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We're continuing our look together through 1st Corinthians chapter 4 today, day
5, our last day of looking at this chapter. We're going to look at verses 18 to
21. And in looking at this we're continuing to talk together about something we
began yesterday to talk about the importance of family relationship in a church.

Paul continues to talk about that in verses 18 to 21. Listen to what he says,
"Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. But I will
come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing.

And then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but
what power they have. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of
power. What do you prefer?

Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love, and with a gentle spirit? " Now
this is a further example, a very clear example in these verses of a family type
of love. Paul had the kind of love that was willing to correct this church in
Corinth.

And he says even if it's a discipline, he uses the word a whip, he's not saying
he's going to whip the people in the church. He's talking about, "Shall I come
with some kind of discipline that's a physical discipline where you're going to
suffer loss because of this? Or shall I come to you with a gentle spirit?

" He knew what they wanted, and he knew what he desired. It's what every father,
what every mother desires. They desire to deal with their children with
gentleness.

Any good mom, any good dad. And to have their children respond to that
gentleness with a new kind of discipline, new learning in their lives. This is
family type love that Paul is talking about here.

And as he talks about this, he shares something in verse 20 that I'd like to be
the focus of our study together today. In verse 20, Paul says, "For the kingdom
of God is not a matter of talk, but of power. " We live in a world of talk
without action.

From talk shows to cable news networks to talk radio, we are all used to
powerful words being said apart from any action. But Paul says in these verses,
"God's kingdom is not a matter of talk, but it's a matter of power. " Now let's
unpack this verse.

It's worth unpacking. First, what's the kingdom? Then what's talk?

And then what's power? What's the kingdom? What is the kingdom of God?

That's a huge word. We could spend weeks, we could spend months, we could spend
an entire year together talking about what the kingdom of God is and what Jesus
had to teach about it, what the scriptures have to teach about it. But let's
just simplify it for a minute.

Let's suppose that you're sitting on a bus somewhere on an airplane and you're
reading a book and the title of the book is The Kingdom of God. And the person
sitting next to you says, "Hey, I don't know much about church or anything, but
I've seen this phrase. What does it mean, the kingdom of God?

" What would you say to that person? You've got two minutes before the next stop
or the plane is just landing or has already landed. What would you say to that
person in a few minutes to describe what the kingdom of God is?

If you have to describe it quickly, the kingdom of God is where God is king. The
kingdom of God is where God is king. And God's expressed desire, and because
he's expressed this desire and all of his expressed desires are going to come
true in the end, come about in the end because he's God, God's expressed desire
is that he be king over everything.

He is the one who made everything, so he is to be the ruler. It was that way in
the Garden of Eden in the beginning, the entire world fell away from him, would
become selfish, but the kingdom of God in the end is going to reign. It's where
God is king.

So in my own life, I'm a part of the kingdom of God when God's the king of my
decisions. I'm a part of the kingdom of God when I allow him to become the king
of my heart by inviting Jesus into my heart. In our church, I'm a part of the
kingdom of God when we allow Jesus as the head of the church to lead our
decisions, to lead our direction.

And in my eternity, as I look forward to eternity, I'm a part of the kingdom of
God when I realize I'm looking forward to him being the leader and not me not
someone else. That's the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is where God is
king.

And Paul says the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk. Now what's talk? Talk
is saying without doing.

It is sounding important instead of choosing to serve. It's getting noticed
instead of getting involved. There's a lot of talk in our world today and talk
can be impressive.

If you're all about impressing people, you're all about talk because talk gets
you noticed. You can serve in some of the greatest ways. You can make some of
the greatest sacrifices no one ever notices.

But you come up with some great sentence. You come up with some great phrase or
you stand in a corner and you yell loud enough and everybody looks at you. It's
not a matter of talk.

It's not a matter of yelling loud enough so that everybody looks. Now why is
this important? Because sometimes we can get fooled by our comparisons.

And we think that the person who yells the loudest and is getting the most
notice in the second that somehow they represent the kingdom of God. Paul says
they do not. There were some in Corinth who were yelling very loudly, who were
acting as if they were very important.

