Well, I hope you guys had a great week. If you have a

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Well, I hope you guys had a great week. If you have a Bible, would you please turn to I Corinthians chapter 16? We’ve got a lot of work to do today, so go ahead and find chapter 16. As Luke said, we are concluding this series that we have been in now since October of last year and I’m really excited about the series that we’re jumping into next week. It’s going to be a five-part series of messages called Generous Giants. We’re going to be studying through some key passages of Scripture and what the Bible has to teach us about Biblical stewardship and what does God expect of us, what does He ask of us as individuals and as a church. I want to encourage you to come back next Sunday, be there for the beginning of that series, invite somebody to come with you and make a commitment (if you can at all possible) to be here all five weeks of that series. The way that it has been designed is as building blocks: each message is going to build upon the other one. I’ve been studying the text we’re going to be looking at, over the last two or three months, and I’m really excited about this series and I think that it potentially has the power to be one of the greatest spiritual catalysts in your life and in mine. And so I want to encourage you to be here all five weeks of that series. Be praying about it during the week, asking God to prepare your hearts and minds – join with me in that, as I am as well. But today, we’ve got some work to do to finish up this series we have been in. I Corinthians is sixteen chapters long, II Corinthians was written to the same church, that’s why it’s called II Corinthians and it’s thirteen chapters long. You put those chapters together, it’s 29 chapters written specifically to one church. There’s no other New Testament church that has that much time, that much energy devoted to it – this is one messed up church. Twenty-nine chapters devoted to straighten them out. And as you look at it, it’s a letter (we’ve reminded you of that all series long) and it’s a letter that is filled with rebuke and it’s a letter that is filled with love. It’s a love letter. Now I want us to begin to think about it that way – how many of you have ever received a love letter? Go ahead and raise up those hands. How many of you received a love letter this past week? Oh, wow! So, we have lots of people that need help! I hope at some point in your life you have been the recipient of a hand-written love letter. There’s nothing better than a hand-written love letter. I hope that you’ve written your fair share of those. And I think that we live in a day and age today where hand-written letters are becoming more and more of a rare thing, aren’t they? With email and text messaging and Facebooking, we just don’t sit down and hand-write letters like we used to. I remember when Lindsay and I were dating, we wrote each other hand-written letters all the time. And we started dating and several months into our dating relationship I got an internship on the west coast in the Los Angeles area and I was going to be leaving for the whole summer. Now this was the summer of 1997 – it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long ago, but technology has really advanced pretty quickly from then to now and during that summer neither one of us had a cell phone. Neither one of us had email (if you can believe that). Obviously Facebook hadn’t been invented yet. We were going to be away from each other for three months – the only thing we had was hand-written letters. Lindsay actually came over to my house the day that I was going to leave and she had a manila envelope. Inside of it was a bunch of sealed cards and letters that she had written to me for the whole summer and she numbered them. (So she’s a planner, all right?) And she had these instructions in the manila envelope – she said, “I’ve written you enough letters and enough cards for you to open one a week while we are away from Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

each other and I want you to promise me that you’ll not open them all at once. I want you to every week get up and open, in sequence, the one that’s coming up next.” Isn’t she such a romantic? And so I said, “Ok, I promise.” And that lasted approximately one week. I just ended up bingeing and opening up all of them and reading all of these love letters from her because I was so crazy about her I just wanted to know what she had written to me. I kept every single one of those letters and I put them in a shoe box and every now and then we’ll go back and revisit them. They are so mushy. She called me “Baby” a lot then. Today when she calls me “baby” it’s not a good thing. It’s like, “Shut up, you big baby.” But she was affectionate and telling me how great I am. It’s so affirming and so, so great. Love letters will often do that, won’t they? They’ll express how somebody feels about you. But a love letter doesn’t just always affirm. A love letter can also rebuke, and is just as loving. So, Lindsay and I get married and six months into our marriage – we didn’t have kids, we moved to southern Illinois. It’s our very first ministry. I was preaching at this small church and we lived in a parsonage. Now, if you don’t know what a parsonage is, it’s a prison …. it sits right next door – it’s a house (those of you who maybe don’t have a church background) it’s a house that the church owns and it sits like ten feet away from the church. Everybody – since the church owns it, they all think they can walk into your house whenever they want. So, we lived in that little house as a newlywed couple, away from home for the first time. And I’ll never forget, about six months into our marriage, we got into the biggest argument that we had ever gotten into. In fact, in the twelve and a half years of marriage since then, I really don’t think that we’ve gotten into an argument that was that intense. So we’re arguing, not really reaching much of a resolution and it’s about nine o’clock in the evening and Lindsay realizes that the next day she needs something from the grocery store for the next day so she says, “We’re not getting anywhere, let me just run to the grocery store, I’ll come back.” And so she leaves to go to the grocery store. Me, being the compassionate, godly, sensitive husband that I was (and continue to be), I fell asleep. Not a wise move. I actually just laid down, thinking I’d rest and I ended up falling asleep. The next thing I know I wake up and it’s early morning and she’s leaving. She’s walking out the door to go to school. That was not like her. She would always wake me up. She’d fix me breakfast. She’d at least say good-bye. But she didn’t; she just left. I heard the door slam and I heard her car start up and she drives