Have you ever noticed that some churches are
constantly operating in a state of drama and
conflict? This has become something of a regular
trend over the past 30 years or so, and it's
really not a mystery why that's happened. With
the advent of social media, everybody, healthy
or unhealthy, balanced or extreme, everybody
has an opinion, and now everybody feels... free
to go online and share their anger and frustration
with the entire world. Doesn't matter if they
have an informed opinion or not. Doesn't matter
if it's a biblical opinion or unbiblical. People
in churches today are out there mimicking the
world in the way that we divide the body of Christ.
And since our topic this morning revolves around
matters of division and worldliness, I did some
digging this week. I wanted to try to find the
top 10 reasons why Churches struggle with internal
conflict. I'm going to show you that list, and
they probably won't surprise you, but this is
basically what I found. Number one, pride and
self -centeredness. That's number one because
it's number one, right? Pride and self -centeredness,
that's the human condition. Spiritual immaturity
and poor emotional control. Number three, resistance
to change, right? We all love change. Number
four, abuse of power or authority by church leaders.
That's a problem. Factionalism in the body where
we group up, we click up and then oppose one
another. Miscommunication and then making false
assumptions about other people, about their motivations.
Members who are ambitious for power and control.
And working behind the scenes to grab that. Just
flat out communication breakdowns, number eight,
where we just don't communicate well. Number
nine, gossip, secrecy, and behind the scenes
campaigning. And then the icing on top of all
the cake is conflict that goes unresolved. All
these things taking place, but members and church
leaders failing to jump in and actually work
towards resolution. Now that is a pretty... depressing
list. But my guess is some of you are sitting
here this morning, you're like, ah, yep, I have
seen those things in churches that I've been
a part of in the past. And all those things are
on the radar of our elder team at Oak Hill. We
work hard to keep our fingers on the pulse of
the congregation so that we can guard against
those types of things seeping into body life
here. It's like a little leaven that gets into
the dough, right? It infects the whole batch.
And so our eyes are always peeled to make sure
these things are not happening. Here's the thing.
Each of those 10 issues has a very similar spiritual
root to it. And that's what Paul is going to
talk about in the text that we're going to look
at this morning. So grab your Bibles. We're going
to go to 1 Corinthians. We finished chapter 2
last week. Can you believe it? We are flying.
So we're actually in chapter 3 this week, but
we're going to start back in chapter 2 so that
we get the flow of the context. Paul is writing
about. So go to chapter 2. Last Sunday we were
deep into the concepts of two things. Ready?
Natural and spiritual men and women. Natural
and spiritual as it relates to general categories
of humankind. And we talked about the haves and
the have -nots as it's related to the Holy Spirit.
Okay, so look at chapter 2. Go back to verse
12. We'll read from there and you'll pick up
the flow as we go. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world,
but the spirit who is from God. So that, purpose
statement, so that we may know the things freely
given to us by God. Which things we also speak,
meaning the apostles, not in words taught by
human wisdom, but in words taught by the spirit
combining spiritual thoughts. With spiritual
words. And we talked last week about how he's
basically referencing the writing of the New
Testament there. Spiritual thoughts and spiritual
words, right? Words carried along by the Holy
Spirit. Verse 14. But a natural man does not
accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him. And he cannot, I'm going
to underline or highlight that word, cannot understand
them. We talked about moral inability last Sunday.
He cannot understand them because they are spiritually
appraised or spiritually evaluated. But he who
is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself
is appraised by no one. For who has known the
mind of the Lord that he will instruct him? But
we, speaking of those who have received the Spirit
of God, we have the mind of Christ. And praise
God for that, right? Now, let's go over to chapter
3, today's text. Paul continues this thought.
Mere men? Natural men? For when one says, I'm
of Paul, and another, I'm of Apollos, are you
not mere men? Are you not being natural men?
Verse five, what then is Apollos? And what is
Paul? Servants, through whom you believed, even
as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted,
Paul says, Apollos watered, but God was causing
the growth. So then neither the one who plants
nor the one who waters is anything, but only
God who causes the growth. Now he who plants
and he who waters are one, but each will receive
his own reward according to his own labor, for
we are God's fellow workers, and you, you Corinthians,
are God's field, God's building. Okay, as we
did last week, let's start with some important
definitions. Let's go back to verse 1. where
it says, I, brethren, cannot speak to you as
to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh. Now,
from the beginning to the end, Scripture talks
about... in general, two categories of people.