And Paul is saying that's not the kingdom. That's them. That's not God's
kingdom.

They may be talking about God's kingdom, but that's about them. So in your heart
you find this comparison happening and you think what I'm doing for Jesus is
just not that important because look at them. Look how important they seem.

Look how loudly they're talking. The truth of the matter is God may have asked
them to talk loudly. God may have asked them to be in a position of importance.

There's no doubt about that. But nine times out of ten they're doing it just to
get noticed. So what do I need to do?

I need to recognize I'm not the judge of whether this is the one time out of ten
or nine times out of ten. God's going to be the judge of that in the end. What
my job is, is to not get caught up in talk.

I want to be caught up in power. Paul says it's not a matter of talk. It is a
matter of power.

What is power? Power is what only God can do. Talk is what I can do.

I'm doing it right now. I can talk and talk and talk. And you can too.

We can say important things, important words. We can talk as human beings. But
power is what only God can do.

Only God could have started a church in Corinth and Paul was involved in that.
Only God can heal a person's heart. Only God can heal a marriage.

Only God can truly heal a life. Paul had seen God's power in his ministry. He
had been released from prison when everybody thought he was certainly going to
be killed.

He had been saved from death when everybody thought that's it. Look what they've
just done to Paul. Look at how they have just persecuted him.

He's going to die this time. He had seen all of Asia hear about the good news of
Christ because he preached in Ephesus. He'd seen that gospel spread.

Only God could do that. He saw God's power. He saw God's power work as he chose
to serve.

That's how it works. How do you see God's power? How do I see God's power?

Well, you certainly don't see it by trying to see God's power. God, I'm going to
put myself in the place where I can see some spectacular, wow, fireworks
happening. Something nobody else has ever seen.

You want to see something nobody else has ever seen? Serve where God asks you to
serve. That's where you see it.

Paul served where God asked him to serve. He was thrown into prison and he saw
an angel come and release him from that prison. God served where God asked him
to serve and he was thrown into a pit and had rocks thrown on him and everybody
thought he would die.

But God saved him. Paul served as he was asked to serve and he just kept
preaching, just kept preaching in Ephesus and so all of Asia heard. You want to
see God's power work?

Just serve where he asks you to serve. And that's where you see the power.
That's where you see the power of a changed life.

What is it that only God can do? Only God can change a life. And he'll use you
in that.

He will use me in that. But the only way that happens is as I choose to serve.
We've been talking this week about you as a minister and about the things that I
need to choose, the things that I need to do to serve for a lifetime.

I don't want you serving him for a few years. Some of you this week, you've been
listening to this at a discouragement point in ministry, ready to give up. Some
of you may have given up on ministering to others years ago.

Just too hurtful, too painful, too painful to have others judge you like that.
I'm prayerful that God will use these words penned by Paul but inspired by the
Spirit in 1 Corinthians 4 to encourage you back into ministry. What do I do?

Where do I serve? The question is, what's God asking you to do? Not what do I
want to do.

What's he asking you to do based on the gifts that he's given you? What's he
asking you to do? And if you're going to keep serving, what do you do?

You do the four things we talked about this week. You choose faithful service as
your life. A servant, entrusted, faithful.

You choose to wait for God as the judge. Don't judge before the proper time. You
choose to let humility be the attitude of ministry and you choose to let family
be the relationship of ministry.

I want to pray for you. I want to pray for me as we end this week of looking at
this chapter. Jesus, help me, help every one of us to make those choices, to
choose to serve you faithfully, to choose to let you be the judge, to choose to
grasp humility as our attitude and to choose family as our relationship in
ministry.

Lord, just keep reminding us of those truths and in all of that we ask you the
simple question, what do you want us to do for your sake today? And as you show
us, we pray that you would give us the power to do what you've asked us to do as
we step into it, as we step towards it, as we do what you've asked us. Jesus,
thank you.

Thank you that you minister to us through your spirit, through your comfort,
through your word. Thank you that you minister through us. You let other people
know and be encouraged in the truth even through us.

We're not worthy, but we're called by you and we thank you. So show us today who
can we serve, how can we serve? In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Join us this next week. We're going to talk together about what do you do
when Christians sin.