Sermon Tone Analysis

Me: Illustration

The Mr. Rayford experience.

Teaching .

Feeling great about what I had done, but was humbled very quickly.

We: Question

How many of us have been there?

Flying high on pride only to have the wind taken out from under us to crash and burn?

My grandma would refer to it as getting too big for our britches!

It happens all too often.

And as we are about to see, it has been happening for quite a while.

God: The text

The Setup

There was division in the church of Corinth.

It was so bad that Paul heard about it from others.

Why do we always hear bad news faster than we hear good news?

The church was split 4 ways.

Gentile followed Paul, Jews followed Peter, others followed Apollos because he was a great speaker, and other followed Christ alone, where some may have been sincere, but others only to try to prove that they were more spiritual.

The Tension

But the fact remains that the division was a result of the church having their eyes on man instead of on Christ.

Their eyes were either on those they identified with or they were on themselves.

Because of this, there was division and disunity.

The church had become ineffective.

It’s message was diminished in word and deed, and the body had become something that no longer glorified God, but was far from Him.

The purpose of the church is to train the Saints for the work of the ministry (KNOW HIM), to share the gospel with the world (MAKE HIM KNOWN), and to glorify His name (DO HIS WILL).

Connecting Faith To Life.

But this church had forgotten that.

They were trying to make themselves know through the names of the men around them, and they were mixing the Gospel with the wisdom of the world.

Scripture is very clear on the truth of the Gospel.

(share gospel).

Anytime we try to add or take away from that truth, we are making a very clear statement that our knowledge and our wisdom is superior to that of the one who created us.

Let me tell you a few things about human knowledge and wisdom.

Do you remember when we thought the world was flat?

Do you remember when we thought the sun revolved around the earth?

Do you remember when we used to use mercury to cure illnesses?

Remember when we used to use lobotomies to cure depression?

Do you remember when cough syrup had herione in it?

Human knowledge and wisdom is flawed and limited.

And I’m about to drop a huge bomb on you.

God does not need it.

1 Corinthians 1:19

Paul is quoting .

Paul is quoting .

God does not need our knowledge or our wisdom.

It is of no use to Him.

We cannot know Him through it, we cannot achieve salvation through it and we cannot bring glory to Him through it.

Sadly, that’s why some people will never come to know the freedom of being a true follower of Christ.

They will never accept what does not fit into their little box of understanding, which again makes the statement that our intellect is standard to which God must work!

No church.

We must humble ourselves before the Lord.

: 20-25

God has no use for our knowledge or our wisdom.

It is of no use to Him.

We cannot know Him through it, we cannot achieve salvation through it and we cannot bring glory to Him through it.

That’s why some people will never come to know the freedom of being a true follower of Christ.

They will never accept what does not fit into their little box of understanding, which again makes the statement that our intellect is standard to which God must work!

1 Corinthians 1:26-

1 Corinthians 1:20

God’s not impressed.

He’s not impressed by who you think you are in the world, but by who we are in Christ.

It is Christ who became God’s wisdom.

It is Christ who became God’s wisdom.

It is Christ who became God’s wisdom.

Christ became God’s righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

And although the world looks at the truth of the Gospel and calls it foolish, scripture says something else.

1 corinthians 1:

You: The Challenge

God gave each one of us a little bit of something called potential.

We all have it, saved or not.

The thing about potential is that it doesn’t do anything on its own.

You have to invest it in something.

We have a choice of what to invest it in.

What are you investing your potential in?

Are you holding on to it?

Are you giving it to someone else? Are you giving it to an idea that the world has sold you as truth.

The answer to that question will tell you whether you are perishing or being saved.

1 Corin

Every one of us today are somewhere in this process.

We are either perishing or we are being saved.

There is no in between.

If you are investing your potential in anything other than Christ, then you are perishing.

If your family is investing in anything other than Christ, then it is withering away.

If your church is investing in anything other than Christ, then it is dying.

But there is good news.

Have you heard the Good News?

It’s not too late.

We have a choice.

You can take back that potential that has been given to you and you can invest it in Jesus Christ.

We: The Vision

We have the potential Bellview.

To be good and faithful servants, to bring others to know Christ, to be a light in the darkness, and to bring about a change in the world around us like has never been seen before.

A change in our lives, in our marriages, with our children and in and through this church.

But we have to remember why we are doing it.

Are we going to glory in ourselves or will we glory in the Lord?

Invitation

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

The New King James Version.