We’re going to be in 1 Corinthians chapter 4.

It’s been a little while since I’ve been in Corinthians. There’s Mexico, then COVIDville, and everything else. So back in Corinthians, I want us to keep walking through it. I think those mics are… Are they okay? I was feeding back a little bit. So, 1 Corinthians chapter 4, and I’m going to read all the way to verse 17. I just want us to see Paul’s…

It’s a unit of thought there.

Paul says, This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it’s required of stewards that they be found faithful.

But with me, it is very small. It’s a small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. I’m not aware of anything against myself, but I’m not thereby quitted. 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’ve applied all these things to myself. And Paul, 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. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? And if then you 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’ve become kings. And would 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’ve become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We’re fools for Christ’s sake. But you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour, we hunger and thirst. We’re poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless. We labor, working with our own hands. When reveled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we entreat. We have become and still are like the scum of the world and the refuse of all things. 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 Jesus through the gospel. I urge you then to be imitators of me. Of me.

Following Jesus, and that’s something that I say all the time, following Jesus with others, which is also something we say is the only way to really follow Jesus with others, it can be a difficult thing to do simply because in the 21st century, there are so many talking heads everywhere saying this is what church life is. This is what life should look like. This is what the church should emphasize. This is how you should invite people to your church. This is how a service should look like. This is what you should do. This is what you shouldn’t do. Or this doctrine is this truth and this is what matters. Or no, that’s not true. And there’s so many talking heads all over the place. It seems like everyone has their own podcast. Everyone has their own vlog. Everyone thinks that they should have a platform and a voice and everybody’s talking. They’re talking past and over one another. And it’s kind of like, I think, sometimes being lost in the wilderness and like 15 different people give you a compass and all the compasses each point in like a different direction. It’s what it feels like sometimes. And that’s kind of what’s happened for the Corinthians. They’ve got all these voices speaking in, hey, this is what it looks like. This is what it looks like. This is what it looks like. This is what it should feel like. And Paul’s trying to clear the air and say you are so cut up and you’re so divided because you’re not looking at the place that I already showed you to look. You’re not doing, which you’ve already been taught. So Paul is kind of closing up what really has been four chapters of addressing the issue of division between the Corinthian church for this very issue.

Walking well with others. If we’re going to follow Jesus, we’re going to have to walk well with others. That’s what Paul writes. And he says here in chapter 4, this is how you should regard us apostles.

Now, he says that because they’ve stopped regarding them the way that they used to and the way that they should. The apostles were a gift from God to the ancient church to help grow it, to teach the church, to see it sustain and flourish in different places. And the Corinthian church had come to a place of really undervaluing the gift of these men who had been in a special way endowed with the Spirit in a special way. They were close to Christ in His life. Even Paul, in his experience on the Damascus road, they’ve been given a special measure of the Spirit to sustain and build the church. And so this issue of throwing off godly leadership, the issue of these kind of perverse fascinations with different leaders and their different styles and different emphases, both good leaders and false teachers, tribalism, what we’re getting into more pointedly here in chapter 4 is kind of the arrogance of some of these groups in the church to say, I know what’s up and you don’t and I’m going to tell everybody what’s right and what’s wrong. I’m going to label different groups in the church and I want to soften, and this is also a problem we’re going to see, we’re going to soften and kind of reshape it a little bit because we’ve got these teachers saying maybe this is what it can look like and it doesn’t look like how Paul had delivered the faith. So we’re very fractured and we’re very broken up. We’re not on the same page.

And Paul says, look, here’s how you should regard me, the Apostle Paul, or any of us apostles, he said as stewards or servants. The best of apostles, of the ones that there were, the best of any church leader, the best of any pastor can solely be described as a servant. That’s the best thing you could say about them. Can I say I’m a servant of Jesus? I’m teaching Jesus’ teachings. I’m doing ministry that pleases Jesus. I’m walking in a way that pleases Him. What servant ever gets commended because they handle their master’s affairs according to their own prerogative, according to their own whims? What steward has ever been commended as a good steward for managing his master’s portfolio

not according to the master’s personality and desire and goals? So you see the lower that you and I can go in the Christian life of making ourselves good stewards, which is really just, kind of to become an invisible entity so that the master’s will comes through, the lower you and I can go and the higher God is seeing the greater commendation and approval God would give us. And shouldn’t that be the only agenda, friends, of a good servant and a good steward is to receive approval from the Lord?

