Abounding in the work of the Lord / 1 Corinthians 15-58

1 Corinthians 15:58 (KJV 1900)

58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Power To Change Ministry 

          Rev. Alvin Lewis

Powertochangeministry@gmail.Com

Powertochangeministry.org

973-583-7482

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Grace and peace from God our Father and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you for tuning in to the Power to Change Ministry, and this is our podcast. My name is Reverend Alvin Lewis, and I will be your host for today. I pray that you are having a wonderful experience as you come to the place of understanding who our eternal Father is, and you are learning to listen as you experience His Word to what He is saying and the instructions that He's given us for what He wants us to do.

SPEAKER_04 1:37

And here at Power to Change, we want to help with that process by giving you clarity of Scripture. Today we're going to observe to apply 1 Corinthians chapter 15 58. And the title of this teaching is Abounding in the Work of the Lord. Let's start with a word of prayer and let's hear what God has to say. Father God, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we thank you for this day that you have made. We thank you for your divine wisdom. We thank you for your divine will and your way. We thank you for loving us, O Lord, in the name of Jesus. We thank you for sending your only begotten Son to be sent for us. We thank you for your word, O Lord, so that it can guide and direct us as we travel through this dark world. We thank you, Father God, for being who you are. Help us to understand you, O Lord, in the name of Jesus, so that we can pay close attention and we can be obedient to your will. Give us a desire, O Lord, in the name of Jesus, to want you, your presence, who you are, and all that you bring to our lives. Father God, we tell you, thank you in advance for all that you will do. Touch this lesson today, O Lord, in the name of Jesus. Don't allow me to get in the way, but use me according to your will, according to what you want to accomplish, knowing who will hear this podcast, so that you will be glorified and amplified in their life, and they will receive the transformation that you so eloquently give to all those who accept you as their Lord and Jesus Christ as your as their Lord and Savior. I say thank you in advance, in Jesus' name. Amen. Abounding in the work of the Lord. Very powerful because most Christians don't think that there's something for them to do, there's only something for them to receive. But there is work that needs to be done. Now let me give you a little uh historical and cultural background of First Corinthians. First Corinthians has a problem. Some in Corinth denied a future bodily resurrection, likely influenced by uh Greek Platonic dualism, which viewed the body as inferior or evil, and the soul as the only immortal component. Paul systematically dismantles this thought throughout the chapter. Paul's relationship to Corinth, Paul founded this church. You can find in uh 49 to 51 A.D. You can see this in Acts 18, verses 1 through 18, and writes this letter approximately 54 to 55 A.D. And he is dealing with a topic that we all need to understand. Without the completed work of Jesus the Christ, we would not have a faith. We would not have a hope. And we would perish. So it's very important to understand the life, the the uh death, the burial, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus the Christ is very, very important. Now, Paul also used the word labor, which is in the in the Greek, Greek, Greco, Roman world, carry um an understanding of exhausting, grueling toil, not casual effort, but giving it all you got. So abounding in the work of the Lord is not a casual thing. The work is not a casual thing that we are called to, but it is something to give all that you have, and it is fueled by the understanding of what God has done for you through Jesus the Christ. I know most of the times um we may come to the Lord with a list of things, most of it is temporal, something that will expire at some point in time. And it gives us comfort if we receive these things. But if we did not receive the ability to be forgiven and to be reconciled back to our eternal Father and to get back in his presence, then all of those temporal things they mean nothing. They have no value, they're useless, you know, and it's just a feeling that will at some point it will go away. So what I want to do today, I'm going to read the scripture of observation and application, and then we want to look at there are 57 verses prior to verse 58, and I want to look at it, I want to look at in groups of verses in a summary style, but at your at your leisure, you know, it would be good to go back and read the first 57 verses of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians so that you can see and get the understanding of the full argument that Paul is proposing here, and you will know that verse 58 is a call to action. After he gives his doctrinal um information in the first 57 verses, he is now giving a command, and he is given directive, he is given um um something to do. This is the work that must be done. So 1 Corinthians 15, 58 says, Therefore, and when you see therefore, that means that whatever came before that is what the verse you're reading at that time is answering. It is, it is, it is replying, it is responding um to what came before the therefore. So it says, Therefore, therefore, my brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So we're gonna see here, we're gonna look at this, uh, as I said, the first 57 verses of 1 Corinthians in a summary style. And uh we're gonna look at them in groups of verses so that, you know, I don't want this this podcast to be too long, but I need to address this so that you can see what's going on. So I I might