GLBC Core Values: Gospel Loving
GLBC Core Values • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 55:12
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· 18 viewsWe are a gospel loving people who value gospel centrality, clarity, and fluency in the rhythms of corporate, family, and personal worship.
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18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
The Nature of Core Values – What are core values?
The Nature of Core Values – What are core values?
Our purpose at Gospel Life is to glorify God by exalting Him in all things.
Picture with me the Christian life being like a house.
Christ has purchased and renovated this “home” of ours as individuals.
If the Christian life is like a home, then when many Christians get together they need to pursue building the house for which Christ purchased.
As individuals we are like ambassadors to the local embassy of our local assembly.
Ephesians 2:19–22 (ESV)
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
What does this look like?
The following chart lays out our approach to ministry at GLBC.
Beliefs & convictions as the foundation.
Beliefs & convictions as the foundation.
The nature of convictions is that they bleed over into all that we do.
You’ll hear the phrase a lot around here,
“Orthodoxy drives orthopraxy”
“Theology drives practice.”
This means that what we believe about God drives what we do as a church.
If our beliefs and convictions are the foundation of the house, then our values are the building blocks.
Values as the building blocks to our foundation.
Values as the building blocks to our foundation.
What we value is meant to flow from our convictions.
Values are meant to build upon convictions.
Like walls built around a foundation of a house.
This represents what we value most.
Rhythms of grace in our discipleship.
Rhythms of grace in our discipleship.
A rhythm is more than an event.
A rhythm is something that happens repeated.
It’s something that actually begin to shape us into the people that God has purchased for us.
Now what would happen if we didn’t upkeep this metaphorical house?
Like all homes, it would begin to dilapidate.
It would begin to get overgrown.
It would begin to get overrun with weeds.
If our church stopped mowing and weed eating outside…
If weeds began to cover even the sign that sits out front of our church.
It almost serves as a parable that weeds would literally begin to grow up and cover the sign that tells of what we are.
“Gospel Life Baptist Church”
Picture the weeds growing up and slowly starting to cover the word “church.”
“Gospel Life Baptist”
Then the weeds continuing to cover “baptist.”
And slowly, but surely everything that we stand for begins to be covered by less important things.
This is the common experience for local churches.
“The first generation discovers the gospel, the second generation assumes the gospel, and the third generation forgets the gospel.”
The Corinthian believers were dividing between one another.
10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.
16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)
But Paul says here to aim for this kind of sophistication will literally empty the cross of it’s power.
To be fixated on the skill and mastery of communication.
They fail to grasp the message of the cross.
1 Corinthians 1:17 (ESV)
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
This is an oxymoron.
The cross is not meant to represent power.
The cross is the embodiment of weakness.
It’s the place of crucifixion.
A criminals death apparatus is described as having great power.
The problem for humanity is there exists a great wall of hostility toward God.
All humanity is alienated from Him.
All humanity are at odds with God.
Yet as Paul describes elsewhere, the cross breaks down the bearer between human rebellion and God (Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:20, 2:14).
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Our Church is Primarily a Gospel Loving People.
Our Church is Primarily a Gospel Loving People.
What do we mean by “Gospel Loving?”
By Gospel Loving, we never want to imply that the good news of the gospel is only meant to be sentimental to us.
A sentimental love of the gospel becomes obsessed with the way things “used to be.”
It becomes obsessed with trying to get back to the “feel of the older times.”
By Gospel Loving, we MUST mean mean a treasuring of Christ in the truths of Scripture.
A loving that involves the mind, that moves the hearts and motivates the hands from a love for Christ.
Matthew 22:37 (ESV)
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
1 Corinthians 1:18 (ESV)
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
By “the word of the cross” Paul primarily means the message of the cross.
It is the message of a crucified Savior.
It’s the message of Jesus of Nazareth crucified on a tree for sinners.
It’s the message of Jesus Nazareth crucified, dead and buried.
It’s the message of Jesus Christ risen from the grave.
This seemingly shameful message is where Paul says the power reside.
We value Gospel Centrality in all things.
We value Gospel Centrality in all things.
We desire to have the gospel at the center of all that we do as a church.
The center of a church is her worship before the Triune God of Heaven.
Notice the two directions of this preaching of the message of the cross.
1 Corinthians 1:18 (ESV)
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The preaching of the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing.
“foolishness” is “μωρία”
Same place where we get the word “Moron”
Those who are currently under the wrath of God, the message of the cross only looks like foolishness.
It only looks like foolishness to preach a message of a Savior that has died.
But among those who have been elected from before the foundation of the world.
Among those who God has chosen in Himself, there is actually a different trajectory.
1 Corinthians 1:18 (ESV)
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The message of the cross is actually the power of God to the sinner.
The message of the cross is the very power of God toward the believer.
The person whom God has set His love on from before time existed.
The person whom God has loved with an everlasting love is “being saved.”
Now that word for “being saved” is what is described here as a “Divine Passive.”
That is fancy language for the fact that this is something God is doing in the life of the believer.
This includes declaring the Christian righteous in Christ.
This includes setting them apart unto Himself.
This also includes the whole process of sanctification.
The process of God transforming them completely into the image of Christ.
This is God’s activity.
He is doing it in us.
We focus on corporate worship as a rhythm of grace.
We focus on corporate worship as a rhythm of grace.
There is a secondary aspect of this reality of the message of the cross that we cannot miss here.
To speak the message of the cross, it requires the declaration of that message.
It’s requires us to consider the faithful heralding of that message among the people of God.
2 Corinthians 2:15–16 (ESV)
15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
The Christian bears the marks of the Son of God in their repentance from sin.
In their being “cut to the heart” from the Word of God preached.
