Kingdom Man

Icebreaker

Find the differences

What is missing

Follow the leader

Introduction

The church in Corinth was full of divisions. Some of the believers were loyal to some of the leaders of the church (1 Corintios 1:12; 3:1-6). So he talked about unity, one body devoted to Christ (1 Corintios 3:21-23).

Some believers were acepting inmoral acts (1 Corintios 5:1-2). So Paul told them to get those people out of the church (1 Corintios 5:13).

Some believers were fixing problems with a judge involve (1 Corintios 6:1-2), So he tought them to be a witness (1 Corintios 6:3-8). Paul gave them instructions for marriage, celibacy (chapter 7), food for idoles (8 & 10), christian free will (9), comunion (11), spiritual gifts (12-14) and resurrection (15).

So on chapter 16 he start giving the last teachings, but on verse 13-16 basically to 18, but Robert just gave me up to 16, so. Paul is going to give the last instructions for us personally, for every individual.

Today I’ll take about 6 elements that I saw in this passages. I’ll try to relate them in a normal life and with the spiritual side also.

This small sermon I call it, Kingdom man, there is also a book call like this Kingdom man by Tony Evans and he sais that a kingdom man is a man who visible demostrates the comprehensive rule of God underneath the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of his life. So if you like to read if, I totally recomend you to.

But in 1 Corinthians 16:13-16 we are going to see 6 things that a man that represents the kingdom of God should, no no, has to have.

One of the things that I like to do when I have time is, grill, but I like to do it in an old fashion way, I’ve use gas grill, electric grills, charcoil, but for me the best way to do it is with wood. Now, the problem is that requires time a lot of it but everytime I do it, the meat taste very different.

The first thing I have to do it to observe, to watch, for a dry small peaces of wood, to start the fire.

Watch/Observe v.13

Lets read the first verse. 1 Corinthians 16:13

1 Corinthians 16:13 (ESV)

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love

Just like the game we just did, when you came here the first you have to do is observe. I love that in this group we have so many different types of people, people from Canada/Dutch, Mexico, From the North, me from Honduras. Also I love that we have different ages from one of this guys to gray hair. We all here comes from different families and we grew up differently.

One of the things that I learn when I was small is to observe people. One thing that you learn, more if you are from Honduras, is sarcasm, or in other words, lies. Sarcasm are lies that are so close to be true, but they are not, because they are just lies in a form of a joke. We used them a lot, but the hardest part to hide when you are lying is your eyes, of course, there are many, like ticks, people sweat, some people move their hand, shoulders, small laughs, etc. This may sound like I’m proud of this, but I’m not, but one thing I used to hate is to go to church and get to know that the guy that was preaching was lying. Preaching about how to reaise their kids, and days later know that that kid had a gentlemen club at the pastors house.

But if you think this is bad, of course it is, but today we are living in a world that basically is not allowing us to observe. We think that we can get everything somehow, or we even spiritualize “God is going to provide” and we sit down in the cauch watching tv all day waiting for the provision of God. Procastinating, big word, how many times we do it, I’m number one here, it’s so easy to do.

Of course, God is going to provide, but you have to work too. Of course God is with you, but you have to watch how your relationship with God is going. In one of my classes, in the Master’s program, we touch the topic is a believer can be possesed. Short answer no, bachelors level, he said, long answer, let me give you an example. He said that is our life, one that the devil is going to come to us and ask us for a small dance, this dance can be whatever sin you want, lies, still a pencil, laziness, you name it. So you start thinking, of is just a waltz. But before you notice, you are dancing a tango, and the worst part is that you are not leading it. He is leading the dance and you don’t have any control of it!

