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I Thank God for My Screwed Up Church
August 16, 2017 · 40 min
#TheStruggleIsReal | Part 1
Series Tim Hatch Live Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 The deep end podcast. Welcome to the deep end podcast brought to you by Waters Church in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. The deep end is where we go deeper in the scriptures to empower0:12 our walk with God. If you're watching on Facebook live, we're glad you joined us, and we encourage you to be a part of the conversation in the comments below. If you're listening in on SoundCloud or your podcast app, be0:23 sure to stay connected with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Let's go live to pastor Tim Hatch as we get started with today's podcast. This is the deep end.0:35 Hey, Waters Church. Everybody watching on Facebook. Everybody watching wherever you are, we are so glad that you joined us here today, and I'm looking forward0:46 to what we're doing right now. This is exciting. Welcome to the very first part of a brand new Waters Church experience called the deep end. The deep0:58 end is where we're gonna go deeper into the word of god. Back in the day, we used to do bible study every Wednesday night. Well, now we're doing bible study on your time when you can log on or log in1:10 and take part in what's happening. I'm so excited. Are you are you excited? Let us know in the comments. I would love to hear your interactions. And so I'm gonna ask you some questions at points1:22 during these times together. I'm gonna ask for your feedback. We're gonna talk about things. We're gonna hear from you, and I'd love to address some of the things that you have questions about when it comes to God's1:32 word, the Bible, what people have said about the Bible, what you have thought about the Bible, and church. So today is exciting. If you got your Bibles, you don't even have to have them. But if you wanna turn in your1:42 bibles, first Corinthians is where we're going. If you're joining us on the podcast, we're so glad to have you as well. This will be updated every week except for first Wednesday weeks, and we're gonna just dive1:54 deep right into first Corinthians. A couple of things that I wanna say before we get started, and I wanna take some time to talk about, you know, what's going on at Waters Church. So I got some announcements here. Love2:04 to talk to you about what's happening. If you go to Waters Church and if you don't yet go to Waters Church, these are for you, and you would be welcome to come. So this Saturday, we have our cookout after service.2:16 I'm looking forward to that. I don't know about you, Brandon. Absolutely. Looking forward to that. It's gonna be fun. Everybody say hello to Brandon too. He's over here off screen,2:23 and he's gonna be ominous voice in the background.2:25 The ominous voice in the background. And he's my amen corner because you know me. I'm an old fashioned Pentecostal preacher. I gotta have an amen. Can I get an amen? Amen. Amen. Thank you very much, Brandon. He's off to2:34 a good start. So Saturday summer... What do we call these things? The summer nights. Yeah. Yeah. You can speak up. I can't hear you if you just whisper. Saturday summer nights, they are after Saturday service.2:46 If you come to Sunday service, that's fine too. You can come after the Saturday night service about five thirty if you show up. Five dollars or school supplies.2:56 Right? School supplies. Exchange for food.2:57 Yes. Exactly. So pay for food with five dollars or bring school supplies. Those school supplies be used to bless the city... This the schools of Milford and Woonsocket and North Attleboro. Right. Second thing, Waters3:08 Church registry. If you have not yet helped us start paying for these two new campuses, please start. Please. Okay. So waterschurch dot org slash registry. We want you to sponsor3:20 items for our campuses. We want you to sponsor... You know, you can pick something. Now here's what I said... Thought about. Today, I was on the website waters church dot org slash registry, and I saw if you hover over3:31 some of the items, a huge price tag comes up, like seventeen hundred dollars. Don't let that deter you. That's the total cost of that item. If you click on it, it will show you the breakdown of how much3:43 we're asking one person to go. So out of the seventeen hundred dollars, what is it like, Michael? Like, a hundred dollars or seventy dollars? Twenty five. Twenty five. Sometimes it's even twenty five dollars. So every3:53 donation matters, counts, helps. Head over there, waters church dot org slash registry. Invest in those who are not4:04 yet Here. Here. Yeah. Exactly. And then the fabulous executive pastor Shane Parsons, he wants me to let you know that fall cleanup is happening on August twenty4:16 sixth at eight AM. So we wanna make our our space here, our building, the outside clean and beautiful for the fall, August twenty sixth, Saturday, eight AM4:27 till noon ish. And noon ish just basically means until it's done. So come on out for those events. We would love to see you be a part of this. Okay. Every once in a while, I'm gonna ask you a4:39 question, and then we're gonna cut to promo