Formation Church - Chandler, Indiana

GIVING God the Glory - The Generous Life

Giving God the Glory

2 Corinthians 9

 

 

 

In VA Beach there are 2 phrases that you hear often- they’re almost greetings. “No Worries.” The other is “It’s all good.”

You’ll often hear them together, “No Worries, It’s all good.”

 

It means that there’s nothing to be worried about or get upset about because it’s all gonna work out.

 

“It’s all good” is pretty close to what I want you to realize this morning. This morning I want you to realize it’s all God’s.

 

When you realize “It’s all God’s” you have “No Worries.”

 

Saying it’s all good is supposed to be a reassurance, but really is it? It’s just a saying and we know right off that it’s not all good. There’s actually quite a lot of bad.

 

But the truth that it’s all God’s can be quite reassuring because if He’s got it, He can handle it, if He can give it to us, then we don’t need to worry.

 

In the passage that we are going to look at next week Jesus points out that God takes care of the lilies in the field and the birds in some far tree that you’ll never see or know about and if He can manage all that, then He can manage what’s going on with you.

 

Some of you are facing problems that I don’t know anything about and I couldn’t even begin to imagine but God knows all about it and better yet God knows the solution and how it can all be worked out for good.

He’s on top of it.

“No Worries. It’s all God’s.”

 

Now there are a couple of applications of the truth that it’s all God’s.

 

1. We should thank Him.

This week is Thanksgiving and hopefully it will be about more than the incredible amount of food we are going to enjoy on Thanksgiving Day.

Hopefully it’s a time to reflect on everything that God has given you. Hopefully it’s a time that you have a profound sense that God has given you so much and done so much for you.

James says in chapter 1 every good gift comes from God.

John 3:27 no man receives a anything except from God.

Anything good in your life, it’s from Him.

 

Anything bad in your life, He can turn to good.

Romans 8 says he uses all things for the good…

That’s why Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5 to be thankful in all things. 

 

 

All the good in your life is from God and He’s able to use all the bad in your life for good.

 

 

Here at our church we try to emphasize thanksgiving each year.

In the past we’ve done the photo challenge when we asked you to submit photos of what you are thankful for, we did A Thousand Thanks where we challenged you to send out a Thousand Thank You notes as a church (remember that was featured on the front page of the Thanksgiving Day paper), and a really tough one was we did the no complaints challenge…

 

Today we’re going to challenge you once again to be grateful in a unique way…

 

1. We should be wise stewards.

 

If it’s all God’s then we should act in a way that reflects that it doesn’t belong to us.

If you’re a noble person- you’ll take better care of something that belongs to someone else than you do your own stuff.

 

I remember one time Kerry said, I hate to borrow someone’s tools because I’m afraid I’ll break them. We have a greater respect for something that has been loaned to us, given to us to use…

 

It’s all God’s so everything is on loan to us-

It’s all borrowed.

 

Sometimes people use the phrase “living on borrowed time” to refer to someone who doesn’t have long to live…

We are all living on borrowed time.

It’s all God’s…

 

A steward is someone who takes care of something for someone. They manage it, they oversee it.
If you ask someone to house sit while you’re on vacation, they’re a steward. If they have a party and wreck your house, they’re not a good steward…

 

If you’ve heard this story before, I apologize but I love to tell it.

 

In college there was a guy named Mark from Indiana. Mark had a pretty beat up car. It had green trunk and red front fender.

 

Mark loaned his car to this guy named Jeremiah who worked nights. Mark came out to go to class one morning and his car wasn’t back in it’s space. He went and found Jeremiah asleep so he woke him up. My roommate Marcus was there when Mark woke up Jeremiah he said Mark asked “Jeremiah, where’s my car?” and Jeremiah responded with “I don’t really want to talk about it right now…”

 

Jeremiah had run off the road and the car had to be towed but Jeremiah had forgotten the name of the tow truck company so Mark had to call every tow truck company in the phone book looking for his car…

 

Jeremiah was a pretty bad steward with what Mark had given him and his response of I don’t really want to talk about it right now was laughable, but let’s be honest.

When God asks us what we did with what He’s given us our standard response is “I don’t want to talk about it…”

I recognize that money is awkward to talk about and this might be uncomfortable because you don’t have a great answer for what you did with what God has blessed you with.

Some of you know and it wasn’t a wise choice.

Some of you are like Jeremiah and you’re not even really sure where what you were given went to…

 

 

This morning I’m going to talk to you about giving once again because I want you to be able to give acknowledging that it’s all God’s.

