Christ Methodist Church Memphis
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Christ Methodist Church Memphis
Wisdom and Christian Liberty (Part C) | Rev. Paul
Discover the Apostle Paul’s call to embrace true Christian liberty by laying down personal rights, avoiding idolatry, and seeking God’s glory in all things. Learn how 1 Corinthians 10 challenges us to imitate Christ and love our neighbors for the sake of the gospel.
[0:17] If you would, turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and hang with me while we read the whole chapter.
[0:31] 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 ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
[1:02] 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.
[1:43] It is written, 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 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. Therefore, my beloved, Flee from idolatry I speak as to sensible people Judge for yourselves what I say The cup of blessing that we bless Is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break Is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread We who are many are one body For we all partake of the one bread Consider the people of Israel Are not those who eat the sacrifice as participants in the altar. What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons, and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the lord to jealousy are we stronger than he.
[3:07] 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 is sold in the meat market without raising any questions 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 questions on the ground of conscience. But if someone 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 word of God for the people of God.
[4:21] Amen and amen. I greet you this morning in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. My name is Paul Lawler. I have the honor of serving as a senior pastor of Christ Methodist Church. We welcome you today. Whether you are a member, regular attender, or this is your first time with the Christ Church family, we are thankful that you are here. Now, this being Labor Day weekend, I'm conscious of the fact that when we work, we work. But when we pray, God works. So let's take just a moment to pray before we dive into this passage. So, Lord, we ask that you would bring a spirit of revelation as your word is taught.
[5:10] Glorify your name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
[5:14] Now, I think most of you know we're in a series on the book of 1 Corinthians, and we're in part 18 as we delve into the 10th chapter. Many of you are aware that chapter 8, 9, and 10 are linked together. We validated that two weeks ago as well as last week. We're aware that the Corinthian church is puffed up, prideful with their knowledge, and they're operating out of that pridefulness with, shall we say, a stubbornness around their knowledge that has perpetuated an insensitivity to believers that are being developed. And in this context, where Paul takes us even unbelievers, and unto their development, we're aware that.
[6:02] Many of them have been eating meat sacrificed to idols and feeling that they had a right to do so, and this has been very insensitive to younger believers. And again, that doesn't mean chronological. That is a reference to persons who are newer in the faith because they are perceiving this as acts of worship of idols. And this is a stumbling block for young believers, violating their conscience. And so Paul has been reasoning with the Corinthians that there are times when a follower of Jesus sets aside his or her own rights for the sake of loving people well, for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for the sake of others being able to develop in Jesus Christ without encountering stumbling blocks within the church. And so what we encounter in the 10th chapter is what we would call the third wave of Paul reasoning with the Corinthians. Now, here's the deal. He does reason with them. And I want to validate before we get into the depth here that what Paul shares, I don't know if you noticed this as Amber was reading, here it is. It gets heavy.
[7:20] It's weighty. And I hope you picked up on that. We're about to delve into it. He appeals to them to consider how God has acted in the past, in light of their consideration of how God may choose to act in the future if they do not repent. So look with me at verses 1 and 2. He says, For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea. This is a reference to God's deliverance of his people from the Egyptians, parting the Red Sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and they all ate the same spiritual food, drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. Now note this, church, it's very important. And that rock was who? Christ.
[8:20] He's referencing to the preexistent Christ, that Jesus is an eternal being, and he was speaking and even judging in the wilderness.
[8:32] Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. And so he's obvious what he's doing is figuratively, he's saying that in the old covenant, the people of God were baptized unto Moses. Moses was the deliverer. God used Moses to deliver them from the bondage of the Egyptians, and he also was the mediator of the old covenant. And so similarly, Christians now are baptized into Christ, not into Moses, but into Christ, who delivers them not from the bondage of Egypt, but delivers them now from sin and now mediates not the old covenant, but a new covenant. And as he's picking up on this parallel, says they were all made to drink the same spiritual drink, meaning that God provided for them spiritually, physically, in every way. And Paul specifies that Israel's rock was the preexistent Christ who was with them in the wilderness to provide food and water, but also, and here's what he's saying, to punish them when they engaged in idolatry.