spots. And the audio from me will drop, and you'll hear, like, a promo spot for things happening at the church, social media, all the ways you can connect with the church. Just4:50 hang in there. This is gonna be a a little bit like a radio podcast, if you will. Radio podcast, a little bit of feedback from people on the mics, some promo spots in the middle, take5:02 breaks. So just hang with us. We're still trying to figure out the whole, you know, the whole way we're gonna do this, the style, and we're looking to make it exciting, entertaining,5:14 and most of all, helpful. So let's get into the first book of Corinthians if you got your Bibles. First Corinthians chapter one. We're gonna just look for... Through verse from verses one to nine. And as you get5:26 to your Bible, if you're gonna get to the Bible or you can just trust me that I'm gonna put it accurately, it's up to you. Here's what I wanna say. Bottom line as we start up, the5:38 goal of Bible study. The goal of Bible study. Why do we study the Bible? Okay. It can't be just to know the Bible. Okay? Because the5:50 Bible is a book. It's just, you know, words on a page. Now it's the living word of God. I believe that. But if you're just into it for memorization and understanding and, like, informational, like, kind of download,6:01 you're doing it wrong. Right? The goal of Bible study has to be to produce two things in your life, love for God and love for others. Love for God, love for others. So I6:13 wanna say this to all the Bible people out there because there... I know you're out there. You you love the Bible. You absorb the Bible. You read the Bible. You chapter and verse the Bible. You quote the Bible.6:21 Everything about the Bible. Okay. Listen. If your time in the Bible is not helping you or causing you to love God and other people6:32 more, you're doing it wrong. So stop. Stop. Go outside. Knock on your neighbor's door and say, how can I help you today? You know? Or who are you? Or, you6:44 know, whatever. Means love others. Right? I mean6:47 Apply that love. Yes.6:48 Yeah. Apply the love that God has for you that you hear about through the scriptures into your life, into into other people's lives, and ultimately to God first and foremost. Remember there's two great7:00 commandments. Jesus was asked this question, what's the most important thing in the Bible, scriptures? And he said two things, love God, love people. That's it. That's the whole Old Testament in a nutshell. Love God,7:10 love people. So our hope for you and my prayer for you is that as we read and study first Corinthians and we do this little message series called the struggle is real, that it helps you love God. It helps7:22 you love people. Ultimately, that's why we are here. Okay? That being said, let's get started. Shall we get started?7:28 Absolutely. Yes.7:29 Message number one. Here's the message title. I thank God for my screwed up church. I thank God for my screwed up7:40 church. Paul is going to talk to probably the most screwed up church in the New Testament. These are the Christians who are in7:52 Corinth. So let's get into it. Verse one, here's what he says. Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother Socenes.8:04 Alright. Let's break this verse down. Who is Paul? And first off, why does a book of the Bible open up with, like, Paul, comma, called? And then the next verse, if you're gonna look at... Look look a little ahead, it8:16 says to the church as in Corinth. What is this? Okay. First Corinthians is a letter. It's an ancient letter from Paul the apostle. Paul the apostle, we know this guy. We should know this guy. This guy8:28 who hated Christianity, hated the church, persecuted, wanted to kill Christians, wanted to wipe them off the face of the earth. Jesus shows up, rode to Damascus, knocks him down, blinds his eyes, says, Paul, stop8:38 persecuting me. You're hurting me when you hurt my church. And Paul's like, who is this? And he's like, I'm Jesus of Nazareth. You're persecuting me, and now I'm gonna call you to do great things. And Paul the apostle8:49 Paul the apostle who basically started most of the churches in the New Testament that are recorded in the New Testament Bible, this guy was a former hater of the church, which is9:01 kind of comforting for me as a Christian because it tells me that even when people hate us, it doesn't mean that, like, okay, they're our enemy. God can save our enemies. God could change their hearts. So that's why we9:13 never respond with hatred back. We never do. What? Because God could change their hearts. And I guarantee you, God will never be able to change their hearts if you hate them back and show them that Christians are9:25 just filled with hate. So anyway, Paul writing a letter, and this is important for you to understand about the Bible. I mean, this is a Bible study, so let's talk about the Bible for a second. The Bible is not a book.9:36 The Bible is a collection of books. The word Bible, same Latin word root for biblio or bibliography that we get bibliography from. Bibliography is a collection of sources9:48 that you put at the end of your paper that proves a point. So you write a point, you come up with a thesis, you prove it, and then you say, okay. I studied all these