If you'll take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 this morning, 1 Corinthians chapter 3. If you've ever visited a third world country, it's obvious that there's been challenges to people's dietary needs. Malnutrition is sometimes evidence because of the height of the people who are living there, because of undeveloped bodies, And just as dangerous as malnutrition can be, so also can be the treatments for malnutrition. It can also be dangerous. I'm no physician, but it's evident. Sometimes you'll see people and you think, well, these are people who are starving. They're living without food. Why are their stomachs so large? Why? And they're bloated. And sometimes the treatment for somebody who has been severely malnourished is You know, it's challenging to treat them because if you give them too much of the wrong thing too fast, the body bloats and it responds, you know, drastically to this malnutrition. And so you begin with fats like milks and then proteins and slowly work their way up. And again, sometimes you're thinking, well, if they haven't eaten, they've got to be just starving. They need to just fill their bellies as fast as they can. And that can be very, very dangerous. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3 we find a church that had been malnourished. And there was a need that they were given milk before meat. The church at Corinth was a haughty church, a proud church. But they were also a hungry church. They had nutritional needs, spiritual nutritional needs. I heard this week about the findings of some archaeologists, I don't know if you heard this, about the people that were found in China, lived 3,500 years ago, 3,500, 3,600 years ago, and when they uncovered the bodies, they found that these people had died, and they had something with them. They had food, and it was actually still, in fact, it was cheese. They weren't cheese heads, but they had actually smeared the cheese along their neck. Me reading this, just to tell my mind works, I'm thinking, well, if they ate it, maybe they wouldn't have died. But food was valuable to those people. As Christians, we understand God's word is our food, our spiritual food. But ultimately, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our source of sustenance. And we need him. You know, when do sixth grade boys not eat? Either one of two things. Right, they're sick or they've eaten already. We were moving a few years ago, I remember moving our freezer in our garage and as we moved it, I found all kinds of candy wrappers that were thrown behind the freezer. You know, I don't know who it was, but that was probably one of those boys who wasn't hungry for supper that night. Sometimes we can fill ourselves with something that is not gonna allow us to take in the nutrition we need. We can fill ourselves with something that isn't good. Well, look with me, 1 Corinthians chapter three, Some things that we do know about the church at Corinth, right? They were a church that had many, many problems that needed to be addressed. But before Paul could address those specific problems, he needed to make sure that they were thinking right, and to think right, they needed to have something put in their spiritual stomachs, right? They had to be in the right frame of mind. They had the availability of spiritual food. Paul tells us in chapter two, verse two, and I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul and Apollos had been preaching the word to the church of Corinth. So the reason that they were spiritually hungry and malnourished was not because they did not have access to spiritual food. It was being given to them. It was consistently being provided for them. It wasn't because they didn't have the ability to eat the spiritual food. Chapter 2, verse 14, he says, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. These were true believers. In fact, in chapter 3, verse 1, Paul says, And I Brethren, right? He's talking to true believers. So it wasn't that they weren't being given truth, and it wasn't that they couldn't receive the truth. Something was happening. There's a reason. It wasn't that they couldn't take in the spiritual nourishment. It was that they were lacking a healthy spiritual appetite. The problems in Corinth wouldn't be immediately addressed by Paul. He would get to them in this letter. They wouldn't be immediately solved, but proper nutrition would put them in the right frame of mind to address these problems. They were hangry, right? They weren't getting what they needed, and so it was evident in their behavior. Perhaps they had sour stomachs. Maybe they had puny appetites because they had filled themselves up on spiritual junk food. They've been going to the world to fill their spiritual soul, and it wasn't working. Maybe they had puny appetites. Maybe they had proud appetites. We find that they did have a problem with pride. And maybe as they listened to God's Word, they weren't thinking, I want to hear of God. I want to hear from God's Word. I want to learn more about the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe they were only thinking about themselves. Well, how does this apply to my life? Why doesn't, you know, this doesn't speak to me. Maybe they were only looking for themselves in the sermons. And maybe they just had a picky appetite. I would prefer not that style of preaching. I would prefer not to have teaching done that way. It's not what I'm accustomed to. It's not what I'm used to. The question I want you to think about this morning and ask yourself as we look at this Church of Corinth is, are you hungry for Christ? As you come before God's Word, as you come before Bible teaching and Bible preaching, do you come with an appetite for Jesus Christ? If not, you might leave malnourished. Ultimately, they had