========================================================================
  PAUL'S WARNING TO THE HYPER SPIRITUAL
  by Dean Taylor
========================================================================

Summary: This sermon delves into the dangers of hyper-spirituality and
the importance of genuine discipleship and humility in radical
Christianity. Paul warns against pride and superficial spirituality,
urging the church to imitate him as a father in the faith. The sermon
emphasizes the need for true authority in the church and the
manifestation of God's power in transformed lives, rather than mere
words.

Duration: 56:06 Topics: "Hyper-Spirituality", "Genuine Discipleship"
Scripture References: 1 Corinthians 4:14, Hebrews 13:17, 1 Corinthians 4:20, 1 Corinthians 4:21

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This sermon delves into the dangers of hyper-spirituality and the
importance of genuine discipleship and humility in radical Christianity.
Paul warns against pride and superficial spirituality, urging the church
to imitate him as a father in the faith. The sermon emphasizes the need
for true authority in the church and the manifestation of God's power in
transformed lives, rather than mere words.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today, I'm going to continue along 1 Corinthians, and I'm going to get
to chapter 4 today. And remember, the name of this series is Through the
Eyes of Radical Christianity. That's the frame that I'm making for this
whole thing.

And I'm doing that on purpose that a lot of times we can just preach to
others and to different audiences in different ways, but I'm trying to
look at my life of my journey of being kind of in radical Christianity,
and these concerns come out of that. So let's start with a word of
prayer, and then we'll come to chapter 4. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank
you for the Word of God, and we ask for your power to be revealed and to
let loose from the power of your Word. You said that you would not let
your Word just be brought out and that it would accomplish the reason
why you sent it.

So God, I don't know who is here or if it's just me, but Lord, I pray
that the benefit of hearing this Word preached, at least that your Word,
parts of it, oh God, would fulfill its purpose. So I pray that I can be
in walking in harmony with the Holy Spirit. Be here, we pray, Lord.

It's in Jesus' name, amen. So today I kind of skipped a little bit of
the end of chapter 3 because he's just continually, Paul has been
continually going down this whole route of stop being so proud. Stop
thinking you're something that you're not and stop dividing amongst
yourself and all that.

And Paul has been hitting this for three chapters, and it kind of ends
here in chapter 4. And the way I read it is he's finally getting to a
little bit of the personal stuff that's going on there in Corinth and
what he's dealing with. You know, it's interesting. I have said this
before, but the older I get, the different ways that I read Paul, and I
read him a little more defending himself, a little more irritated.

And I don't even know if that's right, but at least I see the passion in
him. And I see it in this chapter in particular, one of the ones that
really seems to come out. Because what he's going to do today is really
jump on the radical, hyper-spiritual.

So I'd like to name this message in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul's
warning to the hyper-spiritual. And if there's anything that I've had to
deal with, even in my own experiences and experiences of radical
Christianity, it's dealing with the problem of hyper-spirituality. The
tendency that I've found is that we tend to read these scriptures with
always you in the victory seat, and the rebuke is somewhere else.

And so it's healthy, like when you read different parables. Who are you
in the parable? You know, like with the prodigal story. Are you the
older brother? Are you the prodigal? Are you Jesus? Which one are you?
And it's good to flip those around different ways.

And I think this passage is really healthy to do that with. And we just
tend to always see ourselves as the hero of the story. It reminds me,
when I was in high school, we had this, I forgot his name, but I was
trying to think of it this morning.

We had this student, one of the guys in school, and we did the class
play, which I think was Oklahoma. Every high school constantly does
Oklahoma, you know. And I remember this guy, he did a real good job with
that, and he wanted to go on and be an actor.

And I remember he got this role as an extra there in Dallas in RoboCop.
And probably none of you have ever heard of RoboCop, but RoboCop was a
movie out in the 80s. You know, that was like this, I don't know,
RoboCop that would go around doing things.

I don't know, crazy. Anyway, he had this role that was literally maybe
two and a half to three seconds where RoboCop comes out of a door. And
he's there, and he goes like, and that's it.

And that's it, the whole thing. He's like an extra in the movie. And he
was running to us and telling us, man, you've got to see this movie.

It's about me. I got this role. It's awesome.

And the way he was talking about it was like, you would think that this
guy was RoboCop himself. He was just some guy in the extra, you know. So
Paul continually through these three chapters, and I think really gets
it into here.

We got to know ourselves and get the delusion out of you. If we're going
to ever be used of God, I've said it before. God cannot change the
person that we're pretending to be.

God cannot change the person we're pretending to be. You have to know
yourself. That phrase, know thyself, it was a big Greek phrase.