move a little quicker, but you will understand and you will get all of the information that I that is supposed to be distributed here at this time. Now, the first one is 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 through 8. Now, Paul establishes the non-negotiable factual and scriptural foundation of the gospel in those verses. And he's talking about Christ's atoning death, confirming burial and bodily resurrection, and he authenticated by a chain of named, verifiable eyewitnesses from Peter to Paul himself. So this is what Paul is talking about in those verses, and he has witnesses. And we look at uh 1 Corinthians 15 verses 9 through 10. Paul frames his apostolic identity as the perfect paradox of grace. And he is amplifying that he is the least qualified by his own sinful past. Now we know that Paul was a persecutor of the church prior to his transformation on the road to Damascus. He was a Pharisee. They were very, very strict in um making sure that the law was followed. It wasn't necessarily by faith, but it was by knowledge. And uh he said, yet the most laborous in ministry with both realities fully explained by one cause, the grace of God alone. So he doesn't give himself any credit because he was an educated man on what happened in his life, but he looked at it as the grace of God. So he gave all of the credit to God. As I said, understanding fully and accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you come to understand that without that act of love by our eternal Father, we would have no hope. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 11 through 18, Paul systematically dismantles the Corinthian denial of resurrection by demonstrating through six cascading consequences that to abandon the resurrection, all right, these are the six, it is to simultaneously abandon the validity of apostolic preaching, and that is Jesus the Christ, his resurrection, the forgiveness of sins, the integrity of the gospel witness, number four, the meaning of saving faith, number five, and the eternal hope of every believer who has already died. Number six, making Christianity itself a complete and tragic lie. So we see here that these are the things that happen when you cross out the resurrection, the work of God through Jesus the Christ. Okay? When we move on, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 19 through 25, we see here that Paul pivots from the devastating consequences of a resurrection less Christianity to the triumphant certainty of resurrection reality is grounding the believer's hope in Christ as the risen first fruits. The next one, establishing the Adam to Christ typology as the theological framework for universal resurrection. The next one and tracing the grand um the path from Christ's current reign to the final uh um subjection of every enemy, meaning that everything that is an enemy of God will be taken care of, and death is the final one. It will be overcome. And the ultimate delivery of the perfected kingdom to God the Father. So Jesus is is his assignment is to collect everything for the Father and surrender it back unto him, which is a wonderful, wonderful when you look at it, it is a wonderful love story. It is amazing because we are the creation of God. Sometimes we forget who we are and where we came from and why it's important that we function in a certain way, and that God is not here to make sure that I have everything that I want in my life because I want to feel good or what I think I want in my life, but God is my creator. Without him, we wouldn't even be here. We wouldn't even exist. So therefore, we owe it to him because through Adam we became sinners, but God, through his infinite love for us, he had mercy on us and he gave us his grace so that we can get back in the right relationship with him as we started in the Garden of Eden prior to Adam's sinning. And therefore, we are now to reinstate our allegiance and our dedication and commitment to the will and the work of God. Because that's what Adam was doing. He was working for the Lord, he had a job. All right, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 26 through 28, Paul brings the uh sequence to uh a climax. He says, Death, the last and greatest enemy, is doomed to total destruction. All things are divinely ordained to bow under Christ's feet in fulfillment. And if you look at um Psalm 8.6, you will see, uh you'll be able to read that. And the entire redemptive mission of the Son reaches its eternal goal when he willingly subordinates himself to the Father so that the triune God reigns as the absolute, unchallenged, all-sufficient reality over the whole of a fully redeemed creation. First Corinthians chapter 15, verses 29 through 32, Paul mounts four consecutive arguments from lived experiences and observable practices. So we see here that um there is a controversial baptismal writ, uh, which we we see that uh it is written in there that uh the baptism of the dead, you know, which uh looking that up, there was a lot of uh opinions from scholars about that, but no one really definitively could define what it what it really what that really is, but it probably came from um some of the the religions that were surrounded. Now we understand the Corinthian was a was a was a seaport town, so there there was a lot of different things going on in that place at the same time. So there was many different things that that was uh introduced and some took root in the in the lives of the Corinthians. This is why we see that Paul is is is writing and addressing this one here about the resurrection. And uh we see that if a person says that there is no resurrection, when we look at baptismal of being baptized with the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when you give your life back to the Lord and you go into the water, that is that is symbolic of being in the grave with Jesus and