Transcript

1 Corinthians, chapter 16, as we continue our verse by verse, chapter by chapter journey through this wonderful New Testament letter. Once again the Apostle Paul is writing this letter, and there’s some debate about where he’s writing it from. I’ve come all the way around to the conclusion that its probably from the city of Ephesus. Nevertheless he writes this letter to this young church at Corinth, and once again a church that’s having every conceivable problem you can imagine. Gross perverse sexual immorality in the church that the church elders, well, they probably did not have elders yet, but nevertheless, church leadership, church members were not even dealing with it. They were actually laughing about it. Divisions and a party spirit in the church, this group liked one minister better, this group liked another one, this group liked another one, that group liked another one. That’s always a sign of a carnal, immature, back slidden church, and one problem after another.

Now Paul gets to the very end of the letter, and he sort of wrapping some things up, am I doing something wrong up here. [Am I getting a lot of racket in here. Am I. Let’s go to the pulpit mic okay guys, let’s go to the pulpit mic and we’ll take this one off, alright. We um, the microphone I used died during the world impact conference, and they’ve got me another and it, it needs to die]. But um, nevertheless, Paul’s wrapping up his letter to this church and… [boy I want to run around so bad I can’t stand it, I’ll just take this off Pat, that be alright and run around with this when I get through. Grab one of those. Okay. Oh, they are hindering me].

Nevertheless, he’s wrapping this letter up and he gets to some concluding remarks and we’re going to be looking at verses 5-9 this morning, and let’s go ahead and, and read that part of the text. 1 Corinthians 16:5-9. “But I shall come to you,” that’s to the church at Corinth, “after I go through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia; and perhaps I shall stay with you, or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way wherever I may go. For I do not wish to see you now just in passing; for I hope to remain with you for some time, if the Lord permits. But I shall remain in Ephesus until Pentecost; for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”

Now as I meditated on this text, actually memorized and meditated on it, something really jumped out at me that I couldn’t get away from. And that was that Paul had made some definite plans about where he was going and what he was going to do. So I began to think. How did Paul know it was the will of God to make these plans and to head out following these directions. Look at it there for example. In verse 5 he first of all says, I’m going to visit you on my journey back from Macedonia. He doesn’t say I’m going to come and stay at Corinth on the way to Macedonia, he says on the way back from Macedonia, I’m going to stop in there. Then the first part of verse 6 he says I’m going to stay with you for a while and probably spend all winter there with you. And then last part of verse 6 he says, now then after that I’m going to leave, then he says, you can send me on my way. Now when he tells the church at Corinth you can send me on my way, that’s preacher rhetoric for saying, you’re going to take up some money to help me before I leave.

Then in verse 8, jump down to there, he says, but right now I am going to stay in Ephesus, until Pentecost. Now let me as a side note here, I do not think Paul is saying that he wants to stay in Ephesus in order to celebrate the feast of Pentecost, or that the New Testament church is suppose to have a feast of Pentecost, its just that that’s what was commonly done in that day by the Jews, and I think Paul’s point is this. There is going to be a lot of folks in the city of Ephesus for Pentecost and I want to stay here so I can preach the gospel to as many of them as possible. But anyway notice he had definite plans. How did Paul know that was the will of God. Some of you are looking at, or you’re in the process of making some definite plans, maybe very strategic plans for your life at this time, how do you know if its the will of God. How did Paul know?

There’s a very simple answer to that. Paul simply did what he desired to do. You can know the will of God by just doing what you desire to do, in your heart. Yes there is more to it than that. As a matter of fact, there are three parts that I think we need to bring out. And when these three parts are there and functioning, then it really does become that simple. The will of God will be as simple as doing what you want to do. Isn’t that wonderful to know.

First of all for this morning we’re going to look at part one. Three essential parts to the will of God and this morning is part one, and that is Become a Spirit filled person. No matter what you’re doing, where you’re going or what you’re about, it is God’s will first and foremost that you become a Spirit filled person.

