Jeff Miller

December 14, 2025

Want for Christmas?

I Want to Know God

Jeff Miller

December 14, 2025

Want for Christmas?

Introduction:

John 17:3 – And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 1:18 – No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

I Want to Know God (John 1:1–3):

The REALITY: Jesus is GOD.

Colossians 2:9 – For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

Zechariah 12:10 – And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced…

Acts 20:28 – Pay careful attention to yourselves... to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Hebrews 1:2 – But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
The RESPONSE: FAITH in Jesus.

Hebrews 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

How Can I Grow in Knowing Jesus?
1. CONFESS with your mouth.
  
  Romans 10:9 – If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
2. HEAR the Word.
  
  Romans 10:17 – So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
3. KEEP His commandments.
  
  John 15:10 – If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:41-00:42
Stegosaurus.
00:45-00:47
Nobody asks, so I'm just going to tell you.
00:49-00:50
Game show host.
00:52-00:52
And gray.
00:54-00:57
Oh, oh, and what I want for Christmas.
01:02-01:04
I just want to know God.
01:09-01:18
Did you ever ask for something like for Christmas or whatever and somebody got you the generic version?
01:18-01:20
Has that ever happened to anybody else?
01:20-01:24
Show of hands, you wanted something and you got the generic version?
01:26-01:27
That happened to me when I was a kid.
01:28-01:33
When I was a kid, they came out with this wacky thing.
01:33-01:34
It was called a pogo ball.
01:35-01:37
How many people, show of hands, remember the pogo balls?
01:38-01:47
Okay, a few of you, one person in the first service did, or about half of the first service's attendants, remembers what a pogo ball was.
01:47-01:52
If you don't know, just imagine like a snowman with the head cut off.
01:52-01:54
It was that kind of shape, right?
01:56-02:05
And it had this hard plastic like ring that went in between these two like balls, right?
02:05-02:07
That were kind of fused together.
02:07-02:14
And you were supposed to like stand on the plastic disc and squeeze your feet on the top ball.
02:15-02:19
And then you would bounce on the pogo ball.
02:19-02:27
And the pogo ball would let you jump almost as high as you could jump if you weren't on a pogo ball.
02:31-02:33
But it was the hot item the one year.
02:34-02:36
And I wanted a pogo ball.
02:37-02:39
You know what my parents got me?
02:41-02:42
The Saturn ball.
02:46-02:51
Pogo balls, generic cousin, the Saturn ball.
02:55-03:03
And not only was it actually not fun to use, but my family was making fun of me when I did use it.
03:03-03:08
When I would jump on it, they'd be like, Here we go on our Saturn ball, our Saturn ball, our Saturn ball.
03:09-03:10
And that really hurt my feelings.
03:11-03:17
So the Saturn ball got thrown into a closet and it's probably still there until today.
03:19-03:28
But look, I know we've had this conversation before, but there's just some things you can't go generic, right?
03:28-03:38
Like ketchup, Pop-Tarts, Oreos, the generic's not the same.
03:41-03:44
Don't try to tell me that it is because you're just lying to yourself.
03:47-03:55
But nothing has been made more generic than God.
03:57-04:03
We live in a culture that is okay with the generic concept of God.
04:05-04:10
But when you get specific, people get squirrely about that.
04:12-04:20
You're like, when people say, "God bless America, "God bless America." Yeah, you can ask, "Well, which God?
04:22-04:42
"Do you mean the God of the Bible, "the one who created us, the one who judges sin, "the one who commands us to repent and believe, "the one who calls us to live our lives "according to his wisdom?" And it's like, "Oh no, not that God." But we're just okay with the generic concept.
04:42-04:48
But you see, the problem with that line of thinking is God isn't a generic concept.
04:50-04:54
In fact, God's not a concept at all.
04:56-04:57
God is a person.
05:00-05:26
God is a specific person. And as we enter into the Christmas season, you know, we know the Christmas story from Matthew and from Luke, right? We know that version of the Christmas story well with the census and Bethlehem and Mary and Joseph and angels and shepherds and mangers and the star and the magi and...
05:26-05:34
Well, Matthew and Luke sort of tell the story of the incarnation like looking over people's shoulders, right?
05:34-05:39
But we're going to be looking at the gospel of John because his Christmas story is a little different.
05:40-05:44
In John's Christmas story, we are looking over God's shoulder.
05:47-05:49
That's really the theme of the whole book of John.
05:51-06:08
We studied this some years back, but the theme of John is this, the God of the universe has revealed Himself by coming into this world as a man to not just save you, but to have a relationship with you.
06:10-06:15
The God wants you to know Him.
06:20-06:23
In fact, this is what Jesus Christ was praying.
06:24-06:43
John 17.3, Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." Eternal life.
06:45-06:53
more important than eternal life because you are either going to live forever with God or you're going to die forever apart from God.
06:56-06:57
So what do you want for Christmas?
07:02-07:04
Top of your list should be eternal life.
07:06-07:10
And according to Jesus, that comes from knowing Him, from knowing God.
07:11-07:21
And I do have to remind you that knowing about God is not the same as actually knowing God.
07:21-07:29
You realize those are two completely different concepts, knowing about God and knowing God, not the same.
07:30-07:31
Think of it this way.
07:31-07:46
Imagine a young man comes to church, a single man, and he's been coming here for a while when all of a sudden one day he notices there is a beautiful young single woman.
07:48-07:56
And he's like, "I don't think I met her, but who is that?" But he gets his friend, he's like, "Hey, find out who that girl is." Right?
07:56-08:02
And his friend comes back with the information and he says, "Oh, you asked about that girl.
08:03-08:03
Here's what I know.
08:04-08:06
She loves missions, right?
08:06-08:08
And she loves working with children.
08:09-08:15
She enjoys traveling and get this, she's a big Steelers fan.
08:18-08:20
But she also loves rom-coms.
08:23-08:37
Now, if this friend goes back to the dude and gives this report on what this woman is like, do you think this man would be like, all right, now that I have the information about her, I am satisfied, thank you.
08:38-08:38
That is all.
08:41-08:42
Is that the end of the story?
08:44-08:51
No, you see, now that he knows about her, that makes him all the more want to know her personally.
08:52-08:55
You see, that's how it is with God.
08:55-08:57
That's how it is with Jesus Christ.
08:58-09:05
The more you know about Him, the more you want to know Him personally.
09:08-09:10
The fact should lead you to the relationship.
09:12-09:14
Well, how do I know God personally?
09:14-09:20
Well, John 1:18 tells us that no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side.
09:21-09:22
He has made him known.
09:23-09:32
And folks, this is a fundamental truth, that the only way that we can know God is he has to make himself known.
09:33-09:42
And that's what we celebrate every Christmas, that God has made Himself known because He did it in the most personal way possible.
09:42-09:45
He showed up and introduced Himself.
09:47-09:53
So look at John 1, picking up in verse 1.
09:53-09:55
We're just gonna look at the first three verses today.
09:55-10:04
And this might feel more like a Bible study than a sermon, but these are important truths that we gotta wrestle down here.
10:05-10:16
John 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He was in the beginning with God.
10:19-10:26
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
10:31-10:39
Notice that John, in introducing our Lord, He's using this word, word, a lot.
10:39-10:42
Why does he use the word, word?
10:44-10:53
Well, he doesn't really explain that, but I promise you that the audience that he wrote to in the first century would have known exactly what he was talking about.
10:54-10:59
'Cause John primarily would have been writing to the Greeks and the Jews.
11:00-11:20
And the word, word in the Greek is logos, and to the Greeks that Logos was like this impersonal force, this impersonal energy source, because the Greek philosophers were like, look, all of this had to come from somewhere.
11:21-11:23
You know, the world didn't happen by accident.
11:24-11:32
There has to be some force out there that it's behind the structure of the earth and all logic and reason.
11:32-11:39
And they had this idea, it was an impersonal force, and they called it the word, the logos.
11:41-11:47
And see, so John is writing to the Greeks, and he goes, "Hey, you guys talk about the logos, right?
11:48-11:49
"Did you know the logos is a person?
11:51-11:53
"It's not a thing, it's a person.
11:54-12:11
"It's a person that was with God, "it's a person that was God, "and it's a person," according to John 1:14, that became flesh and dwelt among us." So that's how the Greeks would have heard this.
12:11-12:13
You know how the Jews would have heard this?
12:14-12:15
I mean, probably you don't have to guess, right?
12:16-12:24
When the Jews would have heard the word "word," what would they have thought of?
12:26-12:30
They immediately would have thought of the law and the prophets, what we call the Old Testament.
12:31-12:35
You see, you go through the Old Testament over and over and over.
12:35-12:46
The word of the Lord came to the word of the Lord came to the word of the Lord came to that all of the law and the prophets, it's it's known as the word of God.
12:48-12:51
So the Jews would have picked up on this concept immediately.
12:52-12:55
Oh, you know what the purpose of words is?
12:57-12:58
Words are to communicate something.
12:59-13:10
Words are to be deliberately chosen and used to convey information to another person.
13:12-13:14
That's what John is saying to the Jews.
13:15-13:16
The Word became flesh.
13:18-13:22
Jesus Christ is God's communication to man.
13:26-13:27
a living, breathing word.
13:29-13:37
So, God isn't some impersonal force.
13:39-13:41
God's not a generic concept.
13:43-13:48
According to God's word, He is a person.
13:49-13:56
And He has revealed who exactly He is in Jesus.
13:58-13:59
Let's just pause for a second.
13:59-14:06
I'm going to ask that you would pray for me as we do this little study together that I would accurately represent God's Word.
14:07-14:17
Let me pray for you to have a heart open to receive this absolutely essential truth that God is teaching us today.
14:17-14:17
So let's pray.
14:22-14:43
Father in heaven, we live in a culture that is fine to think of you in general terms, but to call you a person, a father, the sovereign of the universe, it's tough for some people to grasp.
14:43-15:00
And I just pray, Father, today, especially over these next few minutes, that we would really have our hearts and minds open to what it is that Your Word wants to teach us about the way that You've revealed Yourself through Your Son. It's in Jesus' name that we pray.
15:01-15:01
Amen.
15:03-15:12
So on your outline, I want you to write some things down. I want to know God. Here's where it starts, number one, the reality.
15:13-15:14
This is the reality.
15:15-15:16
Jesus is God.
15:19-15:20
Jesus is God.
15:21-15:22
Let's look at these verses here.
15:22-15:23
Look at verse one again.
15:23-15:34
He says, "In the beginning was the Word, "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In the beginning, does that sound familiar at all?
15:35-15:37
That phrase, in the beginning, where have we heard that?
15:39-15:40
Genesis 1, 1, right?
15:40-15:42
That's how the whole Bible starts.
15:43-15:46
And John is starting in the same place.
15:46-15:55
John is saying, by saying in the beginning, John is saying before anything was created, the Word existed.
15:57-16:00
The Word, and notice he says two things about the Word.
16:02-16:06
First of all, the Word was with God.
16:08-16:11
And secondly, the word was God.
16:14-16:17
First of all, let's talk about the word was God.
16:18-16:23
This claim is nothing less than Jesus Christ is almighty God.
16:23-16:26
This is all through the New Testament, all right?
16:26-16:38
If we were to just do a Bible study today, looking at the verses of the New Testament that talk about Jesus being God, we would be here long after the snow melted, okay?
16:38-16:43
But the New Testament is so full of this truth.
16:43-17:00
Like for example, Colossians 2.9 says, "For in Him, in Jesus, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." Most concise statement of Jesus' deity is probably right here in John 1.14.
17:00-17:08
It says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
17:09-17:17
The Word became flesh and dwelt, dwelt, that word dwelt in the Greek is the word tabernacled.
17:17-17:21
The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.
17:23-17:24
You heard of the tabernacle?
17:25-17:41
In the Old Testament, it was this portable structure that as Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, God told Moses to build this structure and it had this tent with the holy place and the holy of holies.
17:41-17:47
And this was the place where God's unique presence dwelt among his people.
17:49-18:08
So when John says the word became flesh and tabernacled among us, if you were in the Old Testament times, if you lived with Old Testament Israel He said, "Hey, can you point to the place "where God's unique presence lives on the earth?" You would point to the building, the tabernacle.
18:09-18:21
You would say, "Yeah, God's unique presence "on earth is right there." Fast forward to 2025, right now, if I were to say, "Can you point to the place "where God's unique presence dwells on earth?" Where would you point?
18:23-18:24
It's right here, right?
18:24-18:29
Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
18:29-18:32
temple was just the permanent version of the tabernacle.
18:32-18:33
This is where God lives.
18:33-18:35
This is God's unique presence here.
18:36-18:52
So what John is saying in John 1:14 is for about 33 years of earth's history, when you would ask, "Where is God's unique presence on the earth?" You'd point to a man, and that man's name is Jesus Christ.
18:52-18:54
You would point to him and say, "Right there.
18:54-18:59
That man is the unique presence of God on the earth.
18:59-19:00
This is where he is.
19:03-19:03
All right?
19:04-19:07
Jesus is not an exalted angel.
19:08-19:12
Jesus is not some special enlightened human.
19:14-19:19
According to this verse, Jesus is the God.
19:21-19:25
And every false religion denies this, by the way.
19:27-19:45
And I can just tell you personally, you would be shocked at how many times I've had to have this conversation with people over the course of my ministry, but people who actually say, "Jesus never said He was God." You heard that argument?
19:46-19:48
"Jesus never said it." What the argument is this.
19:49-19:51
That's something the church kind of came up with.
19:52-20:21
You know, we kind of, like some religions like us, we sort of hitched that idea onto Jesus, but Jesus himself, they say, "Oh, if you study the words of Jesus, he never said he was God." Well, do you remember back in Exodus chapter three, God called Moses through the burning bush.
20:22-20:25
You know, you're gonna lead my people out of Egypt.
20:25-20:26
You're gonna lead them to the promised land.
20:27-20:33
And do you remember Moses says to God, "Well, what if Israel asks who sent me?
20:34-20:42
What if Israel is like, what is his name?" Do you remember in that moment, God told Moses what his name is.
20:43-20:43
You remember?
20:44-20:50
God told Moses his name is I Am, who I am.
20:53-20:54
That's God's name.
20:56-20:57
His name is I Am.
20:59-21:00
I love that.
21:01-21:10
God didn't say to Moses, "My name is I Was." Like Moses, like, "What's your name?" And God's like, "Moses, I Was.
21:12-21:15
"Oh Moses, you should have seen me back in high school.
21:16-21:20
"Oh Moses, I was so good looking "and I was such a good athlete.
21:21-21:26
"Back in the day Moses, back in the day "I was really something." No, he's not the I was.
21:27-21:31
But nor did God tell Moses that he's the I will be.
21:33-21:33
Right?
21:34-21:52
Like Moses is like, "What's your name?" And God's like, "Well Moses, you tell the Israelites, "I might not be nothing special now, but I'm taking my vitamins and I'm drinking my milk and I'm doing my palates and I'm jumping on my pogo ball and someday, someday I'm going to be something great.
21:53-22:00
I will be. God's not the I was and He's not the I will be. God is, He is I am.
22:01-22:08
From eternity past, He is infinite, majestic holiness. He is the I am.
22:08-22:14
and in eternity future, He will still be infinite, majestic holiness.
22:15-22:16
He is the I Am.
22:19-22:21
You're like, well, what does that have to do with Jesus?
22:24-22:28
Because Jesus repeatedly claimed that He is the I Am.
22:29-22:32
It's all through the Gospel of John, what, like seven times.
22:33-22:34
I am the bread of life.
22:34-22:36
I am the light of the world.