sources to prove my point, and that thing at the end9:57 of the paper is called a bibliography. And so the same word bibliography is a root word that we get bible from. The bible is almost like God's essay to us. It's God's essay. Here's the sources. It's a10:09 collection of sources, sixty six books, thirty seven old... Thirty nine in the old, twenty seven in the new of of ancient sources where God is proving one point, basically. And10:21 the point of the Bible is that God saves us. That's the point of the Bible. Now first Corinthians is a kind of ancient literature. The Bible has history. The Bible has10:32 poetry. The Bible has song. The Bible has, you know, all kinds of documents. One of the Bible documents types is epistles. That's just a that's just a fancy10:44 word for letter. And so first Corinthians is a letter. It's a letter from Paul, this former hater of the church to the church in Corinth. And he's writing to them with a guy by the name of10:56 Socenes. It's right there in verse one. Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle by... Of Jesus Christ and our brother Socenes. Who's Socenes? Socenes was a resident of the11:08 town or the city of Corinth when Paul comes and brings the gospel to these people. So Paul goes into Corinth. He starts this church. He starts preaching about Jesus. The church is born, and the synagogue ruler is named11:20 Sosannes. This is a synagogue ruler. This is a pretty important Jewish guy, and he gets saved. And not only does he get saved, but I love this, he becomes like a partner with Paul in the11:31 mission of Jesus, which is another cool story because now we have two guys writing Bible literature who were formerly not with Jesus. This is such a11:43 great point. Like, just to start off because this is so important for you and anybody listening to get in their heart. God uses people who formerly were not11:55 godly. Paul the apostle, Socenes, they were godly in their own way, Jewish way, and weren't interested in Christ. Christ saved them, and now they're working for Christ. Here's12:07 the point for you. It doesn't matter where you come from. It doesn't matter your background. It doesn't matter how anti God you once were, how dirty you once were, how unsaved you12:19 once were. It does not matter. God takes you. He saves you. He cleanses you. He changes you. And guess what else? Then he sends you. He sends you back into the12:30 world. And I think that first Corinthians opening with two guys who are formerly non Christians now writing to Christians trying to help this crazy messed up church in Corinth is a testimony to the power of God12:42 that takes ordinary average sinners and turns them into extraordinary powerful saints. Can I get an amen?12:48 Amen to all of the above. Yeah. I didn't wanna interrupt you. Just keep going, Pastor Tim.12:52 Brandon knows because Brandon was once one of those pagans. Now he's Yes. Now he's a follower of Jesus. And I just think I just think that's cool. I mean, I like I love people like you, Brandon. I love people who are far13:04 from God and they, you know, you didn't have the Christian upbringing.13:07 Not at all.13:07 No. You know, you're on the stage this past weekend. If you didn't see that, you missed an amazing moment. He shared a story state and you just talked about that. Like, you didn't have the Christian upbringing. I was I13:17 was baptized like in my mother's womb. I mean you the exact opposite and yet here we are sitting at a table together Right. Talking to people about Jesus. That's... Yeah. That's incredible. I think that's13:29 awesome. So verse one right there powerful truths coming at us from this passage. And then he says verse two, check it out, says he says... Can we put verse two up on the screen? To the church of13:41 God that is in Corinth, okay, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.13:53 Alright. So let's talk about... We've talked about who's Paul, who's Sosanis. Let's talk about where's Corinth? What is Corinth? Corinth was an ancient Greek city. It was demolished by the Romans about one forty four BC.14:03 It was rehabilitated right around forty four BC by the Romans, and they kinda, like, built it up, and they made it a a very prominent Roman city. By the time Paul gets14:15 there and brings the gospel in Acts chapter eighteen to the people of Corinth, Corinth is the third largest Roman city in the world. So this is a major metropolitan area.14:27 It's located on Isthmus. It's like this very thin plot of land. Still there today, by the way. It's just not not inhabited. And it's on the Greek peninsula, and it's got two major14:38 ports. I think we have a picture of it. Yep. There we go. Way down there. You see the red line all the way down. That's Paul's missionary journey, second missionary journey. We're gonna highlight Corinth there in the14:48 bottom right. You see it there. That's where it was. Now now what was incredible about Corinth is that it was on a very thin Isle of land in Isthmus and on one side was a major seaport with business and15:00 trade and on the other side was another major seaport with business and trade and these two ports connected through Corinth to these major waterway traffic lanes so that people... I mean, this was this15:11 