 

We are not talking about giving because we are building something or trying to fund the budget- I’m not worried about that, you know why? It’s all God’s.

We are not building buildings or funding an organization, we are changing lives. That’s what I’m after today.

 

I don’t want something from you this morning, I want something for you. I want you to live the good life and the good life is the generous life.

 

The Generous life is the good life because it acknowledges that it’s all God.

 

If I wanted something from you, I could preach a message this morning that would guilt you into giving.

I could make you feel bad for not giving and it would probably work to get you to give-
I’ve seen it work. I’ve seen churches do this.

I’ve seen churches compel people to give through guilt and obligation.

There are churches that have people sign contracts.

 

If you give out of guilt or because you are forced into giving, you’ll be free of the guilt once you give, but then you are right back here where you started only you have less money…

 

But if you were to give because you wanted to- because you were being generous, that would be true progress. Then not only would you be giving, your heart would be changing and becoming more generous…

That’s what we are doing here.

We are changing lives.

 

That’s what this passage that we are going to dive into is talking about, giving generously because you want to- not because you have to…

 

Truth is there are some of you that want to give generously and faithfully but you can’t because you’ve made bad financial decisions then there are some of you that you could give but you are not because you don’t see it as important, and really everyone who isn’t giving is living somewhere in between- some of you have made bad financial decisions because giving isn’t a priority to you- you didn’t even factor in your monthly or weekly giving when you made the decision to buy your last house or car…

 

 

Let’s check out verses 6-7.

 

The Corinthians had some major issues so Paul wrote them his first letter. They made some progress but still had some wrinkles that needed to be ironed out but one thing that the Corinthians did get was generosity.

So much so that Paul says in the beginning of this passage that he has bragged on them for how generous they are…

 

Paul includes a reminder about a collection for the saints in Jerusalem and tells them to be ready, not because they have to but because they want to…

 

 

1. God loves when we give cheerfully. (v. 7)

 

 

It’s interesting that Paul says, as every man has purposed in his heart, let him so give.

This was a special offering that was being collected. It was in addition to the support of their local church, it was an outside cause they were giving toward.

We do this here, we collect special offerings for causes, missions, etc.

We’ll do it again in the month of December. We’ll collect a special offering called gifts for Jesus and 100% of it will go to Family Ministries which is a cooperation of ministries to a crisis pregnancy center (which we gave diapers to at Easter) and children’s homes for foster children.

 

The offering that the Corinthians were preparing was not for their local church so Paul tells them to give as you feel led.

We see that in the local church setting there was an expectation of a regular consistent gift of the “tithe.”

Tithe means 10%.

 

The ministry of the church is supported through tithes.

Special causes such as gifts to the needy and collections for missionaries are offerings.

 

While Paul is speaking of an offering here, the principles he lays down apply to all giving.

He says God loves a cheerful giver.

 

The word for cheerful is the root word for hilarious.

God loves a hilarious giver- that doesn’t mean that he looks at how much money you gave and laughs but it means that He loves when you are excited to give.

 

In other words, God loves it when we are excited to give.

God loves it when we give because we are passionate about it.

God wants you to be all in on the mission and vision of the church to reach those who do not know Him that you are pumped to contribute to it.

 

 

 

The contrast is giving grudgingly or out of necessity.

If you give because you feel like you have to or you give with a grimace on your face, then there is something wrong.

Your heart is not in tune with the mission and vision, you are not believing that God has got this and that He’ll reward your faithfulness….

Something is off…

 

My grandfather was a Pastor in Norfolk, VA.
He went to a Christmas play that my mother was in and he couldn’t believe that they didn’t sing any Christmas songs that he was familiar with. When he asked about it he was told that they weren’t allowed to sing any songs that mention the birth of Jesus.

This was in the 60’s.

So he was passionate about starting a Christian school.

It took a lot of effort and sacrifice, but it happened.

 

At the first graduation a man who had given generously to see the school get started was standing there and he pointed at one of the graduates and said “there goes my bass boat.”

My grandfather looked at him and before he could say anything the man said, “but that’s better than any bass boat.”

 

Beauty of that isn’t that he gave the an equivalent of a bass boat, but rather that he was thankful for the choice he made.

 

 

1. God blesses when we give generously. (6-10)

 

Now Paul’s point is that we should give because we want to, not because we have to.

Paul does point out that God blesses when we give.