22:36-22:38
I am the way and the truth and the life.
22:38-22:40
I am the good shepherd.
22:40-22:45
I am the door." All through Jesus made this claim.
22:45-23:04
John chapter 8, Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am." John chapter 10, Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." And in that moment, the Jews picked up stones, they were going to kill him for saying that.
23:04-23:07
And Jesus says, "I did a lot of good works.
23:07-23:10
For which of them are you going to stone me?" And they said, "Oh, no.
23:11-23:17
You're making yourself out to be God the way you're talking." You see, they knew exactly what He was saying.
23:19-23:35
They knew exactly what He meant when He said, "I and the Father are one." Oh, and by the way, not only does the Bible say that Jesus is God, did you know that the The Bible also says that God is Jesus.
23:37-23:40
Here's what I mean, look at Zechariah 12, 10.
23:40-23:43
This is before the incarnation, the Christmas story.
23:43-23:46
This is before the baby in the manger story.
23:46-23:47
This is Old Testament.
23:48-23:48
Look at what God says.
23:49-24:04
God says, "And I will pour out on the house of David "and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, "a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, "so that when they look on me, "On him whom they have pierced." Do you see how God identifies himself?
24:05-24:10
He identifies himself as the one who was pierced, and who was the one that was pierced?
24:11-24:13
It's Jesus Christ on the cross.
24:13-24:14
Do you see that?
24:16-24:17
Do a little word study there.
24:17-24:19
That's exactly what he's saying.
24:20-24:23
They will look on the one whom they've stabbed, right?
24:24-24:25
It's also in the New Testament.
24:26-24:27
God is Jesus.
24:28-24:30
Look at Acts 20, for example.
24:32-24:42
Paul says to the Ephesian elders, "Pay careful attention to yourselves to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood." Who bought the church with His blood?
24:43-24:44
He says God.
24:46-25:00
You're like, "I thought it was Jesus that shed His blood." Paul's saying that as Jesus shed His blood, that was God obtaining the church with His own blood.
25:02-25:06
So Jesus is God, yes, and the Bible also says that God is Jesus.
25:07-25:12
The Word was God, but the Bible also says here that the Word was with God.
25:13-25:16
The Word was with God.
25:20-25:28
In case you missed it, in case you didn't quite catch it in verse one, verse two, he just says the exact same thing.
25:28-25:31
He was in the beginning with God.
25:31-25:40
So somehow Jesus is God, but being with God, somehow he is distinct from the Father.
25:44-25:54
Yeah, like if I said to you, Yeah, yesterday I was with my buddy, Nathaniel, and I was my buddy, Nathaniel.
25:56-26:01
You would say, were you and Nathaniel smoking something?
26:01-26:02
Like what was going on there?
26:03-26:05
That doesn't make sense, does it?
26:06-26:10
How can you be with somebody and be somebody at the same time?
26:10-26:16
But that's exactly what the Bible says about Jesus and his relationship with God.
26:17-26:22
He's not only God, but He's also with God.
26:26-26:29
And people want that explained all the time.
26:29-26:37
We get, Pastor Taylor had that, well, a couple weeks ago, the little children's back there had like a Q&A thing with him.
26:37-26:40
And wasn't that one of the questions they were asking about the Trinity?
26:41-26:44
And look, do you wanna know about the Trinity?
26:44-26:45
Here's the reality.
26:45-26:47
Nobody can figure that out.
26:47-26:48
That's the truth.
26:50-26:51
You can't do it.
26:52-26:58
Because from the moment you were born, you've only ever known two things in your life.
26:58-27:00
Your whole life, you've only ever known two things.
27:00-27:02
And that's time and space.
27:03-27:06
You can't fathom an existence outside of time and space.
27:07-27:08
This is where we are.
27:10-27:15
And now we have a God who lives and exists and rules outside of time and space.
27:16-27:18
God is not bound by time and space.
27:19-27:23
And somehow we think that we're going to be able to explain everything about Him.
27:28-27:29
Here's what I know.
27:31-27:33
The Word was with God and the Word was God.
27:34-27:35
The Bible says God exists.
27:36-27:40
He's one God, but He exists as three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
27:40-27:47
Jesus is eternal, but distinct, and you don't have to explain it to believe it, okay?
27:47-27:53
I can't explain to you how my car works, but I believe that it does when I get in and drive it.
27:56-27:57
All right, look at verse three.
27:59-28:10
He says, "All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made." Okay, this is just theology 101.
28:10-28:12
It's all through the Old Testament.
28:12-28:14
God is creator.
28:14-28:24
And John here is saying Jesus is God, he's with God, and then John takes another step and says Jesus is creator, he made all things.
28:25-28:34
And somehow, again, the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all involved in creation at the same time.
28:35-28:36
You're like, can you explain that?
28:36-28:38
I just told you I could not explain that.
28:39-28:49
But somehow God the Father created through God the Son, and the Genesis tells us that the Spirit of God hovered above the waters.
28:50-28:52
All three members of the Trinity were involved.
28:53-28:56
And somehow Jesus is the agent of creation.
28:56-29:14
The Bible says in Hebrews 1:2 that, "In these last days, God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." Through whom he created the world.
29:17-29:19
That's all John's saying here in verse 3.
29:20-29:23
Every living thing gets life from something else.
29:24-29:27
A tree, your dog, a woodpecker, you.
29:28-29:29
You got life from something else.
29:30-29:37
The only person who has never received life from someone else is God Himself.
29:38-29:39
That's what John's saying.
29:39-29:49
Since Jesus already existed before creation, and because Jesus didn't get His life from something else, then He must be God.
29:56-29:59
Those are the biblical facts about Jesus.
30:02-30:16
And listen, even if you're sitting here today or listening to the podcast later or whatever, even if you don't agree with that, can we take an honest look at what the Bible says and stop trying to twist it?
30:16-30:22
"Oh, it doesn't really say that." The Bible overwhelmingly says that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
30:24-30:26
That's the truth that you have to reckon with.
30:27-30:28
He is God.
30:32-30:36
So if you want to know God, number two, the response.
30:37-30:38
The response.
30:38-30:38
You want to know God?
30:39-30:41
The response is faith in Jesus.
30:41-30:43
The reality is Jesus is God.
30:43-30:46
The response is we have to have faith in Jesus.
30:49-30:54
You see, God took the initiative.
30:56-31:10
God did His part in revealing Himself as Jesus, so the question is, "What's my part in knowing Him?" It's faith.
31:13-31:17
Faith is the only way to know God.
31:19-31:32
Oh, and speaking of generic, not only do people use the name of God in a generic sense, but you'll find that people use the concept of faith in a generic sense.
31:33-31:42
There is a true biblical sense and definition of faith, but we live in a culture that just throws that word "faith" around all the time and uses it in all kinds of ways.
31:42-31:43
Here's what I mean.
31:43-31:46
Some people use faith like it means wishful thinking.
31:47-31:49
Faith is just wishful thinking.
31:50-31:55
Like, "Well, I just kind of have faith "that everything's gonna work out." Like, what does that even mean?
31:58-32:01
For some people, they think faith is just the way of the ignorant.
32:02-32:07
Like, "Well, you believe in science, "or you believe in faith, rather.
32:07-32:10
"I believe in science, and they're condescending.
32:10-32:13
You're just some backwoods redneck.
32:13-32:14
You're ignorant.
32:15-32:19
I believe in science, but you have your little fairy tale faith.
32:22-32:28
And still other people look at faith as some kind of ambiguous spirituality.
32:29-32:37
You hear people say, "I'm a person of faith." Do you know who else is a person of faith?
32:38-32:39
Literally everybody.
32:40-32:43
Everybody believes in something.
32:44-32:46
What is your faith in?
32:47-32:50
Because you can have faith in the wrong thing.
32:53-32:59
So listen, my friends, God is not a generic concept, and neither is faith.
32:59-33:03
Faith is a specific disposition towards a specific person.
33:04-33:29
That's why Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith, impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God," that's the knowing God piece, "whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him." It starts with obviously an acknowledgment of His existence, but it doesn't stop there.
33:29-33:31
You have to seek Him.
33:32-33:33
You have a responsibility.
33:36-33:44
took the initiative, he revealed himself in Jesus, what is my responsibility in this relationship?
33:44-34:08
Or how can I grow in knowing Jesus? I want you to jot these three things down. How can I grow in knowing Jesus? Letter A, you have to confess with your mouth. Romans 10.9 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
34:10-34:14
And you are not going to grow in your relationship with Him if you don't have one to begin with.
34:17-34:19
So have you made that confession?
34:25-34:34
Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins, that He rose from the dead to give you eternal life?
34:34-34:35
Do you believe that?
34:39-34:54
People have this idea that, "Well, we're all children of God in the creative sense, yes, but not in the adoptive sense." Yes, we do all have a relationship with Jesus.
34:55-34:58
The question is, do you have a good relationship with Him or a bad relationship with Him?
35:00-35:02
You have to confess with your mouth.
35:05-35:07
It has to start there, letter B.
35:07-35:08
You have to hear the Word.
35:10-35:11
You have to hear the Word.
35:12-35:24
Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ." The only way your faith grows is through the Word of God.
35:25-35:36
Because this is the only truly reliable source of information about Jesus because this is the source of information that was given to us by God.
35:40-35:45
You have to be in the Word if you're going to know Jesus.
35:46-35:50
Any relationship involves time and communication.
35:53-36:07
And some people, they spend no time in His Word, no time praying His Word, and reading and studying and meditating, and they spend no time at all in the Word, and then they wonder why they feel so distant.
36:14-36:16
Relationships grow when time is spent together.
36:16-36:22
You need to prioritize spending time and praying the Word of God.
36:23-36:32
And finally, letter C, "Keep His commandments." Keep His commandments.
36:35-36:49
Jesus says in John 15.10, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." That's how you abide.
36:49-36:52
It's through obedience.
36:53-37:08
Now listen, if you're a Christian and you're in sin, sin is not going to end your relationship with Jesus, but you're obviously going to feel distant from God if you have unrepentant sin.
37:08-37:16
Any area of disobedience in your life that you refuse to deal with, you're gonna feel distant, and that's not on God, that's on you.
37:17-37:18
God hasn't gone anywhere.
37:19-37:19
You have.
37:24-37:37
So what is it in your life right now that you're like, I know, I know that this is what God wants me to stop doing or maybe something God wants you to start doing, but you know exactly what it is.
37:37-37:39
You need to turn from that sin.
37:39-37:50
You need to obey whatever Jesus is calling you to, and you're going to enjoy the freedom that repentance brings in your walk with Christ.
37:54-37:57
This is what keeps people from coming to Christ in the first place, by the way.
38:03-38:06
Jesus will take you just as you are, but he won't leave you that way.
38:09-38:11
Jesus wants to transform you.
38:11-38:12
He wants to change you.
38:13-38:15
And some people just don't want to be changed.
38:19-38:21
Keep His commandments.
38:26-38:27
The Word became flesh.
38:30-38:31
God became a man.
38:34-38:38
Our worship team will come back up.
38:39-38:42
You know, I came to Christ when I was 20.
38:46-39:01
And it's an amazing thing to grow up in a church as a kid, and all those days, all those years sitting in the church, how little I really understood.
39:02-39:09
But when I was led to Christ, this whole new world, right?
39:09-39:17
And I remember I was trying to understand, and I had this Bible that my parents got me.
39:17-39:24
You know, some Bibles have the little story inserts, little devotional things, like kind of built into the Bible.
39:25-39:30
Well, this Bible had those, and it had this story in it.
39:34-39:36
And the story goes something like this.
39:39-39:45
There was this farmer and his wife, it was Christmas Eve, and the farmer's wife was going to church.
39:48-39:52
And she asked her husband if he wanted to go with her.
39:53-39:55
He goes, "No, I don't get that church stuff.
39:55-39:57
"It doesn't, that makes no sense to me.
39:59-40:13
"I'm not interested at all, but you go have fun." Well, she went to church, and while he was home, he saw that there were birds trying to get into his barn.
40:14-40:17
This really bad deep freeze came over, kind of like what happened here.
40:18-40:23
And these birds were trying to get in the barn, seeking shelter from the cold.
40:23-40:29
The farmer says, "Well, I can help those birds." So he goes, "I'll just go out and open the door and let them in the barn.
40:29-40:31
And when he went out there, you know what birds do, right?
40:31-40:33
They just kind of scattered everywhere.
40:34-40:46
The farmer's like, "Well, that sure didn't help anything." So he thought, "Well, maybe if I just leave breadcrumbs, "I can like guide them in there somehow." Didn't work.
40:47-40:54
No matter what the farmer did, he couldn't get the birds into the barn to get shelter.
40:56-41:08
And as the story goes, I don't think it's a true story, but as the story goes, he stood and looked out the kitchen window and he saw the birds back flying around the outside of the barn, not able to get in.
41:09-41:13
And the farmer thought to himself, "Those birds are going to die.
41:16-41:26
And as badly as I want to save them, I don't know how I can get them in the barn." But then the farmer had a thought.
41:27-41:51
The farmer thought, "You know, if I could become a bird for like five minutes, I could approach them, they wouldn't be scared of me, I could speak their language, and I could and show them the way that they could be saved.
41:55-42:02
And right when he had the thought, the story goes, off in the distance he heard the church's bells ringing.
42:04-42:05
And that's when it connected.
42:10-42:10
It's a dumb story.
42:12-42:22
Admittedly, what I've got to tell you as a young Christian, When I read that, that's what made everything click for me.
42:23-42:26
Yes, that's the purpose of the incarnation.
42:27-42:35
That God became one of us to save us.
42:38-42:39
So what do you want for Christmas?
42:43-42:44
I wanna know God.
42:46-42:52
Not the generic knockoff, but the real person.
42:55-43:00
Because knowing God is eternal life.
43:02-43:07
We're going to have our elders and members of our prayer team up front here.
43:10-43:17
And in just a moment, Ashley's going to sing a song over you to have a good old-fashioned altar call.
43:18-43:20
You can stay in your seat, you can pray right where you are.
43:22-43:27
But I want you to know there's people that are up here that would love to pray with you and for you.
43:29-43:34
So as Ashley sings over you, we're going to invite you to come.
43:35-43:38
Maybe there's somebody here that today you're like, "You know what?
43:40-43:48
"I don't really know God, I know about Him, but I don't really have a relationship with Him.
43:50-43:50
Today's the day.
43:52-43:58
Today's the day that you can go from knowing about God to knowing God.
44:00-44:01
So please come.
44:05-44:21
Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for the way that You have demonstrated Your holiness and love by taking on flesh and blood.
44:25-44:30
Father, I pray against all of the distractions.
44:30-44:35
It's that time of year that there's more to do than we have time to do.
44:35-44:39
And there's so many things We're just vying for our attention.
44:43-44:52
Father, I pray that we would take a real close examination at the person of Jesus Christ and examine our own hearts.
44:53-44:55
Are we truly walking with Him?
44:55-45:04
Do we truly have a relationship with Him that we're spending time together and knowing and growing?
45:05-45:09
Or are we just churchgoers?
45:13-45:13
Father I thank You.
45:13-45:15
You've revealed Your heart.
45:15-45:16
You want us to know You.
45:18-45:20
You've done everything.
45:22-45:28
And have just simply called us to receive what You have accomplished.
45:32-45:33
Father, thank You.
45:35-45:45
We praise You and ask that You would continue to manifest Your goodness and presence in us by the power of Your Spirit through the wisdom of Your Word.
45:47-45:49
We praise You in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
45:51-45:51
Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 1:1-3