Paul says a good servant, a good steward must be found faithful. Must be found faithful, worthy of their responsibilities. When we think about Moses, God describes Moses, the Hebrew writer looks back on Moses as a very faithful servant. Moses wasn’t like Aaron who gave into the whims of the people to make that golden calf. Moses wasn’t a perfect man, but Moses trusted God. Moses preached God’s Word. Moses for his whole life wandering for four years was a faithful servant. He was a faithful representative of God. Moses did not start the cult of Moses. He could have. Moses did not enjoy any swooning or attention from anyone because Moses was this great leader who parted the Red Sea. Moses’ commendation was this. God said, and He says it in Numbers 12, Moses was faithful. He was a faithful minister.

The Lord says, hear my words. If there’s a prophet among you, if the Lord makes Himself known in a vision, I speak with Him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. What’s He say here? He is faithful in all my house. And I want you as a Christian, I want you as a Christian in the context of the local church to kind of ask yourself that same question and kind of live under that roof. Am I, faithful to do what God’s called me to do? Am I faithful to only be a servant and steward of Christ Jesus? Who are you living for? You know, when an atheist says, I have no God, it’s really a hollow thing to say. Because I think the people, we are helplessly worshipers. We can’t help it. We worship either someone or a group of people. Or if you ever heard the word zeitgeist, it’s a German word, it means the spirit of the age. The spirit of the age. And everyone gives themselves over to some idea, some tribe, some group. And what Paul’s doing is he’s trying to shake them up and say, God is your God. Remember God? He’s your God. Just as I talked about Him. Remember Jesus? Jesus is your priority. Jesus is your life.

You know, we talk a lot about Paul and Peter and John and these big picture people in the Bible and we celebrate. We celebrate them. But there’s a lot of people you don’t hear about.

Tychicus. I don’t know if that’s how you, the English rendering. I think it’s like Toikikos in the Greek. But you see his name just like five times in the New Testament. And what do we know about him? Nothing.

Paul mentions him in passing. But two times. Once in Colossians and then again in Ephesians. Paul says this about this man. He’s a faithful minister.

Did that man, did he raise people from the dead? Did that man give a blind man his sight? Did he plant a megachurch somewhere? We don’t know and it really doesn’t matter. He gets the height of a compliment from the Spirit of God through Paul. This man, Tychicus, he’s a faithful minister. He’s a faithful minister.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1.12, a letter he’ll write to the Corinthians. After this he says, for our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we’ve got to be faithful. We behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God and supremely so

toward you.

So Paul says, you know what you all can do in Corinth? If you’re so bad, you want to judge me and try to look down on my apostleship, you go ahead and do that. Call me a bad preacher. Call me a bad theologian. Call me a bad apostle. You know, dislike my personality, it really doesn’t matter. He says it’s a small thing if you or any human agency does that. He says, I don’t even judge myself. I don’t waste time trying to size myself up. He says, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with my ministry. But Paul says, if there is, guess what? Jesus is going to be the one that lets me know about it. Jesus is going to be my judge. And so, friends, it goes for all of us in the church.

Pastors should not dwell on if he’s liked and adored by his people. I wonder, like, did my sermon come across well? I mean, do they think I’m a spiritual leader? What do people think about me, really? How can we do things different? Are there other pastors out there doing things better? It’s so easy to do that. But hear me say this to you, the desire to be liked and adored by people quickly gives birth to the willingness to bend and to change. And the more you seek approval by people, even good people in your life that, you know, should be there. When you seek the approval of people, you’re more and more willing to morph into change. And you stop being a servant of Jesus Christ and you become a servant of mere men. Paul says, I stand or I fall before Jesus Christ. He’s my master. So there is a thing in Paul here for us to really mimic. And what is it? It’s this stalwart determination, a stalwart determination to say, Jesus, I live for Him. I live for Him. I love you, Corinthians. I really do. I plan in the church. But Paul loves them enough to not change and become something different for them. He is Paul, an apostle of the Corinthian church. No, he’s Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. Period.

