You are invited to stop relying on your own strength and instead fix your eyes on Jesus who strengthens you. When you face frustration or division, choose to lay down your preferences and embrace the power of the cross which is love. Let your faithfulness flow from your relationship with Him rather than your own efforts.
Okay. So we're gonna dive in to Corinthians, and I just want to, I wanna pray before we do. And I want you guys just to pray with me. Just ask the Lord to open your ears that you would hear. So, father God, I just thank you for who you are.
I thank you for your goodness. *Lord* God, in the midst of all of this, I pray that we can open our ears to hear what you have to say, cutting out all the distractions. Lord God, father, for me, I can't preach a message that will change anybody's life, but you can. And so and you're in me. So what I ask you to speak, and I ask you to to move.
*Lord* God, I just thank you for your goodness in who you are. Amen. Amen. I'll Amen. "God is good".
I love cars, but if we could not do the car, that that would be great for me. Alright. *1 Corinthians-1*. We're gonna pick up where we left off in verse 8. It says, he will also keep you firm to the end so that you will be *blameless* on the day of our Lord Jesus.
Who will keep you firm? He will. God will keep you firm. When your focus is on you and what you can and what you can't do, you will always be on shaky foundation. No matter what's going on in life, if you learn to take the focus off of you and put it back on him, you will you will be on firm foundation.
That's the **"fight of faith"** is taking our eyes off of the the distractions and off of the circumstances and off of everything that's trying to get us to lie to ourselves about what is real and what's not real and putting our eyes back on Christ and who he says that we are, who he is, and knowing that he's Lord over the circumstance. That's the fight. The fight of faith is believing what he says over what we see. Amen? When you stand on what he says over what we see, we see the supernatural impact the natural.
And we get to we get to see the fruit of relationship with him impact every aspect of our lives. He will also keep you firm to the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. Everybody say God is faithful. You know what faithful means?
When I don't know what a word means or when I think I know what it means, but I don't know exactly what it means. I go to I go to Safari on my my phone. I'm an Apple iPhone guy. If you're not, I'm sorry. It's okay.
And I I just pull up *faithful* Webster just because I like Webster's dictionary. And I literally Google it. I'm telling you this for a reason so that you can do the same thing. So that you can words are important. So you can grow not just in understanding a little bit about what you've always thought faithful meant, but exactly what faithful means.
There's a reason that translators use the word faithful. Steadfast in affection or allegiance. Firm in adherence to promises or an observance of duty. Given with strong assurance. True to the facts to a standard to the original.
God is faithful. There's an obsolete definition that is not obsolete at all. It's funny that it says it's obsolete. Number 5, it says "full of faith". Faithful is full of faith.
Those that are full of faith are faithful. Bible here says, God is faithful. God is full of faith. But he doesn't have faith in you. God doesn't have faith in you.
God doesn't have faith in me. God has full faith in Jesus Christ. He is full of faith in his son and in the finished work of Jesus Christ and the power that it has to change our life and to conform us into his perfect will. God is full of faith in what Jesus can do in and through you. And so if that's who the father has faith in, that's who we should have faith in.
In every circumstance, in everything, our our faith and our focus should be fixed on Jesus Christ. I don't have faith in myself. That's very counterintuitive to what the world says. Common logic in the world says, hey, you know what? You can do it.
Self focus, this self help, all this stuff. No. No. I don't have faith in myself. I have faith in Jesus to work his goodness and his will in me.
And it's biblical. The Bible doesn't say I can do all things through my effort who strengthens me. I I can do all things if I try harder in order to do it, then I can do it. It's not what it says. It says I can do all things through who?
Through Jesus Christ who strengthens me. It also goes on to say, Jesus actually said, apart from me, you can do Nothing. Nothing. No thing. Nothing that lasts.
If if you can you can try look, I could try from myself and maybe build a ministry that looks like it's helping a lot of people. But if it's from me, it's gonna burn. It's not gonna matter. It's only gonna be a monument to myself. But if it's from Christ, it will last for eternity.
