Sermon transcript from The Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Grace

Shabbat Shalom everybody.

Hope that you are as happy to be here this morning as I am because I just feel like the Lord is doing some good things, isn't he?

That was kind of weak.

I thought he was doing some really good things, amen?

All right, come on man, don't make me work for it.

Last week we began by focusing our attention on righteousness.

And I guess I'm just going to, for the rest of the time that I have on this earth, I'm probably just going to be a broken record on this topic.

Because the more I've come to understand what the righteousness of God is, this act that righteousness is the manifestation of his love and grace.

When God's love and mercy and his holiness wants to be experienced, it comes forth in righteousness which comes forth in some kind of act of giving.

We began last week looking at righteousness because righteousness is all that God gives us in Christ.

Every gift we've received in Christ is a manifestation of righteousness.

Therefore, righteousness is the manifestation, if there's righteousness flowing out of us, it is because we are in Christ.

And if righteousness is not flowing out of us, well then that's a problem.

And we may need to ask ourselves why.

You see, once I understood this paradigm, it changed the way I think about a lot of things in Scripture.

Once I realized that the Father gave the Son, that was righteousness.

The Son gave his life for me, that's righteousness.

The Son gives the Holy Spirit — well the Father gives the Holy Spirit to the Son, the Son gives the Holy Spirit to us, that's righteousness.

The Holy Spirit gives us gifts of the Spirit to do righteousness that we might become the righteousness of God.

And that is mind-blowing.

Second Corinthians 521, "He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

Hear me, I cannot be the righteousness of God if I cannot give and do the righteousness of God.

Do I need to say that again?

I can't be the righteousness of God if I cannot give and do the righteousness of God.

If my flesh — and if in my flesh I want to do the exact opposite of righteousness, which is selfishness, how am I ever going to be the righteousness of God which everything in my flesh wants to do exactly the opposite, because the opposite of righteousness is selfishness.

Selfishness doesn't want to give, selfishness wants to take, selfishness wants to keep, righteousness wants to give.

How am I ever going to be the righteousness of God in the flesh?

Answer, He gives me the Holy Spirit within me to do the righteousness of God so that others might experience God's grace and I might become a manifestation of the righteousness of God.

Woo!

How's that for an introduction?

That's a lot.

I mean that's enough to chew on for weeks.

One that He would even trust me with such a holy task.

And I just love this.

Notice what Paul says that it took for that to happen.

Yeshua had to become sin for me.

What does that mean?

That Jesus had to become the very thing that He had — that had to be destroyed for me to be free.

Let me say that again.

Jesus had to become the very thing that had to be destroyed for me to be free.

He became the very thing He came to destroy.

He died defeating our greatest enemy.

Now let this sink in.

He became sin and died so that I might become the righteousness of God and sin and death would no longer have any power over me.

He took the very things that were my greatest enemy, sin and death, and because of His righteousness, turned those things into my vehicle for freedom.

I'm not sure you fully get what that means.

As we sit here today and we look at what's going on maybe in our lives this last week, all of the things that we felt were challenges, all of the things that we felt were obstacles to our faith, all the things that we thought were too much for God's grace.

If He can take sin and death and use the very things against me to do the things I most needed Him to do for me — what, tell me again what your issue was this week?

Tell me again how, how big that issue is in your life that He can't handle?

You realize that big issue in your life right now?

It's not bigger than sin and death, and it may be the very thing God chooses to use to make you the righteousness of God.

That's how big God is.

But for me to believe that, I have to begin to believe what I shared last week in Romans 5, that where sin increases, grace increases all the more.

Man I love that.

You know the word triggers is a real word today, isn't it?

You realize, we get triggered by sin, don't we?

But most of the time, when we get triggered by sin, bad spot, when we get triggered by sin, it causes anxiety, it causes worry, it causes us to look at all the conspiracies.

You know what happens when God gets triggered by sin?

More grace!

I like that.

I'm fired up about it.

