SFJ Bible Reading Plan

Going Deeper

Stewardship (2-7-15)

Grab your Bible and let’s go deeper into 1 Corinthians 4.

I want to focus on one single verse we read in chapter 4 of 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 4:7 “What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why boast as though you have accomplished something on your own?”      

This little verse packs a punch.  It stands to remind us that everything we are and/or have is from the Lord.

It is so common to feel a sense of “I have worked hard to earn what I have or to master the skills I have.”

To this viewpoint I remind you of…

Deuteronomy 8:17-18 “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.”

We must realize, God has not just entrusted you with everything you own, but everything you are, your skills, and the number of days you will live.  It is all a GIFT FROM GOD!  

WE ARE PRIVILEGED to be ENTRUSTED with HIS provisions!

On our United States currency it says,  “In God we trust”.    

What a great reminder that our nation needs in these days we live in.

That said, when you and I look at the money we have, we must hear God saying,  “WITH THIS I HAVE ENTRUSTED YOU!”     

à THIS IS A GREAT PRIVILEGE!

The problem is that we feel so deserving and that the money we have isn’t good enough. We often think that what God has given us isn’t enough- so much so that we turn to debt and credit to spend more than God has entrusted us.

We are privileged to be alive!   Not to mention to have money in my wallet and food in my fridge and clothes to wear today.

To think that I deserve anything good based on anything I have done is to completely miss the reality of our sin and the beauty of the grace of the gospel!

What I have found is that many Christians don’t see it as their privilege to be a good STEWARD because they don’t see their schedule, their skills, and their stuff as God’s but instead believe it is theirs!

This is the very important topic of stewardship we must rightly understand and practice.

Read with me David’s prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:13-17 

“O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name! But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you have already given us! We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a shadow, gone so soon without a trace.  O Lord our God, even these materials that we have gathered to build a Temple to honor your holy name come from you! It all belongs to you! I know, my God, that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there. You know I have done all this with good motives, and I have watched your people offer their gifts willingly and joyously.”

My heart for our club is that we are like the people David is speaking of in this passage.

They understood everything they had was from GOD.   They understood it was not theirs… it was God’s.

Because they understood these things, they stewarded these resources for His Glory and not their own.

The problem is, we often don’t understand!

We think it is our RIGHT.  We think it is our STUFF.  We think we deserve it.

But, as a born again Christian, my life is not my own. It is God’s!

Romans 1:6 says basically that: THE HEART OF CHISTIANITY is to BELONG to Jesus!

We belong to him!  For his glory!

On Monday we will read…  

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your life.”

This means:

-My money is God’s money.

-My time is God’s time.

-My days are God’s days.

-My stuff if God’s stuff.

-My life if God’s life.

When we really begin to get this, we begin to understand the amazing undeniable privilege it his to BE HIS and it changes how we manage our time, our talent and our treasures.

The Bible says, we are created for HIS GLORY.   We have been bought with a high price for HIS GLORY.

We have been entrusted with what we have for HIS GLORY!

So, how are we doing?

How are you doing at managing the time God entrusts to you?

How are you doing at managing the skills God entrusts to you?

How are you doing at managing the finances and resources God entrusts to you?

1 Timothy 6:17-19  “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”

Let’s break this down:

1-  “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds…”

The word “good” here is the Greek word, “Kalos”. It means = Beautiful.

The question is:  When people see your deeds do they see the beauty of Christ?    Do they say: “Amazing”?

We are saved by the grace of God through faith in Christ in order to do “KALOS DEEDS”… Good Deeds.  Beautiful Deeds.

2-  “…and to be generous and willing to share…”

Are you generous in your lifestyle?

How do you know you are living generously or sacrificially?

Because it cost you something.  It changes your lifestyle.   You feel it!

3- “In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”

Jesus taught us that the way to true life is narrow. He said, it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.

WHY?  Why is it hard?  Why is the way to life narrow?

Because we don’t need a wide road so we can carry all of our trophies and money and possessions and pictures and diplomas to eternal life, we just need Jesus.

Why is the road to eternal destruction wide?

Because all that stuff has to fit as we pack it, worship it and cling to it straight to hell!

Why is it hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God?

Because he wants to have his own kingdom now and if it means being generous and living for God’s glory and fame and not his own, then he will pass.

See, here is the true test. Many of us wealthy, gifted, healthy people have said yes to Jesus’ invitation to the feast,

but we have our arms so full of this world that we have no time to help anybody else get there with us.

Praise God,  Jesus Christ is the door and it is not by my good deeds that I am saved!

But hear me today, brothers!   When the Gospel takes a hold of you, you will set down the treasures of this world and “be faithful managers of God’s provisions for God’s glory” and in doing so, take hold of the life that is truly life.

I pray we are a brotherhood who considers it a great privilege to faithfully manage God’s provisions that He has so graciously entrusted us with for his eternal glory!

How do you need to repent….

…for making it about you?  …for boasting in you and not Jesus?

How do you need to take a fresh look at…

…how you make, spend or manage your money?    …how you schedule your time and priorities?

May the Soldiers for Jesus who fight in the army of the Lord steward well all that he has entrusted us with for this battle we are in.  May we quickly repent when we see that we have been making it about us.  May we steward His provisions well for his eternal glory and others eternal good!

By His grace and for His glory,

-Shepherd

National Chaplain

Soldiers for Jesus MC

1 Corinthians 5

Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church

5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.¹

6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church² whom you are to judge? 13 God judges³ those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Footnotes

[1] 5:5 Some manuscripts add Jesus

[2] 5:12 Greek those inside

[3] 5:13 Or will judge

(ESV)

1 Corinthians 4

The Ministry of Apostles

4:1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.

6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers,¹ that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. 7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless² guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent³ you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ,⁴ as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18 Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21 What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?

Footnotes

[1] 4:6 Or brothers and sisters

[2] 4:15 Greek you have ten thousand

[3] 4:17 Or am sending

[4] 4:17 Some manuscripts add Jesus

(ESV)

1 Corinthians 3

Divisions in the Church

3:1 But I, brothers,¹ could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled² master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

16 Do you not know that you³ are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Footnotes

[1] 3:1 Or brothers and sisters

[2] 3:10 Or wise

[3] 3:16 The Greek for you is plural in verses 16 and 17

(ESV)

1 Corinthians 2

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

2:1 And I, when I came to you, brothers,¹ did not come proclaiming to you the testimony² of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men³ but in the power of God.

Wisdom from the Spirit

6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,

  “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
    nor the heart of man imagined,
  what God has prepared for those who love him”—

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.⁴

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Footnotes

[1] 2:1 Or brothers and sisters

[2] 2:1 Some manuscripts mystery (or secret)

[3] 2:5 The Greek word anthropoi can refer to both men and women

[4] 2:13 Or interpreting spiritual truths in spiritual language, or comparing spiritual things with spiritual

(ESV)