Not progressing Correctly

Some of you who have been around awhile might remember a little over 6 years ago when our first born Liam was born.

And Liam was a big baby, but he also was a late baby and he was coming so late that they ended up having to get him induced.

And I remember we started the process and they give a sort of medicine to start the induction, and most people move fairly quickly, but Arika did not, Liam was not wanting to budge.

So they gave something a little different, but not to long after that, Liam began to have a reaction to the medicine.

And all of the sudden his heart rate began to go high and to drop low.

And all of the sudden a bunch of nurses came running in the door and started to put Arika in all sort of different positions and having an oxygen mask on her to try and stabalize liam

And then once they did it was a slow process, and it took another two days until Arika was ready to push.

And once she began to push, she went for 5 and a half hours (which they normally cut off at 4.

And the last half hour Liam was stuck on the Pelvis, which is a bad spot to be stuck.

And so they tried the vaccum and it did not work, they had me doing a tug of war thing to help.

and then finally they did an episodomy, and it worked.

And I know there are probably others here who have had scary birth stories, and ours probably is not the worse in this room.

But if you have ever been through anything like that, you know that there is this scary point where your mind makes the connection that things are not progressing how they should be.

And not just that, but its your child, the thing you care about more than anything else.

And when you realize they are not preogressing, or growing, or maturing correctly, thats scary and serius isn’t it?

And today we are not talking about a litteral child, but we are looking at this small section in a letter written by a guy named Paul

and Paul actually started this church. And so you can picture the deep love and care that he has for this church.

You can imagine how he probably views the people in it like children that he has taught and began to raise up.

But there is an issue, because Paul heres that this church that was his baby, was not progressing how it should be.

In fact it appears that things have gone completely side ways.

Because there is a ton of division among the people of the church (they are claiming to follow different leaders)

Not just that but the wealthy members of the church are drinking so much communion wine that they are getting drunk off it, while the lower class members do not get any.

there is sexual immorality taking place (on a big scale)

the people in the church are suing eachother constently

Some people have awful theology and have embraced a theology thats not Christian

There worship gatherings are chaotic and get out of hand (this makes us feel a little better when our churches aren’t perfect)

And ultimately you get this group of people that are so far from the way that God has called them to be.

And Paul uses this letter to get try and get them back to where they are supposed to be and where God has called them.

And so I just want to jump into a small area of this letter which is chapter 3. and so we will be in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and we will just be starting in the first 4 verses. It says this:

1 Corinthians 3:1–4 (NIV)

The Church and Its Leaders

3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

So Paul starts this section kind of harshly because he is saying brothers and sisters, I cannot address you as people of the spirit, but people who are still worldy.

Whats interesting is in chapter one he addresses this messy church as the saints of Corinth, which would mean even in there messiness, God is still at work,

But here is is saying listen, this is a prblem, because Christ may have saved you, but you are not living in light of that and growing into who Christ has called you to.

in fact I imagine Paul going you have growin but it feels like you are growing as a tumor, somthing thats growth has not brought flourshing but destruction.

He actually uses the phrase “you are infints in Christ”

and he uses this illustration of nursing

Because when a baby is born we all know this but it either nurses, or is bottle fed.

because you can’t give a baby a steak, (it does not work well)

Then you go to baby food, then mashpotatoes, then maybe eventually chicken nuggest and one day a steak

And Paul tells them you should have moved to the solids by now.

And this is important, because if a person just keeps drinking out of a bottle and doesn't eat anything else they will be very malnurished right?

And Paul is tell this church you are malnurished as individuals and as the church, because you loved the idea of Grace and this idea that the grace of God covers me,

But you did not let it change you. its not just a bandaid, but it removed the junk underneath

And I think there is a question that we have to ask ourselves which is am I drinking milk, when I know I need to be drinking Solids.

I mean have you noticed any difference in your life since you accepted Chrsit?

Are we diving deeper in our walk with God

Are we seeking god first and then seeking others.

Because we are often great at talking this way, (sometimes we don’t even get that far), but often times we are really bad at living it out.

