[0:00] Good morning. It's good to be in your midst this morning.
[0:14] Greetings from Countryside Community Church in La Crete. And it's been a while since we've been here. I don't know how many years it's been, but I know it's been a few.
[0:26] And it's great to be here. I see some familiar faces. Mr. and Mrs. Tightrope, it's good to see you. It's been a while.
[0:38] Yeah. And some other friends that we have here and those that we are going to be friends with yet, maybe, hopefully.
[0:50] So, yes, thank you for reading of God's Word. I think it's great to have young people come up and read God's Word. It's, I don't know if you know that, but that's training.
[1:05] You're being trained. And it's really, really a great idea. And so, we thank God for His Word. Thank you for reading that.
[1:17] We thank God for family, for young children to be born in the church. And we know that that is a start.
[1:29] We need to be born, but then we need to be born again. And that's the thing that we can learn from God's Word, right?
[1:42] And that they can understand God's Word and to be born again. And so, that is a great privilege and honor as parents and as grandparents to be that example, to be that life that they can model and to learn by.
[2:05] So, we're grateful for the church and we're grateful for our young families in the church. So, this morning, I want to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1 as it was read.
[2:21] And some of Paul's teachings and how that applies to us today. And as we look at Scripture, we see not only in the New Testament, but the Old Testament, that a lot of the teachings that we have, or most of them, we can apply.
[2:42] We can apply that in our lives today. And as we go through this morning's Scripture, we want to do that.
[2:53] We pray that God will open our hearts, that we can see how we can apply His Word that He taught back then to us today.
[3:05] We know that Corinth was a very busy and important city, a port city in Greece. And there was a lot of trade.
[3:19] There was hustle and there was bustle. It was busy. It was a very busy port city. And when a city is very busy, as we probably know here in Grand Prairie, a lot of different people come to town.
[3:36] And not all the people that come to town are maybe a positive influence on the Christian church. And so we see that crime was evident.
[3:49] We see that immorality was very evident in the city of Corinth. Drunkenness. There was a lot of struggles, a lot of problems, and a lot of pressures that came into that city.
[4:02] And so it was getting so bad that if you didn't like someone, that if they would call them a Corinthian, that would be an insult.
[4:22] Because the city had such a bad name. But this is a city where Paul was sent to, to plant a church.
[4:33] This city needed the gospel. So Paul went to minister to this city.
[4:46] And amongst all the immorality that went on there, there was the Jews. There was the religious people. And Paul went to share the good news to this city.
[5:05] This city that the immorality side of the city needed Christ. The Jews that believed in their religion, they needed Christ. At the end of the day, not one was better than the other.
[5:21] They needed Jesus. So here's Paul. Preaching to these people who said, if you have Jesus, Jesus can set you free of religion.
[5:40] He can set you free from your life of immorality. You need Jesus. And that is what he did.
[5:55] I've called this message, called to be saints. You and I are called to be saints. This may be a description that we don't hear of very much.
[6:14] But when we look at the first Corinthians chapter one, we will go into that. But that is what Paul calls the believers, is we're called to be saints.
[6:26] So let us pray before we dig into this a little deeper. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, God. We thank you for the Apostle Paul.
[6:38] And how he so boldly went into the city of Corinth to share the gospel. And that is such a great reminder for each one of us, God, that wherever you planted us, God, that we're called to do the same.
[6:55] We're called to be saints. We're called to live a life of influence that will draw others to you. And so, Lord, as we look at your word this morning, I pray that you would open our hearts, that you would have a work, do a work in us, God, that can encourage us, that can maybe challenge us.
[7:20] But more than that, God, that you would receive the honor and the glory as we live our lives and as we seek to serve you and as we seek to be your servants. We thank you in Jesus' name.
[7:32] Amen. Amen. I want us to turn back a few books to Acts chapter 18 just to give us a picture of what Paul and how he planted the church in Corinth.
[7:51] Acts chapter 18, and I won't read the whole chapter, but I want to read some verses out of Acts chapter 18. And I'm going to read, let me start in verse 1.
