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Good morning.
If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
It's where we're going to be as we continue on in our study of this letter.
As you turn there, hopefully everybody was able to stop by and grab the elements for the
Lord's Supper.
If you did not, at the end of our message, we'll be taking the Lord's Supper together
as a church family.
And so if you're a believer, follower of Jesus Christ, whether you're a member of this church
or not, we'd like to give you that opportunity to do that with us.
And if you did not grab one, they're right back over here behind our camera area.
Pastor Dave is back there.
No one will judge you if you want to get up and go ahead and grab one, but would love for
you to have that.
It's been a practice that we've put into place for us the first Sunday of every month to obey
what God's called us to do in partaking of the Lord's Supper together.
And so our practice is we do that once a month.
If you're joining us at home, you know, grab what you can from your house and we will encourage
you to take this with us as well.
Well, it's been an interesting journey in 1 Corinthians.
I hope you're enjoying your quiet time of reading through this together.
I hope you're enjoying working through this with your small group.
And I know that I'm enjoying preparing as we go through this.
Now, what we're going to, what we're working toward, and I believe, yep, next week, we're
going to kind of get to some of these really practical examples of this church that is really
kind of crumbling within itself of some of the sinful practice that are beginning to take
root.
But what we've been looking at over these first four chapters is Paul, as he deals with
some of the divisions that are in the church.
And so week, actually week one, when we were at home for the ice storm that didn't really
happen, right, we kind of gave the background information.
And then the next week we came in, gathered together, we talked through chapter one.
And then last week we talked about chapter two.
Now, I didn't really get to go into chapter three.
So just kind of really quickly, I want to hit some high points because we need to understand
where Paul is going as we get into chapter four this morning.
Now, the whole time what we've been seeing is that Paul is dealing with, from the very
beginning, the divisions that were in the church.
And these divisions were over church leadership of different ones saying, you know, I follow
Paul.
Some saying, I follow Cephas, who is Peter.
Others saying, I follow Apollos.
And so we're navigating through as Paul's breaking that down and says, no, no, no, no, no, we're
following Christ.
It's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It's not the gospel of Paul.
It's the crucifixion of Christ.
It's the baptism in Christ's name.
And these are all things that we are pointing them to.
And so Paul's breaking down this church division by saying, no, no, no, it's not about following
man.
It's about following Christ.
And then in chapter three, what we missed, and I'm not going to do it justice.
And if you haven't, please spend some time reading in this.
But Paul shifts the conversation a little bit away from the overall church body of dealing
with the issues in the church body.
And he begins to explain biblical church leadership of what church leadership is there to do and
what church leadership is there to build on.
And this is what we've continued on in working in our church and every Bible-believing, Bible-following,
Christ-believing church.
And he says, first and foremost, that church leadership is there to do the work of God.
Like, that's what we're here for.
That's why we exist.
That's what we pray for.
That's what we long for.
That is, church leaders, we're not here to do our work.
We're not here to do your work.
We're here to do God's work.
But that it's a continual process.
And it's a continual thing that continues to grow and to function.
And so, church leadership is building toward the future.
All right?
And we see some healthy evidence of that, even in the context of who we are.
I don't know if you know the history of our church, of Willow Ridge Church, but Willow Ridge
Church was planted in 1979 out of Red Bank Baptist Church right down the road.
And what I love about that and what has continued on in the culture and DNA, and yeah, maybe people
aren't supposed to do this, but they are supposed to do this, right?
Let's talk really well about the church right down the road.
They've got a DNA built in and of themselves that says it's important that the gospel spreads,
that the kingdom spreads, and not just the kingdom of Red Bank Baptist.
And so, what Red Bank Baptist did in 1979 and continues to do today is they press toward
making sure the gospel is growing.
And so, they decided to do that in 1979 by planting Agape Baptist Church that would later
on become Willow Ridge Church.
And they planted them right down the road, right?
And they said, this is what's important and what we've seen from 1979 until today is the
continuation of church leadership building toward the future.
And so, it's not just for us, for tomorrow.
It's not just for us until next week.
It's not just for us until the next pastor comes and then it's a reset.
No, no, no.
