Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, September 10, 2024. hose crazy Corinthians – Part 3
Good Morning, Good Morning my brothers and my sisters and welcome to Turning on the Lights for Tuesday September 10, 2024.
Today we dive back into that messed-up church in Corinth and all the ways that Paul the Apostle tries to help them.
You can be a Christian and choose to follow more of the world than of God’s will – this text proves that; and in so doing the text also forces us to ask and answer some tough questions about our own relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
I pray that this talk both strengthens and challenges you in your discipleship.
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, September 10, 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, September 10, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Good morning. Good morning. My brothers and my sisters. It is Tuesday, September 10 of 2024 September, a big birthday month September 11th. I think we have four people in the congregation four or five September 12th. We have my daughter. Hey, Olivia. It’s your birthday week. Here we are at the Church Town Church of God in the sanctuary being observed by our closed circuit security cams. Don’t worry. It’s closed circuit. They are not wireless. So we don’t get spy on anybody. I’m just being silly. I’m sitting here like a congregation. Remember this is what it looks like we had an American flag up there because we did a 911 tribute. There’s our beautiful pianos one electronic one not the one that’s not electronic was tuned up last week and serviced. Here’s the beautiful altar of the church. Oh, here’s me again. I’m telling you man. Let me get you up here on the tripod so you’ll be nice and steady at least. I think you will be you never really know. Oh, I’m gonna cough again. It’s just the way of the world these days. Got a frog in my throat. There we go. I think I got the frog out. How are you doing? Happy Tuesday. Welcome to turning on the lights. If you’re watching on YouTube or if you’re watching live first of all, hello. Hello. If you’re watching on YouTube, hello. Hello. If you’re listening to the podcast on Apple podcast or Spotify turning on the lights just look it up. Hello. Hello. It’s good to be with you today. It is a beautiful week a beautiful week and a lot of different ways heading into the weekend where I should have a little bit of a motorcycle ride on Saturday and we should have the big church picnic on Sunday. Looking forward to that. It’s always quite the shindig and if you’ve never been here to church town, you come for the picnic. It’ll be awesome. We’ll feed you. You’ll hear you’ll be fed by the word and fed some good chicken. Nothing better than that. Lord you are better than that and we thank you. We honor you. We hope and pray that we glorify you and what we do and what we say we pray your word will go out this day that through your church universal your word will go out every day and your spirit will inhabit more and more individuals as your kingdom grows in Jesus name. Amen. Good morning Mary. Good morning everybody welcome welcome welcome to the church. We are speaking of the church. We are looking at the church in Corinth. We began talking last week at first and second Corinthians and the the books right. We call them books the letters that they are and and kind of how different they are. Good morning Renee. Good morning. We had a nice talk Sunday afternoon. Tell your daughter to get back to me. I sent the I sent the wedding out. They need to they need to get back to me. Anywho, that’s the whole side stuff. Maybe I shouldn’t have even said anything. Don’t do business over the live stream. There’s probably some sort of rule about that that I just violated, but I violated a lot of rules almost violated a big rule on Sunday. I’d be in all fired up Sunday and almost almost let the old football coach in me come out and and slip a couple of times because I get fired up. Reading the Gospels right now reading through Ezekiel right now and reading through Corinthians right now and where I am in all of those places. Boy, it is just I just keep reading over and over again our failures as God’s children. Not just the human race, but our failures as his children, Old Testament, the chosen people of Israel, New Testament, those who are inhabited by the very spirit of God. Those who profess to be the temple of God those who profess to be in the kingdom of God. It’s not like I’m reading scripture and it’s telling me how awful things are without God. It does that, but that’s not what I’m reading. I’m reading how awful people treat God. After professing faith in him after being inhabited by his Holy Spirit. And not just all of the wacko stuff and you can find the wacko stuff everywhere. If you wanna find a lot of the wacko stuff, there’s a great Facebook page and it’s a YouTube channel. The Holy Nope the Holy Nope and he’s a he’s a very well grounded Orthodox Christian who addresses a lot of the movements in Christianity. For those of you who are just listening air quotes Christianity today in all of the different ways that people are trying to make a different buck in all of the different ways that shepherds are misleading their flocks in all of the different ways that people are abusing other people within the church. And the more things change the more they stay the same. We’re reading about