So what does Paul teach us here? He teaches us that if we’re going to walk well together, friends, you and I must seek only the Lord’s approval. Only the Lord’s approval. And this isn’t something that’s unique to any century of the local church. There’s always been a presence of revisionists inside the walls of the church that want to change things, enlighten people who want to veer away from what’s orthodox, what’s biblical doctrine. Now, doctrine, you can make up what kind of doctrine you want, but we’re talking about biblical doctrine. So we’re not talking about Martin Luther saying, hold on now, Catholic doctrine, there’s a lot of things here. We’re talking about biblical doctrine from the nature of the Trinity, to the godhood of Jesus, to the nature of salvation, to the reality of hell, to the kinds of music we should or shouldn’t be doing,

to the value of Scripture, to the trends of how the church attracts people and gets new followers. The list goes on about so many voices inside the walls of the church saying, let’s do it like this, let’s do it like this, let’s do it like this, let’s do it like this. And if we’re not careful, as pastors and church members, here’s what we end up doing. We go, well, hey, maybe we should do it like that, or maybe we should do it like that, or hey, they’re preaching that, or hey, they’re not preaching that. Maybe we should stop talking about that so much. Maybe we should do that. And you compare yourself against yourself until you dwindle down to nothing that looks like a local church. And Paul is the one who says that. He says in 2 Corinthians again, chapter 10, not that we dare classify or compare, he’s being a smart aleck, not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who are commending themselves,

but, Paul says, keep this in mind, when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they’re without understanding.

Well, what is that called? That’s called changing the standard. And when you change the standard, there is no standard, and it’s just a game of who’s doing what, who’s being popular, and Paul is saying, cut that game out. Cut that game out. Am I a faithful minister of Jesus? Are you faithful church members?

That’s the question we have to ask ourselves this morning, church. And I want you to understand what’s beneath the surface here. Paul’s not just having a conversation about how we do or don’t do things. That is the question. But what’s under the surface here is Christ-like humility. That’s what Paul’s really vying for. He’s calling them to a kind of Christ-like humility that they can do. That’s entirely disinterested in self. My reputation, my legacy, what other people think about me, humility that sees I’m not the center of the universe. It doesn’t matter what people think about me. I am not consequential. Other people are not consequential. Jesus is consequential. And it’s before Jesus who I will have to give an account of my life and how we will have to give an account of ourselves as how we did or did not live in the local church as we ought to have.

Paul establishes a great need for humility, Christ-like humility that we would all say, you know what? I want to do things Jesus’ way. I want to do things Jesus’ way. I want to be Jesus’ kind of people. That’s what I want to look like. That’s what I want to look like. But I want you to say, hey, flips it. And I think this is interesting.

Yes, Paul says in his description of himself, I don’t care what you say about me. Talk about me as much as you want. We need humility. We need humility to not care what other people think about us. But at the same time, you and I need humility so that we don’t wrongly judge and criticize other people in a way that we should not. So if my corrupt human heart is prideful enough to wonder and care more about what other people think of me more than God, that same heart can manifest itself in a different way in trying to assert myself and judge and tear down other people. You see, it’s still pride in the human heart and it’s justice. It’s hurtful to the body of Christ no matter how it comes out. Now, here’s what that doesn’t mean when Paul’s talking about them judging. It doesn’t mean that you and I should not speak into one another’s lives when we see one another in error biblically. It doesn’t mean that. Never correct the pastor. Never ever dare say something to him if you think he’s done something wrong. We can’t do that. That’s not what Paul is saying at all. And in fact, he’d be contradicting himself if that’s what he means here because in the next chapter, in chapter 5, he literally says judge one another. So that’s not the issue at hand here. What Paul does mean is this. Never judge one another with the sort of finality that only God can. Never say you are this because I say so. I get theology, right?

Everyone in this church, I understand how things should go.

