For the past two weeks, the Apostle Paul has been revealing in concrete terms what it looks like to be a servant, steward, and manager of Christ.


Last week we read Paul’s Words to the Corinthian Church.

They were filled with dripping sarcasm how they anything but a servant of Christ.


So Paul has rebuked them for their attitude.


He has scolded them for their lack of a servant's heart.


In today's text, he tells them why he had to be so harsh.

He loves them as a father loves his children. 


He couldn't think about his children straying from God's word and being misled by false teachers.


He was their founding pastor.


He was their spiritual father and was responsible for their spiritual welfare. 

For those of you with children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren, isn't it a joy for you to see your family getting along?

Its the same way for Pastors.




The Apostle John, 

"I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth." 

(3 John 4)


So let’s learn today how The Apostle Paul brings these rebellious children called the Corinthian Church, back under his loving care.

Last week we ended 1 Cor. 4, by focusing on verse 20-

20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power.


I briefly mentioned that power that the Apostle Paul is referring to is the Holy Spirit power of Almighty God.

It’s important to understand the Holy Spirit’s Power begins with understanding prayer.

To understand the power that comes with prayer we have to begin today in Acts.

Last week we took a break from our verse by verse study of 1 Corinthians to take a more in-depth look at what the Apostle Paul mentioned in 


cf: 1 Cor. 4:20

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power.

 

We looked into the word "power."

We started in the book of Acts, and we learned that the history of the Church was started in a small group - the Apostles were praying. 

We learned that this power was given to the Apostles by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.

We learned that prayer - the calling on the name of the Lord - 


having this two way conversation with the Living God - was the direct result of receiving this power from the Holy Spirit.

Lastly, we learned how to pray, Biblically. 


Praying Biblically is reading the Word of God by the Spirit of God.


Praying Biblically is reading Scripture back to God out loud, concentrating on every word, stopping after every verse, and praying what then came to your mind.


We used the Lord's prayer, Prov. 3:5-8 and also Matthew 6:33 as illustrations on how to apply Biblical prayer to your own life.


Today we're going to continue in the book of Matthew and land back on 6:33 

- to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.


Our goal today is to see how and why Jesus says that prayer is THE answer for your anxiety.


It's not just one answer to anxiety - it is THE answer.


Now to set this message up, this Scripture passage today comes on the tail end of the greatest sermon ever preached. - "The Sermon on the Mount."


Jesus preached the Beatitudes - the blessings from God.


He taught us how to love our enemies, how to give our money, pray, fast…


And then He addresses how to handle our possessions and finances.

Now, as I was praying and preparing for us to move back into our study of 1 Corinthians, I felt the Lord leading me to teach one more message on prayer before we jump back into learning from this the messy Corinthian Church.

We need to address why we’re praying in the first place?

We learned how to pray. We defined what prayer is. We know that prayer is the answer to our anxiety.

And yet, we haven’t addressed the reason, the cause, the purpose of calling on the name of the Lord through prayer.


Do our little prayers really matter - all that much in the big scope of the cosmos?


Isn't God going to do what He wants to do anyway?


You may not say that, but deep down, you have to admit that you believe it at some level.


The proof is in our prayer life or lack thereof.


In other words, can your prayer actually change things?


Because if it doesn't really change things, what's the point?


Does God need me to pray, or does He just want me to pray?


Is it possible for God's will to be frustrated or not accomplished, if I don't pray?


Have you ever wondered what exactly happens in the spiritual realm when you pray? Aren't you curious?


Wouldn't you like to know that your mortgage was paid on time, because someone in the Church prayed for you?


Wouldn't you like to know that your life was spared because your name was on the Church prayer list - and dozens of people were lifting your name up to God?




Wouldn't you like to know if your prayers can actually make a difference between heaven and hell for your children, grandchildren, your crazy uncle, even your neighbor with the bad attitude?

So the real question becomes this:

Does Almighty God, the maker of the Heavens and the Earth, need our involvement or not? 


Is prayer really necessary? If so, why?

Last week we took a detour from our study in the book of 1 Corinthians. 


The Lord wanted us to hit the pause button and focus on the power of prayer.


During this pause, we learned:


1) that the NT Church was started not because someone was preaching, singing, or serving, but the NT Church started because the Apostles were praying.