Matter of fact, if you look at Corinth, I showed you on the map before.
If you look at Corinth, right across the water from Corinth would have
been Delphi. And Delphi was a really important place for ancient Greece.

As a matter of fact, there was an old Greek myth that Christians
wouldn't have accepted, but the common people would have thought, that
Zeus let out two eagles. And these eagles were to go around the whole
earth and come to find the very navel of the world. And that navel was
Delphi.

And so it was right across the bay from, or the gulf there from Corinth.
And across one of the main things there was platted the words, know
thyself. And you hear this picking up, several of the early Christians
speak of this and this concept.

And it's good. And so here Paul is like through this passage in chapter
4, going between, who do you think you are? And know yourself. And who
do you think you are? It seems to be kind of like what comes out of
that.

And I think it's healthy for us to flip the roles and to put ourself
into the smarty pants, into the hyper-spiritual, and let that rebuke
sting. Again, I think of the groups that I've been with in my life since
my conversion, and they've all been radical renewal groups. And I praise
the Lord for that.

From 10 years with David Brissot, and there was the charity churches,
the radical Hutterites that are here today, thank you very much. And all
of those were renewal groups. They weren't just the status quo regular
Mennonites, regular Hutterites, regular, but they were always these
radical groups.

And here today, we're with this radical group. And I love that. It's me.

It's my people. I like it. But there's certain things that we can do
that can be harmful, but I think it's good for us.

And I've been in this for 30 years, so please allow me just to speak on
some of these things. So let's get to it. And there's an interesting
thing that comes out right at the beginning.

So chapter 4, verse 1, 1 Corinthians. So he goes on, you know, don't
think more of yourself than you should. And he goes through that for
three chapters almost, back and forth with it.

Verse 1, It was interesting when I went to look at to see the way some
of the early Christians just interpret these things. I frequently do
that. It's interesting.

Chrysostom and some of the others made a point that Paul is saying both
a servant and a steward of the mysteries. And I just kind of read past
that. And so I went back to it.

Actually, here I've got the NIV version. I don't usually quote the NIV,
but it's interesting the way that it words it. 1 Corinthians chapter 4,
verse 1. And so Chrysostom seems to make this point that there is this
servant thing that he's doing, but then that these apostles had these
rich mysteries of God and they wanted to be good stewards of this.

And so Paul's sort of defending that, that I've really got something for
you and you're missing it because of your hyper spirituality, which
we're going to be kind of getting to here. And you should really
treasure what I have because this isn't from me, this is from Jesus. And
there's a passage in 1 Timothy 3.9 that has to do with the deacons that
I wonder could be related.

1 Timothy 3.9, speaking of one of the qualifications for the deacons, it
says, holding the mysteries of the faith with a pure conscience. Again,
an NIV that must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with the
clear conscience. So the concept of holding the mysteries of the faith.

What does that mean? Does that mean in a sacramental sense? Does that
mean in deep, rich things of God's sins? But it's one of the
qualifications of a deacon that they're able to handle the deep
mysteries of God with a clear conscience. And Paul says that he and he's
defending himself against these hyper spiritualists and says, I'm a
steward, I'm being a steward of these deep mysteries that I have. And
he's bringing that.

And I think it's, I think it's significant. There's something in that
that he's for their own good saying, man, you're missing this by all
your talk and all your fluff. Verse three.

And this is where he gets, I don't know, a little raw in my thought. You
read Paul and he's a little, I don't know, it's just like this is where
I think he's finally getting it. And he's like speaking to a certain
group.

I could imagine that he has in mind or maybe, you know, in one of these
factions that he's been rebuking. And in verse three, he says, but with
me, it's a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human
court. In fact, I do not even judge myself for I know of nothing against
myself.

Yet I am not justified by this. But he who judges me is the Lord.
Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who will
both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the
counsels of the heart.

Then each one's praise will come from God. And again, a different
version, put it this way. And he's the way he talks about his conscience
being clear in this in verse two from this different version.

Now, it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove
faithful. This is again, he's talking about this deposit that he has. I
care very, very little if I am judged by you or any human court.

Indeed, I do not even judge myself. Then he says, my conscience is
clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.

And so, again, what I'm seeing is that Paul is about to start unpacking
and unloading the whole rest of the book of Corinthians. He's got some
gems, some deep wisdom, some rebuke, some serious rebuke to this church.
That's just thinking that they're hyper spiritual and free and can do
everything they want.

And he says, you're messing this up. And apparently that group has heard
about Paul's concerns and there's some something going on against him.
And he seems to be coming and letting them know this is this is not
good.

Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time. Wait until the Lord
comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose
the motives of the heart.

At that time, each will receive their praise from God. And I just love
this, this freedom of conscience that he's walking confidently in his in
his faith. There's a there's an early there's a quote that I love from
the early church.