that in Ezekiel and and he is and God is speaking through Ezekiel about placing Ezekiel as a watchman. We’re actually gonna look at that scripture on Sunday, placing Ezekiel as a watchman on the wall and tells him if you follow me if you are truly following me, then you will do as I say and he says yes, I will you will share my word with the people. Yes, I will. He says that as a watchman if you share the word and they turn their back on me, that’s on them, not you. But if you have a relationship with me and you refuse to share the word that’s on you their death in hell, their blood so to speak is on your hands and the more things change the more they stay the same. Today we have Christianity and culturally it’s been marginalized to the point where we’re afraid in many cases to say that we even say that we’re Christian now you see a resurgence, which is refreshing after all of that debacle at the Olympics. I saw a resurgence there you know individuals who are not afraid even though they were being suppressed to not say anything about glory going to Christ. I see a resurgence in professional athleticism and for individuals who have platforms who over the past decade or more with these platforms as these platforms were growing talking about social media. We’re very very afraid to do anything or say anything Christian because of the cultural suppression the cultural marginalization of Christianity, but you’re seeing a resurgence of that and I pray that that is an inspiration for all the church. I pray that that is an inspiration for all Christians. You hear politician after politician after politician trying to use and misuse Christianity, Scripture, faith in general to try to garner support over here, garner support over there, say the right thing over here, say the right thing over there and they’re diametrically opposed to one another. Those are not good examples. That’s manipulation. That’s abuse. And that you know those are that you know when Ezekiel after he’s talking about being the watchman goes on and talks about how the shepherds. Are abusing the flock and again he says all you can do is what I ask you to do you must share the truth with these shepherds who are being awful and you must share the word of God with their flocks right the people so we’re talking about the priests and the people of old and all you can do is what I ask you to do. I will do the rest if I deem it my will if it is my will and so we say in the New Testament all the time if we just do what we’re called to do and we trust that God will do what he promises to do according to his will he now we can’t say what he promises to do and then say well, that’s what I would do like interject what I would do. But if we have faith and we talked a lot about that last Sunday. Right Jesus and his his sovereignty over life itself and time and time and time again people who are his followers. Have no faith in him and we even read when he gets to Lazarus how he is angered by this the people closest to him fail a test of faith blame him for Lazarus’s death. They just want to use him to keep Lazarus alive. And he’s like oh man he’s angered and deeply troubled the scriptures say. By our behavior by our lack of faith by our constantly our constant desire to wield the power of God ourselves and that’s one of the most. Largest areas where false teachers do their thing today, you can wield the power of God. This power is available to you for your use for whatever purposes you want. No the power is available to you to live life and live it to the full and live out your calling as a child of God. Performing his will on earth not yours. His power dwells within you. Yes, and it is for him to wield on earth as you are his hands and his feet. Not for you to command so that you can get what you want. So you see how things get twisted. And so we read this again in Corinthians, dear brothers and sisters. I am in chapter three now we finished up chapter two talking about God turning everything upside down right so that the gospel itself is offensive to the Jews and the Gentiles. They constantly demand signs and wonders and what’s the biggest movement under the umbrella of Christianity today is that movement of the new apostolic reformation as it’s called or different things hyper charismatic. It’s you want signs and wonders you need signs and wonders. Oh, I have great faith, but I need signs and wonders almost constantly. And clearly that is the opposite of what scripture teaches so anyway, dear brothers and sisters when I was with you, I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. That’s interesting. I had to talk as though you belong to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk not with solid food because you weren’t ready for anything stronger and you still aren’t ready. For you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other doesn’t that prove you’re controlled by your sinful nature. Aren’t you living like people of the world when one of you says I am a follower of Paul another says I follow Apollos aren’t you acting just like people of the world. Now this is very very interesting. Good morning, Sandy. He’s speaking into the church and this is always one of the first points I make when we talk about the epistles is he’s speaking into the church. He’s in some of those letters. He’s contrasting it with the wicked world and the darkness of the world and what the world looks and acts