was a booming business town. Couple of facts. Corinth was highly upwardly mobile. So if you were a young professional, you15:23 moved to Corinth, the possibility... By by the... Around the time of Paul, the possibilities for you advancing in your career were extraordinary in Corinth. Secondly, it was15:36 filled with people. It was highly populated. Third largest city in in ancient Rome at this time, the Roman Empire. And thirdly, it had just an influx of travelers all the time. So people15:48 went to Corinth and left Corinth constantly. Now now here's why I bring all this up. Paul deliberately brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to this ancient city of15:59 Corinth. And what he was all about was bringing Jesus where people were, Bringing Jesus where people were going. And I think that there's a lesson right there for us as twenty first16:11 century Christians. We need to be in the business of bringing Jesus where people are. Okay? I'm all for rural churches. I'm all for suburban churches. We're a suburban church here in North Attleboro, but16:23 you know what? We need to get the gospel in cities. People are moving to cities. We need to bring the gospel there. But here's another thing. People are moving in in... What do you call it? In16:34 cyberspace. That's where they're moving. They're moving right now to where you are. People are going to Facebook. Facebook has doubled its membership in the last five years from one billion to two billion people.16:46 I mean, to think about this. Let's...16:47 Yeah. It's just two billion people are on Facebook right now. And Facebook is like the largest city that has ever existed in human history, and we all go to it. So this is why we're here. Hello,16:58 Facebook. This is why we're here. We're here to bring Jesus where you are. And you probably got a notification on your phone to log on or you're gonna see this podcast later or whatever. And so this is why we're doing17:09 it. We're doing what Paul did. We're going where people are. Now let me say something else about Corinth. Corinth was a very heathen city. It had the temple of17:20 Aphrodite. It was the goddess of love. And so, you know, people would go to this goddess temple and they would have sex with shrine prostitutes and then they would leave and and, you know, it was17:31 hedonistic. It was so hedonistic in the first century that people actually had a saying. And they would say, if you were a really bad person, they'd say, you are so Corinthian. You are so Corinthian. It's kinda17:43 kinda like the phrase what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. That's why we had that saying for Vegas because Vegas is like sin city. Well, Corinth was the original sin city. Like, Corinth was the first one, and yet17:55 Paul takes the gospel there. And and here's another important point for Christians. Are we bringing the gospel to where the sinners are? Because the gospel is not about our little private membership club behind18:07 closed doors where everybody's safe and secure and nice in Jesus. The gospel is dangerous. The gospel is about advancing. The gospel is about presenting Jesus where he is not known and where he might not yet be welcome.18:20 So we gotta go where people are, where the sinners are, where people who are far from God are. Be daring. Be daring. Absolutely. We're all once far from God. So here's the point that I wanna make too. Like,18:32 you got this city. It's an important city. It's filled with people, and it's filled with sin. It's an important city filled with people, filled with sin. Paul goes there. And Paul goes there, and he gets beat up. Like,18:43 this is funny. In Acts chapter eighteen, you find this out. He gets shoved out of the synagogue. People hate him. He's... They're chasing him out of town. He goes to bed, and in Acts chapter eighteen, he has a dream. God18:54 speaks to him in this dream because he left the synagogue and he goes and starts bringing the gospel to Gentiles, non Jewish people. And he's kind of uncomfortable with this because he's kind of a Jewish person himself,19:04 but he's struggling with this like, Lord, are you really in on... Are you really in this bringing the gospel here to this crazy hedonistic city? And God says to him in a dream... We have it I think on the screen. Acts19:13 chapter eighteen verse nine. In a dream, Paul... The Lord said to Paul one night or in a vision, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you, and no one will attack you or harm you for19:25 I have... Check out what God says here. I have many in this city who are my people. And he stayed there a year and six months teaching the word God teaching the word of God among them. What a19:37 powerful phrase for God to say. Like, I know you're in sin city. I know you're in this overwhelming metropolis. I know you feel like you are a nobody in the middle of this huge, like, not19:49 interested in God context. And God says to Paul, don't be afraid. Keep speaking about me because I have many people in this city. Can I say something about New England? And this is20:01 so important. God has many people in New England. God has many people in Boston, Massachusetts. God has many people in Providence, Rhode Island. And I know that these are20:13 not, like, you know, these are not the bastions of biblical thought. I understand that. We are not the Bible Belt. I kinda like not being the Bible Belt. I don't know. How about you? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I I kinda like20:25 not being the Bible. That's Michael. He's our production manager over here. But, you know... Yeah. There you go. I like not being in the Bible Belt because this is where sinners are. This is where people20:36 who need the Bible are. And I know the Bible Belt has its own frustrations too. And if you're from the Bible Belt, I'm not disrespecting you at all. We need people there too preaching Jesus. But, man, let's not let's not20:47 demean our context. Like, let's be proud to present Jesus to New Englanders.20:52 Absolutely.20:53 Like, like, there's a lot of New Englanders that God is going to call to himself. God is going to save. God is going to change, and it's not too late. As long as we've got air in our breath,21:05 we're bringing the gospel to New England. Amen? Amen. Alright. So Paul brings the gospel to this crazy, hedonistic,21:16 sin saturated city and a church is planted. Well, he leaves. You saw there in Acts chapter eighteen, he leaves after about eighteen months. But then he hears word that the21:28 church that he left behind is fledgling, and they are seriously messed up. They are they are they are full of sin themselves. They have serious problems, and, basically, they're just... They're messed21:40 up. So that's why this title of this this talk is I thank God for my messed up church because Paul says here in chapter one verse four after his greeting to the21:52 Corinthian believers, he says, I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. I'm thankful, Paul says. I'm thankful for you messed up Corinthians.22:03 So my question to you, and we're gonna go to break, is this. And during the break, as you hear the music, please fill in the comments. Let me know what you think. Have you ever been part of a messed up church? Have you22:15 ever been part of a church that's just so, like, wacky, crazy? Like, you can't believe that Christians acted like that. If you have, let us know. Don't name names. Don't name names. But just fill in the blank or fill in22:26 the comment section, whatever you think, whatever comes to mind. Helps me give you some feedback as well. Alright. We're gonna go to break. We'll be right back.22:32 The deep end is presented by Waters Church in North Idelboro, Massachusetts. If you're looking for a church, we invite you to come check out one of our services on Saturdays at four PM and Sunday mornings at nine thirty22:43 and eleven thirty AM. And now back to the deep end.22:48 Alright. I didn't see any comments. What comments do we got? Do we got comments? Anybody can tell me the comments. No No comments. What's... What the22:55 We got comments. There's nothing about any crazy church.22:58 Oh, we'll keep an eye on.22:59 Alright. So for all of you people who have never belonged to a crazy church, let me tell you that I was part of a messed up church. My story is that I was raised in probably the most23:11 dysfunctional church in Western Massachusetts and, you know, even out of that, God raised me up to be a preacher. But we had some bad characters come through that church. We had some sexually23:23 immoral pastors like more than one like more than three and that's not an exaggeration I wish it was and not sexual immorality that you're like oh well I can understand you know this adultery happens23:34 no no no no worse than that And I don't even want to say it because, you know, I just don't want to disparage the past. I don't want to talk about it. It was bad. It was worse than what you think. Imagine the worst kind23:45 of sexual morality you could think of and times it by two. And that was my church upbringing. And yet out of that, God did a lot of good things. There's a lot of people that came out of church23:56 who still love Jesus, and I love Jesus and still doing ministry in the name of Jesus. But the point that I want to make is we can give thanks to God for a messed up church because messed up churches are24:08 all that there are. I mean, seriously, that's all that there are. Every church sins. It's just a matter of what kind of sin are they committing. Let me tell you about the Corinthian church because we're gonna find out24:17 through this letter as we walk through this letter, all sixteen chapters of it, how messed up they were. Number one, they were extremely divided. They had a huge sectarian philosophy. They didn't talk to each other. They24:29 prided themselves over one another. They had clicks. If you ever been part of a church with clicks, you know what I'm talking about. You don't feel like you're in. You feel like there's certain people that are really on24:37 the inside, and then there's outsiders. And you're an outsider, and there's no way you're gonna be on the inside and all that kind of stuff. That's Corinth. Secondly, they were highly sexually immoral. They were24:46 committing sins. Paul says that even the pagans who don't believe in Jesus would blush at. Like, pagans think that you're bad. It's pretty bad when Christians do something that even pagans24:58 are like, I