I want to have my mindset in every area of my life with Christ as a sinner and full of faith in what the father has faith in. That's Jesus Christ. Amen? Apart from me, you can do nothing. God is faithful who has called you into *fellowship*.
Everybody say fellowship. Fellowship. With his son, Jesus Christ, our lord. Fellowship is friendship. It's a relationship.
When you have faith, when you are full of faith in Christ, then in every relationship that Jesus has called you to be in *fellowship* every every relationship that Jesus has put you in, you will be faithful to. You will you will miss out on your faithfulness if your faith is in yourself. But in everything Jesus has put you into fellowship with, you will be faithful if your faith is in Christ. Let me give you an example. Like, in anything that you're having in in any relationship where you where you have trouble showing the love of Jesus, where you have where you have trouble exemplifying his character nature, or really any area of your life where you have trouble walking it out for Christ.
He this is how you do it. When I when I go home after a long day, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I I do a lot of meetings. Tuesdays, usually meetings with people outside the church. Wednesdays, usually with meetings Meetings with people inside the church like discipleship, that kind of stuff. You know, and and sometimes in those meetings, it doesn't always go amazingly, right?
Sometimes, dealing with people who have problems or this or maybe people just don't like me. You know? And and so they're saying, I don't like this and I don't like that. And and so things can sometimes get frustrating. You ever you ever had a frustrating day at work?
Anybody? Was it just me? You realize your your pastor can have a frustrating day at work? There's nothing in here that gives us the right to be frustrated by the way. When you're frustrated, you're focused on what you're getting or what's being done to you instead of who Jesus is and what he's done for you.
Or what you're not getting. So let's say that I feel that frustration and I pull my car up to my parking spot at home, and I know that I have 4 amazing children that are in that house waiting to say, daddy's home. Yay. Waiting for me to walk in and be an amazing father. We didn't practice that.
And I have an amazing wife who's waiting on me to walk in and carry my load, which is loving her and to love her well. And if I remain in that mindset of frustration, then when I walk in, what's gonna touch my kids and my wife? Frustration. And it's gonna impact the atmosphere of my home. Right?
And if I try with all my might to not be frustrated, does that work? So here's what I do. And I wanna I wanna give you this this tool so you can do it in every area of your life. Any area where you're having trouble overcoming addiction, overcoming an issue, or not loving well, here you go. I sit in my car before I go in when that's the case.
I do this not just going to my house, my family, but before a meeting or whatever. *Lord, I can't love* my kids well. I can't do it, but you can. I ask you to love my kids. You're the best father anyone could ever have.
So I ask you to father my kids and use me to do it. My eyes are on you. Jesus, I can't love my wife well. I'll fail. But you love your bride so well, the church.
So Jesus, I ask you to love my wife through me. My eyes are on you. *Grace* empowers. So I I put my focus on him. My faith is in him.
Guess what? We're saved by grace through faith. So as I reorient my whole focus and and faith, his grace empowers me to be what I couldn't be on my own and to do what I couldn't do on my own. And I end up loving my kids so well. And I end up loving my wife better than I ever could because Christ is loving her and them through me.
And I get the benefits. How beautiful is that? Every relationship. *Love*. He empowers us to love.
What is love? Think about it. What what is love? We've talked about it. We had messages on it.
But I'm gonna remind you today. What is love? In 1 John-3:16. Actually, I'll just flip there so I don't get a word wrong. Says this is how we know what love is.
Jesus Christ laid his life down for us, and we ought to "lay our lives down" for our brothers and sisters. So love is Jesus Christ laid his life down for us. He does. We're about to talk about that. Love is *sacrifice* Jesus sacrificed himself for our benefit.
That's what love is. So love is sacrificing yourself for the benefit of someone else. Everybody say it. Love is Sacrificing myself Sacrificing for the benefit of someone else. That's the easiest.