coming up is is is the resurrection. Well, how is it that you might you are having a baptism when there is no resurrection? So this is what Paul is is bringing out here and wanting them to understand, you know, the inconsistency in the conclusion that some had in their mind in reference to resurrection. Uh 1 Corinthians 15, 33 through 41. Paul transitions from defending the fact of resurrection to beginning his answer to the nature of the resurrected body. All right. And then as we move on, uh 1 Corinthians 15, verses 42 through 49, we see Paul reaches the theological summit of his resurrection body argument. And 1 Corinthians 15 verses 50 through 57. We see here Paul brings the entire resurrection argument to its climax, declaring the absolute necessity of bodily transformation, unveiling the mystery that all believers living and dead will be instantaneously changed at the last trump, announcing the total annihilation of death and fulfillment. Now you can see this in Isaiah 25, 8 and a Hosea 13, 14. So that is a quick summary of those 57 verses, and again, I would uh invite you to go and read those verses and spend a little time in there. But what I want to show you here in 1 Corinthians 15, 58, which is the scripture of observation and application, is to see what Paul was talking about in this verse after he has given the doctrine in the first 57, and now he wants to give directives, he wants to give guidance, he's given commands, and and and again, understanding that a command is not something that says I can't do something because I still have the ability to do what's being commanded of me not to do, but it is a warning and it is a guidance to show and direct me in a in a direction that is more beneficial for me and also for God in this case, where he is able to reconcile his creation back to himself. So this is the mission and the assignment that we see that Paul is uh fulfilling. Now, as I said before, therefore, meaning that there's something came before that, and it needs to be viewed so that you can see the response of the scripture that you're That you're presently reading to see, oh, okay, I see how he responded to that. So you need to know what that is. And he and Paul goes on and said, My beloved brethren. So Paul is addressing them and understanding that he was a founder of the church. He passed at the church. And he has love for them. So this is not something to hurt and damage. Even sometimes when we get corrective criticism, it is painful, especially when you don't want to stop doing what you're doing. And you want to continue to move on the path that you were traveling on. But we see here that Paul makes it clear that he has love for them. And then he's going to give them some direction. He said, Be ye steadfast, unmovable. That's one, always abounding in the work of the Lord. That's two. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, which is information. So that that also is guidance. Now let's look at that. Again, therefore, is a strong uh conjunction that uh brings you to the understanding that there's something prior to this that I need to be aware of. And then Paul says, beloved, it is uh a divine covenantal love, which is agapyo. Paul uses the warm, uses, uses this warmly before the command, softening what could sound like a harsh command. The command is pastoral, not punitive. It is something, look, I I just I don't want you to get hurt. Just as you had a child and you tell them, look, and they're too young to cross the street. Do not go in the street. Do not play in the street. If your ball goes on the street or anything that goes in the street, let me know, and then I will get the ball or whatever went in the street so that you won't go in the street because you don't want them to get hurt. You know that they are not, as of yet, prepared to deal with how to handle cars, motorcycles, bikes, uh, or fast-moving people. So you don't want them to go in the street. So Paul says, and then he goes, he says, steadfast. Now, this here means to be firmly settled, grounded, immovable like a building on its foundation. Now, how do we become that? When we understand the completed work of Jesus the Christ, and but prior to that, understanding that I am a sinner and I need what God has given. I must have what God has given. And the description and uh that God has given of me in his word is true and I believe it. And I look, I when I examine my life, I can see that I'm not making the best choices, even though sensually I am feeling good. But when I understand that this feeling will have an end when I stop breathing, unless I get back in the right relationship with my eternal father, where now I am in the recipient of the resurrection. Now I know that I'm not going to uh perish. I know that I will spend my eternal uh rest of my life in the presence of the Lord. And I'm excited about that because now I'm learning who He is. And I want to be in His presence, and I'm excited now that you want me to do some work? No problem. Because I understand what you have done for me. I understand how you feel about me, you know, and God knows everything about us. And no, every every person may not know everything about us because there's things that we may hide, but there's no hiding from God. He understands everything. So now we, where Paul is saying to be steadfast, so he don't want us to be moved. All right. And uh he's talking about being doctrinally stable. That's why in the first 57 verses, uh, Paul is dealing with the doctrine so that we can become uh stable and not wavering, especially on the resurrection truth. You know, we want to be able to be solid with that. So by faith, we believe that. And now we will we will defend it. One in ourselves and as well as anybody else that may try to come against it and say, no, I'm not gonna trust that. I'm not gonna believe it. I'm going to continue to follow the