So my first advertation for you is if you are watching your walk with God. The second one is

Stand firm in the faith or persevere v.13

When I’m trying to start that fire, listen it takes a while, you have to start a fire with little leaves, stems, but they have to be dry completely dry. You need to watch the type of wood you are grabing, if the wood is wet, on one hand it’s going to be hard to start that fire, but on second hand is going to produce a lot of smoke, and we don’t want that. So you start putting the little stuff under the big logs, so that the logs start getting some heat until the point to start getting fire, the problem is that the little stuff you put under, they burn really fast, they are gone in few minutes. You see that the log starts getting on fire, you leave it for a second and when you come back the fire is gone, why? because the fire wasn’t from the log, it was from the little sticks that you put and they are burned so the log can’t continue getting the heat is neaded to get in fire and you will have to start the process again.

Today we leave in a world were they just don’t allow us to think or watch for anything, they don’t allow us to defend our faith neither. The other day, not going to say his name because I don’t want to get into another topic, but this guy, running for president I think, I don’t follow a lot to politics things, but he was saying that america every day is more dumb, because how is it posible that we allow to talk in schools about homosexuality and lgbt but not the Bible? How is that we said “In God we trust” but we don’t even open our Bibles”

This is when we go back to dancing with the devil, if we don’t know what we hand in our hands, in our phones, the devil for sure is going to be controling our dance. I here people using texts from the Bible in a completely wrong way, let me tell you just one that is very funny. Matthew 18:20

20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them

People like to say “let’s pray because where two or three are gathered in my name, God is going to listen to us”. Oh so that means that He doesn’t listen to you when you are alone?

This is a verse to solve a conflict with your brother in Christ, because you are not going to look for yourself but for Christ. Christ is going to help you through those hard moments with your brother. Is not talking about the prayer. But if we think that is about the prayer, than we can also think that God is not going to listen to us because we are alone, if we are alone and not comunicating with God the devil is going to come for sure, and believe me, the closer you are, the more he is going to come, but he is going to come, you are going to be defend less, and before you notice, he is leading the tango dance again.

Three.... 13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men

Acting v.13

If you are going to start a fire, you don’t leave that fire alone, so many bad things can happens. Like my grandpa used to tell me, put on your pants and now you confront it. You wanted a fire, now you stay there until everything is save.

This doesn’t mean that this can’t apply for a woman, but the idea here is that the man are the one that used to go to a war. History says that Alexander the Great met someone in his army called Alexander. It was a huge army, but he got to meet this little soldier because, I mean we are talking about Alexander the Great, for some reason he got the Great as a nickname, I mean his real name is Alexander the 3 of Macedonia. But he got to meet this soldier becuase he heard that Alexander was a coward. So he called the soldier and told him, you can decide to change your name or stop being a coward.

You want to be a kingdom man, we need to stop being a coward, lazy people and start doing what God is comanding us to do. Act like a son of God. The moment we stop doing what God is comanding us, is like those signs at the restaurants that says open. The moment you decide to stop acting like a man, the open light is going to be on, and I’m going to continue with the dance analogy, because I really need you to think on that, and before you notice, we are going to be dancing tango with the devil, and he is leading the dance.

Fourth goes together with this one.... be strong

Be Strong v.13

When fire is starting, man you are going to breath a lot of smoke, you shirt is going to smell like… smoke, your hair is going to smell like.... correct, smoke!.

With my wife we’ve been reading the Bible together, we are in the Book of Judges right now. But When we read the last book of Moses, and I say it like this because is hard to pronounce that book, even in spanish, so, and than you start reading the book of Joshua, and I always image that scene kind of, like Moses going to take to Joshue and start telling him that he is going to take over the people, he is going to be the new leader of Israel. My thought if I was Joshua right, I’ll be like, God this is too much for me, how do you think that I am going to fit Moses shoes, he is and incredible man, how am I supposed to lead this people!

And while I’m thinking on that, the image of Moses come to my mind, when he came down from the mountain because he was taking to God and his face was so shiny that he had to cover his face becuase the people cannot see him.

