THE SPIRIT'S WORK

I Cor. 2:10-12 But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God's deep secrets. No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world's spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.  NLT

       Do not underestimate the work of the Spirit in you and your need for Him to control you. You will never grow in Christ on your own. You need to give the Spirit permission to grow you. He actively works to teach us new things about Christ and our walk with Him. He does not give us more information than we can handle, but gently leads us into a more godly life than we now live. If you don't see any evidence of His work in you, then you need to head back to the cross and get right with the Lord.

       Don't try to figure God out. He will tell you what you need to know, when you need to know it. He knows the things you don't need to know as well and will withhold those things from you.

       The Spirit knows how to read your mind, no one else does. Be careful what you assume to be true about others, only the Spirit knows for sure. Let Him deal with whatever needs to be dealt with. If something is wrong in another person's life, it's none of your business. You don't have the right or knowledge to judge and insist on change. You can speak the truth in love and then go into your prayer closet and pray. The rest is up to the Spirit of Christ.

      The Spirit opens up our minds and hearts so that we can understand and embrace the wonderful things that are ours in Christ. There is far more available to us than we can ever imagine or grasp. However, the more we press on and strive to live in Christ, the more we will understand and grow in Him.

THE MESSAGE THAT MATTERS

THE MESSAGE THAT MATTERS

I Cor. 2:1-2  Dear brothers and sisters, when I first came to you I didn’t use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God’s message.  For I decided to concentrate on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. NLT

       It does very little good to spend our time on things that only prick our thinking.  There are so many things that we think and talk about that really don’t matter much.  I don’t want to suggest that we should not strive to learn more, but we can’t let our learning take us away from the thing that really matters in life, our relationship with Christ.

       There is no greater subject matter in all of the world than Jesus and what He did for us on the cross.  If we fail to understand the importance of Christ’s death and resurrection, we jeopardize our eternal souls.  Eternal life hinges on the cross.  Where we will spend eternity depends on whether or not we embrace Christ as our Savior and Lord.  God’s judgment is based solely on the righteousness of Christ in us. 

      We discuss a lot of things in life, things that intrigue us and have importance to us.  But, talking about our salvation should be at the top of our list of things to talk about.  Sadly, for most of us, it isn’t.  We take for granted our salvation.  We hoard our experience and fail to share it with others.  We fail to keep it at the forefront of the things we value in life.  We allow other things in life to crowd Christ out of His rightful place as Lord over our lives. 

      Our salvation should be the most important part of our living.  We should focus on it and talk about it much.   The message of salvation is not complicated.  It can be told in very simple words so that anyone can understand.  If our salvation is of first importance in our lives, we will share it freely with others.  It is the greatest love gift that we can ever give to others.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

I Cor. 2:1-5 Dear brothers and sisters, when I first came to you I didn't use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you about God's message. For I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. I came to you in weakness---timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. I did not use wise and persuasive speeches, but the Holy Spirit was powerful among you. I did this so that you might trust the power of God rather than human wisdom.  NLT

      These verses have long shaped my ministry and life. It never has been about me, the church, or my accomplishments in life. It is all about Jesus. He is the heart of life. If we don't talk about Jesus and His mysterious and glorious work of salvation, we have nothing to say. People don't need to hear my opinions about anything, they need to hear about Jesus. If we are going to wow others about anything, let it be with Jesus.

       Impressive words and degrees don't mean a thing. We must give people a simple message, Jesus saves! Jesus saves! We have a tendency to let our accomplishments in life get in the way of our message. We like the attention and respect we get when we accomplish good things. We don't often put aside ourselves in order to preach the Gospel without pretense. I wonder how many have been denied the Gospel because of our ego trips. I shudder to think how many we have been a stumbling block to because we have lost our focus on Jesus.

     The only message we have to offer a hurt and dying world is Jesus. We must abide by the kiss principle at all times: Keep It Simple Stupid. If we do, Jesus will be lifted up and not us.  The world needs to be impressed by Jesus, not us.  Stay out of the way of the Holy Spirit’s work in a person’s soul.  Proclaim Jesus and His redemptive work at Calvary and let God do the rest.

SALVATION: GOD'S WORK

I Cor. 1:30 God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Christ to be wisdom itself. He is the one who made us acceptable to God. He made us pure and holy, and he gave himself to purchase our freedom.  NLT

      It begins and ends with God. God makes it possible for us to be saved, and it is God who completes the process of our salvation. God prepared the way for us to be saved. No matter how long it takes, God is at work leading people to Him. For some people, it may take a lifetime of work, for others they are saved at an early age. Some people have to go through great tragedies of life, others don't. God alone knows what each person needs to happen in their life before they will repent. Some people don't get it and it takes many opportunities before they finally get it. Some never do listen, but if they don't, it's not God's fault. He made it possible for them to be saved, but they rejected it.