He’s not saying that they should give in order to get something, but he’s telling them that when they give from the right motivation, God notices and He blesses.

In the Old Testament God actually says, prove me or test me, give and see if I don’t open up the windows of heaven and send rain.

 

Scripture says that when we give faithfully God blesses.

It doesn’t promise to bless us with more money or nicer things.

I don’t believe that if you give in the offering today that God is going to send you a check in the mail.

I do believe that God will see your generosity and bless you for it.

That might be in the form of a material blessing or may be in the form of a spiritual blessing.

 

verse 8 says
8And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

 

Remember, it’s all God’s. 

He’s able to make all grace abound in your life.

He’s able to influence everything in your life.

He’s able to lean on, nudge, direct, and align everything in your life.

He’s in control. Do you believe that?

 

If you believe that He’s in control, why would we doubt that when we are faithful to give that He would not be faithful to bless our lives.

 

Verse 10 points out, He’s the one that gave you the seeds to be sown in the first place.

He’s the one that gave you what you have to give to Him so why couldn’t and why wouldn’t He give you more so that you can give more back in return.

 

Notice that verse 11 says “being enriched.”

Do you remember the verse from Ephesians last week that God wants to help the rich in this world “be rich” in generosity.

 

 

Some people take these verses to mean that if you have faith and give that God will make you rich- that’s not what God is interested in. God is interested in making you radically generous.

He’s not interested in you having more so much as he’s interested in you giving more.

 

Some of the richest people I know are the most generous people I know and I fully believe that God blessed them so that they could be generous- 

And if God is going to bless someone so that they can be generous, He’s gonna start with someone who is already generous.

 

Some of you don’t have anything to give because if you did you wouldn’t give it.

I’m sure you tell yourself, “well if I had more money then I would give” but if it’s hard for you to be generous with a percentage of where you are at right now, I doubt you’ll be generous with a larger amount either.

 

God blesses generosity. He does not bless selfishness.

 

I’m blessed. So blessed.

I was raised giving. It has always been natural to me.

When I was kid I mowed my grandmothers grass for $10.

I got paid in a 5 and 5 singles because I was going to give 10% in Sunday School.

I’m sure it’s easier to learn and take that step when 10% is a dollar.

 

More than I’ve been blessed to learn that from an early age, I’m blessed in what it has done for my heart.

I’ve always viewed what I have as from God.

That’s not bragging, in fact it’s the opposite. It’s acknowledging that nothing in my life have I earned for myself, it’s all been a gift from God.

Right now Nicole and I are renovating an old house that we bought from the bank. It had been a foreclosure.

We are getting really close to being done.

I’ve worked some late nights over there recently.

When I call it a night and walk to my truck it’s really quiet and the stars are really clear and I have this profound sense of gratitude because it’s all God.

 

If God never gave me an extra dollar or an extra pair of shoes for my giving through the years but he gave me that profound sense of gratitude, it was worth it. It would be a great harvest on the seeds I’ve planted.

 

1. God glories when we give obediently. (11-15)

 

 

Verse 11 says that you are enriched which causes through us thanksgiving to God.

 

Paul said one of the harvests that your generosity will immediately produce is our thanksgiving to God.

 

Paul is saying that their generosity is a seed that will immediately produce Thanksgiving to God through Paul and his ministry team.

 

That’s the real harvest that we are looking for, more and more people giving God the glory.

 

At the end of all things, what John saw when God gave him a glimpse of the very end, the final scene is people of every nation, every tribe, every tongue, giving God the glory.

 

and this is fitting because it’s all God’s. Even the glory.

 

For this reason Paul ended or started his letters with something along the lines of all glory and praise to Him.

 

Paul says not only will we thank God, but those who are blessed by this gift will thank God too.

 

In verse 13 Paul says,

Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men;

 

Paul says they will glorify God for your subjection to the gospel.

In other words, they will give God glory because you’ve been obedient.

 

 

When we are generous God gets the glory in our lives and in the lives of those who are blessed by the gift.

 

 

The Story of Hiram Ramirez.

The Generous Life is the Good Life! - The Generous Life

Anniversary Sunday

 

 

We’ve just finished a months long study of 1 Corinthians.

Last week we wrapped up chapter 15 and there are 16 chapters in 1 Corinthians but the final chapter mainly deals with logistics for a visit that Paul is planning and some greetings to specific people in the Corinthians church.

 

The beginning of Chapter 16 starts this way

 

1Now concerning the collection for the saints…

2On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. 

