Well this morning we turned back to first grant in 16 and guess what we finished today Can you believe it? We've been studying this letter all year long, and we're now at the end of chapter 16 and next Series by the way will take us it's a short book It's Micah and we'll be studying it through the season of add-in and into the first couple of Sundays of January But before we go into our next study, but we conclude first grant ends and you remember last week those of you who are here That with all the issues that the Apostle was dealing with in Corinth and they were massive and they were huge problems and and very very difficult Problems he closes with issues of stewardship. He says please set aside and save up Your gift so that we can send it out but when I come to be with you He tells them to plan their giving plan to love the Lord through your financial Stewardship and he says it's for the purposes of the poor and for the purposes of advancing the kingdom all around the world Now he's got to talk about a second issue of stewardship as we begin with verse 10 Not just stewardship of resources, but stewardship of relationships and as we read this text Look at all the relationships that he mentions here and he before he closes out this letter He reminds them of all these relationships and therefore reminds them that they are stewards They are managers of a gift God has given them God has given this financial resources He's given us relational resources and we are to be the managers of both and of all so to the end that we might understand and believe and Follow his word let us look to him in prayer Gracious Lord Jesus Christ who loves us and gave yourself for us as the best gift of all We pray that we may learn increasingly how to steward resources Placed into our lives and this morning especially we pray that we may Understand the meaning of relationships that you have given to us that we may be faithful and honor and glorify you and Love even more every day how to love one another Speak O Lord for your servants listen Amen First Corinthians 16 verses 10 through 24 hear the word of God If Timothy comes see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you For he is carrying on the work of the Lord just as I am No one then should refuse to accept him Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me. I am expecting him along with the brothers Now that our brother of Paulus I strongly urged him to go with the brothers He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity Be on your guard Stand firm in the faith Be men of courage be strong Do everything in love You know that the household of Stephanus were the first converts in a kea and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints I urge you brothers to Submit to such as these and to everyone who joins in the work and labor's at it. I Was glad when Stephanus Fortunatous and a kea kiss arrived because they have supplied what was lacking from you for they refreshed my spirit and yours also such men deserve recognition The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord and so does the church that meets at their house all The brothers here send you greetings greet one another with a holy kiss I Paul write this greeting in my own hand if anyone does not love the Lord a curse beyond him come O Lord The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you My love to all of you in Christ Jesus Amen Oh men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field the grass withers and the flowers fall But the word of our God stands forever. Amen
30 years ago a couple We're living together They were hippies you'll remember the description in 1970 He had a very long rady hair and She had tied eye t-shirt and they both wore bedraggled bell bottoms remember those and They lived together for two years and now Laney they were Sid and Laney Laney the woman young woman was pregnant They went out into the woods to camp together and on the way they came across a little country church a Little conservative country church in a very conservative county and a very conservative state and They said when it be nice to get married in the little country church. We've heard about that So they go in and they meet this nice conservative pastor and ask if he'll marry them and to be quite honest about it He was irritated by the whole proposition and he thought he could get rid of them easily by saying well look if if you come to church on Sunday Then after church. I'm area To his absolute amazement. They ended up on the front rowing church on Sunday And so they went through the church service and After the little church of dismissed and people were making their way out the door Sid and Laney came up to the communion table and said well, we're ready One of the members in this little church figured out what was going on There's going to be a wedding in just a few minutes and before you know it 30 of the people had come back into the sanctuary the little chapel And they had a wedding service and Then one of the women She had been married 25 years that week to her husband Jack a mildred said To the young hippie couple where you all going on your honeymoon and they say well I don't know I guess camping up in the trees or something and she said well, you can't go on your honeymoon without a reception So you come over to my house and we'll have a reception and she gathered up these 30 people and they gathered up a few more and before you know it Everybody brought potluck and they had sandwiches and salads and then for dessert. They had Jack and Mildred's Top layer of their 25th anniversary cake and that was a wedding kid And before you know it they were there for six hours having this reception before evening church I say before evening church. You see they went to evening church all of them so they