Introduction:
Pastor Bob Huber
Are You Worth Imitating? 4 Areas to Evaluate (1 Corinthians 4:14–21)
-
Your LOVE for PEOPLE: Worth Imitating. (1 Cor 4:14)
2 Corinthians 12:15 – I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.
-
Your HEART for EVANGELISM: Worth Imitating. (1 Cor 4:15)
-
Your CONSISTENCY of FAITH: Worth Imitating. (1 Cor 4:17)
-
Your HANDLING of SINNERS: Worth Imitating. (1 Cor 4:14, 18–21)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
00:41-00:45
Open up those Bibles to 1 Corinthians 4.
00:48-00:49
What kind of a church is this?
00:51-00:55
We are a church that proclaims the authority of God's word without apology.
00:56-00:58
What kind of a church is this?
00:58-01:02
We are a church that lifts high the name of Jesus in worship.
01:04-01:05
What kind of a church is this?
01:06-01:10
This is a church that believes firmly in the power of prayer.
01:12-01:17
This is a church that shares the good news of Jesus with boldness.
01:19-01:33
So let's bow our heads and I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word, and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is that the Lord wants to teach us today.
01:34-01:36
Alright? Let's just take a moment and pray.
01:39-01:48
Father in heaven, as we turn to Your Word, we ask that You would speak to us through this.
01:51-01:54
Your Word even calls this the foolishness of preaching.
01:57-02:04
But somehow, Your Spirit is at work with Your Word when it is proclaimed, and we believe that.
02:05-02:11
And that's why we don't shrink away from anything that Your Word says, but we go after it.
02:11-02:18
Father, we want to know You, and You have revealed Your character through Your Word.
02:19-02:22
So Father, I pray for all of us today.
02:25-02:27
This would be a day of self-examination.
02:27-02:34
this would be a day where your spirit grabs us in a fresh way.
02:37-02:39
Thank you ahead of time for everything you're going to do.
02:41-02:42
We pray in Jesus' name.
02:43-02:47
And all of God's people said, "Amen." Amen.
02:48-02:57
We've had at Harvest Bible Chapel over the years, we've had some pretty spectacular guest speakers and other pastors come and preach.
02:57-03:00
And, but by far, this one's my favorite here.
03:01-03:02
This is a Pastor Bob Huber.
03:02-03:17
This is back when we were meeting in Marshall Middle School, actually, but Pastor Bob Huber was my pastor and he is in heaven now, or as he would have said, he graduated and he's having a good day.
03:20-03:23
You know, I moved to Chicago for a while to learn how to plan a church.
03:28-03:30
But it was this man who taught me how to be a pastor.
03:34-03:36
And I had the privilege of working with him for many years.
03:39-03:44
But probably the profoundest lesson I ever learned from him was in year one.
03:47-03:52
I was helping with a day camp up in Slippery Rock at Deep Valley Camp.
03:55-04:03
I'm gonna tell you this story, and I know some of you, it's gonna hit you, and some of you are gonna be like, "What in the world is he talking about?" But that's just the way these things go sometimes.
04:03-04:13
But we were at day camp, and this was year one of like, I just became a Christian, and just started serving Christ, and was learning.
04:14-04:17
And we were walking across the campus, free time for the kids.
04:17-04:18
They were just running around, kind of doing their thing.
04:19-04:20
Second graders, all right?
04:21-04:27
So Pastor Bob and I were walking by and there was this little boy just sitting and just playing in the dirt.
04:29-04:43
And as we walked by, Pastor Bob stopped and he said to the little boy, "Hey, get up, you're getting all dirty." So the little kid got up and kind of brushed himself off and just kind of stood there and Pastor Bob and I kept walking.
04:44-04:48
And all of a sudden, Pastor Bob stopped.
04:51-05:03
And he turned around and he went back to the little boy and he said, "Get back down in the dirt." There was so much I learned from that whole thing.
05:05-05:10
So much that I learned about ministry.
05:12-05:15
And I could spend hours just talking about the lessons I learned from that little thing.
05:16-05:17
Here's the big one.
05:19-05:20
Kids gotta be kids.
05:21-05:21
Right?