 

Paul is speaking of a collection that the Corinthians are gathering up for the believers in Jerusalem that are experiencing great adversity.

 

The people in Corinth were collecting money to give away to people that they had never met-

Why?

 

Because when we come to Jesus, we realize every good thing we have is because He’s been gracious.

We realize it’s all a gift and we’re more likely to give it away.

 

Today in Luke 5 we are going to look at someone who jumped at the chance to walk away from all he had to follow Jesus.

 

Luke 5:27-32

               

Now, to many of you this doesn’t seem like a big deal because you nearly walk away from your job every week.

 

However, you need to realize that Levi’s (Matthew) had a job that compensated well.

Not only was it a job that paid well, it was a job that had a high commitment level- what I mean is that Matthew would have had to really count the cost when he took this job. It would have been unpopular to be a tax collector.

He would have counted the cost before taking the position.

This wasn’t merely something he was doing until he figured out what he wanted his career to be, this was his career.

 

When Jesus said, follow me, He left all and followed Him.

 

Why?

It’s Jesus.

When people are around Jesus, everything changes.

Everything is more clear when we spend time with Jesus.

Priorities fall into place.

We have a greater clarity than ever before.

We recognize what really matters…

 

All the money in the world would not meet the need Matthew had. He was searching for something more.

 

Matthew was searching for what we are all searching for, meaning.

 

There was a fascinating op-ed in the New York Times this past week, and I want to share a few highlights from it.

 

Excerpts from op-ed in New York Times this past week:

 

…fewer among us are poor, fewer are hungry, fewer children are dying, and more men and women can read than ever before.

 

How strange, then, to see such anger and great discontent in some of the world’s richest nations. In the United States, Britain and across the European Continent, people are convulsed with political frustration and anxiety about the future.

 

Refugees and migrants clamor for the chance to live in these safe, prosperous countries, but those who already live in those promised lands report great uneasiness about their own futures that seems to border on hopelessness.

 

A small hint comes from interesting research about how people thrive.

In one shocking experiment, researchers found that senior citizens who didn’t feel useful to others were nearly three times as likely to die prematurely as those who did feel useful.

This speaks to a broader human truth: We all need to matter.

 

Scientific surveys and studies confirm shared tenets of our faiths. Americans who prioritize doing good for others are almost twice as likely to say they are very happy about their lives. In Germany, people who seek to serve society are five times likelier to say they are very happy than those who do not view service as important.

 

Selflessness and joy are intertwined.

 

It’s almost as if we were made to make a difference- as if that’s what were built to do…

 

This helps explain why pain and indignation are sweeping through prosperous countries. The problem is not a lack of material riches. It is the growing number of people who feel they are no longer useful, no longer needed, no longer connected…

 

Everyone is in pursuit of the good life, everyone is in pursuit of the appealing lifestyle that is portrayed in marketing, ads, and media. We see the stuff that others have and we think, ah, that’s the good life. We see the travel and leisure or free time that the wealthy enjoy and we think, ah, that’s the good life.

We see the abilities and skills of those more talented than us and we think ah, that’s the good life.

 

But people with talent, money, leisure, money- they aren’t experiencing the good life. Instead they are still in search for the good life.

 

We will never find the good life in stuff, money, leisure, or ability.

 

The good life is not found in what we can get,

the good life is based upon what we can give.

 

When we give our stuff, time, money, and talents away we find the good life.

We find a happiness that is deeper that any sensation selfishness could ever find us! Isn’t that crazy? Isn’t that the opposite of our default manner- what we tell ourselves is I’ve got to get, take, keep, protect, what I want so that I can be happy-

It cuts against the grain of our thinking to find that doing the opposite of all brings me greater happiness.

 

Beyond that, the joy that comes from giving is enduring.

It lasts.

The shine of our new toy fades quickly.

The vacation goes faster than any other week of the year.

The stuff we had to have quickly becomes the junk we hope someone takes off of our hands at a yard sale or we throw it in a box and give it away or we put it in a storage shed and then kick ourselves for paying monthly fees to merely store it in a building we only go to store more stuff or eventually throw the stuff away…

 

The stuff we just have to have becomes a hassle…

The stuff we said we needed becomes a nuisance…

 

Getting grows old.

Giving grows sweet.

 

Our church became self supporting in 1982- before that we were a mission work which means that other FWB Churches and FWB people gave financial support so that we could get started.

Going self-supporting is to say, through the generosity of the people who belong to our group, we are able to pay our own way- please direct your funds to a new mission work.

