Build the Church Part 2: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:02 Paul stayed a good while before leaving. So he was there a year and a half, and then a good while. We don’t know what the good while is, but the way I said it, it couldn’t be no more than three years. It could have been a lot less; could have been two and a half years. “Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils,” Jesus said in Matthew 10:17. “They’ll beat you in their synagogues. They’ll bring you before governors and kings for My sake,” because you’re living for Me, because you’re proclaiming Me, “for a testimony against them,” and a testimony against nonbelievers. Unbelievers. He says in Matthew 13:12, “Brother shall betray brother to death, father the son, and children—their parents.”

▶ 0:58 Parents, you know, you can’t get down in the dumps because your kid decides to go sin after you raised him in a Christian school and in a Christian home and all the rest. They become an adult, they got to choose for themselves what road they’re going to take. Your job is to get them there; their job is to take the baton and live for Him. God doesn’t have any stepchildren. You can’t live for Christ for your children; they got to decide to live for Him themselves. Your spouse may decide to go another way, and it’s happening in America, isn’t it? They want to twist who God is and who Jesus is, and they want to water everything down, and they want you to accept them with their own beliefs, and you can’t do it, because you can’t change the Bible. You got to stick with the Bible. Can I hear an amen?

▶ 2:05 Seniors, spouses get a hair in their nose and want to do things, you know, you can’t go, “Well, I got to keep harmony in my home, so I got to go along.” [unclear] on that. We’re supposed to be a light to the world, not a shadow. I’ve been taken to court four times, so I know it’s true. I know about persecution. I know Satan has four areas he’ll hit you in. He happened to hit me and my family. Sometimes it’s health, sometimes it’s, uh, position, sometimes it’s, uh, money. You know, it just seems like you can’t keep a steady job.

▶ 3:00 You know, you got to rise above these things that Satan tries to distract you with and stay consistent. Now here is Paul training a new church. We jump over to 1 Corinthians. He writes a letter to them later. You see, a little bit later he writes back to this church and gives them instruction. Wow. And I want you to see right quick here the powerful statements he makes about this new church. And, folks, God is not a what? Respecter of persons. If He will do this for the Corinthian church, will He do it for all churches? Absolutely. Watch how he writes to these people. I mean, something happened in Corinth. It wasn’t like your mega churches today, where people are worshiping a hero or something. These people had something. Watch this, this is powerful. You ready? Ten things. Ten things that you should be possessing even as a young Christian.

▶ 4:12 Ready? “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother.” Remember who got beat in front of the court? Sosthenes. Here he’s helping write this, uh, letter, this book. Hallelujah. See, his beating, his persecution, didn’t change him at all. He’s still with Paul, he’s still in the church, he’s still communicating, serving God. And number one: “to the church of God at Corinth, to them that are” what? Sanctified. They’re holy. He said, didn’t say they’re going to be holy; they are. What? Holy. Set apart for holiness, right living. They turn from their sins, their prostitution, their, their homosexuality, their lying, and their stealing, and all these things they had experienced.

▶ 5:12 Holiness. Isn’t that good? Look at the next one: “called to be saints.” You see, saints are blameless people. People that are blameless morally. Blameless. Now they’re called to be morally blameless, so obviously they’re not quite morally blameless yet. Ain’t that right? But they are what? Shooting for that mark. Isn’t that powerful? This church is not even three years old, and they’re experiencing things in God. “And in every place,” with all that, “in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ.” Okay, so they’re calling on the name of Jesus Christ. Now that word “calling” means this: it’s not just inviting, or invoking, or hollering. It is summoning.

▶ 6:32 See, it’s acquiring. When you get a court summons, do you go? Yes. Can you send a substitute? No. Can you say, “I’m too busy, excuse me”? No, you ought to appear. Then see, what is he saying? These people summon Jesus Christ. They summon His presence. He appears in their midst, not by the physical eye, but His presence touching our presence, our spirit. Amen. Do you see that? Now see, these are things this young church were possessing. When they come together, they were expecting, they were demanding, that Jesus Christ be there, like He said, “If two or three are gathered together, I will be” where? “In the midst.” They summoned Him.

