How to Pray for Faithfulness

I praise God for such an amazing Sunday. This morning, 39 people joined the church in membership. 15 of those people publicly declared their faith in Christ alone through baptism. Let’s give God the glory!

Everything we do at Soteria flows out of the Gospel. We worship an awesome God because we are reconciled to God through him. We baptize people as a sign of their faith in Christ. We sing boldly because God is worthy of our praise. And we preach, teach, and study the Word because it provides us with everything we need to be made right with God and to live for him.

My name is Josh Smith, and I am the Director of Growth Groups at Soteria. I have the privilege of preaching from 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 today. So if you will take your Bible, please open up to 1 Corinthians 1.

Just a couple weeks we ago we started a sermon series called “Praying with Paul.” In this summer sermon series, we will be walking through numerous passages written by the Apostle Paul in which Paul addresses prayer in some way. You can’t go far in the New Testament without seeing prayer jump off the page. The New Testament, and particularly the Apostle Paul, have a lot to say about prayer. This summer, we are asking the question, how can the prayer life of Paul inform us in how we pray today? How can we model our prayer life after his?

Throughout the series we will look at passages where Paul addresses prayer. Perhaps he prays in the book, perhaps he teaches his readers how to pray, perhaps he speaks about his prayer life. Today, we will be in 1 Cor. 1 where Paul talks about how he prayed for the Church in Corinth. Specifically, we will look at how Paul prayed for the church to be faithful to God.

This past winter, my wife and I hit the jackpot. We had a flight cancelled and to compensate for canceling the flight, our airline sent us a refund for our flights and some additional free flying points. With the refund and the flying points, we realized that we had enough to take a trip to the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Now in the depths of an Iowan winter, this was a welcome respite. We spent time eating some great Polynesian food, learning about the culture at different museums and experiences, reading on the beach, and, my personal favorite, hiking. Oahu has some absolutely amazing hikes. I am the kind of person that would plan an entire vacation around hiking, and my wife graciously allows me to plan a few different hikes throughout the week we were there.

Our favorite hike we went on was only a three-mile hike but it was different than the others. Most hiking in Hawaii zig zags up a mountain and goes back down. This one, however, zig zagged down into a valley until you reached one of the most beautiful spots on the island of Oahu—Waimano Falls.

The trek down into Waimano Falls was muddy and steep. We had to scramble down some rocks, grabbing ahold of some ropes to steady ourselves as we made the descent. The closer we got to the bottom, we could hear a subtle roar that began to grow louder. And then we saw it. We made to the edge of this precipice that we had to climb down and could see a beautiful waterfall cascading into a massive pool.

WAIMANO FALLS #1

The waterfall was approximately 14 feet tall and continuously poured hundreds of gallons water into the natural pool. This pool was also quite large. And deep. It was 15-20 feet deep and had a twenty foot cliff that you could jump off into the pool. To get there, however, you had to climb up the side of the waterfall with a rope. My wife and I absolutely loved doing this, but I have to admit, it was kind of hard. Especially the first time we were climbing the rope to the top of the waterfall. At the top of it was another waterfall that flowed into a much smaller pool.

WAIMANO FALLS #2

This waterfall, however, was about 35 feet tall and was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. You couldn’t climb this waterfall, but the difficult journey to get there was worth it because of the beauty of what I saw in the end. While trying to climb the wall for the first time, I lost my balance and managed to get myself caught under the waterfall while still trying to climb it. I realized pretty quickly that there was no way I was going to make it to the top of the first waterfall so long as I was being fought by the water. Eventually, I got myself out from under it and was able to make it to the top. At the top of the first waterfall, I was astounded at the beauty of the second waterfall.

This is a short picture of what the Apostle Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 1. Before I started the hike, I knew there were two waterfalls at the bottom and that there was one I would be able to climb and jump off of. What I wasn’t prepared for was how difficult the journey to get there would be or how worthwhile the journey would be. And this is often what it is like for us in the Christian life. On days like today, we rejoice and celebrate how God saved us. Christ humbled himself to the point of death on a cross so that we might be reconciled to God! We know that someday we will be perfect as Christ is perfect. We will no longer struggle with death, sin, suffering because Christ will redeem all of it.

The problem is not that we are trusting in the wrong thing. Because we are not! We are trusting in Christ alone. The problem is that we struggle to see how we can make it through the difficult hike and we don’t have a complete picture of how beautiful the end of it will be.

And that’s what Paul talks about today. We are going to ask the question:

How do we pray for faithfulness?

How do we pray for faithfulness? Yes, the sermon series is about prayer. However, all of 1 Cor. 1:4-9 is Paul explaining to the Corinthian Church how he prays for them. So how does the apostle Paul pray for the faithfulness of the Corinthians? And how should that impact how we pray for faithfulness today? How do we pray for faithfulness? In short, here’s the Apostle Paul’s answer to this question.

BIG IDEA: We pray for our faithfulness when we thank God for his.

