Paul wants us to know, the angels have seen what happens when someone rebels against God's order of authority. That is how Satan became Satan and took a third of the angels down with him. That's where the demons came from. So maybe they are particularly sensitive to this issue. Whatever the case, he wants us to understand that there's a lot at stake when it comes to the way that men and women conduct themselves, both in the home, but also in the worship service. So first of all, let's talk about the head coverings. What's going on with the head coverings? Paul goes to the men. He says, "Men, when you come to church, don't cover your heads. Why? Because it would dishonor Jesus." How? How would that dishonor Jesus? Well, in Corinth it was common for pagan priests and for elite men in society to flaunt their spiritual authority by wearing these head coverings when they would pray and when they would offer sacrifices to their gods. It seems most likely that Paul is condemning this self-reliant, self-righteous, prideful, boastful spirituality. That's what the pagans do, but that's not what we do. We're Christians. We humble ourself under the headship of Christ. So men, uncover your heads and do it to show. Show that you, as the head of your house, that you are also humble and under the authority of the headship of Jesus and to show that your spiritual authority is not based in yourself, that it's completely based in Jesus and what He has done for you, and that you have no authority apart from Christ and apart from the word of God. So, "Wives," he says, "Wives, don't uncover your heads." Why? Because he says it's going to dishonor your husbands. Well, how would that dishonor their husbands? Again, in that culture, the head covering as a symbol that a woman was married and that she wanted to honor her husband. So Paul says, "If you're not going to honor your husband in church, you might as well shave your head." Basically what he's saying is, if you're going to shame your husband by not wearing the cultural symbol of being married, why not shave your whole head? Which was the cultural symbol of a woman who had committed adultery against her husband and betrayed him. So the key there, though, is that the cultural symbol is an expression of the principle. The principle doesn't change, but the cultural expression of it does from time to time. So this is going to likely be different for some of you who come from different cultures, but as a man who grew up in a Western, Christian culture, my wife has never worn a head covering to church. I've never felt dishonored by that, but I probably would feel dishonored if she started refusing to wear her wedding ring or if she had refused to take my last name after we got married, because in my culture those are expressions of this principle. The same way, at the end of this book, Paul tells the church to "Greet one another with a holy kiss." If a brother walked into church this morning and tried to greet my wife with a holy kiss, I would greet him with a holy fist, metaphorically, but the principle is, greet one another with honor, with respect, with brotherly love. The expression at that time was a holy kiss, but that doesn't communicate today, right? If you come in here and try to kiss me, I ain't feeling that. It just is not going to communicate honor to me. It's not going to communicate respect. Our culture has its own ways of doing that. So, even if this specific practice doesn't ... This expression of the practice doesn't directly apply to us today, we can't just throw away the whole principle. We need to ask ourselves, and men, how does the way you dress, your body language, your conduct among others, how does that communicate that you are a man under the authority of Christ? That women are your sisters and that, if you are married, that you love your wife, you cherish her, and you're willing to lay your life down for her? And then women, how does the way you dress, your body language, your conduct among others also communicate those things as well, if you're married, that you honor your husband? That's what's going on with the head coverings. So, what about the haircuts? Again, he seamlessly segues into this next idea and just follow this train of thought for a moment because the idea is this. The big idea behind the hair lengths is that this doctrine of headship is so important, and because it is directly tied to gender as a reflection of God's fatherly headship over the son, as Jesus' husbandly headship over the church. Because of that, we must value and honor our biological gender that God has given us and we must present ourselves in culturally appropriate ways that communicate that gender to the people around us. Clothing is communication. So just as a head covering in that society or a wedding ring in our society communicates something about a person's marital status, the way that we present ourselves, the way we dress, it is nonverbally communicating things to everybody around us. Paul is saying, "You need to do that in an appropriate way." In that culture, long hair was a symbol of womanhood. If a man had long hair, that would have been interpreted as him abdicating his masculinity and acting effeminately. Paul's saying, "If God made you male, you need to act ... You need to dress like a man. If God made you a female, you need to dress like a woman and you need to do so according to the cultural symbols of manhood and womanhood that your current culture understands." This is where it gets tricky because those cultural symbols can be different from culture to culture. Just do this little thought experiment with me. Try to imagine a person with long, beautiful, braided hair, makeup on their face. They're wearing a short plaid skirt. Now who are you picturing in your mind? Obviously you're picturing Mel Gibson from the movie from Braveheart, like the manliest man to have ever manned in manhood, right? No, you're not picturing him because our culture doesn't immediately think of those things as masculine. We think of them as feminine. However, their culture did. So the cultural symbols might change, but the principle doesn't. So what Paul does is he says this. He says that nature teaches that a man ought to have short hair. Well, how does nature teach that? Because left to nature, men in general are far hairier than women, so in a way it almost ... nature teaches us the opposite. Well, that's not what Paul means by nature. He's not using nature in the modern sense that we're used to. He's speaking rhetorically. He's using a train of thought that the Greeks would have understand. He's appealing to common sense. He's saying, in that culture, common sense would just tell you that a guy with long hair was trying to say something and it wasn't something masculine, that if I were to wear a kilt in 12th century Scotland, nobody would question my masculinity because culturally, common sense, people would just naturally see, "Oh, that's a totally normal expression of masculinity," but if I wore that same thing here today, it would be shameful for me. I would feel ... Naturally, I would feel ashamed to be up here preaching right now in a kilt. That's kind of what Paul is trying to help us understand. So back to the question, can a man have long hair? Depends. If you're able to do so in a way that's clearly masculine, then more power to you. The only thing Scripture says is no man buns, but other than that ... That was a joke. That was a joke. Sorry. There's some manly man buns out there. Footnote. There's a lot of footnotes in this sermon. I understand that there are people who legitimately experience gender dysphoria and we want to be sensitive to that. If you are experiencing that and you want to walk with Jesus, you want to follow Jesus, you need to get into community and surround yourself with some people who are going to help you walk through that and be obedient to Jesus in that. Now, on the other hand, there's also a lot of people who just like to be contentious, who like to be edgy, who like to push the limits and have this persona of rebelliousness to them. In either case, Scripture makes it very clear that our human hearts are broken. We are sinful by nature. What that means is that every single one of us, we have drives and desires and feelings that we cannot trust and that we should not obey. I do too. If I had acted on every drive, every feeling, every desire that I had, I would have completely shipwrecked my life a long time ago and so would have all of you. There is this demonic idea at work in parts of the church today that says that more than anything, Jesus just wants us to enjoy life and be happy. Jesus never promised us bliss. He never promised us material comforts. When you read His word, Jesus promised us trials. He promised us tribulations. He promised us persecutions. He promised us we'd need to suffer in His name, and that if we wanted to follow Him, we would need to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Him. When we follow Jesus, we are not following Him onto a playground. We are following Him onto a battlefield, but we're following Him in the promise that He is there, He is going to be with us, that He is going before us and that He will never leave us or forsake us and in the end there will be victory. We can't trust our hearts, but we can trust His word. So every single one of us, we need to die to ourselves. No one is born with a perfect sexuality and no one is going to attain one in this life. We're all sinful. No one is born with a perfect masculinity or femininity, but if those things came natural, Scripture wouldn't need to talk about them and Scripture talks about them all the time because God knows our hearts, God knows our temptations and He knows the things we're going to struggle with. This is why we need the instruction of His word. This is why we need the power of His Spirit and this is why we need the accountability of brothers and sisters in Christ. Third, I want to talk about the praying and the prophesying. When we hear the word prophesy, we think like some weird stuff of like mediums, psychics, people predicting the future, but that's not what the New Testament really means by prophesy. It'd be more accurate to picture somebody who's leading a Bible study, teaching a Sunday school class, giving a testimonial. It's someone who is presenting and teaching and explaining and delivering God's word. Here's what I want us to take note of. It's easy to get offensive by what the Bible has to say regarding men and women. "Oh, Paul's so sexist. He's making these women cover their heads and worship ... " First of all, that's chronological snobbery. We're judging their culture. Second, it's this indignant attitude. It's based on false assumptions. If we actually take the time to understand headship, it's a beautiful, desirable thing, but third, it misses the remarkable reality that already in the first century there were women publicly praying and prophesying in church. They played a huge, key, important part in the life of the church at that time. Paul doesn't say, "Hey, the women shouldn't be doing that." He actually commends them for praying and prophesying. All he says is, "Hey, remember when you do that to wear your head covering as a sign that you're humble, that you're under the authority of Christ. You're under the authority of your pastors and your husband." So in that context, church looked a lot different. Church always looks different from culture to culture and church services. In that culture, they were a persecuted people. They didn't have buildings to meet in, and so what they would do is oftentimes one of the wealthier members of the community would host the church in their home. During the worship service, various members of the church would get up and lead. Some people might lead a song or a hymn. Some people might lead a prayer. Some people might give a teaching or a testimony. Then at the end of that, everybody would be silent and the pastors of the church would then take responsibility for everything that was said and either correct anything that was said that was false or they'd say, "Amen, yes, that is true. Praise Jesus," and they would be done. So everyone was involved, but the pastors were responsible for making sure everything that was said was true. I bring that up because if you've been reading ahead, there's this really ... another super controversial verse coming up in chapter 14 where Paul says that women in the church must stay silent. I don't ... obviously I don't think he's talking about women in the church need to always stay silent, because if he is, then he's contradicting what he just said here in chapter 11 when he commends the women for praying and prophesying in the church. So what is he talking about? He's not saying that women need to always stay silent in church. I think he's talking about this one part of the service, though, when it was time for the pastors to speak. So he's most likely talking about the women. And listen, all the non-pastor men, all the unordained men in the church, this applies to them as well, but you need to stay silent during that part of the service when it's time for the pastors to speak authoritatively and evaluate what was said during the service that day. There are two really big, important truths here and a lot of churches like to throw out one or throw out the other. The first is that the role of pastor is a headship role and, like the role of husband, it is a role that God calls His sons to fulfill and we should honor that. We shouldn't just throw that away because it's counter-cultural. Now, on the other hand, some churches throw the second part away, which is that God loves it when women use their gifting to serve and to lead and to teach and to minister in the church, so long as they're doing it, just like all the other men who aren't pastors, doing it with respect to the authority of their pastors. I understand a lot of people don't like this, especially as it applies to the role of pastor. They don't like that Scripture requires pastors to be men. Listen, if pastor was a job that was just given out to the most skilled person, I think I would probably agree. I could sit down right now and write a list of women from Mosaic who could do my job better than I could, no problem, but that's not what it's about. Competency is important, right? Hopefully your pastors aren't incompetent, but competency's not the main point. The main point, ultimately, is that God is calling His sons to step into this role because in doing so they are representing Christ. They are representing His husbandly headship over the bride, His bride, the church, just like husbands do in marriage. So I praise God for the grace that God has given to Pastor Jan and myself and the privilege it is to be your pastors, but I also praise God for every godly, talented, hardworking woman who has really made Mosaic what it is. We wouldn't be here without them today. A couple of weeks ago I was curious. What is the actual ratio of men and women leading in the church at Mosaic? So I went through our members list, just our members list, and I just went through name by name and wrote them down. I counted 22 men who were leading in some significant capacity, either formally or informally, here at Mosaic. 22. If you count Pastor Jan, myself, and Andy, it was 25. Then I went through and I counted all the women. It was exactly 25. I was so encouraged by that. There are too many churches where, sometimes because of misapplying this doctrine, they ask the women to take a back seat and they don't allow them the opportunity to use the giftings that God has given them. Now, on the other hand, there are way too many churches where the women have taken over and the men have had to draw back and they've receded and they've become passive and they're not using the giftings that God has given them. It's not a competition. It's not who can do the most. It's a calling to work together in harmony to faithfully play the parts that we've been given to play. I praise God that there are some awesome, godly men, and awesome, godly women who are doing some amazing things here at Mosaic. Point three, just kind of go with some rapid fire application here at the end and talk about a redemptive purpose in all this. There's no end in sight to the battle of the sexes in our culture, but in our church that battle has already been won. The men didn't win it and the women didn't win it. The Gospel won it, right? So in the church, we have the opportunity to show the world a better way, that in Christ, masculinity and femininity are both complementary, beautiful, good gifts from God, and even authority and submission, when practiced properly, are good and beautiful gifts as well. So real quick, just want to talk about how this applies a little bit more to gender, a little bit more to singleness, to marriage, and then finally to pastors. So first of all, talking about gender, men, you are going to be tempted and you are going to be prone to abdicate you masculinity in one of two ways, either through passivity or through aggression and you have to fight against both. When you are faced with responsibility and difficulties, the tendency is going to be to either withdraw and become passive and not take responsibility or to lose your cool and become aggressive and try to dominate, use your physical stature to intimidate and to coerce. The Gospel doesn't allow you to do either of those things. You need to humble yourself. You need to lay down your agenda and you need to take responsibility in a Christlike manner to serve others. Women, I had some of the sisters on staff help me with this one. You're going to be tempted. You're going to be prone to compare yourself to others and to take control or even domineer in situations where you see that the ideal standards aren't being met and where the ideal is lacking. This is where you need to trust the grace and the sovereignty of God. You need to find your identity completely in Christ and not in the opinions of others and you need to work hard. You also need to be patient, especially with your brothers sometimes and encourage them, build them up, challenge them to step up if you see them being passive, but do it in a way that's loving and respectful. Two, I want to talk to the singles. We read in Ephesians that wives are called to submit to their husbands and husbands are called to lay down their lives for their wives. Women, you are not called to submit to men in general. That was a commandment for a wife to her husband. Men, you're not called to lay down your lives for every woman that you meet, but men, you need to love women like sisters. You need to treat them with the respect that you would give to a daughter of a king. Imagine if one of former president Obama's daughters started going to your school or working in your office or coming to Mosaic. Imagine the immense respect you would try to show any time you were in their presence. As far as I know, his daughters don't go to Mosaic, but God's daughters do, so treat them accordingly. Women, love men like brothers. Treat them with the respect you would give a prince, right? We don't have any Prince Henry ... I was going to say Prince Harvey. I have a nephew named Harvey and Henry. Prince Henry's in our church, but you are seated besides the sons of your heavenly Father, so encourage them, build them up, challenge them in godly ways. Romans 12:10 says, "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor." Third, I want to talk a little bit more about marriage. We already talked about marriage as an ideal, but what about when that ideal is lacking? Here's another footnote, first of all, before we get into it. If there is abuse in the home and if you are experiencing abuse in the home, you need to get out. You need to get help and you need to ... Please let us know if there's a way that we can help. It is unacceptable. If you are here and you are the abuser, understand you are under the fiery wrath of God and He hates abuse. He hates verbal abuse. He hates sexual abuse. He hates physical abuse and you are going to stand before Him and give an account. I would repent sooner than later. That's end of footnote, but it needs to be said in our culture. What about lesser situations where the husband's just being passive? Or maybe the wife is being domineering. How do you conduct yourself when you're trying to fulfill your role but your spouse doesn't seem to be trying to fulfill theirs. Well, no marriage is going to start out at 100%, right? It takes practice. We do our best and where the ideal is lacking, we rely on God's grace. So we pray for our spouse. We don't force them to do their role. We encourage them. We pray for them. We do ours to the best of our ability and we don't give up. Kelly and I were not good at this when we first got married. It took lots of practice and we're still a far way from reaching the goal, but by God's grace, what started out as this really tender and delicate shoot has grown and it has strengthened into this tree that is ... We're not there yet, but it's growing and it's beautiful. It takes work. To the single parents, and specifically to the single mothers, lean on the household of God. Lean on Christ, but also lean on His church. If there are ways that we can help you, we want to help you. Get into community and allow that community to help you with your mission of raising those children. Finally, I want to talk to all the pastors in the room. This isn't something that usually happens, and right now I'm just preaching to myself. I understand that, but pastors need to understand. Don't you ever let anyone ask you about your church because the church isn't yours. She is Christ's. Care for her well. Don't be passive. Don't domineer. Lay down your life and love. Being a pastor is hard. It is pain. It is suffering. It is only by God's grace that Pastor Jan and I can do this. Apart from the call of Jesus Christ, I don't know if I would be up here right now. I don't want to be up here right now talking about these things in Boston, right? I would much rather be passive. I'd much rather not open my email tomorrow morning. I would much rather step away from all the sin and all the conflict and all the spiritual warfare that comes with answering this call, but this is the place that Christ has called me to play in His body, so I'm going to do my best, but I need you to pray. Pray for me. Pray for Pastor Jan. Pray for the pastors in your lives. We're really people just like you. Ministry in Boston is wicked hard, but when I think about the members of Mosaic, it's so worth it. I don't think that being a pastor should come with many privileges, but I do know that it is a privilege to be your pastor. I get a front row seat to, yeah, a lot of pain and a lot of sin and a lot of conflict, but I also get a front row seat to seeing the Holy Spirit work in that conflict and transform lives with the Gospel. I get a front row seat to seeing your kindness and your service and your sacrificial generosity and I am very grateful for that. Hebrews 13:17 says, "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account." Pastor Jan and I, we take that very seriously. We do so with fear and with trembling. It says, "Let them do so with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." I thank God that all of you, with a few exceptions, have made this job a joy and it is a privilege to serve as your pastor. We are all called to do hard things. We're all called to do things that, in our flesh, we don't want to do, but Jesus was as well. He didn't want to leave His throne in heaven to be born in a barn. He didn't want to take on the fragile flesh of a human being. He didn't want to be betrayed by His friends. He didn't want to be arrested. He didn't want to be spat on and beaten. He didn't want to be flogged. He didn't want to carry a wooden cross on His wounded, bleeding back. He didn't want those nails to pierce His hands and His feet. He didn't want to frantically search the sky when the Father turned His face away, but He did want to save us. And so for the joy that was set before Him, he endured the cross. All authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him and He fully submitted Himself to the will of the Father and laid down His life for His bride. The rest of chapter 11, we're not going to have time to get into it, but Paul goes on and he teaches about communion. In verse 23, he says, "I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, He also took the cup after supper, and saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.'" This is what Christlike headship and Christlike submission look like. When we live this out together, we proclaim to the world, we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you loved us to such an extent that you gave the one thing that you treasure the most, your one and only son. Jesus, we thank you for laying down your life, for making the ultimate sacrifice of love for us, for your bride, for the church. Teach us to embrace who you've created us to be and to do what you have called us to do and to show the world that it is a comfort and a joy and a delight to submit to a good and gracious King. Show us, the world, that authority is from you, that all authority is for you, and that we must use it to love and to serve others in your name. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
The Danger of Overconfidence
July 7, 2019 • Andy Hoot • 1 Corinthians 10:1–14
Summary: If there’s one thing that Christians can take away from Lindsey Jacobellis, it is to not be overconfident. We have one shot at living the Christian life and we can’t ruin it by being reckless with our freedom. Lindsey at least took home the silver medal. Second place for us is eternal condemnation. Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and her neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Well, good morning Mosaic. My name is Andy Hoot. I am the pastoral resident here at Mosaic. Pastor Jan is on a much-deserved vacation and Pastor Shane is here, but they're giving me a swing today at preaching. If you didn't hear that there's a little sports reference there. Last week, we had a heavy emphasis on sports in the sermon. I got to just ask for forgiveness, I was just pumped up from Pastor Jan’s sermon and just had heard that in my mind all week. Get ready for a few more sports references. If you're new to Mosaic, welcome. We know there's a lot of health professionals coming in, lot of medical residents, grad students, people from all over the country and world coming in. We are glad that you're here at mosaic. I'd forgot to bring up the connection card. If you want to learn more about us, fill out that connection card in the bulletin. If you fill it out and bring it to our Welcome Center in the middle of the lobby, we have a gift for you. Go there and ask any questions that you'd like about the church. Today, we're continuing in our series called Prodigal Church. We're walking through the book of 1 Corinthians this summer. We're going to cover verses 1 Corinthians 10:1-14. Take your Bibles or your phone apps out if you want to join me. We're going to read 1 Corinthians 10:1-14. Please hear the Word of God, “For I do not want you to be unaware brothers that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all they the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now, these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did.” Do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, these things happened to them as an example, but they're written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to men. God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. Join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, many of us here are people that know Your love, Your mercy, Your grace. Lord, we've been baptized. We partake in the Lord's Supper. Yet, so quickly we forget, we forget the extent that You went to engage in relationship with us. We forget the extent that You went to love us. We forget that You are constantly patient with us. Lord, when we're struggling, we tend to think that You are not there, we question Your goodness, Your justice, Your holiness. Lord, forgive us for that sin. Lord, we ask that Your Spirit would be among us now as we delve into Your word, may it sharpen our hearts, sharpen our affections for You and convert the hearts of those who don't know You. I pray this in Jesus name, amen. Winter 2006, the Winter Olympics were debuting a new sport, snowboard cross. It's a sport, where four heats of four snowboarders race down a steep hill. They have to navigate sharp curves. They have to navigate the other competitors, cutting them off. They have to go over massive jumps and it's not about style. You get there, you scrap to get there the best you can and you just want to get there in first place. To launch the sport, NBC introduced us to Lindsey Jacobellis. Going into the Olympics, she was the favorite by a longshot. She was a 20-year-old blonde, curly hair with beautiful locks flowing out and just that rad snowboarder spirit. Lindsey cruised through the qualification round. She cruised through the semifinals and in the final round, she was dominating. Nine-tenths of the way through, she had at least a 40 meter lead in front of her closest competitor. She had two jumps left. On the second-to-last jump, it looked like she had the win, the gold in the bag. She decided in a moment of overconfidence and over-excitement, she did a trick in midair. The trick looked great, but she didn't land it and she lost her speed. She trickled down the slope just in time to get the silver medal. I remember watching it live with a group of friends, just thinking, “How could you do that?” I wanted to feel bad for her, but I couldn't. She had that coming and that's kind of the tone that the Apostle Paul is bringing to the Corinthians this week. Last week, we went through 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. Again, it was a pump up speech that was Pastor Jan and the Apostle Paul reminding us to approach our faith, to approach the walk, the Christian walk with discipline, with intentionality, with purpose. That was the team huddle, where everybody's standing around before the game. You have your hands in the circle. You have the craziest guy on your team just hyping everybody that's what that felt last week. Now, in 1 Corinthians 10:1-14, it's a couple weeks into the season. The season isn't going as planned. You didn't start off undefeated as you hoped and the Apostle Pauls, they're having a chalk talk session. They're in the classroom. He is saying … Being a little more realistic and he's talking about specific challenges that his group of Christians have faced already and that they're going to face. Really, he's talking about that overconfidence that they're functioning with and how they're placing their confidence in the wrong things. This topic really hits home to me. I came to Mosaic in 2011, fresh out of college. I grew up in the church, but it was at that moment in my life, where I saw my need for a savior. I was convicted of sin, saw my need for a Savior, placed Jesus as Lord of my life. I experienced bliss for two years. I just had freedom from a lot of sin, a lot of things that held me down. The Holy Spirit helped me to break the chains and I've read about seasons and trials and time in the wilderness, but I just didn't buy it. When it came to interacting with the world, I was a little overconfident, probably still inserted myself in communities that were not good for me, probably wanted to show my friends that I didn't change that much. When the trials and challenges appointed by God inevitably came, I was shocked and really just kind of had a little disillusionment. This is a situation of the church in Corinth, they're a group of young believers living in a large Roman metropolis. They're surrounded by non-Christians, pagan temples. They're excited about Christ, but they're not being careful enough in their relationships, their social lives. They're grumbling amongst each other and they're still choosing to watch like all the wrong series on Netflix, like they're still consuming and spending like the rest of the world. Primarily they don't want their friends to think that their non-Christian friends to think that Christians don't have fun. They don't want them to think that they're closed-minded. It's much like the feeling that some of us can have in Boston and this text is kind of funny, the Apostle Paul in the Chapter 10, he's taking a brief detour back to Chapter 8. In that chapter, he was talking to the strong. These were Christians in the Corinthian church that thought that it was okay to attend meals in temples that were dedicated to idols. They thought it was okay to eat meat dedicated to these idols. In that chapter, Paul was very delicate and gentle. He said, “It's probably not a good idea because it could make your weaker brother stumble, your younger Christians, your less mature Christians, the Christians with a background in paganism.” Here, he goes around the topic in Chapter 9 and he's direct. He comes back in a way that only Paul can. He's basically trying to scare the pants off of his crowd. He's just saying, “Don't do it, don't toy with idolatry and it could literally be the death of you.” The passage today has a bit of a grim message to it, but we like to preach the whole word here at Mosaic. Our society doesn't necessarily like teaching in negatives, do not, do not, do not that's how the Apostle Paul delivers them to us. We're going to follow him. Today, we're going to break down the passage and Paul's warning against overconfidence around idolatry into three points, know who you are, know the opposition and know your coach. Know who you are, first one, “For I do not want you to be unaware brothers that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from spiritual Rock that followed them and the Rock was Christ.” What Paul is doing here, we don't normally talk about baptism and the Lord's Supper as directly with regards to the Old Testament. He's talking about a form of baptism that the Old Testament believers experienced. This spiritual food, the spiritual drink, it's referring to the Lord's Supper. He's talking about that indirectly reminding the Corinthians of their baptism. They're partaking in the Lord's Supper. They're followers of Jesus. He's beginning to remind them who are you? They're followers of Jesus, baptized into His death, risen to new life in His resurrection. They partake in communion to re-announce that to renew their fellowship with the Lord and they're standing and they're sustained by the Rock of Christ. This is an intentional strategy. I think we all have experienced this in some area of life. My college soccer coach at the beginning of every season, after he made cuts, the first thing he did every year was he gathered us around in the classroom. He gave us our jerseys, gave us our training gear, gave us a shirt with the team crest on it. He emphasized that whole session, what an honor it was to wear that crest. He talked about the history of the program. He reminded us that we're now part of something bigger than ourselves. He told us that we represented not just ourselves in all that we did, we represented the team on campus, when we traveled with the team, in the classroom when we're socializing on campus. It was a lot like a soldier receiving his uniform, a medical professional at the white coat ceremony, receiving the white coat. It's just a piece of cloth physically, but it represents so much more in reality. A coach or an organization, they want you to have dignity in wearing the crest and wearing your gear. They want this to become a part of your identity. If they successfully hype you, like you want to parade this the fact that you're on the team everywhere. I remember I coached high school soccer and it wasn't a great team. We had JV Varsity. We had 20 freshmen come in every year and I remember this kid was 5 foot 2, probably 150 pounds. He’s kind of like a circle. He was struggling all preseason, like a three week preseason and just running a mile, he's just literally crying. He at least kept going, just literally crying, complaining the whole preseason, but at the end of that preseason, we gave them the uniforms and the team warm-ups. That drastically changed that kid. He came in, he started showing up just in his full gear, wore it to school multiple days a week, every day that we had a game. He started gelling his hair. He was a freshman, but the kid started yelling at all of the seniors. The next year, it just drastically changed him. The next year, he came in 30 pounds lighter. He came in as one of the best players, like that transformation was incredible. What Paul's saying, “When you reflect on who you are as a Christian, when you reflect on the uniform that you wear that's the transformation that you should have in your life.” How do we put on a uniform in the Christian life? Some people think it's a WWJD Bracelet. Some people think it's that gold chain with the cross. Others like the tattoo on their arm or on their back, but we put on the uniform of Christ when we get baptized. That is our white coat ceremony. That is that moment of receiving our uniform officially. It's an outward sign of something that has inwardly taken place. We are renewed, we're brought to life in Christ. When we take communion, we're going to take it later today, we're reminding ourselves of that initial baptism and we're renewing the commitment to wear that shirt with pride every day. We're not just fellowshipping here with Christ on Sunday morning, the rest of the week, we're wearing that jersey. Paul wants us to know that knowing who we are in Christ, it helps us in many ways, a lot like in the similar ways that my coach wanted. Knowing who we are in Christ should change the way we carry ourselves in day to day life. When we take time to think that we are sinners, Jesus had no reason to go to the cross for us. He's been gracious for us. He is merciful. God could strike us with His wrath at any moment, but He didn't and He still doesn't. That should lead us to live lives of thankfulness and to do good works with excitement. Romans 6:1-4 says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound, by no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Do you not know that all of us, who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We're buried therefore with Him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Our conversion, our baptism, the partaking of the Lord's Supper, these things should remind us too that our whole lives should be transformed through our relationship with Christ. Knowing who you are in Christ, it takes the pressure off of ourselves to build an identity. Instead of exhausting ourselves, just trying to build something with our own strength, we are given one. God did everything for our salvation as He did for the Israelites. He led the people out of Egypt. He parted the waters. He gave them the food in the desert. All they had to do was follow, drink and eat. Part of this is in addressing overconfidence, this is humbling. We are not who we are by anything that we did. When we walk, there's a humility. We're not reckless. We're not presuming upon the grace that has been extended to us. Knowing who we are in Christ is empowering. It gives us an identity because it was bought by God that the world cannot take away from us. If we embarrass ourselves for the sake of the Kingdom of God, like what does the opinion of man matter? Knowing that we're sustained by Christ, sustained by the Holy Spirit, we're emboldened to strive for the glory of His Kingdom with a greater zeal. Just the imagery of what this looks like, an empowered Christian, who knows his identity in Christ, I like to go to Pastor Jan illustrated this a lot for us last week. I like to go to Nehemiah 4. 4 Nehemiah as a man, he receives a call from God to go rebuild the wall in Jerusalem, the city’s exposed, could be attacked at any point by enemies. He leads this charge to rebuild the wall. All of the local enemies start trying to slow the work. It says, “The people were building the wall with a shovel in one hand and a shield in the other.” That's the way that we're to approach our Christian lives. If you're not bringing that zeal, challenge yourself a lot. Just another way that knowing who we are in Christ is that it helps us take the attention of ourselves away from ourselves and our focus changes from ourselves to loving God and loving others. We don't get caught up in foolish pursuits and quarrels. We don't mind eating, drinking, socializing differently if it helps prevent a brother from falling or if it helps attract someone to the faith. At Mosaic, just one way in particular that this applies is that community group. Those of you who are more mature, who are, “Strong,” you can pause to discuss the basics of the gospel to that guest to that new person to that seeker, instead of having deep theological discussion that you crave. When we know who we are in Christ, the focus is not for our betterment, it's for God, for our brothers and sisters around us. Lastly, when you know who you are in Christ, you have an identity that you can hold onto in the wilderness. You're going through difficulties, you have to have something to hold onto. Maybe you haven't seen a large body of water split, you haven't had a giant cloud guide you in the desert like the Israelites, you haven't seen manna raining from the sky, but the fact that you are a Christian is miraculous. The fact that you and your sin would publicly declare that you're Christian in Boston in 2019 is miraculous. When you think of the miracles, everybody, every Christian knows the slavery that they were living in, the darkness that they were living in, the blindness that they're living in and you know that you didn't come out, you were drowning and you didn't even know that you needed to try to pull yourself up out of the water. When you reflect on that God pulled you out of that like this gives you hope in the future, in the wilderness when the storms and trials come, God will deliver you and get you through your despair again. Just in this section of verses 1 through 4, he reminds the Israelites who they are, but he also tells them, “If you don't remember who you are, you can fall.” Just going through the motions of baptism, going through the motions when we partake in the Lord's Supper that doesn't save you. There are millions of Christians around the world, there's a large church, centered in Europe that a lot of people think this, it doesn't give you a free pass. Your baptism, your communion, it doesn't give you a free pass to the trials to the effects of idolatry. He's saying to the Israelites, “If you don't know who you are in Christ, you could fall like them.” Verse 5 says, “Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” Now, these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. God worked these mighty miracles to save them and they questioned Him and they turned away from Him really quickly. I just read these verses. You read your Bible app and it takes you through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, January through April and May and like, you're reading about just the stupidity of these people. They're brought out of Egypt with mighty miracles and we tend to think that if we were there, if we saw what they saw, if we ate what they ate, we never would have fallen like them. Paul's telling us in this passage, “Be careful, we're just as likely to turn aside from God as them.” To prevent us from falling like the Israelites, the next step, he wants us to know our opposition. In VERSES 7 to 11, he highlights four sins that led to the demise of thousands of Israelites. In fact, more than thousands of the original people, who left Egypt at the Exodus, only Joshua and Caleb were the only ones that made it to the Promised Land. I want to take you through very quickly these four sins and these four Old Testament stories to highlight the sins and also, the potential demise that could come to us if we're not careful. In verse 7, Paul writes, “Do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written. The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” This is referring to a story in Exodus 32, a meeting between Moses and God on Mount Sinai. It took longer than expected. The text doesn't say why. The people got bored and restless and they thought that Moses wasn't going to come back. They told Aaron, Moses's right-hand man to fashion a God for them and they worshipped him how they wanted. That resulted in the worship throughout into eating and drinking and playing. The original word for that is playing sexually. When Moses came back down to the mountain, what happened? This is Exodus 32:26, Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. All the sons of Levi gathered around him and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord of God, put your sword on side each of you and go to and fro from the gate to gate throughout the camp and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.” The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses and that day about 3,000 men of the people fell. Verse 8, he says, “We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23,000 fell and a single day.” This comes from Numbers 25. While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. Israel yoked himself to bow of Baal of Peor and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the Sun before the Lord that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you killed those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.” Shortly after that God sent a plague that killed another 20-some thousand people. Verse 9, “We must not put Christ of a test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents.” This comes from numbers 21:4, “From Mount Hor, they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. The people became impatient on the way. All the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness for there is no food and no water and we loathe this worthless food.’” Then, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many of Israel died. In verse 10, “Nor do not grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.” There are a lot of places, where the Israelites grumbled against God, but this is likely referring to the story of Numbers 14, God leads the people to the Promised Land. They're right there. He sends spies in to explore the land. They come back and they say, “Yes, the land is awesome, but the people are huge and the cities are fortified.” Numbers 14 continues, “Then all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole Assembly said to them, ‘If only we had died in Egypt, we're in the wilderness. Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder, wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?’” They said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, verse 26, saying, “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I've heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against Me. Say to them, “As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing, I will do to you. Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness and all of your number, listed in the census from 20 years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. Not one shall come into the land, where I swore that I would make you dwell except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh and Joshua, the son of Nun.” Verse 36, “And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against Him by bringing up a bad report about the land, the men who brought up a bad report of the land died by plague before the Lord.” “Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua, the son of Nun and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh remained alive.” These stories are pretty terrifying. If you’ve drifted, come back. After this gruesome story time, Grandpa Paul says to the Corinthians, “Now, these things happened to them as an example, but they're written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands, take heed lest he fall.” Verse 14, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” He's saying the same thing to us as he did to Corinthians, idolatry, sexual immorality, putting Christ to the test that's testing the limits, you know God's law. You know he's in charge, but you're just going to keep pushing and pushing until He strikes you. Idolatry, sexual immorality, putting Christ to the test and grumbling, they're serious sins and we must still in 2019 guard against them diligently. If you think these are just gruesome stories about the past, you're wrong. If we look at the common theme in these stories, the people stopped trusting and worshipping God. They began to trust and worship in something else. They're grumbling with what God gave them. They're believing something else is going to deliver us, something else is going to give us lasting peace and satisfaction. They're putting Christ to the test. They're thinking whatever they're choosing in that moment that's going to deliver them. The Israelites saw all the miracles of God. He brought them out of Egypt, but Moses didn't come down the mountain in what they felt a reasonable amount of time. Therefore, they rebelled. Are you in the wilderness, are you waiting? Is God taking too long to answer prayer? Are you seeking a quicker fix, choosing temporary satisfaction, be careful. In Boston, some of you, some of us just live our lives so fast that we have no patience at all. You move fast, you work fast, you run 5Ks fast and the pace that you live that's probably what brought you to Boston that's probably what makes you successful at your job, but stop pressuring God, stop pressuring your spouse, who's a little different, stop pressuring your children to function at your pace. We think of Old Testament examples, Abraham and Sarah, they got the promise. They had to wait several decades until they were in their 90s until God gave them their promised child. Joseph at the end of Genesis, his brothers sell him into slavery. When he's in slavery, he's accused of sexually assaulting a woman. He goes through couple decades of trials before God uses him, used those tests, used those lessons to bring him to a point, where he could save his family from famine, serving as a right-hand man of Pharaoh. The Israelites knew that God was one true God. Remember before they left Egypt, he dominated all the other gods, but the religious and sexual practices or religious/sexual practices of their neighbors just looked so enticing that they couldn't resist. We're talking sexual prostitution, temple prostitution. Do you look around at your non-Christian friends and think, “I wish I could do what they do.” Do you want to eat like them, dress like them, spend like them go to Sunday brunch like them, attend all the same parties? Are you compromising your beliefs just to fit in with a certain crowd, to start a relationship, if so, who or what is your God? God was feeding the Israelites with manna, this bread like grainy substance that literally fell from heaven six days a week and on the sixth day, twice as much came down, so they didn't have to gather it on the Sabbath. He fed them water from a rock twice. It wasn't good enough for them. Are you overlooking all of God's gifts to you? Do you want something that you think is better? Do you value travel, food, wine, a romantic relationship more than you value your relationship with God? This is hard, like there is a barrage from the media and social media, trying to convince us that we're not content with our day-to-day lives, like you think the travel shows, the international cooking shows, home makeover shows, home makeover shows in the Caribbean, home makeover shows in beautiful rural mountainous regions, they're giving us this message that if you just escape from where you are that's going to satisfy you. I keep getting an advertisement on my Facebook and it's a guy canoeing in a beautiful, bright blue pond on top of a glacier that's on top of a mountain. It's playing a song about escape. I question you how are you fighting this message that if you escape, you're going to be satisfied? That escape will be more satisfying than going forward in the day to day life that God's called you to? You know what I do on Facebook, top right corner, there's three dots and you can click hide post. You can choose not relevant or sometimes, you can choose to write a message, “Say other,” and say, “Thank you, I'm satisfied in Jesus.” Like what are you doing to fight this? It's prevalent. I mean for me, it can be as simple as on a busy day, I think a cup of coffee is going to deliver me, just if I don't give that 15 minutes, where I'm sitting and drinking coffee and doing nothing, like I turn into a monster. Like what is it for you, it's not just big trips, but in our day to day lives? God led the people to the Promised Land, but they got scared and wanted to turn away. Is God asking you to face a giant that seems too big, are you saying to God, “I can't do it. I'd rather go back to Egypt.” Have you been asking God to use you, but when He does, He puts someone in your life, who's so hard to love, so hard to care for that you just slowly shy away from the relationship, so that you don't have to deal with it. Are you all about Jesus, but when it comes to the nitty-gritty, you just complain about the church, about the people in your community group, about your family? The Israelites grumbled. They grumbled about the manna, again that fell from heaven. They grumbled about their leadership. They grumbled about the Promised Land when they got there. A lot of us know Jesus, we've never lacked for any resources. We've never had sleepless nights in the wilderness. We've never had any major health issues. A lot of us here get to go on multiple vacations a year and we still find ways to grumble all the time. I'm guilty. My whole life, everybody told me how good I was. I was in a small town, where if you follow the rules, did your homework, trained a little bit extra for sports that put you at the top performance-wise. When I got married, I learned how much of a pain I was, how much I complained non-stop. A verse that changed my life, Matthew 12:36, this is just clear, I tell you on the Day of Judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. I tell you on the Day of Judgment, people will give an account for every careless word they speak. That's every as in there. Are you struggling with grumbling about your spouse? I take on a lot of the counseling for the church in my role. That's the area that I really love to serve in. Every time a couple, married, not married comes to me, it begins with one verse, Matthew 7:3, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” Like are you really when you're grumbling about your family, your partner, the church like are you actually looking at the log in your own eye? Remember this is the gospel, it humbles us. When we know we're saved by grace, like we know and we know that darkness that we were in before Jesus pulled us up out of it, like we're constantly checking ourselves to see am I sinning, is the flesh guiding me? This is real talk, these are hard topics and questions. Paul is saying, “All of these things have serious consequences.” He's saying, “Don't toy around, don't mess with idolatry, sexual immorality, putting God to the test and grumbling, just don't do it.” I've been a little hard, this does hit close to me. I'm really soft sometimes. I feel like things are often too hard. I constantly … When I sit down with people, I encourage them to push themselves, ask themselves, “What is God calling them to do?” Stay faithful to it, I struggle to it. Just the other day, on the 4th of July, I grew up in a household that had a 4th of July party every year. In my apartment, there's a pool, there's a deck. Everybody's celebrating around me while I'm studying, preparing for this sermon and I'm just asking myself, “How did I get here, how am I in Boston, several hundred miles away from this party?” Of course, everyone in my family is posting pictures on social media and this stuff, this thinking can come up just at any moment, but I know some of you are dealing with just much more difficult things, illness, divorce, breakup, abuse, infertility, recent death of a loved one, financial difficulties, loneliness, demanding jobs, unique callings and supporting people, dealing with any of those things, sometimes just caring, walking beside someone through those times can really wear on us. At this point, you might be experiencing doubt and it's easy to question God. It's easy in these moments to turn to idols, turn to sex, turn to grumbling, turn to testing God. I often think of the Shire. My home town, it's like a small town. Everybody's happy, not many people leave and it's just this jolly place. When I have to face a challenge, I just want to go back to the Shire. I'm like Samwise in Lord of the Rings. What is it for you, what do you turn to in these moments? Is it God? Is it turning to Him and trusting, You've put me here for a purpose, You want my growth, you want my sanctification, You want to use me in this period to further Your Kingdom or is it an idol? Really ask yourselves that. Really, I think a lot of you, I hope at this point, I've done a good job that I'm making you feel the weight of it all, like the Christian walk really does sound too difficult and it sounds terrifying. You're asking like, “Is God really good?” To me that brings up my final point, know your coach. In sports, there's nothing more disappointing for an athlete than when a coach puts a player in the wrong position. In college soccer, I played left bench and really butted heads with my coach. When a coach forces you to play in the wrong position, like you just lose your trust for him, you don't want to listen to his commands, you don't want to run those laps for him. You just want to quit playing altogether. In Christianity, we do not have a coach like that. Verse 13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.” Paul assures us that God is faithful, He will hold up His end of the bargain. He will not desert us. He will not tempt us beyond our ability. He's not setting us up to fail. He will always provide the means of escape that we can endure. I mean in a lot of counseling, a lot of discipleship is telling people, “Do you believe this,” and then just walking people through that when it's tough. Isaiah 43 says, “But now thus says the lord he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not for I have redeemed you. I've called you by My name, you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with You and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you for I'm the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, Your savior.” Just really quickly, these verses can be abused. There's that idea of let go and let God, like I'm just going to keep living in sin, I'm not going to repent, I'm not going to turn in faith to the Lord and I'm just going to let God miraculously rescue me that is putting the Lord to the test. My favorite artist Josh Garrels, he has a song on this theme called the Resistance. He says, “How do good men become a part of the regime? They don't believe in resistance,” like we have to put up a resistance, holding on is an active process. Seeking God's help as an active process. We need to fight. We just can't think we're immune to the dangers of these sins and idolatry. Really quickly, I want to touch on is God good? Scripture tells us all over, He's good. Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change the shifting shadows. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever. The problem is on this topic of is God good, our modern idea of goodness, it's twisted. I think C.S. Lewis captures us really well, “By the goodness of God, we mean nowadays almost exclusively His lovingness. By love in this context, most of us mean kindness, the desire to see others than the self happy, not happy in this way or in that but just happy. What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, what does it matter so long as they are contented? We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven, a senile, benevolent, who as they say like to see young people enjoying themselves and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly sad at the end of each day, a good time was had by all.” Now, I grew up about 200 yards from my grandmother. My mum had cable TV and a huge stock of fudgesicles. It was my routine for a couple of years in elementary school to go to her house after school, watch some TV, have a minimum of four fudgesicles and this is how my mum loved me. It was love, but it was somewhat of an indifferent love. It was focused on my temporary happiness in the moment. Now, my mom on the other hand, who got angry when I went home from my mum's and didn't eat dinner, she cared about my teeth, she cared about my health, she cared about what I was watching on TV. She loved me with a fierce love. It was a more true love. If an acquaintance is struggling with a heroin addiction, we might in the moment be rattled. We might say a prayer for them. We might support their family with a message of encouragement, but we would go to sleep that night. If our parents or a spouse or a sibling or a child were in the same situation, we would lose sleep, we would fight. We'd fight hard to break the addiction, to get them into detox, to keep them clean. God's wrath against sin and idolatry, His desire for us to flee from sin, it's born out of His love for us. He knows it's bad for us. He doesn't want it to harm us. He knows that it can break our communion, break our bond with Him. He does what he can to remove it from the lives of His people. A.W. Pink says, “Now, the wrath of God is as much a divine perfection as is His faithfulness, power or mercy.” It must be so for there is no blemish, not even a defect from the character of God. Yet, there would be if wrath were absent from Him. Indifference to sin is a moral blemish and he who hates it not is a moral leper. How could He who is the Sum of all excellency look with equal satisfaction upon virtue and vice, wisdom and folly? How could He who delights only in that which is pure and lovely, loathe and hate not that which is impure and vile?” Just like my mom, God's love for us, it's fierce and it's true. It's not apathetic. It's not distant. It's not set on our temporary needs, though oftentimes He does give us good and perfect gifts. It's so close. It's so real that He sent His son Jesus to come and die for us. That is the ultimate proof that He is good. He didn't let our sin go un-forgiven. Instead, He released the wrath upon His own son, like how could that be a cruel God? In the moments when we want to give up, in the moments when we're tempted to partake in something that we know is sinful and idolatrous, we have to remind ourselves of who we are, we're children of God, slaves freed by Him. We have to remind ourselves that He has done the work. Jesus is a treasure greater than any family, greater than any friends, adrenaline-filled experience, reputation, comfort. Trials and temptations are going to come in this life, but we don't face them needlessly and we do not face them alone. With the help of o good and faithful coach, God, we can stand firm. Please join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we ask for forgiveness for turning from You. We ask for forgiveness for thinking that momentary pleasures, momentary joys, momentary feelings can replace You. Forgive us for not appreciating the fierce love with which You pursue us and with which you sustain us. Lord, help us to appreciate the burn of sanctification, help us to walk forward with the shovel in one hand and the shield in the other. Lord, help us bring glory to Your name alone, amen.