     Jesus is our wisdom source. He makes life with God reasonable for us. Without Jesus, we would not understand God as a relational presence in our lives. Jesus helps us to understand that we can connect to God in a personal way. God is not an alien reality to us; He is very real. He does not exist apart from us, He lives in us. Jesus helps us to understand the life of God as something to be grasped and not as something far removed from us.

      Jesus gives us understanding on not only our need to change, but how it can happen. He shows us the way to purity and holiness of life. He helps us so that our whole nature changes and we no longer are the people we once were. He helps us to understand the freedom of forgiveness. He shows us how to live in that freedom. And, He never gives up on us or stops working in us, until He takes us home to heaven.

       We simply cannot make it to heaven on our own; we need Jesus.  He can do what we cannot do.  He alone can make us acceptable and pleasing to God.

THE POWER OF GOD

I Cor. 1:18 I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God.  NLT

       For those who are living in the darkness, there is a veil over the cross that prevents them from seeing that Jesus died for them. There are many different reasons why the world rejects and often hates the Gospel message. The bottom line is as Jesus put it, they don't want to come out of the darkness into the light because they know how they live is wrong and they don't want to admit it or have anyone know it's wrong.

      Think about it, if Satan can squelch the truth or distort it so that sin is not recognized as sin any longer, people will not sense their need for a Savior. The world is in denial. They foolishly say there is no absolute truth. They say that truth is arguable and situational, that there is room for many different truths. They say that the Gospel has lost its relevance, that we have outgrown our need for it. They consider the Gospel message to be only for the weak and those who believe it to be fools.

       Yet, for those of us who do believe, the Gospel makes perfect sense. We know its power to save, change us, and give life meaning for us. We know the peace and joy that the world desperately needs and wants. We know the things that matter in life are not made by human hands or conceived in human minds. We know the wondrous mystery that it is true, because we live it and it works. We know the Truth and He sets us free from the darkness of the world that binds and blinds those who consider us to be fools.

      The message of the cross is this, God enters into and stays in the heart of all those who by faith believe the Gospel and live it. Only a fool will not believe or accept Jesus as Savior and then Lord of life.  And, only a fool would believe the Gospel is true and then not live it.

DO NOT ARGUE

I Cor. 1:10 Now, dear brothers and sisters, I appeal to you by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so there won't be divisions in the church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.  NLT

       Some things seem to never change. Apparently there was arguing going on in the Church right from the start. It was bad enough that it was brought to Paul's attention. As long as people make up the Church there will be lively "discussions." Sometimes issues will be resolved for the common good and sometimes for the sake of the common good people will part ways to either connect with another church body or to start one themselves.

      However, it is not God's desire for his body to be divided. God does not want, or need, a church on every street corner. He does not want His body to compete with each other for places of prominence in town. He does not want any part of His body to lord it over others. He doesn't want any part of His body to get an attitude about who they are or what they do in the Kingdom of Christ.

       We are not going to do away with the wide variety of churches that make up the body of Christ. We are not all going to see things the same way, worship the same way, or serve the same way. But, we don't have to let our differences separate us. We can learn to live in harmony with each other. In fact, for the good of the body, I would suggest that we MUST learn to live in harmony.

       A fragmented church is not an effective church. We will never impact our communities and world as long as we have different agendas. We will never make much of a dent in Satan's territory as long as we have different mindsets and purposes. United we stand strong and true; divided we crumble and fall.

YOU ARE GIFTED

I Cor. 1:4  I can never stop thanking God for all the generous gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus.  NLT

      Did you catch what Paul said here?  He said he couldn’t stop thanking the Lord for all that He had given to the church at Corinth.  Think about it for a moment.  Think about all the various gifts that are found in your church family.  Every believer has been given gifts to use in the Church.  Everyone does what they can do for the common good of the body.  As you identify the various gifts, including your own, take a moment and thank the Lord for them. 

       Every gift given in the Church is a vital, important gift for the functioning of the Church.  Every gift helps to provide an environment where growth can take place in Christ.  Every gift is to be used for the good of the body that Christ may be honored and glorified in their midst.

      When gifts that are given by the Lord for the Church are not used, the body suffers.  When gifts are used for selfish purposes and not for Christ, the body suffers.  When gifts are not nurtured and developed for service, the Church suffers. 

The Lord gives generously to the Church all that she needs for her to be complete and useful in Christ.  No believer in Christ lacks gifts and they should be used to edify others and bring glory to Christ.  The Lord does not shortchange His Church, but we do when we fail to do what we can do in her. 

     Satan wants you to believe that there is nothing you can do or that you can’t do anything well enough to make a difference in the Church.  He is a liar.  The Church needs you to do what you can do for her.  The blending of the various gifts within her together makes a church strong and an effective witness in the world.  God holds each of us responsible for doing what He has enabled us to do through and for Christ.