[0:00] Take your Bibles and turn with me in the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 is where we're at as we continue to make our way through the book of 1 Corinthians as Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, a book of admonishment and correction and rebuke at times, a book of encouragement, but a book that has great application in today's time as well.
[0:22] So we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Our text this morning will be verses 1 through 9. So 1 Corinthians 3 verses 1 through 9. We will not delay. We won't go any further.
[0:32] So if you are physically able and desire to do so, you stand with me as we read the word of God with one another. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, starting in verse 1 and going down to verse 9.
[0:44] The word of God says, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it.
[0:58] Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly? And are you not walking like mere men?
[1:10] For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not mere men? What then is Apollos, and what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.
[1:24] I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
[1:40] For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the grand opportunity we have together as the people of God, to be proclaimed as the church of God, so that we may read the word of God.
[1:58] We thank you as we have had the opportunity to read it and to hear it. Lord, we pray now that by the power and presence of your spirit, that you would bring it to application upon our hearts and minds. We pray that the truth of it would capture us and captivate us, that it would move us and shape us and conform us more to your image for your glory.
[2:15] And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. The text that we have before us really is in direct connection to what we have, which precedes it in the second chapter.
[2:27] And if you read in the second chapter, Paul speaks of the reality of when I came to you, brethren. So we need to understand these things. He is connecting them. We'll see it in just a moment. And he will finish out the portion as we close out the third chapter, a very familiar portion of scripture, in which we get into how one builds upon the foundation of Christ, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves.
[2:48] So this morning, I want us to see the tragedy of carnal Christianity. The tragedy of carnal Christianity. Some of your translations had the word carnal in there, whereas the New American Standard says fleshly or behaving like mere men.
[3:02] And what, as the New King James, King James, and some other translations continue to use the word carnal, which is a good word. And it's not necessarily wrong, but the word carnal just means to be acting as one acts in the flesh.
[3:15] So to be fleshly. But we're going to look at this morning, the tragedy of carnal Christianity. When Paul began the letter to the church at Corinth, he introduced it by reminding them of who they were by calling, saints by calling.
[3:30] He reminded them of the work of Christ in their life, that he had redeemed them. He had called them for his purposes. And then he began to address some of the major issues that were arising, and that is divisions within the local body of the church at Corinth, which really centered around, of all things, the people whom God had used to what theoretically create the growth in the body.
[3:51] Paul, Apollos. Some were connecting to Cephas, which is Peter, even though Peter had more than likely never physically been present, and others were pointing to Jesus. And when all should have been pointing to Christ, some were using that as a higher standard, a trump card, if you will.
[4:06] Well, I'm a better Christian than you because I connect to Christ. I don't connect to Paul, or I connect to Apollos. I connect to Christ. And to us, it seems foreign, really, that they would do that, but not so much so, as we will see later, because we still have the same, at least, temptations today.
[4:24] But in that day, it was very common, because people would connect to a rabbi or a teacher, and their identity was interwoven with the person that they sat at the feet of, or whoever taught them.
[4:37] So their education became primary to their standing in society. And if their teacher or their rabbi had an elevated position in society, then they would have an elevated position in society as being a student of that teacher.
[4:54] And they identified themselves with who had the greatest influence over them. And we began to see this. It began to be a kind of a card to be put on display for all to see, well, this is who I am.
[5:07] I'm this individual who does this. Or I'm this individual who sat at the feet of this teacher. Or I'm this individual who learned from that person. Much like today, we will give greater degrees of, I guess we would say, elevation, depending upon a university that an individual attends, or where they get their degree from, or something of that nature.
[5:27] Even in churches, we tend to have that reality. Well, I go to this pastor's church, or this person, or Dr. So-and-so here, not to diminish the doctorate at all, or this individual, or any of these natures.
[5:39] And we tend to elevate men that God uses rather than the God who's called us to himself. And that's what's going on at Corinth. And Paul kind of left it for a moment as he finished out his introduction and reminder of who God called them.
[5:54] But he brought it back up again in the second chapter. And now he's really dealing with it here in the third and the fourth chapter. But as he begins to deal with it, he shows us carnal Christianity and the tragedy that it creates.
[6:12] Now, I want you to remember, in particular to the third chapter, he is speaking of the corporate body. The corporate body. That is, the church in its entirety.