can't believe you're doing that. So that was the Corinthians. We're gonna find that out later on in the series. They were getting drunk at the Lord's table. You heard that right. They were getting drunk at25:09 the Lord's table back in the old days and still in some churches today, you take wine, not grape juice, and the bread, and the... They would have love feasts back in those days. Like, we take a little cup, and you say,25:20 how can you get drunk in a cup, Wallace? It was... Back in the old days, it was big huge gallons of wine and and bread, and they would eat, and they would drink, and they would feast, and we call... They called it the25:28 Lord's Supper. Like, we have whittled it down just to that little little cup and a little piece of bread. But back in the old days, they would have a big huge feast called the Lord's Supper. And so what would happen is25:38 some people would just, like, chugging the wine and getting drunk in at communion. Wow. Like could you imagine that Brandon? No. Come into a church and there's people swinging from the25:50 chandeliers because they're high on alcohol or whatever you want to say and and and that was what was going on. And this church was seriously messed up. The church meetings were chaotic.26:02 They were spiritually like gifted with tongues and spiritual gifts and healings and all that kind of stuff and but yet their meetings were out of control. Lastly, there were... There's lot of other things.26:14 They were denying the resurrection. They were questioning Paul's apostleship. This was a messed up church. Messed up. And Paul says, I thank God for you. And and26:26 I wanna show you how you can be thankful for a messed up church. K. It's right here in the passage. It's right here in the passage. We got a question. How do you forgive a church who has hurt you26:38 and stay, or do you forgive and find a new church? It's a great question. I want you to I want you to think about it. Can you answer this question on your own after I tell you what Paul26:50 has said here. And I think you can, so stay with me because that's a great question. We've all been hurt by the church, but I'm I'm I'm... I tend towards stay with the church, but let's just explore a little bit27:02 more what Paul says here. So here's here's what he says. Give thanks. Verse four, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. Verse five, that in every way you were enriching him in all speech and all27:11 knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed among you so that you are not lacking any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ who will sustain you to the end guiltless in the27:21 day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. Okay. Can I can I share with you some thoughts just from that passage27:34 of what? Why we can be thankful for messed up churches, even churches that hurt us? Okay. Number one, every church has problems, but every church also has good things.27:46 Like, you know what I'm saying? You... When you deal with any human being, you are going to get good and bad. It's imperfect. Yeah. Think about yourself. I am absolutely sure27:58 that if I met you, I'd be like, wow. Really good this, that, the other thing. But if I got to know you a little bit more, eventually, we would both find our flaws in each other, and we would start not liking certain28:07 things about each other. That's how it is with every person I've ever met. And here's what Paul is saying. He says in verse five, in every way you were rich in speech and knowledge. And back up a little bit because look28:19 what he says in verse... If you got your Bibles up in verse two, back... Way back up, he says that these people in verse two were called to be saints together with all those who who call in the name of Lord Jesus28:31 Christ. And what he's basically saying is God has saved you, but he's also called you to become saints, to be sanctified. And this is an important thing for us to understand Christians.28:43 Two things God's gonna do in your life. The first thing is that he's gonna save you from your past. The second thing is that he's going to transform you in your present. And the third thing he's gonna do is gonna bring28:53 you to heaven and glorify you. Amen. But but what you need to understand though is that you've got to root yourself in what I like to call the spectrum of... Or find yourself in the29:05 spectrum of justification sanctification. Here's the cross in the middle. Alright? Let's just let's just walk this through for a minute. The cross is in the middle. On the left, I put legalism. Legalism is people who29:17 are always trying to do things to make sure they're still saved. Like in my mom's day, don't drink, smoke, chew. Don't play cards. Don't gamble. Don't go here. Don't go to the r eight29:29 movies. Don't wear dresses. Don't wear skirts. You gotta wear this, that, the other. I'm sorry. If you're a lady, don't wear pants. Don't wear, you know, all all kinds of things. And that's legalism. It's because you29:37 have missed out. You have forgotten that you are justified in faith. Jesus justifies us. He makes us right with God, period, in our past, washed away. But then past the cross,29:49 we wanna get sanctified. But there's something