[8:07] After these things, Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome.
[8:26] And he came to them. And he came to them. So because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for by occupation they were tent makers.
[8:40] And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ.
[8:59] But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, Your blood be upon your own heads.
[9:10] I am clean. And from now on I will go to the Gentiles. And they departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justice, one who worshipped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.
[9:27] Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Now when the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent.
[9:48] For I am with you, and no one will attack you or hurt you. For I have many people in that city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
[9:59] So this is where Paul went to Corinth, preaching the gospel to the Jews. And the Jews didn't want no part of it.
[10:10] And he said to them, May this blood be on your own heads. I am clean. I will move on. I will go preach to the Gentiles. And then he went and planted this church in Corinth.
[10:27] He knew that the city needed the gospel. And Jesus said to him, Be bold. Don't be silent. Keep talking. For I have many people in that city.
[10:40] And as we look at the book of 1 and 2 Corinthians, we see that Paul was giving a lot of encouragement as well. He offered encouragement.
[10:51] He offered prayers. But not only that, he rebuked them. He confronted them with their sin.
[11:08] And the believers, the believers knew what Paul's heart was about.
[11:21] They were surrounded with immorality. They were surrounded with people living after their own flesh, giving in to sin on every street corner.
[11:32] And as believers, when we are surrounded by people with this lifestyle, it rubs off on us.
[11:47] Have you ever been around people, maybe at the workforce, that have maybe just keep swearing and swearing and swearing and swearing and swearing, using the Lord's name in vain, day after day after day?
[11:59] What does that do to us? Our mind starts, subtly, starts thinking that way as well. And we have to be careful not to, not to let that sink in.
[12:14] We have to be on guard. And I would say today we are in that culture as well. Our culture isn't much different than what Paul experienced in the city of Corinth.
[12:33] We see our culture as filled with sexual immorality, dirty. It's all around us.
[12:50] And it's becoming, it's becoming a norm. When we see people that, that maybe are living immodestly or dressed immodestly, it's becoming, we're being adapted to this.
[13:16] And it's sad to say that it's coming into the church. This is an exception because we're being molded suddenly, very subtly.
[13:32] I tend to think when I grew up, and that's not that long ago for some of you that are guessing my age, but it was, it wasn't as, as out there as it is today.
[13:50] There was, I think there was some shame involved. I don't know if even believers believers are very ashamed sometimes of how, of how we dress or how immodestly the world is.
[14:08] We, it's just, we're getting adapted to this. It's, it's something that we need to be aware of.
[14:21] I mean, that's why Paul is, I believe, God sent him to the city. He, we need, we need to be serious about the gospel. We need to be serious about Jesus.
[14:32] We're called to be saints. What is a saint? Sorry? Set aside for Jesus.
[14:46] We're set apart. We're sanctified. So this is what happened in, in the city of Corinth. It had an impact on the believers there as well.
[14:57] And as we read through this chapter, we will, we will understand why, why? Because Paul calls out that there is contentions. That there's divisions.
[15:14] And when we look at the church and when we look at the world, we can just look at marriages. The divorce rate in the church is not much different than in the world.
[15:26] We're being, we're being immune to what's going on. But we're called to be saints.
[15:37] We're called to be set apart. That's what Paul says here. So in verse 1, it says, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and softly as our brother.
[15:53] He's called to be an apostle. By whom? By God's will. And I believe each one of us is called to be something. Maybe not all apostles or pastors or deacons, but we're all called.
[16:10] We're all called to be saints. We're all called to be set apart. And we're called by God. That is His will for us. He says in verse 2, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified, there's that word sanctified, set apart in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.
[16:37] this is who we are as believers. We're called to be different. We're called to look different.
[16:48] We're called to act different. We're called to respond different when we are in trouble and we will get into trouble. We will get pressured at work.
[17:01] What kind of decisions am I going to make? We're called to be different than the decisions that maybe our co-worker will make that isn't a saint. We're called to be different as believers.
[17:17] Called to be saints. With all who in every place called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours. So Paul addresses the church here.