[6:25] Like War Trace Baptist Church, the local body. Not just to the individual members. So the tragedy we see is the tragedy that takes place in the entire church when its members operate in fleshly or carnal Christianity.
[6:44] Later on, he will begin to make application to the individual. Now, I say that because in the third chapter, he will say, you are the temple of God. Two times in the book of 1 Corinthians, he refers to people being a temple.
[7:00] In the third chapter, it is the church as a whole is the temple of God. As we make our way through and he begins to make application to the individual, he will remind you that as individuals, we too are the temple of God.
[7:16] That he dwells within us. And that is when he is dealing with how we should, what we should give our bodies to, how we should keep our bodies pure, how we should keep our bodies clean.
[7:29] Here, he's talking about the church-wide fellowship. Now, we understand, as Christ said, we're two or more gathered. I am there as well. And the church has a great place of importance.
[7:39] And the church has a great place of prominence. And we are a spiritual house being built up as spiritual stones. We are, as Peter reminds us, united to one and together so that we may be the temple of God.
[7:50] And God is putting himself on display through us. And we see all these great truths. But tragedy happens in the people of God when carnal Christianity is allowed to rule and reign.
[8:03] And we see it in three ways. The first thing that we see that is tragic about carnal Christianity is that the word is restricted.
[8:14] Paul says, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.
[8:25] Now, just a reminder here, he's writing and speaking to believers. And you, brethren. When he refers to them as brethren, he is referring to them as people who have known and accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
[8:45] These are people who have been redeemed, have been saved, have been forgiven, have been bought with the blood of the Lamb. This is the church. This isn't the world, right?
[8:55] He is speaking to the church. He's speaking to the people of God. He refers to them as brethren because they are brothers in Christ. He says, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.
[9:14] Paul here, writing to fellow believers, has this tragic truth stated. There are things that I wish I could have told you. Things that I wish we could have spoke about.
[9:26] There are things that apply to the word of God which you are not able to receive. Now, that's a sad reality, especially when it applies to the church. Because if you remember, you go back in the second chapter.
[9:38] If you just turn back a page or look back up a couple of verses in the second chapter. So, second chapter, the 14th verse, it says, But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.
[9:52] Now, a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. So, what Paul says there is, It is absolutely natural that a natural man not be able to accept the things of the Spirit of God which are put on display by the Word of God.
[10:10] So, he says, Naturally, who we are when we are born, we cannot accept the things of God. But then he goes on a little bit later. He says, But the spiritual man, he is not appraised by anyone.
[10:21] The spiritual man accepts the things of the Spirit of God, and he is not rightly appraised by anyone, which means everybody doesn't really fully understand him. So, we have two people here. The natural man cannot accept the things of God.
[10:34] The spiritual man has fully accepted the things of God. And then he goes on, and as Adrian Rogers reminds us, he introduces the third person, because the natural man behaves naturally.
[10:45] We like to say it this way, Don't be surprised when sinners act like sinners, because the natural man behaves naturally. The spiritual man behaves supernaturally.
[10:58] He is appraised rightly by no one. He's doing things that people just can't understand, because he accepts the things of the Spirit, and the things of the Spirit illuminate things of the Word of God for us.
[11:09] And we begin to understand the things and the work of Christ, and we begin to understand what it is Christ is calling us to do. So, the spiritual man behaves supernaturally. But then Adrian Rogers says, But the carnal man behaves unnaturally.
[11:27] And I like how he says it, and I'm not even going to try to reinvent it. He said, when the will's been invented, don't reinvent the will, right? He reminds us that the carnal Christian has too much of the Spirit to behave naturally, and too much of the flesh to behave supernaturally.
[11:44] Therefore, he just does that which is unnatural. He reminds us these are believers. Now, look at this. Paul says, And you, brethren, they had accepted Christ, therefore had been recipients of the Spirit, but were not behaving spiritually.
[12:06] And the first tragedy that comes about because of their lack of spiritual behavior, or we would call it spiritual maturity, is that the Word of God is hindered in their life.
[12:22] Paul says, There are things I could not tell you. And when I came to you, I tried to put this in context. Okay, well, when exactly was Paul talking about this?
[12:32] And he says there in the first verse, And when I came to you, and I, brethren, he says it in the first verse of chapter 2. So he is speaking about his first coming. But then he goes on later and says, But even now you cannot accept them.
[12:44] This is like five years later. So after five years of time, he still cannot speak to them the things of the Word of God which he would like to because they are still fleshly, behaving like mere men.