[9:52] In other words, he had to judge them. Remember, as A.W. Tozer says, there's a point where God has to judge. It's not rooted in capriciousness or a mood. It's measured in the love of God, where God, out of love for his creation, out of love for his people, knows that unless he intervenes, that people will be given over to that which will bring great harm to them and diminish the glory of God, whereby there is no hope.
[10:26] And so God must act. And that's what happened in the Old Testament. And Paul is pleading with the Corinthians to understand that God's nature has not changed. Verse 9, we must not put Christ to the test. And he's saying this out of the fact that God eventually judged the people in the Old Testament, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents. You may remember, if you studied your Bible, the unleashing of snakes as a symptom of God's judgment. We're not going to preach on that today. It's a great text. But then he goes on to say, as he's explaining in verses 7 through 10, do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat, drink, rose up to play. This is a reference to what happened in the Old Testament. Moses is on the mountain. The people of God are at the bottom of the mountain. Moses is receiving a revelation of God, and the people of God are playing. They're making an idol. They're engaging in sexual immorality. And so this is why he says we must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did. And 23,000 fell in a single day. This was God's judgment in the Old Testament. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble.
[11:53] Because you may remember in the Old Testament, they were grumbling against God. And now we get to Corinth, and the people of God are grumbling because Paul is not as impressive as some of the orators of Greek culture. And they're grumbling. Give us a better presenter. And so, nor grumble as some of them did, and they were destroyed by the destroyer. Loved ones, this is very sobering. This is very heavy. As I validated a moment ago, Paul is warning the Corinthian church not to repeat, not to replay Israel's idolatry, where Christ had to judge, and he destroyed the Israelites'.
[12:39] Physically. And Paul is warning the Corinthians that Christ will destroy them spiritually. Idolatry and similar sins destroyed Israel. And Paul warns the Corinthians, loved ones, keep going for the kingdom, lest idolatry and other sins disqualify you too. And so as he's speaking into them, he's also, look, Paul has a pastor's heart. And so as he's sharing these heavy things, he's also compelled to blend it with encouragement. And so he says in verse 10 through 12 to encourage them, to edify them as they
[13:21] wrestle with the depth of what's going on among them. He says, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, these things happened to them as an example. In other words, God wants you to pay attention to what happened in the past, but they were written down for our instruction. God, out of his love, wants us to understand these things, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed, lest he fall. So the Corinthians, Paul's appealing to them to learn from the past. Learn from the way the preexistent Christ interacted and even judged the Israelites.
[14:06] And I know that it's so clear to all of us that the Corinthians needed to learn, and so do we. And then Paul moves into this word of encouragement, verse 13. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to all people. common to man. God is faithful. Let's make much of that. 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. And so he's encouraging the Corinthians and God in his sovereignty is encouraging you that he's for you, not against you. No temptation has overtaken you that's not common to everybody. Even Jesus faced temptations. And the Bible tells us in Hebrews about Jesus, we do not have a Jesus. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who is in every respect has been tempted just as we are, yet without sin. So here's the deal. Here's the thing that should encourage your heart. If nobody around you can relate to you or sympathize with you, can I say, based on the authority of Scripture, Jesus can.
[15:35] Jesus does. That's not your pastor's opinion. That's the word of God. God is faithful. Let's make much of that. He is faithful. He has promised to be a very present help in time of trouble. Word of God for the people of God. He has promised to forgive sin and remove it as far as the east is from the West, from your life. Word of God for the people of God. He has promised to be near to the brokenhearted. The word of God for the people of God. And he has promised to hear our cries for help. Word of God for the people of God. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with temptation, he will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. And the Apostle Paul wants the Corinthians to be encouraged by this reality, and God in his sovereignty wants you, believer, to be encouraged by this reality as well.