It's continuing on building toward the future, but most importantly, with the foundation being
Christ.
And that everything is done that is done in his name and for his glory.
But what we see in this and what we love and what we celebrate within our family and within
the congregation of the church is that we build through people, through generations.
And so, I like to think of it like this, whether you're looking at your church family or you're
looking at your own family.
Like, I come from a generation, or generations, I'm sorry, of believers.
Now, that didn't earn me the right to be saved, okay?
So, my salvation is not passed down from my grandfather to my dad to me, right?
But my faith has been exhibited, has been modeled, and has been lived out for me.
And so, when I celebrate all that God is doing, I celebrate the generations of believers in
my family that God has blessed me with.
But it also reminds me of the incredible work that God is doing, and some of you in here today
fall into this category where you are the first generation believer in your family.
Like, you didn't, mom and dad didn't follow Christ.
Grandma and grandpa didn't follow Christ.
But yet, you choose to follow Jesus and are saved by him, that transforming work that is
there.
And so, you continue to build on that.
And that's what we celebrate and what we see.
So, now, as we look at chapter 4, which we're going to focus on this morning, Paul is going
to focus in on, in fact, if your Bible is like mine, it probably has some of these titles
that were added later on, we're not originally there.
But mine says, the ministry of the apostles.
And so, what Paul is going to do in chapter 4 is say, here's what we are here to do, but
also, more importantly, here's who we are to be.
And what I want to look at this morning and talk about is characteristics of church leadership.
But here's the deal.
While the context here is church leaders, so like, church, run this through the filter
of us as your leaders of who we are, of what we're doing, of what we're about.
Do you believe this to be who we are and who we claim to be and how we live our life?
But also, the application that I hope it hits for all of us is that we can take these truths
and apply them to any area of our life in which God has called us, equipped us, and positioned
us to lead, right?
So we're going to take these and we're going to apply these to your business world, to your
career path.
We're going to take these and apply these to your family context in which God has placed
you and in the community which you find yourself living in, right?
Because as a believer, there's not the church identity that we put on when we come into these
doors and say, this is who I am in Christ here.
But in all of these, we live for His name and to model these things wherever God calls
us and wherever God sends us, because all of these should reflect a life surrendered to
Christ.
So this isn't just like, hey, well, here's what I hold my small group leader to, my pastor
to, my elders to.
No, no, no.
Here's what God is saying that as leaders, that this is what God has called us to, and as
those who have surrendered to Christ, this is what we're going to model in our life.
So whether you're a nurse, whether you're a dad, whether you run the HOA in your neighborhood,
which pray for you, because I know that's difficult, right?
This is the standard that God calls you to as a believer.
We don't get to say, no, no, no, the business world's different.
We don't get to say, no, no, no, no, school's different.
We don't get to say, no, no, no, no, my home is different, my neighborhood is different.
No, no, no, no, God's called us to believers and live out his faithfulness with where we
are.
So let's start reading 1 Corinthians 4 verse 1.
Paul says, this is how one should regard us, talking about leadership here, as servants
of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
All right, so a couple of things that we want to look at from these two verses.
Number one of what Paul points us to as leaders, who we are to be, is faithful servants.
Faithful servants.
Paul defines his primary servant here as being a servant to Christ.
Yes, there is a call to serve one another.
Like, we can't eliminate that from scripture continually over and over again.
We are called to, we are challenged to serve one another in the body.
So we serve each of us in the context of our church family, of who we are.
And we are called to serve out of here to others who are part of the other church's bodies,
to those who are not part, to those who are lost.
We are called to serve.
But Paul says here that the primary servant of who we serve from is that we are servants of Christ.
And this is the primary expectation for our life.
So why does this matter?
Why do we understand that most importantly, that our service is aligned with him and him alone?
A couple things that I'm able to draw from this.
Number one is then when I serve you, out of understanding that primarily I'm a servant of Christ,
then I'm no longer serving you out of selfish motivation.
I'm no longer serving you because of what you can bring, what you can give, or how you can benefit me.
Right?
It's what matters because I'm not serving you.
You aren't my object.
You aren't my focus.
Christ is.
And so I'm not serving you out of selfish motivation.
