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May 24, 2015

Answering the Call

Passage: Galatians 1:10-24

Preacher: Arturo Morales

Series: Freedom

Keywords: answering, call, calling, gospel, phone, waiting

Summary:

This message focuses on the call God gave to Saul and how God has given each of us several very important calls.

Detail:

Answering the Call

Galatians 1:11-24

Sermon Outline:

Me:

(Click 1). Me wanting to be like Micheal Jordan

            (2).When the phone rings

(3).The story about the red Ferrari I coveted.

            (4).When the Phone rings

(5).Day dreaming about a girl in high school

            (6).When the Phone Call comes...from GOD! 

What is it that keeps you and me from answering God when he calls?

  1. (7) Lets Look at Paul in Galatians 1: 11-12 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ (ESV).
    1. Why did Paul mentioned to the Galatians that he did not received the Gospel by man?
    2. (8). If you look at the same Galatians 1:7 who trouble you and chapter 5:12 those who unsettle you. There were false teachers amongst the people in Galatia, and Paul is written to the Galatia to be ware, what I spoken to you before I left Galatia was from God.
      1. (9). Acts 9:3-6 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.  And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do
    3. (10). Galatian 1:13-14 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
      1. Who was Paul before converting to Christianity?
        1. (11).Lets look at Act 7:56-60 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
        2. The text did finished talking about Saul approval of his death. Look at chapter 8 in the same book, in verse 1
        3. (11). The people throw the GARMAT at Saul feet because it signified the Leadership role.
  1. (12). Look at it 13 pronoun; personal feminine αυτην as her
  2. I believed he described within the church as her, he did not protect her, he did not, and he did not love her.
  3. Think about it as this, if you walk in the street and you see a guy punching a girl. What would you do? I think you would do something about it. But image yourself as the guy punching her. How would you feel? Maybe at the moment you felt that she deserve the punch, but I truly believe you guys, would feel like down about it. I know I would. But at the moment in Paul life, he agreed with persecuting Christians. But God had different plans for Paul.
  4. YET God STILL shows GRACE to the abuser of His own bride, the church.
  • Lets look at (13). Verse 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who (called) me by his grace

But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone

  1. Big Idea[Paul heard the call, are we hearing the call]
    1. In 60 second called (Share with someone 1 to 2 people in a group and discuss when did God call you into his family by faith in Jesus? Where were you located? How old you were? What helped you to hear the call?
    2. Καλεω (called) shows up in the New Testament 148 times.  121 of 148 times it is translated "call," "called" or "calling."  
    3. In this passage it refers to a call God made to Saul to stop persecuting the church and start believing in Jesus...to become an ambassador of Christ.
  1. (21). God calling in the Old Testament
    1. Gn. 3:9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?
    2. 1 Sa 3:4 Then the LORD called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!
    3. Je 1:4–5 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
  1. (22). God calling in the New Testament
    1. Ro 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God
    2. Eph 4:1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
    3. 2 Corinthian 5:20 ambassadors
  1. God called you, not just our pastor or pastoral staff ,(23).
    1. IS HARD for you to share the gospel? Or DO YOU FIND IT EASY
    2. God has called all of us to minister the gospel to others.  We have a calling to be ambassadors for Christ.
    3. What makes it easy for you you ignore that part of sharing the gospel
  2. But some of you are thinking that you ready called, you heard the called. So what then? Why am I still here feeling like I am not doing God’s calling.
    1. (24). Ga 1:17–18 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen day
      1. My Story
  • There was a time of waiting and growing in the desert, personal growth
    1. What's the most difficult about waiting?  When do you have trouble waiting?
      1. Jay walking?
      2. Doctor's office?
    2. God saved Saul and then called him to wait and grow in his love for Christ.  Part of the calling is sometimes to wait.  

Applications:

  1. Accept the call of GOD to you as your Savior.  Have you heard Him calling?
  2. Once we become a FOLLOWER of Christ, embrace the call to share the Gospel.
  3. Recognize and patiently wait on God at times when you may be tempted to think you should be busy ministering.
  4. Embrace the call to a holy life, to living differently in Christ..