Now, this is not specifically revealed in the text, Paul doesn’t come to, to verse 5 and say, by the way I know that I”m suppose to stay with you on the way back from Macedonia, I know that I’m suppose to stay the winter, I know that you’re suppose to send me on my way, but I know right now I’m suppose to stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, because I’m Spirit filled. I know it doesn’t explicitly say that, but we now from the teaching and the writing of the Apostle Paul, that that was understood. That we’re to be Spirit filled believers.

You see, now listen, God’s will primarily is not some plan for you. God’s will primarily is not a path you’re to take. God’s will primarily concerns not a place you’re suppose to be at or go to or arrive at somewhere. God’s will primarily involves a person. And that person is you. He’s interested in you. You see, when you become the you that he recreated you to be, then the plan, the paths, the places, the other people, all of that will fall in place. That’s God’s will is that you and I become the new us, that God recreated us to be.

Now I say recreated, because you were created once, but the first time you were created in your mother’s womb, you inherited a sin nature. And that sin nature thwarted the processes of God knowing you and bringing you close and fellowshipping with you and developing an intimacy with you. So God through the Lord Jesus Christ has provided a way whereby we could be recreated. The Bible calls it born again. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation”. You were created once in the womb, but when you receive Christ as Savior, you’re recreated, you start over again, you become a new person, and that new person is forming from the inside out. And then all of those other things will begin to fall in place.

Now three sub-points here under becoming a Spirit filled person. Number one, live the Spirit filled life. That’s God’s will. Live the Spirit filled life. Now the key verse there is Ephesians 5:18. Ephesians 5:18 says “do not be drunk with wine”. Now that’s always good advice. “Do not be drunk with wine”. Now the folks in the city of Ephesus in their former pagan religions would often go to the pagan temple and they would drink alcohol in excess and get into drunken frenzies and even sexual orgies and other kinds of things whereby they would, they would scream and holler and sing and have ecstatic gibberish and all kinds of things, they called it ecstasies, and they would say in that movement they get close to the gods. And that experience they find closeness with the gods.

But Paul says, now as Christians, that’s not the way you get close to God, the one true God. “Don’t be drunk with wine”, don’t you get in close to God the way the old pagans did and the way you did in your paganism. But he says, “but be filled with the Spirit”. Now we do not have time to break down that verse, but trust me to tell you this, when he says be “filled with the Spirit”, he means its to be a continual condition of your life. Its the present tense verb which means to keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit. You don’t just get filled and wow, its over, I”m filled now, and nothing else to do. No, the present tense verb is very clear and every scholar would agree, it means continuing action. He says you see to it that you yourself continually are filled with the Spirit.

You know why we have to continually be filled with the Spirit. Because we leak. We leak. Some of you sitting here this morning, God will speak to your hearts, the word of God will be taken by the Holy Spirit, and the word of God will become a sword in the hand of the Holy Spirit and that word will come at you as a sword, and slash up some fleshly carnal sinful things in your heart, and they will be slain before the Lord. You’ll say God’s that’s right, I repent of that, this is what’s going on in your heart while I’m preaching. And then you’re walking in the Spirit, there’s nothing between you and God, the Holy Spirit’s controlling your life, and you’ll leave here and you’ll turn on television and the ball game won’t be on 30 minutes until something resides in your heart again that you don’t confess and get right and all of a sudden you’ve leaked it out again. And that’s when you have to catch it again and say dear God I confess that and claim that and call that what it is, its sin, its evil, that motive, that attitude, that disposition is not in keeping with truth of scripture, I call it sin, I rededicate myself Lord, fill with the Spirit again. Its a continual process.

