Your Father Loves You
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
If you didn’t see this past weekend, your president, Joe Biden, called half of the American population garbage. Pretty unbelievable. But this weekend was also Halloween, and so I saw so many posts of people dressing up as trash bags, or garbage cans, or as Oscar the Grouch, proudly identifying themselves as garbage.
Some of them were pretty clever, but I just wanted to let you know that I’ve been identifying as garbage long before any of them have.
Several years ago, when my dad still worked for Ratheon in Colorado, he went on a business trip to Australia. Australia is a wild place.
…
So, I just wanted to tell you, I proud to be your white trash pastor.
A word about Fathers …
Your Father loves you enough to …
I. Warn You (v. 14)
I. Warn You (v. 14)
A. Paul’s Intentions
Everything Paul has written so far has been blunt and honest, but his intention is not to shame the Corinthians.
This is how you know that what Paul is writing here is serious, straightforward, and could come across as harsh because he has to remind them of what his ultimate purpose is.
Many times Paul has invoked sarcasm because, as I said last week, bad ideas deserve to be ridiculed.
Naturally, the Corinthian Christians should have felt ashamed for their ideas, actions, and worldview, but that was not the reason Paul wrote this letter.
Some people think shame is a bad thing, that Christians should never feel ashamed.
Guilt and shame are the natural reactions that a Christian should feel when they sin, but those emotions should never be where you stay.
Guilt and shame are powerful, painful tools that the Holy Spirit uses to drive you to the foot of the cross.
Guilt and shame are often necessary, but as a Christian they do not become your identity.
This is why the same Paul pens this in Romans 8 saying:
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Paul wrote this letter to admonish them, to warn them there will be consequences if their behavior doesn’t change.
Admonish means to be a corrective influence on someone.
Paul sees their actions, he knows where they will lead, and he is warning them of the consequences if they do not change.
And how does Paul view those he is warning?
He warns them as my beloved children.
Back in chapter 3, Paul spoke about how the Corinthians were infants in Christ and how much he desired that they would grow up, but they haven’t.
We see the same heart here in chapter 4 where Paul is saying, “I want so badly to see you succeed, to see you grow, that I will say whatever is necessary to make sure it happens.”
Why?
Because he loves them.
B. Love is Often Painful
Beloved is a favorite term of Paul, and he means it.
Listen to how Paul refers to the Philippian Christians:
1 Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.
They’re his joy and crown!
All the churches, all the believers entrusted to Paul were his joy and crown, and just as with the church in Philippi, Paul desires to see them stand firm in the Lord.
Children are the joy and crown of their parents.
All a parent ever wants to do is encourage and celebrate their child, but sometimes a stern warning is necessary.
Sometimes a parent needs to admonish their children, but no parent ever wants to. Children may think their parents enjoy it, but it they don’t.
They do it because it is necessary. They do it because they love you.
Paul is saying, “What kind of father would I be if I didn’t correct you when you get off track?”
Your heavenly Father loves you
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.
In Genesis 2, we learn that humanity was the crown of God’s creation, and in John 1, we learn that those who have believed in Christ Jesus have been given the right to become children of God.
To the children of God, Paul urges Timothy to preach the Word, because the Word of God has the ability to reprove, rebuke, and exhort.
Reprove means to correct or convict
Rebuke means to criticize sharply or show fault in
Exhort means to encourage to keep going
And the one doing the admonishing does so with:
Patience meaning change will not happen overnight.
Instruction meaning I’m going to walk this path with you.
On any given Sunday, or any given time spent in God’s Word, you could feel one or all of these.
Sometimes you hear or read God’s Word and walk away convicted, sometimes you walk away sharply rebuked, and sometimes you walk away encouraged.
In all of those, that is your heavenly Father declaring just how much He loves you.
And because your Father in heaven loves you, He also does this:
Your Father loves you enough to …
II. Entrust You (vv. 15-17)
II. Entrust You (vv. 15-17)
Why is Paul able to admonish the Corinthian Christians?
A. Paul’s Relationship with the Corinthian Christians
Paul has a special relationship to the Corinthian Christians, allowing him to speak into their lives in this way.
Through Paul’s faithful work as a slave to Christ, he had introduced the Corinthian Christians to new life through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is why Paul says, “I became your father through the gospel.”
In other words, while there may be several people in your life who help to instruct you in your faith, there are only a few who are journeying alongside you.
Who was it that first led you to the Lord?
Maybe it was a parent, or a family member, or a friend, or a close mentor.
There are many people who have influences on your Christian life, but there are only a few who know you like no one else does.
The Corinthian Christians have been entrusted to Paul because God loves them, and because of that special relationship, Paul is able to speak into their lives like no one else can.
The person who led me to the Lord was my father, along with my mother.
There are a lot of Christians I respect. There are a lot of Christians who feel comfortable speaking into my life.
But when my dad feels the need to share something with me, I pay close attention to it.
That doesn’t mean it is always easy to hear, it just means I understand the reasoning behind it, because he loves me like few others could.
It doesn’t mean I discount what others say, it just means his words carry a weight to them that no others can because I’ve seen just how much he loves me.
What’s the greatest joy that a spiritual father can have?
4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.
B. It’s Good to Imitate
Your heavenly Father loves you enough to entrust you to spiritual earthly fathers because He wants to provide godly examples you can pattern your life after.
We live in an individualistic society, and we think we need to be unique.
There’s nothing wrong with being unique, but biblically speaking there is a lot to be said for having godly examples that you can pattern your life after.