[17:34] His letter is a little different as we maybe start writing a letter. And in verse 3, this is how Paul usually starts his letters.
[17:53] Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful greeting to the church. And that's what I want to greet you this morning as well.
[18:08] Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. May we have that grace. May we have that peace in our hearts that only God can give. He is the one that has grace for us.
[18:25] He is the one that gives us peace. peace. And it's through the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul says, I am not here out of my own will.
[18:38] I am here because of the will of God. You know, he probably out of his own will he maybe would have probably not picked the city of Corinth.
[18:52] The sign-up sheet probably wasn't very long to the people that God would want to send to Corinth. But when it's God's will then we go where God sends us.
[19:09] Then we say, yes Lord I will go to that city and I will share Christ with whoever comes in my contact.
[19:23] And he says, I am here to tell you about Jesus. I want to encourage you but also I'm going to rebuke you and it is no different for us today.
[19:39] We want to encourage one another but when we have to we need to rebuke one another as well.
[19:51] See, a lot of Corinthians were out of line. They were like a shepherd out on the field and some of the sheep are maybe wanting to leave the fold and the shepherd grabs the staff and brings it back into the fold.
[20:11] Gently brings them back into line. So this letter here reminds us that this comes from God. God knew that they needed correction and in verse 2 he calls them set apart or being sanctified saints.
[20:33] it was a sinful city and there seemed to be a sense of contention divisions so he had to rebuke them.
[20:54] This rebuke or discipline was a very necessary thing to do. It's not a fun thing to do but it's a necessary thing to do when we do it with love and we do it with care.
[21:16] And each one of us each one of us needs this from time to time. Each one of us needs this from time to time.
[21:30] We need encouragement. We need prayers but we need rebuke. Saints need rebuke.
[21:46] So Paul reminded them over and over that they were set apart, that they were sanctified. You know when we look at the word saint, Paul and Peter and John, they were all called saints.
[22:05] Saint Paul, Saint Peter, Saint John, that's what the books are called in the King James Version. They're called saints. And so it is rightful that they should be.
[22:21] the Bible makes it clear when we become believers that we then are saints. We are then set apart. We are sinful creatures.
[22:39] It's hard to grasp that we as saints, even though we sin, are called saints. How many times a day do we sin? do we dare to count?
[23:00] As saints, we're called saints because our identity is in Christ. We're not called saints because we are perfect.
[23:13] But we're called saints because our identity is in Christ. because you and I have accepted the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and what he did for us on the cross of Calvary.
[23:28] It's because of what Christ did for us we can be called saints. That's why Paul told the Corinthians that they were saints even though they were sinners.
[23:44] verses 4 to 9. It says, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus.
[24:06] He says he thanks God for them, for the grace that he has bestowed upon them. that's what was given by Christ Jesus. That you were enriched in everything in him, in all utterance and all knowledge.
[24:22] Paul reminds them who they were. They were enriched because they had Jesus. And even as a testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, your testimony shows it.
[24:34] so that you may come short of no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[24:46] Paul continues to commend them. He encourages them to keep using their gifts and he always starts with encouragement or a lot of encouragement.
[25:04] he wants to encourage them to keep going. You know, there's enough negativity that goes around in our world today.
[25:18] We can all use a dose of encouragement. We need that. Some of them, some of us or some of you have that gift of encouragement.
[25:38] Some of you have a very good gift of just calling people up or texting or coming alongside of people to encourage them. Do you know that is a gift that is so needed in the church today?
[25:54] our flesh, our natural tendency is to look down upon, to see what we're doing wrong.
[26:07] But Paul starts with, let's encourage you. You can do this. I want to walk alongside of you. And the prayer this morning was perfect. Let's see how we can walk alongside of the people in our church.
[26:23] It's each one of our duty to do that, not just the leadership. Of course, the leadership needs to, that's where it needs to start. But as believers, as saints, we're called to encourage one another.
[26:38] why is it sometimes so hard? Why is it sometimes just think about maybe the wrong thing that he or she has done?
