1/26/25 1 Cor. 1:10-17 “Focus! Focus! Focus!”

23 Jan 1/26/25 1 Cor. 1:10-17 “Focus! Focus! Focus!”

1/26/25     1 Cor. 1:10-17        “Focus! Focus! Focus!”

You may not know this about me but I am always trying to do a better job in the pulpit and out of it also.  Every week, I have a mental review of the next week’s sermon.  I want to be worthy of carrying this message because it is such an important message.  It is a matter of life and death and I think you all know what I mean.  Anyway, I study sermons and I read sermons from other people.  I have a box of 400 sermons from Billy Graham.  I listen to radio preachers like Chuck Swindoll and David Jerimiah.  There are also several others that I like to hear.  You see, it takes many people for me to be here every Sunday.  And of course, the person most responsible for me being prepared is my wife, Sharon.  So, as I was mentally rerunning the sermons of the last few weeks, I discovered that maybe I might be getting a little too excited in my presentation.  I really cannot help this but what I am going to try to do this week, is tone down our sermon just a little.  You will have to decide how I do.  Today, we are going to look at the church at Corinth where there was all sorts of trouble.  Before we get all righteous, be sure you know that they really weren’t any different than our churches today.  Even in our small churches, everything doesn’t always run smoothly.  Let’s take a look at how we can handle strife or division in our churches and also our personal relationships.

Here is an old story that I may have told before but it is a good one.  It seems that a woman was driving over the Cascade Mountain Range in Oregon when she drove into a snowstorm.  She became very frightened.  I think that most of us have a very healthy respect for snowstorms in this area, but in our storms there usually is not any danger of driving off a 100- or 1000-foot cliff.  I think that mountain storms might even be scarier than ours.  Anyway, she was driving along when she saw a snowplow in front of her.  Of all the kinds of luck to have, this was the greatest.  She could get in behind the snowplow and follow it while it cleared the road.  There were times when the snow was so heavy that she could hardly make out the back of the plow as she followed.  After driving along for some time, the plow stopped and the plow driver walked back to the car.  “Lady, where are you going?”  He asked.  “I’m on my way to Central Oregon.”  she replied.  “Well,” he continued.  “You’re never going to get there following me!  I’m plowing this parking lot!”  Have you ever had times in your life when you feel that you have just been following the wrong thing or maybe you are just going in circles?

Paul begins this passage by telling the people that they are to agree with each other so that they would be united in their church.  Let’s take a quick look at what Paul in not talking about here.  He did not want his people calling each other to make sure that his tunic and headband matched his new sash.  He did not care if their hairdos were Methodist or not.  He did not even care if the people were Roman Democrats or Roman Republicans.  Paul is not talking about superficial things that really do not matter to anybody.

Paul is talking about matters of the church.  He is not saying that we should not have discussions when we need to decide on which church program is the best or if we should add a Sunday school wing or not.  These church things should be discussed and thoroughly.  What he is telling them is that they should all be of one mind when it comes to Jesus Christ and what He has taught us.

You see, it should not be any problem for us to know what sin is.  We all do it so we probably all know what sin is.  I know that you do not want to talk about sin or hear about sin but I have to talk about it.  It is my job!  Many sins are specifically named in the Bible and we should try to stay away from them.  Many just make common sense and we should be able to stay away from these too.  In addition to this, if someone has the right to do something, does not make it the right thing to do.  Paul is telling them and us that we are always to side with Jesus and not with what the Roman or our United States government tell us.  We seem to think that just because we have the legal right to do something, it makes it right!  This is totally wrong.  It is still a sin even when the government says it is ok.  Just because we can have abortions in this country, does not make abortion the right thing to do.  There is more slavery in the world today than ever before, but it is still not the right thing to do. We are called to be the moral barometer for the world.  When we start to slide and get wishy-washy on issues where there is definite right and wrong, then we get into trouble.

Just look at our churches today where we seem to be lost on many issues that are explicitly mentioned in the Bible.  So many places have gone against the Bible and these churches are sinking.  There churches will soon die.  I many take 100 years but I am confident they will be gone.  But churches that keep teaching the basic truths of the Bible will be here forever.  God’s church will not be undone.  The church will always be here even if we have to hide in our houses like they do in so many other countries.  God is and always has been supreme.  God rules!  He reigns!  Just remember that when you hear how the devil is taking over so many churches.  God has won the war.  God will win in the end.  That is the way it is and I don’t want to get all riled up so I will try to settle down again.

What Paul is trying to tell us in this first part is to keep our eyes on Jesus.  When we as the people of our various churches are all focused on Jesus Christ, then we will have similar views and come to right decisions.  Even if we make a wrong one, we will know that we can go back to Jesus for the right answer.  We should all know what is right and what is wrong.  We know this.  When you have to make a decision, just pray and think about it for a bit.  Don’t think about it from your perspective or your wallets perspective but from the perspective of what is right or wrong or not so right.  Make a wise decision.  If you do just this one little thing, deciding right and wrong, you will have a much happier life.

The problem comes when we make mistakes.  And everyone makes mistakes.  Everyone here wishes that they could go back and undo something.  There are two things we all do and they are; we all make mistakes and we all sin.  Just a while back I had a person tell me that they did not sin.  I almost fell out of my chair.  Anyway, we all do these things so get used to it.  Young people, you will make many mistakes.  Get past them and move ahead.  You don’t have to wallow in your mistakes or sins.  You have a place where you can take all your personal problems.  You can take them to Jesus Christ.  He is there waiting to hear from you.  He is there wanting to help you.  He is there always loving you.  Don’t ever be afraid to go to Jesus because He is the best friend that you will ever have.  There will be none better and that is a promise.