away. So I jump up and I run to the door; she’s already driving away and I’m thinking, “Oh, man!” So I get in the shower, get ready for church, I walk ten feet to my office next door (big commute) and go into the office and there on my desk is a love letter – from my new bride. I walk over; it’s her handwriting, it says “Aaron” on the front. It’s a four page handwritten letter, written in red ink, okay? And I remember sitting down at my desk that morning and reading through this four page letter – it was a scolding rebuke. It was like a punch in the soul. I remember reading it and thinking to myself that she was absolutely right about everything that she said in that letter. And I remember reading it and this was a pivotal moment in our marriage and I dropped to my knees right there in my office and I repented and I asked God to forgive me. I said, “I’m being so selfish and I need to out-serve my wife.” It took that letter to get my attention. And I kept it – you’ll never read it – but I kept it with all those other mushy letters that she wrote me during our dating period. It’s in the shoe box with the rest of them because it’s just as important as the rest of them because love letters don’t just tell you how great you are. Love affirms, love encourages, love expresses, love rebukes when it’s needed. That’s what we’ve seen from this letter to the Corinthians. As we’ve been studying through this together – I hope you’ve been here for most of this series; if you’ve missed any of it you can get online and get caught up with it – there have certainly been moments haven’t there where we’ve read something that Paul wrote and we kind of winced a little bit. We get a little bit uncomfortable, right? Or is that just me? I mean, we’re reading through this and we’re like, “Oh, Paul! How could you say that? How could you be so critical? How could you be that up in their face?” Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

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And yet what we need to understand is that this is a letter written to people that Paul loves. This is a church and he knew that they were becoming distracted from their mission and he knew how great this church could be for Jesus. So his motivation isn’t to tear them down and make them feel horrible about themselves. His motivation is to confront them in an appropriate way so that way they’ll be better; that way they’ll keep their eyes on Christ, and they’ll follow Him. Because love doesn’t just tell you how great you are. Love seeks the best out of its object. Love says, “You could be better than that, and so this requires me to address some things in your life.” That’s what Paul’s been doing through this letter and so, as we come to chapter 16, Paul is going to really share his heart with this people. I’ve titled this message “The Heart of a Pastor”. Maybe you walked in today and you read that and thought, “What in the world is that?” This is Paul expressing some things that are on his heart, to these people that he loves. You miss chapter 16 and the rest of the book just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Paul just really shows how loving and sensitive he is to these people. Chapter 16 is a little bit odd. In fact, I sat down about a week and a half ago to outline it in preparation for this message and it was difficult to outline because there’s not necessarily one consistent theme that weaves through it – as you’re going to see here in just a minute, Paul seems to bounce from different subjects that appear unrelated and it is sort of like a grab bag of different items. Here’s the analogy that I was thinking of as I studied this: How many of you have ever had to drive your newly graduated from high school, college freshman child to college? You know you packed up the car – look at all those hands, all those grieving parents. I’ve not had to do that yet. I’ve got four kids: 9, 7, 4, and six weeks and I know that that day is coming – faster than I’m expecting it to (and I know that because all of you tell me that all the time). I’m anticipating that day is going to come where I’m going to be driving them to college and looking over at them – you know, you’ve seen that commercial where the dad, I think he’s teaching his daughter how to drive and he looks over at her and she’s like seven, right? And I just know that I’m going to look over at my kids and be like, “Man, you were just born yesterday! You’re not ready for this!” And as we’re driving them to campus I’m going to be thinking about all the things I taught them, all the things I forgot to teach them, all the things … I’m just trying to download everything I can into their lives. That’s Paul here in chapter 16. He’s getting ready to conclude the letter and he has all these things he wants the church to know, be reminded of, anything that he forgot. Now, if you were here last week, in chapter 15 – chapter 15 seems to be the natural conclusion of the letter. Don’t you think? Fifty-eight verses, the most powerful dissertation on resurrection … Paul talked about the belief of resurrection, the hope of resurrection, the power of resurrection. And if you weren’t here last Sunday, you really missed out, I think, on something really special. We had a lot of people come down front, pray for resurrection power in their lives. And as I was looking at this, in fact a lot of commentators even agreed with me here, they said, you know what? That would have been a logical conclusion of the letter. End it with the crescendo of resurrection. This is grand, this is eloquently put. Paul concludes by saying, “Where, o death, is your victory? Where is your sting?” He says we have victory through the resurrection. And then look at how he begins chapter 16, verse 1, coming off that powerful thought: “Now concerning the collection …” It’s like, what? You brought us up here to this mountaintop and now you’re going to take us into the valley of money? Really? You’re going to lead us there? Now think back to this. In the early part of our series, we said that I Corinthians was largely a response that Paul was writing to the Corinthian Christians. So, somewhere along the line, they were experiencing all these difficulties as a church and they said, “What would Paul do?” So they wrote out a letter and said Paul we have all these questions, all these concerns, all these issues that are popping up. It’s clear that the collection was one of those items. You almost get the idea that Paul is sitting down at his desk, he’s writing out this letter and he’s looking at their letter as a reference point to make sure that he doesn’t forget any of the subjects that they had questions on. So he’s getting through this, he gets all ramped up about resurrection, then he goes, “Ah! I forgot the collection.” So now about the collection – Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