It's by a dispute that was going on between Cyprian and they're out the
year 250 and a bishop in Rome called Stephen over the the whether or not
you should rebaptize heretics or not. And they're going back and forth
and they're fighting and everything. And then Cyprian ends the
discussion and says this.

You have your letters and I have mine on Judgment Day. Both shall be
read. I'm like, oh, you know, the the confidence of walking in the fear
of God in your ministry and being a good steward of what God has given
you is the kind of thing that I see in a statement like that from
Cyprian, but even more so from the apostle Paul.

He's pouring out to these people. He's got some hard things to say. He
wants to speak this to them.

And there's something there that's preventing it. And he's wanting that
to come out. And he wants to hear this next.

So, verse six. Now, he's talking about his character and why he maybe
feels a little disrespected by them. They don't understand his humility.

Verse six. Now, these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred
to myself and Apollos for your sake, that you may learn in us not to
think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on
behalf of one against the other. So the stuff before this in chapter
three and the end of chapter three and talking about him being a servant
and not grandiose and all that, he says, I want you to get that this is
the right kind of attitude.

And what I'm hearing from you people is not right. It's just not good.
And he says, verse seven, for who makes you differ from another? And
what do you have that you did not receive? Now, if you did indeed
receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? You know,
have you ever been to a different culture or could be like even a
different church, but particularly like a different political thing in a
country or something? And there's someone that, you know, that's there
that's supposed to be like really, really important, you know, and
you're like, I don't even know who that is.

I mean, you know, and sometimes, you know, some groups and, you know,
this is pastor so-and-so. And you're like, and you're like, he's got
thousands of followers and all this, like who? Or he wrote this book and
all this type of a thing. And it's funny how we do this in our world.

And I'll give you a warning to radicals. And it's this. There's two ways
to rule the world.

There's two ways to rule the world. One is to be like, let's say,
Alexander the Great or Napoleon or these types of a thing and be
conqueror and take over the world with might and power and subdue the
earth. That's one way.

And in that wake is tyranny and destruction and all those sorts of
things. The other is to create a world so small that you remove all the
competition. And what I have found in my life is that the wake of pain
and suffering is at least in that local area can be just as painful, can
be just as just as heinous.

And so in this concept, he's like, who do you think you are? Who made
you better than the other? I mean, who are you is the kind of attitude
that I see Paul rebuking the church of Corinth there. It's it's it's
I've seen like African kings sometimes. And, you know, in their world,
there's like thousands of people that are with them.

And and you're looking at them in all the pomp and the different things
of the tribal, the tribal practices and stuff. And you're like, wow,
that would be challenging for me to truly understand the magnitude of
who these are, because to me, it's totally out of my culture. There's
some ethnocentric problems there with me.

But, you know what I mean? It's just like we do this in our worlds is
actually think there's something that's so important to it all. And we
don't realize who made you this way. We don't.

I remember years ago when Jimmy Carter was president, probably a little
before most of your time. OK. And Jimmy Carter was president and his
brother got famous for making a certain product.

Anybody know what his brother got famous for? What is it? Yeah, beer.
Exactly. Billy Beer.

It was Jimmy Carter's brother. Billy was famous for making beer and he
really rode the ticket of Jimmy Carter and making his beer and Billy
Beer. Billy was on a an interview one time and the interviewer asked
him, so, Billy, do you think that you know that your beer is maybe
popular because your brother is the president? And he's like, are you
kidding me? My beer is great because it's the greatest beer in the
world, not because my brother is Jimmy Carter.

And it's just so funny how we get a big head so easy in our little
worlds and not even realizing sometimes when you do fall into some sort
of an advantage or something that that goes to our heads so easily.
Paul's rebuking that and getting to it. You know, in Revelation 317, you
think of the way the Laodiceans, the whole church was feeling overly
confident in this kind of a thing.

And Revelation 317 says, you know, he's rebuking them. You're you're
losing it out because he says, because you say I am rich, have become
wealthy and have need of nothing. But do not know that you are wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

And Jesus is really rebuking there in Revelation. This is this attitude
and you don't get it. And I think Paul is trying.

I've got some stuff I need you to hear and you're not getting it. I need
you to get it. All right.

So then he gets to verse eight. And I think now we get really to the
crux of the matter. He wants to speak specifically to this hyper
spiritual group.

And wow, does this one really, I think, is an excellent point for for us
in the radical worlds, wherever they are, to be that way. There's also
many of you also from who are also from International Church of Christ
background. Yeah.

Another radical group. So, you know, you're correcting the regular ones.
Some other groups here, some charity people or something like that.

There's a lot of different radicals. I think there's other ones, things.
And there's a common thing that I think we should hear about that.