[13:04] You cannot say they are behaving naturally because they are no longer natural. You have been born again. What did Jesus say? A man cannot go to see the Father. A man cannot go to heaven lest he be born again.
[13:16] And once you have been born again, you are no longer just natural. You are entered into what is called a new birth, right? It is a supernatural birth. You don't enter into your mother's womb and come out again as Nicodemus asked the question.
[13:28] The old has passed away. Behold, all things have become new. We are crucified with Christ, Paul would later say in Galatians 2.20. But we see all these realities that we cannot be a natural person after having a supernatural encounter with the risen Savior.
[13:46] One thing we find throughout the Bible is that any time someone has an encounter with the Lord, things look different after it. Either they are redeemed and their life is transformed or they deny Him and their life is condemned for all of eternity.
[14:05] But you do not go back to who you naturally were. But when He is speaking of carnal Christianity or fleshly individuals, what He is saying is the Word of God cannot have its full impact upon your life.
[14:21] You cannot understand all that God would have to say. The author of Hebrews, we don't know who He is. Some have great assumptions of who He may be. I have an opinion of who I think it may be.
[14:31] But that is just my opinion and my understanding to the best of what I can. So we are not here to talk about it. But the author of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 5 reminds us in verse 13.
[14:41] He tells us in Hebrews 5.13 that you should be receiving meat but you are not receiving meat yet. You still have to have milk and milk is for babies. And then He tells us this astounding thing in the 14th verse there.
[14:53] He says in Hebrews 5.14 that the reason they could not receive the meat of the Word, that is the hard things, they were still on the elementary principles of the Word, is because they were not putting to practice that which they had already heard.
[15:08] He says the mature are those who have put to practice so that they can rightly discern what is right and wrong. See, many individuals, I believe, think that the Word of God is simply for the consumption of information.
[15:27] That is, as long as I know what it says, I'm good. Well, my friend, that is absolutely wrong. For the demons believe and tremble. Right?
[15:39] Satan quoted Scripture when he tempted our Savior. I believe the demons often know Scripture better than we do. It is not the knowledge of the Word, but it is the application of what we know.
[15:54] It is the practice of the Word that moves us beyond carnality and fleshly behavior. It is the putting to practice what we know, and then it begins to exercise this truth in our lives, and when we practice what we know, it fits us to receive even more.
[16:16] Henry Blackaby says in his study, Knowing and Doing the Will of God, you just do the last thing God told you to do. And someone says, well, what if I run out of haste and my friend, you'll never come to the end of doing everything that God has told you to do.
[16:33] When you have done everything we've been told to do from Genesis to Revelations, you come let me know. And then we'll sit down together and I promise we can find something we haven't done yet.
[16:45] We don't have to add to the Word, we just need to do the Word. One of the tragedies, he says, I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it.
[16:57] Indeed, even now you're not yet able, for you are still fleshly. It is a hindrance and a restriction to the Word. We get so upset today.
[17:09] We think, well, there's such a famine for the Word of God. There's such a famine. And there is. There's a great famine, biblical illiteracy and all these things going on. And the answer to that is not greater memorization, even though we need those.
[17:25] It is the memorization that leads to the application. Know the Word, meditate upon the Word, and then do the Word so that we may receive more of the Word.
[17:38] Sure, the Word, David reminds us that we hide the Word of God in our heart that we may not sin against Him, right? We hide it in order that we may apply it. We see here that it is one thing to know the Savior or another thing to be able to receive the Word.
[17:56] It's carnal Christianity restricts the impact and even the reception of the Word. One thing that I have, I don't know if you have it, I have in my Bible, I've written it right here in the front cover of this Bible.
[18:10] It's been written there for many years. You'll see it there. I'm sure you can read it from where you're at. I appreciate you. You can see that. Here's my visions, right? My values, my vision, my vision of the future. So this is my vision and this is what, if it happens, what it will look like in the future.
[18:24] And then here are my values. These are what I base my whole public ministry upon. Right? I've read them to you before. But here's my vision. My vision is to be the visible, properly functioning fellowship. Reaching out into the community, into the world, Christ has placed us in with the love of the Father.
[18:41] That's my vision. That's what I long to be as a pastor. I want to be the visible, properly functioning fellowship. So what does that look like? Right? I want every member maturing, every member maturing in their personal walk as they fulfill their function within the body of Christ, being made known among Wartrace, Bedford County, Tennessee, and the world because of what they hear and see from Wartrace Baptist Church.