But then also within this, I can now serve those who seek to do me harm.
I can now serve those who seek to persecute me.
Or let's maybe talk a little bit more of our sinful tendencies in life.
I can now serve those that I just don't like.
All right?
If we're called to go out and serve the world, we would admit there are those that are easy to serve.
And we would also admit that there are those difficult to serve.
But if our service is not aimed at them, if our service is aimed at Christ, then we can serve them.
So you are not the bullseye for me.
My wife is not the bullseye for me.
My kids are not the bullseye for me.
My neighbors aren't the bullseye for me.
No, no, no, no.
Christ is.
And so I serve you out of my love and of my obedience to him.
So it does not matter the positives or negatives of which you bring because you are not my object of service.
That Christ is.
And that's the serving that we call to.
So I'm going to begin by asking you this.
How are you doing in serving?
As leaders, what does that look like?
How are you serving your family?
How are you serving at work?
How are you serving in the community in which God has placed you, right?
In your neighborhood, at your ball teams, at your dance studios, where God has.
Like, how are you serving within this?
Are we receiving or are we serving?
And then the next thing that Paul talks about in these verses is he calls us not only to be a faithful servant,
but he calls us also to be a faithful steward, right?
Now, again, when we talk about stewardship, oftentimes we think about something else.
When we talk about money, right?
How to be obedient, how to be responsible with the financial matters that God has entrusted you with.
How are you a good steward of those?
And that is biblically true.
That's what we are to do.
We are to take the money that God gives us, that God blesses us with, and we are to be a steward of that.
We're not to just be a saver.
We're not just to be a spender.
We're not just to be a giver.
But in all of those, we look at this and say, God, this is what you blessed me.
How am I a steward of this?
But Paul here is talking about a different type of stewardship, right?
He's talking about one that is going to specifically point to the eternal matters which are at hand.
And he says, as leaders, that we are stewards of the mercies of God.
I'm sorry, the mysteries of God.
And he's talking about what we looked at last week with the gospel.
So how are you being a steward of the gospel?
How are you looking as what God has given you, what God has granted you to be a steward of that with where God has placed you?
One of the things I heard a guy talk about one time that I really loved and that clung to me and this visual stuck to me is he said, regardless of who you are, regardless if you're the boss or the employee, regardless if you're the wealthiest or the poorest, regardless of if you're the oldest or the youngest, where God has placed you is around you as a circle of influence.
That every time, every time, every day, every moment in your life, there's opportunities that God has given you to influence those around you.
And he's talking about this is the true aspect of leadership, that in this, how are you leading people in your circle of influence?
And so church, I want to ask you, how are you doing in your circle of influence with the gospel that you've been entrusted with?
What does that look like in your life?
Are you working to have gospel conversations, seeking to serve so that the moment opens up and then when God graciously opens the door to have those conversations, are you taking them?
Are you taking them so that you can share?
Are you taking them so that you can lead people, draw people to the beautiful gospel that God has entrusted you with, right?
That this is what he has for us, and this is what we are to do.
And I love that in both of these, in both being a servant and to being a steward, the challenge isn't to simply be those.
But there was a word that I added to each one of those that we pulled from for scripture, and it says that we are to be faithful in both, right?
And so I thought, what does it mean to be faithful?
What does it mean to be faithful?
What does it mean to be faithful to your spouse?
What does it mean to be faithful to your employer?
What does it mean to be faithful to God?
That it's not simply something that we do, but it's who we are.
That what we are seeking is not to have actions of being a servant, of actions of being a steward, but that through the power of the gospel, it's simply who we are, right?
I don't have to be reminded that I need to be faithful to my wife.
Because I know because it's who I am, because of what God is doing in me, right?
And that's what Paul is reminding, that in these, that we are found faithful.
It's not necessarily just what we do, but it's who you are consistently.
And there's an important reason for this.
Let's look at verse 3.
Paul says,
But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.
In fact, I do not even judge myself.
For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.
It is the Lord who judges me.
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.
Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
I have applied all these things to myself and to Paulos 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's so much in this.
But as I look at leadership, one of the things that I want us to all be acknowledged and see within us is that we are accountable.
We are accountable.
As leaders, every single one of us is accountable.