[26:53] Maybe they've done two or three wrong things, but maybe they've done 50 right things. And we like to focus on the things that they're not doing so well.
[27:08] I want to clarify that. Sin is sin. That's called sin for what it is. When we sin, and we do, and we need to encourage one another to repent of that sin.
[27:26] We need to do that. But Paul here reminds us, the Corinthians, the privileges that they have in Christ. They were enriched.
[27:40] They were, they have been established on a sure foundation. And equipped.
[27:56] They had everything they needed to live a godly life. And so do you and I. We have everything we need to live a godly life because we have God's word.
[28:11] We have God's word to encourage us. If maybe if people around us don't, God's word always will. And when we look at verses 7 and 8, it says that you may come that you so that you come short of no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end that you may be what?
[28:37] Blameless. Not sinless. Blameless the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus comes back, we will be blameless. God's will is that he will come back.
[28:57] And God will sustain us. And when we go through this letter, it's evident that he will count us blameless.
[29:17] So when Paul, along with his fellow workers, Apollos, Priscilla, and Aquila, had taught them a solid faith based doctrine of Jesus Christ, that's what this tells us.
[29:31] He reminds us that we're saints. And that faith based is solid base on the Lord Jesus Christ. It also tells us that Paul hadn't lost faith in God.
[29:49] He started this church in Corinth and he will finish it. It would have been maybe easy for him to lose faith. When he was preaching to the Jews and they wouldn't listen to him.
[30:08] What did he do? Did he throw up his hands and said, I'm done? He says, the blood is on you. I will go to the Gentiles. I will keep preaching. You know, sometimes it's easy for us, maybe even as a leadership.
[30:24] I've been a pastor for a number of years now and when we focus on the things that aren't going so well, it's easy to throw up our hands or would be to say, what's the use?
[30:42] Paul sets an example here. He says, I will do what I can. I will preach the gospel. If you won't listen, I will go somewhere else. Somebody needs to, somebody will listen.
[30:57] And the same goes for you as the congregation. If we always focus on the negative, that around us we probably maybe wouldn't come to church anymore because if we look for negatives, we find them.
[31:16] I don't think this is a perfect church. I don't think our church is a perfect church. I don't think there's any church that is perfect except when we get to heaven. Every church has their difficulties because we're fighting an enemy and divisions will come.
[31:36] But how do we handle them? We don't get discouraged and throw up our hands and say, I am done. Paul would have had ample opportunity to do that.
[31:51] when we listen and when we read his story, there's many times that he was left for dead because of preaching the gospel.
[32:07] By the time he could muster up enough strength to get up and going, what did he do? Go home and said, I'm done? No, he went to the next city. The gospel needs to get out there.
[32:21] There's people lost and going to hell without Jesus if they don't accept him. That was his motivation.
[32:34] And that's what our motivation should be. We don't give up. We keep going. Yes, there will be opposition.
[32:46] Did Jesus have opposition? He nailed him to the cross. We will have opposition.
[33:02] There is no perfect church. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
[33:12] No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
[33:25] No. No. No. No.
[33:37] You and I as believers are called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
[33:53] He is faithful. And starting in verse 10, he talks about, I plead with you. He goes into some of the things that they need correction on.
[34:07] He says, I plead with you, brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you may be perfectly joined together in the same mind, having the same judgment.
[34:25] He talks about that there be no divisions. Obviously, there were. But he's pleading with them that they be together of the same mind.
[34:35] Join together. And he goes on.
[34:48] In verse 11, it says, So he's heard that there are some issues in the church.
[35:02] And he's addressing these issues. And it starts out by saying, in verse 12, I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Clefas, or I am of Christ.
[35:24] See, that's who we are as people, aren't we? We want to belong to a person. Well, I'm from Pastor Ken's church, or I'm from Pastor Wayne.
[35:38] Like, we want to be identified with a person. You know, Paul was, Paul founded the church. For sure, I want to be with him.
[35:50] Apollos, well, he was a good speaker. He could persuade people. I want to be in his camp. Then I'll be okay. No, I want to be with Clefas.
