1 Corinthians 3:18-22 + 4:1-8 | Episode #982

July 15, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

1 Corinthians 3:18-22 + 4:1-8

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope.

Applying God's word to your daily life.

As we finish Faithful Finance, we want to produce our winter Bible study done at Lake Community Church on First Corinthians.

It'll be a fairly long Bible study.

We will break it up into different parts.

And so you will get a really good, really fast study through the book of First Corinthians before we move on to the book of Joshua.

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

If you think you are wise, and as to this age,

reject it and seek the wisdom of God.

For the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, for it is written. He catches the wise in their own craftiness.

And again,

the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile.

Therefore,

let no one boast in men,

for all things are yours.

Who do we not boast in?

Now, don't you hear me?

Some of y' all grew up in some polities, church polities,

that like to boast in somebody.

And he was great and great and great until he's not great and then he's terrible,

the pastor.

When I read somebody boasting,

saying how great so and so is,

you know what I think? I'm going to be honest with you.

I think they're immature.

I'm being real with you.

If you boast in somebody else's spirituality,

it's immaturity.

You boast in Christ and Christ alone.

Now you can say God really uses him.

God really uses her. I've seen God do some great things in that person's life.

Now, I'm telling you this because let me tell you something.

It is not. It is a long way mileage wise from Corinth to here. It's 2,000 years in time,

but it's just right down the road in position in the kingdom.

Our churches act like the Corinthian church.

They boast in flesh and they do not operate in the spirit.

Therefore, let no one boast in men, for all things are yours,

whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours.

Quit boasting in the things that are in someone else, but boast in what God is doing in you.

What is he saying? You've got all the teachings.

You've got all the words of life and death.

You've got all the things that are timeless and time held on to they're all yours.

And you are Christ, and Christ is God's.

You're his,

and he is the fulfillment of the Godhead.

Y' all watch out. I might finish chapter four.

Let man con so consider us. What he's saying is, now that I've said all that, that you're carnal and that you have a worldly perspective.

Let man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

Stewards, meaning managers.

We're managers of the household of God.

So if you're talking about us, you need to consider us servants of Christ and stewards, meaning we're managers of God's mystery, which is his word.

Moreover,

it is required in stewards that one be bound,

that one be found faithful.

So what is required of a steward?

Faithfulness.

Faithfulness.

It's the important ingredients.

You've got God's gift, you got his kairos. And then what is required of you?

Faithful.

Remember. That's yo. That's the other guy.

I'm forgetting the word.

The word for faith in the New Testament.

Pistio.

Pistio.

Okay,

what is required? Pistio is translated faith, hope, trust, believe. When Jesus was asked, what is it that's required to in be in the kingdom,

what'd he say to Pistio? The one whom the Father sent.

Meaning to believe in the one that the Father sent. To trust in the one that Father sent.

To faith in the one the Father sent. To hope in the one the Father sent. Those are four ways. It's translated,

what is required to trust in the One the Father sent. What I trust in Him. Well, that he's the Son of God.

What I trust in that he did that he was. He gave himself. He was dead, buried, and rose again.

That he has the power of the resurrection.

But with me, it's very small thing that I should be judged by you or by human court.

Now, I want you to notice. What is he saying?

This is really a very eloquent way of saying, I don't care what you think.

Let me read it to you again.

But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by human court.

He says, in fact, I don't even judge myself.

What he's saying is, I don't care what you think. And I've been thinking about this for a long time, and I realized I'm wrong about a whole lot of stuff.

So really don't even matter what I think.

The longer I live, the more I realize the little I know.

So it doesn't matter what you think, it doesn't matter what you judge and really doesn't matter what I think.

For I know of nothing against myself,

yet I am not justified by this. What he's saying is, I can't think of anything right now that I'm doing, but I'm not. But listen,

that doesn't make me right with God.

If I said right now I'm walking as close to God as I've ever walked, I'm doing it the right way. I'm walking in. In faith doesn't work. It doesn't matter.

That doesn't justify me with God.

Yet I am not justified this. But he who judges me is the Lord. Meaning I'm justified by God, by the Lord, by Jesus.

Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes.

What he's saying is, why are you getting in arguments? Because you're trying to figure out what, whether they're right about something and you're both probably wrong.

Quit fighting about stuff.

You know, the Bible says have nothing to do with a contentious man.

Somebody wants to argue all the time.

Don't have anything to do with them.

Y' all know that.

Pastor, does that mean what I think it means? Yeah, it means what I think it means.

He says, therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the heart.

Then each one's praise will come from God.

Meaning he's going to bring all this to light.

He is one of my, one of my mentors in the legal profession,

is a practicing Catholic and we're great friends. We talk a lot about a lot of spiritual stuff.

