1 Corinthians 1:1-9 Thankful for the Mess

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsick preaches from his sermon series titled, 1

Corinthians, Sinful Church, Powerful Gospel. Let's listen in. Well, good morning and welcome to Recast Church.

I'm Don Filsick. I'm the lead pastor here, and I am so glad to be back together with this local gathering.

I miss you guys a lot when I'm away, and I mean that sincerely, like I really do. Like, I mean,

I think that you might think a pastor is supposed to get up and say that, but I actually mean it. But Linda and I do enjoy our time away as well.

We had a great vacation. A lot of people have asked us this morning how things went, and we had good weather.

Sorry, but we had good weather down in Tennessee while you guys were enduring the snow last week, the week before last.

So, but one thing that we enjoy doing, and this has become kind of a family tradition. We like, we actually enjoy, and I know not everybody does, but we enjoy visiting other churches when we are on vacation, when we're away.

Two Sundays ago, we worshiped with a small church in Townsend, Tennessee called the Church of the

Cove. It's kind of been our vacation church since we go down for about a week in the Smokies every year.

This was our 20th year running, going down to that area for vacation. We love that area. So we've actually, one week every year, got a chance to see this little church grow over the years.

That's been awesome. And last week, we had the opportunity to meet with another, a church that's a member church, just like we are, of Camp Barakel up north.

It's called Covenant Life Community Church in Hazlitt, Michigan. How many know where Hazlitt is? Over by East Lansing.

And we had a chance to fellowship with them last week. It was super awesome. But more than just catching you up on our travel, and where we've been, and churches we've visited,

I'm telling you this because there is something in the text this morning, this morning that touches on the local church being connected to the global church.

The local church being connected to the global church. Our text is going to make a strong case that Jesus is saving people into His gathering together.

But there are equally important hints that we, I mean, into His gathering together, like into the church, like the local, like what we're doing here this morning, and the relationships that are forged here are vital.

But there are equally important hints throughout Scripture that we belong to something much bigger than what

God is doing here in Matawan. Amen? God is, I mean, you know, God is doing a bigger picture than what

He's doing here at Recast Church. I certainly hope so. I've entitled this first message in 1

Corinthians, thankful for the mess. Because the Apostle Paul begins with gratitude for the church in the city of Corinth.

And despite the fact that Paul doesn't begin rebuking them for the mess that they have made of this church he planted a few years ago before writing these things, he's going to rebuke them pretty sternly.

He's going to spend much of this letter correcting, rebuking, and even chastising the church in Corinth.

But I would say to you that without context, without the understanding of the entire letter that he writes, the opener that I'm about to read to you and the introduction to this letter sounds cheery, it sounds upbeat, it sounds encouraging, it sounds positive, but taken together with the rest of the letter it can seem disconnected.

What I'm going to read this morning sounds disconnected from some of the harsh words that he has for the church in Corinth coming up in the coming weeks and months.

It might even sound like he's being dishonest to them in the introduction, as if he's being disingenuous, saying, kind of trying to butter them up or something with kind words that he doesn't mean.

And so the question that we need to think of before I read this this morning is, was Paul really thankful? Was he genuinely thankful for the church in Corinth?

Is God really thankful for a church that's struggling with sin and trying to find a way to health and wholeness?

Is he okay with that? Does he know that we are struggling? Each one is individuals.

How many of you would just raise your hand and confess that this week I struggled with some stuff? It wasn't an easy week.

There's all kinds of feelings. It might be doubt, it might be fear, it might be sin. It is sin. I know that all of us have struggled with sin this week.

Either you're struggling with it or it's owning you, one or the other. But here is the beauty of this opener that helps to reconcile the opening of thankfulness with the rest of the letter that is a strong rebuke.

It's simply this. Christ is going to be mentioned. Christ, Jesus, is going to be mentioned nine times in nine verses.

He is the center. Paul never once says in this opening, listen for it, he never once says he is thankful for the behavior of the church of Corinth.

He doesn't say he's thankful for their faithfulness. He doesn't say he's thankful for them.

Instead he says he is thankful for the grace given to them by a gracious God.

He is grateful for the spiritual gifts that have been given to them. He is thankful for the faithfulness of God Almighty over his broken church.

He is thankful for the reception of the gospel among them. Paul is thankful that it is

God who sustains his people to the very end. He is not at all glad for the way that they're treating one another with divisions and arrogance and disunity and pride and all those things.

He is rather very glad for the God who works with rascals just like them. And of course the

God who works with rascals just like us. Here's part of what

I want us to set the stage with this morning as we're entering into this letter, entering into this book for what's going to amount to be a few months together in 1

Corinthians. It is that you could look the world over and never find a perfect church. Did you know that? I mean

I know recast is close to it, but you know, you can look the whole world over and never find a perfect church, but you can look the world over and find, hear me carefully church, many churches that he loves.

