Extremes of Not Enough and Too Much
Memory Verse: '“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
Colossians 3:17
Sermon Sentence: One of the core points of the Jesus follower’s weekly gathering is to share with one another rather than to only satisfy one’s own needs.
Day 1
Read 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
When you read this chapter, it is my hope that you are struck by how many times Paul uses the phrase “when you come together.” This is the reason why I believe that this passage is about more than the Lord’s Supper as a practice or a ceremony. Paul is not correcting how they DO the Lord’s Supper, but rather how they live in light of the Lord’s supper as the ceremony that declares their theology and seems to contradict what they are doing. Paul starts this chapter with a strong approach that is direct and should be read in a way that you imagine the room getting ultra awkward.
Imagine the setting, as you are in church and a letter is read from a respected leader and the message says, “Your church is better off not meeting than meeting the way that you are.” Ouch! This is no small rebuke. Paul is certain this message needs to be paid attention to. If the people were to declare a certain thing and claim that they are a certain way, then it would surely most show up in the walls of the actual church. Sure, it could be difficult to live Gospel focused lives in a world that doesn’t agree and functions totally differently. But inside the church? The place where everyone has agreed and shares a common message, that is where it should be obvious.
Paul counts it atrocious that the rich get all of the benefits and that the poor people among them are left with nothing. There is an over indulgence that happens on one side of the church and a strong lack on the other side. That is not what the Gospel did! It leveled the field for the rich and the poor, the man and the woman, the Roman and the Greek, the Jew and the Gentile. A church that is not united in the idea that all humans are created in the image of God and the only thing that should be separating us is the struggle with sin while we are removing it from among us, is not worth being called a church.
Why do you think that Paul made this a main thing to share with such strong words?
How does the Gospel answer the problems that the church was seeing in their meals and during the Lord’s Supper?
What do you learn about a personal application to your life from this passage?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
When you read this chapter, it is my hope that you are struck by how many times Paul uses the phrase “when you come together.” This is the reason why I believe that this passage is about more than the Lord’s Supper as a practice or a ceremony. Paul is not correcting how they DO the Lord’s Supper, but rather how they live in light of the Lord’s supper as the ceremony that declares their theology and seems to contradict what they are doing. Paul starts this chapter with a strong approach that is direct and should be read in a way that you imagine the room getting ultra awkward.
Imagine the setting, as you are in church and a letter is read from a respected leader and the message says, “Your church is better off not meeting than meeting the way that you are.” Ouch! This is no small rebuke. Paul is certain this message needs to be paid attention to. If the people were to declare a certain thing and claim that they are a certain way, then it would surely most show up in the walls of the actual church. Sure, it could be difficult to live Gospel focused lives in a world that doesn’t agree and functions totally differently. But inside the church? The place where everyone has agreed and shares a common message, that is where it should be obvious.
Paul counts it atrocious that the rich get all of the benefits and that the poor people among them are left with nothing. There is an over indulgence that happens on one side of the church and a strong lack on the other side. That is not what the Gospel did! It leveled the field for the rich and the poor, the man and the woman, the Roman and the Greek, the Jew and the Gentile. A church that is not united in the idea that all humans are created in the image of God and the only thing that should be separating us is the struggle with sin while we are removing it from among us, is not worth being called a church.
Why do you think that Paul made this a main thing to share with such strong words?
How does the Gospel answer the problems that the church was seeing in their meals and during the Lord’s Supper?
What do you learn about a personal application to your life from this passage?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 2
Read 1 John 4:7-21
When people are approaching the teachings of the Bible, they seem to always start with the idea that God is loving. I like that. It seems like a good thing. The problem is when that becomes the main thing that God is. I know how the arguments go from here, I am prepared for it. I know that if He is that, then of course He has to be that and can’t be not that. But that is not what I am arguing. Here is where the problem starts to come in, if you think God is loving, then you define love from an idea outside of what God is, then you have not only defined God incorrectly, but you have defined love incorrectly. The two can’t be taken apart. God is love. God does not love, that is taking the ideas apart. There is a difference when I say God is love. God can’t be unloving, because love is who He is. Maybe a better way to ask it would be Can God not be God? No.