[19:05] What do I value? I have four key values. Four key values. I share these with you because this has to do with restricting the word. Here's my first one.
[19:16] Weekly corporate worship of the entire body of Christ. I value our worship together. I value it. Weekly corporate worship of the entire body of Christ.
[19:26] Number two, what's my second value? A growing knowledge of God's word in every member. Own every member to know the word of God better.
[19:39] Right? The third one, every part properly functioning in the role that Christ has called them in prayerfully sustained missions including church-wide and personal efforts in the community.
[19:51] They're my four values. Right? Corporate worship, weekly corporate worship. every member growing in the word because then as you grow in the word then you can do the word. You can fulfill the part in the word and then we prayerfully sustained missions as we put into application the word.
[20:08] One of the tragedies of carnal Christianity is that the word is restricted. The word has a powerful impact upon our lives but it becomes restricted when we behave just like mere men.
[20:20] And why? Let's get to the second one because witness is limited. Witness is limited. Look at what it says here. One of the questions you'll have on your table talk there is how does Paul define or how does he describe the believers at Corinth?
[20:37] These are believers, right? Look at what it says here. You are still fleshly it says in verse 3 for since there is jealousy and strife among you are you not fleshly? Nor are you not walking like mere men.
[20:51] Now the church is the ecclesia. That's what the word church is. It's ecclesia. Ecclesia is not a new word to Christianity. Ecclesia is actually a word that was used in Roman government and it meant called out ones.
[21:05] Ones that were called out from society in order to serve a purpose higher than they once did in society. It would be like calling someone an ecclesia was called out to judge a case.
[21:17] Called out from in order to preside over. So an ecclesia is someone that had called out from to be distinct in. But yet Paul says that as the ecclesia those who had been called out from the natural there was jealousy and strife and envy and they were acting like mere men.
[21:37] Now it's hard to be a witness when you don't look any different. And the witness is a calling someone to something greater than them and when there's jealousy and strife and arguing don't call me into that and tell me you've got something better.
[22:02] Oh you need what I have. What do you have? We have an argument every time we get together. No I don't want that. Thanks. I appreciate it. Let me call you into this body. See the witness becomes hindered here because he says you're acting like mere men and what then is Apollos and what is Paul?
[22:21] He says you're doing everything that they're doing in the world. You've brought the world's standards into the church and the church begins to behave like the world and therefore the church no longer has anything to offer the world to remove it.
[22:34] Listen the world has enough concerns and chaos and disagreements and arguments the world has enough of that on its own. The world has enough of fleshly incarnality the world has enough of mere men out there.
[22:47] Everything that man can accomplish the world is already doing. The witness of the church is that we have something the world cannot offer. Right? A peace that passes understanding.
[22:59] A love for one another that the world simply cannot understand. By this they will know that you love me. Your love for one another. Right? A love. An agape love. Not a euros love. Not a philadelphia love.
[23:11] Not a love that love you like a brother. Yeah that's one of those things that we need that. It's not a love that's based upon feeling. It's a love that I'm going to give of myself for your sake and you're going to give of yourself for my sake because the world can't comprehend that.
[23:25] And when we operate in these ways when we begin to look different we've got something to witness about. But when we begin to behave just like mere men what are we offering?
[23:41] You ever thought about that? I remember not too long ago I remember when I was a very young believer it was a lot longer ago than it seems to be in my mind. A church I was attending had some church shirts made and they were standard church shirts and they were given to us and right across the front of it and it still to this day captures my attention it says Christ has set us free and it just left at that and I remember just in my young Christianity mind my infant in Christ mind my question was yeah but what from?
[24:12] Christ has set me free from what? Because it's one thing to say that Christ has set me free but if my life doesn't look like it's been set free then what hope do I have to offer anyone that's caught in something they need to be set free from?
[24:29] See if my life doesn't look any different than it used to look if it's still just a polished up version of the old guy what hope do I have to offer anyone else?