Not perfect churches, but many churches that he loves.

Many churches full of people he is redeeming. Many churches that are a beautiful mess.

Many churches just like us recast. So let's open our Bibles or your devices or your scripture journals to 1

Corinthians starting from the beginning, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 through 9. If you want a copy of the

ESV Bible that I preach from, maybe you have a different version and you're like, what does he preach from?

It's the ESV. We have copies of that out at the welcome table. During connection time you can go out there and say, hey I want a

Bible and they would be glad to give you one. We also have those scripture journals that Linda mentioned that are out there as well.

But recast, this is God's holy and precious word. This is what he desires for us to take in. This is a holy moment.

When I step in front of here and I read this, this is a holy moment for us in that this is the very words of the almighty

God to us. So please follow along and give it your respect. Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother

Sassanus, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Grace to you.

And peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my

God always for you, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our

Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our

Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. By whom you were called into the fellowship of his

Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Let's pray as the band comes to get ready to lead us in worship.

Brothers, I've had the privilege of studying and reading over your word and preparing for a series in 1

Corinthians. I am struck in awe that the ceiling has not caved in on us this morning, that the sum total of the sins committed this past week by all of us are worthy of your just condemnation.

That we woke up this morning breathing your air, that we woke up and had food to take in from the bounty of your great provision, that grace upon grace upon grace have been bestowed upon us as sinners.

As a broken and busted people gathered together with the only hope at the foot of the cross of your

Son, Jesus, I pray that you would break open with light into the dark places of our soul.

That you would reveal to us what we deserve and what we have received and how disparate those two things are.

They couldn't be further from reality, further from each other. What we deserve, your condemnation, what we have received, grace upon grace upon grace here in your gathering, here in your people.

Everything that we need in the church for our eternity and for our living well in the here and now.

Father, I pray that you would press that new on us as we go through this new study, as we get an introduction to a letter that is going to level some hard words, but starts with such a refreshing view of the church, with such a refreshing view of what you have done for us, with the great grace bestowed on us.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, everything we need in him. And I pray that now our voices would raise to praise that name, to praise the glorious one who died on the cross and gives us new life.

I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Get comfortable, keep your Bibles open or reopen your devices or your scripture journals to 1

Corinthians 1, 1 through 9. Especially if you're going to take some notes, have that open and be able to see the things that I'm saying are coming from God's word.

If at any time during the message, as I say, like a broken record every week, more coffee, juice or donuts, while supplies last back there.

Restrooms are out the double doors down the hallway on the left hand side. So just make yourself at home, but as we dive into God's word together.

And I want to start off with just kind of painting a picture for you, a mental picture in your mind. Something that I think all of us can relate to.

How many of you have attended a wedding? All of us, that's probably most all of us. I want you to think about that.

I attended a wedding of one of Linda's friends who's been on staff at Camp Barrichal this past Sunday. Beautiful, those are always beautiful occasions.

Do you guys enjoy going to weddings? It can be a fun time, a time of celebration with people. But we all know the routine, right?

We were seated. You're seated. The groom then comes in and probably seats grandparents or parents or something.

And then come the bridesmaids, the groomsmen in some kind of arrangement, some kind of order. The groom stands up front.

Can you picture him there eagerly awaiting his bride as we just sang? The music plays.

Anticipation builds. And there comes a moment when the music shifts, right? There comes a point.

There's always some different music that signals what? The bride's coming.

The mother of the bride stands all rise and turn, and there she is. Can you picture her in your mind's eye? Can you picture her there?

She's prepared for this day. She's done her hair. She maybe has a veil, maybe not, but a special gown that she's prepared.

She's paid special attention and had people pamper her to this point, right?

Do you have that image in your mind? Now, imagine that you're at that wedding. You're there at that moment, that pregnant moment of anticipation where the reveal is there for the bride, and you turn around, and what you see is she is disheveled.

She is completely disheveled. She's wearing Crocs. No, as you look closer, she is wearing Croc because she only has one.

Her lipstick is spilled off of her lips over onto her cheek. Her hair looks like she just woke up and wandered into the church.

Yeah, there's an image. She's wearing sweatpants and a threadbare Bon Jovi T -shirt she probably got back in the 80s.

Do you have that image in your mind? Can you picture that? And there stands the groom with tears of joy in his eyes, gladness.

He will receive her. He will fix her up. I love you, he mouths to her as she comes down the aisle toward him.

I love you. I am here for you, and I am eager on this day to say to you forever.

For as long as I live, I will care for you. I will provide for you. I will fix you up for eternity with me.