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because you’ve got some concerns, you’ve got some questions, you’ve got some reservations – as we all do when it comes to this subject. I want to read these few passages and then – there’s like, let’s see, four verses, these first four verses – then I want to make some application principles out of this. He says, “Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, [what does that mean? That just means every time you’re paid. That’s what that means.+ so that there will be no collecting when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.” Three big principles here that we can learn and I’d encourage you to write this down. (There’s a lot of content this morning. I want you to go back and review it and think about it a bit more.) Here’s the first principle: Paul says when it comes to the collection there needs to be a planned partnership in our giving. A planned partnership. It shouldn’t be an afterthought, it should be planned. You’re looking out ahead of this. And then you should do this together -- as individuals and as churches. So, you look back at verse one again he says I’m asking you to take a collection “… as I directed all the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.” It’s interesting that every time (well, most of the time) like, Romans 15:26, II Corinthians 8 and 9, when Paul uses the word “collection” it is the word “coinoneato”, which is the word fellowship, so when he uses the word collection, it is the same idea as fellowship. In other words, I don’t want you to give in isolation; I want you to give in the fellowship. I want you to give as a group. Well, why is that important? Because whenever we do this together, we make more of a difference and we get to stand back and say, “Look at what we got to do. Look at how the gospel was advanced, look at how needs got met, look at how the name of Jesus was lifted up and we got to do this together and not alone.” Now, you go to Acts, chapter 2, where the church gets started, and the very first Christians, what did they do? They sold their possessions, they sold their property and they took that money and they, in the fellowship, laid it at the apostles’ feet and they trusted the apostles to distribute it to others. Paul says you’re much stronger when you can do this act of worship together in the fellowship, both as individuals and collectively as churches in the region. Now how many of you have ever had a friend call you and ask you to help them move? Isn’t that so much fun? You’re like scrambling – we’ve got to make up an excuse … we’ve got to make up an excuse … I think we’re busy that day, right? It’s horrible to move your own furniture. The only thing worse is somebody else’s. (We don’t ever say that out loud, unless you’re a preacher up front of everybody.) You ever have to move a sofa bed? Aren’t those things just the worst? They weigh a jillion pounds. Maybe it’s you and another person that has to move it, or maybe it’s four people and each of you has a corner. You ever move something real heavy like a sofa bed and somebody’s dogging it? You know, their hands are on the corner, but they’re not really carrying their weight, they’re just moving like this and everybody else is sweating and grunting and it’s so stressful on them. Paul says this same type of thing can happen within the local church. The same type of thing can happen with the fellowship. He says all of you do this together because as you do it together we can make more of difference. So a planned partnership. The second principle he points out is a planned rhythm of giving. Look at what he says in verse two, he says, “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper …” Now this isn’t meant to be a legalistic thing, this is meant to be “as you prosper”. The best explanation of this is just whenever you get paid, just set something aside. And it’s on a regular basis. Now why is that important? Well, the Bible teaches very clearly, and we’re going to walk through this in Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

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the next five weeks together. But the chief competition that God has for your heart is your treasure. Our heart is always connected to our treasure. So, why does God want us on a regular basis to set aside something? Well, it’s not because He needs your money, it’s because He wants your heart. If I only give sporadically, spontaneously, emotionally, or just whenever I feel like it, then I’ll never give. I’m not on a regular basis planning to meet up with God there. Let me tell you, when I get paid every two weeks, the first check that I write is to God. Let me tell you, I look at it and think man, that’s a substantial amount of money – I’ve got four kids now. And I look at that and I do a little inner spiritual battle with God. And when I, in obedience, say no, God, I’m going to trust you in this – remember last week, if you were here we talked about the concept of first fruits, remember that? (I hope you didn’t forget, it’s only six days ago.) And we said that today we’ve got farming equipment that can plant the seed all at the same time, evenly and so that way when you look out at our wonderful Indiana fields, the corn is all straight (unless we’ve had a drought, right?), it’s all grown up the same size. In the first century, the farmers would go out with the seed and plant the seed, throw the seed out, it would take them a long time to plant the field so the fields would look like this {slanted}. So the first fruits, the first crop that came up, God says, “I want that. And I’m going to ask you to trust Me that I’m going to bring in the rest of the crop.” This is that same idea. On a regular basis we come to God – it is an act of worship. The third principle that Paul points out here is a planned accountability in giving. We’ve got to understand a little bit of background here. Why is Paul taking up a collection here? Paul is taking up a collection for the poor in Jerusalem. Now if you go back to Galatians chapter 2, Paul is beginning his ministry and Peter, James, and John are commissioning him; they are ordaining him for the ministry. If you go back and read that passage, they say to him, “Hey, Paul, as a pastor, don’t forget the poor.” And Paul says, “I’m eager to serve the poor.” And that’s what he’s doing here; this was a big part of his ministry. So he says I’m taking a collection among all these churches for the poor in Jerusalem. Keep in mind, he’s been taking this collection for over a year. He’s already asked the churches in Achaia, Macedonia, and Ephesus to give, so we’re talking about a substantial amount of money and look at what he says once again in verse four. He says, “If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.” Now