It's not as ooey gooey feeling. That's infatuation. It's good. Infatuation is a lot of times a part of love, but that's not love. Love is sacrificing yourself for the sake of someone else.
That's love. Period. So I, Tripp, I'm gonna tell on you. You know, Tripp and the girls here, they love playing on their iPads. And and sometimes, Trip, you know, he's 10 years old.
And sometimes he phrases things in a way just to to get what he wants. You know? Maybe take advantage of a situation, if you will. Selah said, that's my brother. Well, I caught him doing that, and, I wanted to correct him.
So I I said, son, you're not loving them well. I said, do you know what love is? He said, not really. I said, love is sacrificing yourself for someone else. And I had him repeat it just like that.
*Love* is I said, so who loves you? And he looked at me. He thought about it for a second because he got it. He said, you do, dad. I said, how do how do you know I love you?
How how do I love you? He said, because you sacrificed your time to spend with me. That made me smile. But then I turned it on him. I said, well, now who do you love?
And I said, want you to go think about it for a little bit. But turn it around on you. *Love* is sacrificing yourself for the sake of someone else. Who do you love? Do you love your spouse?
Or are you just so used to what they do for you that you stay with them? Does that make sense? I'm not saying you need to leave them. I'm saying love them. *Sacrifice* yourself for their sake.
*Sacrifice* your time, your talent, your what's important to you to build them up regardless of if they do it or not for you. *Covenant*, the Bible's all about covenant. It's not I'm doing for you so that you'll do for me. That's selfishness. That's not love.
*Love* is I'm laying my life down for you because God laid his life down for me. I've received from him, and I'm full in my relationship with him. And so because I'm full and because I've seen what he's done, I can lay my life down for you. So do you love your wife? If you do, answer, how do you love your wife?
How are you loving your wife? And if that's an issue to answer, well, ask the Lord. God, you can love my wife. My eyes are on you. I submit to your leading.
Not just your wife, your your husband. Women, do you love your husband? How do you love your husband? Do you love your kids? How are you loving your kids?
How are you sacrificing yourself for their betterment? Do you love your parents? Yes. They do. But it doesn't just go there.
Like, do you love Jesus? Remember worship? I'm a "living sacrifice". I'm laying my life down for you to lift you up for your betterment, to follow your will. Why?
Because you first laid your life down for me, so I've received what love is. Now I'm loving you back. How are you loving Jesus? Just just think about it for a minute. Well, I wanna grow in loving Jesus.
See, a lot of people, they come to church. They've been going to church for 20 years, 30 years, and they've become Christians. But it's still all about what I can get from Jesus instead of loving him back. Oh, thank you so much. She's loving me.
For my betterment. It's beautiful. A relationship requires 2 parties to love. We have a relationship with God. God laid his life down.
For God so loved the world that he sent his 1 and only son. Right? Jesus laid his life down for us. And then we respond in loving him back. That doesn't mean in marriage and in your relationships you say, you're not loving me.
You're not laying your life. That means your focus is still on you. We don't love so that we can get love back. We love just to love because we've been loved here. A lot of times if you're genuinely loving, you're teaching someone else how to do it.
Amen? Alright. So God is faithful who has called us into *fellowship* with his son. Jesus Christ. Now, **fellowship with his son**.
So we have relationship with Jesus. But hey, we have relationship with Jesus. What do I mean there? You realize when Paul, before he was Paul, we talked about him being Saul. And he he persecuted the church.
He was killing Christians and putting him in jail and beating him. And Jesus himself appeared to him on the road to Damascus and he said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Wait a second. Saul wasn't persecuting Jesus. Jesus was already in heaven.
Saul was persecuting the church. And Jesus equated the church to himself. Why do you persecute me? You don't understand how important it is to be in *fellowship* with the local body of Christ. To some of us Jesus would appear and say, Saul, Saul, why do you neglect me?