Sermons are too long. That guy thinks he can preach that long. He can’t. Sermons are too short. Is that the longest he can preach? You know, no one’s really deep at this church. Not like me. They’re quite shallow. People don’t really get that. You know, vaccines and vaccine mandates. I totally get that whole thing. And if you disagree with me on anything, I’m willing to crush you under the weight of my understanding of that issue. What is it? What is that when someone’s willing to do that? It’s pride. It’s a heart that’s far more interested in tearing people down than it is in the love of Christ building people up and encouraging the church and finding unity. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have conversations about right and wrong. I’m not saying we shouldn’t engage in culture. But what I think is really pretty evident in church today, at least in the West, is we’re far more interested in boxing and seeing who’s right. Rather than finding how we can be unified in Christ together. And Paul says, what you people are doing in Corinth, when judging, you’re taking spirituality, you’re taking theology, you’re taking the gospel and you’re using it as a weapon to assert yourself and show yourself as better than everybody else.

Here’s Paul’s advice to that person so interested in judging others. He says, let God expose their heart. Let God expose. Let God expose your heart. He’s going to do it anyways. And guess what? Your judgments, they don’t stand. God’s judgments are eternal. The better thing to do is to spend your life, for me to spend my life helping one another prepare for judgment day rather than being everyone’s judge and critic along the way.

Encouraging one another. Being patient with one another. Speaking the truth in love.

Paul says, it’s not the one who commends himself who is approved, but it’s the one whom the Lord commends. It’s the one whom the Lord commends. Last thing on this point. Why do you and I need humility? We need humility for self-perception. Even the most humble person has some thought of himself. No one thinks nothing of themselves. Now some people have really bad self-image. Some people have really, really too good self-image. Right? Right? Really well of themselves.

But here’s what Paul’s getting at. If we would live in the constant reality and truth that you and I have knowledge of God, and I don’t mean like I’ve heard of God. I’m talking about saving knowledge of God. You and I have been forgiven for our sins. You and I have eternal life in Jesus. All because of God’s grace. All these issues of division would be remedied. I don’t have time to care what people think about me. Jesus bled and died for me. I don’t care about my sins. I care about what He thinks. I don’t have time to go around trying to dominate people and show that I’m a better Christian and I’m more spiritual and I understand everything. Man, I’m serving King Jesus and I just need to do His will and live for Him alone. You see, if we would all seek the Lord together, we would be unified together in Christ.

Someone has said, I can’t give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure and I can give you the formula for success. And it’s try your best to please everybody. It’s true in a lot of contexts in life, isn’t it? But it’s certainly true when it comes to following Jesus. So you and I as Providence Fellowship, we’ve got to constantly realign ourselves with the heart of Christ. Man, what do we do at Providence Fellowship? We follow Jesus together. We do that by being a Christ-centered community that’s word-saturated, prayer-dependent, and gospel-proclaiming. That’s why we exist.

We don’t exist for trends. We don’t exist to teach some new innovative doctrine. We exist to make disciples and follow Jesus. It’s what we do. It’s who we are. We talked about this last week. Jesus had the exact same plan to save the world for the last 2,000 years. It hasn’t changed. He has the exact same strategy. And it’s you and I and the local church making disciples.

Second, I want to say to you, be careful not to tattoo a certain theological tribe or author on your book. I think we do that like, oh, this is my guy. I read his books. I’m a part of that theological camp and I love that. It’s been in the last few years a lot of guys that I’ve really respected. I’ve read their books. I would want to have their tattoo on me. I’ve really been disoriented in the last few years because I’ve discovered, huh, these are men and they say some bad things sometimes. In the last few years, there’s men that I respect. I think have veered towards prosperity gospel theology, unbiblical social justice.

You’ve seen kind of critical race theory and some of these really unbiblical solutions for unity and division between different peoples of color. You’ve seen that really flood blogs, flood books, flood conferences. You’ve even seen among really great theologians, apostasy. So friends, can we, can we stop being so obsessed with people and get with Paul and say, I don’t really care what you think of me. I don’t care what you think of my ministry. I’m like just, I’m in the word. I’m following Jesus. Jesus will size me up and I’m listening to his voice. It’s a really difficult thing to do in the 21st century because nobody does it. Nobody does it.

And then fourth, I want to say to you,

yes, let’s correct one another. But let’s do it in a spirit of love. Let’s not win. You know when you want to win. I know when my wife and I are talking and I’m not really trying to find common ground. I’m trying to win. I want to win. Right? And it doesn’t go well, usually, anyway.

