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"What
I Desire Most for Faith Church" November
17, 2002 The Rev. Dr. John Ward First Corinthians chapter 2, verses 1 through 5 is what I'll be
reading. Again, page 166 in the New
Testament section. First
Corinthians chapter 2. As you're
looking that up, we remember the context of the situation.
The apostle Paul, who founded the Corinthian church and spent 18 months
there founding that church, is now writing, likely from Ephesus, as a delegation
had come to him to say that there was trouble in this fledgling church.
It was a gifted church, but it was taking its gifts personally rather
than corporately. It was misusing
them. There was even some
immorality in the church, as Paul writes, the likes of which even pagans
surrounding the Corinthian church would not think appropriate.
Paul had to speak about this. He
also spoke about what the Corinthian church thought was important, how it
received its power. Now, the town of Corinth itself was a very cosmopolitan area.
It was not a backwater, by any means.
It would be akin to a San Francisco, or a New York City, or a Los
Angeles, or the Twin Cities area ourselves.
It would be a very civilized area. And
what it was beginning to trip on was this new proclamation of grace in Jesus
Christ. The church itself was beginning to receive believers, but how
they thought the power would come to them--they were beginning to get tripped up
in believing in some of the worldly ways. There was a particular preacher there--a wonderful, gifted orator.
His name is Apollos. He's
mentioned in Scripture. It seems as
though there were some divisions in the church, and Paul writes about this.
You can read about it right in 1 Corinthians. There were people who were saying, "Well, I am part of
Apollos' ministry." Others
were saying, "Well, I'm part of Peter's ministry."
And others saying, "I'm part of Paul's ministry."
You began to see the problems of rivalry, even within the church.
So Paul begins to write this letter saying, "No, wait a minute.
Neither Apollos, nor myself, nor Peter died on the cross for you."
So Paul begins the process of reminding the Corinthians where the power
comes from. And this is where we
pick up now, in chapter 2, verse 1. Paul
writes: When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did
not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom.
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him
crucified. And I came to you in
weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom,
but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might
rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. Now whether this Apollos, who was the preacher of the time, who was
known as one who spoke well, whether he instigated so eloquently a kind of
ministry where people were so impressed by him rather than the Lord, we do not
know. But it's true that there were
some disciples of his who would lift the name of Apollos up even higher than the
Word of the Lord, than the name of Jesus. And
Paul says, "You know, that's not what we're all about."
And so Paul himself, one who could teach well, one who could write well,
still decided to put that aside and not try to impress anyone with his words.
But instead, what he wanted to do was give them the one thing he knew
they could count upon for their entire lives, and their eternal lives, and that
was the life, and the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
To do nothing more than proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah of God, sent
to die for the sins of the world, crucified--a humiliating death.
Now, once again, think of how the competition for the Word of God
came over eloquence and worldly wisdom, and think of how against rationality it
would be to believe that God, the creator of all things, came in the form of a
man, and was put to death by the Roman government, and was buried, and then was
risen again. You remember that the
humiliating death on the cross was indeed humiliating.
It was one of the worst deaths possible.
This is a radical statement on behalf of Paul.
And it's the only statement he chose to use to remind the Corinthian
church where the power indeed comes from. Not
from eloquence of speech, not worldly wisdom, not entertainment, but Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Paul was
eloquent. Paul knew what it was to
be wise. That's one of the reasons
why in the Word of God so many letters are written by Paul himself. God did indeed gift him.
There are philosophers, and philosophy instructors, and scholars today
who liken, for instance Paul's work on 1 Corinthians 13 (the "love
chapter"--"Love is patient, love is kind . . .") as that which
equals the writings of Plato himself. Paul knew what it was like to be good at words, yet he did not
choose that to be the foundation on which to build any church, or even to
correct a church that needed correcting, such as the Corinthian church.
He wanted faith to be the foundation for them.
I want you to think about that as you think about that which you may wish
to write for Faith Church. What
would you like to see for Faith in the future--for our family of Faith?