misunderstood Christ and His cross. Believing it was for salvation only, but not for their spiritual growth. The church at Corinth, when Paul was saying, I'm going to break this down to you, I'm going to give you milk, and I'm going to bring to you something very, very simple, and though he brought it in a humble way, they didn't want it. They were refusing it. And what they needed was growth. They needed God's word, and ultimately they needed to go back to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Paul was a good teacher. He likens himself at times to a mother like nursing her child. He talks about himself as being a father to people. Paul knew the word, but he wasn't so lost in his own logic that he couldn't speak to the common man. He knew how to put the cookies on the lower shelf. But the reason Paul seems frustrated as he writes this letter wasn't that he couldn't give them the milk and cookies. It was that there was so much more potential amongst these people. There was so much more growing that they could be doing. So he was concerned about that. They were squabbling as a church because they were selfish. They were selfish because they needed to gather up the grace of the cross for godly living. Sin had stopped. their growth. Have you, Christians, stopped growing? Look with me beginning at verse 1 of chapter 3. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions. Are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos. Are ye not carnal? Verse five. Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers, servants, by whom ye believe. even as the Lord gave unto every man. Let's just bow for a moment in prayer. Guide us, oh Lord, by your Holy Spirit. Speak to us from your word. Help our hearts to receive the spiritual nourishment, the nutrients that we need to grow in you, in Jesus' name, amen. I remember singing this song as a child. It was always a favorite. Maybe this morning, some of you didn't sleep so well, maybe we should do Father Abraham. Another good action song that I remember from children's church was, you know, read your Bible, pray every day, and you'll grow, grow, grow. You know, that was so much fun. And it was even more fun not only to grow, because by the end, sometimes you're standing on your chair and jumping up, growing. But if you shut your Bible and forget to pray, I mean, it's not the positive verse But that's the one I like the best because at the end you're at the very bottom of the ground and you're splat You know, you're just there's nothing left of you You stopped growing because you weren't reading your Bible and praying what we're gonna find in first Corinthians chapter 3. There's more to Scripture reading and prayer to spiritual growth. Now. Those are important. Don't get me wrong. The Word of God is vital and Talking to God in prayer is vital but there's some Some things that the church at Corinth needed to grow and catch up with what they had lost. They had been stunted in their spiritual growth and so they needed to grow. I'm just going to give you a simple acrostic this morning. G-R-O-W. G, first of all they needed to go to the cross. They needed to go to the cross of Jesus Christ. That's what was lacking. Paul when he preached to them says, I've determined, chapter 2 verse 2, not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He pointed them to the cross because that's where they were going to find the grace needed to grow. These were true believers. They had genuinely received the gospel, the good news. They knew that they had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Their sins had been forgiven. They were in a family bond with Christ. Their names were written in heaven. And here we find them talking to them as Christians who had been saved for some length of time. And he's concerned for them. because they needed to go back to the cross. They needed to go to the cross. The cross is a necessity for the Christian, not an accessory. more than the necklace or the bumper sticker. You need what comes by the cross. The grace of Christ, which flowed through his blood, is offered to you and I not only for salvation, but for personal, daily, spiritual growth. You say, I've heard all of this before. I don't need to hear the gospel again. My friend, listen to it again and again and again, and draw from it the needed grace and strength that you need. for your daily growth. Christ is essential for life and growth. In Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, the Apostle Paul, a mature Christian, said this. Galatians 2 and verse 20. He says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. What was Paul saying? He said, I'm done with Paul, I'm living for Christ. And the way that I go forward is by living Christ, letting Jesus Christ by his spirit be lived out in my life daily. I'm dead to me. It's not my agenda. It's not my motivations. It's Christ and Christ alone. We also see in Galatians chapter three, verse three, He says, are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? And he was challenging the church at Galatia. Do you think that you can spiritually grow on your own? No, you're gonna have to draw from what comes by the Spirit, the grace of God. And so it's important, if you're going to grow in your Christian life, go back to the cross, go to the cross, it's essential. You cannot grow without Jesus. Number two, or letter R, is repent of pride. We find there in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 that there was a problem in the church. It's not the first time we see it. It says over in chapter 1 verse 11, it hath been declared unto me of you brethren by them which are of the house of Chloe that there are contentions among you. He challenges them in chapter 1 verse 13, is Christ divided? And then we go to chapter three, verse