We are to walk under the continual control of the Holy Spirit. Now all believers possess all of the Holy Spirit. That’s a very important truth. All believers possess all of the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t come in installments. He’s a person. The Bible speaks of him and teaches about him as a personality. You get all of him when you get saved. Romans 8:9 says it very simply and clearly. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”. If you do not have the Holy Spirit you are not saved. Now there may be things or there may be some experiences, there may be a season of brokenness or a season of revival or a season of renewal that happens that the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, and you can call it what you want, you may have had different emotional or physical things happen to you as the Holy Spirit’s growing you and maturing you, and you go through certain mountain top experiences, that’s between you and God, I’m not getting in on that as long as you don’t disrupt the service, I’m happy for you, do what you want to do. But the point I’m making is all the Holy Spirit was there the day you got saved. If he was not there you didn’t get saved.

Now, we though have a roll in whether he possess us. That’s why Ephesians 5:18 is in the Bible. We have a roll in whether or not this Holy Spirit who is resident in us reigns as president of us. He’s not just to be resident, he is to be president. But only a saved person even has that potential. Now listen. Here’s the will of God. The will of God is that we allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds using the holy word. Now listen to what I’m saying. We have our Bible study, we have our quiet time, we memorize and meditate on the word of God, in the Sunday school class the teacher leads us in a Bible study of the word of God. Listing in the congregation, from the pulpit this morning, you’re hearing the word of God and the Holy Spirit, what he wants to do. The will of God is, the Holy Spirit wants to take the word of God and use it so that the truths of the word of God guide our behavior, and when I say, mean our behavior, I mean our actions and our reactions in moment by moment every day life. That’s what God means when he says live the Spirit filled life. The Holy Spirit takes the holy word and the truths from this word guide our actions and our reactions in our moment by moment every day lives. God said, now that’s my will and said you walk that way. That’s my will, now listen, the, the purpose and the pattern of your life is to be a Spirit filled person. Listen. That’s foundational. That’s fundamental. That’s an essential prerequisite.

Romans 12:2 is another verse that says this in a little bit different way. Romans chapter 12 verse 2, Paul says “do not be conformed to this world”. Now what’s he saying. Instead of letting the world and its influence guide your thoughts, and your actions and reactions in everyday life, “don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. He says, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. What does that mean? You stay in the word of God and the Holy Spirit that is in you takes the truth of the word of God and begins to change your thinking so that your thinking is in harmony with God’s truth, not in harmony with the world’s conclusions. Are you with me.

When the world says now this is the way you raise children, you go to the word of God, the Holy Spirit says, nope that contradicts what God says about raising children. The world says this is the way a wife loves and treats her husband, but then you ladies go to the word of God and say, nope, that contradicts what this book says about the way a wife is suppose to treat her husband. And the world very loudly today is saying this is what Christianity ought to be, and this is the way churches ought to act and we take what the world says and we compare it with the word of God and say, we say, no! That contradicts what the Bible says about what the church is suppose to do and the church is suppose to be. “Be transformed by renewing your mind”, don’t’ let the world govern your thinking processes. Because you’re to let the word of God transform that mind to think in harmony with the truths in the Bible. And then live that out in your every day lifestyle.

Then as you’re living that out in your everyday lifestyle, what does he say, now listen to Romans 12:2. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God”. Here’s what he means. here’s what he means. be Spirit filled or transform you minds. Either way, its the same difference, and then as you’re doing that, you will find out that the will of God is good, acceptable and perfect. He’s not saying you’ll find the will of God, he’s saying then you’ll be in it. Are you hearing me. You live Spirit filled, you’re in God’s will. You live the process of transforming your mind and live according to the truth, according to the truths of the word of God and not according to the data and the influence of this world and you are in God’s will and Paul says, you’ll find out then, you will have proven, you’ll come to the conclusion yourself that God’s will is good, its acceptable and its perfect.

So the will of God is not first and foremost some plan or some path or some place or some other person I’m suppose to marry or get to know or something. The will of God is me, living the Spirit filled life. He said, when you taste a little of that, are you listening church, he said, you’ll agree with God, this is good. I’m not, I”m not looking, I’m not purposing to place my focus on any certain plan, I’m not trying to get to any certain place, I’m not trying to follow any certain path, I’m not focusing on some other person, I’m just living the Spirit filled life and its good. Its acceptable and its perfect. Its perfect, its the best thing I’ve ever gotten in on Paul is saying. That, he’s saying, is the will of God.

