Abounding in the work of the Lord (1Cor 15:58)

We'll go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

Our primary text for today will be verse 58, but we will be starting to read in verse 55.

And some of you may be thinking, wait a second, I thought that you,

Pastor, were starting our study through the book of Ephesians today. And you can blame Pastor Jeremiah on this one.

He, no, we decided this week because of next week's interruption with the pastors from Riverbend coming and preaching that we didn't wanna do an introduction of the book, miss a whole week before we continued in the beginning of that study in Ephesians.

And so God, I believe, has led us here as we've prayed through and thought through what is needed for this morning.

So let's read our text here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Starting in verse 55, it says,

O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and movable.

Always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Let us stop now. Let's go to the Lord once again. Let's ask that he would illuminate our hearts and minds to this great truth in his word.

Dear heavenly Father, God, I pray that you guard us from error in our thinking about your truth and about your word.

God, guard my lips from error. Guard the ears of the hearers today from hearing untruth.

Father, I pray that you would be honored that as we glean from your living words, that it would be life -changing within us, that it would be encouraging, that it would be challenging, that it would be edifying for us, your saints, as you work that great work of sanctification with the

Holy Spirit within us. Father, I pray that you work in that today in Christ's name, amen.

Well, as we come into a new year, it's common for people to do an inventory of sorts, to do a breakdown of maybe some of the highs and lows, maybe some of the good and the bad, the successes and the failures of a previous year.

That's pretty common practice. We see it in our New Year's resolutions that very few of us carry through the month of January, but we'll see, some of us may be successful this year.

And as we do that, some years we look back and we think, wow, wow, this was a productive year.

I mean, I had my share of failures and lows, but overall, this year was a success.

This was a good year. Then on the other hand, we all have those years where we look back on the previous year and think, wow, how did

I survive that? And you think, well, this year, obviously, this past year, that goes into the loss category, right?

And you begin to think, well, maybe this year will be the year. This year will be better. This year will be successful.

That year was a wash. And a church body really is no different. You see, churches like ourselves here gathered together have these ebb and flows of life.

It's the nature of this world. And just like with the short life of this church here,

I mean, we not too long ago in September celebrated two years as a church plant.

And I look around the room and I think, there's not a lot in here that was here from day one in that first year.

Pastor Jeremiah, you and Ali were probably the closest, right, y 'all were there at week two, okay?

But if you were here during that year or you've heard about it, it was a hard year.

There was a lot of uncertainty as far as the direction of the church, what this is going to be.

Is this gonna actually flourish into a church? We were right in the peak of the pandemic, right?

Where people were wanting to wear masks and not gather together. And so it was a difficult time.

We had other churches and professing believers within the community slandering and lying about us, hoping that this never takes off, that this never gets off of the ground.

We had moments of doubt, didn't we? Had moments of doubt. I can look at my wife and Pastor Jeremiah and Ali and myself and there were times we questioned, is this the calling?

Is this what you have truly called us to do? It was a difficult year.

But then God reminded us of his faithfulness, didn't he?

Even through that difficult year, he reminded us of his faithfulness, but he really showed off this past year.

This past year has exceeded any of our expectations. I was telling somebody the other day,

I told my wife when we first started meeting there in the living room at the other house, I said, babe, if in two years, if we have five to six families or individuals that are committed to this ministry, we'll take that as a sign that this is where God wants us to go.

And at two years, I mean, God has just, he has exceeded expectations. We've had new families, we've had new individuals that are being drawn here consistently that are always coming in.

We have guests coming constantly, some with whom stick around and become part of us.

We have seen lives changed. We have seen minds and hearts awakened and hungry for truth.

People that you can watch it in them, things that they just didn't know about God or know about his word, and that light bulb has gone off, and you watch that sanctification process.

We've become a community. Well, really, I should say family. We've become more like family as we gather for our

Quintinia Feast and as we gather on Wednesday nights and we're all together. Everyone wants to be together, being formed into a body.

We see that every single member is engaged and participating in ministry.

Every single person that's a member here is engaged in ministry. And it's a great reminder for us.

I'm just listing off a few things off the top of my head that remind us that Christ is building his church.

Christ is building his church. He is the one working in and through us for what he sees fit.

And we should be grateful that he has done this in our lives this past year. We can look back on this past year and see a lot of wins, see a lot of things that produce visible fruit that is encouraging.

And he uses the means of the obedience of his saints. And so thank you for being committed to the ministry and the work here.