So, you need to keep your focus on Jesus at all times and in all places and I do not care what our government says.  Jesus Christ belongs in every part of our lives and there are no exceptions!  Then you also need to keep focused on your mission.  Paul’s immediate mission here is to try to bring the church in Corinth back together.  They were fragmented.  It almost seems as if they are following whoever was the last traveling preacher who visited them.  For the people of Corinth, their mission is also to regroup and come back together.

Now just listen to this for a minute.  When Paul had been with them, some decided that Paul was the greatest thing since zippered tunics so they worshiped Paul.  Apollos came to them and preached and baptized.  Some thought he was the greatest thing since chicken wings at Buffalo Wild Wings so they worshiped him.  Cephas came and ministered to these people.  Some thought he was the greatest thing since chunky peanut butter so they worshiped him.  And there were still some who remained faithful and worshiped the real God, Jesus Christ.

What I would like us to do for a minute is to think about our mission and are we keeping our eyes on it?  Is it our mission to help our children to be Christians by having them play in a hockey or basketball tournament on Sunday morning?   Where is our mission when we decide that it is more important to sleep in on Sunday morning than get our children to Sunday school?  We have these things happening en masse all over the country.  I’m talking about things that make us uncomfortable.  From what I can gather from our society, we would be very fortunate to have someone like Paul or Cephas come so we could worship them.  The reason I say that is that at least we might quit worshiping ourselves!

Our mission should not be to see how comfortable we can be but rather how can we spread this glorious news of a God who hung Himself on a rugged cross and died after many hours of excruciating pain so that He Would pay our sin debt for all time.  Jesus did all this for you so that you could free yourself of sin.  He did not do this so you could just ignore Him, sin against Him or to leave Him hanging on the cross.  Our mission is not to see how many sins we commit.  Our mission is to see how many people we can introduce to Jesus Christ.  You need Jesus.  You all need Jesus.  Everyone needs Jesus.

And you need to remember all the time that we are all gifted differently.  Therefore, we all have different missions.  Go after your mission.  Don’t be thinking that someone else will do it.  Go and do what God made you to do.  If you do, then you will have the most fulfilling life possible.  I have never met a person who is doing their mission for God who is unhappy.  I would say that they are probably the happiest people in the world.  It just totally baffles me as to how people can continue to run wide open, full throttle into solid walls when the door is wide open two feet to the right of where they just hit.  Jesus is that door.  Jesus should be your focus and your missions are your livelihood in Jesus.

So, we need to be focused on Jesus Christ and also the mission that He wants us to do.   And then finally, we are to be focused on the message.  Notice how Paul goes about telling the people how these other people came, like Apollos and Cephas, and gave them the message but they did not receive it.  They began to worship the messenger.  Paul is trying to tell them that none of these people even come close to being worthy of worship.  Paul is trying to remind them of the message that each of these messengers left for them.

It does not tell us but it looks to me as if these other preachers had left the right message.  These people knew what it meant to be Jesus crucified.  They knew about baptism.  They have just been getting a little mixed up as to the totality of the message.  Paul never came to these people to baptize them.  He never came so that these people could worship him because he is so smart.  He did not even consider himself to be that smart.

Paul’s mission was to come and preach the message.  He came to explain what it means to follow Jesus Christ.  Paul was a preacher and a teacher.  He might have been the best preacher and teacher that there has ever been.  It might even be easy to see how these people could get a little mixed up as the people who came to teach them were so dynamic!

The message that Paul taught to all he met was that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  He lived an absolutely sinless life on earth for 33 years.  He traveled about and did many miracles in the name of God.  He showed us the way to live.  The He was tried and convicted of crimes He did not commit.  He was stripped and whipped.  He was nailed to a wooden cross and left out in the hot sun for hours to die.

But the story would be meaningless if we stopped there.  They put His body in a tomb and on the third day, He arose again claiming victory for you and me over the devil and all the trash and garbage the devil brings into our lives.  And Jesus did not just do this for you and me.  He did it for every person in the world whether they are dead or alive.  This is the message.  This is the message I try to preach to you.  If you take these three Christian attributes, focusing on Jesus, your mission and the message, then you will begin the best journey of your life.  My journey began on a road north of Kindred, ND more than 18 years ago and we have been in on the best life possible ever since.  We would not trade our love for you people and all the people we have met for all the treasures of the world.  That is how powerful the love of God really is.  That is the story that needs to be shouted our everywhere.

Please understand that the world, our society does not understand Christians.  The world of Paul did not either and the Christians began to slide back into the ways of the world.  They began to fragment.  We are the exact same way.  Satan is pulling us to try to do terrible things like legalizing drugs.  All I can say about that is “Is this a wise thing to do?”  Anyway, we are pulled in a hundred different directions by the evil masquerading in our culture.  We have a pretty solid group of people that view every week.  When you get pulled in the wrong direction, just remember to focus on Jesus, His message and your mission.

I have always said the Christianity is the easiest religion that there is.  It is not rocket science.  It is easy so that anyone and everyone can follow.  You know people in your neighborhood.  Your mission is to take your gifts to these people, in the name of Jesus.  Maybe you will not see any results but someone will someday.  Jesus loves you and will help you in any way impossible.  Keep your focus on Him and He will begin to permeate every aspect of your life.  And when He does that, well, I cannot even begin to describe how good it will be for you.  That is a promise.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.