In their being “undone” from the Word of God, they bear the marks of the Son of God.
Their lives become a “fragrance from life to life” because they are actually being transformed into the image of Christ.
Their lives put off an odor.
Their lives put off an odor that for some are regard as a garbage dump.
Whereas for others, their lives put off an aroma of sweetness.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
The message that we bear in our bodied (jars of clay) shows that the power belongs to the message NOT to us.
It is GOD’S power through His message.
It’s not as though Paul doesn’t want to be persuasive, because he does.
It’s not as though he doesn’t care how clear he is, because he does.
Rather his trust is in the message that has the power.
This message of the gospel has divine power as it is working.
19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Paul quotes from Isaiah 29.
The context of Isaiah 29 is God warning the people of Judah about the coming judgment of Assyria.
He warns them of making allies with Egypt and other nations.
He warns them of this because He saves His nation differently than the rest of the nations.
Other nations ally themselves with each other in order to make strongholds against their enemies.
But Yahweh will do as He says in Isaiah 29:14
Isaiah 29:13–14 (ESV)
13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
14 therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
Yahweh promises to do wonderful things in their midst.
Yahweh promises to save them in ways unlike the rest of the nations.
Paul cites this passage from Isaiah to show that in Jesus, the salvation of Yahweh is coming near.
The message of the cross is that salvation that He promised through the prophet Isaiah.
Human wisdom is actually under the judgment of God (B. Rosner).
Hebrews 10:24–25 (ESV)
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Which drives Paul to rhetorically ask…
1 Corinthians 1:20 (ESV)
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?
Paul doesn’t deny that some people are exceptionally gifted.
His point here though is that gifting does not help a person “KNOW the God of the Universe” (T. Schreiner)
1 Corinthians 1:20 (ESV)
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
Absolutely! Paul will go on to describe what makes God happy!
What do you think makes God happy?
1 Corinthians 1:21 (ESV)
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
The world did NOT recognize God through wisdom.
Think about how different of a message we would have if God decided to “save the world” through wisdom.
Only smart people could be saved.
Only wealthy people could be saved.
Only powerfully people could be saved.
But God does not delight in that.
Now think about what we would say if God saved all the smart, wise, strong, and beautiful people.
We would say,
“Look at how great those people are!”
“Look at how successful and strong they are!”
1 Corinthians 1:21 (ESV)
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
We value Gospel Clarity in all things.
We value Gospel Clarity in all things.
The Bible tells us several things that “please” Him (Luke 12:32, Galatians 1:15-16, Colossians 1:19, Ephesians 1:5, and Ephesians 1:9).
It is through the CLEAR preaching of the gospel that God delights to save those who believe.
He delights to save sinners through this message of Jesus Christ crucified in the place of sinners.
He delights to save sinners by declaring guilty sinners as righteous through the great exchange of His Son.
But here…
Christian
He is pleased that you bring your nothing to Him.
He is pleased that you bring your emptiness.
He is pleased to take the foolish things of this world and make them lovely in His Son.
He is pleased to save those who believe in Jesus.
1 Corinthians 1:22 (ESV)
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom…
People in Paul’s day had all manner of expectations from Christ.
They had all manner of demands that He needed to meet for them.
Jews expected signs be performed in order to believe the message.
The signs were a precursor for them to believe.
“If you just give us enough signs, then we will believe.”
They demand the kind of power that would deliver them from Roman oppression.
They demanded signs and wonders in order to validate the message of the gospel.
Jews demand signs, as they did in Jesus’ day.
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Greeks on the other hand expected to receive wisdom like their surrounding culture.
They wanted to be perceived as “rational”, “strong”, and “sophisticated.”
But the message of the gospel transcends them both.
1 Corinthians 1:22–24 (ESV)
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
“We preach (WITH CLARITY)”
Jesus will be regarded as a stumbling block for those hungry for political power.
Jesus will be regarded as foolishness for those who are wanting a prim and proper Savior.
For those wanting a “knight in shining armor” they will be disappointed by the dingy and blood-soaked robes of the Savior.
1 Corinthians 1:22–24 (ESV)
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
We focus on personal worship as a rhythm of grace.
We focus on personal worship as a rhythm of grace.
In one sense, all people have been called in the gospel.
The gospel call goes out to all people everywhere.
The free offer of the gospel goes out to everyone without distinction.
Who responds to this “gospel” message?
It is through the effectual call of the gospel that all people come to a saving knowledge of Christ.
Romans 8:29–30 (ESV)
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
There is an effectiveness to the call of the gospel that actually changes hearts.
The gospel is preached to all.
Effectual calling then is the Work of God’s Spirit to convict of us our sin and misery.
Effectual calling also is the Work of God’s Spirit to enlighten our eyes to Christ.
Humans generally resist the calling of God in an outward sense all the time.
But a Christian is one who begins to be called in the gospel with the conviction of their sin.
A Christian is one who has been called and their minds have been enlightened to the gospel.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
We value Gospel Fluency in all things.
We value Gospel Fluency in all things.
The word fluency is often used when learning a foreign language.
Fluency describes one’s ability to speak a language.
We talk of people being fluent in English or fluent in Spanish.
But we want to value at Gospel Life being fluent in speaking the gospel.
That fluency starts with the reality that Paul talks about in verse 26.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
They’re speaking of the greatness of God to one another.
They’re speaking of the glory of the gospel to save sinners.
We focus on family worship as a rhythm of grace.
We focus on family worship as a rhythm of grace.
30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
We are a gospel loving people that value gospel centrality, clarity, and fluency in the rhythms of corporate, family, and personal worship.
We are a gospel loving people that value gospel centrality, clarity, and fluency in the rhythms of corporate, family, and personal worship.