 

Our church got to 1982 because people gave, and their gifts kickstarted the movement that we are a part of today.

 

Many of those people have passed away- but their gift lives on.

 

When I was in high school a man named Jeff Sloan came to our church and told us about the church he would plant in Ft Wayne, IN. I worked a job after school, so I had a little gas money.

I signed up to give $5 per month to help start the church in Ft Wayne. It wasn’t much. It was something small, but for 16 year old me, it was a major commitment.

My $60 per year didn’t make or break the Ft Wayne church, but the return on that $60 has been far greater than if I had spent it on 3 more t-shirts with surf company logos on them.

 

Just 2 weeks ago I was around people who came to Jesus through the ministry of that church.

 

It brings joy to me to know that my gift was part of that,

even if it was small.

 

The Generous Life is the Good Life.

 

I’m not merely taking about being generous with your money.

I’m speaking of being generous with who you are, with your time and your talents and your ideas and your energy.

 

The passage that we read about Levi walking away from a prosperous affluent job to join Jesus’ rag tag band of a dozen disciples isn’t just a radical moment in Levi’s life.

It is the greatest moment of his life.

It is the moment that everything changed and he stepped onto a path of great happiness.

It is the moment that his journey took an unexpected turn toward adventure, purpose, meaning, and legacy.

 

That’s what I want for every one of you.

 

I want today to be a day that you take a step onto a path of great joy. I want today to be the beginning of a great journey of adventure, purpose, meaning, and legacy.

 

The group that Matthew joined would work together for just over 3 and a half years and at the time that Jesus died and rose again, their group had grown to 120.

 

Then God’s Spirit was poured out upon them and 3,000 joined them on the journey in one day.

A couple of weeks later, 5,000 joined them in one day.

 

As the movement spread, it was said of these people in a Roman court, these are the people who have turned the world upside down.

 

Matthew joined a movement that changed the world.

 

Friend, I believe that our world needs change.

I believe that our world needs to be turned upside down.

 

I believe that our community needs to be turned upside down.

 

I’ve got a dream that we, us, our church, could make an incredible impact right here- that we would influence such a dramatic change that it’s out of the ordinary for me to stand at the graveside of a young father or mother instead of the all too normal reality that it is now…

 

I’ve got a dream that we, us, our church could make an incredible impact right here to the degree that every child in our community would grow up knowing that Jesus loves them more than they can imagine.

 

Will you join me?

 

Will you be a part of the new core group?

Will you jump in and help us build the church our children will lead?

Will you be generous with who you are-

with what you have

with what you can do

with what the ideas God gives you???

 

 

 

If you’re in, let me quickly point out 3 steps the core group of disciples took.

 

 

Disciples gather around Jesus.

 

 

Jesus’ words to Matthew were incredibly simple.

“Follow me.”

 

Jesus gave a very simple, straightforward invitation to all the disciples, follow me.

 

Jesus didn’t tell them all that laid ahead, He didn’t make them grand promises. He didn’t tell them that they would see miracles. He merely invited them to follow Him.

 

It wasn’t extravagant- It wasn’t flowery- It wasn't flattering-

It was simply an invitation to be with Jesus.

 

There is no better invitation in the world.

 

When Nicole and I got married one of the major steps in the wedding planning process was picking out invitations.

 

There’s a whole industry dedicated to this…

If you’ve ever received a wedding invitation, you know that it’s no ordinary invitation.

I can remember when I graduated from high school there was a guy who came to our school to sell us graduation invitations…

They had script type font embossed in expensive paper.

 

Some invitations are better than others- but really what matters is what you are being invited to…

 

 

 

 

Disciples grow in faith.

He left all and followed him.

 

The word follow sounds to us like following someone on a trip, you’re just watching where they go so that you know where to go.

 

In their culture, this was a joining.

Matthew wasn’t following Jesus to a place for lunch.

Matthew was joining Jesus as his student- He was coming alongside Jesus like an apprentice, to learn all He could.

 

When you read the gospels you find that all along the way the disciples were being taught, trained, and encouraged.

All along the way Jesus was working on them.

Their faith was growing.

 

Every moment with Jesus grew their faith.

 

However, when Jesus was arrested and tortured and killed, their faith took a major blow.

Then they saw Jesus alive- he had risen from the dead and suddenly they went from being timid and afraid and hiding to broadcasting who they were and what they believed in the streets.

 

I invite you to not only gather around Jesus, but learn of Him.