 

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Sep 04, 2011

Answering the Call

Passage: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: I Corinthians

Category: Life Together

Keywords: calling, new creatures, holiness, saints, holy, church, christ

Summary:

Before addressing the many problem issues in the Corinthian church, Paul is compelled to talk about who God's people are in Christ. He focuses almost entirely upon what God has made us before he talks about how we're to make life. THis message focuses upon what God has called us to and how that fact can reshape our entire thinking and way of life.

Detail:

Answering the Call

I Corinthians 1:1-9

September 4, 2011 

INTRO: 

Over the next several months we’ll be working our way through the book of I Corinthians.  First Corinthians is actually Paul’s 2nd of probably four different letters he wrote to this city-church (I Cor. 5:9).  It’s a letter that focuses on fixing our hearts upon Jesus Christ instead of 101 other possible objects of our spiritual attention. 

But before we jump into this book, I’d like to come up with as many answers as you can to this question:

  • Just what do we as American Christians and/or followers of Christ at Mosaic have in common with the Christians of Corinth?

To get the answer to that, let’s grab a Bible and do a 2-minute leaf through the 16 chapters to just get a quick overview of what topics are addressed by Paul.  Ask yourself, “Does our church or culture face these same issues?” 

Possible parallel issues:

  • Ch 1--Spiritual gifts and their use in the church
  • Divisions in churches
  • The need to experience the power of God in the church
  • Ch. 2--Pride and inferiority in church people
  • The need for the centrality of Jesus Christ
  • The work of the Holy Spirit in us
  • Carnal vs. spiritual living
  • Ch. 3--Spiritual baby food vs. adult food
  • Success in church and personal lives:  what is it?  How can we measure or judge it? What eternal implications does that have.  (ch. 3-4)
  • Competing world views and philosophies (3)
  • Differences of education, socio-economics, class, race, etc. in church.
  • How to be a “spiritual parent.”
  • Sexual sin and immorality in the culture and church (5)
  • Church discipline
  • Living in a litigious culture:  what to do about lawsuits and legal problems between believers. (6)
  • Christian freedom vs. carnal license.
  • Marriage, singleness, divorce, abandonment (7)
  • Slavery, freedom, contentment with life
  • Conscience and freedom issues. (8)
  • Rights vs. responsibilities  (9)
  • Serving vs. managing/leading/directing
  • Eternal rewards
  • The place of the O.T. in the Christian’s life
  • Dangers of idolatry (10)
  • Relating to unbelievers in our culture (10)
  • The role of women in the church (11)
  • Cultural vs. universal traditions in the church.
  • The Lord’s Supper
  • Spiritual gifts and their use in the church (12-14)
  • How the church is to function as the Body of Christ in today’s world
  • Love, sweet love! (13)
  • Prophecy, tongues and other potentially divisive gifts in the church. (14)
  • Death and the resurrection:  Christ’s and ours. (15)
  • The future return of Jesus Christ
  • Giving and stewardship (16)

Every single one of these and a dozen other topics that impact our daily life as followers of Jesus are covered in this book. 

In addition, there are a whole lot of parallels between life in this ancient city of Corinth and life in Spokane or any city in America today.  While Corinth was a smaller city than Spokane (probably about 100,000 people), it was one of the wealthiest city’s of its day.

  • Being at the crossroads between two regions, a tremendous amount of trade and money flowed in this city. 
  • A hub of trade and commerce in the Roman Empire.  The very narrow, 4-mile-wide isthmus where Corinth sat connected the western side of Greece with the eastern and northern part. (A canal was cut in the late 19th century to facilitate ship traffic.)  Sea travel around the Peloponnesus was both time-consuming and dangerous.  It was so treacherous that mariners had the saying, “A sailor never takes a journey around Malea (the cape at the south end of the peninsula) until he first writes his will.”  So most freight ships were put on skids or rollers and pulled across the narrow isthmus by Corinth rather than sailing the 250 dangerous miles around the peninsula. 
  • A resort city in a beautiful region of modern Greece, it was home to 1 of the 2 great athletic festivals of the time, the Isthmian games.  (The other was the Olympic games)
  • A city of great moral depravity.  There was even a contemporary use of the word “Corinthian” that equated it with moral depravity and debauchery (much like we used to equate homosexuality with the city of Sodom saying someone was a “Sodomite” or had broken “sodomy laws”). Aristophanes coined the Greek verb korinthiazomai meaning “to act like a Corinthian” as a synonym for immorality.
  • —The Temple of Aphrodite on a hill behind the city.  Every evening the priests and priestesses—male and female prostitutes—would come down from the temple into the streets to ply their trade.  There were, according to historical records, as many as 1,000 temple prostitutes employed at the Temple of Aphrodite at one time. 