So let's look in areas.
Inside the church, I'll look at myself and then outside the church, right?
In business, in your employment, you're accountable to those who employ you, right?
Now, here's where it is for me.
I'm accountable to you.
I'm accountable to our elders.
I'm accountable to the lay leadership and to the congregation of the body of Christ.
Let's say that I am accountable to them and to you, right?
The second, in your family, right?
You're accountable to those in your family.
Kids, you're accountable to your parents.
Parents, you're accountable to your kids.
Spouses, you're accountable to each other.
I'm accountable to my wife.
I'm accountable to my kids.
And they are accountable to me.
In my community, I'm accountable to the people of Lexington as a believer and follower of Jesus Christ.
To be the neighbor that God has called me to be.
To live in grace and truth and to seek to live in harmony with all.
That's the accountability that God has placed me in.
And that's the accountability that I have.
But what Paul is talking about here, again, is like in the mindset of serving.
Ultimately, though, I and you, before my wife, before you, before my kids, before my community, before everyone else,
ultimately and supremely, I am accountable to God.
This is who I answer to, and this is who I will ultimately answer to.
Look at Midway 3, verse 5.
Paul says, God will bring to life the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.
Then each one will receive his commendation from God, right?
I want to ask you this.
This has been the question that has hit me the hardest this week.
Are you ready to give an account for how you lead in the circles of influence in the areas that God has entrusted you with?
In your work, in your home, in your church, in your family, in your community.
Are we open to the fact that we are accountable to God, right?
When we look at the parable of the talents that Jesus shares, he gives some talents, and some go, and they grow them, and one goes and buries them.
And the point as we navigate through this parable is Jesus comes back, the master comes back, and says, what did you do with these?
I entrusted you with this.
What did you do with this?
What did you do with the gospel?
As stewards of the gospel in your business, what is your end goal?
As stewards of the gospel in your family, what is your end goal?
As stewards of the gospel in your community, what is your end goal?
If your goal is to grow your business so that you can retire wealthy and comfortable and fat, right, then we're missing it.
If the goal of my family is to raise athletes and scholars, ultimately, then we're missing it.
If the goal of my community is just so that everyone will like me, or maybe on the other side, right, for some of us, that no one will like me, right, then we're missing it.
As stewards of the gospel in business, in my family, I'm going to tell you, I want my kids to thrive and succeed in so many areas.
I'm having a hard time this weekend.
They turned 14, which just makes me realize they're even closer to being 18 and being out of the house, and that's going to be a bad day, and I'm going to take a lot of time off for that, right?
Still praying through a homeschool model for college, right?
But I want them to thrive and I want them to succeed.
Don't miss me on that.
But more importantly, who I want them to be is who they are in Christ and impacting lives for the sake of the gospel beyond anything else.
Beyond anything else.
Does the goal of your business, does the goal of your career have a centeredness around the gospel?
Does the goal where you live and the goal of your community, does it have a centeredness for the gospel?
Because we will be accountable for these.
Another trait, let's keep reading verse 7, a characteristic of leadership.
For who sees anything different in you?
What do you have that you did not receive?
If you then received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
Already you have all you want.
Already you have become rich.
Without us, you have become kings.
And with that, you did reign so that we might share the rule with you.
For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.
We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ.
We are weak.
You are strong.
You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.
To the present hour, we hunger and thirst.
We are poorly dressed, buffeted, and homeless.
And we labor without working with our own hands.
When reviled, we bless.
When persecuted, we endure.
When slandered, we entreat.
We have become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
As leaders, we're called to be humble.
Now, I could talk a lot about humility in areas where God has grown me, needs to grow me, in areas that God points out to all of us very evidently and very clearly in Scripture.
And we haven't arrived.
And I feel like that's what we've done a lot over the last several weeks.
But I just want to kind of hit one high point, especially concerning the gospel here.
I want you to look back at verse 7.
For who sees anything different in you?
What did you do that you did not receive?
If you then received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
I'm going to paint this picture for you, if I can.
My grandfather, who many of you know, I talk about him often.
He passed away years ago, right before Aaron and I got married.
He served in the Army, served during World War II, was a part of a lot of different historical, well-known battles.