As we go through the book of 1 Corinthians and even our text this morning, I want you to have that image in the back of your mind.

Paul is writing a greeting to a messed up church. Oh, she does not have her act together.

How many of you could raise your hand and testify that if it is up to us in the gathering, we are the church, are we messed up?

This church is messed up. Paul's writing a greeting to a church like that.

And under the inspiration of the Spirit, he writes with thankfulness, with gladness. He's not being disingenuous.

He's not being dishonest in his introduction. He will be faithful to tell her in the coming weeks what needs to change as we go through this book.

And boy, are there a lot of things that need to change. But he also expresses here at the start that she is wonderful because, and strictly because, she belongs to Jesus.

What makes us special? What makes us valuable? We belong to Jesus' church.

Amen? That is where our value comes from. Nine times Jesus Christ is going to be mentioned in this text as the centerpiece of the church.

After we establish that Paul was called out here in verse 1 by the will of God, kind of an introductory verse, a massively introductory verse in verse 1, called out by the will of God to be a sent spokesman, that's the word apostle for Jesus.

We see that in verse 1. And that a man named Sosthenes, he's mentioned in Acts 18, 17, at least that name is.

And we think it's likely the same guy. He was beaten. He was at the start of Corinth.

Paul had come in, planted the church in Corinth, shared the gospel. People believed. And the Jews got all riled up.

And the leader of the synagogue there was a guy named Sosthenes. Now, we don't hear about his conversion.

We just hear that the Jews beat him for letting Paul speak. And it's likely that he has helped transcribe this very letter after the formal introductions of verse 1.

Then our text breaks out this morning into ten unique traits of the church.

Ten defining traits, unique traits of the church. And he's writing to a church that's struggling to be unified.

So here in this opening, he introduces the letter in an expert way, weaving in the fundamental nature of a local assembly.

What does it mean to be a church? Recast, we've got to define this. And he's doing this in thankfulness.

He does this in hope. He defines what a church is, so setting the stage to call them to the higher things that are true of them.

Like the bride in my earlier illustration, she might need some guidance for the future. But here at the opening,

Paul is emphasizing just how very much she has been loved and called into this marriage by the

Lord Jesus Christ himself. And notice we go through these ten points, just how central Christ is, verse by verse, in defining the traits of his bride, his church.

The first thing that we're going to see, the first point is found in verse 2. Actually, the first four points are going to be found in verse 2.

It's packed full of stuff. But the first thing is that the church is local. We see that in verse 2? It might seem like a duh, like really, did you have to mention that?

It's kind of obvious. The church is, of course, local. We are here gathered together locally.

But Paul writes in verse 2 to the church of God that is in Corinth, a real location. He's writing to a gathering of people in a geographical place.

And of course, we're so constrained by space and time that we give it little thought. We can't meet with the whole church, right?

We don't meet with the whole church. You've never met the whole church. We meet with a local manifestation of the church.

But all the global people who over the ages and over history have believed that is a good definition of church, but that's not a local church.

So we can only be in one place at one time. And it's valuable to see from Scripture that the church is a local thing.

We might be tempted to think of the church as primarily, if you were to read in the New Testament, you might start to think of it metaphorically.

I belong to Jesus. You belong to Jesus. And one day on the other side, we will all be gathered together. But the word church means gathering.

That's what the word means in Greek, gathering. The gathering in our text is modified by the gathering of God, meaning those gathered together for Him and by Him.

And it is an actual place. You all live in the vicinity of Matawan, so we're a church of God in Matawan.

We are from the surrounding areas coming together into this place to worship God. A people forged by God, brought together by God, brought together for the purpose of worshiping

God. But should God move you on to Florida or Oregon or God have mercy on your soul,

Ohio? I've got a couple of you. You should be sure to find a local gathering there to connect with.

The local nature takes for granted that the one who is saved is connected in a local fellowship, in relationship with others.

And by the way, that means not merely attending a gathering. We'll get into some of these details as we flesh this out, but not merely attending a show on Sunday morning, but connecting in relationships with one another.

It's going to be made more explicit as we go through, but that's the first one, the church is local. The second, also in verse 2, is defining what the church is.

The church is a set -apart people. Also in verse 2, we see it's a gathering of a specific type of people.

We are unique and different in a certain way. We're not merely a social club or a club for seekers, or even a group of people who want to act really, really good.

The church is a gathering of those defined in the text as those sanctified in Christ Jesus.

Sanctified, a big fancy word. It can be a confusing word in the Bible. Sometimes it's used for a process that God takes us through in making

His children look more and more like Jesus over the course of a lifetime. And when used that way, we could call it a process or the progressive sanctification, the work that God does to make us more and more like Jesus as we walk with Him, as we've already been saved by Him.

