December 10, 2023
Adult SS Class

Introduction

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

How many of you have heard those questions before? There’s a good reason and a not so good reason to hear why over and over again.

Connection

Perhaps you have heard a child or teenager ask why, you answer, and they ask why again.

When I worked at Ryobi, if something tore up the technicians and engineers would look into it; I was basically there to keep the tools fueled up and make sure nothing caught on fire.

The next place didn’t really have a good way of troubleshooting. But when the first twins came along and I worked at Bosch on weekends, that was my first introduction to actual manufacturing. There were boards with all sorts of abbreviations and goals and projects. One of those was the 5 Why’s. You can probably figure it out: you keep asking why until you understand why something isn’t working as it should.

Identification

Whether you have teenagers or work in a manufacturing plant, all of us this morning need to think about the question, “Why?” The reason is because as saved people, we are commanded to work for our Savior. We are to be working right now, and the time is coming when we will no longer work (here).

But, the reason we need to ask “why” is because sometimes in our work for God our actions are not done in the way that God desires. It is possible to do very good things with slightly (or a lot) less than very good motives. One day our work will be inspected by the one who not only knows every code in the codebook, but he also can look into the condition of our heart every time we picked up the hammer or pulled out the plow.

Idea

Since Jesus is the foundation of the Christian life, he should also be the focus of Christians and the church. And to focus on him, we need to examine instead of exaggerate.

Instruction

Expand our understanding of sin. 3:1–4

In verses 1–5, Paul describes why the Corinthians church is “carnal.” This means that they are acting of someone of the flesh (as opposed to what a Christian is, “of the Holy Spirit”).

This passage teaches us that the sin at Corinth that we will see later begins with someone acting as they were before the were born of the Holy Spirit. They are fleshly. What do fleshly people do? They emphasize the flesh, people, not the things of God.

Verse 3 explains what Paul had in mind when addressing the carnality at Corinth. What do you think of when you hear the word “carnal?” When I was younger, that word referred to the way you dressed, the music you listened to, the things that were outward (and to be honest, it usually meant someone a generation prior criticizing the generation ahead. Not always, but sometimes).

Paul here describes carnal, fleshly, not of the Holy Spirit as:

1. envy: “intense negative feelings over another’s achievements or success”
2. strife: “Engagement in rivalry, esp. w. ref. to positions taken in a matter, strife, discord, contention”
3. Divisions: “factions or dissension”

Think of what SIN was when you first became a Christian. It might have been failing to do a devotional for 7 nights in a row. It might have been falling asleep praying. It could have been not leaving a gospel tract at the drive-thru. As fine as all of things might have been, how many of us, as new Christians, realized that making a big deal out of the Christians we looked up to was something that takes away from the glory of God?

This must have been a very important issue for Paul and a very needed warning for Corinth. Paul mentions it here, but remember that he also opened with this same problem.

1 Corinthians 1:12 (KJV 1900)
12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

Enlarge our emphasis on God. 3:5–9

There are other sins that show up at Corinth, but we first need to make it less about ourselves and more about God. That brings me to the second point. In this next section, we will clearly see that though we are part of God’s plan, we are not the one planning it or powering it. We are simply a part of it.

God gives the minister in verse 5

Paul plants in verse 6

Apollos waters in verse 6

y’all believed in verse 5

We only believe because God is the one who chose, 1 Corinthians 1:27–28

And those who plant and those who water are one in verse 8 (all important no matter what part you play)

But verse 7 reminds us that whether we water or plant we are nothing

Verse 7 says that God is the opposite of nothing, he is everything.

So what we learn is that while we are working for God, look at the visual. God is the beginning and the middle and the end, and we are simply parts of his plan inside of his empowerment. How gracious is it then, verse 8 says that we will be rewarded. For what? God is the one who is working through us!

1. Where are the personalities? They are within God
2. Where are we? In there as believers
3. Where is God? He is at the left of the outline (the initiator)
4. How are we fellow workers? By being in him.

Examine the layers of our motives. 3:10–15

How silly is it then that we have to be reminded, or warned even, that as we work for God we can have some very, very wrong reasons for that working?

Who laid the foundation? Paul. Who was the foundation? Jesus. If someone builds, are they building on Paul or Jesus? Jesus. So again, we are (all of us working as one) nothing and he is all.

Think of what you have done or built for Jesus. Imagine even something you done that was brand new. Now think of someone who built this building and laid the foundation. Guess what, they didn’t build the foundation on air, but they laid it on the earth, a foundation that was under the foundation.

As we peel back the layers of what is done and who has done it, we will ultimately get to the root, the first foundation: Jesus Christ.

But…

There is another peeling away that we need to look at this morning.

Why → Why → Why → Why → Why

Verse 10 says how he builds and verse 13 says of what sort it is.

These two tiny little groups of words should startle us. Because, it is on the basis of those two little insights that will determine if we built with wood and hay and stubble or gold and silver and jewels.

interrog. reference to manner or way, in what way? how

Of what sort?

I know we talked about this a few years ago though I don’t remember the context. I do remember Aaron and Bill saying in general that you can become so paralyzed by looking inward that you don’t do anything. And I agree with that, especially if you are wired like me.

Example: inviting someone to church near Cameron

To avoid becoming paralyzed, we should (though used differently) take one look inward for every 10 looks we take upward to Jesus. But, let’s not get in the habit of taking 1,000 looks upward before we ever even think to look inward.

The qualification of the reward here is not so much on what you did or how much you did or how often you did… why and in what way did you do what you did?

Was it for the glory of God (as we will see at the end of chapter 10)?

Don’t exaggerate our opinion of ourselves

We are nothing and God is everything. Paul has already told us that. In verses 16–17, he tells us what we are, we are the dwelling place (the church at Corinth) for the Holy Spirit. He is the personality and we are simply the vessel.

This passage is on one hand encouraging, though we are nothing we are also indeed the temple of God and the Holy Spirit lives within us…

But the warning is surely there. There is the warning to those who would destroy what God is building. In this case it seems to be the ones that are perhaps spreading the division and disrupting the unity in the church.

(But also suggest that perhaps this is a foreshadowing of the end of chapter 6 and what it teaches about being a vessel of God. Is it possible that one great hindrance to effective ministry is that we are so prone to the weakness of our vessel in a way that matches the similar wording in 1 Corinthians 6? Can’t be dogmatic but my mind goes there. And when you consider the number of warnings throughout the New Testament and in the epistles, I think it is at least a fair speculation.)

We sometimes have too high a view of ourself. Paul says that if that is the case we are deceived. The other night Christopher asked me about someone Mormon and their understanding of Jesus. Yes, those under false teaching are deceived. But it is also to sit here this morning and be deceived as well. Hopefully not because I am telling you something wrong, but we all can think wrongly about ourself. How? By thinking too much about ourself.

As we have seen earlier, Paul will state his case by using the Old Testament. He quotes from Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11.

Pauls conclusion → THEREFORE → don’t glory in men. Then were do we glory Paul?

He already told us in the other passage that dealt with personalities and division, chapter 1… which is also based on the Old Testament from Jeremiah 9:23–24.

1 Corinthians 1:31 (KJV 1900)
31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Inspiration

Almost a decade ago in my first rips to teen revolution, there were times when the speakers would direct their attention to the adults instead of the young people. I remember two of those in particular. One of those was when the leader told the story of a time in his life where he was so distracted, busy, unfocused that someone corrected him for it. While someone was trying to talk with him, they noticed that he kept looking around, noticing who was walking up next, etc. They asked if he was listening and he said yes but continued his distracted mannerisms. They stopped again and said, “You aren’t listening to me.” He said that he was, and they said again, “No, you aren’t listening, you have everything on your mind but what I am asking you to help me with.”

He said that was a helpful moment in his life. The important thing wasn’t what needed to be done or what was coming up next; it was the opportunity to minister to the person with him at that moment. Treat them like Jesus treats them.

This morning, conference leader or Discovery volunteer or husband or wife or plant worker or school teacher or manager or anything else… we can spend our Christian life doing a lot of things for a lot of different reasons. But at the final inspection, the main thing will not be how much we did or how often we did it. The main thing will be why did we do what we did. If Jesus asked what we did and then followed it up with a series of “whys,” would our answer be the same as the one asking the question: Jesus.

Jesus: “Why?”

Us: “Jesus.”

If you saw their eyes dry would you know they’re really crying
If you saw them struggling would you say they really weren’t trying
If their life was falling apart would you quietly listen
Or would you quickly tell them a quick way to fix it
If they kept going on and on would you silently beg for it to end
Or would you save your words for later and simply be a friend
What so many need is what we can’t make more of
For those who’re hurting t-i-m-e is how you spell love
Cause while it’s true the world all needs our truth and our witness
What’s truer is that they need us first to listen like Jesus

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I need to step back and pause and just reflect: “Tony, why are you doing that, saying that, going there, thinking in that way, etc.?”

Sometimes the answer is not pretty. And it points me back to the point of the lesson. Jesus is the foundation. He is the one building and it is not about me (and not just publicly but also in my own mind and what I am spending time thinking about). What other foundation can we lay that the one that was already laid before us and the one we are standing on now… nothing else but Jesus Christ and him crucified.