05:22-05:29
That's why at Harvest we say it all the time, we don't care if your kids are running around or making messes or making noise.
05:29-05:31
Like, kids are going to be kids.
05:33-05:42
But you know, in that incident at camp, and I saw that attitude from Pastor Bob, I said, you know, that's worth imitating.
05:44-05:46
That attitude towards kids, that's worth imitating.
05:48-05:58
And you know, we're going through 1 Corinthians here, and Paul has used many images to talk about his connection with them.
05:59-06:03
He talked about being a farmer, being a builder, being a servant, being a steward.
06:04-06:09
And in this passage we're looking at today, here's the image on the table.
06:11-06:11
A father.
06:15-06:19
In 1 Corinthians, Paul's addressing Christians who weren't acting like Christians.
06:20-06:23
That's been this whole stretch, the whole first four chapters.
06:24-06:25
There was division.
06:26-06:32
There were little teams being made and there was disdain for people that weren't on your team.
06:32-06:34
Like, "I follow Paul.
06:34-06:35
Oh, you're one of those apologized people?
06:37-06:39
Lame." And there was so much division in the church.
06:41-06:42
Christians who weren't acting like Christians.
06:43-06:46
And Paul was pretty direct with them.
06:47-06:49
I think we saw that especially last week.
06:50-06:53
He was pretty direct in the way that he addressed them.
06:53-07:00
And you know, if you're going to be that direct with someone you better have a good relationship with them.
07:04-07:09
Look at verse, where are we at?
07:09-07:09
14?
07:11-07:12
Yeah, let's pick up in verse 14.
07:12-07:23
Paul says, "I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
07:27-07:31
For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.
07:32-07:35
For I have become your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
07:37-07:54
I urge you then, be imitators of me." That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church.
07:57-08:09
Some are arrogant as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you soon if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of those arrogant people, but their power.
08:10-08:13
For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power.
08:14-08:15
What do you wish?
08:16-08:31
Shall I come to you with rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness?" In that chunk of text, did you pick up a dad tone in there?
08:36-08:50
This is why Paul was so stern with them, because he saw himself as their father, their spiritual dad.
08:52-09:02
And parenthood, whether it's having kids of your own or adopting kids or having spiritual children, listen, parenthood is about two things, really.
09:03-09:05
It's about love and it's about responsibility.
09:08-09:19
So this passage here is for everyone who is a spiritual parent.
09:23-09:27
Everyone who leads someone spiritually.
09:27-09:28
Everyone who is making disciples.
09:29-09:45
and whether you're a small group leader, or you're leading the youth group or Harvest Academy, you're teaching precepts, you're involved in our ministry team or serving as an elder, if you're one of our conference speakers, some of you are involved in addiction recovery ministry.
09:45-09:45
This is for you.
09:46-09:48
Some of you are leading Bible studies at work.
09:48-09:49
This is for you.
09:50-09:57
Some of you, your primary discipleship opportunity is the children in your home.
10:00-10:02
That's who this passage is for.
10:03-10:07
Those of you who are making disciples.
10:10-10:14
Look at verse 16 again, because this is the verse that really jumped out to me.
10:19-10:31
Paul says, "I urge you then, be imitators of me." That verse leads me to two questions.
10:32-10:39
And the first question is, have I been faithful to follow my spiritual parent?
10:39-10:41
I mean, I talked about Pastor Bob.
10:41-10:46
I'm not 1% of the pastor that he was, all right?
10:46-10:49
but am I being faithful to follow my spiritual Father?
10:49-10:50
How about you?
10:51-10:58
Are you being faithful to follow your spiritual parent?
11:00-11:06
That's a question that I wrestled with this past week, but not as much as another question.
11:09-11:11
Here's the second question.
11:11-11:12
This is the one that really hit me.
11:16-11:17
Am I worth imitating?
11:20-11:21
What about me?
11:21-11:26
Am I worth imitating?
11:32-11:32
What about you?
11:36-11:39
Do you consider yourself worth imitating?
11:39-11:40
Could you say what Paul said here?
11:41-11:42
Hey, hey, follow my example.
11:43-11:43
Could you say that?