Which means maybe I should stop fretting about sin and start focusing on the grace that has been given me in Christ so that I can become the righteousness of God.

Ephesians 2.8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

What is righteousness?

It's a gift.

It's something that God has given us.

God's amazing grace created us to be vehicles of God's amazing grace by giving us God's amazing grace within us who are in Christ Jesus.

And that is why, bring it all the way back to the gifts of the Spirit, that is why I cannot be a cessationist.

One of those people that believes that God stopped giving.

By the way, I got tickled at myself this week.

Every once in a while, Chris will take a segment of something I say and he'll do a real little short thing and he'll post it.

He did two of those from last week's sermon and I gaffed in both of them.

I said something stupid in both of them and do you know that one of them has over 2,000 views and the other one has over 1,200 views?

I've never had that many views on anything.

And I said two really dumb things.

Now my point was valid, the way I said it was just silly.

When I was talking to you about what is a cessationist, I said, "Well the word I use for it is I call them cessationists," like I invented the word.

I also invented the internet and the word Trinity and I've — I gotta admit, I watched that short and I was mortified.

And it's got 1,200 views.

The other one that's over 2,000 views, I was talking about how even one of the ancient church fathers, Augustine, changed his view.

Okay, I get it.

It's just not my spot.

From being a cessationist to not being a cessationist, meaning he stopped believing that the Holy Spirit stopped working, but I conflated a date in my head with 1,000 AD which has to do with another one of his millennial views and I made it sound like that he lived at 1,000 AD.

And someone picked up on it and noted it in the thing, but Augustine lived around 354, how'd that happen?

I don't feel so bad about myself gaffing like this.

It just proves that I am now capable of running for the President of the United States.

So as of today, I am formally — no, okay.

It just means I'm as qualified as those guys.

I did not invent the word cessationist, although in my head I'd like to think I did.

But I cannot be one.

Once I know that the holiness and love of God manifest in righteousness and keeps on giving, I cannot adopt a view of the Holy Spirit that said, "Okay, that's it, enough."

I don't believe that.

And so today, as we continue to dive in, we really need to understand the amazing grace of God's righteousness.

It may be more than what we've given it credit for being.

Will you pray with me?

Lord, You've already met us here today, so I won't foolishly ask You to be here because You're already here.

I won't ask You to be here because You've already promised that where two or three are gathered You would be there.

So today, Lord, standing on Your Word, I simply welcome You in our presence and ask that You would find within us hearts and minds that are open and ready to receive what Your Spirit has said through Your servants, the Apostles, and what they have recorded for our benefit and Father that You would also allow us to hear Your still small voice or Your loud voice, whichever we need most in our lives in this moment.

I pray this in Jesus' holy name, amen.

Now by the way guys, there is no way I can wrap this up by 1145, okay?

So just settle down and don't start sending me tacky comments.

You know, so often we have limited our understanding of grace to the mercy we received in salvation, that we are saved by grace.

And how many of you are thankful for that grace today that led you to, I mean, amen, that is just one of the greatest hymns that sings of that amazing grace, every generation knows it.

But the amazing gift of grace was not just to save us, but it was also made to equip us to be the righteousness of God.

So He fills us with His Holy Spirit, which because it is His Holy Spirit can only do what God's heart and holiness can do, which is give.

I mean the original lie was that God was a keeper, well God was a taker, not a giver.

But some of us, including myself at different times, live like paupers.

You say, "Baron, why do you say we live like paupers?

Why do you say we live like someone that's poor?"

Because sometimes we don't fully understand the richness, the riches of His grace.

We simply do not live in the fullness of what He has lavished upon us.

Quite honestly, some of us live in bankruptcy because we don't believe what He has already given us.

Paul loves the imagery of riches.

By the way, Paul is the first legitimate, genuine prosperity preacher.

Please don't turn that into a clip.

What do I mean by that?

Does Paul believe in the health and wealth and prosperity gospel that we see on TV?