We touched on this last week. There are those
who know God and those who don't know God. There's
the regenerate and the unregenerate, the redeemed
and the unredeemed, those who are found in Christ,
and those because of their unbelief are enemies
of Christ, or as Paul has been talking about
here, natural and spiritual. So you see the words
up here, natural. Sukikos is a man or woman who
has still a corrupted nature as a descendant
of Adam, a person. who has not bowed to Christ,
cannot understand the things of the Spirit, and
is therefore driven by what? Self. The natural
man is always driven by self, his needs, his
wants, his desires, what pleases him. On the
other side, pneumatikos, we have the spiritual
man. That's a man or woman who's born again into
the righteousness of Christ, a new creation with
a new nature. We talked about that last Sunday,
a new nature. He's walking in the Spirit in full
communion with God. But now here in verse 1,
Paul provides... Provides us with what appears
to be a third category, a third word, right?
Men of flesh, sarkinos, in the Greek. And that's
an adjective that comes out of the basic Greek
word for flesh, which is sarx, fleshly, okay?
Now, over the years, there's been a number of
translations of that word. The old King James
used this real old -fashioned word. Some of you
know it. It's carnal, right? Carnal. The NIV
decided to get much more relevant and use the
word worldly. But because of that root word sarx,
I think the NAS has it right here. It's fleshly.
You are fleshly, meaning somebody who makes it
a habit to live for the desires of the flesh.
That is what marks their life. That is their
habit. They are driven by the flesh rather than
by the spirit. Now, here's the important thing
to understand. Although fleshly may sound like
Paul's giving us the third category of mankind,
it's really not. Fleshly is a subcategory of
believers and not in a good way. Men of flesh
is a subcategory of believers. and not in a good
way. Now, how do we know this is true? Well,
go back to who is it that Paul is writing to
in this letter? Do you remember what he called
them in chapter one? He said, to those who have
been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling.
Those are believers, right? He said, those whose
testimony concerning Christ is confirmed in them.
They're believers. And how does Paul address
them right here in this verse one? He calls them
brethren, brothers. So he's writing to them under
the assumption that they are truly redeemed in
Christ and that they have received the Holy Spirit.
However, he says, and you see it right there,
however, I cannot speak to you as spiritual men.
Now that might sound like a contradiction, right?
I cannot speak to you this way. Here's what he's
saying. Positionally, you belong to Christ. But
practically, You're controlled by your flesh
and not by the Spirit. And it's so important
for us to recognize those two different things.
We can be positionally found in Christ, yet practically
living for the world. And so he says, look, you're
not spiritual. And your worldliness is showing
up in your thinking. It's showing up in your
choices. It shows up in your actions and your
reactions to things. It shows up in the flawed
way that you... process through the things of
life. Think about that. Rather turning to Scripture
and the voice of God's Spirit within, what you're
doing is taking in all the ways that the world
sees things and letting that be your guide. And
we can all fall into this, right? We get so immersed
in the world and so not in the Scriptures that
we can sort of silence the voice of the Spirit,
see the way the world operates, and use that
as our guide. And you know why that's easy to
do? Because it's agreeable to our flesh to act
as the world does. So, because you're consistently
living in such a fleshly way, Paul says, I basically
have to address you as a group of unbelievers
to try to convict you of what you need to be
doing. Now, let's be clear on something. All
of us are guilty of, to some extent, of this
kind of fleshly living. In fact, in Galatians
5, we're told this explicitly. Paul says to believers,
I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify
the desires of the flesh. See the bifurcation
there? Walk by the Spirit and you'll avoid the
flesh. But he says then, for the desires of the
flesh... are against the Spirit. And the desires
of the Spirit against the flesh, these are opposed
to each other to keep you from doing the things
you want to do. What that tells us is there is
a battle raging within all of us. In every believer,
there's a battle raging within us. Now understand
this, this doesn't mean that the victory over
sin is somehow in question. Christ is seen to
that. We have the victory over sin and death.
And thank God that he's done that for us, right?
We've been granted his righteousness. We have
a new nature. We're not slaves to sin. We're
no longer under the control and domination of
sin. And now by the power of the spirit with
this new nature, we've been given the moral ability
to change and to resist temptation, to say no
to sin and to hear that voice of the spirit in
our conscience and respond to it. Again, the
natural man doesn't have that. He's unable to
do that, but we as believers can. But here's
the thing. There's a remnant of flesh in all
of us, right? Paul calls it the old man. It's
that old man or old woman from your past, right?
It's in all of us. We were once an atom, right?