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think the deity of Jesus is denied by so many cults? Why is that such a common point of contention?
How would you explain the Trinity to a 7 year old?
Define “faith”. Why do you think faith is the God-ordained way of knowing Him?
What’s your favorite dinosaur?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

December 7, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Be Worth Imitating

Jeff Miller

December 7, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Introduction:

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

Jeff Miller

December 1, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

See Yourself as a Servant

Jeff Miller

December 1, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Introduction:

Humble Yourself: 4 Truths to Help You (1 Corinthians 4:1–13)

Only GOD'S OPINION of me matters. (1 Cor 4:3–5)
I've RECEIVED all that I HAVE. (1 Cor 4:6–8)
God wants to SHOW everyone how I SUFFER. (1 Cor 4:9–13a)

John 15:20 – Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you...

1 Peter 2:21–23 – For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
The WORLD thinks I'm SCUM. (1 Cor 4:13b)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:41-00:42
Good morning.
00:43-00:46
My name is Jeff, and let me tell you a little bit about myself.
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That's such an interesting thing, isn't it?
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Like, let me tell you a little bit about myself.
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Or when you ask somebody, "Hey, tell me about yourself." It's an interesting thing because the first thing that comes out of their mouths is the thing that they want to be known as, right?
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Or known for.
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let me tell you a little bit about myself.
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Do you know where, you see this a lot, game shows, right?
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Let me tell you a little bit about myself, or if you've ever watched Jeopardy, it is such a cringey moment.
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You know, they come back from commercial break, and some of us remember Alex Trebek, who's the guy now?
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Ken Jennings, okay, like, All right, we're gonna meet our contestants and tell me a little bit about yourself.
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I'm always so fascinated with the way they identify themselves, right?
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It's so fascinating because, yeah, like some are cool, but some are just really, really weird.
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And I'm like, you're on TV and this is gonna go to syndication and this is gonna be seen by millions and this is what you came up with.
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You know what I'm talking about?
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But like, you know, this is our challenger, Bill.
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Tell us about yourself.
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And Bill's like, "Yeah, one time I showed up to work and I had my pants on backwards." "Oh, what'd you do?" "Well, I just kind of stepped into the bathroom and turned them around." I was like, "Okay, all right, let's meet Glenda." And I'm like, "What was that?" Let me tell you a little bit about myself.
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How do you want to be known?
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Well, I was thinking about that a lot this past week as we get to 1 Corinthians 4, because if the apostle Paul was on Jeopardy and the host says, "All right, well, tell us a little bit about yourself, Paul." I think we know exactly what he'd say Because it's here in 1 Corinthians 4.
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Look at the first couple of verses.
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He says, "This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
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Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy "Tell us a little bit about yourself, Paul." He goes, "Okay, I'm a slave of Jesus Christ." Actually this word for servant in the Greek is the lowest slave, like bottom rank slave.
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And then he says stewards.
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What's a steward?
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Well, in those days, wealthy people would have someone who was like their sort of house manager.
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in charge of distribution and spending and inventory.
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And you know who got that job?
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It was one of the slaves, still a slave.
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So why is he saying this?
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Well, we've seen throughout 1 Corinthians, the issue was all of this exalting leaders, right?
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Putting Paul and Apollos and Cephas up on pedestals and all these factions.
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And Paul here in 1 Corinthians is saying, "Look, look, look, you're regarding us as world changers.
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You're regarding us as these elite Christians.
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You're regarding us as celebrity church planners." And Paul here is like, "Eh, here is how you should regard us." I'm a slave.
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That's it.
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I'm a slave.
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They had this terrible problem exalting the ministers, and it resulted in them exalting themselves.
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We've seen that.
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The pride with their alignment, like, "Yeah, I'm one of Paul's guys." "Oh yeah, that's nothing.
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I'm one of Apollos' guys." And they were proud of their alignment, and they had disdain towards others, like, "Oh, you must be one of those Paul people." And Paul here is saying, "Why are you making so much of us?
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We're just slaves.
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All we're trying to do is be trustworthy.
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That's it." We saw back in chapter, I'm sorry, in verse 18 rather, in chapter 3.
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Look back there, Paul says, "Let no one deceive himself." We are so self-deceived.
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And Paul's like, "Oh, Corinthians, you think you're so wise.
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You think you have it all figured out.
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You think you're on the right team.
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You're so full of pride." Again, that's the issue.
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Look down at verse 21 in chapter 3.
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Pastor Taylor covered this last week.
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He says, "So let no one boast in men." That shouldn't be happening.
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Not Paul, not Apollos, not Jeff, not Taylor, not your favorite podcast or YouTube's preacher.
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We shouldn't be exalting anyone.
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And when we get to this section here in chapter 4, here's what we're going to see.
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Paul is giving a true biblical assessment of himself.
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And he tells the Corinthians, "Look, you have to take an honest assessment of who we are." And, Corinthians, you have to take an honest assessment of yourselves.
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So here in this passage, Paul's going to be serving up some humble pie, all right?
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So strap on your helmet.
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This isn't going to be a very comfortable message because Paul's like, "Hey, stop with the pride.
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Stop exalting people.
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Stop exalting yourselves.
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Here's a reality check and harvest.
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We need a reality check." Because it's real easy for us to point to the Corinthians and be like, "Wow, look at all the pride they have.
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Look at all the problems they have." Pride isn't every one of us' problem, you realize that.
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Every single human has a problem with pride, has a problem with self-exaltation, and it's real easy to do that in a church identity.
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it was for the Corinthians, and it's easy for Harvest Bible Chapel to begin to exalt ourselves.
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We can look at some of the nonsense that's happening around us, and other churches or organizations that call themselves churches, and it'd be real easy for us to say, well, we're the only ones that are faithful.
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We are more mature than the other Christians.
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I don't know what their problem is, but I follow this guy or I listen to this guy.
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That means I'm one of the smart ones.
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I'm one of the enlightened ones.
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And it's real easy to go down the path of pride.
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That's what we're gonna see in this passage.
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The Bible's telling us to humble ourselves.
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Like, hey, hey, knock it off.
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Stop thinking so much of yourself.
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You gotta humble yourself.
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You know, so much in God's Word, we see things that the Holy Spirit does in us and through us, yes, but from what I've studied in God's Word, the command to humble yourself, that's on you.
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And that would be a whole other sermon series, but you and I are commanded, we are commanded to humble ourselves, so we don't get carried away in our pride.
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Because humility is the number one characteristic that God's looking for in people.
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You're not going to come to Jesus unless you're humble.
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You're not going to live a victorious Christian life unless you're humble.
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You're not going to have a fruitful ministry unless you're humble.
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If you're going to be humble, it's on you.
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So on your outline, I want you to jot some things down.
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Humble yourself.
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You're like, "Well, how do I do that?" Paul's like, "Well, here's four things "that'll help you do that." All right?
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So I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and I hope you're not too full because you're about to have four slices of humble pie.
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And I don't feel bad at all because I've had to eat this all week, all right?
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So pray for me and I'll pray for you, all right?
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Just pause for a second, please pray for me as I pray for you.
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Father in heaven, as we come to your word, let us not be deceiving ourselves.
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Every single one of us have this drive to put the spotlight on us, to make much of us, to think too much of ourselves.
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And Father, this passage is certainly going to to give us the attitude that You've called us to have.
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Father, I pray through the wisdom of Your Word, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, that You would give us the faith to make the choices that we need to make, to humble ourselves so we can see the greatness of Jesus Christ manifest in our lives.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
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yourself here's four truths that will help you these are four statements that Paul made about himself and that we would commend to you to make about yourself number one only God's opinion of me matters only God's opinion of me matters look at verse 3 Paul says but with me it is a very small thing that I by you or by any human court.
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In fact, I do not even judge myself.
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Now quick review, when we talk about judge, that's like everybody's favorite verse in the Bible.
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Don't judge, don't judge.
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It's everybody's favorite because they don't understand it.
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Judging does not mean like, hey, don't call me out on sin or you're judging me.
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That's not what that means.
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Judging doesn't mean that like I can be a jerk and I can't care what other people think of me jerkiness, don't call me out. That's not what judging means at all. Actually, this word for judge in the Greek could be translated cross-examined. He's talking about people judging your walk with Christ. That's what he's talking about. Judging your, as he mentioned in verse 2, judging your trustworthiness. Some Bibles say faithful or faithfulness.
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That's what he's talking about.
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People judging your faithfulness, your trustworthiness.
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And well, what does that mean to you, Paul?
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He says, "Well, that's a very small thing." And in the Greek, do you know what that means?
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That means the smallest.
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Your opinion of my spiritual walk does not matter for bad or for good.
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It doesn't.
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Here's what I mean.
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After service, if I was at guest reception and you walk by and you're like, "Jeff, I think you're a bad pastor." Like, "Well, sorry you feel that way, but your opinion doesn't matter." Right now there's some of you that are like, "Yes, I can get on board with that." Your opinion doesn't matter.
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That's not really my main concern though.
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You know what the bigger danger is?
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Is the guy that walks your guest reception and says, "Jeff, I think you're a great pastor." That's the bigger danger because then that stuff can start going to your head.
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You can start to think, "You know what?
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Yeah, they're right.
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I am pretty awesome.
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They nailed it.
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Come back, tell me more.
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But the reality is for bad or for good, the opinion doesn't matter.
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That's where there's a danger.
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I've been talking about this with our ministry team and our conference speakers, we have conferences coming up.
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Yet, a people's opinion of your trustworthiness, your faithfulness doesn't matter, good or bad.
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Watch out for the compliments because they're much harder to dismiss because they're much easier to go to my head.
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All right, look at verse 4.
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Paul says, "For I'm not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.
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It is the Lord who judges me." See, Paul says, "What other people think of me doesn't really matter, neither does what I even think of myself." Doesn't matter either, right?
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You need to have the funeral.
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I realize I'm probably not as great as my grandma thinks I am.
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And I'm probably not as horrible as my critics think I am.
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Either way, it doesn't matter because a slave only cares about one thing, that's pleasing his master.
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Look at verse 5, he goes on, he goes, "Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness, and will disclose the purposes of the heart.
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Then each one will receive his commendation from God." Okay, here's what he's driving at.
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At the end of the day, there's only one opinion that matters.
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Whose is it?
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God's, right?
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That's it.
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All that matters is what God thinks of me.
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He's going to make the final judgments on your heart.
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Now listen, this verse should knock every single one of us down a peg.
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Because you see what God's Word is telling us.
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God sees what you do.
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Yes, yes He does, but much deeper than that.
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God sees why you do what you do.
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Your motives, your thoughts, what no one else knows, everything that you do in the dark, God is going to drag it to the light.
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Understand that with God, there are no secrets.
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You might have secrets from your family.
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You might have secrets from your spouse.
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You might have secrets from your boss.
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You might have secrets from your parents, but you do not have any secrets from God.
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So are you pretending?
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Are you pretending in your walk with Christ?
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You might fool me.
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But it doesn't matter.
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You're an open book to God and He's going to judge.
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Are you sincere?
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Like, look, I'm not perfect, but I'm sincere.
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I am sincerely seeking to know and honor the Lord.
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Jeff, I really am seeking to know the Lord." That's great because the Bible says someday you're going to receive your commendation.
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But as far as humbling yourself, my friends, you will never humble yourself until you get to the place where only God's opinion of you matters.
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You've got to get there.
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Number two, not only do I need to reckon with only God's opinion, he matters.
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Number two, write this one down.
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I've received all that I have.
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I've received all that I have.
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6. He says, "I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that "None of you may be puffed up "in favor of one against another." There is a lot going on in that verse, all right?
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Let's break it down here because this is so crucial in so many ways.
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First of all, he says, "I've applied all these things to me "and Apollos for your benefit." You're like, "Applied what things?" "Everything so far that he's been saying "about pride and humility, all of this stuff." He goes, "I'm applying all of this "to Apollos and I for you." In other words, look, all this stuff that he's talking about, this isn't just a preacher thing, and it's not just a church member thing.
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This stuff about pride and humility, this is an all of us thing.
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You get that?
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And he says, Excuse me, we all need to learn not to go beyond what is written.
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What does that mean?
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Listen, this is a principle that carries over in everything.
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You need to learn that you must not, excuse me, you must not go beyond what the Bible says.