Joyful Running
June 30, 2019 • 1 Corinthians 9:24–27
Summary: In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Holy Scripture compares the Christian life to a runner running, an athlete training, and a fighter fighting. It's easy to read the text with a performance-based-mindset and say, great, if this is how I need to succeed in my Christian life, I'll do whatever it takes to earn my salvation. But Jesus offers us rest and a race. There's a way to run restfully and joyfully. Since Jesus ran his race to the cross with joy, now we can run our race with joy as well. Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning, welcome to Mosaic church my name is Jan. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic along with Shane Sikkema. And if you're new or if you're visiting welcome. We're so glad you're here. And if you'd like to connect with us we'd like to connect with you, no pressure. We do that officially through the connection card and the worship guide if you filled it out legibly. You can either toss it into the offering basket afterwards or my recommendation you redeem it at the welcome center for a little gift that we have lovingly prepared for you. With that said would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word. Heavenly Father we thank you that you are a God who wants to see us succeed. You are a God who says that you have come to give us life and life to the full. And I pray Lord Jesus that you today show us that you are Christus Victor, you are the God of all victory. You triumphed over Satan, sin and death. Therefore, we can now live lives of victory, victorious lives running with you on mission, on the mission that you have for us, running in our lane not driven by pride or fear, but led, fueled by love and joy given to us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray Holy Spirit come into this space now, convict us of sin where there is sin, perhaps sin of complacency, perhaps sin of coasting in our faith, trying to get by on cruise control and that's when the enemy takes us out. I pray today show us Lord that you have a mission for us that you need us full throttle, full tilt living lives of meaning, living lives of purpose, living lives of impact and intentionality. We pray Holy Spirit come, speak, lead, convict, cleanse, and most importantly we just want you here. We long for your presence. And I pray all this in Christ's holy name. We long for your presence. And I pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. So, my wife goes to the first service and after the first service she always comes to me with feedback. And her feedback today was, "Jan you were too happy. No one in Boston likes that, they get freaked out." And the reason why, it's a happy sermon because today I'm talking about my two favorite things, which is Jesus and sports. It's two things in one. Saint Paul today in first Corinthians 9, 24:27, what he does is he compares the Christian life to a runner in a race, to an athlete training and to a fighter fighting. The title of the sermon, I don't always have titles to the sermon, I have one today. And this is a phrase I'd like the stick with you. It's joyful running and joy fueled running. Joyful, you enjoy it. And that same joy is what keeps you going. So Saint Paul started this church in Corinth, it's an urban center very similar to Boston. Young, hip, a lot of people coming from all over the Roman Empire to make a name for themselves in this place. And when Saint Paul started this church, and he was there in 51 A.D. when the Isthmian Games were happening. The Isthmian Games were only second to the Olympic Games. But everyone in Corinth thought the Isthmian Games were better just like everyone in Boston knows that the best marathon in the whole world is the Boston Marathon. I don't care what anyone else says. So that's kind of ... So as he's talking about these metaphors, he's using these illustrations, he is tapping into something deep, something that resonates. In a culture where bread and circuses, what people wanted, food and entertainment similar to us today. And for them in the Corinthian culture the epitome of humanity was a person with a noble mind and beautiful body. And that's what everyone was striving for, similar to Boston. So the big idea of the sermon today is that everybody is running. Everybody is running a race. And we're all training for something. And that training is the habits of our lives. And we're either progressing or we're regressing. So if you're an athlete you understand, and even if you're not an athlete, you probably, you watch sports. You understand sports. And even if you don't in order to contextualize in Boston you should. This is title town, right? We go, how long has it been, like when the Bruins were in the finals we should have won. We should have won. We should have won that. But everyone was saying like we've got a drought of championships. The last championship was like four months before that was when the Pats won the Super Bowl and then the Sox. So all these metaphors they really connect in our context. We understand that goals aren't deserved. We're not entitled to goals. We're not entitled ... And this is really important to know in our culture of participation trophies. Goals are earned. Wins are earned. That's what Saint Paul is talking about. And growth in the Christian life, training in the Christian life is very similar to training athletically. There is pain, but you learn to embrace the pain. You learn to get through the pain. Your threshold for pain increases. This is why we workout. If there's no sweat puddle, that nasty little sweat puddle at the end of your workout did you even do anything? That's what Saint Paul is saying. Where your nasty sweat puddle spiritually? Are you pushing yourself? That's what he's talking ... Okay. When first Corinthians 9, 24:27, would you look at the text with me either in your Bible or on your app or on the screen. "Do you not know tat ina race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." This is the reading of God's holy and errant and infallible authoritative word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time, three questions. Why do we win? How do we win? And what do we win? So first of all, why do we win? Saint Paul's presupposition here, and this is really important, he's saying we're not called to strive to earn salvation. This is really important. He's saying don't run in order to earn salvation. Don't run in order to get acceptance from God, the earn His love, to earn a place in Heaven. That's already been secured through the work of Jesus Christ, the Great Victor, Christus Victor. So because Christ has won we can now be champions, victors. We can be more than conquerors, is the phrase that Saint Paul used. The idea is that Christ already won the war. Now we are to go and win the battle. It's like in the Old Testament, God tells the chosen people, He tells Israel, "I'm giving you the promised land. It's yours. Now go and get. Now go and take it." Same thing, victory is yours now go and take that victory. And there will be times when there are setbacks, when it seems like hope is utterly lost, like there's no chance. This is a whole history of humanity. Adam and Eve had it and it was perfect. And then hopelessness, hopelessness, hopelessness. God sends prophet after prophet after prophet. Glimmers of hope, glimmers of hope. And then again hopelessness, hopelessness, hopelessness until, until the Chosen One was sent. Until the one who should have made a lot more money. His contract is worth probably, I don't know, $150 million dollars at least. But he says you know what? I'm going to take the pay cut because I want to be on your team. He joins our team. The Chosen One. The Great One. You know I'm talking about Jesus Christ, right? And in our lives there's always setbacks. And the setback is always the setup for the comeback. The sermon is going to be chock full of cliches. Just warning you right now and it's the last time I'm going the say that. And we're going to play a drinking game of coffee. Every time there's a cliché take a swig of coffee. So every setback is a setup for the comeback because there was the ultimate setback. The Son of God comes. The Son of God, Son of Man, ultimate setback. He lives the perfect life we should have lived. He dies the death that we deserve to die. And He go into a tomb. And right here, and this is every single race, sports, game, sports, movie, there's always the comeback, right? We got to the point of no return. And out of nowhere, out of the oblivion He bounces back. What an incredible turnaround. This is the Cinderella story with the storybook ending. He hits it out of the park. It's a hole in one tomb. And then Jesus Christ comes back from the dead, the ultimate setback is the setup for the ultimate comeback. That's Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead. Now, what does that mean to us? That means there's a wing of momentum. And in every game there's that swing of momentum like when the Pats were down to Atlanta a few years back. Remember that? There's a swing of momentum. You feel it. We're down 28 to 3. But there's a swing of momentum because we've got the greatest quarterback on our team who doesn't buckle under the pressure. Jesus Christ I'm talking about. And because there's a swing of momentum we can play with confidence because we know the end. I've read the Book of Revelations. You know what happens at the end? We know the end. Jesus wins. That's what happens at the end. Jesus wins. That's what happens at the end. Therefore, in all humility we can live lives of confidence and play like we got nothing to lose. Play like we're on a mission. His suffering, His death, His resurrection fuels our win. His suffering gives meaning to our suffering. His death gives us life. He plays in a way that electrifies all of us. And I say all this to say this. When you read this passage in first Corinthians 9, 24:27, being the Type A person that you ar, being the performance driven, performance identify driven person that you are it's easy to read it and say okay, this is how I grow in the faith. I'm going to grow myself. I'm going to get my own victory. I'm going to secure my own salvation. I'm going to build my own identify. And that's what I'm saying Paul is saying, that's a very works based mindset. Saint Paul is saying at Jesus Christ has run the perfect race. And now His performance is counted to us and that grace fuels our race. Hebrews 12, 1:2, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." We're running. "Race that before us looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of your faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross," that's him running his own race. He ran his own race. "Despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." What propelled, what fueled Jesus? It was joy. The joy of seeing God the Father's delight in his sacrifice. The joy of seeing us come the faith. Every single one of our names is graven on his hands that giving fuel to his joy. Now because of His sacrifice we can also be fueled with joy to run the race that we have for us. Every single sports movie when the champ wins the championship and this is every great championship, by the way. This is the NBA championship recently. This is every time Tom Brady, oh I'll just throw that name out there. He's a good guy. Tom, still praying for him to become a member of Mosaic and then we can buy Temple of Bai Shalom. Tom Brady, the last Super Bowl that he won there's always this moment at the end where he's like yah, yah! And he puts his other hand on his head, I can't believe it, but I can because I've been working for this my whole life and that's why I eat avocado ice cream. And he does this thing and then he always points to someone. He's like, he points to Gronk, he points to Edelman and they do the same and they point right back. And then this is what happens in the great championships. And the champ takes his jersey off. He brings it to the person that he pointed to. He signs it. There's an autograph. He gives it to the person. You know what the person does? They put the jersey on. And you know what it says on the back of the jersey that Jesus Christ gave us? It says his last name. Not that it's His last name, but you know what I'm saying. It says Christ. This is what it means to be a Christian. Jesus won that championship, put on his jersey, you're on his team. This is what he, so that's why can we win? Because Jesus Christ has won. Matthew 11:23, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden," that's people who are burdened with sin and burdened with self righteousness. Sin, I can't live the way I'm supposed to live. Self righteousness, I think I'm a good person. Here's my good works. And that's not enough. That burdens us. We bring that to Jesus and He says I will give you rest. But he doesn't stop there. He doesn't say I give you rest. Now I put you in a waiting room on nice comfortable couches until I come back to take you to Heaven. That's not what He does. He says, "Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me for I'm gentle and lonely in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." You know what He's saying? He's saying I saved you. I'm giving rest. You don't have to carry your own yoke of righteousness. Come to me. Partner with me. You know what a yoke is? Two animals with a yoke together and the stronger animal would carry more of the burden. And Jesus I saying this is why my yoke is light. I've done the work, but I want you close to me. I want you running with me. And that's when you find ultimate rest for your souls. When you are yoked with Jesus, when you're right there ... Some of you have not felt the presence of God in a long time. Some of you as believers have not felt the presence of God in a long time and you're saying God where are you? I feel like I'm in a dry spot. I feel like in the valley of the shadow of death. God where are you? And Jesus is saying I'm right here where you, why aren't you yoked to me? Why aren't you on mission? Why aren't you running next to me? And that's when we get ultimate rest for our souls. So if there's a dissatisfaction in your soul, if there's any unease, if there's a lack of restlessness perhaps you're not close to Him. And so Jesus invites us to run together. And we're not driven by our performance. We're led by his performance. And I run the race, I can run the race that I'm called to. I don't have to look to the sides to see who's running faster or who's running slower. I don't have to look at a person who's running better than I am and be envious of that person. I don't have to look at someone who's not running as hard as I am and being proud an condescending, I'm a lot better. I can run my race. God, what's the race that you have for me? And now self discipline isn't fueled by shame and it's not fueled by guilt. We're not running from failure, restlessness, lack of satisfaction. We're running from victory for victory. I'm not driven by pride. I'm not driven by fear. I'm led by the Holy Spirit, fueled by love and joy. And now my self worth, how I feel about myself, it's not based on my performance. It's based on His performance. This is how Jesus offers us both a race and rest. And we can run restfully in the race that he has for us. Joyful running, joy fueled running. So why do win? Because Jesus won. Number two, how do we win? By the way, this point actually has 10 sub points. So if you've zoned out - 10, yeah - if you've zoned out we're going the go quick maybe. If you've zoned out come back because this part of the lecture will be on the exam. You know how you listen in class, you're smart enough. I don't have to explain this. Sub point number one, let's go! And this is Tom Brady, let's go! That's what I'm talking about. With seven Os. Why seven? One for every single one of his Super Bowl wins. Plus his favorite one, the next one. So that's why seven. A lot of Christians who grew up in the church, they know the Christianese. They know the lingo. You know how to go to Communion group, you know what to say, you know how to pray. And you pray for traveling mercies and you know what I'm saying. And it's easy to cover up the fact that you're not doing anything. You're not in the game. You know the plays, but you're not on the field. You're on the bench. So Jesus calls us to step up to the plate. He says the ball's in your court. Don't just show up on any given Sunday. We don't want just the Sunday quarterback or a Monday morning quarterback. No one likes that guy. We want an every single day quarterback. That's what Jesus calls us to. You know how a lot of people run the Christian faith? They run like people run road races in Boston where your friends come to you like, "What are you doing this weekend?" "Nothing." "You want to go run a 5K?" "Sure. I haven't run in six months, but sure, it'll be fun." And you pay your whatever, $150 fee and you've got, you get a medal so why not. And you do it for the instapick and you do it for the medal at the end. "So what are you doing?" "Oh, nothing." You roll out of bed, your friends call you. "What are you doing today?" "Nothing." "It's Sunday. You want to go run a race?" "Sure. How long is it?" "It's about an hour 20, hour 30 depending on how long the guy talks. But they give bagels an coffee and the band's really good and the space is okay. Let's go run the race." And that's, for many of you, and offense non taken, that's your Christian walk. Your race. And you're done with that and you go about the rest of your week. And what Jesus here is saying is there's no vacations from following Christ. You can't go on a hiatus from being a Christian just like you can't go on a hiatus from breathing. Being a Christian is compared to life. Regeneration is like being born, being born again. You can't take break from food. You can't take, you can but, you can't stop eating forever. You can't stop drinking ... You get what I'm saying. You know what Sunday is? Sunday isn't the race. This isn't the race. This is halftime. This is us in the locker room and this is the emotional inspirational speech. This is me trying the get you pumped. I'm trying to be Belichick, trying to get you pumped and saying we got to dig deep. We got to make our halftime adjustments. There are things we need to change in order to win. And do you want to win? Are we here to play or if not let's just get on the bus right now and forfeit. There's a few professional athletes at Mosaic and I emailed them this week and I said, "Help me write the sermon because you've got a very particular vantage point." And two of them wrote back. And one is a sports psychologist. I've got a few quotes here. Shout out to them if they're listening. I'll just say their names. You know who I'm talking about. Abby D'Agostino, who's in the Olympics, married to Jacob Cooper who's a sports psychologist. And Liz Costello who's just a baller all around. So I emailed them, great stuff. And this is one of the lines. If you train as an athlete to win it absolutely, absolutely changes how you look at everything. This is the lens through which you look at every single decision in your life. Talking about diet and nutrition, the supplements you take, what you eat, what you don't eat. Talk about time on your feet. Talking about social plans, travel plans, sleep. Everything is filtered through the question will this hurt my training or will this help my training? This is the spiritual life. This is what it means to be a Christian. You look at everything through the lens of the Gospel. Is this helping me grow in the faith? Christianity is an ultra marathon. It is, for the rest of our lives. But it's done one play at a time. One sequence at a time. One game at a time. And if you lose one play, if you lose one sequence or if you lose one game you win or you learn. You keep, you get back up and there's always grace that keeps you going. Point two, sub point two, pain is weakness leaving the body or the soul. Time under pressure builds strength. It does. Same thing spiritually. Diamonds are made under pressure. So are muscles. So strength, perseverance, endurance, it comes with pressure. We're refined by fire. And this is what Saint Paul is saying is that there are sacrifices to make. Just like you already make sacrifices for what you think is important in life. Where are your sacrifices for your run after Christ? Where are you sacrificing? And yeah, the sacrifice is painful in the beginning. Just like if you haven't worked out and you're like, "I need to workout." That first workout, man you dread that thing. Anything but that. That first run, that first time, oh no! And as you're going through you're like this is the worst, this is the worst. I hate this, I hate this, I hate this. Why am I ... But then you're done you feel so good. The endorphins start kicking in like you, they, a little soreness. You're like okay, all right. And you string a few of those together and then you start craving it. You start craving that pain, that sacrifice. You begin to find pleasure in being under the pressure. There's something there. Our world, we've been spoonfed this lie that comfort is where it's at, pleasure is where it's at. Stay as far away from sacrifice and pain as possible. And then we're just a hollow shell of our potential self. You find your true self when you're under the pressure. I'm sure you've heard this poem, "Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times." By men we mean humans of course. I didn't write this one. "Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men and weak men create hard times." So true. Apply it to the church in Boston. Christianity in Boston. 100 years ago, a ton of churches around here, that's why the, the Freedom Trail right now is dead people and dead churches. That's the Freedom Trail. There, I saved you three hours. But all those churches, all those church buildings used to be full of people proclaiming the Gospel, people worshiping God, people on mission. What happened? They got comfortable. They go endowments. They got housing allowances and all that. And what did that, that led to weakness. And then the weak men created the hard times. And that's where we are. We're in hard times. We're at the end of that poem about to start the beginning of that poem. So that's what, you know, that's why you're here. That's why you're at Mosaic. There's a lot of churches where you can be a lot more comfortable on a Sunday morning, a lot more comfortable. There's a reason why I do what I do because I'm trying to make Navy Seals out of every single one of you, to be on mission together for the Lord Jesus Christ to conquer this city with God's love one soul at a time. You know what I'm saying. Strong souls, strong spirituality, strong heart. Pain is weakness leaving the body. Question. I thought weakness is good in Christianity? There's a good weakness and a bad weakness. The good weakness is, this is what Saint Paul talks about. When I am weak then I am strong. When I'm desperate in the Lord. Good weakness is humble. It's a presence of faith and humility. That's Second Corinthians, chapter 11 and 12. Bad weakness, it's the presence of fear and pride. And sometimes God sends pain into our lives to expose fear, expose pride that things that are pulling us away from the Lord. Point number three is discipline freeze. This is true in absolutely everything. It's true in your studies. It's true in music, sports, job relationships, focuses, your focus finances, driving, language. Like when you discipline yourself to study something, when you discipline yourself to study and practice you get free to do it. And here's another quote from one of our athletes. She said, "When you're intentional about training, intentionality bleeds into each lap, gym session, mile." And even when we resent that discipline, when we resent that pain, when time goes by and you leave that season of training you always look back to that season of training with longing. You miss it. So if you played a high school sport or a college sport then you graduate and you're like, "Okay, I'm going to go workout at the gym." And it's never the same. You know what I'm saying. And by the way, living in the city is a sacrifice. And if you're called to living in the city because you're on mission for the Lord, it's a sacrifice. I know and I complain about it all the time. Oh, not enough space. I've got neighbors on all three sides and I've got four kids. But deep down inside I love it. I love the sacrifice. If I didn't have the ... I'm telling ... And I know people who moved away and they write like, "Man, we still pray for you guys and we miss it. We miss that sacrifice." There's something there. We thrive under discipline. Every single one of us. We thrive when you got schedules. We thrive when we're in a routine. We thrive when there are rhythms in our life. Just like children thrive with set times. This is the time we wake up. This is when we eat. This is when the diaper change happens. Every parent knows this. And I figured out, I've cracked the code to the routine of every single one of my daughters, I've got four. I'll just share with one. My third daughter is a Katerina. She's four. I figure out her daytime nap schedule. I cracked the code. This is how we go. A half an hour before she's supposed to take a nap I say, "Katia, you're taking nap in a half an hour." She says, "Okay." She got a half an hour grace. She feels good about that. And then I say, "Okay, now you got to go to the bathroom." She goes to the bathroom. And then she puts on her little pajama and then five minute, little story time that's read to her on YouTube. I discovered this little old lady that reads stories. It's the same thing as me reading and it saves me time. We do that and then five minutes done and next, "Dad, don't forget the vitamin." I give her a little multivitamin, feels like a candy. And then I lie down with her. Five minute massage. We start with the upper back, middle back. We do the waves. We go up and down. And then arm, arm, arm, face, face, out. Routines, really important. So what's that to say? That's to say you need to discipline, you need to figure out what works best for you, for you to thrive. Water can be channeled powerfully. And there's a thing called jet sauce streams where it's focused water and it can cut through metal. That's what discipline does with us. First Corinthians 9:26. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not as one beating the air. So he's got the metaphor of a runner. Now he's got the metaphor of a boxer. And he's talking about shadow boxing. Now if you box, shadow boxing, there's nothing wrong. It's actually a good thing to do. The first thing when you go box and the coach, he teaches you the one, two. The hook's three. Upper cut, four, five. And then six. It's good. And he says go stand at the mirror and just do that one, two, three, four, five, six. And Saint Paul is not saying don't do that. He's say don't shadow box when you're in the ring and it goes ding, ding, ding, and you got to fight. You've got an opponent. You've got Mike Tyson in front of you. And you turn around and you're like, "I'm not fighting that guy." I don't blame you. Mike Tyson, even now, if you see videos of him now, I still wouldn't fight him. And you turn around and you start shadow boxing in the corner. That's what he's saying. He's saying a lot of Christians are doing that. You know who that guy is? That's the person who all they want to do is study theology. All they want to do is Bible studies and listen to podcasts and all they want to do is go to conferences and they don't want to fight. You got all the training in the world and Saint Paul says you've got to train and you've got to fight. You learn things you start implementing. Learn and do. Learn and, that's what he's saying. No runner runs aimlessly. No boxer shadow boxes in the ring. True athletes, one of the things that separates true, an elite athlete from anyone else is just energy management. You just get so efficient at what you do there's no wasted energy. There's no meandering. And this is what Saint Paul says. We got to get efficient in our Christian walk. We got to know exactly where the path is. Jesus Christ said, "I am the way and the truth." I am the way. It's the narrow gate. It's the narrow path. Now keep running efficiently. Don't, no serpentine running back and forth. Our culture, we live in a culture that applauds people running aimlessly just as long you run you'll get your participation medal. And Saint Paul says, it's actually offensive to ask anyone like, hey, where you going in terms of spiritual faith. Just be really sincere in your run. Saint Paul says no, that's not all that matters. You've got to be sincere. You also got to know exactly where you're going. Matthew 7, 13:14, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. Frequency the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few." First Corinthians, 9:27, "I discipline my body and keep it under control." The word for I discipline my own body is hupopiazo in the Greek. And it literally means, and this is your footnote, I pummel my body. But it literally means I punch myself in the eye. He's saying I knuckle box myself. And here he's talking about the flesh. He's talking about keeping himself, I control myself. I tell myself what to do. I tell my desires what to do. I control my thoughts. I don't let my thoughts control me. I control my desires. I don't let my desires control me. It's the same word that's used in Luke, 18:5 that says the only other time it's used, hupopiazo, "Yet because this widow keeps bothering me I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming." There's a flesh, there's a sinful part of our nature. This is the shadow self. And God is calling us to keep that under control by the Grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. And he used the word pummel to like, if you watch UFC it's the ground and pound game. This is where you keep your opponent on the ground. This is what he said you got to do that with your flesh. He's saying I make me obey me. By the way, it's not asceticism. This is really important. Asceticism is through external rules we control ourselves. That's not how Christianity works. Christianity isn't behavior modification. It's heart transformation. It's from the ... So if you hire a personal trainer, if you're like I need to get in shape. I'm going to hire a personal trainer. The personal trainer can make you work for an hour and you might hate every second of it. He's forcing you to do it externally. The best personal trainers, the best coaches, they put that fire in your heart. They give a dream of vision and now it's coming from the inside. That's what Christianity does. God changes our hearts. So this idea of asceticism verse Gospel transformation, Colossians, 2:23, "These have indeed, talking about external restraints, "these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." So how do we stop the indulgence of the flesh? Colossians 3:1-5, "If then you have been raised with Christ," if you're a Christian, "seek the things that are above where Christ is." She says discipline yourself to focus on Christ. "Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth." Watch your thoughts. "For you have died an your life is hidden in Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death," now that leads to action. So you vivify your affections for Christ. You get your heart on fire for the Lord by focusing on Christ and what Christ did on the cross for you. And then that gives you power. That gives you fuel to mortify sins. "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire and covetousness, which is idolatry." Four, sub point four, defense wins championship. And here, we know this from sports and this is true in Christianity. You got to play defense in terms that Satan is trying to plant lies in your mind. Ephesians 6:10-11. "Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength in His might. Put on the whole amour of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the Devil." And the best defense is offense. A high throttle offense. So how do we do this? How do we fight the lies of the evil one? You know the truth. You study the truth. You love the truth. Number five, you need the team. Running is usually an individual sport. You run. But do you know how runners train? In a team. Do you know how boxers train? Yeah, when you box it's one on one, but then the boxer wins and he gets the belt. And if he's good he's got multiple belts. They're all over. And then he's got his crew behind him. He's got all his trainers. He's got all his sparing partners. It takes all of that. This is what Saint Paul, he's saying Christianity's a team sport. Why is church membership a thing? Why do we do church membership? Because we want you on the team. You need the team. There's no "I" in team. Whenever I hear that I always say, "Yeah, but there's a me. But there's no you." So you need the team and the team needs you. That's, I could say more, but you get the point. Six, study the game and know the playbook. This is, we do that through Scripture. You got to know ... You know how, like the great athletes, the ones who want to leave a legacy? What they say about them is he's really a student of the game. Are you a student of the game? Do you know your Bible? If you went down to Mini Mosaic Dear Christian, would the kids in Mini Mosaic know more Bible verses than you do? I'll just leave that there. Let's meditate on that. And they know a lot of verses. That's what I'm saying. So do you know your Scripture. And by the way, when we say the strategy, when Mosaic talks about strategy and this is how we do things. We do three things. We do services. We do community groups. And we do service teams. Why do we do that? It's not arbitrary. We study the playbook and this is the, that's the strategy from the very beginning. This is what they did in Acts, chapter 2. Okay, number seven, nutrition. When people start working out the first things they want to do is, okay, give me all the supplements. What kind of whey protein, I need some casein protein, I need some creatine BC AAs, a little glutamine. What do I need? What do I need? And that's important. You need to add stuff. It's also probably more important to take stuff away. If you're diet is terrible it doesn't matter how much stuff you add you're not going to get anywhere. And a lot of Christians, this is how they, like their sin, obvious sin in your life. And you're like, okay, what the stuff I got to read? What are the conference I got to go to? Let's deal with this first. The junk food in your life that comes in through eyes and ears and a lot of time it's neutral. Let me just give you and example. Hebrews 12:1. "Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every way and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance. There's sin that clings closely. And there are also weights, seemingly neutral, they're going to way you down. And perhaps this is, you know what it is for you. So you got to get rid of that. There's helpful consumption and there's harmful consumption. Athletes talk about pre-hab and rehab. But the most underrated thing that separates elite athletes from anyone else? It's nutritions doing all the little things to get the W. Number eight is listen to the coach. Are you coachable? Are you teachable? When you read things from Scripture, when the Lord Jesus Christ obviously convicts you through the Holy Spirit, do you just close off your ears or do you listen? And the best coaches were always players just like Jesus Christ. He knows exactly what you've gone through, therefore, when He tells us how to live He tell us from a position as God and experience as a human. And by the way, this is how discipleship works. You learn something and now you're a coach. In every good team a great coach says, okay, sophomores, you learned something freshman year. Now go teach the freshmen. This is how discipleship works. Freshmen need to learn from the sophomores. Sophomores, you need to coach. It's virtually the same thing with the Christian walk. You find someone who hasn't been Christian as long as you, hey, let me encourage you. How can I help you in your walk? Freshmen, are you teachable or do you show up with a big ego and say, "I've listen to John Piper's sermon. I know more that you." Number nine, don't cheat. No shortcuts. This is First Corinthians 9:27, "But I discipline my body and keep it under control lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." And the word for disqualified here, it's counterfeit. He's saying I keep running. I keep running to make sure, to prove the authenticity of my faith. That's sounds kind of intuitive. I thought Christianity is once saved always saved. I don't like that term because that like saying I started running at some point and then I sat down on the bench and I'm still in the race. No, that's not how that works. It's once saved, always persevering. That's what Saint Paul is saying. I started the race and I'm going to continue running that race every single day to get to the end because once saved, always persevering because I don't want to be disqualified. That's the tension. No one is beyond the reach of grace, but also no one is beyond the need for grace. We need it on a daily basis to keep, to keep going. Number 10, obviously, don't forget to thank your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is after every championship and the athletes, the Christian athlete's given the microphone. "Hey, Tim Tebow, what do you think?" And he's like, "First of all I just want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." I love that. I love that so much. I don't care if it's a Jesus juke, I don't care. Do that in your life. Are you grateful to the Lord? It keeps you humble and hungry and holy. Point three, what do we win? This is important. First Corinthians 9:24, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?" That's in the Isthmian Games. In the Christian walk there's more than one prize. But there's no participation trophy. There kind of is where it's like First Corinthians 3, you're barely saved from the flames of fire. You don't want to be that. Since prizes are available for every, what are those prizes? And what he's saying is everyone is running, believers and unbelievers are running, like unbelievers are running in the rat race for the cheese and believers are running in the right race for Jesus. So what's that for Christians? What is that to run to get the prize? What is that? You know when King David, when he's about to fight Goliath, he's like yeah, I'm going to take him out. But first what do I get? You know that? Because there was an incentive. That's good. The Christian should ask what are we, what's the win? What's the "W"? And I'll show you. First Corinthians 9:24, "So run that you may obtain it." He uses the Greek word kridino. It's used in several other places and it's really important, kridino. You can gain something, obtain something, win something, kridino. So just roll with me for a bit. If you can gain money, this is James 4:13, "Come now you who say "today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit." Cost benefit analysis. What's the cost? I got to move to another town and spend a year there. What's the benefit? I'm going to make a lot of money. Kridino. You gather profit. Jesus uses the same phrase when he's talking Matthew 16:26, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?" Now he's saying do a cost benefit analysis. What's the benefit? You get the whole world. You get all the money in the world. What's the cost? You lose your soul. Now is that worth it? No. He says the same thing in Luke 9:25, "For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?" You lose yourself, you soul, you suffer. You suffer for the whole world and then poof! The whole world is gone and so is your soul. Instead what do we run toward? We run to get Christ. He's the ultimate treasure. He is more valuable than all the riches in the world and all of life itself. Philippians 3:8 and 23-14, "Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake," what's he doing? He's doing a cost benefit analysis. Is it worth being a Christian? There's a cost obviously. You've got to sacrifice. Is the worth it? Of course it is. "For the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ," kridino. Everything else I ever had it's all rubbish. All my riches, it's all rubbish. "Not that I've already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own." Grace fueled running. "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind straining forward for what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." For Saint Paul Christ was so valuable that death, he said, is gain. Same kridino. Philippians 1:21, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." So we run to get Christ and the we run to use our talents for Christ to gain for Christ. And this is the parable of time and talents, Matthew 25:16, "He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more." Investments always feel like sacrifices. They do. When you invest money, when you buy stock it feels like it just disappeared. You money just disappeared, got drafted from your account into your E-Trade. It feels like it's gone. It's a sacrifice. But you do the cost benefit analysis because, and you do it because the benefit out weighs the cost. And he says Christ, that benefit, is worth any cost even dying on, in this life. And then how, what do we gain? We pursue Christ to get Him. We use our talents to get for Him. What are we getting for Him? We're getting people. And I get this from Matthew 18:15, "If your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother." Kridino. We use our talents to help brothers and sisters who are going to the serpentine path, who've gone wayward. We bring them back. We suffer for that. We discipline ourselves to bring them. So it's worth it. And we suffer and we run the race in order to get new brothers and sisters. This is First Corinthians 19:19-23, the very paragraph before our text, which shows you this is exactly what Saint Paul is talking about. Look at verse 19, "For though I am free from all I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them." Class, what word is that in Greek to win more? Kridino. And he uses it over and over. "To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win," kridino, "To those under the law I became sone under the law thought not being myself under the law that I might win those under the law. To those outside of the law I became as one outside the law not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become algorithm things to all people that by all means I might save some." So for him it's parallel, synonymous with kridino, to win someone is to save someone. Our win is to help people be saved. Saved from what? Satan sin and death, which is what Jesus Christ conquered on the cross. That's why, what he's talking about, and this is my conclusion, in conclusion. My wife tells me my conclusions come out of nowhere. So this is on brand. And I do listen to my wife. I don't know if you noticed that. Happy wife, happy life. What is the prize? In the Olympic Games the prize, at that time, that prize was a laurel wreath. It's nice. Wilts away, gone. Turns to dust. In the games, what's the word? Isthmian Games in Corinth. You know what the wreath is? This is ridiculous. It's made out of celery. No one likes celery. Here's some celery. You know celery, you burn more calories in chewing and digesting it than ... You know that. And Paul, he's saying these people suffered to get celery. Guys! How much more so should we discipline ourselves, be willing to suffer? Make whatever sacrifice we need to sacrifice for an imperishable wreath? What's the imperishable wreath? Number one, it's the Glory of God. We get more of God. It's the joy of God. God says well done good and faithful servant. Well done. Now enter into my what? Joy. And as we enter into his joy we see people. We see people in Heaven that God allowed us, that God allowed us the grace of being used to draw them to Him and now they're in Heaven. Don't run the rat race to get the cheese that God is gone. Run the race that God has given you, the race with Jesus for the imperishable wreath. And his is what he's talking about. The joy filled running. This is joyful running. This is joy fueled running. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father thank you so much for this time that you've given us. You are a great God and we long for more people to know how great you are. You're both good and great and we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ who ran the race, who suffered the cross in order to get that joy that was set before our Lord and I pray motivates us by the same joy. Fill our hearts with joy and draw many more to yourself, perhaps even through Mosaic Boston and through us. We pray this through Christ's name. Amen.