[36:03] Another word for Peter. Remember Peter? He was the rock. I want to be with him. What did Paul say?
[36:17] Is Christ divided? What are we talking about here? Why do we want to be with these people?
[36:28] Why do we want to build our life on a person? Is Christ divided? Was I, Paul, crucified for you?
[36:39] Why do you want to put all your trust in me? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
[36:54] This is a hard rebuke. See, these were the contentions that there were in that church. They were jockeying for position.
[37:05] They want to be with these people. Then in verse 14, he makes a statement.
[37:18] Very interesting. He says, I thank God that I baptized none of you except Kripus and Gatius. He's thanking God that he only baptized these two people.
[37:32] They were not of that thinking. But that's how we are as humans. We sometimes need to refocus.
[37:44] Why are we, why do we come to church? Do we come to church to listen to me or Pastor Wayne or some of the other pastors?
[37:55] Or do we come to church to worship God? What's our motive? What's our motivation? You know, we can listen to a lot of motivated speakers online.
[38:13] And we want to listen to that person because that sounds good. But then we have to pull back and we have to say, why?
[38:26] Why? What's our motivation? And here, Paul reminds them, is Christ divided? And in verse 15, it says, or 14 and 15, I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gatius, lest anyone should say that I baptized in my own name.
[39:00] And in verse 16, he says, yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. Baptism wasn't about Paul.
[39:18] And it seemed like this church had made it about a person. He said, it's not about me. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ.
[39:32] And he says, yes, baptism is important. In verse 17, it says, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
[39:46] The gospel comes first. Baptism will not get you to heaven. Baptism is important. Baptism is important. Baptism is important. Baptism is important. As soon as we're, have the understanding of being born again, yes, we should go through with water baptism.
[40:03] But Paul makes it clear here that, and he says, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And this church had things mixed up, and he had to set them straight.
[40:25] Not with words, not with wisdom of words, he says, lest the cross of Christ should be made to no effect. You see, it all comes back to the cross. And that's where Paul rests on.
[40:38] He had to set these people straight. So as, as believers, as saints here this morning, I want to remind us that we, that we don't focus on people.
[40:59] we focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. We will, we will mess up. We will sin. We are sinners saved by grace.
[41:11] We will sin. Paul encourages the Corinthians here to, to be of the same mind. That's what he says in verse, verse 10.
[41:24] I plead with you, brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you will speak the same thing, that there will be no divisions among you, that there will be, be perfectly joined together in the same mind and of the same judgment.
[41:44] To be of the same mind, we have to be of the same spirit. spirit. And if we call ourselves believers, we are, we have the same spirit.
[41:59] Yes, we can have different opinions. And I think that makes us church stronger. But we need to have grace for each other. We need to have love and care for each other, that when we have divisions, that we can, that we can figure it out, that we can be of the same mind, that we focus on the Lord Jesus Christ.
[42:25] We're called to be saints. And if you and I are born again, we are saints. So I want to encourage us with that this morning, to keep going, keep serving the Lord, keep having children.
[42:43] It's a beautiful thing to have children that we can, that strengthens the church. So, just great to be here this morning, and I just want to close in prayer before, before we leave here.
[42:57] Lord God, we thank you. We thank you for this time together. We thank you for your word. And Lord, how Paul planted the church in Corinth, and how the city was full of immorality, full of religion.
[43:12] And in the midst of that, he shared the gospel. And people got to know you. And they serve you. But even in that, they need to be reminded to be, to be refocused, to be rebuked.
[43:29] And sometimes we need that. And Lord, I just pray for each one here this morning, if we need a, a rebuke of some sort, God, that maybe this message can, can help us, get us back in line.
[43:44] To focus not on each other, not on the faults that we have, but look at you as perfection. To look at you as our measuring stick, not, not our neighbor or, our friend.
[43:59] We're called to be like-minded. We're called to be saints. And so Lord, as we, as we go from here, may that be a reminder to us. That we can honor and glorify you, through our lives, and the gifts you've given us.
[44:14] We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.