Corinthians: Church Matters (6)

Church Matters: Correcting the Corinthians (6)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 12/14/2014

Let me start this morning by sharing a riddle with you.

There was a perfect man who met a perfect woman. After a perfect courtship, they had a perfect wedding. Their life together was, of course, perfect until, one snowy, stormy Christmas Eve this perfect couple drove along a winding road when and noticed someone at the roadside in distress. Being the perfect couple, they stopped to help. There stood Santa Claus with a huge bundle of toys. Not wanting to disappoint any children on the eve of Christmas, the perfect couple loaded Santa and his toys into their vehicle. Soon they were driving along delivering the toys. Until, the driving conditions deteriorated and the perfect couple and Santa Claus had a horrible accident. Only one of them survived.

Question: Who was the survivor?

Answer: Santa Clause, because everyone knows there’s no such thing as a perfect man or a perfect woman in the first place.

The truth is—there really is no such thing as a perfect man or woman. We all have flaws and faults. And because of that, there’s also no such thing as a perfect church. The last several weeks we’ve been studying the book of Corinthians which focuses on the not-so-perfect church in Corinth. Corinth was a corrupt city, filled with every kind of vice and worldly pleasure. Thus, some of the members of the church we guilty of sexual immorality, others were drunks, and still others used God’s grace to justify their perverted lifestyles. It was also a divided church, with at least four different groups competing for leadership. And it was a disgraced church; their worship services had turned into a discordant free-for-all lacking the reverence and respect that God deserves.

While we may not have all the same deficiencies the Corinthians had, we can certainly relate to some of their imperfections. But as we bring this series to a close, I want to focus on some encouragement and advice Paul offers. In chapters 12-13 Paul identifies three characteristics of an almost-perfect church.

First, Paul informs us that an almost-perfect church is a place of action.

• A PLACE OF ACTION

In response to another Corinthian question, Paul writes, “Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us… There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other” (1 Corinthians 12:1-7 NLT).

Paul wanted the church in Corinth to realize that God works in us, so that we can work for him. In other words, God gives every believer an assortment of gifts, talents, abilities and resources that He expects us to use. Each person has a different set of gifts, but what’s important is that we use them to serve God and help people.

In his popular seminars on leadership, management guru William Cohen often asks his audience if they can think of any organization which has all these attributes:

• The workers work very hard physically, even on weekends with very little complaint.

• The workers receive no salary or other compensation for their services.

• The work is dangerous and workers are frequently injured on the job.

• The work is strictly voluntary, yet the organization usually has more workers than they can assign jobs to.

• The workers are highly motivated to achieve the organization’s goal and usually have a very high moral.

The executives attending Cohen’s seminars are frequently stumped, thinking there is no organization like this on the earth. But Cohen knows of one such organization—a high school football team. The church ought to be another! Every member of the church ought to be engaged in using their abilities and gifts for service.

You’re familiar with the phrase use it or lose it, aren’t you? The residents of Segovia, Spain discovered the truth of this cliché the hard way. Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, tells about the Roman aqueduct at Segovia. It was built in 109 A.D. For 1800 years, it carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city. Nearly sixty generations drank from its flow. Then came another generation, a recent one, who said, “This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. So they decided to retire the aqueduct from service. They hired contractors to lay modern iron pipes. They gave the ancient bricks and mortar a rest. And the aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating on the dry mortar caused it to crumble. The bricks and stone sagged and threatened to fall. What ages of service could not destroy, idleness disintegrated.