But at the end of the day, yes, we should be deeply, deeply concerned about our theology. We should be deeply concerned about the philosophy of ministry and how we’re being a church together and how we’re reaching the world. But at the end of the day, there’s so many small, insignificant hills to die on, friends. And Jesus desires unity and togetherness amongst His church. Are we seeking Him together? Together.

The second thing I think that we can draw from Paul in this passage,

seek the approval of the Lord. But secondly, Paul says to the Corinthian church, expect the disapproval of the world.

Expect the disapproval of the world. Look at verse 8.

He says, Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich. Without us you have become kings. And would that you did reign so that we might share the world with you. For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all like men sentenced to death. We’ve become a spectacle to the world, to angels and men. We’re fools for Christ’s sake. But you are wise. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour, we’re hunger, we thirst, we’re poorly dressed, and we’re buffeted, and we’re homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we entreat. We’ve become and still are like the scum of the world and the refuse of all. Things.

Paul was beheaded by Nero. It’s thought that Peter was crucified upside down. Andrew suffered for days on an X-shaped cross. James was beheaded by Herod. John was exiled to Patmos.

If you read Peter and John and James and the New Testament apostles and you read through Acts, you do not get strictly and only a theology of salvation and peace and rest.

What you get simultaneously is a theology of suffering.

You read apostles suffering martyrdom, imprisonment, beating, stoning, mockery, hate, derision. Paul is the first to say, I go hungry, I have sleepless nights. He’s mistreated. There’s contempt for the messenger of Christ. And we cannot get away from that reality if we’re going to follow Jesus. Jesus Himself says this in Matthew 8, Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests. But Jesus says, the Son of Man, I don’t have anywhere to lay my head.

So Paul, in brutal, brutal sarcasm, he addresses this with, the welfare of the Corinthian church. He says, look where your Christianity’s gotten you. You are so well fed and you got all your money. You know what you’re like? You’re like kings.

He said, not as apostles. We’re humiliated. We’re embarrassed. Really what he’s saying, when we’re exhibited, this harkens back to that time when a criminal would have been paraded around the city for their execution or a criminal or these Christians would have been in the Roman Colossae. They were all made sport of before they were just barbarically killed in fights and killed by animals. Paul says, we’re like a freak show before heaven and earth, between men and angels. But Paul says, not you. He said, you know, you’re so wise and you’re so smart. You know, y’all have it all together. We’re fools in the eyes of the world.

Paul had nothing but mockery and trouble with the Lord. He said, you’re so wise in your own eyes. What did they want their present life, their present Christianity to be? A means of honor. A means of respect. A means of security. A means of doing well in this present life. Paul said, that’s not the experience of the apostle Paul. He said, that’s not my experience of following Jesus. He said, in fact, even when I experience all those hardships, he says, we don’t as apostles repay evil for evil. We don’t expect compensation for our labors. When people mistreat us, we bless them. We endure every trial. He says, we even plead with our persecutors to accept Christ.

And he says, at the end of all that, he says, we have become like scum and the refuse of all things. Now, what does that mean literally? What does that literally mean in Greek? What that word literally means is when a really filthy person takes a bath and they wash all their dirt off and dead skin off in that big tub of dirty water with all their filth sitting in it. That’s literally what that means. He says, this is what we are like to the world. Just a big old dirty bucket of water with dead skin and dirt in it.

That’s what Paul is writing them.

Paul, Paul, is not teaching us we should go out of our way to pick fights with culture. Go out of our way to pick fights with the world. I think that there’s certainly a wrong way to represent right truths. There’s a wrong way to represent right truths. I think tone has a lot to do with that. And certainly it’s true. I think many times Christians have been uncharacteristic of Christ in representing Christ.

But no, we shouldn’t go out of our way to attack the world. And we shouldn’t ignore when God, and He does this sometimes in some places, when He gives favor to Christians with local governments and with the non-believing world for a means of ministry. That happens. We kind of talked about that with Archie in Mexico. And man, the local government is just so glad he’s there because he’s doing so much and he’s just had so much favor. So those are good things. But what Paul is really writing to the heart of it is we simply can’t get away from the New Testament reality if we’re wrong. If we’re not representing Christ well, we’re going to get the disapproval and sometimes even, a lot of times potentially, the vitriol of the world. Paul quotes Psalm 42, 22. He says, Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. He quotes that psalm in the book of Romans as a description of what it means so often to be a Christian.