They didn't go beyond six hours. They went to evening church. You see evening church and so six hours and sit and lady were on their way Dear friends isn't that Not only a true story, but isn't absolutely gorgeous. Isn't it wonderful? How can that happen what you see in what the Apostle is telling these folks in First Corinthians and his letter to them He's saying don't forget your relationships Embrace all of your relationships remember that just as your dollars and cents in your bank accounts and your car And your boat and your house and all your possessions are Gifts from the Lord that you're supposed to manage the same way with the relationships. You may not have chosen all of them You didn't choose your parents did your kids Of course not. I don't want to know if you do it over again I just want to you know you're given those parents and you know You didn't choose every relationship in your life in the church for sure and sometimes you say you know But chose nothing I've done a better job But we're given relationships and we are to manage them like good stewards now I'd like you to look at at three aspects of this text as before us and the first thing I'd like for us to do It's just simply list the relationships Embrace the relationships that God has given us that's what he's showing them You'll find in verses 10 through 12 and then 15 through 21 You'll find a total of eight individual relationships and four group relationships for which these people were responsible And to which they were to respond now in these individual relationships you have Timothy and Apollos and verses 10 through 12 You then have And you in verse 15 and the verse 17 stephenus for tenetus and a Kayakus and Then you have in verse 19 you have Aquila and Priscilla and then in verse 21 You have Paul himself and then of course 24 Paul himself here are eight individual relationships Now you'll notice that these relationships are relationships with leaders and servants in the church And what the Apostle is saying is you're responsible for your relationship at least you're part of it with the leaders and the servants in the church and you say yeah, they didn't know our leaders in servants Folks there aren't too many times in the Bible that I can say you know these people were worse than we are but this is a true case These people are actually worse than we are can you believe it and I can guarantee you their their leaders We're better than we are but the people were worse and So let's look here and see how they dealt these people with their leaders who were far from perfect Let's look at first of all the leaders the Apostle Paul knows how to empower leaders He takes Timothy who was a young timid man We know who had a Quizy nervous system in fact the Apostle Paul had to tell him on one occasion look Timothy if you have an art time going to bed at night Take a little wine for the stomach. You know calm things down. He was nervous. He was young He was timid and the Apostle basically says two things to these folks in verses 10 and 11 first of all don't scare him And secondly accepting will you And I'm risking letting my young Timothy come to you and I know how you folks are Would you please be nice to this man and don't scare the bejabbers out of it? And someone has once said that Leadership is simply the ability to hide your panic from other people And I think there's some truth to this, but he says don't make him hide too much You know Your leaders are wonderful people. I really enjoy living life with them Week in a week out, but they ain't perfect and I know that because I know I'm myself and far from perfect and I remember what Woodrow Wilson once said he said that one of the surest proofs of the divinity of our gospel is the preaching that it has endured three years and It's true and you know You'd sometimes you'd rather have anything but but a preacher in your life I remember the story about a princess walking along the road one day. She saw little frog there and The frog looked up and said kiss me and I'll become a young handsome kind and lovable Presbyterian preacher So she reached over and picked up the frog and stuck in her pocket and the frogs said what? Why do you send me your pocket? If you kiss me, I'll become a young handsome kind and lovable Presbyterian preacher and she said I'd rather have a cute little frog. Thank you And that most people would prefer that I think but you know what the apostle is saying is it's not just the preachers It's not just the elders and the deacons and the Sunday school teachers who were sinners, but it is all of us who are sinners And sometimes we don't relate as we ought to the leadership of the church. Can you really say that it's a joy? For anyone to lead you Do you make it a joy? Well, I can tell you from personal experience you do. I feel like I'm carrying coal to Newcastle But what about all the leaders? Do you make it a joy for your Sunday school teacher a joy for your Bible study leader a joy for the Deacon who's seeking to serve you a joy for the For the elder in your life. Is it a joy? It's supposed to be I heard tell of the story of you perhaps have heard this too and the church was gathering to make a building decision It was whether to have chandeliers in in the sanctuary and one man said I arrived to speak against chandeliers Number one nobody here can spell it Number two nobody here knows how to play one and Number three what we need in this place is some lights And you know sometimes people just get it in their hearts that they're supposed to oppose everything and what you find is that the Apostle is saying about Timothy Look, you may not be very impressive You may be even less impressive than I says the apostle But you treat him kindly because he's doing the work of the Lord in fact He's doing the same work I the