Here's what I'm thinking: You
see, the demonstration of the Spirit and of power that Paul mentioned was
exactly what he wished to use to found the church.
Now think of that for a minute. First
he says, "I didn't come to you with clever speech or wisdom.
I didn't come to you either with the ability to use very rational
thinking that would impress you, or some kind of technique that would also
impress you either from within, with regard to the mind, or outside with regard
to flashy activities. Instead, I
came to give you Christ Jesus. And
I proclaimed this to you in the Spirit and in power."
You and I might be tempted to think that what Paul just did was
exchange one sort of flash and style for another. Because we think of "the Holy Spirit and with
power" as something very exciting, perhaps.
Something just as showy as any Vegas act, although real.
Something more than just Disney magic.
When you think of the contrast here, Paul says, "I didn't come with
any of this flash, but I came with the Holy Spirit and with power."
Sometimes you and I are tempted to believe
that the Holy Spirit's power will overcome us in such a way that it will
also be very exciting. That's not
what Paul's pointing to. He's not
talking about a magic act of the Holy Spirit.
He's not talking about that. You
know what he's talking about? The
power of the Holy Spirit that transforms lives--lives like Karol Allen's.
Lives like Paul Tesarek, who shared last week.
Lives like the Erdahl family who shared the week before.
The demonstration of the Spirit of power.
What is that? It's the
question I want us all to think about this morning.
This is what I believe. If
we long for something for Faith Church, if we long for anything for Faith
Church, I want it to be more than just successful programs we can brag about to
our neighbors, or a wonderful place where we can park our kids for a couple
hours a week, or even a wonderful budget that we can brag about.
It needs to be more than that. I
believe the demonstration of the power of God to transform lives to discipleship
is the true power. And that is my
hope for Faith Church: Lives that
are transformed, just like Karol Allen's as she shared.
Here's a person who, instead of pursuing a lifestyle and then deciding
what she'd do for God with the leftovers, decided to pursue God and she found
Him in ways she could never have imagined.
And God has been using her in ways she could only have dreamed.
She's a blessing to all who know her in new ways.
And she serves her church under no less than the Spirit's power.
Is she showy? Is she flashy? Or is she a servant of God?
And is that not the power of the Holy Spirit to transform a life like
hers? Think of Paul Tesarek last week.
When he thinks of heroes he'd like to follow, he didn't name any of the
world's heroes. He thought of lives
of the generations of men and women of Faith Church who raised him up in the
Lord. Paul himself, a man in the
new life of Christ, seeks to lead and serve in a transforming relationship with
Jesus Christ. He leads that way.
I see it as he leads our Cursillo ministry here at Faith Church.
I also see it as he "leads" the dishwasher every Thursday in
the Alpha course. Just like Jack
Bren, as he expressed that. He saw
the Spirit's power and work. That
is the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
And if you think once again of the lives of the Erdahl family.
When they talked about the impact of Faith Church on their lives, they
mentioned the way Faith Church as grown each of them in their relationship to
Christ. They count us as their friends in the Spirit not just on
Sundays, but their friends here are their everyday, during the week, friends.
They have befriended us in His Spirit, and they serve us and they bless
us each day. You see to me, friends, this is what the apostle meant when he
talked about preaching Christ and Him alone so that He's our only foundation.
The only one we can depend upon. Because
if we depended upon flashy speech or witty wisdom, we'd have to try to outdo
ourselves each week, week after week, and none of it has the power to do
anything more than to entertain us. But
the power of the Holy Spirit has the power to transform your life and mine. And that is the difference.
"Faith has brought us this far" has been the theme for this
month. Next week we'll spend a lot
of time at that Thanksgiving Service thanking God, being very thankful.
I'm looking forward to that service.
Right now it's time for us, once again, to be thinking about how
the Lord serves us and to make a decision to live transformed lives or not.
As you put down what your hope is for Faith Church, perhaps you're going
to put down what you hope for in a hew Pastor, or in a new program.