We ask God to help us be faithful to him when we thank him for how faithful he is to us. When we boldly approach the throne of the Almighty God and ask him to grant us faithfulness, we do so, first, by praising him for all that he has given us in Jesus already.

1 Corinthians 1:4 starts by saying, “I always thank my God for you.” This concept is not foreign to the New Testament. Paul thanks God for different people in numerous other New Testament books that he wrote. He says,

Romans 1:8–10 (CSB)

I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you...

Philippians 1:3–11 (CSB)

I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer...

Colossians 1:3–8 (CSB)

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you...

1 Thessalonians 1:2–10 (CSB)

We always thank God for all of you, making mention of you constantly in our prayers.

2 Thessalonians 1:3–6 (CSB)

We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters...

Philemon 4–7 (CSB)

I always thank my God when I mention you in my prayers...

Throughout Paul’s writings, he thanks God for how he has worked in numerous ways in different peoples lives. But in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul starts off by thanking God for how he converted the Corinthian church. We read, 1 Corinthians 1:4 “I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus.”

One theologian called the grace of God “his love without strings” (Thiselton, First Corinthians, 2. Suggestions for Possible Reflection on 1:4-9). I love that. I absolutely love that. God’s love has no strings attached to it. God didn’t send his own Son to die so that we would only have to make it 50% of the way to him. Christ didn’t give sight to the blind, strength to the lame, healing to the infirmed, life to the dead so that he could tell us about how far we had to go still. No.

God’s love has no strings attached. God sent Jesus to take on human form, live among us, be crucified, and be risen from the grave so that we could have perfect reconciliation with God. Perfect relationship. Perfect love. Sin would be done away with. Righteousness would reign. Grace would abound more and more and more.

That’s what Jesus died for. That’s what the grace of God is for those in Christ Jesus.

So how should we pray for faithfulness? First, we thank God for conversion.

1. We thank God for conversion (v. 4).

1 Corinthians 1:4 (CSB)

I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus,

You see, faithfulness is the means and the end. Faithfulness is the process and the result. Faithfulness is the race and the finish line. Faithfulness is not the beginning, but it flows from it. The beginning is faith. This grace of God given to us in Christ Jesus is from God. God gives us the faith. God enables us to understand the Gospel. God breaks our hearts over the sin that compels us to throw ourselves at the foot of the cross. So first, we thank God for conversion.

In fact, let’s pray right now and thank God for conversion.

Lord, God of our salvation, we thank you right now for saving us. The only thing we contributed to our salvation was the sin that made it necessary. You were faithful to span the gap that separated us from you. In your love you built a cross-shaped bridge through Jesus so that we might have access to you. You have given us grace upon grace upon grace and none of us are worthy of it. It is only your lavish grace that converts us, and, Lord, we thank you for it today. Amen.

First, we thank God for conversion. Second, we thank God for perseverance.

2. We thank God for perseverance (vv. 5-7).

Paul says,

1 Corinthians 1:4–7 (CSB)

I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in him in every way, in all speech and all knowledge. In this way, the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul thanks God for pouring out his grace on the Corinthians. The result of this, however, is how God gifted them to be faithful until the end. As a result of conversion, they were given the power to persevere in the faith as well. Specifically, Paul addresses spiritual gifts.

Now, if you know anything about the book of 1 Corinthians, a significant portion of the book is devoted to correcting the Corinthians for their actions. Three of them are mentioned here. Paul thanks God for how God gifted them in speech. Corinth was renowned for its love of rhetoric.

You’ve heard of the Olympic games? Well, Corinth hosted a different set of games that was second in popularity to the Olympic games. In the Isthmian games, however, there was a category for rhetoric. Yes. If the Isthmian games were more popular than the Olympic games, we would probably watch people get up and give speeches on TV every four years.

Paul, however, rebukes them for valuing good speech at the expense of more important things.

Paul also references knowledge. This would have referred more to the ability to discuss philosophy and argue for a particular point of view. It typically went hand in hand with speech in that people would give persuasive, knowledgeable speeches about certain topics.

Paul, however, rebukes the Corinthian church for becoming conceited and proud over their ability to discern knowledge.

The problem in Corinth was not that the church was lacking in spiritual gifts. The problem was that they were not valuing them correctly. Now we don’t have time to delve into all of that today.

But what amazes me about what Paul does here is this. Even though there were so many issues in Corinth related to spiritual gifts—prejudice, pride, arrogance, fear of man, the comparison game—Paul genuinely thanks God for the fact that they have spiritual gifts. And more than that, Paul affirms that the presence of these spiritual gifts confirms that they are truly saved! Even if they are being jerks to one another.

My wife, Charity, is the director of a summer day camp program up in Ankeny. She once told me about how she had to get rid of all the jump ropes at the school. When she started working there, she would bring out jump ropes for kids to play with. But instead of jumping with them, they would try to tie each other to the trees, tether ball poles, the playground, soccer goals, you name it. What Charity gave them as a gift was starting to be used to tie kids to places that were dangerous or tied in ways that could have been really bad for the kids.