Apostle do And you know what anybody who's leading you spiritually if you're children and you have Christian parents anyone who's leading you They're doing the work of the Lord along with the Apostle Paul They're sharing in his ministry So that is the reason we need to regard them highly and then with Steffanus and Fortunatus and Achaicus these are men who traveled miles and miles on land and especially across in the a G and C From Corinth to Ephesus simply to bring information to Paul and to take the letter back And he says these people are your servants Please recognize them. He's saying he says you see it there in in verse 18 Such men deserve recognition verse 16 He says submit to such people like this. Who else would you like to submit to it? It's not people who are serving you with their time and their energy and their talents And he's saying take note of the ones among you who are giving notable service to the Lord and make their leadership a joy So dear friends, be a good steward of the leadership relationships in your life and the servant relationships But then you'll notice he speaks in verses 19 and through 20 of Some corporate relationships that we have for which we are responsible He speaks not only of leaders and servants, but now the church at large if you look for example in verse 19 The church is in the entire province of Asia You see Corinth was in a cave in What we would call Greeks today? Ephesus was in Asia or what we call Turkey today and he saying look the churches in the other nation are sending you their greetings and their warm affections So that it doesn't matter whether one is Turk and the other is Greek now folks today in our contemporary world You know for the past 150 years especially how the Greeks and the Turks have been in each other's necks They've guns pointed to each other Oh that they could hear this oh That the democrats their publicants could hear this They send you their greetings and their warm affections and their love for you These Russians on their veterans day they send you their greetings People who have fought in the war in from Germany. They send you their greetings. Why? Because the nation of the church of Jesus Christ Transients all other geopolitical boundaries everywhere in the world Wouldn't it be wonderful as some of our senior statesmen have been saying this week wouldn't be wonderful as someone that would step up and be a statesman and put the nation first Wouldn't it be wonderful if little people like ourselves sitting in pews like this would just be statesmen and be patient and Recognize that maybe our perspective is not the only one. It was interesting not too long ago several of our staff members went to meet with several staff and colleagues in another church And when we got together we recognized it probably 85% if not a hundred percent of our Staff would probably be voting for George W. Bush in the elections and we recognize that the other staff Probably 85% if not a hundred percent would be voting for Albert Gore Interesting What do we talk about our common ground in Jesus Christ in the body of Christ? You see the Apostle is saying these things ultimately make no difference at all The only thing that makes a difference is whether you're in this kingdom that is growing provisively through the world So that you are a member of the body of Christ and that is the kingdom of the Lord the Lord's nation So here you see this international church greeting another national or provincial church in this case and then he says a Quill and Priscilla these World-renowned Bible teachers are also sending you their greetings They may not be in your denomination, but they're sending you greetings and you warmly receive them as well and then he says So does the church the little local church in a in another nation a little house church in you of their greetings And if you read on all the brothers here in Ephesus the city church the press here if you will see this greetings to your press Put there your city church You see how the international church is Yoke together and dear friends. This is easy until you have misunderstandings and misunderstandings arise in the church and they arise in life and The church of Jesus Christ is to be different because we embrace all of our relationships Misunderstandings occur I remember reading a story in the Charlotte observer some years ago this true story That a man named Bill gay was getting on the United Airlines and He was on standby and so they letting have a vacant seat And he sat down where they told him to sit and then he saw another vacant seat and so he went over and sat in that seat and changed seats Meanwhile some of the people with tickets came so the steward the stewardess came on to the plane She she was looking for Bill gay and she said to the man sitting in the seat where he was supposed to be she said are you gay? And he said no, I'm not not that it's any of your business and Then Bill gay he said oh, I'm gay and she said well sir. I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave the plane Another guy stood up. He said well, I'm gay too. So I guess I should get off the plane And then another guy honestly stood up and said well, I'm not gay, but if you're taking gay people if I'm getting off this plane too Now folks, it's amazing how that story is almost a picture of what happens in society often So if we're not listening to each other, we don't actually know what is meant and how do you unravel a mess like that? I tell you how you do it You embrace all the relationships think about all the relationships Jesus is giving you and you brace every single one of them And how do you do that? Well in verses 13 to 14 he gives you some principles You embrace the relationships, but you also embrace the principles and here it is On one hand you stand firm