Here's what I ask as well. What
will you put down? And perhaps this
one is not writable, so think about that. This
one may not be writable. My hope is
that you're asked the question as to how God will transform you and how your
faith in God will make you a new person in the future for Faith Church. Notice that Karol--as I was speaking to her about the stewardship
series, volunteered herself to say, "John, if you want someone to talk
about tithing, I'll do it." I
have to tell you what a blessing this whole stewardship campaign has been so
far. Because when I was mentioning
stewardship series as well to the Erdahl family, Cindy said, "John, if you
ever want anybody to talk about how thankful they are for Faith Church, we'd
love to do that." That didn't
make if very hard for me to do. And
when it came to Paul Tesarek's talk, you see, I had heard him do this talk
earlier. He talked about leadership
and he talked about the true leaders in his life.
When I heard him do that for another church, I thought, "You know
what? Faith Church needs to hear
that." That's the only call I
made with regard to recruiting people to come up here and talk a little bit
about how "Faith has brought them this far" because I knew that the
Holy Spirit needed to have you hear what Paul had to say last week.
And fortunately, I was right! Paul
said "yes." You heard him
speak. And of course you heard
another person of the Spirit, another person with a transformed life. It's important for us to understand the blessing of our
lives. As we tie the words in, and the thankfulness in, to our hope for
the future, I want you to notice that in transformed lives, as Karol said, that
is the only way to truly understand what it is to give proportionately.
Karol talked about the tithe. The
tithe is giving ten percent of your income to the Lord.
And for many people, that sounds like a lot.
And I think for those who have finally understood that this is all about
pursuing God and not giving to God from the leftovers, but pursuing a
relationship with Him. Not
pursuing a financial relationship with Him, but a personal relationship with
Him, trusting Him to know that He gives you one hundred percent of all you are
now. Ten percent doesn't sound so
hard when you trust Him with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and
with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. You see, that's why it's my hope for Faith Church that we have more
people who are living transformed lives, because that's the only way I think you
will ever be able to give without guilt or without compulsion.
I don't want anybody to ever give out of guilt or out of compulsion.
Now, I'm just the Associate Pastor.
I'm not on the stewardship committee (although I've got to tell you, I
got dragged into this whole stewardship thing).
Of course Will Eisenhower wasn't here yet, and one of the things I like
about being an Associate Pastor is not having to do personnel issues, not having
to deal with building issues, and not having to deal with the budget issues!
And guess what! Our very responsible stewardship committee said,
"John, we've got to start doing something early." And I said, "Can't you wait until the Interim gets
here?" and they said, "No."
And so I'm just the Associate, yet I want to say, as the
Discipleship Minister, that if you ever feel as though you are giving out of
guilt or out of compulsion rather than compassion, hold your checkbook and don't
give a penny to the Lord. Do not do
it until you're ready to give out of gratefulness and out of thankfulness.
You see, because I trust this church budget to God, and He is our
provider just as He's yours. Just
as you sit down every evening at dinner time and thank Him for what He put on
your table, I do the same thing. I
know that God will bless the gifts that are given by people who live transformed
lives. I invite you to have nothing less than that kind of life with
Jesus Christ. The budget will be
overflowing if we continue to raise disciples for Jesus Christ and Him crucified
at Faith Church. Let us pray together. Lord,
just as the apostle Paul, as he came to help the church he established right
itself again after it was beginning to tip, he did so by not trying to impress
them at all, but by giving them the one foundation.
Lord, in this series that we've been following "Faith has brought us
this far," Lord, we ask that you continue to help us to remember why three
people in particular--a family and two individuals--came forward willingly to
speak about the transformation of their lives and the result of it.
Just as Paul preached Jesus Christ alone, we depend upon you alone, Lord.
Help us as Faith Church to go farther than we are today.
Not by anything we think we can do, but by how we serve you who does
everything for us. In Christ's name
we pray. And all God's people said,
"Amen." The Rev. Dr. John Ward Associate Pastor for Discipleship Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota [Transcribed from an audiotape of the
worship service on November 17, 2002.] |
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