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You must not go beyond what the Bible says.
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Well, what's he talking about?
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Here's his point.
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He's telling the Corinthians, and he's telling us Harvest, because they were exalting others and they had disdain for others.
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And Paul's like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." You need to view people only the way the Bible describes people.
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That's what he's saying.
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You need to view people only as the Bible describes.
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That's it.
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How does the Bible describe people?
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Every single one of us were born with a sin nature.
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We inherited that from Adam.
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The Bible says Adam brought sin into the world and he passed it on to his kids, he passed onto his kids and pass it on to us.
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We were born with a sin nature.
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We are rebellious against God by birth and by choice, and we deserve hell.
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That's what the Bible says about people.
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But Jesus came, God in the flesh came.
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He died on the cross to take away our sins.
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He rose from the dead to give us the promise of eternal life, and he has commanded us to turn from our sin to believe in Him.
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And when we do, the Bible says that you are born again.
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When you do, the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit Himself comes and empowers you to be who God called you to be.
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And every single person who is saved is saved that way.
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Spoiler alert, if you're going to heaven, You're going to hear the same testimony a lot.
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Like, "How'd you get here?" "Jesus." "How'd you get here?" "Jesus." "I'm gonna go ask this lady, how'd you get here?" "Jesus." You're gonna hear that, not a lot.
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You're gonna hear that exclusively.
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Paul's point here is, look, you guys are all messed up about exalting people.
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Look, you need to have a biblical perspective of who we are.
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Don't go beyond that.
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Or, did you see that at the end of the verse?
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If you do, you will start exalting yourself, right?
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He says, "You may be puffed up in favor of one against another." Go beyond what the Bible says, you're going to start having pride.
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You're going to start to think that you're better than others.
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And then Paul gives them the Dutch uncle.
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Look at verse 7.
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He says, he has three questions.
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Paul says, "For who sees anything different in you?" Like we're all the same.
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The Bible describes this is who man is.
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And he goes, "Who sees anything different in you?" Like what, you're something different?
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You're something special?
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You're a little snowflake?
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Like, oh, you're like, "I know what the Bible says, "but I'm different.
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"I'm special, Grandma thinks I'm special." He said, "Who sees anything different in you?" Like what makes you think you're so special, right?
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Next question, "What do you have that you did not receive?" Get back to that in a second.
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Let that question marinate.
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What is it that you're in possession of that wasn't like given to you?
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All right?
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Then he drives it home with this third question.
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He goes, "If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" Paul's like, "Why are you so full of yourselves?
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Everything and everything about you, you received that.
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I mean, think about that.
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Just think about that for a minute.
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That's true physically, right?
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about you physically, you received that genetically from your parents.
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You know, occasionally I'll meet somebody or whatever and they're like, "How old are you?" I'm like, "Well, I'm 50." And people say, "Well, you look young for your age." And I say, "Have you been to the eye doctor lately?" "No, I don't say that.
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I don't say that." "I just, I smile and say thank you." Or like, "I got good genes from my mom." But you know what I'm thinking when people say that?
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Like, "That's very nice of you to say, "but I contributed nothing to that." Like, "This is what I got.
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"That's just what I got.
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"I received this." You're like, "I'm sorry." Well, I received this.
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This is what I got.
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This is what was given to me.
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You're like, "Well, doesn't that upset you?" It doesn't matter how I feel about it, this is what I got.
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This is the shade of my skin.
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This is as tall as I'm going to get.
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But that's true for you.
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Everything you have was given to you.
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But I don't really think that's Paul's main point here.
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I think mainly he was talking spiritually, right?
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Everything that I have spiritually has been given to me.
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Salvation, that was a gift from God.
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God gave me that.
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What about spiritual giftedness?
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Where did I get that?
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The Holy Spirit, God gave me a spiritual gift.
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He gave you a spiritual gift.
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It was given, that's why it's called a spiritual gift.
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He gave it to you, right?
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Oh, by the way, your talents, you know the Bible says those are given to you by God, your natural, what we call natural talents.
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The Bible says those were given to you by God.
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Look that up, it's in Exodus.
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Everything about you has been given to you from God directly or from God through your parents.
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And you're like, "Not me.
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I work hard." Why?
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Who gave you the ability to work hard?
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You see, why are you acting like you earned anything?
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And then Paul gets sarcastic with them.
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Look at verse eight.
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Obviously dripping with sarcasm here.
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He is, "Already you have all you want.
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Already you become rich without us.
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You would have become kings.
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Would that you did reign so that we might share the rule with you.
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Do you see the sarcasm?
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He's condemning their pride.
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He's like, oh, oh, I'm so sorry.
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I didn't realize that you were these spiritually elite and wise people.
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I didn't realize that you attained a level of spirituality all by yourselves.
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You didn't need us, Madam President.
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Oh, I beg your pardon for thinking different.
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What Paul's doing here is he's pulling them back down to earth.
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He's like, you guys think you're so superior with your pride.
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Knock it off.
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Get off of your high horse.
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Stop it.
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Because everything you have has been given to you.
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How in the world can you boast about that?
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You know, just imagine this scenario.
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Imagine that five of our kids from Harvest Academy, imagine I gave them each a quarter.
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Like, no, don't spend it all in one place.
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But I gave five kids a quarter.
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And as you're walking out church, you see the five of those kids, those five kids are sitting at a table up here by Harvest Academy.
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And you stop and listen for a second and they're all bragging.
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And one kid's like, "I got a quarter.
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"I got a quarter.
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"Look how awesome I am.
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"I have a quarter." And then the little girl beside him is like, "I got a quarter.
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"You think you're great?
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"I got a quarter.
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"I'm awesome, I got a quarter." And then the next kid's like, "I got a quarter." And wouldn't you be like, "What are you guys bragging about?
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"Jeff just gave you all a quarter.
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"How does that, why are you so boastful?" And that's what Paul's saying here to the Corinthians.
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You're like a bunch of kids bragging because somebody gave each a quarter.
30:09-30:11
Knock it off, we're all equal in God's eyes.
30:12-30:17
And equal does not mean the same, But equal does mean equal.
30:19-30:28
You're never gonna humble yourself until you get to the place where you recognize every single thing that you have was given to you.
30:30-30:30
All right?
30:31-30:31
Humble yourself.
30:32-30:34
And here's four truths that'll help you.
30:36-30:37
Number three.
30:42-30:43
This is a hard truth.
30:44-30:44
All right?
30:49-30:53
Number three is God wants to show everyone how I suffer.
30:57-30:59
God wants to show everyone how I suffer.
31:02-31:03
Pick up in verse nine.
31:06-31:35
Paul says, "For I think that God has exhibited us apostles of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men." Paul says, "God put us on display." He says, "We're like the lowest people on the earth." See the picture there?
31:36-32:03
Paul says, "You know what we're like? We're like men on death row, being escorted to the electric chair while TV cameras all around recording us for the entire world to turn on the TV and watch us." Like, "Hey, look, there they go, off to be killed. Look at them. Everybody watch." Watch.
32:06-32:08
That's how God put us on display.
32:11-32:14
You see in v. 10, Paul gets back into some more sarcasm.
32:17-32:21
He says, "We are fools for Christ's sake.
32:22-32:24
But you are wise in Christ.
32:25-32:29
We are weak, but you are strong.
32:30-32:39
You are held in honor, we and disrepute." What's he talking about here?
32:39-32:40
It's more sarcasm.
32:41-32:42
See what Paul's saying?
32:42-32:46
Paul's like, "We're out here suffering, serving the Lord.
32:46-32:52
We're out here actually suffering, and you're sitting in your little pews patting yourselves on the back.
32:53-32:59
What's going on?" Like, "Well, suffering how?
33:00-33:01
How are you suffering, Paul?
33:02-33:08
Well, he tells us, "To the present hour, we hunger and thirst.
33:09-33:26
We are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands." What is there to brag about again?
33:29-33:36
Paul's reminding them that following Christ means suffering.
33:40-33:49
I don't really care what the health and wealth church down the street says about that, and I don't really care what the prosperity preacher on TV says about that.
33:50-33:54
All I care is what the Bible says about that, and do you know what the Bible says?
33:55-33:58
The Bible says if you follow Christ, you are going to suffer.
34:02-34:05
Jesus himself said this, John 15, 20.
34:06-34:15
Jesus said, "Remember the word that I said to you, "'A servant is not greater than his master.'" Jesus said that a bunch.
34:16-34:21
"A servant is not greater than his master." What are you saying, Lord?
34:22-34:30
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you." See what Jesus is saying?
34:32-34:35
God allowed His only begotten Son to suffer.
34:37-34:41
So you think as an adopted child of God that you're exempt from that?
34:43-34:47
You think that because you're adopted, that you get a pass on suffering?
34:52-34:57
Listen, God doesn't keep you from suffering.
34:58-35:02
He puts you on display in suffering.
35:08-35:12
You're like, "Why would He do that?
35:14-35:16
Why in the world would God do that?
35:16-35:26
Are you telling me that God is allowing me to suffer so everybody can watch me suffer?" That's what He said.
35:27-35:32
Like, "Why would He do that?" He tells us.
35:36-35:38
We continue in verse 12 here.
35:38-35:41
He says, "When reviled, we bless.
35:43-35:47
When persecuted, we endure.
35:48-35:57
When slandered, we entreat." So why in the world would God lead us to suffering?
36:00-36:09
So God can show everyone who's watching How? How we suffer.
36:17-36:22
So he talks here about being reviled and persecuted and slandered.
36:22-36:25
Have you ever seen worldly people react to those things?
36:26-36:27
All the time, right?
36:28-36:31
What does the world do when they're reviled or persecuted or slandered?
36:31-36:34
The world reactions, they're on display everywhere.
36:34-36:37
It's retaliation, it's temper tantrums.
36:37-36:39
I'll get even with you, you can't do this to me.
36:40-36:42
It's pity parties and oh, woe is me.
36:42-36:45
And that's how the world reacts.
36:46-36:53
Listen, God wants you to walk through the same kinds of suffering so that you can exhibit the life of Christ.
36:53-36:55
Do you realize how awesome this is?
36:56-37:04
That God is going to allow you to suffer so the world can watch, so God can point to you and say, "Look at how my people suffer.
37:06-37:13
"Oh, you see how the world suffers "and how they retaliate and how they're bitter "and how they're angry.
37:13-37:14
"And look at my people.
37:16-37:23
"When they suffer, "they reflect the character of my son.
37:26-37:27
"Look at my people.
37:27-37:32
When they're reviled, they turn around and they look for ways to bless the people that hate them.
37:33-37:34
Do you see my people do that?
37:36-37:38
God says, "Look at my people.
37:38-37:42
When they're persecuted, they don't pack it up.
37:42-37:43
They don't boo-hoo.
37:43-37:43
I quit.
37:43-37:44
I can't take it anymore.
37:45-37:46
Look at my people.
37:47-37:49
When my people are persecuted, they endure.
37:49-37:56
They are not going to give up." God says, "Look at my people when they're slandered.
37:59-38:00
They don't slander back.
38:00-38:04
They don't hate the people that speak negatively about them." God says, "Look at what my people do.
38:05-38:05
They entreat.
38:08-38:12
They're trying to reach the people that hate them with the gospel of my Son.
38:12-38:21
Look at my people." This guy sounds familiar, doesn't it?
38:24-38:27
Probably because Peter said something almost identical.
38:29-38:31
Look at 1 Peter 2, verse 21.
38:32-38:33
Look at this.
38:33-38:35
Same thing, exact same truth.
38:37-38:53
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps." Here's the example.
38:53-38:56
Jesus committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
38:58-39:00
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
39:00-39:36
When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly." You're going to suffer. The only real question is, "How are you going to suffer?" Meaning, what is going to be your attitude during your suffering? You're going to lash because your pride was hurt, you're gonna humble yourself and show them the example that Jesus gave you.
39:40-39:46
But you'll never humble yourself until you understand that you are called to respond to suffering like Jesus.
39:51-39:53
One more slice of humble pie, are you full?
39:56-39:59
You're like, you know what, Pastor Jeff, I think I'm just the right amount of humble.
40:01-40:02
Can we sing and get out of here?
40:03-40:04
There's one more.
40:06-40:12
Number four, something to tell yourself when you start to think that you're so important.
40:13-40:15
Number four, the world thinks I'm scum.
40:20-40:22
Look at the last part of verse 13.
40:24-40:36
We have become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
40:40-40:41
Yeah, we're scum.
40:42-40:44
We're garbage, you know that.
40:45-40:46
We are garbage people.
40:47-40:51
To the lost, they think our message is foolishness.
40:51-40:52
You realize that?
40:53-41:14
You realize that to the lost, they would come in here and hear what we're doing, see what we're doing, and they would say, literally, "What a bunch of morons." Look, if you're here for a little ego boost, I'd just like to remind you what the Bible says, you're trash.
41:15-41:18
We're all just trash in the world's eyes.
41:23-41:32
You know, when I was a kid, my dad used to say that, he had this little saying that he said all the time, and as a kid, I never understood what it meant.
41:36-42:06
It was this, anytime somebody was acting untowardly, somebody was acting like a hog or insulting you or being cruel towards you or speaking perversely, or anytime somebody was acting like that, my dad would just say, "Oh, you gotta consider the source." I never knew what that meant until I became an adult.
42:06-42:09
Now I'm, oh.
42:12-42:14
I get what he's saying now.
42:17-42:21
And I think that little saying of dad's That certainly applies here.
42:23-42:26
It's like, hey, you know, the world thinks you're scum.
42:28-42:29
Well, consider the source.
42:31-42:35
The brilliant world crucified Jesus Christ.
42:38-42:48
This world, who was giving their opinion of me, took God in the flesh and publicly executed Him most humiliating and painful way.
42:51-42:52
Oh, they think I'm scum, huh?
42:52-42:57
Well, I guess I should just consider the source.
42:58-43:00
Oh, you're never gonna be popular with the world.
43:00-43:05
If you follow Christ, you are never going to be popular with the world, it's not going to happen.
43:06-43:07
They think you're scum.
43:10-43:14
And the truth is I'm actually much worse than they think I am.
43:18-43:19
I am.
43:22-43:28
My sin is so bad it took the blood of the spotless Son of God to wash my sin away.
43:29-43:30
That must mean my sin was pretty bad.
43:34-43:37
So it takes us back to point one, right?
43:38-43:40
God's opinion is really the only one that matters anyways.
43:41-43:53
that you're never going to humble yourself until you're okay with the world regarding you as scum.
43:55-43:55
All right?
43:56-44:07
So if our worship team would make their way back to the platform, just wanna leave you with this.
44:09-44:35
If you're ever a contestant on Jeopardy, not likely for most of us, or you start to think that you're pretty important, which is actually very likely for all of us, I'm I'm gonna give you your speech.
44:38-44:48
When someone says, "So, tell me a little bit about yourself." If you wanna be biblical, here's your speech.
44:48-44:54
Like, "My name is, I'm only here to please God.
44:56-44:58
Everything I have has been given to me.
45:00-45:08
God wants me to suffer so that the world can see Jesus and the world thinks I'm scum.
45:09-45:10
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
45:12-45:12
Let's pray.
45:14-45:22
Father in heaven, I just ask again that you would use your word to humble all of us.
45:25-45:40
Our sin is so self-exalting and we start to think that we have things figured out or we reached a level that other people should aspire to when your word says that we should humble ourselves.
45:43-46:01
Father, remind us of these truths that someday we're gonna stand before you and on that day, We will learn the truth that it is only your opinion that means anything.
46:03-46:05
Increase our faith, Father.
46:07-46:12
Give us the drive to humble ourselves.
46:12-46:15
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 4:1-13