For those that say, don't need the church. I'm just I'm I'm out here by myself worshiping Jesus and I don't need organized religion. Yes, you do. God created us to be in fellowship with another. And by being fellowship with the body of Christ, we're in fellowship with Jesus.
To be out of fellowship with the body of Christ is to be out of fellowship with Jesus. First John says, when you walk in the light as he is in the light, you will, everybody say will, have fellowship 1 with another. To neglect that is to neglect fellowship with Christ. How are you loving Jesus? Sacrificing yourself for the church and personally in your relationship with him.
Now look, if if you're just visiting here from another church, praise the Lord. That's awesome. Go and love your local church that God has called you to be a part of next Sunday better than you ever could. And if this is your church, man, praise the Lord. Let's let's love the body of Christ here together so that we can impact Pinellas County better than ever before.
Amen? She want Eden wants to preach with me. I *love* you too. See, she just makes me feel good so I can keep going. Okay.
*1 Corinthians-10*. I mean chapter 1 verse 10. I hadn't taken it. I really did need this. Thank you so much.
*1 Corinthians-1:10. I appeal to you brothers and sisters. So he's talking to believers*. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all everybody say all. All of you agree with 1 another in what you say.
I just wanna stop there. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So in order for all of us to agree with 1 another in what we say, we have to have the same thing in our heart. Now if we've given our lives to Jesus, then he's given we're new creations in Christ Jesus. He's given us a new heart and put his spirit in us.
So to the extent that we're submitting to him as our Lord out of the abundance of the heart, our mouth will speak and we'll be in unity in what we say. Does that make sense? Okay. The the cars, everything's great, but the cars are just really distracting to me. I apologize.
Okay. I appeal to you brothers and sisters in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree with 1 another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be "perfectly united" in mind and thought. So no division. The only way to have no division in a group of people is for the people to love 1 another. And that's not the ooey gooey feeling.
Loving 1 another is sacrificing yourself for the sake of someone else. If everybody in a group of people is sacrificing themselves for the sake of each other, there will be no division. It's not you need to do this for me. No. It's what how can I sacrifice myself for you?
It's not they're not doing this for me. It's how can I sacrifice this for you? In James it says that evil, every bit of evil and disorder, quarreling, it all comes from envy and selfish ambition. Selfishness. Anytime that there's an argument or a division, it's the product of selfishness, and there is no selfishness in love.
There is no self seeking in love. Love is not self seeking. *1 Corinthians-13*. Period. What is envy?
Envy is saying, I want what you have. What is selfish ambition? It's saying my thoughts, my preferences, my desires, I want to promote them over you so that people can see me. Envy, selfish ambition. Every disorder, every bit of disorder and evil and every argument you've ever been in is the product of selfishness.
Either on the other person or on you for for just, you know what, walking away or letting go of the selfishness and submitting 1 to another. Ain't that tough? But it's good. It's biblical. Now, if you if you're thinking about somebody else now and, oh man, I can't believe they're doing that.
Will it take the take the plank out of your own eye before you take the stick out of somebody else's? Amen? Owe me? Owe me sometimes. Honestly.
Okay. And then that little phrase, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. How is that possible? Like, it wouldn't be in here if it wasn't possible. I believe that every word in this book is possible by the power of God.
He said, all things are possible. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's not possible in and of yourself to be perfectly you minded in, united in mind and thought. But it is possible. Watch this.
*1 Corinthians-2*, the end of chapter 2. It says, we, but we have the "mind of Christ". How many of you heard that before? You heard that? We have the mind of Christ.
How many of you heard it and didn't understand what it meant? A lot of my life. But we we have the mind of Christ. What are you talking about? Do you know some of the stuff I think about?
Like, how could this be the mind of Christ? That's how I used to think. Right? But we have the mind of Christ. How is that possible?
Well, I'll tell you. *1 Corinthians-2:9* says, however, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things god has prepared for those who love him. Now, lot of people just stop there. Oh, what Noah has seen, what no ear has heard, what no mind has conceived. Well, that's that's true.