But here, it's a past tense verb. It is something that has already been done. You have been sanctified in Christ.

The root of the word helps to define and explain what Paul means by it. It is set -apart for a unique purpose.

Set -apart for the purpose, really, of worshiping God. In our salvation, we are uniquely kind of picked up from our lifestyle, picked up from where we live and placed in a different realm in the idea of what our purposes and our goals are.

They're all changed now. So set -apart is for a unique purpose. I had a theology professor talk about how he got in trouble and got disciplined by his mom one time for using her sanctified scissors.

She was a seamstress professionally, and she cut cloth, and she had a pair of scissors that you didn't use for something else.

That's a very routine thing that helps us to understand the word sanctified or holy. Set -apart for a specific purpose.

Well, she didn't love it when she found him cutting paper and binder twine with her seamstress scissors, and he got busted for it.

Sanctified. Set -apart for a specific purpose. The word actually gets its origin, by the way, in the

Old Testament sacrificial system. So there was meat that was sanctified, holy.

You didn't go into the altar, walk up to the altar, and just grab a slab of ribs and eat it off the altar.

There was protocol around that that was dedicated to God. There's common bread, and then there's holy bread.

There was bread that was baked and put on the show table in the outer court of the tabernacle and temple. There were common people, and there were holy people.

Not anybody could go into the holiest place and make a sacrifice. Only the priests could do so. There were common garments and holy garments.

The garments that the priests wore were not to be worn to the shindig next weekend. They were for the holy purposes, the set -apart sanctified purposes of God.

Did you guys even know that in the Old Testament there was even a holy incense? An incense that was only to be used in the temple.

If you were found using that in your bathroom to cover smells, or you were found using that in your living room, you were in trouble and busted by God.

There was an incense that was used to cover up the scents in the holy place where all those sacrifices were made.

That's what we mean when we hear the word sanctified. That's what these authors are talking about, set -apart.

We are a set -apart people, church. The church is sanctified.

A sanctified people. A people for the purpose of worshiping Jesus Christ. Much more could be said about this.

And will be said as Paul is going to show the Corinthians many ways that they are not living out that sanctification.

They are not living as though they are distinct or a different people. But when we were saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we became sanctified.

We are those who no longer own our own lives, church. We were bought with a price.

And anyone who tells me that they're saved but refuses to acknowledge that God and Jesus get the final say in how they live, they are demonstrating that they are not a sanctified people in Jesus Christ.

He is a loving and kind Lord that is to be obeyed. The church is a gathering of those set -apart to live more and more like Christ as he convicts us and draws us into a life to honor him.

The third thing that we see in verse 2 is that we're connected together. We have been called to be saints.

Do you see the word in the text? Together. Still speaking to a very messy church in Corinth, Paul says that they have been called to be saints together.

He identifies himself earlier in verse 1 called to be an apostle. They also have a very high and important position as well.

They are called to be saints together. And a church is a gathering of saints. The same root word of saint is the same root word that I just described as sanctified.

They are set -apart ones. And Paul uses that word to define any follower of Jesus Christ.

Unlike the Catholic Church, you don't have to do a miracle after you die in order to become a saint.

We don't have different categories of people. Those who trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are declared in the

New Testament to bear the title saint. Set -apart ones. That's all of us.

You don't achieve sainthood at some point in your life. It is when you accepted

Christ as your Savior. Well, I guess you do, but it's only not in the church. Once you're in the church and once you're saved, then moving forward, there's not another tier.

There's not another level. Paul uses the word to define a follower of Christ, and we have been set -apart together.

We have been made saints, set -apart ones together. We are not made to be a lone church, and I say that often.

Here at Recast, we talk about growing in faith, growing in community, and growing in service. Because a church is a set -apart people for Jesus who do life together.

And it's not too late to involve yourselves in some of these community groups. Some of these are just drop -in community groups. There's one that meets on Tuesday night here for meals.

If you're hungry on a Tuesday night, you can come here and eat. There's another one that meets Sunday night.

And that's just like, yeah, if you want to eat food and get to know others in the church, where's that one at? At the

Saltarellis, and then this one. And talk with them out at the welcome table. If you're like, even if God would speak into your heart and say, there's a little bit of conviction here about just kind of coming to a show on Sunday morning and then leaving, where you're recognizing that God is speaking to you through this text and saying,

I need more than that. I know that God desires more than that of me, and I've been a little bit reticent to jump in.

Well, let's take that on. We are together this morning. That's a good first start.

I don't know that that means that you're nailing it. But it's a start, right? And I commend you for that.

Like, gathering together with God's people. This is the gathering, and it's a glorious thing. So we're going to move on to the fourth point, and that's connected.