wrong if we don't embrace sanctification. Okay? Sanctification is the process by which God transforms us into new people over time.30:01 He justifies us in our past. He sanctifies us in our present. If we don't get sanctified, we'll turn into relevant... Relativists. Like... So legalism on this side, relativists on this side. And if you trend30:13 toward, you know, just, oh, I'm saved in the past. God forgave me, so now I can do whatever I want. You're gonna become a relativist. You're gonna do whatever you want. Now the problem with too much legalism is that it30:25 leads to despair. I got this little arrow right here. It leads to despair because you never feel like I'm good enough. I never feel like I'm there. I never truly feel saved. And if you're someone who says, I don't know30:35 if I'm really saved, you've got to root yourself in the fact that Jesus died for you once and for all. Your sins are forgiven. Period. End of story. And nothing you do takes30:47 away from that. Nothing you do adds to that. That work is accomplished permanently in your past. But sanctification is the process by which you move on from being just30:59 saved and being transformed. But if you don't get sanctified, you turn into a relativist, which is the problem of relativism is you just end up degraded. You... Because sin always just rocks your world. Sin makes you31:11 miserable. So justification in the past, and I have this little thing right here. I love this. Justification in my past. Can we put this on the screen here? Get this nice and... Sanctification in my31:23 present. God is changing me. Glorification in my future. There we go. Bam. Love that. That's like gold right there. Jesus has saved31:34 me. Now he's transforming me, and one day he will glorify me. So I say all that to say this. Every church is filled with people whose past31:46 is forgiven, but whose present is still getting changed. You gotta realize that. I would say don't give up on a messed up church. Here's why. You give up on a messed up church, you31:58 don't just lose the things that hurt you or bothered you. You lose the things that you liked about the church too. And if you're letting the things that hurt you, you know, kinda like baby with the bathwater32:10 thing, if you're letting the church that hurt you cause you to walk away totally from the church, if you really ask yourself, there may have been some good things about that church. Yeah. Like, did you have some friends32:22 there? Like, because I'm sure not everybody hurt you. Did you like the preaching there? Did you like the worship there? Did did you feel the presence of God there? Don't let one hurt,32:33 you know, ship you off.32:35 Giving too much weight to a negative for all the positives.32:37 Right. And I think that's with every relationship. Whenever you cut somebody off out of your life because you're hurt, because you're hurt, because you're mad. Oh, they did that. I can't believe they did that. And you32:46 cut them off. Like, you realize that there's also good that you're cutting off too. I mean, unless this person is like the second cousin to Lucifer himself. You you know, you need to have grace with people.32:58 And Art, I'll guarantee you, and I say this all the time. If you come to Waters Church, I guarantee you, we will hurt you. We will disappoint you because we were saved from our past, but we're being sanctified in our33:08 future. I mean, in our present in our present. And God is and God is doing that here in Corinth because Paul is gonna spend the whole... The bulk of this letter. He's gonna spend the bulk of this letter helping them33:19 through the process of sanctification. Here's what we gotta do about that sexual immorality in your life. Here's what we gotta do about getting drunk at the Lord's table. Here's what we gotta do about those divisions.33:28 And and the transformation happens through the word of God and the spirit of God changing you. But the second thing that I wanna say about those messed up churches is this. You will only find in a local33:39 church a place where you can be strengthened in your faith, where you can gain eternal perspective, and you can have an opportunity to grow in and exercise your spiritual33:51 gifts. Let me say those three things again. Strengthened in your faith, you will be given eternal perspective, and you will have opportunity to grow and develop your gifts from God. Strengthened in your34:03 faith. I get strengthened when I come to Waters Church. I get strengthened when I come to church, and I'm the preacher. I mean, I need other people around me who love Jesus. I only get that at the local church. Like, a34:13 lot of people just check out on the local church, and they listen to Hillsong in their car and podcasts on their phone. And it's like, fine. Let that be a supplemental vitamin, but don't let it replace that gathering of34:23 God's people. I need people to look at me and say, hey. How are you doing today? And we need do34:27 the same.34:28 Yeah. And I need and I need do that for other people. I need to be in relationship with people who love Jesus because it is lonely out there, friend. You probably watching this at your job saying, yeah.Show more
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