And we built up a layer of sin in our hearts
and corruption in our souls. And a remnant of
that. and it's warring against the spirit within
us. And so there are gonna be times for the believer
where we feel the tug of the old ways. We feel
that old man rising up within us. And so we're
supposed to be in a process, Paul says, of putting
on the new man, who we are in Christ now, becoming
who God says we are, his child. And that's a
lifelong process, right? That is a lifelong,
we will all be doing this until we take our very
last breath on this earth. submitting to the
Holy Spirit, listening for his voice, obeying
his voice until God takes us home. Now, here's
the challenging thing. As somebody who does counseling,
this is a difficult thing. There are no two experiences
among believers that are the same when it comes
to this process of sanctification. I wish it
were so. I wish there were like this step -by
-step roadmap and guarantees that if you do all
these things, that your life is going to gradually
get cleaned up. But there is no one type fits
all Christian experience. It's a spectrum of
growth. It's a spectrum of maturity and obedience.
And it's going to be influenced by all kinds
of things in your life, things in your past and
things in your present. But the key question
to ask yourself, and if you've sat down for coffee
with me on this issue, you'll recognize this
phrase. The question we have to ask ourselves,
are we in the battle? Are you in the battle,
the battle being described in Galatians 5, where
the spirit and the flesh are warring? Are you
in that battle or have you surrendered? That's
what the spirit wants for us, that we're in the
battle. And if you are, praise God. If you are,
the victories are going to continue to grow as
you stay in that battle, even if it's not as
quickly as you'd like it to happen. You're going
to see victories over time. See, what Paul's
referring to here is not that thing. The Corinthians
are not battling. That's what he's concerned
about. They are not paying attention to the prompting
of the spirit within. They're doing the opposite.
They're turning back to their old ways. They're
turning back to the wisdom of the world. And
they're responding to things that are happening
in the church just like a fleshly, natural man
or woman would respond. And this is a concern
for him. And then Paul adds a second description
in verse one. He says, not only are you fleshly,
Your babies. Your infants in Christ, he says,
right? Look at the end of verse one. I can't
speak to you except as infants in Christ. He
says, I gave you milk to drink, not solid food,
because you weren't ready for it. You weren't
ready for it. Indeed, even now, you're still
not ready. Why? Because you're fleshly, he says.
Remember, how long had it been since Paul first
came to Corinth? It's been somewhere around four
years since he first came to Corinth and planted
that church. And then Apollos came in after him.
And they both taught, right? So he's like, there's
no excuse for you to still be an infant. Can
you imagine you sitting under the teaching and
discipleship of Paul and then Apollos and still
being an infant in Christ? How is that possible,
we ask, right? But it's happening. Now, Paul's
not being critical of that initial. stage of
gospel life because infants, they need time to
grow, don't they? We know that from the physical
world. So immaturity is expected when a person
first comes to saving faith. The issue is years
later, that hasn't changed. They're still immature.
They're still fleshly. They're still worldly
in the way they think about things. And this
is a red flag for Paul. See, steady spiritual
growth in life. should be natural and normal
for us as believers. If we have the spirit, we
should see that growth. If we're not seeing that
growth, that should be considered abnormal. And
in the case of Corinth, what was happening was
this lack of spiritual growth was now a little
bit of leaven that was getting into the whole
batch of dough and it was causing trouble in
the church. And can I just make an observation
about infants? They have a tendency to act out.
Parents, can I get an amen? Infants do as they
please. They act out in all kinds of challenging
ways, don't they? Infants in the home, spiritual
infants in the church are prone to getting into
all kinds of trouble because their thinking is
undeveloped. So they get in trouble. It shows
up in their attitudes, the way they respond to
people. It shows up in their choices. Infants
are, by nature, takers. You notice that? Your
infants don't give a lot back. I mean, they smile,
right? They're cute, but they're takers. Giving
back is not on their radar yet because they're
underdeveloped, and they often have trouble getting
along with other people, right? They have trouble.
Put a bunch of infants in a room, and what will
they do? Take things from each other, hit each
other, right? Why? Why do they do that? Because
in that stage of immaturity, they're completely
self -centered, like spiritual infants in the
church. They're self -centered. And anybody that
gets in the way of what an infant wants is probably
going to get an earful. The same is true of spiritual
infants. So the fleshly, immature character of
these Corinthian believers had first of all stunted
their spiritual growth, there was a disconnect
between what they were being taught and how they
were responding to it. Rather than hearing the
word being taught to them, rather than obeying
the conviction of the spirit within, they were
choosing to stay worldly in all of their thinking.
And I have to say, if you've done any counseling
in the church, you will recognize this pattern.
I've seen it so many times, I can't even count
it anymore. You sit down with somebody or you
sit down with a couple and you walk through basic,
just basic biblical principles that they should
know. They probably do know because they've either
read it themselves or they've heard it preached
and you teach them these things and then they
go home and they don't apply them. And you thought
you were really clear and the Bible was really
clear and they go home and they don't apply those
truths. And you realize they were listening but
they weren't really hearing. Why is that? Because
they're losing that battle within their heart.
