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Title Graphic: Finish our series on Paul.

As we saw last week the problem we have to confront is, "Whoever devotes themselves to themselves, will have nothing but themselves to show for themselves."

And that's disturbing.

Because you don't want to get to the end of your life and have maintained the perfect weight, and the perfect schedule, and you never went in debt, but you never did anything for anybody else because at the end of your life, you will have leveraged your life for nothing but you and the Bible says that is a total loss.

But we saw that Barnabas flipped it around He said, "But if you devote yourself to more than yourself, you will have more than yourself to show for yourself."

And I think there is something in all of us that kind of light us up.

To think that we can get to the end of our lives and people would line up and thank us for something very specific.

And I cast that vision to you last week.

"What would you like people to line up at the end of your life and thank you for?"

And if you know the answer to that question, you have begun to discover what it is that really has captured or breaks your heart.

Now, most of what we've said in the series so far really applies to everybody.

This isn't like a Christian thing, or even a religious thing, there are people throughout history whose hearts were broken about an issue: Children, families, finances, whatever.

And they just couldn't shake it, so they gave some of their time, and some of their resources, and did incredible things.

All of us have our better off.

All of us are better of because of someone in a previous generation whose heart was broken by something and they acted on it.

And these weren't Christians, this weren't even religious people necessarily.

So, in terms of the question, in terms of wrestling with this, this isn't a religious thing, this is just a thing thing, this is just a people thing.

But if you are a Christian, there is a slice of this that is very, very, very important for you and very important for me to understand.

So, today here is what I wanna do, I just wanna pick on us Christians a little bit alright?

And if you are not a Christian, you are not a church goer, or this is your first time at church, or the first time in a long time, or somebody made you watch this, I don't know how you become a part of this, you're gonna love this message because you gonna be able to sit back and say, "Yep, yep, yep, in fact, Andy, that's exactly why I don't go to church, yep.

That's exactly why I don't like Christians, that's why I don't wanna do business with Christians, and I don't want my children to marry any Christians.

You've hit on it.

That's exactly what the problem is."

Because we as Christians, if we are not careful, and this is true of all religions but let's just talk about us girls or a second.

We as Christians, okay?

We have a tendency, if we are not careful, to substitute devotion for action, to substitute devotion, the vertical, for action, the horizontal.

In other words, if we are not careful, we are so content to believe, and so content to believe all the right things that we think, "You know what, I believe Jesus is the son of God, I believe he rose from the dead, I believe the New Testament, I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe all the things I was taught to believe.

So me and God are good because I believe all the right things."

But then you open... Actually open up the New Testament, and ask yourself, "Am I really following Jesus?"

And suddenly, you discover, as we're gonna discover today, that believing is not enough.

Now this isn't a sermon or a message about how to become a Christian or how to stay a Christian.

This is about what would it look like if you decided instead of simply being categorically a Christian, you stepped out and decided to follow Jesus, because when you decide to actually follow Jesus, personal devotion is not enough and belief is not enough.

But believers are often content to believe something rather than do something.

So, I thought maybe we should quit calling ourselves "believers" and call ourselves "doers".

In fact, that's exactly what James said.

That's exactly what Jesus taught.

He said, "If you hear these words of mine and don't do anything with them, you are like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and when the storm came, the whole thing fell down."

Unfortunately, maybe this is just my past or the tradition I grew in because it's the tradition grew up in.

Sometimes we are way more content with simply making a point than making a difference.

And we as Christians are really good at making a point, aren't we?

We are really good at shaking our fingers at a screen.

We are really good at shaking our fingers at culture.

We are good at shaking our fingers about all the things that are wrong in the world.

And kids don't ever, and honey don't ever, and people will just listen at that.

I don't know what's wrong with people.

And we make point, after point, after point, after point.

But as we are about to discover, if all you do, and if all we do is make points and don't make a difference, we are not good Christians.

Bible: revolve tension of making a difference not a point.

So today, I wanna take you to one of the most familiar passages in the entire Bible.

In fact those of you who are married, chances are they were verses from this chapter of the Bible read in your wedding.

Not the ones we are about to look at, because they're so disturbing the ones that came right after.

Okay, all the lovey dovey stuff.

First Corinthians chapter 13, written by the apostle Paul.

Paul was such an important figure in the history of Christiandom.

Paul was the bridge from Judaism to You-d-aism.

You know what I mean by that?

That Paul was the bridge from Torah and Temple to the Messiah.

One of the reasons that I take the New Testament seriously, and take the Bible seriously, and taking Christianity seriously is this, check this out, Paul was from this area,

Map

And the reason is, is because the Apostle Paul decided, "It is not enough to believe this, I gotta do something with it."

He believed the good news was the cure for our sickness and that it could so change people that those people could also pass on the love they received and heal others who were sick.

And he got on his ship that most of you wouldn't go more that two or 300 yards on much less cross the Mediterranean sea, visited all of these port cities, planted all of these churches and then wrote them letters to encourage them as time went by.

In his letters as you know, most of you know, is what comprise most of the New Testament.

So First Corinthians is actually called First Corinthians because it was a letter written to the church in Corinth.

The Second Corinthians because he wrote another letter.

There were actually some other letters that just got lost through time.

So in First Corinthians chapter 13, and people put the chapters and versus in there because his letters were so long.

First Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul says some extraordinarily disturbing things.

So, if you're a Christian, and you are not disturbed by the end of the message, I have not been clear because these are very, very disturbing, disconcerting words.

If you're not a Christian, you gotta love this because this is the reason you resist Christianity, I guarantee you, or at least it's part of it.

So, in First Corinthians 13, he has just finished in the previous chapters talking about giftedness, and by giftedness he's really kind of talking about personality traits or the things that God allows a person to be good at versus other things they're not so good at.

And then he addresses those of us who think that God is impressed with devotion that doesn't have any motion.

Okay?

He addresses those of us who basically think that God is all impressed with what we know as opposed to what we do.

And so he says in these verses... Look, in case you have to leave early, here it is:

Put some motion in your devotion.

I think we should write a song about that, right?

He says, "Look, Christian, it is not enough to believe.

It is not enough to be right.

It is not enough to be correct.

You've gotta do something with what you know.

Otherwise... " And what he says on the other side of the "otherwise" is what's so disturbing.

And I'll just read it to you.

Here's what he says.

He says, "If I... " and he says "I', but he's really talking about you because he's trying to soft sell this because it's so offensive.

So instead of saying, "if you" he says "if I", but he's talking about you and me.

"If I speak in the tongues," and this Greek word really just means languages, "If I speak in the languages of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."

Now, what he's talking about here...

He says, "Look, if I had this supernatural ability to speak in multiple different and multiple languages so people from different parts of the world could understand me because I could speak in their language, and it was a supernatural gift... ' 'Cause he's just finished talking about giftedness.

He said, "Let's take it a bit further because this whole passage is a bit of hyperbole."

He said, "Let's say that I actually understood the language of angels.

Not only can I speak to people from different parts of the world in their language without even studying their language, let's say that I was so good I could talk to the angels in angel language."

To which we would say, "Paul, do angels even have a language?"

To which he would say, "I have no idea."

Okay?

This is an illustration.

I'm just saying, if there was such thing a angel language, even if I had the ability to converse with the angels...

That you would hear Paul talking and you would say, "Who are you talking to?" "He's talking to the angels."