That though these are the things God has prepared for those who love him. That's that's true. But in verse 10, the very next sentence, it says, these are the things God has received revealed to us by his spirit. Everybody say by his spirit. That's the Holy Spirit.
He wants to reveal to us what no eye has seen, what no mind has conceived, human mind has conceived. He wants to reveal to us what no ear has heard. He wants to reveal to us by his spirit what God has prepared for those, for us and others who love him. The Holy Spirit wants to reveal it. How does he do it?
The spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. Are you guys getting something out of this? Okay. We'll keep we'll keep diving in. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them?
In the same way, no 1 knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. Okay. Your spirit knows your thoughts. In the same way, the spirit, the holy spirit of God knows the thoughts of God. Watch this.
What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God so that we may understand what God has freely given us. There it is right there. You've received when you were born again. You were sealed with the Holy Spirit inside of you so that you could have relationship with the Father. So that the Holy Spirit could communicate to you the very thoughts of the Father towards you and towards those he loves around you.
And guess what? For God so loved the world, he loves everybody. He wants them to receive his love. And he wants to use you to show what he thinks about them through the way you speak and the way you act. How cool is that?
So here's the thing. If you're a born again Christian, you have his spirit in you. You can know the thoughts of God. You have the mind of Christ. And I'm a born again Christian, and I have his spirit in me.
And I can know the thoughts of God and have the mind of Christ, then to the extent that we get out of ourself and submit to what he's doing and what he's leading and say what he says, that's the extent that we'll be on the same page. That's the extent that there'll be no division. That's the extent that we will be perfectly united in mind and thought. I can't tell you how many times I've called Gabriel Mullens. And I said, hey, man.
I was thinking about this, this, and doing this with the church. And he said, man, I was just praying about that 3 days ago. God showed me that very same thing. How is that possible? He's got the same spirit.
The same spirit that's in him is in me. I can't say how many times he'd call me and say, man, I was thinking this and this and this. And and I was like, man, 2 or 3 days ago, God showed me the same thing. Like, how many times do you do I preach and the songs line up exactly with the message? We didn't do that on purpose.
There's perfect unity in mind and thought when we're to the extent that we're submitting to his lordship in our thoughts. No divisions in him. Period. Now guess what? Why is Paul writing this to to the Corinthians?
Remember, Corinth was a city in Rome that was like this weird combination of New York City, Las Vegas, and New Orleans. We got kids in here, so I'll just leave it at that. And just a couple years before he wrote this letter, he planted a church there. There's a bunch of brand new baby Christians in the city of Corinth. So there's a bunch of brand new baby Christians that don't understand what it means to live a life in unity and in maturity laying our lives down for 1 another.
We have to learn that. We're new creatures, new creations in here, but we have to learn how to think like he thinks. Renewing our mind day in and day out. So Paul wrote it. He actually told them.
*1 Corinthians-3:1*, he says. I mean, and and just remember, they're winning new believers. New believers are coming in, babies in Christ Jesus, a lot of habits of the old way. So that's it's messy. And I told you guys this the last 2 Sundays in a row.
I want our church to be messy. I don't want it to be perfect. Because if it's perfect, that means we're not winning new people for Jesus. I want new baby believers all the time. People coming here that are so far from God, don't know him, and they experience the love of Jesus.
Give their life to him, and now they need to learn what it looks like to live for Christ. You know what happens when you give a baby sitting in a high chair food? The mess gets everywhere. All over the face, all over everybody who's near, and all over the floor. Is that a bad thing?
No. They're learning to eat. What do the mature people do? They clean up the mess and give them more food. This is food, guys.
Christians, as long as we're maturing in Christ Jesus, we're make a mess of this sometimes. You know what we do? When we recognize the mess, we help clean it up, point them back to Christ, get them back in the word. Amen? If there's no mess, there's no growth.