They're losing the battle to the flesh. The flesh
wants what it wants. So even though they're nodding
their head, they're not fully committed to change.
They're not fully committed to walking in the
Spirit. Not fully committed, their hearts are
divided. Not fully committed to change their
thinking, to make new choices and create new
habits. Yeah, they were listening, but they weren't
hearing. And again, positionally, they're in
Christ. But practically, they're still spiritual
infants, and they will continue to make poor
choices and bring all kinds of trouble upon themselves
if they stay in that condition. And still, to
my amazement, they will then wonder, I don't
understand why this Christianity thing isn't
working for me. Right? Now, in verse 2, Paul
says to them, when I first came to Corinth, I
gave you milk to drink. Right? And that makes
sense. That's what infants need, right? They
need to build a foundation. But then he says,
shockingly, years later, you're still drinking
from that same bottle. You haven't graduated.
And the reason is, he says, because you're still
living according to the flesh. You're not responding
to the Spirit's leading. The milk that he's talking
about here is just the basic teaching about the
gospel. that is uniquely designed to take a sinner
who's been newly converted and start to drive
them down the path of understanding who God is
and what Christ has done for them. It's beautiful,
right? Paul's already talked about it in chapter
one. He called it the word of the cross. And
then he talked about it as Christ crucified.
But then solid food is the expanding on those
same truths, right? That's the amazing thing.
The word of the cross in Christ crucified is
still solid food. It's just expanding and going
deeper in those things, right? In ways that now
drive the believer away from pride and towards
humility. Because the person who has the spirit,
who is listening to the voice of the spirit within,
is moving away from self -centeredness and to
a greater desire to love God and serve others.
He or she is moving towards laying aside worldly
thinking. and cultivating a hunger for the truth
of God's word. They're moving towards a stronger
commitment to obey that voice of the spirit in
our conscience who reminds us of what God's word
has said. You know that voice, right? You know
that voice because you're like, oh, he speaks
to my heart and I know what's true. He reminds
me of what God has said. But that's the crossroads
of decision making, isn't it? It's not rocket
science, friends. I can't tell you how many times
people have asked me, Jeff, I don't understand
how to grow spiritually. It's not rocket science.
It's simply a willingness to cooperate with the
work of the Spirit, what He wants to do in your
life. Continuing to die to self, right? That
is a lifelong process. Continuing to say no to
the flesh, while at the same time, leaning into
the things that you and I both know is exactly
what God's will is for your life. You say, Jeff,
what is God's will for your life? Well, study
of his word, worship, prayer, fellowship, service,
obedience. We all know these things. We all know
these things. And trust me, that brief list I
just rattled off, you will never plumb the depths
of all that. Your entire life, you will never
plumb the depths, right? And the deeper you dive
into those things, both in knowledge and application,
the more fulfilling your walk with Christ will
be. Do you believe that promise? That if you
continue to have one foot in the world, that
you'll be more miserable? But if you continue
to bow your knee to Christ and submit to the
things that are clearly his will, that your life
will be so much better. And yet we don't make
those choices. And we have to ask the question,
why not? And maybe it just comes back to this.
Is this what you want? Do you want spiritual
maturity? Do you want to grow? Because you have
everything that you need to grow. God has made
sure you have every spiritual blessing to grow.
Do you want to grow? Do you want solid food?
Or are you just cool with staying on milk? That's
a decision of the will that you have to make.
If you want solid food, it is going to require
some things. It's going to require a change in
your thinking. Paul calls it the renewing of
your mind. You know, your body's never done anything
that your mind first didn't give it approval
to do, right? Like, oh, I'm doing this thing,
but my mind didn't say yes. It doesn't work that
way. It starts up here, right? I'm going to change
my thinking and let my body follow. So it starts
with the thinking. Then there's the intentional
decision of the will, committing yourself to
change, to application of biblical truth. Guys,
that doesn't happen magically. Sometimes we think
it's just going to happen. By accident, we're
going to stumble into maturity. It's magical
thinking. It takes a decision of the will. This
is what I want, Lord. And guess what? The Spirit
responds to that. Great. Let's go. And then third,
it takes growing in your relationship with the
Holy Spirit. Yeah, that means actual prayer.
That means actually listening to His voice in
your conscience. It means confession and repentance.