So Paul’s drawing their attention to for their benefit the strange difference between their Christian life and his Christian life. And it doesn’t add up. He’s saying it doesn’t add up. And what’s behind that is this. You and I cannot expect the glory of the cross if we’re not willing to suffer the pain of the cross first. That’s the precious truth that the Corinthians had lost. They developed a sort of Christianity that propped them up. They were wise. They were respected. They kind of sanded off their rough edges to make it smooth. They forget Paul. Forget those things he taught. Paul’s poor. Paul gets thrown in prison. Here in Corinth, we’ve kind of crafted our own thing. We have our own teachers. And Paul’s saying that’s not the Christian faith. You could call it an over-realized eschatology. What is eschatology? Eschatology is the study of end times. So an over-realized eschatology means all that will be when Christ returns and He makes a new heaven and new earth. I expect that now. I expect to be healthy, wealthy, and wise now. That’s a lot of the prosperity gospel that you see today on TV and that’s kind of exported to South American countries. Hey, you know, if you really trust God, if you have faith, your life now should be full of health and wealth and wisdom. And Paul’s saying, no, we cannot realize our eschatology until Christ breaks through those clouds. Until He breaks through those clouds. He does, friends, right now, we are to be happy when we suffer. I’m not going to go look for it. Like, Paul’s not looking for it. But Paul’s saying, hey, if you follow Jesus, this God of the universe who came and He shows a different way, and you’re really faithful to that, you’re not constantly wondering, like, what’s the world think about me? Like, is the church trendy enough for the world? And are we saying anything that offends the world? And let’s go out of our way to try to make the world happy? See, if you’re living like that, no, you’re not going to get the disapproval of the world. But if you’re keeping your eyes on Jesus and you’re being faithful to love people and teach the things that He taught just as He taught it, this is what your life should look like. This is what Paul’s saying through his smart-alecism, if that’s a word, from being such a sarcastic person. He’s doing it to really open their eyes to the reality of it. There is no true honor before God without a willingness to be humiliated before others for the sake of Christ. In this, understand the Corinthian church was divided. They weren’t all suffering together.

Well, we’re not suffering the way Paul… Y’all can do that, but we’re actually not living that way. And you all within the church, you are following Paul, you are following Apollos, but we’ve got our teachers and we’ve kind of reshaped it to look like this. No, the local church, it suffers together. It thrives together. We are together. And I think that’s one of the precious things about suffering we miss out on when we miss out on the local church. God did not intend for us to suffer alone. You know, I think one of the great solaces in enduring your struggles and me enduring mine is we don’t have to do it alone. God gives us one another for that. So very much so, we need the local church if we’re going to suffer well for Christ. You know, Richard Wurmbrand, he was a pastor in Romania and we watched a movie on him. Several months ago on a Wednesday night, if you were here for that, but essentially the communist government put all the religious leaders of the time together. It was in this, you know, this gathering of all religions and what they wanted was for everyone to get up and take their turn praising communism. And Richard Wurmbrand did not do that. He stood up and he preached Christ and he said we are, you know, not committed to the cause of communism. We’re committed to Christ. And he spent years being brutally tortured in prison and his wife, was sent to a labor camp and it’s such a reminder of what it means to follow Christ no matter how bad things get. No matter how bad things get. And in fact, they’re releasing a prequel to that movie this week and it’s about their time suffering Nazi Germany. So I mean, goodness sakes, they endured Nazi Germany and then they endured communist Russia and through it all and their persecutions they remained faithful. Do you? Do you? Do you have a theology of suffering? That’s I think a question Paul asks us here. Do we have a theology of suffering with the body of Christ? You can’t be a finger and suffer by yourself. If the finger hurts, the whole body cares. You know, oh that’s just a finger. Like it’s all of us together suffering and praying like we did for the persecuted church. Why does it matter what’s happening to the church in Nigeria and Egypt? Why does that matter? Because they’re part of the same body. And if we love Jesus, that means we deeply care. We want to suffer with them. Even if it’s just through prayers and just emotionally, spiritually caring about them.