FOLLOW Him.

I invite you to grow in faith.

 

The people in the core group of this church, they’re patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith around here, they’re leaders and teachers and sages of Biblical wisdom.

 

But you want to know a little secret-

they didn’t start out that way.

 

They were average joes and janes.

They were people who knew little about the Bible.

They were people with problems in their marriages.

They were people who were struggling to raise their kids, manage their time, and pay their bills.

 

They were ordinary people when they joined the team,

but they’ve grown in faith through the process.

 

Kelly said something really great a couple weeks ago as a group of us were talking about kids classes, Kelly said:

 

I have been teaching SS for years. I love it. But, I am also learning too. You may feel like you are inadequate to teach or volunteer (I know I did) but it's fun, it's rewarding, and you learn right along with the kids.

 

 

Disciples go on mission.

 

I love what Matthew immediately does when He starts following Jesus. He puts together a feast, he invites Jesus over to his house and he invites all of his friends who are sinners just like him.

 

Matthew made a personal investment- he was generous with his time, his money, and his house so that his friends could meet Jesus.

 

Matthew would go on to serve Jesus is a big way over many years, but here was an immediate step he could take to serve the mission of bringing people to Jesus.

 

I believe God has big plans for ways you can make a difference in the years ahead, but I also believe there is a step you can take today.

 

 

God’s calling you to a life that matters,

and it starts with one step today.

 

When the core group gathered in the Newburgh Town Hall, they had no idea what laid ahead.

They just took the next step.

When Jesus asked Matthew to follow Him, he didn’t know everything that lay ahead, but he took the next step.

 

None of us know what the next 34 years will look like,

but we can all take the next step.

 

This phone is capable of using GPS to show me where I am at in the world. It can using mapping software to show me how to get from here to anywhere else in the world…

 

I use the GPS and mapping software often, but you know what I use even more often, the flashlight.

 

God has a big journey planned to change the world,

but all we need to see right now is the next step.

 

 

 

 

Some of you need to take a step toward gathering around Jesus:

1.You need to commit to following Jesus.

2.You need to commit to obeying Jesus by getting baptized.

3.You need to surrender some sinful activity to Christ.

 

Some of you need to take a step toward growing in faith:

1.You need to begin a daily quiet time with Jesus in prayer & Bible Study.

2.You need to join a Bible Study group to learn more about Jesus and develop relationships with other believers.

3. You need to get a mentor or coach to train you.

 

Some of you need to take a step toward going on mission:

1.You need to sign-up to volunteer at an upcoming event.

2.You need to decide to financially support the ministry.

3.You need to join a ministry team and serve on a weekly or monthly basis.         

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Remembering Christ in Communion - The Corinthians - Message 21

Find the notes and video of this message and the rest in The Corinthians series here:  http://www.faithinchandler.com/corinthians/remembering-christ-communion/ 

Unified Yet Unique - The Corinthians - Message 20

Hope you’ve had a great week. 
Have you been watching the Olympics? 
How about Evansville’s Lilly King, huh?
Aren’t the Olympics great, but they’re also a little weird, right?

I mean there are some really strange games in the Olympics. Synchronized diving has to be the strangest to me. I couldn't tell you his many flips one guy did. Looked like 17. Much less if 2 guys did the same amount.  What's the deal with giving them points for being the same???How about just being awesome???

In Olympics they scrutinized down to the tiniest level. They zoom in and use super slo-mo and say, "oh, wow! that gymnast took an extra step. That's gonna cost her!"

This issue is a very specific issue that Paul deals with in chapter 11. It's a specific issue in a particular city in a particular culture...

Immediately Paul zooms out. Paul says, let’s get a good look at where we all sit in relationship with the Lord.

Now, I’m going to be honest with you, this passage is hard.
It’s a pretty convoluted passage, Paul makes several arguments from several different sides, but he doesn’t devote the amount of material to this that he has on other issues.

I think it speaks to the fact that this issue was pretty low on the list of priorities for this letter, however Paul does tackle it and so will we.

Part of the problem is that is so very specific to the situation in Corinth, a situation that we are not totally sure about. We know a lot about Corinth and the Greco-Roman culture during this time, however we don’t know much about this particular issue. Hopefully we’ll learn a few guiding principles that Paul was attempting to teach them in this- This isn’t a issue that we deal with specifically, but the issue of gender distinction is one that quite applicable today.

Let's read these 16 verse together.