If your brain isn’t hurting yet, let me explain why this is important. If God is love, and we understand what that means according to the Bible, then we can’t declare we are following God if we do not love each other. That is the way that the church is built. That is why John can emphatically declare that loving each other and loving God are so closely related. What is the basis for how we should love each other? The example is God. So like that. This changes many things, because we created one of those catchy phrases that everyone uses that starts to fall to pieces: “I can love you, but I don’t have to like you!” Uh-oh….are we sure this really works? Can I really be more offended by being sinned against than God was? Yet his response was to draw us into close fellowship with Him, by way of His death on a cross for our sins. I don’t think I have the time or the space in this devotion to keep unfolding all that means for us. But we should spend time meditating on that, for sure.
Do you struggle with loving people in the church that are a part of the body of Christ?
How do you think that John would respond to the statement “I can love them, but I don’t have to like them?”
In your opinion, what is the biggest hurdle to loving other people in the modern day church and how does the gospel speak to this?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
When people are approaching the teachings of the Bible, they seem to always start with the idea that God is loving. I like that. It seems like a good thing. The problem is when that becomes the main thing that God is. I know how the arguments go from here, I am prepared for it. I know that if He is that, then of course He has to be that and can’t be not that. But that is not what I am arguing. Here is where the problem starts to come in, if you think God is loving, then you define love from an idea outside of what God is, then you have not only defined God incorrectly, but you have defined love incorrectly. The two can’t be taken apart. God is love. God does not love, that is taking the ideas apart. There is a difference when I say God is love. God can’t be unloving, because love is who He is. Maybe a better way to ask it would be Can God not be God? No.
If your brain isn’t hurting yet, let me explain why this is important. If God is love, and we understand what that means according to the Bible, then we can’t declare we are following God if we do not love each other. That is the way that the church is built. That is why John can emphatically declare that loving each other and loving God are so closely related. What is the basis for how we should love each other? The example is God. So like that. This changes many things, because we created one of those catchy phrases that everyone uses that starts to fall to pieces: “I can love you, but I don’t have to like you!” Uh-oh….are we sure this really works? Can I really be more offended by being sinned against than God was? Yet his response was to draw us into close fellowship with Him, by way of His death on a cross for our sins. I don’t think I have the time or the space in this devotion to keep unfolding all that means for us. But we should spend time meditating on that, for sure.
Do you struggle with loving people in the church that are a part of the body of Christ?
How do you think that John would respond to the statement “I can love them, but I don’t have to like them?”
In your opinion, what is the biggest hurdle to loving other people in the modern day church and how does the gospel speak to this?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 3
Read Luke 22:7-28
We took some time to sidetrack from 1 Corinthians to look at the character of Judas Iscariot and what happened in his life. It was a great study and I think many people got a great deal of time to think over the idea there. But it may have felt like a side step. It was, but it was also a purposeful side step. Here we are back in Luke 22, where that story was resting. When we studied Judas, we skipped around this particular part. It didn’t have an importance for our particular discussion, but now you see the value of studying context! Judas was one that had removed himself from the fellowship and it all happened around this thing we started calling The Lord’s Supper. Interestingly enough, the strong language that Paul was using in our passage in 1 Corinthians, is played out in the story of Judas. Not only that, but you see that right while that is happening, you see a power struggle, a favor struggle, among the other disciples as well! All of this, as told in Luke, is happening right in front of Jesus and right before He goes to the cross to die for them. Don’t miss the significance of connecting all of these points. Paul was talking, years and years later, to a new church that was projecting the same toxic thinking and living that sent Judas out of the disciples circle, betrayed Jesus, caused confusion and division among the other disciples, and was remedied on the cross by Jesus!
Paul seems to be screaming to us that there is a basic problem that will always crop up in the hearts of people, even those saying they are following Jesus. If it is not noticed, dealt with, paid attention to, it will render the work and mission of this thing called the local church absolutely pointless. If you say you are a Gospel person, then you have to live like you are a Gospel person. The Lord’s Supper is the constant replay of these issues and the truth that needs to be heard over the top of them. Who should we get along with? Who should we serve with? Who should we like, love, or even share our time with? The Gospel’s answer is that Jesus did that for every single one of us sinners when He died on the cross, in hope that we can be brought close and sent out on the mission of sharing that story with as many people as can!
What do you think about when you are partaking of the Lord’s Supper?
Some people think communion should be practiced every time the church gathers. Some think it is left to be a special thing by only partaking sometimes. What do you think and why is that what you think?
What are the best things that you personally can do to prepare your heart and mind for communion?
How does this become your prayer today?