word of God. And then Paul goes on to use unmovable. And we see here it is building on steadfast. It intensifies the call to resist being dislodged or displaced from resurrection truth and having your Christian conviction being challenged to the point where you yield to the temptation of now saying, you know what, I'm going to choose something different. So Paul shows that it's very important to be solid and to be crystal clear on what you are uh dedicated to and committed to, and then he double downs on it with the unmovable and don't let nothing shake your faith, no matter what you go through. And that too also speaks to as we go through things in life and God is using situations and circumstances to strengthen our faith in him and to understand, bring us to an understanding that God is sovereign, that there's nothing stronger and greater and better than God. And that he can do anything he wants to do. So it really doesn't matter what you might be going through in your life. And this is for everybody. Everybody goes, we go through different things. You know, we all receive things differently, we all respond to things differently, depending on who you are. Everybody's not in the same place. But the word of God and the power of God, the Holy Spirit of our eternal Father, is able to handle all of our situations. There's nothing that anybody can go through if we trust God, if we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, that we will find that everything that we need personally and collectively is supplied through the completed work of Jesus the Christ. And then Paul moves on to say, always abounding. When you always, always, again, no matter what the condition is, no matter what the situation you may be enduring, no matter how you may be feeling, you you must, when you are steadfast and unmovable, you don't even want to allow the pain and suffering of something to be able to move you. So that means that you must be, you must feed your spirit being daily. Because with the word of God, it says all things work together for the good of those that love God and that are called according to his purpose. So you're technically, it is not your design or your mission, it is not your ministry, it is the work of God through you. And because it is the work of God through you, it is the responsibility of God to make sure that everything that you need as you exercise what he is commanding you and guiding you to do, it will go through. So the the responsibility of caring for, making sure that the mission is completed, it belongs to God. We just need to be obedient as he leads and guides us. So always abounding. Don't ever think that, oh man, I gotta make this happen. I can't make it happen. I don't have the power to make it happen. Again, we have to remember we're made of dust. Sometimes we forget that. You know, we don't remember how we get here. Well, you know, what allowed me to be who I am? Where did it all come from? And so we have to go back to the beginning and embrace it and understand it. So that's why we have to walk by faith and not by sight. So Paul here says, always abounding. And and and that is present tense. That means that it indicates continuous, ongoing action, always, not occasionally. Remember, we said we looked at the word uh work in the Greco-Roman. It's exhausting. It is giving all that you have, it is not holding anything in reserve, it is pushing to where you to the point where you're about to fall out. That's that's that's the type of work, you know. And and and and you're giving it all you got. So this is what we see, and and always we want to be doing this. But God gives us the strength to be able to do it. See, I could do all things through Christ which strengthen me. And sometimes it's a misunderstanding that it is anything that I want to do. No, no, it's a God thing. God gives us the strength because if you're in Christ, you you you're you're doing a God thing. You're positioned in the place of where God wants us to be so that He can He can empower us with His Holy Spirit so that we can grow in the knowledge of him and we can do whatever it is that he is calling us to do. And Paul goes on, uh work of the Lord. And we see here again, this is an assignment. This is your part of what God has ordained, that he has sustained you through all that you've gone through, so that you can be at the moment in the spot that you're in to execute something that God wants done. And he will give you the ability to do it. And this and this is how he works. So as we understand and we carry on and we and and we we see that this is something that won't go away. This is something that will last forever. We see that Paul is reminding those in Corinth, as he said, that the labor in the Lord uh is not in vain. That means that uh it is it is not a waste of time. Vain uh meaning is devoid of any advantage or benefit, and that's not true. So Paul is he's expressing that. So that he he is he is reestablishing what he planted when he passed it, he, I should say, started the church and pastored the church, and somewhere along the way, their minds got trapped or or or got off, I should say, started paying attention to the temptation and started leaning towards something that was not true. So, so Paul is now encouraging them, reinstating uh uh uh what he originally had planted in that church. All of the all of the labor that he had given to get them to understand this is why you are able to sing in the times of trouble. This is why you're able to have joy in your heart when the things on the outside of you don't look like you should have joy. This is where your hope lies when things look hopeless on the outside. So the things on the outside, they are nice. They they they you know, there's nothing wrong with money. Just don't fall in love with it and allow it to control you, but you can do different things with