No.

When Paul preaches about prosperity, it is the riches of His grace that has been lavished within us that we have at every moment, in every experience, in every challenge, every joy, every sorrow, that we are abundantly provided.

Yet so many times, and I've done this and you've done this, and sometimes we're stronger in some areas of our lives than other areas of our lives, but there are times when life starts getting on us and suddenly we start acting like paupers, like the account is empty, when in fact we have the fullness of God.

So why do we live like paupers when it comes to the gifts of the Holy Spirit?

Maybe it's because we don't fully understand what we've been given.

Now before we jump into 1 Corinthians where we're eventually going to get to the gifts of the Spirit, I want to turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and read a few things from there that Paul also writes.

Ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 through 10, he says there, that there are some important things that we need to take note of before we get to the gifts.

So listen to what he says.

But God being rich in mercy, is God bankrupt in mercy?

No.

But God being rich in mercy because of His great love, and the Greek there, great is not a bad translation, but literally because of the richness of His love, you see what I'm saying?

Paul likes this idea of being rich.

Because God is rich in mercy and because of His rich love with which He has loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, for by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

Now let me ask you, does that sound like bankruptcy to you?

And the church said, "No."

Church said something, please.

Thank you.

Don't make that one a clip either.

So the next thing he does is he gives us a purpose.

Why did he do this?

Listen to why he did this.

So that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us who are in Christ Jesus.

You understand when Paul preaches prosperity, it's grace prosperity.

It's not money, it's not things, although God can richly bless us when we need those things.

But when Paul preaches prosperity, Paul is preaching about the grace with which we have been lavished.

For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

What is the gift of God?

Righteousness.

That which God has given us, not as a result of works so that no one may boast.

For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

What are good works?

Acts of righteousness.

What is a good mitzvah?

Do righteousness.

What were all the commandments about?

Doing righteousness.

And he says we were created in Christ Jesus to do exactly that.

But how can I do righteousness if I have a spirit that has stopped giving?

Are you with me?

Do you understand?

This is why I can't be a cessationist.

Because the continual giving of God is essential for me to be the very thing he has called me to be and do.

Paul paints this picture that we are rich in grace because God is rich in grace.

He did that so that we could become the manifestation of his grace.

The demonstration of his loving kindness for this age.

And let me say it again, that's why I can't be a cessationist.

I can't be someone who believes that the gift that the Holy Spirit has stopped giving.

Has God's purpose changed?

Are there no more people who need to experience the grace of God?

How can I be prepared to do something that God set a time limit on?

How long would he, he would equip his people with his grace to do what he created them to do?

I mean if God has an expiration date on what he's going to do through me, then quite honestly, if he stopped doing that, I have every right to boast.

You know why?

Because if he stopped doing it in me and I'm still doing it, I'm doing it.

You see a problem with that?

My Down syndrome brother had a saying, "That don't make no sense."

There can't be an expiration date on the grace giving of God if the grace giving of God is essential for me to become the righteousness of God.

So why so passionate?

If you do not believe in why we are saved by grace, you will never flow in the gifts of God's grace.

Did you hear me?

If you don't believe in why we are saved by grace so that we can become manifestations of grace, you're never going to believe or flow or even understand how to begin walking in the gifts of the Spirit.

Because the gifts of the Spirit are an act of righteousness put in us to do righteousness.

So that I can boast?

No.

So that he can boast.

Herein lies the problem.

Spirit-filled people can be spirit-filled but live spirit-empty lives because they do not believe in the riches of the greatness of what is placed within them.

And folks, I would hasten to say that unfortunately, we worry about global pandemics and diseases and cancers.

And I want to tell you the greatest condition that terrifies me or concerns me is not a pandemic that affects my body, it is a lie that affects the soul and the heart and the mind of the body of Christ.

That we could be so lavished with His good grace and live our lives as if our account is empty.

How are we going to reach the world?

Again, now let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

You say, "Brent, when are you ever going to get to chapter 12?"

