Dwell in the Word 1 Corinthians 3:16-23
I don't know how much you critique me as we go along here, probably not as much as I think you do or as much as I critique myself. But you may have wondered why didn't we include verses 16 and 17 with what we read on Monday? Well, I had a reason here. I wanted to go back to this idea. It was too much just to do the end of chapter 3 last time, but I wanted us to keep this thought here to connect verses 18 through 23 to what was above to see how all of this has sort of Come back here in chapter 3 to conclude some of Paul's opening thoughts about who they were siding with in the church in Corinth.
Dwell in the Word 1 Corinthians 3:10-15
So, as we continue through chapter three today, we're seeing Paul continuing to develop this idea. Remember on Friday, we looked at the beginning of chapter three where Paul talked about how he had planted, Apollos had water, but God was the one who brought the growth. And Paul is continuing with this.
And so, he's saying that that according to the grace that God gave to him, uh, like a skilled master building, he laid a foundation. He put a foundation down. So, he's going from this idea of planting to an illustration of a building here. And we saw that, uh, at the end of verse nine here, he said, you are God's field, God's building.
August 29 Sermon: Wrestling with God
In the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, there is a scene where Mr. and Mrs. Beaver are telling the children who have found their way into the magical world of Narnia about the great lion, Aslan. The children are surprised to hear that the one that the hopeful talking beasts of Narnia are expecting to deliver them, is a lion. And so the question they ask the beavers is whether or not Aslan is safe. Mr. Beaver replies to the children “Of course, he’s not safe, but he is good.” I didn’t notice this line as a child reading the books but when I went back to them as an adult it has stuck with me. It shows how small my understanding of God often is. My natural desire is not to have God be safe but should I view the Lord of heaven and earth, the sovereign of all of creation, and the one who is so powerful that he spoke everything that is into existence as safe.
Dwell in the Word 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
So, we come to chapter three with Paul addressing this issue that he's mentioned before. He has people who are saying that, well, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Christ, and they are having these factions among them. These are just some of the issues that are going on in the church in Corinth, but obviously it's a big deal.
And so, Paul is saying, hey, When I came to you, I addressed you as infants because you weren't ready for, you know, solid food. You weren't ready for the hard stuff, basically. And so, what Paul is saying is here, you need to continue to grow. You're not, you're still not ready because you're acting in the flesh.
Dwell in the Word 1 Corinthians 2:6-16
So, we come to a really awesome passage today, or at least it's awesome in my opinion. In fact, I read this this morning earlier when I was doing some Bible and commentary reading, and I just, I read it twice. I was excited to read it a third time as I read it for you today. This is just a great piece of scripture for us to understand how God works and just to understand the depth of what God has done for us in giving us this gospel.
Dwell in the Word 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
So, we arrive here in the second chapter of 1 Corinthians, and we see Paul once again getting to the point of what his message is. Notice what he says. I didn't come to you with the lofty language. The wisdom that you expect from a great orator when I came to you. No, that wasn't my message. This thing he's been talking about, chapter 1, the, the, the gospel being the power of salvation.
August 22 Sermon: Fear or Peace?
Chances are you have used the cliche stuck between a rock and a hard place. We’ve all been in a place where there no good options to go forward with. You have to labor between 2 or 3 or maybe 10 different options and you find that none of them are great. You have to pick the option with the smallest opportunity of negative consequences. When we are in those kinds of situations, isn’t it nice when something comes along that sort of provides direction? Even if you are decisive person these situations can give you pause on how to move forward. Sometimes you just have to put your head down and go and hope for the best. These aren’t exactly the greatest situations but often you can look back on them and see that you grew through those circumstances. It stretched you a little and in the best of circumstances God used what you were experiencing to help you to trust less in yourself and more in his providential provision for you.
Dwell in the Word 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
What we have read today continues some of the thoughts from what we read on Wednesday. But I want us to take a look at where this is all leading. Look at that last line in verse 31. Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
All of this idea that Paul is putting forward here is this idea that God is taking those who can't do for themselves and he is doing for them and he is raising them up to be his people. And so, I'm drawn back to an idea that Martin Luther taught. The idea of the theology of the cross versus Theology of glory.
Dwell in the Word 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
This is an amazing passage, an important one for us to understand. Look at how we started out today. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Think about that. You know, if you do not understand the cross, it's going to be foolish to you.
Wait a second. You're saying, you’re saying that God took on human flesh and suffered and died and was humiliated. And this is how you're saved? That's just going to seem off to somebody who is perishing. But to those of us who understand, those of us who have been given the gift of faith by the Holy Spirit, we're going to understand that this message is the power of God unto salvation.
