God's Unexpected Work
No Costumes Allowed • Sermon • Submitted • 26:43
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· 40 viewsGod uses the broken, the lowly, the weak to show his power.
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18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,
29 so that no one may boast before him.
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Recap of the Series
Recap of the Series
We began this month a sermon series called “No Costumes Allowed”. It is traditional in the month of October in holiday celebrations for many of us to put on costumes, especially our children, and pretend to be something that we are not. But in “real” lives, I am making the Biblical case that we should put aside the pretense of wearing costumes in our spiritual lives. Even if we are Christians, we are not without flaw and I think we should abandon the idea that Christians never have problems, that we have it all together, and that we never sin. The pressure we feel to maintain this illusion is destructive not only to ourselves but also to others as we bear a false witness of Jesus Christ. My goal through these series of messages is to move us towards embracing honesty about our weakness and vulnerability. I believe it will result not only in building up our community but it also puts the focus of praise where it rightly belongs, on God. By practicing a community expectation where there are “no costumes allowed” we can foster a community built on loving and encouraging each other in much more powerful ways.
So far we have looked at Colossians and used the image of jars of clay to describe our lives. Like jars are made to be filled so we are filled by the power of God. And like jars of clay, we find that we are actually, quite fragile. And it is this fragility, this vulnerability that I want to be honest about this morning. We continued by using Paul’s own words in Romans 7 to describe the problem of two natures. But applying the PRO model to our spiritual lives, we move from the problem of sin, to the remedy of sin, to our preferred outcome, that is taking on the nature of Christ.
Introduction
Introduction
There is a culture today of self-promotion. I’m not saying that this isn’t a new thing. It is endemic of human nature, for some reason. But our society seems to be rewarding self-promotion more so than it ever has before.
Many of you know I’m a bit of sports nerd. Well, I could have just stopped with nerd, but I am a nerd about sports. And one of the things that I’ve watched changed over my life time of watching sports is the way that athletes are working hard to manage their “brand”. And certainly, the whole economy of the sports industry is based upon some of that. Teams will often sign players as much for their “brand” as their actual skills because a great percentage of their revenue is derived from jersey sales as actual wins. There are some franchises that are notorious for pursuing that revenue stream rather than pursuing championships.
And I wish I could say in the “Christian” world of the church that there wasn’t some of that going on as well. Preachers and personalities get promoted and then when they fall it becomes ruinous to the church. And it’s not a problem of just the 21st century, because this the kind of thing that Paul is dealing with in our sermon text this morning.
Earthly Standards Mean Nothing in Heaven
Earthly Standards Mean Nothing in Heaven
In our text this morning, Paul responds to this particular kind of costume: self-promoting or vying for prominence and importance. It’s an incredibly common kind of costume, one that fills up our need for approval or significance by putting on a show of notoriety, whether that’s gained by intellect, strength, money, or power. In this passage, we see that earthly standards of importance or knowledge (v. 20) mean nothing compared to the ways of God.
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
Instead, God often calls and uses those who are not “wise by human standards,” “influential,” or “of noble birth” (v. 26).
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
God’s Wisdom is Not the World’s Wisdom
God’s Wisdom is Not the World’s Wisdom
On the outside, the gospel is ridiculous
What is wisdom? Who is wise? God turns the world over and brings wisdom and power to the unexpected.
Complete reversal so that God may be glorified.
Two things that hold us back from being disciples
Two things that hold us back from being disciples
Pride: we don’t want to appear foolish to others and the world.
Pride: we don’t want to appear foolish to others and the world.
4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Misplaced humility: we think God can’t do anything through us
Misplaced humility: we think God can’t do anything through us
God loves to do miracles in your life. Several years ago I saw a member of the church I grew up in Harvey’s and we visited for a few moments. During our conversation, she asked him kind of a rude question, but it was okay, it keeps you humble, but she said, “Tim, how in the world did you end up a preacher?”