Apparently, there was some contention in the Corinth church about women who were serving and leading in the church and what they were wearing or not wearing on their heads.  It seems that in Corinthian culture it was customary for women to wear some type of covering, veil, or headdress and women in the church at Corinth were not wearing these, specifically some women who were praying and prophesying in the church services.

That immediately brings me to my first point.

1. Now Free in Christ, men and women are unified to serve Christ.

Women were praying and prophesying in the church! Unfortunately what often gets lost in this passage is the vital role that women were serving in the church. This was a big deal that there were women not just in attendance but praying and prophesying. This may not seem like something noteworthy to us today, so let me give you a few contrast to help us appreciate this. 

Contrast this with a woman’s participation in the Jewish Temple. 
At the Jewish Temple there was a Women’s Court, it was the place that women were to stay except for when they were offering sacrifices. They were not allowed to proceed any further. They didn’t worship with their husbands, but rather had to stand back. They were not allowed to read the law in the synagogue. When they recited the Schema at Synagogue the women were not to speak.

They were not allowed to become disciples or students of a Rabbis and follow him. They had no access to religious education except through what their husbands passed along to them at home.

Then comes along Jesus. Jesus has woman followers who travel alongside. Jesus has woman followers who were prostitutes before they came to know Jesus’ message of grace and forgiveness. In Jesus’ teaching he often used women as examples of morality. Now in the church that worships Jesus, women are not only gathering to worship alongside of their husbands and sons, they are praying and prophesying in these gatherings. Before they hadn’t even been allowed to recite the schema along with everyone else. Now they were being given special revelations from God, God was speaking through them.

Contrast their participation to their place in the pagan temples. 
In the pagan temples women played a larger role, because they were employed as temple prostitutes. The pagans believed that sex gave glimpses into the divine and that sex could a be a religious observance, so woman were employed or even enslaved to work in the sex trade at the pagan temples. How sad that the one place that women had a role to play, that role was to be objects of sexual gratification.

This is not what scripture intended. In the creation account, scripture tells us that God man and woman in His image.

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Women are created in the image of God. They have value and worth because they are created in God’s image, not because they are objects of sexual desire… So in a culture that was either religiously traditionalist and strict in oppression of women OR pagan in objectifying and demoralizing women, the church of Jesus Christ was quite radical and I’m sure to many women it was a breath of fresh air.

The gospel of Jesus is one that is to everyone that believes. Black or White. Rich or Poor. Jew or Gentile. Male or Female. Young or Old.

1. Though unified in Christ, men and women are unique.

So in the Corinthian church women are serving. They are praying. They are even being given the gift of prophesying. Sometimes that looked like teaching, other times is looked like foretelling what was going to happen or telling of some unknown truth…

So women have this new found freedom in Christ. They have this new opportunity serve in vital and important ways. So they said, if we have these opportunities, if we’ve been given equal footing with the men before the Lord, we don’t have to keep wearing these stupid veils or coverings!  And they were tossing them aside and no longer wearing them.

This is where the issue arises. Not in that the women are praying in prophesying but in what they are wearing, or in this case what they are “not wearing” when they do. And here Paul does have an issue.

So he says, lets zoom out and look at the big picture. God has saved us and we are all under him, he is over us all, protecting us, redeeming us, and leading us. Then there is Christ. We have access to God because of Christ. So Christ is above us and He gives us access to God the Father. And God still expects men to lead and for women to be submissive.

Now here in this passage we don’t have a defense of the traditionalist oppression of women because Paul equates the relationship between man and woman to the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son. We talked about last Sunday night that God the Father and God the Son are both infinite in their power and knowledge and majesty. Now men you will not find a passage in the Bible that talks of your authority, but rather what you find are passages that speak of your responsibility. In fact in this passage the only mention of the word authority is in the verse saying that a woman ought to have power over her head.

Scripture doesn’t give men greater authority as much as it gives them greater responsibility.

Manhood is about responsibility. 
Manhood is not about fast cars and big trucks. 
Manhood is not sleeping around.
Manhood is not drinking your buddies under the table.
Manhood is not about proving you're tough in a fight.
Manhood is about taking responsibility.

If you don't take responsibility for yourself and your family, you might have everything culture equates with manhood but you're just a boy.
I know plenty of males who drive fast cars and big trucks, sleep around, drink like fish, fight like an animal, and they are nothing but a boy who’s 30 years old.