four, or excuse me, chapter three, verse three. For ye are yet carnal, and that word carnal means fleshly, operating in the flesh, not the spirit, okay? For ye are yet carnal, whereas there is among you envying, jealousy in the church, strife, strife and contentions in the church, divisions, they were dividing amongst themselves against themselves, He says, are you not carnal and walk as men? You're living like unbelievers are. So what needed to take place for the church at Corinth to grow? They needed to go to the cross. They needed to go to Jesus Christ. That is the source of growth. But also they had to acknowledge there were some shortcomings that they had. They had pitted themselves against each other because of pride. They were filled with pride. And this pride caused problems. Only by pride, the Bible says, cometh contention. So there was a spirit. They were looking down on each other. I mean, who is it today that you look down on? Who doesn't meet your standard? Who's not worthy of your time or interest? Who is it? That was the spirit of the Church of Corinth. They had a list. There were those who didn't measure up. There were those who weren't worthy of their time, who weren't worthy of their affection. And contentions were building in the church, and you could smell the smoke a mile away. The church had a problem. In order for them to grow, they were not only going to have to return to Christ, They're going to have to repent. They're going to have to change their ways, humble themselves about their attitude towards one another. They have pride. Carnality slows maturity. That's what we find in 1 Corinthians 3, 1-4. Carnality slows maturity. maturity so it was evident you walk into the church of Corinth maybe not physically but spiritually you're looking at people who who are pygmies they have not grown like they needed to they've not matured spiritually because of the pride because of the contentions carnality slowed their maturity but also we we find that this carnality they had was actually indeed is Sin. It was an offense to God. Sin of pride took Lucifer from the Garden of Eden, caused Adam and Eve to leave the Garden as well, caused each of us to be plunged into a life of sin. You are born a sinner. Truly, you are a sinner by nature. But also, my friends, you are a sinner by your daily choices, choosing yourself over God. And we acknowledge, we recognize Sin is a problem to God. Sin is a problem, it's a hindrance to spiritual growth. And their specific sin was pride. And it had hindered them. They weren't growing spiritually because of an unconfessed sin. And so it needed to be repented of. In verse 4 he says, one said, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos. Are ye not carnal? So what had happened? Well they had their particular favorites, their particular preaching style. Maybe their own Closeness because of some other affinity maybe well I I had relatives who came from where Apollos came from so I've got something in common I or I understand Paul's accent a whole lot better Or I like I like the stories that Apollos tells a whole lot better than that heavy doctrine that Paul I don't know what it is. There's all kinds of different styles of preaching You know what I'm for Bible preaching It may come in all kinds of different packages. You may have your favorite way. Maybe you enjoy the stories. Just give me a little Bible and give me a great story to help me understand it. Nothing wrong with that. Some of you are like, no, give me the exegesis. Don't give me exegesis. Give me exegesis. Help us, Lord Jesus. Let's expository alone. And sometimes we can become enraged at how one person takes this way. We are so blessed in our country to have so many opportunities to hear truth. What have we become? Connoisseurs. So much so that we're starving ourselves for want of some other preacher from some other place, okay? What was the problem of the Church of Corinth? They pitted themselves because of their preferences. Preferences, and you're gonna find in the book of Corinth, there's more preferences that they had were causing problems, but one of them is their preference for their specific preacher, right? This was causing a division. And Paul tells us, look what he says in verse five, who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom he believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. He's saying, doesn't matter who was preaching when you got saved. Earlier he had alluded to it doesn't matter who it was who baptized you. It was for Jesus, right? You come to hear Christ preached, hear his word preached. So this sin must be confessed. Number one, go to the cross. Number two, repent of pride. Number three, if you're going to grow, you need to open your heart to truth. All truth from whoever it comes from. Truth is God's truth. But hearing is going to require humbling. God's words come from God's servants. You notice the key word in verse 5. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? But ministers. In other words, the fact the word minister is kind of the idea of a waiter. Right? The pastor isn't the cook. Right? He's not the one who's preparing the meal. God has prepared the meal. The pastor is but the waiter. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? They're the ones who bring you God's word. And if they do that, if they do that, if they take it from the kitchen to your table and don't mess it up, they've done their job, right? If you can look in the Bible and say, ah, that's what God said, ah, that's what I heard today, or that's, you know, pastor had some crazy things he threw in there, but for the most part, what came from there, what came to my table was what I was supposed to get. And I take that from God, I trust God with that. Hearing is gonna require humbling on my part, I'm gonna accept. what God brings to me. God's word from God's servants. And the word minister there is not a lofty one. It's not like, oh, oh, God's man. You know, it's not that. He's humble servant. He's the one who gives God's word. The word minister maybe has taken on different connotations, but essentially it's this. It's a bond slave to Jesus Christ. It's a servant to Jesus Christ. And the job of this pastor and whatever pastor you'll ever have is his job is what? To serve Jesus Christ. And he'll do that best by letting Jesus Christ speak for himself. So it's gonna require humbling on our part, but also it's gonna understand something. When we hear from God's word, we're actually learning from God himself. And so what do we look for in the teaching? What do we look for in the preaching? We look for Jesus. We wanna hear from Jesus Christ. We're learning from God himself. Look what it says in verse six with me. Paul says, I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. It was God's work. Verse seven, so then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth. I don't think this was like false deprecation. I mean, he wasn't, he wasn't, he was just telling the truth. Who's Paul, who's Apollos? We're nothing, right? We're the messenger boys. He says, he that watereth. He says, but God giveth the increase, verse eight. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. God is the one at work. And so every one of us, you can say, well, I'm not growing spiritually because of my church or because of my pastor or because of this or because of that. No, no, you're not growing because of you. And ultimately, according to this passage, The reason you're not growing because of you is because of unconfessed sin. So we're required. If you want to grow, go to the cross, repent of your pride, open your hearts to God's truth. Receive God's truth as God's truth. It came from God. It's from God. So right now, as we open God's Word as a congregation, guess what's happening right now? Spirit of God is speaking to us through His Word. So, you say, I can't sin, listen, you pastor, well just read the Bible then, okay? Just listen to God. And time and again, sometimes when you open God's Word, God will begin to speak to you as He does me about things that the preacher's not preaching about. But I'm opening myself to hear the voice of God and sometimes it's a verse or a passage, maybe it's across the page from where we're looking as a church. But God uses that and He speaks to you. I know, sometimes you don't get a good night's sleep. Sometimes you come to church and you're just dying. You wish you had some toothpicks to prop those eyes open. Oh, come on, Pastor. Hurry this up. I'm tired. And I'm also hungry, by the way. And the football game starts at noon. Sometimes there's all kinds of things that go through our mind. But the reality is, what's critical is that you and I are ready to hear from God now. I'm gonna blow it, okay? This isn't the only place you can hear from God, okay? Say, pastor, you're not supposed to say that out loud. It's true. In fact, God will speak to you when you open his word, day by day. I hope that you do. I hope that you come to God's word hungry, and you hear from God, and you're going to hear other great preachers and teachers, and they're valuable, and you measure their preaching and teaching by the word of God just like you do mine. Make sure that it lines up with truth. But when you find someone who preaches the truth, hallelujah, let Jesus speak to you. Hear from Him. Now we all have certain things we like, certain topics we're interested in. I wish you would talk more about this. We all have those preferences. I mean, I remember sitting in Bible college and somebody would open the Bible and they would talk about missionaries. Maybe they'd mention James Hudson Taylor, the missionary. And boy, I sat up straight, like, oh man, this is awesome. I can't wait to, oh, this is gonna be a good one. I know it's good because he's gonna talk about, that was my, that was what I was just passionate about. I wanted to hear more about missions. There's certain things like that and the pastor says, we're gonna talk about tithing. And you're like, well, let's go. You know, let's get out. You know, here's the thing. Hopefully you came not to hear from me, hopefully you came to hear from God. As we look to His word, we come with a humble heart ready to receive His truth. And sometimes the sovereign God of the universe knows what you need better than you know what you need. There's things that you might not choose that are going to be good for you. We tried with our kids as we were raising them to expose them to different types of foods, just because I would never want them to not go somewhere because they couldn't eat the food. They wouldn't be a missionary to whatever, Togo, because they couldn't eat pocho or whatever. Whatever it might be, we tried this. And so we have experimented with a lot of different things. We've cooked a lot of different things. We've taken our kids to interesting restaurants. And we've tried some very unusual things. Some of it we really like. You know, as a Christian, there's nothing wrong with learning to get the goods from a variety of people. I remember Pastor Tony Guerin used to tell me he would, on his family vacation every year, he would plan to attend a church that was a good Bible-preaching church, but was entirely unlike his own church. He pastored down in Washington Courthouse. And he said he would take his children to African-American churches. He says, they're good, solid Bible-preaching churches. And he says, we were the only light skin in that building. And he said, but I wanted my children to understand God's word goes forth from a variety of different pulpits. And I didn't want