1 Corinthians 10:1-5
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”
In Pauls letter wasn’t dealing with the rise and fall of nations, but the lesson was much the same. ... letter is instruction addressing many believers who think they are mature, but who are not acting like it. They are not reflecting the character of God, they are not living out the commands of Christ, and their gospel witness is drained of its power, and they are a divided, and diluted church. They reflect the weak ecclesiology of our generation that describes the church is just a collection of every kind of sinner. They have become no more than a facade of strength, like so many of our churches today. The work of the Gospel will cost you your time, it will cost you your talents, it will cost you your treasures, and at times even your liberties, and maybe your life. But Its worth it, its all for the sake of the Gospel.
George Whitfield “OTHER MEN MAY PREACH A BETTER GOSPEL THAN I, BUT NO MAN CAN PREACH A BETTER GOSPEL.”
Learning the false promises of privilege: We have been privileged with great things...but
1. Great Leadership is no guarantee you’ll be blessed in the work of the Gospel
Our Fathers(10:1)
2. Great Guidance is no guarantee you’ll be blessed in the work of the Gospel …cloud, and pillar
If I thought I could win one more soul to the Lord by walking on my head and playing the tambourine with my toes, I'd learn how! - William Booth
3. Great Experience is no guarantee you’ll be blessed in the work of the Gospel … baptized in the red sea
Gal.3:27 “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
“If Jesus preached the same message [we] preach today, He would have never been crucified.” ~ Leonard Ravenhill
v5 NEVERTHELESS
4. Great provision is no guarantee - spiritual food
v5 NEVERTHELESS
“Today Christians spend more money on dog food than missions.” - Leonard Ravenhill
Rise up, O men of God! Have done with lesser things. Give heart and mind and soul and strength To serve the King of kings.
5. Even the Great presence of Christ is no guarantee you’ll be blessed in the work of the Gospel … the rock was Christ
John 7:37-38 “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ””
"One of the greatest rewards that we ever receive for serving God is the permission to do still more for Him." — Charles Spurgeon
Conclusion:
The only way to be blessed in the work of the Gospel… Paul is going to say clearly in chapter 1 Cor 11:1 “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”
Therefore at times, you lay aside the comforts and privileges of this world, and look to the imperishable crowns of the next. Its when you take on the sacrificial love of Christ… he will use you.
Phil 2:7-10 “... emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,”
Mark Fackler, Article on Dl Moody Quote:
Perhaps the line most frequently attributed to Dwight L. Moody (and spoken by his character in the only film on Moody’s life) is the famous quotation: “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him. By God’s help, I aim to be that man.”
In fact, Moody did not originate the line. Henry Varley, a British revivalist who had befriended the young American in Dublin, recalled that in 1873 Moody asked him to recount words they had spoken in private conversation a year earlier, just before Moody’s return to the United States. Varley provides this account (as recorded in Paul Gericke’s Crucial Experiences in the Life of D.L. Moody):
During the afternoon of the day of conference Mr. Moody asked me to join him in the vestry of the Baptist Church. We were alone, and he recalled the night’s meeting at Willow Park and our converse the following morning.
“Do you remember your words?” he said.
I replied, “I well remember our interview, but I do not recall any special utterance.”
“Don’t you remember saying, ‘Moody, the world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to him?’ ”
“Not the actual sentence,” I replied.
“Ah,” said Mr. Moody, “those were the words sent to my soul, through you, from the Living God. As I crossed the wide Atlantic, the boards of the deck of the vessel were engraved with them, and when I reached Chicago, the very paving stones seemed marked with ‘Moody, the world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to him.’ Under the power of those words I have come back to England, and I felt that I must not let more time pass until I let you know how God had used your words to my inmost soul.”