"Fight for your Right": America's Blight
June 23, 2019 • 1 Corinthians 9:1–23
Summary: To say we have a problem with entitlement in our culture is the understatement of the century. You're special, I'm special, everyone's special. This entitlement ethos has crept into American churches. We're taught that everything is a good gift from God. Once we have it good, however, we expect to maintain the goodness status quo. Now the gift morphs from grace to entitlement. We expect the same level of grace on a daily basis. God teaches us: don't fight for your right to be served; fight for your right to serve. Transcript: You're listening to audio from Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com Heavenly Father, we confess that every single one of us struggles with pride. We are proud people, and we ask for grace to grow in humility. Lord we struggle with entitlement. We struggle with expecting people to serve us. We struggle with expecting you to serve us, to give to us. To exist for us. And Lord, we thank you that you are a good Father and you served us. You gave us your son Jesus Christ, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God. A thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing. Taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. When you came, you came not to be served, but to serve. And ultimately you gave your life as a ransom for many, a sacrifice on the cross. You showed us what true love is. That love is sacrifice. Love is giving, love is serving. We thank you that you rose on the third day, and we thank you Heavenly Father, you accepted that gift, that sacrifice in order to serve us. In order to save us, not just from insecurity or low self-esteem, but from a judgment that we deserve for our sins. I pray, Heavenly father, that you show us today that we deserve nothing. Actually, we deserve something less. We deserve separation from you eternally, but you instead give us grace. And we thank you for that. We thank you for the Holy Spirit. We welcome you Holy Spirit into the place. Give us ears to hear and give us receptive hearts, and make us a people who long to serve. Who seek to serve and create a culture at this church, at Mosaic Boston. A culture of service. I pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ. Amen. To say we have a problem with entitlement in this country, and not just this country, just people in general. To say we have a problem with entitlement is the understatement of the century. I grew up here. I grew up in Rhode Island, and I grew up in public schools. And even in public schools, I was, taught you're special. I'm special. Everyone's special. Here, I don't want to knock, by the way, on millennials because that's everyone's favorite thing to do. That millennials at all narcissistic and they have a problem with entitlement. Talk to someone who works in the service industry and ask them what it's like to serve people who are baby boomers. Just ask. I'm going to throw that there. Every single one of us, we struggle with entitlement. We expect things because we've been taught, we get these messages that you deserve love, you deserve happiness, you deserve comfort. You deserve the realization, actualization of your deep seated desires, and your deepest dreams. And we buy into that narrative. We begin to expect things. I expect to be loved. I expect to be comfortable. I expect to be happy, and then when we don't get it quickly, like an Amazon Prime package in two days. Why am I not happy in two days? Like Uber Eats? Where's Uber happiness? I want that. That's the next branch of Uber. Where's that? What happens when we have these unmet expectations is, it leads to chronic, disappointment. Chronic depression, chronic disillusionment unhappiness. Life doesn't give us what we think we deserve. Health doesn't give us what we think we deserve. Aging, what a trip that is, doesn't give us what we think we deserve. We get angry, we grow bitter, we start blame shifting. By the way, this entitlement ethos, it's crept into the American church. We are taught that every good gift comes from the Father of lights. God longs to bless us and He does. But when He blesses us, we get used. We get used to the blessing. It's like a baseline blessing and now we work to maintain that status quo of blessing, and anything below that baseline of blessing now feels like a curse. It's like if you got all As in high school, and you get to college and you got all As in college, you're that person. And you meet that one professor, and there's always the one professor who is fighting, single handedly fighting great inflation at the university. He believes that C, is average work. That's what a C is. A, B, is above average. Nobody gets an A. When you get that B, the very first B of your life, it comes like a swift kick in the gut. It's like Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps, back in his prime. We just all expect we is gold all the time. When he gets a silver, he's bombed out, were bombed out, everybody is bombed out. Behavioral psychologists call this idea, anchoring. And it has actually basis. This phenomenon of anchoring has expression in the Holy Scriptures. We see that in particular in the life of Job. Job's baseline of blessing was super high and much higher than most of us. Then he loses everything. And he's heartbroken, but he still loves God. How? How do you keep loving God? And he gives us his theology. He gives us his secret to loving God despite losing everything. He says this in his heart, his reference point, his anchor was not God's blessing, it was God. Even when he lost everything, he still had God. And he said this, "Naked, I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. I don't deserve anything." Everything in the middle is grace. Grace kills entitlement and replaces it with gratitude. That's what actually can allow us to be happy. Experience true happiness. Job didn't first say, the Lord took. First thing he said was, "The Lord gave." Everything I have is grace. And even if the Lord takes that, I still have the anchor of my soul, which is Jesus Christ. When we know we deserve nothing, we can be grateful for everything and grace changes everything. The big idea of the sermon today is don't fight for your right to be served. Fight for your right to serve. Don't fight for your right to be served. That's entitlement. Fight for your right to serve other people. That's what gracious people do. Grace filled and gracious. I just set the context. Last week we covered 1 Corinthians 8. In which St. Paul, calls Christians to give up their rights for the good of others. Mature Christians are to give up their rights to eat meat, those sacrificed in temples, in order to serve those who had weaker consciences. In Chapter nine, he illustrates how he himself gives up things that he could have claimed entitlement to, could have demanded. He gives it up. In particular, he's talking about financial support. St. Paul planted this church in Corinth. He was a church planter. It was a startup church. Often, I have a hard time actually telling people what I do for work. They're like, "What do you do?" I used to say, pastor, and no one knows what that means, because they think priest. And they're like, "Why are you married?" Then they start thinking things. Then I used to say minister, and they're like, "Minister of Foreign Affairs? I'm like, that's not helpful. I used to say life coach. I'm helping people live their best life now. I used to say, a motivational speaker. That's what I am, trying to inspire. My latest iteration is, I came here to do a startup church. People are like, "What?" "I'm a spiritual entrepreneur. This is what I do." That's what St. Paul is doing. He's a spiritual entrepreneur. He goes into Corinth. He went into urban centers and he plants a church, but he didn't have finances to do it, so he bootstrapped. He funded the whole operation by being a tent maker. He worked in a leather shop with Aquila and Priscilla, and he would make tents at night in order to get this church off the ground. What he's saying here in 1 Corinthians 9, is, "I could have demanded a salary, but I didn't because I want to communicate that the gospel is free to you because someone else paid for it. Jesus Christ." And this is what he saying, "I could've demanded, but I didn't for your good." In the same way, whatever our rights are, whatever we think we're entitled to, we can give that up. It's not our money, it's our time. It's not our talent. We can give that up in order to serve those that God has brought into our life. This idea, right? The service... today we're going to talk about in the church. But this idea of serving other people has to do with every single relationship. That has to do with husbands and wives. The key to a successful marriage is out serving one another. It's self denial. Baby, how can I serve you? That's my wife's favorite phrase, "Baby, how can I serve you?" Okay, I've got a list. Then she's a godly woman. You know what she's like, "How can I serve you? Like, "Baby I got a list too." This is parenting. How can I serve my kids? I've got four daughters. How can I serve them? I can be generous with time, talent, and treasure. As husbands, wives, children, siblings. Neighbors, bosses, employees. Out serving one another. This changes the world. Today we're in 1 Corinthians 9:1-23. What I usually do is, I read the whole thing, but it's a long text today. It's a long text and also you faithful Mosaic members are responsible and you read the newsletter that I craft every single week. And you click on the link at the very bottom that says, "Here's our text." And it's 1 Corinthians. You've read the text. I don't need to regurgitate that. We'll just pretend I read it and after I read it, I say, this is the inerrant infallible, authoritative word of God. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Okay? I'll leave the Bible open, because we actually preach the Bible here. Amen. You're allowed to Amen. I love Amen-ers. When I hear someone Amen, I feel like I'm playing tennis instead of golf. It's back and forth instead of... I have no idea where that went. 1 Corinthians 9:1-23. Three points. We've got every right. That's verses one through 14. To give up our rights. Verses 15 through 18, for the greatest cause. That's 19 through 23. First of all, we've got every right. We've got every right, and he begins to this talk in 1 Corinthians 9:1-2. He says, "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus, our Lord? Are not you, my workmanship in the Lord, or my seal? If to others, I am not an apostle, at least I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord." This is what he begins with. He's saying, "I didn't choose this job. I didn't choose to be a spiritual entrepreneur. I didn't choose to be an apostle. I didn't choose to be a pastor." And by the way, St. Paul, was one of those gifted people who's ever lived. He studied under Gamileo, which is the highest PhD that you can get in all of the Roman Empire. Brilliant, brilliant guy. Zealous for God in terms of Old Testament law. Then Jesus Christ appears to him. Jesus saves him. "Saul, Saul, why have you been persecuting me?" Now Saul, becomes, Paul. He becomes a Christian. Paul is saying, "I didn't have an option. Jesus called me to this job." And then he says to them, "You're my workmanship. You're the seal of my apostleship." What's he saying? It's not seal like on a letter if you've seen in the Roman Empire when Caesar would write a letter, folds it up or close the envelope and then puts a seal of wax or clay. Or just a soft metal. It's a guarantee of the quality and authenticity of the letter, or of the product, like a wine bottle. He's saying, "Do you want proof of my apostleship?" You guys. Your regeneration, the fact that you're a Christian, this is what he's saying. It's like one of my daughters. My daughters get sassy. My eldest is 10, almost 11. We're getting to that age where, okay, I see glimpses of what's coming. And once in a while she's like, "Why should I listen to you?" I'm like, "Because I'm your father." And she's like, "Well, how do I know? I say, "Look in the mirror. You're a spitting image of me. You are me with long hair." All of them, in particular my fourth. She is mini me with long hair. That's what St. Paul is saying. Like, "You guys became children of God, and by God's grace I was allowed to be used to help in that process." Verse three. "This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?" He's responding to people who say, "St. Paul, you should continue bankrolling the church. Let's not talk about money in church. It makes us feel awkward. Money has nothing to do with our walk with the Lord." And he's like, "I just want to eat." Can I just... we're talking about like a burrito. Can I get the surf and turf at Los Amigos? Can we talk about that? And then he says, "Can I bring along the wife? Meaning that they were saying, the aesthetics in the church were saying, "A pastor should never get married." By the way, this is where the Roman Catholic Church, they got this idea that priests shouldn't be married. They're like, Paul wasn't married, therefore priests should be married. This text is actually very inconvenient for that theology, because he named Cephas here. As do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord, Cephas have a right to take along a wife. Cephas is Peter. Peter was married. Peter would take his wife along with them on missionary journey. This is all to say that the very first Pope... this is what the Roman Catholic Church teach us, that the very first pope was Peter. Well, the very first pope then was married. That's very inconvenient to this idea that priests should be celibate. Then he throws in the brothers of the Lord, take wives along with them. Meaning Jesus Christ had siblings. How did Jesus Christ have siblings? Because, Mary, Jesus' mother and Joseph, his stepdad, they had children after Jesus. This is very inconvenient to the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity. One verse, shatters all of that, and how do they explain? It's hard to explain, but their theory is that the Lord's brothers, the children of Joseph. Joseph had a first wife and then those kids he had with that first wife, and then he married Mary. These are things that you have to do when you come up with a doctrine and then you go to scripture in order to justify the doctrine. That's not how the Lord teaches us to form doctrine from the scriptures. That's how we do it. 1 Corinthians 9:6. He continues. "Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?" Barnabas was a Jewish Christian. He's from the island of Cyprus. He joined St. Paul on his first missionary journeys and this is a start up. Pastors to start the church. This is what they would do. They would fund the whole operation. And people just expected that. Verse seven. "Who serves as a soldier at his own expense?" Rhetorical question. The question is its own answer. Nobody. "Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit?" No one. "And who tends a flock without getting some of the milk." He saying, just imagine a soldier who enlists and is expected to fund his own ammunition. My wife said I'm extra passionate today. I don't know. No, no soldier does. And then how would that impact morale with the soldiers? If you got to pay for all this stuff. Then how many new soldiers would enlist knowing that they have to bank roll the whole operation, the whole war effort. If farmers aren't allowed to eat of the harvest that they produce, how hard are they going to work the next year? By the way, this is the problem of communism. This is why communism didn't work and the Soviet Union fell apart. My parents immigrated there from 1989. My dad was a manager of a company, and he got paid less than the employees. Well... Edgar knows. He's from Romania. How hard do you think my dad worked? He tried and then after a while he's like, "Forget this." That's why the Soviet Union fell apart. Because they didn't read, 1 Corinthians 9. If you're a shepherd and you're not allowed to have milk from the flock. How are you going to care for the flock? You care for the flock by clocking in, caring for them 9:00 to 5:00 and clocking out. This is why it's so important that he chose these three professions. These three professions that there's no work life balance. If you're a soldier, you're a soldier. You give up a lot. You gain duty, you gain honor. You gain responsibility. Farmers. Talk to anyone who's who owns a farm. You're always thinking about the farm. This is your life. To talk to anyone who has cattle or someone who's been a shepherd, you're always thinking about the sheep, about the cows. This is a common sense principle. He says, if you work hard, you should benefit from the labor. In verse eight, "Do I say these things in human authority? Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Is it for oxen that God is concerned? This is really powerful if you meditate on this for a little while. He points to the Old Testament, and he points to not the moral law, but the ceremonial and the code law. This is case law in the Old Testament. Finds a verse, he does, about oxen. That God put a verse in the Holy Scriptures about oxen, about caring for oxen. Don't muzzle the ox when it's working because it gets hungry, and it wants to eat. Don't muzzle because God cares about animals. That's what he's saying. Not just Peter. Peter will get mad if you're muzzling ox, but God cares because God loves animals. If you have a pet steward that pet. God cares for your pet. If you have a puppy, you're a cat person. That's fine too. God cares. My brother has fish. You know what I learned? Really nice people have fish. He's got two big fish tanks. He's the sweetest guy ever. That's why I need to learn from him. I need to get some fish. God cares about fish. And this is what he's saying, "If God's so cares about animals, how much more so does he care about people created in his image?" That's what he's saying. And by the way, these three examples that he has, he's talking in particular about pastors and ministers. Evangelists, missionaries, but these principles apply for all of life. What he's saying is, he saying that a pastor needs to be strong in the mind. Needs to be strong in the heart, strong in the hands and strong in the back. This is what he saying. A soldier doesn't just go to war. He strategizes. That's the mind. A shepherd. What makes a shepherd effective is that he's nurturing. He's a caring heart. What makes a farmer effective? He works with his hands and gets things done. What makes an oxen effective? Your consistency. You're just plotting. Strong back, strong mind, strong heart, strong hand, strong back. What's he saying? He's saying that God cares about an integrated spirituality for all of us. It's an embodied spirituality. That God cares not just what we do with a spiritual life, but that needs to impact every single aspect of our lives. Verse 10 he continues, "Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for us sake because of the plowman and the plowman should plow in hope. And the thresher, thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more." It says that the principle is, if you start a farm, you can get to eat off the harvest. If you start a business, you get to eat off the equity. If you start a church and people are blessed spiritually, that there's some kind of physical remuneration. And he says this is common in all of life. People get paid for work and services provided for value add. Now, this is really uncomfortable. I just got to mention this. You think I want to be preaching this? We're just going in order. It's uncomfortable to talk about money in the church. And one of the reasons why is because of prosperity theology. Because a lot of pastors have abused the office and the influence that God has entrusted to them, in order to make a lot of money for themselves. St. Paul isn't teaching here prosperity theology, but he's also not preaching poverty theology. Prosperity theology is when a pastor abuses the church for his own benefit. There's also poverty theology, where the church abuses the pastors and the pastoral staff in order for their own benefit. I'll give you an example. I grew up in a Russian Baptist fundamentalist church, an immigrant church. These ideas formed in the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, it was against the law to pay your pastors. People got used to this idea that pastors never get paid. No one in the church gets paid. People are still called to preach. They're still called to minister in the church, but they also have to provide for their families. There's that added burden. There's only a limited amount of margin and energy to go. These pastors would invest in their jobs and work hard and then they will work at the church. Then they've got their family and one always suffered. You either do great at your job and you do great in your ministry, your family suffers. Or you do great church and you do great in the family, you lose your job. And the sermons are always bad. I grew up listening to terrible preaching. Terrible, no offense taken. There's a running joke in the churches that I would always go to. The running joke was, "Hey pastor, how do you prepare your sermon?" And he would say, "I prepare my sermon on my knees." I was like, that's so spiritual. What he meant was, when the choir is singing because it's not spiritual church with that choir. He's sitting there, and he's writing the sermon on his knees because he's about to go preach. Here's the thing. Everybody suffered. I grew up going to church and services where two hours, there were three preachers and they were always bad. They were so bad. I didn't like church, I didn't like the Bible. It's a miracle I'm even a Christian. That's what he's saying, don't abuse. The other thing, he compares the ministry to hard... these are hard jobs. A soldier, a farmer, a shepherd, oxen. What's ministry like? Ministry is hard. I get this question too often. Pastor Jan, what do you do the rest of the week? I was like, "What do you mean?" "Well, I see what you do on Sunday. You work one day a week. What else do you do?" I was like, "I pray, and this week I'm praying for you, specifically to not ask that question. Ministry is hard. Ministry is people. Ministry is helping people, and that's hard. One of the things... I went to seminary, and seminary does prepare you kind of for ministry, but some of the most important lessons about ministry, I learned not in seminar. I actually learned working with my dad. My Dad has a painting company, Vlad's Painting. If your house looks bad, don't get sad. Call Vlad. One of my favorite things in the world is painting. Finish coat, painting my favorite. It's therapeutic. It's so therapeutic. You painting something, it's getting done. At the end of the day, you take a step back and you're like, "I actually accomplished something." But there are steps prior to getting the finish coat that covers everything. You've got to power wash the house. You've got to scrape the house. You've got to sand. You've got to caulk. You've got to do oil based primer. All of these steps to finally get to do what you want to do. One of my favorite things is preaching. Now for this to happen. You know how much this scraping, the sanding, this priming, this caulking. That... ministry is hard. God views every vocation done to his glory as important. Your job done to the glory of God. Unless you're doing something illegal, if you are, stop that. You can't be a drug dealer to the glory of God, unless you're a pharmacist. God uses vocations. That you add benefit, you benefit the people around you. Who've used them equal, yes? Satan doesn't. Satan does not view pastoral ministry as just one of vocation. He doesn't. My wife has a front row seat to the fiery arrows of the evil one. Pastor Shane and Kelly, same thing. When people come on staff on Mosaic, we sit down and we're like, "All right, we got to talk." You think ministry is just this? No. There's going to be things that happen in your personal life that you're like, what? That's all to say that we as a church, we want to invest in our staff and we've seen incredible ROI, Return On Investment, spiritually speaking from the physical investment. We have an all star staff at this church, and we didn't recruit anybody. Everyone on staff. The Lord sent. For example, in 2012 Pastor Shane and Kara, they were visiting Boston from Iowa. They were visiting and we were still in the movie theater, the real movie theater. Theater number seven. And they came and the Holy Spirit told them during that service that, "You need to move and help this church." They got here, and by the way, they are some of those powerful. They're quiet. Some of powerful people I've ever met. Pastor Shane could go anywhere else in the country and be a mega church pastor. He's that talented. But he's called, he's not motivated by money. He's called to be here. He still fundraising a portion of his salary. He does that because he's all in. Kara Bettis is our communications director. Incredibly, a powerhouse of a woman. Powerful. Can go do anything she wants to make a lot more money. She's committed here. Raquel Ross. Oh my. Mini Mosaic director, Raquel. Huge personality. Lot of passion, walks in the room and just sunshine. Everybody's happy. She took over Mini Mosaic as a director when we had about 20 kids. Now there's 60 to 80 absolutely crushing it. Caleb Savari, our Worship Director. 99% musically talented Berkeley grad. He's here. We're not paying... I can't say that loud. He's going to answer. Incredibly talented. You think you know how gifted he is? You need to listen to him. Not in tableau base alone when we have acoustic issues, but Shane Maloney, he really helps us out with that. Yes, you know Shame. Listen to him in sound canceling headphones will absolutely change your life. Incredible. Tyler Burns. Where's Tyler. He's here somewhere. There he is. Tyler Burns feels called to youth ministry. Who in the world feels called the youth ministry? I'm called to administer to the hardest human beings alive. The most difficult life stage ever. Still developing. They're like Velociraptors. They don't know what's going on hormonally and Tyler, itself. Thank you Tyler. Respect. Andy who? Andy in 2011, Andy by the way is Valedictorian. His high school went to Swatow. Incredible guy. Comes to Mosaic in 2011 gets converted. God saves him. Start setting up chairs next Sunday. Grows in his faith starts leading a community group, meets his wife, Joyce. Then Joyce was finishing her medical school and they go to a Pennsylvania to do a residency. He goes to seminary with the goal to come back here. She takes half the salary that she could anywhere else in the country so that they can minister. Andy is one of those gifted people I've ever met. Have you met Andy? He's got kind eyes. That's like Mark Ruffalo. I look Andy in the eye. He looks me in the eyes. I'm like, "Yes, I'm about to tell you all of my deepest secrets right now." That's Andy. That's all to say... by the way , our staff meetings are so much fun. They're like too much fun. We get stuff done and we have a good time. That's all to say we invest in people here. We take these principles that St. Paul gives us and we invest in people. St. Paul continues in verse 12. "Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right for support, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their fruit food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel." Where does he get that? He gets that from Luke 10:7, The laborer deserves his wages. St. Paul just made a case that pastoral staff and people on staff at a church should be compensated for the good of the church. But he says, "I gave up that right." And he's doing this as an example to us. This is point two, to give up our rights. 1 Corinthians 9:15. "But I've made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprived me of my ground for boasting." He saying, "I prefer death to having anyone think that I am ministering for finding financial motive. That's not why I'm doing this," he's saying. "I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting." This isn't in the sense of pride. It's in the sense of, I'm expressing the joy of what it feels like to be used by God. Boasting is subversive. Was he boasting in? In calloused stained hands from working with with leather. That's what he's talking about. Verse 16. "For if I preach the gospel that gives me no ground for boasting, for necessities laid upon me, woe to me. If I do not preach the gospel." He says, "I can't not preach the gospel. That's how compelled I feel by the Holy Spirit. It's not my ability, it's not my gospel. It's not my calling." Verse 17. "For if I do this of my own will I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I'm still entrusted with stewardship." Either way, God's going to use me and I need be a steward of what God has given me. Verse 18. "What then is my reward that in my preaching, I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel." He's saying, "I'm not preaching for finance and I'm not preaching for fame. I'm not preaching for any of them. I'm preaching because I can't not preach." St. Paul wasn't a mercenary. He's a missionary. There's a difference. You know what a mercenary is? You go to war because you're paid to go to war. He's saying that's not what I'm doing. I actually, I heard a talk by Jeff Bezos recently and he's talking about, how to start a business successfully. And this is what he said. He said the difference between a successful entrepreneur and the not a successful entrepreneur... he said the difference is, like the difference between a mercenary and a missionary, and he used that word. He said, "You can't think that you're hired to do this job and you only work for us as much as you're paid." He used the word, missionary. That you're all in, that the purpose is what's driving. This is what Bezos said. He said, "And missionaries always get paid more." That's a very worldly way of looking at it, but we, we're not just talking about financial remuneration, we're talking about rewards and heaven as well. You get? We're talking about more of the presence and the power of God. Don't think mercenary, think missionary. Paul was willing to do anything to remove the hindrance in the way of the gospel. Sometimes that hindrance is supporting the minister. He couldn't say, "I'm starting a church, please pay me and I'll continue to starting the church." No, that doesn't work. But sometimes the hindrance is not supporting the minister. Sometimes the hindrance is not supporting the minister, because then the minister has to think about side hustles. This is what we think about in terms of our staff. We know how expensive is to live here. I know what it costs to house myself and my wife. Were oxen. I'm an ox, she's an ox, and then we have four little oxen. Just to put in perspective, you go a restaurant. Table for how many? Table for six oxen. I know the pressures and our staff knows the pressures. To keep focused, to devote all of our energy, emotional, physical, spiritual, everything. That's what saying Paul. Why don't you be like Paul to say... we get pushed back one. Why don't you be like Paul, and Mosaic staff get jobs to support the ministry? We could. Here's the thing. To be hired as staff at Mosaic, any one of these people on staff, hyper talented. I'm not afraid that they can't get jobs because these skills transfer by the way. If you learn how to work with people, if you learn how to work with kids. If you can teach kids, you can teach anybody. You know what I'm saying? I'm afraid if our staff goes and gets jobs, you're going is so good, it can take all your time. That's what we're worried about. God's drawing the talent that he has. And we need to think about keeping it. St. Paul didn't take a paycheck. He gave up that right wise to communicate the gospel that this is what God does, is the gospel isn't you do something for God and he'll do something for you. That's not the gospel. That's every other religion. What the gospel is, God does everything for you and you just need to accept it as as a gift. Point three for the greatest cause you give up your right. You have rights, but you give them up for the greatest cause. And that's Verse 19. "For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all that, I might win more of them." He said, "I am free. The Lord Jesus Christ freed me." You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. We're free, but now we're free to serve the Lord. That's why St. Paul calls himself doulas or serfs, a slave of Jesus Christ. He uses his freedom to serve God. We're free to serve, and this changes, absolutely everything about absolutely every relationship. There's two kinds of workers. There's free workers and there's slave workers or servants, doulas. The free workers, they're entitled to their wages. The servants are not, and this was St. Paul is saying. He's saying, "I'm a servant. I'm not entitled to getting paid." Just like Christians are servants to all of us, and we're not entitled to be ministered for free. We're not entitled to be pastors. That's what he's saying. He's shifting this mindset in everybody. That's the mindset. That we're not entitled to anything. We're free to be generous with our time, talent, and treasure. Now we begin to look for opportunities to serve. This is our culture. This is our ethos. How can I serve you? This is why I'm praying that the Lord starts this crisis culture at mosaic. How can I serve you? How can I help you? How can I pray for you? Paul generously sacrifices. As an example for us, to generously sacrifice both members and ministers. Paul inconvenienced himself deeply to do what he did. God is calling every single one of us to inconvenience ourselves. To sacrifice things in order to be used by God. Some of you, God is calling to vocational ministry. Some of you, God is calling to be a missionary. Well, what do you have to do? You're going to prepare yourself, and then you start thinking about opportunity costs. I've been there. Like, if I go to seminary. Seminary is a three year degree. It's like a law degree. It's way too long. For three years, I don't get paid. What's the opportunity cost plus what's the cost of seminary? Now you've got to the, plus what's the potential salary when I... it's not a Law salary. This is when you start thinking like this. And Paula saying, no. You've got to stop thinking like that. If God calls you. God calls you. And God will provide. You can't, but answer that call. God's going to do what God's going to do. I get the pushback from people that, why should we share to share the gospel? Why should we sacrifice for people? This is hyper Calvinism, that if God wants to draw the elect, He'll draw the elect. If God wants to save someone in the Middle East through a dream. Let Him save someone through in the Middle East through a dream. Why do I need to do... God's going to do what God's going to do. And God's going to use you in the way that God wants to use you. But you got to decide are you going willingly and joyfully, or are you going to go begrudgingly? One quick illustration. My daughter Melania is two. This week we went to my second daughter's concert there at a sing thing, and take me out to the ballgame. That's where they were singing. I got videos of that is great. As soon as walked in, and we walked into the door of the auditorium, she realizes we're not here for her. She realized we are here for Elizabeth, my second grader, and immediately tantrum. Was my will for her to have a tantrum? No. Was my will for her to be there and joyfully celebrate her sister. Yes, that was my will for her. Instead she went out in the hallway and I'm trying to calm her down, and she's wailing in the top of her lungs. She stayed there because that was my will. We're not going anywhere. We're going to celebrate Elizabeth. Does she enjoy it? No. Afterwards we walked downstairs and there's a little playground. She had a great time there. Now it's my will to go home because it's getting hot, and I got work to do. Because I really work, and this is a job. And she wouldn't go. Her will was not in line with my will. You know what I did? I grabbed her, and I carried her home. She was screaming the whole time. I still got her where I wanted to get her. Does she enjoy it? No. This is what God says. You get to be used by God. You get to be wielded by the Holy Spirit like a sword. 1 Corinthians 9:20. He starts talking about how he gives up his cultural rights in order to be a more effective evangelists to the Jews. "I became a Jew in order to win Jews." "To those under the law. I became as one under law though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law." What he's is that among Jews, he observes the ritual life. Though he doesn't have to because the ceremonial law was fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Within limits of God's word and Christian conscience, Paul takes on the cultural and the social expectations of Judaism, when it was necessary to witness to the Jews. No bacon, I'm going to eat kosher. I'm going to dress like they dress. He says I'm going to talk like they talk. I'm going to practice, celebrate the festivals that they celebrate in order to be a good... I'm going to go into their world. I'm not going to adapt the message. The message stays the same, and the messages is offensive enough, but I'm not going to offend them with my behavior. I'm not going to offend them with with ceremonial and cultural issues. Verse 21. "To those outside of the law, I became as one outside the law." He's talking about Greeks and gentiles. "That I might win those under the law." He didn't force them to live like Jews. He would eat meat with them. Meat that was even offered to idols. Verse 22. "To the weak, I became weak that I might win the weak and I have become all things to all people. That by all means, I might save some." Verse 23. "I do it all for the sake of the gospel. That I share with them in its blessings." He says, "I became a student of peoples and of cultures. Did I have to do that?" Did he prefer to eat kosher? Probably not. Did he prefer to spend time with pagans, and talk about culture? No, of course not. But he entered into their lives in order to speak truth in a way that they would understand. It's easy to error on both sides. For example, some Christians like the Amish withdraw from the world, and they become so culturally distinctive that they virtually have no impact on the world. And others are so much like the world that they lose their holiness and they lose their difference in the saltiness and the light, and they compromise the gospel. There in the world, but they're also of the world. Jesus calls us to be in but not of this. John 17:15. "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world." Jesus was a friend of sinners, but Jesus was all so holy. We're on the spectrum of being in the world, but not of it, do you follow? Are you distinct? Do people know that you're a Christian? Do you have non-Christian friends? Or are all your friends Christians and all you want to do is spend time with Christians? You've got to be in but not of. We contextualize. It's contextualization, not syncretism. We don't add personal offense in neutral. That's what he's saying. You get the point. 1 Corinthians 10:33. And I got to say this. I get a lot of push back from Christians who say, but I'm not an evangelist. I'm not gifted that way. The super elite navy seal Christians, they're gifted as evangelists. When God calls you to Himself, he calls you to the mission. Every single one of us. St. Paul here, that's how he thinks about. Look at 1 Corinthians 10:33. He uses the same language as at the end of verse nine. 1 Corinthians 10:33. "Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved, be imitators of me as I am of Christ." Christ could have said, "I don't think you have to be an evangelist." Oh, he came and he served. He didn't seek to be served. Why was Christ willing to do that? Because he came to save us. Save us from what? This right here, this is part of what compelled Christ. Is part of what compelled Paul. It's part of what compels us. This is why Mosaic Boston exists. This is why we do what we do. Christ didn't come to save us from insecurity, and low self esteem and our failures. Christ came to save us from eternal damnation, that we deserve for dishonoring a glorious God. Our problem is sin, which is rebellion against the Holy God. This is Romans 3:23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death. And death in the Holy Scripture is not cessation. It's separation. You don't seize to exist when you die. You have an eternal soul. You don't see its separation from home, from God. And separation from God is hell. This is why hell is; you're separated from God for all of eternity. And hell is an awful place. Scripture talks about hell as being a place of unquenchable fire, weeping, gnashing of teeth. It's not a giant party for the wicked. The rich man in the parable of Lazarus pleads with Abraham, "Please, send someone to warn my brothers so they don't end up here. Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. God's provision for our sin is Jesus Christ. God in the human flesh. Christ comes and he teaches us God's way and then He offers Himself as a perfect sacrifice for our sin, that God's righteousness demands. Since Jesus is God, His death has infinite value. Since Jesus is human, His death atones for human sin. He stands in the chasm between us and God, to reconcile with Him. Then Christ after His crucifixion, He's resurrected is proof that His sacrifice was accepted. 1 Peter 2:24. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. 2 Corinthians 5:21. For our sake, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Well, the work of Christ. how does the counted to us? How does it get imputed to us? All we do is trust, trust in His work. That means we turn from our sin and we turn to Him and we trust that His work was enough, that our works do not redeem us. We're not trusting in our good behavior or our morality. Whoever believes has eternal life. Trusting in Jesus is like trusting your doctor. When he says, "Take this, it'll make things better." It's like trusting your airline pilot who says, "Get on. I'm going to take you where you want to go." Trust in the simple good news that you've sinned against a good God, but Jesus Christ bore your penalty on the cross. And if you turn from your sin and trust in Him, all of your sins are forgiven. All of your entitlement is forgiven. All of your everything, everything, and you get God now and you get God for all of eternity. Dear Christians, the more you feel the full impact of God's love on a daily basis, the more you appreciate the enormity of Christ's sacrifice. The more we will embrace and actually look for opportunities to sacrifice. To give things up, especially things that we are entitled to. Love craves opportunities for its demonstration. God loves greatly. Now, we can love greatly. To love God and love people. Don't fight for your right to be served. Fight for your right to serve just like Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the time. The Holy Scriptures, Lord your scriptures are so deep. Sometimes I feel like we are just scratching the surface of the depth and we thank you Lord for the gospel. We thank you for reconciling us with you. I pray, Lord, if there's anyone here who's not yet a Christian. I pray today, regenerate their hearts, allow them to trust in you. Give them grace to believe, and draw them to yourself. And continue to use us as a force for good, as a love, as an army, conquering this city with your love. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
The Heart and Mind Paradox
June 16, 2019 • 1 Corinthians 8
Summary: The most important piece of real estate in the totality of your life is the 18 inches between your mind and your heart. God knows us in such a way that we can't BUT love Him. His knowledge of us generates love in our hearts for Him. In turn, God calls us to know people in such a way, they can't but love us. Audio Transcript: You're listening to audio from Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. God, you are a great God, and you are a good father, and we thank you for that. For all the dads in the house, Lord, I pray that you strengthen their relationship with you today. By the power of the Holy Spirit, set their eyes on Jesus Christ, your son whom you gave sacrificially in order to redeem us and show us what it means to be a father. Draw their hearts closer to you, so that they understand, we understand, so the fathers understand who you are and what your heart is and so that forms us to be the fathers we ought to be and get to be to our kids. To love them, to delight in them in the same way that you delight in us, to remind them that they are beloved in the same way that you look at Jesus Christ, your son, and say, "This is my beloved son in whom I delight." I pray that we delight in our kids, so that they never feel like they're a burden to us, that we never feel like we have to parent them, that we have to teach them, we have to... Flip that switch in our hearts, flip it upside down, so that we understand we get to, what a blessing it is to be parents and what a blessing it is to be a child of God, a son or a daughter. I pray Holy Spirit, come to this space and prepare our hearts not just to hear words for our minds, but to receive truth for our hearts, to transform our lives, to transform our where our will, teach us what it means to know God and Love God, to know people and to love people. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. What is your favorite food? The one thing. The one thing that comes to mind right now. Don't say it out loud. Unless you want to the person next to you. Just go there for a second. My wife loves Tiramisu. She loves Tiramisu. The good kind, not the kind from Trader Joe's in the frozen section. But if you had never experienced Tiramisu, I could describe it, I could try to describe Tiramisu for you, but that would do a disservice. What's your favorite song? I could try to describe to you my favorite song by Louis Armstrong, It's a Wonderful World, I love that song. I could try to describe the lyrics, I could try to quote them, I could try to describe his raspy voice. I actually listened to it this morning on YouTube, so good. But the words, the words do a disservice to... What's your favorite painting? You could try to describe your favorite painting to me, that would do a disservice. My wife and I just celebrated our anniversary on Monday, and I took her to the one of the most glorious places in the world, Fenway Park. She had never been there. And I had described Fenway Park to her. She doesn't like baseball, she doesn't... She's from Ukraine, that's not a thing. I tried to describe, and I was like, "Baby, but you need to be there on a Sunday evening in June. You need to be there. You need to walk and you need to have the smells of the sausage and peppers wafting over you. You need to walk in and just be amazed by the ambience, by the energy in the stadium." And she was. She walked out, and I said, "How do you feel?" She's like, "This was not what I expected." And we sat through four innings. That was enough for her. And then we went out to dinner. For us to truly understand the greatest things in life, yeah, we need the words, we need the descriptions, but we need to experience it. We live in a city where real estate's super expensive. And a lot of our thoughts are dominated by real estate. Just thoughts of real estate, getting an apartment, how much they cost. I have conversations with people about this all the time. I'm there too. Many of us, we think that the most important real estate in our life as the place where we live. And I would submit to you that it's not. I would submit to you there're two really crucial parts like your real estate in life. Number one is the bed that you sleep in. For me, that's the most important. But there's something even more important than the bed. It's the 18 inches between heart and mind. And for many of us, we're very cerebral. We turn to Christianity before the intellectual stimulation, and many of us are fine with doctrine and truths and exegesis and hermeneutics. The problem is unless that truth seeps down to 18 inches, give or take order of magnitude, into our heart and begins to transform our heart. And unless that true then turns into love that comes up into our mind, unless that happens, we don't experience God. It's one thing to read on a page, God is with you. It's one thing to read that I am with you forever until the end of the age. It's something completely... Altogether different when you know that God is here. It's one thing to read Jesus loves you. It's something all together different to know that God loves you. He's proven his love to you. It's not just abstract, it's, he's given his son, Jesus Christ, to prove his love for you. And Jesus was willing to die on the cross for our sins because that's what it took for us to be reconciled with God, the father, and then he sends the Holy Spirit to indwell us. God calls us to a robust Christian knowledge, he also calls us to a robust Christian Love. To know God, love God, and then in turn, to know people and love people together. Now, today we continue our sermon series called Prodigal Church through First Corinthians. And the Christians in Corinth, the brand new Christians, the church is only a couple of decades old, and Saint Paul who planted the church, he's now gone, but he hears about problems emerging in the church. One of the problems was that they're living in a counter Christian culture of a pagan culture. And one of the things they were wrestling is how do we interact with the culture? How do we interact with the neutral things in life where scripture doesn't say, this is wrong, and can we partake? And so Saint Paul writes to them, and he doesn't say, recede from the world. He doesn't say, I'm asking you to leave the world. He's saying, "I want you to be in the world, not of the world." We're called to be salt and light. There's two temptations for Christians when it comes to figuring out how to deal with culture. One is legalistic fundamentalism. We recede, we've got our own little tribe, our own little subculture, or relativistic liberalism where, yeah, we kind of believe, but we're going to pick and choose al a carte, what fits our life from scripture. It's either sectarianism or syncretism. In both fundamentalists and liberals, what happens is they begin to edit the Bible. Fundamentalists, they begin to add rules to the Bible. With the Bible, it says this is a neutral thing, and you need your conscience, and you need the power of the Holy Spirit to inform the decision. And they said, "No," that, "we're going to add these rules in a very pharisaical way." And then liberals want to add to the... they want to remove from the Bible things that just don't fit their current lifestyle. What happens is that both are intolerant of one another. There's no love between the two. Both say, "I love you, and I'll have the relationship with you when you agree with me, when you begin to think like me." And the Gospel isn't just a third way down the middle. It's not just merging the two. The Gospel is all together different dimension, and that's what we're going to talk about today. We are looking at First Corinthians Chapter eight verses one through 13, and then we'll also cover the second part of First Corinthians 10. Would you look at the text with me? First Corinthians chapter eight. Now, concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no god but one. For although there may be so called gods in heaven or on earth as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. However, not all possess this knowledge. But some through former association with idols eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed. The brother for whom Christ died, thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother's stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 23, "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor> Eat whatever's sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if anyone says to you, 'This has been offered in sacrifice,' then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you. And for the sake of conscience. I do not mean your conscience, but his, for why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced? Because of that for which I give thanks. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved." This is the reading of God's holy word, holy inerrant, infallible and authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time together, knowledge without love, then love without knowledge, and then knowledge with love fused into one hole. Here in point one, Paul is moving onto the next subject. He's is going subject by subject and answering questions that these Christians have raised. He comes in, and he starts talking about food offered to idols, not really, on the surface, relevant to us. I don't think you go into Whole Foods, and before you get that Nice grass fed... You don't say, "I wonder if this is demon possessed meat, demonic meat." You might wonder why the prices seemed so demonic before he go to stop and shop, but it's not an issue for most of us, but the principles are the same. God's word is timeless, therefore timely. What is the principle that he's dealing with? It's how do we make decisions concerning the gray areas of life? Like some moral issues are clear. This is right, this is wrong. This isn't morality issues that he's talking about. It's wisdom issues. Not right and wrong, but right and left. So things where in scripture, it's not clearly forbidden. For example, alcohol, is it wrong for a Christian to have a glass of wine with dinner? Well, scripture says on the one hand, God sends wine to gladden the hearts of man. On the other hand, he says, "Drunkenness is a sin." That's absolutely clear. How about football? Is it okay for a Christian to watch football? How about mixed martial arts? How about hockey instead of an entertainment in general? What's okay to watch on Netflix and what isn't? Diets, what kind of diets should I pursue? Yoga, music, romantic comedies; all gray areas. So these people, for them, the gray areas, can we buy meat that was sacrificed at the temple? Here, just to set the context, there were two places to buy meat. You can go to the Agora, which the main marketplace. The problem with Agora is it's more expensive. That's the Whole Foods. So they're wondering, "Okay, can we not go to Whole Foods? Can we go to Stop & Shop of the meat?" The stop and shop was the temple. At the temple people, would go and they would bring meat to be sacrificed, an animal to be sacrificed, and it would be prayed over. Why? Because the Greeks and the Romans, they were polytheistic, meaning they believed in lots of gods, and there were also polydemonistic, meaning they believed in lots of evil spirits. And what the Pagan priests started to teach is that the evil spirits could invade humans by attaching themselves to food. So, if you want make sure that this food is clean, that there's no demon in it, you've got to bring it to the temple, it'll be prayed over, demon exorcized, sacrificed, and then you can take the meat home after the priests actually save a little for themselves. The little, I don't know how much it was. It was a nice piece of... By the way, if you were making up a religion, this is brilliant. If you're a pagan seminarian, and you're like, "I am hungry, and I don't have a job." We need to tweak our little polytheistic worldview, and we need to say, "Those are demonic steaks right there. Bring them to us, and for a little cut for ourselves…" Whenever you analyze worldviews or religion, you got to say, "Is this something people would have made up?" And I submit to you, Christianity, no one would've made up. That God himself humbles himself. What kind of God is that? That God himself sacrifices himself. What kind of God is that? So that's another sermon for a different day. Moving on. So the temple has now become banquet halls, and they become butcher shops. Now, for Christians who became Christians and now they're mature in the faith, they say... The mature Christians say, "Obviously, there's no demons in the meat, so why would I go to the Agora and pay more money? I'm just going to go to the temple and buy the cheaper... There's no such thing as demons possessing this meat. Once it's dead, that's it. We pray over it, it's clean," et cetera. Those are the mature Christians. And it all starts with knowledge. First Corinthians 8:1, now, concerning the food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. Saint Paul is talking about, we know this truth, that strong mature believers possess knowledge, and that's verses four through six. He says, "Therefore as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence. And there is no God but one, for although there may be so called gods in heaven on earth as indeed there are many gods and many lords. Yet for us, there is one God, the father from whom are all things and for whom we exist and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we exist." So these mature Christians know that there's only one God, and they'd been marvelously converted from Pagan polytheism, and they know that foolish worship of idols is foolish. It's superstitious. They just see the meat. It's just meat. In First Corinthians 8:1-2, Saint Paul qualifies this idea of knowledge. He says this knowledge, when it's just knowledge, it puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. He's saying if your knowledge is making you condescending, if your knowledge is puffing up, if it's feeding your ego, if it's feeding your pride, then you do not know truth as you ought to know it. If it doesn't make you more humble, if it doesn't make you more sacrificial, a greater servant of other people, then you don't really get the truth, because knowledge not infused with love is just... It's poison. It's undercooked meat. Now, this group, knowledge without love, that's many of us, naturally. This is introverts. And I is one. I'm one. And people who don't know me, they think I'm really extroverted because I'm up here, and I'm doing this. But my wife calls this, like this is what's going on, this pastor [Yang 00:18:21], she calls it... She has a way of describing... She says there's a Pastor Jan button. She's like, "You press that button, and there's a turbo boost." My element is books, sitting in a room, by myself, sound canceling headphones. I'd rather be right here, in point one knowledge without love. This is introverts. You love to study, love to read, you love to learn. And a lot of us, we turn to Christianity for the intellectual stimulation, and there is much of that. However, the idea of, "I can't be around people because they drain me. Don't talk to me. I exhausted by people. I don't want to know you. I don't have time to love you." There's a problem with that. And if we only stay in the mind, if Christianity is only up here, it puffs us up, and what it leads to is just ugly behavior, we're cantankerous, judgmental, censorious, cold and hurt, knowledge now becomes a stick with which we whack others. No sensitivity to the feelings of other people. Facts don't care about your feelings. That's where we are. It's facts, the facts are right, but the heart is wrong, and we only have fellowship with people who are just like us. I have the truth, and you don't, therefore I'm better than you. It's still a power play. First Corinthians 13:2 says, "If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing." I'm sure you've heard the adage, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. That's true. But also in Boston, you can't just have love. And that brings me to point two, love without knowledge. Because in a place like Boston, people don't care how much you love until they know how much you know. That's still part of it. So you can't just say, "Let's just love, let's just be friends." And point two, this is naturally, this is where a lot of extroverts are. Let's just be friends. Let's just talk about tolerance. Let's just talk about unity for unity's sake. Let's not talk about doctrine. Doctrine divides. Let's not talk about truth and knowledge. Nobody has the truth. And if you say you have the truth, then I'm better than you. And by the way, that's also a power play. And by the way, that doesn't work because as soon as you say there is no truth, that's a truth statement, and also you're saying, "I have the truth. No one else has the truth," which just doesn't work. These are people who turn to Christianity, not for primarily intellectual stimulation, but for emotional satisfaction. These are people who respond to the first crowd by saying, "Feelings don't care about your facts." So First Corinthians 8:7, "However, not all possess this knowledge," Saint Paul says, "but some through former association with idols eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled." He's talking about the newer Christians that after conversion, they're really sensitive to eating meat from the temple because it reminded them of their previous lives, of their pagan demonic worship. The associations are too real. They're too vivid, and there's a breach of conscience. They really still believe that these idols were real. And here we need to talk about conscience for a little bit. Every single human being is born with a conscience. Now, if we can... through a life of saying no to conscience, ignoring conscience, spurning the conscience, that voice gets weaker and weaker. And when we are saved... When we come to Jesus Christ, we're saved by grace through faith, what God begins to do is rebuild our conscience, strengthen that voice, the volume begins to go up, and he rebuilds it through the Holy Spirit who's in us, through the holy scriptures and through fellowship with other Christians. So now the conscience becomes spirit sensitive, scripture saturated and well informed. It's one of the critical things that we as Christians need to always be asking is when it comes to these questions of gray areas, what does my conscience say? How does my conscience make me feel when I have a glass of wine? How does my conscience make me feel when I listen to a song, when I watch a particular movie? How does my conscience feel when I watch a romantic comedy? I know all my conscience makes me feel. "Turn it off," that's what it screams. But I'm not going to bind you with my conscience. But is my conscience clear before God and before people? And what happens is in this church, the two groups start looking at each other with suspicion, with resentment, with bitterness. The new Christians look to the old Christians, the mature Christian, and they say, "You're compromising with the world. How are you eating that meat?" And in response to the old Christians say to the new Christians, "Well, you're being pharisaical, legalistic, judgmental, imposing excessive restrictions." And then the worst part is the old Christians... Saint Paul talks about this. They start taking the new Christian that, "I'm going to help you grow." And they force them to go to the temple to eat this meat. And I'm trying to force you to grow in your faith, but because growth can't be forced, instead the newer believers, their conscience was stinging and there were being wounded. So Paul isn't just saying, all you need is love. You don't need knowledge. He's not pitting one against the other, because God wants us. So to the old Christians, Saint Paul is saying, "You got to be loving. You got be sensitive." To the new Christians, he says, "Hey, you need to grow. You need to grow in the truth because God wants us to know him deeply." God revealed himself in a book, therefore he wants us to learn. He wants to study, he wants us to store it up in our mind. Understand the different doctrines and how they fit together in a coherent system that magnifies God. But when you understand this truth, if you are not deeply humbled by the god of the universe, for knew you before you were even born, and that to save you, he sent his son Jesus Christ to die an excruciating death, pours out his love, generously. Didn't come to be served, but to serve. When you understand all of that, the power of the Holy Spirit is what converts us, your heart is melted. It can't be melted. Your heart is filled with the love of God. So that brings us to point three, knowledge with love. We need both. Are we really on point three already? Yes, but this is the longest point. So, just FYI. Knowledge is essential, but it's not sufficient. Love is essential, but it's not sufficient. Just like in any relationship, if you want a deep relationship with another human being, you can't just know facts about them like stats. You need to love them. And love isn't... it's essential, but not sufficient. You can't just say to the person, "I love you, now don't talk. I don't want you to ruin this thing that we got right here." It doesn't work. That's not a true relationship. Knowledge without love isn't knowledge and love without knowledge isn't love. To truly know is to love, and to truly love is to know. This this how God talks about... Adam and Eve, when God walks his daughter, Eve, down the aisle and gives her to Adam and they're married, and the text says that Adam knew his wife. What's that communicating? That's communicating that knowledge and love are just flip sides of the same coin. To know is to love, and to love is to know. So that's why Saint Paul says... And this is verses seven through 13. I've already read it, but I'm just going to point some stuff out. Like, "If you, as a mature Christian, are wounding the conscience of your fellow Christian by deciding to partake in one of the gray areas when it's against their conscience," he says in verse 11, "and so by your knowledge, this weak person destroyed. The brother from whom Christ died, thus sinning against your brother and wounding their conscience when it is weak you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brothers stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother's stumble." I struggle with lots of verses from the Bible. But maybe none more than that. How much, Saint Paul, do you love these people that you're willing to give up steak? How much? Silly example, but are there things in your life, like neutral areas, I have freedom to do this, that you wouldn't be willing to give up for the love of a brother or a sister? If so, God is revealing an idol right now who has an iron grip on your heart. And what he's saying is don't choose freedom over fellowship, over friends. Let me just give you a couple of examples from my own life. I grew up in a Russian Baptist church, a fundamentalist Baptist church. Now, if you're not familiar with fundamentalist Baptist churches, I'll just explain it like this, these people who don't believe in fun, just a little too much damn, and not enough mental or too much mental, sorry. And as I grew up in this... I love these people, I love this church, but there's a certain subculture... And a lot of them came from the former Soviet Union. And if you don't know anything about Russian culture, you know at least two things. That in Russia... Vladimir Putin, you know that part, and everyone's drunk. You know that part. Vodka is the thing. So when people became Christians in Soviet Union, they said, "No, no alcohol. We're absolute teetotalers." Because in their culture, you can't just have a drink. I actually went out, I did a study abroad. There was a slogan that they put on beer glasses. It says, "Beer is a waste of money unless it's a chaser for vodka." That's a real thing. So in the church, it's a sin. It's a sin to have alcohol. And also, they don't... So they don't believe in drinking alcohol publicly, and they also don't believe in dancing. Dancing is bad. You know the primary reason why a lot of Baptists don't believe in premarital sex? Because it leads to dancing. Just kidding. The primary reason why we don't believe in premarital sex because God said so, that's the primary. So when Tanya and I met... She comes from a Ukrainian Baptist church. I come from a Slavic Baptist church. And then we need to get... We're getting married, we get to get married now... We're getting married, and we get to play in our wedding. And half the people are from that part of my life, and half the people are from her work life, and then my school life. And t's like, how are we going? And really the question is, are we going to have booze, and is there dancing? That's really the question. I know that this is neutral, and I know all of this, but I also know the conscience issue. This would have been a huge stumbling block. So we decided we're not going to do alcohol, we're just going to do a lot more food. We did like seven course meal. And people who commit this under gluttony, that's on their conscience. Just a lot of... And no one even noticed that there was... And we didn't do dancing. We just did a lot of testimonies. We did good music, there's a great band. And then at the very end, we had the band perform Louis Armstrong's It's a Wonderful World. And I side hugged my wife because we're Russian Baptist, and we swayed together. But in my heart I was dancing. I was absolutely dancing. So that's just one example. Another example is just the way we worship. The way we worship when we get together. A lot of people come from different cultures, and they have different styles of worship, and we try to create a space where you can worship as the spirit leads you. But one of the things... If you've noticed, our band is so good, they're so good. But you look around, and people are into it, but it's not like, into it. You know what I'm saying? So you can, but one of the reasons is because in this culture, where we live in Boston, for people who just come to faith or just show up to church, this right here, is so different. I had one guy show up and be like, "I like the music, but I didn't understand the Christian Karaoke part. Is that what's going on?" And it takes time to... It's worship. It's to get your heart ready. So as we worship, worship as you're led and be sensitive of the people around you. Clothing; what am I free to wear? There's freedom. This is a neutral area. However, we need to be sensitive to how it impacts the people around us. Does it build up their faith? Politics. Lots of different people, lots of different political views. Be sensitive to the people around you in how you talk about politics. Romans 14:1-4. Those are just some examples. "Ask for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes that he may anything while the weak person eats only vegetables, let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld for the Lord is able to make him stand." This right here is counter cultural. Let me explain. Saint Paul is saying, welcome. welcome the immature, the one who is weak. Welcome. Though this person's theologically wrong and though this person's spiritually immature, welcome this person. This is counter cultural and absolutely radical because our culture says, to accept a person, to love a person means to accept all of their values. Everything. That negative evaluation just feels unloving, therefore it is unloving. So if you say you love me, you need to accept all of my views. This is false. ike if you're really friends with someone, if you really know someone, if you really love someone, you feel free to call them out when they're absolutely wrong. And they don't question, they don't doubt your love for them, so you get into a nice healthy debate, you have a conversation. We can love people without fully agreeing with them, and we can disagree with people without hating them. I love you, but you're wrong, and let me show you where and how. So the word welcome here is [foreign language 00:33:47] in the Greek, and it means to pull toward, to bring alongside of you, to start a relationship, to bear with the weaknesses of the weak. This is the Romans 14:20-23, "Do not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves, but whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats because the eating is not from faith, for whatever does not perceive from faith is sin." How does St Paul try to reconcile the two parties? Does he just say, "Hey, cut it out"? That's not what he does. He does something a lot more powerful. He takes a different approach. It's a different paradigm. Here in verse three of chapter eight, he says, "If anyone loves God, he is known by God." That's something that we just read and we just keep reading because what we... when we read that, what we expect is for this to mean if anyone loves God, he knows God. That's not what the text says. This is absolutely unexpected. Paul isn't saying if you love God, you know him. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is a lot more radical. He's saying, if you love God, you only love God because you have been known by God. The knowing God, knowing you perceives your loving him. And we see this pattern all over scripture. First John 5:1, "Those who believe have been born again, regeneration precedes faith, which is a gift." Both are a gift. If you love God, it's because you have been known by God. He's saying God knows you so deeply, so powerfully, with such a transformational knowledge that you can't but love him. God knows us with the knowledge that is so loving, so intimate, such deep communion, so profoundly that it changes. God doesn't just know stats about you. He doesn't just know your resume, se doesn't just read your LinkedIn and say, "Oh, you've done a lot of good." He knows you with the father's love before the foundation of the world, but the same father's love. On Father's Day, I always remember the birth of my babies. I was there. I was there. The holding your baby for the very first time and be like, "Oh, wow. Oh Wow." My wife has said no pictures until day two, because they still look like little aliens. But there's so much love. There is so much love. And then you get to know. You get to know in such a way that it fills the child's heart with love. And God knows us like that. He knows us in our sin, he knows us in our failure. Between past, present, and future, he knows all of our struggles. And even when we grieve him, he presses and perseveres, continues to love us, continues to know us, fully known and fully loved. This is our greatest desire. And being known like that, it changes your heart. It ignites your heart. You can't but love God. And this is how you grow in your relationship with God, connecting knowledge and love. You Know God, you love God. Those connect, that right there, that grows you. First John 4:19, "We love because he first loved us." Now, this connection between knowing and loving, not only grows us in our relationship with God, it also grows us in our relationship with Christians, builds community, and it grows us in our relationship with non Christians. This is what it means to be missional, it means to spread God's love. God knows you and he loves you. You know what that does to you? It humbles you. God loves me. What did I do to get God to love me? Nothing. He loves me even when I was a sinner, when I was unloving. He loves me because he is loving, and that changes me. That makes me lovely. It humbles me. But then there's a confidence aspect. The confidence aspect is, God adopted me as a son. God adopted you as a daughter, son and daughter. And when God adopts, he adopts for all of eternity, so now you have confidence. You're humble, and you're confident. That right there is one of the most powerful combinations in the universe. If you get this principle, it will change every single aspect of your life. If you're both humble and confident, you become 99th percentile of the human population. Here's what I mean. A lot of people who are humble, it's kind of a fake humble. It's like, "Oh, I'm so terrible. I'm bad at everything," but still self focused. And no one wants to be around that person, because you're like, "Oh, you just drain me. You bum me out. Okay, I'm going to go talk to someone else." And then no one likes the proud person. The person who is walking around building walking Connor McGregor, no one likes that guy. And here God says, no, no, no. Confidence, that's not grounded in you. It's grounded in the righteousness of Christ. Humility, we're saved not because of anything we've done, but because of Christ. You're humble and you're confident, and that, by the way, is the recipe, the formula for likability. Google it. And I found this... This is from scripture, but I also found out there's a YouTube video of how to be funny, how to be a comedian. And the formula is point number one... not that I studied this. But point number one is, be likable. And they say, how to be likable? You're humble and you're confident. That leads to likability, and people want to hear what you're saying. You know who was the most likable person who ever lived? Jesus Christ. And he was also the funniest. I guarantee you. Because he's the lion and the lamb. Confident and humble, it absolutely changes you. Now, this changed the way that you relate with people. You begin to know people because you're humble and you are confident, because you're not insecure, you're not self conscious, you go out, you become outgoing. You want to know people, and you want to know them in order to love them, and you know them in such a way that they can't love you. And I'll share this. This is something I'm still growing in. This is not natural to me. I'm a fallen guy, sinful flesh, I wrestled with pride and insecurity. Just like all of you, I need grace on a daily basis, I need the Holy Spirit. Here's how I've excused not being loving, truly loving. I lived down south for a couple of years of seminary, I know how to pretend to be loving. Jim from the office smiled like. Like that's the Pastor Jan button. Here's the problem with that. The Pastor Jan button begins to malfunction. Because [sound effect], like, I love you, I can do that in the flesh for a little while, and then my energy just runs out, and then I become of not a very pleasant person to be around or to drive around or to live with. So one of the things that the Lord has been teaching me is that when God calls us to be loving, he doesn't just call extroverts to be loving. He calls everybody to be loving, and to really know people, and to go out into serve people, help people, encourage people any way we possibly can. So for the introverts, we, we have access to the holy spirit, and now, we have access to inexhaustible resources of love. So as an introvert, I need the Holy Spirit to love in the way that God has called the love. As an extrovert, you need the Holy Spirit to know God and to spend time in your room studying scripture and studying the truth. You need both. So by the power of the spirit, you can know God and you can love God. By the power of the spirit, you can know people, and you can love people because your humble changes absolutely everything. Let me just give you a few examples. It changes the way you relate to everybody. It changes the way you relate to baristas at Starbucks. Few weeks ago, I went to... I do the mobile order, because they always mess up my name, and I don't want to talk to them. Deep inside, I'm like... And I do a mobile order for my Trenta iced coffee, just black. And I go there 4:15 because I need to be here for sound check around 4:40, 4:45. I get there at 4:15 it's not ready. I wait 4:24 4:30, it's not ready. Finally, the guy gives it to me, and I demonstratively say, "No, I don't want it. I waited too long." And I walked out. And I went and preached a sermon on God's in love and loving people. And the whole time this Holy Spirit shellacking me, convicting me from the... After the service, I went like, "Dude, I'm so sorry." He's like, "Thanks man." There you go. Cool. So now we're friends. He's a cool... So this changes the way you interact with customer service representatives from Comcast. You know. That's a human being made in the image of God, and you may be one of the only Christians that he has a conversation with that day. So use the word wonderful. I love the word wonderful. "Have a wonderful day." No one says that. Have a wonderful day. Blessed, no one knows what that means. Have a wonderful day. It changes the way that you deal with Uber drivers. It changes you as an Uber driver. It changes the way that you act in an Airbnb. And if you're an Airbnb host, it changes how you relate to these people. That these are people created in the image of God, and I have an opportunity to love them. Waiters, you're not entitled, "Oh, wait on me." This is a person that God is bringing into your life, and you have an opportunity to serve them with words and with money and with a tip. This is the way that you relate to clients and employees. If you are a boss, it changes the way that you deal with your employees. If you're an employee, the way that you talk about your boss behind their back. Coworkers, you're not just there to compete in a dog eat dog culture. You're there to build them up as well. Roommates, students with professors, professors with students and neighbors, it's a mind shift. That God has called me not to be a consumer from everyone. What can I get from people? How can I use people for my own benefit? How can I love people instead to serve them, to build them up, to add worth, to enrich them. Love kills this entitlement that we feel, it kills the prize. And then we don't just know what our mind or with our heart, we begin to see needs. And this is Titus 3:1, "Be ready for every good work." Meaning when you know people and when you love people, and you hear that they have a need, you're there. By God's grace, Sharia and Marion are in my community. They just moved to Pennsylvania and they got baptized at MOSAIC. They're from Iran, from a Muslim background, and they got baptized at MOSAIC. Sweet family. And I knew that he was moving. And a few weeks out, I was like, "Sharia, if you need help moving, it's one of my spiritual gifts, to pick things up and put them down. I'm pretty effective at that. I can do it efficiently. And I love doing it, and I don't have to go to the gym that day." And he's like, "Oh, it's okay. Oh, it's okay. Oh, it's okay." And I was like, "Who's coming to help you move?" Nobody. I'm there 8:30. I'm there. Give me the address. You know one of the things that we were talking about? He was like, "I have a lot of friends who said, 'Let me know if you need help.'" And he said, "And I knew that they didn't really want to help." I have this personality, I'm kind of intimidating. I'm working on that part too. But it's like it takes humility to help. It also takes humility to receive help. It does. It's okay to ask for help. It's okay to ask that to be served. And then when we begin to serve, you know what happens? We realize that our greatest need isn't to have our needs met. Our greatest need isn't to be focusing on ourselves. Our greatest need is to help someone else and get our attention off of our needs because it's more blessed to give than to receive. It's more blessed to serve than to be served. And you can study this. There's this thing called the altruistic, where when you help people through generosity, through philanthropy, you actually feel better about yourself. It changes your heart. And then what happens to the person that you served? It changed their heart. Now what are they doing? They're saying, "Man, I want to serve someone as well." And you know how people say it? "We should love the world. We should love all people." We should, let's start with one person. Start with one, and do for one what you would do for everybody. And this changes the way that people relate to you. And by the way, this is how you make friends. This is really important. If you're zoned out, come back. This part's really important. They're all important, but... I meet a lot of people who moved to the city, and they're lonely. And they come to church and they say, "Where's my friends? Where's my friends?" I try to do this in my own relationships, and I try to do this at setting a culture, creating a culture of care and service where people are intentional, people are friendly. But one of the things I try to help people understand is when you come and you say, "Meet my needs," when you come and say, "Be my friend," that's not healthy. And no one really responds to that and says, "Yeah, okay. I want to meet all you need." It actually eats the codependency and it leads to emotional crunches. But if you go and you be friendly and you say, "How can I encourage you? How can I speak truth into your life? How can I be generous? How can I enrich your life?" Now people are like, "I want to spend more time with this person." You'll become a radiator of energy instead of a drain of energy. People just are magnetically drawn to you. Everyone loves that. Now how do we get the strength to do that? How do we get the strength to love like that? We need the Holy Spirit. And this is Galatians 5:16-22. But I say, "Walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law, and now the works of the flesh are evident." These are signs that you're living in the flesh, even as a Christian. Here's the signs. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity. I'll just focus on enmity. That's where you're not getting along. Strife, conflict, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. This person is driven by selfishness. No one likes this person. No one likes the person who's just like me, me, me, me, me. It leads to ugly behavior, and no one wants to hang out with this person. And at this person's funeral, if you keep going down this path, there's not going to be that many people. Maybe this person's mom. That's about it. Now, if you're driven by the spirit, where instead of using people to meet your needs, you're using your gifts to meet other people's needs, this is what happens, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control against such things. This is selfless. This is you giving of yourself. The more love you give, the more love you have, the more money you give, the more money you have, the more time you give, it seems like you'll have more time. Everyone wants to be around the loving person, the joyful person, the peaceful person, the self controlled person. This is a beautiful life. This is a life where when you die, that funeral is packed. Everyone's rejoicing. I was at a funeral like this last Saturday, 91 year old lady, Babushkimania, happiest, joy filled funeral I've ever been to. I want a funeral like that, and not because people are happy that I'm dead, but people are just rejoicing. And the only difference between that funeral and mine is I want lots of brisket. And this is when you walk in the spirit. This is the unchanging principle of holy scripture, you find yourself by losing yourself. Christianity isn't about self help. It's about self denial. And when you deny yourself, you actually find your true yourself. When you act selflessly, it's actually the best thing for you is it changes absolutely everything. You're transformed from a mindset of, "Oh, I have to do this." And by the way, I'm going to talk to Dad's real quick for just a second. When you have the spirit of God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you go from, "I have to" to "I get to." "Oh, I have to spend time with my kids, oh, I have to listen to them, oh, I have to provide, oh, I have to..." I get to. ids hate feeling like they're a burden. They love feeling like they're bringing delight to their parents. It changes marriages. "Oh, I have to take care of my... Oh, I have to take care..." How can I serve you? How can I build you up? How can I encourage you? It changes every... I get to do that. It changes absolutely everything. Where did Saint Paul learn this? First Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ." He is getting this from the example of Christ. At the cross, we learn to imitate Christ's costly giving of self. This is true love, and it changes everything. Christ himself did the supremely costly thing for our good, dying in our place. If you're not a Christian here today, I welcome you. I welcome you to become a Christian, a child of God, and not just through words for the mind. You know how I started with what's your favorite food? What's your favorite song? Christianity is the same way. You know what Christianity says? Taste and see that God is good. With the taste buds of your soul, welcome the Holy Spirit, welcome Jesus Christ, repent of sin, repent of pride, of selfishness, and allow your heart to be filled with God's love. I'll close with this. Octavius Winslow, the sympathy of Christ, one of my favorite quotes. He says, "There is not a circumstance of our Lord's history which is not another form or manifestation of love. His incarnation is love stooping, his sympathy is love weeping , his compassion is love supporting, his grace is love acting, his teaching is the voice of love, his silence is the repose of love, his patience is the restraint of love, his obedience is the labor love, his suffering is the travail of love. His cross is the altar of love, his death is the burnt offering of love, his resurrection is the triumph of love, his ascension to heaven and his sitting down at the right hand of God is the enthronement and the intercession of love. Such as the deep, the vast, the boundless ocean upon which our thoughts are now about to launch the sole muses in silent awe as it gazes upon this fathomless, limitless sea of God's love." Let's pray. God, we thank you for this time that you've given us and the holy scriptures. We thank you God, for being a God that calls us to know you truly and to love you wholeheartedly. Make us people who know God and Love God, and know people and love people. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
Eternal Perspective on Singleness & Marriage
June 9, 2019 • 1 Corinthians 7
Summary: We live in a world that tends to idolize both singleness and marriage, and at the same time treat them like a curse. Scripture is honest about the difficulty of life in a fallen world. Singleness and marriage both come with many challenges and difficulties, but Paul reminds us they are, nevertheless, both gifts from God. When properly used, each gift can point to Jesus and the Gospel in a unique way. Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan. I'm one of the pastors here along with Pastor Shane Sikkema, and if you're new or if you're visiting, I'm really glad you're here. We say that every week, but we mean it every week. We'd love to connect with you either in person after the service or if you would be so kind to fill out the connection card legibly and then you can either toss it in the offering basket afterwards or redeem it at the Welcome Center in return for a gift that we've lovingly prepared for you. The connection card is also the place where you can write your prayer request or let us know if you're interested in baptism or if you, today, for the very first time accepted Christ as Lord and Savior or recommitted your life to him. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a good Father, Lord, and you know our hearts better than we know ourselves. Heavenly Father, we pray that you today focus our attention on the love of Jesus Christ who loved us so much that he gave all of himself in order to get us. We thank you Christ that you did that. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are here, that you're amongst us. We pray Holy Spirit to minister today. As we talk about some sensitive things, I pray that you minister to those who are single and desire to be married, minister to them. To those who are single and same-sex attracted, please, Lord, minster to them. To those how are single and perhaps are dealing with breakup or rejection, please minister to them. Lord, I pray that you minister to the couples who are married. We know that the enemy hates marriage and attacks it with a full-on assault, and I pray protect the marriages here. I pray, teach us to be gracious to one another as you're gracious to us and love one another as you love us and serve one another one as you serve us. Lord, I pray for any of those who are on the brink of divorce or even considering that. I pray you minister to them and bring them back and, I pray, rekindle their love for one another. Lord, I pray for those who have gone through divorce. I pray minister deeply to them as, while the text doesn't have that much to say about divorce, but, Lord, your spirit can speak more powerfully than any human being, so I pray minister. Lord, bless our time with the holy word and we pray, speak to every single one of us and tell us exactly what you want us to hear, and give us grace to implement in our lives. And I pray for anyone who's not yet a Christian. I pray that they see just how glorious this vision of Christian marriage is. As great as it is, it's only a foretaste of the greatest relationship in the universe, that's your love for us. And I pray that those who are not yet Christians, they accept your love and are transformed by it. And I pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. So this is the part of the sermon where I say something to try to peak your interest, so that you keep listening to the rest of the sermon. The problem is, the joy is that we're talking about singleness, marriage, and sex today, so I got your attention, so I don't really need to set it up. But I will say this, Saint Paul is writing to a brand new church in Corinth. We, Mosaic, our new church, Corinth was a society that was saturated with sexual sin, it was a pagan society, and the Christians there were dealing with the same temptations, the same issues that we're dealing here in Boston Massachusetts so it's highly relevant. Someone asked me recently, hey, every time I come to this church, you guys are talking about sex, what's up with that? And the reason why we do is because we preach through the bible and the bible talks about it, why? Because all of us deal with it, this is part of the human condition. And what scripture is trying to do is get us to think about spirituality, not as divorced from reality. Spirituality is an embodied spirituality. Therefore, sexuality and spirituality are inextricably intertwined. What we do in our body has an impact on our souls, and vice versa. And the reason why God has designed sex as he's designed it, and says this is the way that you flourish personally, that your family flourishes, the people around you flourish, is because God, though he loves you personally, he does, but he also loves other people. And he loves society. And he wants culture to flourish. And every single one of us is connected to one another, so you hear people say, we're not hurting anybody. Well, if you sin against another person, you're not just sinning against that person if you hurt that person, you're not just hurting that person, it's a ripple effect that goes on and it keeps going, and hurt people, hurt people. And ultimately, even if you're not hurting each other, you're not taking God if you're sinning against each other of sexual morality. You're taking God out of the equation. God is hurt. When we sin, we are sinning against God. Our moral decision impact God, and they impact other people. And what we talked about last week is that Christian, you're not your own. You were created by God, you're redeemed by God, that your body is not your own. So scripture tells us to glorify God with your body. As we talk about singleness, marriage, divorce, re-marriage, and let me just say this on the front end, life is hard, as you know. And because life is hard, singleness is hard. And marriage is hard. And divorce is hard. And remarriage is hard. And widowhood, it's all hard. Therefore, God gives us Jesus, he gives us the Holy Spirit in order to redeem us from our sins so that we catch a glimpse of the vision that he has for us, and gives us the spirit to realize that vision. And I'll say this on the front end, as we talk about everything that we talk about, one of my favorite quotes is, "Where the real falls short of the ideal, grace abounds." So as we talk about God's vision for marriage, he's also extending grace to be infused in those places of brokenness in our lives and relationships. I said this last week, that we didn't really plan out this sermon series to coincide with the big things that are happening in the calendar, so last week, that sermon coincided with the beginning of Pride Month. This week's sermon, all week, I've been thinking about marriage and singleness, and then I remember, thank God, that my anniversary is on Monday. So God's been getting me to think about marriage, so it's 13 years, my wife and I, by God's grace. Monday we're celebrating our 13th anniversary so praise God for that. You know what, seven years ago, a few years ago, I would have said no, no, no, no. And right now I'm taking it, yeah, thank you. Thank you, because it's work, by God's grace, praise God. And Pastor Shane is celebrating his 13th anniversary with Kelly Sikkema. They're celebrating on the 18th. So make sure to remember that and send them some kind messages. So here's what I was saying about marriage. So were not for Jesus Christ, Tanya and I, as incredible of a woman and gracious, we would not be married. Because I am a sinner. I'm a terrible sinner. And not only that, the way I'm wired is, you know what I do for a living? I talk for a living. And I persuade people for a living. Now, imagine living with that, and arguing with that professional talker. So, praise God for grace. Today, we're going to look at First Corinthians 7:1 through 12, First Corinthians 7:1 through 12. We'll cover some other excerpts from chapter 7. Would you please look at the text with me. "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: "It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman." But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." "Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say, I, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her." This is the reading of God's holy and errant fallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. We're going to frame up our time in three points, God's heart singles, God's heart for marriage, and God's heart for divorce. Just a few comments there. First of all, God's heart for singles. How do you know whom God wants you to marry? How do you know if God wants you to marry at all? And to really understand this text, and to really understand this book, we need to understand the driving principle behind everything that Saint Paul says here, as he's inspired by the Holy Spirit. The driving principle is, that we, we're created by God, for His glory, and that's, if we're in that sweet spot of living for God's glory, he fills our hearts with joy. So when he tells us about God's actual ethic, it doesn't make sense to us if joy's not a category in our world view. Because what the world tells us is, hey, the way to happiness is through pleasure, through sexual satisfaction, therefore, if you take away the most important thing to me, then how in the world do I get happiness? And one of the things that scripture teaches as a whole, is that there's a difference between pleasure, happiness and joy. Pleasure is felt in the body. You can be going through pleasure, enjoying pleasure, and still be depressed. Happiness is in the mind. This is why if you go for a run, the endorphins kick in, you're like, "Oh, I'm a little happier. Caffeine, oh I'm a little happier." You can be happy, and your heart is still empty. And this is where God promises something deeper. And this is what every single one of us needs, we long for. It's the joy. Well, how do we get the joy? You don't pursue the joy. Joy is a by-product of glorifying God. "God, I want to live for you, not myself. God, I want to give myself to you. I want to serve you, not myself." So, the principle, at the heart of this text is, "Dear Christian, pursue the path that leads to greatest devotion to Christ, greatest glory to God. Choose the path on which, you can glorify God with every single ounce of your being for the rest of your life." So, Saint Paul says if you can remain single, do it, because you have more time and energy to be devoted to Christ and glorify him, that's verse seven. "I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am." He's not commanding singleness, that's a special gift. But he is commending singleness. He's saying that singleness, and Saint Paul had the gift. Jesus Christ had the gift. Singleness provides certain advantages. You just have more time. You have more energy to glorify God. You just do more. Therefore, here, I just pause, I want to say this side comment. It's a deeply unbiblical attitude to go up to a single person and say, "Hey, why aren't you married?" And by the way, I grew up in a church like, people who do this all the time, they go up, "Hey, how old are you? Why aren't you married?" Since we're here, okay, let's go. It's the same thing as going up to someone, who doesn't have a kid, they're married, been married for a few years, "Hey, when's the baby coming?" Same thing. That's like going up to someone and if they're shorter, "Hey, why don't you grow another foot?" It's like going to someone who's struggling with baldness, and receding hairline, "Hey, why don't you fix that?" Or going up to someone who wants a beard but can't grow a beard, like Pastor Jan, and be like, "Where's your beard Pastor Jan? My response is, my brother got my dad's beard, I got my mom's beard. So don't do that. These are very sensitive pressure points. Don't do that. Don't go up to someone who has four daughters and say, "Hey, are you guys going to try for a boy?" "I did, four times." So stop, stop this. So don't go up to a single person and make them feel inferior if they're not married. The two most influential people in the world were not married. They impacted history like nobody else, and there're so many others, people who were single, John Stott, Jane Aus-. And incredible people live for the glory of God. So neither singleness nor marriage should be deprecated, neither is inferior or superior, both are gifts from a good giver. The advantages to remaining single, and Saint Paul gives us a few. The first is, you just have more freedom in difficult times. And he points this out in verse 26. He says, "I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife." And then he quickly adds, that it's not a sin if you're married, verse 28, "But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that." Worldly troubles, and he talks about present distress, what's he talking about? When's he writing? He's writing about 20, 25 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christianity begins to spread over the Roman empire. What does Nero do? What does Caesar do? Now he starts clamping down, he starts persecuting the church. Now people are dying for their faith. They're being crucified and they're being crucified upside down. And they are being burned at the stake. So what Saint Paul has said, he's saying, "In my spirit, I feel an impending persecution coming." And so one thing, to be martyred or imprisoned as a single person. Something totally else when you have family, when you have a spouse, when you have kids. So practically, he says, if God's calling you as a missionary to a place where you are likely to suffer persecution and severe hardship, consider remaining single. If you're called to a ministry requiring lots of travel, well, that's not conducive to a family. Consider remaining single. Another practical element that he wants us to consider in terms of thinking about singleness, he says you just have more time. You have more freedom to devote yourself fully to God and his mission. That's verse 32. "I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord." Here's the point. He's saying marriage takes work. It takes time, it takes effort, it takes energy to build the relationship, to connect the souls and remain connected to work through issues, to work through seasons. It takes time. And then if you have kids, oh my kids are so much work. This is a sermon in itself, but I'll just say this, the moment I wake up, I'm on, until the moment I go to sleep, where I fall asleep on the way down to the pillow. That's my life, that's my wife's life. People ask me, "Hey, Pastor Jan, why do you work out? Isn't it an idolatry issue? A vanity issue? Let's talk about your heart." Honestly, it's not at all, it's just pragmatism. I need strength to carry my kids. Have you seen my kids? My youngest is almost two. People come up to me like, "So, when's he starting kindergarten?" In four years, he's starting kindergarten. "Your youngest is two? Here, I brought some clothes for a two-year-old." No, not even close. Honestly, if you are thinking about marriage, I'll let you carry my daughter around, I dare you. In crossfit, you got the medicine balls, I do that on a daily basis, with my kids. That's just one example. And I got four. It's work, and it's energy. And what he's saying