I said third point, connected together. Fourth point, connected apart. Sounds strange, but connected apart.

Despite the fact that the church is local and connected together in a specific locale, like Recast Church here in Matawan, we are also together in Christ with all of those in every place who call upon the name of Jesus Christ as Lord.

What do I mean by that? What does the text mean by that? That we are connected together in all of those who would call

Jesus Christ Lord. And what it kind of comes down to is just to cut to the chase. I have more central values in common with a believer in North Africa and Morocco than I have with an atheist that lives on my street.

I have more in common with somebody in the Middle East who trusts Jesus Christ than I have with someone down the street who shares a lot of cultural values with me but does not have the

Lord in common. You see, with those who know Jesus Christ, with those who are set apart to his worship, we have the same love, the same grace, the same

Lord, the same hope, the same Word, the same eternal destiny.

Do you get that? For this reason, I absolutely love traveling and visiting other churches.

It's kind of a passion. I love it. Lynn and I have had the privilege, a great privilege, and we don't take it for granted, but we've had the privilege of worshiping

Jesus across Europe. We've worshiped God with those who call upon his name, who call him

Lord in Indonesia, in Morocco, in Uganda, in Costa Rica, in all of the languages, and in all of those places,

I was moved to consider the global scope of what Jesus Christ is doing in his church. There are many gathered all around the world as the sun marches across time zone after time zone, and as it comes up this very day, every hour, a new voice, a new people, a new language, a new country, where the church is awakened to worship

Jesus Christ as Lord. All day long on Sunday, it's a glorious thing, worshiping

Jesus Christ. Local matters a lot, but local isn't all of it.

There's a danger in missing the local nature of the church, and there's a danger in missing the global nature of the church, and we need to keep that right in the center.

We can become isolated or insular or even arrogant to think that God is doing his work only here in Matawan, only what

I can see, only what I can take in. Well, that's all that matters to me, but we could also find ourselves on the other ditch and find ourselves falling off that into the thoughts that the local church is optional.

I fear that many people have done that as they've fallen off of attending church over the course of a pandemic.

People might be tempted to say, I'm just a part of his global church, and I don't need the local assembly.

Unfortunately, for many, it's because they've been hurt. Some of you here are overcoming hurt. It's taken you effort to get here to sit in these seats, and I recognize that.

I don't mean to minimize that hurt, but what is this text about? Who is mentioned nine times in nine verses?

Fix your eyes on Jesus who says, you are called together to worship.

His church is both local and global. The fifth point in the text is found in verses three and four.

It bridges, it's a pretty major point that he concludes his introduction with it and then launches out into his thanks with it.

His church is a unique gathering together of people who have been saved by grace.

Grace is that bridge. He ends his introduction with it. He starts his section on thanks and his paragraph on thanks with it.

His unearned, God's unearned kindness toward us in Christ.

And those who receive it, those who receive his grace, that salvation has resulted in peace. So Paul says grace and peace to you from God our

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This point bridges again that introduction and that thanks.

And Paul in verse three is offering a wish prayer. It's called a wish prayer for ongoing grace and peace toward the

Corinthians. And then he immediately launches out into thankfulness for the grace that they have been given in Christ Jesus.

Again, identifying the things that are true of a church. A true church of those sanctified in Christ have received grace, past tense, and continue to receive grace, present tense as well.

And I would just ask you by way of application, would you consider praying for ongoing grace and peace to rain down on this local gathering here at Recast?

Would you give thanks to God when you see his grace and peace in the lives of one another here? Celebrating together when there are victories.

Celebrating together when there are blessings. Not in competition with one another for the blessings of God, but in gratitude and thankfulness that your brothers and sisters are flourishing and that things are going well and that there's unity.

The source of our life together is Christ in grace. And the product of that grace is peace in our midst.

But God forbid that we take our eyes off of his grace because I believe that that is the source of so much strife and so much lack of peace in the church, particularly down through the ages, has been when we take our eyes off of grace, when we take eyes off of what we deserve and the punishment that we deserve in light of the kindness of God given to us, when we start to believe our own hype, when we start to think we're worthy, when we start to think that we deserve and grace goes out the window, how many of you know that that's shaky for a church?

That's dangerous for a church because when we start to think we're all that, we start to make demands, we start to think it's about us, we start to make ourselves our own little gods in the church.

God forbid that we take our eyes off of his grace, church, but keep remembering what we deserve and what he has granted through Jesus Christ.

The peace can only flow in our midst through grace. The sixth thing is that we see in verse 5, a unique trait of the church, we are fortified.

Like in Corinth, he says, they are in every way enriched in Christ. Enriched is a word like fortified, it's kind of like crappy cereal with all those healthy vitamins and minerals added to it.

