The sermon this morning comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We'll start with verse 4 and read through verse 9. Please join me in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 starting with verse 4. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you. so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Pray with me. Father, help us now as we look and as we examine Your Word and as we examine our lives to see if this evidence is here in our lives that we would know when we ought to rejoice and when we ought to repent. So God, bless us now and give us good and deep understanding as we come to seek You and to know You and to enrich our fellowship with You. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Bloody knuckles. Bloody knuckles. I wonder if any of you have had bloody knuckles. For some of you it would mean one thing. For some of you it would mean something very different. I'm speaking in terms of when you're working with your hands and you're trying to accomplish something and you do not have the tools for the job. And you push and you strain and you strain and finally something slips and it pushes and you hit your knuckles where you weren't supposed to be. It opens up and you look and you see that ugly color there. Those things that are supposed to be on the inside and not on the outside. Bloody knuckles. In my life, I have worked many times and I have worked with the inappropriate tools many times. I have worked hard with inappropriate tools and I have banged my knuckles and I have opened them up. On this last house that we purchased in downtown Beaver Falls, it came with a big old workbench covered with tools that I don't know what most of them are. And I have worked and I have worked and I have worked and I have labored and labored and labored in that house and I have banged my knuckles and I have opened them up countless times and I thought many times there should be a thing. There should be a thing that I could use to do this. There should be a thing that I wouldn't bang my knuckles and open them up and sometimes I've gone and I've asked and people say, oh yeah, there's a thing. There's a thing that you should be using for that. Well, one time after I worked and worked and worked and I hurt myself, I thought about the thing and I thought there should be a thing and I imagined that it would look like this. And then one day I went down and I'm at the workbench and I'm looking around and I'm digging and I'm digging and I saw the thing. I saw the thing that I needed. I didn't know what it was called, but I sure recognized what it would do and I recognized what it would save me from. We look at the scripture here and we are informed that you have been enriched in Christ. Verse 5, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge. Now, that's saying that our speech would be rich and beautiful. That our knowledge would be rich and beautiful. How many times have you gone through your life and you've committed a sin? And you've committed again, and again, and again, and again, and it's as if you had bloody knuckles and you thought, oh, there ought to be a thing. There ought to be some thing to help me. There ought to be some thing to fix me. I've heard people say many times, why doesn't He just make me better? Why doesn't He just fix me and make me righteous so I wouldn't keep hurting myself? And so that I wouldn't keep hurting other people? But we look here and we see in Scripture, Paul is saying, and he's saying to us, and he's saying specifically to you, that you have already been enriched in all speech, And in all knowledge, and he goes on to describe this as a confirmation, a confirmation of what has been done. Look at verse 6, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift. awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Verse 8 confirms it as well, "...who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." Many of you have probably tried to change the tire along the road, Sometimes it's really, really hard. Sometimes I've been with people and I've stopped to help people. They didn't even have the tools to do it. And they're trying to do it and they're not able to pull it off. Those people end up giving up. It's a miserable spot. You are not people broken along down the side of the road without your tools to change your tire. In fact, this is telling us that as Christians, we've been pulled into a fully equipped garage. And everything that we need is laid out all around us. The air compressor is there. The impact driver is there. The jack is there. Everything that you need. You have been made rich in Christ Jesus for all of these things to be accomplished. So the message for you this morning is for you to apply your great wealth. Supply your great wealth in all of your speech and in all of your knowledge. Our first step is this idea of thankfulness. Number one, thank the Father that you have been enriched in Christ. 1 Corinthians 1.5, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge. Now we say this, enriched in all speech, how can we say that we're enriched in all speech? We can look and we see that we haven't been the things that you children say to your brothers and sisters, you adults that you say to your brothers and sisters, you married people, the things that you say to your husband and wife, the things that you say to your parents, all of these things, we look and we see. It doesn't look like I've been enriched. in all speech. This doesn't look like the reality of my life. So how can we say this? Well, as we look at scripture, and as we examine scripture, Luke 6.45 informs us that we speak from the overflow of our hearts. You speak from the overflow of your heart. So this is a shocking problem for us. Those things that we say to our brothers or sisters, we think, ooh. I shouldn't have said that. That is the reality. But the problem is, that reality has flown from your heart and out of your mouth. The things that we say bear witness about our hearts. So the problem