why is that important? This is a substantial amount of money and Paul says I don’t feel comfortable traveling with that much money by myself. So, if it’s wise, if it’s prudent, if it’s appropriate, I’m going to ask someone else to go with me so you don’t have any questions about how this is being distributed among the poor in Jerusalem. One of the biggest hesitancies that many people have about giving just in general, that could be to the church, that could be to anywhere else, is, “How do I know if I can trust the organization, the church, the people, that I’m giving this money to?” And that’s an important question to dialogue and think through. There are two things that I just want to – for some of you this will be brand new information, for some of you this will be a good timely reminder – here’s the first thing that I just want you to know today: here, even within our local church, when we give, we give to address poverty, both spiritual and physical. Both are just as real. When we give, whenever we give here within the local church, the collection, it goes to address poverty, both spiritual and physical. Now, Paul says that he’s taking a collection for who? Look at your Bibles once again. He has a name (I’m reading out of the ESV) he says I’m taking a “collection for the saints” in Jerusalem. The saints. This is the equivalent of the church, so it’s not a bad thing, actually to address that, to take up that collection. Galatians chapter 6, verse 10, it says, “Let us continue to do good, especially to the household of believers.” So, Paul says here I’m taking up a collection and these are for the saints. Now these are experiencing poverty. It happens to be in this context a physical sort of poverty. Every dollar that is given is given to spiritual and physical poverty and that’s one of the things we’ve got to remember. Now, if any of you’ve ever been overseas – right now we’re working intensely in Haiti, Nicaragua, and Kenya. How many of you have been to one of those three places on one of our trips? Look around the room, we’ve got lots of people that have been. There’s a lot of physical poverty there, Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

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isn’t there. Now we come back here to Camelot, right? We come back here to north Indy – lot of resources in this area – we don’t necessarily see the physical poverty that is around us. And oftentimes that masks the spiritual poverty. One of the difficult challenges of doing ministry in this area is that there is so much money that people don’t think they need God. And yet, they’re spiritual bankrupt. There’s a huge tension – and there will always be within our church – over when we give, how much of it goes to meeting physical needs in the community and global mission and how much of it do we spend on us? And that’s a viable conversation that we always need to be asking God to lead us through and give us wisdom on. Here’s the question that I want us to consider this morning: Who exactly is “us”? Many of you, you weren’t here six months ago, a year ago, five years ago … I don’t think I prayed with anybody over 40 last week. Young people coming up: broken, issues in their lives … And so when we give – I know we talk about this – giving towards programming, staff, and building is not giving to “us”, it’s giving to address a spiritual kind of poverty. You want to know how I know that? How many of you right now (you don’t need to raise your hands here), how many of you right now would say, “When it comes to me and God, I think I’ve arrived. No more growing to do.” Not me. I’ve got lots of growing to do. How many of you would say that your kids need to know Jesus? So it’s the ministry of this church that’s helping to facilitate that relationship and reinforce what you’re teaching them at home. How many of you have grown kids that need to come back to Jesus? How many of you have co-workers, neighbors, family, and friends who are far from God? There is a real, spiritual poverty and when we give, it goes to address that, but also goes to address the physical poverty. We’re doing Bag Hunger; I want to encourage you to participate in that. Grab a bag, bring it back next Sunday. We go trying to provide coats and put them on the backs of people. If any of you wonder what we’re doing in the community, schedule an appointment and sit down with Sheri El – not all at once, but space it out – and sit down with her and say, “Sheri, what’s your week look like?” I guarantee you you’ll be blown away; that lady is hopping. She meets with people and we pay utility bills and she’s trying to serve up a cool cup of water in the name of Jesus to our community. Keep in mind, it’s physical and it’s spiritual. The number one problem that we face in our world is poverty – poverty of the body and the soul. The next thing that I want you to know here as we look at these verses, here’s the principle: The managing of resources should be given the highest level of accountability. That’s what Paul is saying. He says hey, this is a big, sizable collection. I’m not going to travel with it alone. If you’re wondering if I’m going to be tempted, there’s going to be someone else with me. They’re going to check my motives, they’re going to keep me accountable. And the same thing is true around here. Many of you know this, but some of you are brand new: as your pastor, I have no access to cash. I can’t write a check. I have a credit card limit; three people approve and review what I spend every month. I don’t set my salary. We have an outside, third party auditor come in and do our audit of our financials every year and we always get high marks on that. We have non-paid people from the church membership that make up the Stewardship Team and they speak into the budget and the finances as a church. That’s just important. So here are the principles as we look through these first few verses. Paul says give regularly, he says to do it in partnership, and to be accountable. Now, let’s switch subjects. He’s going to jump to another pastoral subject. Look at verse five: “I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass though Macedonia and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.” Well, what’s this about? Paul is writing this letter from Ephesus, there’s a church that he started there. Great church. And he’s going to write this letter to the Corinthians. Timothy, a young man we’re going to get to here in just a minute, he hands the letter to Timothy and says, “Timothy, take this to the church in Corinth.” And in II Corinthians 1:15-16, Paul indicates he has plans to follow Timothy into Corinth. And then the Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