And before he died, he actually gave to me a lot of the things that he had been able to keep and been able to salvage from his military career.
He got pictures, he got some weapons, he got different things from his uniform.
And one of the things that he gave to me that I hold very dear to my heart are the bars from his uniform.
Got them in a storage area in my closet where they'll be kept safe.
And the way I lose things all the time, honestly, not be lost, right?
It's what he entrusted to me.
It's what he gave to me.
Now, let's say there's a 4th of July celebration this summer.
And I decide I'm going to put those on my shirt.
I'm going to go out and I'm going to wear those.
That wouldn't be right, would it?
That's not what I've been called to do.
That's not what I've been trusted with.
Why?
Because I didn't earn them.
I wasn't the one on the battlefield.
I wasn't the one that was paying the price.
But instead, I've been entrusted by the one who did that to hold on to those.
And that when I see those, when I'm reminded of those, to share the story of not only him,
but so many different men and women who made the sacrifices that they made
so that you and I could experience the life that we experience here.
But if I were to talk about them, they were mine, that would be a lie.
Because I didn't earn them.
And Paul says this.
Why do you, as a person who received the gospel,
treat it as if it's something that you did not receive, as if it's something that you earned?
It's our humility that even our standing of what we find in Christ
is that this is what he did.
And this is why we live in the way that we live for the glory of his name.
We've been entrusted with something to share, to reflect, to show,
and to point people not to us, but to someone else.
The ultimate sign of humility.
And then lastly, let's finish reading out the chapter, starting in verse 14.
Paul says this.
I love these verses.
Now, Paul's going to really lay the smack down on the rest of these, all right, these chapters.
And here's how I start this off.
I do not write these things to make you ashamed,
but to admonish you as my beloved children.
For though you have countless gods in Christ,
you do not have many fathers.
For I became your father in Christ through the gospel.
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.
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 these arrogant people, but their power.
For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power.
What do you wish?
Shall I come to you with a rod,
or with love in the spirit of gentleness?
When we look at this passage of scripture,
what is commonly referred to,
and what we oftentimes see,
is this element of church discipline.
That here's what Paul is coming to do
as there's this church that's gone off the rails.
That there's this church that's missing it.
And that the rest of what we're going to see here
are these punishments that are being leveraged
from Paul to them
because of how bad they are
and how wrong they're doing things.
And I don't believe at all that's the goal of what we're to see here.
I think his leadership is what Paul pours into
of what we're going to see in these eight verses right here
is that Paul is pointing to leadership being disciple makers.
And that's the goal of what we are to do.
When Jesus entrusted us with the Great Commission,
he calls us to go and make disciples.
That's what we're to do.
We are to go and to make disciples.
And what we see from here
is if we're going to be a leader in the sake of the gospel,
if we're going to be a leader in seeking to make people follow Christ
in our work,
in our home,
in our communities,
that there's some evidence of what we need to be able to see
from ourselves
as the Great Commission calls us to this.
The first thing that we're to be,
that we are to see in our lives
is what we call a spiritual parent.
In order to be a disciple maker,
we must be a spiritual parent.
Look at verse 14 and 15.
I do not write these things to make you ashamed.
Let's pause for a second.
Parents,
in your love for your child,
do you ever seek shame in their life?
No.
It destroys,
it breaks down,
it'll ruin them.
Shame is the opposite of the gospel.
Shame is what Christ came to work against.
Shame is what the devil uses to bring us down.
I do not write these things to make you ashamed.
But to admonish you as my beloved children, right?
Paul says,
there's going to be some correction that takes place.
For though you have countless gods in Christ,
you do not have many fathers.
For I became your father in Christ through the gospel.
And so what Paul's saying is that
we don't need more gods.
You've got gods.
I would argue if the church at Corinth had gods,
you and I have way more gods than they have, right?
Thank you.
Podcasts,
bookstores,
right?
Facebook,
like everything else.
It ain't hard for you and I
to go and to seek out gods
that are going to appoint us
but not go on the journey with us.
And Paul says,
but that's who we are.
We're not called as disciple makers
to simply be those that speak truth
and say go figure it out.
We've got those.