And then I want to maybe shake us up this morning. Is our Christianity about present health, present comfort, present wealth? What we can derive from it now? Or is it about fidelity to the gospel so that we don’t miss out on a life to come?

In verse 14, Paul says, I don’t write these things to make you ashamed.

But to admonish you as my beloved children.

For though you have countless gods in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. And I urge you then, be imitators of me. And he says, this is why I sent Timothy to you, my beloved child in the Lord, to remind you of what? My ways in Christ. And those ways, he says, that’s what I teach in every church I go to.

And all that Paul says, even with very sarcastic, you know, biting rhetoric to the Corinthian church, he says, I do it as a father. And I think this is one of the most endearing, I’ve always really liked this passage because it’s one of the most, I think, sweetest relationships two people can have in Christ Jesus. Paul said, you know, you’ll find 10,000 gods. You’ll find 10,000 instructors or teachers is what the word means. And they’ll be happy to educate you and shape you with, you know, what to think. And kind of this view of spirituality and theology. Paul’s beyond that. He said, look, I’m not trying to get at your heads anymore. Paul says, I care about your hearts. Paul has a deep longing that the fullness of Christ would be produced in them in a way that only a father can really love and desire the welfare for his children. That’s what he longs for. He’s not competing. Okay, Paul’s ego’s not bruised because there’s other teachers. His heart’s broken. Because his people have walked away from following Jesus.

Following Jesus. So this is why he says to them, I’m writing all this to you. Why? So you would remember my ways. And what does Paul say my ways were if you’d follow what I taught you? He says, it’s the ways of Christ. And he says, why do I send my child, Timothy? To remind you of what? Your father’s ways. And what are those ways? They’re the ways of Christ.

So friends, we can only walk well with others

when we walk well with Jesus. We can only walk well with others when we walk well keeping our eyes on Jesus. If we’re seeking the Lord’s approval alone, if we’re expecting the world’s disapproval, and we do that together, we’re united together as the church to remain faithful to Jesus.

Some of us, you need to be discipled.

I don’t want to see people who, yeah, I got saved and I show up to church and I’ve got this kind of rough shot understanding of Scripture. Like, you need to grow. And we all need to grow. And some of us need to pray, Lord, bring someone in my life who can grow me up a little bit more. Some of us need to pour in more to church life and growing. Some of us need to take this serious and disciple. Disciple.

Some of you are more than competent and equipped to help others grow up and be a sort of spiritual father to help people stand on a straight and narrow. And you need to make that a priority of your life.

Pray for Providence. Pray for your elders. Pray for me that we will seek the Lord together. And Providence isn’t going to be a church that’s about doing things the world’s way or doing things even the way it’s done popularly in the walls of church culture. We want to be a church that follows Jesus. We want to follow Jesus together. We want to walk well together because we’re following Jesus together. We’re walking well with Christ. That’s the thrust of what Paul’s saying. Let’s pray together.

Lord, Your Word instructs us for all of life.

There’s not a thing that we can say, oh, we wish God… we wish God would speak into this or we wish that God would give us some clarity. Lord, Your Word’s good to teach us all we need to know to be faithful to You.

And Lord, our prayer this morning is that

we would be simple in our godliness. We would be sincere in our godliness. We would deeply desire to be a church that helps one another stay on the straight and narrow. We would be a church that pushes one another, Lord, to stay focused on what matters, to stay focused on eternity, God. We would have hearts and minds that are not obsessed with what’s popular in culture and trying to figure out, Lord, how we can get as close as we can to what the world’s doing. But Lord, we would just see Jesus on His throne and just worship Him there and stay close to You. God, that’s my desire. That’s Your desire for us, Lord. So Lord, I pray Your Spirit would just, unite us, unify us, grow us up in Jesus together. Lord, that we would be kept from all fraction, all division, all these things we’ve been learning about Corinthians. Lord, that You would guard and keep us in Your Spirit from these things. And we would be wise unto salvation and wise unto Your way as we seek You, Lord, here at Providence. And that’s my prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen. Would you stand and worship with us?