Failure to Thrive

Well this morning we're going to begin the new year with a short series in 1st

Corinthians 3 God willing we will take each of the five

Sundays in the first month of 2022 to go through this one chapter in 1st

Corinthians Remember that last year we went through the first two chapters though. It's been some time But again, we begin just 1st

Corinthians 3 this morning where this whole chapter 1st Corinthians 3 has

Paul rebuking the Corinthians and rebuking them primarily for their infantile Behavior their progress in the stature of Christ Paul found was stymied because they never quite digested the baby food of the basics

They hadn't grown because they hadn't comprehended some elementary lessons And they tried to move on too quickly away from them into the deeper things when they hadn't gotten the foundation that they needed

In their factions there were jealousies there was strife Everywhere indicating to Paul that what they needed was a refresher course.

No, you're not advanced Let's stay here on the basics is really what he's doing He needed to convince them that they're not as advanced in the faith as they believe themselves to be as they thought themselves to be

There were babes their infants in Christ. They were in a sense perennially children

So with that brief introduction, please stand for the reading of God's Word I will preach from verses 1 through 4 this morning, though Each Sunday as we're in this

I'm going to read the entire chapter 1st Corinthians 3 But I brothers could not address you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh as infants in Christ I fed you with milk not solid food for you were not ready for it

And even now you're not ready for you're still of the flesh For while there is jealousy and strife among you.

Are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says I follow

Paul and another I follow Paulus. Are you not being merely human? What then is

Apollos? What is Paul? Servant through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each I Planted a

Paulus water, but God gave the growth So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only

God who gives the growth He who plants and he who waters are one and each one will receive his wages according to his labor

For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field God's building According to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder

I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold silver precious stones wood the haystraw

Each one's work will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test

What sort of work each one has done? If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives he will receive a reward

If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss though He himself will be saved but only as through fire

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you if anyone destroys

God's temple God will destroy him for God's temple is holy and you are that temple

Let no one deceive himself if anyone among you Think see that he is wise in this age

Let him become a fool that he may become wise for the wisdom of this world is folly with God for it is written

He catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile

So let no one boast in men For all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future

All are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's Please be seated

Let us pray and ask God to open our eyes Heavenly Father Do just that do what we cannot do ourselves

By your spirit open our eyes to the glorious truths of your word Enlighten us father to the path that we must take make us more like Jesus Christ this day even by the preaching and the hearing of your word and we ask father that you would be glorified in all this that you would watch over our spirits and Lead us in the path of righteousness in the way that we must go

We ask father now That the words of my heart the meditations of my heart will be acceptable and pleasing in your sight our rock and our

Redeemer Pray your blessing upon us now in Jesus name Amen Well, I have for you this morning

Actually the key to all wisdom I Have for you this morning a truth

Upon which the fate of every human being rests including your own I'm going to give you the solution to all the puzzles of life in five easy to digest words

It's a very short phrase and once you comprehend this very short phrase, you're going to be wiser than your enemies.

You're gonna have more Understanding than many of your teachers as the psalmist says

Men search and men strive for the kind of insight I'm going to give you in a moment Job chapter 28 and verses 12 to 15 tells us how desirable these words

I'm going to give you in with this key to all mysteries that you're going to have How desirable it is and how much trouble men are willing to go through in order to have this?

It says in Job 28 But where shall wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding man does not know its worth and is not found in the land

Of the living the deep says it is not in me and the sea says it is not in me It cannot be bought for gold and silver cannot be weighed as its price, but you have it here this morning in five words

I'm going to give you a truth. That's cold from a greater hole Especially for the initiated

Especially for those who are ready to enter the inner sanctum of great knowledge. Are you ready for this?

Here it is Jesus Christ and him crucified

It's really that simple Jesus Christ and him crucified men have been searching for the key to life to unlock the mysteries of life

Why are we here? How they should we live? Jesus Christ and him crucified

Now this is the message Paul is determined would be the sum and total of his ministry to the

Corinthians Those five words I gave you come directly from the end of chapter 2 verse 2 where he said for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him

Crucified and you can almost hear the Corinthians saying really Paul. Are you seriously?

That's simple that elementary go on Paul. Don't you realize how smart we are

The schools that we went to the degrees we've attained the accomplishments of our life.