is, what? Our mouth? Our tongue? No. But our hearts. But Christ is about the business of fixing our heart and changing our heart and making us who precisely we are to be. This work happens as He changes us. Romans 12, 2. Do not be conformed to this world, but, and here's the work being done, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. that you will be able to discern what is good and pleasing and the perfect will of God. Colossians 3.10, And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. You are being made new in the image of Christ. How are we saying this has taken place? Well, we say it has as it is taking place. This is to be the reality. Your transformation is to be the reality. In Romans 6, 4, we therefore were buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life. This word enriched, it's probably no shock to you, but it means to be made rich. You have been made rich. How often have you sat around and thought, wow, if I just had 50 bucks, I could accomplish this here, and it would be amazing. Some of us, it's 100 bucks. Some of it's 1,000 bucks. Some of us, you know, if I had $10,000, it would be amazing. I told you about the man that I heard say his life was ruined as he sat in jail when he won the lottery. And when he won $250,000, he said that was it. That ruined his life. He was convinced that if he had won $300,000, he would have died. And I believe him. You've been made rich. You've been made rich, not in a way that will destroy you. Well, there's a part of you that ought to destroy, isn't there? There's the old self that ought to be undone as you have been made rich. But God has made you rich in having given you the Holy Spirit. that your broken down car has been pulled into the garage, and everything that you need for correction and help and growth is given there. So this idea of giving thanks to the Father, and this is really a transforming work in our lives when we are giving thanks for our circumstances. We give thanks, you know, you have that brother or sister that always hurts you, and we say, thanks. Thanks. You can say, I needed that because you did. Whether or not you realize it, you do. Your spouse hurt you. Thanks. I needed that. Your children hurt you. Your parents hurt you. Thanks. I needed that. Well, here we're looking and what He has given us is not an unpleasant thing that we've now been given, but it's precisely what we need for the death of the old self. We give thanks to the Father who has enriched us in Christ. So now there are certain restraints placed on us, things we cannot do as we practice the law of love, and this brings us to our second step. Practice your enrichment in what you don't say. Verse 5, that in everything you were enriched in Him in all speech. Things that you don't say, you know, do's and don'ts. We're not a religion necessarily of do's and don'ts. We don't look at our salvation being accomplished by the things that we don't do. We don't look at our salvation being accomplished by the things even that we do do. But in our lives there are things that are called off limits. There are things that should never proceed from our mouths. In Psalm 1914, we make this prayer. that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. And note the connection there. The words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart. I don't know if there's ever been a time where you meditated on something, you just kept rolling it over in your mind and rolling it over in your heart again and again and again and again and then sadly it erupted and it came out. and you hurt yourself and you hurt others. The other side is also true as we meditate on what's good. If there's a scripture that I'm meditating on and it's rolling over and it's rolling over and it's rolling over and it's rolling over, it's not long before circumstances arise where that comes out of my mouth. Psalm, I'm sorry, Ephesians 4, 29 gives us specific instruction. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth. No unwholesome word. You know, I hear wholesome, and I should have a better picture of wholesome than I do. I hear wholesome, and I picture myself opening up the pantry at home and pulling something out and looking at a label. And I'm looking to find the most disappointing thing that I can find. I'm looking for something with the lowest sugar. And I want something wholesome. And it's not a happy, it's not a happy hunt. It's a sad hunt. I'm looking for something that is supposed to be good for me. And it's not going to bring me much joy in the moment. What does wholesome mean? Does it mean something sad and disappointing? For us, as we, our minds are being renewed in Christ Jesus, it is to be something beautiful and good and lovely and holy. I may have told this story before. I was with a group of you and someone said something and in my mind thought of a way instantly, how can I just take that little thing that they said and how can I twist it into a joke? How can I twist it into something just mildly shocking, just shocking enough to make people go, but not enough that anybody could actually bring me up on charges for anything. And somehow my mind has gotten to the point where it could do that, like that. It must be some kind of algorithm in my head that I could pull that off. And when I realized that my brain had done that instantly, I thought, what if my brain could do the other thing? What if I could actually go the other direction? Rather than twisting something to make it shocking, what if my brain could twist something to bring grace to the moment? To apply to the people's lives in that moment, to help and to nurture and to heal. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth. Ephesians 5, three through five, but immorality, and this is speaking of the sexual immorality. So this is supposed to have a special bad place in our minds, but immorality or any impurity or greed. So we have these things that we should all know, oh, bad, ugly, hateful, immorality, greed and impurity must not be even be named among you as is proper among saints. And now tying this idea to that, And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting, which are not fitting. So all of a sudden our silly talk and our coarse jesting is put in the same realm, it's set in the same category, in the same basket with sexual immorality there. But rather, giving of thanks. There's the change. This is one of the things that make us odd in this culture. It's one of the things that make us a peculiar people. We're not the people that go out and all we're talking about is how somebody has wronged us. You remember that I've been a member of different organizations in the community here, and I would sit with the people in these communities, and in these communities, literally, once all the cliches were gone, how you doing, fine, and once we talked about the weather, all they could do was talk about how somebody had wronged them. That was the nature of their conversation. This person did this to me. Oh yeah, well that person did that to me. Oh, that's terrible. And they would just sit and be so angry about the things that people had done to them. That was the meditation of their heart. But we see, for us, it is to be the giving of thanks. Our next step, number three. Live the enrichment. in what you do say. Live the enrichment in what you do say. Ephesians 4.15 But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the Head, even Christ. We return to Ephesians 4.29 the negative, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, good for building people up, strengthening people, encouraging people, helping people, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God and Christ also has forgiven you." Again, not all the coarse jesting and mocking one another, but giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty. And this is from Ephesians 5, 5. that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ. So we look and we see that the things that we are saying, they don't save us, neither do they send us to hell. But they bear witness to our hearts. Is there bitterness? Is there wrath? Is there greed? Is there jealousy? Is this where we are coming from? Or do we have the other side in us, which is the work that Christ has done? Now what do we say? I was working with a youth group at one point, and we were dealing with the idea of gossip. And in this community, they were thrown off by the idea that they shouldn't be sitting around talking about other people. And one of the teenage girls said, well, we wouldn't have anything to say at all then. What would we talk about if we can't talk about each other? What would we talk about if we can't tell stories about so-and-so and what they're doing? We see a part of our enrichment here in 1 Corinthians 1.5 that in everything you were enriched in Him in all speech and tied to that and all knowledge. I don't know how many of you feel like you have all knowledge. I generally don't feel that way. I'm usually pleasantly surprised when someone asks me a question and I have an answer immediately. I don't feel like I have all knowledge. Is this the case? Well, listen here to Hebrews 1, 1 and 2. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets, in many portions and in many ways in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. Do you have all knowledge?" The answer is most certainly yes. You have been given all knowledge. As we think about the illustration of your broken down car being put in a garage and all the tools being laid out, some of us, that wouldn't make a difference, would it? Some of us, we wouldn't know how to handle that jack. Some of us, we wouldn't know to turn on the air compressor and what valves to turn. We wouldn't know how to hook up the impact driver, the impact wrench. We wouldn't know any of those things. We would still be a mess. The reality is, in this life, you have been given the instructions and you have been given the helper, the Holy Spirit, that you would understand these instructions. There have been times where I thought, you know, I would think that I would like Jesus to stand with me and talk to me. There have been times where I would walk down the road and I would imagine that He were there. And I would try to talk to Him as if He were my friend walking with me along the road. And I imagine the great benefit that the apostles had to be with Jesus, to live with Jesus for three years. They sat with him, they ate with him, they sat around the campfire together, they talked into the hours of night, they listened to him pray right there with him. It would be amazing and it would be marvelous. But the thing that I always find shocking, when Jesus says, I'm going and you can't come. And they're upset about this. He says, ah, it's better for you that I go. It's better for you that I go, because if I don't go, I can't send the Holy Spirit to be with you. It is better for you that you have the Holy Spirit with you now, than if Jesus Christ were sitting next to you in the pew. Than if you're walking down the road and He was walking down the road with you. It is better for you that you have the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Word of God for you. This is how He speaks to you. This is how you have all knowledge. We don't have to lay awake at night waiting for signs and visions. We don't have to rise up early in the morning watching for signs and visions. We don't have to see things around us and look and think, what is God trying to tell me? Heads up, God isn't trying to tell you anything. When God speaks, He has spoken. His effort is effectual. He has spoken to you in His Word. You have all knowledge from Him in His Word, and you have His Spirit to illuminate this, so that you will have all understanding. 