▶ 7:35 And so many people go to church and never touch Jesus, but yet this Corinthian church were touching Him. They were summoning Him. Isn’t that beautiful? I think that’s tremendous. Folks, I mean, our mega churches today don’t have anything like this. We’ve gotten off of these basic things. Now remember, these are ex-prostitutes, homosexuals, idolaters, gamblers, Jews, non-Jews, slaves, slave masters, sailors, merchants, soldiers, drunkards, contractors, athletes and entertainers. They were all coming to Christ: different races, different nationalities, different cultures.

▶ 8:33 Verse three of 1 Corinthians 1: “Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God given you by Jesus Christ.” And this is where the American church has done the church members a disservice. They keep telling them grace is just favor, God just favors you no matter what you do, He favors you. But it’s much more than that. He favors you, and it shows in a result of the divine influence upon your life, divine enablement to live a lifestyle different than you lived before. That’s the full measure of grace. That’s the whole purpose of grace: that He favors you, He loves you, He’s going to work with you so that people will see that there’s a divine influence, a divine enablement, that changed your life from this way to His way.

▶ 9:32 Amen. And these guys experienced this. And it says in the next verse, verse 5, that “in everything you are enriched by Him, in all utterance and all knowledge.” So in everything: the holiness, the summoning Christ, the grace, and now speaking and understanding. Did Jesus open the disciples’ understanding to understand the Scriptures? Can we understand the Scriptures? Yes. But to understand them, we got to get into the Book, and we got to get into Bible studies that are teaching that Book, and then we can speak it. See, when you understand something, you can speak it. See, the people that run the horse program, I don’t know a lot of things about horses, but they do, and they can speak it.

▶ 10:30 Amen. That’s what God says He wants us to know: the Scriptures, that way we can what? Speak it. And that makes us wealthy. That’s the true wealth of the church. “Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.” That word “confirm” is to be stable, unchanging. These young Christians were stable. They weren’t going in and out, up and down. They were unchanging. They might make a mistake here and there, but they got back up and kept moving forward. How many would like to be stable in God? Now, in the American church, we got a lot of instability. We got big buildings, and we got great authors, and book authors, and preachers, and everything else, and God’s people can’t handle the slightest tribulation or problems in their life. They can’t overcome alcohol, they can’t overcome drugs, they can’t overcome anger, they ain’t going to overcome nothing. Why? Because they’re not experiencing these things.

▶ 11:45 They’re given dramas and dance companies and preachers that preach with, you know, [unclear] excellence, and we’re not getting the Word in us. Hallelujah. Now, this is a good message for us to start this year with. Amen. Senior saints, amen. A young church, and they possess these things. It’s just extraordinary. It’s just amazing. Verse seven, “you become—you come behind in no gift.” Spiritual abilities, they didn’t lack any of them. Now, one person didn’t have them all, but when the church came together, they were there. See, the nine gifts were expressed. Do we have them at an American church today? No. We usually got one gift expressed. If you’re in certain circles, it’s prophecy; if you’re in other circles, it’s tongues; if you’re in other circles, it’s, uh, uh, healing; if you’re in other circles, it’s nothing. Ah, they just throw out the gifts.

▶ 13:20 “And the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You say, “Oh, big deal, the coming of the Lord.” Well, you got to understand what he means by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I know what it means: He’s coming again. That’s right, but you got to understand your part in it. See, how are you supposed to think about the coming of the Lord? These guys were looking for the coming, and Jesus wasn’t coming for 2,000 years down the road or more, but they’re what? Looking. They’re what? Looking. And don’t you believe these people to tell you. See, they didn’t even understand. They thought He was coming in, you know, right then and during their lifetime. That does not mean that at all. Let me show you what it means. Are you ready for this?