is, when you're single, you just have more time to devote to the Lord. And marriage is ministry. You do it for the glory of God. Children is ministry, you do it for the glory of God. Well, if that's your ministry, you don't have as much time for other ministries, it's just practical. Peter Wagner, he's an author and a pastor, he wrote about John Stott, who's a British pastor and author. And John Stott was single. And Peter Wagner talks about the impact of John Stott, his influence. Where Peter Wagner had to care for his family, John Stott is writing books in a month, book after book, preparing conferences. What he's saying is you just couldn't match the output. So now the question if singleness is awesome, and it is, then why in the world would anyone get married? And Paul's like, well, I'll use his words, and this point two, God's Heart for Marriage. He says, number seven, "I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift, et cetera, et cetera." Verse 9, "But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion." Question, how do I know if I have the gift of celibacy? Well, the first question here is, can you control your sexual desires? And this is really practical, it's very human, and he's saying, if you can't control your sexual desires, perhaps you should consider marriage. If you're single and fighting sexual temptation daily, it's a constant battle that consumes all of your energy, that you're only focused on this one front, and you can't do anything else, he says, perhaps you should consider marriage. Now, he's not saying that it's impossible to resist temptation if you're single. He's not saying it's impossible. Later on in First Corinthians, 10:13, he says, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." He's saying by the power of the Holy Spirit, every single Christian, has the ability, by God's grace to be pure in thought and deed. But, if all of your energy's directed on this one battle, fighting this one fire, he says, perhaps the solution isn't more self-discipline, but a spouse. And of course, you still need self-control, even as a married person. And I would argue, you need self-control even more as a married person, because the battle shifts. When you're single, the battle is, do not awaken love, you put it to sleep. You channel that energy into something else. When you get married, you'll awaken love, and you have to direct love, channel it into this one person for the rest of your life. It's a different battle. First Corinthians 7:2, "But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband." Should I consider marriage? Well, if you have a solid relationship with the Lord, you're experiencing incredible fellowship with God, and with believers. Do you still feel a tinge of loneliness? And where do I see this? I this from the very beginning in Genesis. God creates everything, paradise, it's bliss. Adam is experiencing unbroken fellowship with God. They're walking through the Garden of Eden, together. God's spirit close Adam. It's still ... You know what is says in Genesis 2:18? This is before the fall, God says, "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper for for him." There's still a tinge of loneliness that God chooses to meet through a spouse. Perhaps you feel something ... When I was single, and I had great fellowship with the Lord, I had great fellowship with brothers and sisters and Christian community, but I still felt a little loneliness. And I wanted kids. I've always loved kids. I used to always volunteer at Sunday School and volunteer in kids ministry. Summer camps, I was a counselor. I've always loved kids. And I wanted kids. Perhaps you feel something similar. Well, have you tried praying Genesis too over your life, in prayer? And before you think about marriage, you really need to decide to what ministry God's called you to. When you marry a person, you're not marrying that person so that person gratifies you, that's not the primary reason. You marry the other person because that person is the one with whom you will do the most for God's glory. You create synergy together. You've got to be thinking power couples, spiritual power couple. With whom can I do the absolute most? And they've got to be thinking the same, to what ministry has God called you to? C.T. Studd was a missionary in Africa. But he left his family. He pretty much neglected and abandoned his family the last 11 years of his wife's life. He'd only saw her for two weeks. Did a lot for ministry, but he abandoned his primary ministry, which was his family. David Livingstone did the same thing, left his wife and children for years to pioneer the gospel ministry in the interior of Africa. Accomplished much, but it marred their ministry. So if you're called to be a missionary, you've got to make sure that you have a wife who's there with you. If you're called, and you have a husband who's there with you. So you need to know your mission before you marry, because the purpose of marriage isn't just personal happiness. The purpose of marriage is to glorify God together. And every single couple has a ministry. And while marriage and children, they bring a lot of joy. They're good gifts of God. But they're not going to satisfy. The most satisfying thing from my wife Tanya and I, the most satisfying thing, is to do things for the Lord together. You know what her favorite thing is? And now it's my new favorite thing? Because her favorite thing is my favorite thing. She loves going to the park and meeting new people, and telling them about Jesus. She loves that. That's her favorite thing. She goes to the park, she's like a rock star. She's like the mayor of Brookline, as she walks in. So now I'm right there with her. And that brings incredible joy as she sees people, thinking about God. So friends, forget the idolatrous idea of, I'm going to get married, we're going to settle down, we're going to have a nice little house in suburbia, two-car garage, two cars, white-picket fence, not that there's anything wrong with that, 2.1 kids, a dog, and a cat. And, we might go to church when we're not traveling on the weekends, and when our kids don't have sports events. I'll tell you right now, I'll tell you what happens because I see this happen all the time. One year goes by, two years, three, and then you get bored. There's a thing called a seven-year itch, it's real. And that's where people just get bored of that life, it's boring. "Get that out of here." So, if you're not gifted with celibacy, pray and look for Godly spouse, it's First Corinthians 7:9, "they should marry." Now I know this is frustrating for many of you. You're like, just stop, get rid of that verse, you've got to rip it out. We can't do that, we like the bible. So what do we do? If I want to get married, what should I do? I'm just going to share some practical Godly, biblical wisdom. Number one, you focus on personal growth and Godliness. That's number one. There's no one and nothing can satisfy as much as God. And seriously, what are your options? If you're single and you're like, I want to get married. What are your options? You can sit around sulking, feeling depressed, feeling lonely, perhaps wasting time with a frantic search for a companion. Or, you seek God, the only one who could satisfy, the only true lover who completely satisfies. You seek him in his word, you seek him in prayer, read great books of theology. Listen to audio books. And then serve the Lord in some capacity. Instead of just sitting around and sulk, and channel that energy to serving someone else. And then God fills your heart with joy. And, what happens is, you start growing in maturity as you take on responsibility. And, if the Lord does send a spouse, and this is how he usually does it, you're serving, you're serving, you're serving, you're serving, and then someone next to you is serving, serving, serving, and serving. And they're like, I like this person. We're getting stuff done together, for the glory of GOD, GSD, get stuff done, Soli Deo Gloria, SDG, GSDSDG. We're doing it together. Let's do it together. And now you're partners. You're a spiritual power couple. This is why I love this church. And I know that transient people are coming, going. But honestly, serve. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. I was here early today, and I see Godly people showing up early, 7:30, 8:30, showing up. They're giving their best hours of the best sweet-spot of their weekend, Sunday morning. And they're giving it to the Lord. Those are the Navy Seal Christians. Marry those... Serve the Lord. If you want a Godly spouse, which you should, if you are a Christian, become the one that the one is looking for. Become the Godly spouse that the Godly spouse is looking for. How do you do that? You learn to follow Jesus on a daily basis. You wake up, you spend time in scripture, you spend time in prayer. I put on my sound-canceling headphones, and I'm listening to worship music, and I do that because I have four kids. So you do that on daily basis. Lord lead me, and you follow. And this is important, because how can you lead another human being, another soul, if you can't lead yourself? And if you can't lead another sinner, what makes you think that you can lead two sinners? And then, if you're two sinners together, what do you do when you make little sinners? And that's what they are. I've got four little sinners that live with me. Four roommates who contribute nothing to the rent, and eat all my food. Learn to rest in the Lord. Learn to find ultimate satisfaction in him. And I know there're seasons where it feels like you're going through a desert, feels like the Lord isn't with you, that he's not guiding, that he's abandoned you. Joseph felt that for 13 years in prison. And God used all the time, preparing him to be vice president of Egypt. Sometimes God allows us, it's a blessing to go through a season that doesn't feel like a blessing, so that the ultimate blessing comes, and when it does, God gets all the glory. So get into scriptures, get into community group, get into church membership. Because if you can't commit to the bride of Christ, what makes you think that you can commit to a bride? And this is in particular, I just want to talk to the gentlemen for just a second here. It's really just practical. You want to get married? You got to get a job. You got to get an apartment. You got to pay down the debt. You got to get some cologne. You got to get a haircut. You got to get a shirt with buttons, at least a few. You got to get a nice pair of shoes. And you can't wear white socks with black pants. There's this little practical element. And I can go on. I've got a whole thing. I can go on. But the way that you really you learn, you meet other Godly couples in the church. And if you're single, meet married couples and say, "Hey, give me an hour of your time. Give me some life coaching when it comes to this area of life. And in return, I'm going to babysit your kids." That's a win-win. That's ultimate, mutual upbuilding. That's what we're trying to do. The married couple needs the single person. The single person needs the married couple. Learn from one another. The thing I just did with use cologne, and be presentable for gentlemen, my wife does, so she is a master of this. I'm not going to go into the details, but meet her. She's a Godly sage woman, and she knows, she knows things that you can't figure, so okay. Gentlemen, you got to get a job. If you want to get married, you got to be prepared to be the head of the family, the headship is a doctrine that's important. You're not the boss, you're not a bully or a king, you're serving, who gives himself away on a daily basis, for the good of the family. I'm sacrificing time, energy, everything. Now, do that to the people around you. And headship is really just this, it's your responsibility. Everything in the family is your responsibility. Adam, you messed up. Adam, where are you? Eve was the first one to bite out of the apple. It's not an apply, whatever the fruit was. Jesus was, our sin wasn't his fall, but he took responsibility. In the same way, that's what headship is, even if it's not your fault, it's your responsibility. Some of you, perhaps are thinking about marriage, and you've been dating for a long time, and you keep putting it off because of the ridiculous cost of weddings in our culture. It's ridiculous. I think the average is like, $35,000. It's absolutely crazy. Free tip, if you haven't been listening, this is the best part of the sermon so far. This is a free nugget. You're getting your money's worth. Monday weddings is where it's at. I'm serious. I'm absolutely serious. No one's thinking like that. The venues are all free. And you know, I'm free on Mondays. Saturdays are hard. Sundays, I can't do. And then you can haggle with the $35,000. How about $3500? And then you know. Just practically, you got to care for yourself. You got to care for your body. How can you care for another person's body if you're not caring for yourself? Care for your could. How can you care for another person's soul if you can't care for yourself? So I'm going to share just a little of how Tanya and I met, just to give testimony. Testimony of the Holy Spirit's grace. Junior year in college, I was stuck in all kinds of immaturity. And then that immaturity worked itself out, in that I picked a fight with four dudes on Third Street in Providence. And I thought it was three, I picked a fight with three dudes on Third Street in Providence. And, I was doing fine, mind you. And the fourth guy came out of nowhere, blindsided me, and with a superman punch. I ended up in the hospital with a broken jaw. As soon as I woke up, I knew, that was Hebrews 12, the Lord disciplining me. And I said, Lord, thank you. From then on, I got into every single bible study I could. And I started getting into the scriptures, spending an hour, giving my first hour of the day to the Lord. And the Lord used that season to grow me, right before my study abroad in Moscow. I went there by myself. My first Sunday there, I didn't know anybody, found Moscow Bible Church. Got plugged in immediately. Went every Sunday. Went every Wednesday to the prayer meeting. It was me, three little old ladies, and another guy named Constantine, who also had recently been in a fight, and God woke him up. It wasn't one against four, it was one against 12, but he was a national Russian wrestler so he took them all except for number 12, with a baseball bat with nails. True story. So now, we're all beat up, and we're at this prayer meeting, with these three little old ladies. And they're edifying our souls, and we're encouraging one another. And we started going to the youth meeting on Friday. So we just grew. And then after that, that summer, I did a mission trip to Belarus, at an orphanage. I was just growing by leaps and bounds. I come back, my senior year in college. I realized, hey, I want to get married, but I was doing international relations and Slavic Studies. International relations because it sounded good, Slavic Studies, to pad my GPA, because I speak Russian. And then I was like, I'm not employable. Nobody wants that. So then I picked up Business Econ. I took nine economic classes my senior year. That's all I did. And then I did prayer and bible study. That's all I did senior year. My friend, best friend Jarrod Lin, and I, he preached at Mosaic. He works for Campus Fit at Brown University. He and I committed to pray from Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM every single day of the year. And the prayer request, my prayer request was the same every time. "I want to be close to the Lord, and Lord, send me a wife," every time. They stopped asking me. It was actually such a big deal that New York Times found out that there's a prayer group at Brown University, there's actually Christians there. And they ran a centerpiece on a Sunday morning paper, about us. It was called "On a Christian Mission to the Top," May something, 2005. And it was a picture of me praying with Tim Havens, you only came that one time. And Jarrod Lin didn't get into the picture. You can Google it, it was the last time New York Times had a truthful piece. No, just kidding, stop, I'm kidding. So, I got a job, moved down to D.C. My uncle was planning a Russian church in the D.C. ... I lived for a month in his house, and I painted his house for rent, in exchange for rent, and I saw their family. Godly man, Godly woman, four Godly kids. And I pray, "Lord, I want a family like that." And, some time went by, and I got a phone call from my dad, who said, "Hey, did you know there's going to be an evangelistic rally in Philadelphia?" Billy Graham, his translator was coming down. My dad said, "Let's meet in Philadelphia. I'll drive down. You drive up." We met there, the evangelistic rally was at night. So we need to go to church in the morning, so we go to this church plant in Philadelphia. and as soon as we got out of the car, I looked toward the door and there was a gal greeting there. And she was like an angel. And she still is like an angel. I met her, "Hi," her name's Tanya. And I was absolutely smitten. She thought I was an unbeliever because I had spiky hair and no tie. And I show up at a Russian church, and they're like, you're a pagan. So I have no idea what the service was about. I have no idea what the sermons are about. I still need to repent about that. Lord, forgive me. And I was just focused on this gal. Her family invites us over for lunch after. And I got to know her family, and Tanya wasn't there. She was at the rally serving. I'm like, yes, serving at the church, serving there, a heart of service, at the evangelistic rally. I have no idea what the sermon's about. I made a beeline to her after the service. "Hi, how are you? My name is Jan. I'm also a Christian. I'm a member of New Life Church in Washington D.C." I asked her for her phone number. I said, "Can we be friends?" She said, "I have no idea who you are. And I don't like telephones, because they cause radiation." She knew back then. And asked her for her email. She's like, "I don't do emails." So I was bummed out. And my mom was there too. My mom approached her mom, and said, "Hey, let's keep in touch." And her mom says, "Yeah, let's keep in touch." And gives me Tanya's phone number. And that's where it all got started. That's all to say this, you should be a member of a church. And here's one thing I do want to say from that story. I have a lot of things to say. In our culture, we are too serious about Christian dating. And some of us are not serious enough. Too serious, that's "The Lord gave me a dream last night, and you're the person for me." I didn't get that dream, sorry. And then on the other side, it's like, "Hey, let's just hang out for years." Honestly, I think this might be helpful. You've got to think about it in terms of a family. We're brothers and sisters. So if you're a single, treat each other as brother and sister. And if you're interested in someone, say hey, not let's date, or court, dort, whatever. "Let's be friends. Let's go for coffee." I'll just give you an example. I was at this church in D.C. and I saw this girl, she's an awesome sister serving the Lord. I said, "Hey, do you want to, as friends," and I made this clear, "As friends, let's go see a baseball game." It was in the Nationals. And we went together. I made it clear, "Look, let's just be friends. If the friendship develops, great. I'm a serious guy with serious intentions. But if it doesn't, let's still be friends, and I'll actually help you find a husband because we're friends, and brother and sister." And that's what happened. It didn't work out with her, and then she actually, I introduced, like in the same church. Hey, she married the guy, now they're missionaries in Kazakhstan. So it's all to say, "Let's be friends." That's the point. And in the church, when you're serving the Lord, you're close to the Lord, you begin to develop this ability to see people with the eyes of Jesus Christ. And that's what you need. Some of us are too focused on appearances where Proverbs 31:30 says, "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." A wife of noble character who shall find her value is more precious than gold. And that's all to say, the character's the most important thing. Therefore, Christian, please never consider marriage to a nonbeliever. Forge the word "please," burn it on your heart. God is that serious about it. And as a Christian, you cannot even consider the option of marrying a nonbeliever. It's never God's will for a Christian to become unequally yoked to a non-Christian. It's better to be single than in a marriage with a nonbeliever, because you can't share the deepest love of your heart with that person. That leads to all kinds of aloofness and a chasm. What happens if you continue to grow in your relationship with the Lord, and they don't? So it's better to be single than devastated. And don't just say things like, "But they believe in God." I want to know, if you say, "Pastor Jan, we're dating," where is this person a member of a church? That's what I want to know. How serious are you about your relationship with the Lord? And don't just say they believe in God. You know what scripture says? Even demons believe in God. First Peter 3:1 talks about if you are married to a nonbeliever, says, "So that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives." What he's saying is, if you are married to a nonbeliever, don't be self-righteous, don't beat them over the head with a bible. What your spouse needs is for you to be like Jesus fills the Holy Spirit and they need to be compelled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The vision is that the Lord saves them, and that you actually baptize them, that's the vision. First Corinthians 7:39 talks about "Only in the Lord." Second Corinthians 6:14 through 16, you could read that later, talking about unequally yoked. Also in preparation for marriage, guard your moral purity, free sexual morality, and glorify God with your body. You've got to plan for righteousness. You know the questions about how far can we go? That's the wrong question. You already went too far. The question is, how much can we glorify God with our body? Don't just get to as close as possible. Because what happens is, the enemy that ... You know these stories about these people who take selfies on cliffs? And there's a running total of people who died taking selfies at the Yosemite cliff. It was a famous Instagram couple, they went as closely as possible. What they didn't factor in was the wind. Wind gust comes out of nowhere, and they fall over. So if you don't want to sin, don't plan to put yourself in tempting situations. If you don't want to go to Las Vegas, then why did you get on the plane? If you don't want to commit sexual immorality, then why are you at the bar at that time? Or the club by your ... I was going to say by your ... It doesn't matter with the accountability part. No, no club. That's not a Christian thing. Cohabitation? It's actually fornication. They're synonyms. You're connected to Jesus Christ, don't implicate Jesus Christ in sin. Jenell Williams Paris says "The idol of sexual fulfillment has two faces: One face says that each person has the right to be sexually satisfied and that having sex is a necessary part of happy, mature adulthood (or even adolescence). The second face is a Christian one that says the reward for premarital sexual virtue is great marital sex." "When I was growing up," she said, "sexual ethics was all stick and no carrot: we were told to abstain from premarital sex because of the parental and divine punishment that would ensue. Today, the stick is still there, but there's also a carrot: the less you sin before marriage, the hotter the sex after the marriage." The problem with that is it's not a biblical world view. Christ never had sex and he lived the perfect life, the ultimate life. Therefore, we can't expect that we need it for human flourishing. Stanley Hauerwas, a scholar at Duke University, says, one of the clearest differences between Christianity and all the other religions is that singleness is a paradigm. A paradigm is a way of life. Just like Jesus. So that's to say, don't say, that if you take this sex out of my life, that I can't be a fully human being, that's false. That's a lie. This generation's been offered sex on plate and found it to be unsatisfying. We're looking for how to flourish, and we flourish in the middle of God's will. First Corinthians 7:3 through 5, "The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband." And the big idea here is, and first he talked about singleness. The big idea is no sex. And then once you get married, what he's saying is, it becomes a spiritual discipline, it's prayer, reading scripture, and baby, we need to be close to the Lord. It's a thing, seriously, conjugal rights, look that up together. The point is that you serve one another. Sex isn't self-expression, and it's not self-gratification, it's self-donation. If the husband wants to be together, you be together. If the wife wants to be together, you be together. The Song of Solomon says tend to the garden so weeds don't grow. So don't sleep back-to-back. That's when Satan crawls into the bed. That's what he says. Don't let Satan tempt you. Care for one another's body. Care for one another's needs. God creates sex for procreation, but he also does for pleasure and satisfaction, and comfort, and protection, and ultimately unity. Okay, back to, let's get married. The point, be wise, but not over-spiritual. Here's what I mean. Sometimes we pray, the Lord sends us a spouse, send me a spouse. And sometimes we get too spiritual, too overly spiritual, thinking God's just going to make the person appear, like it's going to start raining men hallelujah. And that's not what he's saying. There's nothing wrong in putting yourself in a situation where you can meet someone. And somebody you're attracted to. Obviously Godly character takes precedence. But there's nothing wrong being attracted to that someone. Song of Solomon, that couple isn't extolling the finer points of each other's characters. It's all about that they're in love, both spiritually and physically. And you got to like that person, you got to enjoy that person's presence. So, that's all to say, be selective but don't be picky. Here's what I mean. I think some of you brothers, I think you're putting off marriage way too long because you're looking for a model, who loves Jesus. And by model, that's a nice way of putting what I really mean. And sisters, some of you are smart and powerful, you're waiting for Mr. Right, Mr. Perfect, whose type-A, alpha male, highly intelligent, ultra fit, super wealthy, and able to cook. You're looking for Ryan Gosling, that's who you're looking for. You're looking for Bradley Cooper. Well here's the thing, Bradley Cooper got Irina Shayk, and Irina Shayk got Bradley Cooper, and this past week, they split up, after four years together. Didn't satisfy. And now they have to, they're amicably working on how to share custody. Learn to love the hidden person, the inner beauty of the person. First Peter, 3:3-4, "Do not let your adorning be external-the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear-but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." That's what you're looking for. And that's what you need to see, you train up your eyes see. Proverbs 31:10 through 11, "excellent, or of noble character, a wife who can find, she is far more precious than jewels, the heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain." So train the eyes to see not just physical eyes, but the eyes of your heart. Pastor Shane and I were talking about this week, and this is a quote from Pastor Shane, it's so good. I said, can I use it? He said sure, go ahead. He says, "I think there's something to be said of attraction being overrated." He says, "I'm not attracted to a 99-year-old woman, but Lord willing, one day I'll be married to one, and I'll find her attractive." Something there, likeability, friendship, it's more important than just physical attraction. Godly men and Godly women with God's grace, they age like fine wine. Apart from God's grace, like milk. Why? Because you always marry the wrong person. We're all looking for finished projects, we're not finished. We're always works in progress. We're all incompatible, we're just the wrong people, and we need the gospel to make us the right people, the right heart, with the right Holy Spirit. God didn't just create you. He's recreating you. And when you're looking for a spouse, what you're looking for is the potential. I can see. I'm not going to fix you. But God can fix you. Timothy Keller, in The Meaning of Marriage, which you definitely need to read. He says, "Within this Christian vision of marriage, here's what it means to fall in love. It is so look at another person and get a glimpse of what God is creating, and to say, "I see who God is making you, and it excites me! I want to be a part of that. I want to partner with you and God in the journey you are taking to his throne. And when we get there, I will look at your magnificence and say, "I always knew you could be like this. I got glimpses of it on earth, but now look at you!" That's what we're talking about. You see the potential with God's grace. I had a conversation with a friend this week, and the friend is single. And I said, tell me what you would say in the sermon. If I haven't had that conversation with you, I'm going to soon. That's the conversation I'm having. This is what he said, he says, Satan attacks marriage through all kinds of ways, pornography. But there's another subtle attack. It's so hard to find a good Christian person. And this is what church community is so important, where married people, like you're bringing singles into your life. And then bring some other singles into your life, and then invite them over for dinner together. See what happens. God's heart for divorce. Saint Paul says, hear that God's heart is for marriage, one man, one woman, one covenant, one lifetime. Why? Because divorce is heartbreaking. Divorce is never over and it's never final. It just gets more complicated. I've done weddings where the husband and wife haven't talked to each other in years, and they're their just because their daughter's walking down the aisle, and they're sitting on different sides. It gets complicated. Everyone at some point wants to get divorced and sinners get sick of getting sinned against each other. And God creates marriage to be one, one man, one woman. The word uses ahad, the same word for the Trinity, where the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. What scripture says, Malachi 2, is that God hates divorce because his heart is broken by it. And he sees the brokenness, the ripple effect from generation to generation. He sees the effect that it has on people, it causes fear when parents get divorced. It complicates your idea of marriage. There's a lingering effect. Because marriage isn't just a contract, it's covenant. This is why we celebrate anniversaries. This is the anniversary of the covenant. If you renew your lease, you don't celebrate the renewal of your lease, it's just a contract, there's nothing emotional there. With a covenant, it's different. It's the binding of two hearts. So scripture here in First Corinthians 7 and other places, it says God allows divorce for adultery, that's marital unfaithfulness, porneia, in the Greek. Because in the Old Testament, adultery was actually a capital offense, but it's an exception clause for abandoning the covenant. But adultery should never happen. And divorce is also allowed for abandonment but still, it gives grounds but it's not license. And God's heart is for reconciliation to happen. So am I allowed to remarry if my spouse has sinned against me, adulterously, or has abandoned? Maybe on some circumstances, but give it time. That's what scripture, give it time and let God intervene. Give time for God to transform hearts. With that said, in conclusion, marriage is great, but it's not ultimate. If God is not the center of your life, what you have is marriage creating more problems than it solves. Without the Lord, marriage is just bringing two self-centered human beings together, seeking self-fulfillment from one another. That's why Saint Paul says, in First Corinthians 7:29 to 31, "This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away." It's temporary. Eternity is forever, so we should be thinking about is eternity. We should be thinking about, is spiritual family. Because spiritual family is forever. There's no marriage in heaven, but there's spiritual family is forever. And following Jesus gives us an abundance of spiritual family. I want you dear Mosaic, I want you to catch a vision of spiritual family, not just brothers and sisters. I want you to catch a vision of fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and daughters. This is something that's been missing in my life. This is something that Lord's been actually revealing to me even this week. I've always considered myself a brother, like we're brothers and sisters. And I see when I lead someone to the Lord, by God's grace, that's a child, that's a son, that's a daughter. Drew Wayne who was here, remember Drew Wayne, who got baptized with a shirt off? Remember that guy? He's now in Texas? One of the things that he used to say, and it just hit me, the meaning of that this week. He used to say, the Papa John's jingle, "Better ingredients, better pizza," Papa John's? Wayne Tolbert, he said, "Better preaching, better access to Jesus, Papa Jan's." It just hit me, shout out Drew, who still listens to the podcast. It just hit me. My goodness, I'm a father, I'm a spiritual father. And I need to grow in that. And some of you are spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers, and you have spiritual children, now care for them. Care for them, love them, pray for them, meet with them. Send them random pictures of flowers like my dad doe to me. "Look at these flowers, they're blooming." And I always do, "Heart, I love it. Keep sending them. Thanks Dad." So spiritual family is forever. The bible is God's proposal to us. The gospel is God's proposal to us. God fulfills every one of our desires, and then some, because God is an ultimate lover. The gospel is good news for absolutely everyone. The bible begins with a wedding ceremony, and Jesus begins his ministry at a wedding. And heaven is the greatest reception ever. And that's where God is going to ultimately fulfill all of our desires. Now, how do we have that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the great bridegroom sacrifices himself on the cross for us, to make us his own. Gives everything, to say "I do. I always did. And I always will." Let God satisfy the greatest desires of your heart. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this time that you've given us. We thank you for the holy scriptures. God, we thank you that you don't just care about our time on Sunday, but you care about all of our life. And you want to infuse your healing power, by the power of the spirit into every single corners and crevices of our lives, and replace brokenness with healing. I pray Lord, do that, even now, as we sing. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
Eternal Perspective on Singleness & Marriage
June 9, 2019 • 1 Corinthians 7
Summary: We live in a world that tends to idolize both singleness and marriage, and at the same time treat them like a curse. Scripture is honest about the difficulty of life in a fallen world. Singleness and marriage both come with many challenges and difficulties, but Paul reminds us they are, nevertheless, both gifts from God. When properly used, each gift can point to Jesus and the Gospel in a unique way. Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan. I'm one of the pastors here along with Pastor Shane Sikkema, and if you're new or if you're visiting, I'm really glad you're here. We say that every week, but we mean it every week. We'd love to connect with you either in person after the service or if you would be so kind to fill out the connection card legibly and then you can either toss it in the offering basket afterwards or redeem it at the Welcome Center in return for a gift that we've lovingly prepared for you. The connection card is also the place where you can write your prayer request or let us know if you're interested in baptism or if you, today, for the very first time accepted Christ as Lord and Savior or recommitted your life to him. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a good Father, Lord, and you know our hearts better than we know ourselves. Heavenly Father, we pray that you today focus our attention on the love of Jesus Christ who loved us so much that he gave all of himself in order to get us. We thank you Christ that you did that. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are here, that you're amongst us. We pray Holy Spirit to minister today. As we talk about some sensitive things, I pray that you minister to those who are single and desire to be married, minister to them. To those who are single and same-sex attracted, please, Lord, minster to them. To those how are single and perhaps are dealing with breakup or rejection, please minister to them. Lord, I pray that you minister to the couples who are married. We know that the enemy hates marriage and attacks it with a full-on assault, and I pray protect the marriages here. I pray, teach us to be gracious to one another as you're gracious to us and love one another as you love us and serve one another one as you serve us. Lord, I pray for any of those who are on the brink of divorce or even considering that. I pray you minister to them and bring them back and, I pray, rekindle their love for one another. Lord, I pray for those who have gone through divorce. I pray minister deeply to them as, while the text doesn't have that much to say about divorce, but, Lord, your spirit can speak more powerfully than any human being, so I pray minister. Lord, bless our time with the holy word and we pray, speak to every single one of us and tell us exactly what you want us to hear, and give us grace to implement in our lives. And I pray for anyone who's not yet a Christian. I pray that they see just how glorious this vision of Christian marriage is. As great as it is, it's only a foretaste of the greatest relationship in the universe, that's your love for us. And I pray that those who are not yet Christians, they accept your love and are transformed by it. And I pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. So this is the part of the sermon where I say something to try to peak your interest, so that you keep listening to the rest of the sermon. The problem is, the joy is that we're talking about singleness, marriage, and sex today, so I got your attention, so I don't really need to set it up. But I will say this, Saint Paul is writing to a brand new church in Corinth. We, Mosaic, our new church, Corinth was a society that was saturated with sexual sin, it was a pagan society, and the Christians there were dealing with the same temptations, the same issues that we're dealing here in Boston Massachusetts so it's highly relevant. Someone asked me recently, hey, every time I come to this church, you guys are talking about sex, what's up with that? And the reason why we do is because we preach through the bible and the bible talks about it, why? Because all of us deal with it, this is part of the human condition. And what scripture is trying to do is get us to think about spirituality, not as divorced from reality. Spirituality is an embodied spirituality. Therefore, sexuality and spirituality are inextricably intertwined. What we do in our body has an impact on our souls, and vice versa. And the reason why God has designed sex as he's designed it, and says this is the way that you flourish personally, that your family flourishes, the people around you flourish, is because God, though he loves you personally, he does, but he also loves other people. And he loves society. And he wants culture to flourish. And every single one of us is connected to one another, so you hear people say, we're not hurting anybody. Well, if you sin against another person, you're not just sinning against that person if you hurt that person, you're not just hurting that person, it's a ripple effect that goes on and it keeps going, and hurt people, hurt people. And ultimately, even if you're not hurting each other, you're not taking God if you're sinning against each other of sexual morality. You're taking God out of the equation. God is hurt. When we sin, we are sinning against God. Our moral decision impact God, and they impact other people. And what we talked about last week is that Christian, you're not your own. You were created by God, you're redeemed by God, that your body is not your own. So scripture tells us to glorify God with your body. As we talk about singleness, marriage, divorce, re-marriage, and let me just say this on the front end, life is hard, as you know. And because life is hard, singleness is hard. And marriage is hard. And divorce is hard. And remarriage is hard. And widowhood, it's all hard. Therefore, God gives us Jesus, he gives us the Holy Spirit in order to redeem us from our sins so that we catch a glimpse of the vision that he has for us, and gives us the spirit to realize that vision. And I'll say this on the front end, as we talk about everything that we talk about, one of my favorite quotes is, "Where the real falls short of the ideal, grace abounds." So as we talk about God's vision for marriage, he's also extending grace to be infused in those places of brokenness in our lives and relationships. I said this last week, that we didn't really plan out this sermon series to coincide with the big things that are happening in the calendar, so last week, that sermon coincided with the beginning of Pride Month. This week's sermon, all week, I've been thinking about marriage and singleness, and then I remember, thank God, that my anniversary is on Monday. So God's been getting me to think about marriage, so it's 13 years, my wife and I, by God's grace. Monday we're celebrating our 13th anniversary so praise God for that. You know what, seven years ago, a few years ago, I would have said no, no, no, no. And right now I'm taking it, yeah, thank you. Thank you, because it's work, by God's grace, praise God. And Pastor Shane is celebrating his 13th anniversary with Kelly Sikkema. They're celebrating on the 18th. So make sure to remember that and send them some kind messages. So here's what I was saying about marriage. So were not for Jesus Christ, Tanya and I, as incredible of a woman and gracious, we would not be married. Because I am a sinner. I'm a terrible sinner. And not only that, the way I'm wired is, you know what I do for a living? I talk for a living. And I persuade people for a living. Now, imagine living with that, and arguing with that professional talker. So, praise God for grace. Today, we're going to look at First Corinthians 7:1 through 12, First Corinthians 7:1 through 12. We'll cover some other excerpts from chapter 7. Would you please look at the text with me. "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: "It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman." But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." "Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say, I, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her." This is the reading of God's holy and errant fallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. We're going to frame up our time in three points, God's heart singles, God's heart for marriage, and God's heart for divorce. Just a few comments there. First of all, God's heart for singles. How do you know whom God wants you to marry? How do you know if God wants you to marry at all? And to really understand this text, and to really understand this book, we need to understand the driving principle behind everything that Saint Paul says here, as he's inspired by the Holy Spirit. The driving principle is, that we, we're created by God, for His glory, and that's, if we're in that sweet spot of living for God's glory, he fills our hearts with joy. So when he tells us about God's actual ethic, it doesn't make sense to us if joy's not a category in our world view. Because what the world tells us is, hey, the way to happiness is through pleasure, through sexual satisfaction, therefore, if you take away the most important thing to me, then how in the world do I get happiness? And one of the things that scripture teaches as a whole, is that there's a difference between pleasure, happiness and joy. Pleasure is felt in the body. You can be going through pleasure, enjoying pleasure, and still be depressed. Happiness is in the mind. This is why if you go for a run, the endorphins kick in, you're like, "Oh, I'm a little happier. Caffeine, oh I'm a little happier." You can be happy, and your heart is still empty. And this is where God promises something deeper. And this is what every single one of us needs, we long for. It's the joy. Well, how do we get the joy? You don't pursue the joy. Joy is a by-product of glorifying God. "God, I want to live for you, not myself. God, I want to give myself to you. I want to serve you, not myself." So, the principle, at the heart of this text is, "Dear Christian, pursue the path that leads to greatest devotion to Christ, greatest glory to God. Choose the path on which, you can glorify God with every single ounce of your being for the rest of your life." So, Saint Paul says if you can remain single, do it, because you have more time and energy to be devoted to Christ and glorify him, that's verse seven. "I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am." He's not commanding singleness, that's a special gift. But he is commending singleness. He's saying that singleness, and Saint Paul had the gift. Jesus Christ had the gift. Singleness provides certain advantages. You just have more time. You have more energy to glorify God. You just do more. Therefore, here, I just pause, I want to say this side comment. It's a deeply unbiblical attitude to go up to a single person and say, "Hey, why aren't you married?" And by the way, I grew up in a church like, people who do this all the time, they go up, "Hey, how old are you? Why aren't you married?" Since we're here, okay, let's go. It's the same thing as going up to someone, who doesn't have a kid, they're married, been married for a few years, "Hey, when's the baby coming?" Same thing. That's like going up to someone and if they're shorter, "Hey, why don't you grow another foot?" It's like going to someone who's struggling with baldness, and receding hairline, "Hey, why don't you fix that?" Or going up to someone who wants a beard but can't grow a beard, like Pastor Jan, and be like, "Where's your beard Pastor Jan? My response is, my brother got my dad's beard, I got my mom's beard. So don't do that. These are very sensitive pressure points. Don't do that. Don't go up to someone who has four daughters and say, "Hey, are you guys going to try for a boy?" "I did, four times." So stop, stop this. So don't go up to a single person and make them feel inferior if they're not married. The two most influential people in the world were not married. They impacted history like nobody else, and there're so many others, people who were single, John Stott, Jane Aus-. And incredible people live for the glory of God. So neither singleness nor marriage should be deprecated, neither is inferior or superior, both are gifts from a good giver. The advantages to remaining single, and Saint Paul gives us a few. The first is, you just have more freedom in difficult times. And he points this out in verse 26. He says, "I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife." And then he quickly adds, that it's not a sin if you're married, verse 28, "But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that." Worldly troubles, and he talks about present distress, what's he talking about? When's he writing? He's writing about 20, 25 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christianity begins to spread over the Roman empire. What does Nero do? What does Caesar do? Now he starts clamping down, he starts persecuting the church. Now people are dying for their faith. They're being crucified and they're being crucified upside down. And they are being burned at the stake. So what Saint Paul has said, he's saying, "In my spirit, I feel an impending persecution coming." And so one thing, to be martyred or imprisoned as a single person. Something totally else when you have family, when you have a spouse, when you have kids. So practically, he says, if God's calling you as a missionary to a place where you are likely to suffer persecution and severe hardship, consider remaining single. If you're called to a ministry requiring lots of travel, well, that's not conducive to a family. Consider remaining single. Another practical element that he wants us to consider in terms of thinking about singleness, he says you just have more time. You have more freedom to devote yourself fully to God and his mission. That's verse 32. "I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord." Here's the point. He's saying marriage takes work. It takes time, it takes effort, it takes energy to build the relationship, to connect the souls and remain connected to work through issues, to work through seasons. It takes time. And then if you have kids, oh my kids are so much work. This is a sermon in itself, but I'll just say this, the moment I wake up, I'm on, until the moment I go to sleep, where I fall asleep on the way down to the pillow. That's my life, that's my wife's life. People ask me, "Hey, Pastor Jan, why do you work out? Isn't it an idolatry issue? A vanity issue? Let's talk about your heart." Honestly, it's not at all, it's just pragmatism. I need strength to carry my kids. Have you seen my kids? My youngest is almost two. People come up to me like, "So, when's he starting kindergarten?" In four years, he's starting kindergarten. "Your youngest is two? Here, I brought some clothes for a two-year-old." No, not even close. Honestly, if you are thinking about marriage, I'll let you carry my daughter around, I dare you. In crossfit, you got the medicine balls, I do that on a daily basis, with my kids. That's just one example. And I got four. It's work, and it's energy. And what he's saying is, when you're single, you just have more time to devote to the Lord. And marriage is ministry. You do it for the glory of God. Children is ministry, you do it for the glory of God. Well, if that's your ministry, you don't have as much time for other ministries, it's just practical. Peter Wagner, he's an author and a pastor, he wrote about John Stott, who's a British pastor and author. And John Stott was single. And Peter Wagner talks about the impact of John Stott, his influence. Where Peter Wagner had to care for his family, John Stott is writing books in a month, book after book, preparing conferences. What he's saying is you just couldn't match the output. So now the question if singleness is awesome, and it is, then why in the world would anyone get married? And Paul's like, well, I'll use his words, and this point two, God's Heart for Marriage. He says, number seven, "I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift, et cetera, et cetera." Verse 9, "But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion." Question, how do I know if I have the gift of celibacy? Well, the first question here is, can you control your sexual desires? And this is really practical, it's very human, and he's saying, if you can't control your sexual desires, perhaps you should consider marriage. If you're single and fighting sexual temptation daily, it's a constant battle that consumes all of your energy, that you're only focused on this one front, and you can't do anything else, he says, perhaps you should consider marriage. Now, he's not saying that it's impossible to resist temptation if you're single. He's not saying it's impossible. Later on in First Corinthians, 10:13, he says, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." He's saying by the power of the Holy Spirit, every single Christian, has the ability, by God's grace to be pure in thought and deed. But, if all of your energy's directed on this one battle, fighting this one fire, he says, perhaps the solution isn't more self-discipline, but a spouse. And of course, you still need self-control, even as a married person. And I would argue, you need self-control even more as a married person, because the battle shifts. When you're single, the battle is, do not awaken love, you put it to sleep. You channel that energy into something else. When you get married, you'll awaken love, and you have to direct love, channel it into this one person for the rest of your life. It's a different battle. First Corinthians 7:2, "But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband." Should I consider marriage? Well, if you have a solid relationship with the Lord, you're experiencing incredible fellowship with God, and with believers. Do you still feel a tinge of loneliness? And where do I see this? I this from the very beginning in Genesis. God creates everything, paradise, it's bliss. Adam is experiencing unbroken fellowship with God. They're walking through the Garden of Eden, together. God's spirit close Adam. It's still ... You know what is says in Genesis 2:18? This is before the fall, God says, "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper for for him." There's still a tinge of loneliness that God chooses to meet through a spouse. Perhaps you feel something ... When I was single, and I had great fellowship with the Lord, I had great fellowship with brothers and sisters and Christian community, but I still felt a little loneliness. And I wanted kids. I've always loved kids. I used to always volunteer at Sunday School and volunteer in kids ministry. Summer camps, I was a counselor. I've always loved kids. And I wanted kids. Perhaps you feel something similar. Well, have you tried praying Genesis too over your life, in prayer? And before you think about marriage, you really need to decide to what ministry God's called you to. When you marry a person, you're not marrying that person so that person gratifies you, that's not the primary reason. You marry the other person because that person is the one with whom you will do the most for God's glory. You create synergy together. You've got to be thinking power couples, spiritual power couple. With whom can I do the absolute most? And they've got to be thinking the same, to what ministry has God called you to? C.T. Studd was a missionary in Africa. But he left his family. He pretty much neglected and abandoned his family the last 11 years of his wife's life. He'd only saw her for two weeks. Did a lot for ministry, but he abandoned his primary ministry, which was his family. David Livingstone did the same thing, left his wife and children for years to pioneer the gospel ministry in the interior of Africa. Accomplished much, but it marred their ministry. So if you're called to be a missionary, you've got to make sure that you have a wife who's there with you. If you're called, and you have a husband who's there with you. So you need to know your mission before you marry, because the purpose of marriage isn't just personal happiness. The purpose of marriage is to glorify God together. And every single couple has a ministry. And while marriage and children, they bring a lot of joy. They're good gifts of God. But they're not going to satisfy. The most satisfying thing from my wife Tanya and I, the most satisfying thing, is to do things for the Lord together. You know what her favorite thing is? And now it's my new favorite thing? Because her favorite thing is my favorite thing. She loves going to the park and meeting new people, and telling them about Jesus. She loves that. That's her favorite thing. She goes to the park, she's like a rock star. She's like the mayor of Brookline, as she walks in. So now I'm right there with her. And that brings incredible joy as she sees people, thinking about God. So friends, forget the idolatrous idea of, I'm going to get married, we're going to settle down, we're going to have a nice little house in suburbia, two-car garage, two cars, white-picket fence, not that there's anything wrong with that, 2.1 kids, a dog, and a cat. And, we might go to church when we're not traveling on the weekends, and when our kids don't have sports events. I'll tell you right now, I'll tell you what happens because I see this happen all the time. One year goes by, two years, three, and then you get bored. There's a thing called a seven-year itch, it's real. And that's where people just get bored of that life, it's boring. "Get that out of here." So, if you're not gifted with celibacy, pray and look for Godly spouse, it's First Corinthians 7:9, "they should marry." Now I know this is frustrating for many of you. You're like, just stop, get rid of that verse, you've got to rip it out. We can't do that, we like the bible. So what do we do? If I want to get married, what should I do? I'm just going to share some practical Godly, biblical wisdom. Number one, you focus on personal growth and Godliness. That's number one. There's no one and nothing can satisfy as much as God. And seriously, what are your options? If you're single and you're like, I want to get married. What are your options? You can sit around sulking, feeling depressed, feeling lonely, perhaps wasting time with a frantic search for a companion. Or, you seek God, the only one who could satisfy, the only true lover who completely satisfies. You seek him in his word, you seek him in prayer, read great books of theology. Listen to audio books. And then serve the Lord in some capacity. Instead of just sitting around and sulk, and channel that energy to serving someone else. And then God fills your heart with joy. And, what happens is, you start growing in maturity as you take on responsibility. And, if the Lord does send a spouse, and this is how he usually does it, you're serving, you're serving, you're serving, you're serving, and then someone next to you is serving, serving, serving, and serving. And they're like, I like this person. We're getting stuff done together, for the glory of GOD, GSD, get stuff done, Soli Deo Gloria, SDG, GSDSDG. We're doing it together. Let's do it together. And now you're partners. You're a spiritual power couple. This is why I love this church. And I know that transient people are coming, going. But honestly, serve. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. I was here early today, and I see Godly people showing up early, 7:30, 8:30, showing up. They're giving their best hours of the best sweet-spot of their weekend, Sunday morning. And they're giving it to the Lord. Those are the Navy Seal Christians. Marry those... Serve the Lord. If you want a Godly spouse, which you should, if you are a Christian, become the one that the one is looking for. Become the Godly spouse that the Godly spouse is looking for. How do you do that? You learn to follow Jesus on a daily basis. You wake up, you spend time in scripture, you spend time in prayer. I put on my sound-canceling headphones, and I'm listening to worship music, and I do that because I have four kids. So you do that on daily basis. Lord lead me, and you follow. And this is important, because how can you lead another human being, another soul, if you can't lead yourself? And if you can't lead another sinner, what makes you think that you can lead two sinners? And then, if you're two sinners together, what do you do when you make little sinners? And that's what they are. I've got four little sinners that live with me. Four roommates who contribute nothing to the rent, and eat all my food. Learn to rest in the Lord. Learn to find ultimate satisfaction in him. And I know there're seasons where it feels like you're going through a desert, feels like the Lord isn't with you, that he's not guiding, that he's abandoned you. Joseph felt that for 13 years in prison. And God used all the time, preparing him to be vice president of Egypt. Sometimes God allows us, it's a blessing to go through a season that doesn't feel like a blessing, so that the ultimate blessing comes, and when it does, God gets all the glory. So get into scriptures, get into community group, get into church membership. Because if you can't commit to the bride of Christ, what makes you think that you can commit to a bride? And this is in particular, I just want to talk to the gentlemen for just a second here. It's really just practical. You want to get married? You got to get a job. You got to get an apartment. You got to pay down the debt. You got to get some cologne. You got to get a haircut. You got to get a shirt with buttons, at least a few. You got to get a nice pair of shoes. And you can't wear white socks with black pants. There's this little practical element. And I can go on. I've got a whole thing. I can go on. But the way that you really you learn, you meet other Godly couples in the church. And if you're single, meet married couples and say, "Hey, give me an hour of your time. Give me some life coaching when it comes to this area of life. And in return, I'm going to babysit your kids." That's a win-win. That's ultimate, mutual upbuilding. That's what we're trying to do. The married couple needs the single person. The single person needs the married couple. Learn from one another. The thing I just did with use cologne, and be presentable for gentlemen, my wife does, so she is a master of this. I'm not going to go into the details, but meet her. She's a Godly sage woman, and she knows, she knows things that you can't figure, so okay. Gentlemen, you got to get a job. If you want to get married, you got to be prepared to be the head of the family, the headship is a doctrine that's important. You're not the boss, you're not a bully or a king, you're serving, who gives himself away on a daily basis, for the good of the family. I'm sacrificing time, energy, everything. Now, do that to the people around you. And headship is really just this, it's your responsibility. Everything in the family is your responsibility. Adam, you messed up. Adam, where are you? Eve was the first one to bite out of the apple. It's not an apply, whatever the fruit was. Jesus was, our sin wasn't his fall, but he took responsibility. In the same way, that's what headship is, even if it's not your fault, it's your responsibility. Some of you, perhaps are thinking about marriage, and you've been dating for a long time, and you keep putting it off because of the ridiculous cost of weddings in our culture. It's ridiculous. I think the average is like, $35,000. It's absolutely crazy. Free tip, if you haven't been listening, this is the best part of the sermon so far. This is a free nugget. You're getting your money's worth. Monday weddings is where it's at. I'm serious. I'm absolutely serious. No one's thinking like that. The venues are all free. And you know, I'm free on Mondays. Saturdays are hard. Sundays, I can't do. And then you can haggle with the $35,000. How about $3500? And then you know. Just practically, you got to care for yourself. You got to care for your body. How can you care for another person's body if you're not caring for yourself? Care for your could. How can you care for another person's soul if you can't care for yourself? So I'm going to share just a little of how Tanya and I met, just to give testimony. Testimony of the Holy Spirit's grace. Junior year in college, I was stuck in all kinds of immaturity. And then that immaturity worked itself out, in that I picked a fight with four dudes on Third Street in Providence. And I thought it was three, I picked a fight with three dudes on Third Street in Providence. And, I was doing fine, mind you. And the fourth guy came out of nowhere, blindsided me, and with a superman punch. I ended up in the hospital with a broken jaw. As soon as I woke up, I knew, that was Hebrews 12, the Lord disciplining me. And I said, Lord, thank you. From then on, I got into every single bible study I could. And I started getting into the scriptures, spending an hour, giving my first hour of the day to the Lord. And the Lord used that season to grow me, right before my study abroad in Moscow. I went there by myself. My first Sunday there, I didn't know anybody, found Moscow Bible Church. Got plugged in immediately. Went every Sunday. Went every Wednesday to the prayer meeting. It was me, three little old ladies, and another guy named Constantine, who also had recently been in a fight, and God woke him up. It wasn't one against four, it was one against 12, but he was a national Russian wrestler so he took them all except for number 12, with a baseball bat with nails. True story. So now, we're all beat up, and we're at this prayer meeting, with these three little old ladies. And they're edifying our souls, and we're encouraging one another. And we started going to the youth meeting on Friday. So we just grew. And then after that, that summer, I did a mission trip to Belarus, at an orphanage. I was just growing by leaps and bounds. I come back, my senior year in college. I realized, hey, I want to get married, but I was doing international relations and Slavic Studies. International relations because it sounded good, Slavic Studies, to pad my GPA, because I speak Russian. And then I was like, I'm not employable. Nobody wants that. So then I picked up Business Econ. I took nine economic classes my senior year. That's all I did. And then I did prayer and bible study. That's all I did senior year. My friend, best friend Jarrod Lin, and I, he preached at Mosaic. He works for Campus Fit at Brown University. He and I committed to pray from Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM every single day of the year. And the prayer request, my prayer request was the same every time. "I want to be close to the Lord, and Lord, send me a wife," every time. They stopped asking me. It was actually such a big deal that New York Times found out that there's a prayer group at Brown University, there's actually Christians there. And they ran a centerpiece on a Sunday morning paper, about us. It was called "On a Christian Mission to the Top," May something, 2005. And it was a picture of me praying with Tim Havens, you only came that one time. And Jarrod Lin didn't get into the picture. You can Google it, it was the last time New York Times had a truthful piece. No, just kidding, stop, I'm kidding. So, I got a job, moved down to D.C. My uncle was planning a Russian church in the D.C. ... I lived for a month in his house, and I painted his house for rent, in exchange for rent, and I saw their family. Godly man, Godly woman, four Godly kids. And I pray, "Lord, I want a family like that." And, some time went by, and I got a phone call from my dad, who said, "Hey, did you know there's going to be an evangelistic rally in Philadelphia?" Billy Graham, his translator was coming down. My dad said, "Let's meet in Philadelphia. I'll drive down. You drive up." We met there, the evangelistic rally was at night. So we need to go to church in the morning, so we go to this church plant in Philadelphia. and as soon as we got out of the car, I looked toward the door and there was a gal greeting there. And she was like an angel. And she still is like an angel. I met her, "Hi," her name's Tanya. And I was absolutely smitten. She thought I was an unbeliever because I had spiky hair and no tie. And I show up at a Russian church, and they're like, you're a pagan. So I have no idea what the service was about. I have no idea what the sermons are about. I still need to repent about that. Lord, forgive me. And I was just focused on this gal. Her family invites us over for lunch after. And I got to know her family, and Tanya wasn't there. She was at the rally serving. I'm like, yes, serving at the church, serving there, a heart of service, at the evangelistic rally. I have no idea what the sermon's about. I made a beeline to her after the service. "Hi, how are you? My name is Jan. I'm also a Christian. I'm a member of New Life Church in Washington D.C." I asked her for her phone number. I said, "Can we be friends?" She said, "I have no idea who you are. And I don't like telephones, because they cause radiation." She knew back then. And asked her for her email. She's like, "I don't do emails." So I was bummed out. And my mom was there too. My mom approached her mom, and said, "Hey, let's keep in touch." And her mom says, "Yeah, let's keep in touch." And gives me Tanya's phone number. And that's where it all got started. That's all to say this, you should be a member of a church. And here's one thing I do want to say from that story. I have a lot of things to say. In our culture, we are too serious about Christian dating. And some of us are not serious enough. Too serious, that's "The Lord gave me a dream last night, and you're the person for me." I didn't get that dream, sorry. And then on the other side, it's like, "Hey, let's just hang out for years." Honestly, I think this might be helpful. You've got to think about it in terms of a family. We're brothers and sisters. So if you're a single, treat each other as brother and sister. And if you're interested in someone, say hey, not let's date, or court, dort, whatever. "Let's be friends. Let's go for coffee." I'll just give you an example. I was at this church in D.C. and I saw this girl, she's an awesome sister serving the Lord. I said, "Hey, do you want to, as friends," and I made this clear, "As friends, let's go see a baseball game." It was in the Nationals. And we went together. I made it clear, "Look, let's just be friends. If the friendship develops, great. I'm a serious guy with serious intentions. But if it doesn't, let's still be friends, and I'll actually help you find a husband because we're friends, and brother and sister." And that's what happened. It didn't work out with her, and then she actually, I introduced, like in the same church. Hey, she married the guy, now they're missionaries in Kazakhstan. So it's all to say, "Let's be friends." That's the point. And in the church, when you're serving the Lord, you're close to the Lord, you begin to develop this ability to see people with the eyes of Jesus Christ. And that's what you need. Some of us are too focused on appearances where Proverbs 31:30 says, "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." A wife of noble character who shall find her value is more precious than gold. And that's all to say, the character's the most important thing. Therefore, Christian, please never consider marriage to a nonbeliever. Forge the word "please," burn it on your heart. God is that serious about it. And as a Christian, you cannot even consider the option of marrying a nonbeliever. It's never God's will for a Christian to become unequally yoked to a non-Christian. It's better to be single than in a marriage with a nonbeliever, because you can't share the deepest love of your heart with that person. That leads to all kinds of aloofness and a chasm. What happens if you continue to grow in your relationship with the Lord, and they don't? So it's better to be single than devastated. And don't just say things like, "But they believe in God." I want to know, if you say, "Pastor Jan, we're dating," where is this person a member of a church? That's what I want to know. How serious are you about your relationship with the Lord? And don't just say they believe in God. You know what scripture says? Even demons believe in God. First Peter 3:1 talks about if you are married to a nonbeliever, says, "So that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives." What he's saying is, if you are married to a nonbeliever, don't be self-righteous, don't beat them over the head with a bible. What your spouse needs is for you to be like Jesus fills the Holy Spirit and they need to be compelled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The vision is that the Lord saves them, and that you actually baptize them, that's the vision. First Corinthians 7:39 talks about "Only in the Lord." Second Corinthians 6:14 through 16, you could read that later, talking about unequally yoked. Also in preparation for marriage, guard your moral purity, free sexual morality, and glorify God with your body. You've got to plan for righteousness. You know the questions about how far can we go? That's the wrong question. You already went too far. The question is, how much can we glorify God with our body? Don't just get to as close as possible. Because what happens is, the enemy that ... You know these stories about these people who take selfies on cliffs? And there's a running total of people who died taking selfies at the Yosemite cliff. It was a famous Instagram couple, they went as closely as possible. What they didn't factor in was the wind. Wind gust comes out of nowhere, and they fall over. So if you don't want to sin, don't plan to put yourself in tempting situations. If you don't want to go to Las Vegas, then why did you get on the plane? If you don't want to commit sexual immorality, then why are you at the bar at that time? Or the club by your ... I was going to say by your ... It doesn't matter with the accountability part. No, no club. That's not a Christian thing. Cohabitation? It's actually fornication. They're synonyms. You're connected to Jesus Christ, don't implicate Jesus Christ in sin. Jenell Williams Paris says "The idol of sexual fulfillment has two faces: One face says that each person has the right to be sexually satisfied and that having sex is a necessary part of happy, mature adulthood (or even adolescence). The second face is a Christian one that says the reward for premarital sexual virtue is great marital sex." "When I was growing up," she said, "sexual ethics was all stick and no carrot: we were told to abstain from premarital sex because of the parental and divine punishment that would ensue. Today, the stick is still there, but there's also a carrot: the less you sin before marriage, the hotter the sex after the marriage." The problem with that is it's not a biblical world view. Christ never had sex and he lived the perfect life, the ultimate life. Therefore, we can't expect that we need it for human flourishing. Stanley Hauerwas, a scholar at Duke University, says, one of the clearest differences between Christianity and all the other religions is that singleness is a paradigm. A paradigm is a way of life. Just like Jesus. So that's to say, don't say, that if you take this sex out of my life, that I can't be a fully human being, that's false. That's a lie. This generation's been offered sex on plate and found it to be unsatisfying. We're looking for how to flourish, and we flourish in the middle of God's will. First Corinthians 7:3 through 5, "The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband." And the big idea here is, and first he talked about singleness. The big idea is no sex. And then once you get married, what he's saying is, it becomes a spiritual discipline, it's prayer, reading scripture, and baby, we need to be close to the Lord. It's a thing, seriously, conjugal rights, look that up together. The point is that you serve one another. Sex isn't self-expression, and it's not self-gratification, it's self-donation. If the husband wants to be together, you be together. If the wife wants to be together, you be together. The Song of Solomon says tend to the garden so weeds don't grow. So don't sleep back-to-back. That's when Satan crawls into the bed. That's what he says. Don't let Satan tempt you. Care for one another's body. Care for one another's needs. God creates sex for procreation, but he also does for pleasure and satisfaction, and comfort, and protection, and ultimately unity. Okay, back to, let's get married. The point, be wise, but not over-spiritual. Here's what I mean. Sometimes we pray, the Lord sends us a spouse, send me a spouse. And sometimes we get too spiritual, too overly spiritual, thinking God's just going to make the person appear, like it's going to start raining men hallelujah. And that's not what he's saying. There's nothing wrong in putting yourself in a situation where you can meet someone. And somebody you're attracted to. Obviously Godly character takes precedence. But there's nothing wrong being attracted to that someone. Song of Solomon, that couple isn't extolling the finer points of each other's characters. It's all about that they're in love, both spiritually and physically. And you got to like that person, you got to enjoy that person's presence. So, that's all to say, be selective but don't be picky. Here's what I mean. I think some of you brothers, I think you're putting off marriage way too long because you're looking for a model, who loves Jesus. And by model, that's a nice way of putting what I really mean. And sisters, some of you are smart and powerful, you're waiting for Mr. Right, Mr. Perfect, whose type-A, alpha male, highly intelligent, ultra fit, super wealthy, and able to cook. You're looking for Ryan Gosling, that's who you're looking for. You're looking for Bradley Cooper. Well here's the thing, Bradley Cooper got Irina Shayk, and Irina Shayk got Bradley Cooper, and this past week, they split up, after four years together. Didn't satisfy. And now they have to, they're amicably working on how to share custody. Learn to love the hidden person, the inner beauty of the person. First Peter, 3:3-4, "Do not let your adorning be external-the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear-but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." That's what you're looking for. And that's what you need to see, you train up your eyes see. Proverbs 31:10 through 11, "excellent, or of noble character, a wife who can find, she is far more precious than jewels, the heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain." So train the eyes to see not just physical eyes, but the eyes of your heart. Pastor Shane and I were talking about this week, and this is a quote from Pastor Shane, it's so good. I said, can I use it? He said sure, go ahead. He says, "I think there's something to be said of attraction being overrated." He says, "I'm not attracted to a 99-year-old woman, but Lord willing, one day I'll be married to one, and I'll find her attractive." Something there, likeability, friendship, it's more important than just physical attraction. Godly men and Godly women with God's grace, they age like fine wine. Apart from God's grace, like milk. Why? Because you always marry the wrong person. We're all looking for finished projects, we're not finished. We're always works in progress. We're all incompatible, we're just the wrong people, and we need the gospel to make us the right people, the right heart, with the right Holy Spirit. God didn't just create you. He's recreating you. And when you're looking for a spouse, what you're looking for is the potential. I can see. I'm not going to fix you. But God can fix you. Timothy Keller, in The Meaning of Marriage, which you definitely need to read. He says, "Within this Christian vision of marriage, here's what it means to fall in love. It is so look at another person and get a glimpse of what God is creating, and to say, "I see who God is making you, and it excites me! I want to be a part of that. I want to partner with you and God in the journey you are taking to his throne. And when we get there, I will look at your magnificence and say, "I always knew you could be like this. I got glimpses of it on earth, but now look at you!" That's what we're talking about. You see the potential with God's grace. I had a conversation with a friend this week, and the friend is single. And I said, tell me what you would say in the sermon. If I haven't had that conversation with you, I'm going to soon. That's the conversation I'm having. This is what he said, he says, Satan attacks marriage through all kinds of ways, pornography. But there's another subtle attack. It's so hard to find a good Christian person. And this is what church community is so important, where married people, like you're bringing singles into your life. And then bring some other singles into your life, and then invite them over for dinner together. See what happens. God's heart for divorce. Saint Paul says, hear that God's heart is for marriage, one man, one woman, one covenant, one lifetime. Why? Because divorce is heartbreaking. Divorce is never over and it's never final. It just gets more complicated. I've done weddings where the husband and wife haven't talked to each other in years, and they're their just because their daughter's walking down the aisle, and they're sitting on different sides. It gets complicated. Everyone at some point wants to get divorced and sinners get sick of getting sinned against each other. And God creates marriage to be one, one man, one woman. The word uses ahad, the same word for the Trinity, where the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. What scripture says, Malachi 2, is that God hates divorce because his heart is broken by it. And he sees the brokenness, the ripple effect from generation to generation. He sees the effect that it has on people, it causes fear when parents get divorced. It complicates your idea of marriage. There's a lingering effect. Because marriage isn't just a contract, it's covenant. This is why we celebrate anniversaries. This is the anniversary of the covenant. If you renew your lease, you don't celebrate the renewal of your lease, it's just a contract, there's nothing emotional there. With a covenant, it's different. It's the binding of two hearts. So scripture here in First Corinthians 7 and other places, it says God allows divorce for adultery, that's marital unfaithfulness, porneia, in the Greek. Because in the Old Testament, adultery was actually a capital offense, but it's an exception clause for abandoning the covenant. But adultery should never happen. And divorce is also allowed for abandonment but still, it gives grounds but it's not license. And God's heart is for reconciliation to happen. So am I allowed to remarry if my spouse has sinned against me, adulterously, or has abandoned? Maybe on some circumstances, but give it time. That's what scripture, give it time and let God intervene. Give time for God to transform hearts. With that said, in conclusion, marriage is great, but it's not ultimate. If God is not the center of your life, what you have is marriage creating more problems than it solves. Without the Lord, marriage is just bringing two self-centered human beings together, seeking self-fulfillment from one another. That's why Saint Paul says, in First Corinthians 7:29 to 31, "This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away." It's temporary. Eternity is forever, so we should be thinking about is eternity. We should be thinking about, is spiritual family. Because spiritual family is forever. There's no marriage in heaven, but there's spiritual family is forever. And following Jesus gives us an abundance of spiritual family. I want you dear Mosaic, I want you to catch a vision of spiritual family, not just brothers and sisters. I want you to catch a vision of fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and daughters. This is something that's been missing in my life. This is something that Lord's been actually revealing to me even this week. I've always considered myself a brother, like we're brothers and sisters. And I see when I lead someone to the Lord, by God's grace, that's a child, that's a son, that's a daughter. Drew Wayne who was here, remember Drew Wayne, who got baptized with a shirt off? Remember that guy? He's now in Texas? One of the things that he used to say, and it just hit me, the meaning of that this week. He used to say, the Papa John's jingle, "Better ingredients, better pizza," Papa John's? Wayne Tolbert, he said, "Better preaching, better access to Jesus, Papa Jan's." It just hit me, shout out Drew, who still listens to the podcast. It just hit me. My goodness, I'm a father, I'm a spiritual father. And I need to grow in that. And some of you are spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers, and you have spiritual children, now care for them. Care for them, love them, pray for them, meet with them. Send them random pictures of flowers like my dad doe to me. "Look at these flowers, they're blooming." And I always do, "Heart, I love it. Keep sending them. Thanks Dad." So spiritual family is forever. The bible is God's proposal to us. The gospel is God's proposal to us. God fulfills every one of our desires, and then some, because God is an ultimate lover. The gospel is good news for absolutely everyone. The bible begins with a wedding ceremony, and Jesus begins his ministry at a wedding. And heaven is the greatest reception ever. And that's where God is going to ultimately fulfill all of our desires. Now, how do we have that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the great bridegroom sacrifices himself on the cross for us, to make us his own. Gives everything, to say "I do. I always did. And I always will." Let God satisfy the greatest desires of your heart. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this time that you've given us. We thank you for the holy scriptures. God, we thank you that you don't just care about our time on Sunday, but you care about all of our life. And you want to infuse your healing power, by the power of the spirit into every single corners and crevices of our lives, and replace brokenness with healing. I pray Lord, do that, even now, as we sing. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
Lust kills Love. Love kills Lust.
June 2, 2019 • 1 Corinthians
Summary: Pride fuels lust, and lust kills love. Therefore God extends His Love to us through the Cross of Jesus Christ, by the Power of the Holy Spirit. His Love kills our lust and unleashes us to be the absolute best versions of ourselves. We in turn make our neighbors' lives better. Together, we make Boston better, and by extension, the World. Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name I Jan. I'm one of the pastors here with Pastor Shane. I'm so glad you're here. If you're visiting or if you're new, we'd love to connect with you. We do that officially through the connection card in the worship card. If you fill that legibly, you can either toss it into the offering basket after. But my recommendation is that you take it to the Welcome Center and exchange it for a gift, a really nice gift that we've prepared for you. Also, if you have any prayer requests, you can leave those in the card as well, or if you today you choose to follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior or recommit to him, or if you're interested in baptism, that's the place to do it as well. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word. Heavenly Father, we love you and we thank you that you are God of love and of truth. And because you are a good father, you set boundaries for your children, in which we can thrive, in which we can enjoy your boundless love, where we can love our neighbor as ourself. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are with us today. And, Lord, we are about to cover a sensitive topic, a topic that for many of us, it comes with shame and guilt and sadness. I pray that you comfort those who are afflicted. But then also, Lord, if there's anyone who is comfortable in that sin, I pray, send your Holy Spirit of conviction. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you continue to empower every single one of us. I pray every single Christian at Mosaic, I pray that you solidify the team, solidify the army so that we fight the good fight of spiritual warfare together and realize the mission in front of us, that we live in one of the most disproportionately influential cities in the world, and day to day we're next to people who are so far from you, and they're on their way to spend eternity apart from you and I pray, break our hearts for those people, empower us with the spirit to love them and to speak truth with love. Holy Spirit, we are nothing apart from you. We're nothing, you're everything. We pray that you do your thing today. We pray this all in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I had the last week off. And whenever I have a week off or I have some time to reflect, and it just hit me last week, that last weekend marked 10 years that I finished seminary. And my wife and I, that same day, packed up the moving truck and moved up to Boston. My wife's still mad at me for that. So this Sunday marks exactly 10 years of our family being in the city. So praise God for that. SDG, Soli Deo Gloria. Today also is the start of Pride Month in Boston. We're about to talk about lust and sexual immorality, and I just want to say that we did not plan this. I found out about Pride Month... we set our preaching schedule three months ago. I found out about Pride Month this past Wednesday. That's all to say this is a word from the Holy Spirit. I believe that this is a sacred moment and I pray that you receive a word from the Lord today. The title of the sermon is Lust Kills Love, and Love Kills Lust. It is a PG13 rated. I forgot to mention that in the first service, but it is. So we have a kids' ministry downstairs. Next Saturday is the Pride Parade, and thousands of our neighbors, our dear neighbors, people we love, people who have kids that go to school with our kids. Our neighbor, we see them at Trader Joe's. We run into them at Whole Foods and stop and shop. We see them. We love these people. And they will be marching shoulder to shoulder celebrating pride. Should we go? How should we think about the conversations that we inevitably are going to have when people invite us? People we love. It's very real, and it's very personal. We have people whom we really love that consider us to be homophobic bigots, just because of the label of Christian. How do we deal with this question? I'm looking at this through gospel glasses. The gospel always comes with truth and love. God's truth and God's love, they come together. Truth without love isn't truth and love without truth isn't love. So we look at this question through those glasses. As a Christian, I love my gay neighbor. I love that guy. I invite that guy over my house. I don't have a backyard. I've had a little plot of land that I share with the other people at my condominium. They weren't using it, so I stake the claim in it and I bought a grill and I put it out there. I said, "You guys can use it any time that you want." They haven't used it yet, so it's working out for me." So invite my friend over and I hear his story. I invite him over to listen to his heart, what do you feel? I grill him a bomb steak because grilling bomb steaks is my love language. This is how I show you how I love you, now eat. And I've got the pattern going and the checkers, so yeah. I'm welcoming. I'm hospitable. But I'm not affirming of that lifestyle. Just like God is loving toward me and he doesn't affirm my sin, just like I myself, I love me, but I don't affirm the sin inside. To say welcome and affirming is to assume that we're pure, that there's no sin inside, that we're not a mixture of good and evil. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said that the line between good and evil, it doesn't run between countries or political parties. It runs through the heart of every single human being. It's a mixture. So how are we to discern what's good, what's right? How do we discern and filter our own desires? This is where we need God's truth, His loving truth. He speaks to us with tender love, and it leads us to speak with same tender love as we speak tough truth. So I kindly declined my friend's invitation to go with him to march shoulder to shoulder in the Pride Parade. Why? Because celebrating sin, celebrating pride is against God's truth, against God's love. It breaks His heart, and therefore, it should our hearts. We love people, therefore, we speak truth graciously. Instead, I invite my friend over again for another barbecue. This time I don't go to Trader Joe's for the steak. I go to Whole Foods to show him I'm going to sacrifice. I love you, love sacrifices. I'm going to get the ribeye, the grass-fed ribeye. It's so much better than [inaudible 00:07:33], like five times better and half the price. We believe that these are good citizens. We believe that they can be good people. What I try to communicate is scripture, holy scripture, it doesn't condemn same sex relationships. I can be friends with you. It actually commands same sex relationships, a little intimacy that we rarely achieve. Like scripture talks about John the apostle up next to Jesus during the Last Supper. They were boys and they were close. There's nothing wrong with intimacy in a same sex relationship, men with men, women with women. But scripture does also command sexual restraint for every single human being, me included. Scripture said that there's not one human being alive or who has ever lived that is not guilty of some kind of sexual sin, except for one. That's Jesus Christ who's come to save us from guilt, from shame, from condemnation. Every single one of us, we struggle with it. That's why it's such a sensitive topic. My beautiful wife, Tanya, she's from the Ukraine. She's also a Sage. This is what she says. She says, "Everybody has dirty mind." I totally agree. That's brilliant. My whole sermon is you're a mess, I'm a mess, we're all a mess, and we need Jesus. That's the whole sermon. That's the point. We're all broken, in particular in this area of life. We need grace. Sam Allberry who is a same-sex attracted Christian, he's written a lot on this. He's done a lot of talks. You can YouTube. You can Google. He says, "In our fallen state, we are all broken and skewed in every area, and therefore including in our sexual desires. In that sense, none of us is straight." That means we all fall short of the glory of God. I guess, we might not choose our sexual attraction, but we do choose our sexual actions. And though we are broken, we're still responsible for our decisions. So I communicated tough truths. It's tough truth. But he has no doubt of my tender love to him as the smell of the steak wafts in the air and we're having this conversation. That's the way that Jesus dealt with this. The problem with how many churches deal with this issue is they offer grace to believers without holding them accountable, without calling them to repentance in areas of sin. But grace without truth isn't grace. And at the same time, they offer truth to non-believers expecting them to live like believers. They haven't met Jesus yet, and it's truth without grace. Truth without grace isn't truth. We're not called to call non-Christians to live the Christian life. We're called to love them and we're called to introduce them to Jesus, not to heterosexuality. Don't think God will love me if I change. That's not how it works. It's God loves me so that I can change, so accept the love of Jesus Christ poured out on the cross for you. So if my neighbor becomes a Christian, Lordwilling, now he's my little brother, spiritually speaking. And I'm his big brother spiritually. I do everything I possibly can to help him grow in the faith, and that's exactly where the text takes us today. St. Paul is the big brother. He's led these people to the Lord, who struggle with sexual sin, and he's writing to them. He's saying, "I want to help you. I want to help you grow. I want to help you be the absolutely best version of yourself so the Holy Spirit is moving powerfully through you to change the City of Corinth," for us to change the City of Boston. Would you look at the text with me. Today we're in 1st Corinthians 6:12-20. 1st Corinthians 6:12-20. "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me but I will not be enslaved by anything. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodes are members of Christ? Shall I then take members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, 'The two will become one flesh.' But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you now know that you body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, for you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." This is the reading God's holy, inerrant, infallible word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Two points but one big idea, lust kills love, and then we'll talk about how love, God's love, kills our lust. Lust kills love, and I don't have to give you the statistics. We live in probably the most oversexualized time and culture that's ever lived. It's like a machine gun of assault coming at us on a daily basis, from every which way. 1st Corinthians 6:9-11, St. Paul gives us a list of sins, including sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, etc, etc. Then he also connects it with greedy and drunkards and revilers and swindlers. He says, "As were some of you." The big idea is he says this is counter to the gospel, because the gospel is all about Jesus, and Jesus gives, whereas sin takes. Jesus sacrifices whereas sin comes in and demands and feels entitled to. It's all fueled by pride. He says, "Sin is selfish." The gospel of Jesus Christ is selfless. Sin through pride and entitlement leads to lust. It fuels the lust. This is what I want, how I want it, with whom I want. The gospel says, "No, love sacrifices. Love gives. Love listens to the Lord." It all starts with the heart of the Christian. Jesus says in Matthew 5:17-30. He's not just getting at the sin. He's getting at the thoughts behind the sins, the desires of the heart. That's where we're at war, our desires are conflicted. He says, "You've heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman or a person with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Meaning the act of sin has happened before the eyes have done anything. "... already has committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away." Obviously, he's being hyperbolic here. But he's saying radical actions need to take place because this sin is so dangerous. "For it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell." Jesus is looking at the sin from the perspective of eternity, because this is how scripture talks about heaven and hell. It talks about these desires, these fire of desire within us. And if the fire of desire of lust is not extinguished, it continues to grow, it continues to grow. What happens if it continues to grow a decade, a second decade, a third... We have a term called dirty old men for a reason. Jesus comes and he says, "I've come to extinguish that flame of lust. I've come to extinguish it with my love that I pour out into your heart, so that you continue to grow, continue to improve, continue to be sanctified. And that trajectory goes into eternity. Hebrews 12:14, "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." You know what holiness is? It's being set apart for God. It's pursuing the presence of God, closeness to God. Flee from sin, pursue God. That's the idea. And true believers, do we sin? Yeah, we sin. We do sin. Samson sinned. David sinned. Solomon sinned. But the true believer repents. The true believer can't stay there. It can't turn into a pattern or it can't turn into habitual sin. There's a fight that arises within the believer and he says, "I don't want to live like this. I don't want to dishonor God. I want to love God. I want to love people." The true believer repents and fights and makes war. And if there's no fight in you, then you need to question, am I really saved? If there's no spiritual heartbeat, if there's no pulse, are you a Christian? Saving faith always produces holiness, and if there's no desire for outward renewal, most likely there's no evidence for inward renewal. That's why he says in verse 9, "Do not be deceived, because this sin, more than any other sin, it has deceiving... it lulls us into a spiritual stupor where we don't even see it. We don't think that this is a sin. It's no big deal. And also, there's God's grace, right? So I can just come to God, repent at any time. He forgives me, and then I go back to this pattern. And that's not how Christianity works. Christianity works like this. You're saved by grace through faith. You believe in Jesus Christ. He puts his Holy Spirit in you. And if you take the Holy Spirit who's in you and you take it into sin, you're taking the Holy Spirit with you, and the Holy Spirit doesn't like that. The Holy Spirit will discipline. The Holy Spirit will convict, and if that isn't happening, if there's no desire, Lord, help me grow. Help me fight. If there's no desire, most likely you're not a Christian. Then at that point, we welcome you to look to Christ. Place your faith, your hope in Jesus Christ, and be saved. Verse 12, he's having an argument with them. They say, "All things are lawful for me." That was the motto in the church. And then Paul repeats and says, "Not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything." He says, "Yes, we're not under law, but we're under grace, and grace is given to us." It's a costly grace. It's given to us to transform us. It's given to us to make us the people that we're called to be. He gives us here two safe cards. He says, "Is this helpful? And does this enslave? Does this dominate?" And this sin, more than any sin, dozens, it enslaves. It's starts at the heart level where you're worshiping creation over creator, and it starts spiritually. But doesn't stay there. It grows. It grows into our decisions, and all of a sudden, it's taking over our body. We're dominated by... and yes, there's a spiritual problem primarily, but has undeniable, physical consequences. It dominates you, consumes you, and ultimately, it wants to destroy you. It's a master that's ruthless. This is the pattern, and this is the pattern for any addiction, but in particular here. There is the initial use, the initial experience, and there's that buzz. Then you chase that buzz again. You want more. But you're not getting it. You're not getting the buzz, so now you need to ramp up the use, the frequency, the intensity. Then what happens is there's a process called habituation. Your body builds up a tolerance to it, and then you need higher dosage, higher frequency. The brain goes through physiological change. It decreases brain chemical production, and there's a loss of brain chemical receptors. What we're doing is we're playing with neurochemical fire. That then leads to the next stage, which is dependence. It's addiction. It's all you think about. You wake up, there's a craving. You're spending extra time seeking it. There's an inability in daily responsibilities in doing the things that you need to do. All of a sudden, your relationships begin to suffer because of the shame and the guilt. You have a harder time looking yourself in the mirror, and you have a hard time making eye contact with people because of shame. There's regular use in inappropriate settings. This is so real. I took my kids to Summit Park yesterday, and there was the hammocks and they're really nice. There was something hanging off the hammock and my daughter came up to it and she's like, "Daddy, what's that?" Then if you try to stop it, there's withdrawal. There's fatigue. There's anxiety. There's irritability. Now you've got to decide, okay, what do I do with that? I've got a new normal in my life and I need to self medicate with something. Then that leads to all kinds of other addictions, and you don't see how addicted you were until you're out. That's the deception part. There's inherent restlessness when it comes to lust because your bodies, your heart is never satisfied. Augustine said, "Our hearts are never satisfied until they find their satisfaction, their rest, in you." Why? Because sex never gives us what it promises. What are we really looking for? It's not just a buzz. It's not the physical. Deep down inside we want the intimacy. We want to be fully known and fully loved. We want a deep, emotional connection. That's why hooking up and hooking up culture, it doesn't deliver. And for many young people today, hand to hand, holding hands, is more intimate than body to body. That's where there's all kinds of companies and services that provide snuggling and cuddling, just physical affection. People just want intimacy. Paul says it's lawful. Okay. You're going to play that game? But is it helpful? Even if you're not a believer, this part, even if you're not a believer, is it helpful, if you are pursuing sexual... if you're down this route, is it giving you what you want? Is it helpful? Is it profitable? St. Paul says, "No, it's not." Is it helpful? It's not helpful in your relationship with God, dear Christian, because what happens is you lose your ability to love God, because your heart gets hardened with the sin. And what God does, He withdraws His fellowship from you because He can't be in close proximity to the sin. It repels Him because God is holy. You lose love for God and the feeling of God's love. You also lose love for yourself. You lose respect for yourself. And