2 Peter chapter 1, starting with verse 16. For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And we ourselves heard this utterance. made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic word made more sure. More sure! More sure than the Apostle standing with Jesus, God the Father, speaking out loud to Christ. He's saying, we have a prophetic utterance now. We have the scripture. More sure than if you heard a voice come from heaven. More sure than anything else you could receive. You have been given. You have been enriched in all knowledge. Drink it in. Drink it in. One of my pet peeves is my children being indecisive. When I ask a yes or no question, I really, really want a yes or no answer. And they have this list. They know that it bugs me now. So sometimes when they think I'm in a good mood, they'll go ahead and they'll jab me a little bit these days. And some of the indecisive answers I don't like is maybe, almost, or a little bit. These are things that bug me. And one of the times I asked, did you brush your teeth? And one of my children responded, almost. It doesn't count. It doesn't count. Are you drinking in all knowledge? Are you applying it? Maybe. Almost. A little bit. You have been given the prophetic utterance, made more sure. enriched in all knowledge given to you. Take it and drink it in." Again, 2 Peter 119. So we have the prophetic word made more sure. To which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your heart. But know this first of all, no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. This idea of a lamp shining in a dark place. that has good meaning, significant meaning. One of the things that has bothered me as the days have gotten shorter is I don't have as much daylight to get my run in. I could get up nice and early in the morning, early on. I could get up at 5 and I could go out and I could get my run in. Well, one morning I got up at 5 and I went to Brady's Run Park and it was dark. So what am I going to do? It's a mess. So I try anyway, and I'm running along, and I'm running on this trail in the dark. And I see a dark spot in front of me, and I think it's a puddle. So I pulled my leg back, and I went to jump over it. And as I went to jump over it, something caught me in a corner. I looked, and I thought, that looks like the road over there. And I thought I was on the road. So I hit my brakes, and I stopped as quick as I could. And I looked to see what this dark spot that I thought was a puddle was. Here was a boulder. this big, blocking a trail to a ditch. So I was about to swing my leg into this boulder as hard as I could, tumble over it into a ditch at five in the morning, miles away from any help at all. I told this story to my mom and my mom looked at me and said, you need a headlamp. And I said, of course I need a headlamp. Of course I do. That's exactly what I need. I need a headlamp. You're running along in a dark place. You need a lamp in a dark place. You need the Bible. And all of you look at each other and say, of course I need the Bible. That's exactly what I need. This is exactly the instruction that I need in life. You've been enriched in all speech. You've been enriched in all knowledge. And now we're at the place where we have to be the people to apply it. And how do we apply it? We apply it in our affections. We apply it in our affections, first of all. I have a friend who was a drug addict, and he was a drug addict literally for decades, and then God saved him. And he said what he really had to do was change his definition of fun. He had to change his definition of fun. He had a list of sins that each of us would label as horrendous that was under the category of fun. Now, don't you have a list? Don't you have a list of things that are contrary to the Word of God, contrary to true joy, to true hope, to true peace? Could even be these matters of speech, the coarse jesting, or the bitterness and the slander. Could be all the dark shadows of our hearts. These are the things that are fun for us and give us some peace. And I've known people that weren't happy unless they were unhappy. You see the pattern in their life. They were mad at this person who wronged them. Then they ran away from that. Then they were mad at this person that was wrong. Then they were mad at this person that was wrong. There can be a pattern of unhappiness and misery and sorrow because we think these dark things are our fun. We change and see ourselves as having been enriched. We speak the truth in love. to ourselves and to our neighbors. And this is our fifth step. Speak the truth in love. That is from Ephesians 4.15. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up. You ever feel the need to say that? Boy, when I watch toddlers, I want to say, grow up. They're toddlers, you know? You might talk to me and you want to say, grow up. I talk to you and I want to say, grow up. Here we're told, grow up. Grow up, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. Speaking the truth in love, it's a hard thing to do. Truth can be easy. Truth can be easy. It could even be fun to smack somebody down with the truth. And you know you're right. You're quoting a Bible. Woo-hoo, it was a blast. You know, I got to do my thing. You speak the truth without a legitimate concern that it be received by the person. If you're not actually burdened that they receive it and apply it, you're not speaking it in love. You're just hitting them for fun. Or if you just love someone and you're concerned about their comfort in the moment without applying truth to the moment. Love without truth doesn't count just as truth without love doesn't count. These formula has to go together. It has to be truth. And it has to be love. And that is us applying our great riches that God has given us in Christ Jesus. So apply it. Apply it. Write it on your hearts. Know it. Love it. And live it. Pray with me. Our God, we thank You that You have already enriched us in all things, in all speech, as You have made our hearts, You've equipped our hearts to grow and to change, in all knowledge, as You have given us everything that we need for faith and life in Your Word. God bless us as we consider Your testimonies and as we adjust our steps accordingly. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.