Now, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3 is another way of sort of expressing the same truth of the Spirit filled life. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3 he says, “this is the will of God your sanctification” set apart form. The word sanctification means set apart. Its the will of God that you be set apart, then he continues in that verse, “that you abstain from sexual immorality”. Now what is his point. He’s taking the most powerful temptation known to man, our sexuality — which is a gracious love gift from God for husbands and wives — but that’s the thing, that’s the area you’ll be most tempted to violate God’s truth in. He said, but don’t do what the world says with your sexuality that God gave you, do what the book says with it. By the way, you don’t think God’s a God that encourages, exalts in, glories over, sexual passion. Read Song of Solomon. As a matter of fact, fellows, read it with your wives. Hey, God’s not a cosmic killjoy, he wants you to have all the joy and happiness he’s designed for you to have, he just don’t want you to mess it up though.

Satan’s a liar, he says still, it, get it, get it when God hadn’t blessed it, take what’s not rightfully your’s and you’ll have pleasure, but its a lie from hell, it will destroy you eventually. But when you enjoy the pleasure God gives you in God’s context, its wonderfully blessed. But anyway he says, what is he saying? “This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality”, what’s he saying. Be Spirit filled, don’t let the data of this world run your life, that would lead to sexual immorality and other sins. Let the data of the word of God run your daily life. Live the Spirit filled life. Another way of saying the same thing.

Now another aspect of becoming a Spirit filled person is simply — love Jesus. That’s the will of God, that you love Jesus. You know we do not live out our Christianity because of threats or intimidations or legalisms or anything else, we love Jesus. We were talking the other day in the office about tithing, the fact that tithing is required under Old Testament law. And they say do you require tithing in your church and I say, no, the Old testament they, they tithe under law, in the New Testament we tithe under love. I love my Lord, its nothing for me to return 10 percent, I love him. I love him. But its a whole different motivation there. We love Jesus.

I want you to look at Mark 12, verses 28 through 30 with me. Mark 12, verses 28-31. Mark 12:28, “and one of the scribes came and heard them arguing and recognizing that he had answered them well asked him what commandment is foremost of all”. Now here’s a scribe asking Jesus, tell us what the most important commandment is, verse 29. “Jesus answered, the foremost is, hear oh Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. The second is this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself, and there is no other commandment greater than these”. Now what, what Jesus is saying is, all the other commandments are summed up in these two. All the other commandments are encompassed in these two commandments. But the first one he says, the foremost of all is love the Lord your God. Hey, listen folks, that’s the will of God. That you love him. The will of God isn’t primarily some plan or some path or some place of some other person you’re trying to figure out, no, the will of God is first do you love me. Do you love me. Its to love God.

Philippians chapter 3, look at verses 7 and 8. Philippians chapter 3, and then look at verses 7 and 8. The Apostle Paul is reflecting on his own heart and what the motivation of his heart and life is. Philippians 3:7-8 Paul says, “but whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ”. Now here’s what Paul means, Paul says, before I got saved, everything in my life revolved around me. Everything in my life before my conversion was about me. Was to exalt me, was to advance me, was to promote me, was to help me, was to serve me, and Paul said, I’ve taken all that me stuff and said, that’s garbage. Then he goes on. “More than that I count all things to be lost”. Now he doesn’t’ mean he actually loses them, he just considers them as worthless. In comparison. “More than that I count all things to be considered worthless in comparison in the view of the surpassing value of” what? “of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord for whom I’ve suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ”. What’s he saying? I love him. I just love him.

Paul says I don’t’ go to seminars and conferences to find out what I”m suppose to give up for Jesus. I don’t’ buy someone’s tape series to try to get me to find out what I’m suppose to do for Jesus, I just love him. Let me, are you listening? If you’re living the Spirit filled life you are loving Jesus. If you’re truly loving Jesus, you’re living the Spirit filled life, they are interchangeable. And if you’re living the Spirit filled life and you’re loving Jesus, you can do whatever you desire to do, its the will of God. Isn’t that glorious. You can do whatever you want to do, it will be the will of God. Now there’s some other essential components, we’re going to look at those this evening and probably next Sunday morning, Lord willing, that you’ve got to get, but I want to drive that home.