money, you know, as well as a nice house, a car, uh going on a vacation. It's nothing wrong with that. But that should not be your benchmark of saying, well, I'm blessed and highly favored. Because they are atheists who have those things. Matter of fact, they may even have more. So therefore, I don't need the Lord to get money. I don't need them to get a house. I don't need them to get a car, you know. I don't need them to be popular. You know, I don't need them to go on a vacation. There's many ways to do those things without God. But when I have the Lord, he gives me the understanding that I need so those things don't overtake me and doesn't have me uh surrendering what I was given from the Lord, which is my hope for eternal life with him. My understanding of who I really am. I'm a sinner and I am in the need of the grace of God and the love of God, as well as who is my adversary? How does he function? What is it that he wants? You know, and and and this here will give me the ability so that I can navigate through this dark world and not be fearful, because God has not given me a spirit of fear, but a power and love and a sound mind. So now as I come to my conclusion, and we look here at uh 1 Corinthians 15, 58, we see that Paul has given in the first 57 verses some doctrinal understanding, addressing some issues that had become powerful enough to change the minds of some, to allow some to surrender their heart to a false understanding. But Paul here in verse 58, he is addressing that after he has corrected the uh the false understandings, and now he is giving direction, and he is lovingly giving these directions, he's not trying to hurt anybody, but he doesn't want them to continue down the path that they're going on so that they will receive eternal hurt. Because if you die in that condition, you now have a problem because you can't fix it, there's no repentance in the grave. So we see here that Paul is teaching us to pay attention. So if someone comes and tells you something or gives you something, search the scripture. Go find it in the word of God. What is the word of God saying about what they're talking about? And now you have the truth because God don't have to try to trick us to get something from us because he owns everything. Everything is his. That's why. Why would he need to trick me? Why would he keep me confused? Why would God keep something away from me that would not enhance my life in time and allow me to enjoy the gift of life that he has given us? For what? There's no benefit of that to him. So we have to stay focused and understand that trusting God and believing in Jesus Christ and his completed work is a faith walk. It is a faith walk. And Paul, he did give facts, but we didn't see it with our eyes. So by faith, we believe it and we trust in it. That's why it's very important to experience God for yourself and let him show you who he is. As you study the scriptures and you live your life according to the standard that God has set in his word, and let that be your guide. You're now going to be able to have your own witness. As we saw that Paul had in the first groups of verses, that he was talking about the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, and he mentioned witnesses, those who experienced it, so that they can give their testimony. And we all have our own testimonies. So we have to walk by faith and not by sight. And we just don't want to live to just be blessed, be happy. We want to live to be a blessing. That means that I want God to use me according to how he chooses to use me so that he can get the glory out of my life and that he can accomplish his will and his mission, which is collecting his creation back to himself, reconciling us back to himself. And whatever part he wants to use me for, I'm okay with it. However, he wants to do it, I'm fine with it. However long he wants to do it, it's all right with me. I don't have any resistance to surrender to God. I am satisfied once I understood what the truth was and I can see and and experience the love of God. I can I can't do anything else but surrender to Him 100% and dedicate my life to the cause of doing the will of God so that I can abound in the work of the Lord. I can be exhausted in the work of the Lord. I can give all that I have so that the work of the Lord will go forth according to the part that God has given me. I pray that this message today has been crystal clear and that we have given you some clarity on scripture and we've given you uh something to think about so that you can, if you have not given your life back to the Lord, that you would now do so. And if you have given your life back to the Lord and you are experiencing some turbulence in your life, that you will continue to walk by faith and not by sight, and that you will not surrender to the temptation. You will not allow the the temptation to frighten you so that you think that you need to choose what it is suggesting, but you will continue to be steadfast and unmovable as Paul is commanding in uh 1 Corinthians 15, 58. And God willing, we're gonna be here again next week with another word from the Lord, and I pray that you will have an amazing experience, one that you've never had with the Lord, and it will overwhelm you to where you see that I am fully persuaded, I am convinced there is no other way that I can live. Matter of fact, I'm not even living now, I'm dead. I need to be resurrected, and I need the Spirit of God so that I can learn the word of God and please my eternal Father. Now I am living and I'm experiencing the abundant life. Now, my benediction. Now unto him that is obey is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion, and power both now and ever. Amen. God bless you and your family. Go in peace.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

To heaven, to heaven, to heaven.

SPEAKER_00 44:14

See the light.