- Have you ever been somewhere and you didn’t know anybody? Not one person. You were a total stranger, and everybody around you was totally strange to you. That’s happened to me a few times. Like my first day at Ozark Christian College. I had decided many months before that I was going to leave South Carolina where I was born and raised, and move half-way across the world, at least that’s how it seemed, to Misery, I mean Missouri. I had never visited the campus before, didn’t know one person there. Not one. I just knew that I was supposed to be at Ozark.
- So I sent my application, I filled out all the necessary paper work, and I booked my flight to the Joplin International Airport. I was nervous to say the least, it’s hard to go somewhere that is completely strange, a place where you don’t know anybody. And to make matters worse, the week before I was scheduled to leave, my lung collapsed, they told me it was a "spontaneous pneumothorax." That put me in the hospital for a week and delayed my arrival to Joplin. So now, not only will I be going to a new place with people I don’t know, but now I am gonna be a week late. It’s hard going somewhere when you don’t know anybody there. Has that ever happened to you before? Have you ever felt that anxiety, that fear of stepping out of your comfort zone and into a new and strange place?
- Maybe it’s a new job. You don’t know them, and they don’t you. And for the next 6 months, you have to go through that awkward transition of getting to know people. Or maybe you have moved to a new town, a new school. And you are the new kid on the block. Everybody’s checking out.
- Perhaps that’s how you felt when you first went to church, here or anywhere. You didn’t know what people thought of you, or what you thought of the people. Eveyrthing was new, unusual, different than what you expected. But isn’t that what church is all about. Getting to know people, making connections with others. Being encouraged and encouraging others.
- But certainly you would agree that church is more than just getting to know other people, although that is an important part of it. Church is also about getting to know God. To know his ways, to know what he expects. To know how he works.
- Read Cymbala excerpt from "The Life God Blesses..."
- Paul puts it even better in 1 Cor. 2:1-5, but before we read that text, I want to tell you a story...
- It’s a story of a young couple in love. When they looked at each other there were stars in their eyes. And they decided that it was time to make a commitment to each other, so they said their vows and got married. Life couldn’t be better. They were in love, and everybody around them could see that they were in love. But something happened over time. They began to lose their focus. Those little things that they could ignore when first married, became major issues. Arguing became a nightly ritual, and eventually it began to put a strain on their relationship. She looked for companionship with another man, he looked for respect from another woman. And they knew that if they continued on the road they were on, their marriage would be destroyed.
- But before letting that happen, they contacted a marriage counselor, they confessed all of their shortcomings, and they patiently listened to the advice and guidance of this wise counselor. And things began to turn around, their would still be struggles, and hardships, but they renewed their commitment to each other, and they dedicated themselves to making it work, to getting to know each other once again.
- The path of that young couple is very similar to the path of this young church that Paul writes to. A church that is located in the city of Corinth, it’s only about 5 or 6 years old. Old enough to be out of the honeymoon stage, and it was beginning to show. They had started off with great hope and excitement, but like that young couple, somewhere along the way they became distracted. Fighting and division, immorality and indifference. Then in chapter 1, verse 11, we read that a certain family told Paul all that was happening in the church, and with great concern, Paul writes a series of letters, 4 to be exact. Two of them we have, they are called 1 and 2 Corinthians. And from the very beginning of the letter, Paul makes it clear that Christians should be determined to know Christ and his ways.
- Listen to what he says in 2:1-5...
- Paul says, "I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified." What are we resolved to know in our life? What are we resolved to know in our church? What is our greatest pursuit, our ultimate desire? What is it?
- If God came to you as he did to Solomon, offering whatever you wanted. In all the world, it would be given. What would you desire? What would you pursue? Money, power, influence, respect, inner-peace. Or do we, above all else, have a desire to know Christ? And what does that mean exactly, what does it mean to know Christ?
- Well Paul seems to indicate in the passage just read that knowing Christ means we ... Know His Salvation. It’s about knowing what he has done for us on the cross. As Paul says in Romans, "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
- So often I have people, some of you who have come to me expressing a desire to follow Christ, to become a Christian, to be baptized. But there is hesitation, a reluctance. I ask what it is, what is it that’s holding you back, and so many times what I hears is, "I’m just not good enough. I just don’t know enough."
- But you see, knowing Christ means we know that we will never be good enough, that we will never know enough. That Christ loves us unconditionally, without hindrance. That he gave his life for you and for all of us. He’s already done all that needs to be done.
- Men can be pretty stubborn sometimes. And I am no different. This is especially true when it comes to driving. You know how it is for us men, we could be an hour late and completely lost, but that is better than stopping and asking for directions. It’s happened to me many times. One of the most recent times came a few months ago when I took our High School young people to a High School Retreat at Lincoln. We stayed the night at a hotel on the edge of town. We woke up the next morning, loaded up our van, and began heading to the school to begin the day. I confidentlly told our group that I knew where we were going and that it would only take a few minutes to get there. But after many wrong turns, it became abundantly clear to all that we were lost.
- But instead of stopping and asking for directions, that male stubborness in me kept driving, and kept making wrong turns, the kids in the back of the van heckling and making fun of me, but I kept driving, refusing to stop and admit that I was lost.
- And that’s the way we approach our salvation. We refuse to admit that we don’t have all the answers, that we are need of a Savior. And we say to God, "Don’t worry God, I’ll take care of my own life. I’ve got things under control, I don’t need any directions. I’m doing just fine on my own." And God patiently waits, and he waits, and he waits for us to know Him. For us to know that he has provided a way. And that way is Jesus Christ.
- "I am resolved to know nothing... except Jesus Christ."
- But even those of us who have already excepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, I wonder if we have that resolve, that driving desire to know Christ. Because knowing Christ not only means that we are committed to knowing his salvation, but it also means that we... Know His Power.
- I was up here at the church preparing for a Wedding Rehearsal. The next day Hannah and Nate were going to be married so I was getting everything ready, including the sound system. I wanted to set the volume on my mic, and do all the necessary things. But for some reason I couldn’t get the system to work. I checked all the wires, all the connections, made sure the volume was turned up. And everything seemed to be in place. So now I was beginning to grow more and more frustrated because it still wouldn’t work. What could it be? My anxiety was growing, and to make matters worse, Pam Willison was sitting at the piano watching me get more and more frustrated. Then all of a sudden it dawned on me, it’s not plugged in. Oh, Pam must have thought I was quite the bright one.
- Paul says, "I came with weakness and fear, with much trembling, my preaching was not with wise and persuasive words... but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power."
- God wants to use us in powerful ways. But he will not be able to do that if we rely on our own wisdom and our own strength. It’s only when we get plugged in to God. Only when we allow God’s spirit to work in our lives. That is when God will do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!
- It’s hard going somewhere and not knowing anybody. I went to Ozark and didn’t know one person. I went to my first class, it was at 8:00 on Tuesday morning, OT History I with Jim Marcum. I sat towards the back, and right behind me was a young attractive woman from Arkansas. I didn’t know her and she didn’t know me. But over time we got to know each other, it started out as a friendship that lasted for a year, then it developed into a courtship which went on for another couple of years, until eventually it became a marriage. And today I know her better than anybody in all the world, and this is scary to say, she knows me better than anybody in all the world. We’ve come a long way since that first time we met.
- But here’s the best part, there is still so much more to know. Really, we’ve just begun knowing each other. And that’s the way it is with God. No matter how much or how little we know of him now, there is so much more to know and learn. That’s what church is all about... helping each other know our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, more and more every day. Paul says, "I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ." Are you resolved to know nothing?