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Paul is once again admonishing them on their divisiveness over “who is the best minister”. Why do you think there is so much content on this subject in 1 Corinthians?
How would you define humility? Why does the Bible say that you must “humble yourself”, i.e., that job is on you to do?
In 1 Cor 4:6, Paul tells them not to “go beyond what is written”? What specifically does he mean by that? How does this principle apply to Bible study in general?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Taylor Brown

November 23, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Don’t Lie to Yourself

Taylor Brown

November 23, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Introduction:

Get a Grip! (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

You are not as wise as YOU THINK YOU ARE. (1 Cor 3:18–20)
You are not lacking IN ANYTHING. (1 Cor 3:21–23)

John 17:3 - And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:46-00:50
1 Corinthians chapter three, verses 18 through 23.
00:51-00:58
As Pastor Jeff admitted in a sermon a few weeks ago, we try to stay up to date on the latest lingo since we work with the youth group.
00:59-01:07
Emphasis on try, because new and nonsensical words and phrases seem to be invented on a daily basis.
01:07-01:52
You know, new slang always sounds ridiculous to older generations, even though your slang Do you ever wish a certain slang word or phrase stuck around a bit longer than it had? That caught on a bit more? I know I miss saying things like big whoop or cool beans or I'm disgusted by something gag me with a spoon or if someone says something really obvious I say no duh or how about whenever someone's annoying me I lift up my hand and say, "Talk to the hand because "the face ain't listening." Another one of my favorites, someone asks you to do something that you really don't want to do.
01:52-01:53
Yeah, let's not and say we did.
01:56-02:00
But you know which phrase I miss the most?
02:01-02:04
It's somewhat said today, but not nearly as much as it used to be.
02:05-02:07
Get a grip.
02:08-02:10
Who's ever said that or heard that at some point?
02:10-02:12
Get a grip.
02:13-02:19
You say get a grip when someone is being unreasonable and is in desperate need of a reality check.
02:20-02:25
This person believes something that is not true and this bad belief leads to a bad action.
02:26-02:28
It leads to an overreaction.
02:30-02:34
This person needs to let go of the lies that he or she is believing.
02:34-02:38
This person needs to get a grip on reality.
02:40-02:47
In 1 Corinthians chapter three, verses 18 through 23, Paul gives the Corinthians a much needed reality check.
02:48-02:53
He tells them to get a grip because they are believing some things that are not true.
02:53-03:01
And these bad beliefs are leaned to bad decisions, erratic actions, and massive overreactions.
03:02-03:12
They are tearing the church apart with their selfish pride, with their worldly thinking and their destructive division.
03:13-03:23
The unity and purity of the Corinthian church cannot be promoted and maintained until they get a grip on some essential truths from God's word.
03:25-03:28
We've been studying 1 Corinthians for almost two months now.
03:28-03:35
Let's be honest, as you read this book, as you listen to these sermons, it's really easy to look down on the Corinthians, isn't it?
03:36-03:39
It's easy to think, oh man, these people are insane.
03:39-03:40
They're just wackos.
03:40-03:41
Go get 'em, Paul.
03:41-03:42
They really need a talking to.
03:45-03:47
But what if you are more like the Corinthians than you think?
03:48-03:51
What if you are believing some things that are not true?
03:52-03:55
What if you are making some bad decisions right now?
03:56-04:03
What if you are negatively affecting your family, your coworkers, and this church?
04:06-04:10
What if you need to get a grip?
04:12-04:26
All of us, myself included, need to be grabbed by the shoulders and shaken back into reality 'cause we all tend to live in a fantasy world of real making, a fantasy world of lies, excuses, and self-justification.
04:27-04:34
You and I need the same exact reminders that Paul gives the Corinthians in this passage that we're about to read because you know what?
04:34-04:37
We're far more like them than we care to admit.
04:38-04:43
You and I need to get a grip and remember some essential facts from God's word.
04:44-04:49
So before we get a grip, let's go to the Lord and ask that he would get a grip on us.
04:50-04:57
Please pray for me that I'll faithfully proclaim God's word and I will pray for you that you will faithfully receive it.
05:03-05:12
Father, it's so easy to come into this room every Sunday and just pretend, just to go through the motions, to put on a show.
05:14-05:16
Lord, I pray against all of those things.
05:18-05:19
I pray against pretending.
05:21-05:25
I pray against stuffing down what we're really dealing with.
05:25-05:27
I pray against hiding our sin.
05:29-05:32
Lord, this morning we ask that you would reveal what we struggle with.
05:33-05:36
You would reveal the sins that we need to deal with by your grace.
05:37-05:40
I pray you'd help us to deal with these things in a biblical way.
05:41-05:44
We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.
05:47-05:48
Get a grip.
05:49-05:52
You are not as wise as you think you are.
05:53-05:54
That's the first blank on your outline.
05:54-05:54
Get a grip.
05:55-05:58
You are not as wise as you think you are.
06:02-06:06
Let's read chapter three, verses 18 through 20.
06:07-06:11
The apostle Paul writes, "Let no one deceive himself.
06:12-06:19
"If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, "let him become a fool that he may become wise.
06:19-06:22
"For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.
06:23-06:42
"For it is written, he catches the wise "in their craftiness, and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, "that they are futile." Have you ever noticed that people who are the most confident tend to be the least competent?
06:44-06:47
The most confident tend to be the least competent.
06:48-06:55
That guy who prays his own handiness and fixes everything at home tends to make a lot of obvious mistakes.
06:56-07:00
He does stuff around his house that no one would hire him to do around their house.
07:01-07:06
That woman who praises her driving tends to be a really bad driver herself.
07:07-07:14
She's looking down at her phone while she's driving, she's applying makeup, she's running red lights, she's not using turn signals when she's going through lanes.
07:15-07:20
That guy who talks a big game in the golf cart tends to have zero game when he's driving or putting.
07:21-07:29
Or how about that person who says, "Yeah, I'm really calm under pressure." something bad actually happens, they're just totally manic and panicked.
07:31-07:37
In all of these examples, overconfidence causes someone to overestimate his or her ability.
07:38-07:41
And that is what Paul is talking about in these verses.
07:41-07:48
A human sense of confidence in yourself makes you incompetent when it comes to spiritual matters.
07:49-07:55
Those who think they are wise by worldly standards are foolish by heavenly standards.
07:56-08:02
They may appear to be brilliant in the eyes of the world, but what are they in the eyes of God?
08:02-08:06
Stupid, dumb, foolish.
08:08-08:12
When you're impressed with your own wisdom, you become a fool.
08:14-08:17
And that rule is without exception in Scripture.
08:18-08:19
Paul is crystal clear on this.
08:19-08:30
He quotes the book of Job in Psalm 94 when he says, "God catches the wise in their craftiness, And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile.
08:31-08:35
And earlier he says, the wisdom of this world is folly with God.
08:37-08:39
You cannot outsmart God.
08:40-08:42
You cannot trick him.
08:42-08:45
If you try, he will beat you at your own game.
08:46-08:48
And again, we see this all throughout scripture.
08:49-08:51
Here are just two examples that spring to the top of my mind.
08:52-09:01
In the book of Esther, Haman hatches a scheme to kill God's people and to hang his enemy Mordecai on gallows that he had specially made.
09:02-09:03
How did that turn out for Haman?
09:04-09:04
Anyone remember?
09:06-09:10
He ends up hung on the gallows that he had made for Mordecai.
09:10-09:12
Yeah, not great as Pastor Jeff just said.
09:13-09:14
What about King Absalom?
09:15-09:17
Well, he tried to be king, didn't really work out for him.
09:17-09:19
He rebelled against his father.
09:20-09:24
He had this long, beautiful hair like Fabio really prided himself in.
09:25-09:27
He tried to steal his father's throne.
09:27-09:28
How did that go for him?
09:30-09:35
He ended up caught in a tree branch by his own prided hair with three spears through his heart.
09:36-09:38
He ended up as a human pin cushion.
09:41-09:45
Both men thought they were smart, but God caught them in their craftiness.
09:46-09:52
They were both competent, actually they were confident in their own competence, but they ended up being incompetent.
09:52-09:57
They had their own thoughts and plans that were proven to be useless by God.
09:58-10:01
They were not as wise as they thought they were.
10:04-10:07
Are you confident in your own competence right now?
10:09-10:11
Are you trying to outsmart God?
10:13-10:18
Are you trusting in your own human wisdom, your own faulty understanding?
10:20-10:26
You know exactly what God thinks about that sin you're indulging in, but you think that you can escape the consequences.
10:27-10:33
And without even realizing it, you are bearing the consequences of your repeated and unrepentant disobedience.
10:35-10:36
You are dulling your conscience.
10:37-10:40
You are pushing down the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
10:40-10:44
You are pushing away faithful friends 'cause you don't want to be found out.
10:46-10:52
You know exactly what God thinks about giving of your time and treasure to the church and those who are in need.
10:53-10:58
But again, you think those rules don't really apply to you because your schedule is way too busy.
11:00-11:01
Your bills are way too high.
11:01-11:04
Your stress is off the charts, so you can't do those things.
11:06-11:12
You know exactly what God thinks about your need to humble yourself and submit to others.
11:13-11:19
But once again, that doesn't really apply to you because you're always right And those other people are always wrong.
11:20-11:28
I mean, yeah, sure, unity and all that jazz is really important, but you're the only one who really knows what you're doing, so if you don't get your way, everything's just gonna fall apart, right?
11:30-11:40
You know exactly what God thinks about how you should treat fellow believers and handle conflict in the church, but surprise, surprise, once again, you're a special case.
11:41-11:44
You have been too mistreated to talk it out.
11:45-11:48
You have been too hurt to forgive.
11:50-11:56
Please stop elevating your importance because you will be humbled if you don't.
11:57-12:03
Stop thinking that you can outsmart God because you will get caught in a trap of your own making.
12:05-12:11
Stop highlighting your wisdom because you are simply shining a spotlight onto your foolishness.
12:14-12:16
You become a fool by thinking that you're wise.
12:18-12:22
You may be wondering, okay, so how do I actually become wise?
12:23-12:26
Well, Paul gives us a very simple answer in verse 18.
12:26-12:27
Look at that again.
12:28-12:43
He says, "If anyone among you thinks that he is wise "in this age, let him become a fool "that he may become wise." You become wise by submitting yourself what the culture around you thinks is foolish.
12:44-12:50
You willingly swallow the pill that most people willfully spit out in God's face.
12:51-13:01
You passionately believe that God not only knows better than you, he knows what is best in any and every circumstance.
13:03-13:08
You sit under the authority of God's word rather than standing in authority above it.
13:09-13:16
You care way more about the never-changing commands of God than your ever-changing opinions.
13:18-13:24
You are far more concerned with meeting the needs of others than satisfying your own personal preferences.
13:27-13:31
Do you know what the greatest threat to Harvest Bible Chapel is?
13:33-13:35
It's not ungodly politicians.
13:36-13:38
It's not ungodly public policies.
13:39-13:40
It's not other religions.
13:41-13:43
It's not persecution of Christianity.
13:44-13:47
It's not even social media or secular entertainment.
13:49-13:52
The greatest threat to this church is you.
13:54-13:57
The greatest threat to this church is me.
13:58-14:03
The greatest threat is you and I thinking that we know best.
14:03-14:06
You and I insisting it's my way or the highway.
14:06-14:09
That leads to stiff-arming one another.
14:09-14:11
That leads to division.
14:11-14:13
That leads to disunity.
14:16-14:20
Do you know what the greatest unifier in the church is?
14:22-14:26
A mutual agreement that God knows best and we don't.
14:27-14:31
A mutual submission to the word of God.
14:31-14:39
A mutual agreement that we will do every subject, every issue, every problem.
14:41-14:46
When a financial issue arises in this church, we deal with it in a biblical way.
14:47-14:50
When gossip is being shared, we deal with it in a biblical way.
14:51-14:55
When disagreement breaks out in a small group, we deal with it in a biblical way.
14:57-15:02
When problems arise with the building project, we deal with it in a biblical way.
15:03-15:05
How does that biblical plan sound to you?
15:08-15:12
Are you willing to go down that path and do whatever this book says?
15:13-15:15
Let me warn you, it's not gonna be easy.
15:15-15:22
If you are committed to that, you have to lay aside your temptation to show off, to prove yourself.
15:22-15:34
You have to be unwaveringly committed to obeying the word of God, even when it hurts, even when it's hard, even when it smashes your ego to pieces, and it will.
15:35-15:47
You need to stop saying, "I think, I think, I think," and start declaring, "The Bible says, the Bible says, "the Bible says." As Pastor Jeff said a few weeks ago, what you think doesn't really matter.
15:48-15:52
What God commands is of supreme importance.
15:54-15:57
You need to stop deceiving yourself.
15:58-16:00
You need to get a grip.
16:00-16:05
Get a grip, 'cause you're not as wise as you think you are.
16:06-16:16
Please do not resist this reality check, 'cause it is so freeing to admit that you don't have all the answers, but God does.
16:19-16:23
Get a grip, you are not as wise as you think you are.
16:23-16:27
Get a grip, you are not lacking in anything.
16:28-16:31
You are not lacking in anything.
16:36-16:45
We've already seen that the disunity in Corinth cannot be solved until all the members of the church put aside their pride and stop deceiving themselves.
16:45-16:51
Each person must have an accurate understanding of himself or herself, but that's not enough.
16:52-16:59
Each person must have an accurate understanding of others, especially those who were leaders.
17:00-17:03
Paul talks about this at the beginning of verse 21.
17:03-17:14
"So let no one boast in men." For the third time in this letter, Paul is talking about the favoritism controversy in Corinth.
17:15-17:18
Some think that Paul is the best pastor around.
17:18-17:22
Others believe that Peter is the goat of the apostles.
17:22-17:27
Most believe that Apollos is the MVP of preaching and teaching.
17:29-17:34
And at this point in the series, you may be thinking, why do we keep talking about this over and over again?
17:34-17:38
I get that this favoritism thing is bad, but why is it such a big deal to Paul?
17:40-17:42
Well, imagine it with me this way.
17:43-17:51
Imagine that all the seating sections in this church are dedicated to one of the pastors on staff and his specific groupies, all right?
17:51-17:55
On the left side is Pastor Jeff's section.
17:56-17:57
You all sit there.
17:57-17:59
Well, are you guys the best section, I guess?
17:59-18:00
You can prove my point for me.
18:05-18:10
Well, in this section, you sit here because you love Pastor Jeff's conversational preaching style.
18:11-18:12
You love his sense of humor.
18:12-18:15
And to show your support, you eat Funyuns.
18:15-18:17
You wear bright neon shoes.
18:17-18:20
You hold up I hate mayo signs, all right?
18:21-18:26
The middle section is Pastor Rich's section, who's not here right now, so we won't give him a big head today.