And he's born again. I mean, you know, the whole nine yards.

Let's not get into that. We love to fight a fight between denominations. That's why we're non denominational, so we don't have to get in those fights. Right?

All right.

And he will say to me, well, Chad, when I die, will you pray for me so that I'll get out of purgatory?

Now that's one of the arguments between Catholics and Protestants.

And I say to him all the time,

well, I'm going to pray for you,

but I ain't going to pray for you to get out of purgatory because you're going to be out before I get there. Okay,

so I'm not praying for that.

He says, well, what if I am? Well, we'll deal with that on the other side. But you're not. It's Going to be all good.

Okay,

he says. But you'll still pray for me? Yes, I'm going to pray for you. Okay. We ain't arguing about notice. I'm not arguing about it, am I? He thinks he's going to Purgatory.

I don't. You know when we'll find out? After we're both dead and nobody's going to go, ha, ha, ha ha.

We'll probably be in worship together. He'll be standing there, he'll look over me. You're right about that purgatory thing.

Praise God.

Or thanks for fraying me out.

Whatever.

I don't. It's not in here, so I'm not really worried about it. Okay,

but it's important.

That's not an argument that we don't. No need to argue about it.

Especially things that you have no control over until it's over.

When it's over, it's over.

Literally.

If that ain't in the Bible, I don't know what is. You know, I don't. It should be right. When it's over, it's over. I think it's in there. I think it's in the Revelation.

When it's over, it's over, it's over,

he says. Now these things, brethren, I have figured, figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos, for your sakes,

that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written,

that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. Meaning? I'm. I've. I've told you.

I built Apollos built on top of it. Have I said anything negative about Apollos? No.

There's not a contention between us.

No need to fight about it,

no need to argue about it. And I've told you this so that you can apply it to us, and then once you apply it to us, you can apply it to yourself.

Quit arguing about it.

Look, if you deal with somebody and you know that they hear from God and that they have repented and turned to him,

however that manifests itself.

Are you listening to me?

And that they believe on the resurrected Christ and that they're chasing after him,

then there should not be spiritual arguments with you. There may be discussions we may teach each other, may help each other,

we may even. We may. Even at some points in time in our lives, we may be. May disagree,

but that's not an argument.

Because if you're arguing with the flesh, you're by definition being fleshly.

If you're arguing with the carnal, you are carnal.

I Hope I've stepped on yalls toes enough tonight.

For who makes you differ from any other?

And what do you have that you did not receive? Meaning what a value do you have that you didn't get from God?

Now if you did in did indeed receive it, why do you boast if you as if you had not received it?

That. That mentor of mine, he likes to talk about how I'm spiritually up here and he's spiritually down here. That's why he wants me to pray him out of purgatory when he dies.

I may die before he dies.

And on the off chance I'm in purgatory, I pray. Appreciate him praying for me.

And I've loved enough Catholics and pastor enough Catholics that I probably get a few of those. You know what I'm talking about?

What you got, you got from God.

So quit acting like it came from you.

Quit acting like it came from you, cuz it didn't come from you.

And let me tell you something. You don't have to protect God if you're protecting God. Who's protecting you?

Larry. Larry's behind me. I got me and Larry protecting God. Got. Larry's got my six.

Why don't y' all do this? Why don't God protect y' all have your six and y' all serve God?

You are already full.

What is he saying?

You already got the Holy Spirit,

you already rich.

You have reigned as kings without us.

And indeed I could wish that you did reign that we may also reign with you.

He's saying, I want you to have all the things of God so that I can have all the blessings from it. Because by the way,

if you feed into somebody's life.

Now I'm going to tell you now,

Einstein said the greatest math equation that ever existed was compound interest.

Y' all know that, right?

He's the one that came up with the first theory of relativity and then he came up with special relativity.

He said the greatest math equation is compound interest.

And you know what? The Bible agrees with it.

Because what he's saying is if I invest in you, then everything that you do by faith,

that my investment helped that faith mature,

you get the benefit from it and I get the benefit from it.

Now that's better than compound interest.

That's exponent, That's. You started getting them equations where you say 3.2 times 10 to the so many powers.

How many of y' all love those,

huh?

That's some good stuff right there.

Because by the way, I get everything that you do by faith. And anybody that you feed into after I fed into you, I get their stuff, too.

You talking about a pyramid scheme?

You mean I get all. Yeah,

I mean, if you really want to do some. I mean, if you really want to be selfish, you need to be feeding faith into folks fast.

It's the ultimate act of godliness and selfishness to act in faith and feed into other people. Faith because it's true. Biblical. Not carnality,

but spirituality.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.