A lot of you can look at times in your life and say:
Been there, done that
A lot of you can look at present experiences and say:
Haven’t been here, haven’t done this
But there’s someone who has walked what you’re going through, and they’ve done so clinging to Christ.
Paul is not saying he has everything figured out.
Paul is saying, “Do as I say and as I do.”
In other words, Paul is saying that as he strives to follow Christ, he strives to teach that lifestyle to those who have been entrusted to him and live it out as an example before them.
Every one of us should strive to be able to say this.
How many of us could look at those we mentor and disciple and honestly say, “Imitate me as I strive to imitate Christ?”
If none one is perfect, how could we possibly say this?
What if we look at the one thing we all share in common then? Sin.
If we’re all sinners, then one way we can tell others to imitate us is through our prayer life, our confession, and our repentance.
In other words, as I struggle and sometimes miserably fail to follow the Lord, imitate me in how I continuously seek His forgiveness, His direction, and His strength to follow what He commands.
The world needs to see more imitators of Christ in action, not by name.
There are plenty of people who call themselves Christians who look nothing like a Christian.
There need to be more people who are seen as Christians by the way they live.
In their marriage
In their job
Through their words
In how they spend their time
In how they treat other people
C. An Example to Follow
Paul can’t be there in person, so he sends Timothy in his place.
The wording here tells us that Timothy is likely already there.
Paul is saying, “Even now, through Timothy, you can see that what I am teaching you I am living out in my own life. I’m teaching others to do the same, and Timothy is proof.”
Timothy is sent as a reminder of what Paul teaches and lives out.
Just in case the Corinthians thought themselves singled out, Paul tells them he teaches the same thing in every church.
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
7 Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.
The responsibility of a pastor, of a spiritual father, is to equip the saints for works of service.
That’s what it means to go and make disciples.
The motto of this church is making more and better disciples.
It reminds me of the Declaration of Independence. We the people, in order to form a more perfect Union.
You will never be perfect, but as a Christian you can say, “I serve a Father who is perfect, every day He is making me into a better disciple, and the more that I follow Him the better equipped I am to model what that looks like to others and teach them to do the same.”
In other words, not only am I living it out, but I am able to explain to you why I live the way that I live.
Your heavenly Father loves you enough to warn you, He loves you enough to entrust you to godly examples to shepherd and guide you, and He also loves you enough to do this:
Your Father loves you enough to …
III. Expose You (vv. 18-20)
III. Expose You (vv. 18-20)
A. To Bring to Light
There are some in the church who have become arrogant, meaning puffed up, meaning they consider themselves more spiritual than other or think they have everything figured out.
This is just another example to show that the problems happening in Corinth are being caused from in the church not outside the church.
Disobedient, carnal Christians not only harm themselves by the way they live, they also harm the body of Christ.
Paul has already established how much he cares for this church, so he tells them:
“If the Lord wills, I’m coming to you, because there are some things that need straightened out.”
Once again, Paul doesn’t desire to “be the bad guy,” but he will be for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of Christ’s reputation.
B. Intentionally Intrusive
In the book of Hebrews, we read what spiritual leaders have been entrusted with:
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.
Paul recognizes he will give an account for how he responsibly he handled what he was entrusted with.
So, if the Lord wills, he is coming to Corinth to intentionally intrude and see what is really going on.
As a child and a young man, I can’t tell you how many times my dad would just pop out of nowhere it seemed to evaluate what was going on.
And boy oh boy did it turn out that he most often seemed to show up when something was out of line in my life.
When we think of the word expose, it often carries a negative connotation, but it really just means to bring to light.
Before the ages of digital photography, you took your twenty-four pictures on a roll of film, then you took them to be developed, and you had to wait a couple hours as those pictures were exposed to the light, and when you came back to get them you found out only three of them were any good.
Paul is coming to bring to light the actions, good or bad, going on in the church.
How is he able to do that?
Because the kingdom of God is not of words but of power.
For those who are just talking the talk, not walking the walk, it will become evident.
For those who are talking the talk and walking the walk, it will become evident too.
No matter what, God, our heavenly Father, will use Paul, the spiritual Father, to expose the conduct of His church so that it can be better used for His purpose.
Exposure is not often easy, but it is necessary to show us which areas of our lives need to be changed.
You Father loves you enough to warn you, entrust you, expose you, and finally is this:
Your Father loves you enough to …
IV. Discipline You (v. 21)
IV. Discipline You (v. 21)
A. A Choice
Paul offers the church in Corinth a choice:
I can come to you with a rod to discipline
OR
I can come to you with love and a spirit of gentleness
The choice is set before the Corinthian Christians and how they choose will determine how Paul must respond.
Make no mistake, Paul desires to come with love and gentleness, excited that the Corinthian Christians have heeded his warnings and changed their ways.
However, if the church community as a whole refuses to acknowledge the problems, Paul will come to discipline as one who deeply loves his children.
B. Either Way is an Expression of Love
We tend not to think of discipline as love, especially when we are experiencing it, but I want to read you several verses out of Proverbs:
24 He who withholds his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him diligently.
15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.
13 Do not hold back discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
1 A wise son accepts his father’s discipline, But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.
32 He who neglects discipline despises himself, But he who listens to reproof acquires understanding.
Paul, just as every parent should do, lays the choice at the feet of his children.
Because he loves them, he would love to come in a spirit of gentleness, encouraging them as they continue to grow in Christ.
However, because he loves them, he will not hesitate to discipline them so as to spare them from foolish and destructive thinking and living.
Conclusion
Conclusion