11:48-12:03
If the people that you disciple, if the people that look up to you as their spiritual father, their spiritual parents, if the people that look up to you act like you, would they be effective for the kingdom of Jesus Christ?
12:04-12:10
If the people that looked up to you, imitated you, would they be honoring God and His Word?
12:10-12:16
Would you want people to imitate you?
12:18-12:29
Or would there just be too many areas of your life where you would just end up saying, "Yeah, don't do what I do"?
12:32-12:33
Are you worth imitating?
12:36-12:41
I want you to consider this sustained illustration through the rest of the message.
12:43-12:48
But I want you to imagine that I brought you a brand new Christian, okay?
12:49-12:53
Imagine that this young man came to Christ.
12:53-12:58
He just came to Christ yesterday, and we brought him to church, and he was baptized today.
12:59-13:15
And I brought him to you, and I said, "Okay, this young man is going to live with you for a month so that he can learn what it looks like to follow Jesus Christ." How would that go for the next month?
13:17-13:26
I mean, assuming that you weren't gonna put on a show, assuming that you were just going to be your authentic self for the month, okay?
13:26-13:27
We're assuming that.
13:29-13:29
How's that gonna go?
13:31-13:41
Would you find yourself over the course of the month with this brand new Christian, would you find yourself constantly saying, yeah, don't do that, right?
13:41-13:52
You use some salty non-sermony language, and then you turn to this young man looking at you, and you're like, yeah, don't talk like that.
13:54-14:03
Or you tell some perverted anatomy joke, and you're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, and you turn to Him and you think, you know what, you shouldn't tell jokes like that.
14:04-14:05
You shouldn't talk like that.
14:05-14:06
You shouldn't think like that.
14:10-14:15
This new Christian that's following you around for the month sees you losing your temper.
14:15-14:21
You're kicking the lamp, you're kicking the dog, and then you turn to Him and you say, yeah, don't do that.
14:21-14:22
You shouldn't lose your temper like that.
14:25-14:26
You're neglecting time in God's Word.
14:26-14:28
You're neglecting time in prayer.
14:28-14:29
And you're like, "Yeah, you know what?
14:30-14:36
"I'm really busy and don't have the time "to spend in God's Word and in prayer, "but you shouldn't be like me.
14:36-14:43
"You really should make time for that." Would it be a rough month for you?
14:48-15:03
Or, after that month, this new Christian comes back to me and says, You know, I am really growing with the Lord following that person's example.
15:04-15:11
This past month has been huge for me watching how the life of Christ is manifest in a person's life throughout the week.
15:11-15:11
Is that what they'd say?
15:15-15:16
So this is the sermon.
15:19-15:21
And we all have to take a hard look at ourselves.
15:24-15:27
I mean, let's be honest with ourselves.
15:31-15:32
Are you worth imitating?
15:40-15:47
There are probably hundreds of categories we could get into.
15:49-15:52
Let's just stick to this particular text here.
15:53-15:54
Four areas to evaluate.
15:54-15:55
Are you worth imitating?
15:56-16:00
Here's four areas to evaluate that we see from the apostle Paul.
16:00-16:01
Number one, write this down.
16:02-16:03
Your love for people.
16:04-16:05
Your love for people.
16:05-16:06
Worth imitating?
16:09-16:10
Look at verse 14 again.
16:11-16:39
He says, "I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as," look at this, "My beloved children." "My beloved children." I love that so much because if you've been with us through 1 Corinthians and this journey, you can see that Paul would have a lot of reasons to call them something else.
16:39-16:40
Let's put it that way.
16:42-16:44
But this is how he viewed them.
16:44-16:48
"Your beloved children." You're not commodities to be used.
16:48-16:55
you're not customers to satisfy, you're not annoyances that are draining the life out of me.
16:55-16:59
He says, you're spiritual children that I love.
17:04-17:09
Love, that's what parents are wired to do, is to love.
17:13-17:21
It's meeting needs, yes, it's helping when there's hurt, it's protecting, ultimately, love is sacrifice.
17:24-17:28
You know, you go to 2 Corinthians 12, this is what Paul addresses the same church.
17:29-17:31
I love this verse because this is the heart of a parent.
17:33-17:47
Paul says, "I will most gladly spend "and be spent for your souls." That's the heart of a parent.