vice versa. For yourself and from yourself. That's why he says in verse 18, "Flee from sexual morality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body." What he's saying is you're hurting yourself. What he's saying is this isn't just another appetite. It's different. That's why in verse 13, that's where he started the train of thought. He quotes them, this is what they're saying to justify their decisions. Food is meant for the stomach and stomach for food. This is a lot of people in our culture think, that sex is just like eating. It's just another appetite. It's a biological need. I can't go without eating, and I can't go without sex, right? It's not healthy. Paul is like, "No, no, no. This is so different. Sex is different than food. Babies aren't conceived by eating. It's completely different. Sex is different than food. You can't be born without sex. But you can live without it. You can live a glorious life without it. No voice in our culture is going to tell you... you can have the most glorious life ever lived with the life of Jesus Christ, and he never had sex. Why does scripture talk with caution about sex? Because scripture recognizes its power. It's a force. In the right confines, like a fire. It's good. A fireplace, my dad has a fireplace. People in Brooklyn have fireplaces. I love fireplaces. They're beautiful. You sit back, they give you warmth. I love the smell of it. Sometimes I walk around the winter and I try to find a house with a fireplace. In the confines, beautiful. It's life-giving. It's awesome. Outside the confines, it's absolutely deadly. It's destructive. In the right context, sex has the power to give. It has the power to love. In the wrong context, it's destructive. Proverbs talks about pursuing sexual morality, talks about an ox going to the slaughter, like you're on a path toward hurting yourself. Then it's not helpful in your relationship to others. You do lose love for other people and vice versa because you're hurting them, they're hurting you. There's no such thing as NSA, no strings attached. That's not a thing. That's a lie. That's a lie. The morning after, there's always emotional attachment. Always. If you don't like the emotional attachment, what do you have to do? You have to mask it and it's not a real... it hurts people. If you're married, it hurts your spouse. If you have kids, it's going to hurt them. It's going to hurt your future grandkids because there is such a thing as generational sin. So God gives us this truth. And what He's asking us, what kind of life do you want? What kind of legacy do you want? Jesus Christ said, "I have come to give you life and to give you life to the full, so live that full life. Lust kills love. Lust levels even kings. King Solomon, the most brilliant man to have ever lived, dies as a creepy, perverted, pathetic old man, a hollow shell of himself. Every single human being is created in the image of God. Every single human being has a sweet spot, a zone of genius. I meet so many people who are just brilliant. They've found that sweet spot. They've found that zone. And when in the zone, they are absolutely powerful. There are so many people who are pulled away from that, and mostly a lot of it because of sin, because of the sideways energy being channeled in every other direction. They say that the human brain, we only use about 10% of the human brain. And in my research, I found out that that was a myth. But all of us absolutely know the cloud that happens when our time is being dominated, our money, our schedule is being dominated by this thing. What happens is that we lose capacity. Lust does rewire the brain signs that prove that. But it does more than rewire the brain. It also rewires our hearts. It changes our ability to love and to receive love. We lose love for and from God, for and from self, for and from others. There's a reason why sex sells. You hear that. That's the number one marketing tool. Sex sells. Why? Because people are driven to give money. Here, take my money. I'm willing to sacrifice my money to get this product, and it's not the product that I want. Everything is about sex except for sex and what sex is about. Sex is about the heart longing for intimacy. We long for it. 1st Corinthians 6:13 and 14, he talks about the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by... He's saying that the Lord is for the body. For the Christian, the Lord gives us the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is a power. It wants to use us as a conduit for his power, for his mission. I believe, for many Christians today, this is the primary reason why we are not as spiritually powerful as God wants us to be. It diminishes our potential, diminishes our capacity. It diminishes our desire for God and for lost neighbor, and for Christian. Many of you are killing at your job. You are super talented. You are so smart it's stupid, and you can do that. You can kill it at your job. You can make the world a better place while partaking dabbling in sexual sin with a little porn out on the side, or fill in the blank. But you cannot make a difference where it matters most, operating by the flesh. We need the Holy Spirit. We need to be led by the spirit, not driven by the flesh. And the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit stays always quenched, he's suppressed by our lust, by our sin. And God says, "Get free. Get unleashed. Think about your impact in eternity, not just in the physical realm." We can't do what God has called us to do apart from the Holy Spirit. When we're struggling with sin, it's as if we're charging the gates of hell with water pistols and God is saying, "Stop, cut it out. I'm offering you true MO, true guns, spiritually speaking. John wakes guns, I'm offering it to you, all of it in that final scene. Just take it. Spiritually speaking, of course. Because that's where the fight is. The fight is with ideas. The fight is with desires. The fight is with words. And the Holy Spirit wants to empower us to actually spend the kingdom. Just imagine, if Jesus turned a few loaves and a few fish into a feast for 10,000. The disciples said, "Use us." God said like, "Okay." How much more can he do through the talent pool, the talent stack of people like you at Mosaic Boston, if you are fully yielding, fully committed to him, and his spirit pouring through... You can change eternity. We can't have people... we're on the same team. I'm nothing, you're nothing. But together, together we can win in the most important winning, spiritual winning. And it's a winning I will never get tired of, ever, ever, ever. God is saying, "Make sure you don't have team members who turn around and they're trying to score on the other goal. No. Turn around. There's people on their way to hell. Don't buy their gas. Do everything you can to help them turn around. Do everything you can to help them meet Jesus Christ. Lust kills love. So what do we do? We need love to kill our lust. He says the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord. And he's talking about design. That the Lord designed the body for the Lord, that the body runs best when it's close to the Lord. So you weren't designed for sin. It's like iPhones weren't designed to hammer nails, and violins weren't designed to heat a house. Violin in the hands of a musician, it sings. God wants your life to sing. Allow him to fine-tune that violin. The greatest violin ever made, Stradivari. The greatest violinist that ever lived, Paganini. God wants you to be Stradivari in the hands of Paganini. And he wants to make beautiful music that makes everything better. God is saying, "I designed you. I know how you work. I designed you. I know the best version of you, and it's not pursing sexual immorality." God's will is always for our best, that's why he gives us boundaries because human beings thrive in boundaries. We thrive in boundaries. Children thrive in boundaries. That's why God gives us these boundaries so that in those boundaries, the boundaries of love, we abound in his love. We deepen in his love and love with one another. This just works in every sphere of life, the spatial boundaries. Fenway Park has boundaries. Pesky Pole, if it goes on the other side of Pesky Pole, that's it. A foul ball. I don't care how hard you hit it. You could enjoy the game in these boundaries, there's time boundaries, temporal work hours. You can't work 24 hours a day. You need boundaries, and sleep boundaries. There's relational boundaries. It's not okay to touch a stranger any way you want or say whatever you want to a stranger. So God gives us boundaries when it comes to sexual intimacy. Opposite sex marriage, one man, one woman, one covenant, one lifetime. And what that provides is security, that provides and understanding that we... if there's no plan B, if there's no fire escape, we, by God's grace, will work through whatever. June 10th will be 13 years I'm married with my wife. And all these 13 years, not one have I had a thought, what would I do if she divorces me? And in these 13 years, she has never had a thought, I hope... I don't know. It's like I don't have to go person to person to person to person to person to get the buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, when that's not even what I'm looking for. What I'm looking for is one person. I love you fully. I know you fully. You know me fully. You love me fully. That's what you want. And the intimacy, it just gets better and deeper. That's what God wants for us. That's His will for us. In 1st Corinthians 6:19, he tells us why, he says, "Because you're not your own. You were bought with a price." That we, as Christians, we belong to God not once, we were created by Him, but twice. He also redeemed us, and what a price He paid to redeem us. What did He redeem us from? A slave market of sin. How did He redeem us? Through the blood of His son, Jesus Christ. God is love. Jesus is God. Jesus is love. Love dies on the cross to kill our lust, to free us to love God and to love neighbor. Jesus Christ died on the cross, paid the penalty for all of our sins, in particular this one, in order to forgive us, in order to purify us, in order to make us his. You are not your own. Sex isn't evil. Sex is a gift. It's a gift from God, and gifts aren't rights. You can't demand a gift. You're not entitled to a gift. Sometimes when I go away on a trip and I come back, my daughters are always like, "Daddy, daddy, what'd you bring us? What'd you bring us?" And I don't like that, so I mix it up. Once in a while I'll bring a gift, and once in a while I'm like, "Here I am. My presence is your present," just so they know, you can't demand a gift. The giver chooses to give the gift and chooses how to give the gift. And God chooses to give this good gifts with restrictions. It's a right not a privilege, just like your driver's license. You've got to follow the rules of the road because it's not just about you. Yeah, they want to protect you, but they also want to protect themselves and they want to protect the people in the communities. The reason why many people also struggle with this teaching of scripture, sexual ethic, God's sexual ethic, is because of Satan's lie. And Satan is a liar. The lie goes like this, "God's way won't make you happy. Sin will make you happier." That right there is one of the most diabolical lies from the deepest pits of hell. Did sin make you happy? Has it made you happy? Then why in the world do you think it will make you happy? Maybe just for a little bit. We begin to believe that if we give up sexual sin, we'll be depressed. And honestly, that initial stage, it's hard. I've counseled people. It's hard. Why? Because of the withdrawal symptoms, and the physical withdrawal symptoms. But you've got to keep going because God's freedom at the end is so much better. No sin tastes as good as God's love feels. Nothing comes even close. When God is close, there's nothing that comes remotely close. Augustine in his early 30s, he knew Christianity. He was attracted to it. But he struggled with the sin. This is what he said. He said, "I loved the happy life, but I feared to find it in your abode, and I fled from it. Even as I sought it, I thought that I would be too wretched if I were kept from a woman's arms." Then he turned from his sin. God released him, and the whole trajectory of his life changed. And we're still talking about this guy because of his influence on the world. We're not looking for that buzz. What we're really longing for is intimacy, the truest intimacy. And there's no true intimacy than that with Christ. And he says in verses 15 through 17, that we are members or members of Christ. "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, the two will become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him." He's talking to people in church who are in Corinth and there's the Temple of Aphrodite. The priestesses are actually prostitutes and Christians of the church are frequenting it. And what he's saying here isn't that sex doesn't have a physical component. It does. It has neurological impact on us where neurologically you're bound to the object of the climax. But the biggest problem is the spiritual part. You are becoming one flesh, a one-flesh reality. A soul-to-soul reality with a person who's not your spouse, and there's deep consequences to that. There's a reason why we always remember our first, our first kiss, our first everything. He says, "If you've been joined to the Lord, now you're one spirit with Him. Therefore, when you go there, you're taking Him with you." That when you look at that, when you partake in that, Jesus Christ is in the room and he is weeping. He's weeping over the pain that you're inflicting on that person, and the pain that they're inflicting you, and the pain that you're inflicting God. And that's why Paul says, "May it never be," and that you're one with God. He uses this language of absolutely unity, and this is why when God talks about sex in the confines of marriage, he talks as a signpost to marriage, to a relationship with God. Marriage is a scale model. The greatest human marriage is nothing but a scale model of our relationship with God, and that's why there is no marriage in heaven. That's why homosexuality is a big deal, because it attempts to reconstruct the scale model. God creates. Marriage is His idea. He created that word. He created that idea. Marriage is husband and wife. That's God's idea. It's a beautiful idea. God creates, the enemy, Satan, counterfeits. He has no idea, so he counterfeits God's ideas. Then he flips everything and he makes true love seem bigoted. That's the work of the evil one. Jesus didn't marry Jesus, the church doesn't marry the church. That's why it's such a big deal. It clashes with the very heart of God, the very mind of God. 1st Corinthians 6:18. "Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body." What does it mean here? Alcohol, drug abuse, doesn't that have an impact on the body? He's talking about something deeper, because sexual intimacy unites on the deepest level. It begins to corrupt on the deepest level, and begins to impact absolutely everything in your life. C.S. Lewis in the screwtape letters says, "Every time a man and a woman enter into a sexual relationship, a spiritual bond is established between them, which must be eternally enjoyed or eternally endured." God says, "You're one with me." Stay there. Flee sin. Pursue God. Glorify Him in your body because that's the greatest thing for you. You're not looking for sex. You're looking for love. You're looking for true love. You know how you're in a nice restaurant and you have a great meal? You have an amazing meal. What do people usually say after an amazing meal? This is what people say, pretentious people. This is what they say to the waiter, "My compliments to the chef." You know why that's a thing? Because it's so enjoying this mean that they're like, "Man, whoever made this must be amazing." You listen to great music, you hear a song for the very first time. 92.5 the river. You hear a phenomenal song, you Shazam that song. You're like, "Wow, whoever came up with this music must be amazing." And Shazam tells you, "Its the Fine Print." Shout out to Caleb Savari, and my brother Vladimir who's on the drums. If this creation is so good, how much better is the creator? This is exactly what God is saying. Sex is good in the confines of God's boundary. How much better is He who came up with that idea? God wants to free us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, He wants... every single one of us needs to be purified. Every single one of us needs to be forgiven. Every single one of us needs to be released. The Smashing Pumpkins had a song way back in the day called Bullet With Butterfly Wings. One of the lines is that despite all my rage, I'm still just a rat in a cage. That's the image. That's the image. You're a rat in a cage. We, we, me, whatever, however you... people. You're a rat in a cage. You're hitting that button for another drop of whatever the drug is. You're hitting it, you're hitting it. You think the one's satisfies, the next one's... it doesn't satisfy and you feel like there's no hope. And he says in the song... there's a line about Jesus. Jesus was an only son for you. The song ends with the line, and I still, I still believe I cannot be saved. That's a lie. You can be saved. That rat is hitting it more, more, more. And Jesus is standing at the door. The door is open. Jesus has unlocked the door and he's saying, "Turn around." That's what repentance is. And he says, "Come here, little rat. I want to free you. There's a beautiful world out there. The world of Austin, and Brighton, just don't go too much into Brookline. You get the idea. That's what the gospel does. You receive God's love. You receive His sacrifice, and His love extinguishes the lust within. When you see what it took for Him to save you, that begins to undo the power of sin in our life. Two commands. He says, verse 18, "Flee sexual morality." Don't stay in the situation physically or mentally. You've got to flee from it, take every thought captive, and this informs our consumption of entertainment, and what we do in our free time, and on our weekends. Does it extinguish or does it inflame? Then verse 20, he says, "Glorify God in your body," meaning you can't compartmentalize where I love God in my heart but I do whatever I want with my body. Scripture says, "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice." God calls us to an embodied spirituality now, to being now, because heaven is an embodied reality. Why does God say, he says, "Glorify me. Glorify me," because that's the best thing for us. Westminster Shorter Catechism, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Pleasure is overrated. Joy is where it's at. God's fighting for your joy. 1st Corinthians 6:19, he says, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? And the Old Testament, in the temple, the most sacred part, was the Holy of Holies. One priest, only one priest, entered only one time a year, to present only one sacrifice. And he says, "Now you Christian are a holy of holies. You, you embody the Holy Spirit and dwelled with the Holy Spirit. So how dare we think we can justify taking the Spirit of God, the temple of God, into the temple of Aphrodite. May it never be so. What do we do practically? Here's how I think about it. The holy scripture says, "Be killing sin, or it will be killing you." That's John Owen. He got that from Paul, who said, "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry." You've got to put it to death, but it's a continual verb. You don't just slay it once. Lust is a monster with nine lives. The way I think about it is putting it to sleep. Scripture has this in Song of Solomon, says, "Do not awaken love." Do not awaken love, meaning we have the ability to put it to sleep, and awaken it, put it to sleep, and awaken. And you already have this skill. You know in what context that you can't just let your sexual energy go. You know. You have that skill. Now you've just got to apply it to every single part of your life so it's integrated and you can do it by the Holy Spirit walking in step with the Holy Spirit. Then finally, 1st Corinthians 6:15. "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" This is so important. He says, "We together are members of Christ," meaning the way that we fight lust is intimacy with God and intimacy with one another, where we lead with transparency, where we pray for one another openly, we share with what we're struggling with. It's one body unity. That's not just for husband and wife, brothers and sisters knit together in love. We've got a gospel partnership. We're comrade in arms. When soldiers shoulder to shoulder, that's where true unity, the intimacy happens, and that's where the Lord allows us to be freed from these sins. Finally, just a quick word, because it's June... brothers and sisters are responsible for one another. We are each other's keeper. And that means we need to do everything possible to help one another extinguish sin and not inflame. So this has to do with our words to one another, our touch toward one another, and how we dress. Are we helping our brothers and sisters fight the good fight or are we hurting them? I'm not saying that we all of a sudden were taking style tips form the Amish or Mormonites. But I'm also saying we're not taking wholesale style tips from the Kardashians. That's all I'm saying. Dress like you would at a family reunion with grandpa and grandpa there. Dress like that. And then it's not selfish, it's selfless. I'll conclude at this and then we turn to Holy Communion. Satan invented sin. Sin leads to pride, pride leads to selfishness, selfishness leads to lust, and lust kills love. The gospel was created by God. God creates the gospel. It leads to humility. It leads to selflessness, which leads to love. And what does love do? It kills lust. Stay in that sweet spot. The gospel changes absolutely everything. I'm going to transition to Holy Communion. Before we partake in Holy Communion, we have an opportunity as the ushers hand out the elements, to pray, to repent. We're all a mess. We need to confess that and we need to accept God's Holy Spirit to purify us. If you're not believer, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service. It does nothing to you. We're saved by grace through faith. The way that we celebrate is ushers are going to hand out the elements. Take some bread, take a cup, and pass it down to someone in your aisle. And after everyone's received them, we'll partake together. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you that the gospel reminds us just how bad we are, but it also reminds us just how good you are, and that you gave us your son to redeem us, to save us. I pray, Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit on every single one of us and unleash us as a force in this city for good, for transformation, for your glory. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
Getting Older or Growing Up?
May 26, 2019 • Shane Sikkema • 1 Corinthians 6:1–11
Summary: How long have you been a Christian? How would you rate your maturity as a Christian? Getting older and growing up should go hand in hand, but that’s not always the case. A child who is getting older but not showing signs of growth is a major cause for concern! Paul addresses another major problem in the Prodigal Church of Corinth, while calling them to repentance and a new identity in Christ. Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you would like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Well, good morning, and welcome again to Mosaic. If you're new, my name is Shane. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And we're so glad to have you with us this morning. We'd love to connect with you. If you are interested in getting connected, one of the best first steps you can take is to fill out that little connection card in your worship guide. And you can either drop those in the offering baskets a little bit later on, or if you turn them in at the welcome center back there by the front doors, we've got a gift we'd love to give to you, as well as some more information about the church. So, if you are just joining us, we are going through a sermon series this summer called Prodigal Church, where we are taking a look at a book of the Bible called 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians was actually originally a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a church in the Roman city of Corinth. This was a startup church that the Apostle Paul had planted. And he has since moved on to Ephesus, where he's planting a new church, and in the process has heard reports that back in Corinth things are not going well. That the church in Corinth was a young church, and it was a church that was already dealing with a lot of problems. And so, two weeks ago, Pastor Jan, as we opened up the letter, showed us that in Corinth there was, on the one hand, a serious lack of unity. And not unity in just like a general, "they get along" kind of sense, but unity in the sense that they were failing to unite themselves under the truth of the Gospel. And since they weren't being united under the truth, they were therefore being divided by the trivial. There was a lack of unity. Last week, we saw that there was also a lack of purity. And so, we see this idea that, on the one hand, they were tolerating sin, and evil, and injustice in the church that they should not have been tolerating; and on the other hand, they were very quick to stand up and start fighting over things that really didn't matter. And it was tragic. In fact, it had gotten so bad that in our text today we're going to see that members of this church had actually started dragging one another to court and filing lawsuits against one another to settle their disputes. And it's hard to imagine the embarrassment that this would have been, but just try to like ... You turn on the TV, and you're like, "Oh, hey! Cool! There is Pastor Jan, and Pastor Shane, and ... Oh! That's Judge Judy, and this is not good. This is bad. This is embarrassing." The city of Corinth is watching, and the church is playing the fool. And now we might be tempted, as we look at this passage, to be like, "Well, yeah. But what does that have to do with me? I'm never going to file a lawsuit against another Christian. That's never even come to mind." Well, maybe so. But underneath this embarrassing situation is a very real tension that every single one of us can relate to, and that is we all have this deep desire to be treated fairly. Right? No one likes being played, no one likes being conned, no one likes being taken advantage of. And justice is a good thing. We see this throughout Scripture: God is a just god. He wants us to be a just people. And if justice is so good, then why is Paul saying it's so bad for these Christians to pursue it in the way that they are? That's what we're going to be talking about today. A lot of times, when you're trying to get your head into the mindset of an ancient culture, it can be hard to imagine what would it be like to live in a city like Corinth back then. But actually, when we look at the cultural context, the city of Corinth was almost too much like our city today. Very, very similar. And like our world today, and like the rest of the Roman world back then, the city of Corinth was a very litigious place. It was very common for people to file lawsuits against one another to settle these grievances. And it's very similar to our context today. I read this week that 80% of the lawyers in the world are in America, and that Massachusetts has the second highest number of lawyers per capita to any other state in the country except for New York. And I'm pretty sure like 80% of them go to Mosaic, so I'm going to be really careful about the lawyer jokes this morning. But a very litigious place. Over 15 million civil lawsuits are filed in this country every year. And a lot of them are rejected. A lot of them are thrown out. Just frivolous cases. I wrote just a few of the better ones down that I saw that have just kind of made the headlines. The first one is probably ... You've probably heard of the Clapper case: a woman in New York sued the makers of the Clapper because she said she had to clap too hard to make it work, and she hurt her hands. There's probably like a Seinfeld episode about that, or something. A man in Texas sued his date for 17 dollars and 31 cents because she texted throughout their movie and ruined Guardians of the Galaxy ... Not Vol. 1, but Vol. 2. I bet you 17 dollars and 31 cents that guy is still single. Thanks. A man in France is suing Uber because the ride tracking feature helped his wife piece together that he was cheating on her. I don't support any of the prejudices in these cases. I'm not making these up. I'm just delivering the news. Because this last one is about a Frenchman as well: in Canada, a Frenchman is suing his former employee after being fired for acting rude and disrespectful to customers. He claims this is discrimination because rudeness is a trait of his culture. There are times where this deep, insatiable hunger that we have for justice can cause us to act irrationally. It can cause us to even commit injustices of our own. And maybe not to the extent to filing a frivolous lawsuit like this, but maybe to the extent of burning bridges, of holding grudges, of harboring bitterness in our heart toward other people. And in today's text, Paul is going to tell the Corinthians that to have these lawsuits and disputes with one another at all is already a defeat. And so, why is their pursuit of justice so self-defeating? That's what we're going to look at. And Paul is going to, at the end, he's going to have some very stern warnings for the defendants in these cases. But what's interesting is he starts first by rebuking the plaintiffs. And the big idea that we're going to see throughout this is that, before we became Christians, the lens through which we saw our disputes was primarily through the lens of fairness: "You did this, and now an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." But when it comes to the church, that's too shortsighted. You have to have a longer, sharper spiritual eye to see what's really going on. And so, you can't just look at these disputes through the lens of fairness. You also have to look at them through the lens of family. And so, that's what we're going to be looking at in 1 Corinthians, chapter six. If you have your Bible, go ahead and open it up. We're going to look at verses one through 11 of chapter six today. Three points that we're going to talk about. First we're going to talk about a wrong way to get right; second, a better way to right our wrongs; and then third, a goal for our grievances. So, 1 Corinthians, chapter six, starting at verse one: "When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So, if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God." Amen! This is the reading of God's holy word for us today. Point number one, we're going to be talking about a wrong way to get right. And we want to ask the question, what exactly is going on here in Corinth, and why does the Apostle Paul see this as being such a big deal? As we read the passage, one of the first questions we might want to ask is, is Paul really saying that Christians are forbidden from ever using a secular court system or a human system of justice? And I would say the answer to that is no, not at all. But actually, in some cases, yes. So, let me explain. We need to understand what kinds of cases Paul is talking about. And the first thing we need to know is that Paul, in this letter, he is not writing to address criminal cases. Right? Scripture is very clear about this. Paul actually wrote about this in Romans 13:4 that, in criminal cases, that God has given government the responsibility and the authority to judge and to punish criminals. This is Romans 13:4. "But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he ..." the governing official, "... does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on wrongdoers." This is really important because a lot of churches have done this wrong and committed some terrible injustices of their own. 1 Corinthians, chapter six, does not give permission to churches to handle criminal cases internally, to harbor or to shelter criminals from facing justice. If a member of the church commits a crime, yeah, you might put them under church discipline, you might remove them from membership until they repent; but you're also going to call the police. You're also going to let the courts and the justice system do its job. So, Paul is not talking about criminal cases here. Secondly, he is not talking about cases between Christians and non-Christians. If a non-Christian owes you money, if they swindle you, if they con you, whatever you do, don't call me, don't call Pastor Jan to come and settle that dispute. Just for example, let's say you are a landlord, and your tenant stops paying or starts refusing to pay their rent. Whatever you do in that situation, don't call your community group leader, don't call me and Pastor Jan to come down and settle the dispute. We're going to take their side if you do. That's not our place to do that. What you should do, however, is be discerning. Seek the Spirit's guidance. Depending on the situation and the context, the Holy Spirit may be leading you in that situation to show grace. Right? To be patient with this person. Or it could be that they're showing you ... The Holy Spirit is leading you to pursue justice: hold this person accountable for their actions. If you get in a car accident, right? You're probably not going to go to court over that, but you're going to file a police report, you're going to get a third-party agency, an insurance agency, involved to help you settle the damages over who is liable here. But don't call me. Don't call Pastor Jan to come down to the scene and try to work that out for you. That's not what Paul is talking about here. He is not talking about criminal cases. He is not talking about even cases between Christians and non-Christians. In those cases, be discerning. Try to figure out is the Holy Spirit leading you to be gracious? Is the Holy Spirit leading you like this is a time to pursue justice? What Paul is talking about is he's talking about non-criminal, personal disputes between two people who both claim to be Christians, and more specifically are both members of the same church in Corinth. And so, why is that such a big deal? Why is that a problem for them to be going to court to settle their disputes? Well, it's a big deal to Paul because Paul is helping us see that what this reveals is it's revealing a very serious lack and failure of maturity on the part of the church; it's revealing a failure of their understanding of their identity as the church; and ultimately, it's a failure of their witness to the city and to the community around them. So, look at them one by one. It's failure of their maturity. The Corinthian church is a young church, but it's not a baby church anymore. The problem is you wouldn't know that by looking at it. It's still filled with baby Christians. And by this time, it's almost as if they should be out there, out the door, on their way to conquer kindergarten, but they're still in diapers. They're still drinking from the bottle. And Paul says, "You're getting older, but you're not growing up." Now, the sad reality is that this infantile kind of faith, it's characteristic of way too many Christians in the church today. Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians 3:1, he says, "Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?" Because the Corinthians have been given the Gospel, but they are failing to grow in the Gospel. And Scripture assumes that, as Christians, there is a spiritual trajectory that our faith should follow as far as growth and development. It's not a perfectly straight line, but we should be heading in the right direction. And unfortunately, too many Christians are like those in Corinth. They either hit a certain developmental stage and get stuck, or more tragically they never even make it out of infancy. And if you think about maturity in Christ, I think it is helpful to think about our maturity in Christ and the lifecycle of a Christian in the same way we think about the lifecycle of a person. Right? The first stage, you have conception and birth; then you have infancy; and then you have childhood and adolescence; and then finally, you have parenthood. Well, what do those categories look like? Well, conception and birth is a completely passive thing. You don't conceive yourself, you don't give birth to yourself. And in the same way, you can't make yourself a Christian. Christianity is not just a religion that you follow. It's not a philosophy you adapt. It's not a change in lifestyle. Christianity becomes with you, Jesus says it like this, "Being born again". Theologically, it's the doctrine of regeneration, that the Holy Spirit has to regenerate our hearts, make us alive, so that we can then respond to the Gospel in repentance and faith. But it's a passive thing. Immediately, though, that should give way to infancy. Well, what is the mark of an infant? Well, an infant is now part of the family, but an infant is also, at the same time, pretty much completely dependent on the other members of that family for its survival. Infants don't think about the needs of others. Infants are fairly selfish: infants need to be fed, they need to be cared for, they need to be nurtured. And in the same way, new Christians, they need to be fed the Gospel, they need to receive it, and they need to believe it. They need to be taught the basics of what it means to live the Christian life and what it means to have this new identity, to have this new morality, to have this new rules of living in God's household as part of God's family. And the thing about having a newborn in the home is it's one of the greatest joys that a family can experience. But a newborn that is failing to grow and failing to develop is one of the greatest concerns that a family can experience as well. And Paul, as their spiritual father, he is concerned because they've been infants for too long. By now, they should be growing and developing on to that next stage, which is childhood and adolescence. So, what's the mark of that? Well, the mark ... The transition from infancy to adolescence, it's this constant progressive growth and maturity, where you're growing in holiness, you're growing in wisdom, you're growing in discernment, you're growing in grace toward other people, and you're growing and taking on more and more of the responsibilities of the family. Instead of primarily being served, more and more you're serving others. You're thinking less about yourself. You're thinking more about others. And you could put it like this, that you're asking different questions. Right? An infant is going to spend a lot of times thinking about themselves. An adolescent is going to hopefully begin thinking more and more of others. And so, instead of asking, "Who is serving me? Who is teaching me? Who is pouring into me?", as you grow you should begin asking, "Where can I serve? What can I teach? Who can I care for and pour into?" All of that hopefully leads to the final stage, which is parenthood. And I say "parenthood" instead of "adulthood" because the distinguishing mark of a parent is they reproduce. And that's the assumption, right? That as a disciple of Jesus, it's expected that you grow up and you mature until you begin leading other people to Jesus. You begin teaching other people what it means to be disciples of Jesus. You reproduce yourself, and then ultimately you progress even on that to like the greatest stage of all, which is being the grandparent. Who is more happy and joyful than a grandparent sitting around the dinner table with all their kids and grandkids over for Christmas dinner? That's the Christian who has led another person to Christ, and then begins to see them leading other people to Christ. And they just walk into church with this incredible joy of seeing that faith lived out. And that's the big glorious vision for Christian maturity. The unfortunate reality is that the Corinthian church is nowhere near that. They're stuck in their infancy, and they're failing to grow up into this great vision for who they have been called to be. So, they've had this failure in maturity, and it's coming from a failure to understand their identity. Throughout the letter, Paul is constantly addressing them as brothers and sisters; he's constantly addressing them as saints; he's constantly reminding them of who they are positionally in Christ. And here, in 1 Corinthians 6:3, he says something just absolutely crazy. He drops it on them, and then he just moves on without an explanation. Well, look at this. He says in verse three: "Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!" What on earth is that about, Paul? Honestly, I don't know. I do know that Scripture, and we see this throughout Scripture, this idea that we, as Christians, we are going to participate, and we are going to serve with Jesus in his kingly, royal, judicial role at the Resurrection and in all of eternity. We're going to rule and reign with him. Paul is not trying to give us a full theology of what that looks like. He is trying to get us to marvel at this vision that Jesus has for who we are to become and what he has in store for us. And the application is the point. The application is clear: if that's who we're going to be, we need to start living like that right now. We need to start practicing that right now. If we're going to judge the angels, we shouldn't be having any trouble handling these personal disputes between people in the church. So, they'd had a failure of maturity that was caused by their failure of identity. And unfortunately, it was leading to a failure in their witness. They were called to be witnesses to the city of Corinth of the power of the Gospel. And what is the power of the Gospel? The Gospel has the power to transform lives and to reconcile enemies. Well, they weren't living transformed lives. They were living lives of unrepentant sin, and they weren't showing, witnessing, to the power of the Gospel to reconcile. They're still fighting with one another, and it's ruining their witness. They were called to be a light to that dark city. And instead, right now, Paul is saying, "You're defeated." It looks like the darkness is winning. He says, "To have these ..." Verse seven: "To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers!" This brings us to point two, talking about a better way to right our wrongs. Obviously, they're doing it wrong, and Paul is trying to help them see a better way to do that. And so, what does that look like? Well, what does Paul mean when he says, "Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?" Is Paul saying that in the church we just need to be passive? We just need to be doormats to one another, and allow one another to just kind of commit these kind of injustices towards one another unchecked? No, he's not saying that. He's not saying don't ever seek justice. He saying be careful how you do it. Don't seek justice by going to the unrighteous instead of the saints is what he said earlier. And he uses that word "unrighteous" intentionally, I think, for two reasons. Don't go to an unrighteous, pagan judge for a practical reason: the Roman judges weren't necessarily known for being particularly just. In fact, they were known for being corrupt, and being partial, and for oftentimes ruling in favor of the rich and the upper-class. And so, I think that's the practical part of what he means by "unrighteous". But I think there is a more important theological reason that Paul is getting at as well: these Roman judges were also unrighteous in the Christian sense that they had not received the righteousness that comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. They were not Christians. They didn't understand the Gospel. And among brothers, that matters, because what that meant is they did not have the proper eyes to see the proper perspective to understand all that was at stake in these disputes between Christians. So, Paul is not saying that the church should just tolerate one another's sins and injustices. He is instead calling the church to see these situations through the lens of the Gospel and the church's mission, and to understand that there is a lot more here at stake than merely fairness. That what is at stake here, ultimately, is family. There's a lot going on here that is hard for us to understand, primarily because we are in a very individualistic culture that has a fairly weak ecclesiology. That's the study of the theology of the church. And so, we don't understand a few of the things that Paul assumes that we understand. He assumes that we understand that, as Christians, we have been personally saved by Jesus Christ, and we have a relationship with him personally. But we do not have a private relationship with Jesus Christ. He saves us out of sin, into his church, and that as Christians we are then to submit ourselves to the care, and the accountability, and the authority of a local church. And in fact, a lot of what he has to say doesn't make sense to a Christian who doesn't have that kind of relationship to a local church. And Jesus, in Matthew 18, he teaches that the local church has that authority to care for and hold one another accountable. And there's a reason for it. In Matthew 18, Jesus teaches us both how and why to handle these kind of disputes among Christians in the church. And just for example, compare these two paths: the knee-jerk reaction of the flesh is to get even, to make things fair. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. You did this to me, and now this is what it's going to take to make things fair." And that's good as far as it goes. But the knee-jerk reaction of the Spirit is something far more significant: not to merely seek fairness, but ultimately to seek righteousness and reconciliation. What I mean by "righteousness" is it seeks to right the wrong in a situation. Yeah, that's part of it. But more importantly, the Spirit seeks to right the hearts of the people involved in the dispute, both the plaintiff and the defendant. It aims to protect the person who was wronged from growing bitter toward the person who wronged them. And then ultimately, it's not about forcing the person who did the wrong thing to do the right thing: it's about bringing them through this Spirit-filled process in which the hope is they will have a change of heart where they actually want to do the right thing. Not because they have to any longer, but because it's an outflow of their character, and it's what they want to do. So, for example, I have my guitar here. Most of you know that my wife and I have two children, and I have three children: Owen, Nora, and my American Deluxe Telecaster. Absolutely precious child, and I love this guitar. Now imagine, if you will ... This would never happen, but just for the sake of the illustration, imagine that our fearless worship leader Caleb, in a moment of just unscrupulous weakness, decided he is going to break the golden rule, the musicians' code ... Which you all know what that is, right? You don't touch another musician's instrument without permission. He throws that out the window. He says, "I don't care. Shane is not in the room. I'm going to break the code. I'm going to pick up his guitar, and start playing it." But then, in the process, it slips out of his hands, falls off the stage. I walk back in the room, and all I see is just Caleb towering over my dying child with a broken neck. And I am devastated. Now again, this would never happen. But let's imagine in that moment a little demon pops up on Caleb's shoulder and says, "It's not your fault. Don't take responsibility. Just deny it. You don't owe anyone anything." In that moment, I have been wronged. In that moment, Caleb is refusing to make things right. So, I have two choices: I can either take him to court, or I can take him to church. So, what does that look like? First, option one: take him to court. I call Judge Judy. She hears my case. I bring the evidence, I bring the witnesses, and in her wisest, sassiest voice, she declares Caleb guilty. Guilty of breaking the code, guilty of being a bad friend, and guilty of cold-blooded murder. And she awards me the damages that I am due, and justice wins the day, right? But what happens after that? Well, most likely, Caleb is going to begrudgingly pay up, because Judge Judy is going to make him. Then he is going to quit the band, and he is going to leave the church. We're going to burn our bridges, and we're going to both walk away from that situation angry and bitter at one another. That is option one, and that is what the Corinthians were doing. Now, option two is we follow Matthew 18. And option two is harder, and option two has a higher risk. But option two also has a higher reward. So, what does following Matthew 18 look like? Well, the first thing Matthew 18 tells me to do is to go to my brother one-on-one. So, I do that. I go to Caleb one-on-one, I try to reason with him. And Jesus says if he repents, then praise God, I've won my brother. But let's say in this situation he doesn't. He is being stubborn, and so I'm forced to go on to step two, which is I bring some Christian friends along and we try to reason with him together. And still, he won't relent. So finally, we bring the church in, and he still refuses to repent. And so, we're forced to move on to that final stage and remove him from membership in the church. Now, in that moment, it seems like a lose-lose situation, that we've lost the case and we've lost our brother. And that is the risk of Matthew 18. But that is not the vision of Matthew 18. The vision of Matthew 18 is heart changed and reconciliation. And so, we have faith. We go through this process, and we pray. And hopefully, as time goes by, the reality of the situation begins to sink in. The Holy Spirit begins to convict Caleb's heart that he had gotten away with murder, but now he can't shake the guilt. He can't get the blood off his hands, and finally he cries out to God in repentance, and he comes back to me and asks for forgiveness. He says, "I could never make up to you what I've done, but I want to do everything I can to make this right." Now, you could say, in that moment, all I've really done by doing it, taking him to church instead of taking him into court, is I've simply just delayed justice. Maybe so. But ultimately, I've won back something infinitely more significant than what I had originally lost: I've won back my brother. I've won back our relationship. Because had I just been passive, and ignored him, and been the doormat, well, I probably would have lost him anyway to the hardening effect of sin on his unrepentant heart. If I had taken him to court, I probably would have lost him due to our mutual bitterness towards one another by forcing him to do the right thing. But by bringing it to Jesus, bringing it to the church, I've won the possibility of winning the thing that matters most, which is his heart, which is our relationship, and which is ultimately our witness to the power of the Gospel. That the Gospel really does have the power to change people's hearts, lives, and to reconcile enemies. And that brings us to point three, which is the goal of our grievances. When you're going to court, the goal is fairness. In going to church, the goal is family. It's reconciliation. But it's more than that as well, because in these situations the sobering reality and the question we need to ask is what if the reason this person in the church in Corinth is going around conning people, swindling them out of their money, is because he is actually not a Christian? What if the reason they're acting that way is because they've been fooled and deceived into thinking they're something they're not, and they're actually not in the family? What if this is an opportunity for them to wake up, to be sobered by that reality, repent of their sin, and actually join the family, be born again, become a new creation for the very first time? And so, Paul gives this very sobering warning at the end of the passage. Look at verse seven again: "To have these lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." So, there is a stern warning to the plaintiff. Why not rather be wronged? If you are so quick to go out and seek vengeance, to make things fair, that you don't even pause to consider the state of your brother's heart, well, then maybe you're still walking in the flesh and not the Spirit. There is an even more stern warning for the defendant. If you are able to live this way, swindling people out of their money, living in unrepentant sin, living in rebellion to God and to his word, then you're walking in the flesh and not the Spirit. And the warning to both parties is that this kind of life, a life lived in the flesh, is a life that is characterized by either revenge, bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, or unrepentant sin and rebellion to God's word. A life lived in the flesh is not the life of the person who has been washed, who has been sanctified, who has been justified, set apart, and saved by Jesus. He says, "Don't be fooled. Do not be deceived." He wouldn't say that unless that was a real possibility, and that we could be easily fooling ourselves. And this is a sobering reality, but Hell is real. But salvation is not just about getting people out of Hell. Salvation is also about getting Hell out of people. And where we are right now, and the way we are walking right now, is a good indication of where we're headed. Are we walking in the flesh, or are we walking in the Spirit? Honestly asking ourselves, "Is my life marked by faith? Is my life marked by forgiveness? If my life marked by holiness and repentance?" If not, don't be deceived. Don't deceive yourself. And we need to be careful here, as Christians on this side of eternity, we will always be at war against temptation and against sin. We're all going to be tempted, and we're all going to sin. Paul is not saying that anyone who has committed one of these sins or is tempted by one of these sins is going to Hell. But what Paul is saying is that we've all committed these sins, or sins like the ones on this list, and we were all once on a broad road to perdition, headed toward destruction. But that was before Jesus. "Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified." And yes, that is who you were, but by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit that is not who you are. Now live it. Just imagine the church is like this giant spiritual rock tumbler. I don't know if you had one of these when you were a kid. You throw a bunch of dirty, jagged stones in, and they all kind of look the same. But then as they collide with one another, the reality of what they're really made of begins to be revealed. And sometimes it's dust, sometimes it's diamonds. Right? Sometimes it's limestone and it turns into sand, and sometimes you have a precious gem at the end. Now, the bad news for a stone, the bad news is that it is what it is. A diamond is a diamond. Limestone is always going to eventually turn to dust. And the worst news for us is that none of are born as diamonds. We're all born as dust. The good news is that Jesus is quite capable of making diamonds out of dust, right? If an honest evaluation of our lives reveals nothing but sand ... By which I mean if there is no evidence of true salvation, no fruit of the Spirit, no affection for Jesus, no love for the Scriptures and for his church, then the solution is not to pretend that we're something we're not, or to deceive ourselves, or to just feel guilty, try harder, and fake it till we make it. No, the only solution is that we would be born again, that Jesus would make us a new creation, that he would take what we are and make us into something new. And the only way we can do that is to just stand before the Cross, and on the one hand to just tremble at our own sinfulness and price that Jesus had to pay because of it; and then on the other hand, just marvel at the incredible mercy and grace that we have been shown in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I want to close simply by reading out loud Jesus' teaching from Matthew 18. We've been referring to it a lot this week and last week, and I just kind of want to read it out loud. But I want to read it, then, in the context of the rest of what Jesus has to say around it, because after Jesus teaches his disciples this in Matthew 18, Peter comes up to him, and he has a question for him, to which Jesus responds with this very insightful parable that helps us understand what is going on. So, Matthew 18, starting at verse 15. Jesus says this. He says, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or tree witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in Heaven." A lot of people don't realize that was ... Jesus said that in the context of church discipline. And he says, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. And then Peter came up and said to him, 'Well, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?' And Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times.'" And he tell them this parable: "Therefore the kingdom of Heaven will be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents." An astronomical amount of money. "And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife, and children, all that he had, and payment to be made. So, the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii, and seizing him, began to choke him, and say, 'Pay what you owe.' So, his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him: 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' Be he refused, and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. Now, when his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him, and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all of his debt. So also my Heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." The big idea there is that anyone who has experienced that kind of just amazing generous grace, after that experience, can no longer continue walking down one of two different paths. On the one hand, they can't continue walking down the path of unforgiveness, of withholding forgiveness, withholding mercy, withholding grace, because they've been shown such incredible grace. It's only natural that they would then show that same kind of grace to others. Now, on the other hand, they're not going to go out and continue walking down that path of acquiring more and more debt through their sin. Anyone who has been relieved of that kind of debt, the last thing they're going to go out is to try to go out and acquire more by living a life of sin and rebellion to God. The Gospel changes that, and when we properly understand it, it changes how we relate. How we relate to one another, and how we relate to our sin. We're quick to repent, and we're quick to forgive. If you're here today and you'd like to learn more about what it means to be a Christian, if you have not experienced this grace that we're talking about, there will be people up here after the service that would love to meet with you, pray with you, and answer any questions that you might have. But for those of you who are Christians, let the life that you live be a right and rational response to the life that you've been given in Christ, to the grace and to the mercy that you've been shown. We are children of our Father, and we want to bear his resemblance. And we know that our Father is holy and just, and so we should flee from temptation, and we should be quick to repent. We also know that our Father is merciful, kind, loving. And so, we should be patient with one another, and quick to forgive. Let's pray. Father God, we cannot comprehend the true depths of your holiness, or your love, or the full extent of the price that Jesus paid to free us from sin. God, we ask that you would forgive us, and that by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would help us to grow, help us to mature so that day by day we become more and more like our Savior Jesus Christ. More like him in holiness, in justice, in mercy, and in love. God, fill us with your Spirit, to walk in your Spirit. Give us victory over the flesh so that we as your church can be a shining witness to this city around us. Your Gospel, your kingdom, your power, your glory are magnificent, and we want to bear witness to that with our lives. So, give us strength, Lord, give us faith. Fill us with your Spirit. We pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Loving Correction
May 19, 2019 • 1 Corinthians 5
Summary: Sin is a voracious, bloodthirsty, corroding force – never satisfied until it has parasitically sucked the life out of a person, family, community, or even a church. Therefore, the most hateful thing we can do is turn a blind eye to sin, in our own lives and in the lives our loved ones. In the church, we are called by God to humbly, lovingly, and graciously confront our brothers and sisters about their sin (and invite correction from them about our own), for we are our brother's and sister's keepers. Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, I'm one of the pastors her at Mosaic and if you're new or if you're visiting, and you'd like to connect with us, we'd love to connect with you. We do that officially through the connection card in the worship guide. If you fill it out legibly and then afterwards you can either toss it into the offering basket, or you can redeem it at the welcome center for a little gift that we've prepared for you to say thanks for coming out. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word. Heavenly father, we thank you that though we were rebels, insubordinate, wayward, running from you, pursuing our own sin and folly. Lord, we thank you that you didn't leave us in our ways, but you sent your son Jesus Christ, who died an excruciating death on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin. And I pray today, Lord, that you remind us that you sent your son, Jesus Christ, not to die so that we can continue sinning, but to die so that we can be empowered by your grace, and your love, and your holy spirit to live lives in submission to your will, lives of righteousness, lives of holiness. And Lord, so we take some time now as Christians to repent of any known sin in our own lives. We repent, Lord, in brokenness and contrition, humility. We come before you asking for more grace, and we pray that grace empowers us to live lives worthy of the gospel. And Lord, show us that your grace is never cheap, it's costly, and that we are never to use it as an excuse to continue in sin. And Lord, show us today if anyone here's not yet a Christian, what it means to truly be a Christian, truly be saved. It means to be part of your household and in your household there are rules. Rules not to keep us from fun, not to kill our joy, but rules that keep us from things that will kill our joy, which always sin. And I pray Lord, that you draw many to yourself even today. And I pray for those Christians who are on the outskirts, on the fringes of the church. I pray that you show them just how dangerous of a place that is to be, that we all need mutual accountability. We all need one another. Lord, I pray that you bless our time in the holy word, and pray this in the beautiful name Jesus Christ. Amen. So at the foundation of our society is this idea of moral relativism, meaning there is no good, there is no right, there is no evil, there is no righteousness, and therefore, that the chief virtue in our society is not truth. It's tolerance, and there are two pillars to this moral relativism in our culture. One is moral individualism that I personally get to decide what I do with my life. I get to decide what's good, what's evil, what's right and what's wrong. I don't have to look outside. No one else can tell me it's me if I'm not hurting anyone, live and let live, and there's no such thing as categorical sin, or categorical evil. The only sin that's left in our culture is to call something sin. The only evil that's left in our culture is to call something evil, that's moral individualism. And then the second pillar of moral relativism is expressive individualism. No one has a right to tell me how to love my life, and therefore, I have no right to tell anyone how to live their life. Therefore, we have a deep-seated prejudice against passing judgment, especially when it comes to moral decisions, decisions that have to do with our private life, or sexuality, our finances. Therefore, in this context, in the society that we live in, any talk of rebuke, or correction, or reproof seems viscerally unloving. It's unloving to tell someone else that they are making a mistake. And this idea, this world, it has crept into our churches to such an extent, that to talk of church discipline, even the idea is a faux pas. It sounds like we're trying to revive the Salem Witch Trials or the Inquisition. It seems like a throwback to Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter with the Puritans, make Hester Prynne wear a red A on her chest for committing adultery. It seems to antiquated, so rigid, so counter to the idea of love. And we throw out Matthew 7:1, probably the most famous verse in our culture. "Judge not, that you be not judged." And it's this idea that we shouldn't judge anybody, but as soon as you say, "Don't judge anybody. Hey, don't judge me." "I've got a Bible verse." "Oh, you're being judgmental," so it can't mean you can't discern, you can't distinguish between right and wrong. What does it mean? You got to read in context, Matthew 7:6. Jesus goes on and he talks about the sermon, "Do not give dogs what is holy, do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you." How do you know that someone's spiritually a dog, or spiritually a pig? And he's talking about someone who's so materialistic, so focused on the physical world that they have no sense of the spiritual. Jesus said, "You got to be discerning." Matthew 7:15, "Beware of false profits, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." You got to be discerning, and in that context, what Jesus means when he says do not judge, he's saying do not be hypocritical when making discernment. Don't be condescending. Don't be self-righteous. Take the log out of your own eye before doing the sensitive spiritual work of taking a speck out of your brother or sister's eye. It's personal repentance that then helps another brother or sister repent of sin. It's not heartless passivity, it's humble proactivity. Well, what about casting the first stone? It's a story of the woman who was caught in adultery, that was brought to Jesus by the pharisees and then Jesus said, "Whoever is without sin cast the first stone." But then what did Jesus say? He said, "Woman, where are they? They all left? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. I've paid for your sins on the cross for the penalty of your sins on the cross. But," he says, "From now on, sin no more." And what Jesus is doing, is he's discerning that there is such a thing as sin in your life, you are on a path to sin. Now turn from that, that's what repentance means. Repentance does not mean I come to God and I say, "God, forgive me. Now I'm going to go continue living in sin." Forgiveness in the Greek, metanoia. I means I turn around, it's a 180-degree turn. Now you turn. Say Lord, I was living for myself, I was living in sin. I repent of that sin. I turn to you. If sin is just a description of someone's mistake, some character flaw, some foibles, indiscretions, then our emotional recoil against this idea of correction, it makes sense. If sin is neutral, if it's stagnant, leave the person alone. Let them make their own decisions, let them learn from their mistakes, but sin is not neutral. As soon as a voracious, blood-thirsty, corroding force, and it's never satisfied unless it's parasitically sucked the life out of a person, out of a family, out a community, even of a church. Scripture says that sin produces death in us by separating us from God, who is the source of life. Therefore, the most hateful thing that we can do is turn a blind eye to sin in our own lives, and sin in the lives of those whom we loved, brothers and sisters. In church, we are called by God to humbly, lovingly, graciously confront our brothers and sisters of their sin and invite them to confront us of our sin, when we don't see it because sin has a blinding effect, a hardening effect, a deadening effect. We are our brothers and sisters keepers. This text that we're about to read makes no sense outside of the church, outside of the church community, outside of the household of God. So if you are not a Christian, if you are just exploring Christianity, I need to set this up for you, it won't make no sense at all. This is how Christianity talks about becoming a Christian. We are guilty before the judge of the universe. Imagine yourself in a courtroom in an orange jumpsuit, we're guilty. The sentence comes down, we deserve eternal separation from the eternal God because of an eternal debt that we owe. And we say, "Is there any other way?" He brings in Jesus Christ, his son. He said, "My son has died on the cross for your sin, to pay the penalty for your debt. If you trust in him, believe in him, repent of your sin, his righteousness is counted to you, his record is counted to your record, is counted to him. But, this is the truth, but now you belong to this judge. Now this judge says, "You are my son. You are my daughter. You are adopted into my family. It's not receive this forgiveness, receive this forgiveness of your debt so you can go and accrue more debt. No, you've been living as a spiritual orphan and if you receive this forgiveness, I'm adopting you into my family. I'm taking you home, I'm giving you my last name. Therefore, I have a claim on you. And the claim is, you are to live according to my household rules, and these rules I've given not to keep you from fun, but to keep you from things that hurt you, to keep you from the corroding effect of sin." So as we read the text today, we need to understand that these are rules for the household of God. Would you look at I Corinthians 5, one through 13 with me. I Corinthians 5, one through 13. "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among Pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you." "For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." "Your boasting is not good. Do you now know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." "I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother is he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what I have to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges the house outside. Purge the evil person from among you." This is the reading of God's holy, inherit, and fallible word, may he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. We'll frame up our time with four points. First, we'll look at the prompting of this letter, what's the goal of church discipline? Then we'll look at the purpose, why is church discipline an idea in scripture? Then we'll look at the problems, when is church discipline to be implemented? And then the procedure, how is it to be done? The prompting. What has caused St. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to write this letter to Corinth? Well, he planted this church about 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in this debaucherous, this Pagan, this sinful city of Corinth. And he spent 18 months there, about 50 people had been gathered to form a core group for a church. He then goes onto Eposes to plant a church there. While in Eposes, he hears from this lady named Chloe who's part of the church, that there's all kinds of problems within the church in Corinth. And the whole idea, like none of this text makes sense apart from the context of church membership. These are all people who have covenant together for mutual accountability, to help one another grow in the Lord. So St. Paul says in verse one, "It's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you." It's the Greek word porne, it's a vast word, a broad word, which includes all kinds of stuff. But here he's talking about an incestuous relationship. "A man has his father's wife." So this is a guy in the church, who's a member of the church, who's a professing believer, who is sleeping with his stepmother. Not a one night stand, followed by broken hearted repentance, has his father's wife, not had. It's an ongoing present tense. And then he says, "It's the kind that's not even tolerated among the Pagans." And the Pagans tolerated a lot of sexual immorality, tolerated fornication, prostitution, adultery, homosexuality, even pedophilia. Demosthenes was an order of the day says, "Mistresses we keep for the sake of pleasure, concubines for the daily care of the body, but wives to bear us legitimate children." But even they would draw the line here. This is an exploitative relationship, this is a relationship that is so counter to the natural order. The Pagan Roman Order Cicero says, "Incest was virtually unheard of in Roman society." And this brings us to a question, where should the line be drawn when it comes to sex? In culture, it's getting pushed further, and further, and further. They're two consulting adults, not hurting anyone. No harm, no foul. Love is love. Personal fulfillment. Self-expression. Where do we draw the line? Nadia Bolz-Weber wrote a book recently called Shameless and she considered herself a Lutheran pastor and she wrote this book to self-professed Christians. And she says, "I'm here to tell you, unless your sexual desires are for minors, or animals, or your sexual choices are hurting you, or those you love, those desires are not something you need to struggle with. They are something to listen to, make decisions about, explore, perhaps have caution about. But struggle with, fight against, make enemies of? No. Scripture would say she is a false prophet, preaching an anti-gospel. She's going contrary to God's will. Why isn't this arbitrary? You're drawing the line at minors and animals. Why? When is that boundary then pushed? Where does God draw the line? God says, "Sex is such a powerful force, for good or for evil, that only within the confines of a marriage, a covenant lifelong relationship between a husband and a wife, a man and a woman, one covenant, one lifetime, only then is it safe. Only then is it a blessing and not a curse." And this gentleman in the church could say, "Well, Jesus Christ never said anything about me not sleeping with my stepmom." Well, Jesus Christ also didn't say anything about pedophilia, but Jesus Christ was an Old Testament rabbi, and he assumed a lot of the Old Testament case law, specifically when it came to morality. So Leviticus 18:8, "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness." What's St. Paul doing here? He takes it as a matter of course, that there are parts of the case law in Leviticus that are still enforced, still binding. This isn't part of the 10 Commandments, this isn't commandment 7A or 7B, but it's part of the case law. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5:17, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." He fulfilled all of the law in himself, but he didn't abolish it. He fulfilled the ceremonial law, and he fulfilled the temple laws, and the laws of the priesthood, but when it comes to morality, he still calls us to submit to God's word. As gut-wrenching as this sin is of sexual immorality, that's not what the point of the sermon is. The sex sermon is coming in two weeks. The second part of I Corinthians six so come back for that. But this sermon is about church discipline. It's gut-wrenching, but their reaction is why St. Paul writes this chapter. I Corinthians 5:2, "And you are arrogant." I Corinthians 5:6, "Your boasting is not good." They're taking pride in their perversion. They've got flags, and they've got bumper stickers, and parades, and they've got the Facebook profile picture frames. They're taking pride in their tolerance, and their diversity, freedom, open-mindedness. They're presenting themselves to be more loving than God. They're saying things like, "Who am I to judge?" Because as soon as you begin to discern and call a sin a sin, call a spade a spade, then you got to do something in your own life. And that's inconvenience. What theory would give rise to boasting in this kind of immorality? I'll give you the theology, and this is rampant theology in our day and age. God is love, God doesn't judge. God is absolutely tolerant. If God gets glory by forgiving us, let's sin some more so that grace may abound, and it turns grace into license. Freedom and opportunity for the flesh, all things are lawful for me. Why did Jesus Christ die? Why did God, the father, put his son Jesus Christ to death? Jesus took our sin upon himself. Our sin killed Jesus so that we would kill our sin. That's the point. God doesn't just want to save you from the penalty of your sin. He wants to save you from the power of sin over your life, and he releases you, and we no longer have to submit to the power of sin. We can submit to the power of righteousness, which is the only true freedom. And then by the power of the holy spirit, we are to mortify the presence of sin in our life. Therefore, love is not opposed to discipline. What is true love? True love is you want the best for the beloved. Well, what is the best for us? The best for us is to be in perfect fellowship and communion with God. And sin is that which pulls us away from fellowship from God. Sin is that which kills our joy, it kills our satisfaction, so God despises our sin, and he wants that sin removed. So he sometimes has to discipline us in order for us to be drawn near to him. Because God loves us, he disciplines us so that we may share in his holiness and be conformed to the image of Christ. Look at Hebrews 12:5, "And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, for be weary, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." And then he goes on in that chapter to say, hey, when parents discipline, when parents parent, when parents try to discipline their children because the children don't have their own self-discipline, is that because they're unloving? No, the most unloving thing to say is, "Do whatever you want." Revelation 3:19, "Those whom I love," says Jesus, "I reprove and I discipline so be zealous and repent." Second point is the purpose, why is church discipline a thing? Why does Jesus teach us to implement this? In I Corinthians 5:12, "For what I have to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you." So he's saying in terms of outside, those are non-Christians. We love them and we show them the love of God, they need to meet Jesus Christ, and we're not expecting them to live under the household rules of God. They're not in the household, so we tell them, "Hey, believe in Jesus. Come to him for forgiveness. Submit your life to yield yourself." I was thinking about this last night, as I was awakened at two a.m. by drunk BU graduates. And I was like, "I could go out and tell them right now, submit to the Lord. You're all sinners, stop drinking and waking me up at night." I didn't do that. They're not Christians yet and my wife would have gotten really ... They're not in the household of God. So we tell them about grace, and we tell them about the gospel, we tell them that they can be forgiven, they can meet Christ, but this discipline language, it's for believers to hold one another accountable. And it's all because of love, love for Christ, love for the watching world, love for the church, and love for the individual who is under this church discipline. So church discipline shows love for Christ, this is a subpoint number one under point number two. God's holiness is a dominant theme in the Bible. The Bible is saying, "Love, love, love." The angels saying, "Holy, holy, holy." God is literally holy, utterly opposed to sin, you can no mixture with sin. In the Old Testament God said, "You are my people and you shall be holy for I the Lord am holy." It's repeated in the New Testament that the church is a holy priesthood in a holy nation. That's the verse right there, "A kingdom of priests in a holy nation." God is saying you are distinct people, I've saved you for myself. You're in the world, but you're not of it. A people within a people and we are to represent God, we carry God's name. God's name is bound up with this church, his reputation is at stake. And when his people sin, when the church is infiltrated with sin, God does disassociate himself from the church. How do I know this? Revelations two and three, Jesus writes letters to churches and he repeatedly warns, "If sin is not dealt with in their midst, he will remove the church's lamp stand." And that's what he did with Thyatira, and because of moral compromise. God would rather not have a testimony to his name in a city than to have his name maligned. When discipline leaves the church, Christ goes with it. The transformative power of the gospel goes with it. Why did God punish King David so severely after David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then killed her husband? He said, "By doing this," the words of God, "You have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt. You've blasphemed the name of God." Church discipline shows our love for Christ. Christ is holy, and the way that we honor Christ isn't just with empty words, but with heartfelt obedience. Church discipline also shows love to a watching world, that there is a difference between Christians and non-Christians, that Christ's power does make a difference, that Christ's power does transform, that he satisfied, that he is the source of joy. If people see our lives, the lives of the church and they're exactly the same as those outside of the church, then they begin to think that this is nothing but religion. "Oh, you're just very observant. Grace does nothing. It's just an excuse to sin more." Because ultimately, you love sin as much as the unbelievers. You're just using Christ as an excuse to sin more. So the Pagans mocked and they jeered the church in Corinth. Brennan Manning said this, some of the most powerful words that capture this idea. "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny him by their lifestyle. This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." Many churches today, and even in the city, in an attempt to be attractive to non-Christians, they begin to preach things like, "We're normal. We're as sinful as you. We don't have a problem with sin. We don't judge sin. We're tolerant, so join us to feel safe about your sin." And people say, "What's the point? It's a waste of my Sunday morning." Can we keep the visible church absolutely pure? Of course not, just like we can't keep ourselves absolutely pure. That doesn't mean we don't fight our sin and fight the good fight of faith. And in the church, we are to do the same. Church discipline shows love for God for the world, but also for the church, in particular the weaker sheep, the younger Christians, that they might be protected. So St. Paul says in verse six, "Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" And what he's talking about is the Passover feast that Israel was saved from captivity in Egypt through the Passover, and before the angel of death came over all of Egypt, they were take a lamb and to sacrifice it. And take the blood and paint it over their doorway, and then they would take unleavened bread, before they made that bread, they were to sweep their whole house for leaven. Leaven was used instead of yeast because yeast was hard to come by, it was scarce. And what leaven is, it's just a piece of old dough that had been fermented. And if you are to make bread, you take that piece of leaven, you put it in the new batch of dough, and you let it ferment. The problem is, if you leave it in there too long, it become poisonous, and then you lose the bread, and this is what he's saying. He's saying you got to get rid of the leaven in your house, just like the people of Israel would do, they would sweep the house from top to bottom, every drawer, every cupboard. It had to be cleaned out because if your unleavened bread was leaven, then you would lose Passover joy. And here, the leaven represents sin. Sin in the same way as leaven, leaven's the whole lump. Sin has an effect of infecting the whole lump, infecting the person, infecting the people close to the person and the whole church. And sin, when tolerated, when excused, when ignored, indulged in, it's like an infection. Once it's excused, and then what? You got to excuse another sin. Compromise leads to more compromise, and this weird dynamic develops in a church community, where the preaching says one thing, but people in the pew says, "Yeah, we don't really mean that, we don't really believe that." And then the preaching has to change, the preaching begins to pull punches, and stops talking about real life, things that every single one of us struggle with. You stop talking about lust, and greed, and pride. You stop talking about anger, and sloth, and envy. And that our consciousness are seared and the church seizes to be the church, now we're just a vaguely religious club where people get together for some community and live their lives anyway they want. And then the pastor or the clergy do, they just hold onto their job for dear life from the endowment, and prepare sermons where they studiously avoid saying anything that might be possibly offend anybody. It's like in a family, if parents do not discipline their children, do not parent their children, when one child rebels, the younger children see and they start to do the same thing. When a government doesn't enforce laws, there's anarchy. When a church doesn't wield spiritual authority, after a while, the church is no longer useful by Christ, and it actually becomes useful by Satan. It becomes demonic in many ways, actually pushes people away from God. You see this in churches. You see the sex abuse scandals with the Catholic Church, you see that with the Southern Baptist Convention, go denomination by denomination, when sin is not dealt with, it does leaven the whole lump. Therefore, St. Paul says, "It needs to be dealt with." I Timothy 5:20, why? "As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear." Sin is serious. Sin is as serious as cancer. Sin is death. Therefore, we are to deal with it as radically as we possibly can through repentance and obedience. Christ was put to death by our sins so that we might put our sin to death. And finally, church discipline shows love for the individual, the person that warrants the church discipline so that the person is brought to repentance. And here we say, "Oh, it sounds so invasive. It's an overreach. I don't want to cause a problem." And by the way, vast sentiment sounds really humble and noble, but it's anything but. If you go to your dentist and your in pain and he does the x-ray, and he knows that you need a root canal. He says, "Oh, you're good. Pay for the bill at the front." You go to a doctor and he sees a tumor, but he said, "Oh, you're good. We don't have to deal with this now." If a firetruck drives by your house and your house is on fire, the most cruel thing they can do is to drive by. And what church discipline is, it's a wake-up call. The goal is to have the person wake up from the spiritual ... This past week for example, we had a situation. My four-year-old decided to bring her bicycle up from the basement, and she's got the training wheels, and she's riding around the house. And then something happened, where my daughter's running to my room, and I open the door, and it smells like gas. Gas is just wafting in. Apparently, through her handle, she had turned one of the knobs on the gas stove. Gas is wafting into our whole place. Now we're all outside, we turn around. We're all outside freaking out because we could have died. And but it's a great illustration for this part of the sermon, thank you, God. Why did this happen? It's because we took our fire alarms off, which also have a carbon monoxide. We took them off because they're annoying. Sometimes in the middle of the night, they just go off. It's so annoying, it's inconvenient. We took them off in the whole house and we almost died. That's the point. And this is what church discipline is. It's a wake-up call. This sermon is supposed, I'm supposed to have zero comedy, so I apologize for that. Sin is dangerous. Sin does destroy, it destroys people, it destroys the relationship, and indifference to sin is actually hate, not love. Overlooking the sin of someone that you love, it's not loving, it's sinful. It's not gracious, it's cowardice. It's not merciful, it's dangerous. It's not kind, it's actually hateful. And then we say, "It's none of my business," and we live in a hyper-individualistic society and we're accustomed to passing by the plights of other people. But church is not a restaurant full of strangers sitting together, ordering messages from the menu that seem really palatable, with a side of grape juice and some communion wafers. That's not what church is. Church is a family and we are each other's keeper. I try to teach my kids, and my 10-year-old loves her relationship with mom and dad, does not love the responsibilities that come with that relationship to help her siblings grow, to protect her siblings. I tell her, "Can you feed your younger sisters, too? Can you make sure that she doesn't hurt? Can you just watch?" We are each other's keeper. We are to bear each other's burdens. Deitrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together he says, "Nothing could be more cruel that leniency which abandons others to sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than that severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one's community back from the path of sin." Church discipline is only perceived as unloving if we have an unbiblical definition of love. This is how scripture defines love. "For God so loved the world that he, he gave his one and only son Jesus Christ to be crucified on the cross," that's love. Love is defined as a cross, as God's wrath pouring out in full, as judgment of sin. True love judges sin, it hates evil, calls to repentance and obedience because that's the best thing for us. I Corinthians 13:6, "Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth." It brings us to point three, when is church discipline to be implemented? What are the problems? And I'll give you a few phrases that I'll go one-by-one, but here's just a sentence. We should deal with any professing Christian who is a member of a church, who is knowingly and rebelliously disobeying clear commandments of scripture and unrepentant. So I Corinthians five, here he talks about in verse 11, "Look, I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of a brother." That's the point, this is a person who's calling himself a Christian, but is living in a way that is inconsistent with being a Christian. Because what does it mean to be a Christian? Does it mean I go to church? Does it mean I read the Bible? What makes me fundamentally a Christian? What makes me fundamentally a Christian is that I am on a path of repentance. I repent of my sin. I did it once, and I do it, I did it this morning. We do it on a daily basis, we progress in our faith. Faith, repentance. Faith, repentance. Church doesn't, this isn't implemented for sin per se, it's for the sin of unrepetence. That's the goal so that you repent, you get forgiveness, you get grace that empowers you to change. And he says in verse 12, "Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? The person is also a member of the church." What right do I have to go and tell another Christian in another church with whom I am not in mutual covenant of mutual accountability? I can say something, my words don't really mean anything. This is why church membership is so crucial. This is why we practice church membership, it's in the Bible. A lot of churches don't, that's why it's such a foreign idea, and we got to talk about it all the time. God gives us this idea of church members, this chapter doesn't make sense apart from church members from getting together with a body of believers and saying, "Look, I need your help. When there's sin in my life, I welcome you to call me out. Please, I welcome you to rise to that level of love, where you are inconvenienced, it's uncomfortable, you're willing to do it because you love me. That's what I want, that's what church members should be." That's why there's no mention of this woman, he says brings this man to church discipline not her because most likely she's not a Christian and she's not a member. And then the person must be knowingly and defiantly disobedient. Sometimes Christians sin because of just immaturity. They don't know better. This is I Thessalonians 5:14, "We urge you brothers, admonish the idle," these are people who are slothful, and that's a sin. "Encourage the fainthearted." It doesn't say admonish the fainthearted. "Help the weak," it doesn't say admonish or rebuke the weak, we help them. And it says, "Be patient with them all." And then the person must be disobeying clear commands of scripture, and there are clear commands of scripture. Drinking alcohol is not grounds for discipline, drunkenness is. Watching movies isn't grounds for discipline, watching pornographic movies is. And scripture has many a lists of clear moral commandments. Romans, I Corinthians, II Corinthians, Galicians, Ephesians, Colossians, and I'll just give you a summary. Violations of God's moral commandments, that's what's happening here. I Corinthians 5:11, "Those who are guilty of sexual immorality or greed." By the way, that should give us pause in the United States that greed is a moral sin. "An idolater, someone worshiping something or someone other than God." A reviler, this is a person who is verbally abusive. A drunkard or a swindler, this is a person who is sinning in illegal business practices. Another sin for which church discipline is to be practiced is unresolved relational sins, gossip, slander, anger, abuse of speech, divisiveness in the church, false teaching on major doctrines, and disorderly conduct and refusal to work. Now point four, procedure how, how are we to do this? Jesus gives us the pattern, the procedure in Matthew 18:15, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his faults, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother." One-on-one in a private meeting. Show them in scripture, "This is where you're violating God's word, God's will." Our opinion doesn't matter, God's word is the authority and it begins with you, Christian. Not a pastor, not a leader in the church, not in elder. It begins with the Christian. All members of the church are finally responsible for what the church becomes, not the pastors, not the leaders. We are to continually to seek conforming the church in our lives to God's word. We're responsible for the church's health. "Against you only," and a lot of people use that phrase to say, "Well, the person hasn't sinned against me, so why should I go and correct them?" Well, James 5:19, 20, Jude 22 and 23 says, "That Christians, when they see any Christian, in sin are to try to bring that person back from that sin because any sin if persisted in is a sin against Christ and also against the church, the body of Christ, with whom we are so interconnected, so independent on that when a person is in pain, we feel that pain. When a person bears a burden, we feel that burden, so we are to go to that person. So if Christians, but this is the first step in church discipline. It's just Christians going to one another, holding each other accountable, speaking truth in each other's life, and calling one another to repentance and leaving sin. If we would conscientiously apply admonition and rebuke, there would be no need for excommunication. But before we do that, we got to check our own heart. Before pointing out a speck in your brother or sister's eye is their log in your own. We repent ourselves, we humble ourselves, we check our motives, we get the facts, but we are still to do it. St. Paul gives us an example of how he practiced this first step in Galicians chapter two, he talks about going to Peter. Peter had been dining, he had been having meals with gentile believers. When Jewish believers came, he then pulled back from his relationships with the gentile believers, and started saying, "Oh, they're not on the same level as you guys are relationship." And Paul sees this and he calls him out for hypocrisy. This is Galicians 2:11, "But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned." This is one apostle calling out another apostle, correcting, rebuking. Why? To show him that he's on the wrong path, to draw him to repentance. And Peter did repent and later on, by the way, how'd that feel? How does being corrected feel? How does being rebuked feel? It always hurts. Our dainty egos are always bruised. But Peter afterwards, do you know what he calls Paul? II Peter 3:15, "Our beloved brother Paul." You did that because you love me. Reprove is always a fork in the road for any sinful soul. Either we cringe at correction like it's a curse or we embrace it as a blessing. First step, personal. Second step is a private conference with witnesses. Matthew 18:16, "If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses." Now you bring in other believers, so they together hopefully awaken this person from spiritual stupor. If the person still doesn't repent, the next step is a public announcement to the church. Matthew 18:17, "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church when the members are gathered, gathered together." The person still does not repent. Next step is a public exclusion from the church. This is Matthew 18:17, "If he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a gentile and a tax collector." I Corinthians 5:13, "Purge the evil person from among you." This is where you're saying, "You are no longer walking in a manner worthy of the name of Jesus Christ because if you were, you would have repented. You would have turned from your sin, and pertinence is always inconsistent with the Christian profession of faith. We ourselves condemn nobody, but we are doing is pronouncing God's judgment on a person who does not repent. And then Saint Paul gives a description of what this means, I Corinthians 5:4 and 5, "When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that in his spirit, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." What does that mean? What he's saying is, that the church is like a bomb shelter and there's a nuclear fallout of Satan's sin and the world outside of the church. And when you are no longer in the confines of a church in relationship to the church, you are being exposed to the forces of Satan's sin and the world. For the purpose, why he says, "So that to bring about the destruction of the flesh." It doesn't mean destruction of the body, he's not talking about bodily harm. The world flesh here is sarx in the Greek, not to be confused with soma which means body. Sarx is the sinful part of our nature. And what he's saying is, this person is to be given up to Satan so that his sinful, his sin might be ... Sin might be hurt, not him so that his heart is softened. And Saint Paul uses similar language in I Timothy 1, 18 through 20, "This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscious. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme." And the goal of that, what's the goal of that? To inflict pain on the person? No, of course not, the saved person's soul in the day of Jesus Christ, huge application for us is that to not be a committed member of a fellowship of believers is to expose ourselves to harm. This is how serious this language is. Job, God uses the same language in the Book of Job, where he gives Job up to Satan. And he says, "Behold I hand him over to you only spare his life." And God used everything that Satan did, sovereignly used Satan's work in Job's life to refine him, purify him, rid him of self-righteousness, and draw him to himself, and draw him to repentance. Job 42:5 and six, "Now my eyes sees you, O Lord, and I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." Saint Paul actually about himself used similar language, II Corinthians 12:7, "So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited." Sometimes God uses Satan's influence sovereignly to purify us, so that's the idea where Saint Paul says, "Give him up to Satan if he no longer wants to walk in repentance, there's no other way." But the goal of all of this, the goal of this whole process is never vindictive. The goal is not punishment for a sin. The goal is restoration. The goal is to draw the person to repentance to accept forgiveness from the Lord and to transform to life. I Corinthians 5:2, This is the sentiment, this is the heart with which this process is done. "Ought you not rather to mourn?" Ought you not rather to mourn over the sin in your midst? There's no joy, there's no pleasure, it's grief. Saint Paul is wounded as he is writing this letter. I have no joy in writing this sermon. I have no joy in preaching this sermon, three times today in Boston, Massachusetts, 2019. But why do we do it? Because it's God's word and we as Mosaic Boston want to be a church that does God's work God's way. How do we then relate to this person after this process is gone through? Well, Galatians 6:1 says, before we do that, how are we to help this person come to their senses, "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore them in a spirit of gentleness. Gentleness. Keep a watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." I'm a sinner. We're all sinners. We need Christ. There's no self-righteousness, there's no condescension, but when we repent there is forgiveness. And if this person is a true Christian, they will repent. And if not, their self-deceit is exposed, and then that person can finally realize what the gospel is and have a true relationship with the Lord. How are you to relate to the person? We're no longer to fellowship with person as if there is no problem. II Thessalonian 3:14, 15, "If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with them, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as a brother." And then Paul clarifies in I Corinthians 5:11, "I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother and if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an isolator, reviler, drunkard, swindler. Not even to eat with such a person." So is he saying that we can't have any contact with this person? No, of course not. But he's saying we are no longer to relate to them on a buddy-buddy level as if everything's okay. He says don't even eat with them. Table fellowship in that culture meant a deep friendship. We are not to mix indiscriminately. We're not the same in our relationship as we were before. Any contact must communicate I'm heartbroken over your impendent sin. Please repent, please come back to Christ, please come back to the fellowship of believers. Won't you come back? Won't you be restored? That's the heart. In conclusion, all of us with to be healthy. We take care of ourselves, try to eat right, try to diet and exercise, but for each one of us there will come a point where there's a breakdown in our health. And at that point, what we need is some serious medical intervention. Sometimes it takes someone cutting us up to remove a tumor and we're subjected to powerful poisons. That's what church discipline is like. Why? To restore us, to make us healthy. What happened to this gentleman that's mentioned in I Corinthians five? Well, they went through this process and it was painful. But it says in II Corinthians chapter two that he repented and that his sorrow led him to repentance. He saw the gravity of his sin. Conscious was awakened. The church did its job to help this person be restored in the relationship with the Lord. The church is not a fellowship of sinless people. The church is a fellowship of holy people, who are pursuing holiness, pursuing sanctification, and we're a fellowship of forgiven sinners by God's grace, pursuing a life of holiness and obedience together. May God give us strength in this. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for this word. It's a hard word, but hard words make for soft hearts. Some of us, Lord, are in habitual sin. We can't get out of the quagmire of sin in our lives. I pray by the power of the holy spirit, show them that there is hope, that we can be pulled out and that you long for us to be in deep communion with other believers in transparency, confessing sin to one another, repenting of sin, and walking together. I pray today, pull them out. I pray if there's anyone who is on the fringes of the church, Lord, I pray that you show them how important it is to mutually covenant with other believers to hold each other accountable. And we pray all this is Christ name, amen.