Okay. Oh, I I was gonna share share with you. Brothers and sisters, 1 Corinthians-3, I could not address you as people who live by the spirit, but as people who are still worldly mere infants in Christ. And he says that they're infants because there's jealousy and quarreling among them. So we act like infants when there's jealousy and quarreling among us.
People are gonna say, I'm all mature. But if you're quarreling with somebody, you're acting like a little baby. We lay our life down to help others to be mature. Amen? Alright.
I'm almost done. Really. I really am. My brothers and sisters, verse 11. Some of you are from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.
And this is 1 Corinthians-1:11. What I mean is this, 1 of you says, "follow Paul", another I follow Apollos, another I follow Cephas, still another I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?
I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaeous so that no 1 can say that you were baptized in my name. Yes. I also baptized the household of Stephanus. Beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anybody else. For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel.
So he's going on and on because the Corinthians, you know, some were saying, follow apostle, I follow this guy and I follow that guy and I follow this guy. You know, back then there wasn't a bunch of denominations. Now, do you realize there's 40 over 42,000 denominations of Christianity around the world? Over 42,000 denom divisions I mean, denominations of Christianity around the world. Isn't that is Christ divided?
Like, is there a just like Paul said, is there a separate set of truths for the Southern Baptist and a separate set of truths for the assemblies of God and a separate set of truths for the Pentecostal, you know, this denomination of that Pentecostal and that denomination or separate set of truths for the Methodist or a separate set of truths. No. There's 1 truth. His name is Jesus Christ. And Jesus is here as we grow in our understanding and our submission to him as Lord.
We'll let all of the crazy preferences of what color the carpet is and how the music is and how this is that and how this is that that separated a lot of those denominations. We'll let them all fall by the wayside in order to love 1 another and unify with 1 another in Christ Jesus, and we'll be unified. And guess what? Jesus prayed in John-17, father make them 1 as we are 1 so that the world would know. The denominations help the world to not know who Jesus is.
But when we unify in Christ, man, we show the world more clearly the love of Jesus. When we lay down our preferences and everything that that we think it should be this way and this way in order to unify with someone else under Christ Jesus as Lord, man, the world comes to know Jesus. Now I want that's what I amen. That's what I wanna be a church that's known for. You better never catch me talking bad about the bride of Christ.
You better never catch me talking bad about another church because it's his bride and it's divisive. And the bible says actually "warn a divisive person" once, warn them a second time, and have nothing to do with them after that if they're a believer. So if you ever catch me being divisive, you better warn me. Warn me again and have nothing to do with me. And guess what?
If I catch you being divisive, same thing. Because it's his bride. All these rumors going around about this pastor and that pastor and this church and that church, it's demonic. Stop it. And if you've been a part of it, repent.
Amen? Alrighty. Praise the lord. Last but not least, For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. Baptism is important, guys.
Very important. But I don't have to baptize everybody. The way we do it at this church, if you've won somebody to Jesus and you're disciple them, you get to baptize them. Paul had a bunch of different people baptizing. I don't have to be the center of the show.
*Christ* is. And man, it's multiplication of who he is and what he does. That same spirit's in you. Amen? Okay.
Not with wisdom and eloquent lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. What does it mean? He didn't the holy spirit didn't send to preach with wisdom and eloquence lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. What is the power of the cross? That's the result of the cross.
It's not the power of it. What's the power of the cross? My son got it. The power of the cross is love. What did Jesus do?
He laid his life down for us. Jesus is *love. God is love. And love sets us free. It's not not the ooey gooey, you know, I'm gonna support you in all of your mess, you know, and and not not confront you with truth*.
No. Love love confronts people with truth. Because love sets free and truth sets free. So confronting someone with truth and love is setting someone free. Right?
The power of the cross is love. What Jesus did on the cross has the power to change your life from the inside out so that you can then follow him. Jesus said, the first thing to be my disciple is pick up your cross. Deny yourself, pick up your cross, follow me. That's what it looks like.
That's what it takes. The power of the cross is love.