them to be prejudiced against a certain type of preaching or a certain, if God's word is given, it's good. I think, you know, why do we have evangelists come to our church? Why do we have missionaries speak from time to time? It's important for you to understand God can speak from a variety of different people and different personalities. There may be somebody who comes and says, well, why in the world did the pastor invite that guy? And maybe you say it to me, like, why did you invite that guy? And then afterwards, somebody else comes and says, There's nobody in the world who could connect with me like that guy did. He helped me understand who Jesus was in a whole new way. And I needed that. And that happens on a regular basis here, by the way. It does happen. Sometimes my wife says, why did you preach that for? Somebody else says, hey, that was a blessing. So I'm not asking for compliments, by the way. But here's the point. It's not always what comes from the pulpit. It's what comes from your heart. Am I coming hungry to hear from God? That's what I'm getting at. Are you ready to hear from God? Are you willing to hear from God? I remember reading in Charles Finney's biography. He said, sometimes when I preach the gospel, I'll preach a Calvinistic gospel. And sometimes an Arminian gospel. Because the need of the audience was such. What in the world? Who is He? But sometimes there are needs that God sees that we have and He gives us a new understanding and an enlightenment from His Word that we haven't seen. The thing is to come hungry, go to the cross, repent of pride, open your hearts to truth. Number three, walk in the Spirit. I want you to look with me back in chapter 2 in verse 14. It's talking about an unbeliever here. It says, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are, notice this, spiritually discerned. It requires the Holy Spirit of God. So an unbeliever doesn't want to hear the truth. They don't have any use for that. But even if they could understand it, it's not gonna make sense to them. They don't have the Holy Spirit of God to guide them, to open their understanding, to illumine them to truth, all right? It's not that they don't understand the word, but they don't have the spiritual aptitude to handle what God is saying. But look with me at chapter three, verse one. I could not speak unto you as unto, what's that word? Spiritual. Now they were saved and they, he says brethren there, so they were saved and they had the Holy Spirit of God But they weren't in a condition. In fact, they were acting like an unbeliever who couldn't understand the truth. Because of unconfessed sin in their life, they were not walking in the Spirit. And therefore, they could not understand the truth. He says, I'm going to have to feed you with milk. I'm going to have to get your appetite before I can give you any meat. I wished I could be giving you meat right now. I wished I could be serving you, you know, filet mignon in a porterhouse and a ribeye. I wish I could be giving you the goods because you need it and this community needs you to be strong Christians but you're weak and you're feeble and you're just, I'm handing you a bottle and I'm hoping that you'll take it. Why? because they had a spiritual deficiency. Now, was it a shortage of the power of the Holy Spirit? No. In fact, over in chapter two, when Paul preached, he said, my preaching, he says, was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, demonstration of the Spirit and of power. So they were being given a message by a Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered preacher, but they weren't able to hear it because They lost their salvation? No. No, why? Because of their own unconfessed sin. So you have the Spirit of God if you're saved. He is in you. Look at verse 15 of chapter two, but he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. In other words, if you have the Spirit of God and you're listening to him, you're given by God the ability to have discernment, to make judgments. Verse 16, for who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. So we've been given by the Holy Spirit the ability to think God's thoughts after him by his word. We have the word of God. So you have the spirit, but the problem was they had stifled the spirit of God. In Philippians chapter one, the apostle Paul raises a question, and maybe a question you've thought before. What about people who are preachers, of the Bible, preachers of the gospel, but it sure seems like they've got an agenda, like they're doing it for something else other than giving the gospel. You're gonna come across them. You're gonna come across people who are in ministry for themselves rather than Jesus Christ. How do you respond to that? Does it make you jaded towards all preachers? Does it make you resistant to hearing God's truth? Well, listen to Paul's response. Philippians chapter one, verse 15, he said, Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, but some also of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then, notwithstanding every way, Whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. Paul's saying this, I'm in jail. You're struggling because I'm not out preaching. Here's other people, and you're thinking their motives might be mixed. You're not so sure why they're doing this. What does Paul say? I'm caused to rejoice. Even if their motives are wrong, God can take mixed motives of a messenger and use it for his glory. What does that tell me? I mean, don't spend your time embittered against somebody who preaches or teaches differently than you like, or maybe you suspect their motives. Focus your attention on the message of the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel. That's where we can all rejoice. Again, the Holy Spirit of God is given to