Video to come.
Morning Message Text: 1 Corinthians 2: 1-12
1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.
4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
Morning Message:
I know that I talk a lot about our priorities as followers of Jesus, but I truly believe that what the church needs today is a back-to-basics approach and a focus on the most important aspect of our faith. I do this myself and I know that this is common for most Christians. We get all tied up in the process of life: all of the little “should and should-nots” that we lose track of the larger purpose of our lives. We can get to the point where we are so busy with our routines that we forget about the reason we have them. When we get to that point, that’s when we can’t see the forest for the trees.
Maybe I can make this a little clearer with scripture. Listen to what Isaiah is saying to the people. He is relaying a message to Israel from God. “Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.” Why is God upset with his people? “For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways.” That doesn’t sound so bad. It sounds like they are doing the things that good followers should do, but wait for it, “as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.” What is God saying to them and maybe to us? God says this to them throughout the Old Testament, and I think we should consider these things carefully. Listen: “They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’” Come on now. Tell me that you have not felt this way. You may not say it out loud, but if you are like me, you have thought these same things. I don’t understand Lord; I went to church; I preached your message; I said my prayers every day; read your Word. Why is this happening to me?
Listen carefully to what God is saying to his people. “Yet on the day of your fasting,” (maybe on Sunday after worship) “you do as you please and exploit all your workers.” Maybe in our case, let me see, maybe we gossip about our neighbor or another brother or sister in Christ. Maybe we walk right by someone whom God is clearly calling us to help. “You cannot fast,” (worship) “as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.” God is questioning their true intentions. Is he questioning ours? Not me; don’t leave here today and say that rotten pastor just questioned my faith and dedication. This is between you and God, between me and God. Please listen carefully to the rest of this and allow it to sink in. “Is this the kind of fast,” (worship) “I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast,” (worship) “a day acceptable to the Lord?” Now I don’t want to read to you the whole list of things that God is chastising Israel for. There is a larger point here. Following Jesus comes from the heart. We know this, but it is so easy for us to get caught up in the routine of Christianity and miss the life of Christianity. We are so busy with the trees that we miss the overarching forest of God’s kingdom.
There are priorities, and then there are PRIORITIES. What do I mean by that? I will never stop trying to impress upon you the importance of worship, prayer, and reading God’s Word. These things are a must in order to live a successful Christian life and grow as God has called us to grow. These are the pillars of your faith and should be adhered to, but these are the small letter priorities of God’s kingdom life. Wow, I never thought that I would say such a thing to you. Please don’t take worship, prayer, and reading God’s Word lightly.
So, what is the capital letter PRIORITY? Today I am calling it: The Forest of God’s Kingdom. That may or may not make sense to you today, but God made sense of it to me. Christ Crucified. Christ and Him crucified is the most important message for the world to hear, and we are the ones charged with delivering that message to the world. Let’s look at what Paul is preaching when he preaches this message. Paul says, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” This was Paul’s only priority in his ministry: To know Christ and Him crucified. Paul was not a preacher because he enjoyed preaching or because he was brilliant at it. He was a preacher because he simply could not be anything else and still be in the will of God.
So what did Paul preach and how can we do the same? Four simple things that we must convey to the world. This is how we tackle the top priority of our Christian lives.
1. He revealed what a sinner is. We must call out sin for what it is.
2. He preached the true nature of sin something so heinous that it would take nailing the Son of God to the cross to set people free from it.
3. He preached the message of a Savior who willingly came to the cross and died to redeem sinners from sin’s penalty.
4. He preached the one and only way through which salvation comes — Jesus Christ.
We have a great priority in our walk with God. Every once in a while we need to push the limbs of the trees of our smaller priorities aside and be reminded of the mission: The huge forest of God’s kingdom that we are called to tend.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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