Men are called to lead because men are tasked with responsibility. Let’s go back to creation. When God created Adam from the very beginning, he gave him a job to do. When Adam and Eve broke the only rule in the garden of Eden, who ate first? Eve did. God knew that. But who did God come to hold accountable? He came calling Adam’s name.

Husband, problems in your home? God’s gonna come calling your name. Problems with your kids? God’s gonna come calling your name…

So Paul has zoomed out and said, lets remember that though male and female have been freed to serve Christ, though we are unified, we have unique roles to fulfill.  We have unique callings.

So he says, women you have been freed from your sin and brokenness by the grace of Christ, but you haven’t been saved to become men. You’ve been saved to be forgiven, grace filled, redeemed, blood bought women. Women were given greater freedom and worth in Christ, but not by being made like men, but by being forgiven and restored. Women are not redeemed by becoming like men, but they are just as redeemed and worthy as men.

Paul’s big point here is that 

We have all been made new, but we have not been made identical

In the next chapter  in verse 17 Paul would get into the fact that the church is like a body and that each part has a different shape and a different function and in the whole body were an eye, there would be no hearing. If the whole body were a hand, there would be no walking…

Now stick with me here- here’s the application.

Paul said because the Lord has made us all different and forgiven us all and made us new and we are still different from one another, let’s not hide that fact. Let’s not blur the line here. Let’s not edge out the distinctions.

In Corinth, the cultural designation for male and female was pretty clear and Paul is saying that just as it would be a shame for a man to lead worship looking like a woman, it’s shame for a woman to serve in the church looking like a man.

Let the men be men and the women be women.

May we celebrate that we are unified despite our distinctions. You know what I love about our church?

I love that there are small business owners and factory workers and stay at home moms and men and women in corporate leadership here.
I love that there are people covered in tattoos and people who would faint if they looked at a tattoo needle.
I love that there are people who have spent considerable amounts of time behind bars and people who have never gotten a speeding ticket….
and people everywhere in between.

This morning we are unified in Christ though we are unique. You see, 

Christ has removed what separates us but not what sets us apart.

On the issue of race, people will often say, I don’t see color, I only see people. I get what they are trying to say, but I want to respond- that must be boring. God sees color and he loves them all. God sees gender and socioeconomic status and age and background, and he loves us all. Today’s politically correct culture wants to remove all distinctions, even gender.

God kept all those distinctions in place because His love and grace are mighty enough to wash right over them. God loves us where we are and makes us new, but he doesn’t erase the lines that make us unique, just the ones that make us broken.

Imagine that you are a potter. 
You create a piece of pottery. It’s unique. It’s got sleek lines that make the pottery really standout. After you’ve got the clay where you want it, you see that it’t developed a crack or gap in the clay near the bottom, so you fix it. 

You may even have to start all over, smashing down the clay to reshape it, but you’re not removing the lines that made it unique, those will remain, you’re fixing the brokenness.
You’re making it whole and complete.
You’re God given gender, race, ethnicity, or hair color is not your problem. It’s the brokenness of you heart.

Look back at verse 1, Paul says follow me as I follow Christ.

Paul doesn’t say be like me, or be me, he says follow me as I follow Christ. Paul says, my goal is not to make you like me, but follow me so far as I lead you toward Jesus. This morning, you don’t need to look more like me, you need Jesus. You don’t need to be more like me, you need Jesus.

Though distinct, men and women are dependent upon one another.

Paul closes out the passage saying that men were created first and woman was created out of the rib of man, but it is through woman that man continues to exist. In other words, one can not be without the other. We are different and we depend on one another. We are able to depend on one another because of those distinctions. 

There’s a purpose in our peculiarity. Our distinctions are not reason to demean one another, rather they are reasons to appreciate one another.

It may be that you are here today and you feel like there is no one else in the room like you. You might feel that your family, your background, your brokenness, or your shape makes you different from the rest of us and you feel alone. God sees all of that and He says, "Great! I've been waiting to redeem someone just like you! I've been looking forward to pouring my love over someone just like you!"

Our church sees you and says, "Great! We've been looking for an opportunity to love someone just like you! Welcome!"

According to the article on Lilly King in the Courier and Press, when she made the Olympic Team she was asked if you do well, what’s something your hometown could do to celebrate. She said, I’d love to lead the parade at the fall festival. You know what’s great about that, it’s so uniquely Evansville. Evansville couldn’t do a ticker tape parade because we don’t have enough high rises, but we do have the fall festival and no one else does… God has made us different and there’s purpose and beauty in it.

Doctrine - Message 3 - The Trinity