▶ 14:08 Matthew 24:46: “Blessed is he that is faithful and a wise servant, whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.” Doing what? Being wise and faithful, ain’t that right? So they’re looking for the coming of Christ. What does that mean? They’re being faithful, and they’re talking with superiority, thinking with superiority, and living a superior life. Remember what wisdom was in Proverbs: superior thinking, superior living, and superior talking. Why? Because He can come and take you. You can die, you know. You don’t have to wait for the rapture. You’re going to meet Him when your heart starts beating. So you should be what? Faithful, and you should be a wise servant.

▶ 15:05 Now look, but if that servant begins to beat his fellow servants, mistreat them, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he’s not looking for him, and it goes on to say bad things. So see, when we’re saying we’re looking for Christ’s return, we’re saying what? I am faithful, I am living a wise life, I am speaking wisely, I am thinking wisely, because Christ may show up, or I may die and I will appear before Him. So it’s a lifestyle. And this is what Jesus told them to do: watch, be ready.

▶ 15:53 It doesn’t matter if He comes in your lifetime or not. It is the attitude, it is the motive of your heart. Are you with Me? “Who shall also confirm you.” What’s “confirm” mean? Stable, unchanging. See, He’s going to confirm you, make you stable, unchanging, and to the end. What’s the end? That day when He comes the second time and judges the world, “that you may be blameless.” And what’s blameless? Unaccusable. “In the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” How many of you want to be unaccusable in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ? How many? You know, this Corinthian church is on its way. It’s sanctified, it’s calling on the Lord, summoning Him, it’s looking for the return of Christ, they have the gifts of the Spirit working in the church. I mean, isn’t this beautiful? They are stable, they’re unchanging, they might make some mistakes, they are saints that are looking forward to being blameless, knowing that Christ will finish the good work that He began in us, and on that day they will be blameless.

▶ 17:14 Hallelujah. Ain’t that powerful? Now, senior saints, he did this with five people in his team. We got more than five here this morning. We got a head start. Verse 9: “God is faithful, by whom we were called unto the” what? “Fellowship.” Here’s the last one. See, “the fellowship of His Son.” Not some ministry, not some church group. These guys are in partnership with Jesus Christ. Not Paul, not Aquila, not Priscilla, not Silas, not Timothy. They are in partnership with Christ. They are in an intimate relationship with Christ. This is the biggest thing these guys had: they actually know Him.

▶ 18:24 How, you know, that makes a difference. Not head knowledge. This is a real possession of Christ, a fellowship, a partnership with Him. It says in John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Definition of eternal life is what? Knowing God and Jesus Christ, an intimate relationship. The Bible says that Joseph knew not Mary until after Jesus was born; in other words, he didn’t have an intimate relationship with Mary. And see, we have this intimacy with God. We know God, we fellowship with Him, we partner with Him. We’re not partnered with just Silas and Timothy and Paul. We’re partnered with Jesus Himself, and that makes the difference.

▶ 19:31 1 John 2:3: “We know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.” See, “He that says, ‘I know Him,’ and keeps them not is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” So is it imperative, very important, that people in their salvation meet and know Jesus Christ? Yes. It’s not the baptismal certificate, it’s not what church you belong to, it’s who you know. And this is what changed the Corinthians in this wild, wild city that any normal modern ministry would look at and go, “This city is impossible.” And yet the Word of God changed these people’s lives, and they knew Him. They encountered Christ.

▶ 20:43 Hallelujah. Now, we got a year ahead of us, and we got to start looking and seeing like Paul looked and saw. Amen. We got to stop looking at all the opposition and the problems and see that the Word of God is bigger than this world. It’s bigger than anybody’s lack of faith, or whatever. Now, I chose Revelation 15:3 because the verse before this says, “These that overcame the beast,” they that overcame his mark, the number of his name, and his image. And in Revelation 12, the same people overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and loved not their life to death. These people who what? Overcame.

▶ 21:42 Then these people sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “great and marvelous”—why, there’s, they’re overcomers, they’re seeing the good stuff, “great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are Your ways, You King of saints. Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and honor Your name? For You only are holy, and all nations shall come.” That word “shall” means it is impossible for it not to happen. “They will come and worship before You,” whether they believe in You or not, they’re going to come. But we want to be like Paul, to get the nations to come and worship Him because they accept Him, amen, and not reject Him.