Now, there's a balance in all this, just like David was giving us.
There's a balance in all this. We should contend earnestly for the faith
that was once for all delivered to the saints.

And there should be a zeal and a passion with us. But there should be
also a humility. And this is the rebuke for us when we're thinking too
big of ourself.

So here it is. Verse eight. This is where I think he really lets loose.

Verse eight. He goes. So, you know, he's right after the saying.

Now, if you did not if you did indeed receive it, who do you why do you
boast as if you had not received it? And he goes on. Verse eight. You
are already full.

You are already rich. You have reigned as kings without us. And indeed,
I could wish you did reign that we also might reign with you.

For I think that God has displayed us the apostles last as men condemned
to death. For we have been made a spectacle to the world, but to angel,
both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake.

But you, you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You
are distinguished, but we are dishonored.

Wow. I ponder this. What is it about this hyper spirituality that Paul
is so concerned with? And he's hearing this vocabulary and he's hearing
this language.

He goes, you know, I only wish it was really true. I really wish you
were this spiritual. I really wish that you truly did the things that
you are claiming you do.

Then we'd reign with you. But you're not. Your church is a mess.

You're a mess. And you need to listen to what I have to say to you. And
here's something I've noticed that we tend to do in radical
Christianity.

We judge ourselves by what we dream we want to be. We judge others by
the works of who they are. Let me say that again.

So we judge ourselves like I want to fast 20 days this month. I want to
read my Bible three hours a day. I want to have this family devotion
that lasts these hours and all those other guys.

That's totally unspiritual, totally ridiculous. But this is what I want
to do. And somehow as radicals, we live in this life of aspiration
already.

And yet judge all the rest of people like, who are you? And I think this
is kind of the way Paul is getting this. Is that these people are
saying, I'm already rich. I'm already reigned in the end of Corinthians.

I've already resurrected. And here he's saying, it's just not true. Who
do you think you are? Why are you acting like this? And this kind of a
coming against the structure that's there, coming against the authority,
coming against his leadership because they're hyper spiritual, happens
over and over and over, century after century.

It happens over and over again. On January 21st, 1793, King Louis XIV of
France was taken out to the guillotine. And as he addressed the crowd,
he was trying to say something in his defense of the French people.

And the drums were drumming so much that it was drowning out his voice.
But then quickly, off with his head, and the guillotine took his head
off. But there's something that happened there at that moment, according
to the reports of the audience, that just shocked all of France,
particularly the people that were there.

A few of the people that were in the audience could not handle that the
king was dead and killed themselves. Some jumped into the river and
drowned themselves because of the overwhelming idea that the king has
been killed. From there, we start this whole radical revolution that was
happening by the French and people like Rose Pierre, and was fighting
from one head after another until eventually it happened to his head.

The radical types of vocabulary and language and destruction of all that
was there in France was becoming more and more popular. The same thing
happened about a century before that when Charles I was also killed
there, and when Oliver Cromwell, and just the feeling that when he
killed the king, what that did to just the feeling of the people and all
those sorts of things. So where am I bringing all this particular thing
in this radical to? There's something in this rebuke of this radical
spiritual language, the breaking down of all norms, the not listening to
what the Apostle Paul has to say, that Paul is saying, be careful and
listen.

One of the books that our students read at Sattler that Stephen and
Christian got me interested in, because it wasn't in my class, Hans
Lehmann, I think, was the one that had them read this. It was
Reflections of the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke. You all read
all that, right? Yeah.

Marcus didn't like it. Here's the thing. You've got to give him a bone
for this, Marcus.

How do you argue the cause for the conservative voice? How do you ever
say to the radicals, should you be a little careful? Should you tone it
down a little bit? I mean, it's hard to make that argument. I mean,
because it's so easy just to bash this and bash that and say this hyper
thing and that hyper thing. And in the midst of that, sometimes when the
smoke clears, we realize, wow, what happened? And I've been in these 30
years in some pretty amazing, incredible radical movements of God, and I
don't regret it.

I'd do it again, I think. I'd do it again. And as I went through those
things, I love the experiences that I've had, but I think, wow, I would
have said some things a little more cautiously.

So there's some quotes that I took from that book, if you don't mind.
It's totally a rebuke. So it's Edmund Burke now is in England.

He's looking, and he heard that now when the queen was killed, and he
starts writing this gigantic letter that's now ended up to this book,
and there's some impressive quotes. As I think about hyper spirituality
and these new radical movements that are happening here and there, and
just reflect upon it with me, if you would. Now, he didn't say that we
shouldn't change things.

He does say nothing turns out to be so oppressive. Oh, wait, no, excuse
me. He says a state without the means of some change is without the
means of its own conservation.