We took some time to sidetrack from 1 Corinthians to look at the character of Judas Iscariot and what happened in his life. It was a great study and I think many people got a great deal of time to think over the idea there. But it may have felt like a side step. It was, but it was also a purposeful side step. Here we are back in Luke 22, where that story was resting. When we studied Judas, we skipped around this particular part. It didn’t have an importance for our particular discussion, but now you see the value of studying context! Judas was one that had removed himself from the fellowship and it all happened around this thing we started calling The Lord’s Supper. Interestingly enough, the strong language that Paul was using in our passage in 1 Corinthians, is played out in the story of Judas. Not only that, but you see that right while that is happening, you see a power struggle, a favor struggle, among the other disciples as well! All of this, as told in Luke, is happening right in front of Jesus and right before He goes to the cross to die for them. Don’t miss the significance of connecting all of these points. Paul was talking, years and years later, to a new church that was projecting the same toxic thinking and living that sent Judas out of the disciples circle, betrayed Jesus, caused confusion and division among the other disciples, and was remedied on the cross by Jesus!
Paul seems to be screaming to us that there is a basic problem that will always crop up in the hearts of people, even those saying they are following Jesus. If it is not noticed, dealt with, paid attention to, it will render the work and mission of this thing called the local church absolutely pointless. If you say you are a Gospel person, then you have to live like you are a Gospel person. The Lord’s Supper is the constant replay of these issues and the truth that needs to be heard over the top of them. Who should we get along with? Who should we serve with? Who should we like, love, or even share our time with? The Gospel’s answer is that Jesus did that for every single one of us sinners when He died on the cross, in hope that we can be brought close and sent out on the mission of sharing that story with as many people as can!
What do you think about when you are partaking of the Lord’s Supper?
Some people think communion should be practiced every time the church gathers. Some think it is left to be a special thing by only partaking sometimes. What do you think and why is that what you think?
What are the best things that you personally can do to prepare your heart and mind for communion?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Hebrews 12:4-11
One of the great joys of parenting is when you get instruction on how you should discipline your kids, from your kids! That was sarcastic…there is no joy there. It is only screaming and yelling and anger. But then again, we employ the same tactic on God all of the time as we negotiate our way out of struggles and troubles that we put ourselves in. Then again, some of you lived under the heavy hand of an unbearable disciplinarian and you are uncomfortable just reading these verses. Habits and structure are those things that we implement that help us to stay put and stable in whatever it is that we think is valuable to accomplish. When we are not in those goal lines, discipline is the thing that we need to bring us back to center. So if you are understanding discipline from the perspective of the thing that is used to beat down or beat up the person that is struggling, I am afraid you have missed the biblical idea probably due to your background. That is pretty normal, actually. It is not an abnormal struggle. But it is a struggle worth working out too. Because in that struggle you can learn the lesson of discipline and why it is valuable.
Here is how Paul seems to be presenting this idea in our passage in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, the local church is meant to house those habits and structure that help remind us of the good and perfect way that we are called to. It is in that structure that we have accountability, example, and encouragement to keep following the ways of Jesus and leaving the ways of sin. But when we get outside of that structure, or we begin to reject that order and help, that is when the discipline that Proverbs 3 presents and is quoted here in Hebrews 12, starts to kick in. God desires for us to return to that rhythm of life that He has invited us to. When we are out of rhythm, we are told that is not right. We are stopped from doing what is not right. We are pointed to return to the place that was right. This is the loving work of discipline. The trouble is that when we experience discipline, we struggle with accepting it as loving, because it fights against everything in us that is turning from the good and perfect way. Parents, you surely understand this from your daily experiences with raising kids. Now scale that up and realize that when you were a kid, and had these same struggles, you simply grew into a larger kid and find the same human way of being deep inside of you now.
What do you understand the discipline of God to be like?
Where do your ideas of discipline come from and how have you learned from your past models of discipline how to not do that or how to effectively do that?
How might God be nudging you in the right direction today?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
One of the great joys of parenting is when you get instruction on how you should discipline your kids, from your kids! That was sarcastic…there is no joy there. It is only screaming and yelling and anger. But then again, we employ the same tactic on God all of the time as we negotiate our way out of struggles and troubles that we put ourselves in. Then again, some of you lived under the heavy hand of an unbearable disciplinarian and you are uncomfortable just reading these verses. Habits and structure are those things that we implement that help us to stay put and stable in whatever it is that we think is valuable to accomplish. When we are not in those goal lines, discipline is the thing that we need to bring us back to center. So if you are understanding discipline from the perspective of the thing that is used to beat down or beat up the person that is struggling, I am afraid you have missed the biblical idea probably due to your background. That is pretty normal, actually. It is not an abnormal struggle. But it is a struggle worth working out too. Because in that struggle you can learn the lesson of discipline and why it is valuable.