Fortified, strengthened, enriched. I like me some

Lucky Charms. Anybody have one of those guilty pleasure, on vacation kind of foods? Could eat a whole box.

That's not good, that's not good, I just said that out loud. If he can say this about Corinth and say that they are enriched, that they are blessed, that they are fortified, that they are strengthened, then he certainly means that there's hope for us because the way that he's going to portray the church in Corinth is not good.

He's commending a very busted and broken up church for having been built up and fortified in Christ.

They have been enhanced in specific areas in which they've been fortified. Specific areas in which they've been built up, and it's speech and knowledge.

And I take this to mean that they understand and understood the gospel, which is the reason I believe that what he's talking about when he mentions speech and knowledge is the gospel is because he's going to say just a few short words later in verse 6, the testimony about Christ, which is the good news.

And the gospel has given them truth to know and truth to speak. Now the church has been blessed, but as we march through this book in the coming months, it's going to be obvious that with the blessings and the gifts that they've been given, the knowledge of the gospel, they're not using it.

The bride in my illustration might have been given a really beautiful dress, but she opted for the sweatpants and Bon Jovi tee that morning.

That doesn't change the fact that she has been given better. Are you getting it? She's been given better.

We have been given better. It's a question of what we're utilizing. It's a question of what we're applying.

And Paul is here thankful that they have been given what they need in Christ, that they've been fortified and built up and edified in Christ.

They know and can speak the truth about the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. Now we're going to see in the coming months that there's very little else that they are doing well, but what matters most they are getting, and that is the gospel.

That's the foundation. They've got a foundation to build on. And that ties into the seventh unique trait of a church, and that is that a church is convictional.

A church is convictional, verse 6, where it says, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you.

They've been enriched because they have confirmed the testimony about Christ in their faith.

We have in Corinth a church with the right belief, but the wrong actions, as we're going to see throughout the coming weeks.

And I find comfort in knowing that the most fundamental thing about a church is what they believe, or rather, it ought to be stated, who they believe in.

A church is a spiritual organization that completely and utterly revolves around love and trust for our

Savior, Jesus Christ, who is our Lord and King. So we exhibit the testimony about Him.

He came from heaven. He lived a sinless life. He died for our sins. He was buried to prove that He was more than just mostly dead, and He has risen to prove all of it.

And that is the conviction and confession that defines the church. That is the core of what it means to be a church, the gospel.

Obedience, then, is worked out in the trenches after the testimony is confirmed. And for years and years and years, I thought that what defined the church was obedience and not being naughty, behaving ourselves.

Any of you with me on that? For years, I thought that that's what the church was, was just a group of people who thought they were better than everybody else.

No, no, we're people who know how bad we are. I hope you understand that. I hope you're getting that from the things that are being preached.

No, we know how bad we are, and we know how good our Savior is. That's what defines us.

Obedience is worked out in the trenches after the testimony is confirmed in our life, after we come to believe it, after we come to trust what

Jesus Christ did for us on that cross, then life begins to transform for us by the power of His Spirit.

The eighth thing that we see is that we are amply equipped. The church, a unique trait of the church, amply equipped, verse 7.

This is very related to being fortified from verse 5. But in verse 7, we see that this church doesn't lack any gift.

Corinth had everything that they need. And I say frequently to the staff here, I'll say it in staff meetings,

I say it one -on -one to the staff, that we have everything that we need here to do whatever God has called us to do.

So if He wants us to do a sports camp this summer, then He will provide for us the volunteers to do it. If He wants us to teach two - and three -year -olds back there on Sunday morning, then there will be teachers provided.

And if not, then apparently that week, He doesn't want us to teach two - and three -year -olds. And that's just the way

I view it, is that if He desires it, He will equip and call and present people to do so.

Are you getting what I'm saying? And yet at the same time, I have no shame in saying to you, that's us. That's us.

We have to be the ones. We have to be the ones who do the things, right? To serve one another, to care for one another.

He has ministries that He has called some of you to do that aren't happening right now. He has places for you to plug in and use your gifts.

We talk about growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service, because He has some place for you to serve.

He has something unique for you to contribute to the body here. We have everything in this room that we need to accomplish the ministry that God desires for us to accomplish.

Amen? It's a glorious truth. His local gatherings that collectively make up a global church, but His local gatherings are equipped to do what

He desires during this period of human history. And I love verse 7. I just love the way that it's worded.

Speaking to the Corinthians, but also de facto to us. He defines this point in history where you and I live and have only lived as the waiting room.

That's where you live. That's where you're born. And if God doesn't send Jesus in our lifetime, then that's where we will die.

We will live and die and have our entire existence in the waiting room of history. We actually see multiple biblical authors define this epoch of human history as the waiting room.