[24:44] You say well it's not a view it's of Christ right but Christ's work in us is a glorious thing it is a supernatural event it is an amazing thing and when we behave like mere men and when we we have the same problems the world has and we we have the same confrontations the world has and when things are done in a natural way no witness becomes very limited fire attracts attention Jim Elliott who died a very young death speared to death by the Indians in Ecuador you may have read some of his work and it's a great book that his wife Elizabeth Elliott well his widow at that time Elizabeth Elliott wrote Shadow of the Almighty and the end of the Spears is a movie and it's about Nate Saint and it was put out by Nate Saint people who was one of the five there as well Jim Elliott in his writings once said
[25:47] Lord give me neither a long life I don't want a long life I want a powerful life and he made his coming he said Lord set me on fire that all the world may watch that is give me a life that attracts people to you at his death his and his four companions death there was such a resurgence in missions and concern and such a concern for the things of God and going back and looking at what made their lives different that witness was easy it is when the church as a body is content with looking just a little bit better than we used to and behaving like mere men that witness becomes limited read church history look around the believers in the churches with the greatest witnesses are those that God is doing things among and in that the world cannot understand because they're operating spiritually not fleshly the word is restricted the witness is limited number three the work is impacted the work is impacted he says what then is Apollos and what is
[27:12] Paul because that's what they were stating their whole case upon was these individuals he tells us in verse five servants through whom you believed even as Christ gave the opportunity to each one now we acknowledge salvation is of the Lord no one comes to the father lest he be drawn by the savior but in the same vein Paul is the greatest champion of that right it is out of works lest any man should boast it's nothing that you've done it's nothing that I've done salvation is of the Lord men are saved and redeemed because Christ died for them and called them and called them to the purpose the father draws them to the presence of the spirit salvation is of the Lord the son paid the price the father ordained the price and the spirit draws you to understand the price salvation is fully the work of the Lord but then Paul says but there are workers there are workers he would remind us in the book of Romans that no one is saved lest he hear the word of God and how can they hear lest someone preach the word there are workers there are laborers in the kingdom each and every one of us are redeemed because of the work of Christ but we praise
[28:22] God for the labors of men and women because of his work we as we are reminded in Hebrews chapter 12 stand in a great cloud of witnesses we stand on the shoulders sometimes feet to feet beside those people who have labored in the kingdom for the sake of our souls Paul reminds them that he and Apollos were just laborers and he tells them I planted Apollos watered but God was causing the growth that's encouragement right that's encouragement in your own life that's encouragement in a pastor's life that's encouragement in your own home friend plant the seed plant the word plant the word sometimes you water the word Sidney Gibson says sometimes you're just picking up the rocks in the field so that someone else can plant whatever you're doing in the kingdom it's good because it's God who causes the growth it's not up to you to grow people it's not up to you to to save people you can't save anyone I don't want any more
[29:23] Billy Joes the world doesn't need any more Billy Joes it doesn't okay the world needs more of Christ not more of Billy Joe Calvert the world needs more of Jesus Christ but he needs me to plant the seed to water the seed to encourage the seed I cannot cause you to grow but I can be used of him to enable you to grow because it is a spiritual thing spiritual growth is a spiritual reality that means you are not going to go spiritually the same way you would grow naturally you cannot use natural means to grow spiritual beings you have to have the work of God active in the people's lives but if you remember when Christ was walking upon the face of the earth he comes to his hometown remember when he comes to his hometown there's this sad line in there where it seems as if the actions of man hinder the work of God because it says but Jesus could not do many miracles there because of their unbelief belief because of their unbelief that their lack of faith you say well couldn't he not have overcome their lack of faith yes but their lack of faith hindered how many times did he say as you have believed it has been done unto you it's this divine union that I cannot understand and I'm not going to try to understand it and I'm not going to waste my breath trying to explain it where you unite the supernatural with the natural and you unite the divine with the human side and he says your faith is really the kind of the contributing factor to the work of what God's allowed to do in your life but then we're reminded here the work that is being done