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plans change. Instead of Corinth, Macedonia, and Corinth he goes to Macedonia, then to Corinth, and then to Jerusalem. (You’re like, “Thanks, Aaron, I’m glad I got up to hear that today.”) Here’s the principle: Paul had a plan and the plan changed. One of the first principles of leadership in any realm is if you’re going to make a difference, if you’re going to achieve a goal, you’ve got to have a plan. The number two principle of leadership is you’ve got to be willing to change the plan. So Paul says I’m thinking out, I have the desire to come to you. Now why did he have a desire to come to them? Because this church is messed up and he knows that 29 chapters isn’t going to be enough. He says I’ve got to go there. I’ve got to be with you. I’ve got to rub shoulders with you, disciple you, continue to be your pastor – it’s going to take all winter long, so buckle up. I’m coming, I’m going to spend time with you. And then he says, hey by the way, the plans just changed a bit. I still plan on getting there, but they changed. Here’s the principle for you and me: What are you planning? What are you praying for? What burden has God laid upon your heart? I don’t know how many of you recognize the name of William Carey. He’s one of the pioneers of modern missions. He had this desire, he had a heart to be on the mission field, but he couldn’t get there, largely because of everyday life responsibilities, personal finances. While he was waiting to go to the mission field, William Carey cobbled shoes in England. Wasn’t where his heart was; he had a heart to be on the mission field, but in the immediate he was cobbling shoes in England. You want to know what he did every single day while he was cobbling shoes? He took a map of the entire world and he put it up on his wall so that way it was always in front of him and he prayed and he wept and he planned over that map and he said, “God, would there be a day when you would launch me into world mission?” If you know anything about William Carey, he was one of the first missionaries to break into India and he paved the way for other missionaries to follow him into that country. Are you just looking at your feet? Or are you sitting up long enough to look at the trajectory of your life? Some of you, I know right now, you’re just trying to survive. I get that. Some of you, though, maybe you need to look up and say, “God, I’m not anywhere near this yet. But there’s the trajectory that I want to go.” So you pray and you plan and you strategize and you ask God to lead you in that effort. That’s what Paul is doing. Paul is a leader. And he said, I’ve got a plan. But you know what? I’m flexible. If God wants to change the plan, I’m going to let Him change the plan and I’m going to be obedient to that. Look what he says in verse 8: “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” Now if I were to take maybe one verse that describes the work of full-time ministry it would be verse nine. “… a wide door of effective work is open; the fields are ripe unto harvest and there are many adversaries.” Now Paul writes that from Ephesus and Ephesus had all kinds of junk going on in their city: idolatry, sexual perversion, all sorts of stuff. There were a lot of adversaries in that city. Paul goes into Ephesus, he preaches the gospel, leads people to Christ, a great church gets started in Ephesus. In fact, it was such a great church, that they sent out church planters and leaders out of that church and Ephesus was really kind of the beginning place where all the other seven churches in Asia Minor that are mentioned in the first part of Revelation – they all found their roots in the church in Ephesus. It’s a great church. And Paul says here, here’s this principle, he says if you desire to do anything for God, expect some resistance, expect some adversaries. God’s going to give you lots of opportunities, but there’s going to be some friction there. What happens when you have friction? You get sparks. And sparks ignite a flame and a flame ignites a movement. Part of my responsibility – not all of it – but part of my responsibility as one of the pastors around here is to make sure that we don’t get too comfortable. (You’re welcome.) It’s just to make sure that there’s a little bit of tension. It’s to make sure that we’re not getting too comfortable as a church, to be wise about it, but to always say we’ve always got to be leaning and trusting into God. C. Campbell Morgan said this (I love this), he said, “If you have no opposition in the place you serve, you’re serving in the wrong place.” Some of you are like, “Oh, man! I don’t want to hear that. I was hoping that you’d tell me that it gets easier with time.” No, if you’re serving and it’s too easy, maybe you need to find another place to serve because there needs to be some friction there where the Holy Spirit pokes through, that’s what Paul’s saying. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

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Look at verse 10. “When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers. Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. [His plans changed, right? He’s coming, but his plans changed.+ He will come when he has opportunity.” So here’s what Paul’s saying to the church: if you’re going to be effective, you’ve got to be a team player. If you’re going to be effective at the work of this tough ministry, you’ve got to be a team player. What I love about Paul is that he’s not a lone ranger. Paul is not some super hero that says get out of the way and let me do all the work of the ministry. No, Paul seeks to make others around him better, which is the mark of a good leader. It’s to look around and to say who are the people God is calling? Who are the people that I can cultivate their giftedness and pour into them so that way they can thrive? So Paul says here are two young men: Timothy and Apollos. (Timothy, by the way, was probably around 35 years old, so you probably know another 35 year old you all love, right?) … So, Timothy and Apollos (you guys are zoning on me) they are young leaders. Paul says to these guys, he says hey, fan into them, pour into them, love those guys, they come with the same calling that I do. Here’s the principle for you and for me: Who is your Timothy and Apollos? Now some of you are like, man, I’m young. I don’t know that I have a Timothy and Apollos. Well, then maybe you need a Paul or a Barnabas. But who is pouring into you and who are you pouring into? Some of the greatest leaders for the church of tomorrow that will move the gospel forward in ways that it is not currently are little kids that haven’t even met Jesus yet. And when you change their diaper and when you feed them Goldfish and Kool-Aid and when you clean their slobber off of your shoulder, you are contributing to that calling. You want to