And it means trusting the Holy Spirit when things
get tough. Because, right, as we lean into the
things of God, what's going to happen? There's
going to be pushback. Because the Spirit and
the flesh war against each other. So when things
get tough, we trust the Holy Spirit that you're
doing things according to His will. It's interesting,
in Hebrews 5, I'll show you a verse here. This
process that I just talked about is actually
referred to practice and training. Look what
it says. For everyone who partakes only of milk,
is not accustomed to the word of righteousness,
for he is an infant. Same language in Hebrews.
But solitude is for the mature who, because of
practice, have their senses trained to discern
good and evil. Therefore, he says, leaving the
elementary teaching about the Christ, let us
press on to maturity. Can I drop a sports analogy
on you? I know some of you don't like that, but
I'm going to do it. Did you know that the most
successful athletes in the world, do you know
how they got there? It's not natural talent.
It's practice and it's training. They just worked
harder. And so this is one of the keys. Again,
if you've been hoping for magical thinking, like
maybe all this maturity will just magically appear
in my life. No. Hebrews says it takes training
and it takes practice. You've got to lean into
it. Again, it's a simple principle. Do you want
it? And listen, if you say, no thanks, I'm not
there yet, okay, I'm gonna stick with milk, I'm
gonna live according to the flesh instead of
the spirit, okay, I don't recommend it, but okay,
but please then don't wonder why you're not seeing
godliness happen in your life. Don't go back
and go, I don't get it, I don't see any fruit
of the spirit, I don't see peace or joy or contentment,
because I'm gonna point you back to this and
say, okay. Now, in verses three to four, Paul's
going to go on and talk about a couple of symptoms,
symptoms of fleshliness in the local church.
Here's what's happening in Corinth. He says,
for since there's jealousy and strife among you,
are you not fleshly? Are you not walking or behaving
like natural men? For one says, I'm of Paul.
The other says, I'm of Apollos. Are you not acting
just like unsaved, unbelieving natural men? Here's
what marked the infantile fleshly church in Corinth.
First Paul uses the Greek word zelos, which is
the standard Greek word for zeal, but in this
context, it refers to a contentious rivalry that's
marked by what the NAS says is jealousy, or the
CSB says envy. It's a description of what today
we call factionalism. We group up or we click
up into groups and then we oppose one another
in the same church family. if you can believe
it. And then the obvious result of factionalism
in the church is the second word, eris, that
he uses here, which means conflict, quarreling,
or strife. So this is the same proud boasting
that Paul talked about back in chapter one. I'm
on team Paul. Right? I'm on team Apollos. Right?
It's like a Hogwarts thing. It's just goofy.
It's just silly. Right? These are people acting
like bratty children. Bratty children. When what's
called for is pursuit of unity in the body for
the sake of Christ, for the sake of the kingdom
of God, and for the sake of the testimony of
the church in a city like Corinth. Right? Because
unity is one of those things that Christ has
promised us will be a testimony to the place
that we live in. And yet look what the Corinthians
are doing. Shameful. You're behaving like natural
men, Paul says. This is what unbelievers do,
without the Spirit. It's fleshly. So whenever
you see division in a church, it's because the
members of the body are acting out like spiritual
infants. They're having tantrums like an infant.
They want their way. I just want my way. I want
my church to be like I want it to be. Infants.
Tantrums, willing to lash out at others in order
to get their fleshly desires met. Selfishness
is the mother of all conflict and division in
the body of Christ. Fleshly people responding
in ways that mimic what happens in the world.
Have you seen the comment section on any post
on social media? It's abhorrent. But sometimes
we act like this in the church. May it never
be so. And dividing over the silliest things,
right? Have you noticed the types of things we
divide over? I mean, these guys are dividing
over who's better, Paul or Apollos. Really? Can't
we just be thankful for both of them? Again,
the implication is clear. If you're not growing
spiritually, if you're living a worldly life
with worldly thinking, don't be surprised. Don't
be surprised if you just want to stay on milk
that when something happens in the church that
you don't agree with, or you get hurt by, or
you don't think that should be happening, don't
be surprised that you end up acting out just
like the world does because that will be your
natural response because you're not listening
to the voice of the Spirit. Does that make sense?
I've seen it too many times in my ministry career.
So let's keep going. Let's dive deeper into two
things. Let's talk about church leaders. Yeah.
Church leaders. What is their relationship to
growth? Look at verse 5. What then is Apollos
and what is Paul? Just servants. Servants who
did a good thing, by the way. He says, servants
through whom you believed, right? We brought
the gospel. You believed through the word that
we gave you, right? As the Lord gave opportunity
to each one. As the Lord opened those doors.
I planted, Paul says, Apollos watered, but God.
But God. God caused the growth. So then, whether
we plant or whether we water, we're really not
anything. It's all about God who causes the growth.