and sounds like. But he is speaking the word of God into the gathering the congregation the church the ecclesia those who are gathered and assumedly are followers of Jesus. So can Christians true Christians who are in dwelled by the power of God’s Holy Spirit behave as though they belong to the world? Yes being in dwelled by the power of God’s Holy Spirit doesn’t mean that you have the nature of God. It means that you are simultaneously sinner and Saint it means that you must be intentional as we always talk about in your relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It means that you must pray it means that you must grow in the word. It means that you must learn and grow and become the disciple the human being the follower of Christ that he knows you can be but. You will always have that capability of putting that on hold and saying no wait a minute. I’m going after this shiny thing over here. Now we talked again. I can’t remember the last Sunday or the Sunday before. Oh yeah, this is Sunday before especially because we were talking about him having a God Jesus having sovereignty over the spiritual realm and him casting out demons in God’s image bearers his image bearers. Now when we move to the post Pentecost when we move to the reality that God’s spirit indwells us know Christians cannot be possessed by both the Holy Spirit of God and demons at the same time image bearers of God most certainly yes. Spiritual warfare coming against us from the outside pressing in yes demonic forces working against us sharing lives through other people and other sources putting maybe just allowing us right. We we we had demonic forces only have the power that we would allow them to have over us and so when that notion slips in that you are useless and worthless and all of those different things allowing it to go and continue is what is damaging. When we should be turning away consciously as scripture teaches capturing our thoughts consciously controlling our feelings and turning to Christ. So I hope that that makes sense. It doesn’t mean that you’re possessed by a demon. It means that you as simultaneously sinner and Saint are susceptible to sin. You’re susceptible to intrusive negative thoughts. You’re susceptible to perceiving things a certain way that everybody’s out to get you and that this whole Christian thing is not for you. But if you are possessed by the Holy Spirit of God, you are not also possessed by a demon no room in that house. So he’s talking up to these folks. He says I had to speak to you as people of the world because you’re acting as people of the world and I had to bring you along very slowly giving you milk spiritual milk because right now you’re following your teachers, not the Christ. And again we revert to a gigantic area under the umbrella of Christendom where false teachers step in and become it becomes cultish. You are following me the teacher the preacher the master of this domain. I’m invoking the power of God supposedly. But really I’m saying I am his vessel follow me and I will intercede on your behalf to him. That’s not the way it works. Paul’s trying to cut this off nip it in the bud as we would say I follow Paul. I follow Apollos. And then you know the scripture after all who is Apollos who is Paul. We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the good news each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts and Apollos watered it, watered it, but it was God who made it grow if we only do. Oh awesome. Yeah, I follow called Carl on social media as well. We’ve chatted a few times, but that’s awesome. And right there is where I get that idea. We do what we’re called to do and we trust that God will do what he promises to do in accordance with his will. We are vessels right whether you are invocational ministry right whether you have the gift of pastoral leadership or not as a disciple of Christ, you are a vessel. In which God’s Holy Spirit dwells in you are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ again on earth. Does that make sense living according to his will doing what he wills? How do you know that because you’re growing deeply in relationship with him through prayer through godly conversation through meditation of the word. We discern God’s will for our lives. And we must be very intentional and again here, let’s let’s look at the contrast of that as we’ve been doing today under the dome of Christendom. There are those then another strain you just wanna make that easy. God told me God gave me a word for you or you’re teaching the idea that God will speak audibly directly verbally to individuals. If only you had faith, you’re persuading individuals to hear things that aren’t there. You’re persuading individuals to think things that God’s not motivating them to think. The individual must grow in their relationship as they grow closer to the Lord. The sheep will hear my voice, Jesus says. You will hear his voice speaking in your spirit. Granting you peace when you’re torn with the decision and you this brings me peace. This side of that decision brings me turmoil. You will be able to discern God’s will sometimes a very strong sense of calling and things happen very quickly. Sometimes not so much. And you’re called to tend to your wife, your husband, your family. You’re called to intervene on behalf of friends, coworkers. There’s your church. There’s your calling. You’re called to be a wonderful example of a disciple of Christ period. There’s your calling and as you move through this world, what do we always say here in turning on the lights? You may be the only Bible that some people ever read. What are they reading? What are they learning about Jesus about Christianity about the truth? Those are valid things to get in front of the mirror and ask ourselves and again we see here the fundamental. Fissure in the church in Corinth is that they’re following the teachers instead of the Christ. Good morning. Because of God’s grace to me, this is verse ten of chapter three because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it, but whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful for no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have, Jesus Christ, my firm foundation. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials, gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw, but on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward, but if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames. Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you. God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple for God’s temple is holy and you are that temple. He’s speaking to followers of Christ saying, don’t you know that you are indwelled by the very power that raised Christ from the dead, the Holy Spirit of God. Doesn’t that mean anything to you or are you going to continue to live as though you are not? Are you going to as many people do want salvation as fire insurance and they do not want to grow any closer to our holy God. They do not want to engage in intentional relationship with him. They want the best, shall we say, of both worlds, salvation and everything that the world may have to offer. All of those things, even as a follower of Christ, all of those things will simply burn up when you’re dead. They will mean and signify nothing. If you have remained faithful and it is God’s will, you are saved, but you’ve wasted your salvation, shall we say. Don’t you realize that you are the very temple of God? And what you do here on Earth will anything last and what’s the most lasting things that we leave behind? Those are the people that we touch with our lives. Those are the individuals who maybe perhaps came to know Christ because of us in our lives. Generation after generation after generation, that’s the work that can never be burned up. And I think that when Paul gets down to it, it gets down to the very same thing that the cornerstone, the foundation of our gathering of the ecclesia of church is Jesus Christ. Are you preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified? Is that the foundation of everything or is it this? Is it the teacher? Is it the building? Is it the fill in the blank? Don’t you realize the significance of the follower of Christ that you are indwelled by the power of God? You are a slave to righteousness because of Christ and in every circumstance you should turn to him and seek his will for you in your life. We pray it all the time that your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. How do you think that happens? Do you not realize that you are a temple of God? And together, right, individually we seek his will. Collectively we seek his will. The church universal that is still faithful to the text seeks his will through his word, through prayer, through discernment. That’s where we are in Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter three. That’s the first opening salvo of trying to get these Corinthians back on track. Don’t you know first of all. Check yourself because you’re following people instead of Christ. Don’t you know that Christ is the foundation of the church and don’t you know that because Christ is the foundation of the Christ is the foundation of the church because you are the very temple of God as he indwells you and you gather together. That’s how Christ is the foundation. Don’t you know individually to build that relationship being very intentional and don’t you know collectively we should build that relationship by being very intentional. Don’t you know that we should not turn to the world turn for the easy way out look for some sort of shortcut. Look for some sort of easy way like I would rather believe in this person because they’re telling me that they would speak directly to God than I would like to individually build that relationship on my own. Oh, you know reading the Bible all that stuff. It’s so much work. Well, okay. But every individual follower of Christ needs to stand in front of the mirror as they will stand in front of Christ one day as he says and be judged on all that they do me and you brothers and sisters. So as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Your decision is your decision. Father we pray that your word will inspire individuals to submit their lives to you become slaves to your righteousness that you provide for us and in so doing we turn to you in all circumstance to draw closer to you to know you better. The only way we’ll ever know ourselves better is to know you better Lord. We know that you are creator redeemer and sustainer and we love you in Jesus name. Amen brothers and sisters. Good Lord willing Creek don’t rise. We’ll see you Thursday morning right Thursday. Yes. It’s the school time right Tuesday and Thursday is Thursday morning for turning
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