1 Corinthians Bible Study-Message 2

1 Corinthians 1:4–9 NKJV

4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Prayer

Message

Thanksgiving

I hope you remember two Wednesday’s ago when I introduced Paul’s letter to Corinth, but I remind you that there were many undercurrents working against the new church converts. Namely, when God used Paul to lead some people to Christ and baptize a few and many others came to know Christ through, Paul, Cephas, Apollos and I am sure others that the growth exploded. The discipleship could not keep up with the evangelism and there were old ways so indoctrinated into the people. I will not rehash last week, but there was pluralism in religion, meaning they played in several religious playing fields and each played into their belief system that had to be washed out of their systems.

There was a die hard motivation for capitalism and commerce because the region flourished in financial opportunity. Moreover, there was sexual promiscuity that was so normal that the new Christians had to be reminded that acts outside of husband and wife were sin. I imagine being a sailor town there was rough language and that had to be dealt with. The Corinthians loved the Lord, but being new converts, they were rough around the spiritual edges.

Why is so vitally important to study this letter? This is the day in which we live. We have new generations that have not been reared in Christian households and they do not have the same moral compass that many of us were blessed to be reared under. And dearly beloved because that reality is so prevalent today we must be patient. Furthermore, we must be encouraging and we must pray that God will give the church the steadfastness, the fortitude to stay the course in swaying the next generations. Amen.

The question you may want to ask tonight is, Lord, how do we influence others for Christ when we are competing against so many external influences?

Firstly, I believe that’s answered when we see where Paul placed emphasis. We begin by exhibiting an attitude of gratitude.

Gratitude V. 4

1 Corinthians 1:4 “4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus,”

Internal gratitude is the breeding ground for external expressions of thanksgiving. We see that Paul thanked the Lord for the people at Corinth and note he says “always”. Paul lived in an environment with his communion with the Lord of constant gratitude for God’s grace provided in Christ Jesus.

There are many mood swings in us that do not mesh with varying moods. For example, It is quite difficult to have gratitude for another and attitude or tude at the same time. We will find it difficult to practice a complementary attitude warred against a critical attitude. The two do not coagulate. In fact those mannerisms are at war or bipolar to each other. They do not mesh.

An interesting thought and a thought to dampen any attitudes you encounter. Think about this for a moment. As a pastor, Corinth dealt Paul as a missionary pastor more headaches than possibly most other churches. For example, Paul was just as thankful for Corinth as he was for Philippi, but yet he dealt with more tensions with Corinth.

Think about this:

Even though Paul was personally inconvenienced for putting out more fires, disappointed in their actions, anguished at times over Corinth’s actions and lifestyle choices and problems, He still was thankful.

Let’s all admit something tonight. There are many people we love, but we do not like everything about them. There could people in your family dynamic, here in the church, at the office pool or in the workplace or a neighbor that just rubs you the wrong way. We even have at times close family members that cause us greater strain than others.

How do you begin to melt down that attitude and gain greater patience, greater support and love for those that historically stress you out?

Pray for them. Pray being thankful for them. And make it a consistent practice. How would you imagine that would help the situation?

Please answer.

It’s commanded here by example.

When we do not practice an attitude of gratitude, we develop criticism that deepens the chasm.

An attitude of gratitude will lessen our awareness of the issues. In other words, if you look for someone to rub you the wrong way, you can find it.

How is all this accomplished? By the very grace of God Paul was thankful for in the life of the church in Corinth. It is that same grace that calm spirits and draw people that are segmented and fractured into wholeness, unity, and completeness in Christ Jesus.

Let’s cut to the chase here.

How can you be thankful for others in spite of their failures. Remember and be thankful to God for His forgiveness in our own failures.

Philippians 1:3 “3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,”

Be thankful for the good to offset the bad. If you ponder on someone enough, you will find the good in them because they are God’s creation.

1 Thessalonians 1:2 “2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers,”

When we have a prayer list and we add and take away each week, we see God’s grace at work. Amen.

I will be straightforward with you tonight. Some of you struggle simply when a new person comes into the fold. Some of you struggle with letting an outsider in.

I guess we formulate those attitudes at a very young age. We have a bestestest friend and a new friend comes on the scene and we become jealous of the time our friend offers to the new friend.