We'll get there when I want to get there.

No, we're going to get there after we lay this foundation.

Let's see what Paul has to say to the Corinthian believers in chapter 1.

Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Sosthenes, our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Messiah Yeshua, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus and their Lord and ours.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know that grace and peace is a very common Hebrew blessing.

But Paul's blessing, this is Paul's blessing of grace and peace.

But there's something we need to remember.

This is not just a casual use of some kind of greeting.

This is not wishful thinking.

This is a substantive blessing that he can make because he already knows God is the grace giver.

You know when Jesus sent out the disciples, the 72, the 12 and the 72, and he told them something.

He said, "When you go into a home, if it receives you, give it your blessing of peace.

And if it rejects you when you leave, reclaim your peace.

Take it back."

Okay, let me just say, I don't even know how that works.

Give me my peace.

But I know this.

This is not just a concept.

You see, when you are speaking under the utterance of the Holy Spirit as these men were sent out to do, and you speak grace and you speak peace into someone's life, that's not a wishful thought.

That is a tangible prayer that the actual manifestation of God's goodness will be in that home for those people.

And the problem is, the danger is, that we hear it so many times that suddenly grace simply becomes a greeting and not an actual, tangible, operational reality.

So why am I saying this?

Because so many times, believers treat the topic of grace that is given us as if it's just a nice way to greet people.

But real grace is never passive.

Because grace has to do what?

It has to give.

It has to.

It has to move.

It has to equip.

It has to empower.

It's never just stagnant.

It's never just passive.

It's not an empty, powerless, wishful thinking, just a nicety that we say to somebody.

We spend so much time talking about being saved by grace because it gives us a warm feeling.

How many of you are thankful that you're saved by grace?

I mean, come on, that's just a big, warm hug from God.

I love it, I'm not trying to say anything against that.

But why is it that we can believe that we're saved by grace, but we're not equipped by grace?

Because Paul is going to spend as much time talking about what grace does in our life after we're saved as it does talking about how it gets us saved.

We know a whole lot about how, "Oh, I'm just a sinner saved by grace.

I didn't deserve his, you know, I don't deserve his love."

I'm sorry, yes you do.

You're his children.

Now you don't deserve it because you did anything good, but you are still his children and he loves you.

He wants to, "Oh, look, they behave, so today I'll love them.

Today I'll give them."

No.

I don't deserve, I don't earn his grace, but you know what?

I know the heart of God is a loving God, so I know I can expect his grace, because that's who he is.

And I'm grateful for it.

Notice how grateful Paul is for this in verse four.

"I thank God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus."

What is Paul thankful for?

A nice greeting?

Or the actual impactful grace which they had actually received in Christ?

Again, not just for salvation, he was thankful that they had received that and come, and had come to — but he's talking about the actual operational grace that continues to manifest in their life.

Look at verse five.

"That in everything," here we go, back to Paul's prosperity gospel, "in everything you were enriched, you were made rich in him.

In all speech, in all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you so that you are not lacking any gift awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Man, Paul loves this idea of being rich.

How many of you love the idea of being rich?

Liars.

I do.

But Paul's not talking about money.

He's talking about manifestation.

The presence of God's actual powerful grace.

Now this is where Paul begins to lay the groundwork for the real message of the letter to the Corinthian church.

We often think about this church, when you think about the Corinthian church, if you've ever spent any time in that book, everybody — I've heard it said many, many times, "Oh, the carnal — you know, how carnal, how worldly, how fleshly they are."

And they are, and there's a reason for that.

But everything he's going to write to — write about to this church, it's all a juxtaposition to how they're behaving versus what they have in grace in Jesus Christ.

Now every single negative carnal thing that Paul points out, he does so to show them, why are you walking around in poverty?

These things that — all these different issues that he's going to talk about in chapters 1 through 11, these are all things where somebody is acting as if they don't have enough grace in their account to make the right decision, to do the right thing, to minister in the right way, and they're doing — they're making their decisions based on their flesh, not on the fullness of the account of God's grace in their heart and mind.