So in the case of Corinth, Paul, remember, he's
the builder of that original church. He's the
planter. And then it was time for him to move
on. And Paul, like a good pastor, says, I'm not
going to leave you and just disappear. I'm going
to bring in this amazing teacher named Apollos.
He's going to shepherd you for a while. Both
cases, both of those men were intent on seeing
the church planted and watered and growing in
a healthy way. But, Paul says, it wasn't us causing
the growth. Can you see the difference? We just
work, but we don't cause the growth. As much
as we admire the apostles, growth is above their
pay grade. And we look at Paul and Apollos and
we're like, wow, these are amazing men. But only
God can cause growth. That's what he says here,
right? This is one of the reasons why back in
the day, if you were around in the church in
the 80s and the 90s, and there was, you could
go into a Christian bookstore lined with books
that were all on one thing, church growth. Every
Christian guru was writing a church book about
how you can grow your church. And I remember
thinking to myself, had they not read 1 Corinthians
3? How could they be so blind? But books sell,
don't they? But they all wrote these books, How
to Grow Your Church. And I'm thinking to myself,
if Paul and Apollo said they couldn't grow the
church, why would I think I could do it today?
And so I just sort of rejected the whole concept
wholesale. Now, that's not to dismiss that we
should lead churches in a way they're warm and
welcoming, right? That we should set the environment
in a church for growth to take place. But the
guys writing those books really did think that
if I just build a formula, I can guarantee your
church will grow. Imagine the chutzpah in that.
Right? The ego in that. Here's the formula. It
worked for me. It'll work for you. I guarantee
it. But at what cost? At how much compromise?
Will that work? And by the way, is putting people
in seats on Sunday morning, is that really spiritual
growth? By whose standard? Is it God's standard
or man's standard? Right? You see the problems
here? The key to a healthy philosophy of church
growth is right there in verse 6. Church leaders
plant in water. Faithfulness. To plant and to
water. That's it. That's your calling. Plant
and water. You're not called to spin a bunch
of plates and create all kinds of church programs
and activities to keep everybody excited. Plant
and water. Shepherd the flock that God has put
under your care, whether it's 50 people or 5
,000. Shepherd the flock. The numbers are for
God to determine, right? That's why at Oak Hill
we talk about we have open hands. Whatever God
desires for us, we want. 50 or 5 ,000. It's up
to God. And so we say over and over again, and
I hope you'll remember this mantra. It's not
about big church. It's about healthy church.
Whatever that number is, it's about healthy church.
That's what Paul's trying to get through here.
Now take note of two things that Paul says about
himself and Apollos. And I want every elder and
deacon here at Oak Hill to listen carefully to
this. He says, first, the core of your role is
to serve the body. We are servants, he says.
Because we serve the Lord as we serve the flock.
Now that doesn't negate other passages that speak
of, yeah, elders have real spiritual authority
in the local church. Deacons are called to high
service. And there is a need among the congregation
to esteem their leaders. All those things remain
true. But Paul says, ultimately, we are table
servants as elders and deacons. We are called
by God to particular roles according to his.
That's what Paul says here. You may notice the
assignment of God that is given to me is different
from Grant's assignment. And it's different from
Dave's assignment. Different from Glenn's assignment
or Connor's assignment. And thank God for that,
right? We all have different gifts and skills.
And it's the diversity of those gifts and skills
that God empowers and then brings together for
his glory and the good of his church. Right?
As each one is given opportunity. Paul says,
all we have to do is be faithful. Plant and water,
shepherd, right? And as he says there in verse
seven, if you compare us, me and the guys I just
mentioned, all of our elders and deacons, if
you compare us to God, we're not anything. We're
not anything, he says. We're really not anything
at all. Now that may sound a little bit offensive
because you're like, church leaders aren't nothing.
But what Paul's doing here, he's using hyperbolic
language. He's trying to bring the Corinthians
back to their senses, right? About how foolish
you are to put men on pedestals. How foolish
that is when it's God who's doing all the work,
but you keep lifting up us, people in the flesh.
Why are you doing that? Stop it. It's as if he's
saying, look, we're not heroes to be adored.
We're not infallible. We're not mistake -free.
We're not beyond stumbling ourselves. We are
servants of Christ with a particular calling
and gifting, and that is it. So don't break into
factions over us. We're really not that great.
And that should be the posture of every church
leader, what we see here in Scripture. And then
he says, important truth in verse 8, he who plants
and he who waters are one. They have the same
goals and purposes. We're one. And by the way,
this... extends to churches, like -minded churches
in a valley like Santa Clarita. We're not in
competition. We're one. We have the same goal,
the same purpose, to see people come to know
Christ and to grow and mature. He goes on, but
each will receive his own reward according to
his own labor, for we are God's fellow workers
and you are God's field and God's building. So
me and Apollos, every other church leader, Church
leader, our task is to build and plant and water.