Can I tell you this is a message that God was praching to me this Sunday, because I love theology, I love God, and I think that does flow out, but this past couple of months if I am being hoest I felt like God has said Brendan you need to go to the next level.

And can I be honest, I believe this is the call to our church. What does it look like to go the next level? To live out these calls God has called us to?

Because I don’t want to be a Person thats stuck drinking milk, when God has called me to move to solids.

I dont want us as a church to be stuck drinking milk, when God has called us to eat solids

Lets look at this next section. Verses 10-16. It says this:

New International Version (2011) Chapter 3

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. 16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? So Paul acknowledges that he (with God’s help) built the foundation of this church, and he actually goes “and ill tell you what… I did a good job”

And now you are building onto it.

It would be like say you gave me a mansion that you built (it is Pastor appreciacian month)

But I decide to fill it with junky furniture I collected off of street corners.

And not just that but I let my kids destroy it, I let my dog go to the bathroom everywhere in it.

You would go Brendan I built this beautiful mansion for you and you treat it like this?

And you can picture Paul feeling this way. He goes please build wisely.

Build a life that is worthy of the foundation.

And Paul actually gives a warning, because he mentions all of these different building material that are gold, silver, cosstly stones, wood , hay or straw

and he uses these things to represent how we build our lives.

And if you have ever read the three little pigs, you know that some materials work better to build things then others.

Because the 1 pig uses hay and it doesn’t go well

The second pig uses sticks and it doesn’t go well

And then the final pig uses stone and it works.

And I really believe the warning in this passage is serius, because how we build our life (its not if it will be know), but it will be known.

And Paul is saying make sure your life iss built from gold.

Because as a pastor I have seen so many lives of people I care about where they made their life look one way, but material they used to build everything was cheap.

And it ended up falling apart.

And this is heart breaking to watch, in fact its horrible, because often times this is a family falling apart, or a job getting loss

And Paul mentions that if we build our lives out of hay or sticks it will catch fire.

And Jesuss’s grace is sufficient, (Praise God) where we are saved, but its painful

And if you have caught yourself in that place can I point out that you have a canvas to move forward with, and there is still some smouldering and things you need to work out, but you can begin to rebuild and this time you can use gold.

Because if you are alive God is not done with you

Infact in verse 16 he says don’t you know you are God’s temple,

Regardless of where you are in the building or reconstruction process, God is still with you.

And lets just look at this last section of scripture because I think it gives us a really good step to finish up on. Look at verses 16-21. It says this:

1 Corinthians 3:17–21 (NIV)

17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. 

18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”  21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours,

So Paul tells us to become wise, we need to become fools.

And he is not saying start living a wild life so God’s grace can be so strong in you.

But its this idea of humbling ourselves to be wise.

Because if we want to build a solid life, we have to be able to to humble ourselves

Because often we don’t admit we are in the wrong or we think we have everything firgured out

When I was 20 I thought I was the smartest person in the world. I mean I had everything firgured out

The only person who knew more was 16 year old me or maybe 13 year old me

But heres the thing when we keep ourselves humble we end up growing, because we see our wrongs and the bad places we have built our life and we keep laying down our lives.

Infact I would say this laying down your life is not something you do once or twice, but hopefuly God is bringing areas in your life that are constently bringing you to Christ.

And so the worship team comes forward and I just want to acknowledge that this is hard because doing this means we are repenting (where we turn from our mistakes and turn to God.

And so as we close I just think to most appropriate way to end today is by inviting us to a response.

because I want to lay my life down at the cross fully today.

And maybe today thats something you recognize that God is calling you to lay down.

Today can we do this as a church.

As we close I want us to pray whether its at the alter or at your seat,

And maybe you have a little bit of hay and you didn’t hold a door for someone yesterday

Or maybe your life is built of hay and you are sitting in the aftermath.

This morning as we close, I want to us to humbly lay our lives down at the alter.

And I know this is hard, infact its scary to walk down to the alter, its scary to deconstruct a part of your life.

But that why we are closing on Oceans, because while it can be scary to humbly lay down our lives, God meets us in that place.

Will you pray with me?