17:48-17:50
Parents sacrifice for their children.
17:50-17:52
Parents give of themselves.
17:55-18:01
And when you genuinely love people, you're going to do the same.
18:06-18:10
Easier said than done, because I don't know if you noticed, but some people are hard to love.
18:11-18:12
Have you noticed that?
18:15-18:16
I mean, we already talked about these Corinthians.
18:17-18:19
They had so many problems.
18:23-18:25
You're like, man, how do you love unlikable people?
18:27-18:31
How do I conjure up the love to love unlikable people?
18:32-18:36
And you don't have to turn there, but just jot down John 21.
18:36-18:39
It's one of my favorite scenes in the Bible.
18:43-18:47
But in John chapter 21, we see the resurrected Jesus restoring Peter.
18:48-18:52
Do you remember the question that Jesus asked Peter three times?
18:52-18:52
You remember?
18:53-18:55
He says, "Peter, do you love sheep?
18:57-18:58
Then feed them." Is that what he said?
19:00-19:01
No?
19:02-19:04
Botched that one, didn't I?
19:04-19:05
What did he say?
19:06-19:21
He says, "Do you love me?" Do you love me?" And when Peter answered Jesus, oh, then he talked about the sheep, right?
19:21-19:25
"Feed my sheep." "Do you love me?
19:25-19:27
Feed my sheep." He didn't ask Peter if he loves sheep.
19:28-19:39
He asked Peter, "Peter, do you love me?" Because when you love someone, you love what they love.
19:41-19:41
Right?
19:43-19:50
See, if I put all of my effort into just loving you and not the Lord, it's going to fizzle out.
19:53-19:59
But when the effort is in loving Jesus Christ, He changes my heart to love the things that He loves.
19:59-20:02
I love you because Jesus loves you.
20:04-20:09
You have value to me because you have value to Jesus, you see.
20:11-20:13
Jesus loves the church.
20:13-20:14
You know, he died for you.
20:15-20:18
He's preparing a place in heaven for you.
20:18-20:21
And he does his work on earth through you.
20:21-20:29
And if Jesus so loves you, and he knows you a lot better than I do, how could I not love you?
20:32-20:37
So think of that new believer following you around for a month.
20:40-20:42
Would he see a love for people that's worth imitating?
20:47-20:53
Second area we need to evaluate, your heart for evangelism.
20:54-20:55
Is it worth imitating?
20:56-20:58
Look at verse 15 again.
21:01-21:07
He says, "For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.
21:07-21:14
"For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel." Countless guides.
21:14-21:16
What's a guide?
21:16-21:19
Well, in the Greek, it's pedagogos.
21:20-21:28
Now wealthy families in those days would have a pedagogos, a guide, a, some translations, tutor.
21:29-21:47
It was a slave whose job it was to take boys back and forth to school and to help them mature, or as the kids would say today, they would help them learn how to adult.
21:49-21:52
That's what a pedagogos did, preparation for adulting.
21:54-21:55
That's what they did.
21:55-22:04
And Paul here says, "You have," literally in the Greek, it's, "You will always constantly have countless people teaching you.
22:05-22:08
And that is more true now than it's ever been.
22:11-22:20
You're constantly going to have countless people giving you information on TV, radio, podcasts.
22:23-22:30
Bible teaching is out there, but there is no one who has the relationship with you like You're like the one who led you to Christ.
22:32-22:33
The one who discipled you.
22:36-22:38
Your spiritual father.
22:38-22:39
Your spiritual parent.
22:39-22:42
Nobody has that relationship like that one.
22:45-22:47
This is a tough sell right here.
22:50-22:52
Because some Christians aren't spiritual parents.
22:55-22:57
Because you've never led anyone to Christ.
22:59-23:01
You've never discipled a new believer.
23:02-23:06
Because if you have, you know that it's a unique relationship.
23:06-23:10
There's a special kind of love and responsibility that comes.
23:12-23:16
And the sad thing is too many people in the church miss out on the blessing.
23:19-23:25
Because honestly, sharing the Gospel is just never a thought share the gospel with anyone.