This is what Paul is saying about the Corinthian church. And I wonder if we do the same thing. Churches are not immune from playing the comparison game. You might say, “I’m not as valuable to the church because I can’t sing like she can.” “I’m not as charismatic as he is!” “I can’t serve in that way like they can.” Friends, this must not be. Whatever your spiritual gift is, I want you to know today that that gift is not primarily for your benefit. It is for the good of the church. Paul isn’t addressing individuals within the church. Instead, he is saying that the church is not lacking any spiritual gift!

What this means for us is incredible. We typically think of spiritual gifts in terms of ministries, actions, abilities. But what Paul is talking about are the ministers, the people performing the actions. You cannot separate the gift from the person. When God gives the gift they are fused. That means you are the gift to the church. And whatever ministry you are a part of—nursery, youth group, greeting, prayer, growth group leadership, music, teaching, serving—you are vital to the healthy functioning of the church. God has placed you here for a reason. God has given you to the church. God wants the church to flourish as a result of your contribution.

This point goes hand in hand with the third way we should pray for faithfulness. First, we thank God for conversion. Then for perseverance, thirdly,

3. We thank God for final salvation (v. 8).

Paul says in verse 8,

1 Corinthians 1:8 (CSB)

He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Corinth, there were many ways in which people were abusing spiritual gifts. Still, Paul is grateful that they have the gifts. And the function of these gifts is to strengthen the entire body of believers, encourage the entire church to be faithful to the end “as they eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul thanks God for their conversion, and Paul thanks God for how he is strengthening them to persevere to the end, but he also thanks God for the fact that he will bring it to completion.

The end result is that the Corinthians will be blameless before God. I think this idea of blamelessness has two components to it. First, it has to do with perseverance (which we just talked about), and second, it has to do with perfection. In the end, when Jesus returns, he will wipe away all of our sin finally and we will be totally free of all sinful desires that we wrestle with today. What a beautiful day that will be.

Paul thanks God for perseverance and final salvation. So let’s pray right now for them as well.

Father, you are so so good to us. Not only have you brought us from death to life, from darkness to life. You have also empowered us to live for you by giving us your Spirit and placing us on mission in our church and in our communities. We thank you for how you have given us the ability to serve you and others. We thank you for how you have given us one another to press us deeper into relationship with you. And Lord, we ask that you come quickly to make us perfectly holy and blameless in your sight. Help us to endure to the end. By your faithfulness, grant us faithfulness. Amen.

We reach the final verse of the passage and remember everywhere we’ve been so far. God converts us, strengthens us to persevere, and will finally save us from all sin, bringing us into perfect fellowship with him in eternity. Now I want you to notice something. Paul has not given any commands to us in these verses. All of these verses extol the greatness of God. Paul thanks God for all that God has done, not what we do. God converts us, God grants us perseverance, God will finally save us. It is all God’s work, God’s effort, God’s grace, God’s goodness. None of it is ours.

Why is that? Let’s see what Paul says in verse 9.

1 Corinthians 1:9 (CSB)

God is faithful; you were called by him into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

All of the Christian life is God’s grace. And Paul concludes by thanking God for his faithfulness in all of it. And that’s the last way we pray for faithfulness.

4. We thank God for his faithfulness in all of it (v. 9).

The phrase, “God is faithful,” is found throughout Scripture. God is faithful to accomplish so many things in our lives from the beginning to the end. Here’s a sampling:

1 Corinthians 10:13 (CSB)

No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 (CSB)

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will do it.

Philippians 1:6 (CSB)

I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 9:28 (CSB)

so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

And God does all of this because he called us into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. This is more than just individual. It is also communal. We are all called together into fellowship with Christ. This is more than coffee and donuts. This fellowship is intimacy with God. God has called us to know him in Christ. God has called us to be known in a personal, relational way by Christ. All of life is for all of Christ. And that is how we pray for faithfulness.

BIG IDEA: We pray for our faithfulness when we thank God for his.

First, we thank God for conversion. We thank God for how he is currently equipping us to persevere to the end. We thank God that our final salvation and riddance of sin is as sure as the reality that Jesus rose from the dead. And lastly, we thank God for his faithfulness in bringing this about, bridging the gap, constructing the path. God is faithful Let us never forget that.

CONNECT CARDS

Take out your connect cards as we close the service this morning. Write down any prayer requests you might have. Every Tuesday, the pastoral team prays through them, and we would love to pray for you. On the next steps section, I just want you to finish this phrase:

Pray for me to be faithful in ___________.

Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness in our lives. You have been faithful in everything. From past conversion to present perseverance to future, final salvation, you are in control of it all. We rest secure knowing that our future with you is as sure as the reality of Christ’s resurrection. You have been faithful to us. Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness in our lives. By your faithfulness, grant us faithfulness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Benediction

1 Corinthians 15:51–58 (CSB)

Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality. When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place:

Death has been swallowed up in victory.

Where, death, is your victory?

Where, death, is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

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