[16:37] But as Paul is instructing the church to flee from patterns of idolatry in the lives of the life of the church, He also navigates into a parallel where suddenly he brings up the pattern of the Lord's Supper right around verse 32, right in that little gap there. If you have your Bible open, feel free to look there.
[17:05] And the appeal that he begins to make is that be mindful, church, when you partake of the Lord's Supper, and you're partaking of the bread, which represents the body of Jesus, and the wine, which represents the blood of Jesus, be mindful. This is a worshipful act. And that as you partake of this meal, it is a reflection of your honor of Jesus Christ and what he's done in shedding blood to forgive your own sin. And he makes the parallel that if, Corinthians. You choose to eat meat sacrificed to idols. Do you not recognize if you're eating at the temple restaurants or eating meat sacrificed to idols, do you not recognize how that appears? You're participating in taking nourishment in the same way that you come to the Lord's Supper out of a representation unto a pagan God. In fact, Jesus, excuse me, Paul even uses stronger words than this. Look with me at verse 21 and 22. He says, you cannot drink the.
[18:18] And the cup of demons. Now, I want you to note something. You may or may not have overlooked this. In chapter 8, Paul is referencing idols. There's no power behind that, but Paul is good at reasoning, and he's built his case where he is helping the church understand that, yes, Idols are just hunks of wood or stone, but what people are ultimately worshiping is that force which is behind it all, which is demonic.
[18:52] And so he says, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? And this is why, when you get toward the end of the chapter, this is why Paul is tethering the behavior of the Corinthians with, listen, you live, believer, for your life to glorify God. And participating in these acts that parallel the honoring of idols does not glorify God. This is why he writes in the 31st verse, whether you eat or drink, this is the context, whether you eat or drink, do or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. In other words, believers are never to be a part of anything associated with the worship of idols or eating meat sacrificed to idols so that it would be misunderstood. Paul says it's not just a matter of just eating food. No, it's your participation and idolatry. And if you participate in idolatry, that is not unto the glory of God. So whether we eat or drink, we're instructed as believers to bring glory to God.
[20:17] Now, church, this is so important that we put this in the mission statement of Christ's Methodist Church. That as believers, because we saw this when the church leadership studied or a team that was tasked with studying the passages and principles, primary themes of Scripture, witnessed how from Genesis to Revelation that the glory of God was preeminent. So many times you could pick so many scriptures.
[20:52] And so we come to the formation of our mission statement, and it begins, we exist to glorify God and to make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.
[21:04] And what Paul is saying to us even now, the apostle, you cannot glorify God if you're not loving and seeking the good of your neighbor. Because that's the fail happening at the Corinthian church. You had people demanding their rights, but not seeking the good, willingness to give up certain rights, to seek the good and love their neighbor, their near one, even in the church deeply. You cannot glorify God and be indifferent to the things of God. So in verse 32 and 33, he begins talking a little bit more about seeking the good of our near one, our neighbor. And so he says, give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God. And what he's doing there is saying that, listen, there are unbelieving Jews and unbelieving Greeks. In other words, persons that are not of the Jewish background. And he says, don't give them unnecessary offense. And then he goes on to say to, when you have believers among you, be sensitive and don't do things to offend them either. Now, I want this little personal word here.
[22:26] If I ever do something that offends you personally, I would appreciate it if you'd let me know. Because if I ever do something that offends you, it would be my heart to look you in the eye and say, I am sorry. Please forgive me if I do something. Now, if the gospel offends you, there's nothing I can do about that. I love you, but there are parts of this gospel that stretch us and pierce our hearts at times. And so Paul's instructing them, don't unnecessarily offend one another. And the reason he tethers it of why this is so important, verse 33, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage. In other words, I'm willing to give up my rights, but that of many. And notice why, verse 33, I don't think this is on the screen. He says, that they may be saved.