And he does that, he uses that to carry out this work. However, we must be mindful of our own really sinful, short -sighted, infantile propensity.

We often find it easy to be encouraged, to be motivated when we see physically with our own eyes the fruit of our labors.

That's, it's easy for us. Oh, well, that's encouraging. We check that year off as a win.

And maybe most of the time we would think of the previous year, maybe that would be a loss. We didn't see as much visible fruit as we've had a great year.

And we have no idea what God has in store for us in this next year, in year 2023. We don't know what

God has in store for 12 -5. And so, like I said, Pastor Jeremiah and myself, we find it incumbent upon us to preemptively prepare our hearts for whatever comes.

And we believe that that preparation is found here in this text in 1 Corinthians 15, which we'll be diving into here in just a moment.

Because what if, let's just, let's throw out some questions. We're not gonna presume upon God this morning, but what we are gonna do is we're gonna make our plans and hopes and the security that God is gonna direct our steps.

But what if, what if God decides to test our faith this year? What if this next year doesn't quite look like this past year?

What if we go months without ever seeing any physical evidence of fruit as a church?

What if God chisels us down to 20 people meeting in someone's living room this year?

What if we experience heartache after heartache, trial after trial, difficulty upon difficulty?

What if it's totally different than this past year? We've experienced a tremendous amount of unity this past year.

We've not even really had any strife. God's given us this beautiful, I guess it's a honeymoon stage as a church plant.

But what if this next year is the year of disunity and strife in our midst? Because our sinful flesh creeps up and it starts to overtake and it starts to cause problems and God allows it to happen within our midst.

What if these things happen or even worse? Will we, I should say will you, will you change your tone?

Will we lose our momentum? Will we lose our heart? Because it's human nature, isn't it?

We have a propensity towards that. Or will we continue to run the race, falling back on what we intellectually know about God and that says that He builds

His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And He does it through the means and the ways that He sees fit, even in the difficult times.

And the times where we see no fruit evident. Now, before you think, oh pastor,

I'm definitely more mature Christian than this. Like I get where you're coming from, right? But I'm gonna trust

God no matter what. I know, I understand the sovereignty of God and I trust it and I'm here for the long haul, right?

Right, I don't care what comes our way, I'm here. Before you say that, just remember, pride comes before the fall, right?

If any of us think we're above it, I seem to remember a gentleman by the name of Peter who vehemently declared,

I will never deny you. Well, it's human nature, because we're weak, but thank the

Lord. Thank the Lord that He knows our frailty, doesn't He? He knows how easily we are distracted.

He knows how easily dissuaded we are from the task at hand. He knows and that is precisely why

He led the Apostle Paul to write words like these here in 1 Corinthians 15, 58. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. The Apostle Paul here is encouraging believers.

We know that because he says my beloved brothers, right? He's encouraging believers to continue laboring, to continue the work in the

Lord. And this statement is of course rooted in what

Paul has just previously said. We know this because of the therefore at the beginning of the statement, right?

What is it therefore? And what has Paul previously said? We'll look back at the previous couple of verses there in 55 that we read.

Right here he quotes a compilation of passages that come from Isaiah and Hosea, these

Old Testament prophecies. He's quoting this, he kind of put this together. Oh death, where is your victory?

Oh death, where is your sting? And then he goes on and says, the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us victory.

You hear that, victory? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, and then he goes on.

And so I want us to see one major theme here and break that theme down.

And that theme of this passage here in verse 58 is that we labor from a position of certain victory.

This is a great reminder, this is something that many of us already know. But as we see in God's word, we constantly have to go back and be reminded of it.

We labor from a position of certain victory. You see this imperative from the apostle

Paul in verse 58 subsequently follows this line of reasoning that he has begun all the way back at the beginning of chapter 15.

As a matter of fact, look back at the beginning of chapter 15 as he starts out this thought process. There in verses one and two, he says, now

I would remind you brothers, again he's speaking to Christians of course, the church there in Corinth.

He says, I would remind you brothers of the gospel. That's the key, he's speaking of the gospel.

I preach to you which you received and which you stand. That's key there, in which you stand.

And by which you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preach to you unless you believed in vain.

And you see then Paul goes on in this chapter to remind them of this gospel.

And to remind them of what this gospel means for them in the future.