And he says, we're fellow workers. That means
we're teammates. We're not in competition. Stop
doing that. Our ministries are one. We are actually
dependent on each other. Did you know that? I
can get up here and preach all day long, but
if the deacons aren't doing their jobs, we have
problems. It's true, right? And if the deacons
are doing the job, but I don't show up to preach,
we have problems. Our ministries come together
like this, right? We're dependent on each other.
We are one. We're combining our unique gifts
and striving for the same goals. So he says,
stop dividing over us. Stop it. Refocus your
eyes back on the Lord. We are simply workers
through whom you came to believe and through
whom you are now growing in maturity. So as the
analogy goes, I don't know if you've heard this
before, you can be thankful for the copper pipes
in your home, but it's the water that is life
-giving and refreshing, so don't focus on the
pipes. You'll figure that out if you listen to
it again, right? Because I'm just a pipe through
which things flow, but it's not about me. Okay,
there's so much more we could say about this.
Let me close by coming back to where we started.
Let me give you this list again. These are the
marks of the fleshly immature believer. These
are the things that cause conflict and drama
and division in the local church. Pride, self
-centeredness, poor emotional control, resistance
to change, factionalism, making false assumptions,
ambition for power, gossip and secrecy, unresolved
conflict. May the Lord protect each one of us
in this church from ever ever bringing harm to
the bride of Christ. Think about that for a second.
There are people in this church world that their
legacy is, I brought harm to the bride of Christ
out of pride because I wanted it my way. And
I brought harm to the church. Can you imagine?
Protect us from that, from acting out like spiritual
infants and then allowing any of these things
to seep into this local church family. May the
Lord protect us. And now to the other side of
that coin, let me take us back to, this is our
call to worship passage from earlier, Ephesians
4. And this is so instructive for us in the local
church. Here's what it says. God gave some to
the church. To be apostles, and some as prophets,
some as evangelists, and some as pastors and
teachers, and with this purpose in mind. See
it? He gave these offices and these workers,
right, for these reasons. To equip the saints,
that's you guys, for the works of ministry, for
building up the body of Christ, until we all
attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge
of the Son of God to mature manhood, To the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Guys,
this is God's will for every believer in this
room today. Right here. Being equipped to serve
everybody else in this room. Not to be served,
but to serve. To build up and strengthen this
local body in Christ. To reach a place of unity
with every other believer in this room. To find
a way to reach unity. Then to possess a deep
and abiding knowledge of Christ and what he's
done for us. Right? And to mature in the faith
to the point where you're experiencing the fullness
of what it means to be conformed to the image
of Christ. To be marching towards that until
your last breath. Towards maturity. That is God's
agenda for your life. Did you know that? Jeff,
what's God's will? What's God's agenda? Is that
your agenda? Ah, the question. Is that your agenda?
Or are you on a different path, a roundabout
path, right? Well, I'm partly committed to these
things, but not entirely. Still trusting in your
own wisdom, still with a divided heart, still
seeing things through the lens of the world,
still wanting to dabble in some fleshly pursuits
with one foot in the world and one foot in the
kingdom because you still think that those things
out there in the world are gonna satisfy you
and make you happy rather than seeing what God.
says will make you joyful. Paul goes on in Ephesians
4, he says, we're no longer to be children tossed
here and there, but rather, speaking the truth
in love, we're to grow up in every way. into
him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the
whole body, joined and held together by every
joint with which it is equipped, that's us, we
are joints in this building, when each part is
working properly, makes the body grow so that
it builds itself up in love. God's instruction
to every one of us, stop acting like spiritual
children. Stop it. Get off the bottle, lay aside
the flesh, grow up in Christ. so that you can
play a part, get this now, in the greatest mission
that you've ever been invited into. Did you know
this? You've been invited into the greatest mission
the world has ever seen, the building and strengthening
of Christ's church. And I know we don't often
see it that way because we've grown up in this
weird evangelical world where the professionals
do the work. We just come and we listen. That's
not the mission, to sit. You know, I won't make
fun of back row people. To sit in the back row
and just go, hey, get me a good cup of coffee,
make sure the music is good, right? And give
me a word for the day. You've been invited into
the greatest mission the world has ever seen,
the building and strengthening of the church
of Jesus Christ. I hope that's your agenda. And
if you're like, ah, that's a little harsh, Jeff.
This is not Jeff's word, this is God's word.