And God answer to Joshua in such a kindly way, Joshua I just need you to be strong and courageous, and He told Joshue those words 3 times, and also told him This Book, that for us is the Bible, shall not depart from your mouth, you sahll meditate day and night, and remind him again, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.

Yesterday We were reading Judges chapter 2, and I want to read it for you, open it, and read it with me in case I pronounce wrongly a word so that you can get the complete concept of this story. Jugdes chapter 2 verse 6-12.

6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. 7 And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. 8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. 9 And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. Israel’s Unfaithfulness 11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt

I know that most of us had very good stories about how God has worked on you.

But also I know that some keep growing, and I know that sometimes stories sound good, and you might think, I really hope that some stories don’t happend to me. But what I want you to know is that those stories are true. God took his people out of Egypt, and now they abandoned the Lord. They lost that faith that they had. They start dancing with the devil and started before they notice, they were dancing tango, and the devil was leading.

All this four things will not work, if you don’t do it with love.

14 Let all that you do be done in love.

Love v. 14

I mean, who will like to be covered by smoke, you will have to take a bath, that smell doesn’t go away that easy, you’ll need to wash your cloth and we are not talking about the 30 min you had to there just turning on the fire the other 30 minutes waitng for the meat, oh yes, becuase the meat cooks slower becuase you don’t put the meat on top of the fire, the fire is in one side, and when the logs forms charcoil, you move the charcoil under grill and the meat is going to be cooked with the heat, not the fire, and than get a little bit of smoke. And all that moment you have to be there, putting more charcoil, putting more fire, controling everything, all because you love a really good steak.

I’m not going to talk about How Jesus loves you, I’m speacting that you already know that, and if you don’t, we are in a very nice place, talk to me, hey Marley you want to go for a walk, and I know where to take, hopefully I’m not in the wrong place, and we can have that conversation, but what I am going to ask you is how big is your love for God. He gave everything for you, what are you willing to give to Him?

I’m willing to spend an basically a good 2 hours making my steak, would you do all of this for Him?

and lastly, we started this, because Paul was talking to the people that they didn’t want to follow or obey some of the leaders.

15 Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints— 16 be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer.

Humble v.15-16

My last thing to say today before I jump into the conclusion is that God chose the leaders of the church. I believe we are in a very good church that worries about our growth in Christ. I’ll encourage that if you have an issue with one of the elders, go and talk to them, they are really wise, and remember Christ is going to be there is that conversation.

But today I want to take you deeper too, What about that Honduran guy that you hate just because he has a perfect hair and plays guitar? What Paul is asking, not just the church in Corinth, but you, is to humble yourself, go and talk to those people, because we need to be only one Body, working for the kingdom of man, that has one mission, to go and get the hell out of others.

Conclusion

If you’ve been following, you might be thinking, you didn’t spoke about the dancing with the devil in the last two points, you are right, I wanted to wait until this time.

Tony Evans said “kingdom man is a man who visible demostrates the comprehensive rule of God underneath the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of his life.”

Every day we are fighting, the problem is that we don’t notice, every day the spiritual fight is getting stronger, and we need to stand firm in our faith, every day the devil will invite us to dance, and you need to act like a kingdom man, every day that invitation is going to be better for your eyes, and you have to be strong.

Every day the world is going to reject you, tell you that you are wrong, or you are boring, this or that, but you have to keep doing things for love, and lastly we have to humble ourself because we can’t fight all of this alone, we need help from each other.

The dance with the devil is a real thing, I told you we cannot be possessed by a demon or Satan, but he can control us, and the more you like to dance with the devil, the more control you are giving to him, until he controls you, it can be simple things or big things, I don’t know that, but what I know is that we need to be ready for that. Being ready is not a switch that you say on when I see it and turn it on, no no, is something that we have to have it on always, that’s why the verse start with be watchful.

But also, we are men, some of us are the head of our home, the spiritual guide of a family, and we need to help them to be ready to.

So, Are you ready?

Let’s pray.