Don't you know who we are? I mean, just look at the men that we've chosen to follow. I mean, come on Paul Look at how

I stick to a polis the great and the eloquent the handsome the charismatic a polis

Aren't I brilliant for having attached myself to him? I'm not like that lame -brain over there who attaches himself to Well Paul to you

Who doesn't speak that well, and it's not that impressive Well, of course, these are not quotes

These are the tone and tenor though of what Paul saw in the Corinthian Church And the reason why he says you're still babes in Christ You're not ready to move past the baby food the milk

They were infants who'd failed to thrive Not that the Apostle who is

Christ's chosen instrument had left anything off the table That would help them to thrive that would have actually made them thrive had they taken it

They take there they've taken their first bite they chewed it halfway They swallowed it partially it never went down into their bodies into their spiritual bodies.

Of course, it's a metaphor To then spread that nutrition through their body and grow their muscles and grow their bones and Make them more and more into the stature and the image of Jesus Christ.

They took one taste Didn't quite swallow it and then they left the less the rest untouched and tried to move on to the banquet table

With the richer foods, but they weren't ready All of us here today we're at different levels of our comprehension of the faith

We're growing at different paces. We're growing in different areas We have a woman over there who's learning to respect her husband as a gospel witness

While we have a man over there who struggles against his temper we have a Christian scholar wrestling with some ancient text while the child next to him is

Putting their full attention trying to understand the resurrection. We're all in different places We're all at different levels as we grow together into the stature and the image of Jesus Christ But the point there being

God willing we're growing We're moving We're getting somewhere

Individually and as we grow individually, we're pulling others in this body up with us Like any good parent

Paul feeds his children or fed his children what they needed at the time He took into account their age their habits their diligence just as parents do today and by all this he determined what their spiritual diet should be

Well like children they desire the more sumptuous fare at the adult table or like children

They desire the candy bar rather than the good food set before them like children they didn't appreciate the basics and They tried to leap into the more advanced things before they

Comprehended the real meaning of this key to all mysteries. I unlock your life for you

We're gonna say it again and again in this message Jesus Christ and him crucified

Well spiritual infants need to be addressed as infants says but I brothers could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh as infants in Christ This flows from the end of chapter 2

Where the very last part of chapter 2 he wrote these words the natural person does not accept the things of the

Spirit of God for they are folly to him and He's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned the spiritual person judges all things

But it is himself to be judged by no one So he doesn't address them as natural persons

Okay We need to understand that because if he had addressed them as natural persons He would have meant that they weren't converted at all

Well, he calls them brothers. He calls them infants, but infants in Christ So we understand that their conversion itself is not what is in question here

They heard the gospel they believed the gospel their faith was in Jesus Christ in his cross

So he doesn't call the natural people belonging to the world but neither can he call them Spiritual people who act as though they belong to the kingdom of God.

I Had wrestled with this Because for me for a long time, I believed okay, you cannot be a carnal

Christian Too often we think of this term carnal Christian it gets into our lingo.

We certainly think okay carnal That means fleshly that means like of the world but Christian So that means

I can compromise the faith sometimes I can you know dilly -dally over here with the things that the flesh makes me desire and It's still get to be called a

Christian. Well, yippee, right? I can act this way I could be like my old self, but I can come to church on Sunday and Act holy with the rest of them.

Well, no What Paul is saying is you're acting as though in the flesh

They were infants in Christ He says my brothers could not address you as spiritual that is their thoughts their opinions their motives

Ascribable to the Holy Spirit on the soul. He couldn't speak in of that way, but it's people who are in essence physical beings only infants in Christ Now infants is not always used negatively

Jesus in Matthew 11 25. He thanks God that he reveals himself to little children in Matthew 21 6 he quotes the psalm out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies.

You have ordained praise He uses a different word Matthew 18 for but brings across the same meaning where Jesus says whoever humbles himself

Like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven You see we all enter the kingdom of heaven as infants

There's what Jesus means in John chapter 3 when he's talking to miss Nicodemus In order to enter the kingdom of heaven.

You must be born again Must be born again born an infant born a newborn a baby

But you're not supposed to stay there You're not supposed to stay there as a baby you're meant to grow in the knowledge of the

Lord We're meant to grow stronger by living more and more in accordance with Christ's Word Infantile behavior and being of the flesh are described as really the same condition here

He says but as people of the flesh and as infants in Christ, he puts those together. They're paralleled

So we need to ask how does infancy relate to fleshly behavior? Infants of Christ and you're acting as though of the flesh.