Here is how Paul seems to be presenting this idea in our passage in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, the local church is meant to house those habits and structure that help remind us of the good and perfect way that we are called to. It is in that structure that we have accountability, example, and encouragement to keep following the ways of Jesus and leaving the ways of sin. But when we get outside of that structure, or we begin to reject that order and help, that is when the discipline that Proverbs 3 presents and is quoted here in Hebrews 12, starts to kick in. God desires for us to return to that rhythm of life that He has invited us to. When we are out of rhythm, we are told that is not right. We are stopped from doing what is not right. We are pointed to return to the place that was right. This is the loving work of discipline. The trouble is that when we experience discipline, we struggle with accepting it as loving, because it fights against everything in us that is turning from the good and perfect way. Parents, you surely understand this from your daily experiences with raising kids. Now scale that up and realize that when you were a kid, and had these same struggles, you simply grew into a larger kid and find the same human way of being deep inside of you now.
What do you understand the discipline of God to be like?
Where do your ideas of discipline come from and how have you learned from your past models of discipline how to not do that or how to effectively do that?
How might God be nudging you in the right direction today?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read Proverbs 3
Wisdom is the most valuable thing you can gain on your walk with God. The last part is important, “on your walk with God.” See, wisdom is only found with God. Knowledge, intelligence, understanding, and all things like that are good and valuable, but wisdom is the thing that holds all of those pieces together in one idea, and it is found only at the beginning of the fear of the Lord. Wisdom is the prize hidden in the cereal box that is Proverbs!
Our reading yesterday in Hebrews 12, referenced this passage in Proverbs 3:11-12. The point seems to be that it is in the process and the way of discipline that the value of wisdom is discovered. Think about that. When I was growing up, I always heard adults talk about how they wanted their kids to have a better life than them. That seemed to be the most valuable goal of parenting that you could achieve. You were at this level in life, and you wanted your kids to be a step above that. As I have grown older, I have struggled with that idea. My greatest desire for my kids is that they learn the way of wisdom. The results of their financial situation, status in the workplace, etc, etc, don’t seem to matter as a ladder to climb to the top of. The goal that is greater than the highest position at their jobs or the most amount of money is the idea of wisdom. Wisdom is the way by which we live with whatever amount of money that we have. Wisdom is the idea of leading those around us from whatever position on the scale of the corporate world that we find ourselves at. Wisdom is the thing that makes the highest incomes work and make sense and the lowest of incomes work and make sense. Wisdom is the thing that makes those who serve, serve well and those who lead, lead well. The reason that wisdom is the most desirable of things to obtain is because it is the most useful at every stage and place in life.
How would you describe how wisdom and discipline work together?
How do you work through what wisdom is after reading these Proverbs?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Wisdom is the most valuable thing you can gain on your walk with God. The last part is important, “on your walk with God.” See, wisdom is only found with God. Knowledge, intelligence, understanding, and all things like that are good and valuable, but wisdom is the thing that holds all of those pieces together in one idea, and it is found only at the beginning of the fear of the Lord. Wisdom is the prize hidden in the cereal box that is Proverbs!
Our reading yesterday in Hebrews 12, referenced this passage in Proverbs 3:11-12. The point seems to be that it is in the process and the way of discipline that the value of wisdom is discovered. Think about that. When I was growing up, I always heard adults talk about how they wanted their kids to have a better life than them. That seemed to be the most valuable goal of parenting that you could achieve. You were at this level in life, and you wanted your kids to be a step above that. As I have grown older, I have struggled with that idea. My greatest desire for my kids is that they learn the way of wisdom. The results of their financial situation, status in the workplace, etc, etc, don’t seem to matter as a ladder to climb to the top of. The goal that is greater than the highest position at their jobs or the most amount of money is the idea of wisdom. Wisdom is the way by which we live with whatever amount of money that we have. Wisdom is the idea of leading those around us from whatever position on the scale of the corporate world that we find ourselves at. Wisdom is the thing that makes the highest incomes work and make sense and the lowest of incomes work and make sense. Wisdom is the thing that makes those who serve, serve well and those who lead, lead well. The reason that wisdom is the most desirable of things to obtain is because it is the most useful at every stage and place in life.
How would you describe how wisdom and discipline work together?
How do you work through what wisdom is after reading these Proverbs?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
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