Jesus called it a waiting room and spoke directly about birth. And He said this is like the time when the creation is groaning.

When there are like birth pangs and cataclysms and all kinds of natural disasters that occur.

And He said it's like waves of childbirth where there's the pangs of childbirth, the contractions are coming.

And they're wave after wave after wave while we wait for the birth. The glorious, beautiful birth of a new kingdom with a restored humanity where our

King comes back for us. I can't wait for that day. Think about it.

Nothing defines this time that we live in more than waiting. Do you feel it?

Have you lived long enough to experience that? Anybody in this room that thinks, no,

I don't know what you're talking about, Don. It's going to happen. There's coming a day where you go, really?

Still waiting? Do you groan for something different?

We wait for it. Do you long for an end to the pain? We are waiting.

Do you long for an end to sin? We are waiting. Do you long for true justice?

Not an end to justice, but true justice. Do you long for love, peace, rest, reconciliation, the eradication of fear?

We are in the days of waiting. So take heart, church.

That sounds discouraging, but take heart. Because what he's saying in this context is that he has equipped us together, church, for all that we need to bear one another up, bear each other's burdens, and carry one another along in these waiting days.

That's the kind of need we have for each other. That's the kind of thing that a church is meant to be.

Not up at night at 3 a .m. going it alone, night after night, in the dark nights of the soul, all alone, just me and Jesus having it out.

We need each other. Who are you sharing your struggles with? Who are you allowing in to bear up your burdens with you?

Who are you seeking prayer from? Or are you just doing it alone? God forbid that we are just not taking advantage of the things, the graces that he has given to us, church, in each other.

Are you getting it? Making sense? That's what I mean when I stand up here and say we need each other.

I mean vitally God -given ordination over the presence of others in your life for good and for blessing.

That's what we are to be for one another. He has equipped us.

But be warned, as I said, if you seek to go it alone, you will lack every other gift that you do not have.

We all have a gift, but we don't all have all the gifts. There is no promise in any of these texts that the lone ranger will have all that he or she needs.

No. It is in speaking with the local church that God promises through the Apostle Paul everything that we need.

Here's my point. Here's his point. Go it alone. Break from the church.

Be a lone ranger. And you will lack.

You will lack. That's what he's saying. But to the church, the church lacks nothing that you need.

We have it all. The ninth thing here in the text is securing

Christ. Defining the church. Unique trait of the church in verse 8. The ninth thing. The final words

I preached on from the book of Matthew were the following quote from Jesus. Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

And verse 8 says, Jesus Christ will sustain you to the end.

Will sustain his church to the end. Amen. But he adds something beautiful to this.

I didn't read it all. He will sustain us to the end. What's the next word?

Guiltless. Guiltless. Guiltless. Anybody, that word just doesn't seem quite right to you.

About you. Guiltless? Did Paul mean something different? Did he mean to say, well, just,

I mean, with most of your guilt removed, but you're going to pay a little bit. God's going to make you squirm a little bit.

He's going to make you at least a little uncomfortable there on that day of judgment because you know, you know, you've done some bad things.

And those really, really, really bad things that you did, well, Christ probably covered for most of them. Is that what he says?

He says he's going to sustain you to that day guiltless.

Now, I want to point out, as you don't have the benefit of having read the whole book, at least not all of you, but he is going to say some serious problems about this church.

Corinth has some significant problems. And Paul is going to level his guns at them in the coming chapters.

He's going to level some guns and say, you've got to change your ways. You've got to get this right. You're not looking like you love Jesus. And yet, none of the bullets in his gun include condemnation.

None of them are you're out with God and he's going to kick you out of heaven on that last day.

You see, they are saved by Jesus. And now they are being called, they are going to be called throughout the rest of the book to live like it.

A Christian is made one by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. They are made an obedient Christian by the power of the

Holy Spirit over a lifetime of love for the one who lived and died for them.

We have every reason to be confident that if we are trusting in Jesus for salvation, and he is our Lord, and we want to be set apart for his use, that he has started a work in us that he, he, he will be faithful to complete.

Yeah, even people like us, shabby, disheveled, unkempt, and loved.

Deeply loved in Christ. We are works in progress. A church is a beautiful mess that he is working to clean up.

And that leads into the final unique quality of a church. We are established in Christ by God, verse 9.

Not only are we secure in Christ, but we are put together by the God who is, according to the text, faithful.

Why does God begin, why does Paul, really God through Paul begin verse 9 with God is faithful?

And I think it's because everything else rests on the faithfulness of God. If he's not faithful, if he doesn't keep his promises, we are all toast, we're in trouble.

And I'm tempted to wonder how, really when I look at my own sin -darkened, heavy, dirty soul, in my heart, my soul, what

I am in here, and what I have done, and the brokenness inside me, how will

I fare on the day of the Lord? How will I fare when the skies roll back and the righteous judge comes to finish it?

How many of you have asked that question before? What's it going to look like when I'm before God on that day?

Five of us. Raise your hand if you've thought that question.

What's that going to look like? And I would tell you that when I think those thoughts, when

I've thought those thoughts in the past, it could produce fear within me, right? If the question is, how faithful have

I been? How faithful has Don been? How faithful have I been at husbanding, fathering, pastoring?

How faithful have I been in my daily life living for Jesus? That line of questioning can only result in my condemnation.

I am bound for hell if my performance is the measuring stick. I'm telling you that as your pastor.

I'm not getting there on my merits. I'm not getting there. And I think most of us could raise our hand and say, that sounds about right for you,

Don. So Paul is sure.

What he's doing here is he's being sure to set the Corinthians free from all of that fear here at the beginning in his introduction.

It's going to prove to be a harsh and direct letter. And so he says, hold on a second. We're not talking about your eternal destiny here.

Your eternal destiny is wrapped up in your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and His work for you. But man, is there some work to be done?

Are there some changes that need to be made? Is there some truth to lean into? There's some love to be given to your brothers and sisters and love to be granted to God that isn't there yet.

You've been given everything you need to do it. You're just not doing it. So there's some steps that need to be made. Some things that need to change.

And we're not trying to establish ourselves in Jesus by following the words of 1 Corinthians. Let's get that out of the way here at the beginning.

This isn't going to be a study in how to improve your life and be a better person. How to get to heaven, rather.

But it's going to be a study in the things that God desires of His saved people. We are those who have received

His grace. We are set apart for Christ. We've been enriched in the knowledge of the gospel. We lack nothing that we need, church.

And we are those who understand that our only hope is that He, the faithful God, will sustain us to the end guiltless before Him.

Guiltless before Him. Whew! Praise God. If I die today,

I am confident that I will stand before Him guiltless. Not on the basis of my performance. That is not the measuring stick.

It is on the basis of my wholehearted trust that Jesus Christ has done it for me.

And further, another thing here at the end. Established by Christ. Well, the church is established by God in Christ.

He is the one who builds churches. I didn't build, recast. The launch team that was sent out from Berean 14 years ago did not build, recast.

No, as a matter of fact, it's despite me, despite my failures, despite the launch team, that this has been relatively successful.

It has been the voice of God, through His word, confirmed in our fellowship, that has called us together as the body under our head,

Jesus Christ. As verse 9 says. So let me encourage all of us, as we come to communion,

I would encourage us all to focus on the word guiltless in the text. Let that word wash over your mind in understanding what

Christ has done for you. If you've been captured by His grace and brought into His peace through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, then

I welcome you to participate in this remembrance this morning. Coming to one of the tables during this next song and taking the cracker to remember

His body broken for you and taking that cup of juice to remember His blood shed for you to produce guiltlessness in you.

Never lose sight of the reason for the word guiltless over our lives. How can it be applied to us who are all too aware of our guilt before a holy

God? It's because Jesus was broken as a substitute for us. Jesus bled on the cross, pierced for us.

The basis of our guiltlessness is found in the nearly unimaginable love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He's the center. And so we come to communion every single week to be sure that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is indeed kept at the center of our lives.

Let's go to the tables in thankfulness for the grace He has freely given. And then as we leave here,

I would encourage you to lean into discussions and conversations in your families, in your community groups as you go out from here, leaning into conversations about the central place that the local gathering should have in our lives as those who are being redeemed together.

This study in 1 Corinthians exists to remind us just how much Jesus Christ loves His bride.

She's a mess that He loves. She's a bit of a fixer -upper. And she is the gleam in His eye and the center of His affection.

So, church, may we never be found assuming she is a merely optional grace for us.

Let's pray. Father, I thank You for the grace that You have given in my life.

Year over year, I had faithful parents who didn't do everything right, but they took me to church.

They got me connected into a local assembly. They got me connected to Your Word. And they brought me to a place that led me to salvation in Your Son, Jesus Christ.

They led me to a place that now has borne fruit in my life where I value and I love this gathering.

I love Your people. Oh, I know we're messy. All of us know how messy we can be.

But I thank You for the love that You have expressed, the grace, the things that You have given to us, grace upon grace upon grace, gift, blessing upon blessing upon blessing.

And as we come to these tables, Father, I pray that we would remember the greatest blessing of all, the thing that unites us, the thing that brings us together in guiltlessness before You, that we will be those who sing

Your praises for eternity because of the salvation given in Jesus Christ our Lord. Help us to never lose sight of that.

that to motivate and empower us throughout this week. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.