But we don't have many fathers.
And so if you're here and you're a leader,
I want to ask you a question.
Are you a god or are you a parent?
Now, yeah,
there's going to become a point in time
a lot sooner than I'm probably wanting to be
or are comfortable to be.
Even in some areas
that I'm already seeing
in my life with my kids
where there's those moments of,
all right,
it's time to go.
It's time to grow those wings.
It's time to lead out.
It's time,
this is what God needs you to do,
right?
But at no point in time
am I not here with you.
Maybe not physically
but there's not a point in time
that I'm not with you
in my prayers,
in my minds,
in my heart
and that I'm always available for you.
And that's what it means
to be a spiritual parent.
I want to ask you, church,
in your life,
here in our context,
in your home,
in your job,
in your community,
who are you looking
to not be a guide to,
to simply be a person
that points out
and says do better,
but who are you looking
to come alongside?
Don't be a guide,
be a parent.
The second thing
is be an example.
Look at verse 16 and 17.
I urge you,
then be imitators of me.
Pause for a second.
This is not the arrogance of Paul
that says this,
but this is the confidence
of Paul in Christ,
all right?
Verse 17,
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.
So Paul says
it's important
to be an example.
Parents,
look at your kids
and be able to say,
can you say,
you want to know
what it looks like
to follow the Lord?
Look at me.
Look at your mom.
Look at us.
Be imitators of us.
At work,
can you look at those
around you
in the meetings
when the sense
of anger,
of stress
begins to rise
and you say,
no, no, no,
it's going to be different.
Be imitators of Christ.
Watch how I imitate him
in this.
This is what Paul
brings us to
that you and I
are living examples
and what Paul
is pointing to here.
He says,
be imitators of me
because that's why
I sent you
Timothy.
We were having
our staff
Bible study
with this
this past week
and I asked
one of our
staff members,
Joel.
Joel Van Ham
knows how to fix
way more things
than I do.
More mechanically
inclined,
can build things,
do all those things
and Joel is doing
a wonderful job
within that
of pouring these
things into
his son Jacob.
He's teaching,
he's modeling,
this is what he's
doing in his life
and I asked
Joel,
I was like,
if I wanted
to learn this
from you,
who would I ask
to be taught?
Would I ask you
or would I ask Jacob?
And he sat there
and he had an honest
assessment of the
situation.
He goes,
no, no, no,
no, it would be me
and that's what so
many of us would do,
right?
I know how to do
this,
come to me.
But Paul says,
when we're this
example of who
God has called
us to be,
that I've invested
so much into
my spiritual son
in the faith,
Timothy,
that that's why
I sent him to you.
When we go back
and we look at
the generations
of faith that
are built,
it's because of
the poured in,
the replication
of a spiritual
parent,
the reproduction
of new believers
in Christ
so that our
examples
don't end
with us
but our examples
continue on
and continue on
and continue on.
And then lastly,
as a disciple
maker,
we're a corrector.
We're a corrector.
verse 18,
some are arrogant
as though I were
not coming to you.
Paul's like,
oh, and by the way,
I'm coming on my way.
We're going to find
out all of this
for myself.
But I will come
to you soon
if the Lord wills
and I will find
out not the talk
of these arrogant
people but the power
for the kingdom
of God does not
consist in talk
but in power.
what do you wish?
Shall I come to you
with a rod
or with a spirit
of love
and gentleness?
And so Paul gives them
the challenge
to change.
Paul gives them
the challenge
to change.
And he says that
in this,
as this spiritual parent,
in this,
as this example
that I'm coming.
it hit me this week
when we talk
about disciplining
a behavior.
So someone does
something wrong,
our kids do
something wrong,
our employee
does something wrong,
our peer
does something wrong,
someone in our life
that discipline
is appropriate.
Why do we do that?
Why do we do it?
Well, what we see
in scripture
and in the context
is we don't
discipline
to punish.
We discipline
to correct.
And this is
what Paul's seeking.
That I seek
to discipline you,
I seek to bring
this to you
because here's
what God
wants from you.
Right?
I had a pastor
say this one time
and it's just stuck
with me
and embedded
into my heart.