in the faith. It says be men of courage literally where it says be men of courage It's act like a man Play the man We just just say be courageous be courageous man like the veterans who serve in war be strong And then on the other side do everything in love. Do you see the combination here of toughness firmness Real manhood Intenderness and love and kindness at the same time Some frogs one time were complaining to their god Jupiter that this is in these uptable by the way That they didn't have leadership. So Jupiter the great god sent them a log and they loved that leader for a while Because they could pounce on him they could do anything they wanted to and the leader never did anything And then they got tired of it and complained to Jupiter the god again It said we want a strong leader. So he sent him a stork and they liked the stork for a while because he stood very tall and Cancel him and majestic and he made a lot of noise and people gathered around him They had themselves a strong leader and they were just very happy about that until he shocked them by starting to eat them And he ate them all alive and so he's a stable is you better watch out what kind of leader you have and you see what Christian principles produce Someone who's principled and will not move of Principles and yet who loves people? You know, I've been counseling marriages for 20 years and I can't think of one right now They broke up over principles, but I know a lot of them broke up over preferences And some people you know are expert at making their preferences a manner of principle And they will not move off their principles It's just because that's the way they like to do it But I've seen all kinds of marriages healed because they both will go to biblical principle Biblical principle not extraneous principles principles revealed by God and they genuinely love people This is the way So list all your relationships and own them and embrace them and then learn the principle of the principles of leadership Which is toughness on the truth and Gentleness with people and I believe you will find that those who successfully relate to other people do that very thing Now lastly In verses 22 and 23 we see not just principles, but a person Embrace the person of the Lord Jesus Christ if anyone's does not love the Lord a curse beyond him now The apostle is not talking to the city of Corinth. He's talking to the church in Corinth He's saying that those of you who know of the Lord Jesus Christ those of you who know him personally How could you know him and not love him? Certainly if you know him and what he has done for us and do not love him There would be a curse upon you why because we were cursed in the garden of Eden Adam and Eve turned from the Lord and they experienced his curse by which they were alienated from him and from each other You notice how they try to blame each other for everything? There's human alienation in society. There's a curse upon our world And so indeed apart from Christ we're cursed, but the apostle says that even to the church That even if you've been involved in church for a long time, but you don't love him There will still be that curse abiding on you for how do you break out of misunderstandings? How do you own all of your relationships and love the unlovable? How can you possibly do it? You do it by reflecting and meditating upon what Jesus Christ has done for you It's exactly what Melinda McVain was talking about this wording. How can we do anything difficult? We remember the difficulties, the death that Jesus paid for our sakes and it makes all the difference in the world I close with this Sid and Laney, 30 years ago Went to this little country church Five years ago they had their 25th anniversary and they wanted to retrace all their steps So they went up to the mountains They found that little country church And they walked in of course there was a different pastor there in a different church secretary But they began to explain to the pastor their experience 25 years before back in 1970 It just so happens that there was an elderly woman in the church building at that time and she heard the conversation She said, oh I remember you Do you remember Mildred and Jack? They said, oh yes indeed And they said well Jack's gone on to be with the Lord but Mildred is still alive Would you like to see her? Guess who they had lunch with that day These two elderly women And Sid and Laney told their story They left there 25 years before He was still hooked on drugs She was still in alcoholic And 11 years later their marriage was at the brink of destruction And Laney said to Sid Sid, do you remember the little church that we went into 25 years ago? Do you remember it? Sid said yes She said could we try it again? So for the second time in their lives they went to church And they both met Christ And they both had their lives changed from the inside out And they both made friends with all the God's people And now in a major urban area in our country They're serving as drug counselors To all the young men And all the young women walking the streets with no direction in life I'm telling you folks Jesus Christ turned your life inside out Turns you from being self-destructive and focused on yourself To being an enabler of other people to know Jesus Christ And have their lives in the right direction How we pray that we may embrace all of our relationships Do it the Bible's way But do it fundamentally because we have one relationship Wherein we have been loved with an everlasting love They shall never, never fail Let us pray Gracious God we love you and thank you for giving yourself to us In the person of Jesus Christ And now Lord we would turn to you and rededicate our lives to you And ask that you would take from us our lives That they may be indeed consecrated Lord to thee