know the first lady that made Jesus real to me? I was in second or third grade and when I was growing up in church, we did Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. Sunday morning was Sunday school, Sunday night was church training (remember those days when we called it that?), and my church training teacher was a little old lady, her name was Mabel Wilhite. She was 142 years old. And she still had the little 1950’s glasses and she came waddling in every Sunday night and she was so faithful teaching us the Scriptures and we were probably just horrible towards her and she was so patient to us and loved us. She was the first lady – I remember looking at her and just thinking Jesus became real to me through Mabel. I’m telling you that if it wasn’t for Mabel, I honestly don’t know if I would be your pastor today. She was one of the ones who fanned into the flame. I just simply want to ask you, especially those of you who are seasoned in life: Who are you fanning into? Who are you pouring into? Some of the best leaders of the church of tomorrow, you may lead them to Christ. You may not have the gifts to lead a church or to preach or to teach or to sing, but you’re going to pour into somebody who does. I’m going to be mowing your yard in Heaven because you’re the ones who are pouring into others. Paul says Timothy and Apollos are coming to you guys and you pour into them, that’s the principle. Look what he says in verse 13: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” Now, these two verses here are just loaded with things that we need to understand, but this church was in the worst shape of any of the New Testament churches. They had all kinds of problems and issues and distractions and failures and there are five imperatives here; commands that are non-negotiable if we’re going to follow the Holy Spirit. If you look closely at each of them, they have a tendency to be the positives of all the negatives that Paul has already addressed in the first fifteen chapters. So if you go through the first fifteen chapters, Paul is somewhat negative towards them, he says, “Stop doing that. Would you cut it out? Don’t make me pull the car over!” That’s what he’s saying all through the first fifteen chapters. Then in chapter 16, he lists the positives: do this, be about that, make sure that you continue to go in this way. So he says be watchful. You know that idea of being watchful is mentioned 22 times in the New Testament. It’s this idea of don’t fall asleep at the wheel; you’ll just kind of slowly drift. If you’re interested in reading some other passages that deal Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

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with that: I Peter 5:8 addresses that, Mark 14:38 speaks to that issue as well. Be watchful. There’s an enemy who wants to sidetrack you, wants to get you to fall into temptation, so watch. And then he says stand firm. Stand firm. Why should you stand firm? Because life’s going to blow you over. The issues - health, financial, spiritual, emotional - we’re all going to get hit with a good dose of wind at some point in our lives. About a year and a half ago, Lindsay and I, we didn’t have any trees in our backyard so we bought a couple of brand new trees and we planted them in our back yard. Our backyard faces out toward the west, so we get a real strong wind that blows across the yard. One of the trees had plenty of support, but the other one – it was a weeping willow – it didn’t. We didn’t support it with anything. I came home one night and it was leaning completely over because the wind blew it over. So I went out there and I pulled it back up into the hole. The next day I came home and it has leaned over again because the root system wasn’t secure enough. So I had to tie ropes around it. And now, after about a year and half or so, it’s strong. The roots went deeper. This is what Paul’s talking about in our spirit. Some of you baby Christians are going to get blown over all the time, so what are you tethering yourself to? Stand firm. Let your roots go deep. This is why discipleship is so important. And then he says, “… act like men …” Of course the ladies are like, what?! That doesn’t mean pass gas and watch Sports Center, all right? This is the idea of being mature. That’s what it means. It means grow up. That’s the equivalent. It means grow up. Quit being so self-centered and start thinking of others more than yourself. I’m sure that you could probably agree with me: there have been times in your life when you were selfish and you knew it. You ever feel real good about that when you walked away? Maybe you won an argument, but nothing else. You walk away and you’re like, “Man, I was so selfish there, I feel gross. I feel icky about that. Anytime you were selfless, even though you didn’t win the argument, you felt better about yourself. This is the idea for maturity. Paul says this is what the church didn’t know, they didn’t learn this. And then he says let everything you do be done in love. That last phrase there, the Greek terminology is the physiology of an extended muscle. Make sure that the muscle of love is well worked out within you and you extend that on a regular basis. It’s all tied to that: watching, standing firm, and being mature. It’s all tied to love. Look what he says in verse 15: “Now I urge you, brothers – you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints – be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer.” Now, Stephanas was not just some sort of ordinary Joe. He was a guy who Paul had met, he became friends with, and Paul led him and his entire household to Jesus. They were one of the very first converts in the church at Corinth, so when Paul mentions Stephanas, everybody knows who that is. They are like, oh, yeah, we know them, they’ve been around here longer than everybody. And he says they were the first to respond to the gospel and they were devoted to the ministry. That word “devoted” is the Greek word taso, which means addicted. They were addicted to the ministry in the best sense of the word. Oftentimes we hear that word addicted and automatically we think it’s negative and much of the time it is, but he says you couldn’t keep them from serving others. That’s what that means. The automatic response to the gospel was an apron –that I’m going to serve other people -- and this family refreshed the congregation. There are people like that in our church as well. People that they’re just – those of you who’ve been around here for a while, you can probably picture them, can’t you? People who are always serving behind the scenes, they’re always selfless, they’re always loving, and they’re pouring into the congregation and keeping them refreshed. Paul says be subject to them. That’s the word submission. That’s this idea that if a church works, if the Spirit of God is going to be present, then every single person - regardless of who you Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