I said, “Isn’t it amazing what God can do.
God is called in Romans 4:17b: the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
My Daddy and his love of junk
My Daddy and his love of junk
I wish you guys were able to have known my father. My father, as as I've often said, was a great man. It's hard to be a son of a great man walking in his footsteps and a shadow as I have, and as much as I love dad, and as a great man, my dad was my dad was was kind of an interesting fella, too. In one sense. My daddy loved junk more than anybody I ever knew in my life.
I mean, he loved junk.
As the students were coming back into town, they would set up on the corner of a well traveled street. And they had all this junk. And they would sell it over the weekend, and make hundreds of dollars. And then they would take all that money that went into the pot. And they would go on vacation over the course of the year. And you know what they did on vacation, they bought more junk. They go on that world's Longest Yard Sale thing that stretches from Alabama all the way up to Kentucky, they would hit every pawn shop on the way they would hit every thrift shore.
And to my horror, my two daughters had been thrift store shoppers, I'm afraid I'm about to see my dad come out in them. So dad would go into these stores and there were things that he liked that he would get. And one of the things he loves to get ice machines we through the years have had especially crushed ice machines that will get them he get them fixed up. He had used them a while then he'd sell them and then he go around try to find another one Scotsmen brand was the brand he always looked for, he would look for Craftsman tools, because if they had a lifetime guarantee, if they were bad, he would take them and turn them in and get something new. And another thing that he liked was metal fans, you know, the kind that I'm talking about. Just like this one right here. He loved these old Emerson fans. And let me tell you, these are the best fans they ever made. I mean, look at how safe that fan is, you know, brass blades, hardly nothing to keep you from sticking a finger in there and getting it cut off. And it this, this particular fan is not the one that I had for years that he had bought and fixed up for me. But it was just like that. And man, those things could blow. But he loved to take them. And when he would get them, they would look like junk, they wouldn't be working. He had all him up, he would polish the blades. Now those blades you can't tell but the brass that get tarnished. You could you could shine them up and they would actually look golden. And I fell asleep many, many nights to the hum of that fan because it made a great sound. Fact I could tell you a story about almost getting kicked out of an apartment because my fans were too loud when I was at Emory University, but I missed that because that was one of the things that he saw he saw value and stuff that the world thought was junk. And God does too. Even more so.
I‘ve talked about how Dad liked to fix up junk, very often, it still stayed junk.. I'd have to carry that fan to him, you know, every couple of years or so to get him to fix back up. The thing about those Scotsman ice machines is they'd run for a while and then he'd have to buy another pump for it or he'd have to to get another part to it. It was always a constant thing. He he would get lawn mowers and they would run for three weeks and stay broken for three months. I mean, he could perfect the junk that he fixed.
But our God can.
Jesus can.
And what's more, God delights in doing so. That is “God’s Unexpected Work” that the world don't doesn't understand.
Think about how the world works for just a moment. When you do great things or when you are exceptionally good, or when you work hard, presumably you get rewarded for those things. fact we have a term for it, we call it karma. All things are going great for him. So karma is good. Oh, he was bad. So we got punished, his karma came in bidding minute in the rear end.
That's not how God works.
Grace works to reclaim, redeem and recreate a broken lives. The world doesn’t understand it. But God desires to do this. And we as the church should put aside the pretense of costume, that we are something that we are not absent, the presence of God in our life.
I invite you to pray with me,
Father, God, we do love you, we do praise you.
Particularly when we think how undeserving we are of grace, our minds can't comprehend the depth of your grace and love. Your wisdom, Lord, is so counter to that which we see around us in the world. The way that you treasure, each one, especially the weak and the lowly. The desire you have for the lost, to reclaim, remake, renew. It's why Jesus Christ said “Behold, I make all things new.” Lord, we pray that you would make us knew that you would take in our broken insignificant lives. Make them significant in you. We love you and praise you in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.