23:31-23:39
You know, there's a pastor that I listen to, speaking of countless teachers, there's a pastor that I listen to often, Ron Dunn.
23:41-23:45
He used this illustration one time, and I really had to chew on it for a while.
23:47-23:54
But he said, "The gospel of Jesus Christ is a train that runs on two tracks.
23:58-24:05
And one rail of the track is the work of Jesus Christ, His death on the cross and His resurrection.
24:07-24:13
But the other rail of the track is someone to deliver that message.
24:15-24:17
And he used this illustration.
24:17-24:25
He said, "Imagine there's a man on death row about to be executed and the governor pardons him.
24:27-24:35
And the governor has the pardon in paper form and gives it to a courier and says, here's the pardon.
24:35-24:41
I need you to deliver this to the prison where the man is about to be executed.
24:41-24:42
Here, take this pardon.
24:45-24:51
You realize it does that man on death row no good if that courier doesn't deliver the pardon.
24:52-24:53
I mean, could you imagine?
24:54-25:00
Could you imagine the governor saying, "Look, this is going to save this man's life.
25:00-25:08
Make sure the prison gets it and the courier forgets." Or he just doesn't think it's that important.
25:12-25:12
Right?
25:14-25:17
If the courier doesn't deliver, the pardon's not gonna take effect.
25:19-25:23
And do you understand you are God's courier.
25:24-25:32
In Jesus Christ, God has pardoned sin and the people you know who don't know the Lord are on death row.
25:35-25:41
And God has given you the pardon to say, deliver this, tell them that they don't have to die.
25:42-25:45
And so often we're just like, eh, not that important.
25:50-26:05
You're the courier. Are you getting the message out? You see, that's so amazing to me that God has the ability to do whatever He wants to do. And what He wants to do is use you to reach people with the gospel.
26:08-26:12
He wants you to disciple the lost.
26:15-26:20
So how often during the course of your week do you engage people in spiritual conversations?
26:21-26:25
At work, at the barbershop, with your unsaved family?
26:25-26:32
How often do you say to someone, "Hey, can I pray for you?" How often do you invite somebody to church?
26:36-26:40
So think of that new believer that's following you around for a month.
26:41-26:42
What would they see from you?
26:45-26:48
Would they see a heart for evangelism that's worth imitating?
26:52-26:55
Number three, are you worth imitating?
26:56-26:57
How about your love for people?
26:57-26:58
How about your heart for evangelism?
26:58-26:59
Worth imitating?
26:59-27:01
Let's read quickly.
27:02-27:03
What about your consistency of faith?
27:06-27:07
Consistency of faith.
27:07-27:08
Is it worth imitating?
27:11-27:12
Look at verse 17 again.
27:14-27:28
He says, "That is why I sent you, Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, I teach them everywhere in every church.
27:32-27:37
He says, "That is why I sent you Timothy." Like, wait, wait, wait, wait.
27:38-27:39
What is why you sent me Timothy?
27:41-27:46
Verse 16, he said, "You're gonna get the flow here." He goes, "Hey, be imitators of me.
27:47-27:50
"That's why I sent you Timothy." You see his point?
27:51-27:52
You see his point?
27:53-27:55
Timothy is the perfect example of discipleship.
27:56-27:59
Timothy is what you want in a spiritual child.
28:00-28:06
Paul's like, "Hey, him coming is as good as me coming." That's what you want.
28:06-28:15
That's when you know that you have discipled someone, when you can send them and they can perfectly represent you and you have no worries.
28:16-28:17
I have that with Pastor Taylor.
28:18-28:26
Whether it's going somewhere to speak or dealing with a crisis or counseling someone, I know that if he's going, it's just the same as if I go.
28:27-28:28
I know he's gonna handle it.
28:29-28:30
And I know he's gonna honor Jesus doing it.
28:37-28:40
Paul says Tim's gonna represent Tim.
28:40-28:42
I called him Tim, we went to high school together.
28:43-28:46
Tim will represent, he'll do what I do.
28:49-28:50
What do you do, Paul?
28:51-28:54
He says, "Teach the same thing everywhere." Right, you see that?
28:55-28:56
Teach the same thing everywhere.
28:56-28:57
Teach what?
28:59-29:00
My ways in Christ.