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are - you find someone who has Godly authority and then you place yourself underneath them. As your pastor, I need to have Godly authority over me. You need Godly authority over you. That’s the way that it works. We make it a discipline to refresh others. Here on Sunday mornings, several months ago, you probably noticed we had lots of people running around here with colorful shirts. The Children’s Ministry volunteers have different colored shirts that they wear and we asked them to start wearing those on Sunday mornings and there are multiple reasons for that. You want to know my primary reason why I encouraged that? Because I wanted to know who you were. Whenever I see somebody with one of those shirts on I know they are serving in the Children’s Ministry today and I want to go over and I want to thank them. I want to refresh them because that’s oftentimes a thankless job. Maybe on Sunday morning, you plan a little bit ahead, swing through Starbucks, pick up a hot chocolate or a coffee and give that to one of those parking lot attendants. Probably blow their minds, right? It’s just this idea of refreshing the congregation. That’s what Stephanas did. Look what he says in verse 17: “I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.” What Paul is doing here is he is recalling the friendships that he has in this church that propped him up when he was weak. If you go to II Timothy 4:9-11, in that chapter, it’s kind of depressing. Read it this afternoon. Paul is basically writing to Timothy and he says this person bailed on me, that person ditched me, this person left me alone and I’m all alone in the ministry and he says Timothy, I need a friend. That’s essentially what Paul says in that passage. Right here he’s recalling all of the friendships. Who would those people be in your life? Those people that when you think about your own spiritual growth, when you’re down, when you need encouragement, who do you pick up the phone and call? And are you that kind of a friend to others? Paul’s talking about relationships and then he ends it with this relationship -- one of the most famous relationships in the Bible. Look at verse 19: “The churches of Asia send you greetings. *So they’re all in partnership together. They’re all keeping track of what’s going on in Corinth.+ Aquila and Priscilla, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greeting in the Lord. All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. *I think that’d be a good idea today. Just turn to the person next to you and give them a holy kiss. I’m just joking, don’t do that. Some of you are just frozen. Verse 21:+ I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. [A handwritten love letter.] If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! [Do you see where he keeps drawing their attention back to? All the problems, all the issues keep coming back to Jesus. Keep coming back to Jesus. Our Lord, come!]The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.” Who are Aquila and Priscilla? Well, Aquila was a man from the south coast of the Black Sea. He was a Jewish man. He met a lady named Priscilla and they get married and they go into business together. They lived in Rome and the emperor Claudius, when he took over power, he kicked all the Jews out of Rome and so Aquila and Priscilla, they moved to Corinth and that’s where they met Paul when Paul was starting this church. They actually were in the same line of work, so they were co-workers. They would go to the synagogue every day because they were Jewish people and they would worship, and so Paul engaged in conversation with them and we read about this in the book of Acts. Paul says to them: let me explain the Word of God more fully to you. And he shares the gospel with them in the context of relationship; it takes root in their hearts. We see here that Aquila and Priscilla started a church in their home. Now, if you were to ask them, early on, before they met Paul, “One day, do you think you guys might start a church in your home?” “What are you talking about? Absolutely not! No way. There’s no way God would do that through us.” Yet He did. You want to know one of my favorite things about the ministry of the local church? The absolutely incredible things that God does with lives of ordinary people like you and me and what He will do. I look out across this room – I’ve said this even this morning – when I first became your pastor, I stood up here with my knees knocking (it’s a big room) and I just saw a sea of faces. Now when I stand up here to Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

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preach I see family. And I see people that I know, I see people – I know your names, I know your stories, I know what’s going on in your life. This is the highlight of my week – to be able to pour into and invest in you. And I see such dramatic growth in so many of your lives and others of you who are getting there. God’s going to do things through you – it’s not even on your radar yet. But just like me and others, the Holy Spirit’s going to sit on your heart like an elephant crushing you and you’re going to say God is moving in me and I can’t fully explain it and He’s going to do things through you that only the gospel message can do. This last week, Lindsay and I were in San Antonio, Texas visiting with other pastors and their wives from around the country. It’s one of the highlights of our year because we just get to be refreshed by one another; we’ve developed friendships with these other pastors and their wives. There was a couple there this week. His name’s Caleb. Caleb and I went to college together and he was a part of this group this last week. I knew a little bit about Caleb’s story because he didn’t grow up in a Christian home, but I didn’t know all of it. He actually stood up and shared more of his story with us this last week in San Antonio. Caleb grew up in Columbia, Missouri. Go MU! {pause} All right. So, Caleb grew up in Columbia and his parents were professors at University of Missouri. When he was a young boy, they didn’t go to church, no talk about Christianity or God or anything. When he was a young boy his mom and dad got divorced. Several months after they got divorced, his mom told Caleb that she was gay and that she had a partner. And then right after that, his dad told him that he was gay as well. So as a young boy, his parents divorce and then they told him this. His dad ended up moving to Kansas City to teach at a university in Kansas City. Caleb is growing up with his mom and her partner; her partner moved in. Caleb