The will of God is that we live the Spirit filled life, it is that we love Jesus, all that’s becoming a Spirit filled person. But thirdly, the third major point I want to look at this morning, is that Jesus becomes our joy. That’s the will of God. That Jesus becomes our joy. God wants us to know him, now listen, God wants us to know him and God wants us to enjoy him. Now think about that. Think about the person you enjoy being with. I spent some time with my wife this last week, and I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed being with her. It was just fun. I just enjoyed being with her. I didn’t want anything from her, I didn’t want her to do anything extra, I didn’t want her to say anything specifically, I just enjoyed her. That’s what our Lord’s will for us is. He said, I want you to know me, I want you to enjoy me. God doesn’t want to have to put something on, God doesn’t want to have to design himself for you, he wants to be himself. As a matter of fact, he’s not going to be anything but himself because he’s perfect. And then he wants you to get to know him increasingly and enjoy him for who he really is.

I’m telling you, it is an abhorrent, blasphemy to the holy God what’s going on in a lot of Baptist and evangelical churches as they bring God down on this low level and talk about designing God to meet your needs. Brother, we need to get to know him and when you get to know him and you walk the Spirit filled walk and you love him and you’re intimate with him, you listen to me, your need will be met. But it starts with letting him be all that he is, and you learn to love him and enjoy him. Jesus becomes your joy. Psalm 16:11, the psalmist said, “in thy presence is fullness of joy”. Not just some joy, temporary joy, conditional joy, circumstantial joy, in his presence, when you’re close to him, there is fullness of joy, joy to the overflow. John 15:11, Jesus said, “these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full”.

God’s will is, are you listening to me, God’s will is that the foundation stone of your heart has these words engraved on it. Jesus is my joy. Jesus is my joy. You see, God may give you favorable circumstances in your life. But favorable circumstances are not your joy. God may allow you to have wealth more than the average person, but wealth is not your joy. God may bless you with a wonderful family. But family is not your joy. God may give you wonderful friends, I have wonderful friends in Christ. Isn’t it great to have Spirit filled godly friends. Boy I love them. And they are wonderful, but friends are not my joy. Now don’t misunderstand me, now listen. My family, my friends, may bring me joy, but they are not my joy. That means there’s that ever abiding awareness in the innermost part of my heart that this circumstance, this event, this friend, this fellowship, this love from a child, that brings me joy, but then there’s that ever abiding awareness that says and speaks to me at that point and says, but they are not your joy like Jesus is. The foundation stone of my heart is engraved with the words, Jesus is my joy.

God may allow you a position of prominence, and power in this world, the prominence and power is not our joy. Jesus is our joy. Now listen, how good of God to cause us to place our joy in Jesus. Because other joys are conditional joys, or circumstantial joyous and they don’t ultimately last. But when Jesus is our joy, that is every abiding, it can never be taken away, it builds security in your life. Listen, you know what insecurity is? Insecurity is trusting in something that can be taken away from you. Sir, you’ve got a great job and great job security, that’s wonderful, and that brings you an element of joy, there’s nothing unbiblical about that, but make sure the ever abiding resonating truth of your heart is that this, if its gone tomorrow is not my joy, because Christ the solid rock is my joy. The immovable Christ is my joy.

Paul speaking of the churches of Macedonia said something interesting. listen to what he said. He said, “in great ordeal affliction and in abundance of joy”. That’s not ironic, that’s Christianity. He said, here’s believers who experiencing in Paul’s word a great ordeal of affliction and at the same time they are experiencing an abundance of joy. Isn’t that glorious. You can’t hurt a Christian. You can’t kill a dead man. I’m crucified with Christ, Christ is my life, his joy is my life, that’s God’s will. That Jesus becomes our joy.