Dwell in the Word 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
So, as we land in this section of chapter one of first Corinthians, we see some of the issues that are that are boiling under the surface here. In the church in Corinth, there seems to be a lot of division. And so, we see Paul saying, I appeal to you to, to have unity. Now, what is his appeal in? It's in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dwell in the Word 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
The book of 1 Corinthians starts out in a very interesting way. Notice what it says here. To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is saying that these people in Corinth are set apart, that they are saints, and so are all of those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus.
Dwell in the Word Joel 3:17-21
And so, as we come to verses 17-21 here of Joel 3, as this short book concludes, we see a really interesting conclusion to the book, and it's using contrast. And so as we look at this here, what we see is that the Lord says, You shall know that I'm the Lord your God, the one who dwells in Zion because Jerusalem is to be set apart and to be holy. And he gives some imagery here. In that day, the mountain shall drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water. You see that there is plenty here, that there is abundance here
Dwell in the Word Joel 3:1-16
This is a pretty intense passage for some devotional thoughts to maybe start your morning or to think about as you head out into your day. This idea of judgment, this is intense stuff. In fact, you're coming across some stuff that is opposite of what you hear in other parts of scripture. If we look at verse 10 here, beat your plow shares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Instead of turning your weapons of war, where we see in other parts of scripture, into instruments for agriculture, you're doing the opposite. You're turning your instruments of agriculture into weapons of war. This is intense.
Dwell in the Word Joel 2:28-32
As I was reading this, you may have thought, Hmm, this sounds pretty familiar. I didn't realize I was familiar with portions of the Book of Joel. Maybe you thought that, maybe you didn't. But there's a reason, if you thought that, why you thought that. That's because this is a big part of Peter's sermon at Pentecost. You can see here what I have highlighted from Acts 2. We are familiar with this, and we're also familiar with Peter's interpretation of it, because Peter is saying that this has happened due to the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, and the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost.
Dwell in the Word Joel 2:18-27
On Monday, we saw the call for repentance, and now God is responding to that repentance. And look what it says here. The Lord became jealous for His land and had pity on His people. Now, we hear that we're jealous and we think bad things, but doesn't God have a right to be jealous for the people that He has brought to Himself? Doesn't He have a right to desire that they desire Him? They are His people. He has paid for them. He has bought them. He has cared for them. He has created them.
Dwell in the Word Joel 2:12-17
Here we find this call to repentance, and it is a serious call. You may be familiar with verses 12 and 13 here. Here in our congregation, we use this as one of the scriptures for our call to confession. You may be familiar with it and what it's saying here. Look, yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart. God is saying, Hey, you have a chance. These people are lined up at the borders. The locusts are ready to come. But yet, even now, return to me with all your heart. And notice what it says, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, and render hearts and not your garments. What does that mean? Well, when they were to be repentant, they would tear their clothes.
Dwell in the Word Joel 2:1-11
So, as we arrive at chapter two, we're reminded of what we saw in chapter one. What did we have? We had the impending judgment of God, and it was two things that we were looking at. We were looking at first, locusts who are going to come and devour the crops, and an army that was standing at the border waiting to attack. And so, what happens as this second chapter of Joel begins? Blow a trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm. In other words, this call to repentance that we saw in the first part of Joel is coming back. They're letting people know something is going to happen here. This is coming. This is the judgment of God.
Dwell in the Word Joel 1:1-20
So, as I was reading that, you were probably thinking, gee, thanks for the pick me up, right? What a depressing passage we have here. But our goal here with Dwell in the Word is to go through different passages, to go through different books of the Bible, actually, and to read them in their context and experience them that way, because that is the way that they are intended to be. We don't want to jump around and we want to deal with texts that maybe aren't the ones we would normally really come to.
Dwell in the Word Philippians 4:10-22
So, we find some more well-known passages as the Book of Philippians wraps up for us here today. And what is the big point? We can see it in the heading that's been added to the text here, God's provision. God provides for his people. And we see that Paul is rejoicing for what he has. Again, this is odd because he has been imprisoned. He has been arrested. He is not doing what he would like to do. He's being led around. He's not a free man, but yet he's talking about God's provision. He's talking about the blessings that God has given him.
July 25 Sermon: But a Few Days
Some of the most iconic stories in history are love stories. They grab our attention. They tug at our heartstrings. Now, not everyone likes love stories, or it would probably be more correct to say that not everyone likes to admit that they like love stories. Even if we aren’t a fan of the genre we are bound to be drawn in to a story that has a man and woman falling in love because it is such a huge part of the human experience. I think the love stories that appeal to us the most are the ones where there is an obstacle to the couple getting together and then the man makes a huge sacrifice to break down the barrier that is keeping them from having a relationship. We just love to see that level of commitment and sacrifice.