I'm just the copper pipe that's bringing you
the water. Amen? So we should remember, in conclusion,
salvation in Christ is a radical change. It's
a radical change in your identity, in your nature,
in your calling, and your purpose. It is not,
I repeat, it is not adding a little Jesus into
your life, which many of us were taught. It's
a radical change. It is a change from death to
life, you guys, from darkness to light. It's
turning from worldly things that you once thought
were so great and so precious to new affections
that when you figure those things out, they far
surpass the old ones. It's a radical change.
Salvation in Christ turns everything on its head.
Now, this takes time, okay? I want to give grace
to this. It takes time, but your worldview is
going to change over time. Your values, your
motivations, your priorities, everything. And
that means that if the Spirit is within you,
you're going to see over time a trajectory of
growth. Now, there'll be dips, ups and downs,
lefts and rights, but you'll see over time a
trajectory of spiritual growth. It's true that
we are saved by God's grace alone. But wherever
genuine faith is, there is also genuine godly
works. It should show up in your life. It has
to show up in your life. It has to. Otherwise,
we're going to question your faith. So while
a Christian can at times act out in fleshly ways,
it's not going to be something that marks his
or her life on a long -term basis. And we should
remember this as well. If you're found in Christ,
if the spirit's within you and you are rejecting
his voice, there's gonna be consequences. Can
I just share this because I love you guys and
I don't want life to be harder than it has to
be, but there will be consequences. God promises
to discipline those he loves. He disciplines
his children. He says, look, I've saved you.
I've given you every promise. I've given you
the spirit to help you. You've said no thank
you. So like a good father, he is gonna discipline
you. And that can be a painful process. There
can be temporal discipline, loss of blessings,
blocked prayer, the loss of the fullness of communion
with God. There can be despair and confusion
because I've said this before, the most miserable
people I know are Christians who are still living
with a foot in the world. It creates confusion.
It creates misery. Get your foot out of that
world, man. Listen to what God says. There could
be lost rewards in the life to come. That's coming
up in the rest of chapter three, the judgment
seat, the behemoth seat of Christ. There can
be loss of rewards. And finally, there can be
a loss of mission in the here and now where you
are so entangled by sin that you become useless
in service to the kingdom. So there are consequences
to failing to listen to this passage. Now, this
is no small issue, but let me encourage you.
Okay, because you don't want to end on that note,
right? That was rough. Let me encourage you with
two things. Because if you feel beat down today,
I hope not. I hope you feel convicted. I was.
I was convicted this week in this passage. Two
things. If you belong to Christ, even if you're
struggling with the flesh, even if you're struggling
with that, nothing can separate you from his
love. Did you know that? Not even your own waywardness.
can separate, nothing can snatch you out of his
hand. Man, claim that promise. Even as you start
to say, I need to confess and repent and move
towards the spirit, remember, he can't love you
anymore. He sent his own son to die for you.
He cannot love you more. If you belong to him,
he's always gonna faithfully call you back to
himself. It could be painful, but he will call
you back. And then let's remember the truth of
Romans 5 .20. Where sin abounded, grace abounded
all the more. It's our gracious God. In Romans
8 .1, if you're clothed with the garments of
righteousness in Christ, there is now no condemnation.
Do you believe that? Do you believe that God's
not always mad at you? I used to believe that.
That God was just always mad at me because I
always disappointed him. He's your father. He
loves you. So let's saturate our minds with the
word of God so that our thinking is renewed.
Let's practice and let's train our bodies for
this battle that lays ahead. And out of love
for God, out of gratitude towards Christ for
what he's done, let's walk by the spirit so that
we don't carry out the desires of the flesh.
Amen? Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, thank
you for loving us. As we live down here in these
bodies, it's rough. It's hard, Lord. We wrestle
with the flesh. We wrestle with the world and
the devil and yet, Lord, we know that you've
called us to something higher and you challenge
us with your word that this is real and that
there are consequences, but there's also great
blessings, Lord, for... Spiritual growth. And
so I pray, Lord, that you will seal these truths
in our hearts and minds, that we will pursue
spiritual maturities, pursue spiritual growth,
that we would lay aside the flesh. God, thank
you for your spirit. Thank you that you loved
us enough to send the spirit to be within our
inner man and to impact our hearts and minds
directly from within. That you've made us temples
where you reside. God, help us. Help us to lay
aside the flesh. Help us to die to self. Help
us to lean into the work you want to do in us.
Most of all for your glory, Lord, but also for
our good and for the good of this local church.
Thank you, God, for this passage. I pray for
my brothers and sisters this week that we'll
go back over it and we'll pray it through, Lord,
and be convicted all over again. And then strive
to know you deeper. Thank you for this church.
Thank you for your word, Lord. We love you. In
Christ's name we pray.