That's what he's going to do.

So before we get to the gifts of the Spirit, we need to wrestle with this very uncomfortable reality.

Are you ready for this?

Grace-enriched people can still choose to live like paupers.

I don't like that at all.

I would really prefer that God had set up a system whereby after I was born again and filled with the Spirit, I would never ever make the mistake of listening to my flesh ever again.

Can I get an amen for that?

I mean, this would be a lot easier, wouldn't it?

If somehow he would have just absolutely, totally and completely silenced my flesh.

But Paul goes to great lengths to help us understand part of the fact that he didn't do that is that we kind of need that tug-of-war, we kind of need that battle to keep us sensitive to being submissive to the Holy Spirit and not to our flesh.

But he didn't do it that way.

Just because you are a Spirit-filled person doesn't mean you can live like a bankrupt sinner.

Because you can.

And it comes down to what do you believe about grace?

Was grace just something that God gave to rescue you from your sin so that you have life eternal?

Or is grace something that God gives you to empower, equip, and fill you for living life now?

You're so quiet.

No, don't give it to them.

I don't need no pity amen.

There is no gift of grace that God gives that alleviates our need to choose how we're going to walk.

If you want to walk and live in the Spirit, you can do it, but you must want to do it.

If you want to walk according to the flesh, the Spirit will say as you wish.

The riches of the gifts of the Spirit are operative in the lives of people who choose to live in that richness.

I and many other people have made fun of the name it, claim it folks.

You know those guys on TV, that name it, claim it.

And all we can talk about how terrible that is.

That name it, claim it crew.

While never realizing we're a part of the name it, deny it clan.

I mean I'll sing about God's grace.

I'll snort and stomp about God's grace.

I'll make sure you know that we're saved by grace and not by the law.

I mean I will, I mean most church pulpits spend 99% of their time talking about grace as that which brings us to salvation.

You can stomp and snort and sing and tout the grace of God and never actually walk in it.

Is that terrifying?

It is because, but that's what we do.

So we can make fun of the, we can throw stones at the name it, claim it people and not even realize we're the name it, deny it people.

We can say we're saved by grace, but we let life beat us down as if there's something in life that is greater than God's grace.

Paul goes on in his description of what God's grace is.

Verse eight, he says, "Who will also confirm you to the end."

The end is a little Greek word.

Well, in fact, it's my favorite Greek word.

It's telos.

What's my favorite word?

Telos.

I will, I already have.

Telos.

It means he will confirm, he will bring me to the goal.

He will bring me to the fullness.

How's he going to do it?

Grace.

Amen.

Now, if he's going to do that to get me there, then that means grace has to keep working.

Amen?

So, he will confirm you to the end, the telos, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Why does Paul emphasize God is faithful?

Because he's saying that God keeps giving.

I was online this week and answering some people who were struggling with why does God remain faithful to the physical descendants of Israel, of Abraham, when many of the physical descendants of Abraham don't remain faithful to God.

Because it's never been about their faithfulness, it's always been about his faithfulness.

And it's never been about Jewish people get saved because they're Jews, it's that God is going to save a remnant so that some Jewish people can get saved.

And he's not going to let Hamas or anybody else annihilate the Jews out of existence because he made a promise and he's going to keep giving, whatever that is, victory in war, whatever it's going to be, he's going to keep giving to make sure there's a remnant that's available to come to Jesus.

That's what this is all about.

Which means God keeps giving us the grace we need to the very end.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit is in our manifestations of God's continuing grace in us.

Now Paul is eventually, when we finally do get to chapter 12, is going to tell us to desire these gifts.

Imagine having to tell believers to desire grace.

Is that not outrageous?

Yes, Brent, it is.

I'll just have a conversation with myself up here, that's all right.

I talk to myself at home all the time.

I mean we cry out for it constantly when we fail, right?