How do these work together? We can answer it with another question is to to to what do infants react

What are we the infants respond to well, the answer is that infants react to the needs of the moment

Let's say they're hungry. What do babies do when they're hungry? Well, the mother's know right away, right?

They cry when babies are hungry. They cry Crying is a sign of emotional distress.

The baby only knows what the flesh is communicating and the flesh is communicating. I'm hungry

I don't understand being hungry. I don't like being hungry and after my many many hours of living

I Don't have a perspective to know that some moment pretty soon. I won't be hungry anymore because somebody will take care of it

I'm hungry now. The flesh is telling me I don't like it and I'm crying about it. I don't like this

I'm not sure I'll ever stop being hungry and I cry until this need of the moment this fleshly need is satisfied.

I Perhaps us That to be of the flesh is the same as to be an infant in This sense that as an infant you can only react to the moment to the need of the moment without a longer perspective and To the need of the moment, which is basically just a communication from the flesh.

I ask is that you? You know, it can be almost all of us at one time or another

Situation comes up. We need to take action We determine a course and off we go on that course reacting to this need of the moment forgetting the basics

Forgetting this first fare that the Apostle feeds Which is what? Jesus Christ and him crucified

The Corinthians had failed to thrive

Because this founding principle was something that they just kind of brushed past and wanted to get on to the more sophisticated stuff the stuff they could brag about the stuff they could talk in academic tones with each other and seem so smart and Leaving behind this one core principle that really unlocks all the rest

The belly would be like moving into differential calculus, but you didn't learn how to add subtract multiply and divide

It's not as though the Lord through Paul had kept anything away from them It's not as though today that the

Lord through the scripture through his spirit through your pastors has left anything deficient for you as It was for the

Corinthians. So it is for us today That by his spirit by his word by the graces he gives us through the body of Christ in the church

The fair has been set for you So we need to ask ourselves as we look at this one chapter these first four verses is am

I? Taking of what Christ has through his grace By the means of grace, he's given me taking advantage

Have I partaken of the fair that he set before me Because Paul for the

Corinthians and Christ through his spirit today has kept nothing from them and nothing from you

The Lord provides all you need for growth into the image of Christ Verse 2 he says

I fed you with milk not solid food for you are not ready for it and Even now you are not ready

He's a wise and a caring parent He's the one who was a father of that church small

F Spot the father that church by having founded that church you can read about that in Acts chapter 18 and 19

But he was a wise parent he was a caring parent he knew what they needed and he fed his flock what he knew they could handle

Well milk and solid food, of course are metaphors for the depth of his teaching There's only a metaphor and we can't squeeze it too tightly for the details because if we do we squeeze out all its meaning

But the idea here is still you have to get the basics down before you move to the more advanced teaching a

Teacher doesn't teach first grades or ABCs and then assign an essay She teaches them how to form words and how to put together sentences and eventually says tomorrow bring me a paper and give me

One paragraph on what's your favorite dessert? or something like that Now the

Corinthians thought themselves to have arrived the moment they heard the gospel It's okay.

We've got this gospel. Okay, Paul Jesus Christ in him crucified. Okay. Now, let's move on Let's get into the deeper things.

Let's get into the mysteries Let's get into the get into the things are to give me status and prestige for myself

Because we got that other thing. We got it Paul. We understand it. How can you ever understand that? Jesus Christ and him crucified

What does it mean that we start out with the name Jesus? Think about this think about this milk that you're given as an infant

Jesus the name given to Jesus when he was born The angel says you shall call his name

Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins The Son of God was not eternally forever

Jesus that came at a moment in time when God sent his son to come and die for your sins

Christ means the Messiah the one who shall save his people the expected one the hope of Israel for so many

Centuries and yet when he came they didn't receive him, but all for all who did receive him

He gave the right to be called children of God Jesus Christ and not just Jesus Christ and Something else him that one that only one

Jesus Christ the Son of God him and him alone Crucified Died for your sins.