We must be able to change. If anyone's trying to make the argument,
don't change anything. Don't do that.

Don't do that. You're going to end up dead. You can't do that.

A movement, a group, a church must be able to have honest reflection and
to have change. But then he also says things like nothing turns out to
be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government. And he's talking
about, he's looking at what's happening with these radicals, these
radicals in France, and he says, you're literary men and you're
politicians, and so do the whole clan of the enlightened among us,
essentially differ in these points, all the points of politics.

They have no respect for the wisdom of others, but they paid off by a
very full measure of confidence in their own. With them, it is
sufficient motive to destroy an old scheme of things because it is an
old one. As to the new, they are in a sort of fear with regard to the
duration of a building ran up in haste because duration is no object to
those who think little or nothing has been done before their time and
who place all their hopes in discovery.

He says to give freedom is still so much more easy. It is not necessary
to guide. It only is required to let go of the reins, but to form a free
government, that is to tempter together, those opposite elements of
liberty and restraint in one work requires much thought, deep
reflection, saying goes, just powerful and combining minds.

It goes just powerful and combining mind. This is kind of maybe the
balance that David was talking about here earlier of having that
freedom, but yet being a people that are governed, that's the hard
thing. So how do we do this? What are we going to think of the French
Revolution as he's watching it? He said, I should therefore suspend my
congratulations on the new liberty of France until I was informed how it
had been combined with government, with public force, with the
discipline and obedience of armies, with the collection of an effective
and well-distributed revenue, with morality of religion and with
solidarity of property, with peace and order, with civil and social
manners.

All these in their way are good things too, and without them, liberty is
not a benefit whilst it lasts and is not likely to continue long. The
effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please.
We ought to see what it will please them to do.

Wait. The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they
please. So we ought to see what it will please them to do before we risk
congratulations, which may be soon turned into complaints.

In my life, I've seen many people leave old order groups, old order
Amish, old order Hutterites, old order Mennonites, different groups, and
many of them come because they feel that they have been freed from the
constraints of that religious system. And I get it. I totally understand
it.

But it's not until you see the course of their life and what things
they're choosing in that new freedom that it really begins to see the
heart of it. And this is what he's saying about France. We're seeing
this.

And so, back to verse 8. You, these spiritual ones there in Corinth. Oh,
you're already full. Yeah, you've got everything you need.

You're already rich. You've reigned as kings without us. And indeed, I
could wish you did reign that we also might reign with you.

Do you get what I'm saying? Our words, our thoughts of ourself, they can
be so deluded. So that was a critique of civil government. Let me take
you to another document, if you could bear my long quotes.

There's another document, interesting, written by Tertullian, written
around the year 200, and it's called The Prescription Against the
Heretics. In other words, it's a prescription that you give. Think of it
as medicine that you give the heretics to cure them.

And again, think of my classmate, the RoboCop guy, flipping who's the
heretic and who's the guy on the good side, as Tertullian reads here.
Listen to some of his words. He's describing a heretic church.

I must not admit on account of the conduct also of the heretics, how
frivolous it is, how worldly, how merely human, without seriousness,
without authority, without discipline, as suits their creed. To begin
with, it's doubtful who's a catechumen and who's a believer. They all
have access alike.

They hear alike. They pray alike. Even heathens, if any should happen to
come along them.

And that which is holy they cast out to the dogs. And their pearls,
although to be sure they're not real ones, they will fling to the swine.
Simplicity they will have to consist in the overthrow of discipline,
attention to what, in our part, they call brotherly.

Peace also they huddle up anyhow with all comers. For it matters not to
them, however different, be their treatment of subjects, watch this now,
it doesn't matter to them whatever their subject, provided only they
conspire together to storm the citadel of the one only truth. Just being
radical seems to be all that's good enough.

All are puffed up. All will offer you knowledge. Their catechumens are
perfect before they're full taught.

They're very women of these heretics, how wanton they are. For they're
bold enough to teach, to dispute, to enact exorcisms, to undertake
cures, and even to baptize. Their ordinations are carelessly
administered, carpicerous, changeable.

At one time they put novices in office, at another time men who are
bound to some secular employment. At another person they have
apostatized from us to bind them by vain glory since they cannot buy the
truth. Listen to this quote.

Nowhere is promotion easier than in the camp of rebels. Oh, you think of
all the passion people have for ministry. Men will do a lot in thinking
they're going to be in some sort of position of authority, and maybe
all, it's a man thing.

I don't know, do women have this problem? I don't know. Sure it's a man
thing. Nowhere is promotion easier than in the camp of rebels where the
mere fact of being there is a foremost service.