So when Paul first visited Corinth on his second missionary journey, probably in the fall of 52 AD, what he encountered was very much like the culture, say, of Las Vegas, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, New York, New Orleans…or even Spokane.  Having met strong resistance to the Gospel in Athens, he come sto Corinth and immediately sets up shop as a tent-maker by day and an evangelist by night and weekends.  That’s where he first met Aquila and Priscilla, fellow Jews who had been driven out of Rome (ethnic cleansing under Claudius?) and who were, like himself, tentmakers. In fact, Paul took up residence with them for the 1.5 years he lived in Corinth. 

      Acts 18 records that first visit if you want to get a better picture of Corinth and the rather interesting tension Paul brought to the whole city when he brought the Gospel. We’re told there that even though the leader of the Jewish synagogue, Crispus, along with his whole household, believed in Christ and joined the church (Ac. 18:8), Paul’s presence sparked a riot that resulted in the Jews beating up Crispus’ replacement in the synagogue, Sosthenes.  Apparently Gallio, the Roman proconsul of Achaia, declared a sort of mistrial when they dragged Paul before him wanting Gallio to condemn him.  So they took their anger against Paul out on poor Sosthenes. 

      What’s really interesting is that apparently Sosthenes, according to I Cor. 1:1, becomes Paul’s secretary (or amanuenses) in writing I Corinthians from Ephesus where Paul was when he wrote I Cor. 

STAND as we READ God’s Word…together. 

I Corinthians 1:1-9

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

PRAY

In the course of two verses, Paul talks about his calling and the believer’s calling.  So I’ve got a question for all of us: 

What’s your calling in life?  

      (Take 60 seconds to write it out on the Sermon Notes page.)

Webster defines a “calling” as

1.) the action of one that calls;

2.) occupation, profession, or trade;

3.) an inner urging toward some profession or activity; vocation..

  • If “calling” is the action and “called” is simply a past-tense call, WHO is the one who “called” Paul and “called” the Corinthians in vss. 1 & 2?   [God] 
  • If #2 is the kind of “called” Paul is talking about, then what should have happened to Paul?  If being an apostle was his occupation or profession, what would we have expected to see?  (No tent-making.)  [By the way, the English word vocation has its origin in the Latin word vocare, which means “to call.” Perhaps that’s why we’ve come to use vocation and calling interchangeably in English. 
  • #3 gets closer if the “inner urging” is the urging of God toward some life-long, deep-seated “activity” rather than just a profession or vocation. 

In American culture, work has replaced calling as our identity factor.  Education is all about making sure you can “get a job” when you graduate, not about whether you can BE the right kind of person in that job. 

            Asked by a stranger, “So, what do you DO in life?”, we automatically begin talking about our work life, not our calling by God, don’t we? 

In his book The Call, Os Guinness describes how “such words as work, trade, employment, and occupation came to be used interchangeably with calling and vocation. [Puritan thought.] As this happened, the guidelines for callings shifted; instead of being directed by the commands of God, they were seen as directed by duties and roles in society. Eventually the day came when faith and calling were separated completely.”

Not for Paul…and not for the early church!  God’s calling upon their lives was THE most defining “call” they had or would ever receive. FIVE times Paul talks about calling in chapter 1 (1:1,2,9,24,26).  The first time he speaks of his own calling.

1:1—Paul was called to be an Apostle—that’s a spiritual office in the life of the Church that required a person have been literally addressed directly by Jesus Christ to follow Him and become a leader of His people, the church.  Unlike all the other 12 Apostles who lived with Jesus for several years, Paul considered himself “least” of all the Apostles because he came to his Apostleship a very different way from the other 11.  He talks about that in chapter 15:7-9 when he says, “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.  9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

The rest of the “calls” in this chapter are about you and me.

1:2-- To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people/[saints-NKJV], together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours….