[23:30] The gospel is at stake. Seeking the glory of God is the ultimate end. You can't glorify God without loving people, without caring about people. In other words, seeking our near one's advantage. The word neighbor literally means near one. Our neighbor's advantage, that they may be saved, is the primary motive. That they may be edified, that they may be strengthened in Christ. So primary motive, let me give you a hypothetical. Let's say your neighbor's an unbeliever. Let's say you've been praying for them for many years. And as you've prayed that God would give a revelation of his love through Jesus for your neighbor, there have been these occasions where you've salt and peppered a little bit of the gospel in conversation. And let's say you've invited your neighbor to church at Easter, and you've been trying to build a bridge. Just to build a bridge with your neighbor. Now, one day you look out in your yard and maybe your lawn service, or maybe it's you, you've done a beautiful job in manicuring your property. And it just looks marvelous. There's not, in this winter's day, there's not a leaf to be found anywhere. And you look up and your neighbor has raked all his leaves into a big pile and the wind is blowing.
[24:55] And suddenly a lot of his leaves are blowing into your yard. Now, I'm not saying, what I'm about to say, I'm not saying is prescriptive, but you're praying for your neighbor. You're building a bridge with your neighbor. Are you going to storm out your front door and go.
[25:13] Your leaves are blowing into my yard, man. You just bow up about your rights. Is that going, let me ask you just a logical question. Is that going to build a bridge with your neighbor? Or do you make the choice in the moment, I'm going to give up my rights and I'm just, I don't want to burn the bridge with my neighbor. It's just leaves. And maybe he'll come over and get the ones that came in my yard. But do you get the picture? There's a point. They're points in your life for the sake of the gospel. You do everything to keep the bridge warm with those around you, where you give up your rights because you care more for people than you're on wants or needs. This is why Paul says something similar in verses 23 through 24. All things are lawful. You can go to your neighbor, demand your rights, get the leaves out of my yard, but all things are not helpful. 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. So seek the good of your neighbor by being careful.
[26:23] Not, or shall we say not, by not creating unnecessary offense that would put barriers between you and your neighbor for the sake of the gospel, so that we have the ability by virtue of cultivating relationship, which involves giving up our rights at times to build them up in the gospel or so that they may be reached for Jesus Christ.
[26:46] Now, again, if you have your Bible open, you may have noticed if you've been reading that when you get to chapter 11, verse 1, in a lot of your Bibles, not all of them, it's separated from the bulk of chapter 10. Now, why is that? Excuse me, the bulk of chapter 11. And it's kind of separated into the context of what Paul has been writing in chapter 10. And it's because scholars all recognize that when Paul wrote these letters, they weren't broken down into chapters. That was added later, as you well know. But verse 1 probably belongs better in chapter 10, where Paul says, imitate the example of Christ in me. In fact, he says it, be imitators of me as I am in Christ.
[27:42] Now, that's not something we go around saying very often. That's a little bold, right? You know, you look at your friend and say, hey, just imitate me.
[27:53] But be mindful that what Paul is doing is he's not saying, imitate me directly.
[28:01] Paul's saying, imitate me as I imitate Jesus. And he has a couple of reasons for saying this. First reason is that Paul wants the Corinthians to know that he's practicing what he's preaching, that he's living into this. These, what he's sharing with the church about giving up her rights are not theoretical concepts. These are things that he's living. He demonstrated that in the ninth chapter by not being paid. And so he says, I'm willing to give up my rights for the sake of building bridges with you, unbelievers, young believers, and more. Paul says, look at my life. That's basically, I'm doing this. I'm living into this. Imitate me as I imitate Jesus. But the second issue is that he's not telling the Corinthians to imitate him in every respect. Paul knows that the Corinthians only need to imitate him to the extent that he's imitating Jesus Christ because he knows and everyone knows that ultimately we are all seeking to live a life of the imitation of Jesus. And so he doesn't want the Corinthians to look to him as a final example, but to look at Jesus. And so he wants you to look at, Paul says, I want you to look at my example as I imitate Jesus, but ultimately look at Jesus himself.