He was dead and buried and raised on the third day Jesus Christ and him crucified

There's your baby food and There's the founding principle that foundation that brings you into the more sophisticated the deeper knowledge of Christ Not that we can boast

Do we know him better? Follow him more closely Become more and more like him

By delving more and more into his word by applying it more and more in our life at every situation well, they thought then that they were done when they heard that basic message and then confident in their own ability to discern all the ramifications of the

Lord's atoning sacrifice What did they do? Having not taken of that fear having not pondered having not digested it if we press that metaphor

They fell into worldly ways You see they hadn't digested it. It hadn't really Permeated all of their thinking all of their thoughts all of their motives all their agenda

They didn't do away with their worldly selves Their sectarianism was proof positive that they moved too quickly from the basics

That Jesus died for the sins and rose again was nice, but they wanted more they wanted wisdom. They won the intricacies

They want something to boast about they wanted something honestly to divide over There's what alarmed the

Apostle here And we'll dig into this just a little bit this morning and more as we go through this chapter in coming weeks

But all this proved that they still needed the basics They were stuck there like infants and to be stuck there and to be called infants in the

Lord Even though they had in Christ, and that's good news to be called infants is hard on the ego

Well, they wanted the big stuff. They want the sophisticated stuff. They wanted the impressive stuff right away. Do you remember the first men in black?

When I don't remember the characters names But it's Tommy Lee Jones takes Will Smith into the armory

He's good. He was told give the young guy give the new guy a weapon and of course

The older guy Tommy Lee Jones, he takes this big bazooka looking thing for himself. It was yeah, that's what

I'm talking That's what I want. He gets this little pistol, right? Looks like a baby squirt gun And he's really disappointed with that.

He says yo you get the big gun. You know you remember this Then he finally has to fire that gun and the recoil knocks him back through the wall and blows up half a city block

Well, he hadn't appreciated what he had That little thing that looks so unimpressive to him and sometimes

We need to remember that this so -called little thing that we start with much more impressive much more

Influential than we often think Jesus Christ and him crucified that your starting point for everything

Is that the thing that you're still trying to digest? That's where the Lord provides what you need for growth in him

This core basic Paul had given the

Corinthians all that they needed in those five words and Likewise you have what you need to grow and progress in the

Lord. Jesus give good gifts to his people. That's Ephesians 418 He leaves nothing out

You know if we look back at Isaiah In chapter 5, I'll just read a couple of verses from there It's God looking at the vineyard that he had planted what he means is his people

Israel And he said let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard

My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines

He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a vine a wine vat in it And he looked for it to yield grapes, but he yielded wild grapes

Well, the point there is that the Lord when he planted his people when he brought them into the promised land gave them everything

Everything in terms of houses that were built that they didn't build but they were dwelling in those houses taking advantage of crops that they had not planted and Most importantly they had his presence and the

Lord looks at them and says You acting this way. I gave you all that you needed

Nothing needful that the Lord has not provided to you In order to become more like Jesus Christ in order to progress more and more into his image and that's the real point here

Nothing needful that the Lord has not given to you. He's giving you faith to repent and believe the gospel

He's giving you the Holy Spirit within you residing within you He's giving you the scriptures to guide you.

He's giving you a church to help you grow He's giving you a hope in Christ is true and unwavering all the means of grace

As you come together for teaching in Sunday school for hearing the word proclaimed as we are this moment

For taking of the Lord's table as we will God willing at the end of this service this morning All the means of grace everything set before you

Yet we don't always partake and When we do we take in such a cursory and a quick can

I say in an infant way? And just brush past it and don't stop and think about Jesus Christ and even crucified

We have a short time of meditation as the elements of being served for the Lord's table And we've moved the hymn away from that time.

So it's a quiet time Do you take that time to consider what we put before you?

Before we partake and proclaim our faith in Jesus Christ and our hope in his return

Jesus Christ and he crucified Now if I were asked to for a show of hands, which

I'm not keep your hands down, but if I asked How many of you are satisfied in your progress in the gospel?

If I actually raise your hand Are you satisfied with where you are from where you started when you first repented and had faith to believe the gospel?

To where you are now in the image of Jesus Christ raise your hand if you're satisfied with yourself I wouldn't see any hands.

I would hope not to see any hands As I say keep your hands down We can never hold ourselves up against Jesus and come away satisfied

Paul wrote to the Philippians in chapter 3 verse 12 He said not that I have arrived or excuse me already attained this or I'm already perfect But I press on to make the knowledge of Christ my own knowledge of Christ is my word

The knowledge of Christ my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own So now we're always pressing on towards that image

As Paul says in Romans chapter 8 that God predestined us to be conformed to that image But if I asked you now

How many of you are dissatisfied? How many of you who are dissatisfied have availed yourself of what

Christ has provided? Okay, so are you satisfied with who you are towards the image of Christ hands down?