And so it comes to pass that today one's their bishop, tomorrow another.
Today he's a deacon, tomorrow he's a reader, today he's a presbyter,
tomorrow he's a layman. For even the layman do they impose the functions
of the priesthood.

And so I just find this interesting, this kind of a hyper-spirituality
that he's rebuking to. One more point that he goes to. I've given that
quote before, but let me give you where he goes on because it's
interesting in context with our writing today of Corinthians.

He goes on. But what shall I say concerning the ministry of the word?
Since they make it their business not to convert the heathen, but to
subvert our people. This is rather the glory which they catch at, to
compass the fall of those who stand, not the raising of those who are
down.

Accordingly, since the very work which they purpose to themselves come
not from the building of their own society, but from the demolition of
the truth. They undermine our edifices that they may erect their own.
The consequence is that they more easily accomplish the ruin of standing
houses than the erection of fallen ruins.

It is only when they have such objects in view that they show themselves
humble and bland and respectful. Otherwise, they know no respect even
for their own leaders. I am greatly in error if they do not among
themselves swerve from their own regulations for as much as every man,
just as it suits his own temper, modifies the traditions he has received
after some fashion as the man who handed them down did when he molded
them according to his own.

I find this challenge really scary. In all the radical groups I've been
with, I have found it's a lot easier to find really solid Christians who
are wrong on some doctrinal points and get them and build your churches
on that instead of putting our energy into winning the loss that are
around us. I remember one time back when I was at charity and it was at
our heyday when things were really awesome.

I mean, what we saw with the young people, my own young people and
experience that it's genuine and I don't in any way want to say that it
wasn't. It was genuine. One time I was thinking and I pondered.

This was our heyday. We had Bible schools of 600. How many people are
completely from the world? Not radical Baptists or Mennonites or Amish
or Hutterites or whatever, but right off the world with all our efforts.

We were going street preaching and all those things and I counted five.
Five. And I thought, you know, five is good.

And now as I think of even those five, maybe one that are still lasting.
It's so much easier. But the work I think that what Christ has for us is
to win the loss and to do those things.

That's why I get really excited when I see like the Chinese people that
are reached at the bridge and the atheists that are brought in and the
different ones like that. I get really excited about that. And I rejoice
in that.

I rejoice when I see the refugee population and all those sorts of a
thing. Who does that sound like? And as we go through that. So verse
eight, you're already full.

You're already rich. You've already reigned as king without us. And
indeed, I could wish that you reign.

There's a tendency when we bump into the hyper spiritual for us to cower
down and to not stand strong. And I should not say the hype when we run
into the superficial spiritual. Here's an example.

In 1940, there was a whole group of Mennonites that had gone to
Tanganyika, Africa, to preach the gospel there and wanted to get
involved in missions. And they were there. And in six years, six years
of solid work there in Tanganyika, they had 10 churches and 100 baptized
members.

1946, you know, and so that's pretty good. But they ran into a group of
people. They ran into not just a group of people, but a massive wave of
people called the East African Revivals.

And this was thousands and thousands and thousands of people that were
being converted. And there was lots of this movement. There was lots of
different manifestations of the gifts.

And there was different things. And it was sweeping East Africa, one of
the largest revivals in history. And these guys from Lancaster County
were over there going, Oh, we've always been doing it completely wrong.

These guys have the right doctrine. These guys are much more spiritual.
And then I took a time where I read the letters, where the missionaries
were speaking back to Lancaster County, and you're reading the bishops
speaking back to them.

And both of them, I'm like, huh. It's like, of course, communication
would have been hard in these times. But the stuff said back and forth
just broke my heart.

And all of it was set aflame by sort of this hyper-spiritual language.
They were like, wow, yeah. Who are we with these just measly 10 churches
and 100 baptized members? These guys are just like wildfire.

But you know what happened? You can trace it directly. They began to
say, okay, we're wrong for just this strong discipleship. We're wrong.

And it's literally they wrote back and said, We don't want to be their
Holy Spirit. These things were literally said. And so like those things
of the teachings of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount and all those
things, we're not going to worry about that.

We're going to teach them the gospel, which to them, with this now, with
this new revival, was this atonement message or this belief in Jesus and
his suffering and that kind of thing. And that was it. The Holy Spirit
would take from that.

But do you know what happened next? Right after this, Africa starts to
get into different civil wars and fights and different things amongst
themselves. And many of these same people that were so hyper spiritual
went headlong into these different battles. As a matter of fact, during
after that, the fallout of the 50s, the 60s, this building of this of
this Christian thing that was happening.

And finally, Uganda and Rwanda and all these places proclaim this is a
Christian nation. Rwanda in the early 1970s. This is a Christian nation.