[29:26] And this is why they're all through scripture. You see things like Ephesians 5, 1 and 2.
[29:34] Be imitators of God.
[29:38] As beloved children, walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. This is a major theme of Scripture. Philippians 2.5, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. That's why St. Jerome once said, ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. And sometimes, and I'm not saying this is true here at Christ Church, I'm just talking about other churches right now, but sometimes I get in conversation with people in the church, and I'm like, I'm not sure you're articulating a Jesus who is Lord of the universe and Lord of your life. That sounds more like Jesus is your mascot or Jesus is your homeboy.
[30:34] That doesn't sound like you're articulating the Son of God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the one in whom we will stand before and give an account of our life. And I'm often reminded of this through many examples. Let me give you one that happened a few years ago. When God called us here from Birmingham, I had more than one person in the church approach me and say, I don't think Jesus would call you away from your family, your children. I don't think that's Jesus.
[31:10] And I thought, Jesus said, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and it dies, it cannot have life. Jesus said, Matthew 19, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my namesake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. And the question is, what Jesus are you talking about? I love the line in the hymn, turn your eyes upon Jesus.
[31:46] Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. And those words are true because they're based on scripture, but you have to be careful that you're not turning to the Jesus of your imagination. There's no peace in that Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus as he is revealed in the Bible. Not so that you know facts about Jesus, but so that you know Jesus. And so chapter 8 through 10 instructs us to give up certain rights out of love for others so that they grow in faith and so that unbelievers are reached and we build good bridges with them. As I close today, I'm going to share something that's deeply personal. I want you to know that there was a temptation to ask the tech team about.
[32:55] To turn off the video, but then again, I thought, I know that there are people watching from around the country, a few around the world, and I didn't want to cheat them, but I just want you to know this is deeply personal. As all of you know, Missy and I have four children, and one of them well my two oldest sons and I'm also trying not to sound like a proud father here but it just is what it is my two older sons were really good athletes, and my middle son when he was on a t-ball team when he was five.
[33:41] Was pretty extraordinary and I'll remember I clearly a ball being hit down the third baseline, and this five-year-old backhanding this hot ball, and turning and throwing a BB to first base, and the crowd just going, silence. You don't see that in t-ball very often. And I knew that God had given him a lot of gifts. And so I began in those years saying, God, just give me, give us wisdom to steward this. And so the day came where travel teams started, and I had to make the decision, am I going to let him play travel ball that takes him a lot of different places around the Southeast? And I'm tied down on weekends. I'm a pastor, and it was a very difficult—I wrestled with this at a deep level.
[34:41] And so where I landed was that, Lord, I'm going to let him play, and I'm going to be on mission. And with all these families through the years that we interact with on the bench during practices, I'm going to give myself to being as salty and full of light, Missy and I both, as possible. And through those years, I didn't share the gospel in the stands. Don't get me wrong. I didn't stand up and preach at home plate, relax. But I sought to be as salty as possible. I wrote notes to encourage people when they opened up. I wrote notes to coaches when they demonstrated character, when there was controversy on the ball field. I did everything I knew to be as salty as possible. And here's God honor it. There were many people, Missy will tell you, many people that through the years that ended up coming to church just through our relationship and came to Christ. We baptized many of them, many of them first generation believers. I also watched God's hand on my son As he stood strong as a Christ follower Through his high school years.
[35:52] So he hits college Here's a picture That's him at home plate Playing college baseball And when he's in college He looks across the dinner table One night and looks at me and says Dad, I'm an atheist.
[36:13] And I had watched this boy stand strong for Christ, all through high school his coach was a Christ follower he was a part of our church family and for Missy and I to hear that was crushing.
[36:36] I know you know I'm a pastor, and for a young man that my greatest hopes for him were not baseball. My greatest hopes for him was his relationship with Jesus. It's the greatest hope for all my children. My greatest hope for you.
[36:58] To hear these words was crushing. And so I began talking to him about it when the opportunity presented itself. And I would sit very cordially. We always maintained a good relationship. It never destroyed our relationship. But I would just sit and reason with him every opportunity I had. And it didn't go anywhere. In fact, he just was very polite, but he just said, I can't get there. And he would explain the reasons why.
[37:40] One morning, I'm walking down the steps in our home, and he's walking right in front of me, and I'm praying for him. And I don't hear audible words, but I hear words in my spirit. And it goes like this, from the Lord. I want you to stop talking to him just pray for him and I wrestled with that I was like God I don't want to give up my rights to talk to him that's my son, and I wrestled with that, but I made the decision I'm not going to talk to him I told Missy I'm not going to talk to him about this anymore I'm going to pray for him And for 15 years, I prayed for him, fasted once a week, crying out to God, God, save him, God, reach him, God, tear down the lies that he's embraced.
[38:46] Last Memorial Day weekend, when our family gets together, we have pretty deep discussions. If you're a guest with our family, you might think that's pretty dysfunctional. We get deep. We talk about everything. Some families, politics are off limits. We talk about everything. We have rules that the one rule is you can't raise your voice and you have to articulate your perspective with substance. And so I learned that from my mom. And so that's in our DNA. We get together. We talk deep. And so we're in one of our deep conversations, and one of my daughter-in-laws, because some spiritual matters came up, looked at my middle son and said, so where are you? I was like, oh, great. I was like, this is, no telling where this is going to go.
[39:34] And my son began to articulate this apologetics lesson and began to articulate how he has faith in Jesus Christ and his resurrection and began to express his faith in Jesus Christ. Now, I wanted to come out of my skin and dance, okay? But I thought, I don't want to disturb the moment. But I cannot tell you how deeply Missy and I rejoice that our son who was lost has come home to Christ. Why am I sharing this with you? Because there are a thousand ways that as we follow Jesus, we're invited to give up our rights. I had to give up mine. I hear the alarm. I know it's about 930. We're going to get there because it's inevitable. Time marches on. But I had to give up my rights.
[40:44] And in some way, as you're walking with Christ, there are places where 1 Corinthians 8, 9, and 10 intersect with your experience. May I remind you that the word discipleship really is about our growing in relationship with Christ. But discipleship, where you grow in Christ, it doesn't begin in places where you're already developed. It doesn't begin in places that you enjoy learning about. It begins in places where you've been stretched or you're being stretched where you haven't been stretched before. And that often involves giving up our rights. And is that not what Jesus did?
[41:29] Leaving the comfort, the security of heaven? he gave up his rights for you? Is that not what Jesus did when he was sped upon and could have called down 10,000 angels, and yet he gave up his rights so that he would go to a cross, and take the weight of your sin from you so that you would have the opportunity to turn to the love of God manifested through what Jesus Christ has done for you by bleeding, dying, being raised from the dead, and being seated at the right hand of the Father, advocating for you today, interceding for you, and making the gift of new life possible for you.
[42:22] In Jesus' name, amen. Would you pray with me for a moment?
[42:30] So, Father, we're always aware that your word hits us in different places. Scripture says it's sharp. It's like a two-edged sword penetrating joint and marrow. And so we recognize that there, in this subsection of 1 Corinthians, there are unique ways you're speaking to us. But, Lord, we pray magnify the unique ways.
[42:52] Magnify our understanding as we follow you of what are the things that we need to lay aside? What right do we need to give up for the sake of people being reached for the gospel of Jesus Christ? What mindset is being exalted above the knowledge of God in a way that it's hindering the manifestation of your heart in our life and through our life? And then, Lord, we do praise you because in Christ that our sin is taken from us as far as the east is from the west.
[43:27] And on this Labor Day weekend, we thank you that it is true that when we work, we work. But Lord, when we pray as we're doing right now, that you work. So work your will and good pleasure in all of us through the gift of your love through the cross. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.