A future resurrection with Jesus, the resurrected

Christ. And that's what this whole chapter is building upon. Pointing to that resurrection that we have and that we share in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And he leads up to this great Old Testament declaration that we read a moment ago, oh death, where is your victory?

Oh death, where is your sting? It's gone. The sting of death is gone.

And the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives.

Now I want you to notice something. If you're writing your Bible, I want you to write, I want you to underline this little bitty word here, us.

Who gives us the victory. Sometimes we think of the victory that God has won as something theoretical out there that God has the victory and God alone has that victory.

And he does. He's the one that's won it. He's the one that's bought it. He's the one that's fulfilled it. He's the one that carries it out.

He's the one that sustains it. But here Paul says that he gives us that same victory.

And it is through our Lord Jesus Christ. You see sin was our ultimate enemy.

And it led to what? What did sin lead to? Death, right?

Sin led to death, but now in Christ, death has lost its sting.

Death is no longer potent. And what does that mean for you and I?

What does this mean? How can Paul say that he has given us the victory?

And what does this mean that death has been defeated? It means that we win. It's as simple as that.

We win, the ultimate enemy, death has been defeated. We win. It's a done deal.

Yet let's be honest for a second. Let's take off our pious mask for a second. Set that aside.

Yeah, I trust all the things of God and I stand firm in them. Set that aside for a second.

Let's be honest. Dig down into your own mind and your own heart. At times, sin and death still feels like an unyielding adversary, doesn't it?

We still experience the external consequences of its carnage. Do you feel it?

It's all around us. We lose loved ones. We lose things that we hold so dear and it's so unnatural.

You feel it when you lose a loved one? Like you're standing at the funeral and you're like, this is so unnatural.

This is not the circle of life. This is not the norm. This is not the way it's supposed to be and you feel the consequences of it.

You feel it in your own life whenever you fall prey to sin, whenever you're constantly going back to the

Apostle Paul says, oh, this wretched flesh. I do what I don't wanna do and I don't do the things

I wanna do. Who will deliver me from this? We're constantly fighting it and that experience can be discouraging and it often leads to doubt and hopelessness.

It can cause us to throw up our hands and give up, can't it? We feel like it's a losing battle, wanting to throw in the towel, wanna wave that white flag out on the battlefield.

I'm done. I'm tired. I'm done. This is a loss.

This year's a loss. I give up and that's precisely why we need this reminder.

This reminder that even in the darkest night, even when the battle seems most bleak, when victory seems lost and defeat looks inevitable, we can continue pressing forward because the absolute worst thing that could happen, let's think about this for a second.

The absolute worst thing that could happen in this life is what can the world do?

They can take this physical body from us, right? That's the worst thing.

That's the worst thing that could happen. I could die. Okay. So I die.

Because here's the thing, in Christ, that physical death that we will experience is actually victory now.

Before, it was a loss. Before, it was destruction.

It was eternal death under the judgment of God. Now, that physical death releases us.

That death sheds off this remaining sinful, old flesh from us and ushers us into life everlasting.

That's a great reminder, isn't it? Because we now see that death has lost its sting.

It has no victory. Giving us that victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

An old 17th century Puritan by the name of Thomas Matten, some of you might read some of his works.

He made the statement, he said, a man's greatest care should be for that place where he dwelleth longest.

Therefore, eternity should be in his scope. That's the

Christian life. We get so fixated on the here and now that we see these battles that we think we're losing.

We don't see fruit evident. We don't see God working the way that He's promised in His Word.

We don't know what's going on. But then, when we look at passages like this, we see that this laboring is from a position of certain victory.

Certain victory. It's how we can be, as verse 58 says, steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord. Now, some of your translations here say firm instead of steadfast.

It's a good translation. He drives this further emphasis of this word firm or steadfast.

He drives this point home further with the next command in the phrase.

He says, be steadfast or stand firm, immovable.

Now, you've heard in movies, any of y 'all ever watched war movies or old cowboy movies or whatever, you've heard the phrase, hold the line!

Right? Hold the line as the soldiers are being commanded to hold firm, to be immovable, to not let the enemy dissuade you.

Do not let fear or circumstances cause you to break rank.

Hold firm. And Paul is telling us Christians to stand our ground.

Now, the question is, what ground is he telling us to stand? What ground is

Paul telling us to stand? So he uses this same language over in Colossians.

As a matter of fact, flip over there with me if you've got your Bibles in front of you. Colossians chapter one, verse 23. Colossians one, 23.