[31:12] God is causing the growth so that then neither the one who plants or the one who works is anything but God who causes the growth but how many stagnant believers do you know if God is causing the growth what's hindering the work but you are behaving like mere men it is the carnal Christianity that leads to a work hindered and impeded God's doing a great work among his people maturing them and growing them and causing them he's putting he's using various tools he's using those tools are people right he's using them as as tools in his hands people speaking truth into our lives and and we have more access to this day and time than any other point in history we have more access to the things of God we have more access to the word of God let listen I can go right now into my office and I can I can take every one of you right now and we can log on to certain things and I can give you more biblical sound teaching than you've ever had access to in any other point in history we have more commentaries both critical and applicable we have we have access not just to the things being written today but to the things that have been written throughout the ages things that were out of print have been reprinted we have the works of history we have the classics that we can go back and read we have the fullness of the word of God we have access to all of the teachers that God has used up to this point yet we also have a decreasing number of mature believers because the work is hindered not because of a lack of access but because of an increase in carnality behaving like mere men still fleshly we have just enough of the spirit to not do that which is natural but we have way too much of the flesh that we cannot do that which is supernatural so rather the church just behaves unnatural I'm reminded in my study of this Paul is making a transition we will get to it he is now pointing to the people of God as a field he reminds us here of planning and watering verse 7 says that God's causing the growth verse 8 says now he who plants and he who waters are one but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor for we are God's fellow workers you are God's field
[34:01] God's building we'll get to the building part in that last or next but right now we're speaking of the field reminded Jesus tells us it is a natural thing for the church to be fruitful and it is supernatural fruit when the word takes root they bear fruit supernaturally so our hearts ought to be broken when the supernatural is not evident because it's being hindered by the flesh and that's in our corporate life but also in our personal life let me leave you with one word and leave you with one word of encouragement because I know it can be discouraging I reminded you Paul is speaking to the church body here right the church body has this tragedy of going on in Corinth of carnal carnal Christianity and it's impacting the entire body it's impacting them so much that they're restricted in how much of the word they can hear it's impacted so much that they're limited in how great of a witness they have it's impacting them so much that there's a hindrance to the work of God they're not growing at the rate that they should grow but he encourages the individual because look at what it says I just read it in verse 8 now he that's the individual just because the corporate community is impacted because of the carnal Christianity that's going on in it all you need is an individual who can get sight of what could be you need an individual who could be excited about what may be you need an individual who has something to push forward to and that individual could be the stirring pot of what's going on in the side he could shake up the flesh a little bit and wake up the spirit look at what it says now he who plants and he who waters are one but each that's the individual each will receive his own reward according to his own labor it is not wrong in
[36:03] Christianity to work for a reward it is wrong to believe you're working for your salvation but your salvation calls you to a work and we work for a reward the very first Sunday I preached here I told you about that I've been hearing about it from my family and kids ever since and I know most of you forgot about it but I remember that very first message I ever the message I preached in view of a calling I told you I labor for a reward because I want a big crown I want the biggest crown I can get and I don't want the biggest crown I can get so I can wear it on my head because I've read the rest of the story it tells us in the book of revelations we take that crown off and we cast it at his feet I want the biggest crown I can get to throw it at the feet of my savior because he deserves it right I don't want it so that I can walk around in glory saying look at the crown on my head I want it so that when I throw it at his feet everybody says wow look at what was offered to him I don't want it for my recognition I want it for his adoration I don't want it because of me but I am laboring for a reward the Bible tells us that each one will receive the reward for his own labor so just because the corporate body may be hindered it doesn't mean the individuals got to stop just because the body may be restricted it doesn't mean the individual says well that's just the way it's got to be friend listen to me when we stand before our savior and he's looking at us with those eyes of fire and he's testing we'll read later each individual's work it won't matter what we've all done corporately what he's going to be looking at that moment is what I have done individually so
[37:43] I'm going to labor I'm going to work and I'm going to strive and I'm going to look for the reward that I will be willingly offering as I told you that first Sunday I don't want a Burger King crown thrown at his feet I want the biggest crown I can find to throw at his feet and I'm going to labor to that purpose till he calls me home but the only way I'm ever going to do it is if I get the flesh out of the way and I quit being carnal and I begin to be spiritual I need enough of the spirit to do the supernatural and so little of the flesh that I can't even think about the natural so I need a supernatural work from the Savior who redeemed me for his purposes and I need him to fill me with his spirit for his labors and when the individual takes that to heart then we don't have to worry about the corporate problem because as individuals we come together and then we are the body because there's tragedy in carnal Christianity let's pray Lord I thank you I thank you for this day I thank you for the great price you paid for our redemption Lord I know there's the temptation in each and every one of us to take that price and to take it for granted to try to just add it on to Lord right now would you give us a holy disruption in our spirit if that would be the case in in us search me oh Lord try me
[39:19] Lord may we behave more of the spirit and less of the flesh because then and only then do you get the greatest glory it's not about us Lord it's about you and we ask it all in Christ's name amen so Thank you.
[41:02] Thank you.