said that all through his growing up years he would go with them to different gay parades. He said one day, he remembers very vividly, he was with his mom walking down the street and he sees a group of people off on the corner with megaphones and street signs, yelling at them and he asked his mom, he said, “Mom, who are they?” And she said, “Caleb, those are Christians, they hate gay people.” He said that was his first introduction to Christianity. He remembers there was a man who would come over to their house for different parties and he befriended Caleb and Caleb actually grew very fond of him. They guy ended up having HIV and AIDS; he went to the hospital, he was dying in the hospital bed. Caleb and his mom went to visit him, and he said he remembers seeing a long line of people gathered outside this guy’s door and they were there really kind of in a spirit of condemnation. Caleb said to his mom once again, he said, “Mom, who are they?” She said, “Caleb, those are Christians. Christians hate gay people.” And that kind of got ingrained into his thinking. Then high school and he gets invited by a friend to go to a Bible study that the campus minister at the University of Missouri is leading. The guy’s name is Roy Weese. I actually knew Roy; Roy has passed away since then. Roy was the kind of guy - big guy, white hair, looked like God -- just had this rich, deep voice. Roy memorized the entire Bible. I am not exaggerating that, he just rattled it off. He rarely opened his Bible because he just knew it. And he would just rattle it off. Caleb goes to this Bible study that Roy was leading – very skeptical, very jaded, sits down and Roy begins to teach the Word of God. And Caleb said that was interesting enough, I’ll come back next week. So he went back the next week and the next week and the next week. All the agenda is Roy opening up the Word of God and teaching him what the Bible has to say. Three months of that – Caleb gave his life to Jesus Christ. He goes home to his mom, he tells her and she grounded him. About three months after that he gets invited to a CIY conference, Christ in Youth. Some of you are familiar with them; our church does a lot with them. They do middle school and high school conferences, children’s conferences; we’ve hosted here at the church. Caleb goes to that conference. The guy who’s preaching gives this call to ministry. He says God calls ordinary people to do extraordinary things; God may be calling you to ministry. Caleb feels that elephant on his chest, gets up out of the aisle, walks down (he’s only been a Christian for six months) walks down to the front and says I think that God is calling me to become a pastor. And he prays with this preacher and then he looks at him when they’re Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

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done and he goes, “My parents are gonna freak!” He enrolls in Bible College and goes to Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri, which is where I’m from and where I went to school. I’m a year older than Caleb. I remember the day he moved into our dorm – funny-looking kid. He looked a little bit like the little kid in Jerry Maguire: big glasses, spiky hair. He walked in with a box full of his stuff, walked into the room right next door to me. I walked in to greet him and he’s unpacking his stuff and he’s kind of telling me about his family. In fact, he pulled out a picture of him and his mom and her partner and he set it there on his desk. And I got to know Caleb during our time in college. He graduates, stays in communication with his parents. Goes out to California, he’s on the staff of a church for about 11 years. Two years ago, he becomes the lead pastor of Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, Texas. He’s married, has a couple of kids. He tells us this last week, “My mom’s partner passed away about three years ago and she’s been grieving since then. My dad’s been kind of wandering. I’ve stayed in touch with him. But because we relocated to Dallas, we want to stay there for a while, we’ve got kids – both of my parents, my mom and my dad they’ve recently moved to Dallas to be near us and both of them are coming to my church and listening to the gospel on a weekly basis.” And he said about two months ago he was driving with his mom; they were running errands together and through tears she said, “Caleb, I think I’m real close to making a decision for Jesus.” Now I heard that story this last week and it brought me to tears. How do you explain that? What changed them? Megaphones and signs? Or an extension of love? The heart of the gospel, opening the Word and sharing this love letter to those who desperately need and want to hear it. We’re not going to change anybody. Jesus changes people – through an authentic and changed life of our own. That story happens over and over and over again within this church. I believe it will happen even today. I believe that there are some of you sitting there and you say, “You know what? I’m ready to give my life to Jesus. I’m ready to make this decision.” Some of you are going to say, “I’m ready to jump into full-time ministry and begin training for that.” Whatever decision it is, I want to encourage you not to leave here today without at least talking to a pastor about it. So, I’m going to pray and when I’m done, there will be pastors and prayer counselors down front for you to come forward and talk with them and pray with them and you can respond this morning. Let me pray with you: Father, we come to You right now and I thank You for the local church because it is the hope of the world when our Bibles are open and our eyes are on Jesus. God, I pray that the Holy Spirit feels thick in this room right now. That there would be somebody that’s hurting, somebody that is ready, somebody who’s been listening for weeks or for months or perhaps years and today is the day that You would harvest the fruit of that budding faith and that they would draw a line in the sand and cross it and say I’m ready to be in. I’m ready to follow Jesus wherever and however He would lead. God, for those who continue to need additional time and healing, I pray that they would just continue to plod through. That they could let your Holy Spirit heal them, strengthen them, encourage them so that way one day they could come to this life-changing relationship with You. God, thank You for the Church. Thank You for those who are here today who are Timothys and Apolloses and Stephanases and Aquilas and Priscillas because it continues on and on and on, even to today. And we ask this right now, in the name of Jesus. (And the Church says) Amen. We finished I Corinthians, guys. Love ya. We’ll see you next Sunday. Invite someone to come with you.

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