18:27-18:28
By saying he, I guess he has the most people.
18:29-18:35
You sit there because you're enthralled by Pastor Rich's intelligence and his in-depth knowledge of God's word.
18:35-18:37
And to show your support, you tell puns.
18:37-18:41
You drink kombucha and you garden in your spare time.
18:43-18:47
And the right side is my section.
18:47-18:48
(congregation cheering)
18:49-18:52
For the life of me, I can't figure out why you're all sitting over there.
18:52-18:53
(congregation laughing)
18:53-18:59
Over lunch, you can decide why you're sitting there and what you would do to celebrate me 'cause I have literally no idea.
19:01-19:03
Let me ask you, what's the problem with that seating chart?
19:05-19:09
The church is literally and metaphorically divided.
19:10-19:17
One section is boasting in Pastor Jeff, another is boasting in Pastor Rich, and a third is boasting in me.
19:17-19:20
In that scenario, who is not being boasted in?
19:21-19:25
God, the only one who is worthy of our boasting.
19:26-19:29
God deserves the praise, not the leaders he put into place.
19:30-19:36
Leaders are a window, and God is the view that you see through the window.
19:38-19:44
When you are watching a beautiful sunset from inside your house, you don't praise how clean and efficient the window is that you're glimpsing through.
19:45-19:49
You praise what you're getting a glimpse of.
19:51-19:55
Godly leaders are a blessing, but God is the source of that blessing.
19:56-20:00
Godly leaders are a gift, but God is the ultimate giver.
20:02-20:05
You need to have an accurate understanding of yourself.
20:06-20:09
You need to have an accurate understanding of others.
20:10-20:16
You also need to have an accurate understanding of all God has given you in Christ.
20:18-20:21
Paul talks about this at the end of verse 21 and in verse 22.
20:21-20:41
He writes, "For all things are yours, "whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world "or life or death, the present or the future, "all are yours and you are Christ and Christ is God's." That statement is absolutely staggering.
20:42-20:48
I could preach a series for an entire year just on that one statement.
20:49-20:56
There is so much to unpack here, so let's just slow it down and take a small bite at a time so we can savor all the flavor in this passage.
20:57-21:00
For all things are yours.
21:02-21:04
Maybe you don't feel like you have very much.
21:06-21:12
When you pull up your bank accounts, your retirement accounts, You're not really happy with the numbers that you see.
21:13-21:16
Your house is way smaller than you would prefer.
21:17-21:21
Your car has way more miles and way more issues than you would like.
21:21-21:28
When you compare yourself to others on social media, it really seems like very little is actually yours.
21:29-21:31
But that couldn't be any further from the truth.
21:31-21:39
According to the Apostle Paul, the poorest Christian is wealthier than the richest non-Christian.
21:41-21:45
Jeff Bezos, maybe one of the most successful businessmen in the entire world.
21:46-21:50
As of this morning when I checked, he is worth $235 billion.
21:52-21:55
Far more than all of us if we combined our net worths.
21:56-21:59
Let me ask you, does Jeff Bezos own all things?
22:00-22:00
No.
22:02-22:08
Elon Musk, he owns X, Tesla, and he's even taking on space now, I guess.
22:08-22:13
As of this morning, he has a net worth of $460 billion.
22:15-22:18
Does even Elon Musk own all things?
22:19-22:22
He's not even close to owning all things.
22:22-22:30
If you have trusted in Christ, you are far better off than either of these men who seem to be so far beyond you.
22:30-22:35
All things are not theirs, but all things are yours.
22:37-22:42
You may be wondering, okay Taylor, I believe you 'cause the Bible says so, but I just don't get it.
22:43-22:49
Well let me show you, 'cause Paul gives us a detailed list of everything that belongs to you and belongs to me.
22:50-22:53
First up, Paul or Apollos or Cethus.
22:54-22:59
As I already said, all three of these men are gifts to be appreciated by the Corinthians.
23:00-23:05
Each man serves, each man gives something that is unique to the church.
23:07-23:09
And the same can be said for the pastors and elders here.
23:11-23:13
We are here to glorify God by serving you.
23:14-23:19
We are here to obey God by equipping you for the work of the ministry.
23:19-23:22
The pastors and elders at harvest belong to you.
23:22-23:24
We are here for you.
23:26-23:32
And the same is true for every godly leader who pours himself or herself into your life and other avenues of life.
23:34-23:40
Why play favorites when all of us are here to bless you and increase your spiritual health.
23:41-23:45
It's like being gifted a house, only utilizing one of the rooms and blocking off the rest.
23:46-23:48
Instead of doing that, enjoy the entire house.
23:49-23:51
The kitchen can do things that your basement cannot.
23:52-23:56
The closets provide a function that your dining room doesn't.
23:58-24:01
Each room has a place and function in the house.
24:03-24:08
In a much greater way, each leader, pastor, in the church has a place or a function.
24:11-24:12
Next up, the world.
24:13-24:17
One day, Jesus Christ will return to rule and reign over this earth.
24:18-24:22
And do you know, according to scripture, you will rule and reign along with him.
24:24-24:25
How's that gonna look?
24:25-24:26
How's that gonna work?
24:27-24:30
I have no idea, but it sounds awesome.
24:32-24:38
This may be a shock for you to hear, but there are a lot of ungodly people in authority and power right now.
24:38-24:39
Have you noticed?
24:41-24:48
A lot of ungodly people are in charge of communities, cities, and countries across the face of this planet.
24:49-24:51
And it may seem like they have more power than you do.
24:52-24:55
But again, does the world belong to those ungodly leaders?
24:57-24:58
Does the world belong to you?
24:59-25:00
Yes.
25:00-25:02
But once again, you have far more.
25:03-25:08
Paul or Apollos or Cephas, the world, life or death.
25:09-25:18
When you trust in Christ's perfect life, his finished work on the cross and his victorious resurrection, you are given eternal life.
25:19-25:28
And as Pastor Jeff often says, eternal life isn't just something you'll experience someday, eternal life is something you experience right now.
25:30-25:41
Jesus makes this clear in John 17 three, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
25:43-25:46
You have God as your father.
25:47-25:52
You have Jesus Christ as your personal friend both now and forever.
25:54-26:00
You no longer need to fear death because Jesus took the hell that you deserve upon himself.
26:02-26:07
Death can no longer lead you away from God, it can only lead you closer to God.
26:08-26:11
For a believer, death is a homecoming.
26:14-26:15
The present or the future.
26:17-26:20
Once again, maybe your present doesn't seem very good right now.
26:21-26:23
Maybe your present is a place you don't really wanna be.
26:25-26:30
but recognize every gift that you have is from the hand of God.
26:31-26:46
Your friends, your spouse, your kids, your church, the clothes on your back, the food in your stomach, even the difficult circumstances in your life are used by God to mold you into the image of Jesus Christ.
26:47-26:52
Every difficulty, every pain, every sickness is used to make you more like him.
26:54-26:56
God loves you like his own son.
26:58-27:03
But the Bible tells us that God not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
27:05-27:07
We also will have to go through hard times.
27:08-27:09
We will also struggle.
27:12-27:16
One day the pain of this world will give way to the glories of heaven.
27:18-27:22
Please know your God is so good to you right now.
27:24-27:31
and your appreciation of his goodness will exponentially increase in the future when you stand in his presence.
27:34-27:38
Finally, Paul provides a summary statement of what has been given to every Christian.
27:39-27:44
All are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
27:46-27:51
Doesn't this statement kind of sound like one of those complex word problems on a math test or on the SATs?
27:52-27:54
Let's break it down to understand it.
27:54-28:03
Let's reverse the logic of this text because this is a awesome math equation that adds up to an infinite sum.
28:04-28:05
What does God own?
28:07-28:08
I'm gonna try that again.
28:08-28:09
What does God own?
28:11-28:12
Who is God's son?
28:14-28:16
If you were a believer, who do you belong to?
28:18-28:18
Jesus.
28:19-28:23
Therefore, if you belong to Christ, what belongs to you?
28:24-28:25
Everything.
28:27-28:29
I usually hate math, that's math even I can get behind.
28:31-28:34
You own all that God has.
28:35-28:37
You own literally everything.
28:38-28:41
Your net worth cannot be calculated.
28:44-28:51
But you and I so often get sidetracked for our desire for more and more and more of what this culture has to offer.
28:52-28:58
We get obsessed with accumulating more stuff that we cannot even take with us when we die.
28:59-29:03
You and I lose touch with the spiritual realities of this text.
29:04-29:07
You can lose track of all that has been given to you in Christ.
29:08-29:13
You can grumble, you can complain, you can act ungrateful.
29:15-29:19
There are some Saturdays where Kate and I pull out all the stops for the kids.
29:19-29:26
We have a great breakfast, we go to the park, We go see a movie so they can stuff their face with popcorn, Icys, and candy.
29:27-29:31
We come back, let them ride bikes, then we round out the day with a delicious dinner.
29:33-29:36
But then one of my kids is sulking, walking around, upset.
29:37-29:38
And I'll ask Sam or Emmy, what's wrong?
29:39-29:42
And one of them will respond by saying, oh, I'm just having a hard day.
29:45-29:47
And I'm just blown away by that response.
29:47-29:49
How in the world are you having a hard day?
29:51-29:56
Well, you and mom are being mean to me and you didn't let me have the second peg of pirate's booty that I wanted.
29:58-29:58
Are you serious?
29:58-30:04
We gave you everything today and you're bellyaching about one small thing that you don't even need.
30:04-30:07
In those moments, I wanna give my kids a reality check.
30:07-30:09
I wanna give them a loud and clear message.
30:10-30:11
Get a grip.
30:11-30:13
You are so blessed.
30:14-30:16
You are not lacking in anything.
30:18-30:21
and Paul is giving you the same exact reality check.
30:22-30:28
He is shaking you by the shoulders and saying, you are so blessed, you are not lacking in anything.
30:29-30:32
What do you want that you really need?
30:33-30:37
The answer is nothing, nothing.
30:40-30:53
You may be struggling with your job or your role as a stay-at-home mom, but you must remember that you have been given the greatest calling of all, telling others about what you have received in Christ and what they can receive in Christ.
30:54-30:55
You may feel lonely right now.
30:56-30:59
You may feel isolated like no one cares about you.
31:00-31:08
But you must remember that Jesus has gifted you with the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you and he will never leave you or forsake you.
31:09-31:14
You may have a very broken and dysfunctional family or come from a very broken and dysfunctional family.
31:15-31:24
but you must remember that the Lord himself has taken you in and he has given you brothers and sisters in Christ who love you.
31:26-31:28
You may not like your house very much.
31:28-31:35
You may think it's the worst house on the block, but you must remember that Jesus himself is preparing a place for you in heaven.
31:37-31:46
You may not receive the biggest inheritance from your family but as you read earlier in Romans, You are an heir of God and a fellow heir of Jesus Christ.
31:47-31:59
You may feel cursed right now when life is hard and it's just one thing after another, but you must remember that you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
32:01-32:03
Get a grip.
32:04-32:06
You are not lacking in anything.
32:08-32:17
If you choose to get a grip and remember these essential reminders, you will experience a sense of joy like you've never known before.
32:18-32:24
You will stop trying to build up more and more stuff and accumulate a kingdom for yourself.
32:26-32:32
You will no longer be envious of what other people have because you are content with what you have.
32:33-32:39
You will enjoy true unity in the life of the church because you're no longer in competition with other believers.
32:39-32:45
Yes, all things are yours in Christ, but all things are also theirs in Christ.
32:46-32:50
You own what they own, and they own what you own.
32:52-32:54
God doesn't play favorites with his children.
32:55-32:57
We're all on the same equal footing.
32:59-33:02
In the body of Christ, we all own all things.
33:04-33:10
You know, for most of this message, I've been speaking to Christians, Those who are Christ.
33:13-33:18
I know there are people in this room who are not Christians, who are not Christ.
33:20-33:21
I wanna talk to you for a minute.
33:22-33:25
First of all, I wanna let you know that I'm so glad that you're here.
33:26-33:34
It's my greatest desire that God would get a grip on you so that you can get a grip on the reality of your situation.
33:35-33:40
No matter how much you think you have, You have nothing that lasts.
33:41-33:44
All things are not yours.
33:45-33:46
But I have great news for you.
33:47-33:49
Jesus offers you all of himself.
33:49-33:59
He offers you all that belongs to him, and to receive it, you must let go of the garbage of this culture that you're holding onto so you can grab a hold of his infinite riches.
34:01-34:03
Come to him empty-handed.
34:04-34:06
Come to him asking for forgiveness.
34:07-34:11
Come to him admitting your need for his grace.
34:13-34:20
Why settle for nothing, both now and forever, if you can have all things for the rest of eternity?
34:23-34:24
The worship team can now make their way forward.
34:26-34:30
You know, ever since childhood, I've had to deal with night terrors.
34:31-34:40
I have very vivid dreams where I think things are not true and see things are not there, and this crazy thinking leads to some crazy behavior.
34:40-34:45
I'll yell things out, I'll walk around the room, I'll even jump on the bed.
34:47-34:51
Then all of a sudden, I'm snapped back to reality.
34:53-34:57
I come to my senses, and every single time, I feel so foolish.
34:59-35:01
I think to myself, how could I have thought those things?
35:01-35:02
How could I have done those things?
35:03-35:04
Why did I act that way?
35:04-35:07
How can I stop this from happening in the future?
35:10-35:13
Maybe the Holy Spirit has done something similar for you this morning.
35:15-35:21
I hope he has snapped you back to reality so you can stop living in that fantasy world.
35:23-35:30
I pray that he has caused you to come to your senses so you will stop believing the lies of the enemy.
35:32-35:40
Brothers and sisters, let me just say this one final time with all the love and care I have in my heart for every single one of you, get a grip.
35:41-35:42
Get a grip.
35:43-35:45
You are not as wise as you think you are.
35:46-35:49
You are not lacking in anything.
35:51-35:54
Until you get a grip, your relationship with God will not be as strong as it could be.
35:56-36:03
Until you get a grip, Harvest Bible Chapel will not be as strong in unity and purity as it could be.
36:04-36:34
Let's pray. Father we come to you and we all admit that we all struggle with believing things that are not true. We all struggle with an inflated opinion of ourselves. Even we think very little of ourselves we're still focused on self. We all admit that we so often complain and grumble about what we don't have and we We fail to remember all that you have given us in Christ, which is everything.
36:37-36:41
Lord, for those who are discouraged this morning, help them to walk out of here encouraged by the truth of your word.
36:43-36:47
By those who came in here hard-hearted, may they walk out soft-hearted, Lord.
36:49-36:58
For those who came in with their arms crossed, not wanting to listen, may they come out worshiping you and glorifying you for all that you have done for them and all that you continue to do for them.
36:59-37:00
Well, we thank you for who you are.
37:01-37:05
We thank you for what you've done, what you are doing, and what you will do.
37:07-37:09
We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 3:18-23