29:03-29:04
My ways in Christ.
29:05-29:09
Listen, consistency is not about like the lesson of Bible principles.
29:11-29:12
That's not what he's saying here.
29:13-29:21
Not like I printed out a workbook So we made a million copies and we're passing it out.
29:21-29:24
That's not what he's saying.
29:25-29:29
The consistency is in my ways in Christ.
29:30-29:33
It's the way that I live out these principles.
29:33-29:34
My ways everywhere.
29:35-29:36
Do you see that?
29:38-29:42
What Paul's talking about here is integrity.
29:50-29:56
By the way, men, you want to sign up for the men's conference, Brian Behe gives a message on integrity.
29:57-30:06
We were working through rehearsals and such, and he gave his rehearsal recently, and every man that was in the room was just like crushed.
30:07-30:07
Right, Justin?
30:08-30:09
Like integrity.
30:12-30:13
That's what he's talking about here.
30:16-30:43
Integrity. I'm the same follower of Jesus everywhere. Not just Sunday, not just at church, not just a small group. It's integrity. Because nothing dishonors the Lord or kills your witness like hypocrisy. You have any areas of hypocrisy in your life that you need to repent. Right?
30:44-30:50
If a new believer followed you around, would they see a consistency of faith worth imitating?
30:52-31:00
And then finally, number four, your handling of sinners, worth imitating?
31:03-31:11
I want you to notice the different tones that Paul uses here, because he's addressing really two different groups in this passage.
31:11-31:12
Did you notice that?
31:13-31:15
Look at verse 14 again.
31:16-31:28
He says, "I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children." Admonish means to lovingly confront in order to change.
31:31-31:42
There's a gentleness in admonishing because spiritual children are a lot like regular children.
31:45-31:55
They mature slowly. They mess up a lot. They frustrate you like crazy, right?
31:58-32:06
And that's why Paul is... Paul says, "I'm not trying to make you feel bad." Right?
32:07-32:18
All this stuff that we've been talking about, Paul's like, "I'm not just trying to bust your chops. I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to kick you when you're down. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings. He said, here's my endgame. Do better.
32:20-32:21
That's all I'm saying. Do better.
32:27-32:34
Sometimes, you know, I get a little emotional and fired up, whether it's in preaching or counseling. Why?
32:36-32:41
Because look, my job up here is not to just give you Bible information.
32:43-32:44
Like here, here's what the Bible says.
32:45-32:46
You should do this.
32:48-32:49
If you don't, doesn't matter to me.
32:50-32:53
It matters to me that you embrace this.
32:54-33:00
It matters to me that you are taking God's word and reflecting its truths in your life.
33:00-33:03
It matters to me that you get it.
33:06-33:11
And that's why there's times that we have to admonish our spiritual kids when they sin.
33:12-33:14
We have an obligation to do that, by the way.
33:16-33:17
We have an obligation.
33:19-33:20
That's part of parenting.
33:23-33:24
So that's one group.
33:24-33:25
Look at the other group.
33:25-33:28
Look at verses 18 through 21 again.
33:30-33:33
He says, "Some are arrogant as though they were not coming to you.
33:35-33:41
But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power.
33:41-33:44
For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power.
33:46-33:46
What do you wish?
33:47-33:54
Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness?" You notice the change of tone?
33:55-34:00
Some people need a little loving admonishment, like, "Hey, hey, we're going to do better, all right?
34:00-34:08
better. Other people need a rebuke. Like, "Hey, you need to knock down a peg." Okay?
34:12-34:30
He's addressing the arrogant. Do you notice that? Some of you are arrogant. They're like kids when mom and dad aren't there. "I don't care what they say." That's what these arrogant Corinthians, they were like, "I don't care what Paul says, he's not here.
34:31-34:32
What's he going to do about it?
34:32-34:33
Oh, he's going to come?
34:33-34:35
Paul's not going to come, that's why he sent Timothy.
34:36-34:37
He's afraid to come here.
34:37-34:40
Paul ain't going to do nothing." All right?
34:40-34:42
I don't know why you guys are so concerned about Paul.
34:42-34:44
He ain't here and he ain't coming.