The apostle Paul also wrote this letter. He writes it to a different church, of course, but we see the same phrasing.

And I think it'll give us some clarity as to what Paul means back in this passage in 1

Corinthians. But Colossians chapter one, verse 23. He says, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, which by the way, that word, it's the same

Greek word that he used back in the passage of 58. He says stable and steadfast.

And then here's the same type of language that he used, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard.

Not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. So Paul is telling us to stand firm in the gospel that was once for all delivered to the saints.

That's what he's telling us to stand firm, and movable, our feet planted, hold the line.

This is what Paul's telling us. You want to know when to give up on this church?

That's kind of what we're talking about this next year and what God's doing. You know when to give up on 12 .5 church? You know when to throw in the towel and know for certain that God is not working in this place any longer?

I can tell you right now, and I'm gonna warn you, if it ever happens, even if I'm the cause of it, run.

It's if we capitulate in the gospel. If we don't hold the line.

If we veer from the gospel that was once for all delivered to the saints.

That's when you lose, that's when you know, okay, I wasn't seeing fruit before, but now

I know why I'm not seeing fruit. It's time to move on. The moment that we as a church are not standing firm, steadfast and immovable on what's revealed in this word, what's revealed in God's word with clarity and precision is the moment we are no longer a church and it needs to burn to the ground.

Now, when Paul says to be immovable, he's obviously not saying set in the pew and do nothing.

You like how I went old school and said pew instead of foldable chair? And we know this because he goes on in the passage.

Look back at verse 58 in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord. This word abounding comes from a

Greek word perisuo and it carries a similar meaning to our word preeminent, preeminent, which means surpassing all others.

It's an abundance, it's an overflow, it's excess. It's going above and beyond.

Reminds me of what Paul said in Romans 12, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.

Honor on honor on honor, continuing to outdo each other.

This is the idea of the Christian life within the church, but he uses this phrase, always abounding, preeminent in the work of the

Lord, always surpassing all others in the work of the Lord. Now, Paul's not telling us to turn the work of the

Lord into a competition. That's not the idea of where Paul is going. He's telling us to pursue it with our utmost, to pursue it, to continue in this work as we hold the line of the truth of the word of God that we should be outpouring the work of the gospel.

And in doing so, we're encouraging one another to do the same, aren't we? It's like iron sharpening iron.

My job is to outdo Adam, right? I'm to outdo you in the work of the

Lord and your job is to outdo me in the work of the Lord. Not only not in a competition, but in an abundance, and it's an encouragement, and it causes

Adam to grow more, and it causes Nathan to grow more, and it causes Jeremiah to grow more, and Travis to grow more, and we're just continuing to grow more and more and more in the work of the

Lord because we're abounding in it. It's moving forward while holding the line.

I think of it in a war example. Maybe you look back at the old civil war stuff or the

Revolutionary War where these men stand there and then take a bullet and then hold their gun up and then shoot and then take a bullet, but they're holding the line, right?

But in a good battle, these men are always progressing. Not only are they holding the line, they're always taking ground.

They're always moving forward. They're always pursuing because they know they have certain victory in doing so.

We'll look back there at verse 58 again. Notice a word in there, always.

Always abounding in the work of the Lord. I don't know about you, but when

I read phrases like that, it kind of intimidates me. How is this possible, right?

How is this possible to always be abounding in the work of the Lord? In order to understand this, we must understand what the work of the

Lord is. Does it mean that we, or all of you, need to be here at this church working in some fashion or some way 24 hours, seven days a week?

Is that the work of the Lord? Always abounding in the work of the Lord? Well, flip over to Colossians again with me, to chapter three, if you've got your

Bible there. Colossians 3 .17, I wanna see Paul's words that give us an idea of what

Paul could possibly be talking about back in 1 Corinthians. But in Colossians 3 .17,

very common verse, many of you probably know it well. He says, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the

Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever you do in word or deed.

Now flip back over to 1 Corinthians, but go to chapter 10 .31. 1 Corinthians 10 .31 now,

I want you to see very similar phrase again from the Apostle Paul. He says, so whether you eat, whether you drink, or whatever you do, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Whatever you do, whether you're eating, whether you're drinking, whether you're sitting, whether you're standing, whatever it may be, you may be washing dishes, you may be running a tractor, you may be preaching the gospel to your neighbor, you may be performing surgery, you may be teaching children, you may be serving as a greeter at your church, you may be brewing a pot of coffee, or you may be as the old

Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon says, you may be smoking a cigar. Whatever you do, if it is being done to the glory of God, is the work of the

Lord. So Paul says, if it's being done to the glory of God, is the work of the

Lord. And here's the thing, even if it doesn't seem to produce visible fruit, washing dishes doesn't seem to be producing visible eternal.