No, of course, I'm not Have you availed yourself of what Christ has set before you in order for you to grow into that image

Have you hands down most of us have not taken the full fare

Christ and him crucified isn't really baby food. I mean, it's a metaphor and we can press that and Get a lot of Snickers and laughs out of it, too

But we're not going to because Paul's not saying anything even close to humorous here Saying you haven't taken

What has been set before you and you can't move on until you're past this and understand this and it permeates all of your life

Jesus Christ and him crucified feast on this Don't be ashamed at the totality of your defense

You're told to be ready to give a defense for the hope that lies within you as Peter says What's the hope the lies within you don't be ashamed if all you can say is

Jesus Christ and him crucified because those aren't baby words That Unlocks everything

It's not Baby food, it's not really milk You know, my father wanted his boys to be real men

I don't know if I've used this before has an illustration of sermon I know I've told some of you this but way back in the 1950s in the early 60s, you know real men eat steak real men

Yeah, they had all these images for what a real man was My dad got in his head that real men are gonna eat steak

So as soon as my brother who's two years older than me They didn't warn me of this as soon as we had anything white coming out of our gun or jaws

Meaning teeth were starting to show my dad wanted to see steak, but of course we couldn't chew it

You know my dad did He was a bit of an odd genius sort He chewed it.

He got the idea from birds who would chew the food and then feed it to their chicks He pre chewed it.

He got it soft enough that when he put it we could gum it and get the steak down We couldn't really do it.

It's like an eagle for the chicks He was trying to take care of it for us, but neither of us was really ready for it.

We weren't ready for it Paul Antithetical to my father

Was giving them what they needed what they could digest what they could actually chew on they saying this first Thrive on this but they failed to thrive they failed to take it in They failed to understand the ramifications of it versus three and four for you're still of the flesh

I gave you this food, but you're still of the flesh. You're still acting as though you're in the world

You're still behaving as though You don't know anything about Jesus Christ and him crucified

For while there is jealousy and strife among you Are you not of the flesh of behaving only in a human way from one says

I follow Paul and another I follow Paul Are you not being merely? human So there's two explanations you giving here both

Preceded by that word for for you are still of the flesh and I explained verse 2 That's why he kept them on the beginners diet

Their life showed all the character of flesh all the character of unredeemed people

They thought and behaved according to the whims of the moment. That's why he calls them infants Like children, they were impulsive

Like unredeemed humanity they thought themselves of themselves first and Christ crucified as an afterthought

When and if Christ and him crucified in value to their mind They set it aside like Scarlett O 'Hara and gone with wind.

They said I'll think about it tomorrow Paul say no, you never really did stop and think about it

That's second for in that verse. I just read for while there is jealousy and strife Are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way behaving like mere men?

Well, there are flesh and blood humans like all of us are but not merely that not only that They've been redeemed by the cross of Christ They had their faith in what he had done when he suffered for their sins

And what God had done for them through his son Jesus Christ when he went to that cross

It's like in a flippant way They look at the cross said, okay, so we're okay with God good

What's next? No, they guess stop there. Stay at that cross. Look at the cross

We portrayed to you Jesus Christ and him crucified as Paul says to the Galatians. I made it clear to you

Stop there Stay on that cross They Didn't they moved on to jealousy and strife they went immediately away for it

You know, you don't need to avoid following men to be free of free of the conviction here Anything that divides you from a brother or sister in the

Lord has to be suspect your first thought if it's making you have a distance from someone who also was redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and you're

Stepping away. You're pulling away in relationship. It's cooling and we've all been through this And before you make that boundary before you step over that border and says

I've made a border and here's a wall between us before all that What do you do?

You put this in your mind five words Straight from the Bible out of a phrase.

Yes But we know where it is Jesus Christ and him crucified

Jesus Christ and him crucified you don't have to follow a Paulist. You don't have to follow Paul You don't say well, I'm behind Conley and I like the older guy better So you don't have to go to that ridiculous distance to be convicted by what the

Apostle Paul has here Anything that divides Has to first go through that sieve of Jesus Christ and him crucified

There are things to divide over. I will not have fellowship I will not even name someone a

Christian who denies the deity of Jesus Christ If someone says Jesus Christ is not eternal

God who always was and never was not if you don't agree with that I doubt your

Christianity. We're willing to divide over that There's a oneness sect out there

That doesn't believe that God is three persons and we're not gonna go into all the detail about that But I would divide over that We have to be careful of those things