34:44-34:45
So arrogant.
34:46-35:00
And I love that Paul's like, "Oh, I'm coming." He says, "If the Lord wills." And Paul says, "Then we'll find out." We'll find out who's all talk and no game.
35:01-35:02
We'll find out when I get there.
35:03-35:04
Put your helmet on.
35:08-35:13
Years ago in prison ministry, we had an elderly man who went in.
35:13-35:13
His name was Joe.
35:16-35:25
Sometimes in prison ministry, you would get guys come to Bible study, not because they wanted to learn the Scriptures, but because they wanted to cause problems.
35:25-35:26
We get that a lot.
35:26-35:28
to come just to pick fights.
35:28-35:38
And this one guy in particular, this one night, everything that was said, it was just like, "Oh, you're telling me that." And he was just like, he was protesting everything.
35:38-35:40
He was mocking everybody.
35:40-35:45
Just, he would not shut up the entire time and just obnoxious.
35:47-35:50
And finally Joe spoke up.
35:51-36:00
And Joe said to the man, he goes, Have you ever seen a semi truck driving down the road?
36:02-36:20
And the guy's like, "Yeah?" And Joe goes, "Well, you know, "it's the empty trucks that make the most noise." Guy didn't say much after that.
36:22-36:24
And that's kind of what Paul's saying here.
36:24-36:39
He goes, "Some of you people are just talk." He goes, "We'll find out when I get there." Because the kingdom of heaven is not just like talking, the kingdom of heaven is the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.
36:45-36:47
So Paul says in verse 21, "You make the choice.
36:48-36:49
You make the choice.
36:50-36:54
Do you want me to come with the rod?" They're with gentleness, right?
36:54-36:58
How many parents have said something like that to their kids?
36:59-37:00
I know I have.
37:00-37:04
Like, "Hey, look, this can go one of two ways.
37:08-37:09
Make a better choice.
37:11-37:19
It's up to you." So love disciplines.
37:19-37:50
Look, you're going to deal with sinning people, but even in this one passage here, we see that you can't deal with all sinning people the same way. Because the people in verse 14, they were caught up in the divisiveness and yeah, they needed corrected, but the arrogant, Verse 18, "The arrogant needed knocked down." That's why we see two different tones in the same passage.
37:50-37:53
And parents, you need to get this.
37:54-38:18
Parents, when your kids are sinning, spiritual parents, when those you're discipling are sinning, you have to ask yourself, is this a matter of immaturity or is this a matter of rebellion, because immaturity or rebellion, I need to figure that out because that determines my response to the kids.
38:20-38:22
I've seen this a thousand times.
38:22-38:38
Some parents completely freak out when their kid drops a dish, but then that same kid will be flagrantly disobedient and the parent's just like, "Eh, well, what can you do?" Like, no, no, that's where you gotta lay the hammer down, on the rebellion.
38:40-38:41
Paul got that.
38:42-38:43
That's why you see the different tones.
38:46-38:51
So you gotta model this, you have to address sin, and sin has to be addressed appropriately.
38:51-38:55
Is this a situation where I admonish, or is this a situation where I rebuke?
38:55-38:58
Am I dealing with immaturity, or am I dealing with rebellion?
39:00-39:05
So what about that Christian that's, that baby Christian that's following you around all month?
39:08-39:13
Would they see the way you handle sinners to be worth imitating?
39:19-39:24
I talked about ministry year one, kind of a defining moment.
39:25-39:27
Let me talk about marriage year one.
39:33-39:36
First year of our marriage, I was on the phone.
39:39-39:47
I was on the phone, it wasn't this nice, it was an old school, we've been married a long time, so it was a bigger, clunkier phone, but it was a cell phone.
39:47-39:52
And I was just as technologically stupid then as I am now.
39:53-40:01
But I was on the phone with someone and hung up the phone and set the phone down on the kitchen table when Aaron and I were sitting at the kitchen table.
40:02-40:05
And we started talking and reminiscing.
40:05-40:08
We both went to Shakura Elementary School.
40:09-40:09
Go Gremlins.
40:10-40:16
And we started talking about the music class.
40:16-40:20
The music teacher would come in once a week wheeling in the keyboard on the cart.