Eternal fruit, does it? It produces fruit in a clean kitchen, but it doesn't seem to be an eternal fruit, does it?

But Paul says that if you're doing it to the glory of God, that's the work of the Lord and has eternal consequences.

You don't know who sees that effort and God is using that in their life to just small, in a small way, slowly building what

God has called his people to be. So I say all this to say, if you serve in ministry here and you go for an extended period of time without visibly seeing

God at work, yet you know that you're doing it to the glory of God, you're not seeking self -glory in it, you're not seeking admonishment from it.

You're simply quietly, no one noticing, doing the work of the

Lord, honoring your great God in that act, trust that He is honored in it and that He is working all things out for His glory.

All things continue, always abounding in that work, always.

Look back at our passage in 15, 58. The next part there says, knowing.

I love this absolute language of the

Apostle Paul here. Knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.

You can do these things because you have a sure hope. There's meaningless, minuscule task that seem to not produce anything.

You know that you can carry them out with a sure hope. You can be steadfast. You can be immovable, abounding in the work of the

Lord. Because just as John Piper, he puts it with the phrasing that the Apostle Paul uses here in this surety.

He says, it's like a child that's getting ready to jump into his father's arms. You ever done that with your kids or you did that with your dad, where he stands there on the countertop and you're saying, jump to me.

And your child, what do they do? They just, without hesitation, they jump to their father. Why? Because they know with certainty that, oh, hey, dad's catching me.

I love that analogy that he is gonna catch. But when we see that, we look to the finished work of Christ knowing with even greater certainty than that, that our labor is not in vain.

We know it's not in vain because of these great promises that he has given us and what he has called us to do.

Because all that God does is good and he has called us to this work. And this work is accomplishing his purposes.

Even when we don't see it, we know that it's being done. And we know that because, oh, death, where is your victory?

Oh, death, where is your sting? And now we get to rest in this great truth.

We get to rest by abounding in the work of the Lord. There's great comfort in that, right?

Now it brings all new meaning to whatever it is that your hand finds to do, do it all as under the

Lord. It brings meaning to that seemingly minuscule task. It brings meaning when someone comes into the building and does something that no one knows they're doing and no one even notices that it ever gets done.

Whenever you're doing something for your neighbor, for a loved one, for another church member that no one's gonna ever see, you know that God sees it and it's being used for eternal purposes and it's being carried out for his will.

You're doing it even when you don't see what God is doing in the midst of it because death has been defeated.

Therefore, our labor is not in vain. That's a beautiful truth.

We may not see the visible fruit, but here's the thing, visible fruit is just icing on the cake in this life.

It gives us years like this past year that have been amazing and we're like, oh my goodness, look at what God has done.

We get to worship him, but that's just icing on the cake because we're not laboring for that. We're not laboring as a church so that we can bring in more people and be big and have money and have buildings and do all the things.

That's not what this is about. Our purpose should be to glorify God and to honor him and to obey what he has called us to be even when it doesn't seem to be working because it is working.

And let me tell you how I know this because of what Jesus said back in Luke 14. You probably remember this.

He says in Luke 14, he says, but when you give a feast, when you hold a feast, when you put all the work and the effort into putting together a party, a feast, a great event for people to be at, when you hold a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.

Why? He goes on, he says, because they cannot repay you. You don't see visible evidence of fruit from that feast, do you?

Those guests can't repay you. They don't bring anything of value to you in this world.

But Jesus goes on in that statement, he says, for you will be repaid. At the resurrection of the just.

So we as a church, we desire to be kingdom -minded. Kingdom -minded with eternity in sight.

Knowing that even the seemingly insignificant acts have eternal benefit and consequence, so stay the course.

No matter what comes our way this year, we don't know what God has in store. No matter what happens, feast or famine, remain steadfast.

Remain immovable in the gospel. And continue to abound always in the work of the

Lord. We have a great promise in that.

And that gives us great encouragement. So be encouraged this year. Pray, be prepared.

Pray that God would align your hearts and your minds, your very being to this great truth.

That he would sustain you in this great work. So in light of that, let's do as we always do.