1:9—“God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”

1:23-24—“…but we preach Christ crucified…to those whom God has call….”

1:26—“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.”

            Of course, the word “called” today has a bit different sense in the age of telephones.  We can get hundreds of “calls” in a day on the phone.  But being “called” even in that rather casual sense still does something to us, doesn’t it?

  • How does it make you feel when a good friend just calls you out of the blue and says, “You know, I was just thinking of you and wanted you to know I missed you and really value our friendship”???
  • Years ago I used to pray with the then-mayor on a regular basis with a couple of other pastors in Spokane.  How do you suppose it made me feel when my secretary would buzz me and say, “John, you’ve got a call from the Mayor’s office”…even if he was calling to postpone that week’s meeting J
  • I’ve gotten calls from the Spokesman Review.  My first response is usually, “I didn’t do it.”  J  But they normally want my opinion or interview for some article they are doing. 
  • Not all calls are by phone.  I remember the year of President George W. Bush’s 2nd Inauguration.  I came home from work one day and there is this big, fat, fancy, gold-embossed invitation from “The White House.”  Inside are a couple of invitations, one to the inauguration itself, another to one of the inaugural balls.  They’re both on fancy card stock with the little tissue paper thing in between, Presidential seal and all.  I looked at Sandy and said, “Is someone pulling our leg…trying to play a prank on us?  Why on earth would we get an invitation to the President’s inauguration?”  

Some “calls” are horrifying while some are surprising and make us feel pretty good, right? 

What makes the difference? [WHO it is who is issuing the call and WHY it is they are inviting/calling you.]

If the Mayor’s office gives you a call, it may be for some event or a string of meetings.  Wooppie!

If the President’s office “calls” you, it might be to attend an inaugural ball where you just might get to see the President and First Lady from the other side of the room.  Or, if you’re really important, you might be invited to work for the White House for a few years.

BUT when THE LIVING GOD of the universe, maker of all the billions of galaxies and their trillions of stars and maker of every living thing that moves on the face of the earth or in some far-away solar system we don’t even know about yet…when God himself, infinite in power, unfathomable in knowledge and wisdom, unending in love, everlasting in mercy and grace…when He “calls” you by name and says, “I want you to be on my team…I want you to join my family…I want you to become part of my inner circle forever and ever,” what does that do to you???  How does it make you feel???  Are you overwhelmed?  Are you stunned?  Are you shocked and awed?  Are you humbled? 

This is a calling unlike any we might receive our entire life in this world.  God is “calling” everyone on planet earth, but so few seem interested in “answering the call.”

Have you?  Have you come to that place in your spiritual journey where you have heard God’s call, his invitation to become a child of His by faith in Jesus Christ?  What have you done with that call?  Thrown it aside thinking, “I’ll deal with that later.  I’m not interested right now.  I want to keep living life independent of God, doing my own thing, being my own god.”  

            Or have you come to realize that this is THE most important call you will ever receive in life.  It’s a call by THE most amazing Being in the universe…to enter into THE most amazing relationship possible?  Have you come to agree with God that you are a sinner who is separated from God by your sin and that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh, come to earth to reconcile you to God the Father by living the only sinless life and taking your sins upon himself on the cross as he died to take away your sins and satisfy God’s eternal, perfect justice against your sin and mine?

[Invitation to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior:  “Jesus is Lord of my life, Savior of my soul, my God and my King.”

Rm. 10:9—“…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”]

IF you have become a child of God Almighty by faith in God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, you’ve “answered” a call.  You’ve “got a calling.” 

So what is that “calling”, according to I Cor. 1:2?  [We’re “called [to be] saints”…or as the NIV puts it, “called [to be] holy….” 

Has Paul lost his mind?!  He’s writing to one of the most immature and unholy churches in the entire N.T.!  He’s writing to a bunch of believers whose lives are a mess!  He had spent more time with this church than just about any other.  There was sexual immorality all over the church, fighting, divisions, lawsuits, immaturity, carnal living, misuse of spiritual gifts…the list seems endless.  And he starts this most corrective letter of all by talking about them as “sanctified” people, “saints.”  Really?