40:21-40:23
and we would sing these ridiculous songs.
40:24-40:30
Aaron and I were reminiscing, and we started singing the songs together.
40:31-40:34
I asked her if she would come up today and join me for a duet.
40:37-40:38
She's leaning towards no.
40:41-40:44
But we were like, "Oh, do you remember that song?
40:45-40:49
"The song about, 'This is a story about Sammy.'" You guys remember this one?
40:49-40:53
♪ His father sent him out to buy bread ♪ So Aaron and I are belting it out.
40:53-41:00
♪ But Sammy didn't feel like walking ♪ ♪ He wished he could fly instead ♪ And we're like belting it out and we're laughing.
41:01-41:04
And then it's like, oh, do you remember, do you remember Little Tommy Tinker?
41:07-41:09
Do you remember, no, I didn't go to school with him.
41:09-41:10
That was one of the songs.
41:12-41:13
Anybody remember Little Tommy Tinker?
41:15-41:17
Nobody, nobody at all.
41:17-41:28
Little Tommy Tinker, we were singing it, we were just, "Little Tommy Tinker sat on a clinker and he began to cry, 'Mama, mama,' poor little innocent guy." But it's a round.
41:30-41:36
So when I say, "He began to cry," then you would come in at the beginning, I keep going, and it's a round.
41:37-41:39
And it was a real hoot.
41:40-41:45
So Aaron and I are sitting there like, "Little Tommy Tinker," and we were like, "We did the round," and it was awesome.
41:47-41:53
And I'm like, do you remember, another song that I liked was the Jelly Bean Jump.
41:53-41:55
Jump to the jelly bean, jump, jump, jump.
41:55-41:56
So we started singing that one.
41:56-41:57
Jump to the jelly bean, jump, jump, jump.
42:00-42:04
Folks in Mexico City, big, small, andy-to-bitty, all join in this pretty jitty, jump the merry way.
42:05-42:06
Nobody.
42:08-42:17
Well, Aaron remembered, and we sat there for what, 30, 45 minutes, belting out these songs and laughing hysterically.
42:19-42:31
Well, I, I accidentally did not hang up the phone.
42:32-42:33
(audience laughing)
42:35-42:40
And in a way that I still don't understand, the whole thing got recorded.
42:45-42:53
and it was re-listened to, and we were reminded of it for a very long time.
42:56-42:58
You're like, why did you tell us that horrible story?
43:01-43:07
Well, one reason is I wanted to float those songs as options for coming onto the worship set.
43:10-43:11
But the other one is this.
43:13-43:15
I learned a very valuable lesson that day.
43:16-43:20
Whether you realize it or not, someone's always listening to you.
43:23-43:29
Whether you realize it or not, somebody's watching you.
43:30-43:31
And oh, it's over.
43:32-43:38
Much more serious matters than the songs that we sang in elementary school.
43:40-43:43
Somebody is watching how you follow Jesus Christ.
43:47-43:51
So the question is, are you worth imitating?
43:54-43:54
Let's pray.
43:56-44:13
Our Father in heaven, this is a passage that kind of hits us all between the eyes because we are all well aware of the gap between who we are and who we should be sometimes.
44:15-44:17
Father, we thank you for your grace.
44:19-44:26
Father, we thank you that our salvation isn't performance-based by us, it's based on the performance of Jesus.
44:28-44:33
But at the same time, Father, you have called us to be worth imitating.
44:35-44:49
You've called us to take the doctrine from the pages of your Word and show people what that looks like applied in the life of a dad, of a mom, of a friend, of a worker.
44:51-44:52
We are to be an example.
44:53-45:11
I just pray, Father, by the power of your Spirit, that we can, in a sense, sort of stand beside Paul and encourage others to follow our example in seeking You.
45:13-45:16
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 4:14-21
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Who has been a “spiritual father” to you? What do you imitate about them?
Who have you tried to be a “spiritual father” to (led to Christ, discipled)?
What kind of change, specifically, do you think Paul was hoping for from the “arrogant” (1 Cor 4:18-21)?
How do you know when to admonish someone (v14), and when to rebuke them (1 Cor 4:19)?
Breakout
Pray for one another.