Your Verse: I am the Exception

[podcast]http://www.revkwon.com/podcast/your_verse-exception.mp3[/podcast] Last week started talking about verses that change the course of people’s lives. The verse I shared with you all last week was from Philippians 3:8, which goes like this: What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. (Philippians 3:8a). This verse changed my life and I asked you to look deep within yourself to find a verse that changed your life. Every week here at this church, we give you verses that will undoubtedly change your life if we just stop and think about them. Its so very important to have an arsenal of Bible verses at your disposal when you face life. When I look at “Christians” its so hilariously funny to me that they rarely own their own verse. And when people quote Ghandi or a Taylor Swift, they say, “Pastor Jonathan, that’s the Bible, isn’t it?” Unfortunately, I have to reply with a laugh and say, “No, that’s Elsa from Frozen.” Moreover, when I shame them for their lack of Bible memory verses, they say to me, “it’s okay if I don’t know what my God says to me, God isn’t going to test me.” I would laugh again, but I know that’s not true, we will be undoubtedly be tested. The second verse that I want to share with you all comes from 1 Corinthians 3:18 and it inspire the title of my sermon today is: “I am the Exception…” The title implicitly has two meanings that if you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss completely, so I pay attention. Let’s read 1 Corinthians 3:18. Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. – 1 Corinthians 3:18 When we read this verse, the first question we should ask ourselves, or may have asked ourselves is this: When is foolishness actually wisdom? Secondly, we should be asking, “Is this the exception? When my foolishness is wisdom?” The answer is yes and keep that in the back of your minds because I’m going to explain that in a little bit. First, we have to read the context from which 1 Corinthians 3:18 comes from because that will color your understanding of the exception. Me: [Christians raising their hands to worship story]. [My sins are okay, but other people’s sins are unforgiveable.] Let’s go to the context. Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.³ You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? ⁴ For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? ⁵ What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. ⁹ For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. ¹⁰ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. ¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. ¹⁴ If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. This verse came to me one day when I was fighting God with the believing that I was the exception because I knew better. What we understand is that there is an exception. A bad exception. The bad exception dresses up as truth, but it is actually just fallacies pretending to be wise. These exceptions are bad because they are not good reasons to be exceptions and it hide who we are and what we are from us. It pretends to be something its not. I’m going to give you four fallacies that pretend to be wise which are reasons for us to think we are exceptions.

1. We quarrel over things – You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? (v3)

Quarrel – is not an argument. It’s an angry argument between two people who are on good terms, because one person takes an exception. This exception usually comes from jealousy. Paul writes this in his letter. The funny thing he does here is ask the Corinthians, “Are you not acting like mere humans?” The Corinthians, just like New Yorkers, believed they were the exception to the rule. They believe the rules were there for everybody else because the only non-idiot in the kingdom of God was themselves. So Paul was flipping the argument on its head. I know you think you’re godlike because you live in a drab city with a history married with racial tensions, and ghettos of inequality, but don’t you see you’re just human? I know people who quarrel. I’m sure you know people who quarrel. It’s over stupid things too. It’s like, just stop being an idiot. Why are you trying to argue with me about that? Paul says it simply as people are worldly which causes jealousness which will lead to quarreling. They believe they are the exception.

2. We believe we are the most important – For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? (v4)

We are not the exception. We are mere human beings. We are not the most important. When my dad died, I had this thought: everyone dies! Shocking right? Guess what happens when we die? Yeah, there’s a funeral where people come, and they will cry. But the world keeps moving. In the grand scheme of things, we are not even minutely important. You’re not the most important, we have to stop believing we are. Having said that, it’s okay if you’re not the best at math, science, piano, or whatever it is that you believe you OCD over. That non recognition you didn’t get, it’s okay—get over it. Shake it off.

3. We believe we did it on our own – So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. (v7)

No such thing as your own accomplishments. You got this far in life because your folks worked somebody gave you clothes, a roof, and money, and sent you to school. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that you’re alive because you willed it to happen. Most of us couldn’t will ourself out of bed this morning. God makes things grow, not you or me, we just happen to be there. Paul knew that. Unfortunately people believe otherwise because they think they are the exception.

4. We believe it can’t happen – … their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. (v13)

You will be tested. Sometimes it will be good when you are tested because you will fly high and soar in the sky. Soemtimes you’ll barely escape, and that’s okay. It will happen, whatever it is—believe that it will. So when is foolishness actually wisdom? Because we see that the exception we believe is us, is actually the wrong exception to be sitting in is really a lie. Let’s go to the rest of the passage, verse 16. ¹⁶ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. ¹⁸ Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” ²¹ So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

1. When we treat our lives as not our own – Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? (v16)

Our lives are not our own. That’s the exception. You don’t think like its yours, you act like you’re borrowing because you are.

2. When we are humble – Do not deceive yourselves.  (v18a)

Know yourself. Don’t lie to yourself.

3. When we chase after God’s will – Paul wasn’t afraid of what others would call him. He knew the exception was God. Jesus was the exception. He was innocent, yet he took on the wrath of God for sinners that deserved nothing.

Be fools for God, that is to say that we must do whatever God is asking of us, without questioning it, without doubting it, no matter how crazy or improbable. Go after God like there’s nothing else we can chase after, like nothing else matters. Give your life over to God so that other people think that what you’re doing is foolish. People told me when I was starting seminary, “why are you wasting your talents? Jonathan, you’re a moron. You can do so much more.” It wasn’t until I told my best friend and his wife about what I was planning to do that they said, “That’s the wisest thing you thought of doing—when you’re tired after school, come over, we’ll cook you dinner and give you a bed to sleep on.” We have to become fools for God to be wise.