He says,
when I see
my kids
and my wife
and my church
people
sin
it hurts
my heart
not because
I'm mad
but because
they've chosen
the lesser thing
instead of the
greater thing
of God.
They've chosen
the lesser thing
and not the
correct thing
for the Lord.
And so Paul says
as we're going to go
through this
and as you're
going to see
all of these
different things
that are here
it's not that
I want to punish
you
Paul says
it's that
I want to
correct you
so that you
see the life
that God
has called you to.
As we go
over these next
several weeks
and we continue
to navigate
through these
chapters in
1 Corinthians
I want to be
honest with you
there's going to
see like
time and
time again
the areas
that are
foreign
from where
we are
in our
world
with what
we're doing
but the
truth of the
matter
it reigns
true
into who
we are.
are we taking
these
and applying
these
in our
circles of
influence
where God
has called
you to.
Let's pray.
God I
thank you so
much for
this time
that we
could be
here
together
to be
into your
word.
Lord I
thank you
for the
wonderful
opportunity
that you
give us
to study
your
word.
Lord I
pray that
you would
open up
our eyes
and our
hearts
to the
different
areas of
the circles
that you
have
provided
us
where we
can live
for your
glory
and for
your
name
in a
way that
points
people to
you
and shares
the hope
of the
gospel
with them.
And it's
in Jesus
name we
pray.
Amen.
You know
one of the
things that
we want
to continue
to remind
ourselves
of is
not only
the price
that Christ
paid for
us but
the life
that he
calls us
to.
And so
if you
want to
go ahead
and take
the elements
of the
Lord's
Supper
that we
have
we're just
going to
pause for a
few moments
before we
continue in
worship
before we
respond in
any way
and show
our
gratitude
and our
thankfulness
and humility
before him
we did not
earn our
salvation
but we
were gifted
it
and we
receive it
with joy
and with
thanksgiving
and so if
you take
your bread
the bread
that represents
the body
of Christ
who paid
the price
that you
and I
deserved
who died
the death
that you
and I
deserved
and he
did it
for us
scripture says
that Jesus
on the night
that he was
betrayed
he took
bread
and when he
gave him
thanks
he broke
it
he said
this is my
body
which is
for you
do this
in remembrance
of me
amen
and then
Jesus
would take
the cup
that would
represent
his blood
the blood
that was
spilled
so that you
and I
would be
washed
clean
made right
to stand
before God
and he
says
in the same
way
he took
the cup
after the
supper
saying
this cup
is the
new
covenant
in my
blood
do this
as often
as you
drink it
in remembrance
of me
let's pray
Jesus
we thank
you
for the
price
that you
paid
so that
we
may be
made
right
before God
Lord
would we
live
in the
expectation
that you
have
for us
to be
a faithful
servant
of you
and a
faithful
steward
of the
gospel
Lord
may we
live our
life
knowing that
we are
accountable
to you
ultimately
and to
approach
this world
those around
us
and you
the grace
and humility
that we
understand
of who
we are
it is not
through our
own works
that we're
made right
but it's
through your
work on the
cross
that you
made us
right
let me
rest in
that
Lord
would we
live in
the boldness
of being
a disciple
maker
what that
means
not
seeking
just to
God
but
Lord
seeking
to be
the parent
that walks
alongside
correcting
being the
example
living
for your
name
so that
we can
see the
reproduction
of the
power
of the
gospel
in the
lives
of so
many
Lord
we thank
you for
the joy
to serve
you
and to
worship
you
Lord
as we
respond
in worship
that it
would be
done
out of a
life
surrendered
to you
it's in
Jesus name
we pray
amen
there's
prayer
encouragers
on either
side of
our
auditorium
this
morning
if you
came in
here with
a burden
needing
someone to
pray with
you
they would
love to
pray with
you
if you
came in
here this
morning
and want to
talk to
someone about
a relationship
with Christ
they'd love to
talk to you
about that
we just ask
that you
simply respond
to God
as he leads
you this
morning
would you
stand
as we
worship
thanks
thanks again
for listening
to the
Willow Ridge
Church
weekly
podcast
we hope
that you
enjoyed
listening
to this
week's
message
if you'd
like to
learn more
about who
we are
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