This is precisely the wonder of Christianity—that sinful people like you and me, people who apart from Christ will live lives utterly dominated by the grossest and most debasing of sins, have been made into NEW CREATURES…new people…new from the inside out. 

      If it were not for this reality of what GOD HAS DONE the moment we accept his “call” to become his children, the rest of this book and any other in the N.T. that calls us to holy living would be ludicrous.  Unholy people don’t become holy just because someone says we should.  Demons don’t become angels because someone wants it to be so.  Sinners don’t become saints…unless God declares it to be so…which is precisely what He has done!

      Paul writes to people who “are sanctified”, literally “are made holy.”  The Greek root for both “sanctified”, “saints” and “holy” are all the same word (hagios—holy, and hagiazo—sanctified). 

      You see, it matters deeply who we think we really are when it comes to how we will live. 

ILL:  Imagine if an egg from a bald eagle’s nest were placed into the nest of ostriches.  Imagine this bald eaglet was hatched into a nest with a bunch of little ostriches.  He grows up with a bunch of big birds who are so stupid they tend to crush their own young!  Let’s say he survives along with 2 or 3 of the ostrich chicks.  As they begin to grow, they all run around the nest on the ground all day long.  They chase each other, play ostrich games, get the same food from mom and dad. 

      But as time goes on, things get more and more awkward.  They can outrun him because their legs are longer.  They get taller than he is.  Meanwhile, he’s just trying to keep up with them, running on those stubby little legs of his. 

      And what about those WINGS?  What’s up with that?  His wings just get in the way of running.  Big wings…tiny legs!  Talk about feeling out of place! 

      As long as his identity is with being an ostrich, he’s going to be in trouble.  He’s going to be out of place, feel like an idiot, come in last on every ostrich relay. 

      But what if another bald eagle comes along and tells him, “Hey, you may have been raised by ostriches.  You may think like an ostrich.  But look, you ARE different.  You’re an eagle!  You were meant to FLY, not run.  Look around!  You can SEE better than your ostrich friends.  Watch me fly.”  And this eagle-coach takes off with a couple of flaps of his wings…and glides up on the air currents thousands of feet.  Wow! 

Asking an ostrich to fly like an eagle is like, well, asking a non-Christian to live like a saint.

BUT calling an eagle who has lived his whole life among and like ostriches to soar like an eagle is no more impossible than asking a Christian to live like the “saint” they ARE!

Paul will say in 2 Cor. 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 

THE most important truth people who are struggling with past sin need to know and begin to live by is who they are NOW in Christ.  It isn’t what they used to be or even what a mess they may be now.  It’s all about the new “eagles” we have become in Jesus.  Holiness now is our new spiritual DNA, not sinfulness.  Goodness and righteousness now IS where we find the “wind under our wings” to soar to new heights of living. 

      Theologians call this our “position” in Christ.  When we stepped into life with and in Christ by faith in him, we had both a nature change and a position change.  As far as God is concerned, he doesn’t see us as sinners who occasionally stumble into doing holy things; He sees us as saints, holy children of His…who occasionally sin.  Because we are “in Christ,” God has already declared us holy, called us saints and now treats us with the same unconditional love and acceptance that he has for His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. 

What we are “in Christ” is everything!  What we are “in ourselves” apart from Jesus Christ is unholy sinners who will never be able to ‘change our stripes’ and become anything but sinners.  But in Christ…oh, my, we ARE holy.  We ARE saints.  We ARE sanctified. 

As the modern hymn extraordinaire “In Christ Alone” says…

IN CHRIST ALONE my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand!

The Christian life truly is “all about Jesus.”  Whether we’re standing before God or before each other, it must be about Christ.  His life both for us and in us is the only hope we have of escaping the clutches of sin and soaring to the heights of holiness. 

Let’s change one opening word in Paul’s greeting here to bring it home.

 2 To the church of God in Corinth, SPOKANE, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

      Notice what Paul says about CHURCH.  “To THE church of God in Corinth…” or SPOKANE.  As far as God is concerned, he sees  all his children in any city as His singular family…not his Baptist family or his Presbyterian family or his Charismatic family or His Evangelical family.  We ARE one in God’s eyes.  And while I don’t have time to develop that theology here today, without a shadow of a doubt, the consistent teaching of the N.T. from Matthew to Revelation is that God treats all who are “in Christ by faith” as ONE church in every city of this world.  We may not live like it or even yet think like that, but He does.  Because he sees every one of us “in Christ,” not in some church name or denominational name.  That’s why Paul will later take the Corinthians to task for splitting up based on a bunch of secondary issues.  [Stay tuned next week for that!]