How can we even over come that attitude? Pray for that person. Pray that God will give you eyes that see the good in the new person God has placed at our feet. Amen.

Our application. Practice being thankful and the more you are thankful the more we drill down and are not only thankful for family, friends, our church family, our health, our livelihood, and the more our thankfulness breeds more thankfulness. You will then be thankful for how you have been spiritually enriched in Christ Jesus.

How can we exhibit an attitude of gratitude. Constantly remember that the grace of Jesus Christ is why you are here today safe and secure in Him. Amen.

Gifts VV. 5-7

He has ingifted us to serve Him here at our local church, and being the church out there to mesh with everyone and to be used of Him for His glory in a lost world.

1 Corinthians 1:5 “5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge,”

We somewhat discussed similarity in Sunday’s message. We have been ingifted everything we need.

“That you have been enriched in everything”

“I need so and so”-we all may want all types of things, but do we really need them? The Lord has enriched us in everything by Him.

Specifically, He has in gifted us with utterance and knowledge of the testimony of Christ confirmed in you.

Ill. I was very purposeful Sunday afternoon to broaden and enrich our Nursing Home ministry by asking any of our people if they would share a word of testimony. Even though when we go for the most part, the group we are ministering to is at a very different place than we find ourselves in, there is a commonality in all of us. We all have a soul. We all have a hungering soul to be fed. We all long for feeling that vacuum that only Jesus fills.

We had a couple of people share and listen what happens, sharing our faith is cement to our relationships in Jesus Christ. Even though the church had Gentiles I’,m sure meshing with Jewish converts of the region, when we share Jesus one to the other and how Jesus is working in our lives, it unifies. When we share our testimony we admit our imperfection, we admit we as well have a past, and God helped me overcome my falters and He can help you too.

1 Corinthians 1:7 “7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

In sports and I mean as a whole, there is a ready position, whether it be baseball, basketball, football, golf and many others. Legs spread apart, slightly leaning forward with your weight on the balls of your feet, and heels, in other words, not flat footed and weight back.

Spiritually speaking, Paul writes to constantly be honing those gifts you have been given, but being on ready to share Jesus at the time the Holy Spirit calls on you to share. Furthermore, live life anticipating His second coming.

2 Peter 3:12 “12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?”

Philippians 3:20 “20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”

Ill. Travel-how many like to travel. Who is the detail person that is good about thinking about all the incidentals to make the trip good?

Let’s look at the goal in mind here.

Goal

1 Corinthians 1:8–9 “8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

By this point in our text we have seen the word “confirm” twice. The word “confirm” means to establish you or stabilize you, or foundation you. It is the idea of being foundational. How does that come about? How can we all here from varying backgrounds, different levels of education, different career backgrounds, different upbringings, different economic backgrounds, find commonality in one another? How can each of us that lives a life where sin abounds in a dark world, each facing varying temptations, being exposed to different sets of sin influence, how can we all grow and mature and become sanctified each day? Staying in fellowship with Jesus.

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible 2842. κοινωνία

2842. κοινωνία kŏinōnia, koy-nohn-ee´-ah; from 2844; partnership, i.e. (lit.) participation, or (social) intercourse, or (pecuniary) benefaction:—(to) communicate (-ation), communion, (contri-) distribution, fellowship.

We talk about fellowship a great deal and many confuse our Wednesday night suppers as fellowship and while certainly that is a form of fellowship, fellowship is more encompassing than that.

Do you fell far from God?

I am going to make a statement and you are not going to want to hear it.

But, you are probably far from God. I would immediately ask you-how is your fellowship with the Lord? I know it may be hard to comprehend, but there are times I as a Pastor struggle in the Word. I have allowed other responsibilities to dictate my time and I do not have “me time with the Lord.” Sure, I study to preach, but even my preaching is not as spirit filled when I have not communed with Him. Now if I’m honest in saying that as your pastor, what are you experiencing?

In closing, the goal that the Lord has for you and me is that we will be established, He wants us to be steadfast to the end. How do we do it? How do we accomplish that unity and consistency and harmony as a body of believers? Staying in fellowship with the Triune God.

Notice who is faithful. Where is our faithfulness empowered? IN God.

1 John 1:3 “3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”