Do you know what happened in 1998 in Rwanda? Amongst the Christians, not
the ignorant, you know, we try to make some ignorant thought of some
bizarre people. But amongst the Christians in the church conducted by
the ministers was mass murders of 800,000 fights between the two tribes.
And I look at that hyper spirituality, and I can't completely blame it
on the East Africa revival.

I actually think the East Africa revival, probably God was waking it. I
often when I read revival, see it as God bringing in something. But out
of that is to be careful discipleship, following the words of Jesus,
putting the teachings of Christ into place and walking through that.

And it's just not as exciting. It's just not as glamorous. It's just not
all the sparks and everything.

As many times as these revivals are. And that's just what I see with
Paul. Oh, you're you're so you're already full.

You're already rich. You've already reigned as king without indeed that
you were. Even to this day, when I'm now dealing with the refugee
crisis, and it's my heart, it's my burden.

I just when I saw that with my own eyes, the Lord just put a burden in
my heart for the refugees and the displaced people, which now there's 82
million of them on this earth, that they need these godly and discipled
churches and to walk in that. But it's still there's so many just fields
of hyper things and different things said, instead of just the careful,
godly work of the church, the brotherhood and working in those ways. So
I ponder that you're already full, you're already rich, you've already
reigned as king without us.

And indeed, I could wish that you did reign, that we might reign with
you. There's two more points here. Let me give you an example.

I might have given this quote before, but it applies to this and the
kind of what I'm thinking. There's a book that I read years ago by Alan
Patton. It's called The Cry Beloved Country.

It's about South Africa apartheid. In South Africa apartheid, there was
a the blacks against the whites. And the whites had suppressed the
blacks and come over there and didn't let them work and put enslaved
them and terrible things that were happening.

And the apartheid was holding them in sort of a segregated way. When
that was starting to change, you know, during my generations of the 80s
and that 90 things and Nelson Mandela and all that. Well, during that
time, you know, the ministers that the gospel that kind of came into
that many of those people, even in that suppression were ministers that
were were converted and and walked, worked within that.

And there's this book and it's the book is a novel, but it's based upon
what life was like when those tribes that had become Christian in the
time of apartheid. And all the what was happening to their young people
and these two ministers, one of the young men killed a white woman, I
think, or something, and he went to jail. And these two these two black
ministers are just grieving on the state of their church.

And they say this statement in the book. And to me, it's it's just
staggering. And I ponder the hyper Christianity, the non careful
Christianity versus a careful discipling church community ponder their
complaint.

He says this one minister talking to the other, he said, my friend, I'm
a Christian. It's not in my heart to hate the white man. It was a white
man who brought my father out of darkness.

But you will pardon me if I talk frankly to you. The tragedy is not that
things are broken. The tragedy is that they are not mended again.

The white man has broken the tribe. Listen, radicals, listen, the white
man has broken the tribe. And it is my belief.

And again, I ask your pardon that it cannot be mended again. But the
house that is broken, these are the tragic thing. This is why children
break the law and old white people are robbed and beaten.

He wipes his hand across his brow and says it suited the white man to
break the tribe. He continued gravely. And now listen.

But it has not suited him to build something in the place of what is
broken. I have pondered this for many hours. I must speak it for it is
the truth for me.

They're not also there are some white men who give their lives to build
up what is broken, but there's not enough. He said they are afraid. That
is a truth.

It is fear that rules this land. And so this idea of a shallow, hyper
spirituality that speaks without the fullness of Christ. We're commanded
in Matthew at the end of the Great Commission that to teach the all
things of Christ and to make disciples.

And this hyper language I see that Paul is dealing with. And it's so
easy for us to get caught up in a hyper spirituality without this stuff
of what follows. And then coming to the end of it now.

Paul then gives himself as a living example. Verse 11. To the present
hour we both, you're this, you're right and you do this.

To the present hour we both hunger and thirst. And we are poorly clothed
and beaten and homeless. And we labor working with our own hands.

Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we endured. Being defamed, we
entreat.

We have been made the filth of the world. The offscoring of the things
until now. This is the example.

I saw a video once of a minister. And they literally had him on a
throne. They had him on a throne.

They were trying to bless him, you know. Bless the pastor. And they had
him on a throne.

They were marching him around and all this. And doing all this. And he
was taking it, you know.

This is the example of ministry that we see here Paul is giving. I'm
willing to sacrifice. I'm willing to do anything it takes.

Your attitudes of this way that you're doing it is not right. And he
goes on to say this next statement. It's a strong one for us.

Particularly in the radical world. I do not write these things to shame
you. But as my beloved children, I warn you.

For though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, you do not have
many fathers. Boy, if there's a weakness in the radical world, we have
so many instructors. So many prophets.

