1 Corinthians 1:26-2:5 “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
Continuing, Pastor Kyle points out that there are two aspects of the Great commission. (1) To grow in the teachings and commands of Jesus, understanding them and obeying them. (2) bring as many as we can into the body of Christ and the fellowship of Believers. Disciples make disciples that make disciples in order to decrease the population of Hell and advance the kingdom. By the knowledge of the full Gospel and eternal destiny, God begins to break our hearts for our unbelieving family, friends and acquaintances, who don’t yet know our Savior and Lord. The thought of them spending eternity separated from God in Hell is the most painful thought that we can fathom. We all know someone in our life that either do not know or just will not repent and take that Gospel lifeline unto salvation. It is our job as Kingdom Workers to be in tune with the indwelling Holy Spirit for His leading and our unbelieving friends and family to know when they are in a personal place where they are seeking so we may talk to them (life on life) about the Gospel of Forgiveness and Salvation.
In Matthew 5:13-16 Jesus tells us, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
We need to be praying for divine appointments where we can be “salt and light” of the Gospel to help friends, family and neighbors to embrace the counterintuitive truth of the Cross; to us who are being saved it is the power of God. People who do not know the Lord and refuse to take God’s Gospel lifeline are perishing, but the offer is there for the taking. The second fact about the counterintuitive nature of Divine wisdom is (2) those who know God still need to continually retrain our minds to grab the right lifeline. Our sin nature is so pervasive that it takes a lifetime of spiritual sanctification to retrain our hearts, minds and soul to desire and do the things of God (aka get back to the original “Garden mentality”). Before transformational conversion in Christ, sin is what feel “right” and fulfilling to us. Even after repenting and being sanctified, sin continues to have such a strong pull on our sin nature of the fallen flesh on this side of eternity and appeals to our easily tempted heart. In Galatians 5:16-18 the Apostle Paul tells us, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” The Born-again Believer is given the indwelling Holy Spirit as our helping Counselor, so walk in the Spirit, lean on the Spirit and live in the Spirit, grabbing the Gospel lifeline daily.
The process of Sanctification involves knowing God and knowing Him more, trusting God and trusting Him more, continually praying and learning the Word of God applied to life more, growing in knowledge of truth, maturing in godly wisdom, and increasing in Kingdom service to the Lord; alive and thriving in Christ. Yet, it takes daily work to align our will to the Will of God, to recognize the “right” (right in the eyes of the Lord) action and to do it day-in and day-out. We are so inundated with secular humanistic worldly wisdom that we are often unaware that the God-rejecting world-system is the land in which we live. Yet, not all worldly wisdom is bad. We can study the different worldviews in the culture in light of the biblical worldview for discussing, bringing the light of the Bible into the truth of the situation. We need to know and understand what the unbeliever thinks so that we can debate the truth and communicate the Gospel message in our society. The question is: “Who is influencing who?” We are not to let the godless wisdom of the day to woo you away from your biblical foundation.
Psalm 73:26-28 “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.”
In God’s plan of Salvation, the Lord implants true spiritual wisdom, and in the transformed heart of the Believer we can discern the between worldly wisdom and spiritual wisdom, then we have to grow in recognizing it every day, living it out. 1 Corinthians 2:11-13 “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
How was the indwelling Spirit of God given to Believers? Jesus tells us in John 14:15-17, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” There are a lot of things in our life that we have the ability to do, but rarely do. We have the entire Holy Bible at our fingertips, in very translation available on our Cell Phones, Tablets or Computers, 24/7/3605, for either reading or listening to; and yet, we touch our tempting distractions (Text Messages, Social Media, News feeds, and Entertainment icons) instead. The point is that there are so many things in our lives that we know we have the ability to do, but we don’t actually take the time to do it. So, we need to wake up every single day, and in devotion to our Lord, we say a pray and read the Word of God, then live what we read. In our conversations with our heavenly Father and walking in the Spirit, slowly the Lord shows us the things in our life that are “past tense” foolishness or sin that are affecting us in our “present tense” kingdom living today.
Let's conclude PAstor Kyle's message on our "Perish-proofing Christ in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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