Oh Jesus, forgive me.

More grace, more grace.

Why don't we cry out for it constantly to empower?

For the moment, for the circumstance, for the word that we need.

You see, we must define grace as God's word defines grace.

Now let's go back to verse 5 where Paul is going through the outline of the three, he's going to outline the three main areas where grace is going to manifest in our lives.

These are going to be the three divisions of the gifts of the Spirit that we're going to start diving into next week when we get to chapter 12.

First Corinthians chapter 1 verses 5 and 6, "That in everything you were made rich in him in all speech, in all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you."

All three of these are manifestations of grace.

This is where our study of the gifts of the Spirit is going to begin.

He says that one of those areas of gifting is in all speech.

Grace is going to manifest in our speech.

In fact, the reason grace manifests in our life at all is so that we can speak.

That's the whole point of revelation.

That's the whole point in the word becoming flesh.

What is the word?

That which is spoken.

So he's going to give us the gifts we need, the grace gifts we need in all speech.

Not just the nice things we say, but as a supernatural manifestation of what God wants said through us that will reveal him to others.

Do you always have the right word to say in that regard?

I don't.

There have been times when I've cried out to Lord, "Hey, that moment you said that not to worry, you'd give us what we need when we need it."

I drove all the way home to Indiana one time in a blizzard, got to a funeral that I thought I was just attending.

You heard me right.

That I thought I was just attending.

I was in a western leather jacket with fringes, which my wife still makes fun of.

I was not dressed to do a funeral and the pastor that started after about 30 minutes stopped and said, "And now we'll have words from Reverend Avery."

Reverend Avery is asleep.

He's driven all night in a blizzard.

And my head snaps up and I thought, "Did he say Emery?"

And little old Leigh said, "No, he said Avery."

I'm like, "Oh!"

So I took off my Oklahoma jacket and I walked up there and I was walking past him and I just leaned in and said, "What am I supposed to do?"

He said, "They didn't tell you?"

I said, "No."

He said, "Are you going to do it?"

I said, "Well, I'm up here.

Is there a Bible on the pulpit?"

He said, "Yeah."

I said, "Thank you very much."

I was a little miffed at that boy.

He was supposed to be in charge of letting me know.

Thankfully, at that moment I said, "God, about that promise, now.

Now would be good."

He came through.

He gave me what I needed, not only in the moment, but in a condition.

You want to talk about feeling mentally and physically bankrupt?

I had driven from Oklahoma to India, I got in like at eight in the morning, I had to start driving to the funeral at 10 a.m.

God's grace is enough.

And these grace gifts will affect every area or type of speech that will demonstrate that we are speaking not of ourselves, but as servants and mouthpieces of God's grace.

So some of these gifts are going to be speaking gifts.

Paul says there's another category.

In all knowledge.

What we say will flow from what we know.

Things that we will know because of God's grace to tell us.

I don't want to tell all my stories, but I had a lady that got so mad at me one time because I just told her everything that was going on.

And she just got mad and started screaming at me, "How do you know me?

Nobody knows me!

How do you know this?"

At which point I realized that sister is a condominium.

She has a whole lot of other tenants living in there right now.

It scared me to death.

And I looked at her and said, "I knowed it, my holy knower."

When God — it's a need-to-know basis, and when God needs me to know, He tells me.

Sometimes God's miraculous grace is going to be things that He teaches you so that you will know them perpetually, and sometimes His words of knowledge are going to be instantaneous moments that you need right then.

Why?

So you can speak.

Paul says in all knowledge.

Now notice this third category.

The confirming testimony of Christ.

Paul reminds them of how the first two, speech and knowledge, were used to confirm the gospel message to them.

It was that speech and knowledge which brought them to receive Jesus.

Meaning the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit was used to open their eyes and their hearts to the truth of the gospel.

A gospel Paul will go on to say wasn't preached to them just in words, but was confirmed with power.