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
In what way do you need to “get a grip” on reality in this season of life? What lies about God, yourself, and others are you tempted to believe?
What does it look like to be wise according to worldly standards? How do you see yourself falling into worldly wisdom right now?
What does Paul mean by “all things are yours”? How should this truth change your thinking and living?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

November 16, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Live Now for Then

Jeff Miller

November 16, 2025

Get Unified, Unified and Purified

Introduction:

Romans 14:12 – So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Revelation 22:12 – Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.

How to Have a Successful Building Campaign (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)

Build on the right FOUNDATION. (1 Cor 3:10–11)

Matthew 16:15–18 – He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Use the right MATERIALS. (1 Cor 3:12)

2 Corinthians 5:10 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Pass INSPECTION. (1 Cor 3:13–17)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:47-00:52
Open up those Bibles to 1 Corinthians 3.
00:54-00:55
1 Corinthians 3.
00:57-00:58
Just pause for a second.
01:00-01:12
As we so often do, I'm just going to ask you to take a moment and pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word, and I will pray for you to be ready to receive what it is that the Lord has to say today.
01:13-01:13
Let's pray.
01:19-01:23
Father in heaven, your word tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
01:25-02:14
Father, I pray today that you would increase our faith as we sit under your word and that your word would not just encourage us, but it would move us to be the people that you've called us to be so that we would do the things that you've called us to do, Father. For your glory and honor, we praise you. In Jesus' name, and all of God's people said, "Amen." First Corinthians chapter three. My wife, Erin, loves gardening. And if there's a story that sort of encapsulates Aaron's gardening experience.
02:15-02:16
It would be this one.
02:17-02:24
Several years ago, somebody gifted Aaron a little greenhouse and she was so excited.
02:25-02:35
She spent so much time building this greenhouse and then inside the greenhouse, you know, she had to build, it wasn't like this massive structure, but it was a pretty nice structure.
02:35-02:38
And then inside the greenhouse, she built all these shelves.
02:38-02:50
And then there were all these, you know, those little plastic trays and you fill them with the dirt and she went through, but some of them, you know, you had to have the pots and she had the most magnificent greenhouse.
02:52-02:57
She spent so much time and I'm like, we are going to have such a harvest.
02:57-03:02
We're probably going to have to hire people to come and harvest this bountiful crop.
03:03-03:05
We're probably gonna have to buy like machines.
03:06-03:08
There was so, I'm like, this is awesome.
03:09-03:16
Well, one day we were out somewhere, we returned home, there was a really, really bad storm.
03:17-03:34
And when we got in the house and went about our business, and at one point we looked out the window and saw her greenhouse was completely leveled and everything was strewn across the yard.
03:35-03:39
Literally, nothing was salvageable.
03:41-03:42
You thought this was gonna be funny, didn't you?
03:43-03:44
Trust me, I didn't laugh.
03:45-03:47
Husbands, in a moment like this, you do not laugh.
03:48-03:57
She spent so much time and so much work and so much energy building this thing, and it was all for nothing.
03:57-04:01
She, at the end, had nothing to show for it.
04:05-04:13
And you know, the Bible says, Christian, that your life can be like that.
04:14-04:14
Did you know that?
04:15-04:24
That you can live your whole life doing lots of things, lots of energy, lots of time spent on things.
04:24-04:32
But at the very end, you find out that you have nothing to show for it as you enter into eternity.
04:35-04:37
That's what this passage is about today.
04:39-04:50
We're going to be picking up in verse 10, but I want you to drop down for a second and look at verse 16 because we get to grab this so that we understand this passage.
04:52-04:54
Some of you probably know this verse off by heart.
04:55-05:04
1 Corinthians 3.16 says, do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?
05:05-05:10
And what I wanna point out here is in the Greek, that word you is plural.
05:11-05:18
A lot of times when we talk about you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we think about individual salvation.
05:18-05:19
Yes, absolutely.
05:19-05:24
God's spirit and dwells in the individual who receives Christ, absolutely.
05:26-05:30
But listen, at the same time, I want you to hear me very closely on this.
05:31-05:46
There is a corporate aspect of salvation, meaning this, you are saved to be a part of a community.
05:48-05:50
And that is cover to cover in your Bible.
05:51-05:52
Look at Old Testament Israel.
05:53-05:56
God dealt with them as a community nation.
05:56-05:59
Look at the New Testament church in the book of Acts.
05:59-06:00
It is a community.
06:01-06:04
Look at the description of heaven in Revelation.
06:04-06:05
What is it?
06:05-06:06
It is a community.
06:07-06:13
It's a community of people that are saved together, worshiping.
06:13-06:17
So salvation, yeah, it's an individual choice to receive Jesus Christ.
06:18-06:25
Yes, it's going from death to life individually, but we are always, always, always called to community.
06:25-06:25
Always.
06:30-06:32
We are God's temple.
06:35-06:40
That's why this unity issue is so important.
06:43-06:46
Salvation is not just a me thing, it's a we thing.
06:47-06:49
in the church.
06:51-06:55
And in this passage we're looking at today, we have a new analogy.
06:55-06:59
Last week, Pastor Taylor walked us through the previous analogy that Paul gave us.
06:59-07:00
That was the farm.
07:02-07:04
Planting and watering and harvesting.
07:04-07:07
We're moving today from the farm to the construction site.
07:09-07:16
And in this passage, we're going to see that you are each a part of God's building project.
07:18-07:23
and the inspector is coming to evaluate your work.
07:25-07:29
And Christian, you're going to be judged.
07:31-07:32
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out, time out.
07:32-07:39
Time out, Pastor Jeff, this isn't my first time at this church, and I've heard you say that a Christian will not be judged.
07:40-07:42
You will not be judged for your sin.
07:43-07:44
You will not.
07:44-07:52
But I want you to understand that When the Bible talks about judgment, there are many, many, many, many, many, many, many kinds of judgment the Bible talks about.
07:52-07:56
For example, the Bible talks about the judgment of the nations, Matthew 25.
07:56-08:00
The Bible talks about the judgment of demons, Jude 6.
08:00-08:06
The Bible talks about the judgment of the unsaved, the great white throne judgment, Revelation 20.
08:08-08:10
But believers will be judged.
08:12-08:14
And if you're a follower of Christ, you will be judged.
08:15-08:17
Not for your sin.
08:17-08:19
Jesus took care of that on the cross.
08:20-08:26
Sin is, if you're a follower of Christ, sin is in the rear view mirror forever in God's perspective.
08:26-08:28
That is a done deal.
08:30-08:39
But you will be judged for your works in terms of receiving rewards.
08:41-08:54
Jesus is the judge, John chapter five, and he will judge you for rewards according to what you do after you are saved.
08:55-08:57
The Bible is so clear on this.
08:57-08:58
There's so many verses.
08:58-09:00
Here's a couple that just highlight this.
09:01-09:06
Romans chapter 14, verse 12, there it is.
09:06-09:10
So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
09:10-09:13
each of us, he's talking to the church, he's talking to us.
09:13-09:15
We will give an account to God.
09:15-09:17
And look at what Jesus says, end of the book, right?
09:17-09:27
Revelation 22, Jesus said, "Behold, I'm coming soon, "bringing my recompense with me to repay each one "for what he has done." Each one.
09:28-09:33
And you look at the context of that passage, he's talking for the bad and he's also talking for the good.
09:33-09:34
He's going to repay.
09:36-09:36
All right?
09:37-09:48
So, in this passage we're looking at today in 1 Corinthians, believers works, listen, this is the whole theme, this is the whole, I don't know, is it a metaphor?
09:49-09:49
Is it a simile?
09:50-09:50
Is it an analogy?
09:51-09:57
Whatever, the whole word picture here is construction terms.
09:58-10:08
And in this passage, the Bible is talking about your good works in terms of building something, building a structure.
10:12-10:14
And your works will be judged.
10:15-10:18
Are they worthy of a reward?
10:18-10:23
So on your outline, this is very timely for us as a church.
10:24-10:26
And it's all straight from the text here.
10:27-10:29
This isn't gimmicky or campy.
10:29-10:30
This is all straight from the text.
10:31-10:33
How to have a successful building campaign.
10:36-10:42
You want to enter heaven someday with something to show for your time here on earth?
10:44-10:45
That's what this passage is about.
10:47-10:57
And it's actually exactly like having a regular building campaign, same principles, how to have a successful building campaign.
10:57-11:01
Number one, write this down, build on the right foundation.
11:03-11:03
That's where it has to start.
11:03-11:05
You gotta build on the right foundation.
11:06-11:07
Look at verse 10.
11:08-11:21
Paul says, "According to the grace of God given to me, "like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation "and someone else is building upon it.
11:22-11:34
"Let each one take care how he builds upon it." Paul here talking about himself, he planted the church in Corinth.
11:34-11:38
He spent 18 months laying the foundation.
11:39-11:43
And he refers to himself as a skilled master builder.
11:44-11:48
He wasn't exalting himself, okay?
11:48-11:49
He wasn't bragging.
11:50-11:54
He just said in the previous passage that he is nothing.
11:54-11:56
All right, we already established that.
11:57-11:59
All Paul is pointing out here is, look, I know how to plant a church.
12:00-12:01
I know how to do that.
12:01-12:02
Like, have you ever read the book of Acts?
12:03-12:04
He wasn't bragging.
12:04-12:06
He's like, I know how to plant a church.
12:06-12:09
He had a technique and it worked.
12:09-12:13
And he planted many churches that we're still talking about today.
12:14-12:15
He knew what he was doing.
12:18-12:20
And he says, someone else is building upon it.
12:20-12:22
Pastor Taylor talked about that a little bit last week.
12:22-12:24
That's Apollos, the next pastor.
12:25-12:28
Apollos is building on the foundation that Paul laid.
12:30-12:37
But notice he says here, verse 10, "Lest you think," well, you know, good for preachers, right?
12:38-12:38
Good for them.
12:39-12:48
He says, "Each one," look at that, "Each one," underline that in your Bible, "Each one take care how he builds upon it." Each one.
12:49-12:51
You know what that phrase, each one, tells me?
12:51-12:53
That this passage isn't just for pastors.
12:55-12:57
This passage isn't just for the clergy.
13:01-13:04
Each one, each one.
13:07-13:10
Look, do you serve in this church in any way?
13:10-13:12
Harvest Academy, teaching the kids.
13:12-13:13
Guess what?
13:13-13:14
You're one of the each one.
13:15-13:16
Are you a small group leader?
13:16-13:17
Each one.
13:18-13:20
Are you a ministry team leader?
13:20-13:21
Each one.
13:21-13:23
Are you serving on one of the ministry teams?
13:23-13:24
Each one.
13:24-13:26
This is for all of us here.
13:26-13:30
Each one of us have to take care on how we're building on the foundation.
13:31-13:32
Every single one of us.
13:32-13:33
You know what the problem is?
13:34-13:37
Is too often the church is like PennDOT.
13:40-13:42
Some of you already know what I'm gonna say.
13:44-13:48
And if you work for PennDOT, I'm certainly not talking about you.
13:50-13:52
But how many of us, come on, let's just be honest.
13:54-13:57
We've been driving by PennDOT road work.
13:58-13:59
And what do you see?
13:59-14:04
One or two people working, and eight or nine people watching.
14:05-14:06
True or false?
14:07-14:08
Don't leave me up here.
14:10-14:11
Pastor Jeff hates PennDOT.
14:12-14:12
No.
14:14-14:15
Pastor Jeff is just observant.
14:15-14:16
You've seen it too.
14:18-14:28
But you have one or two guys like really working, and then you have eight or nine guys just standing around watching, and eating a sandwich or smoking a cigarette and like hanging out on their cell phone.
14:30-14:33
That's the church, honestly.
14:34-14:35
That's what you have at the church.
14:35-14:43
You have a small percentage that are working really hard in so many ways and you have a lot of people that just kind of sit around and watch.
14:47-14:49
Maybe contribute with some occasional criticism.
14:54-14:55
A church is too much like PennDOT.
14:56-15:02
Look, if we're gonna build, we gotta start with a foundation.
15:03-15:06
And you're like, okay, well Paul said he laid a foundation.
15:06-15:07
Are we just gonna go with the one that Paul laid?
15:08-15:11
Yeah, I would recommend that because look at verse 11.
15:12-15:26
He says, "For no one can lay a foundation "other than that which is laid, "which is Jesus Christ." The church, listen, the church only has one foundation.
15:29-15:32
And the foundation of the church is Jesus Christ.
15:34-15:37
Yeah, this is what he talked about in Matthew 16.
15:37-15:38
I'm gonna paraphrase here.
15:39-15:43
But Matthew 16, Jesus said basically, what's the word on the street?
15:43-15:45
Who do people say that I am?
15:45-15:49
And the disciples are like, well, some people think you're John the Baptist or Elijah, on the prophets or, yeah.
15:50-15:57
Jesus says to his disciples, "But who do you say that I am?" And then Peter spoke up.
15:59-15:59
Look at that.
15:59-16:03
"You are the Christ, the son of the living God." That's what Peter said.
16:04-16:05
And Jesus blessed him for that.
16:05-16:08
Look, Jesus said, "And I tell you, you are Peter.
16:08-16:13
"And on this rock, I will build my church.
16:14-16:41
"On this rock, I will build my church." You're like, "Well, what is the rock?" Well, some people believe that Peter is the rock, because the name Peter means rock, but there's a lot of Greek linguistic reasons why that isn't exactly accurate, but Peter is not the foundation of the church.
16:43-16:48
the foundation of the church is Peter's confession.
16:49-16:52
Because we see here what the foundation of the church is.
16:52-16:53
The foundation of the church is Jesus.
16:56-16:58
The foundation of the church is Jesus.
16:58-17:05
So it is Peter's confession, meaning the church is built when people confess that Jesus is the Christ.
17:07-17:09
That's the foundation of tthe church.
17:14-17:19
Churches abandon the mission when they try to build on another foundation.
17:19-17:25
