How NOT to be a Corinthian! 1 Corinthians 2

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Gratitude, Brandon Lake

Stand with me as we open our worship with scripture.

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7

Opening Scripture:

Ecclesiastes 5:1–7 NIV

1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. 2 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. 3 A dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool. 4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. 5 It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. 6 Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? 7 Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.

Prayer

Worship Set

Prayer

Worship Through the Word:

How NOT to be a Corinthian!

10,000 Sermon Illustrations 1 Corinthians 1:27

1 Corinthians 1:27

None of us have anything to brag about.

1 Corinthians 2 NIV

1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. 6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

I. A Church Divided, Part 3 1 Corinthians 2

B. The Message Which is Centered on the Death of Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:17; 2:1-5

1 Corinthians 1:17 NIV

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

The power to save does not come through the messengers. It does not come through a particular denomination. Salvation comes only through Christ’s death on the cross. That is where the focus must be.

Remember John the Baptist’s remark to his disciples as he pointed Jesus out to them. He said,

John 3:30 NIV

30 He must become greater; I must become less.”

His attitude was absolutely right on!

Paul now turns our attention to God’s wisdom and we find that...

2. The gospel is part of the Father’s eternal plan 1 Corinthians 2:6-9

3. The gospel is revealed by the Spirit through the Word 1 Corinthians 2:10-16

Prayer

Worship Set

Benediction