The confirming testimony of Christ is the grace power that is used to bring us to Christ and the continuing power that is given to equip us in Christ that confirms His presence.

These are the power gifts that Paul is going to outline in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and we're going to talk about that confirming testimony, which by the way, isn't there to confirm you as the man of God, or to confirm you as the resident apostle.

It's to confirm the truth of His word.

It's not about our boasting.

Did I do anything to deserve grace?

Nope.

My boasting will be in Christ.

So by the time we get to chapter 12, we're going to be looking at gifts that manifest in speech, gifts that manifest in knowledge, and gifts that manifest in confirming testimony of God's power.

I wanted you to know that Paul starts talking about it in chapter 1.

But notice verse 10.

And it takes a left turn really hard, really fast.

Now I exhort you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Having said they have the gifting for all these things, he then says, "but you're not walking in it."

How do I know?

You're fussing with each other.

I love that word.

You're just fussing.

You're spending a lot of time trying to get the log out of somebody else's eye.

And quite honestly, I don't think — I know Jesus said, "I don't think that's a great illustration.

I don't think I have a log in my eye, I think I've got like a forest."

We're trying to get the speck out of someone else's eye, I've got a stinking forest in my own.

He says, "now I exhort you brothers in the name of the Lord that you all agree that there be no divisions among you."

Why?

So that you may be made complete.

What is he talking about?

The body of Christ is the body of Christ.

And I'm going to say this over and over again.

If you're sitting here today and you think you have a gift of the Lord, let me tell you something, you do not have a gift from the Lord that functions disconnected from the body of Christ.

Well I've got this gift of healing, I'm just going to go do it with that.

No you are not.

You are going to do it in the context of the body of Christ or you are outside of the body of Christ.

Come on.

And that produces divisions.

And we can't be a complete body if everybody that senses that they have a gift from the Holy Spirit runs off to think, "well this is my gift so I'm just going to go do it by myself."

That's not the way it works.

To be complete, we need everybody functioning in their gift.

In the context of the body.

Why does Paul exhort them?

I mean he invokes literally the authority of Jesus Christ in verse 11.

For I have been informed concerning you my brothers, there are quarrels among you.

And then he begins to scold them for things they're saying.

Some follow Paul, some follow Apollos, some follow Cephas.

Man those guys are so messed up.

I follow the Enoch calendar, I follow the, this calendar, I — division.

Paul immediately recognizes poor man mentality in the way they're behaving.

Those who are rich in the Holy Spirit.

In fact he goes on to say, when he writes this, he says that they are not lacking, not literally in the Greek, not even one gift.

That's how fully God has equipped the church.

That every gift is present and yet they're not walking in it.

So where do we go from here?

Like oh my goodness Brent, you said, here we are in chapter one and you said we're going to start chapter 12 next week.

When I was preparing this message I got to this place and I was frustrated.

I thought well Lord I, I thought you wanted me to kind of outline all these, you know, from chapters one through 11, all these different issues that were contrary to the gifts of the Spirit.

And then it kind of dawned on me, what's the point of that?

Why do I need to tell you what Paul has told you?

So church I want you to listen, we're going to post this on, you know, Facebook, we'll try to send out an email, but I'm going to give you some homework.

I'm going to give you some housework.

Because the bottom line is, I can stand here and yammer all day, literally I can do it.

It's one of my gifts.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Now I get an amen.

I get a, you know, a heckle amen is not an amen, I'm just saying.

But you know, it's kind of like when I tell a joke, a moan or a laugh, it's all the same to me, you know.

This is your homework for those who care.

Your job is to read 1 Corinthians 1 through 11.

And here's what I want you to do, and we'll post this so you don't have to remember this day, we'll post it.

I want you to take the next six, seven days till we meet again to do two things.

One, each time Paul addresses a carnal behavior, beginning in verse 10, I want you to note it, I want you just to write out what it is.

I want you to consider how Paul exposes, how he exposes it as the opposite of God's amazing operational grace that should be working there.