      Notice also what theologians call the “universal church” in this passage—“…together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ….”  We’re also part of something much bigger than all the believers in Spokane.  We’re part of something global, something from every tribe and tongue and nation and corner of every generation and century of the Church. 

      If you really want to mess with people’s categories, next time someone asks you, “So what church do you go to?”, tell them, “Oh, I’m part of 2 churches right now—the universal church and the church of Spokane.”  They’ll probably say, “Huh?  I’ve never heard of those churches before.”  Shows you how far from the Bible we’ve gotten in church life today!

Because of what every person who “calls on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” IS in Christ, Paul can go on and heap on this rather messed-up church these words and truths:

 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

There is SO much here that we don’t have time to mine today.  But just let me ask you this:  Is there anything in this statement of God about us that depends upon YOU doing anything but receiving and reveling in what God is doing in and for you?  NO!  NOTHING! 

      That IS the nature of grace—God giving us, not what we deserve, but precisely what we DON’T deserve—all of himself and all of his amazing life in us.  It’s ALL GIVEN!  Nothing earned!

      The result is that we don’t “lack any spiritual gift.”  We may not be enjoying all those gifts.  We may not be living in them or appropriating them or even using them rightly.  But there is NO LACK when it comes to what God has put on the banquet table for us to enjoy.  That’s why we need to “grow up”, just as the Corinthians needed to.  We need to get our “spiritual molars.”  We need to chew on and digest the ever-meatier truths of God so we can grow up in every area of our lives to BE the holy sons and daughters of God we are destined to be. 

Just look at vss. 8-9.  I think these are perhaps THE most important verses in all of First Corinthians.  “He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

He didn’t say I will always feel like my walk with Jesus is “firm” or “solid.”  He didn’t promise that I’d always be walking closely in fellowship with Jesus on this journey. 

      But He did say that HE WILL KEEP ME…HE WILL SEE ME and MAKE ME BLAMELESS to the end…HE WILL BE FAITHFUL and never stop calling me into fellowship with his Son, Jesus. 

ILL:  I was just sharing with someone this week that during my doubting days in college, I felt SO close to walking away from God.  I was so filled with doubts and questions.  My soul felt so dry and empty.  I remember walking along the campus one day, wrestling with God and with my own thoughts, thinking, “What if I walk away from God and leave all this that I’ve known and been taught most of my life?” 

      And that still, small whisper of God’s voice simply said, “I will never leave you…and you know that… in the deepest places of your soul.” 

      That was a turning point for me.  It was that deep realization that, in the end, this Christian life is not so much about what I can do for God but what he will always keep doing and being for me. 

We may feel like the weakest Christian on the planet; “He will keep you firm to the end…you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

You may feel like the biggest mess-up in Spokane; “He will keep you firm to the end…”

You may have stopped talking to God, dive deep into sin again, fall off the wagon and live like a baby Christian for way too long…BUT “He will keep you firm to the end…you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

That’s only possible “in Christ.”  God has called you into fellowship with himself…with His Son, Jesus Christ. 

HOW WILL YOU ANSWER THAT CALL TODAY?

How about by faith…with humble gratitude…with repentant hearts…with open arms…with excitement and anticipation for what His call on your life will mean for every day of your life? Will you exchange your old "self-image" for the one God now holds of you...and let that permeate every part of your life--actions, thoughts, attitudes, words, deeds? 

What is YOUR right and appropriate answer to God’s eternal call and calling on your life? 

And just as Paul was called to be an Apostle, God has call every one of his children into some kind of service in the Kingdom.  Are you ready to face the more specific call God has placed on your life for the Kingdom?  Ready to live that out more fully in the days to come?  Ready to make the call of God on your life in serving the lost and the church THE most significant and important call of your life?  How about telling God that today?

SONG:  In Christ Alone

IN CHRIST ALONE my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

 

In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied –
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

 

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine –
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

 

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand!