Transcription
What's up everybody? Welcome to Thrive. We believe Jesus is crystal clear in John 10:10. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus said, "I've come that you might have life and have it to the full." That word life there speaks to the God kind of life. Zoe, life as God intended. We call that thriving around here.
And uh we we know that in order to thrive, we're going to need God's principles that come through the teaching of scripture, but also God's presence and God's power. That's why we began our time together with prayer because we believe the Bible is is clear. The purpose of prayer is to notify God of a need. He knows what you need before you ask. But the purpose of prayer is to demonstrate your faith and express your dependency. God doesn't need to be reminded that you need him, but you and I need to be reminded that we need him. And there are some things he won't do unless we ask.
And each week, we have prayer requests that are sent in. And uh we like to lift up just a few of them and pray over them publicly. Uh Mike Evans is one we're believing God to intervene into a private matter for him. We got your request, Mike. We're believing with you. Tiffany Harrison, who's praying for leadership discernment. Patricia Bailey, who is praying for, watch this, parental wisdom and guidance. If you need that, just put every parent should just put me too in there. Absolutely. Kimberly Frasier who was praying for protection. Philip Nash who's believing for employment and Shantel Kingston who's praying for uh mental health.
So, Father, we just thank you that your word says that your eyes go to and fro throughout the whole earth. That you might show yourself strong toward those whose heart is upright towards you. We lift up to you today these requests and Father, we pray that you would demonstrate yourself to be God. Show yourself mighty and show yourself strong on behalf of your people. You are our David that defeats our Goliaths. And so we pray, Father, even for the Goliath of mental health. We pray for the prosperity of the soul. May her soul prosper, God, with peace and joy. Father, we pray for the release of parental wisdom. You said if we desire wisdom, we can ask of you. You give it liberally, liberally, generously. May our cup run over with wisdom. Not just for parents, but wisdom for every decision that we have to make. lead us even if we don't know we are being led. I thank you for it, Father. Father, I pray for our needs. You are the Lord God who supplies all of our need. You do it according to your riches in glory. So God, we pray that you'd send water out of a rock. That you call cause mana to fall from on high. That you would get us what your people what we need through unconventional or conventional means. However you do it, do it, God, in the name of Jesus. And Father, even for the requests, the needs that are on the hearts of your people, we just pray that you would meet them. Your word says you're the God who hears in secret, but you reward openly. Every need met, I pray for your glory and for your name's sake. I ask it all in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. And amen. Y'all drop some fire in the chat, man.
Dr. Dudley, we glad to be back. Good to be back. If you're here for the first time, man, we want to welcome you. I'm Darius Daniels. This Marcus Dudley and we do this this teaching together, but uh we have been on the past few weeks on a bit of a um was not a break because we've been working working but um kind of some recalibration as we concluded one series and prepared for this new series that we're beginning today. And Dr. Dudley's looking good. He's Yes, sir. losing weight and managing his diet and feeling healthy and getting good results. But man, can I just can I just thank you for being um Pety got me together, y'all. And uh I want to thank him for being a Proverbs 27 friend. Yes, sir. Like when it it talks about how um open rebuke is better than hidden love. And then it goes on to say, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend than deceitful kisses of the enemy." And man, I I I just thank you, man, that u you love me enough to correct me, man. And that means a lot. And and I just want to want to publicly thank you for that. Well, I love you, man. We not going to get emotional here, man. We did We did too much crying and all staff yesterday still cried enough till next year. But thank you. I And and that means a lot to me, man. Yes.
Um, and I was thinking about it. We we often talk about what legacy you can leave your family. And one of the things God told me is one of the legacies we can leave is our prolonged presence rather than a premature exit. Yeah. Like one of the best things you can leave for your family is you to stay around as long as you supposed to be around% and not leave prematurely, man. So So man, I just thank you, bro. That that that means a lot to me and my family and uh and uh man, I'm doing good, man. So, I'm blessed. Thriving. We love it. Let's That's what I'm talking about. We're thriving and grateful for you, man. I love you and appreciate you and glad to be doing life and ministry with you.
Um, we need to do a series on like biblical friendship. I wrote a little bit about it in relational intelligence, but it's like a lot of the conversation around friendship is like very cultural, very first way, a second way. Not real realizing like the Bible has a lot to say about friendship. And I think if many of us were to compare our definition of a good friend with what the Bible says a good friend is, we kind of have to re-evaluate and go back to God and say, am I kind of being the friend? Right? So the question isn't just do you have the friends you need? The question is, are you being the kind of friend you're supposed to be? Like you know what I mean? Yeah. And so I I think that is that is that's something we we need to do something on that.
And uh because I want Thrive to be about thriving and I don't want us to get caught up in like a certain methodology. Like I don't want us to be like the people at the pool of Bethesda who feel like the only way you can get a miracle is by jumping into the water. Like so even though we teach books of the Bible, we're not just relegated to simply exposition of scripture. We're always going to do exesus of scripture. And um you know some people they carry the spirit of the Pharisee who do this. They feel like if you're not going verse by verse through scripture, you're not teaching the Bible. And I'm like if you don't have a good teaching gift, you could be going verse by verse through scripture. You still not teaching. Yeah. You said I'm teaching the word. Not really. So yeah, it's so it's it's these these concepts, these truths in scripture that we want to pull out and so man, we just want to be open. But right now, I just feel like uh we want to lean into First Corinthians. We're starting a series of teachings today called Crazy Church.
And um and we're going to start with uh well, we're going to exploring the book of First Corinthians. And so, we're going to lean right into that. And so, we're going to unpack kind of what Crazy Church means throughout the course of this series, but I want to give you some context. First of all, let's get right into it on First Corinthians. First Corinthians is actually it's called first Corinthians because it is at least in the Bible it's it's described as the first letter that Paul writes to a community of faith in a place called Corenth. Now why is he writing to this place? Because this is a place this is a spiritual community that he established in his second missionary journey. It's recorded in Acts chapter number uh 18. And uh you can start at like verse one. You look at verse 18, you'll see Paul's presence in Corinth. And he stayed there about uh 18 months. So he stays in that area and he's serving, watch this, he's serving the spiritual community and uh with Priscilla Quill and he is um making tents to support himself during that season.
And pastor, I want to pause here and just because I want to throw this out even this little there's a lesson even in this historical context, right? That there's something I think that has some educational and exoggetical value for us even in just what I've said so far. Paul serving in ministry but then making tents to support himself. Right? Here's a I call this the theology of tent making. Here's a principle family that sometimes the answer to your unmet needs are unused skills. That's good, man. Listen to me. That's good. That's so good. Sometimes the answer to your unmet needs, when I say unmet needs, I'm not talking about emotional unmet needs. I'm talking about practical, tangible needs that you have. Sometimes the answer to those unmet needs is the utilization of unused skills. Paul was a tent maker by trade. And when circumstances called for him to unleash those gifts, he unleashed those gifts because God was using those gifts as a means of grace to supply Paul's needs. That's right. Paul's like, I got some needs. And God's like, I've given you some gifts. So, if you know how to use your gifts, your gifts, watch this, will enable you to meet your needs. That's right. And and and I want somebody to think about that because sometimes the answer to your unmet need is unused gifts. Something you overlook. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. What is it in um I get them confused a lot. Elijah or Elisha the way I know the difference between first and second Kings. Uh but I think this is Elijah. Uh cuz the lady the widow's husband is from the school of the prophets and he passed away. She goes to him uh because there are some creditors coming to take her sons into indentured servitude to pay off the debt that her family had because her husband died. She goes to Elijah and she's like, "Hey, my husband was a part of the school of the prophets. He passed away. There's debt we owe. Creditors are coming to take our children, take my children into indentured servitude. They called it slavery." And um Elijah asks her a question. Yes. What do you have in your house? What do you have in your house? In your house. Lord have mercy. And then and then too, pastor, what I love about this what I love about this story is I think she minimized what she had. And I think that teaches her. She said, "I ain't I I only have a little oil." Little oil. You know how people try to try to try to minimize that little job, that little car, that little gift you got. And she tried to minimize it. And I think this teaches us that, you know, even when it comes to gifts and skills, not to minimize what God can maximize. Yes, sir. He said, "I got a little oil." A little oil. But he said, he said, "That's all you need." He said, "That's all." He said, "You got the oil and let's say let's say let's let's use oil as a metaphor for anointing ability." Right? He said, "Okay, you got the oil. You got the ability." He said, "What you need is you need jars." That's right. That's right. You need structure. Yes. If you put some structure and some systems around your oil, it's going to bring you. Does that make sense? And some people, that's their issue. You got oil. You just don't have structure. You don't have jars. You need What are jars? They're delivery systems for the oil. It's how you take the oil from one place to the next. And what many people fail to realize is if God's giving you oil, that's his part. Getting the jars is your part. That's our part. We don't know how the oil got in the house, but it was there. It was there. Does that make sense? But she had to exert the energy to make the effort to go get some jars, which is a delivery system for her oil. I'm good at this. Well, what's the what's the jar? What's What's the delivery system you're going to have to deliver that value to somebody else? Like somebody text me uh this morning about and they were just texting me. It's a pastor out in Texas just texting me about a chapter of relational intelligence. The book relational intelligence that spoke to them. You know what relational intelligence is? For some people it's a book. In some people's eyes it's a book. From my perspective it's a jar. It was a delivery system for a revelation God gave me about relationships. I had the revelation in my head. It doesn't help people unless I put it in a jar. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? I wish I had a church. Yes. In here tonight. My God. Yeah. But he made tense, pastor. That's powerful. Yeah. He made tents. I love it. To um to support himself.
Now, let's give him a little more context here. So, when he gets to Corenth, pastor, he's initially teaching in the synagogue. Mhm. So he's in the proverbial metaphorical church, right? So because he's trying to minister to Jews that are there. Mhm. But he was rejected by many of them. And so what does he do? He focuses now on the Gentiles. Now this is important. And pastor, I want to I want us to pitch a tent here because this is important. Your per this this reality is this revelation. Your purpose is not always lived out among those you prefer to help. Come on. Sometimes you might be rejected by those you are anointed for, but your purpose is not always lived out among those you prefer to help. He went to the Jews first. Paul, as a Jew, wanted to help his people. But sometimes chasing your people can cause you to miss your purpose. Am I am I am I making sense? I'm just telling you like I'm just it's it's interesting. And it's not that those people won't be reached. It's like sometimes it takes somebody else to reach them. You you you know what I mean? You could be saying something to someone in your own house and what you're saying is right and accurate or whatever, but for whatever reason, uh it's not received. So that rejection has to be redirection toward those that have an appetite for what you've been assigned to offer. And I think you say it all the time how your your your your anointing has an audience. Yeah. And u God will always take you to the people and the places that you need to be. And often time that's on the other side of some rejection. You know how people will reject you to the right place. You know how sometime you know family and friends will reject you to where God wanted you to be in the first place. And I think I man I I love that how sometimes, you know, we look at um uh even rejection as something wrong, but sometimes rejection is simply God's love manifested in correction. Yeah, that's important. That course correction point that that's so strong to me because here's what can happen with purpose. I think all of us make assumptions about our assignment. That's right. And sometimes it takes rejections rejection to to like expose those assumptions. Because Paul's probably thinking, I'm in Coror, so I'm a Jew. I'm going be able to help Jews, right? If I'm influential, I'll be able to help influential people. If I'm this, I'll be able to help this. You know, does that make sense? If I'm from this town, I'll be able to help people from this town. Because me, all of us, for the most part, carry some assumptions as it relates to our assignment. That's right. And then rejection exposes that everyone you assume you're assigned to, you aren't anointed for. That's right. That's right. Yeah. That that sometimes God uses rejection to show us that you are you're supposed to help who I called you to help, not just who you want to help. That's right. And when you really have a heart of a servant, if it's really about the people, you want them helped even if you're not the one to help them. That's right. So that's good. You got what I'm saying is sometimes this is important, man. I've learned this. So like, let's just say and I I want I want I want I want the uh our family tribe to think through this. Here's what I learned. I've learned that people can have the same motion with different motives. Like they can be doing the same thing. Uh-huh. for different reasons. You know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, people like, "I'm down for you. I'm committed." Now, it's like, "Okay, well, why?" Mhm. And you know how people are committed to I want to help. I want to help. I want to help. Sometimes some some person wants to help because they actually they have a they operate with servant leadership and they have a heart for meeting the needs of other people. Sometimes people want to help because they need to be needed. Same motion, different motives. Yeah. And sometimes it takes rejection to expose your motive. That's good. Cuz are you assuming that just because you can't help them, they can't be helped. That's right. Do you want them helped or do you have to be the one to help them? So good. I just want him help. Yep. So Paul redirects his effort from Jews to Gentiles. So rejection pastor is transportation. It is you determine though where it take you for some people rejection take them backwards. Shoot. And for other people rejection takes them forward. Rejection is transportation. But you determine where it takes you. For some people rejection sent them backwards. They not responding like you talking. Doc I don't hear I don't hear anybody. need to put some fire. Y'all not responding like he preaching. No, pastor. But I think that's why even when it comes to something like rejection, I think that's why you need a rejection uh theology or framework how to um to to properly interpret rejection. And I think sometimes if you're not careful, we will allow rejection to cause us to believe that that that that what we're doing is not what God called us to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it may rather than it not being what God called us to. It may not be at the place or the people that God called us to. You know, rejection doesn't mean that God didn't call you, God didn't anoint you, or God hadn't purposed you for that, but it may mean that God hadn't purposed you for that there. Strong, strong, strong, strong, strong. you know, and I don't want to get too far off the path here in Baller's Rabbit Trail, but I really I I really think and you know, I just feel super strong about this. I've been um I was reading something today. I mean, this morning uh quote or two from Bonhaofer, you know, Bonhaer's your guy. Yeah. And um there is this um so guys, we're talking about Dietri Bonhaofer who was historical Uh, here's super interesting, right? And here's why I love Bon Offer. And what's weird is I I see like a segment of the Christian um I'm going to say what, but a segment of a segment of Christianity, a silo within Christianity. I don't want to say what side, but a silo Christianity. Like they like really on Bona Bonhoffer now. And I'm like, y'all can't have read Bonhoffer because he would have ate you up. That's right. It's like, you know what I mean? Like they got this this it's almost like they're quoting Bonhaofer and it's like I think what what what where did Bonhaer go? He came over to the States in New York and went to seminary. Um Union Harlem. Yeah. Was it Union? Union. It was Union. Yeah. He hung out in Harlem. Yeah. So that's where he that's where his theology of justice was actually expanded and like his he he he including like suggesting that the out the the impact of or the consequence of the great commission is the great commandment that when you are actually made a disciple you love your neighbor as yourself right and so it's like so it's weird because it's people who are like almost like anti-justice who are like quote on Bhava. I was like, Bhava would like not be very fond of you if I mean if you actually read it. But anyway, um I was reading something and um Bonhopper says a call to follow Christ Mhm. is a bid to come and die. That's it. That's right. That's right. That's what he Yep. Yep. And there are like assumptions that we make about our assignment and when you follow in Christ, they got to die. They got to die. There are preferences we have about the people we want to help. They has to die. They got to die. The there there are there are preferences we have about the place. And the place is
Yes. God sends us to serve and help other people. Got to die. Got to die. Because most people in the military don't get to pick when you deploy. Do you hear what I just said, Josh? I heard you a military man. You know what I'm talking about? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And and the metaphor, one of the metaphors that scripture uses to describe us as believers is the army military of the Lord. That's it. Paul uses a lot of military language. So, right. That's it. No, you you're spot on now. Need to come down. Spot on. I love it, though.
So, this is what's Yeah, this is what's happening in Corinth. And it's a it's a very wealthy city. It's an influential city. It's like it's a metropolis. It's located in southern Greece. It's strategically like a place. It has strategic ports for trade. Like I've heard it described this way: The diversity of New York, the location of Miami with the ethics of Vegas. Shout out to everybody in all those cities. We not know we're not throwing shade at any of your cities. I'm just I'm just using that as an example. Like I know some amazing pastors in in Vegas. Uh shout out to Pastor Benny Perez, Javin Chavez. Amazing pastors in Jud Will height. Amazing pastors in Vegas. Shout out to Vegas. Miami. Rich Wilkerson and Joel Tutman. So, so many great pastors. Listen. No, no, no shade. But location of Miami, diversity of New York City with the ethics of Vegas. Yes. It was a wild place. Wow. I mean, that's a wild place to have a church. Wow.
Uh, and here's what's interesting about this church. This church will be what we would call a charismatic Pentecostal church. We're getting ready to get into this. They are they are it's diverse. They got Jews and Gentiles. They got the wealthy and the wealthy and the poor. They got formal idol worshippers. Their formal prostitutes cuz I think Aphrodite like the temple Aphrodite was there and that was like like prostitution was like a part of practicing that religion. So you got people that was paying and people that was taking the payments and everybody in church TZ T it was wretched TZ that's a lot that's a lot right you walking in church you're like wow that's a lot all right it's a all I want you to understand all that's happening because sometimes when you look at the content of scripture without understanding the context you rob yourself of the richness of the content. So when you see all of the like debauchery happening inside the church at Corinth, you understand these are new Christians who are living in this environment who know nothing about this newfound faith who are working out their own soul salvation. So that's why Paul plants this community and then he leaves and it just gets a little crazy in the church. I mean it's crazy church and they are they are Pentecostal and charismatic. So come on and I am continuationist in my pneumatology, right? So I'm not I'm not anti like I'm a part of this tradition in a sense, right? I'm not a classical Pentecostal. I didn't grow up that way. I don't believe that sign gifts are the evidence of the Holy Spirit. I think they they Anyway, whatever. So the point I believe the fruit of the spirit is the evidence of the spirit, but I do believe in John Wesley's like second, not exactly, but like kind of second grace. You can continually baptize. Not how much of the spirit we have, but how much of the spirit has us. So, I believe in all of that. I've experienced that. But there is some straightening that we got to do in our community, guys. Yes. Yes. And so, this is this is kind of why we're doing this. There there is some stuff in if let's just use Coror as a metaphor for the charismatic church. Yes. There's some stuff that's a little crazy. It's crazy. And we need to do some straight crazy. And it was I mean it was so here here's what I want to understand. These people were rich in spiritual gifts but poor in spiritual maturities. And that's one of the first things that we've got to understand as spirit-filled communities that gifts are are are an instrument for the operation of the spirit. Right. Got me? Yes. Fruit is evidence of submission to the spirit. Gifts mean I have the spirit. Fruit means the spirit has me and stuff get crazy in church when we got the spirit. Spirit, I don't hear anybody talking to me. Dr. They not talking. They not talking. They not. and the spirit doesn't have us. Like you were, these people had gifts and they were prophesying and they were uh speaking in tongues and like all the things. And Paul's like, "I can't." He says, "You're doing all of that, but you can't even handle substantive teaching." And let's be honest, pastor, let's be honest, that can happen, right? I mean I mean the theatrics and the the exuberance and worship and then all of that and then when it's time to sit down and receive bread from heaven, they can't handle substantive teaching. Paul's like I can't even talk. I can't even give you meat. Yeah. Cuz I got to go back. He said, "I got to give you milk." Get milk. Yep. He says you babes in Christ. Yeah. He says he says I don't care how long you t for the Holy Ghost. You a babe. And he says, 'The reason that I know, he says, because you're carnal. He says, "The reason that I know is you got all these divisions and factions among you." So there's a there's a young lady named a woman named Chloe, excuse me, who informed Paul of some of the craziness that's going on in the church. And Paul writes this letter in response to And so this letter, pastor, is both pastoral and corrective because growth requires both. M growth requires both highly encouraging yet highly highly comforting and highly challenging environment.
And I want to say something because I know we live in an aging era now. Uh this is something we need to talk about with uh with men at a made man's event or made men basic training which is getting ready to happen. By the way, uh I'm going to have to put the info on the screen. We've got we've been doing main men based attorney which is our 12-week program. It's inspired churches all over the country to start leaning into men and I'm super excited about that. But we had 100, we're doing 200. But we we need to we need to have a conversation about this have made men because I see some sports analysts arguing about the sensitivity of today's NBA players and whether or not they were more are more sensitive or whatever. I think because we didn't have social media back in the day, we don't know. We don't know. Like you actually you don't know. I I don't know if players are more sensitive. I just think they catch more shots. That's right. How many I mean how many times I'm going to get punched without being sens. It's like you understand what I'm saying? Like when we grew up we're watching basketball. There's no social media. So if somebody didn't tell you what an athlete did, you didn't know. You didn't know. You didn't know. We I mean Sports Center started coming on like we were in college or something like that. We didn't grow up watching these things. But anyway, there's some argument though about whether or not as a culture we become more sensitive. There may be there may be some legitimate reasons to that, but there is and I'm not saying so when I'm there is a degree of hyper sensitivity. That's the age we're in. Got me? Yes. And we should be hyper sensitive to abuse. We shouldn't be hyper sensitive to correction. Just because somebody told you you wrong, that doesn't mean they did you wrong. My God. So, we need to stop that. So, good. That's That's good. I got church hurt. No, you got correct. You got rebuked. Corrected. The Bible says the word of God is profitable for instruction, correct? Correction, reproof. He got corrected. He was like, "No, you should not have said that." You know what I mean? No, you're not married to them. No. Right. Like, then what? Yeah. Nobody. It's not church. No, it's not your spouse. What are we talking about? It's not church hurt. It's correction. No, you're about to destroy your life. If a car is about to go through a detour and you're driving and you see like there's like the road's been cut off and there's a cliff you I mean excuse me you riding you on the passenger side and you seeing somebody driving about you're going to say hey please don't sh pump the brakes please. You'll be like, "Yo, I'm jumping out the window. Damn I So, and this is your ability to grow is at the mercy of your willingness to be corrected. I don't want to use I don't want to use this in a violent way because I'm not advocating for violence, but I want to use passive military anat analogy. You want to be a sniper with your purpose. And you know what? and and I got a long way to go. But you know what makes me sniperish? Correction. People like Henry Henkins when I was in college and I went up and I was going on basketball road trips and and what else I was whenever when and I had been going on road trips for a few weekends, but when I was in town, I would come to church. My coach would let me go to church before the games on Sunday. And uh I went to I went to church one Sunday and he was like, "Uh, hey, he used to call me son Daniels." Son Daniels. Son Daniels been away playing basketball for a while. Uh, come up and tell the tell the people, son Daniels, you know, just just greet the people. You've been gone a while that I get that mic. Yeah, you did go. Praise the Lord, everybody. They say, "Praise the Lord." I say, "No, praise the Lord." Let everything that has breath. Praise the Lord. When I think of I mean, not saying nothing. I'm saying nothing. A whole bunch of nothing. Maron, they not church is going up. Yeah. I mean, when I think of the goodness of Cuz cuz we Come on. In charismatic churches, we know the triggers. Mhm. Yeah. You know the lines. They get the the speakers know the lines and the musicians know the chords. Yes. Right. We Come on. We're about to talk about performative presence in just a second. But But I'm going I'm going in. I'm going in. I got the mic like this. Pink can say he's dead. This in front of everybody. I did it in front of everybody. He's dead. See, I see I wouldn't dare do this in 2025. I know I can't do this in 2025. Right. So, I'm not Don't So, for people don't please calm down. I'm not saying but I'm glad it happened to me. Yes. He took the mic from me. He said, "Son, what did I tell you to do?" I said, "You told me to greet the people and tell the people what's been going on in my life." He gave me the mic back and say, "Well, do that." Yes. Yes. Watch this. But he was teach I learned something from a man of God that I now apply to God. Be a sniper with the assignment. Yes. What did he tell you to do? Do that. Do that. Right. He told me to build a third way church. I'm doing that. If you don't want a third way church, then you you'll go to another church. If you want somebody to put you in a headlock every week, then you going to go to that church or you want somebody to teach you, let you do whatever, you can go to that church or you want somebody to scream, you want somebody to whatever sniper-l like specificity. That's right. Say this, preach this, move here, do that. And so my growth in that area was because I was willing to submit to correction. The the Bible says that whom the love whom the Lord loveth whom the Lord loveth he chastise. Yes sir. And I think sometime it's not only receiving the correction but how fast you respond to it. Oh that's good. So it was quick obedience. You did quick obedience and and and and we say what we will about David. David was a flawed individual on many levels. But when Nathan came to him That's right. That was swift. That's right. When he corrected him said you the man. David had swift obedience. Hallelujah. Swift repentance. Yeah, it was it was he he quickly repented. And I think man and I think one of the things one Mariana I'm about to run that foot just that right foot that right foot. Yeah. And I think that's sometime we it is like how I I think the the the the true indicator of how you accept correction is how fast you respond to it. That's right. That's right. That's right. Quick, man. Once you man once you once you correct Hey my bro. Hey doc I'm man I'm eating paper now. I'm eating them chips out. Here's what David Dave here's David is called in Acts a man after God's own heart. Here's what makes a man after God's own heart is not that he never got it wrong. He got it right quickly. Once he saw it was wrong. He got it right quick. Come on. He got it right quick. Come on, Doc. He want it wasn't that he wasn't wrong. He knew he was wrong, but he wanted to be right. And when it got exposed to him, it's wrong. He took out pen and parchment. That's right. Creating me a clean heart. Hallelujah. Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. And then he said it down there. He said, "Whatever you do, Lord, don't take not take not threat, whatever you do away from me. Whatever you do." Yeah. And so what Paul's doing in this letter is as a spiritual leader, Mhm. he's giving comfort, but also offering correction because biblical correction is an expression of love when it's done in love. Biblical correction is an expression of love when it's done in love. Biblical correction is an expression of love when it's done in love. Am I making sense? Yes. So let's wrap up here. TZ they tired. Let's wrap up. Here it is. So we're doing this series on church at Corenth because we need to learn from the people in Corinth not just so we can see what's happening in Corinth but to ensure that what was happening in Corenth isn't happening in us because in some of our contemporary charismatic spaces we need some straightening. So in in chapter one, which is what we'll look at today, we'll probably go to chapters two and three next week. I want to explore three different traits that I see in this church that will qualify as crazy church and church in the building. Church is the people. So this is a reflective uh series. Hopefully the Holy Spirit is going to bring in some some points some correction to us. Um because there may be some areas where there's some some alignment God wants to bring to us. So here are the three traits that lead to crazy church. Here's the first one pastor. This is based on first Corinthians chapter 1 11-17. It's personality over principles. If I'm more into personality than I am into principles. Yeah. It's crazy church. Crazy church. I was having a conversation with the very first pastor that asked me to be, you know, I'm talking about Arkansas. very first pastor that asked me to be his pastor. Mhm. 16 years ago. I was talking to him last night and I said I said, "You know the one thing that's missing from my life now?" He said, "What?" And when I I said y'all, I didn't mean just them specifically, but I said, "Y'all." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "What y'all represented?" I said, "What do you mean?" I He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Y'all saw what was in me before other people did." So, I don't know why they here. I know why you were. It was the principal. It's like this man's on the king's way. Mhm. So it's like I don't care who knows his name or not. I don't care what part of the country he's in. He's in New Jersey. Yeah. This man doing it the King's Way. You were one of those. Yeah. Get on planes, fly to New Jersey. Yes, sir. Because it wasn't it wasn't about the personality cuz the p there was no there there was little to no notoriety. So it wasn't about the personality, it was about the principles. So watch what Paul says, pastor. He says, "Brothers, sisters, son from Khloe's household have informed me their quarrels among you." Verse 12, "What I mean is this. One of you say, I follow Paul." Another say, "I follow Paul." Another say, "I follow Cphus." And say, "Still another say, I follow Christ." He say, "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?" He says, "Were you baptized in the name of Paul?" He says, "I thank God I didn't baptize any of you except for Christmas and Gaes so that no one of you can say you are baptized in my name." He says, "Yeah, I also baptized a household of Stephanus. I forgot. But beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anybody else. 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 upon." Their issue wasn't just doctrine. It was devotion to personalities, sis. They weren't just following leaders. They were forming factions. They were elevating human voices above divine truth. The problem isn't admiration. The problem isn't an attachment to an assigned voice. You should some people some people are not discerning enough. You got too many voices. So, of course, yeah, I have attachment to assigned voices. Everybody can't speak into my life. I just don't listen to everybody. I don't do just a buffet of all kinds of speaking and all these sorts of things. Yet, at the same time, the difference is an admiration or attachment. The issue isn't admiration or attachment, pastor. It's idolization. That's good. That's good. The issue wasn't that they like their leaders. The issue was they were comparing their leaders to one another. I'm Paul. I'm Cphus. I go to this church. I go to Well, if you go to that church, good. That church minister to you. Don't compare that church to this church. Don't compare that leader to this leader. They don't have the same assignment. They don't have the same gifts. And pastor, what's so dangerous about this is the the potential to allow leadership to replace lordship when you elevate your leader. And this is what I heard in the Bible shop. I thought it was powerful. They say anytime you make something God, the real God got to deal with. That's a word. Yes, sir. Anytime you elevate something to God, the real God got to deal with it. And it was like just, oh man, now God got to deal with it cuz you done put it on say God got to deal with it. And I think sometimes we can elevate these personalities and we start following them and putting more weight on what they say. That's right. Than what the Lord say. 100%. And I think even Paul corrects them. He says, "Listen, follow me as as I f listen, I'm following Christ. Follow me as I follow Christ." Yeah. putting the the the the onus or the or the or the emphasis back where it needs to be on the Lord. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. So they they had all these comparisons and it's they create these clicks and factions and a lot of times it's like church beef, like unspoken church beef and like this church against that church and this church against that church and this and it's like the people putting personality over principles, right? That's crazy.
All right, here's the second thing. Second trait we see in chapter one. Paul's correcting performance over power. So good. Look at verse 18. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved is the power of God. For is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the and the intelligence of the intelligent. I will frustrate. Paul confronts their obsession with eloquence, intellect, and image. They were drawn to this rhetorical flare and they were drawn to philosophical depth. But Paul says plainly the power isn't in the polish. It's in the person of Christ. And if we so there for so being performative was their elocution. It was their verbosity. It was come on. It was that that so it's in southern Greece. So it's this Greek culture and and come on you guys know like Aristotle and Plato and and so it's it's oration it's performative and so if we honest it might show up a different way in contemporary churches but there is still this come on let's be honest we can actually in church become addicted to the performative and we can have apathy toward the transformative will dance during the music and fall asleep during the teaching. Oh, am I making sense? Am I making sense? Yes. Like when I train preachers, it could be preachers or worship leaders and musicians. We all have to Holy Spirit all has has arigned this in with a lot of us,
Right? Because a lot of times we can do things that impress people who do what we do, but don't impact, don't impact the people we're doing it for.
Oh, did you hear that chord? That bass.
No, I didn't hear the chord. I don't—No, I—I didn't hear the chord.
You—You know music, so you heard the chord.
Yeah.
Or was like, "Oh, did you see that hermeneutical loop that—"
No, I didn't. I'm just trying—I'm trying to raise my kids tomorrow. I need—I don't—I don't understand what he said.
So there, if we're honest, pastor, it's like there can be this performative aspect of church, this thing like, okay, man, this looked good, but it didn't lift anything off of us. It sounded good, but it wasn't sound. It didn't do us any good. Like it's amazing. You can stir up a Corinthian church with unsound doctrine. Everybody on your road getting ready to get blessed. Church is up. I mean, church is up. It's performative. You mean everybody on the road with this next shout, everybody in your section is getting debtree. We're shouting the roof off. Come on. Oh my god. It's performative. It's performative. Sometimes some of the singing it's like, yes, you should make full use of your gift, but it's performative. Sometimes some of the speaking, it's like, yes, we should be entertaining. Jesus used props. We should—There's nothing wrong with using props. Well, he wrote in the sand. That's the equivalent of using a prop, right? So, we're not anti. But some of this stuff we're doing, it's like this performative, and we're trying to entertain people who are unwilling to grow.
And, pastor, this—this entertainment element of church, this is what it does. It makes people better at church, but it doesn't make us better at life. I felt the equipment on that test. It makes us shout better. I felt the church of God. So we bow and arrow. I felt the—we're getting better at church, but we're dying in life.
Yeah.
Yeah. Shout better, dance better. You shouted, but did you shift?
Yeah.
You danced, but were you delivered? You spoke in tongues, but did you speak to your neighbor?
And so that's that performative element of—of the church, like—
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. We're done, Tess. Here's the third one. It's prestige over purpose. Paul's correcting that. He's correcting prestige over purpose. So Paul's correcting, first of all, personality over principles, performance over power, prestige over purpose. In verse 26, he says, "Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." The—the Corinthians were—were enamored with like clout and credentials and like—I mean, they even—like some of them even kind of like, you know, like these super apostles and all—they tried to check Paul like, "Hey, where's—where's—where's your letter of commendation? Where's your credential?" Paul is so gangster. Paul says, "You're my letter." You—you want a letter—for the evidence of my apostolic assignment? Look at your life.
Now, this is important because I want us to be clear. Um, this isn't an excuse or an instruction to avoid education. This is not what I'm talking about. This is—this is Paul exposing and addressing how a cultural value had become a value in church where prestige was seen as proof of God's power, where historic or traditional credentialing—So it's not that credentialing doesn't matter, it's that credentialing don't qualify you. The call does. The credentialing—the education may help prepare you, but it doesn't mean you're picked. And he picks who he uses; he raises up who he chooses, and very often he chooses the unlikely to do the almighty: a stuttering Moses—someone said he didn't stutter—well, he said he had slow speech, whatever that meant—a teenage girl to speak for a nation. A teenage giant. Teenage shepherd to defeat a giant. A virgin from Nazareth to birth the Messiah. And fishermen—unlearned men—unlearned men to turn the world—to turn the world upside down. Upside down. He wants commitment, not just credentials.
So these things were seen in Corinth, and I think through this teaching the Holy Spirit wants us to do some self-reflection to see if these are things that are seen in us. I don't want prestige over purpose. And so we—we're just believing God in—in an incredible way—to unleash us in this—in this series—to—to use this series to expose some things in us that he wants to address and unlock and send us to another level. And I'm excited about it, and I hope you are too. We're going to wrap up our time together with—with prayer. As always, we're going to create some space for those of you who understand the principle of sowing and reaping—to sow back into the field you're harvesting from—um—to add value to the thing that's adding value to you. And so ways to give are on the screen for you now. And—uh—grateful for all of you that understand the power, the principle of giving. So let's pray, and—uh—we're going to see you next week for part two.
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that whom you love, you correct. Yes. That our ability to—to grow is tied to our willingness to be corrected. We say we are willing, and we say have your way. Grow us and stretch us through this series. Comfort us with challenges so that we will be changed, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Take care. We love you. See you next week.
Well, listen. Thank you for watching Thrive. I want you to make sure you subscribe to this channel so that you don't miss any of our teachings. And remember, you can watch me live at Thrive every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Take care. I'll see you soon.