And listen, when a church is built on a foundation other than Jesus Christ, then it's not really a church.
17:29-17:35
We believe the church is here to go after social causes or focus on politics or try to entertain people.
17:35-17:36
We're on the wrong foundation.
17:38-17:39
I want you to listen very closely.
17:40-17:42
Yes, the church is called to be salt and light.
17:43-17:49
Yes, the church is called to influence every arena where God puts us, absolutely.
17:50-18:01
But any of that stuff that's happening has to come from the foundation that we are a community that believes in Jesus Christ.
18:02-18:08
We are a community that has been transformed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
18:08-18:15
And we carry out the mission of Jesus Christ to make more disciples of Jesus Christ.
18:18-18:23
So I have to ask you, have you personally made that confession?
18:25-18:35
Have you confessed in your own heart and mind, with your own mouth, You believe that Jesus is the Christ.
18:36-18:40
You believe that Jesus is the Son of the living God.
18:40-18:41
Have you made that confession?
18:43-18:50
Because Jesus must not only be the foundation of this church, he has to be the foundation of your very life.
18:53-18:59
So the first step in having a successful building campaign, you gotta make sure you're building on the right foundation.
19:01-19:08
We could spend so much more time on that, but we recently had a whole sermon about building on the rock, not on the sand, right?
19:09-19:10
So build on the right foundation.
19:10-19:16
Number two, successful building campaign means you gotta use the right materials.
19:17-19:18
You gotta use the right materials.
19:20-19:21
Look at verse 12.
19:23-19:39
He says, "Now if anyone Builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw.
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Stop right there.
19:43-19:44
All right, building project.
19:44-19:46
Let's say you're putting up a structure.
19:47-19:47
All right?
19:48-19:51
And let's say money is no object.
19:54-19:57
What kind of materials would you wanna use to build your structure.
20:02-20:04
Have the three little pigs taught us nothing?
20:05-20:06
(congregation laughing)
20:10-20:11
The materials matter, don't they?
20:14-20:18
You'd obviously wanna use the highest quality, right?
20:19-20:21
Marble, gold, silver.
20:24-20:25
What's Paul's point here?
20:26-20:31
The quality of materials, listen, if you miss this, you're really gonna be confused for a few minutes.
20:32-20:37
The quality of materials speaks to the quality of your service.
20:41-20:45
Are you teaching biblical doctrine representing the word?
20:45-20:47
Are you led by the Holy Spirit?
20:47-20:52
Are you rightly motivated by the glory of God?
20:53-20:58
Are you putting forth your best effort, serving the King of the universe with excellence?
21:02-21:04
It's not about the show.
21:04-21:06
It's not about dazzling people.
21:06-21:07
We already talked about that.
21:09-21:14
The question that you have to ask yourself, you have to evaluate yourself, it's this.
21:15-21:24
What kind of an effort am I putting in to glorifying Christ by doing his work.
21:24-21:25
What kind of effort are you putting in?
21:31-21:36
Because some people settle to build out of wood and grass.
21:37-21:38
Why?
21:38-21:41
Because it's easier, quicker, right?
21:42-21:45
You wanted a building, here's a building.
21:46-21:47
I did my job.
21:50-21:59
And you have to understand that Christ considers that type of efforts to be worthless.
22:01-22:07
I want you to look at, Paul talks about this again in 2 Corinthians.
22:07-22:09
Look at 2 Corinthians 5, 10 on the screen.
22:10-22:13
Say, it's the same teaching, but I gotta point something out here.
22:14-22:31
He says, "For we must all appear "before the judgment seat of Christ." So that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
22:32-22:35
Now there's a problem with this translation.
22:35-22:37
The problem is the word evil.
22:38-22:41
That is not the right translation of that word.
22:42-23:16
You can do the Greek study yourself and you'll find that that word evil should be translated worthless. He's not talking about something morally evil, like from the devil. He's not talking about that. He's talking about something that's worthless. Things done even in the name of Jesus that ultimately end up being worthless. Like what in the world are you talking about? Things like, things done for Christ only in human effort.
23:16-23:17
How about that?
23:18-23:24
Not spirit led, not really motivated by God's glory.
23:24-23:30
I mean, I'm doing this and I'm doing it in the church, but I really want, I'd really be happier if people noticed me.
23:33-23:41
Those kinds of things aren't really evil as much as they are worthless.
23:43-23:44
Just building out a straw.
23:46-24:00
And you know, church, we can fill up the church calendar with all kinds of busyness that has nothing to do with the mission of evangelism and discipleship.
24:01-24:02
And at the end of the day, do you know what it is?
24:05-24:05
Straw.
24:07-24:08
It's just straw.
24:10-24:28
On the other hand, when you are motivated by God's glory, when you are dedicated to maximum excellence, when your heart is in the right place because you're being led by the Holy Spirit, that's like building with gold and silver and precious stones.
24:32-24:41
And you're like, oh, okay, so being part of a big church Right?
24:43-24:44
No.
24:46-25:04
Look, we're not, we're not speaking negatively of big churches, but I do have to point out that sometimes we think that size equals value, and that's just not true.
25:08-25:17
A handful of diamonds, is much more valuable than a truck full of logs despite the obvious difference in size.
25:20-25:25
So if you want a successful building campaign better use the right materials.
25:27-25:36
You're like, "Man, wow, this might be new information for some of you." And you're like, "How do I know? How do I know?
25:36-25:38
How do I know I'm using the right materials?
25:39-25:44
Well, I know one thing for sure we're gonna find out, because number three is you gotta pass inspection.
25:46-25:47
You gotta pass inspection.
25:49-25:50
Look at verse 13.
25:53-25:55
Paul, under inspiration of the Spirit, goes on.
25:55-26:14
He says, "Each one's work will become manifest, "for the day will disclose it, Because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
26:16-26:21
The day is coming, you know, the day, the day.
26:23-26:25
And the inspector is coming.
26:26-26:30
The test by fire, you're going to see here.
26:31-26:34
Throughout the rest of this passage, there's three kinds of people.
26:38-26:40
Let's look at the first one, verse 14.
26:41-26:51
He says, excuse me, if the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives.
26:54-26:57
He will receive a reward.
27:00-27:06
"There is a reward for the faithful worker." Again, we went through the Sermon on the Mount.
27:06-27:08
We talked quite a bit about this.
27:08-27:15
Remember Matthew 6, verse 20, Jesus commanded us to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven.
27:16-27:21
And anytime we talk about rewards and treasure in heaven, people say, "Well, what is it?
27:21-27:40
"What are the rewards?" And I'll tell you the same thing I always say, "Not really sure." But we can't imagine that it's a kind of reward like earth, like cash, right?
27:41-27:42
But what is the reward?
27:44-27:50
And again, I would suggest to you that maybe God's word isn't specific because it's something that we wouldn't fully understand on the earth.
27:51-27:53
But we do know quite a bit about eternal rewards.
27:53-27:54
We know a lot about them.
27:54-27:56
First of all, we know they're eternal.
27:56-27:59
We know this is something you're going to have for eternity.
28:00-28:05
And something else we know is it's better, it's better than anything that we know of on earth.
28:06-28:15
And if every good and perfect gift comes from above, don't you trust when God says this is awesome, you should work for this, don't you think that it's gonna be good?
28:16-28:18
You're like, no, it's going to be awesome.
28:20-28:22
Right, so we know that.
28:22-28:27
We also know there's no second chance to earn rewards after we die.
28:27-28:29
According to the Bible, this is your chance.
28:30-28:36
If you're hearing this message right now, you are in prime opportunity to earn rewards.
28:39-28:41
And we also know that this is a motivator.
28:44-28:44
It's a motivator.
28:46-28:49
We build with excellence because it's going to result in eternal reward.
28:53-28:54
How are you doing?
28:54-28:57
Some of you are going to get a huge reward.
28:58-28:58
Some of you are.
29:01-29:02
Who is?
29:02-29:12
Those of you who have spent the money that God has entrusted you on missions, on the church, on gospel purposes, Jesus said you're gonna get a huge reward.
29:13-29:25
Those of you who know your spiritual gift and you have used it to bless the church, you've used the time that God has given you here, you've taken your opportunity, there is a huge reward coming for you.
29:29-29:35
On the other hand, let's look at the second group of people, verse 15.
29:36-30:01
He says, "If anyone's work is burned up, "he will suffer loss, "though he himself will be saved, "but only as through fire." Okay, so we talked about the person that's working, giving, serving faithfully, using this opportunity.
30:04-30:07
Now we're gonna talk to some of the rest of you.
30:09-30:16
On the other hand, some of you are saved, but you're lazy.
30:18-30:19
You're irresponsible.
30:20-30:27
God gave you two things to use for him, time and money, and you have spent both of those on yourself.
30:30-30:34
You attend church, but that's really about it.
30:36-30:38
Your contribution to the kingdom is warming a seat.
30:40-30:43
You didn't invest much money into the kingdom.
30:43-30:47
You don't really serve the church in any way.
30:47-30:50
You're like, am I still going to heaven?
30:50-30:56
Yeah, if you truly believe in Christ, if you've truly been born again, yes, yes.
30:57-31:08
He says right here, you are still saved, but it's like jumping out of a burning house and then watching it burn to the ground.
31:10-31:17
You lost everything and you got nothing to show for it.
31:20-31:21
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
31:23-31:34
You're telling me, you're telling me, Pastor Jeff, everything I worked for in my life is ultimately going to mean nothing in eternity.
31:35-31:43
Are you telling me that when I cross over into heaven, that I'm going to have nothing to show for my time on earth?
31:47-31:48
That's what he said.
31:51-32:02
I think that's also why he said in verse 10, "Take care how you build." So take care.
32:05-32:10
Take care, pew-sitters, God-tippers, and part-timers.
32:11-32:18
Take care, ear-scratchers, bench-warmers, and buck-passers.
32:18-32:28
care. Because today you should examine the quality of the work that you're putting in to serve Jesus, because He's coming to test it.
32:33-33:46
Salvation in Christ is a gift, but what we do with it, it's on us. There's a third group. Look at verse 16. He says, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and God's Spirit dwells in you?" Do you realize how precious you are to God? Do you realize what you are to God? You're not some she-shed. You are his temple. You are the place where God resides. You, individually, and again this is plural, He's saying, "You, corporately, this is where God chooses to dwell." "Therefore," verse 17, "if anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him.
33:49-34:37
For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." the third group. And I think it's pretty obvious, right? He's talking about unsaved people here, right? People that destroy what others build. We're talking about false teachers, obviously, but you know what else we're talking about? Those in the church who aren't saved but are divisive, those who hinder the work of the church, those who are constantly causing problems for the leaders of the church. Are you protective of your house?
34:42-34:56
If you went home from church today and there was somebody inside your house destroying it, what would you do? Well, God is pretty protective of his house, too.
34:57-35:15
And when he looks down and he sees his house and he sees somebody that's trying to destroy his house, God says, "I'm going to destroy him. I'm going to deal with with him severely.
35:19-35:31
So any building campaign, really, at the end of the day, any building campaign can only be said to be successful if it passes inspection, right?
35:34-35:47
I'd like to invite the worship team and our communion servers to come up, 'Cause we gotta close a passage like this by gathering around the Lord's table.
35:49-35:50
Why?
35:51-35:57
Well, the Lord's table for the Christian, for the church, it means so much.
35:59-36:03
But a couple of things in particular means that we are reminded as we gather around.
36:04-36:06
First of all, this brings us back to our foundation.
36:09-36:13
lest we ever be tempted to build a foundation on anything else.
36:13-36:18
The Lord's supper brings us back to the place, no, no, this is the foundation of the church.
36:20-36:31
The Lord who died for his church, who rose from the dead for his church.
36:32-36:41
So not only is it our foundation, But I think another huge aspect of the Lord's table is our motivation.
36:42-36:47
Because look, the Bible talks about rewards.
36:48-36:50
Should we be motivated by rewards?
36:50-36:50
Absolutely.
36:52-37:00
But rewards should be a motivator, not the motivator.
37:03-37:11
motivator, as the God who died for you, the love that He poured out on the cross.
37:14-37:21
He died for you, so we are motivated to live for Him.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 3:10-17

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Your works will be tested by fire (1 Cor 3:13). What determines if a work is good or useless (precious metal or straw)?
Is it wrong to be motivated by rewards? How much do rewards motivate you to serve Christ?
How would you answer the question: “What exactly is the reward Jesus is giving in 1 Cor 3:14?”?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

I Want to Know God

Introduction:

I Want to Know God (John 1:1–3):

Be Worth Imitating

Introduction:

Are You Worth Imitating? 4 Areas to Evaluate (1 Corinthians 4:14–21)

See Yourself as a Servant

Introduction:

Humble Yourself: 4 Truths to Help You (1 Corinthians 4:1–13)

Don’t Lie to Yourself

Introduction:

Get a Grip! (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

Live Now for Then

Introduction:

How to Have a Successful Building Campaign (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

I Want to Know God (John 1:1–3):

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

Are You Worth Imitating? 4 Areas to Evaluate (1 Corinthians 4:14–21)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

Humble Yourself: 4 Truths to Help You (1 Corinthians 4:1–13)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

Get a Grip! (1 Corinthians 3:18–23)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

How to Have a Successful Building Campaign (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT