I Corinthians 3:21-23

He takes it right to the Source. That is the focus. So he flips the script on them here.

The intellectual, the philosopher, the executive in the church, whatever they may be, if they are in some high office, that person must rate the knowledge and wisdom of God far higher than what he learned in this world, in its educational system, in his experiences in life. It does not matter, those are things that are going to end. Instead, he must put the wisdom of God first, and become a fool to the world.

Oh, you believe that? You keep the Sabbath? You do not believe in eating cockroaches of the sea? No! Because I know the hidden wisdom given to me through the Holy Spirit, and there is a life that is coming, in which God has promised me that if I am faithful and I put on the mind of Christ, I will own everything. Not the reason why we do it, we do it out of love for God. But that is what he says: all things are yours. You have taken the first steps. Why throw it away by getting deceived by the foolishness of this world?

So we need to think about how much of the world's wisdom we have and that we live by, because it offers us little to nothing that will help us along the path of salvation. In fact, most of this world's knowledge and wisdom is at cross purposes to God's way and to His goals. And if you think about it, we know who ultimately wins those conflicts between the world and God.

So his advice is: do not boast in men. Do not back the wrong side. Do not focus on physical leadership. It is not wise to put too much stock in fallible church leaders, because they are not Christ. And especially do not do that if it is going to cause division and strife, which it will.

God's servants, the ministers that He has ordained, are but fellow servants of the rest of you. God gave those ministers to the church, and they serve the brethren. The ministry is there for the benefit of the brethren. Go read it in Ephesians 4:11-16. The leaders of the church are not here for their aggrandizement, or their glory. If they are, they should get out; they are in the wrong business, they are doing things wrong.

Bottom line: God does not run His church as the world runs a government, or a foundation, or a corporation, or any kind of business. He does things His own way, and that is, He is intimately involved in the life of every person that He has called. Does not Jesus say, in His Passover address to His disciples, that not only would He come to be in them, but the Father would too? He says, We live in you. That is how God does things. He is the One that is working all this out for us through Jesus Christ, and to Him goes all the glory, not to the servants.

I Corinthians 3:18-23

Please turn with me to I Corinthians 3, verse 18. And just to give you another further idea of the universe, the number of galaxies is approximately 2 trillion. Approximately 2 trillion galaxies exist in the observable universe. And the average galaxy, like our Milky Way, contains about 100 billion stars. My mind got blown at the first sextillion that I mentioned. It is just beyond our comprehension.

So Paul said that both life and death serve us. While the unconverted are victims of life carried along by its current and questioning if it has meaning, the converted use life wisely because we understand God's true purpose.

The unconverted can only fear death. For the converted, however, death holds no terror because Christ has conquered it all. Death is merely the start of eternal life with God.

Now the physical universe and the spirit realm are ours to inherit because we belong to Christ and the apostle Paul was thrilled with this knowledge. A test of our faith and conversion is whether we are thrilled by all things are yours, everything! Because you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

Please turn over to Romans 8, verse 16. When a person becomes a saint, he gains all the privileges and responsibilities of a child in God's Family. The most important privilege is the gift of the Holy Spirit. We may not always feel like we belong to God, but His Spirit is our witness to this truth. His inward presence reminds us who we are and encourages us with His love. And because we are God's children, we inherit great treasures as joint heirs, and God is already giving us His best gifts: His Son, His love, forgiveness, and eternal life.

It does not matter what the world thinks of us, all things are ours. We are joint heirs with Christ.