So many correction of doctrine and this and that. But so few fathers. As
I think of my 30 years in the radical world, and I'm saying this, and I
can agree with Paul and hear this, because I'm not saying this to shame
you.

But as my beloved brethren, I'm warning you. And I think that if we see
Judgment Day, as we think of some of the wake that follows some of our
radical expressions. Think of us.

There's many radical groups represented here. From radical hetero
rights, radical charity, Mennonites at the Church of Christ. You know,
the different ones that are here.

Sometimes in that journey, I'm like, Ooh, I really hope that this person
that we're taking in, that we truly be a father to them. I really hope
that we follow through. I really hope that he will or she will have a
father that will truly care.

I do not say these things to shame you. But as my beloved children, I
warn you. For though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ.

This is important that he's already saying that. You don't have many
fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel.

We're really bringing out evangelism here and thank the Lord we are. But
please, I rebuke myself so often with are you keeping up with those
people? I see in Paul that when he brings someone to Christ, he's like
connected. It's like the way I see John when he got out of the island of
Patmos.

And he heard that one of the people that he had baptized was, I think I
already shared this. You know that he was gone back into robbery. He
went and sought that person and says and he got re-baptized in his tears
of repentance.

This passion, Paul's saying, I am your father. I'm the one that brought
the gospel to Corinth. And so I'm going to die being a father to you.

That's the kind of passion we need. Therefore, I urge you people there
in Corinth, imitate me. Imitate me.

For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and
faithful son in the Lord, who reminds you of my ways in Christ. I teach
everywhere in the church. And then the last three verses, four verses.

I want you to notice something here also is it's called church
authority. Just recently, I was at a conference and I loved it. And I
was at the conference and it really excited me because it was a new
generation.

And I was really excited of seeing a bunch of people that I would have
preached with their fathers. Now the next generation coming up. And it
really made me feel good.

But one of the things that worried me is when I heard some of the
speculation, some of the same, you know, kind of wounds of things have
gone before and how we're going to accomplish this, this, this, this
feat of being a church in the future. I couldn't think of some of that
Edmund Burke type of stuff. Where is the authority? Is it, I mean, do
you have a place where you can set that? Is it, is it going to be the
brotherhood? Is it going to be your minister? Do you believe in having a
pastor who can speak into your life? And David touched on this too, of
having someone that is there a place that can have some authority?
Because I'm going to tell you something.

If there's not, and you find yourself in some radical expression, and
it's just some sort of complete democracy and there's no sense of
authority, there's no sense of things, you better run as fast as you
can. Therefore, I urge you imitate me, Paul says. For this reason, I
have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son of the
Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, not Paul's way by
himself, in Christ.

I teach everywhere in the church. Scripture teaches us this authority,
Hebrews 13, 17. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit
yourself.

For they watch for your souls, and they that must give an account, that
they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for
you. Giving all the different things on how you run a church, and it's
the end of the day. At the very least, we should be clearly seeing that
the Bible gives us a clarity.

There should be some authority and leadership, not unchecked authority.
I'm never saying that. But it's real, and he is going to give an account
for our souls.

And there's something in that. Alright, last four verses. Now, some of
you, some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.

You're walking around, you're saying this about Paul, and this and that.
Do you realize I'm coming? And talk about church authority, it's
interesting the way Paul talks here. But I will come to you shortly, if
the Lord wills.

And I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.
Show me. Enough of the talk.

Enough of the hyper-spirituality. Let me see the power of God. Let me
see the wonder workings of God.

Let me see lives that are changed. Let me see this. For the kingdom of
God is not in word, but in power.

What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love, and a
spirit of gentleness? And I think that he probably came in a spirit of
gentleness. So, I look at this passage, and now we're finally from this.
He's for three chapters gone on and on and on.

Now four, kind of like hitting the factions and the things and the pride
and all that. Now we're going to start to get into some of his practical
rebukes. He says he's got these great mysteries that he wants to give a
cross.

So, as I ponder radical Christianity, I think of this, and I try to flip
the audience of being the guy that he's talking to. I'm sorry, Brother
Paul. And thinking of my life, I think it's healthy for us to allow this
scripture to speak to the radical churches.

All right, let's pray, and I guess I'll give it to you, Christian. Dear
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Word of God. And I ask your
forgiveness, Lord, for so many times that I've had this pride and this
high thought of myself.

I've thought beyond my understanding. I've thought too much spiritual
language, but God, I want to be real. I want to stand in power.

I want to stand by the true Holy Spirit within me. So, God, I thank you
for this Word, and I pray that you would empower us to live it according
to your way. In Jesus' name, amen.

========================================================================
Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/QqwAqr-6_Rs.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/dean-taylor/pauls-warning-to-the-hyper-spiritual/
========================================================================