Now we know that joy is a fruit of the Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is in you, producing that joy. Joy is not something you produce. In the fullness, final definition. Joy is not something you produce, joy is not something you work at, joy is not a result of your circumstances, joy is produced by the Holy Spirit in you. Its part of the fruit, the offshoot, the springing forth of the Holy Spirit. So you see, joy is not produced by you, joy is produced in you. Joy is not produced by you, therefore joy is not prevented by your circumstances. Jesus is our joy. The Spirit vine that produces this joy is not rooted in the soil of this world, it is anchored in the unchangeable heart of God. And it is nourished by the hardships of this life. Your joy is actually nourished by the hardships of this life. Our joy increases as our circumstances decrease. No wonder the world looks at us and say ya’ll crazy. You’re crazy.

The early church in Jerusalem was experiencing severe persecutions, you couldn’t get job, many Christians who had jobs were fired just because they were Christians. Many were run out of them home, out of their homes by the government authorities. Many of little bands of Christians would just roam, nomadic roaming people for a season, because the persecution was so great. Not knowing where the next meal was going to come from, not knowing if they had enough clothes for the winter. I mean, it was an awful situation. And, and James, functioning as the pastor of that those scattered bunches of nomadic persecuted Christians, writes to those Christians and the first thing he says, in his letter to those persecuted suffering Christians, James 1:2, “consider it all joy. When you encounter various trials”. The word various means multifaceted. He said, not only are you going through one or two, your doing, you’re going through multifaceted complex organizations of trails. The first thing James says, how would you like to have James as your pastor. Talking about hard hearted. Talking about cold, talking about not caring. No, he cared more, he got them to Jesus, not to him. God help these pastors building churches on themselves. And not bringing the people to Christ. I don’t want for you what I can give you, I want for you Christ, I want him to become your joy. That’s the will of God. That’s the will of God.

Well, let’s circle the feild in summary now. Alright. Let’s summarize where we’ve gone. We’re talking about first of all God’s will means you become a Spirit filled person, that’s the will of God. And we said number one, the Spirit reveals Jesus. As you walk the Spirit filled life, now listen. Jesus will be increasingly revealed to you. Now I”m not saying an image on the wall, okay. I’m not saying he’s going to appear in bodily form. I’m saying the reality of Jesus, knowing him, fellowshipping with him, your intimacy with him, will increasingly develop as you walk the Spirit filled life. So the Spirit reveals Jesus. here’s a couple of verses for that. In Galatians 1:16, Paul said, through the work of the Holy Spirit that the Son was revealed in him. Writing the churches of the Galatia region, Paul says, when the Holy Spirit was doing his work, the Son was revealed in me. Jesus is real in me now. And then also John 14:20, Jesus told the Apostles and the other disciples, he said, after I’m gone there will be a helper that will come, as a matter of fact, he’s a helper just like I was your helper. He’s equal to me, he’s co-equal God. He said, when this helper comes, he’ll bring to your remembrance all things I taught to you. In other words, he’ll reveal me to you. As you live the Spirit filled life, you will increasingly know Jesus. He’ll be increasingly revealed to you.

Now number two. As you increasingly know him, you will increasingly love him. Keep walking the Spirit filled life, he will become more and more real, he’ll become more and more a person, more and more lovely, more and more glorious, more and more precious, more and more sweet, more and more delightful, as you see him more as you fellowship with him more, you’ll love him more.

Number three, as you increasingly love him, he will increasingly become your joy. He’ll become your joy. My friend, that is the will of God. That is foundational to everything else. Yes, God’s interested in those plans, and in that particular path and it arriving at a particular place and bringing that special particular person into your life. But first and foremost and foundational, God’s will is that you become a Spirit filled person, increasingly knowing him, increasingly therefore loving him and increasingly he becomes the joy and the delight of your heart. That is the will of God. And if that is true in your life, are you listening, do whatever you want, is the will of God.