 2) We learned that the power of God was given to the Apostles by the Holy Spirit.


 3) We defined prayer as - calling on the name of the Lord. 


 4) Jesus then showed us how to pray, Biblically - reading Scripture back to God aloud, concentrating on every word, stopping after every verse, and praying what then came to your mind.


5) Jesus taught us how prayer is THE cure for anxiety.


6) We learned the reason why we need to pray in the first place.


So let me ask you - how has your prayer life changed over the past month?


How have you experienced God and His power in a fresh new way?


Make no mistake; the power that Scripture speaks of is the power that comes from the resurrected Jesus.




The power comes from Jesus conquering sin and death once and for all.


In applying one or two of the things we talked about - Do you feel or sense the Lord Jesus preparing you to finish life well, and to see Him face to face very soon?


Well, today, we do jump back into our study in 1 Corinthians.

Last week we learned how the Corinthian Church dealt with ongoing, habitual sin sitting in their pews.


Not a one-time sin - completely different:


to where someone from the Church went to the bar got drunk and committed adultery.


Someone from the Church asked them about it, and they knew it was wrong and asked for forgiveness - they learned their lesson and won’t do it again…


But a habitual sin. A sin that is a habit / stronghold/has a grip.


It’s ongoing, and the person refuses to stop and give it up.


In the Corinthian Church, a man was sleeping with his stepmother, and the Church refused to do anything about it.


Now, many of you may not be big fans of the message from last week - Church discipline.


Many of you may think that Paul was too harsh on the Corinthian Church and on this man that was committing incest.


Consider this -

Discipline must be severe at times because the consequences of not disciplining are much worse. 


Do you agree with that? Have you experienced that?

We learned last week that people in Greece were laughing at the Corinthian Church because the Church refused to address a man sleeping with his stepmother. Incest.

Even though the culture in Greece was filled with a tremendous amount of sexual freedom, 

even the Romans and the Greeks were disgusted by what was happening in the Church.

This week, we're going to learn that the Corinthian Church continues to be the laughing stock of the city because the Church members are now ripping each other off when it comes to business.

Members started putting little fish on business cards to make money.

So we have the big three that was causing so much division in the Church.

1) Power 2) Sex 3) Money

There's one underlying theme that's been building up to this point -

Church members demanded their “Rights.”

“My Rights” - meaning, my opinion of what is correct.

There’s three sides to every story: 1) Yours 2) His 3) Truth

And it's in Chapter 6, to where this we see theme truly come into play.

Over the past several weeks, we have read and studied about the life of Jesus as an overview. Last week, we asked the question, the Savior is born…now what? 
This baby that was named Jesus, who came from Heaven, to save people from their sins, cf: John 1:14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. 
Jesus lived a perfect life and died a criminal's death… all because He offered people a gift—eternal life. cf: John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 
The question is not how is Jesus the only way to God, but the real question is— “Why did God chose to give us one way at all?” He offered to pay for their sins— Himself. 
And not only did people reject His gift of eternal life, but murdered Him because of it.

Today, we look at what it looks like for the resurrected Jesus to live in us.

Last week we learned a critical element of living a Christ-centered life. 
Jesus gave us a key that unlocks a supernatural His supernatural presence, 
It provides a supernatural peace that surpasses all understanding. I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 
We learned that these words carry great significance with the backdrop of the Old Testament. 
There are many references to God calling Israel, His vine. Today, the Lord is now going to reveal a beautiful manifestation of what it means to be broken bread and poured out wine.

Today we continue our study in the book of 1 Corinthians. Paul was an apostle, meaning that he sat under the teaching of the Lord Jesus. He was also ordained and commissioned by Jesus, along with the other apostles, to start the Church through the power of the Holy Spirit. This Church in Corinth, Greece, was a Church plant by Paul, and this letter was written approximately a year and a half later after Paul left Greece.
 The Church of Corinth was Paul's messy Church. It was his problem, child. And the Scripture passage that we're studying today is a letter that Paul wrote back to the Corinthians. Several letters were going back and forth, and this letter is a response from Paul back to the Church. He was an Apostle, yes, but He was also their pastor. And he loved them dearly. Two weeks ago, the Church had questions about the Lord's Supper, and we learned how Paul answered those questions. Today, Paul is responding to something called "Spiritual Gifts."