us to discern. As the Bereans, they searched the scriptures daily to see if those things were so. So we're to be people of the word, we're in the word, led by the spirit of God through the word. In fact, that's how we came to Christ. It says that in Ephesians chapter one, verse 13, in whom he also trusted after he had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. It was the spirit of God who used the word to bring you to Christ. And Charles Spurgeon, when he was saved, as a young man, was listening to a man in a little preaching hall, and the man wasn't even, he was just reading a sermon, and he was preaching a Bible verse way out of context. And he preached, and look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. And he's preaching this message, and he's pointing at Spurgeon, and he says, and you, young man, look to Jesus. Well, he preached the passage out of context. Could God ever use it? My, did God ever use it? So God can do what he wants with his word. And sometimes you may not understand. Here's the thing, come hungry for Jesus Christ. Be easily blessed. Come before the word of God, whether it's a Sunday school class or a sermon or a special meeting, don't come with a thimble, come with a barrel. Oh Lord, fill it up. You say, Pastor, you don't understand. There was a time when I really grew in my Christian life. I have memories of an era. Maybe it was when you were younger than you are now. Maybe it was in a youth group, or maybe it was a group of Christians together. Maybe it was young couples in a church, and you had, boy, we just grew so much. We spent so much time together and in the Word, and oh, I have these memories of that era or season of my life. Remember that? Maybe you say, I have memories of an area. I remember a specific church. God used that church in an unusual way in my life. There'll never be anything else like that, pastor. That was a place. That's where God worked, and that's how he worked in my life. Or maybe you have memories of a friend, maybe a spouse, but somebody who once was near you or with you, or maybe they're not around at all anymore, but God used them in your life. They really helped you to grow. They were close to you, and you were close to the Lord together. Maybe it was a friendship of accountability, a guy with a guy, or a gal with a gal, but maybe it was a spouse that you had, and they helped you grow spiritually. And you don't have that anymore, and some of you have said, you know what, I'm just done growing. That was great, that was them, that was that place, and that was that church, and that was those people. Praise God, that was great. I'm fine. I'm just gonna endure this and continue on and wait till Jesus takes me home. Oh, boo. The Holy Spirit of God is alive and the Word of God is alive and God speaks to us through His Word. So hold on. Buckle your pew belt. God wants to speak to you. He's not gone anywhere. Jesus Christ hasn't changed one bit. He loves you, and He wants you to hear from Him, but He wants you to grow. He has a plan for you, and He wants you to hear from Him. So come hungry. Come willing to be easily blessed by the Word of God. Easter Sunday morning, we often have a young man open the Word of God. I can think back through the years of messages that 13 and 14 and 15 year old boys have preached from this pulpit and other churches. And boy, God used their messages in my life. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that God can take his word and speak to us. He can point us to his son, Jesus Christ. Has Jesus Christ stopped speaking? As you look at this passage as a conclusion here, I wanna ask you the question is, is it Jesus's voice you're hearing most today? Is it Jesus's voice that you hear most of these days? Or is it the voice of criticism, contention? Whichever one you would answer probably will tell me where you're at spiritually and how you're doing in your Christian growth. Are you looking for, listening to, eager to hear from Jesus Christ? Or have you become a connoisseur of truth? The problem in Corinth wasn't a problem with church attendance. They were going. It was a problem of indifference. It was not a problem with the preaching. They were getting the goods, but it was a problem of apathy. It wasn't the quality of the speaker, but the cooperation with the Holy Spirit that was lacking. Christians can hear the preaching of the Word of God week after week and not be helped and not be changed. The Corinthians had the capacity for truth, but they didn't have the stomach for it. The sin of pride had soured their stomachs. They had grown severely malnourished. So what do we do? Go to the cross. repent of our pride, open our heart to truth, and then we walk in the Spirit, and you will grow, grow, grow. God hasn't abandoned you. If you're not growing, you're not growing because you've chosen to stop. Maybe because you've been eating Carnal apples and they've soured your stomach God means for you to grow and he's given you everything you and I need to grow Let's grow father. Thank you for your word and I thank you for Paul's admonition It's abrupt and it seems harsh But we come understanding It wasn't just Paul's voice. It was the voice of your Holy Spirit speaking to Corinthians, but speaking to Northwestern Ohioans, you speak to us through your word. I pray that we would hear from you. And if this morning, if you've spoken to someone, some here, who have found themselves not growing, I pray that they would evaluate their own heart. Is there some sin that needs confessed so they can get back on track? They can stop living like an unbeliever who's not really hearing truth. But they can be a testimony and a witness. of your grace that comes by the cross, that flows through the lives of maturing and growing Christians. In Jesus' name, amen.