We don't have to make boundaries that the Bible doesn't make we're too prone to setting boundaries that are ours and not from the scripture

Something like politics has caused far too much harm to the church in the last couple of years

The gospel of Jesus informs our political views. It informs our social views our views of justice and mercy and everything but Few of us are so astute as to make these absolute lines and say if you believe that about this

Then I can hardly believe that you're saved. I don't want to have anything to do with you Sometimes it is necessary But does it work through this

Jesus Christ and him crucified You know the rebels who gathered themselves are on Absalon Against David his father who was the proper

King set there by God. There's a good example Absalom pandered to their flesh and they acting like mere men behaved according to the impulses of the flesh

Whenever you find yourself being drawn into a click that defines itself in a way that leaves others out

That says I follow this and you follow that stop

Go back to the baby's milk Think of Jesus Christ and him crucified and let that control your thoughts behave according to him and Not according to the flesh

Well, let me wrap this up Are we saying here? That we need to avoid the deeper teaching of the

Bible about Jesus Christ Well, absolutely not Our motto here at Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church is a deeper knowledge of Christ so we do want to teach and we do want to delve in and we do want to know the

Intricacies and the deeper things of Christ and apply them to our life so eschatology

The study of in things especially Jesus return is all about what? It's all about how he was crucified for our sins as 1st

Thessalonians 4 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep

So eschatology, which is one of the deep things of Christ and we've studied it this past year

What's the key What's the filter through which it all works and makes sense to us as Jesus Christ and him crucified?

If Jesus is going to return as God's going to wrap up history, which he will Why because Christ died for our sins and we will be with him

We'll follow a resurrection like his the mystery of the Trinity One God undivided without beginning without end existing eternally as God the

Father God the Son and the Holy Spirit How do we understand this? It's from the baby food.

It's from the milk of the Word Jesus Christ and him crucified How is that because the Son of God was not always

Jesus that name was given him in time and space God the

Father you read Ephesians chapter 1 verses 1 through 14 God the Father chose the people to be in Christ the

Son Who God the Spirit would then give faith to believe in what in his cross and him crucified for your sins

No, this five -word phrase unlocks all these mysteries it brings us into the deeper things of Christ John's Gospel begins with in the beginning was the

Word and the Word was with God the Word was God tis mystery all right Well, yes, it is mystery, but here's the key

Christ in him crucified because John goes on to write But to all who did receive him he who believed in his name.

He gave the right to become children of God How did he attain the right to give us?

How did he give us the right to become children of God? by his cross

By his crucifixion by his resurrection. That's how he earned our right to become his children

So this soft mushy baby food this baby ready food it even stands behind our unity as a church

You read to you from Ephesians chapter 2 verse 13 through 16 But now in Christ Jesus you who are far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ That's blood shed on the cross.

That's his crucifixion We're talking about unity here as Jesus Christ in him crucified, and that's what explains our unity as a church

May go on for he himself is our peace who has made both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of Hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two

So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body. We're talking about unity in the church

We're talking about our solidity as a people in Christ here in this place and how did

God do that? What's the mystery behind that? through the cross thereby killing the hostility

Jesus Christ in him crucified I Truly believe that the reason this church has remained focused and united in these last couple of years

When divisions have infected friends and families and colleagues and couples and we've seen churches blow up over vaccines

Blow up of our mandates blow up for over masks over BLM over CRT.

It's been everywhere It's been a blight on Christ reputation in my opinion

And I truly believe that God in his grace God and his kindness has kept us unified

Because we've stayed focused on this Jesus Christ and him crucified

There's no spiritual food by which you can better thrive on than that It unlocks all the mysteries of your life.

Now. It unlocks the mysteries of the Bible from Genesis 1 to the end of Revelation All those hard parts are answered by that Jesus Christ and him crucified

So I said I would give you that I've said it so many times in this message I'm gonna listen to it sometime later on mark how many times

I said Jesus Christ and him crucified Jesus Christ and him crucified We don't often call for responses.

I'm not going to now, but I'd like to if we were that kind of church I say church shout this out Jesus Christ and him crucified

But I did promise to give you at the beginning this key to life and wisdom God willing

I have and someday many years from now when you're old like me When you're well advanced in the faith as I am

I Say that with a smile Well, you may be able to graduate to this one truth

You'll take all your powers of comprehension to understand it But if you work hard between now and then if you ponder deeply every waking moment

You may you just may be able to advance to this all -encompassing and life -changing truth