Hello, my Name is...

Good Morning. I am glad we can be here together.

Hello, My name is…Andy Richmond. I am the Pastor at Sylvania Wesleyan Church.

That is probably the most common way I will introduce myself. Sounds pretty normal right.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever though about how you introduce yourself?

The introduction is very important for us in society. It is the first impression that people get about you. It is interesting that this has changed a lot over the last 20 years.

Introducing yourself

I remember back in High school in my civics class that was required to take in your senior year. This was a class designed to help prepare you for the “real” world. Yes, they taught us how to balance a check book. They taught us about resumes. They taught us how to introduce our selves.

I remember we had one class on our hand shake. How the handshake can tell you a lot about a person. I have to say a lot of these things still hold true but there has been a lot that has changed.

People today face a whole new set of challenges. This is mostly because our world exists online.

Just the other day I saw a commercial for managing your online profile because employers are looking. For many people you introduce yourself before you even meet people.

When I was working at Academy one of the other Managers did this on a regular basis. She would facebook “stalk” incoming interviews. She said it would give her insight into who they were. If she saw someone posting lots of pictures of partying she would approach the interview differently than if she saw more “normal” posts.

I always found this to be interesting because if I am honest it rarely played out as making any difference. Yet, it influenced how she approached her interviews.

I stuck with the more time tested approach of being on time or early. The strong handshake. Their presentation of themselves and other factors. It was retail though and no matter how good you think you are at finding people the truth is that a lot of it is luck. Retail is a tough job and it is not everyone’s cup of tea.

I learned a lot though about how to interact with people. I realized that a lot has changed. For Paul when he would write a letter he had to start off in certian ways. Often in his letters he would start off with very similar introductions.

A Reminder of who he was and Thanksgiving

This was pretty normal for Paul. Here is who i am and I am thankful for who you are. This morning i want to look at one introduction of Paul’s in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

This introduction is important because if you know anything about the Church of Corinth you will know that it was a church in turmoil. Paul was writing to them with some strong rebukes and corrections. This is why his introduction is even more important because it will help set the tone for the letter.

1 Corinthians 1:1–3 NIV

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul’s Greeting

Paul identifies himself as an apostle. Now many of us if we have spent time in church and listened to preachers or we have studied the Bible we don’t find this surprising. After all an Apostle is one who is sent with the Authority of Jesus to share the message of the Gospel. An aspect of being an apostle is not just the authority but it is a calling that implies an element of care and investment in the community they are going to.

In short Paul cares about the Corinthians. He is reminding them that he came to share the good news with them. He is writting to remind them that the have been sanctified. This is not something that was done in only the past but is a continuing action. That they are called to be living our holiness in their lives.

Grace and Peace

Paul also greets them with Grace and peace. Sounds like a very formalized and normal greeting you might expect to hear from someone who is an apostle.

The problem is that when we hear what we think are common sayings we sometimes forget that there are deeper meanings or intentions.

Think of everyone who passes by and says “How are you?”

Most of us just simply respond “ok” or “Fine”

Yet, every now and then we encounter someone we know really wants to know how you are doing. We know this because we either know the person or we can hear it in their voice.

Paul is trying to share with them a genuine statement of Grace and peace because he does care about this church and the people of this church. He wants to remind them of the grace of God that we all don’t deserve and that we have come to peace with God because of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s greetings can be easy to overlook but we must always remember that they are personal.

Paul’s Tone

One of the reasons that we can reflect on that is that Paul often would dictate his leters. His letters were not just him writing but him dictating. This brings in an element of tone and inflection to the writings. The writer does their best to impart that but spoken to written language always struggles a little.

To give you a comparison. Have you ever heard it in a preachers voice when they get passionate or emotional in a sermon. We all have. I am guilty of it.

Let me ask you than. How do you write that emotion into a sermon?

I don’t write on my notes. Add passion here. or Insert tears at this moment.

We need to remember that when we read these letters we need to think about how is Paul speaking to these people. What tone or inflection might be in his voice. Imagine if Paul spoke this like this.

1 Corinthians 1:3 NIV

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

(read straight face and monotone)

or like this

(put some emotion in it)

Whoops i just realized i wrote a reminder to change my inflection and emotion.

It is after this greeting we see that Paul moves to a time of thanksgiving. A time to remind the Corinthians that he does care and he values them and he wants God to bless them.

1 Corinthians 1:4–9 NIV

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

Jesus Christ our Source of Grace

Do you think Jesus is important to Paul?

To help you see it. In the first three verses he mentions him 4 times. In the last 5 verses he mentions him 5 times.

Paul is reminding them that Christ is the sources of the grace in our lives. That it is through him that we are able to receive the gift of grace and be reconciled to God. Thank God for that as Paul reminds them. I want to really focus in on two verses though.

1 Corinthians 1:7–8 NIV

7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you ever thought about why we practice our faith the way we do?

Why do we do this?

Really think about that for a moment. Have you ever wondered.

Why do we Gather?

Why do we Study the Bible?

Why do we Pray?

Now I know some might think I am inviting people to look for reasons to not be here. However, I am here to tell you that we have a lot of reason that we need to be diligent in our pursuit of God.

We do these things to help keep us ready for the coming of Jesus.

It is the gift of God that we have received the grace that allows us to be in relationship with God. It was accomplished through Jesus. He did this and sent his Spirit to encourage us and to build us up and help keep us strong and blameless until the end. It is through his help that we can do this.

Again some might say well it is God’s grace that allows me to stand firm. Your right. But he calls us to holiness. He calls us to change ourselves.

1 Corinthians 1:9 NIV

9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

God is faith and he is calling you to be in the fellowship with Jesus. He will fulfill that promise but we have to listen to the call and step forward. He isn’t forcing us he is calling us.

This is what we thank God for this morning that he is calling us to his Grace.

That he is calling us to his love.

That he is calling us to be Holy.

That he is calling us to be a new creation.

This is all possible because of his Grace and faithfulness.

That is a true reason to be thankful today.

Let us Pray.