I want you to do that all the way through chapter 11.

Secondly, each time Paul makes a statement regarding the amazing operational presence of God's Holy Spirit in our lives, I want you to take note of it.

I want you to write down all the verses, or maybe you can photocopy them and underline them so they stand out to you, all the verses where Paul keeps coming back to the topic of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Now again, why am I asking you to do that?

Because church, the bottom line is, if you won't evaluate yourself, there's no point in me doing it for you.

In fact, by the time you get to verse, or chapter 11, Paul's going to talk about that very thing and how we partake of the Lord's Supper.

If you're not going to search your heart, if you're not going to examine yourself, what's the point?

And so I thought, "Well Lord, I need to point out all these things."

He says, "No you don't.

Paul already did it."

Now if you want to get to the place where we're ready to talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, then you need to go through chapters 1 through 11 to make sure, are you ready for this?

You don't need to file chapter 11.

You can make that a clip.

How clever I am.

And humble.

What is chapter 11?

Bankruptcy.

And as you go through chapters 1 through 11, you're going to see where believers could have functioned in the operational grace of God, but they chose to live in the bankruptcy of their flesh.

And as you go through that, if you're really serious about wanting to understand the Holy Spirit, then you need to let the Lord teach you about some of those places in your life where maybe you're living like a pauper instead of a rich person, filled with God's grace.

Let me return to Ephesians chapter 2 as the worship team comes back.

Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sin in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of the disobedient.

Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of our flesh and mind, and were by nature children of wrath."

Paul paints a before and after picture of God's amazing grace.

He reminds them of how they used to walk, and he calls it the course of this world.

But the Greek literally can be understood to mean like a segment of time, like an age.

He said that's the way you walked in that age, in that segment of time.

And I want you to notice how Paul addresses what everybody in the room believes.

What I'm about to say, I don't need to raise my voice, I don't need to pound the pulpit, I don't need to do anything to convince you of this because I know for a fact everyone in this room is already fully convinced of these things.

No one in this room has to be convinced that Satan is working in this world and in the people's lives right now.

I do not have to convince you of that, do I?

I mean it is patently obvious.

No one has to be motivated to believe that evil is a powerful, active, and operative force in the world right now.

I don't need moving illustrations, I don't need powerful music backdrop, I don't need illustration.

You know, and I don't have to convince you of it, no one here or who is watching needs to be convinced that the spirit of wickedness is operating in the sons of the disobedient who Paul will also call the children of wrath.

Do you understand this church?

None of you, including me, need to be convinced about the power that is operational and active in the sons of the disobedient and the children of wrath.

Why then do we have to stand here as preachers and plead with the body of Christ to believe in the active, powerful, operational grace of God in our lives?

No, we want to spend time arguing whether or not God's gifts still operate and function.

Are you kidding me?

We have more faith in the active, operational power of evil than the active, operational power of God's grace.

And then we sit there and we wonder, "What's happening to our society?"

Have you ever seen that, that guy on TikTok or whatever, I don't know if he's from Haiti or Africa, but he just made a name for himself, just doesn't say a word.

He just shows somebody showing something on the Internet that thinks it's so — ooh, I've learned a really cool way to do it.

And then he just shows how the old way was — and he just goes — have you seen that?

I find myself wondering how many times Jesus looks at the Father and just goes — I gave it to Him, I promise.

You gave it to me, I gave it to them.

Is your mind consumed by conspiracy?

What are you doing?

Did God tell you to study evil?

People are spending all their time trying to figure out what is the mark of the beast and spend no time whatsoever learning to walk in the mark of God's goodness, a grace-equipped, active operational power in our lives, not just to save us but to make us manifestations of His power.

In all speech, in all knowledge, confirming His testimony in us.

I'm asking you, church, what do you believe in?

I know you believe in the active operational power of evil.

Are we going to live our lives in fear of that or in the faith and trust that the active operational power of God's grace is in me and I am rich in His grace?